Dorian Pavus

An endless number of distant relations

## Personality

Dorian has a self-confidence that most people would call excessive. (He disagrees; nothing about him is excessive, except possibly his good looks.) Some of it is of the fake-it-until-you-make it variety, and the rest of it is decidedly not. He has no intention of letting anyone know which is which though, never mind that the latter even exists. Only people he's close to and who have gained his trust get any hint that he isn't as confident and self-assured as he seems.

This also means Dorian is extremely guarded. A childhood of having love and acceptance come at a price has left him doubtful of his own worth, and reluctant to hope and trust that'll he'll be accepted for who he is. While he'll readily share many of his opinions, he doesn't like talking about feelings, particularly when they are his, or about him. He often deflects, or hides behind, jokes or sarcasm. It's rare that he'll outright show or say when something bothers him, so if he does you know you've hit a real nerve.

Despite all this, Dorian embraces being the black sheep and pariah of his parents' world. In fact, he's proud of it. While he knows he can never truly separate himself from that world, it still sets him apart from them. He's one of them, but not *One of Them* and, if things are going to change, it will take someone like that to do it.

Dorian's greatest fear is falling to temptation. The temptation of following the lure of scientific discovery to deeper places, to do questionable things that fall into moral grays and blacks for the thrill of discovery, for good intention, or just because he can. The temptation to take the easy road. To accept the wealth and power that would make his life so much easier, but could turn him into his parents, if he isn’t a little bit like them already. And the temptation to let his guard down, to go all in, no holds bar in a relationship, even though it means risking being hurt and disappointed again.

But Dorian is not all darkness and seriousness. Far from. He has a ready smile and equally ready warm laugh. He’s a loyal friend and a kind person who speaks up for and stands up for what he believes in. If he sees something wrong with the world, he doesn’t hesitate to point it out.

He enjoys simple pleasures--Good food, books, a game of cards with friends--and has a great sense of humor too. With wit and charm that goes on for days, he is always prepared with a comeback. Snark, sarcasm, teasing, dry irony, and more are in his arsenal and he uses them often. He's a flirt as well, and loves to flirt, and be flirted at, just for the sheer fun of it. He'll flirt with just about anyone as long as he doesn't hate them.

Dorian is, for all his sarcasm and wry observations, a hopeful person. He believes that things can change for the better, and he wants to have a hand in it. He’s drawn to people who share, and act on, that desire for improvement, and is inspired by it.

## Powers

**Necromancy** - The ability to draw energy from organic matter via contact. Currently, Dorian can only draw energy from living organics and only if he's touching them. With practice, he will be able to extend this to being able to draw energy from an organic object he *isn't* touching as long as it is in contact with one he *is* touching, like, for example, a staff.

Dorian can then redirect what he steals and either throw it as balls of energy, or use it to charge objects he is touching and turn them into timebombs. In time, he’ll be able to give that energy to himself or others to heal or, possibly, create what are essentially corpse puppets. For now, the timebombs explode with a force similar to a hand grenade. The amount of energy they are charged with only affects how long before they explode--The more energy, the longer the countdown.

## Talents

Dorian is blessed with wit, charm, and, of course, a genius level IQ. He also has an excellent head for business, politics, and social maneuvering. He doesn’t necessarily take pride in all three things, but he recognizes they have their uses. Something of a hedonist, Dorian has impeccable taste for the finer things in life.

## Interests

Chess; piano; parties but not the horribly dull, backstabbing political kind his parents do so enjoy; reading; fringe science

## History

(TW: Mentions of homophobia, conversion therapy, and HIV/AIDS)

When God closes a door, he opens a window! Or, that’s what Halward and Sophia Pavus told themselves when they discovered they couldn’t have children. While some people would wallow in their disappoint, they decided to see it as an opportunity. Adoption was a noble cause, and it would not only give them the family they so desperately wanted, but it would also give a home to a less fortunate child. (And the fact that it would look good to their constituents didn’t hurt either.)

They, of course, researched extensively. The Pavus’s could trace their lineage back to the founding of America, and were a political family of a prestige and renown on par with the Kennedys, so any child they brought into the fold would have to meet some very strict requirements. They worked with a number of agencies, searching for a child that would be smart, attractive, and would be able not only continue the great Pavus legacy, but add to it as well. Instead, what they got was Dorian, who was all of that and a lot of unplanned more.

Dorian grew up on his family’s sprawling estate (and summer villa, and winter home, and ancestral manor, and...), an environment that, in one word, could be described as distant. And, in many others, as cold, domineering, and demanding. He was raised primarily by nannies, tutors, and boarding schools with his parents a detached, but constant presence over his shoulder. They had expectations, and those expectations would be met. Their approval and their love came at that price.

In the beginning, Dorian did as he was supposed to. He was a dutiful son, the perfect scion to the Pavus legacy. His intelligence and skills in school, science in particular, was well-known and he was predicted to bring great acclaim to his family. Around when he turned 14 though, he became more and more aware of how much this life smothered at him, and, with that, more and more aware of how absolutely bullshit his parents’ ways were. He became disillusioned and sick of the lies, scheming, and belief of supremacy found in the society and political party his family belonged to.

So, he began to rebel. The barbed quips and snarks he’d only thought before, he voiced. To anyone--His parents, his teachers and schoolmates, important senators at important political dinners... He stopped hiding how he disagreed with wealthy society and his family's conservative politics. Other thoughts, ones he’d been raised to believe belonged in dark corners were all perversions belonged, he stopped hiding. He flirted with other boys openly now. Even slept with more than a few. One boarding school kicked him out for his “deviant behavior”. He was quickly becoming a pariah in the society his family held so near and dear, and he was finally *happy*.

It was around that time that he met Felix, son of world-famous theoretical physicist Gereon Alexius. It was at boarding school, and Dorian was studying in the library. He’d, not for the first time, been so caught up in his work that he hadn’t realized dinner had come and gone hours ago. Felix showed up, food in hand, which, of course, wasn’t allowed in the library. Not to mention he’d stolen it from the kitchens. Dorian warned Felix that he’d get in trouble and Felix just replied that he “liked trouble.” The two soon became best friends, and close confidants.

As Dorian’s behavior became harder to ignore, i.e. was noticed by more and more people who quote-on-quote mattered, his parents confronted him. They told him if he *had* to continue his deviant behavior, he had to at least do it in secret as was proper. He refused, not wanting to, as he would describe it, “spend my entire life screaming on the inside.” To his surprise, his parents seemed to accept his refusal and left it at that. In hindsight, he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

Not long after that discussion, Dorian came home to an intervention. His parents, along with a conversion therapist, locked themselves in a room with him and tried to “cure” him. The discussion quickly turned into an argument and, horrified and angry, Dorian tried to leave. His father grabbed his arm, trying to stop him. Dorian pulled away and went to the door, pulling on what turned out to be a locked handle. Seconds later, when he turned around to demand they unlock it, it exploded behind him. Dorian didn’t stop to question it, he just left the room, packed his bags, and ran away. It wasn’t until later that Dorian would understand that he was a mutant, and that what had caused the door to explode had been his mutation.

Dorian moved in with Felix and Felix’s father, and they became like a surrogate family to him. They accepted him for who he was, no questions asked, nothing expected in return. There, in his new home, he continued his individual studies in science (fringe science was a favorite of his; parapsychology, occultism, etc), expanding it to include mutant abilities, primarily how they work, and the many potential uses for them. He also started to practice with his mutation.

Not long after Dorian’s 16th birthday, Felix became ill--He contracted HIV/AIDS from a bleeding addict he’d tried to help on the street. Gereon became obsessed with saving Felix. He worked on it day and night, ignoring everything else. Dorian helped willingly, putting his own knowledge and genius to work, eager to help his best friend. But then the science took a dark turn. Gereon was willing to do *anything* and *everything* to save Felix, a lot of it questionable at best, and flat-out wrong at worst. Dorian couldn’t condone it, and he knew Felix wouldn’t want them to. He stopped helping, refused to continue helping until Gereon saw sense. Gereon threatened Dorian--Either he helped, or he had to leave.

Feeling as if he had no choice, Dorian ran away again and, having nowhere else to go, he found himself on the doorstep of Xavier’s school.