OOC; Application
TOMMY SHEPHERD HAS BEEN DROPPED FROM DISCEDO. If you can see this post, please defriend him as soon as possible. No seriously it's been a while why haven't you done it yet.
And then proceed to ignore it, as it is being used as an archive thingy. asds.g,tfhmy,.
PLAYER
NAME: Noodles
JOURNAL: thanoodles
IM: please contact by e-mail
E-MAIL: shootthamoon at gmail dot com
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Thomas "Tommy" Shepherd
FANDOM: Marvel, Young Avengers.
CHRONOLOGY: Immediately after his and Billy's search for the Scarlet Witch (Young Avengers Presents #3).
BACKGROUND: Most of Tommy's life hasn't been properly discussed or developed. All that is known is that he was supposedly born and raised in Springfield New Jersey, son of Frank and Mary Shepherd (who are divorced). Because he isn't seen attempting to contact either of them (or even making an actual mention of their name) and because he was placed in juvie due to a freak accident, it may be safe to assume that they no longer have anything to do with him.
Later in his life - months before the beginning of the story - Tommy is placed in juvenile hall for having used his abilities to cause his entire school to vaporize (which he claims to have been an accident). The facilities he was imprisoned in, however, were equipped to handle youngsters with powers, using both offensive and defensive technology to keep Tommy under control (such as power dampening containment cells) and - supposedly - performing experiments on him and submitting him into a training regiment that would turn him into a perfect, living weapon.
When Young Avengers' member Teddy (aka Hulkling) is kidnapped, the team resorts to the program Vision has that contained the information and location of people with ties to the Avengers (the same one Iron Lad used to find most of the members in the team at the time), which pinpoints to Tommy's location. They proceed to break into the juvenile hall and free the teenager from his cell, noticing immediately the physical resemblances in him and Billy Kaplan (Wiccan).
There isn't much time for introductions before the intruders are attacked. It is at this point that Tommy probably makes full use of his abilities for the first time in months, taking revenge on the scientists that are attempting to escape from the attack. The Young Avenger members put his rampage to a stop before it can cause any more damage, though - because the Young Avengers do not kill. They try to convince him to join their team and help them rescue Teddy.
He doesn't immediately accept to become a member, though he does accept to assist in their friend's rescue. At some point, the story of Scarlet Witch's twin sons (whom she created out of Mephisto's soul, due to her overwhelming wish to have children of her own) is mentioned - and Billy is convinced it's referring to himself and Tommy. The speedster refuses to accept this, but eventually comes to terms with it.
After freeing Teddy and preventing a war, Tommy decides to join the team with the codename 'Speed' (which is immediately criticized by some team members for being too simple and obvious).
During the Civil War, Tommy helps his team locate and make contact with another group of young teenagers (the Runaways). The first member they encounter is Molly Hayes, a very youg girl who possesses super-strength. They're forced to knock her out, which enrages her friends and brings them to engage in combat. They finally come to an understanding, however, and Tommy starts a friendly relationship with Molly, eventually taking her in a piggy-back ride in superspeed, which separates them from the remaining youngsters for moments.
During those moments (unknown to either Tommy of Molly), the teams are attacked and some members are kidnapped. When the teenager and the young girl return, the ones the remain assemble to get their friends back successfully.
At a later point, when Tommy's skepticism about Scarlet Witch being his and Billy's real mother seems to have disappeared, the two decide to embark on a search for her whereabouts so that they can hopefully get to meet her and clear up any questions they have. Their search brings them to an abandoned Genosha and Wundagore Mountain - but neither Tommy nor Billy can seem to see or sense her presence, even with the use of their powers. The last place they decide to check is her old residence in New Jersey.
Rushing to the door and reaching for the doorknob, Tommy seems to be transported to a dimension that resembles our notion of Hell, due to a spell casted by Master Pandemonium to protect the house. Upon recognizing their powers, Pandemonium frees Tommy and ceases his attacks, choosing instead to elaborate on their mother's and their own story, then advising them to appreciate who they are in present instead of reaching for the darkness and chaos in their past.
The two boys then return to New York in a bus.
PERSONALITY:
Tommy is your typical bad-boy superhero. The first impression the Young Avengers got of him upon his release from juvie was that he was an angered, sadistic young boy, bent on taking revenge from the scientists that imprisoned and performed excruciating experiments on him. He later starts to show signs that he can tell right from wrong, though, and knows when it's wise to take orders from others.
Tommy is remarkably irresponsible, impatient, confident and - simply put - a smartass. He takes every opportunity he gets to remind other people of his superhuman speed, and while he can take situations seriously (and knows when he's out of his league), he definitely prefers it to be otherwise. His policy is to never let the enemy know they've got the upper hand, so he throws little taunts and makes full use of his abilities to gain some advantage.
It's needless to say he's got a hard time figuring out the right times to shut up. He is the sort of person who leaps (or talks) before he thinks, which often ends up with him having to swallow his own words. He's also somewhat prone to getting himself into trouble due to his lack of patience when it comes to waiting to think a situation out and devise a proper, cautious plan.
Tommy is seen being skeptical; he has difficulty accepting facts before countering them with a number of questions and dismissals - even when he's proved wrong. An example of this would be when he and Billy are told the story of the twin boys Scarlet Witch created out of her desperate wish to have children, making his newly found (at the time only supposed) sibling believe that the story was about them.
He eventually comes to accept this, however, even referring to Scarlet Witch as his mother (his relationship with his adoptive parents has not been talked about, but it would be safe to assume that they have cut off any contact with him). Though he isn't exactly prone to getting in a bad mood, there are always some buttons other people can push. Tommy isn't easily angered into actual violence, though- instead he chooses to use sarcasm and throw comebacks.
Despite the confidence, irony and impatience, Tommy can have his 'uh-oh' moments. He isn't necessarily afraid of asking - or better yet, demanding - his teammates for help (namely his brother), though he prefers to count on himself to get the job done. He's also pretty good with children (as seen with Molly from Runaways) and is definitely not afraid to throw a little charm at one a girl or another (as far as a cocky teenager boy's charm goes, anyway). When Tommy tries his luck with Kate only to be rejected in favor of Eli, he isn't seen getting his exactly heart-broken by this - so, as in most aspects of his personality, one can just say that he doesn't take romance all that seriously, either.
Because he was pretty much the last person to join the Young Avengers (having had no prior contact with either one of them), Tommy isn't as integrated in the team (relationship-wise) as much as the remaining members. It's true that he doesn't exactly go out of his to create and develop strong bonds with them (which doesn't come to much of a surprise, taking his personality and past behavior into account), so he's become somewhat labeled as the guy who's 'the last to know' when it comes to sharing secret and personal informations with one another. Some of his teammates don't even know quite what to think of him, yet.
All in all, you can say that Tommy is your typically snarky teenage boy with a good heart.
CLASS: Hero.
SUPERHERO NAME: Speed.
ALTER EGO: Tommy, tba.
POWER: Simply put, his ability is super speed. It hasn't been measured how fast he can go, but he is just about capable of running from one place to another as quickly as Billy (his twin brother) is capable of teleporting himself to it.
Besides that, Tommy can also control the speed of atomic structures with his mind - so if he shakes them up enough, they end up exploding. Among other things, Tommy also has considerable strength and knowledge in fighting techniques (though nothing out of the ordinary).
COMMUNITY POST SAMPLE:
Oookay. Let me see if I got this straight.
We've got a city. The City. Which pretty much looks like New York from one side to the other- except there 're a certain few essential things missing - but let's not go there just yet. Seeing as there was a chick's voice telling me what to do when I got thrown into whatever version of a technolab that thing was supposed to be, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that dude Iron Lad didn't decide to mess up with the time stream again. Or maybe he did, what the hey. What do I know.
--Anyway: I'm in a different lame-ass version of the dimension I used to live in, and I have to use my powers to act as a superhero and save the day.
Wow, that's a huge difference right there. Dunno if I'm gonna be able to pull it off, man.
That was sarcasm, for those of you too slow to keep up.
You'll get used to it.
The least you could've done is asked lately, by the way. It's not like we charge to save the world over and over again. Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't appreciate the cash, but you know - the rest of the team would probably consider it breaking another of our goody-two-shoes rules (or whatever the superhero equivalent would be- too lazy to come up with one myself) - unless they don't exist over here? I'm gonna have to take a look at that.
Also, and because my codename isn't Hulkling (therefore I'm not prone to getting taken away and locked up in whatever fashion generic villain #523556 comes up with), I'm gonna go ahead and assume that somebody I actually know is somewhere around here listening to this message. Guys? You know you don't want to leave me all by myself in a parallel universe. Again. Don't make me search the entire city to find you.
'Cause I will.
So to finish off my contribution to brightening up your day: Name's Speed, and I'll be your freshly-arrived, amazing new superhero.
Man, I can't wait to check out the superhero chicks around here. Did I mention I'm single?
THIRD PERSON:
It was being a weird day. Not that he was necessarily feeling that way, but things just seemed stranger than usual. How to describe it? It was that nagging feeling that he was either forgetting something, or that the world wasn't quite on his side that day. Or both.
Perhaps even something worse.
It was neither cold or hot outside. The Sun was being indecisive, the streets were a little quieter than normal. The few people walking around seemed somewhat gloomier, if it was even possible to describe the mood of random strangers scattered across the suburbs.
There was barely enough time for Tommy pay much mind to these details, though. Speeding through the streets and leaving a trail of orange and green behind him (dissipating as fast as he ran past the civilians), his thoughts were split in two things: avoiding any possible obstacles, and what he had woken up to do that day. If he were standing still at that moment? He probably would have had the urge to bring his hand up to chew on his nails (a habit that had slowly started occurring every now and then) or just nervously scratch the back of his head. It was a pretty sensitive topic, despite his defense mechanisms showing otherwise.
Shortly after, Tommy was standing still - from inside the window of his twin's room. He leaned back and adjusted his goggles as he waited for Billy and Teddy to notice he'd arrived, producing a cocky smirk and announcing his presence with a remark (or two) as inconvenient as his entrance (though one would have to consider if sneaking in through the window really was that inconvenient, given that Billy's parents weren't supposed to know he was paying him a visit in the first place).
There was some talk, and Tommy waited for the two lovebirds to say their goodbyes (it was hard not to feel weird in these moments, despite his witty comments and sarcastic hints), before he and his twin finally left the house to do what they had set to do earlier that week.
The conversation a few days prior had been awkward and long. There was a quiet moment in between missions that involved saving the world (for once), and both Tommy and Billy were lounging on their team's headquarters. The TV was on, but neither were paying much attention (for some reason, the room always seemed a little darker whenever something remotely serious was about to take place) - instead, the white haired boy leaned back, crossing his arms with a slight slouch.
So. About Scarlet Witch.
Those were the words Billy needed to give a proper beginning to the talk that followed. It was no secret that they had known about their origins for a good while (ever since the night Tommy had been taken out of that goddamn juvie hall, only to be invited to join a team of young superheroes trying to rescue their alien friend from a hoard of other aliens-- seriously, how many teenagers had a story to tell like this one that wasn't a product of their imagination?). There was obviously still some room for reasonable doubt, however - not that either of the twins were making use of it, or even felt like doing so - but they hadn't had the chance to actually do anything about it, either.
Tommy's brother had had a short encounter with her, once, before he had even known about his powers (and a lot longer before he knew she was his real mother). He'd never admit it, but truth was that the speedster was somewhat jealous of his brother.
... Okay, a big 'somewhat'. Why she had chosen to approach and talk to Billy in person while ignoring his own existence entirely was a question he asked himself more than just sometimes - namely when the topic of their possible encounter with her in the future was brought up. Tommy was a screw-up, he had that half-in-mind. You aren't exactly a successful young boy with a bright future ahead of you when you blow up an entire school out of existence only to have your parents send you to a super-juvenile hall and proceed to cut any contact they ever had with you.
So yes. There was a big 'somewhat' preceding the 'jealous'.
Regardless, they still wanted to meet her in person - to know more about her and themselves, ask some questions and get some answers, and just... be with her.
What his feelings were in relation to the actual meeting itself were proving to be hard to figure out, though. On one hand, there was obvious excitement- if anything, it would be an adventure (if you could call running around an adventure) with an objective he was both hopeful and apprehensive about fulfilling. On the other, he had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Despite everything, the certainty that they'd be able to find her was there. For some reason, being unable to get what they wanted wasn't a possibility he was taking into consideration.
Why be pessimistic about it, anyway?
And then proceed to ignore it, as it is being used as an archive thingy. asds.g,tfhmy,.
PLAYER
NAME: Noodles
JOURNAL: thanoodles
IM: please contact by e-mail
E-MAIL: shootthamoon at gmail dot com
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Thomas "Tommy" Shepherd
FANDOM: Marvel, Young Avengers.
CHRONOLOGY: Immediately after his and Billy's search for the Scarlet Witch (Young Avengers Presents #3).
BACKGROUND: Most of Tommy's life hasn't been properly discussed or developed. All that is known is that he was supposedly born and raised in Springfield New Jersey, son of Frank and Mary Shepherd (who are divorced). Because he isn't seen attempting to contact either of them (or even making an actual mention of their name) and because he was placed in juvie due to a freak accident, it may be safe to assume that they no longer have anything to do with him.
Later in his life - months before the beginning of the story - Tommy is placed in juvenile hall for having used his abilities to cause his entire school to vaporize (which he claims to have been an accident). The facilities he was imprisoned in, however, were equipped to handle youngsters with powers, using both offensive and defensive technology to keep Tommy under control (such as power dampening containment cells) and - supposedly - performing experiments on him and submitting him into a training regiment that would turn him into a perfect, living weapon.
When Young Avengers' member Teddy (aka Hulkling) is kidnapped, the team resorts to the program Vision has that contained the information and location of people with ties to the Avengers (the same one Iron Lad used to find most of the members in the team at the time), which pinpoints to Tommy's location. They proceed to break into the juvenile hall and free the teenager from his cell, noticing immediately the physical resemblances in him and Billy Kaplan (Wiccan).
There isn't much time for introductions before the intruders are attacked. It is at this point that Tommy probably makes full use of his abilities for the first time in months, taking revenge on the scientists that are attempting to escape from the attack. The Young Avenger members put his rampage to a stop before it can cause any more damage, though - because the Young Avengers do not kill. They try to convince him to join their team and help them rescue Teddy.
He doesn't immediately accept to become a member, though he does accept to assist in their friend's rescue. At some point, the story of Scarlet Witch's twin sons (whom she created out of Mephisto's soul, due to her overwhelming wish to have children of her own) is mentioned - and Billy is convinced it's referring to himself and Tommy. The speedster refuses to accept this, but eventually comes to terms with it.
After freeing Teddy and preventing a war, Tommy decides to join the team with the codename 'Speed' (which is immediately criticized by some team members for being too simple and obvious).
During the Civil War, Tommy helps his team locate and make contact with another group of young teenagers (the Runaways). The first member they encounter is Molly Hayes, a very youg girl who possesses super-strength. They're forced to knock her out, which enrages her friends and brings them to engage in combat. They finally come to an understanding, however, and Tommy starts a friendly relationship with Molly, eventually taking her in a piggy-back ride in superspeed, which separates them from the remaining youngsters for moments.
During those moments (unknown to either Tommy of Molly), the teams are attacked and some members are kidnapped. When the teenager and the young girl return, the ones the remain assemble to get their friends back successfully.
At a later point, when Tommy's skepticism about Scarlet Witch being his and Billy's real mother seems to have disappeared, the two decide to embark on a search for her whereabouts so that they can hopefully get to meet her and clear up any questions they have. Their search brings them to an abandoned Genosha and Wundagore Mountain - but neither Tommy nor Billy can seem to see or sense her presence, even with the use of their powers. The last place they decide to check is her old residence in New Jersey.
Rushing to the door and reaching for the doorknob, Tommy seems to be transported to a dimension that resembles our notion of Hell, due to a spell casted by Master Pandemonium to protect the house. Upon recognizing their powers, Pandemonium frees Tommy and ceases his attacks, choosing instead to elaborate on their mother's and their own story, then advising them to appreciate who they are in present instead of reaching for the darkness and chaos in their past.
The two boys then return to New York in a bus.
PERSONALITY:
Tommy is your typical bad-boy superhero. The first impression the Young Avengers got of him upon his release from juvie was that he was an angered, sadistic young boy, bent on taking revenge from the scientists that imprisoned and performed excruciating experiments on him. He later starts to show signs that he can tell right from wrong, though, and knows when it's wise to take orders from others.
Tommy is remarkably irresponsible, impatient, confident and - simply put - a smartass. He takes every opportunity he gets to remind other people of his superhuman speed, and while he can take situations seriously (and knows when he's out of his league), he definitely prefers it to be otherwise. His policy is to never let the enemy know they've got the upper hand, so he throws little taunts and makes full use of his abilities to gain some advantage.
It's needless to say he's got a hard time figuring out the right times to shut up. He is the sort of person who leaps (or talks) before he thinks, which often ends up with him having to swallow his own words. He's also somewhat prone to getting himself into trouble due to his lack of patience when it comes to waiting to think a situation out and devise a proper, cautious plan.
Tommy is seen being skeptical; he has difficulty accepting facts before countering them with a number of questions and dismissals - even when he's proved wrong. An example of this would be when he and Billy are told the story of the twin boys Scarlet Witch created out of her desperate wish to have children, making his newly found (at the time only supposed) sibling believe that the story was about them.
He eventually comes to accept this, however, even referring to Scarlet Witch as his mother (his relationship with his adoptive parents has not been talked about, but it would be safe to assume that they have cut off any contact with him). Though he isn't exactly prone to getting in a bad mood, there are always some buttons other people can push. Tommy isn't easily angered into actual violence, though- instead he chooses to use sarcasm and throw comebacks.
Despite the confidence, irony and impatience, Tommy can have his 'uh-oh' moments. He isn't necessarily afraid of asking - or better yet, demanding - his teammates for help (namely his brother), though he prefers to count on himself to get the job done. He's also pretty good with children (as seen with Molly from Runaways) and is definitely not afraid to throw a little charm at one a girl or another (as far as a cocky teenager boy's charm goes, anyway). When Tommy tries his luck with Kate only to be rejected in favor of Eli, he isn't seen getting his exactly heart-broken by this - so, as in most aspects of his personality, one can just say that he doesn't take romance all that seriously, either.
Because he was pretty much the last person to join the Young Avengers (having had no prior contact with either one of them), Tommy isn't as integrated in the team (relationship-wise) as much as the remaining members. It's true that he doesn't exactly go out of his to create and develop strong bonds with them (which doesn't come to much of a surprise, taking his personality and past behavior into account), so he's become somewhat labeled as the guy who's 'the last to know' when it comes to sharing secret and personal informations with one another. Some of his teammates don't even know quite what to think of him, yet.
All in all, you can say that Tommy is your typically snarky teenage boy with a good heart.
CLASS: Hero.
SUPERHERO NAME: Speed.
ALTER EGO: Tommy, tba.
POWER: Simply put, his ability is super speed. It hasn't been measured how fast he can go, but he is just about capable of running from one place to another as quickly as Billy (his twin brother) is capable of teleporting himself to it.
Besides that, Tommy can also control the speed of atomic structures with his mind - so if he shakes them up enough, they end up exploding. Among other things, Tommy also has considerable strength and knowledge in fighting techniques (though nothing out of the ordinary).
COMMUNITY POST SAMPLE:
Oookay. Let me see if I got this straight.
We've got a city. The City. Which pretty much looks like New York from one side to the other- except there 're a certain few essential things missing - but let's not go there just yet. Seeing as there was a chick's voice telling me what to do when I got thrown into whatever version of a technolab that thing was supposed to be, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that dude Iron Lad didn't decide to mess up with the time stream again. Or maybe he did, what the hey. What do I know.
--Anyway: I'm in a different lame-ass version of the dimension I used to live in, and I have to use my powers to act as a superhero and save the day.
Wow, that's a huge difference right there. Dunno if I'm gonna be able to pull it off, man.
That was sarcasm, for those of you too slow to keep up.
You'll get used to it.
The least you could've done is asked lately, by the way. It's not like we charge to save the world over and over again. Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't appreciate the cash, but you know - the rest of the team would probably consider it breaking another of our goody-two-shoes rules (or whatever the superhero equivalent would be- too lazy to come up with one myself) - unless they don't exist over here? I'm gonna have to take a look at that.
Also, and because my codename isn't Hulkling (therefore I'm not prone to getting taken away and locked up in whatever fashion generic villain #523556 comes up with), I'm gonna go ahead and assume that somebody I actually know is somewhere around here listening to this message. Guys? You know you don't want to leave me all by myself in a parallel universe. Again. Don't make me search the entire city to find you.
'Cause I will.
So to finish off my contribution to brightening up your day: Name's Speed, and I'll be your freshly-arrived, amazing new superhero.
Man, I can't wait to check out the superhero chicks around here. Did I mention I'm single?
THIRD PERSON:
It was being a weird day. Not that he was necessarily feeling that way, but things just seemed stranger than usual. How to describe it? It was that nagging feeling that he was either forgetting something, or that the world wasn't quite on his side that day. Or both.
Perhaps even something worse.
It was neither cold or hot outside. The Sun was being indecisive, the streets were a little quieter than normal. The few people walking around seemed somewhat gloomier, if it was even possible to describe the mood of random strangers scattered across the suburbs.
There was barely enough time for Tommy pay much mind to these details, though. Speeding through the streets and leaving a trail of orange and green behind him (dissipating as fast as he ran past the civilians), his thoughts were split in two things: avoiding any possible obstacles, and what he had woken up to do that day. If he were standing still at that moment? He probably would have had the urge to bring his hand up to chew on his nails (a habit that had slowly started occurring every now and then) or just nervously scratch the back of his head. It was a pretty sensitive topic, despite his defense mechanisms showing otherwise.
Shortly after, Tommy was standing still - from inside the window of his twin's room. He leaned back and adjusted his goggles as he waited for Billy and Teddy to notice he'd arrived, producing a cocky smirk and announcing his presence with a remark (or two) as inconvenient as his entrance (though one would have to consider if sneaking in through the window really was that inconvenient, given that Billy's parents weren't supposed to know he was paying him a visit in the first place).
There was some talk, and Tommy waited for the two lovebirds to say their goodbyes (it was hard not to feel weird in these moments, despite his witty comments and sarcastic hints), before he and his twin finally left the house to do what they had set to do earlier that week.
The conversation a few days prior had been awkward and long. There was a quiet moment in between missions that involved saving the world (for once), and both Tommy and Billy were lounging on their team's headquarters. The TV was on, but neither were paying much attention (for some reason, the room always seemed a little darker whenever something remotely serious was about to take place) - instead, the white haired boy leaned back, crossing his arms with a slight slouch.
So. About Scarlet Witch.
Those were the words Billy needed to give a proper beginning to the talk that followed. It was no secret that they had known about their origins for a good while (ever since the night Tommy had been taken out of that goddamn juvie hall, only to be invited to join a team of young superheroes trying to rescue their alien friend from a hoard of other aliens-- seriously, how many teenagers had a story to tell like this one that wasn't a product of their imagination?). There was obviously still some room for reasonable doubt, however - not that either of the twins were making use of it, or even felt like doing so - but they hadn't had the chance to actually do anything about it, either.
Tommy's brother had had a short encounter with her, once, before he had even known about his powers (and a lot longer before he knew she was his real mother). He'd never admit it, but truth was that the speedster was somewhat jealous of his brother.
... Okay, a big 'somewhat'. Why she had chosen to approach and talk to Billy in person while ignoring his own existence entirely was a question he asked himself more than just sometimes - namely when the topic of their possible encounter with her in the future was brought up. Tommy was a screw-up, he had that half-in-mind. You aren't exactly a successful young boy with a bright future ahead of you when you blow up an entire school out of existence only to have your parents send you to a super-juvenile hall and proceed to cut any contact they ever had with you.
So yes. There was a big 'somewhat' preceding the 'jealous'.
Regardless, they still wanted to meet her in person - to know more about her and themselves, ask some questions and get some answers, and just... be with her.
What his feelings were in relation to the actual meeting itself were proving to be hard to figure out, though. On one hand, there was obvious excitement- if anything, it would be an adventure (if you could call running around an adventure) with an objective he was both hopeful and apprehensive about fulfilling. On the other, he had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Despite everything, the certainty that they'd be able to find her was there. For some reason, being unable to get what they wanted wasn't a possibility he was taking into consideration.
Why be pessimistic about it, anyway?