Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database
File #20 Aug 2018 12:46
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 Chris Hemsworth |
Atticus McCallan was born on 1/9/1980 to a pair of British Expats, Holly and James in a small town not far outside of Sydney Australia. A normal childhood, though with no siblings, was then led, with about average grades and above average physical fitness, excelling in sports, martial arts, and enjoying many a camping and hunting trip with his family.
You know that things are going to be interesting when you wake up, after having one of those falling dreams, falling into the creek in back of your house stark naked from about two meters up. No.. no, you know that the day is really gonna suck. Either way, that was the initial ‘hint’ that Atticus was ‘special’ in a way that wasn’t just the normal mother/father proud of their child sort of thing.
Finding out in the winter of one’s seventeenth year of life that you can teleport.. yes../teleport/ is quite the mind-blowing experience. More than a little concerning as well, even then Atticus had a good head on his shoulders and more than a healthy dose of ‘be prepared’ and ‘paranoia’ both, if neither of them so bad as to be considered true mental ‘ticks’ so to speak. It took him time to get things under control, to learn limits… A few near death experiences along the way. He managed to keep it from his parents for about six months, figuring they weren't really going to believe him (and in true teenaged fashion, uncertain he really wanted them to know that much about what was going on with him), but by the time he graduated secondary school and was preparing to go into the ADF he had some real concerns about what might happen if anyone found out. So he finally came out to his parents, and there was a lot of very low-key freaking out. (His parents were really laid-back personalities, but this is a big thing!) For a time, they didn't want him out of their sight or off their property, fear of what might happen to him overwhelming their usual calm lives. But when nothing untoward seemed to happen, they eventually began to calm some. Still, they made a point of advising him to NOT let anyone at all know what he could do.
College didn't really happen, while Atticus could've taken a scholarship in either rugby or hockey
( not the ice kind ) his mind was set on joining the military. With all that was going on in the
world his general sense of duty made it just seem 'right'. So, into the Australian Special Air Service Regiment, he went. This, of course, required enlistment in the ADF and learning to be a soldier first. The usual training followed, and Atticus soldiered through it, and after a tour through East Timor, entered training for becoming a Commando. Another two tours ( East Timor, and Afghanistan respectively ) saw him put in for SASR training and selection. Once there, and various tours through the sandbox, the newly made Staff Sergeant McCallan began to truly focus on counter-terror and counterinsurgency. It was also during this time that he was .. encouraged by his commanders to start taking coursework in related areas.
Of note, that while throughout his military career Atticus continued to practice with, learn, and
understand his 'power', he was not one to rely on it to survive. In fact, at no point during any training cycle did he rely on his ability to quite literally be just about anywhere he wanted to be despite the obstacles put in front of him. His ability works best alone, and he did leverage it during deployment, as well as to get in and out of several scrapes that would have otherwise been less than survivable. He worked hard to keep his ability secret from the military, and as far as he knows no one in the ADF knew that he was an Evolved.
In 2006, the world changed dramatically. The United States was the epicenter of the revelation of the presence of Evos in the world with the Midtown bombing. The international law enforcement communities were in something of an uproar. By virtue of having been the first to deal with such a threat, the US also became the first to begin to put into motion policies and procedure for law enforcement to follow, and other countries were very interested in seeing how those methods would work. Several allied countries (Australia, Great Britain, etc) requested "exchange" programs — conferences that their officers could attend and learn what was working for the US and what wasn't. It was here that Atticus first got his full exposure to which way the political wind was going to blow when it came to Evos. He came to the US as an exchange officer to train with the US FBI HRT teams. Between 2006 and 2009, as the US began to react to the Evolved, Atticus acted as a liaison between US and Australian law enforcement and, for perhaps the first time, he found himself put in a place where ‘country’ and his own personal sense of honor began to have an opportunity to travel different paths. The US looked, surprisingly, like it was going to be worse.
2008 saw his first three-month training cycle with the HRT at Fort Bragg with the Delta Force. An accident that occurred during one particular evolution damned near exposed his paranormal ability and *did* put him on the Christmas Card list for the HRT team’s CO. No one has any idea how he managed to get out of the panel van full of explosives after driving it away from the training area in an attempt to get the mis-wired ‘bomb’ out of harm’s way - but he did, saving a good number of both his fellow teammates and the whole HRT squad they were training with. It was this start of a friendship that was likely the reason for that same CO, a Robert Greenheart, request that Atticus be the first in a new program of ‘exchange’ personnel between the HRT and the SASR, a program in which the subjects would become ( after appropriate training and qualifications ) full members of the respective organizations. Unbeknownst to Atticus, it also put him on the Company's radar. He was grabbed and tagged with the isotope tracker, but given his history and his apparent intended career path, he was deemed not a threat so they decided to just watch him very closely. Changing your citizenship status does not negate your friendships and history, obviously, and although he wasn't sure he would ultimately stay in the US, Atticus felt he could do a lot of good. He talked a lot about what he was seeing with Bob Greenheart, though nothing classified, of course.
The Company's original intent may have been recruitment, but he put in his request to apply to the FBI itself in mid-2009 and Atticus was put through a fairly rigorous training regimen that was more mental than physical, bringing him up to snuff with the FBI’s more academic requirements. His desires aligned well with what the Company wanted from him, so in the background they assisted in fast-tracking him through the US Naturalization process so that he could become a US Citizen. Although dual citizenship is certainly allowed in the US (albeit discouraged), a security clearance requires a dual citizenship to be renounced and for the first time in his career a blood test for Evo status was actually mandatory. Eighteen months later saw FBI Special Agent Atticus McCallan start duty as a fully fledged member of the FBI’s HRT teams. It was at the behest of his former CO that he then requested time to look in on the new FRONTLINE team in NYC, to do a bit of investigatory work there for both the FBI HRT and the SASR. It’s there that he met Elisabeth Harrison, where the two got to spend enough time together that Atticus would not believe, nor trust, one word of the things that would be said of her in the months and years to come. He also got a good look at the Eltingville Blocks - who would have imagined the US implementing ‘camps’ again? His opinions and thoughts on all of these things were shared with his former CO-turned-good-friend.
Given his new status in DC as a naturalized citizen and federal agent, it was time for Atticus to have someplace that he could call home away from the hustle and bustle of the political city and by the end of 2010 he had found and purchased a lovely property out west of the DC area in the Shenandoahs. Bob Greenheart and his family lived not too far away in Port Royal, VA, and it was beautiful countryside. But that wasn't all it had to recommend it — the political climate in the country was continuing to deteriorate, and it wasn't at all by accident that Atticus had chosen a place to live that did not have an improved road, and was halfway up the side of what the East Coast of the US has for mountains. Nor that that mountain formed part of a valley, or hollow, called Thompsonville Hollow just outside of Benton, VA. It's a place easy to get lost in, and one that's even easier to defend at any number of spots. His place was well stocked, and he knew just where to get more if needs be. That along with a few caches that were hard to reach for anyone without his abilities, and even harder to find because of those abilities, Atticus was far better prepared than most for what was to come. He was always one to do what he could to intervene on the side of sanity…even if it wasn’t always the clearest _moral_ choice - how does one reconcile duty to country with duty to people as a whole when both are being stupid? He just hoped he'd never have to use the plans he'd set in place.
Taking a few days off to go home to this property in mid-November 2011 saw him opening his front door and walking inside just as the news hit about the massacre up north and all hell truly breaking loose. Getting the hell out of the country at this point wasn’t going to be reasonably possible for him, and given who… no, what he was… and the friends he’d made here, well - helping get friends and their families out of harm’s way was the right thing to do.
Falling off the radar was surprisingly easy, given his particular circumstances: He was on holiday when when the fecal matter hit the vertical impeller, no one really had an idea of where he was, and the United States government was literally in a state of complete disarray on all fronts after the murder of civilian innocents on live television. In the chaos that followed Atticus managed to contact Bob Greenheart and his family and, between them, the two men worked together and leveraged Atticus's abilities to the fullest to turn Thompsonville hollow into a redoubt that would keep them all safe and relatively off of the rest of the world's radar. This took time enough, and gave them all a chance to see which way the wind was blowing, as far as their colleges in the FBI and the Military went, anyway. It wasn't a difficult choice for Atticus to help those that he came across move northward and towards Canada, though he still did his best to remain incognito. Best plans don't survive contact with the enemy though, and there were certainly a few times that those he was helping, all on his own initiative, saw him…and then migrations through his 'area' seemed to begin to travel through places that he regularly patrolled and was able to help out with.
The first weeks after things went to hell saw most of the HRT team members where Atticus was stationed break away from the government. The 'Hollow' as it would be called was where most of them ended up, if not immediately, within the first six months or so afterwards. It is a hard thing when one's government, seemingly one's country, has gone so totally off the rails into a state of xenophobia that you can't reconcile with what you know in your gut and your heart it should be. Some of those that showed weren't there to fight - in fact some wouldn't pick up arms again. Others fought, defended… and some even betrayed them at key and crucial points. Bob Greenheart was a casualty of one such betrayal, losing an arm and an eye to an IED set by one of 'their own' just outside his house. Atticus was away at the time, returning to find his friend..a mentor in a lot of ways, having just escaped death nearly put him into a state of depression and rage that would not end. Eventually the culprit was found.. Eventually the culprit was dropped onto the roof of the FBI Headquarters in DC, the office of the man running the spy/traitor just below the spot where the man landed, presumably kicked out of a plane that somehow wasn't ever picked up on radar.
As the war started to cool, wrapping up in fits and starts, Atticus began ranging further out from the Hollow in his patrols. Seeking to keep a finger on the pulse of things, keeping in touch with the few Ferrymen he'd met along the way, and working to bring a very rapid stop to any abuses, Evolved or not, that he came across. While this might sound, and be, fairly altruistic, there's a certain pragmatism to it - at least that's the thing that justified most of the risks in Atticus's head - keeping the stupid and hate down made for a stabler, and safer, region. Time were still not easy, and there were more deaths along the way than anyone with a soul would want to see, but in general the Hollow, with Atticus and the HRT as a backstop, worked to..and largely succeeded at, stabilizing the region. These trips also allowed him to maintain the couple of supply caches he had left after all this time, leaving him three scattered in out of the way locations from the mountainous area around Frostburg, PA, a small little cave on a mountain looking down on lake Winnipesaukee in NH, and one other buried under a rock on a hillside in the Norvin Green State Forest of NY. That and the small little one bedroom house that once belonged to his friend and ex-CO Bob Greenheart, a vacation spot on the northern coast of New Hampshire's Lake Champlain. All of these, but the house, really are just a couple of days rations for one, a couple of small-arms, some ammo, and a change of clothing for him. The house is left more well stocked, 'prepped' as his next bugout location, though with a focus more on long term survivability.
Six years later, as things begin to settle - at least in the various enclaves that he’s helped protect, and even set up, over that timeframe - and Atticus has gotten the itch to move on. New York seems to be a place where things are happening, and yet still more than enough room that he might be able to help out, one way or the other. Traveling is easy when you can do what he can, and while he might be able to manage a ‘jump’ .. really more like several… to get back to Sydney again, there are reasons he’d like to avoid that if he can.
New York it is - and look, RayTech - a US-based company, but seemingly on the right track, or at least one he can square himself with anyway, is looking for people…
Atticus is a man that is driven by a few key motivators: Preparedness, Safety, and what he views as 'Right'. He's a man that has proven he can take the worst punishment than man can devise and still persevere towards his goal. Though it wasn't his SASR that coined the phrase, it holds very true for him: The only easy day was yesterday. Still, he is a man comfortable in his own skin, and while not 'easy going', neither smiles nor a laugh are considered rare for the man. One final truth marks this man: Friendship is brotherhood. There is nothing he wouldn't do to help a friend, and no length he'd not go to to punish a betrayal. He's no saint, no boyscout either - he's done things that don't sit well with him, and he'll do them again if the situation requires it.
To most people, even himself, he's a focused man with a large part of his life dedicated to 'work' and 'duty'. His choices in career have required a certain hardening of demeanor, of walling away of the typically 'softer' morals and altruistic tendencies of 'good' people. Mostly he does his best to ensure that he never endorses the label 'nice', 'kind', or 'good' being applied to him - those words have far too many requirements and implications attached to them.
With friends, however, and when not in a place or time that he might consider 'at risk', Atticus can let his hair down, as they say ( despite there not being too much of it ), and have a good time. Drink, play pool, play cards, dance ( badly ) - he's can't carry a tune in a bucket or keep a musical rhythm to save his life.
There really isn't anyone around that has known him long enough to really see the full scope of how Atticus has changed since he arrived in the US. Few are close enough, and those that are either haven't said anything, or had their own issues to deal with. For Atticus, the way the US fell apart - its own laws, its own people tearing it apart from the inside..tearing each /other/ apart. The total failure in the American spirit that was famous around the world. All of this, all of this and having to take what remained of the law into his own hands to keep the Hollow safe from both internal and external threats. The 'law' is not something Atticus respects any longer. Hell, government isn't something that means a damned thing to him any longer. There is what he believes is right. There are his friends, few and far between, and everyone else can join, get out of the way, or be pushed as firmly as needed out of the way.
There are nightmares, and there is a total lack of desire to be anything close to what one would call 'in charge' unless, and only if, hell has returned to walk the earth again. The esprit de corps that shaped him still exists, but it's limited to those he considers "his" — new comrades could find their way into his core of people, it just takes some time and/or some other circumstance that causes him to trust them. There's no partial trust in him — you're either inside his circle or you're subject to suspicion. And he has no desire to become a leader of a team again — the betrayal of the man who hurt Bob cut deep and shook his faith in his own judgement of people. How could he have missed it? Why didn't he see it? Better that he not allow anyone close enough to hurt those who are considered his than risk someone being hurt again. Does Atticus have PTS? Yes. Does he hide it well? Usually. Is he a nice guy that follows the 'Protect and Serve', minimal force approach? No.
Atticus is a hard man at the core, made tougher by the crucible of his past, and like anything hard and tough, pushing at the right place, hard enough, can threaten his generally calm demeanor. Certainly more easily done now than it was prior to the war.
Atticus can teleport. More specifically he can be someplace else nearly instantaneously with a thought, taking with him anything and everything he can lift. The process is largely instinctive at this point in that Atticus does not really have to think about it - muscle memory, as it were. He only specifically began to learn how it worked when he was required to Register for his FBI position and US citizenship. What he's really doing is transforming his body and what's touching it (solids and liquids only) into EM radiation and literally then traveling from one place to another.
There are caveats:
While he does not have to be able to move to teleport, he needs to be able to lift, entirely off the ground, and ‘control’ what he is going to teleport with him. In practice, this equates to what he can deadlift - which is roughly 350-400 lbs, given his level of fitness.
Distance appears to be an odd factor - if he can see it with the mark one eyeball, or with non-electronic aid - he can jump there with little to no noticeable strain nor limit on the number of times in any particular time window. Jumping from memory of a place that he’s been before, or seen via detailed electronic imagery ( TV, in person video, drone coverage - satellite pics and high altitude air shots won’t work ) and studied for at least thirty minutes has several complications involved. First, if the location has changed at all since he last saw it, he could find himself materializing inside a solid object that wasn't sitting there before, and the consequences of that could potentially be severe. Second, the range itself seems to be limited at this time to around 250 miles, give or take 25. Finally, teleporting like that from memory incurs a noticeable strain that gets worse concurrent with the age of the memory or the three dimensional detail available in the electronic media. The strain also applies to how much mass he's teleporting with him — he can jump far more often alone than he can when taking additional mass with him. It's been theorized that this has to do with the amount of energy his body is actually holding when he teleports — teleporting more objects reduces the range he can manage because he has a finite amount of "fuel" for the jumps. In practice, this generally means that if he’s been to a place often enough to memorize it, jumping there blind is like a 100-yard dash and he might need a minute to pause before jumping right back out. Jumping anywhere based on image alone, it’s two of those, back to back, in full combat gear. He can, under optimal conditions, teleport to these memory/long-distance locations, alone up to ten times in the space of half an hour, but by the time he hits his tenth landing, he's going to need a couple days' rest. Those numbers reduce with more mass. So if he's teleporting himself and someone else or himself and other objects, he can't go quite as far nor can he go as many times.
While he has not been able to give it significant testing, he’s not found much that will stop him from jumping either away from, or to, a place. He’s chained himself down, both above and below water, jumped into and out of bank vaults, the only adverse effect he’s had is through Faraday cages, and even though only a distance of a few feet and he could -see- the other side, it felt like he’d just run ten miles. Any location that is fully EM shielded is difficult, if not impossible, to teleport into/out of.
Inertia is a thing. He can jump while moving, he can change the direction that he will be going once he reaches his destination, what he cannot do is cancel ( or increase ) his momentum. This seems to be a mental thing or an odd twist of physics - he’s not smart enough to tell which - because he can jump from a plane to the ground without killing himself despite the relative speed differences, but he can’t jump while falling and end up stationary on the ground.