User Profile

Name: Ryu
Age: 17
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Character's Name: Nicholas Melchiorre
Character's Age: 18
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 149 lbs.
Hair color: Brown.
Eye color: Brown.
Codename: Hydroplane
Powers: Water-walking and propulsion, but mostly a mix of the two, creating a very passive sphere of influence. As of right now, Nick can't create water either, besides making his palms, feet and hair a little wet (not enough to help his abilities), which makes his skills a little impractical. Some might hope that the mild water creation might be a sign that he could eventually be able to create larger amounts of the stuff, probably when he's several years older and more experienced.

Description of Powers in Use:
Water-walking - Hydroplane can indeed walk across water rather casually and without much of a problem. Most of his experience is in running across swimming pools and duck ponds, however, so to walk across a lake or another deep body of water would require a little more backbone on his part. He can also walk across rivers, though the current will sweep him downstream, and he would need to outrun the current to get to the other side within good distance. Of course, when combined with his propulsion ability, Hydroplane needn't walk across the water, and can instead glide across it's surface. It takes some energy and concentration, but it tends to be faster and more reliable. Another thing to note is that Hydroplane cannot penetrate solid bodies of water. So no matter how much he might try, he has not taken a bath, gone swimming, or stuck his hand in a bucket of water since he was rather small. If the water is dumped over him, it acts normally, so showers are just fine, as is spraying him with a hose.

Propulsion - Mentioned briefly above, Hydroplane can control the movements of anything that's on the surface of a body of water, including himself. Ways this can be used are moving a small boat across a body of water, or making some floating candles dance around in their bowl. The larger the target the more difficult it is, so a boat might be a challenge but anything the size and weight of a lightly-manned raft (one, maybe two people) and smaller he could move across the water's surface with good speed and agility. It needs to be within his view in order to be moved, and he obviously cannot do anything if it's not in water. Deeper bodies of water require a lot of his energy to make it work properly, partially because it's simply a more daunting task, but also because Nick gets more nervous using them. It should also be noted that he cannot move things that are underwater-- only things on the surface.

Combination - The body of water doesn't need to be particularly deep at all, and in fact Hydroplane feels most at home when using wet surfaces. When on any sort of liquid-like surface (including ice), he can use a combination of his water-walking and propulsion to slide across the ground with incredible speed. He can use this power lying down or crouching as well as standing, using the movements similar to tightly controlled ice-skating, for lack of a better description. This adds to his agility, allowing him to turn, crouch, and so on while at high speeds. While he can accelerate quickly and efficiently, he has difficulty coming to a quick stop, and has to make sure he slows down adequately, because hitting a dry spot will quickly cause him to trip and fly forward, with the seriousness of the matter depending on his speed. This ability works best when he's barefoot and bare-handed. Overall, this is an excellent evasive maneuver, as well as one to catch up with a target, providing that it's raining. He can also slide other objects and people across slick areas, allowing him to do anything from helping others to escape to causing car crashes in the rain.

Limitations: Non-generative (can't create water), no hydrokinetic abilities (can't control water), no offensive abilities (can't attack with water).

Other: On a more trivial note, Hydroplane prefers sliding across some surfaces to others. Super-smooth surfaces like glass, marble, and hardwood floors make it difficult for him to control his movements, as does grass, though it's a little more pleasant to fall down on. Cement and asphalt are easy to stay in control on, but it usually scrapes up his hands and feet a little. Ideally, he prefers carpet, though large portions of wet carpet are a little hard to find.

Strengths: Friendly, sincere, forthcoming, non-confrontational, affectionate, charming, good evasive techniques, strong morals, liberal and dedicated.

Weaknesses: Overbearing, emotional, overly passionate, poor attention span, cowardly, manipulative, vain, sulky, not physically strong, naive and sheltered.

Additional Tidbits: Though he puts up a vaguely preppie exterior that one would expect to see on an athlete, Nick identifies himself as a photographer and writer. He takes a great deal of pride in his journal and his camera, despite the fact that the latter seems to be falling apart. Nick is also a big fan of the ladies, and while he's not so brash as to hit on any of them he doesn't stop himself from looking and being just a little more charming, forthcoming and willing to please with a girl who caught his attention. He combines these two activities by often taking photos of female classmates then muttering something about "just good subjects" or "for my project" when the photos are uncovered. Nick does, however, truly want to compile a journal of his experiences at the school and to collect photos of the other students and their special abilities, which means his targets aren't entirely of the female persuasion. His photography habit gained him a small reputation of a mild pervert at his old school, and he seems rather confident he can regain it once more. Also, thanks to his father's media exposure, Nicholas seems to take the media focus on the school in stride, and even with some amusement and curiosity. He is hardly camera shy.

Character's History:
Already with one child, Cole and Elaine Melchiorre happily embraced their second and then their third in their comfortable New York home. The middle child was Nicholas Melchiorre, a very happy but easily teary baby. His older sister, Marie, at four years already, enjoyed toting him about the house and insisting his name was Stanley, and not Nick. Elaine entertained it for a while, until she started noticing that relatives and friends apart from Marie and Cole were calling him this. Elaine quickly put her foot down and insisted the baby was Nicholas, not Stanley, and that was that.

Nick was a very normal child, from a slightly abnormal family. Cole was a controversial if not successful politician, and was quickly growing bolder on the subject of mutants, as unlikely as the idea sounded. He supported the idea of equal rights and respect all around, and that the humans should embrace these new individuals. This view was largely encouraged by his wife, who was a hydrokinetic mutant, something she didn't hide from her family. She secretly hoped her children might possess similar gifts as well. Nick grew up with memories of her splashing water from the sink at him playfully while she stood at the opposite side of the room from said sink. Their family was largely sheltered from people who thought strongly against Mr. Melchiorre, which kept the children very safe but sheltered.

Marie passed puberty with no signs of abnormality, which was a small disappointment and yet a relief for Elaine. However, when Nick was 13, things went a bit differently. Out at the park with his mother and sisters, Nick had been inspecting the duck pond and in specific a large swan that was in the middle of the body of water. The bird refused to be lured in with the bread crumbs and Nick had the bright idea to wade over to it. However, rather than stepping down into the water, he stood atop it. Rather than question it he hurried out to the swan by racing across the surface of the water, all the while facing no problems with falling into the water. The swan was quickly scared away, however, when the young boy ran out to it and as soon as Elaine saw the situation she called Nick back and away from the prying eyes of the other park goers who had stopped to watch.

In school, both Nicholas and his sisters were fairly popular. He enjoyed the attention and the people involved in being part of the semi-elite of highschool enough to carefully not mention or use his mutant powers around people he didn't fully trust. It did become difficult at times explaining why he couldn't swim with them. The extent of his anti-mutant experience is all second hand or very mild. He doesn't understand the magnitude of the situation at all, and has become exceedingly lighthearted about it.

Nick enjoyed his powers and his parents were very supportive towards him. Elaine and Cole were unsure of whether or not to send Nick and his younger sister, Delaney (whose powers manifested at age 12 when she turned their backyard into a jungle over the span of an hour), to Xavier's academy, but eventually agreed that it was the best decision to keep their sheltered children away from extreme anti-mutant protestors. This was especially an issue for them as Cole's campaign has grown louder and more liberal and the public backlash against the man has increased slightly.

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