Bio
Name: Matthew “H.M.” Keller
Age: 20
PB: Drew Fuller
History: Matt has no tragic back story for why he is the way he is. He was born into a perfectly normal family, the oldest of three children, with loving if distant parents. They were part of a traveling performance troop, and Matt grew up with the dream of every adolescent: living in a circus. He was never abused, never watched anyone die in front of his eyes. There was no great trauma to jumpstart it, yet somehow he ended up with a sociopathic alternate personality. His other personality has been with him as long as he can remember, from his earliest memories as a child. Growing up, he thought it was perfectly normal to black out and not remember large chunks of his memory later. At first, his alternate personality confined himself to mindless destruction, which while annoying, wasn’t terribly malicious. As he grew older, and his alternate personality, going by the initials H.M., started taking control more and more. There was a mailman who lost fingers in a supposed accident involving the mail slot. Then there was the next door neighbor’s son, when they were stopped in Texas, went missing permanently after a game of hide and seek.
When he was eight, Matt was found in front of the house his family had been staying in, watching it burn, mercifully with no one inside. It was considered a miracle he survived. When he was twelve, Matt found his younger sister pushed down an old abandoned well at the edge of the circus, her leg broken and with a concussion. She didn’t remember how she had ended up down there, but everyone was grateful he found her, afraid the girl would have died otherwise with no one around to hear her cries for help. Soon after, Matt’s mutant powers began to develop, which only added to the problem, despite his family’s acceptance of his powers. His alternate had become the ultimate in deception, fooling his own family while continuing to torment them. The constant moving around also helped to cover his tracks. One night when he was fourteen, Matt found himself wandering the streets, his shirt ripped to shreds and soaked with blood. Terrified as to what had happened, he buried his clothes and told no one. When Matt was sixteen, his alternate finally grew sloppy. Burying his younger brother alive, he assumed he had gotten away with it. But the boy lived and dug himself out of the grave.
Arrested, he was found to be too mentally unstable to stand trial for attempted murder, labeled as having Dissociative Identity Disorder and sent into psychiatric care. His family stayed loyally by him, and while they were frightened of his alternate, still loved their son and wished his psyche could be restored. While Matt earnestly sought help, H.M. only humored them for four years, until he was moved from the aggressive patients ward to one less secure. Then he simply left one day, dragging poor Matt along for the ride. Now, the two have become nomadic wanderers, never staying in one place for long, as Matt refuses to go back to his family until he can trust himself not to hurt them.
Personality:
Matt is a typical twenty year old, which comes off as someone who just prefers to be in the background. He’s very quiet and reserved, seemingly carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He often feels resigned to the fact he’s basically along for the ride, catering to his other’s whims. He feels like a janitor, cleaning up the messes created by his other half. He also has a lot of sorrow and guilt, feeling responsible for all the pain and misery his other half causes, almost with a sadomasochist streak in his desire to be punished for his crimes. His introverted personality truly comes out when performing, whether on a stage in front of an audience or a street corner. While appearances by him used to be rare, therapy has allowed him to regain some control, but H.M. forced him to leave the psych ward before anymore progress could be made.
H. M., the alternate, and much stronger of the personalities, is quite frankly a sociopath. His biggest delight is in the torment and eventual death of his victims. He’s crafty, covering up his crimes with careful skill, often posing as a charming gentleman. In therapy, he described himself as being much older than Matt is, seemingly a very experienced killer in the body of a young man. He also has a dark playful streak to him, liking to pull pranks that are malicious, cruel, and oftentimes deadly for the victim. He considers Matt a weakling, belittling him, but at the same time bitterly jealous of the fact Matt has what H.M. considers the better power. He also claims he is the ‘real’ personality, even knowing deep down this is not true. However, despite it all, he is protective of his other half, perhaps understanding he would not exist without Matt. If he finds out anyone has hurt Matt, woe to them, for their death will not swift.
There are occasional hints that a third personality may indeed be present, but Matt is completely unaware of its presence, and H.M. refuses to talk about it.
Powers:
Technically, Matt has two. Unfortunately, each can only be accessed by one of his personalities.
Matt has a form of super strength. It is reliant on a build up on kinetic energy. Any blow he struck by, whether it is by punches, bullets, or a cut from a knife is absorbed and turned into raw power. Depending on how much he has stored up directly correlates how much strength he has. At full capacity, he literally becomes unstoppable. Because of the absorption, his skin is also extremely tough, never bruising, and it is very hard to wound him in any way.
H.M. has empathetic persuasion. Basically, he's the most charming sociopath you'll ever meet. He plants mild telepathic suggestions in people to make them like him, trust, and if used long enough, obey him. It has to be in the form of a question and of the victim’s own free will, since he's not that powerful, but he’s young, and his skills might grow. It works on the subconscious level, complete with releasing a chemical into their brains to make them feel good if they obey him.
Skills:
Having grown up as a performer, he’s acquired a unique set of skills over the years, and getting to perform is one of the few things both personalities enjoy and can agree upon. Matt prefers the lighter side: dancing, magic tricks, and juggling. H.M. prefers the more dangerous aspects: tightrope walking, fire breathing, sword swallowing, and knife throwing. Both enjoy singing, although their singing voice has been charitably described as sounding creepy at best.