Age: 19
Power: James possesses the ability of shadow manipulation. His manipulative abilities let his form and solidify shadows, making them as hard as metal or a jello like amount of solidity. He can become invisible if it is dark enough by manipulating the shadows around him. He also has the ability to fly by making wings.
Status: Villain
Face claim: Ben Cook
Sexuality: Bi-curious
Physical Appearance: James stand at 6' flat, having been on the football, and track team for a # of years, he is fairly well muscled. He's not lean, but he's certainly not bulky. He has a fairly clear complexion, only marred by afore mentioned scars. He looks slightly downward while he walks, only changing this habit while running. While he stands tall while trying to make an impression, he usually slightly slouches on more casual terms. He walks more slowly with longer strides usually, speeding up when agitated.
He has a narrow face, sharp features, light sideburns that he shaves off every few weeks, hazel eyes, and straight, black hair that is close to his eyes. He has large smiles which rarely ever reach his eyes. He usually keeps a straight face, usually keeping his emotions closer to himself. It is very easy to spot when he's not at ease, tending to stay even more straight faced the usual, and keeping his limbs more stiff. Among friends he shows emotion easily, and stays very relaxed, usually flopping down on the nearest couch.
Marks: He has a multitude of scars on his arms and legs, mostly from cutting, these scars are very hard to see as he cut the upper part of his arms but they are easily visible if he has to take off his shirt for any reason. He has one tattoo on his back, the tattoo is one skull looking up at the sun, surrounded by roses and another skull, surrounded by thorns, looking down with blood dripping from it's eyes.
General clothing: He prefers to wear tight fit, dark clothing. He can usually be found wearing grey nike shoes, dark blue jeans, any color of T shirt, a black and white "Boondox" hat, and his trade mark black and white mma hoodie, with a cobra on the front and "built 2 strike" down the right side of his ribs.
Personality: James is a normally chill guy, content to joke around and going back and forth between happy and content. His mood changes many things about him, from his walk speed, sociability, and even his laugh. His laughed is usually slow, loud, and deep, sounding like that of a mad scientist from a black a white movie, that turns into the faster paced, more chaotic laugh of the Joker. He frequently jokes about his 'mad-man' laugh. He loves playfully insulting his friends. If someone is being left out, he makes efforts to include them, and entertaining himself could be as simple as messing around with an audio program or photoshop. He loves bets. Money, favors, just for fun, doesn't really matter, having recorded his average numbers in various games, he can safely say he is a fairly lucky person.
James had depression issues during most of his life, this can resurface at times but reverting to cutting is rare. He tends to dwell on nearly anything that upsets him, no matter how small. He over-analyzes things at times and tends to take things personally but he forgives his friends in the end. If he doesn't know you or doesn't like you he will hold a grudge for an insanely long time. You can of course make amends. He becomes less social when sad, usually shutting himself away with his favorite, usually depressing, songs. When people try to help him feel better, it doesn't work, in fact it makes it worse. He avoids meals when he becomes even more depressed. There is another side to this, he is somewhat unstable when it comes to anger. In this circumstance he isolates himself to protect others. In minor fits of anger, just a punching bag is fine but, for a true rage, destruction is the default. Thankfully he is somewhat difficult to anger, unless of course you hurt his friends.
In his mind, a hero is delusional. If society rejected them for their differences, why bother trying to earn their love by protecting them. Don't mistake him, he doesn't necessarily hate the heros, his perception is more that they are working for acceptance, something he looked for when he was younger as well. If he feels that one of the heros can be swayed to joining the villains, he will try it. He knows that not all people are evil, but there is no such thing as pure innocence. That being said, he feels no desire to save people, or to hurt him, he works for his own ends. Because of his view of the heros as fellow victims of society, he doesn't wish them harm but, if they get in his way, he will do what is necessary.
Likes: Sushi, grilling, anime, fan fiction, D&D, cars, bets, poker, movies, singing, storms, rap, metal, and rock.
Dislikes: The tendency of a society to shun those different than themselves, pop, country, those weird 3 wheeled "motorcycles," alcohol, mental disorders, and tomatoes.
Fears: He fears being alone, hurting his friends accidentally, and losing sight of himself.
Weaknesses: Having shadow powers, light is a natural weakness, he can still manifest his powers, they are just weaker. How easily he becomes depressed (including suicide), the recklessness brought on his rages, his hesitation to be decisive, and his own intense workouts means he is usually slightly injured at any given time.
Strengths: His strengths include his ability to make plans, the ability to see the underlying layer of people, close range fighting, his speed, and darkness. The more dark it is, the stronger his powers are ranging from very weak in broad daylight, to extremely powerful, like a subway tunnel or a moonless night.
History: James comes from a rather small town in Alabama, where he was raised as a Christian by his mother, father, and his grandparents. Until he was 8 anyway. At the age of 8 his father died from his sleep apnea. After his father died his grandmother started coming during the day, the only problem with that is that his grandmother happened to be an emotionally and verbally abusive alcoholic. So until high school, he was routinely blamed for things that weren't his fault or just yelled at for no reason at all. His family didn't believe him of course, his grandfather denying she drank at all. During this time period, James became an atheist, wondering why the God he had been told was kind and benevolent, would allow such things.
His life changed, for better or worse, his sophomore year of high school. He got involved in sports, playing varsity football and running on the track team. He began dating girls due to his renewed confidence. And then he met the gang. The Saints. The Saints were a small time gang that didn't have terribly many members. For a while, James had it all. Parties, drugs, girls, a family away from his own dysfunctional one, and then the police noticed the gang. The police crackdown destroyed the Saints. It was too unsafe to as much as transport anything illegal in such a small town, where the police even knew the members cars. He kept a few of the members close, but the life was gone.
He left home to go see bigger places, going to The U.S Naval Academy in Baltimore. He was fairly popular there, succeeding academically and physically, and became good friends with a fellow student named Alice. One day Alice showed him something, she took out a lighter and started to manipulate the flame. Shortly after this she disappeared with no explanation. When his own powers began acting up, it became apparent staying wasn't an option. Having heard of the groups in New York, and with a new found distrust for the government/military, began to seek out the villains.
Significant events: His grandmothers abuse set his personality and set his path down that of a villain, his time in the Saints made him dislike authority, more so when it we destroyed. And the nail in the coffin was his friend going missing from the Academy.
Joining the group: James joined the villains in hope of finding a new family and his past conflicts with the police and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Alice kept him from joining the heros.
Allen Hayes: Allen is easily the closest thing James has to a friend within the villains. He is fairly easy to talk to, however; because he only gives out small details they lack any real connection and they are more acquaintances than friends. That being said, he is still easier to talk to than the others and James will take what he can get.
Lara McIntosh James and Lara don't really have much of anything, she lacks emotion and is usually caught up inside a book. Her sense of humor is morbid to put it mildly but, while that isn't James's sense of humor, it's still something. He doesn't dislike her, they just don't talk and don't seem to have much in common.