SILAS ANTHONY EVERETT
HYPERHUMAN ABILITIES | ELECTROTHERMIC EXOSKELETON
Sandwiched between his dermis and hypodermis, he has a xenodermis of sorts rife with electrocytes, mitochondria, and chloroplasts, lending his skin a slight but definite green tint, which allows him to absorb energy from the sun as well as rapid conversion of food into usable energy. On a dietary level, he has an uncommonly strong sweet tooth that pushes him to secure enough sugars to operate his xenodermis' secondary function.
By focusing, usually automatically done when flinching or adopting any sort of defensive stance, his xenodermis expands and inflates his hypodermis, reinforcing and protecting his outer skin, and filling all of his pores. Once this phase is reached, the green tint that his skin has changes to roughly that of an underripe cavendish banana. Once in this poised state, with his pores filled with the xenodermis, his skin rapidly releases a chemically stable mixture of gases that are capable of conducting electricity and heat extremely effectively without harming him and can be activated at a moment's notice, resulting in an aura of molten air and lightning that expands the longer he maintains the impulse. Though, when his xenodermis is at the surface, his sensitivity is noticeably diminished.
Without practice, he can expand it for about three feet in every direction before it dissipates harmlessly and, once totally exhausted, requires a period of several minutes before he can create another field of even the smallest magnitude. This essentially protects him from living things extremely effectively by burning and electrocution. When his xenodermis is at the surface, he is resistant to physical harm and could shrug off being struck by a baseball bat, though being hit by a speeding car would be enough to disable him. With his xenodermis in the passive state, it protects his internal organs and prevents rapid blood loss but will do little to protect his skin.
By focusing, usually automatically done when flinching or adopting any sort of defensive stance, his xenodermis expands and inflates his hypodermis, reinforcing and protecting his outer skin, and filling all of his pores. Once this phase is reached, the green tint that his skin has changes to roughly that of an underripe cavendish banana. Once in this poised state, with his pores filled with the xenodermis, his skin rapidly releases a chemically stable mixture of gases that are capable of conducting electricity and heat extremely effectively without harming him and can be activated at a moment's notice, resulting in an aura of molten air and lightning that expands the longer he maintains the impulse. Though, when his xenodermis is at the surface, his sensitivity is noticeably diminished.
Without practice, he can expand it for about three feet in every direction before it dissipates harmlessly and, once totally exhausted, requires a period of several minutes before he can create another field of even the smallest magnitude. This essentially protects him from living things extremely effectively by burning and electrocution. When his xenodermis is at the surface, he is resistant to physical harm and could shrug off being struck by a baseball bat, though being hit by a speeding car would be enough to disable him. With his xenodermis in the passive state, it protects his internal organs and prevents rapid blood loss but will do little to protect his skin.
RELATIONSHIP TO VANESSA | ONE-SIDED RIVAL
Silas was a slacker until he met Vanessa at Shannon's Arcade, named for the river it was built beside. One day, he found himself playing Joust against her. He expected to win because he always won but his expectations had betrayed him. He trained up against every scrub he could find with twenty-five cents to spare, nerdishly creating charts to figure out how to optimize his performance. He tried calling up the manufacturer on the telephone to see if she was taking advantage of some of its mechanical quirks but not even its designer, John Newcomer, seemed to care that much about Joust. So one day, after convincing one of his cousins to drive to Portsmouth so they could steal all the quarters, he revealed that the real reason they were there was to steal their Joust arcade cabinet.
His cousins thought he was a dumbass. He didn't disagree. A moment later, however, they all realized that they had tripped an alarm when a set of red and blue lights lit up the parking lot like a dance floor. They snuck past the cop and started the car before narrowly avoiding arrest by switching their headlights off and cruising in the cover of night until they were well beyond the city limits.
He never did get his hands on a Joust cabinet of his own but he put the several hundreds of dollars of quarters into practicing religiously at Shannon's, fixated on the display like a telescope into the night sky. He eventually saw Vanessa again, months later before challenging her to another game of Joust. She didn't seem to remember who he was, outside of knowing that they went to the same school. He beat her. It was easy. It was frustrating. It was anticlimactic.
When his image of the Jousting goddess fell away, he realized that he didn't really know her in any meaningful way though he had every intention of remedying that disparity. That said, it just never happened. Before he met Vanessa at the arcade, he was a lazy slacker. After losing a single, stupid game, he found out what he could do when he applied himself and he'll never be able to pay her back for that.
His cousins thought he was a dumbass. He didn't disagree. A moment later, however, they all realized that they had tripped an alarm when a set of red and blue lights lit up the parking lot like a dance floor. They snuck past the cop and started the car before narrowly avoiding arrest by switching their headlights off and cruising in the cover of night until they were well beyond the city limits.
He never did get his hands on a Joust cabinet of his own but he put the several hundreds of dollars of quarters into practicing religiously at Shannon's, fixated on the display like a telescope into the night sky. He eventually saw Vanessa again, months later before challenging her to another game of Joust. She didn't seem to remember who he was, outside of knowing that they went to the same school. He beat her. It was easy. It was frustrating. It was anticlimactic.
When his image of the Jousting goddess fell away, he realized that he didn't really know her in any meaningful way though he had every intention of remedying that disparity. That said, it just never happened. Before he met Vanessa at the arcade, he was a lazy slacker. After losing a single, stupid game, he found out what he could do when he applied himself and he'll never be able to pay her back for that.