Post by Ebenezer Laughton on Aug 27, 2009 22:01:33 GMT -5
I’ve always liked Scarecrow from Ghost Rider. Allot of people overlook him, and most people think the only ‘Scarecrow’ in comics is the DC version (Batman Villain) but not so, although you shouldn’t get Marvel Scarecrow (From Iron Man and Ghost Rider) confused with Straw Man, another Scarecrow-like character, but Straw Man is a good guy. My Scarecrow is very much not a good guy.
Player name: Mike
Contact Info: AIM (food with sauce) Yahoo (Mikesicles) MSN (The_bathroom_floor@hotmail.com) email (same as MSN) or just buzz me right here on the board, PM or open-thread, either or, I'm almost always on AIM too if you want to chat or need to ask anything.
Basic Character Information
Type: Canon
Full name: Ebenezer Laughton
Goes by: Scarecrow
Code name(s)/Alias(es): The Scarecrow
Gender: Male
Age/Birth date: 19, 21st May
Place of birth: Bayville, New York
Hometown: Bayville, New York
Height: 6'1
Weight: 176lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Education: Incomplete, currently finishing high-school.
Occupation: Nothing legitamate, Ebenezer attends school during the day and does not have a job, he gets by financially by engaging in robbery, muggings and other forms of petty crime which he engages in of an evening under his alias: The Scarecrow.
Family: Martha Laughton, mother (Deceased) Ebenezer has no nearby family; his extended family primarily live in Massachusetts and largely try to avoid him.
Criminal record/citizenship: Citizen of the United States, Scarecrow has several warrants out for his arrest, but no criminal record as yet due to the fact that he commits crime in disguise and the warrants are not served on anyone resembling him in that his victims would not recognize him in normal attire.
Affiliation: Brotherhood.
General Appearance: Ebenezer, by and large, looks like a kind of nondescript loser. Around school he is often glanced at, in passing, and commonly people believe he’s the sort of kid who spends too much time studying, a ripe target for bullying by more popular children, someone who doesn’t defend himself, or is not able to, a weakling in short, but appearances are quite deceiving in his case. A closer inspection yields many sights that are uncommon to school-age losers; for one while he has the frame of a weakling a particularly perspicacious onlooker might note that while he is slender of frame he possesses a wiry and sinewy in musculature, that his build is compact and sleek but quite powerful and that he could probably be a superb athlete. Only the most observant person could pick this up though as his habit of wearing drab, ill-fitting clothes tends to conceal his build completely and his slouching posture and low hanging, defeated shoulders do not help him look like anything short of a skinny, sad loser. He is pale, both naturally and as a product of being something of a shut-in during daylight hours, and Ebenezer’s jet-black hair contrasts strikingly with his skin, often sporting an oily luminosity as it is rarely clean, and never styled; hanging drably as his clothes tend to, and his clothes, often torn, usually dirty, seem out of place for the average schoolyard loser.
An observant person might notice scars on his neck and the wrist and hand on his left side, something like those left by cigarette burns, and anyone, anyone at all would see how plainly his eyes seem out of place for such a person. Ebenezer’s eyes are small, deeply set and furtive but he does not avoid anyone’s gaze, they never meet the floor, and while they dart here and there his gaze is characterized by an almost predatory searching quality, as though he were seeking out a victim. It is common for people to write him off in halls and from the other side of a classroom as just another loser, but few people retain this impression upon closer observation. Ebenezer is almost always alone; people and animals avoid coming too close. If he were sitting on a sidewalk the string of passers-by would unconsciously bend away from where he was sitting and give him a wide berth. The only thing commonly seen in his company is a flight of crows who perch on, about and near him, going about their business as birds do, but never straying too far from his person, and always attentive when he moves or speaks. Even when he is at school these birds will gravitate towards him; rarely coming inside, but always staying close, perched on telegraph wires by windows near his classes, following him in small flights across the school grounds, waiting about the doors when class is dismissed.
As said his clothes are ratty, old and rarely clean; in fact he almost always wears the same outfit and rarely washes it. This consists of a pair of torn old sack-brown trousers held up with a belt of rope, work-boots a size or two too big for him, the shoelaces rarely tied, a dishevelled red long sleeved shirt several times too large for him and a frayed old, black hook & ladder style straw hat which he is more often found carrying rather than wearing. Far from handsome his face is cavernous and overly fissured with high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, a rather weak jaw and chin and small, busy mad-looking eyes. His eyebrows are thick, the same jet-black as his hair and his lips are thin, often pressed together in an impassive yet unpleasant expression. When he smiles his teeth are shown, and they are rather crooked and unpleasant in their state of total disrepair.
All in all Ebenezer has the look of a mad, young unpleasant vagrant; he’s also fairly on the nose. His long, awkward limbs seem almost clumsily out of proportion with his body, but he does possess a certain grace in the way he moves, with an almost liquid sense of fluidity and laziness he carries on about things never seeming to falter as he goes. The more one observes him, and the more closely the less pleasant he seems to become until they are left with the distinct impression that he’s some kind of sneaky, mad hillbilly murderer who’s long, bony fingers are adept at wringing the necks of kittens, who would pick on anything smaller and weaker than him for no reason other than that they are smaller and weaker than him.
Occasionally, just once in a while, he’ll pull out his liston knife somewhere crowded and use it to clean his fingernails. Odd public gestures like this are a fundamental part of who Ebenezer is, though they are rarely seen, what he is in fact doing is checking to see if people will even notice that something so odd is going on, or whether they are so used to seeing him as a ‘nobody’ and a non-entity, that they will overlook him no matter how outlandish his behaviour is.
Uniform: In addition to his usual outfit which Ebenezer can normally be found wearing; a pair of torn old sack-brown trousers held up with a belt of rope, work-boots a size or two too big for him, the shoelaces rarely tied, a dishevelled red long sleeved shirt several times too large for him and a frayed old, black hook & ladder style straw hat, when out committing crimes he covers this all with a high-collared long dusty-black coat and occasionally openly will carry a pitchfork or his knife. His hat combined with the high collar of his coat helps to obscure his face, and sometimes he also wears a rag-like mask over his face as well.
Personality: Ebenezer is mad, completely off-the-wall crazy; he is just lucid enough to function in society when within the public eye, but once he feels he is beyond scrutiny all bets are off. There seem to be almost three distinct facets of his personality, and the first is his normal self; this is the Ebenezer which attends school and loves his mother, doing household chores for her severed head which he keeps in the refrigerator, the Ebenezer who will never fight unless cornered and who has nothing to add to any social situation and avoids all groups of people as though they were somehow toxic to him. This is the least foul aspect of his person, and it is the aspect he assumes to carry on something like a normal life. The second is his sexual side; his libido, long repressed, which a combination of his vile upbringing and his unfortunate mutant powers along with just a healthy dose of having been born fucked all make nothing but a collection of violent impulses. Ebenezer, when espousing this facet of his personality, is the kind of person best avoided. His upbringing has left him with a strange, masochistic urge to explore depravity and seek rewards by stepping outside the law, and his powers have left him with the unshakable belief that he is some kind of vile pariah who’s very existence is a stain on the earth. His favourite hobby is ‘freeing the fear’ a euphemism he uses to describe the act of eviscerating people and stuffing their insides with straw; he believes firmly that once dead their fear passes into him and causes him to become stronger. He has sexualised the act of murder to the point where he actively chooses only female victims, but Ebenezer has, and will again, kill men who get in his way, he simply derives no innate joy from it however it is the third and final aspect of his personality which engages in these actions. As said his upbringing has left him with a desire to seek rewards by stepping outside the law, and this he does; as a criminal Ebenezer prefers theft, stealing both to live, and for the aforementioned reason of personal satisfaction. He is more than happy to violently engage anyone in his way or who tries to stop him, and at times he has even sought accomplices, although few can stand him enough to maintain any sort of bond for more than a handful of jobs.
Unless ‘freeing the fear’ Ebenezer has no concept of happiness, but by that same token he has little concept of depression. Both the highs and lows of normal emotion have been suppressed so that they can only be experienced when triggered by extreme action which must come before feeling. He does not feel the need to assert himself among his peers, if someone bullies him he does not come to desire revenge, he has no desire to be liked and he does not like anyone. Never does he feel compelled to seek out quality time with another human, and the concepts of guilt and shame are both completely alien to him. He has been told about mutants, but he feels nothing in particular for them nor does he care for their various agendas; Ebenezer lives with the Brotherhood because it is a place where he can live, he would, with no real feelings, just as easily join the X-men, although it is unlikely he would be tolerated within their ranks.
Of no more than moderate intelligence Ebenezer possess academic gifts in no particular field, and while he has, in the past, proven adept at certain sports he has no desire to continue them as a hobby; he appears almost universally apathetic to an extreme degree, but this is because the things he cares about exist in aspects of his being which are not meant for public consumption. He is smart enough to know that while he doesn’t care about his murderous actions others might, and Ebenezer is an incredibly guarded individual as a result who, despite how impossible his powers make it, attempts to pass himself off as just another face in the crowd. The feelings and notions that motivate him do not occur within the normal human sphere of emotion or logic, it has been said that he is mad, and it is truly madness that compels him to act when he does, the strings of thought and idea which lead him to do certain things are incomprehensible save to someone who’s profession is the study of psychosis and only then they cannot be grasped in terms of pathos but only in a detached, intellectual manner; he cannot really be empathized with or understood because he is, simply, insane.
Powers: Scarecrow possesses a mutated adrenal gland which functions in several ways and effected his development as he grew. This gland produced a large number of mutated hormones during his growth which effected the development of his musculature, tendons, joints and bone structure. In addition it produces a mutated version of epinephrine which enhances his own physical prowess, but the by-product of this hormone is secreted through perspiration and acts as a pheromone in the air; chemically it forces those around him to undergo a fight-or-flight response, and, for unknown reasons, has an unusual effect on passerine birds of the genus corvus, namely corvus brachyrhynchos and corvus ossifragus: the common American Crow and Fish Crow.
Scarecrow’s joints, tendons, bone structure and musculature have all undergone development to enable him strength, speed and agility far in excess of human limitations and the mutated version of epinephrine which he produces further enables him enhanced speed, reflexes and stamina. His strength is not enhanced far in excess of human limits, and many normal humans do exist who are stronger than Ebenezer, but it enables him to possess a level of strength much higher in proportion to his weight than that of a normal human, and, naturally, this enables him to perform many feats of agility which are far in advance of human limits. His effected joints - more adept at absorbing shock - and the higher tensile strength of his tendons compliment this enhanced strength to weight ratio as well, allowing him to, for example, land on his feet when dropping from substantial heights without coming to injury through the trauma of impact, or to bend and contort his body in an extreme fashion without dislocating joints or pulling muscles. The mutated form of epinephrine he produces allows him to operate at a peak aerobic level for substantial durations giving him superb stamina and speed, and he is able to push his body past the limits imposed to prevent self-injury. With all these enhancements acting in concert Scarecrow possesses a formidable athletic talent; his reaction times, speed, strength, stamina and ability to survive impact and shock make him almost impossible to take by surprise or harm in a physical confrontation and he is well equipped to defend himself from any violent aggressor with combinations of rapid, well-timed high impact attacks.
The epinephrine byproduct which Scarecrow releases is arguably the most potent aspect of his mutation and it is certainly the most noteworthy in its effects on those around him. The pheromone he releases permeates the air about him, effecting everyone about him in varying degrees of intensity depending on how close or far away they are. Within those effected it produces potentially debilitating psychological distress in the form of an out of context flight-or-fight response. Common symptoms for those effected at a moderate to long distance (six to eight feet away) generally include trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pain, sweating, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation and paresthesias; in short fear. The closer one gets the more intense the symptoms become, at their peak they usually include; vertigo, uncontrollable itching, hot or cold flashes, faintness, exhaustion or bodily weakness, loss of the ability to react logically to stimuli and loss of cognitive ability in general. These feelings are essentially those of terror; the person effected generally has a sense that something unimaginably horrible is about to occur and they are powerless to prevent it. Ebenezer can consciously increase the amount of epinephrine created in his body and thereby enhance the amount of by-product secreted into the air and thus increase the radius of effect and the strength of the symptoms, but generally, that is it is more common, the by-product is secreted into the air at a steady, continuous rate. The effect of ones willpower or personal attitude to fear is irrelevant as to the effects of this pheromone as it stimulates what is quite simply a chemical reaction which produces the symptoms; there is no way to reduce the intensity or occurrence of these symptoms save by moving away from Ebenezer and leaving the area permeated with the pheromone in question.
As mentioned earlier certain birds, namely the Common American Crow and Fish Crow are effected by Ebenezer’s epinephrine by-product in an unusual fashion. Not only are these birds attracted to it (seemingly undergoing no negative reaction at all) but it appears to make them extremely docile and suggestible. Ebenezer is often followed by a murder of crows as a result of this and they appear to respond almost obediently to his body-language, enabling him to use them to perform many small tasks. The longer the birds remain in proximity to him the more docile and suggestible they become, and many birds which have been exposed for substantial amounts of time have come to understand his body language well and are very obedient servants; more complex tasks can be entrusted to these animals, and they will even fly to their certain death if Ebenezer wishes them to do so. It should be noted also that these species of Crow are hyper-sensitive to this particular chemical and although for a normal human the radius of effect is not more than six to eight feet these crows can detect this pheromone from a substantial distance, and be effected by it from anywhere up to sixty feet away. Although they prefer to remain in close proximity they will maintain a distance if it is bidden of them.
Weaknesses: While impressive when acting in concert, when taken individually Scarecrow’s physical abilities (acrobatic ability, flexibility, strength, aerobic ability) do not far exceed those of a gifted human athlete; he can, therefore, be outperformed by many mutants. Toad, for example, can jump much higher and further, Quicksilver can run much more swiftly, Colossus is capable of delivering much more powerful blows, Nightcrawler is a more adept acrobat, etc. In addition the mutated form of adrenaline which enables his aerobic abilities often masks self-injury and it is common for Ebenezer to pull or tear muscles, sprain joints, snap tendons, bruise or even suffer stress fractures while engaged in bouts of hyper-activity, and while he may be able to ignore them when the peak flow of epinephrine is maintained when he eventually crashes he may find these injuries have been compounded during the time in which he has ignored them meaning it is possible for a relatively minor injury to quickly become debilitating when overlooked in such a fashion.
Although Ebenezer can control the amount of epinephrine by-product he produces in regards to intensity he cannot stop producing it. He will always be effecting people with this pheromone within around six to eight feet distance and although its effects on Crows are essentially a benefit for Ebenezer its effect on other animals is no less potent than that on humans but with one noteworthy difference. Most commonly encountered animals in an urban environment, dogs and cats namely, tend - being predatory in nature - to fight, rather than ‘flight’ and this means his pheromone has the unfortunate side-effect of driving all manner of household pets to attack him, an issue compounded by his inability to stop producing the pheromone. Also it should be noted that while under normal circumstances he can control the intensity of the pheromone it is linked to his bodies’ production of mutated epinephrine; the pheromone he produces being no more than a by-product of this chemical disposed through perspiration, and as this chemical (epinephrine) fluctuates naturally, increasing during times of stress and high activity, so to does the production and emission of its by-product; in short his ability to moderate the intensity of this pheromone and its effects is severely limited.
Finally while Ebenezer’s crows may represent a useful tool they can also be a prohibitive one; often they will follow him inside buildings or into school generally making a nuisance of themselves. The older, more suggestible animals which have remained in his presence for a long time are more amendable to suggestion via body language and tend to be more obedient, but at all times he will be followed about by more recent additions to his murder and these are primarily only there to enjoy the pheromone which attracts them in the first place. They have not yet come to understand Ebenezer’s body language and are inclined to do little of what he wishes of them, in general these new birds are less symbiotic and more parasitic, and the birds which follow Ebenezer about range between both extremes, they are not all either seasoned ’friends’ or disobedient new ’recruits’, they range in usefulness between both ends of the scale and so it should not be thought that they are all simply his minions who serve him unquestionably.
Power Potential: It should be noted that while under normal circumstances he can control the intensity of the fear-pheromone that is to say he can consciously increase the amount of epinephrine created in his body and thereby enhance the amount of by-product secreted into the air and thus increase the radius of effect and the strength of the symptoms his fear-pheromone causes, on a fundamental level the production of this pheromone is linked to his bodies’ production of mutated epinephrine, and as this chemical (epinephrine) fluctuates naturally, increasing during times of stress and high activity, so to does the production and emission of its by-product. So at this point in his life Ebenezer is, in short, very limited in his ability to moderate the intensity of this pheromone and its effects. However with time Ebenezer will eventually be able to take a more active hand in controlling how much epinephrine his body creates in any given situation, he will become able to veto the bodies production of it during times or stress, or force its production when the body does not wish to, allowing him to control to a greater the degree the amount and intensity of the fear-pheromone he radiates, be able to extend its radius of effect through conscious effort, and so on. This will take a great deal of time and practise however and his development will be hampered so long as he is only doing it himself, and does not possess the benefit of someone to teach him in regards to moderating his power. Also while Ebenezer generally produces the epinephrine by-product at a steady, continuous rate, meaning he cannot simply ‘turn off’ his powers (perhaps his greatest weakness) he will, with time, be able to moderate the amount which is created to the point where its effects are, when he is ‘at rest’ almost imperceptibly small, but as with increasing its flow, this is a complex thing to effect, not truly amendable to control via conscious thought and so it will take allot of time and practise for Ebenezer to master this ability.
Finally in regards to his Crows it has been stated that in general the new birds are less symbiotic and more exploitative, and that the birds which follow and cluster about him range between both extremes, from useful birds which understand his body language and are highly amendable to suggestion to relative newcomers who do not and are primarily exploiting his power in a parasitic fashion. As time goes on Ebenezer will, as a result of long communication, be able to come to understand - himself - something of their body-language and be able to replicate it himself so as to make himself understood, and as he comes to master the flow of his bodies fear-pheromone which the crows desire he will be able to deny it to them and thus force them to behave as he wishes. Further the longer any bird stays with Ebenezer the more suggestible it becomes, so barring deaths and accidents, his flock will become more and more useful as a result of its addiction to his chemical and amenability to his suggestions, as well as his ability to more clearly express what he desires, and manipulate them by way of rewards or punishment in regards to his fear-pheromone. Naturally this will take even longer than it will for him to master the production of the pheromone itself.
Skills & Talents: Ebenezer is quite talented with two types of weapon; the first a twelve-inch liston knife he keeps on his person at all times, and the second an old pitchfork which he only rarely shows the light of day to, he is adept at incorporating the use of these weapons with the physical talents bestowed upon him by his mutations and makes a formidable opponent in hand to hand combat as a result.
History: Ebenezer’s mother, Martha, was a woman greatly embittered by her late husbands death and his ‘desertion’ of the family she started so late in life; most of this bitterness was taken out on the young Ebenezer who’s mother was the central focus of his entire life for many years. A domineering, matronly woman she never left the house unless for work and essentially forbade Ebenezer from spending time outside apart from to attend school once he was old enough. She did not approve of his friends and allowed him to have none; so cowed was Ebenezer by his mother that he dared not do anything she forbade and where most children would have formed bonds with others regardless he did exactly as he was told and interacted with nobody. Doing his best however was not always good enough and Ebenezer was quick to learn that when he erred he would be punished ruthlessly; when he was young and physically much smaller and weaker than her she would beat him savagely, whipping him with power cords or beating his knuckles with a yard stick, but as he grew older she found she could not hurt him enough with sheer force and turned to more devious ways of inflicting pain on him, a favourite method of correction was putting out cigarettes on him, but she would also use boiling water to scald him or order him to hold his hand above a candle until she could smell it burning.
With all this having been said it is safe to say that Ebenezer’s childhood was not the stuff of dreams, but there were other problems present in his upbringing for which his mother was not entirely accountable. Ebenezer, for example, came from a family that was rather poor as his father had died shortly after he was born and his mother held only a low paying job as a nurses aid, and although she would do shift work to raise her salary it only ever amounted to being just enough for their living expenses and bills. Ebenezer would wear ratty clothes to school, and he was often teased for his appearance, his hair was cut by his mother and he had almost no money for little luxuries or diversions. Naturally his financial position was exacerbated on entering school more so than in his early life when the pressure to compete in trendy fads and to have the season’s cool clothes was felt acutely by Ebenezer who could afford none of it, and his popularity was nonexistent as a result. Nobody wanted to spend time with him because he did not bathe often, looked like a street kid and was sullen, withdrawn, always sporting a new scar of some sort. Other people his age were troubled by him, and so he was left alone or bullied for being the odd one out.
There was one constant in Ebenezer’s life apart from a cycle of beatings and social rejection and that was his mother’s guilt; when he did wrong she would inevitably punish him cruelly, but afterwards she would be overcome with guilt and often treat him to presents and attention which he relished. It was only a matter of time before Ebenezer began acting up on purpose to elicit this reaction and a large part of why his mother was constantly beating him was down to his own behaviour. Even when he was young Ebenezer had many disturbing habits, and he would kill neighbourhood pets and hide their bodies in places his mother could find them, he would terrify the children on his street with knives and threats, and when his mother received complaints from their parents she would go berserk.
When Ebenezer entered high school and his powers began to manifest he was devastated; here was yet another reason for people to avoid him, and at a time when he yearned most for human company, and knowing nothing of mutation he came to believe that it was only some extension of his evil personality which made people shun and avoid him; the idea that he was somehow intrinsically evil was reinforced when he found himself attacked by animals at random, dogs, for example would go mad if he strolled by their yard, cats would scratch at him and flee if he attempted to pet them. He believed surely that animals with their great perception knew he was some kind of pariah, and his mother felt the same way. Even when he had done wrong she was loathe to approach him, and the withdrawal of her attentions was something he could not really bear, it was, perhaps, the straw which broke the camels back and Ebenezer graduated in his Jnr. year of high school, from killing animals to killing people. It began when he was made the target of a vicious prank by a girl in his year who invited him to a school dance only to stand him up and humiliate him on the day and it ended when, several weeks later, she disappeared. The investigation yielded no results; Ebenezer had a way of stonewalling even the most hardened detectives that left them uneasy, and with little evidence to go on the case was dropped. Few people at his school had the nerve to tease him after this.
Later in Ebenezer’s Jnr. Year his mother died and he found that he had been bequeathed nothing by her. Her funeral was held out of state, and nobody in his family would assist him in getting home after his uncle’s family, who had brought him there, decided they could not ever again spend time locked in a car with him and ditched him; he walked home, but not before illegally exhuming his mothers corpse and removing its head. With it wrapped in Clingfilm he made his way back and enjoyed something of an epiphany en route when he stopped to stare at a scarecrow in a private farm for several hours. Ebenezer took its clothes before he left, and as he returned home over a nine-day odyssey, sleeping by the road side with his mothers head tucked under his arm, he found company in the form of crows. Dozens of them followed him. Eventually he returned to Bayville, but there was nowhere for him to stay, and he was, at this point, contacted by a man who called himself Magneto. The man offered him sanctuary and Ebenezer accepted the offer; moving into the Brotherhood House where his room contains a padlocked bar fridge. It is unlikely he will stay long.
Sample RP: ‘Stay,’ Scarecrow said. ‘Stay here,’ he was talking to several crows who were hopping about the front steps of the school. The rest of his companions were perched about on telegraph wires, post-boxes, anywhere they felt comfortable, but three were persistently demanding to be able to follow him and they pecked at his feet, hopping after him as he headed up to the school’s front doors. ‘You will stay,’ he declared, shooing them in an attempt to make them leave him. Two did, but one, more stubborn than the others, simply pecked at his arm and cawed loudly. It was determined to follow him inside. Scarecrow lost his patience with it, and noticing his disapproval some of his older pets flew down to peck and scratch at the disobedient vassal, chasing it off and harassing it through the sky as it fled. Ebenezer then headed inside, watching as people moved away from him as he paced slowly down the crowded locker hall.
Activity: I'll try to post at least once a day, and to come online, say, six times a week.
Player name: Mike
Contact Info: AIM (food with sauce) Yahoo (Mikesicles) MSN (The_bathroom_floor@hotmail.com) email (same as MSN) or just buzz me right here on the board, PM or open-thread, either or, I'm almost always on AIM too if you want to chat or need to ask anything.
Basic Character Information
Type: Canon
Full name: Ebenezer Laughton
Goes by: Scarecrow
Code name(s)/Alias(es): The Scarecrow
Gender: Male
Age/Birth date: 19, 21st May
Place of birth: Bayville, New York
Hometown: Bayville, New York
Height: 6'1
Weight: 176lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Education: Incomplete, currently finishing high-school.
Occupation: Nothing legitamate, Ebenezer attends school during the day and does not have a job, he gets by financially by engaging in robbery, muggings and other forms of petty crime which he engages in of an evening under his alias: The Scarecrow.
Family: Martha Laughton, mother (Deceased) Ebenezer has no nearby family; his extended family primarily live in Massachusetts and largely try to avoid him.
Criminal record/citizenship: Citizen of the United States, Scarecrow has several warrants out for his arrest, but no criminal record as yet due to the fact that he commits crime in disguise and the warrants are not served on anyone resembling him in that his victims would not recognize him in normal attire.
Affiliation: Brotherhood.
General Appearance: Ebenezer, by and large, looks like a kind of nondescript loser. Around school he is often glanced at, in passing, and commonly people believe he’s the sort of kid who spends too much time studying, a ripe target for bullying by more popular children, someone who doesn’t defend himself, or is not able to, a weakling in short, but appearances are quite deceiving in his case. A closer inspection yields many sights that are uncommon to school-age losers; for one while he has the frame of a weakling a particularly perspicacious onlooker might note that while he is slender of frame he possesses a wiry and sinewy in musculature, that his build is compact and sleek but quite powerful and that he could probably be a superb athlete. Only the most observant person could pick this up though as his habit of wearing drab, ill-fitting clothes tends to conceal his build completely and his slouching posture and low hanging, defeated shoulders do not help him look like anything short of a skinny, sad loser. He is pale, both naturally and as a product of being something of a shut-in during daylight hours, and Ebenezer’s jet-black hair contrasts strikingly with his skin, often sporting an oily luminosity as it is rarely clean, and never styled; hanging drably as his clothes tend to, and his clothes, often torn, usually dirty, seem out of place for the average schoolyard loser.
An observant person might notice scars on his neck and the wrist and hand on his left side, something like those left by cigarette burns, and anyone, anyone at all would see how plainly his eyes seem out of place for such a person. Ebenezer’s eyes are small, deeply set and furtive but he does not avoid anyone’s gaze, they never meet the floor, and while they dart here and there his gaze is characterized by an almost predatory searching quality, as though he were seeking out a victim. It is common for people to write him off in halls and from the other side of a classroom as just another loser, but few people retain this impression upon closer observation. Ebenezer is almost always alone; people and animals avoid coming too close. If he were sitting on a sidewalk the string of passers-by would unconsciously bend away from where he was sitting and give him a wide berth. The only thing commonly seen in his company is a flight of crows who perch on, about and near him, going about their business as birds do, but never straying too far from his person, and always attentive when he moves or speaks. Even when he is at school these birds will gravitate towards him; rarely coming inside, but always staying close, perched on telegraph wires by windows near his classes, following him in small flights across the school grounds, waiting about the doors when class is dismissed.
As said his clothes are ratty, old and rarely clean; in fact he almost always wears the same outfit and rarely washes it. This consists of a pair of torn old sack-brown trousers held up with a belt of rope, work-boots a size or two too big for him, the shoelaces rarely tied, a dishevelled red long sleeved shirt several times too large for him and a frayed old, black hook & ladder style straw hat which he is more often found carrying rather than wearing. Far from handsome his face is cavernous and overly fissured with high cheekbones and sunken cheeks, a rather weak jaw and chin and small, busy mad-looking eyes. His eyebrows are thick, the same jet-black as his hair and his lips are thin, often pressed together in an impassive yet unpleasant expression. When he smiles his teeth are shown, and they are rather crooked and unpleasant in their state of total disrepair.
All in all Ebenezer has the look of a mad, young unpleasant vagrant; he’s also fairly on the nose. His long, awkward limbs seem almost clumsily out of proportion with his body, but he does possess a certain grace in the way he moves, with an almost liquid sense of fluidity and laziness he carries on about things never seeming to falter as he goes. The more one observes him, and the more closely the less pleasant he seems to become until they are left with the distinct impression that he’s some kind of sneaky, mad hillbilly murderer who’s long, bony fingers are adept at wringing the necks of kittens, who would pick on anything smaller and weaker than him for no reason other than that they are smaller and weaker than him.
Occasionally, just once in a while, he’ll pull out his liston knife somewhere crowded and use it to clean his fingernails. Odd public gestures like this are a fundamental part of who Ebenezer is, though they are rarely seen, what he is in fact doing is checking to see if people will even notice that something so odd is going on, or whether they are so used to seeing him as a ‘nobody’ and a non-entity, that they will overlook him no matter how outlandish his behaviour is.
Uniform: In addition to his usual outfit which Ebenezer can normally be found wearing; a pair of torn old sack-brown trousers held up with a belt of rope, work-boots a size or two too big for him, the shoelaces rarely tied, a dishevelled red long sleeved shirt several times too large for him and a frayed old, black hook & ladder style straw hat, when out committing crimes he covers this all with a high-collared long dusty-black coat and occasionally openly will carry a pitchfork or his knife. His hat combined with the high collar of his coat helps to obscure his face, and sometimes he also wears a rag-like mask over his face as well.
Personality: Ebenezer is mad, completely off-the-wall crazy; he is just lucid enough to function in society when within the public eye, but once he feels he is beyond scrutiny all bets are off. There seem to be almost three distinct facets of his personality, and the first is his normal self; this is the Ebenezer which attends school and loves his mother, doing household chores for her severed head which he keeps in the refrigerator, the Ebenezer who will never fight unless cornered and who has nothing to add to any social situation and avoids all groups of people as though they were somehow toxic to him. This is the least foul aspect of his person, and it is the aspect he assumes to carry on something like a normal life. The second is his sexual side; his libido, long repressed, which a combination of his vile upbringing and his unfortunate mutant powers along with just a healthy dose of having been born fucked all make nothing but a collection of violent impulses. Ebenezer, when espousing this facet of his personality, is the kind of person best avoided. His upbringing has left him with a strange, masochistic urge to explore depravity and seek rewards by stepping outside the law, and his powers have left him with the unshakable belief that he is some kind of vile pariah who’s very existence is a stain on the earth. His favourite hobby is ‘freeing the fear’ a euphemism he uses to describe the act of eviscerating people and stuffing their insides with straw; he believes firmly that once dead their fear passes into him and causes him to become stronger. He has sexualised the act of murder to the point where he actively chooses only female victims, but Ebenezer has, and will again, kill men who get in his way, he simply derives no innate joy from it however it is the third and final aspect of his personality which engages in these actions. As said his upbringing has left him with a desire to seek rewards by stepping outside the law, and this he does; as a criminal Ebenezer prefers theft, stealing both to live, and for the aforementioned reason of personal satisfaction. He is more than happy to violently engage anyone in his way or who tries to stop him, and at times he has even sought accomplices, although few can stand him enough to maintain any sort of bond for more than a handful of jobs.
Unless ‘freeing the fear’ Ebenezer has no concept of happiness, but by that same token he has little concept of depression. Both the highs and lows of normal emotion have been suppressed so that they can only be experienced when triggered by extreme action which must come before feeling. He does not feel the need to assert himself among his peers, if someone bullies him he does not come to desire revenge, he has no desire to be liked and he does not like anyone. Never does he feel compelled to seek out quality time with another human, and the concepts of guilt and shame are both completely alien to him. He has been told about mutants, but he feels nothing in particular for them nor does he care for their various agendas; Ebenezer lives with the Brotherhood because it is a place where he can live, he would, with no real feelings, just as easily join the X-men, although it is unlikely he would be tolerated within their ranks.
Of no more than moderate intelligence Ebenezer possess academic gifts in no particular field, and while he has, in the past, proven adept at certain sports he has no desire to continue them as a hobby; he appears almost universally apathetic to an extreme degree, but this is because the things he cares about exist in aspects of his being which are not meant for public consumption. He is smart enough to know that while he doesn’t care about his murderous actions others might, and Ebenezer is an incredibly guarded individual as a result who, despite how impossible his powers make it, attempts to pass himself off as just another face in the crowd. The feelings and notions that motivate him do not occur within the normal human sphere of emotion or logic, it has been said that he is mad, and it is truly madness that compels him to act when he does, the strings of thought and idea which lead him to do certain things are incomprehensible save to someone who’s profession is the study of psychosis and only then they cannot be grasped in terms of pathos but only in a detached, intellectual manner; he cannot really be empathized with or understood because he is, simply, insane.
Powers: Scarecrow possesses a mutated adrenal gland which functions in several ways and effected his development as he grew. This gland produced a large number of mutated hormones during his growth which effected the development of his musculature, tendons, joints and bone structure. In addition it produces a mutated version of epinephrine which enhances his own physical prowess, but the by-product of this hormone is secreted through perspiration and acts as a pheromone in the air; chemically it forces those around him to undergo a fight-or-flight response, and, for unknown reasons, has an unusual effect on passerine birds of the genus corvus, namely corvus brachyrhynchos and corvus ossifragus: the common American Crow and Fish Crow.
Scarecrow’s joints, tendons, bone structure and musculature have all undergone development to enable him strength, speed and agility far in excess of human limitations and the mutated version of epinephrine which he produces further enables him enhanced speed, reflexes and stamina. His strength is not enhanced far in excess of human limits, and many normal humans do exist who are stronger than Ebenezer, but it enables him to possess a level of strength much higher in proportion to his weight than that of a normal human, and, naturally, this enables him to perform many feats of agility which are far in advance of human limits. His effected joints - more adept at absorbing shock - and the higher tensile strength of his tendons compliment this enhanced strength to weight ratio as well, allowing him to, for example, land on his feet when dropping from substantial heights without coming to injury through the trauma of impact, or to bend and contort his body in an extreme fashion without dislocating joints or pulling muscles. The mutated form of epinephrine he produces allows him to operate at a peak aerobic level for substantial durations giving him superb stamina and speed, and he is able to push his body past the limits imposed to prevent self-injury. With all these enhancements acting in concert Scarecrow possesses a formidable athletic talent; his reaction times, speed, strength, stamina and ability to survive impact and shock make him almost impossible to take by surprise or harm in a physical confrontation and he is well equipped to defend himself from any violent aggressor with combinations of rapid, well-timed high impact attacks.
The epinephrine byproduct which Scarecrow releases is arguably the most potent aspect of his mutation and it is certainly the most noteworthy in its effects on those around him. The pheromone he releases permeates the air about him, effecting everyone about him in varying degrees of intensity depending on how close or far away they are. Within those effected it produces potentially debilitating psychological distress in the form of an out of context flight-or-fight response. Common symptoms for those effected at a moderate to long distance (six to eight feet away) generally include trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pain, sweating, nausea, dizziness, hyperventilation and paresthesias; in short fear. The closer one gets the more intense the symptoms become, at their peak they usually include; vertigo, uncontrollable itching, hot or cold flashes, faintness, exhaustion or bodily weakness, loss of the ability to react logically to stimuli and loss of cognitive ability in general. These feelings are essentially those of terror; the person effected generally has a sense that something unimaginably horrible is about to occur and they are powerless to prevent it. Ebenezer can consciously increase the amount of epinephrine created in his body and thereby enhance the amount of by-product secreted into the air and thus increase the radius of effect and the strength of the symptoms, but generally, that is it is more common, the by-product is secreted into the air at a steady, continuous rate. The effect of ones willpower or personal attitude to fear is irrelevant as to the effects of this pheromone as it stimulates what is quite simply a chemical reaction which produces the symptoms; there is no way to reduce the intensity or occurrence of these symptoms save by moving away from Ebenezer and leaving the area permeated with the pheromone in question.
As mentioned earlier certain birds, namely the Common American Crow and Fish Crow are effected by Ebenezer’s epinephrine by-product in an unusual fashion. Not only are these birds attracted to it (seemingly undergoing no negative reaction at all) but it appears to make them extremely docile and suggestible. Ebenezer is often followed by a murder of crows as a result of this and they appear to respond almost obediently to his body-language, enabling him to use them to perform many small tasks. The longer the birds remain in proximity to him the more docile and suggestible they become, and many birds which have been exposed for substantial amounts of time have come to understand his body language well and are very obedient servants; more complex tasks can be entrusted to these animals, and they will even fly to their certain death if Ebenezer wishes them to do so. It should be noted also that these species of Crow are hyper-sensitive to this particular chemical and although for a normal human the radius of effect is not more than six to eight feet these crows can detect this pheromone from a substantial distance, and be effected by it from anywhere up to sixty feet away. Although they prefer to remain in close proximity they will maintain a distance if it is bidden of them.
Weaknesses: While impressive when acting in concert, when taken individually Scarecrow’s physical abilities (acrobatic ability, flexibility, strength, aerobic ability) do not far exceed those of a gifted human athlete; he can, therefore, be outperformed by many mutants. Toad, for example, can jump much higher and further, Quicksilver can run much more swiftly, Colossus is capable of delivering much more powerful blows, Nightcrawler is a more adept acrobat, etc. In addition the mutated form of adrenaline which enables his aerobic abilities often masks self-injury and it is common for Ebenezer to pull or tear muscles, sprain joints, snap tendons, bruise or even suffer stress fractures while engaged in bouts of hyper-activity, and while he may be able to ignore them when the peak flow of epinephrine is maintained when he eventually crashes he may find these injuries have been compounded during the time in which he has ignored them meaning it is possible for a relatively minor injury to quickly become debilitating when overlooked in such a fashion.
Although Ebenezer can control the amount of epinephrine by-product he produces in regards to intensity he cannot stop producing it. He will always be effecting people with this pheromone within around six to eight feet distance and although its effects on Crows are essentially a benefit for Ebenezer its effect on other animals is no less potent than that on humans but with one noteworthy difference. Most commonly encountered animals in an urban environment, dogs and cats namely, tend - being predatory in nature - to fight, rather than ‘flight’ and this means his pheromone has the unfortunate side-effect of driving all manner of household pets to attack him, an issue compounded by his inability to stop producing the pheromone. Also it should be noted that while under normal circumstances he can control the intensity of the pheromone it is linked to his bodies’ production of mutated epinephrine; the pheromone he produces being no more than a by-product of this chemical disposed through perspiration, and as this chemical (epinephrine) fluctuates naturally, increasing during times of stress and high activity, so to does the production and emission of its by-product; in short his ability to moderate the intensity of this pheromone and its effects is severely limited.
Finally while Ebenezer’s crows may represent a useful tool they can also be a prohibitive one; often they will follow him inside buildings or into school generally making a nuisance of themselves. The older, more suggestible animals which have remained in his presence for a long time are more amendable to suggestion via body language and tend to be more obedient, but at all times he will be followed about by more recent additions to his murder and these are primarily only there to enjoy the pheromone which attracts them in the first place. They have not yet come to understand Ebenezer’s body language and are inclined to do little of what he wishes of them, in general these new birds are less symbiotic and more parasitic, and the birds which follow Ebenezer about range between both extremes, they are not all either seasoned ’friends’ or disobedient new ’recruits’, they range in usefulness between both ends of the scale and so it should not be thought that they are all simply his minions who serve him unquestionably.
Power Potential: It should be noted that while under normal circumstances he can control the intensity of the fear-pheromone that is to say he can consciously increase the amount of epinephrine created in his body and thereby enhance the amount of by-product secreted into the air and thus increase the radius of effect and the strength of the symptoms his fear-pheromone causes, on a fundamental level the production of this pheromone is linked to his bodies’ production of mutated epinephrine, and as this chemical (epinephrine) fluctuates naturally, increasing during times of stress and high activity, so to does the production and emission of its by-product. So at this point in his life Ebenezer is, in short, very limited in his ability to moderate the intensity of this pheromone and its effects. However with time Ebenezer will eventually be able to take a more active hand in controlling how much epinephrine his body creates in any given situation, he will become able to veto the bodies production of it during times or stress, or force its production when the body does not wish to, allowing him to control to a greater the degree the amount and intensity of the fear-pheromone he radiates, be able to extend its radius of effect through conscious effort, and so on. This will take a great deal of time and practise however and his development will be hampered so long as he is only doing it himself, and does not possess the benefit of someone to teach him in regards to moderating his power. Also while Ebenezer generally produces the epinephrine by-product at a steady, continuous rate, meaning he cannot simply ‘turn off’ his powers (perhaps his greatest weakness) he will, with time, be able to moderate the amount which is created to the point where its effects are, when he is ‘at rest’ almost imperceptibly small, but as with increasing its flow, this is a complex thing to effect, not truly amendable to control via conscious thought and so it will take allot of time and practise for Ebenezer to master this ability.
Finally in regards to his Crows it has been stated that in general the new birds are less symbiotic and more exploitative, and that the birds which follow and cluster about him range between both extremes, from useful birds which understand his body language and are highly amendable to suggestion to relative newcomers who do not and are primarily exploiting his power in a parasitic fashion. As time goes on Ebenezer will, as a result of long communication, be able to come to understand - himself - something of their body-language and be able to replicate it himself so as to make himself understood, and as he comes to master the flow of his bodies fear-pheromone which the crows desire he will be able to deny it to them and thus force them to behave as he wishes. Further the longer any bird stays with Ebenezer the more suggestible it becomes, so barring deaths and accidents, his flock will become more and more useful as a result of its addiction to his chemical and amenability to his suggestions, as well as his ability to more clearly express what he desires, and manipulate them by way of rewards or punishment in regards to his fear-pheromone. Naturally this will take even longer than it will for him to master the production of the pheromone itself.
Skills & Talents: Ebenezer is quite talented with two types of weapon; the first a twelve-inch liston knife he keeps on his person at all times, and the second an old pitchfork which he only rarely shows the light of day to, he is adept at incorporating the use of these weapons with the physical talents bestowed upon him by his mutations and makes a formidable opponent in hand to hand combat as a result.
History: Ebenezer’s mother, Martha, was a woman greatly embittered by her late husbands death and his ‘desertion’ of the family she started so late in life; most of this bitterness was taken out on the young Ebenezer who’s mother was the central focus of his entire life for many years. A domineering, matronly woman she never left the house unless for work and essentially forbade Ebenezer from spending time outside apart from to attend school once he was old enough. She did not approve of his friends and allowed him to have none; so cowed was Ebenezer by his mother that he dared not do anything she forbade and where most children would have formed bonds with others regardless he did exactly as he was told and interacted with nobody. Doing his best however was not always good enough and Ebenezer was quick to learn that when he erred he would be punished ruthlessly; when he was young and physically much smaller and weaker than her she would beat him savagely, whipping him with power cords or beating his knuckles with a yard stick, but as he grew older she found she could not hurt him enough with sheer force and turned to more devious ways of inflicting pain on him, a favourite method of correction was putting out cigarettes on him, but she would also use boiling water to scald him or order him to hold his hand above a candle until she could smell it burning.
With all this having been said it is safe to say that Ebenezer’s childhood was not the stuff of dreams, but there were other problems present in his upbringing for which his mother was not entirely accountable. Ebenezer, for example, came from a family that was rather poor as his father had died shortly after he was born and his mother held only a low paying job as a nurses aid, and although she would do shift work to raise her salary it only ever amounted to being just enough for their living expenses and bills. Ebenezer would wear ratty clothes to school, and he was often teased for his appearance, his hair was cut by his mother and he had almost no money for little luxuries or diversions. Naturally his financial position was exacerbated on entering school more so than in his early life when the pressure to compete in trendy fads and to have the season’s cool clothes was felt acutely by Ebenezer who could afford none of it, and his popularity was nonexistent as a result. Nobody wanted to spend time with him because he did not bathe often, looked like a street kid and was sullen, withdrawn, always sporting a new scar of some sort. Other people his age were troubled by him, and so he was left alone or bullied for being the odd one out.
There was one constant in Ebenezer’s life apart from a cycle of beatings and social rejection and that was his mother’s guilt; when he did wrong she would inevitably punish him cruelly, but afterwards she would be overcome with guilt and often treat him to presents and attention which he relished. It was only a matter of time before Ebenezer began acting up on purpose to elicit this reaction and a large part of why his mother was constantly beating him was down to his own behaviour. Even when he was young Ebenezer had many disturbing habits, and he would kill neighbourhood pets and hide their bodies in places his mother could find them, he would terrify the children on his street with knives and threats, and when his mother received complaints from their parents she would go berserk.
When Ebenezer entered high school and his powers began to manifest he was devastated; here was yet another reason for people to avoid him, and at a time when he yearned most for human company, and knowing nothing of mutation he came to believe that it was only some extension of his evil personality which made people shun and avoid him; the idea that he was somehow intrinsically evil was reinforced when he found himself attacked by animals at random, dogs, for example would go mad if he strolled by their yard, cats would scratch at him and flee if he attempted to pet them. He believed surely that animals with their great perception knew he was some kind of pariah, and his mother felt the same way. Even when he had done wrong she was loathe to approach him, and the withdrawal of her attentions was something he could not really bear, it was, perhaps, the straw which broke the camels back and Ebenezer graduated in his Jnr. year of high school, from killing animals to killing people. It began when he was made the target of a vicious prank by a girl in his year who invited him to a school dance only to stand him up and humiliate him on the day and it ended when, several weeks later, she disappeared. The investigation yielded no results; Ebenezer had a way of stonewalling even the most hardened detectives that left them uneasy, and with little evidence to go on the case was dropped. Few people at his school had the nerve to tease him after this.
Later in Ebenezer’s Jnr. Year his mother died and he found that he had been bequeathed nothing by her. Her funeral was held out of state, and nobody in his family would assist him in getting home after his uncle’s family, who had brought him there, decided they could not ever again spend time locked in a car with him and ditched him; he walked home, but not before illegally exhuming his mothers corpse and removing its head. With it wrapped in Clingfilm he made his way back and enjoyed something of an epiphany en route when he stopped to stare at a scarecrow in a private farm for several hours. Ebenezer took its clothes before he left, and as he returned home over a nine-day odyssey, sleeping by the road side with his mothers head tucked under his arm, he found company in the form of crows. Dozens of them followed him. Eventually he returned to Bayville, but there was nowhere for him to stay, and he was, at this point, contacted by a man who called himself Magneto. The man offered him sanctuary and Ebenezer accepted the offer; moving into the Brotherhood House where his room contains a padlocked bar fridge. It is unlikely he will stay long.
Sample RP: ‘Stay,’ Scarecrow said. ‘Stay here,’ he was talking to several crows who were hopping about the front steps of the school. The rest of his companions were perched about on telegraph wires, post-boxes, anywhere they felt comfortable, but three were persistently demanding to be able to follow him and they pecked at his feet, hopping after him as he headed up to the school’s front doors. ‘You will stay,’ he declared, shooing them in an attempt to make them leave him. Two did, but one, more stubborn than the others, simply pecked at his arm and cawed loudly. It was determined to follow him inside. Scarecrow lost his patience with it, and noticing his disapproval some of his older pets flew down to peck and scratch at the disobedient vassal, chasing it off and harassing it through the sky as it fled. Ebenezer then headed inside, watching as people moved away from him as he paced slowly down the crowded locker hall.
Activity: I'll try to post at least once a day, and to come online, say, six times a week.