Name: Jeremy William Merckx
But you can call them: Nina
God: Nergal, Sumero-Babylonian deity of the Underworld, god of war, pestilence, fever and devastation.
Looks: A somewhat frail looking youngster of the age of 13, Jeremy's most obvious physical feature comes from the fact that he suffers from hypomelanosis, characterized by a lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair. In other words, he's an albino, possessing a silvery-white hair that grows down below his shoulders, glossy red eyes, and a pale skin pigmentation that mark him out. His slight build makes him almost exessively lithe, which has led to him being mistake for a girl on more then one occasion. It is for this reason that he earned his 'nickname' of sorts, often being teased using it.
Jeremy wears a pair of wire-frame glasses with circular corrective lenses due to his astigmatism. The glasses are ivory white wire, with curving 'ear-hook' ends that help keep them on. His clothing is almost universally long-sleved, baggy, a often of white and light colors. This is done to counter the fact that his skin is highly suseptable to sunburn, thus making protection a must. In addition, the baggy clothes are often chosen to offset his slight build and hide his physique. Hoodies and visored hats are also often employed, because even though he hides his hair to avoid being teased, he actually enjoys it and refuses to get it cut. He can often be seen carrying a large book around, though the actual book varies on whatever hobby has caught his attention at that time.
Jeremy is also often seen with his pet rat, an Albino Himalayan Rat named Ahab. The rat is suprisingly intelligent, responding to Jeremy's various instructions rather accurately, most usually. He is often found perched on Jeremy's shoulder, or curled up on his head. He also has a fondness for watermelons.
How do their godly traits relate to their god? Jeremy possesses the odd ability that pestilence seems to follow him. Seemingly somewhat random at times, this ability manifests most strongly when he is suffering from extreme fear, or experiencing strong emotions of anger, or rage. Grass grows brown and brittle, flowers wither and droop. Wood will rot and being to slowly decay; metal rusts as if years have passed in mere minutes. The ability spreads out from Jeremy in an almost palpable aura, slowly creeping out. It's speed and range are determained by the strength of the emotion Jeremy is feeling, and while it is visually unsettling, it has no adverse health effect on humans directly. Although some animals are disturbed by it, others such as crows and other scavengers and carrion animals are attracted by it, and seem to treat Jeremy almost as one of 'them' in some ways. His pet rat, for example, is completely uneffected by this 'aura,' actually seeming to almost thrive in it.
However, this is not so for his touch. When especially angry or afraid, Jeremy manifests a pestilent touch that effects any human he happens to touch. Although the effect is not lasting, the spot where he touches develops a burning itchy rash, and a feeling of nausia is induced. The longer touched, the stronger the feeling. However, this feeling fades once the affected removes himself from area around Jeremy and waits a short while, the rash clearing up at the same speed the supernatural nausia fades.
As an aside, Jeremy is immune to the effects of these abilities, and to disease in general. He is at least extremely resistant to sickness of almost any kind, and it could be postulated that this resistance may be evidence of a growing immunity.
Personality: Jeremy is the templated 'picked-on' kid, stamped and molded to the exact specifications of unpopularity one would expect. Jeremy has adapted to being the kid most picked on, often spending any time he has inside reading instead of outside where he is litterally the bottom of the foodchain for other children. His hypomelanosis is the primary cause of this, but not the target usually; his rather girlish physique seems to attract the most heckling, and while Jeremy has long become immune to most of it in many ways, his ability to control his anger was not one of them. Thus, he spends his time alone, except for the times when his parents insist he goes out, trying to give him a 'normal' life. They fail to understand, perhaps, the way he is treated, and thus often send him out aganst his will.
Jeremy suffers from Pathophobia, that is the fear of sickness. A side effect of perhaps too much reading, Jeremy knows more about disease then he perhaps should at his age, and while he, for some reason, finds it facinating in some ways it also causes him to have a great fear of getting sick, all the way to a simple common cold. Thank god he got chicken pox out of the way early. Although not a fan of the sun, Jeremy doesn't quite suffer from phengophobia, the fear of sunlight or daytime, so much as he fears any sort of sunburn for both the pain and skin cancer, a fear that actually is founded in reality due to his albinoism.
Deep down, Jeremy is actually a fairly bitter person, even for his age. Years of teasing about his body, the lack of his parents understanding, and a lack of true friendship has cause a change that has yet to really manifest yet. However, given his strange changes it may only be a matter of time.
Jeremy is extremely machiavellian, and has grown into a controling nature. He so very desires to be the master of not only his life, but others, and has a compulsive desire to dominate and control. How this will manifest as he grows is clearly not going to be good...
Background:
Jeremy has always been different. It was the very core of him, the very concept of his being was that he'd never be quite like everyone else. It didn't matter that his parents were in the upper crust of the Crowd, or that he was raised in the best parts of Middling. It didn't matter that he was almost a child prodigy when it came to things, or that he was an honor student at New Hope Elementary and Middle School. None of it mattered at all, because everyone knew he was the moment they saw his long white hair, his bright red eyes, and his pale white skin. He was defined by how he looked, no matter how much he succeded... no matter how much better he proved he was, it seemed no one ever saw it. No, they never saw it... he wasn't different, though. No, he was better. Thats what he told himself, over and over. And before long, he believed it.
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