Name: Mark Adams
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Appearance: Mark is very much an average, if not below average, looking guy. He's about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs around 220 pounds. To look at him most folks would guess he's actually around 190, because he has fairly broad shoulders and carries himself well, but he definitely has a spare tire going on. His dark brown, wavy hair is somewhere between medium and short at the moment, and swept back over his head. It makes his forehead look a lot larger, but helps emphasize more of his jaw by making his head look thinner. If he lets it fall forward, it tends to make the fat in his cheeks stand out and make him look like a kid. His eyes are green, and he tends to wear a lot of that color. Despite his extra weight, his arms and legs aren't that large at first glance, but the backs of his arms and his shoulders are fairly muscular. Currently he also has a scruffy, few-days-without-shaving beard going on, but he's never grown a lot of body hair so compared to other people it doesn't even look like 5 o'clock shadow.
Personality: Mark is at an odd crossroads with himself, having several flaws that stand out among some strong positive traits and being in a just-beginning state of self-realization and actualization. He is most definitely an intelligent and creative person, but he feels that his intelligence is, at best, only slightly above average. He is highly introverted, yet at the same time longs to feel like someone legitimately cares about him, and wants to have friends and be capable of functioning around other people, but acknowledges that he's very much a home-body who has periods where he only wants to be by himself. Yet despite this, he feels that he has trouble caring about other people, and often sees more of another person's flaws than he does their good points. He's very uptight, very by the book, and more logical than one would think considering he also describes himself as creative. He considers one of his biggest problems to be a lack of work ethic and a lack of self-discipline--he just can't make himself keep doing something that makes him miserable even if there's a payoff in the long term.
He's desperate to become a better person than he is now, but feels that he continuously backslides or re-treads old ground on his journey towards "being a real adult."
History: Mark was born as the youngest of four children in a happy middle class family. But there were issues beneath the surface that Mark himself never had any control over. He would not realize this until he was much older. He was under immense pressure from his parents to succeed in every aspect. One thing his father said that has always stuck with him was "You set the curve. You make everyone else step up to YOUR level." He dealt with several issues, especially trouble making friends and bullying.
When he was 12 years old, he happened to hear about a Karate school across town, and begged his parents to let him join. It changed his life. Martial arts became his passion. His wimpy little nerd body became stronger. He became more confident. He stopped having trouble with bullies at school.
He graduated as valedictorian, but felt like making the speech, getting all the rewards, and listening to everyone talk about how well he had done for himself was such a bother. He didn't like being under so much pressure, but felt like most other people were just happy and content to wallow in their mediocrity and that being "superior" was easier than most would admit.
College was where everything went downhill. He realized that he was not as "superior" as he thought he was. He changed majors a few times before settling on art, because he enjoyed drawing in his free time. But his enjoyment died, and his grades suffered. He was always told that he had to be the best. If his work wasn't as good as it could be--perfect--why bother turning it in? Why bother finishing the project when the person next to him had one that looked so much better? No matter how much he practiced he never felt like he could catch up. In the end he spent an extra semester in school to raise his grades, and still only passed by the skin of his teeth.
To focus on his schoolwork, he had to stop taking Karate classes. He gained a lot of weight, and got out of shape. The few friends he had from high school had all gone their separate ways. He couldn't do what he loved. He was lonely. His parents never let up on the pressure to succeed. He fell into a depressive spiral in his sophomore year of college that ended with a self-imposed commitment to the hospital.
After three years of therapy, and finally being able to get back to his martial arts training, he felt like his life was finally getting better. Until he tried entering the job market. He has been unemployed and living with his parents for six months now. Their constant nagging is wearing him down, but he hopes that once he finishes a novel he has been working on, that he'll hit it big and become an overnight bestseller.
The latest straw to break his back has been a series of unfortunate events. First, his dog died due to a sudden illness. Then, he had to deal with some family drama due to events out of his control, thanks to one of his siblings and their family. In addition to having no friends, he also feels isolated among his own family. And the final nail in the coffin was an announcement by his karate instructor that, due to dwindling membership and the owner of their school building selling the place out from under them, that their class would be disbanded. As he walked out of the dojo, uniform slung over his shoulder, trying to contain his sobs until he could get to his car...he saw something glint under a street lamp. For a single moment he felt an odd curiosity, and looked down to see an odd blue, almost crystalline dice. Perhaps it was the fact that so many of the events in his life recently had felt "unlucky," but he had to pick it up. After a moment of examination, it went into a pocket...and he went home to bed feeling like crap.
Specializations:
High - Endurance. Mark's not as fit as he used to be, but can still run long distances at a steady (slow) pace, take hard hits and get back up, and recover from injury pretty quickly.
Medium - Intelligence. Mark likes to read and learn about new things, and desperately wants to improve himself as a person through education and broadening his perspective.
Low - Strength. Though he's not in the kind of shape he wants to be in, over a decade of martial arts training has still made him stronger than average.
Imperfections:
Low - Agility. Moving fast and being flexible are two things Mark has always had problems with, even back when he considered himself to be in shape.
Medium - Appearance. Mark has never felt, even at the best times of his life, that he was "hot," or even "mild." It has a fairly significant impact on his self esteem.
High - Sociability. Mark wants to be liked, but is shy. He wants people to care about him, but finds most people beneath his own notice. He wants to do good in the world, but thinks that most of society is inherently corrupt. He's a hypocrite who knows he's a hypocrite, and hard to get along with.
Other: Mark watches anime and plays video games, but doesn't like to "reveal his power level."
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Appearance: Mark is very much an average, if not below average, looking guy. He's about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs around 220 pounds. To look at him most folks would guess he's actually around 190, because he has fairly broad shoulders and carries himself well, but he definitely has a spare tire going on. His dark brown, wavy hair is somewhere between medium and short at the moment, and swept back over his head. It makes his forehead look a lot larger, but helps emphasize more of his jaw by making his head look thinner. If he lets it fall forward, it tends to make the fat in his cheeks stand out and make him look like a kid. His eyes are green, and he tends to wear a lot of that color. Despite his extra weight, his arms and legs aren't that large at first glance, but the backs of his arms and his shoulders are fairly muscular. Currently he also has a scruffy, few-days-without-shaving beard going on, but he's never grown a lot of body hair so compared to other people it doesn't even look like 5 o'clock shadow.
Personality: Mark is at an odd crossroads with himself, having several flaws that stand out among some strong positive traits and being in a just-beginning state of self-realization and actualization. He is most definitely an intelligent and creative person, but he feels that his intelligence is, at best, only slightly above average. He is highly introverted, yet at the same time longs to feel like someone legitimately cares about him, and wants to have friends and be capable of functioning around other people, but acknowledges that he's very much a home-body who has periods where he only wants to be by himself. Yet despite this, he feels that he has trouble caring about other people, and often sees more of another person's flaws than he does their good points. He's very uptight, very by the book, and more logical than one would think considering he also describes himself as creative. He considers one of his biggest problems to be a lack of work ethic and a lack of self-discipline--he just can't make himself keep doing something that makes him miserable even if there's a payoff in the long term.
He's desperate to become a better person than he is now, but feels that he continuously backslides or re-treads old ground on his journey towards "being a real adult."
History: Mark was born as the youngest of four children in a happy middle class family. But there were issues beneath the surface that Mark himself never had any control over. He would not realize this until he was much older. He was under immense pressure from his parents to succeed in every aspect. One thing his father said that has always stuck with him was "You set the curve. You make everyone else step up to YOUR level." He dealt with several issues, especially trouble making friends and bullying.
When he was 12 years old, he happened to hear about a Karate school across town, and begged his parents to let him join. It changed his life. Martial arts became his passion. His wimpy little nerd body became stronger. He became more confident. He stopped having trouble with bullies at school.
He graduated as valedictorian, but felt like making the speech, getting all the rewards, and listening to everyone talk about how well he had done for himself was such a bother. He didn't like being under so much pressure, but felt like most other people were just happy and content to wallow in their mediocrity and that being "superior" was easier than most would admit.
College was where everything went downhill. He realized that he was not as "superior" as he thought he was. He changed majors a few times before settling on art, because he enjoyed drawing in his free time. But his enjoyment died, and his grades suffered. He was always told that he had to be the best. If his work wasn't as good as it could be--perfect--why bother turning it in? Why bother finishing the project when the person next to him had one that looked so much better? No matter how much he practiced he never felt like he could catch up. In the end he spent an extra semester in school to raise his grades, and still only passed by the skin of his teeth.
To focus on his schoolwork, he had to stop taking Karate classes. He gained a lot of weight, and got out of shape. The few friends he had from high school had all gone their separate ways. He couldn't do what he loved. He was lonely. His parents never let up on the pressure to succeed. He fell into a depressive spiral in his sophomore year of college that ended with a self-imposed commitment to the hospital.
After three years of therapy, and finally being able to get back to his martial arts training, he felt like his life was finally getting better. Until he tried entering the job market. He has been unemployed and living with his parents for six months now. Their constant nagging is wearing him down, but he hopes that once he finishes a novel he has been working on, that he'll hit it big and become an overnight bestseller.
The latest straw to break his back has been a series of unfortunate events. First, his dog died due to a sudden illness. Then, he had to deal with some family drama due to events out of his control, thanks to one of his siblings and their family. In addition to having no friends, he also feels isolated among his own family. And the final nail in the coffin was an announcement by his karate instructor that, due to dwindling membership and the owner of their school building selling the place out from under them, that their class would be disbanded. As he walked out of the dojo, uniform slung over his shoulder, trying to contain his sobs until he could get to his car...he saw something glint under a street lamp. For a single moment he felt an odd curiosity, and looked down to see an odd blue, almost crystalline dice. Perhaps it was the fact that so many of the events in his life recently had felt "unlucky," but he had to pick it up. After a moment of examination, it went into a pocket...and he went home to bed feeling like crap.
Specializations:
High - Endurance. Mark's not as fit as he used to be, but can still run long distances at a steady (slow) pace, take hard hits and get back up, and recover from injury pretty quickly.
Medium - Intelligence. Mark likes to read and learn about new things, and desperately wants to improve himself as a person through education and broadening his perspective.
Low - Strength. Though he's not in the kind of shape he wants to be in, over a decade of martial arts training has still made him stronger than average.
Imperfections:
Low - Agility. Moving fast and being flexible are two things Mark has always had problems with, even back when he considered himself to be in shape.
Medium - Appearance. Mark has never felt, even at the best times of his life, that he was "hot," or even "mild." It has a fairly significant impact on his self esteem.
High - Sociability. Mark wants to be liked, but is shy. He wants people to care about him, but finds most people beneath his own notice. He wants to do good in the world, but thinks that most of society is inherently corrupt. He's a hypocrite who knows he's a hypocrite, and hard to get along with.
Other: Mark watches anime and plays video games, but doesn't like to "reveal his power level."
