Full Name
James Drummond-Campbell – but even the teachers call him Jamie.
Year
Senior
Appearance
Jamie is fairly average in appearance, if on the handsome side. He has boyish good looks, auburn-slash-brown hair (he refuses to ever be called ginger) and brown eyes flecked with yellow – ultimately nothing special. He's of average height, no taller than 5'11" with little chance of another growth spurt given his genetics, and a lean build suited for speed and power. It's clear to see that he's an athlete, that's for sure. Tan skin is unusually marked with dark freckles along his cheeks and down his arms, his most prominent feature.
Ability / Power / Creature
Jamie has what he perceives to be a "feminine" ability –
empathy, or the ability to sense and effect others' emotions. These feelings that are the backbone of conscious thought appear to him through a form of synesthesia, often transmitted as colours or smells or textures. While not
true mind-reading, Jamie's a fairly astute guy and he can make assumptions (albeit sometimes very, very wrong) based on the emotions he feels.
In terms of projecting them onto others, generally it works better if the feelings are already there; just muffled by another, such as anger. Another option is to absorb them into himself so pain, hurt and loss can be nullified for the other person, but Jamie feels the full effect of them. That leads to the side-effect of his power: 'bleeding'. He suffers peculiarly when surrounded by others such as in a football game – adrenaline pumps through his veins quicker, he feels all the excitement at once and while his performance increases, so too does the stress and strain on his heart. Not just that: when surrounded by the melancholic and depressed, Jamie too becomes melancholic and depressed. He can't help it.
Personality
A contradiction in a neat, human-sized package, the sheer range of emotions that Jamie's felt and assimilated into his own personality over the years is nothing short of astounding. Jamie fits the typical stereotype of the
Jock – apparently certain of his own masculinity, charismatic, charming and wickedly humorous. He has a competitive streak a mile long. Still, if some of his jokes just
stop mid-sentence because he senses building offense, then people tend to just put that down to him being nicer than the stereotypical athlete he presents himself as. He just can't find it within himself to be mean-spirited, even if someone is aggressive to him, because most of the time he can sense the underlying emotions behind it.
In contrast, and since Jamie's personality is at risk of being washed away by those he associates himself with, he also has a more sensitive side; one that loves the arts and can appreciate the imprinted emotions in the piece (whether real or imagined, he likes to believe them as real). As if it isn't clear yet, he's typically melodramatic and sensitive... Though he's usually strong enough to suppress his tears in public places. It could be that some of the rougher aspects of his personality have been sheared away by such continued emotional turmoil; his astounding lack of compassion as a thirteen year old, his propensity for being insensitive and brusque and, of course, his egotism.
No, wait, the last one's still there.
Since Jamie changes like the tide, it's safe to say that unless he's alone (or with someone he can't
sense the emotions from, though such people are few and far between) it's impossible to know who he really is as a person. Though, for God's sake, keep him away from the girls during Shark Week! Being a teenage guy is hard enough without all the obvious gender confusion heaped on top!
Biography
In colourfully obscene language, the type that some teenagers haven't grown out of yet, Jamie describes his family with "wealthy fuckin' assholes, but God do I love them anyway". He's the spare heir produced by two distinctly rich and varied lineages: the Campbells (his maternal side, unimportant, skeevy politicians) and the Drummonds (tyrants of the business world with some purported underhanded dealings with criminal elements in 3rd World countries.) His older brother is a bastard and while Alistair can inherit the Campbell fortune, which he will, Jamie inherits all of the property and holdings of the much richer and less prestigious paternal line.
He grew up in Scotland in a manor house with anything a child could want. It was immediately established that Jamie was the favourite and although empathy might have helped (since who could resist a kid who knew exactly when to stop talking?), it was all to do with the circumstances of his birth rather than his fledgeling superpower. From a young age he grew up thinking that sensing emotions was normal, no more interesting than his hair colour, or the fact that he was ambidextrous, or his collection of signed football shirts in his bedroom. It was only when he met his clinically insane aunt – house-bound but clearly able to move around – that he thought otherwise.
His aunt attended Northwood back in the day and even being in the same room with her set Jamie's empathy on edge, like it was trying to find her emotions and only receiving signals of his own. The reason was clear – the gift was in some way
hereditary. The fact that without proper grounding he could end up carted around from asylum to asylum certainly didn't help a borderline-neurotic teenager's worries that he was cursed in some way.
She was the one who, in an uncharacteristic moment of clarity brought about by Jamie's presence, recommended to his father that the Drummond heir should go to Northwood. His father had also applied through his parents back in the day but was deemed "not special enough" to enter the prestigious school across the pond. While his aunt was convinced that when he turned fourteen a letter would come through for him as it did for her, nothing came.
So Jamie's dad flew them over to Colorado and knocked on the goddamn door. "Drummonds forge their own path," he had been told. A few meetings later and one swift interview with the 14 year old that set his over-sensitive nerves alight with suspicion, Jamie was in.
