Vincent Andersen | 19 | Male
Appearance: Vincent is 6’3” and built like a brick wall. He spent three years lifting bulk-sized boxes of rations and gallons of water, which helped develop his muscles alongside the testosterone rush of puberty. He has brown eyes, which he inherited from his mother. He is one half Ute, also inherited from his mother. Vincent’s hair is dark brown, thick, and always formed into a crew cut.
He was arrested in a blue t-shirt, a thick canvas jacket, roughed-up dark wash blue jeans, and brown sneakers that were once white. That is what you’ll find him in, seeing as the police failed to find the rest of his clothes.
Powers:Clairvoyance and Psychometry: The ability to see, hear, smell, and sense moments from the past or future. The visions manifest in clips of sound, vision, smell, temperature, and other such samples of experience. They are brought on by a trigger which could be touching an object or hearing a word/phrase/sound.
Weaknesses/Limitations: It’s Like Scrapbooking Instead of episodic visions, Vincent’s visions are more like sensory clues. He does not see complete scenes with sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. More often than not, Vincent only receives one element of experience. When more than one is present, they appear as if from different moments; the smell of vanilla and the panicked inability to breathe, for instance.
ParalyzedIt’s not exactly difficult to tell when Vincent is having a vision. His eyes gloss over and he tries his hardest to stand still, lest he bump into someone or fall into a hole. When a vision manifests as a specific sense, Vincent loses the ability to use that sense on his own. This is particularly troublesome when sight is involved.
DisorientationVincent, when coming out of one of his stupors, looks a lot like a confused newborn horse. The transition between alien memories and his own is jarring. It takes a while for Vincent to adjust to the ‘real world’ after foreseeing something. The longer the vision, the more disoriented Vincent gets. He has gotten better at coming back from a vision, though. When the power first appeared, Vincent got dizzy and threw up after the visions ended. Now, it’s reduced to a mild headache and remembering exactly where he is.
Personality: With a build like his, there’s no wonder where Vincent’s intimidating confidence comes from. He walks with perfect posture and quick steps, which gives him an air of authority no matter where he actually lies on the food chain. His resting position, legs at shoulder width apart and arms crossed, added to his unerring eye contact makes Vincent seem like a scary young man. Truthfully though, Vincent should have been a high school counselor. He is more in tune with the needs of others than his own needs. He’s very good at picking up when something is wrong and is so willing to help that it’s disgusting. To those who know him, he radiates ‘nurturing big brother’ vibes.
Vincent is, outwardly, very optimistic, not to mention a strong leader. He’ll be the first to look at a situation and say, “We can do this.” Inside his brain, he is just as frightened of the world as a person could be. This whole outside business makes him more uncertain than he’s ever been. The only person he’d ever tell is his sister, Margaret. Secretly, Vincent is happy to be in a facility that provides food and doesn’t ask too many questions.
He is not afraid to fight anyone or anything that comes at him or those he cares about. If he gets tested, Vincent will prove exactly how tough he can be. Generally, Vincent isn’t a fan of fights, but won’t hesitate to end one if someone starts something.
Backstory:Vincent’s family is part of an underground community that, as far as the government is concerned, went missing at the beginning of the nuclear disaster. The Andersen family had a mansion sized bunker built during the onset of the cold war. When they caught wind of nuclear bombs hitting the U.S., they escaped underground, along with nearly every other family in their small mountain town. Years after the first bombs hit, fear of the outside still kept them from leaving the bunkers. Fear didn’t stop them from having kids, though.
Vincent was the seventh child born underground, third child born to his mother, a Ute woman, and his father’s first son. He grew up working with the men of the community; resolving conflicts, moving supplies, and caring for the elderly. He loved spending time with his younger siblings. Vincent quickly took the role of leader among them, up until one of his half-sisters, Margaret, was moved away from everyone else. Vincent spent most his last few months in the bunkers with her. He had no idea what was happening to his half-sister except for the thought that she might be going through what he was, a malfunction. Vincent’s malfunction started happening when he was fifteen. Luckily for him, it manifested during a particularly bad cold. He saw burnt trees and heard screaming. Vincent blamed it on the fever and nothing was said about it afterwards. He knew to keep it to himself. People who were different weren’t accepted into the family, which is a fact he saw the effects of every day as a makeshift police officer.
(Everything lines up with Margaret Andersen’s bio after this point. Basically, one of his non-biological moms was like, yo, get outta here while you still can, and shoved him and Margaret out. Then they were in the woods for a while and then they got caught by the fuzz cuz Maggie freaked out. I'll type it all up eventually.)
Talents/Skills: Vincent is very good at listening and making sure whoever is talking feels heard. He is also a good marksman and tracker. He can climb trees and tie knots like a good boy scout.
Quirks/Habits/Other:Vincent has a petrifying fear of the dark. He isn’t afraid of the night, when it’s naturally dark. He’s afraid of man-made darkness. It manifested when he was 4 years old, during a game of hide-and-seek with his siblings. He locked himself in a lit closet which was, unknowingly, out of bounds. After a while, the lightbulb went out, leaving him alone in the dark for the entire day. Since then, he’s had to ask someone else to turn the lights out after he falls asleep.
TL/DR: Vincent is a soft spoken, clairvoyant young man with a terrifyingly strong will to survive and protect.