go_boom

Name: Dean James Conway

Age: 16

Sex: Male

Appearance:

Dean's around 5'10 and of average build, bordering on skinny. He's not got that much muscle, but he's got no fat. He's fit, though he lacks in stamina, which prevents him being any kind of sporty. The closest he really gets is that when he lived back in England he'd play football (no, he won't call it soccer, don't ask him to - he'll only laugh) with his mates in the park most days and he cycles (weather permitting and less now that he has a car - he's not stupid, you know).

He doesn't bother all that much about fashion and he's not overly fussed about his appearance, favouring faded jeans and a long line of t-shirts with various saying and pictures on (most of which have seen better days) and an army surplus jacket, or a rather battered leather jacket, for a coat. His apparel is generally practical for whatever he's doing at the time.

Until recently, he wore his hair longish, hanging down over his face and into his eyes. He's recently (on a whim) had that all chopped off, so now it's short and that's taking some getting used to.

He's got a protection symbol on his inner right arm (lower arm). It's a simple black circular design and it is spelled to provide him with basic-level protection in that if something is looking for a target, he's less noticeable than those around him. It doesn't mean he's invisible, or that if something is specifically gunning for him they won't find him, but it just gives him an element of being overlooked in favour of the next potential target. Means that being around Dean when there's potential danger isn't always the safest thing these days...

Special Abilities:

Dean can lip read and has got into a habit of doing so, even when he can actually hear what people are saying. He tends to look at people's faces when they are speaking to him and gets frustrated when people don't look at him when they speak.

He's good at seeing how things work - he's a hands on, technical person, he likes to know what makes things tick. Years of taking things apart and putting them back together again has given him an affinity with mechanical devices. He also has an obsession with reading manuals and textbooks to try and work things out from a theoretical perspective, which gives him a head start.

He's also recently learned that he's a good shot. A very good shot, actually - he has a natural ability with firearms. This is limited to guns though. He's been trying to learn other weaponry, but with less success. He just can't get the hang of it - aiming is fine, it just seems that with any other ranged weapons (for example a bow and arrow), he's not got the co-ordination for it. Hand to hand, he's a bit of a scrapper and has been in a fair few fights, but he's got no actual trained fighting skills.

Supernatural Affinity (Species/Group): Human/psychic/disruptor

Supernatural Affinity (Powers):

Power(s): Can disrupt electrical devices, causing them to stop temporarily or permanently.
Level: 3

Personality:

Dean was moved out to America during summer 2007 because of a marked change in his personality. He'd always been a quiet boy, but he'd been friendly and personable, someone who made friends quickly and easily. But he'd become sullen and withdrawn, seeing his friends (and he'd had a lot of them at one time) less and less; spending an increasing amount of time alone in his room, skipping school and only actually going out at night (generally against his parent's wishes and the only time he'd really see his friends). He used to be open, but he stopped communicating with his parents and was continually fighting with his younger brother.

As for how he felt about his move to the States. Well, originally he was torn on that. He hadn't been impressed that his parents unilaterally decided to dump his with his cousin who he hadn't seen for years, but then again, he was moving to America and... Well, all his friends were jealous. Of course, none of them really understood quite how much of the arse end of nowhere he moved to.

Since he got to Marquette, Dean has actually stabilised a lot. He hates to admit it, but his parents were right - this is a better place for him. He's not gone back to the person he was, but he's found himself and grown up a lot in the months he's been here. He hasn't tried or succeeded in regaining the level of popularity he was involved in back home, but he hasn't missed it either (being one of the popular kids had been more of a quirk of fate and birth than any real want or need of his anyway). He's found a lot of his confidence, he copes well in a crisis and he deals with stuff. He's almost scarily good in an emergency.

This is, however, counterbalanced by the fact that he copes by moving from one point to the next. As long as he can just keep going, he can get through anything. It's when he stops that the problems start. Dean isn't a particularly strong person when you get right down to it. He takes what he does because he has to, but he cracks easily if he gives himself a moment. It's just a case of when he can take that moment.

He lives by a strict system of self-imposed rules, almost a code and at times very chivalrous in nature. Nobody really understands it but Dean. He gets odd looks if he ever tries to explain it (which he rarely does). It makes sense to him, he abides by it. He blames troubles in his life on not abiding by it. He's incredibly harsh on himself. He takes blame easily - if Dean could make the world his fault, he would. Likewise, he's very hard on other people (though rarely as hard as he is on himself). He's incredibly judgmental and tends towards snap decisions about people he's just met. If someone is his friend, he'll forgive them anything, explain away anything they do as understandable. His friends can do no wrong. If you're not his friend, you're open to judgement. If it's you against one of Dean's friends, he will slways take their side.

He doesn't like to talk about his hearing problems. A lot of the time, they're not an issue - if he's one on one, he can cope, as long as people look at him when they talk. He does, however, get kinda defensive and shitty when put into a situation where he may have to admit to having problems. He gets annoyed if people don't look at him when they speak to him - even if they're somewhere where he can hear what they're saying. He always looks at whoever he's talking to - even though he knows he doesn't need to, since it's his problem, not theirs. He gets edgy talking to people whilst walking and annoyed if people walk slightly in front of him, rather than at his side, even if they're not talking. He hates putting himself in a position where he has to hold a conversation in loud environments and will generally put himself in a position that precludes that. Therefore, at a party, for example, he'll either go somewhere quiet - like outside, or the kitchen - or he'll dance. Lots. Not necessarily very well, but he'll be on the dancefloor and he has enough rhythm not to make a complete twat of himself.

History:

Dean is the elder son of Keith and Vicky Conway. He has a brother, Scott who is two years younger than him. Dean's hearing problems became apparent in late childhood. Because of the specific nature of his problems, they weren't picked up on the usual hearing checks. Those checked for hearing deficits and Dean's hearing was actually better than it should have been. If he occasionally didn't answer when he was spoken to? Well, he was just being a naughty child, wasn't he? As he grew up, he naturally supplemented his inability to always hear what people were saying by watching their lips, eventually being able to make out what they were saying as well by lip reading as he was by hearing the words.

But for Dean, the reality was very different. He grew up in a world of constant noise. As a child, this noise was kept within manageable limits. At home and in school noise levels never got that loud. Even during break, when he was in the playground, running around making a racket with all the other kids, it wasn't so bad, because he was involved and enjoying himself. But, as he started to get older, things started to get worse. Communication became more about words than about actions in play - the fact that when he was in the playground surrounded by screaming children he couldn't hear what his best friend was saying because of it became a real issue. And so the young Dean retreated to the quiet edges of the playground, he played in smaller groups, he encouraged his friends to play games which revolved around quieter pursuits, usually problems solving or building things. He became obsessed with knowing how things worked, with structures and make ups. At home he developed a passion for building things out of Lego, or Techniks, for making model aeroplanes.

He first realised that he could disrupt things when he was ten. It was a couple of days after Scott's birthday and their aunt had bought him a CD of what, in Dean's opinion, was the world's most annoying music - which Scott was so impressed with that he wouldn't stop playing on the new CD player his parents had got him for said birthday and which was in his bedroom. The noise was driving Dean up the wall and he just wanted it to stop. It didn't, of course, but Dean found that he could make the tracks skip slightly and by spoiling his brother's enjoyment of the music, Scott eventually gave up on listening to it.

Since then, Dean has been actively working on his abilities until now when he has reached a stage where he can disrupt most electrical devices at will. Usually he uses his abilities when the sound levels around him become unbearable. He's been known to blow stereo systems (he has an especial fondness for ruining the sound systems in overly kitted out cars with the bass turned up way too high, tannoy systems anywhere (the static that usually accompanies the announcements and the pitch they use he is very sensitive to), that kind of thing). At first he would only do it when he really really couldn't bear the noise any more, or if it was way over and above. Lately, he's been doing it more and more often - which has lead to an increase in the number of migraines he's been getting, which, in turn, have led to him getting generally more shitty with the world. And the more pissed off he gets, the more annoyed he gets with environmental noise, and the more he feels the need to stop the noise - currently he's in the midst of a vicious circle and can no longer tell what's causing his migraines - the noises, or his using his abilities.

His parents have been aware of what he can do since he was about 11. It came as quite a shock, but with help from Dean's grandmother Daisy, who knew a thing or two about the weird in the world, they came to terms with what their eldest son could do, and what he would probably be able to do in the future. They did what they could to help him, but lately he seems to be heading towards being out of control, if he wasn't there already. Of course, part of the problem was that there wasn't exactly that much they could do to help him. The Conway's didn't exactly live in a hotbed of supernatural activity - they lived in a sleepy, upper-middle class suburb of Manchester. The only person they knew who even remotely knew about the supernatural had been Daisy and she'd passed away just after Dean turned 13 and well before he'd started having real problems.

Not knowing what to do, feeling like they were slowly losing their son, Keith and Vicky tried to figure out for themselves what could be done about their son. They weren't really aware of Dean's hearing difficulties (Dean having managed to get by without mentioning it), but what they did know was that Dean had lately been using his abilities more and more, and seemingly at random. They also knew that he was being less and less careful about where and when he used them. He simply didn't seem to be able to grasp the concepts of subtlety and restraint.

It had been Vicky who had come up with the suggestion. Her sister's daughter, Sophie. Daisy had mentioned her, sometime after Dean's abilities first came to light. Not so much on the detail, and she'd not been willing to talk about it that much. But there had been the suggestion that Sophie was someone who knew about the other things in the world and, from what Daisy had said, Sophie also had some kind of connectio to those other things. That her parents didn't had been the one thing that had been made clear. Not that Vicky was surprised. Her sister had always been the one who didn't believe in anything she didn't believe in. Of course, Vicky knew from her sister what had happened to Sophie. That was really how it had been put when the subject was raised. That something had 'happened' - after all, that was the only explanation for a daughter suddenly up and disappearing to live in some place she'd previously not even been able to find on a map, to shack up with an ex-boyfriend she hadn't even mentioned since they'd returned from Colorado. It didn't make any sense, she was crazy, she was a bad daughter, she never came home to visit her parents - the litany was endless. But, eventually, Vicky persuaded an address and phone number out of her sister. Research of the area showed that it was almost perfect. A city, sure, but by all accounts, not a real one. Not really. Small, rural, quiet, away from everything. And with the possibility that Sophie would know more about everything than they did. It was a hard decision to make, sending their son away, but Vicky made the call, talked to her niece, convinced her and her partner to take Dean on.

And only when that had been agreed, when they'd finalised the arrangements. Only then did they actually tell Dean. And so he was moved.

Since arriving in Marquette, Dean's been through a lot in a small amount of time. First there were the dreams of the mine, then the vampire attack, lately the shadow attacks. His best friend, the girl he was secretly in love with, died and was resurrected as a fade. And then she died twice more, the second time in his arms having saved his life. He's been given his own gun, told that it's his job to kill his werewolf cousin if he ever gets out of control. He's committed murder, bled more than he ever realised was possible and entered a world he never imagind existed. He's given up trying to predict the future - the only certainty for him now is that he intends to be ready for anything, and that he intends to lean to heal people - the medical way, rather than the magical way, at least.

Weaknesses:

Dean suffers with auditory hyperaesthesia which is an abnormal acuteness of hearing. He has never had any kind of medical treatment for this, it has never been properly diagnosed and he has suffered from it for as long as he can remember. What his auditory hyperaesthesia practically means is that he has very good hearing. Unfortunately, what it really means is that whilst he's fine in quiet environments (and I have detailed this further under strengths) when confronted with noise, he has major problems. When he is exposed to moderate-high noise levels, he cannot differentiate between loud and quiet noises - everything is loud to him. If there is background noise (for example music, or a room full of people) he cannot make out what the person he is talking to is saying. In such situations, he may as well be deaf.

His auditory hyperaesthesia also means that when things are relatively quiet, he's over sensitive to what noise there is out there. Which is fine, unless he's trying to do something like get to sleep at night. So that party four blocks away with the heavy bass? Is going to keep him awake. As is that car idling nearby. Oh and that music that someone's playing softly next door? Yeah, he can tell you what it is. He needs complete silence to sleep. Which means that often, he doesn't get much of the stuff and when he does, it takes him several hours to get to sleep - so if he has school the next day, he's gonna be tired. And if he doesn't, he's gonna be sleeping in.

Dean doesn't like crowded places. He's not got any kind of agrophobia, but his worst nightmare is a mall on a Saturday afternoon, or a crowded store with mothers with crying babies and kids running around screaming. He's especially susceptible to high pitched noises and these kinds of environments really get to him. If subjected to this kind of environment Dean will at first become irritable and short tempered and if he's made to stay there, he'll start to get panicky until he has to leave. Luckily, he can generally avoid this simply on the basis that he's a teenage lad and everyone knows they don't do shopping anyway.

Finally, his condition gives him migraines from time to time - usually when he's in a loud environment and can't get out of it. As such, he tries to avoid noisy places. He doesn't often go clubbing; if he goes to parties, he's the guy standing in the kitchen, or - preferably - loitering in the garden. He'd avoid them altogether - that would be the sensible option - but he's a teenager, dammit, and socialising and not looking like a total loser come far ahead of doing what is actually sensible. So he'll go to the party and risk the migraine and the hearing problems and everything else. Anyway, he can lip read and it's, like, a one in five chance of him getting a migraine, so that's four whole parties he can get through, no problems - odds in his favour, right? His migraines also come on as a side effect of over use of his abilities. Sometimes Dean considers it a toss up, since he often uses his ability to take down the noise that, if left, would cause his migraines. He has to weigh up which would be more likely to bring one on.

Strangeness - whether or not it's connected to his abilities as a disruptor, or whether it's just one of those things, but every digital clock, watch or other time device (like on vcrs, microwaves etc) suddenly acquire a thirteenth hour. They'll still work and they'll still tell the time, keep second, minutes, hours like they always did. But instead of marking a 24 hour day, they'll mark a 26 hour day. This change is permanent.

Dean has a nasty habit of forming snap decisions of people. He's judgemental and holds a grudge. If he decides he doesn't like you? He's not coming down from that any time soon. And yes, he may well base that decision on not enough information and it's more than likely to be unfair. But he's a stubborn bastard and can't see when he's wrong. He's not the kiss and make up type. He's also incredibly loyal to his friends, so if you hurt one of them? He'll take offence to that - even if said friend forgives you. Dean will remember it long after the original offence is dead and buried.

His loyalty itself can be considered a weakness as well - because he gives that loyalty based upon that same snap decision and then will follow it blindly. It means that, in the right hands, Dean is incredibly easy to manipulate. If you get him on side, he will go over and above for you every time without a second thought.

Naivety – Dean was introduced to the world of the supernatural really quickly on arriving in Marquette, fairly dumped in the deep end of things. It means that his eyes are now open to a lot of what’s out there, but the fact remains that for the first 16 years of his life, he led a normal, ordinary life. He doesn’t know how bad it can get, he’s got no experience of the badness. Back home, he came from a nice area, he had nice friends, he had a stable home life, everything that happened happened to other people. He’s been fairly sheltered.

And more than this, Dean believes in people. Dean is a person who will go over and above for the people he cares about – and he doesn’t think this is at all unusual. Dean honestly believes that everyone else in the world would do the same thing, given a chance (obviously not the people he’s snap decided he doesn’t like, but they’re shits and he’s already written them off. But everyone else is good, right?). Dean just doesn’t Get It.

Dean is incredibly hard on himself. He'd take the weight of the world on his shoulders if he could. He beats himself up (figuratively) over the most ridiculous things. It's almost masochistic at times (though he doesn't actively mean it like that). He considers himself to be a bad person. His 'gift' is entirely negative in his eyes. He sees himself as a person who is built for destruction and therefore he probably has a natural inclination towards this in the rest of his life. This isn't the case, but it skews his entire world view and how he sees himself. If he can view himself in a bad light, he will.

He copes with emergency situations by walling away his inner panic and doubts. Everything that gets in his way, everything that usuall makes him him - that huge pile of flaws that he sees every day? When the shit hits the fan, coping is just More Important. But that doesn't mean that everything goes away - it just means that it gets Ignored. Until the emergency goes away. But then he gets hit by the wall of Oh Shit.

Strengths:

Dean has incredibly acute hearing, which in certain circumstances is a great advantage (though it causes more problems than it solves). In quiet environments, he can literally hear a pin drop. He can identify individual cars without seeing them if he's familiar with them, he can tell you what song is playing on the radio next door when it's just at normal volume. He can hear that private conversation going on on the other side of the room. Obviously this practically has very little practical impact - it's a geek thing usually (though it does make it damn difficult for anyone to say, sneak up on him). He uses it to show off, nothing more. And usually, the environment he requires to utilise his hearing? Isn't present. Especially not in today's world where background noise is almost a constant.

He tends to be hyper-aware of his surroundings. His hearing means that anything that makes noise, he knows is there (though his difficulties in distinguishing between quiet and loud noises mean that he doesn't always know how far away something is. He's also got very good spatial awareness and peripheral vision.

He's solid, he's loyal, he's dependable and as long as he doesn't stop, he's your guy in an emergency. It's when he stops things break down.

PB: Thomas Dekker

Other Information:

Family: Lives with his cousin, Sophie and her partner, Oz
Friends: Lullaby (Thia), Caleb, Jerilyn