Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database
File #24 Feb 2018 22:18
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Scott Eastwood |
1991-2001. Caspian Dussault was born in California on 09 April, 1991 to Winston and Susan Dussault. His childhood was relatively uneventful, spent mostly on his parents' winery in Glen Ellen, California, located in the Sonoma Valley region. He had a basic childhood, with birthday parties every year and trips to the big city of San Francisco on special occasions. His family were fairly straight-laced business-types, making and selling wine that was sold around the state in nicer restaurants. The family vineyard actually won the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for Cabernet Sauvignon in 2001, a fact that the family attributed to Caspian finally sleeping through the night and giving Winston some time to do some proper work on that year's vintage. Travel during his youth was intermittent, rarely going much further than the limits of his family's property or the city proper. One trip to Yellowstone when he was eight kindled a wanderlust in the boy, and soon the family was traveling to national parks whenever they could, exploring the beauty of the nation, swimming in lakes, rivers and streams, and generally having a good time. It was around this time too that Caspian got into skateboarding and the skateboarding subculture. Strangely enough, the middle of wine country had a thriving little skateboard scene, since everyone was so straight laced. It really wasn't surprising that that the kids rebelled a little. Despite all of that, Caspian's parents were supportive, giving him rides to competitions when they could. Even now, photos can be found in frames at his mother's house of Caspian, at ten, skating a swimming pool, doing a passable rail grind and even holding aloft a third place trophy in a skateboarding competition. He also started playing soccer in a pee-wee league.
2001-2005. This decade found Caspian getting his feet wet and learning what he did and did not like to do. He taught himself to drive - without permission - around the family plot in his dad's old F-150, only getting stuck once after plowing through a fence and taking out two rows of vines. This was immortalized, much to his disdain, as Caspian's Crash Chardonnay '04, which was well received thanks to the photo of him, a few years earlier, standing next to the wrecked truck with the vines scattered around it on the label. In 2005. Caspian's father died of a heart attack in the vineyards. Due to the massive workload and the sheer cost of running and maintaining a winery by herself, Caspian's mother sold the vineyard and moved the family to Dodge City, Kansas, to be closer to her parents. While this shored up life on the family front, this had the effect of moving Caspian away from the place he knew to a place he really didn't. Glomming on to skateboarding as the constant in his life, he started to embrace the counterculture more. A skateboard wasn't something just to get from point a to b, but it was a lifestyle that conflicted with a lot of the standard junior high and high school views about life and culture and style. Constant riding and tricks got him very good at skateboarding with the added effect of getting his strength and stamina up, helped with his balance, and got him fairly decent at patching up scrapes and bruises.
Being the California Kid plus being a skateboarder in a city where there weren't many of them around put Caspian into conflict with a few cowboys who saw him and the odd skateboarding crowd he hung out with as something to be slammed down as the evil 'outsider' that every student wants so much to not be a part of. There were fights - lots of them - but Caspian didn't care. He was a Californian and proud of it, and to hell with what anyone else thought. This led to several fights, multiple black eyes, and after one brawl that ended up shutting down the school cafeteria, a multi-day expulsion from school. He ended up getting sent to an alternate school for a few weeks, which changed his attitude towards fights in school. Without that outlet for his frustration, Caspian started dabbling in Graffiti, using markers, stickers, and spray paint to start making his mark. His tag, OUTSIDER, started appearing around town in various skate parks, abandoned buildings, and out-of-the-way walls, pieces increasingly complex and eye catching. He found himself rather good at it, and his grades in art started to get better. Accidentally leaving one of his black books in class got one of the art teachers interested in him, too. Considering black books could be used as evidence in cases of graffiti art and vandalism, the fact that she gave it back built a massive amount of trust between her and Caspian and helped straighten him out just a little. Whenever that outlet started to not be enough, he actually started taking kickboxing and working out. Learning how to fight let him get a lot of that bad energy out, gave him a sense of self discipline, a place to belong, and a safe haven for growth. It also had the added benefit of warning the cowboys, thanks to his stature and the way he carried himself, that he could take care of any problems that might occur. Every year or so, one of the newer students would want to try again and they usually ended up much worse for wear. It's not like Caspian was invincible - he usually took a few punches the fight, sure, but being able to knee, elbow, kick, and pound the other guy in front of his friends did a lot to cement his reputation as someone to not mess with. He was also careful to do this off of campus, to keep from getting expelled again.
2006-2009. The solar maximum happens, and Caspian's power manifests. He quickly discovers he has the ability to project and control fields of force. He spent some time practicing in the back pasture of his family's land, getting better with his force fields, becoming able to exert rudimentary control, creating them after a few moments rather than the multiple minutes it took the first time he tried. His Graffiti started getting even more complex, and located in harder and harder to reach places, thanks to his force fields allowing him to climb on invisible steps. His tag ended up in quite visible places, like the side of a water tower fifty feet above the ground that would have taken another graff artist several hours just to reach, plus a scaffold and a rope to stand on while working. Cas did use a climbing belt and rope once he was up there, allowing him to concentrate on the art while dangling above the countryside. His claim to fame was a piece on a highway sign that he did while visiting the Chris Elsen Memorial Skate Park in Wichita, Kansas. It took all night Friday and Saturday, and when it was finished, spanned interstate 35 on a sign just above a major junction just as it was entering Wichita. The art was left there for two months - a simple, colorful image of a little girl in a cotton dress spraying the simple slogan 'Know You Are Enough' on the sign as a note of hope for the people going into work in Wichita. That sign was eventually removed, displayed for several months in a 'street art' display, and then sold for considerably more than the replacement cost, a fact he was quite proud of at the time. He still has the articles clipped out somewhere.
When news of an explosion in New York was passed on November 8, 2006, the world around Caspian acted..well..like it was a usual thing, not something horrible. New York got bombed again, glad we're here where it's safe, screw them liberals, sucks for those that got hurt, prolly them sand n*s what done it, nah it was them evolved, yadda yadda yadda. The indifference in the middle of the country was maddening, and blame was quietly shuttled from place to place until eventually settling right on top of the Evolved 'threat.' This made things a mite uncomfortable for Caspian, knowing he was evolved and keeping it from his family for good reason.
The Linderman act was passed in July 2007. Caspian knew he was evolved and, by law, he should have registered as evolved, but chose not to. In his view, his force fields weren't any more dangerous than someone carrying around a baseball bat and not that big of a deal. Sure, the specter of 'nuclear powered evolved' running around was bandied about, but that was taken as pure propaganda. Still, it was required that he register to do anything, so he pulled a few strings and, thanks to a deliberately faulty SLC test kit and a sympathetic tester, Caspian ended up registering, but was listed as non-evolved, even though he was. This suited him just fine. Besides, living in the middle of a red state with openly anti-evolved sentiment going around meant that being known as an Evolved could make things difficult for him and his family. Getting his Mom hurt because of him being what he was wasn't a thing he was willing to do, so Caspian protested in the only way he knew how. Graffiti started showing up around the city, tagged with his OUTSIDER tag, poking fun at the Linderman act, the fear of the evolved, and the stupidity of the anti-evo groups. One piece, painted over within a day of it appearing on a building opposite the district court house, had a picture of an little Evolved girl floating above the ground with angel wings. Locked around her ankles was a massive ball and chain, keeping her shackled and unable to fly while guards and doctors surrounded her, pointing their guns and syringes menacingly, ignoring all the crime going on behind them. This, of course, made OUTSIDER a person some very nasty people wanted to meet very, very badly. He had to be more careful, and he was.
Caspian graduated high school in 2009 around the middle of his class and moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA on a small art scholarship. His skill with graffiti was used in his application, a video of him creating a tag in sped-up video on Youtube of the UCLA logo, impressing the application committee and getting him on campus, with the remainder being paid for thanks to a trust fund his mother had set up with the proceeds of the sale of the winery. UCLA was chosen for several reasons: it was a good school, but it was also away from home but home that Caspian had remembered for the longest time. It was also a fairly liberal state, openly repealing the Linderman act (illegally, according to Washington, but still) so Caspian felt comfortable being there, even if he wasn't out as an evolved. Walking on to the Bruins, Caspian played back-up keeper for their NCAA soccer team and ended up on the field quite a bit, relieving the starters when they were injured or tired. It wasn't a scholarship position, but something that got his blood pumping in a way that it hadn't since he was a kid and, thanks to the barriers making his hands and feet a little larger than they appeared, he did wonderfully when he was on the pitch. He kept swimming, too, making laps around the bay or in the pool on campus to keep his stamina up.
2010-2011. Caspian returns to college despite the growing unrest in the nation over the evolved. Insulated by being in the middle of the country, he thought that it would all blow over soon just like everyone else hoped it would. Sadly, the military coup soon after starting school shook his confidence in the sanity of the nation, making him glad that he hadn't registered his ability since tales of evolved going missing started filling internet bulletin boards and chat rooms. His OUTSIDER graffiti tag started making appearances around the city, giving subtle support to the Evolved movement - a way to speak out without his back to the wall, sharing images and messages of hope and unity - something the world was in dire need of. The university wasn't safe anymore and was closed for the duration of the civil unrest, but there wasn't a safe way out of the city without a lot of money. Caspian was stuck and things started quickly getting worse.
Supplies started to become scarce. With crude oil imports into California slowing due to economic uncertainty, fuel for trucks to get back and forth from the fields and ports was limited. Caspian managed to get a tank of fuel for his motorcycle and kept it full, hiding it on Tibby's sailboat to keep it from getting stolen, using the floating platform to go out into the bay and fish, giving them some welcome protein and something to trade for necessities. And as things started heating up even more, Caspian and Tibby started making plans to cut and run, to get out of California, somehow get past the roving groups that started popping up to 'help travelers' by removing anything of value and sometimes, their lives, and find themselves somewhere else out of the cross hairs - like Mexico, even though South Africa was the first choice - if things got really, really bad. Knowing that Tibby was marked due to being registered and evolved, Tibby and Caspian spent a lot of time in the bay hiding in an out-of-the-way cove near Ventura bay, afraid of what might happen if one of them were caught out. Hollywood stopped making very many movies, so what few dates they had were spent together on her boat or trying to trade for things, reading books to each other and telling stories. Harry potter was a particular favorite.
News of the explosion on November 8th 2011 in New York set off a firestorm of riots, with anti-evo and pro-evo groups clashing in the streets, causing billions of dollars in damage and multiple deaths as guns were brought to bear against pro-evo groups. There were some bright spots, sure, but there were far too many stories of loss and heartbreak. Tibby and Caspian started making plans to get out, slowly stocking her boat with supplies to prepare for the journey away.
2012-2013. The war started at the beginning of 2012, and was not good for anyone. The war reached Caspian and Tibby at the end of March and, like a bad case of chicken pox, battles started popping up all over, small conflicts turning into major battles, engulfing the west and east coasts and spreading to almost every major city. This meant that most of California, thanks to it's policies of not suppressing evolved, quickly devolved into a battle zone. The sign that they needed to leave NOW was when the Battle of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum sparked, separating the pair. Out in the city on his motorcycle to sell their daily load of fish, Caspian was cut off from Tibby's boat by a massive battle line. Distraught, Caspian could only watch as a sailboat that looked amazingly like Tibby's took fire and was sunk in the middle of the bay while trying to get out to sea. Fighting back tears, Caspian took his motorcycle and headed east at top speed, leaving everything but his backpack behind, heading east to the only home he knew - Dodge City - where his mother and grandparents lived. The trip took Caspian several months, the man sticking to back roads, avoiding patrols of people looking for 'volunteers' for their fighting groups or some unfortunate Evolved to test, try, and execute. He survived by hard work, doing whatever odd jobs he could find to to keep his gas tank and stomach filled. He found he had a knack for electrical work, salvaging parts from faulty generators to get others working and re-wiring broken equipment well enough to get refrigeration and lights working in places, using parts re-purposed from other things thought long dead. With no way to contact anyone since cell and internet service was completely disrupted due to the war, he was thought dead by everyone who knew him until he arrived in Dodge City in August 2012, nearly six months, collapsing in his mother's arms on arrival.
Remaining in Dodge City for the duration, Caspian spent a lot of time learning a trade, since getting back to College was pretty much a non-starter as there was several hundred miles of no man's land between here and there. He started getting better with his electrical work, keeping his evolved abilities hidden, still doing graffiti now and again, his tag morphing to show support for the freedom fighters, working in spray paint, stencils, and even stickers to get his message across. He also started learning anything he could to be useful - skateboarding wasn't a thing, although he still did it to get around, but concentrated on repairing things, using firearms, working on cars…anything he could do to barter work for goods or services. News, when it was available, was fragmented or slanted totally toward one side - imagine Fox News with an extreme right or left wing bias - but if you could look past the bluster, you could see what was going on or, at least, get ideas of what was going on.
The nuclear strike in 2013 was something that could not be hidden. This was like something out of a movie - missiles fueling up with two actually getting launched out of their silos on the way to their targets are kind of visible - and Caspian, along with everyone else, thought that the world had truly gone mad. Or, at least, whoever was on the other end of those missiles was absolutely screwed. When word came that two of the ICBM's had detonated, one over Seattle causing a massive EMP that crippled infrastructure, the other striking Portland directly, there was a subdued period of grief as the nation turned on itself to mourn the lost, even in the midst of the civil war and their problems. And there were good people that went to help, most of the people realizing that this insane vendetta was not going to end in the survival of anyone. Caspian already had someone to mourn. He had told his mother about the little blonde he had dated in California and how she was killed in the war. Still, he wasn't the sort to give up, so he buckled down and powered through the grief, continuing his work. It's not like he had anything else to do. His art started reappearing - the first time since his exodus from California - a tribute piece for the United States was painted on a wall that stayed for months, gathering flowers and notes at the base. A simple outline of the country, the states that were hit hardest were a tangle of red and black, the rest of the country in blues and greens. At the base, a small glowing candle was sprayed on the wall next to it, and a block of text that simply said 'You'll get better.'
2014-2017. During the reconstruction period, Caspian found that his skills as an electrician were in extremely high demand. There were never enough people to do all of the work that needed to be done, and with the resurgence of the economy in the center of the nation, the man was extremely busy. News, when it came in, was quickly devoured and dissected, with people hearing about the reconstruction of New York and the offer of $25,000 to go live there. Caspian, seeing an opportunity to expand his business into solar panels to help mitigate blackouts and brownouts in the city, signed up, much to his mother's dismay. He headed off into the Safe Zone to set up a small business where he immediately found enough work to keep him busy five times over. His graffiti tag had followed him, too, but he was no longer OUTSIDER - on his first night in New York a tag appeared on the wall separating the safe zone from the rest of the city. It was a silhouette of the old New York skyline, with a new tag, WTC-ONE, as a call that there's a new artist in town. And now, with 2018 looming, who knows what might happen?
The key to Caspian's personality is stability. At heart, he's a good guy, raised by loving parents and chooses to surround himself with good-hearted people, but since the war and reconstruction, it's like a house of cards has been kicked over. The instability that it inherently causes gives Caspian a goal to set things right.
Caspian loves travel, going on adventures, variety and meeting new people. He possesses the curiosity of a cat and longs to experience as much as he can. He loves to be involved in several things at the same time as long as he is not held back. He likes change, new things and new horizons as well as challenges, which explains why he went to the Safe Zone once it opened up. He makes friends easily and his personality is upbeat and often inspiring - attracting people from all walks of life. Caspian has a way with words and an uncanny ability to motivate others. He could be in sales, advertising, publicity, promotion, politics or any profession that requires communication skills and understanding of people. He is also sensual and loves to taste all of life. Sex, food and other sensory experiences are essential to the enjoyment of his life. He isn't seeking a relationship at all but, once he gets into one, he's committed. To those he's chosen as friends or companions, Caspian can be as faithful as an old dog.
The way Caspian deals with this massive amount of change is discipline and focus. These are the true keys to his success. Without these, many of the tasks Caspian begins will remain unfinished and he will fail to realize the true fruits of his abilities. With hard work and perseverance, however, the sky is the limit. His challenge is to learn the true meaning of freedom. Change is constant in this world, requiring adaptability and courage.
Caspian's evolved ability is Forcefield Generation, or the ability to create, manipulate, and control charged particles in various ways. This power would break down into four subsets - Defense/Deflection, Offense, Concealment, and Movement.
Defense/Deflection. This method of use is the traditional science-fiction way of viewing forcefields. These forcefields are usually generated from an extremity - either the hands or feet - and sometimes can be generated from each extremity at once and allow movement while generated. To give an example, if someone threw a rock or fired a gun at Caspian and he was prepared, he could produce a 25 square foot transparent wall or wedge a few feet in front of him to either stop and deflect incoming projectiles. The usual 'thickness' of the forcefield that he practices is usually less than a half inch has the same strength as a steel plate the same diameter, but that thickness can be adjusted to cover more area or less. More area means that he could keep rain off a group, make a hangar door airtight for a time, or even redirect small stream out of its banks with a little effort, while less area increases the strength of the forcefield considerably. The simpler applications are easy and can be done at a whim, but the more intense ones, requiring complex shapes or curves or thicknesses, take more time and, of course, requires more concentration. Complexity also shrinks the size of the field that he can create but, at the absolute maximum, his forcefield can have a density that tops out at around 60,000 pounds per square inch - somewhere around the same hardness of Titanium at a size of about twenty square feet - enough to protect two people behind a 5 x 4 wall. This means that, effectively, anyone behind Caspian's field is bulletproof as long as his shields are up and maintained. This can be formed into simple or complex shapes - wedges, walls, and even a fully-enclosed air-tight sphere or dome for one person.
Limitations are as follows: Time to create the fields varies. Simpler fields could take ten to fifteen seconds to form while the more complicated ones can take up to a minute or more in the case of the heavier ones. Also, these fields are not instantaneous, sometimes taking a minimum of ten seconds to establish with increasing toughness to the maximum taking almost a minute, with more complex shapes taking even longer. This is something that can be mitigated with practice or by maintaining a small manifested field about the size of a quarter on the back of the hand or the top of a foot to help 'seed' the reaction. The shield must also be continually maintained - concentration must be put forth to keep it generated and if there's a lapse, it will slowly dissipate and, eventually, vanish while unconsciousness causes the field to pop like a bubble, disappearing instantly. Maintaining the shield in the face of multiple large impacts requires considerable concentration as well, the strength of the field lessened slightly with each blow, like the battery - Caspian - is being run down. Also, while the projectile is deflected or stopped entirely, sound and pressure variations may cause problems if there isn't enough of an air buffer between Caspian and the impact point. This means that, if a breastplate of invisible armor is created, getting shot won't penetrate but some of the force will, causing a rather painful welt. The airtight sphere or dome takes about thirty seconds to create and will protect from environmental hazards - negation gas, water, high pressure and the like. This does not prevent the transfer of heat or cold and the oxygen inside is limited to what's inside and movement is difficult, but possible. Carrying him would be faster, to give an example. He may be able to survive an initial flamethrower blast, but if the flames don't dissipate and he can't get away, it will start getting hot in the bubble very quickly.
Offensive Capabilities. Caspian can form blades or clubs of force of about four to five feet - connected to his hands or feet and extending over his forearms and shins - that act as armor and weapons in one, allowing him to fight as if he were armed without appearing so. The constructs can be manipulated to have an extremely fine edge - as sharp as a chef's knife or so, with the same cutting properties, so no chopping through engine blocks without a lot of practice getting the edge molecularly fine. Notably, these fields do not increase his strength in any way, but do act as a force multiplier like a 'real' bat or sword would. They are also not instantaneous, requiring at least ten seconds to form and can take damage, the 'battery' being depleted with each major impact. These can be 'dropped' almost instantly. Importantly, this ability does not mean he can shoot mind bullets, as Tenacious D put it. The blades were used in a smaller aspect when he was goalkeeping for various soccer clubs, allowing him a better chance to deflect incoming balls.
Concealment. By capturing dust and debris in the force field, Caspian can provide concealment for a small group of people. Yes, it's not very good, but in the middle of a forest, a batch of leaves might be overlooked if it's not moving when people are looking at it. This is by no means perfect and is mostly used for shade on sunny days.
Movement. Caspian, over time, has learned how to use his forcefields to allow ease of movement into and through normally inaccessible areas. Usually it's simple - fields to act as handholds or steps, a field to act as a bridge over inaccessible terrain, platforms, able to hold his weight three times over and ramps to get up to higher areas. The upper limit is around 5-600 lbs - himself, a passenger, and a motorcycle - but holding that much weight for more than a few minutes would be extremely taxing. In dire circumstances he could hold more weight, but this projection of sheer will would lead to headaches, nosebleeds, and a potential shorting out of his power for a time as those mental muscles are overtaxed.
People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish… but that's only if it's done properly.
Appendices
RP Hooks
- Electrician: Caspian is a licensed electrician and solar panel installer. He could do some work for you or tell you what work needed to be done.
- Graffiti Artist: His night hobby, Caspian goes out and does murals, throw ups, and full walls of colorful art. Mostly women and animals with hopeful messages.
- Safe Zone Commission: Seeking to join the Safe Zone Commission. Wanting to make the world inside the walls a better place.
- Light House Kids: He's not one, but he's friends with them. Come by and visit!
- Skadeboarding: Knees are overrated. Come and grind some rails.
Relationships
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Brynn Ferguson - Interesting brunette. Does neat things with color. Collaborates with Caspian on art from time to time. Doesn't talk. |
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Joe Winters - Brash and in your face, tells it like it is and can take a punch better than most. |
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Lance Gerkin - Skinny silent walker. Hangs out with Brynn a lot. hopefully going to teach Cas Lighthouse cant at some point. |
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Tibby Ole Naidu - Friend, Lover, and more. Lost in the Battle of Los Angeles Colosseum. RIP. |
Miscellaneous
| Volume I: The Way Back | |||
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| January 2009 - January 2018 | |||
| 03/29/09 | A Beach Meeting | On the beaches of California, two people meet thanks to a runaway cat. | Caspian and Tibby |
| 06/09/09 | Mutual Acceptance of Secrets | A conversation on a boat leads to a few interesting revelations. | Caspian and Tibby |
| February 2018 | |||
| 02/22/18 | Random Laundry Dancer | In context, this actually makes sense! | Brynn Caspian and Lance |
| 02/22/18 | The Man with the Van | An early morning meeting introduces Caspian to another of the Light House Kids | Brynn Caspian and Joe |
| 02/22/18 | LF1M Off-tank for Monkey Rescue Raid! | Always wanting to press an advantage, Joe and Lance invite Caspian to help them rescue a monkey. Yes, really. | Caspian Joe and Lance |
- Driving: As a child that grew up in the suburbs, driving was a thing that Caspian needed to know how to do. Getting from point A to B was important for a kid, so he learned how to do just that. Automatic or stick, four wheels or two, Caspian can get on, hop in, and get from point A to point B without breaking laws or drawing too much attention to himself. He can also 'drive cool' thanks to practicing J turns and burnouts in parking lots and getting sent to the Bobby Ore Motorsports Driving School as a graduation gift.
- Graffiti: Graffiti is defined as writing or drawing scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place and Caspian has taken it to an art form. Starting simply at home, his tag of OUTSIDER could be found on abandoned buildings, train cars, and the like, morphing from simple stylizations of his name to super-complicated murals representing everything from fantastic landscapes to cartoon characters boxing for Evolved rights. Now that he's in New York, OUTSIDER has been retired and a new tag, WTC-ONE is starting to make an appearance, calling back to the glory that the city once held.
- Electrician: Caspian actually holds a trade and somehow managed to get an apprenticeship and eventually a license from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as an electrician. Specializing in high-voltage and commercial applications, Caspian has turned his time in the Safe Zone into a lucrative trade - setting up a business to provide solar panels, generators, and battery banks to prevent buildings from browning out. Thankfully, an airport nearby taking cargo, he's able to get his shipments in and out when necessary.
- Skateboarding: A guy has to relax, now and again, and what better way than to skate some obstacles and do some sick jumps? This requires strength and dexterity - things Caspian has in spades - as well as a bit of fearlessness and knowing the limits of your body. He's not Tony Hawk good, but he's decent enough to place about midway in local skate competitions, and with the city under construction, there are tons of places to skate.
- Repair: After the second civil war and during the reconstruction period, things break all the time or are found broken. Knowing how to fix things is always good, and Caspian is able to fix mechanical and electrical things that can be fixed.
- Survival: Knowing when to keep your head down, how to avoid weather, where and how to find or hunt for food and clean water in the middle of a war zone, and how to keep out of the way when fighting is going on are all very good things to know how to do. Caspian's father was, among other things, a Doomsday prepper, which gave Caspian all sorts of skills that people normally might not come with. He may not be comfortable in the middle of the wilderness, but he certainly will do better than most.
- Firearms: Caspian's a guy. Guys like guns. He's shot them before, can clean them, and carried a pistol for protection while he was fleeing the fighting in California. No experience with machine guns, but able to use shotguns, rifles, pistols, and even the odd AR-15 if the time comes.
- Fighting: There's an age-old conflict between Skateboarders and Cowboys, and Caspian was on the front line of it during the time he was growing up. Soccer gave him a lot of stamina and strength, and a stint at a kickboxing school gave him the skills to fight with his hands about as well as he could by using his board as a weapon. He knows how to hit you and where to hit you, but doesn't like doing it, and the best way to end a fight? Get away!
- First Aid: When you skate and fight, you get scrapes, bumps, bruises, and even broken bones. Caspian can patch people up using basic first aid skills and can even bind or super glue a cut closed if necessary. This is often barely enough to get someone to a real doctor. Anything more than advanced first aid will have him deferring to the experts, but he can assist.
- Fishing & Boating: Before the war, a lot of time was spent on Tibby's boat, doing boat things. He knows how to furl a sail and steer the boat without crashing into rocks. He also is fairly talented with fishing - both line and net use - for the getting of food when there's water with something edible with fins living in it.
- Soccer: A second-string goalkeeper from college for a season, Caspian using his power means that balls do /not/ get past him when he's in the goal. He knows the rules, the positions, and has the stamina to play an entire game without complaint.
- Streetwise: Dating Tibby in California meant that, by osmosis, Caspian learned how and where to find 'a guy' when he needs something done. This developed even more during his trek across the nation, and served him well in Dodge City. He can also point you to a corner to buy illicit substances, and knows what walls to not mess with since they're owned by particular gangs. Using his contacts at the one airport still operational, he's also able to sometimes get stuff that 'fell off a truck' or things out on a plane, but that sometimes requires the exchange of a favor - one of the currencies of the new world.
- Wine: Growing up on a winery and having a foodie for a mom means that Caspian has a fairly well-trained palate and an idea of what good wine is, how to pick the right one for the right meal, how to store, prepare, and yes, even make it. (Note, it will not be GOOD if he makes it…it'll get you drunk, though!) With California a giant battle zone, Napa Valley cabernet and rieslings are pretty much non-existent and imports are minimal, which sometimes leads him out of the safe zone to scavenge ruined restaurants for unbroken bottles to sell or consume.
- Mechanic: A subset of the Repair skill, this consists of basic automobile repair and welding. That means that, yes, he can replace a starter or an alternator and maybe get that old generator going again, but tracking down that hydraulic leak in that old Mercedes or rebuilding your transmission? Better take that to an expert.
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Hydrokinetic Ferryman! |
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