CWC: Andrew Cartwright (a.k.a. Decibel X)

Name: Andrew Cartwright (a.k.a. Decibel X)

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Species: (optional) Human (Mutant)

Place of Origin: As Andrew Cartwright he was born in Jackson Mississippi. Decibel X was born in Iraq.

Physical Description: (this may NOT include photographs, illustrations or anything of the sort)
Andrew in no way looks like he could be 'superhero'. At 5'10 and 160 lbs, with brown hair and eyes, he is easy to miss in a crowd. In general he wears jeans and tees, and a sturdy pair of Docs for his feet. The only standout detail for Andrew (and the way he likes it) is the Ranger tattoo on his arm.

Personality Description:
Andrew is kind of a whiney-pants, his favorite two words are 'Why me?". Additionally, he is insecure about his accomplishments, reminding others that he was a Ranger in the army, but completely covering up the fact that he is a mutant. He craves respect, and fears alienation. Despite these negative personality traits, Andrew has a heart for the innocent, never being able to walk away when someone weaker or more innocent than him needs help.

Andrew burns through relationships faster than a heavy smoker goes through Pall malls. Each of his relationships end within weeks of beginning, and usually it's the fact that Andrew just doesn't talk or share his life with anyone. Growing up was traumatic, his experiences in Iraq moreso, and his experiences as Decibel X are kept tightly guarded, so that those around him wont think him a freak, and thus he never really talks about himself. After a couple of weeks of this, most of his prospects would realize they were in a relationship with an emotionally stunted man that would never open up.

With those few friends he has, he is known as the quiet one. He rarely speaks unless he has something very important to say, preferring silence to mindless chatter. That said, he is also a great listener, learning much about the people around him simply by hearing what they have to say, and reading between the lines. Ironically enough, nobody knows what a great listener he is because he so rarely shares his observations with others.

He sees his powers (see below in History for more information) as a gift but one with teeth. A part of him feels special, like he was 'chosen' to have these powers, but an equal part of him is afraid of it, and what it means. He is desperate to know if he is alone, or if there are others out there, and that search for other 'mutants' is his primary goal at this time, though it is a goal that often gets sidetracked by his need to help the innocent.

History:
Andrew was born in Jackson Mississippi, to a white family in a very poor, predominantly black neighborhood. His mother, Selma, was a prostitute and she gave him just enough attention to keep the state from taking him from her (and thereby the extra food stamps and other government aid). He never knew his father, and had been told from the moment he was old enough to ask that he was a bastard boy with no daddy. His mother often would bring home johns or whatever pimp she belonged to at the moment, and often these 'men' would harass or torment him.

As Andrew got into his young teen years he ended up running around with a tough group of kids styling themselves as a gang. At first it was all talk, youthful bluster, until these kids were 'picked up' by an actual criminal group. By the time Andrew was 18 years old, he had dropped out of high school and had taken to selling drugs on the street, mostly meth.

A few weeks before 9/11, he was busted carrying over a half pound of meth, and a quarter pound of weed. Though it was his first offense, the amount of illegal substance he had on him was enough to ensure he was going away for many, many years. While he languished in a jail cell awaiting his day in court, he was approached by an army recruiter, given the option to join the military as a way of paying his debt to society. Much preferring relative freedom over incarceration, 18 year old Andrew jumped at the opportunity, and the judge agreed.

Andrew discovered that he excelled at the training program he was put into, receiving high marks in all areas, but most notably in the fields of hand to hand combat and marksmanship. Within weeks of his basic training he was tapped to enter Ranger school. Once again he excelled at his training, and graduated at the top of his class.

During his training he was mentored by the range specialist, one Master Sargent Torroro. 'Tori' as he was called by friends and family, took Andrew under his wing, having had a similar experience growing up. One day at the range when working with mortars and grenades, there weren't enough earplugs to go around so Andrew was forced to use some wadded up packing peanuts. Tori laughed so hard he cried, claiming that Andrew looked like he had clouds coming out of his head, evidence the boy was 'air headed'. At his graduation, Tori presented him with a gift, an old Vietnam War era plastic case for earplugs, complete with full instructions on how to use them, and a box of four dozen earplugs. "Can't have you getting all air-headed out in the field, can we?", he had remarked with a laugh.

Within a year of his training, he and his unit were deployed to Iraq. It was during an operation in the dessert that his powers manifested for the first time. His unit was using a psi-ops technique of blasting heavy metal and hardcore rap music to smoke out a group of insurgents holed up in an old hospital. During the operation, the audio equipment experienced a malfunction, resulting in the emission of a high pitched frequency of such volume that the team operating the equipment were instantly incapacitated, writhing in pain, some with ear and nose bleeds. Andrew himself was caught in the grip of the intense sound, his sight and other senses completely overwhelmed by the incredible noise. He fumbled for the earplug case, so desperately intent on blocking out the din that he almost missed it when it suddenly, silenced, long enough for the team to shut down the equipment. Later the techs of the team discovered that there was absolutely no reason for the sudden cessation of the noise, indeed all the controls and guages had indicated that if anything, it should have gotten much worse, perhaps so intense it would have scrambled everyone's brains. It was accounted as a miracle, a scientific fluke, and forgotten.

Of course, it took many more instances like this before Andrew began to suspect that somehow, it was he that was somehow quieting sounds that would normally be deafening. Once he accepted the possibility to himself, he found controlling it to be ridiculously simple, it was like he had a mental volume control dial for the world. In addition, he quickly discovered that he could also amplify sound, and he could localize the amplification. Within a short amount of time he was able to project these localized amplifications to the enemy, causing whole units of the enemy to break as their own gunfire and communications were cranked to '11'.

It was the use of his powers in this way that actually led to his disillusionment with the military. During one such skirmish he used his powers to break a unit of the enemy. It was clear they were helpless, and doctrine dictated that these insurgents be captured. Despite doctrine, they were given orders to open fire on the helpless enemy. Worse, during the mop up afterward, Andrew discovered the body of young boy, his ears and nose coated in blood. Beside the boy was an old Walkman, and crooked on the boy's head was a pair of headphones. Andrew knew immediately what had happened. The boy was dead, but not of being shot... this boy's blood was on his hands.

Shortly after this he experienced a complete nervous breakdown, having nightmares of the dead boy, nightmares where he was forced to watch as the boy died painfully, his brain being liquified by the intense sound. Within a year of the event, he was out of the military, and in therapy, back in his home town of Jackson. Filled with guilt, but still burning to be of service to his community, he reluctantly began using his powers vigilante-style. Because his powers did not have any sort of visual cue as to who could be producing it, and because he himself was so unremarkable to witness, He easily avoided being fingered as a vigilante. It didn't take long before local legends to spring up, ranging from ghosts to aliens to superheroes. Those that followed the latter theory began calling this mysterious hero 'Decibel X'.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/HCbRoGwZvEg/viewtopic.php

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