Powers: Chimerism (Half-cat), Enhanced Agility, Peak Intellect, and Peak Strength
Lonnie was a fairly normal child growing up in a small town in Romania with his parents. One day on the way to school he absent-mindedly bumped into an old lady, spilling her bag of cooking ingredients everywhere. Lonnie quickly apologized and tried to pick up the ingredients as quickly as he could, fumbling every second item and dropping every third. She gave him a sour look, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out an unusually bright red apple. She handed it to him and offered to tell him a story. Not wanting to go to his boring grade 3 classes he agreed and sat down at the side of the alley near the local park leading up to the school. He happily listened to the story as he gnawed at the apple. His mind began to blur and he began to understand less and less. His body was heavy, yet somehow warm.
Lonnie woke up. His vision was shaky, something blotted out the sky. and something was digging into his back. He shook his head, accidentally scratching his face on a branch. It became obvious as his vision cleared that he was in a bush. With a bit of effort he struggled his way out of the bush, cutting his arm in the process. He started to cry as the tinge of pain drew across his mind, but as his hand moved towards the cut his mind quickly drew away from the pain. He had claws... and the back of his hands had a thin smooth layer of fur. He couldn't scream, it was too sudden for that. Looking around he saw the streets that he usually walked every day to school, only the sun wasn't present and the streetlights seemed awfully bright. Sniffling from the pain, and unwilling to come to terms with what he was seeing, he walked his way back home.
He knocked at the door, hopping that his parents hadn't been worrying too much. His mom opened the door, with a gasp of surprise she dove down to hug her son. She brushed his fur and stared at his face with surprise. The thing that she was holding had the face of her son, but his ears were that of a cat and his eyes shined madly at her. Lonnie's cat-like eyes snapped back as his mother let out a scream that sent chills down his spine. Lonnie's eyes teared up as he asked, almost in a desperate tone, 'What's wrong?'. His mother couldn't bear it, and she pushed him out of the doorway in terror. After pounding at the door for a good 10 minutes Lonnie's father came out with the family's shotgun. His father called out to him, but the look that Lonnie saw on his face just made him turn and run.
He spent the night in the cemetery that was down at the end of the road, crying behind the statues that towered over him, almost looking down upon him. He cried until the morning, when a sudden and unexpected drowsiness hit him. An elderly gravedigger found him passed out in the early morning, took him into his own house, and set him down on the couch with a spare blanket. When night rolled around Lonnie awoke to see the gravekeeper reading a book in the nearby lounge chair. Lonnie looked at him, asking where he was. The gravedigger looked over, startled by the glowing eyes, but nervously answered. It wasn't long before the digger heard the story of what happened. With all the superstition in the area he remained cautious, not wanting to be tricked by an evil spirit but also not wanting to turn away Lonnie if he was telling the truth. He shuffled around some old boxes and found some books that used to belong to his son that he just never got around to throwing out. Lonnie spent the night reading books of knights, magic, friendly monsters, and vampires.
Lonnie awoke that night to see his parents in the gravedigger's home, standing at a distance. He tried to greet them, but they just turned away and walked out in tears. Lonnie stood up and tried to run after them, but the elderly gravedigger held him back. He explained that he'd be taking care of him for now, and that he'd have to help maintain the graves at night before coming home to read. Every night he maintained the graves, making sure that nothing was falling out of place or getting too dusty, and every night he waiting for his parents to come to visit. Gravetending slowly became gravedigging, and picture books became novels. Without graves to dig the elderly ex-gravedigger decided to try teaching him what he lost in school. Lonnie took to it rather easily, and quickly breezed through everything but the math, which remained at an elementary level.
It was his 16th birthday, when his guardian passed away. On his deathbed he promised to stay to maintain the graves, but the man nodded his head, and handed him a journal instead. After wiping away his tears, Lonnie walked out to the graveyard with a shovel. It was a quiet night, and it was an even quieter funeral. Lonnie was all the old man had. The old man's family never called once during the 8 years he'd lived with him. After solemnly piling on the dirt he dragged himself back inside. It was almost morning, but he started leafing through the journal. It was almost like a memoir of all the moments that the man had with him. At the end of the journal the writing was shaky, and there were two tickets, one was a train ticket, and the other was a plane ticket. The shaky writing read: "Lonnie, no one here will accept you for who you are. It will be a hard road, but you should find a home. I hear that America is accepting of all kinds of people. I hope you'll find your place there."
He fought to stay away as he took the train, and the plane that thankfully was relaxed enough to forget his passport. He wore a hat and scarf to hide his ears and most of his face and everything was going smoothly. His luck didn't hold out.
Soon enough people caught on, and he was dragged off into a side room at the international airport. He pleaded to them in his language, but they just looked at him like he was a monster. After a night at the airport a local genetics lab took him in, calling him Tomcat until they could figure out what he was saying. After several tests they concluded that he was human, despite the appearance of his eyes, ears, small tail, muscle mass, bone structure, and light brown and tan fur. They were at a loss, so they kept him in observation, trying to work with a translator until Lonnie learned English. Lonnie's story was of course unbelievable, and seen as imaginative, so they continued their tests. Lonnie quickly got used to the language and sped through any book that they gave him, even the odd textbook. As long as it didn't have math he was fine with reading it. He became fascinated by detective work and the literature that spawned from it. Not seeing any progress after two years of keeping him as a test subject they decided to let him apply to be a detective sponsored by the lab rather than let him rot at the lab.
Taking one look at the picture attached to file the police Sargent nearly choked on his coffee. After looking through the physical and intellectual information on him he quietly rejected the application, sending a letter to the lab asking for his release into the precinct's custody. After a day or two of considering the lab accepted the precinct's terms and released 'Tomcat' into their custody. Lonnie was thrilled at the idea of being a detective.
I don't plan on writing this long a post every time, but I really wanted a gypsy-cursed person with cat ears. I hope the story comes across as somewhat believable as far as superheroes go. Anything I should change?
Author
Topic: The League--A Superhero Roleplay (Read 38890 times)