information
General
Canon Source: New Mutants
Canon Format: comic (Marvel)
Character's Name: Douglas Ramsey, a.k.a. Cypher
Character's Age: 16 (estimated - he shouldn't have aged while dead)
What form will your character's NV take? a small and rather tricked-out laptop
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Cypher is omnilingual. This means he can understand any language. After the events of Necrosha, this counts for absolutely anything that can be considered a language.
What do I mean by this? He has been shown to be able to read body language (he beat up his entire team), the language of the architects, i.e. the structure of a building, the subtextual meaning behind what an individual is trying to say. Any code, pattern, etc. can all be deciphered by him in a matter of moments.
This leaves him open for some serious god/infomodding, and since that's the last thing I want, I'm willing to put some restrictions on his abilities, as well as handwave him missing bits of information. For example, there is no filter that he wouldn't be able to hack - however, he has no reason to go around butting into the business of anyone he isn't familiar with, or even people he is. He wouldn't hack someone's locked post without good reason and with permission of the player. Even if it's something he would most definitely look into, if the other player isn't comfortable with it we can work around it.
As far as weaknesses go, he's physically only as fit as a human boy his age is capable of being. He's just really hard to hit if he knows you're coming. He can't read the body language of beings without any thought behind their movements. For example, Xian took over the minds of her entire team at one point, the difficulty of which caused them to become rather zombie-like, and Doug became unable to tell what they would do next.
Lastly - it should be possible for Doug to be completely anonymous when posting to the network. He would be capable of that. However, if this isn't allowed, then we can just say there's no possible method of doing so and blame it on the core.
I have gone into further detail on all of this here on his permissions page so that players have easy access to the information.
Weapons: Doug uses hand to hand combat or any weapon/object he can get his hands on at the time.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: here at wikipedia
Point in Canon: A few things have happened since the end of Second Coming, but since the current arc hasn't been resolved yet, I'm going to leave it at that point. I'm going to take him from before the recent events with Hope, where he helps her look for her real mother, just after the events of Second Coming before the separate New Mutants arc begins.
Character Personality:
In the original series, Doug seemed to almost have been added in as an afterthought. His first appearance is with Kitty Pryde, and he appears to have been a long time friend of hers, but they never go into that much. He's an accomplished hacker even then, and he and Kitty are known to break arcade machines by scoring higher than the system allows. He's used as a plot device for a run-in with the Hellions, and though it's mentioned that he has a crush on Kitty, this isn't expanded on much in following issues.
Later, when Warlock makes his first appearance, Doug is called upon to help translate for him. Because of his mutant translating powers and all that... which were never mentioned before this issue. It was just "We need to get Doug Ramsey, because he has the mutant ability to translate languages. He just doesn't know it yet." and that's literally all the detail we get on that. Doug is fairly easy going and gets involved with the New Mutants without too many questions despite having been literally dragged out of bed and tossed into this scenario.
He's generally friendly and optimistic, especially when he first joins. The fact that he can't help out much in combat situations always bothers him, though, which we know because he mentions it at every available opportunity. "Oh, if only I could do more than just translate languages..." He does develop a good rapport with Warlock, who helps him make up a little bit for what he's lacking in the physical department with his ability to transform.
Doug's personality at the point I'm taking him from is vastly different from the way it was when he was in the series in the 80s. This is mostly due to how he was brought back from the dead and the way his ability now causes him to view the world. Magma mentions at one point that he hardly blinks anymore, as he's constantly taking in so much data around him.
One might have assumed that the enhancements to his abilities, as well as his change in personality, might have vanished with the technovirus, but it's revealed that this isn't the case. (And the virus is completely gone from his system, according to the medical staff. When asked how he was able to be rid of it, he simply replied that he asked it to leave.)
He's a very serious person now, viewing everything from a rather clinical standpoint. During Second Coming, he tells Warlock to absorb the life-force of several of their enemies, as it's the only way they'll be able to stop them without further loss of life on their side at this point. This is something Warlock has vowed not to do, and something Doug probably wouldn't have asked of him before. He calmly watches his teammate expel the energy later, claiming that the meaning of these actions will be lost if it isn't observed. It can be assumed that he feels bad for asking what he did, but he doesn't question its necessity.
Though a bit robotic in his responses sometimes, he completely understands emotions and how they'll affect one's reactions. He's capable of being sarcastic and interacting with people on a human level. He's also very clever, and capable of using his abilities to play off the emotions of others, though he rarely does so.
The change in his character when he was brought back was probably based on a lot of factors: no one knowing how to write him anymore, his original personality type being very dated, or perhaps that he simply wasn't all that popular of a character originally. (Which is why he was killed off, though that didn't please fans either.) In any case, being brought back from the dead and having your brain jumpstarted with a new crazy ability set is bound to change you in some ways. Basically, he was brought back wrong and can't fully recover.
As far as his current status goes, there's no reason to believe he's doing any more than just following his team in whatever endeavors they set out to do at the moment. He seems at least stable, in that there's no fear of the technovirus taking him over again. There was some strain between him and his teammates for a while after his return, but they've since accepted him back into the group. Even Magma, who he approached after the fact, clearly wanting to be her friend again. We don't know what he said to her that made her forgive him, but whatever it was left her hugging him after.
He's not the most personable of people, a little cold and (depending on the writer) sometimes a little spacey. He's not unapproachable, however, and can function easily as part of the group.
There's a magazine interview at one point that gave a lot of the religious affiliations of characters. Doug was listed as being mormon. This is never mentioned in the series, however, and if he has anything to do with it now it's never said. (We don't even know if he's seen his parents again since he came back from the dead.)