Simon Graham
{ βThere is no such thing as a disability. As long as you can learn to live with whatever you're missing, you're as capable as anyone else. Hell, I'd say you're even better than them.β }Simon Alexander Graham
| Nickname |"The Blind Pianist". Given to him by a news report that was reporting a blind high school student winning a multi-county level piano competition. Simon kept it as a stage name for any of his performances, as he is quite fond of it, and it explains what most people are probably attracted to him for. Most of his fans know him by this moniker rather than his actual name.
| Date Of Birth |January/3/1987
| Age |30
| Sexuality |Was Hetero before he lost his sight, but has drifted more towards Bi. Still prefers women.
| Relationship Status |Single, he doesn't want to burden someone by making them date a blind man.
| Occupation |Full-time musician, actually somewhat successful. Regularly plays at "The Casalingo" (A formal Italian restaurant where he plays piano for the patrons) and "The Bus Stop" (A small cafe in the middle of town). Has been hired to open for more famous bands, but has a decent sized following himself. He makes enough money to afford himself a well-sized apartment, and he stores a large amount of money in his savings - He currently has about $30,000 in his savings.
| In-Depth Appearance |Standing at a staggering 6'4 and weighing 240 pounds, Simon is very hairy and could be described as a "bear". He is covered in several, large scars, mostly from the surgery that saved his life. He has a tattoo of a heart that has a band aid stretched across it, and is actually pretty embarrassed about it. Additionally, he has a birthmark on the underside of his foot that is far lighter in skin tone than the surrounding flesh. It's impossible to see because of the hair, but he has a mole on his lip, and actually grew his beard out because he was tired of accidentally cutting it and spraying blood everywhere. His eyes are gray and are clouded over, while his hair is white and black.
For clothing, Simon honestly doesn't really care what it looks like (for obvious reasons), and prefers clothes that feel comfortable against his skin. This has lead to horrible outfits in the past, and has forced his mother and sister to pick out his attire, leading it to be fairly bland and interchangeable. He typically wears baggy jeans, a muscle T-shirt, and a coat/hoodie. The style and type of design changes frequently, but they all feel the same and he can't tell the difference. Whenever he performs at "The Casalingo", he wears a white suit jacket, black tie, white dress shirt, and white suit pants, a fake Rolex, the same belt he wears with his jeans, and black dress shoes. This is his "Formal attire". He wears his casual outfit when performing at most other places. No matter where he is, Simone will always carry his walking cane with him: a gray, collapsible variant that reaches about 5-feet in length. Metallic, but Simon never really cared to learn what metal it was made of.
| Quirks & Habits |- Loves Tchaikovsky and will play or hum his music whenever he has nothing else to do.
- Whenever he is anxious or nervous, he will brush his hair or grab for his guitar (if he has it on him).
- Gets a little sad whenever he watches a movie. They were his favorite thing to waste time with as a kid, and it reminds him of all the things he is missing out on with his blindness.
- When annoyed, he will typically suck in his lips and rub/bite them with his teeth. This has lead to almost constantly chapped lips.
- Whenever he finds out a kid is nearby, he plays any instrument he knows in order to show off and make the kid think he is cool.
- Tabletop games
- Music
- Cooking
- Weightlifting
- Reading
- Classical Music
- Spicy foods
- Pushing himself
- People with an interest in music
- Kids
- Alcohol
- Drunk drivers
- Metal music
- Pity
- Cruelty
- A phobia of motor vehicles, ever since his accident. Will only get in them if he has to, and usually walks places. This fear applies to all vehicles, but is strongest with cars.
- Violence frightens Simon, and while he will threaten people when pressed, it would take a life-or-death situation to make him attack someone.
- Scared of water, mainly because it is incredibly difficult to hear under water, deep water prevents you from standing and being able to touch something solid, and Simon can't see if he is getting closer or further away from land. This has proved very troublesome for Simon, as he lives in a coastal city, and has nearly fallen into the water several times.
- Has a fear of rejection, caused when his first girlfriend dumped him after his accident. This is one of the main reasons Simon has a hard time forming relationships, and only has a few close friends.
Simon is a very calm, mature individual, the type you would see watching an opera or play. He finds that violence is not detrimental towards having a fulfilling life, and he uses weightlifting to remove stress and aggression. Simon rarely feels bad about his disability, and considering he has lived most of his life with it, he honestly doesn't even notice he has a disability half the time. One of the funniest things to him is when people try to side step or not mention his disability, and he loves it when he points it out and they try to defend themselves. Despite this, though, he is not a big trickster and rarely laughs at others, especially not their misfortunes. Simon tries to be a good person, and is willing to let people figuratively walk all over him if it helps others. Simon loves music more than anything else in the world, and considers music as one of the main reasons that he is still alive. With his new powers, Simon feels a responsibility to help others, and will do his best to not abuse his powers for his own convenience.
| Abilities |After the storm, Simon suddenly developed the power of Sound Manipulation. He recognized this awakening when his body unconsciously started emitting a tone nearly unpercievable for human ears, that Simon was able to use as a form of echolocation. It's fuzzy at best, but he can see in 360 degrees and his "Sight" isn't impacted by tear gas or anything that limits vision. Considering this echolocation only reaches about 50 feet in front of him, Simon assumes that this is his range of control. Simon can replicate any noise within this 50 foot sphere, and can make it as loud as 130 decibels at maximum. Usually, however, he is limited to 100 decibels, as any higher would tire him out quickly. He can selectively pick people to be ignore whenever he uses his power, such as for an extremely loud attack. This doesn't nullify the actual injury their ears suffer, just makes them ignore the pain they feel from the noise. Additionally, as an assistance to his power, Simon's ears have become incredibly resilient and regenerative, allowing him to withstand the constant exposure to loud noises without losing his sense of hearing.
| Limitations |While Simon can create a noise in his sphere, and control it's properties while it is in the sphere, the noise acts like regular sound waves when it leaves his area of control. Simon's power is incredibly different underwater, essentially eliminating his echolocation and making his ability behave entirely differently, making it nearly useless. Simon's powers don't work in a vacuum, or anywhere that sound waves cannot travel. While not an actual limitation on his power, Simon refuses to use his ability to help his musical career, considering it to be cheating and doing himself a disservice. Simon's power is weak, and he can't do anything impressive like hitting the right frequency to make people explode or anything. If someone has something that blocks their hearing, and it is strong enough, Simon can't do anything to them with his power. Using his power is physically exhausting, and while using his echolocation can be done indefinitely, generating noises to quickly or loudly will force him to rest and recover his stamina. Trying to go over his limit has a number of effects based on how hard he pushes himself, such as a bloody nose, migraines, dizziness, blacking out, muscle spasms, general tiredness, comas, and eventually, death
| Place Of Origin |Brighton, England, Born and Raised.
| Background |Raised in a home right by the coast, you could describe Simon as a spoiled kid growing up. He was naturally gifted at music, and his parents nurtured this gift by hiring instructors and buying instruments. By the time he had graduated elementary school, Simon was already quite proficient at playing the piano, and was equally good at the guitar by the time of the accident. Simon's grades were average throughout his life, and he typically gravitated to more physically demanding activities. His parents loved him, showering him in praise and adoration whenever he played for them or placed highly in a competition. He was surrounded by friends, was well liked by many people, and was the role model of his younger sister, Emily. He was your average kid, and even managed to get a girlfriend by his second year of middle school. Everything changed, however, on November 22, 2000.
Playing soccer with Emily in their families front yard, he had just missed a well placed shot from his sister, and the ball had rolled into the middle of the road. Calling out "I got it", Emily rushed into the streets, not even paying attention to the traffic. Simon was just quick enough to see that a car was swerving violently around in the road, and thanks to years of physical activity at his young age, was fast enough to push her away. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to dodge the car, and was ran over, suffering multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, and heavy head trauma. After a year in the hospital, Simon was able to leave and return to his old life - But lost his vision as a result of the head trauma. His friends were distant now that they were in a higher grade, and his old girlfriend had dumped him, not wanting to be in a relationship with a handicapped person. Simon was a completely different person, quiet and reserved, and was eventually moved to a school for the blind that was just outside of town.
Luckily, in his yearlong stay at the hospital, Simon was taught Braille, and was allowed to play his guitar during the day. When he was well enough to be moved around, he was even allowed to play the piano in the common room for the patients. Only a month after learning braille, Simon had already mastered musical notation in braille, and could play his instruments using muscle memory and braille markings on the keys of his piano. Scars littered Simon's body, but he was completely unaware of there appearance - he could only touch and feel the marks in his flesh that changed with each surgery. Simon was expelled from the hospital on November 5th, 2001, just shy of a year when he was admitted. His new school was very well-equipped, and the faculty was caring, but Simon hated the pity he felt in their voices whenever thy spoke to him. That only reminded that he wasn't normal, that he was less. That he had taken a step back, while everyone he knew took a step forwards. The only saving grace to him was that Emily was willing to do pretty much anything he said, as she was nearly crippled with guilt from making her brother lose his eye sight. She was the person that chose Simon's clothes and did everything for him that required his sight. At the age of 17, as a sophomore in High school, Simon entered a multi-county level competition. Out of the 48 counties in the United Kingdom, 5 were participating, and high schoolers in these areas were encouraged to enter and play for the chance to win recommendations to musical colleges, and coverage from the media. Through extreme effort and hard work, Simon managed to beat the competition.
While Simon appreciated the recommendation, he never really needed it - He never planned to enter in a musical college, preferring to jump straight into his music career once he finished high school. The media titled him "The Blind Pianist", and while there were plenty of blind musicians, people were surprised he was so young and had a disability, yet was so talented. Feeling proud that he managed to push his way to the top even with his disability, Simon finally realized that he didn't have a disability. A disability is something that held you back - Simon finally realized that his blindness doesn't need to hold him back. Simon finally moved beyond his regret and sadness that he was blind, and learned how to live again.
After the competition, Simon returned to a semblance of his old life. Was he sad that he was blind? Of course. But he had a loving family, new friends, and a talent that he could use and constantly improve on. Simon graduated high school at 19, and had begun to perform at numerous restaurants and openings for bands. While money was tight in the first couple years, he eventually made a name for himself as he started participating in national level, and even a few world-wide competitions. He never manage to place first in either, but he always placed higher than he did the year prior, and last year, he made it to 2nd place. While he was still ranking low in the world, he was incredibly glad that he was the 2nd best pianist in all of the UK. Despite this ranking, however, his popularity was only really widely known in his hometown, Brighton, where he was able to land two regular showings, "The Casalingo" and "The Bus Stop". While he played the piano he was known for at "The Casalingo", he almost exclusively played the guitar at "The Bus Stop", only occasionally playing his saxophone. Simon's life was changed forever when he was hired to play at "The Lights".
"The Lights" was very famous for being a tourist destination, and what would be a better attraction than having Brighton's most famous musician play for the guests! Arriving at the beach front property, Simon played beautifully, to the audiences delight, and was given free lodging and food for his service. Simon was just thankful that he was able to get into the hotel before the rain started, however, as a massive storm was in the forecast that morning. Simon closed his eyes, falling unconscious to the sound of thunder and wind. The next time he regained consciousness, he could see a map of the room he was in that was laid out in front of him.
After over an hour of experimentation, Simon eventually realized that he had somehow developed echolocation and the ability to generate sound. Realizing that he could use this power to live a normal life and possibly even help others, Simon left the hotel with determination in his heart. It's been a week since the storm, and Simon has found the general limits of his powers. Promising to only use his powers to help others and to swear off their use for personal gain, Simon continued his life as it was, but on the lookout for other's like him... Other's who had developed these strange, paranormal capabilities, who he could confide in and trust... Or maybe he just wanted friends after his years of adulthood had left his only companions being his family and his tabletop group.
