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| Thorn | ||
|---|---|---|
| Real Name: Colin Reed | ||
| Aliases: Thorn | ||
| Identity: Secret | ||
| Occupation: Young scientist/geneticist | ||
| Citizenship: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record | ||
| Education: Doctorate, Genetics, Biology, Botany | ||
| Birthplace: Seattle, Washington | ||
| Date of Birth: April 19, 1985 | ||
| Known Relatives: Alan Reed (father), Carrie Reed (mother) | ||
| Group Affiliation: None |
Background
Sometimes, I've heard people say that they were born in the wrong decade, when they feel like they just don't fit in with the world around them. I think that it's possible, but I really wonder if they ever thought about the conflict of one's lifestyle and beliefs in the context of the world around them, and how it might affect those that depend on them.
See, because my folks felt they were born in the wrong decade. I'm twenty-four now, and my parents are in their forties. The thing is, they were born a couple of years before the hippie movement in the 60s, a few years before Woodstock. But listening to them, one would think they had been there.
So, in the mid Eighties, when Yuppies ruled supreme, my folks were hippies, and might have been the children of those that were at Woodstock, as opposed to just adopting those standards and beliefs when they met at college in Washington state around Nineteen Eighty, feeling pressure from both of their families to go into the business world. Mom and Dad, or Alan and Carrie as I was taught to call them, met, tuned in, turned on, and so on, and ended up mixing a suburban home outside of Spokane into their own personal commune habitat. However, it was just them, so while I met some of their few like-minded friends, it wasn't exactly a social hub.
Still, I was okay with it, because I was the only child, and they didn't inflict their lifestyle on any other children. I managed to get through it, but my siblings would have been different, I'm sure of it.
I was born Colin Sunshine Reed on April 19, 1985. Granted, I don't use my middle name often, but that was the name my parents tended to use around the house. Still, I was the apple of my parents eye (they didn't name me Apple; they were saving it for when they had another kid that never happened), and was intended to be raised to carry on 'the fight' so to speak.
But, my folks never really fought against 'the Man,' as it were. Glasnost seemed to defuse the Nuke threat, and they did have a house to pay for. Dad was…is a writer. He writes turn-of-the-Century historial detective fiction involving the Faeries under the pen name of 'Garon Willis.' They sold well in the mass-market paperback form, and…okay, so occasionally I check out the internet discussion forums. 'Garon Willis' has an entire fabricated life that Dad thought up, from living in Indiana to having three beagles (not true; Dad's allergic to dogs). Mom…Carrie, sorry, stayed at home to raise me, but when I got past the childhood stage, she felt the need to do more, so she took some night-school classes (She majored in Philosophy in college) and has a job at a local day-care center. Even now, she still has that maternal instinct.
Still, my folks raised me with a keen awareness of the environment and their own slant on the world around me. Which is to say I was home-schooled. A lot. So I didn't get much experience with kids my own age, but my folks didn't keep that tight a leash on me; if I played in the mud, I played in the mud and I needed to wash up. You know, things kids do.
Still, home-schooling didn't…last long with me. See, strange things started to happen. In learning, I was starting to outpace what my Mom would teach me by the time I was eleven, digging into my folks college textbooks and debating them on various things I read, that time had lifted from their own memories. I was…smart. But it wasn't smart-kid-in-school smart. When they finally buckled down and had me tested for my IQ…I would rather not talk about the result.
The other thing was that I had a green thumb. Well, that's not entirely truthful, my skin never changed color, but what I managed to do defied rational description. I was helping mom with her vegetable garden, then everything around me started growing. Visibly growing. Like, I thought Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was real kind of growing. It turned out, through some unknown fashion, I could cause plants to grow faster. I couldn't move them around or anything, but I could cause rapid growth.
My parents were happy to put that to use. Did I mention they were neo-hippies? Yeeaaah.
Anyway, as I hit adolescence, I took on my folks philosophy-wise. I didn't mind home schooling, but I wanted to get out into the world a bit. So, I tested into and enrolled in high school. And by then end of the first week I wanted to run away and join the circus. My parents were actually suggesting good circuses they knew. I didn't fit in. I didn't realize what a culture shock it was until then, but I kept my head down a bit. I…and I hate to admit this, I played it slow. Not dumb; I was not going to hide it, but I kept myself at the pace of the rest of my peers. Still, straight As and a perfect SAT and honors classes out the yin-yang? Also helpful.
It didn't make sense for me until I got to college, which is where I really started to catch fire. I went into their honors program, and ended up doing massive courseloads by the time I was nineteen, getting into graduate school via testing and grades and GRE scores when I was twenty. I always did like plants, my small metahuman ability nonwithstanding (but when my cover was blown to one roommate, he loved me power, and was happy to put it to use. Did I mention these were college students?), but I was more interested in possibilities, especially with the increase in environmental awareness. So, there was botany, Biology, with a really heavy lean towards genetics and the out-there science of genetic engineering.
Now, to note: I never did any tests on animals. Just plants. But, by the time I got my Doctorate when I was twenty two (due to accelerated learning and my superhuman intellect), I was starting to create my own strains of plant life, giving them traits and accellerating growth with my power. I was able to make some money (player's note: /understatement/) with my first patent; a genetically engineered algae that 'ate' factory and industrial waste and converted it to oxygen. Said Algae was also safe for fish in those polluted waters as a detoxifying effect, which I soon extended to vegetable life and greens for livestock.
I'm still working on a algae strain that can do the same with radioactive waste, but the size of the algae colony to do it far outstrips the area for even a small amount of radioactive waste. There's too much energy involved.
So, I moved to San Angeles, and before I made my first million (player's note: First of many; that industrial cleanup algae? Amazing.), I tried working in the lab, but I always felt that there was a lack of…something. Everything was so contained, so plastic, so…grey and sterile. The same thing could be done without using so much petroleum for plastics, so I eventually left and went off on my own.
It took me over a year and a half, even with my power, but I genetically engineered a tree to use as a home. In Valentino Park in San Angeles, I started to tend to my tree, and no one knew where the giant oak seemed to come from. From the outside, the tree seemed normal, and it was, for all intents and purposes. Inside, if one knew how to go, was my private sanctum. A hollowed out inside of the tree with my own rooms, lab, and home-grown equipment. What is a computer? Chips and Wired and memory. Those things can be created out of natural materials; some metals, mostly plant life, and the like, and a monitor can me created by engineering a colony of color-shifting pollen spores that self-replicate and respond to bio-electrical input.
Still, while those were neat tricks (including the bed and furniture grown out of the tree with engineered flowers and leaves as cushions), I needed to do something more. See, my deal with plants and engineering had its detractors while I was getting my doctorate, so I used it to solve the '???' step of the program known as this:
Step 1: Find environmentally safe substitutes for technology and ecological improvement.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.
And the ??? Substitute 'show them, show them all' for that, and you have where I was. Hell, if I was so inclined, I could have made a pretty twisted supervillain. Still, the San Angeles area needed healing after the Quake, and I wasn't the type.
That was, until a small group of villains entered Valentino Park, trying to wreck it. Heroes were there fighting them off while I was holed up in my 'tree house' trying to think of good defenses. So, working fast, I managed to launch a pod out of tthe tree that entangled the villains.
I never thought about it, before. Not even the AI I set into my 'natural computer' (named Rose, actually) suggested it to me. But, if I could build this house out of plant life, what else could I do with natural materials…
It took me months of testing, but I managed to get together an array of gadgets, tools, and equipment to take on crime, industrial criminals who cut corners at the cost of the environment, and assorted natural disasters.
Rose, in a fit of humor, suggested a name for a 'costumed identity.'
And so, Thorn came to be…
RP Logs
Fresh Air August 25th, 2010. Colin and Tiago meet over coffee and end up exchanging their fancy business cards.
A Brief Musical Interlude September 1st, 2010. Proton and Spook fight to stop Virtuoso robbing the bank, but she has a surprise up her sleeve in the form of Thorn.
Ships In The Night September 6th, 2010. Spook spots Thorn and approaches him to check he's okay after their encounter with Virtuoso.
Two Plus Two Equals Four September 12th, 2010. Secrets emerge over a beer when Colin notices his new friend Tiago has the same distinctive accent as Thorn's new friend Spook.
Stats
Real Name: Colin Reed
Aliases: Thorn
Age: 25
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 171 lbs
Known Relatives: Alan Reed (father), Carrie Reed (mother)
XP Log
This is where you record your XP gains and spends. Please remember to date them!
