Crater

Crater is an odd little man. He's homeless, six fingers per hand, doesn't use his legal name at all, and with a tendency to speak in third person. Even metas can be down on their luck.

Description
Before you is a scrawny man down on his luck. He wears a horizontally-striped shirt under a vest. Well... not so much a vest as a hoodie that the arms have been torn off. His pants look ragged and patched, but enough to keep out some of the elements. Might not be warm, though. His shoes look well-used, repaired with liberal amounts of duct tape. His hands peek from his long shirt sleeves, wrapped in cloth in sort of makeshift gloves. His hands seem normal at first, until one counts the fingers. Six on each hand. He wears a pair of old goggles on his forehead, one of the lenses slightly cracked. He could slide them down to cover his alert, brown eyes when needed. The quality of his clothes looks to be about third or fourth-hand. Perhaps from a charity store. His light brown hair looks just like the rest of him. Slightly wild and in need of a wash.

Dependant NPC
See Candi

Powers
Crater's powers manifested early in life. Very early. I suppose he wouldn't have been hurt at all when the doctor dropped him, if not for his soft spot. Later on, evidence of one of his powers could be seen all throughout his childhood. Falling out of trees, jumping out of swings, falling off the jungle gym. The moment when he realized there was something about him was when he was making a home video. He was planning on leaping dramatically from the roof and onto a mattress on the driveway. He missed. Rather than a trip to the emergency room, he didn't even have a scratch. ...so, much to his parent's dismay, he did it again. Laying in a crumpled heap, he unfolded himself, then got to his feet again.

His teleportation abilities didn't get discovered until later. He was crossing the street. He hadn't looked both ways, and someone's brakes had gone out. The driver started leaning on the horn. One moment, Crater was about to be run over. The next, he was across the street as the car passed through where he used to be. Much practice and experimentation revealed just what he could do with his newfound abilities. He could teleport himself (and more than that) a distance of about 10" away.

Skills
Since they had such an... active... child, Crater's parents enrolled him in acrobatics class. Here, he gained a working knowledge of how things and people moved through repeated falls and watching people flying through the air. He also learned how to 'properly' take a fall and get back to his feet. When the acrobatics classes fell through (pardon the pun), they encouraged him to work on his flexibility, thinking he might be able to earn a living with that as a contortionist, perhaps.

Eventually, Crater left home. He tried his luck as a stuntman, unfortunately not doing so well. Kept breaking safety regulations. By the time he had given that up, his parents had moved away. He fell into the wrong crowd, briefly. A shady person took him in and taught him how to get past locks, how to pick pockets, and palm things. Eventually, his 'new friend' was taken away by the authorities, and Crater slid the rest of the way into homelessness.

Disadvantages
I suppose it was a certainty that Crater would wind up on the streets. His inexplicable urge to take shiny things, his inability to read (despite his parents' attempts to teach him), his extra finger on each hand... Add onto that his reckless actions, his tendancy to speak in third person, and his ability to be convinced of things, and it becomes surprising he lasted as long as he did. It's like he was born under a bad star or something. In some ways, things are starting to look up. He's made really good friends with one of the volunteer servers at the soup-kitchen he frequents. Surprising, considering the rep he's starting to get.

Origin
Crater's powers are a quirk of genetics and good ol' prenatal experimental drug treatments. His parents were a bit down on their luck and concerned about the well-being of their child. Maybe some deity saw what his life would be like and took pity on him, or maybe it was some shadowy organization trying to make the next super-soldier formula. Not sure which is to blame, but those treatments interacting with his peculiar genetic makeup resulted in odd abilities. Teleportation, near-immune to fall damage, and somewhat durable. His luck just led him into homelessness.

Personality
Crater, while being a nice enough guy, may strike some as being slightly off-kilter. But then... it does take a certain type of personality to willingly jump off buildings or teleport up to such a height to fall. He likes his shiney things. He talks in third person. Sometimes, he might be a bit childish. However, he'll try to help if it looks like he's needed. If others have it covered, he'll just leave well-enough alone.

Life History
In the beginning, Crater was born. The first sign of how his life would turn out happened not long after when the doctor dropped him. Oops. His parents tried their best to raise their... 'special' child, legally named David Michael Vance. They tried sending him to school, but that was an ordeal in itself. After a youth full of falls and surprising lack of injuries, they eventually took him out of school when the now-nicknamed Crater showed how well he could grab folks with those 6-fingered hands of his. There was biting involved. Next came Acrobatics school, contortionist training, then leaving to try being a stuntman. He got kicked out of that, then wound up getting taken in by an aspiring thief that Crater tried to take a button from. The thief was eventually apprehended and Crater was once again without a home. Eventually he got the hang of it and found a nice soup-kitchen for an occasional meal. Through visiting there, he met a volunteer server that went by the name of Candi. Candi saw a kindred spirit in this odd little man, and they became fast friends. Candi got a few odd looks at times, once folks usually found out that 'she' was a 'he'. Not like Candi went out and advertised it. Just couldn't afford to switch over. So she continues on, saving up, occasionally getting some help from Crater.

It was Candi that suggested Crater could help folks with what he can do. It took a few weeks before Crater took that advice. He came upon a mugging in progress, and after the fight, he blended back into the homeless culture. Even with only going by 'Crater', there's a slight anonymity in being homeless. So, that's where he is today.

Falling Trivia
Assuming each " is 2 meters, a meter is about 3 feet, and one story of a building is 10 feet, Crater...
 * could fall off a 2 story building without feeling it.
 * would be able to limp away from any fall, provided he hadn't taken any stun damage and gravity is normal.
 * would need to fall 175 stories to get to Terminal velocity. -- 1 story equals 1.6667 inches (according to the ratio of 1 Story = 10 feet, and 2" = 6 feet), and you need to fall 105 inches to get to that speed.

1d6 for the first 10", then +5d6 per segment (second) fallen up to 30d6 (terminal velocity)