Casey Jackson McCarthy

CJ, mostly. He gets called a lot of things, but only adults call him Casey.

Male

12. He insists that he’s 12 and a half, but really he turned 12 last month.

4’11”

90lb

Spring Town, Hedgemount

Blonde, though not a particularly elegant shade. Neither dark nor light, with some strands appearing more light brown.

Blue, appearing as grey under certain lighting.

White. As for his nationality, he's American.

Casey is rather short for his age, not quite five feet tall. Though most people don't notice his height, as it's hardly the most interesting thing about his looks. He's about average weight, a bit on the skinny side, but for the most part his build is very similar to others his age. He looks pretty proportional and symmetrical, for the most part. Except for his fingers, which seem a bit short, but once again nothing too drastic.

His skin is only slightly tanned, But not exactly pale; a fairly typical shade for his ethnicity. He often has an assortment of bruises, some of which are his own fault, some of which not so much. The only permanent mark is a long burn scar on his right forearm. He pretends not to remember how he acquired the injury, and tries to hide it for the most part.

He has a very expressive face, which reads like an open book. His large blue eyes, light eyebrows (which are constantly doing something weird), button nose and signature dorky grin (accentuated with metal braces) all add up to an overall appearance not unlike an animated cartoon character. His face is framed by unruly layers of blonde hair, a bit longer than most boys wear it.

Overall, his appearance has a certain charm to it, but it's a bit difficult to accurately describe in adjectives.

Though his clothes are mostly clean (or as clean as one would expect a 12 year old’s clothes to be), Casey seems to cycle through the same four outfits all year round and occasionally wears the exact same articles multiple days in a row. Not all his clothes fit exactly right, and some of his clothes have clearly been mended a few times, indicating that he never actually throws anything away.
His typical attire consists of t-shirts and jeans, and always the same blue jacket and worn out sneakers, usually accessorized with a few bandaids.

Casey makes a strong first impression, but not necessarily a good one. He seems to have absolutely no filter; a mischievous, sarcastic, foul-mouthed preteen with a tendency to seek attention. He lives to have fun, often at the expense of others. His signature Cheshire Cat grin never seems to leave his face, and he'd probably laugh in the face of death itself. He flits from one idea to the next with such dizzying rapidity, it would appear that he has no semblance of a consistent train of thought whatsoever.

He almost never lies, mostly because he seems to not be very good at it. He reads like an open book; it's very easy to figure out what he's thinking. That said, there are a few things that he refuses to talk about. The burn on his arm, where he lives, his parents… and a few other things. The few lies he does tell are usually to avoid discussing those topics, and they're never really complex. “I don't know” and “I forgot” seem to be the extent of his repertoire.

Though he's easily distracted, Casey has a memory like a steel trap. More specifically, he has an impressive eye for detail. He's often unable to pay attention to simple tasks, but if prompted he could tell you everything you need to make fireworks, probably because he looked it up on a whim two weeks ago. His problems with focus have more to do with boredom than an actual deficit. If he claims to have “forgotten” something, one can reasonably assume that he's got something to hide.

Notably, he cleans up his act a lot around adults, especially adults who know his parents or those with authority (police, etc.)
He seems to be very conscious of what people are saying about him, and tries to make sure that some things don't spread around to places they shouldn't, so to speak.
But, considering everything he's going through, he's not doing too terribly. He's at least able to see the good in things, and generally gives the impression that he’s not a complete lost-cause basketcase.

His interests are often short lived, but intense. He’ll become interested in something to the point where it becomes sort of an obsession, and he'll invest so much of himself in it that he'll get stressed out and frustrated and abandon it for his next interest. As such, it's difficult for him to maintain a long term hobby. Besides, he can't really afford to do anything that requires training or expensive equipment.
Most of the time he amuses himself exploring the town, riding his bike, climbing trees (and buildings), stalking his neighbors, drawing and watching old science fiction films.

Aside from his almost photographic memory, Casey is fairly active, a good climber and a fast runner. He's a born improviser, usually to come up with a creative solution to most problems. He also has double jointed thumbs, which isn't really a talent, but makes for a cool party trick.

Motivations change, especially when you're 12 years old and not even sure what next year's going to look like, let alone lifetime goals. As for Casey, he aspires to not be left alone and forgotten. He isn't exactly sure what makes a life worthwhile, but he's a bit worried that he's already on the wrong path.

It started out fairly typically. When college dropout Robert met the beautiful blonde Darlene, they hit it off immediately. Originally they seemed to have a lot in common, and they quickly became inseparable. Just two years later, they were married and expecting a baby. Casey McCarthy was born one rainy morning, and his parents couldn't have been happier. At least, that's how it was at first. Darlene was making enough at her job as a retail manager to buy a little house in Baybridge, just inside of the Spring Town area. Not a great neighborhood, but it would suffice. But a few years down the line, Darlene was realizing that this quiet domestic life just wasn't for her. Sure, she loved the great reputation she had, and the respect she got from everyone around her, but she was growing restless. Providing for her unemployed husband and baby son was a pretty dull life.

When Casey was around four years old, his mother started using a variety of drugs from a variety of different people. Eventually, she found the perfect dealer: someone she could pay in… other ways. Casey didn't catch on to what was happening until years later, but he certainly noticed that he was alone a lot of the time. He quickly got used to the lack of parental guidance, and found ways to entertain himself.

But by the time he entered school, his naiveté was running out. He sort of knew what the situation was by the time he was about seven. His mother cracked down on him hard, making sure there was no sliver of a chance that he'd let something slip. Her list of rules and regulations grew and grew, but what really kept him in line was knowing that if his mother ever decided she'd had enough, he and his father would be out in the cold. To this day, he can distinctly remember every time his father mentioned how much mom did for them, and how he should be grateful for her presence now matter how many times she called him every name in the book.

Perhaps it was partially because of the drugs that Darlene was becoming increasingly paranoid about losing her reputation. But either way, things continued to slowly spiral downhill. There was no point in calling the authorities. As a matter of fact, that would make things 150% worse. If his mother got taken out of the picture, the rest of them would have nowhere to go. Besides, things weren't that bad, were they? He wasn't getting seriously hurt on a regular basis, and at school things were pretty normal. His grades were always a mixed bag: some great scores (Science), some failures (English) and mostly a lot of ‘C’s. He never really had any friends, but nobody terrorized him that badly either. Of course there are always some kids who are jerks, but that's just to be expected of middle school. That said, he often finds himself a bit lonely, rarely having anyone to talk to. This might be why he's kind of become a class clown, fighting hard for the attention of his classmates. Let it suffice to say that he's gotten in quite a lot of trouble over the past few grades.

About a year or so ago, he started to notice that birds really liked him. It wasn't just the way that the local pigeons and blackbirds followed him around, or that parrot his neighbor owned kept escaping to hang out in his room. It almost felt like he had some sort of control over them. He never could exactly pinpoint when it all started. Maybe it was when his mother's drug dealer caught him trying to contact the police and slammed his arm down onto a stove burner. Maybe it was when he hit his head so hard in gym class that he had a seizure. Anyway, he wasn't too worried about figuring out how his ability manifested. He had to figure out how to use it to its fullest extent. So that's what he's been up to for the past few months, on top of trying to cope with his rapidly worsening family situation and not fail 7th grade, and countless other responsibilities that society has placed on kids.

Cerebral (Domination)

Casey can manipulate birds. Anything with feathers and a beak seems oddly compelled to obey his whims. Birds are like his friends; they understand and like him and will do basically anything he asks, as long as it's within the realm of their capability. Most birds are fairly intelligent, It's a pretty simple ability, but rather handy.

This shouldn't need to be said, but he can't manipulate birds into doing things birds aren't normally able to do, i.e breathing fire or speaking English.
His ability only affects nearby local birds. So he can't just summon all of the birds in the world and unleash the Birdpocalypse. And while birds understand him, he doesn't understand birds. That said, he doesn't really need to. It's bird manipulation, not bird negotiation.

Most of them were covered in the Limits section. There are no physical or mental side effects to using his ability (at least none that he's noticed), but since it only manifested a year ago, there's a lot he doesn't know about how it's best used.

Casey Jackson McCarthy

CJ, mostly. He gets called a lot of things, but only adults call him Casey.

Male

12. He insists that he’s 12 and a half, but really he turned 12 last month.

4’11”

90lb

Spring Town, Hedgemount

Blonde, though not a particularly elegant shade. Neither dark nor light, with some strands appearing more light brown.

Blue, appearing as grey under certain lighting.

White. As for his nationality, he's American.

Casey is rather short for his age, not quite five feet tall. Though most people don't notice his height, as it's hardly the most interesting thing about his looks. He's about average weight, a bit on the skinny side, but for the most part his build is very similar to others his age. He looks pretty proportional and symmetrical, for the most part. Except for his fingers, which seem a bit short, but once again nothing too drastic.

His skin is only slightly tanned, but not exactly pale; a fairly typical shade for his ethnicity. He often has an assortment of bruises, some of which are his own fault, some of which not so much. The only permanent mark is a long burn scar on his right forearm. He pretends not to remember how he acquired the injury, and tries to hide it for the most part.

He has a very expressive face, which reads like an open book. His large blue eyes, light eyebrows (which are constantly doing something weird), button nose and signature dorky grin (accentuated with metal braces) all add up to an overall appearance not unlike an animated cartoon character. His face is framed by unruly layers of blonde hair, a bit longer than most boys wear it.

Overall, his appearance has a certain charm to it, but it's a bit difficult to accurately describe in adjectives.

Though his clothes are mostly clean (or as clean as one would expect a 12 year old’s clothes to be), Casey seems to cycle through the same four outfits all year round and occasionally wears the exact same articles multiple days in a row. Not all his clothes fit exactly right, and some of his clothes have clearly been mended a few times, indicating that he never actually throws anything away.
His typical attire consists of t-shirts and jeans, and always the same blue jacket and worn out sneakers, usually accessorized with a few bandaids.

Casey makes a strong first impression, but not necessarily a good one. He seems to have absolutely no filter; a mischievous, sarcastic, foul-mouthed preteen with a tendency to seek attention. He lives to have fun, often at the expense of others. His signature Cheshire Cat grin never seems to leave his face, and he'd probably laugh in the face of death itself. He flits from one idea to the next with such dizzying rapidity, it would appear that he has no semblance of a consistent train of thought whatsoever.

He almost never lies, mostly because he seems to not be very good at it. He reads like an open book; it's very easy to figure out what he's thinking. That said, there are a few things that he refuses to talk about. The burn on his arm, where he lives, his parents… and a few other things. The few lies he does tell are usually to avoid discussing those topics, and they're never really complex. “I don't know” and “I forgot” seem to be the extent of his repertoire.

Casey has a memory like a steel trap. More specifically, he has an impressive eye for detail. He's often unable to pay attention to simple tasks, but if prompted he could tell you everything you need to make fireworks, probably because he looked it up on a whim two weeks ago. His problems with focus have more to do with boredom than an actual deficit. If he claims to have “forgotten” something, one can reasonably assume that he's got something to hide.

Notably, he cleans up his act a lot around adults, especially adults who know his parents or those with authority (police, etc.)
He seems to be very conscious of what people are saying about him, and tries to make sure that some things don't spread around to places they shouldn't, so to speak.
But, considering everything he's going through, he's not doing too terribly. He's at least able to see the good in things, and generally gives the impression that he’s not a complete lost-cause basketcase.

His interests are often short lived, but intense. He’ll become interested in something to the point where it becomes sort of an obsession, and he'll invest so much of himself in it that he'll get stressed out and frustrated and abandon it for his next interest. As such, it's difficult for him to maintain a long term hobby. Besides, he can't really afford to do anything that requires training or expensive equipment.
Most of the time he amuses himself exploring the town, riding his bike, climbing trees (and buildings), stalking his neighbors, drawing and watching old science fiction films.

Aside from his almost photographic memory, Casey is fairly active, a good climber and a fast runner. He's a born improviser, usually to come up with a creative solution to most problems. He also has double jointed thumbs, which isn't really a talent, but makes for a cool party trick.

Motivations change, especially when you're 12 years old and not even sure what next year's going to look like, let alone lifetime goals. As for Casey, he aspires to not be left alone and forgotten. He isn't exactly sure what makes a life worthwhile, but he's a bit worried that he's already on the wrong path.

It started out fairly typically. When college dropout Robert met the beautiful blonde Darlene, they hit it off immediately. Originally they seemed to have a lot in common, and they quickly became inseparable. Just two years later, they were married and expecting a baby. Casey McCarthy was born one rainy morning, and his parents couldn't have been happier. At least, that's how it was at first. Darlene was making enough at her job as a retail manager to buy a little house in Baybridge, just inside of the Spring Town area. Not a great neighborhood, but it would suffice. But a few years down the line, Darlene was realizing that this quiet domestic life just wasn't for her. Sure, she loved the great reputation she had, and the respect she got from everyone around her, but she was growing restless. Providing for her unemployed husband and baby son was a pretty dull life.

When Casey was around four years old, his mother started using a variety of drugs from a variety of different people. Eventually, she found the perfect dealer: someone she could pay in… other ways. Casey didn't catch on to what was happening until years later, but he certainly noticed that he was alone a lot of the time. He quickly got used to the lack of parental guidance, and found ways to entertain himself.

But by the time he entered school, his naiveté was running out. He sort of knew what the situation was by the time he was about seven. His mother cracked down on him hard, making sure there was no sliver of a chance that he'd let something slip. Her list of rules and regulations grew and grew, but what really kept him in line was knowing that if his mother ever decided she'd had enough, he and his father would be out in the cold. To this day, he can distinctly remember every time his father mentioned how much mom did for them, and how he should be grateful for her presence now matter how many times she called him every name in the book.

Perhaps it was partially because of the drugs that Darlene was becoming increasingly paranoid about losing her reputation. But either way, things continued to slowly spiral downhill. There was no point in calling the authorities. As a matter of fact, that would make things 150% worse. If his mother got taken out of the picture, the rest of them would have nowhere to go. Besides, things weren't that bad, were they? He wasn't getting seriously hurt on a regular basis, and at school things were pretty normal. His grades were always a mixed bag: some great scores (Science), some failures (English) and mostly a lot of ‘C’s. He never really had any friends, but nobody terrorized him that badly either. Of course there are always some kids who are jerks, but that's just to be expected of middle school. That said, he often finds himself a bit lonely, rarely having anyone to talk to. This might be why he's kind of become a class clown, fighting hard for the attention of his classmates. Let it suffice to say that he's gotten in quite a lot of trouble over the past few grades.

About a year or so ago, he started to notice that birds really liked him. It wasn't just the way that the local pigeons and blackbirds followed him around, or that parrot his neighbor owned kept escaping to hang out in his room. It almost felt like he had some sort of control over them. He never could exactly pinpoint when it all started. Maybe it was when his mother's drug dealer caught him trying to contact the police and slammed his arm down onto a stove burner. Maybe it was when he hit his head so hard in gym class that he had a seizure. Anyway, he wasn't too worried about figuring out how his ability manifested. He had to figure out how to use it to its fullest extent. So that's what he's been up to for the past few months, on top of trying to cope with his rapidly worsening family situation and not fail 7th grade, and countless other responsibilities that society has placed on kids.

Cerebral (Domination)

Casey can manipulate birds. Anything with feathers and a beak seems oddly compelled to obey his whims. Birds are like his friends; they understand and like him and will do basically anything he asks, as long as it's within the realm of their capability. It's a pretty simple ability, but rather handy.

His ability only affects up to 20 nearby birds (within about 10 yards or thereabouts.). So he can't just summon all of the birds in the world and unleash the Birdpocalypse.

Since it only manifested a year ago, there's a lot he doesn't know about how his ability is best used. Also, the most clichéd weakness of all is in full effect: it hurts. It hurts more the longer he uses it, and every additional bird accelerates the effect significantly. He'll usually start noticing a mild headache after only 10 minutes of using his ability on 1-5 birds. After assigning a bird a task that lasts over 20 minutes, it becomes highly uncomfortable to the point where he'd usually have stopped already if what he was doing wasn't critically important. At the half hour mark, he's usually crying a little. So far, he's had no reason to push himself any further than that, but surely there's a point at which he couldn't take anymore. So even though his powers have a lot of possible potential, he usually limits himself to 1-5 birds at a time, for short increments.