Malcolm Dace

Malcolm Dace is a child genius (now 17) and renowned authority on metahumans. Apart from his academic record and work at the CBSU Hospital, he is often to be seen on shows such as Capes as an expert in all things metahuman.

Description
Malcolm is a tall and lanky long-faced teenager, but dressing as he does in a tweed jacket nevertheless manages to project the image of a serious academic. He chooses his words carefully but nonetheless had a youthful energy which comes across well to his audience.

Origin
Malcolm was born in 2042, the child of two telepaths, one, now deceased, an ex-superhero. His parents always planned to send him to Lord Markham's School for Talented Children, and on discovering his precocious intelligence sent him there at a young age. There he befriended Jade Ashcroft, a fellow child genius, and for a couple of years they were the best of friends, but they fell out when she accused him of using his powers to plagiarise from her. After that came bitter rivalry, with each taking every opportunity to show the other up, often by underhanded means.

At the age of 11, however, he left for university, while Jade remained at the school. In the five years following, he has taken a PhD in Psychology and become a renowned expert on metahumans - not just their psychology but also their sociology, physiology and even, in a surprising number of cases, their private lives. He holds a post at CBSU Hospital although he has yet to complete a medical degree: his knowledge of metahumans makes him invaluable.

Powers
[Malcolm's powers are not generally known, although a bit of research would turn up that he went to Lord Markham's School for Talented Children, and his powers are known there.]

Malcolm is a telepath, though a slightly eccentric one. He can do the standard narrowcast and receptive telepathy, though unusually this leaves little or no detectable trace in the target's mind. More interestingly, he can borrow unused "processor time" on the brains of other people near him, making him more intelligent the more people there are about, especially if they are themselves intelligent. This too leaves little evidence.

He can also use his powers more aggressively, though (as far as anyone knows) he only does so in an emergency. He can seize brain power that is being used (INT Transfer), or seize the sensory centres of someone else's brain (Mental Illusions: blackout Linked to Clairsentience), or even wrest control of someone else's body entirely (Mind Control, Cumulative, must get EGO+30 level and Target Will Not Remember Actions - the victim will have no sensory input for the duration). He does not appear to be capable of the more standard, less invasive forms of these powers. These aggressive uses do leave detectable mental traces, and indeed tend to be quite disturbing to the victim.

Personality
Malcolm is a man who loves his work: he has been surrounded by metahumans for all his life and has never ceased to be fascinated by them. He is also a driven man: driven to be better than Jade, who, despite her greater natural ability, is not as focused as he is and so is beatable. Indeed, he feels that his motivation makes him better than her. Certainly it has made him an expert in his field at 16.

Though his public image is very good, he is not above playing dirty tricks - especially on Jade - to further his ends. But by and large he seems to be one of the good guys.

Relations
Malcolm generally gets on pretty well with the people at this hospital - he comes across as mature for his age, which probably helps. He also stays in touch with Lord Markham's School for Talented Children. But any perceived rival, especially Jade Ashcroft, had better look out.

History
In the summer of 2058 Jade Ashcroft moved to Colonial Bay, and their old rivalry reopened with renewed vigour.