abriel Harith

Odain Alias: Gabe

Played by: BetsyT <sizer@thedoghousemail.com>

Homeworld: alternate Earth

Physical description:

A rakishly handsome man of East Indian descent, in his mid 20s.  Gabe stands at 5'8" and possesses a wiry build.  He has black, slightly wavy hair, worn slicked back and just barely reaching his shoulders, deep brown eyes, and a sparse beard. 

Gabe usually wears a brown, battered trenchcoat over a black T-shirt with a red, stylized picture of a lion printed on the front over the words "Rise Above," slightly ragged khaki pants, and lace-up black leather boots.  He has several piercings; one in his right nostril, three in his left ear, one on his right earlobe, and one in his navel.

Powers: 

Gabe is a mentalist, trained from a young age to subdue his physical body to his mind.  To use any of the following powers, Gabe has to meditate for about a minute, a process that can be interrupted by intense sensual distractions.  While in a meditative state, he cannot engage in normal conversation, and his thought patterns will be non-linear and uncommunicative, even to telepaths.  He can snap himself out of the meditative state at any time (disrupting any powers he's using in the process), and remains aware of his surroundings.  His powers include:

• Contortion: this allows Gabe to bend himself into positions that would otherwise be physically uncomfortable or painful.  It's useful for getting out of restraints, or squeezing into tight spaces. 

• Hibernation: allows Gabe to force himself into a deeper state of meditation for hours at a time and come out rested.  During this time, he will be completely unaware of the outside world.  While he can theoretically stay in this state for several days, he rarely does so beyond a few hours.

• Mind Reading: Gabe can read a subject's surface thoughts and determine any objects or people that person is thinking about.  This power works visually--Gabe can receive images, but no other sensations or speech.  It's also highly susceptible to mental "noise", making it imprecise and pretty useless for gleaning specific information.

• "Hitching":  if he finds a willing participant, Gabe can temporarily place himself in another person's mind for a few seconds, getting a general idea of what it would be like to be that person.  He cannot use this to read specific thoughts, though it does give him a good idea of the person's emotional state and general state of consciousness.  This power does not allow him to direct a person's mind.  Depending on the subject's psionic sensitivity, they may experience no side effects, mild discomfort, or a bad headache.  After a good hitching session, he tends to adopt the mannerisms of the person he investigated for a couple days.

• Mind Flail:  Gabe's only real offensive power, this is a direct mental attack, used to weaken the willpower of an opponent.  It works by breaking down the subject's natural mental defenses and endurance, effectively leaving them tired and passive for the next few hours.  It causes no physical damage, and the extent of the mental fatigue it causes depends on the resilience of the subject and the length of time Gabe spends hammering away at their psyche.  Gabe needs to be near the subject for the duration of the Flail; the attack will be broken if the subject gets out of his sight or if he is forced to direct his attention to something else, such as defending himself.  Gabe can only attack one person at a time in this manner, and after one or two successful mind flails will be so exhausted that he'll need to rest and regain his strength.

Weaknesses:  Gabe is a human being and rather susceptible to regular damage.

Skills: 

On his homeworld, Gabe was a street performer, performing "magic" tricks and occasional displays of his mentalist talents for pocket change.  He is very manually dextrous and can perform and identify several sleight-of-hand ruses.  He's adept at palming and hiding small objects on his person, something he picked up from his days as a pickpocket.  He's a decent hand-to-hand fighter, though he's more of a scrapper than a trained combatant.

Equipment:  nothing notable.

Personality: 

Gabe is confident and self-assured, and can get rather cocky at times.  He is extremely single-minded in his pursuit of "Enlightenment," enough so to try and harm people whom he feels might get in his way.  Because of his belief that creating suffering will take him further from an enlightened state, he will never do so lightly.  At heart, he is extremely curious about the universe and his place in it, but tries to cover that curiosity with a projected attitude of jaded, worldly wisdom and disdain for others. 

Gabe does not drink alcohol or take mind-altering drugs, and he adheres to a strict vegan diet.  He'll eat meat if he's perishing of hunger, but he won't enjoy the experience.  If he were to ingest animal products or drugs by accident, he would try to "purify" himself by throwing up and fasting for a while.  He sees sex as a waste of energy that would be better used in meditation; though he might flirt and tease to annoy, he would be unlikely to form a romantic relationship.

The concept of Enlightenment is central to Gabe's being.  Gabe comes from a culture that believes strongly in the existence of a higher state of consciousness and freedom from material needs.  Although Gabe disagrees with most theories on attaining this state, he believes fervently in its existence and constantly strives to reach it.

Connections:  none yet.