Ezra Rothschild

art by ismarus-art.tumblr.com

Ezra Rothschild is the sole employee of the Vantage Corporation Records Department, specifically because he is blind. Vantage has a lot of dirty little secrets, and who better to hide them than someone who can't read? Ezra is well aware they're using him, but it's hard to get a job with a disability regardless of adaptive technology, so he allows it. The records are meticulously organized with braille labeling, and access to the room is cut off to anyone without exceptionally high clearance. Most Vantage employees interact with Ezra solely through the employee chatroom.

## Appearance

Generally at least a little unkempt, Ezra at least tries to remember to run a brush through his hair in the morning. Despite living in California he tends to favor jeans and layered jackets - in large part because the records room is extremely cold, and that happens to be where he spends most of his day. His aviators are a gift from someone dear to him, and his prized possession, second only to his tape recorder.

## Personality

Ezra's morals are flexible, but not cruel. He understands that not everyone can - or wants to - live a perfect life, and that people make mistakes that they have to deal with. Life is all about actions and consequences, and as long as you live your life in a way that you can live with, then it's none of his business what you get up to.

He is stubborn and loyal to a fault. If you need someone to confide in and keep a secret, he's your guy. He's got a try sense of humor and tends towards sarcasm, which can make him come off as prickly. He hates being unnecessarily coddled or talked down to, and is fiercely independent. Also he's got depression.

## Powers

Ezra's powers are two sides of the same coin so to speak. One side is on-contact healing, which is fairly self-explanatory. He can touch another person and heal them, although it does tire him out. It's easier if he's touching the injury itself, and it takes longer depending on the severity of the injury. The flipside to this is that he downloads the pain of the injury as he heals people and absorbs that pain into himself. Once stored, he can download that pain in a concentrated burst into someone else. The pain lasts no more than fifteen minutes in another person, but is capable of rendering someone unconscious depending on their pain tolerance.

If he chooses not to download that pain into anyone for any number of reasons, then it has to run its course more or less naturally. Symptoms include moderate to severe body aches, fever, and in extreme cases bruising starting at the center of his chest and working its way outward. These symptoms can last for up to several days, and only disappear once all the pain he has stored has been used up. It's equivalent exchange: he suffers the full amount of pain in lower doses over a stretch of time rather than all at once.

## History

Ezra's history is relatively murky, as he doesn't like to talk about most of his past - although he has revealed that he's been completely blind since birth. His parents divorced when he was young and he grew up with his mother, who was exceedingly overprotective of him to the point of stifling his independence. He moved out to live with his father in his late teens who was in the military, and had to adapt to a life where he was left on his own much of the time - a stark contrast to how he'd grown up.

His father sent him to a school for the blind when he turned eighteen that taught him how to live independently in a city and how to use adaptive technology. The two still text to this day, and manage a phone call when the stars align their work schedules.

## Relationships

### Preston Winters

The mayor of El Asilo and quite possibly the most hated person in the city - by heroes anyways. Ezra and Preston found unexpected solace in each other's company when Preston used the records room and realized that his powers didn't work on Ezra. Their personalities mesh well and they have similar senses of humor, so the two became fast friends. Preston trusted Ezra with the origin of his powers, and in turn, Ezra refuses to answer any questions that anyone might have about Preston. Questions that are becoming more frequent ever since the gossip rags of the city plastered a picture of them together at the mall all over the front page. Whether or not they are dating is none of anyone else's business in Ezra's opinion (but they are).

### Albatross

*What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.*