Alaric/L

Name: Alaric Jameson

Age: 16

Gender: Male

History/Background: When Alaric was born early one spring morning, his parents both looked at each other with a knowing smile and realized that they would never have children again. Caitlin Jameson cradled her newborn son while Jason Jameson stood behind her, leaning so close to his child that he was almost lying on the hospital bed, and an unspoken agreement was instantly made that all of their discussions about having multiple children were to be ignored; as they looked down at Alaric, both Caitlin and Jason knew that they could never love any human being more than the child in Caitlin's arms.

Life was no fairy tale - it wouldn't be life it had been. But it came close enough for the Jamesons. Caitlin and Jason had bought a nice home in the suburbs near Boston, Massachusetts in preparation to raise a family. The neighborhood was safe as far as they could tell, the school system was solid, and both Jason and Caitlin loved the forests and parks around the neighborhood. The couple watched in rapture as Alaric learned to walk, spoke his first words, and grew in a head of wavy, rust-colored hair (from my grandmother's side, Caitlin would say).

Though Alaric could barely appreciate it at his age, his life was near perfect. He was, according to many of the daycare and preschool teachers, one of the most pleasant and good-looking boys his age. His parents near spoiled him, and he learned how to read by age four, putting him ahead of most of his peers in school at least through third grade (Got that from my side, Jason would say. Caitlin would laugh.).

Then life simply became that - life. Alaric became just another kid at school, Jason had devote more of his life to his job to pay for rising living expenses, and Caitlin dutifully played the housewife. Alaric made friends, lost friends, was drowned in excitement as he got his first pet fish, and was almost drowned again in tears when it died. Jason got a promotion, Caitlin's sister got breast cancer, Alaric got his first F on a science paper. Alaric went through an awkward stage entering middle school, Jason gave his son "the talk," and Caitlin lovingly made fun of Alaric when Nancy Delure asked him to the seventh grade dance. Life went on.

By ninth grade, Alaric was well out of his awkward stage and he became a fairly attractive freshman track runner, student council member, and one of the three freshman that held an A in Honors English for the first semester. He was still horrible at science, and he had grown a friendship with Nancy. As he progressed through high school, he made a few friends that he'd usually hang out with on Fridays, realized that he hated science and track, became the Treasurer for the student council, was the only sophomore to like Lord of the Flies, and laughed in Nancy's mouth when she tried to teach him how to kiss. Alaric was fine with his life, though he looked at it from a disconnected, dispassionate perspective.

At one point in his sophomore year, Alaric made the mistake of drinking a Starbucks Frappuccino after seven o' clock on a school night while he was hanging out with Derick. Alaric was up all night lying in his bed, staring at his ceiling, and thinking millions of shallow, significant, introspective, and judgmental thoughts. After getting twenty minutes of sleep, he swore to never again drink coffee after five o' clock, but he later realized that coffee hadn't been the problem. Even on caffeine-free nights, his mind would race with countless thoughts on every subject. The moon just brought out his pensive-face.

It was one crisp autumn night that Alaric experienced yet another sleepless night and his mind stumbled upon a thought that distressed him more than he could tolerate: it occurred to Alaric that he had been born with the world at his feet, with more than many of his peers had. Yet now, sixteen years later, he was just another average, unremarkable student with mediocre grades and an insomnia problem. For days Alaric was plagued with distress over this thought, and he constantly mulled over ways to break into his untapped potential and become the properly self-actualized teenager he was meant to be. No matter how he looked at it, though, it seemed that the only solutions needed to have been acted upon five years ago.

Had he a better appreciation for irony and a greater shock tolerance, Alaric would have laughed when he woke up five days after the birth of his depressing epiphany next to himself. The cosmos seemed to have granted him a way to tap into the rest of himself by giving him a clone. The boy sleeping next to Alaric looked exactly like him, except where Alaric's eyes were brown, this clone's were lavender. The strange collage of lines, strange shapes, and symbols that ran up the other boy's arm also seemed to set him apart, until Alaric noticed that his left arm had a mirror image of the clone's "magical tattoo."

Alaric's initial reaction was to scream. So was Caitlin's. Jason mostly thought he was still sleeping.

The Jamesons rushed out of the house, both of Alaric's parents assuming that the look-alike was some stalker, a delusion caused by a gas leak, or even one of the shapeshifting aliens that they'd heard about. They'd almost made it past the driveway when Alaric instantly fell unconscious and slumped to the ground. The clone, meanwhile, awoke, and with one furious thrust, ripped the covers off and cracked the bed's headboard with his fist. Chaos ensued as Alaric's parents screamed for help, cradling their son's body, while the clone crashed around the room, attacking anything he could see. Caitlin and Jason could hear the noise inside Alaric's room, and they were petrified with fear at the crashing sounds and angry howls. Finally the clone, with another vicious scream, tackled Alaric's swiveling chair out the window, and when he landed on the front lawn with a broken arm, the clone calmed and Alaric woke up with a start.

The house was checked for gas leaks, alien invasion, and even blessed by a priest before Jason or Caitlin could acknowledge the idea that their son was a mutant. By the time the local mutant-expert doctor had diagnosed Alaric with the X-gene, it was obvious that Alaric and the clone were more than human - the two could not be more than fifty feet apart, the clone had begun quoting passages from Red Badge of Courage, Alaric had been getting commercial jingles stuck in his head that he had never heard before, and he could swear that he had seen some freakish half-elephant enter the room while he was teaching the clone to read a Dr. Seuss book.

Alaric's parents had no idea how to deal with the situation. Neither could explain the sudden appearance of the X-gene in their family, and they were i'll equipped to handle the strange symptoms surrounding Alaric's mutation - least of all an almost identical sixteen-year-old boy. So they did the one thing they could do - they called Bellerose Academy and enrolled Alaric and the clone.

Alaric and his clone, newly dubbed "L," arrived at the school for mutants within a month of his mutation. Despite his newly photographic memory, Alaric could not remember why he had chosen to call his clone L, but he did know that he already missed his old life.

Personality: Alaric is a quiet person, broody and shy, until he trusts you. L, on the other hand, is a lot more outgoing and talkative. L never seems to question the point of his existence or develop a Frankenstein's Creature complex over his sudden birth. Alaric is rather pained about the existence of L, however, as his life was pretty good before L popped up. He has trouble bonding with L, though he never bonded much with people before, anyways.

Appearance: Alaric and L are both about 5' 8" with average builds. They have wavy, rust-colored hair, fair skin, and the eyes I described above. Alaric and L both have a sleeve of strange symbols "magically" tattooed to their left and right arms, respectively.

Power/Gift:

One: L is a mutation. Alaric and L share an unconscious telepathic link, allowing them to have a form of accelerated learning - for instance, while L is in combat training and Alaric is studying English, they are both learning Kung Fu and the Scarlet Letter at the same time. This memory is almost photographic, and whether that is a mutation or just a skill of Alaric's is unknown.
Two: Alaric and L can create illusions from reciting descriptions in books, almost "summoning" landscapes, characters, and so forth. It is not necessarily required to be quoting something while creating an illusion; a verbal command is the only requirement to form an illusion. Since the power of these illusions are based on their own mental images, however, the illusions are generally more powerful when quoting a description in a book or written work since the mental image is stronger.
Sort of Three: L seems to be stronger when he is separated from Alaric and is in one of his blind rages. This isn't super-strength by any means - it is more likely that it is a release of adrenaline that allows him that extra strength.