[APPROVED][CHAR] The Nerve // Oscar Roth

[Smerdle]

The Nerve // Oscar Roth

 

[Smerdle]

PROFILE

Hero alias:
The Nerve


Real name:
Oscar Samuel Roth. His father calls him Red, so he will probably introduce himself that way early on out of habit, at least until he realizes he doesn't actually like that nickname very much.


Powers/abilities:
overview
feels no pain
As a result of the extensive drug testing performed on him by MagicPill Corp., Oscar can no longer feel physical pain. He can detect pressure on his skin, but cannot differentiate between extremes such as hot or cold and is definitely not ticklish. (His emphasis, not mine.) He doesn't itch much, unless it's a more internal, phantom sort like stomach flutters or restlessness. He cannot feel broken bones or sprains, but he does experience the effects they cause for the relatively short time he's injured, like stiffness or the inability to use the affected limb.

what's a band-aid
For approximately the last three years or so, Oscar has been able to heal far more rapidly than the average citizen. Whether this is a delayed effect of his treatment at MagicPill or a natural ability that manifested at puberty is unclear, but either way it has given him a level of freedom that he didn't have as a child, which has subsequently led him to become quite reckless in a relatively short period of time. He still forms scars, however, and shows no initial signs of the ability to rid himself of them naturally.

rookie
Oscar can initially heal minor cuts and bruises in hours, larger ones in anywhere from a couple of hours to a day, and most broken bones in a week and a half. The larger bones in his limbs could take up to two, as would multiple breaks to the same bone. He can survive a fairly long fall (ten stories or fewer), provided he doesn't land directly on his head, but would not make it through a wood chipper.

He is not immune to disease and cannot regenerate lost limbs, though he would live through losing one if he could stop the bleeding long enough to heal.

sidekick
As a sidekick, Oscar can mostly just heal the same things he could, only quicker. (Minor cuts: a couple of minutes; larger cuts: several minutes to hours; broken bones: a week.) He can survive falling from a greater height (200 feet), but would still not live to see the other side of a wood chipper.

He is still not immune to disease but will see a marked decrease in the number of more mundane illnesses he has to deal with. Oscar would more easily live through losing a limb, but would still not regenerate one.

hero
Upon reaching the pinnacle of his powers, Oscar will most obviously be able to heal at a much more rapid rate. Minor cuts will clear up in under a minute, larger wounds in an hour or two, and broken bones in a matter of days. He will only get sick in extremely rare instances, and then only for a short while. He will develop a moderate disease immunity over time, but will not fully display this ability until he's in his thirties.

At this point, Oscar might very well be able to regenerate a limb, as his scars begin to slowly heal themselves as well. It would likely be a very slow process and one he would not ever want to be in a position to experience, but as far as he can tell, the option is there.

He still would not survive a session with a wood chipper without a very special doctor standing by.


Which area is the character based/from: Sewit


Age upon entering academy: 15


How did your character get their powers:
When Oscar was five and his brother Toby was three, their father volunteered them both for product testing at MagicPill Corp. In addition to other minor drugs that affected his hair and eyes, Oscar was given a lot of high doses of potent pain suppressants once a week for about six months, and was sent home between shots. Toby was chosen to test energy boosters once a day while being held indefinitely in a sterile dorm full of unhappy toddlers. He died about six months after entering the program, and because of the contract Oscar's father signed, they never learned the reason why.

When Oscar finally returned home for good, he was saddled with a strange power and a lot of anger, both of which he still carries around to varying degrees today.


Motivation for entering academy:
Oscar had dreamed of attending Sidekick Academy ever since he got his first invitation, but when you live with your drunk dad in the Floozy of the Week's trailer, you rarely get what you want, unless that happens to be roaches and used condoms. He wanted to rise above the life he had, to make something of himself that his dad couldn't mess up, and he's always been pretty sure the secretive school could help him achieve that goal.

He eventually did get invited to attend, but kept those invitations to himself, reading each one carefully before ripping it up and tossing it in the trash. There was no way he could afford to go himself, no one to ask for a loan, and his grades weren't good enough for anyone to sponsor him, so in his opinion, he had no way to go. The envelope he received this past summer was very close to being burned outright, but in the end Oscar opened it, just like all the others. Unlike the rest, however, this invitation came with an application for a full scholarship inside, and when Oscar saw the company that was sponsoring the spot, he knew he had to try entering.

MagicPill Corp. The ones who had given him his dubious powers in the first place.


Goals while attending:
While he is initially largely interested in seeking revenge against MagicPill and perhaps trying to figure out what happened to his brother, Oscar also just wants to be somebody other than a poor kid. As he grows up surrounded by heroes, he'll probably even eventually want to do some good in the world as well.


Strengths: observant, diligent, agile

Weaknesses: suspicious, antsy, deliberately provocative


Personality:
clever
When you're a twiggy little brat with problems keeping your mouth shut, it's probably a good idea to be observant and able to avoid or worm your way out of the numerous precarious situations you find yourself in. Oscar is skilled at such things as making promises he doesn't intend to keep and deducing which way you're going to strafe when you're chasing him. In addition, he's fairly quick on his feet, a trait that has kept him alive in many a tight situation.

fearless
With a fairly new and mysterious healing ability and no fear of pain, a lot of activities one avoids due to the promise of physical punishment open up as worthwhile things to do with one's time. Oscar isn't afraid to stick his hand in a beehive or run out into traffic or insult your mother, even though he still gets stung and hit by cars and punched just like everybody else. The lack of inconvenience that comes with having to wait to get better has made the results of these actions inconsequential, but to an outside observer, Oscar can seem a little unhinged in his lack of fear.

talkative
While he mostly finds himself using words to talk people into having sympathy for him or out of everything else, Oscar doesn't discriminate, he just likes to talk. He has no trouble telling epic tales about things like the waffles he ate for breakfast or his first ride on a boat, and his stories are usually true, unless you're asking him about his family. If he's speaking about his father, mother, or brother, whatever is coming out of his mouth is guaranteed to be a lie.

selfish
Oscar has not had a very stable childhood, and as such, he tends to cling to things he perceives as "his," whether they be objects or people or grilled cheese sandwiches. He's the type of kid to lick the cookies he wants to eat in advance, and the worst part is, he'll do it when they're fresh out of the oven because it won't hurt his tongue. It takes a rare individual to get him to think of them first, and he hasn't met one of those in quite some time.

not it
Because he's always looking out for himself first, it's best to have an airtight alibi before you do... pretty much anything with Oscar. In any instance where you both find yourself in trouble, he will try his hardest to make you his scapegoat, no matter how insignificant the punishment or how obviously he is at fault. Initially, it doesn't even matter if he considers you a friend, but eventually this trait will soften when he realizes he's lonely and is alienating nearly everyone he knows.


Random things:
Hobbies: Talking, running errands for money, making people uncomfortable.

Favorite food: Spicy things.

Birthday: August 24th

Zodiac: Virgo

Chinese zodiac: Ox


General backstory:
Oscar was born to Gil and April Roth, a lower middle class couple, in the summer of 1997. His brother, Toby, came into the world two years later. Almost immediately following this happy occasion, April passed away due to an unanticipated pulmonary embolism.

Gil had never been one to deny himself all the pleasures life had to offer, but it was only after this incident that he allowed himself to drown in them. Oscar and Toby were largely left to be raised by kindly strangers as their father drank, smoked, and occasionally snorted their home away. For a short time, Oscar and his father were granted a reprieve thanks to their ill-gotten MagicPill money, but within a couple of years, even that dried up.

Between the ages of five and twelve, Oscar's life away from home was surprisingly normal. He attended school, where he was a slightly below average student, and despite his bizarre new hair and eyes, he didn't get picked on much. He learned that being quick and funny served him better than trying to be strong, but something about his attitude still kept people at arms length and he never did make many friends.

Back home, Gil has tried to be a friendlier, more responsible dad in recent years, but the bridges between him and Oscar have long ago been burned to ash, at least as far as the boy is concerned. He doesn't even want to try to get to know the man who essentially sold him for drug money, no matter how much Gil has shaped up and become a better provider in the last few years. When he is around his father, all Oscar feels is a seething anger festering right under his friendly facade, and he prefers to keep to himself around the house rather than risking exploding and having to deal with the aftermath. With the onset of his healing ability and the world of experimentation it opened up to him, Oscar has little reason to hang around at home much anymore anyway.

From an outsider's point of view, Gil is not that awful of a parent these days. He has straightened out over the past three or four years and now holds down a job at an auto dealership. He met a young woman named Penny when she stopped by to look at used vehicles, and shortly after she broke up with the man she came in with, Penny and Gil began dating. When he departs for the Academy, his father's girlfriend is really the only person Oscar misses. She genuinely cares about Oscar's life and interests and wants to see his father thrive, a desire that Oscar is happy to leave to someone else.


Looks department:
Hair color: Originally average auburn, now bright red. It grows that way without interference now, but his DNA hasn't changed and its original color is still the one his kids would inherit.

Skin color: Originally pale and freckled, now black and white. More of the same, except it's a tattoo, not a change that resulted from pharmaceutical testing.

Eye color: Used to be brown, repeat above.

Height: 5'7"

Weight: Skinny.

Costume: He can't feel extremes in temperature, so he generally likes to wear as little as is socially acceptable just to be a d**k and cause prudish people discomfort. Someday he might get a proper logo and costume, but that day is not today.

Other: Upon his acceptance to the Academy, Oscar had a row of sharp bony spikes... installed... down the length of his spine. Despite his healing abilities, they're still a little fragile, so you probably don't want to go poking at them unless you're looking to make an enemy.  

[Smerdle]

ENTRY

It was coming again, any day now. Every year, right around the time he imagined Toby might have started clamoring for school supplies in his more happy fantasies, Red received a crisp, stylish envelope with an even crisper, more stylish letter inside. It was such a regular occurrence that he could predict when the envelope would arrive, not by looking at a calendar, but by some otherworldly feeling in his bones. A more flowery individual might have said that there was something in the air, but Red thought it far more likely that the place just coated their fancy paper with some sort of topical meth, and it took him a year to work up the urge for another dose of disappointment.

The letter was an invitation to the most prestigious superhero school in Megapolis, really the only superhero school anyone around here had ever heard of: Sidekick Academy.

Every year, they asked him to attend. Every year, he turned them down.

Red supposed what he did was less "turning down" and more "burning the thing in a can in Astor Park and never replying," but it all amounted to the same thing. He was poor. Poor kids didn't become superheroes without the interference of a severely brain damaged sugar daddy.

* * *

As predicted, Red's invitation arrived that Thursday afternoon. He was tempted to leave the letter unopened while he burned it this time, as some small form of rebellion, but he was far too curious to go through with something like that, especially since the envelope felt a bit thicker this year, a barely perceptible weight in his hand that made his stomach flutter uncomfortably. Red frowned as he ripped it open. He hated feeling fluttery.

The bare mattress that served as the boy's bed creaked as he unfolded his letter and narrowed his bright eyes at it. The larger sheet of creamy card stock was familiar enough—welcome to Sidekick Academy, blah blah—but folded inside that was something new. Something that equipped all of his internal butterflies with tiny army helmets and sawed-off shotguns. The second letter announced a contest, of sorts. A scholarship, offered by the very company that had turned him into the sort of freak worthy of enrolling at the Academy in the first place.

Red grinned, rose smoothly to his feet, and padded over to his bag. A few minutes later, he settled back on his creaky bed, a chewed blue pen and several sheets of looseleaf clutched in his dark hands. There were a couple of blissfully silent hours between now and when his father would demand dinner. He had no idea what he was going to write, yet he was still utterly certain he could come up with something by then.

He decided he would keep this year's invitation to Sidekick Academy, at least until he'd heard back from MagicPill.

Quote:

56 Goldenrod Road
Apartment A13
Agron, Sewit

August 2, 2012

MagicPill Corp.
One MagicPill Court
Plutosville, Sewit

Hey,

You might remember me. Oscar Roth, 082497? Maybe not. I'm sure you've seen plenty of kids stumble through that hellhole over the years. Can't remember them all, right? Let's see. I guess I was about three feet tall? Red hair? Real red hair, not this blinding mop of crap you left me with. Dad said I had brown eyes once too, but I don't remember that. I remember the hair cause my brother had it too.

Tobias Matthew Roth.

Number 022399.

You guys killed him.

I know whoever's reading this is probably all like "no, that wasn't me! I didn't even work here 10 years ago!" but I'm telling you it's your fault just as much as it's my dad's fault for renting us out to you for booze money or my mom's for not having the decency to stop bleeding after she shat Toby out. But I'm getting off the subject. None of that's the point anyway.

I think you owe me.

See, I get a letter from Sidekick Academy every year, and I can't go. We live in a trailer and my dad takes all our cash, down to the couple of extra bucks I make shaking kids down for lunch money and stuff. I hear the whole lunch money racket is a lot more profitable in Ronth. Too many kids around here use ******** credit cards to get their

Anyway, if you don't remember the color of my hair, I'm sure you don't remember that other gift you left me with. Not everyone knows about it, or at least they probably didn't suspect until I made it way more obvious last year. Do you know how hard it was to find someone who'd tattoo a 14 year old in exchange for a couple of errands? I guess she got her money's worth in the end since not all of those errands were legal, but... whatever. I'm getting off track again and I don't have any more paper, so here goes.

I can't feel pain. Like, how perfect is that? A superhero who'll do whatever because it doesn't hurt. It's a shame the ability wasn't natural or I might not be so ******** pissed at you guys. So. How about you have one of your secretaries write me back right now and tell me you're giving me this ******** money? Send me a t-shirt with your logo on it too. Medium. I'll wear it on the first day. Wave my arms around and smile.

It's the least you could do. The very least, believe me.

Future MagicPill shill,
Oscar Samuel Roth
"The Nerve" (catchy, right?)

 

[Smerdle]

I'll hopefully be filling in the general backstory section very soon and tweaking some stuff that seems horribly overdone to me, but anyone can throw down some crits on Oscar as he stands at the moment too, because I'm sure I'll be able to use them. heart  

[Shnazz]

Hey Smerd!
Just leaving you a small crit for now.

On his powers, lack of pain could be considered a side-effect of the pills. Not to mention it's somewhat of a negative attribute (it leaves him vulnerable to getting killed or easily bleed out from deep cuts/wounds).
In essence, the ability to heal can potentially be the real power?
I actually think you've underpowered him. He can't seem to really do very much besides heal a little in the later stages? He could still very easily die, which would be bad, very bad indeed.
Anyway, these are some things to think about. u w u

Just a small inquiry on the tattoos/looks department, you do remember he has spikes along his spine right? 8D;
It was mentioned during the flat but there's not anything on it noted in your profile so far. Just a friendly poke reminder~

And now a few more questions:
Why's he physically weak? If he's working a lot, as that's the sort of vibe I'm getting, shouldn't he be more sturdy?

On the fearless trait, if his body reacts the same as a regular body only without feeling the pain, I don't particularly understand how he'd be fearless. Breaking bones/hit by cars would cause him to be possibly bed-ridden without the use of limbs or organ damage from impact. Can't see how he'd enjoy that, and if he's physically weak that's only adding on to the fact that he's in more danger. He could just as easily simply die from doing dangerous things that went wrong or accidents etc.
Other than that, his personality looks pretty balanced to me.

Overall though, I like where everything's going and I'm really curious about the MagicPill Corp's dynamic with him. * v *
I particularly like his motivation for entering SA! Maybe add in a few goals for what he means to achieve/learn there? Because he doesn't seem to have much knowledge/skill besides his street skills.
Can't wait to find out more! (Also love your drawing of him! Huhu.)  

[Smerdle]

Shnazz

Thank you so much for this!

I think I've addressed everything, but I'm going to go ahead and throw this up in the staff crit thread in a minute, so if you feel like going over it again, I wouldn't object. XD

A rundown of things I changed:
- gave him a healing power that manifested at puberty to counteract his relative fragility. I have a horrible disease called Underpowereditis that tends to strike when I least expect it, and I hear having a super weak character is just as bad as a Mary Sue, so FIE ON YOUR WEAKNESS OSCAR, HAVE SOME STRENGTH

- back spines were always supposed to be a "gift" he gave himself upon being accepted to school, so I tended to forget about them. They're added now though!

- he's not really physically weak, I suppose, simply average. He can beat most girls at arm wrestling, but when it comes to fighting some bouncer he has pissed off, he's going to run immediately rather than stick around to fight. I'm mostly wavering on removing it completely because I am having a lot of trouble with the strengths/weaknesses section in general and don't want to have to think about it anymore. XDD

- added some goals for attending the school!

And thank you about the art! I hope to draw him a lot more in the future >> << >>  

[Shnazz]

Alright. * v *

Hi there again.
So now that you've changed the focus of his powers, I have a few questions:
If a limb got cut off, would he be able to grow it back?
Would he be able to survive stabbings or stabbings to vital organs? And is he immune to disease?
Also, it'd be great if you would map his powers progress through the stages.

And what did you mean by 'physically weak compared to his speed'..?

I think other than that, it's looking ready to go pretty much.
Look forward to seeing more art of him. * v *  

[mori-zae]

oookay this does look almost ready to go! i just have a couple of questions to sate my own curiosity yes

his dad... if he's as terrible as he is, how in the hell did he get a girlfriend??? how does Oscar feel about his dad even? What kind of relationship do they have?

also i don't think Oscar is "untrustworthy". He's untrustworthy if he can't be trusted to do things or hold to a promise etc. From what you described though, it merely seems like he'd watch for himself first before others, and he won't bend his back over or sacrifice himself for another. sooo idk, maybe pick another word to describe that? e ve

and that's it! i hope to see him up and running soon emotion_awesome  

[Smerdle]

All righty!

Powers section expanded, strengths and weaknesses clarified, dad relationship added, untrustworthiness tweaked.

I realize that I based Gil off of a childhood friend's disturbing father without taking into account that the only reason his wife stayed with him was that they had three young kids together. O.O So yeah, he's no longer as much of a complete waste of space who is unworthy of love, although Oscar would beg to differ.

*ships him off to approval thread before the 19th* ffffffff  

[Shnazz]

PROFILE APPROVED

Sorry it took a while, but everything looks great Smerdle! : D