Subtle (Jon McCallum)
subtle.jpg
Name: Jon Andrew McCallum
Whateley: Class of 2010 (freshman as of fall 2006)
DOB: 1992-05-27
Powers: ESP-2, WA-4:rb (officially)
Gender: Transgender male-to-female (transitioning and struggling)
Sexuality: Prefers females
Demeanour: Quiet, almost painfully shy, cynical sense of humour.
Costume: None
Race: Caucasian, UK national.
Height: 5’8” / 1.73 m
Weight: 121 lbs / 55 kg
Eyes: Metallic blue-grey irises
Hair: Black, shortish and loose, usually lets it hang down to cover his eyes.
Face: Well-defined bone structure, youthful, androgynous.
Build: Slender, toned.
POB: London, UK
Assoc: Hawthorne cottage, Gatekeepers, Circle-S (friend), Tegan Wissa (girlfriend)
Creator: Alytari
Updated: 06/06/2010

General Description

Jon McCallum grew up travelling. His parents' work for the UK Foreign Office took them around the UK and the world, never staying in the same city for more than a few months at a time. As he grew older the length of time spent in each place grew longer and by Jon's tenth birthday they were living in the UK once more, but the damage was already done. The constant moving stopped Jon connecting with anyone except his parents and they remained workaholics no matter what country they were in, so he learned to support himself and treasure the few moments he had with them.

School life was little better for him. He had grown up without many of the shared experiences of his peers and could not connect with them. All manner of details made him a target - his accent, his height, his build, his interest in books (constant companions in all the moves) - until he simply shut himself away from the world, and the bullies went looking for someone who would react rather than just shrug and walk away.

His powers manifested in July 2006 when an older student who had raided his father's liquor cabinet to celebrate the end of the school year decided to make an example of Jon and his 'superior attitude'. Jon panicked and in his attempt to defend himself nearly severed the bully's hand. The elder student's father, an MP, hushed the matter rather than risk exposure of his son's behaviour but Jon was quietly removed from the school. His parents reacted poorly to the revelation of Jon's mutant nature, burying themselves in their work and quickly arranging a place for him at Whateley.

At Whateley

Jon has had a lot of problems in socialising or feeling part of things at Whateley. Aside from a few friends that have persevered through his shy and prickly exterior he has left little mark on his peers, and in some cases has actively tried to avoid contact with other people. Throwing himself into his studies to blunt the homesickness he is still coming to terms with, he became a popular topic for examination and study at the Powers Testing labs as the researchers continued to try and figure out just how his powers worked but each answer simply lead to more questions. Jon's own experimentation with his abilities tended to result in accidental effects, headaches and periods of unconsciousness. Most of the incidents barely register on the Reilly-Wilson Scale, aside from the accidental disintegration of a tree with an uncontrolled rift-plane on one occasion, or a still unexplained encounter with a semi-corporeal entity of shadow in the tunnels.

Problems with his powers became a frequent issue for Jon. Headaches, over-stimulation and sleepless nights due to his spatial senses faded over time as he learned control and how to turn out the unwanted information, but other problems remained and grew worse with time. Practice with his warping abilities tended to lead to further headaches, periods of spacing out and short bouts of unconsciousness, especially when attempting something new with them. He was twice hospitalised after falling unconscious and semi-comatose for hours at a time.

Recently these problems have grown much worse with Jon falling into a deep coma-like state and his powers slipping dangerously out of control, disrupting reality around him and seeping along sympathetic connections into the thoughts and dreams of students around the campus. The situation was resolved when a small group of these students were able to use their connection to Jon to do what others could not and bring Jon out of the nightmare void he had fallen into.

Since the experience Jon's control over his power hase slipped, resulting in him being transferred to Hawthorne for the safety of his fellow students. He also learned that he has been very slowly transitioning since the manifestation of his powers, with small changes happening during the mini burnouts he experienced when pushing the limits of his abilities. The incident with the void kicked the process into high gear and he is forced to deal with the fact that he is on his way to becoming a girl. He hasn't taken this very well and has been hiding away in Hawthorne, burying himself in catch-up work for class and reading about what has happened.

Appearance

After the incident
Subtle is tall for his age and slender with a faint hint at muscle tone that only manifests itself when in use. His skin is pale, but not unhealthily so as kids who avoid the sun might be, and unmarked by acne or other signs of ageing. His features are youthful, delicate and androgynous enough, with large eyes, a slender nose and gently pointed chin, that he is finding it increasingly hard to deny what is happening to him.

He always wears a loose black hoodie when in public, relying on the loose fit and dark material to conceal what has happened to his body. Without it the first hints of feminine curves are noticable under male clothing that is starting not to fit very well.

Powers

Subtle is able to sense the edges and spatial boundaries between things and manipulate them.

Spatial Senses

Subtle's ability to sense spatial boundaries manifests as a constant 360-degree spatial awareness, sensing the boundaries between objects out to a range of about 100 feet. This ability operates akin to sensitive RADAR, sensing shapes and movement but having no sense for colours, textures or detail. He is learning how to focus this sense on a particular point allowing him to 'sense' less obvious boundaries, such the boundaries between the parts that make up an object, the boundary between an obstacle and what lies beyond it, but this requires focused, conscious effort.

In theory if Subtle could focus his senses enough he could sense the boundaries between objects too small to be detected by visual light, but so far attempts at doing this have only resulted in blinding headaches.

Rift Effects

Subtle is able to manipulate space along boundaries that he is able to sense, folding it into higher dimensional hyper-space. This has the effect of opening a transitory spatial rift along the folded boundary. He has only been only able fold a rift along a 0-dimensional (point) or 1-dimensional (line) boundaries, but theoretically could be able to fold a 2-dimensional boundary into a rift plane.

The only manifestation of this ability that he has been able to reliably reproduce is to project a 1-dimensional rift along the edge of a blade or other slender object. This effectively creates a cutting edge that is a non-dimensional rift in space that is able to cut through anything by momentarily shearing through the space it occupies.

Other effects he has been practising include opening numerous temporary rifts along the boundaries within an object, effectively disintegrating it, and using a variant to cause massively painful surface lacerations to a target as an incapacitating effect. He has also been trying to practise a lesser form of spatial folding to deflect and divert attacks against him, but so far this has proved difficult to control and the rifts are more likely to sever, shatter or disintegrate the attack than divert it.

Subtle is immune to the cutting effect of his own rifts, likely a subconscious self-defence mechanism as the rifts have proved able to sever anything else they pass through with very few exceptions.

Subtle is very hesitant about using any of his rift effects on living creatures.

Since the incident with the void, he has shown an increased affinity with his powers. He still carries small objects like pencils to use as focus points for his powers but has also shown the ability to create a controlled rift effect along a fingernail, and in one case along the tips of his fingers with a spear-hand strike that showed far greater destructive potential than his normal rift effects.

Other Effects

Recent incidents have suggested that Subtle's abilities extend beyond simply spatial boundaries, but at the moment he has no conscious control or awareness of such abilities.

He has also shown a marked increase in his physical abilities since arriving at Whateley, far from superhuman levels but still beyond what would be expected for his build and past habits.

Skills

Growing up as the only child of workaholic parents, Jon learned to be very self-sufficient and is considerably more capable at domestic matters than a 14-year old young man usually would be. Books have been a constant companion while growing up and he has picked up a broad but shallow pool of knowledge from them. He is also moderately computer literate (by the standards of baselines, not Whateley) both with hardware and software.

Since arriving at Whateley he has shown an strong aptitude for martial arts, appreciating the calming and meditative aspects, and mathematics.

Equipment

Medalert Unit

A sensor unit the size of a miniature cell-phone that monitors Subtle's vitals and triggers a medical alert in the campus medical facility if they become erratic. There is also a manual activation button.

Personality

Subtle lives up to his name in many ways. Years of being the butt of jokes and having only himself to rely on have left him quiet and distrustful of others, and completely lacking in confidence in himself. Having his only emotional support severed by his parents sending him to Whateley has made him retreat even further into his shell, afraid of social contact but desperate to find social acceptance.

To many his quietness comes across as arrogance or conceit, but those who can get him to interact in any meaningful way soon realise the truth. Even if he is drawn out of his shell, he remains painfully self-conscious and hyper-sensitive to criticism, freezing up in uncertainty rather than risking doing something wrong and shrugging off compliments and kind words out of disbelief.

Since coming to Whateley his personality has mellowed a little, having found a few people he can talk to and been convinced somewhat that he is worth being around. He is still uncomfortable around people in general, especially people he does not know, but can slowly warm to a conversation. At rare moments when his guard is down, he even has a sense of humour.

Weaknesses

Subtle's powers have proven problematic for him. His sensory abilities have refused to turn off completely since they first awakened, and while he has finally started to learn how to tune them out they have been the cause of numerous sleepless nights and headaches.

His warping abilities have also caused problems for him. As of November he has passed out a half-dozen times while using them, each time while trying to do something new and each time the unconsciousness has been more severe. Dr Quintain and Dr Tenant have theories (now likely proven) that his power may still be manifesting and that these miniature burnouts are a sign of growth.

Since the incident he has found it difficult to keep his powers entirely under control. When asleep or unconscious, or experiencing very strong emotions, nascent rift effects begin to form around him with temporary rift effects randomly forming and dissipating within them.

Associations

Whateley

  • Class of 2010

Residence

  • Hawthorne cottage

Group Affiliations

Friends

Unsure Of

  • Legion - her succubus-like form is intimidatingly beautiful, even when Subtle knows she is experiencing the same problems he does.
  • Damien - is very freaked out by his flirting and is terrified of something bad happening when he finds out the truth.

Romantic Relationships

Personal Enemies

  • Gloria Whitley (uneasy about her did not truly dislike her until learning of her contracts and control over Tegan and Kara)

Family

  • Thomas John McCallum (father, baseline, senior civil servant in UK Home Office)
  • Marianne Angeline McCallum (mother, baseline, senior civil servant)
  • Andrew James McCallum (grandfather, baseline. Died in 2002.)
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