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What is their name?
Ruuben Michael Vang-Korhonen
Do they have any nicknames/aliases?
Ben, Swishflick (his alias back when he was abducted)
How old are they?
24
What is their gender?
Male
What is their sexual orientation?
Pansexual
Are they human or deviant?
Deviant
What are their powers/abilities?
xxx➥ Telepathy - He can read the surface minds of people in the least, as well as creating psychic communication to people in close proximity. Ruuben can relay his memories to other people as well as taking a look to their memories. However, the more willpower the person has, the more they have the ability to resist Ruuben's telepathy; So, it's pretty much like a tug-of-war. (i.e If the person he's trying to read mind of is very stubborn and has a strong willpower, Ruuben can't read their memories/thoughts, period)
xxx➥ Empathy - The easiest ability Ruuben can do all the time, he was able to sense a persons's emotions he's focusing on. He will moreso feel it if he touched them as well. He can also express/influence his emotions to others, but he has to actually feel it to make that happen. For example, if he's feeling sad, then he can influence his sadness to someone. But if he's not even sad at all, then he can't make the person so.
xxx➥ Telekinesis - He can move himself and limited mass equal to several people/heavy household appliances. Anything beyond that (e.g a bus full of people) will lead him to straining and exhaustion when done for too long. He can also apply his telekinesis into making force-field shields, but the durability of the "shield" greatly depends on his willpower and energy.
xxx➥ Enhanced/Sensitive Hearing - The ability he hated the most, Ruuben's hearing was more sensitive than a normal human's. While it did gave him a difficult time in noisy places, Ruuben had eventually learned to distinguish from one voice to another if he was making an effort. However, while he can't get permanent deafness (his recovery was 24 hours at the very least but it can get longer than that depending on the severity), he will never stand a chance against someone with high-pitched sound powers. Also, it's most likely torture material if someone is smart enough to notice that.
xxx➥ Hand-to-hand combat - His combat of using his fists and knives is mediocre, but he's really weak in using his legs. However, he prefers ranged combat with his telekinesis and arrows than going toe-to-toe in close proximity to start with.
Do they have any notable weaknesses?
➥ He's kind of snappy when feeling pressured, and being incredibly stubborn
➥ Untrusting to the point of pushing people away
➥ He also has a hard time in controlling his empathy lately, hence making him dislike physical contact to people he doesn't like.
➥ Noisy places (and loud shrieking sounds) are a no-go
➥ When the sound pitch is too much, he can be rendered deaf temporarily as well as a bad headache. And sometimes, he can pass out, too.
➥ His empathy makes the burden of his actions too heavy for him
➥ Overexerting his powers (especially telekinesis) means risking his health and energy. Usually it includes nosebleed, intense fatigue, or passing out. Even a coma as a worst case scenario. The longest coma he had experienced for overexerting was four days.
What is their personality like?
xxx➥ Knowledgable - Ruuben was born as an intelligent bookworm and it was shown in his childhood. He doesn't find it hard to learn things and would play around his tool to get things right- though he preferred learning the books to make things easier. However, this made him "too smart for his own good": While he never bragged nor thought he was smart, Ruuben is the type to not tolerate stupidity and would come across as generally uptight. He also tends to see through the surface and he's very intent to not judge the book by its cover, thus trouble always follows him for this mere trait because Ruuben has a problem of "knowing too much".
xxx➥ Guarded - Ever since the incident, Ruuben has built his tall walls, becoming secretive about his thoughts and even his own well-being. He doesn't like letting the people he cared about down and he certainly doesn't want people to take advantage of him. His entire existence as a deviant, for him, means that people will make use of what he can do. He also doesn't like letting his guard down and is always waiting for the worst to come to his door. This makes it bad for him and the people around him as he tends to push people away for his skepticism, as well as losing sleep.
xxx➥ Soft-spoken - Ruuben has been always a quiet child, way before he got his powers. He doesn't like being the center of attention and would do everything just to avoid the stage. In fact, he prefers working behind the scenes while still being given credit for it. This is pretty much of a blessing for him, as this trait is the reason how he managed to blend in and not being suspected. He is withdrawn from being in big crowds, and being in the limelight genuinely made him uneasy.
xxx➥ Bitter - Ruuben from the start was at first a idealistic boy, thinking that he has the chance on living a simple life despite of what he can do. However, all of that was nearly gone- leaving him a very cynical, jaded, and embittered individual. Even to the point of being self-loathing. Ruuben is secretly convinced that everyone is out of use him just because of being born with something he never asked for. He thinks that people who knew his secret will never see him as a person after that, and what's bad is that Ruuben would think that they have the right to be afraid after everything he had witnessed- which also hurts him emotionally.
xxx➥ Stubborn - Ruuben, like his brothers, has a bad habit of having a hard-head. He generally doesn't like being told what to feel and certainly doesn't like what they should expect of him. And even if his hands end up being tied in the process, Ruuben will secretly take an opportunity just to get out of the grasp even if it risks his life. This is also what kept him from being insane, as Ruuben is also stubborn enough to retain what remains in his humanity. He would also do anything just to prove that he can still hold his ground fine, even if it means leaving room for his well-being. As a result, he really gets irritated, snappy, and stubborn- especially if he wants to prove that he is functional.
xxx➥ Compassionate - Ruuben may be bitter, withdrawn, and guarded- but deep inside was the resilient compassionate heart that he wants to maintain after everything he'd been though. Anyone in his place would have give in to hatred and commit meaningless murder, but Ruuben thinks that it is no excuse for him to be one. This and his stubborn head are what kept him going all this time, especially when his family provide him a glimpse of hope that the world probably hasn't gone to a deep end yet. He fights because he doesn't want other deviants to suffer the same fate as him and as a result he is more of a protector than anything else. However, this very much clashes with his bitterness and thus he doesn't let his soft heart show that often.
What is their backstory?
Ruuben was born in Finland, second-born son of a Swedish archaeologist father and a Finnish retired sniper mother (who was now working as a journalist). Between his protective older brother Reima and his prankster-but-still-protective younger brother Riku, he was the only one to have his deviant powers surfaced at age ten. Thus, he struggled in school, even if he still gets decent grades in the end. His parents were doing their best to be supportive to their deviant son, despite the fact that they were concerned of how to deal with a deviant son, though they ended up being a bunch of helicopter parents as a result. It didn't really help that his older and younger brothers were doing to same, so Ruuben had always wanted to see himself as a human rather than a deviant, as well as not wanting to rely on people. Other than that, he led a fairly normal life at best.
At age seventeen, his family decided to move into Oklahoma, America and there his father worked as a Mythology professor in a University. During his college years, it was still normal (unless you count the insufferable side-effects of being a deviant) until, at age 21, he was being threatened by a knife-wielding robber. Because he was stubborn in not surrendering his things to him, the thug attacked him until Ruuben used his telekinesis to defend himself. Unfortunately, he was being watched by shady individuals and proceeded to kidnap him. He was being tormented by a small group of deviant criminals and scientists to see the extent of his powers, wondering if his abilities can be good use to their unknown agenda. When he did turn out to be useful he gave him a choice: a slow death or work with them. Eventually, he chose the latter due to his self-preserving instincts, and his first few months was terrible in committing murder and attacking people due to his empathy going out of hand that he learned to ignore what people feel to cope. It lasted for two years until a breakout operation raided the group's HQ. Ruuben, after realizing that they were an investigators, refused to fight them and turn his back on the criminal who made his life s**t. Of course, Ruuben didn't go unpunished and was gravely injured during the battle against his "superiors", but he survived and the criminals were now arrested.
Being in custody by the authorities for they think that Ruuben might be a potential threat... His family, who had almost thought that he's dead, was informed about the incident and convinced the authority to let him be sent back home after he was recovered from his injures, to which they reluctantly complied. Weeks later he and Reima moved out and lived together in an apartment, but that didn't stop his family being worried that he was being distant, burying himself with his work the moment he was being hired as a Graphic Designer. Eventually, his older brother Reima got sick of it and convinced him to go to a shrink, believing that being distant and quiet about it will only make it worse. He complied.
Currently, Ruuben was slowly recovering, but the residue and memories were still there. And it didn't help that he can't even say everything to his human shrink in fear that he might kick him out of the office.
Is there anything else we need to know?
- Ruuben speaks Finnish and Swedish. He also speaks limited Spanish.
- He studied the course of Graphic Design and Photographer, as he originally wanted to be a professional photographer and a book writer.
- He plays a bass guitar and a piano.
- Apparently, he has great distaste towards people who encourage people to give in to hatred
- He has a thinking that a quicker death is kindest form of death next to growing old, and the mere concept of torture terrifies him to no end.
What is their faceclaim?
Dylan O'Brien
