Simon Tam

## Personality

Simon is intelligent, witty, and harbors a love for dry sarcasm, but he cares tremendously about people and helping others. He can sometimes act a little stuck-up, having come from a privileged upbringing, and sometimes a bit of a withdrawn bookworm, either studying or researching much of the time.

He was brought up to believe that he should live up to what was 'traditional', what was 'expected', and what was 'proper' for a young man of his pedigree. He was taught to follow society's expectations of him, and not to go against the grain. He’s intelligent enough to know that it’s all bullshit, but there’s some part of him that doesn’t want to fail his parents, especially his father.

## Powers

**Biological Detection** – Simon can use touch to sense all aspects of a living creature's biological make-up. This includes, but is not limited to, genetic alterations, physical distortion/augmentations, healing, disease, and biological functions.

**Power Detection** - Simon can read people and tell whether they have the X-gene or not, and what their power might be.

## Talents

Simon has a genius-level intellect, and at fourteen, had already graduated from high school and moved on to a mentorship with the Virginia Cancer Institute, where he conducted research that helped lead to a better understanding of lymphoma drug resistances. He has even presented a TED Talk on the subject.

He is talented at competitive fencing, favoring the sabre. He's also well versed in riding horses, but has never done so competitively.

## Interests

His interests include medicine, history, physics, chemistry, biology, reading, fencing, swimming, and technology.

## History

Simon is the first-born child to Gabriel and Regan Tam, born in Williamsburg, Virginia a few days after Thanksgiving. From an early age, it was apparent he was gifted, and Gabriel, a well-respected lawyer in the Washington, DC area, immediately enrolled his son in one of the top private schools in Virginia.

However, when Simon was seven, his younger sister, River, was born. She was the delight of the family from day one, and Simon always protective of her, but it soon became apparent that she was even more of a prodigy than her brother when she began to correct his spelling at age three.

By that point, Simon had already jumped several grades in school and was halfway through middle-school at age ten. By thirteen, he’d graduated from high-school and, due to research he’d done in his AP Biochemistry class, was quickly accepted for a mentorship at the Virginia Cancer Institute. Under the guidance of doctors there, Simon was allowed to pursue his research on drug resistances in lymphoma patients. In fact, he came to the attention of several medical institutions when he had a breakthrough in the field, and was even invited to give a TED Talk on the subject.

However, that was the year when things changed dramatically for him in other ways, too. Shortly after his research came to public light, he was working alongside a doctor, examining a patient and asking questions when his touch triggered thoughts, visions, and a splitting headache that he only barely managed to hide from those at the hospital. Over the next month, the headaches and visions only began to get stronger. At first, Simon was afraid that it might be a side effect of his work, but he was too afraid to mention it to anyone.

Instead, he decided to do a little research on himself. It wasn’t long, really, until he came to the startling conclusion that he was developing a mutation. One that, upon touching a person, allowed him to sense their biological makeup. While it was, in theory, a wonderful tool for someone who planned to start pre-med at Columbia in the fall, it was also terrifying. Not only because his research might be compromised, but also because he feared how his father might react to learning that his son was a mutant.

That’s when Simon was approached by Charles Xavier. At first, Simon refused to go to any high-school, no matter what kind of students were invited. He’d already finished high-school and was on to bigger, and better things. But Xavier was persuasive, and Simon had to admit that he was curious about the genetic component to his mutation. He issued an ultimatum. He would live at the school as a research student as long as no one but Xavier and his medical staff knew of Simon’s condition. Simon wouldn’t even tell his family.

In fact, when the time came, he simply told them that it was another avenue for his research while he attended Columbia. His father questioned it at first, but eventually gave up. As long as Simon was continuing on his journey to become a genius doctor, he didn’t care. Meanwhile, Simon could study in an environment where he could be monitored by those who understood his condition. He might even learn to control his ability before school started up in the fall.