Name: Incurro II "Ink" Lysander
Setting(s): Supernatural Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, and Superhero settings.
Age: 15
Gender: ♂
Ability: Cryptopsychology - Ink has a tattoo-like marking of an eye on his body. He can make it travel along his skin, albeit it's slow and highly sensitive to touch. The eye is capable of sight, and is capable of seeing monstrous abominations not visible to human eyes. These creatures cannot interact with the physical plane, phasing through objects and people, yet for some reason not phasing through the ground, even being able to jump and drop through floors of a building selectively. They are, however, perfectly capable of perceiving the physical plane, and can even try to interact with Ink upon noticing his attention. The resulting ruckus they cause can even attract the attention of other non-physical abominations, though they will generally dismiss it or even start fighting each other if Ink feigns ignorance, and most of them don't seem to have the attention span to follow him around for long. Other than Ink's ability, seemingly nothing is capable of interacting with these creatures, and their nature as external, independent beings is within doubt.
By consciously focusing on a particular emotion, Ink is capable of gradually attracting abominations on the other side. They do not seem to be aware they are being attracted, simply wandering to his vicinity and wandering off when he stops. Each of the basic emotions seems to attract different types of abominations. Over time, he has determined that anger is associated with aggressive abominations that tend to have a lot of horns and/or teeth, disgust is associated with insectoid abominations, fear is associated with intelligent and/or humanoid abominations, joy is associated with agile abominations, especially those with avian traits, sadness is associated with abominations resembling aquatic creatures, and surprise is associated with abominations that do not resemble life on Earth, often appearing inorganic. There seem to be more patterns, as he's accidentally attracted abominations with other unifying traits before. (plant-like, amalgamations, partially or completely skeletal, etc.) Their relationship to his emotions are a subject of curiosity and ongoing study to him.
Ink is capable of summoning abominations he can see by mentally designating them and "squeezing" his third eye, which he describes as being similar to trying to shut it tightly without an eyelid. Doing this seems to alert the abomination to his ability, and they will, without fail, immediately come up to him and try to enter his third eye by "melting" into it. The summon cannot be canceled once they make contact with his third eye, though this ability can be used to indirectly communicate its existence, which can get abominations to follow him around for a while. Although his third eye does not visibly change during the summoning, it will begin to "cry" a viscous black liquid, as if through the pores of his skin, which will soon morph into the abomination. Summoning them imparts them with a similar symbol of an eye somewhere on their body, but it does not have any of the weaknesses or functionality that Ink's eye does. Any abomination summoned by his ability will seemingly have an instinctual understanding of his ability, because they become begrudgingly hesitant to harm Ink unless he tries to harm them (in a meaningful way) or send them back himself. Other than that, they have absolutely no allegiance to Ink, but usually won't recognize the possibility that he intends to send them back from the start.
Ink has a number of
theories of what his ability is, and what it
could be able to do, but no matter what he tries, the abominations he summons never seem to act the way he wants them to.
Weaknesses & Limitations: Besides the aforementioned begrudging unwillingness to harm Ink, summoned abominations have no qualms pushing him around, hurting anyone around him, or even wrenching people out of his grasp. They tend to be violent and hostile, and those that aren't tend to be dangerous in other ways. It takes some luck to direct them towards an actual enemy, and the abominations intelligent enough to bargain with Ink tend to be duplicitous or conniving - assuming he can get past the language barrier to make a deal with them to begin with.
Additionally, damage to Ink's third eye is very painful, and will undo any summoning. Since it's only skin-deep, any superficial damage to the eye (e.g. a shallow cut, a visible bruise) will cause anything created by Ink's ability to melt into a viscous black fluid and inflict serious pain on Ink, sometimes even causing him to lose consciousness. Ink will be unable to move the eye or summon abominations while it is healing, and his vision through it becomes less precise depending on the nature of the wound, until it is healed. Although he recognizes the importance of utilizing this weakness to control his summons, the pain involved can lead him to hesitate or fail to draw blood. Summoned abominations will immediately notice failed attempts, and will generally take their chances trying to knock Ink out, ocassionally trying to kill him outright. Intelligent abominations may do one better and try to kidnap him. Abominations that melt back into black fluid will gradually reform on the other side. Abominations that (permanently) die in the physical plane are unaffected.
Ink cannot summon many creatures in rapid succession, with nothing happening on subsequent attempts. He can summon up to 3 with little time in between, but will take about 3 hours for each summon past that, wounds on his eye permitting.
Combat Equipment: Ink has been authoring a bestiary of some of the abominations he's seen in a book he calls the
Atramentomicon. At least, that's what it's labeled on the first page. If anyone asks, he'll just say it's a journal, which is technically true, since he tends to write about the feelings associated with each abomination. It's full of drawings and zoological observations, and it helps him remember the finer emotional details necessary to attract the same type of abomination. The pages are made of a rather stiff type of paper, which helps when he tries to use it to give himself paper cuts. He also keeps a small but very sharp folding knife on him at all times, just in case.
Personality: Ink is pretty friendly, and for an introvert, he's pretty sociable too. Although he tends to avoid approaching others for no reason, he's the curious type, open to trying new things and attempting to befriend others with similar interests. He's a bit of an nerd and idealist, eager to indulge in the hypothetical, but that's not to be confused with naivety, as he is slow to trust others.
History: He was named Incurro the second, after his father, and is referred to as Ink or Junior in his household. He was born in the USA, but moved to Italy at a young age. When asked why they moved, his father says it's because it's what his mother wanted, while his mother says it's because the Adriatic sea is haunted, as if that's a good thing. His mother is "The Occult Hero, Esoterica", and his father is a reformed villain who changes occupations frequently. Despite this, they've never failed to provide loving guidance as he grew up. From a young age, Ink thought his family wasn't normal, but it took quite a while for him to think he wasn't normal either.
Ink gained his ability fairly recently, in his teenage years, and, soon after, accidentally summoned a crocodilian abomination in a fit of anger, which went on to bite through the arm of a classmate, instantly dismembering them. Although he was lucky enough to have the incident resolved without any casualties, the resulting aftermath made him scared to interact with his ability any further. For a while he thought he'd just learn to ignore his ability, but his mother insisted he should learn how to use it. She was morbidly curious about the nature of his ability, and did her best to get Ink as enthusiastic about it as she was. She would even ask for drawings of the creatures he could see sometimes, eventually getting Ink a journal for him to document his observations within. As the emotional associations of his ability became more clear, this journal came to take on a more personal meaning for Ink, and he began to carry it around with him at all times.
His ability soon become a subject of morbid curiosity and fascination for him, just like it was for his mother. As such, he's eager to pursue opportunities to summon abominations and properly see their capabilities in action, without causing undue harm.