Finn Shepherd - String Theory: Aftermath

Name	Finn Michael Shepherd	Aliases
Status	Unregistered Expressive	Ability	Probability Manipulation

Gender	Male
Birthdate	May 31, 1984	Age	37

Height	6'2"	Build	Muscular
Eyes	Green	Hair	Sandy

Residence	New York Safe Zone
Employment	Helicopter pilot, fire and rescue contractor

Parents

Frank and Mary

Siblings

Fred and Fiona

Marital Status

Dating Lucille

Children

June oops

First Scene

Diametric Opposition

Last Scene

Profile

The odds are ever in his favor — this happy-go-lucky helicopter pilot crash landed in Washington during the Civil War and was one of those living on the edge of society in the Sedro-Woolley Colony before doing the same in Providence, New Jersey. He's now rejoined civilization though he still considers himself an ally of those in Providence.

portrayed by

Jake McDorman

Born in suburban Ohio in 1984, Finn Shepherd was the middle child of a helicopter pilot/flight instructor and a teacher. His childhood was a mundane one, except for the weekends and summers spent with his father at the flight school. He was a happy kid, a little above average in school and a little below average in sports and in social circles, prone to be a little chubby and a little clumsy. He compensated by being the class clown and getting his helicopter pilot’s license as a teenager.

Finn tried college, but was more interested in working as a contract pilot and dropped out after a few months. He moved to New York in 2003 to work as a contract pilot, flying for both commercial and governmental jobs, including flying helitack teams on SAR or firefighting missions, when needed. Somewhere between 2003 and 2006, something shifted in Finn. It was subtle and he chalked it up to, well, good luck. Things just started to go right for him more often than not. His clumsiness was a thing of the past. With what seemed like newfound agility, he joined a gym, boxing, swimming, or lifting weights when not flying. With his improved physique, Finn found new confidence — suddenly he was a very eligible bachelor, and took advantage of that. A lot.

After the first bomb and the reveal of the Evolved, Finn, like most, was frightened though unsure of his feelings on the matter. He carried on his life, not thinking too much about it until registration became required and he found he wasn’t so ordinary after all. After some testing, he discovered what his power could do. With time, he learned to control aspects of it and what his limits were.

When the second bomb hit, luckily Finn was off on an assignment with a helitack team a bit upstate, but a few of his coworkers were killed in events of the day. When the war began, his boss, a freedom fighter at heart though too old to join the fray, told a few of the pilots to take the birds into the fight. Finn took him up on it — though not so much to aid the fight. Instead, he turned it into an opportunity to turn a profit, taking advantage of the desperation of civilians, charging them to fly them to safer locations. Fuel was expensive, after all, he told them, and he was risking his neck to get them to safety — while pocketing money in hopes of buying his own helicopter one day. He made a few exceptions along the way, for the injured, young, or elderly — or a pretty face, always a downfall for him.

Finn was in Washington when the EMP hit, frying his helicopter while he was in the air. His luck helped, to an extent. What would have been likely fatal for someone without his ability resulted instead in serious injuries that would take a long while to mend. He was pulled from the wreckage by a good Samaritan and brought to the outskirts of would later become the Sedro-Woolley Colony. Once he recovered, he became a useful member of the little community already living there, useful as he was in a garage and as a guard against the remnants of those who had lost the war.

When the four “Horsemen” arrived and began to make the scattered homesteaders a colony of sorts, Finn didn’t resist, but as they grew bolder, his ambivalence grew as well. At heart, he’s a pretty nice guy, despite having a me-first attitude, so their more dangerous actions were worrying; however, he knew the community was in need of strong leadership. More so, he has developed admiration for and, let’s admit it, a bit of a crush on Eileen, so has a tendency to follow her like a lost puppy and is easily manipulated by her.

Finn has the ability to alter probability in favor of himself/others or to the detriment of others. He cannot cause the impossible to occur, but he can make something unlikely likely, and vice versa. What seems to be dumb luck is actually a combination of subtle telekinetic effects on the factors in his environment and a subliminal effect on his own actions. This area is determined by his ability to either subconsciously or consciously sense a factor that he is affecting (i.e. Finn has to have seen, heard, felt, smelled, etc. factors that he affects). His ability works on two levels, subconscious and conscious.

At the subconscious, passive level, the ability is always on to protect Finn, so long as Finn is conscious and hasn’t overextended his power. The success at this level depends on the number of factors at play and what actions Finn takes. For instance, a single gun being fired at him will most likely jam or miss, as long as Finn is subconsciously aware of its presence (he may have seen it but not registered it at a conscious level, for instance). But if multiple guns are fired at him and Finn does nothing to avoid being hit, he will be shot. If, however, Finn takes action and runs for cover, the odds are much higher that the bullets will miss him than they would be for someone else doing the same. He will naturally find the right angle to duck and will dodge and weave at the right times — most of the time — or find a way to take advantage of things he cannot control (the angle of the sun, the wind’s direction, etc.).

At this subconscious level, Finn can affect up to three external factors at any given moment (in RP, in any given round). He cannot affect what he has not perceived at the subconscious or conscious level. These effects are most often enacted on inanimate objects like electronic or mechanical components, but can include something living or larger (any given item or component of an item he affects can weigh no more than 300 pounds; the movements are small-scale, just enough to tip what might be into what will be). The ability cannot affect another’s mind, but can affect another person’s body movements, within an inch or two. For example, a person throwing a punch might aim for Finn’s jaw but graze his cheek instead; a person pursuing Finn might miss a curb by half an inch and trip. A downside of the ability at the subconscious level is that it works to protect Finn but not his allies — the effects may in fact put them in greater danger.

To use his ability at a conscious level, Finn needs to concentrate on what he wants to happen in order to sense the chain of events that will likely occur if he nudges something into action — this takes about ten seconds of undivided attention, which isn’t always plausible if things are moving fast and he’s in a dangerous position. In addition, the conscious use of the ability can affect only one factor at a time — and he needs to be fully aware of it. Doing so also inactivates the subconscious function of his ability, from the time he begins concentrating until the chain of events has run its course. In addition, consciously using his power a fourth time in 24 hours will probably fail (sometimes with disastrous results), exhaust the ability and turn off his subconscious aspect of the power for about 24 hours. Without his ability, through either exertion or negation, Finn is on the clumsy side, and much less confident, if not technically “unlucky.”

New in 2020: With a very small amount of concentration that does not keep him from being able to act in other ways, Finn can now expand his ability to create a sort of “circle of luck.” that reaches 6’2” in every direction with him as the center (his height). The same rules apply to those in his circle as do for him — they are not infallible. The circle will drop as soon as Finn loses the ability to remember to hold on to it, though he can enable it again. However, each time he it enables it, it shrinks by a foot or so until once again, Finn is the sole beneficiary of his power. He will not be able to raise the circle again for about 24 hours.

Best pilot in the universe (Or not) Finn has been licensed as an helicopter pilot as both a flight instructor and for commercial use, as well as getting the required licenses for helitack and SAR work in various terrains (mountain, coastal).