Jason Matthews

Jason Matthews is a parahuman from Santa Lucia. He is a player character during Inbetween: Season One, Inbetween: Season Two and Inbetween: Season Three. He briefly appeared during Inbetween: New York as an NPC.

## Personality

### Background

Even before powers, Jason was self congratulating and arrogant. He enjoyed being the center of attention though didn't find it particularly easy to make close friends, though was excellent at maintaining surface connections. He was upper middle class, the youngest of six children. His parents divorced when he was twelve and he stayed with his father.

He liked the sound of his own voice to the point where he'd talk to himself just so he didn't have to sit in silence, some thing he found extremely uncomfortable. He saw himself to be much cooler than he actually was, thinking that he was the center of the universe when he was barely a blip on anyone's radar.

He has difficulty empathizing or sympathizing with others which makes him come off as annoying and heartless. He views himself as a good person, though necessarily a moral or ethical one. He has no problem breaking rules or laws, habitually breaking minor ones just because he wants to.

He struggles to open up to people or trust others completely. This, coupled with his crippling short sightedness, has made him unable to maintain any serious, long term romantic relationship and even platonic relationships are difficult for him.

He played basketball and ran track during High School. He wasn't particularly good, relying on his natural skill rather than practicing. He played sports because "they're fun and stuff" not because he wanted to play professionally.

### Story Start

Immediately after getting powers, Jason's arrogance and overconfidence rose to previously untouched levels. He believed himself to be untouchable and able to accomplish virtually anything. As he learns how to split himself into two bodies, he begins to communicate with himself even when not using powers. This communicating is controllable but becomes more pronounced when Jason is stressed, nervous or using his powers more.

Initially, he did not want to join the Wards because he didn't want to explain his powers to his father.

### Post-Krov

During Jason's kidnapping by The Crew, he spent several days split between his two bodies which caused significant psychological damage. The long period of separation taken with the physical and mental trauma of the event caused a distinct personality split in Jason's mind which he understands as 'Mister One' and 'Mister Two'. It is unlikely this is an actual psychological condition, such as dissociative identity disorder, as Jason retains complete awareness of both selves at all times.

## Relationships

### Parahumans

#### Bellamy Blake; Nighthawk

Jason met Bellamy as Nighthawk during his nightly patrols in and around Chinatown. On their first meeting, she tased him and incapacitated him with her power. After meeting again and exchanging contact information, the pair would occasionally work together, primiarly for the Obelisk and Fat Cats investigation.

During The Time Skip, the two dated for almost a year, but were unable to make the relationship work for a variety of reasons, primarily Jason's inability to focus on the future. They remain very close friends and they still genuinely care about each other.

#### Mikhail "Mikey" Volkov; Wolfhound

Initially, Jason's relationship with Mikhail was very one sided. Jason saw the man as a friend and possible ally, much to Mikhail's hatred. Despite Mikhail actively trying to kill him and his allies on multiple occasions, Jason took great lengths to help the man when possible. On multiple occasions, Jason purposely overlooked or underreported Mikhail's actions to keep him out of prison. When Mikhail triggered and developed powers, Jason recognized him as a significantly greater threat and stopped annoying with him as much. Despite their relationship, the two were able to unite against other threats, such as Masque and Basilisk.

After The Time Skip, Jason discovered that Mikhail was alive and working with the New York Peacekeepers. He sent him multiple emails which Mikhail eventually responded to. They continue to keep in touch, the distance making the friendship much more palatable to Mikhail.

#### Samantha "Sam" Beckett; Dawnfire

Jason knew Samantha well before they met in the Wards. They were constantly at odds with each other, him hating her devotion to school and she hating his lackadaisical attitude towards it. After he joined the Wards, they begrudgingly tolerated each other and formed a friendlier, working relationship.

After The Time Skip, the two are good friends and continue to hang out, though much less once she graduated up to the Peacekeepers.

### Mister Two

Mister Two is significantly more jaded and surly than Jason, the second identity often interjecting negativity into conversation. Interestingly, unless physically split from Jason, Mister Two tends not hold conversations with anyone but himself. Its unlikely that Mister Two is another identity of Jason, the two sharing virtually everything apart from their world view. Rather, its likely that Mister Two is just how Jason is able to process his negativity and disillusionment.

## Appearance

### Civilian Identity

Jason is a tall, lean young man with feathery, light brown hair. He isn't extraordinarily attractive and has somewhat soft features. He looks more like his mother than his father. He is slightly taller than average, approximately 6'0''.

He wears primarily pants and stylized t shirts depicting various bands and parahumans– including himself, on occasion. He likes wearing boots and high top shoes. He dislikes shopping and usually replaces his clothing with the exact same thing. He used to dress more stereotypically popular in high school. His dislikes jewelry on men and refuses to wear any.

### Parahuman Identity

Throughout his time as a parahuman, Jason has wore various costumes.

His costume was initially heavy clothing similar to motorcycle leathers. He spray painted a teal, grimacing face onto the back of a leather jacket and covered his face behind mirrored ski goggles. When he joined the Wards, his costume retained the general aesthetic but was upgraded with a Kevlar weave that protected his body.

He carried a fanny pack that contained a basic medical kit, a burner phone, change and a stack of cards with his name and number on them.

His current costume is a dark blue and black, high collared letterman's jacket with 'Mister One' with embroidered across the back in electric blue. He has a number of Howell Academy basketball letters across the arms as well as custom patches denoting special events. Underneath he wears stylized t-shirts often depicting other capes he’s known personally: Death’s Head, Siren, Valiant, and Wolfhound, to name a few. He wears leather pants and muddy combat boots. His face is hidden behind a mirrored visor.

His wishes he could somehow have the jacket's stitching change to 'Mister Two' when he duplicated himself.

## Abilities and Powers

Jason is able to briefly glimpse into possible futures and then pull himself to any perceivable possibilities.

Jason’s precognition is the result of him being able to glimpse every possible combination of choices he could make in the next minute. These choices are viewed as vague, ghostly blue images constantly being superimposed over his immediate environment. While in combat, these futures are sometimes injured or killed, allowing him enough time to stop that possibility from happening. If he concentrates he can pick a specific possibility and run with it, allowing for more precise observation of a possible future.

The rest of his powers piggyback off his ability to glimpse possible futures, namely his teleportation. He is able to ‘pull’ himself to any one of these possibilities, effectively teleporting himself. His position changes to match the possibility he picked, giving him a rather erratic and jumpy fighting style as he dodges attacks and traverses the battlefield.

He is unable to pull himself to a location he would not be able to get to with normal movement and he requires line of sight. This makes it so he cannot “double up” his teleportation, capping him at a maximum distance of five hundred feet (but often much shorter, depending on the environment).

Jason’s most flashy power is the ability to diverge himself into two equally likely possibilities, allowing him to duplicate himself. This duplicate “steps out” of him in a crisp line of bright blue light. The two are indistinguishable from each other, even duplicating injuries and clothing. While duplicated this way, Jason has two sensory inputs and is capable of processing information simultaneously from both bodies. He can only have one copy at a time and can only create a new one if he merges back together or one of them is killed. He suffers no effects from one dying, except for the appropriate amount of pain dying caused. When he merges back together, he can choose which double remains allowing for him to be practically near death one moment and in near perfect health the next. Prolonged detachment messes with his head, making him irritable and quick to anger. Being split for longer will eventually cause his mind to slip, further detaching him from reality. If he is disconnected for too long, his power starts to tear away at him, trying to kill a duplicate.

When close to an opponent, he is able to momentarily manifest dozens of his arms or legs from several possible angles. This allows for barrages of punches and kicks or several hands parrying an enemy attack.

While it seems like he has a number of smaller powers, they all come from the same mechanism. Basically, when he activates his power, he simulates all possible actions he could take in the next possible minute. He is able to briefly manifest limbs from any future action he could take; this is the same principle his teleportation works on, albeit on a much larger scale. He is Michaud limited, unable to bring living beings with him, though he is able to duplicate certain items he has on his person. His duplication works the same way, though it takes considerable effort from him to maintain two bodies.

Jason is not a particularly talented or graceful fighter, relying almost entirely on overwhelming an opponent with a flurry of kicks and punches. He tends to use dirty tactics in a fight, blind siding opponents when possible, using a combination of teleportation and precognition to set up ambushes, even in the middle of an encounter.

## History

Born March 11th, 1993. The son of upper middle class parents, Jason is the youngest in a large family of six children. Learning self independence at a young age, Jason constantly sought acceptance and validity. He found this at school, loving every chance to be the center of attention.

## Trivia

* Jason gets upset when someone spells it 'Mr.' rather than 'Mister'. He finds the first to be stupid and tacky, while the second spelling is classy and acceptable. Similarly, when he chose Mister Inbetween, he didn't realize the name was far too long to pronounce. He thinks that three syllables is the perfect length for hero's alias and two is perfect for villains.

## Quotes

(About Mythic) *Get a load of this guy*.

(Describing White Rider) *I guess he got the job done. He was also batshit insane. He talked like this: “Grr. I’m White Rider. Crime never sleeps, so neither will I. Grr. I have a shotgun and no time for you, kid. Grr.” You get the picture.*