● N A M E ●Andrew Andy Marlowe
● A G E ●18
● G E N D E R ●Male
● O C C U P A T I O N ●Student/Journalist
● L O O K S ●Upon meeting Andy, most people assume that he's either been very sick or has forgotten to eat for some weeks. There's a hungry, haggard look to him, something about the fierce stare, the intense eyes and the lines under them. He tends to smell of coffee, cigarette smoke and ink, all of which combine to paint the poicture of a man/boy who hasn't eaten enough, slept enough or seen enough sun in the last few weeks but has drunk an entire Brazilian harvest's worth of coffee. But rather than look rakish or dashingly dishevelled, he tends to look melancholy and lonesome. The image of the forlorn writer isn't helped by his passion for hipster scarves, androgynous hoodies and Kerouac-esque jackets.
He talks fast and gesticulates wildly, whatever the subject. Who should get the last beer draws just as much animation and fervour from him as the fate of paper journalism in the west. That's when his eyes light up and lose their doleful quality, as his voice slowly raises in volume until a waiter asks him to quiet down because he's upsetting the other customers. It's usually about then that he bashfully gathers up his book bag and rushes off, back bent by the weight of words and ears tinged a little red from embarrassment.
● P E R S O N A L I T Y ●Anyone talking to Andy can quickly come to a couple of conclusions; he cares about things and he doesn't take care of himself. The first is not hard to come to, as the force of his conviction practically bowls most people over. He'll talk your legs off discussing the comparative merits of Westerosi houses and then launch into a detailed and dedicated dissertation on the inherent inequalities in Presidential Primaries, both of which he seems almost fanatically invested in. People, too, capture his attention and more than one friend has had to remind him that he has his own work to do after asking for help. Those that know him quickly learn that the subjects and people about which Andy cares are nearly numberless and almost indiscriminate.
The second is noticeable in his constant snacking and yawning. Just from looking at him, you can tell he was up all night writing a furious column about the untenable state of Verona's New Town housing market or arguing online with climate change denier. And he probably forgot breakfast because he was editing a friend's article for the Herald's website with one hand while putting the finishing touches to his own with the other. It's like all the effort and energy he puts into caring about other people, other places and other things sucks away any willingness to worry about himself. He eats when he's reminded to and goes to school when he's made to, and while he likes to think of himself as independent and self reliant, he can only rely upon himself to miss meals and sleep.
● R O M A N T I C I N T E R E S T S ●Andy has known he was gay for some years and made a show out of coming out to his parents, whose reaction was a complete lack of surprise, but he's never had a boyfriend. If you were to ask him, he'd likely launch into a spiel about the problematic aspects of the word 'boyfriend' and how the connection it implies doesn't need to be labelled in such a brutally clinical way. And while he would believe what he's saying, he wouldn't be being entirely honest. The truth is, Andy knows who he likes and desperately wishes they liked him back enough to accept a label, any label. At this time, though, it seems they do not.
● O R I G I N S T O R Y ●Born into one of Verona's old money families, Andy has wanted for little since he was able to talk. The Marlowes have been here for generations and have no intention of leaving any time soon. Daddy Marlowe, Christopher, has interests in real estate development and mama Marlowe, Leane, manages an online dating site, both jobs that they can happily manage from their Riveredge townhouse. They were pleased to have a healthy young boy to continue the dynasties, happy with him right up until he started to read independently with, of course, free range access to the internet.
At first it was little things like questions at dinner. "What happens when someone can't pay their rent dad?" and the like, nothing more than a healthy interest in his parent's occupation. they humoured him by answering them and encouraged him towards learning more. Who knows, maybe he'd decide that the family business was to his liking and they wouldn't even need to push him into running it. Then came more probing questions as Andy grew into a young man. "Do you have a section for same sex couples mom?" and other dangerously liberal inquiries. And that was only the beginning.
Andy drifted away from his parents like a log caught in a tidal flow, his goals and ideology diverging from theirs with almost vindictive speed. He stopped going by Andrew and insisted that he'd rather be called Andy. When they said right, he defiantly said left. When they said red, he muttered blue. And when they said law school, he said journalism. Nothing wrong with journalism, they said, nothing wrong at all, as long as you own the paper. And, as luck would have it, the Verona Herald had being undergoing hard times recently and had just gone into receivership. Seeing it as an opportunity to teach their upstart offspring a lesson about the real world.
Andy was given editorial control over the failing paper and a stipend. You want to be a journalist, they said, so prove you can do it. And if it fails, you go to law school like a good little boy. They of course expected him to fold under the weight of school work and his new responsibilities but they hadn't dared anticipate his reaction; he ditched as much of his schoolwork as he could possibly afford to and dedicated his time almost exclusively to the paper. And it was hard, no doubt about it. He recruited friends to help him put out content at a steady rate, cut the paper down to a quarter of its previous size and put near all of his money into moving online.
And now the paper, or at least its website, dominate Andy's days (and nights) like nothing else. He falls asleep bent over his keyboard, wakes up to new articles and reviews them over breakfast. He's rarely even seen in school anymore, only coming to the most essential of classes and, even then, his mind is generally somewhere else. At his friend and sibling's insistence, he still makes time to have fun, going to the odd party or sports game. As it is, he sleeps no more than a handful of hours a night (supplemented by the odd 12 hour burnout hibernation and frequent catnaps) and looks like a zombie half of the time.
His parents, meanwhile, are unsure of how to feel. On the one hand, he's clearly a hard worker, not the layabout liberal they feared he might be. On the other, the prospect of law school is vanishing into the distance. Still, they are nothing if not honourable and have allowed him not only to keep the paper but to get away with skipping school and cutting class. The principal is an old friend, boys will be boys and so on, and Andy is alerted when there's a class he really can't miss.
Recently, there has been plenty of material for stories at the very least. The inexplicable events all over the town, the mysterious illness and now the high street fiasco. Interesting times...
● S U P E R P O W E R ●Accelerated Learning (and Knowledge Retention)
● P O W E R C L A S S I F I C A T I O N ●Mastermind
● A B I L I T I E S ●Andy can master new skills, grasp new concepts and retain knowledge more easily than any normal human. Where the average eighteen year old might need to do three pages of problems to understand a mathematical concept, Andy will pick up the pattern and be able to understand how it works within the first problem or so. Similarly, practising something like juggling takes a many hours to pay off, accelerated learning allows for results to be clearly visible inside a few minutes.
● W E A K N E S S E S ●This power does nothing to boost creativity or motivation, so Andy still needs to study the subject he wants to master and is no better at coming up with new concepts or ideas than he was before. Neither are his physical abilities improves at all, so any skills he learns will have to be accomplished with his abysmal hand-eye coordination and motor skills.
fledermaus
Nightwing95
