Oliver Bird

**Oliver Anthony Bird** is a mutant and the husband of Melanie Bird. He was trapped on the Astral Plane for decades until he returned after battling the Shadow King.

## Biography

### Early life

During the 1940s, Oliver inherited the horse ranch that would later come to be known as Summerland. He and Cary Loudermilk were partners in the building of the facility long before the establishment of Division 3. Upon its creation, they began their search for other mutants such as themselves. Oliver was a psychic, and with this ability came access to the Astral Plane, which he took full advantage of by creating his very own kingdom of sorts. However, as time went on, Oliver spent increasingly more time there, resulting in his entrapment within that plane for twenty years .

### Astral Plane

When Oliver became trapped in the Astral Plane, his wife cryogenically froze his body. In the Astral Plane he created a safe place which was a giant ice cube, a manifestation of his state in cryogenic stasis. As time went on in the Astral Plane, his memories and thoughts began to "drift" due to the lack of human contact.

### Meeting David

One day, David Haller appeared in the Astral Plane after a failed attempt to explore his memories. Oliver, dressed in a diving suit, found David and brought him back to the ice cube.

In the ice cube, David and Oliver discuss David's monster. Oliver reassures him that his monster cannot find him in the ice cube. Oliver also explains that David is in the Astral Plane where anything can be imagined but "it's not real unless you make it real". After Oliver's words of advice, David leaves the ice cube in search of a way to escape the Astral Plane and return to his friends.

### Escape from the Alternate Clockworks

When the Shadow King created an alternate clockworks that trapped several of the main characters, Oliver once again appeared and lent his assistance. Coming to Cary Loudermilk, who was trapped within the alternate Clockworks, Oliver (dressed in his diving suit) rescues him and brings him back to the ice cube. Once in the safety of the icy fortress Oliver removes his diving suit, Cary recognizes him however Oliver does not recognize Cary. Oliver reassures Cary that the parasitic mutant that has attached to David's psyche and is feeding off of his power cannot find them in the ice cube. Oliver then goes on to say that when David and the parasite were trapped in the astral plane with him , Oliver was able to read its mind. He reveals the mutant is Amahl Farouk otherwise known as the Shadow King. Cary then deduces Farouk is the reason David's memories were distorted, recalling King the beagle in David's memory.

After comparing information Cary and Oliver agree that they must save the others from the alternate Clockworks as well as their bodies which are frozen in time with Walter (disguised as Rudy) shooting at Syd and David. To make matters worse the Shadow King had locked David in a "tiny corner of his mind" where if they don't rescue him soon he will be entirely gone and Shadow King will become David. Cary points out that he created a device, a halo, that should isolate the Shadow King in David's mind and end the hospital dream, however they still need to deal with the bullets. Oliver then lends Cary his diving suit to free the others from the hospital and gives him several pairs of special glasses that will show the wearer what is real.

Oliver then joins Cary and Melanie (as astral projections) in the real world in order to change the time frozen scene so David and Syd are not shot. Oliver introduces himself to Melanie not realizing that she is his wife. Cary places the halo onto David's head while Oliver creates a metaphysical shield to protect David and Sydney. However Farouk realizes what they're doing and stops Oliver before he can finish the shield by tossing his astral body against a wall and causing him to disappear.

### Summerland

Oliver did not disappear but returned to his own cryogenically frozen body in the real world. Now free from his imprisonment on the astral plane, he begins to move around Summerland and introduce himself to the inhabitants. Melanie, overjoyed at his return, soon finds him cooking for some of Summerland's inhabitants. Oliver greets her quoting "You were never no locomotive sunflower. You were a sunflower." still not knowing who she is.

Division 3 arrives and Summerland goes into lock down as the mutants attempt to deal with Clark's arrival, and removing Farouk from David's mind. While all this occurs Melanie and Oliver slowly bond and eventually Melanie asks him out to dinner after things have settled down to which he agrees.

Oliver assists with the creating the devices needed to remove Farouk. When the time comes to free David from the Shadow King's yoke he tells David "when we pull, you push". He then turns on the lasers and travels to the generator room providing and managing the power levels as Cary asks for them. When a malfunction is detected leading to a explosion Oliver is knocked from his ladder and to the ground. Getting up he remembers who Melanie is--his wife.

During this time the team began extracting Farouk from David, he kept his promise of attempting to kill David, until Syd kissed David, forcing Farouk into her. He then used her ability to hijack Kerry's body, where he subdued Cary, Ptonomy, and Melanie. Before he could escape, David confronted him and the two collided, and David forced Farouk out of Kerry right as Oliver opened the door from the generator room. Farouk's life essence then collides with Oliver and attaches himself to Oliver's psyche. Now the Shadow King's new host, Oliver walks out of Summerland, gets into a car and drives away while singing Tony Bennett's "If I Ruled The World". The Shadow King in Oliver's body has them travel south for some unknown goal.

## Powers and abilities

* **Telepathy**: Oliver is capable of sensing and perceiving information from the minds of others, as well as project his own mind to others. He also managed to detect and read the mind of the Shadow King when the latter's host, David, visited the Astral Plane, without the latter's knowledge, although the Shadow King wasn't focusing on masking its presence to Oliver. While under Farouk’s control, he was able to mentally connect with his wife, Melanie, speaking to her in dreams and while deep inside the deserts of Le Desolé, allowing Farouk to take advantage of this connection and her despair and weakened mental state control of her as well.
	+ **Astral Manipulation**: Oliver was able to enter the Astral Plane and manipulate it to create himself an ice chamber. His chamber walls could project images like a video screen and allow him to view events happening inside and outside the Astral Plane. He was even shown to be able to manipulate the real world to an extent from the Astral Plane, appearing as a projection to allow Cary and Melanie to move despite time being frozen, as well as using music to form letters in the air to swarm around in an attempt to shield David and Sydney from bullets. After spending to much time in the Astral Plane, he was unable to leave on his own, until he was thrown out by the Shadow King.
	+ **Astral Projection**: When David entered the Astral Plane, Oliver projected himself into Melanie's office.
	+ **Illusion Manipulation**: Even while not directly possessed by Farouk, Oliver was able to manifest illusions at will. While communicating with Melanie in her dreams, he was able make her see a younger self in her reflection and, in the real world, briefly made himself appear like David when the latter attempted to interrogate him. When refusing to answer David’s questioning, he gesturing that his lips were sealed actually made the sound of a lock being set, complete key being thrown away.

## Relationships

* Melanie Bird - wife
* David Haller - friend
* Farouk - enemy
* Cary Loudermilk - friend
* Kerry Loudermilk - friend
* Walter - enemy
* Sydney Barrett - ally
* Ptonomy Wallace - ally

## Appearances

### Season 1

* "Chapter 4"
* "Chapter 7"
* "Chapter 8"

### Season 2

* "Chapter 9"
* "Chapter 10"
* "Chapter 11"
* "Chapter 13"
* "Chapter 16"
* "Chapter 17"
* "Chapter 18"