Jack Hawksmoor

## Personality

Jack's a lover, not a fighter, but he can be a fighter too, so don't get any ideas. Really, Jack's a big softie, though he is given to acting tough at times. He's fairly low-key, though he's a shameless flirt. He's got a sarcastic streak, but when the going gets tough, Jack gets tougher. He's a stand-up guy, and while he's a flirt, he isn't a womanizer.

## Powers

Jack has an assortment of abilities that center around a very specialized theme: urban adaptation. The basis and backbone for this power seems to be an involuntary, sympathetic empathic synchronization with any and all human beings; the more humans there are nearby, the greater his power becomes, and the reverse is also true. This increases his strength, stamina, durability, and healing abilities relative to the number of people nearby; this power 'piggybacks' on the individuals to which he synchronizes, carrying the empathic link further and further until it runs out of people to do so (the range, individually, is a few miles). This empathic synchronization also grants him some measure of empathy toward the individuals in question; while he can't single out individuals for how they feel, he sort of takes the temperature of people around him. He can tell if a population, on the whole, is content, scared, or angry, to give a few examples. The reverse, however, is that if there aren't any (or many) people around him, Jack starts to physically suffer for it, to the point where he feels like he's even dying. Whether or not isolation could kill him is anyone's guess, but Jack doesn't want to find out.

The soles of his feet are reinforced with microscopic ribs, calcium, and thick skin, forming a natural leather sole stronger than rubber-soled shoes, allowing him superior grip on most surfaces. His feet have a normal appearance except for the soles that are permanently blackened due to the continuous contact with the urban ground. Despite this, Jack is a stylish guy and likes to keep the tops of his feet clean.

His hands have similar ribbing on the inside of the palm and fingers, making it possible for Jack to climb with relative ease in urban environments. Combined with his adaptive strength, this means that Jack can traverse urban environments with ease; his hands and feet are even insulating enough for him to handle and traverse power lines if need be.

in addition, Jack can subsist, though not comfortably, on air pollution alone; his lungs are uniquely adapted to filter pollutants from the air and turn them into sustenance for his body. While he couldn't drink, say, raw nuclear waste, he could drink contaminated water with no ill effects (think pesticides, chemicals, etc.). jack is also immune to a myriad of diseases, most of them having a basis in urban environments (tetanus, rabies, etc).

## Talents

Jack's a talented urban explorer, and enjoys getting into places he shouldn't. He'd claim he's a talented flirt, but that's up to interpretation. He's also got a strangely impeccable sense of style, though the fact that he always goes barefoot (shoes just aren't comfortable anymore) takes some people aback.

## Interests

Girls. Good books (he enjoys a variety of genres). Theater. Expensive suits.

## History

Jack was born a city boy. Though the Hawksmoor family isn't particularly well-known, his father is a respectable and well-to-do stock broker, and his mother is afforded the luxury to stay at home and manage the home. They never had a maid, but their high-rise apartment was comfortable and chic. Jack's mutation is fairly recent. Up until earlier this year, Jack had been a popular, well-liked student at a high school in the classier end of New York, but he was never a stuck up person. In fact, it was his humility that made him popular.

His mutation surfaced fairly subtly at first, but it's only a matter of time before someone notices your palms, so Jack took to wearing gloves for a little while. Also, everything got complicated when he realized that he couldn't stand the shoes anymore and started going barefoot everywhere. That changed when he suddenly decided he just simply didn't care about what others thought of him for being a mutant. That moment coincided with him averting a tragedy. A woman who'd had a bit much to drink accidentally went over the safety railing at a rooftop gala. Jack reacted quickly enough to dive after her and caught her, landing safely with her alive and intact. It was an event that attracted a lot of attention, both positive and negative.

Making local papers outed him, but his father managed to keep most of it hush-hush for the 'sake of the family,' which Jack understood begrudgingly. Thankfully, Xavier's was there to receive him, and he gladly transferred.