#rmwen

WHO ARE THEY?

PERSONALITY

(+) meticulous, protective, loyal (–) sarcastic, detached, blunt

BACKGROUND

i. the city never sleeps. it’s sprawling, never-ending, and yue wenyan is just an ant among millions, looking for a way out.

ii. his mother leaves when he’s ten years old. she seems almost half-mad on that fated day; a whirlwind that tears through the closet and leaves destruction in the form of scattered clothing and broken memories. in a hushed tone, she talks of a rich businessman who promises her the world and more, of a man who has the midas touch and can give her everything his father can’t. she packs her bags in a rush, racing against the clock as if time is running out. he doesn’t understand why she’s in such a hurry until she’s actually gone, and then all he’s left with is the cloying stench of her perfume.

iii. this is not a fairy tale, nor does he get his own happy ending. the art of falling apart is one his father knows well. it’s subtle at first and then becomes apparent all at once: bottles of alcohol are his new best friend, and it’s a ghost he can’t seem to shake no matter how much wen pleads and begs. it becomes routine for him then to silently pick up the mess left on the coffee table every single day before he leaves for school, to hide the evidence in his neighbor’s recycling bin as an attempt to retain a semblance of normalcy in his now silent household. the truth hurts. his father is an alcoholic and the world threatens to swallow him whole.

iv. he’s going to die here; he just knows it. hong kong is stifling, and he feels like he can’t breathe. he is insignificant, just like his father says on a good day- a speck on a piece of paper that hardly takes up any space. he’s scared, terrified even that he will turn out just like his father. still stricken by grief and drinking until he’s black out drunk, only to repeat the process all over again the next day. he needs out. anywhere but here.

v. even though he is still just a mere speck, wen is slowly starting to realize he has the potential to grow. driven by sheer desperation and something called hope, he starts working his ass off and begins to excel. the speck starts to get a little bigger. a little bolder. suddenly he’s dreaming of a future and saving up money with no particular destination in mind. he doesn’t know where he wants to go yet exactly, but his grades are stellar and his teachers reassure him that he’s bound to go somewhere as long as he puts his mind to it. he has a part time job that feels like a fresh breath of air. he’s happy, for once. then his father ruins it all.

vi. this is the first time his father has ever tried to lay a hand on him; he’s drunk and swaying on his feet, blocking the path from where wen can lock himself into his bedroom and wait until he’s safe. filthy words spew out of his father’s mouth, accusatory and angry all at once. and he’s scared, hands raised in front of him instinctively to protect himself from his father’s fists. but a punch never comes. he opens his eyes that were previously screwed shut in anticipation to see his father suddenly look as white as a sheet. a gurgle comes out of him, and he starts to cough up blood. he hesitates, at first, but then he crouches over his father, looking for any sign of injury with fretful hands before a sudden bout of pain hits him.

vii. he’s sick for a week. his father doesn’t take him to a hospital, just backs away and leaves him be. it’s better than absolutely nothing, he supposes. he knows how his father feels about mutants- his wife ran off with one after all. he’s sixteen years old, and he has powers he can’t even comprehend, nonetheless understand how it got mirrored back to him. his relationship with his father is strange now, and he can’t bear to look at him. his words are still harsh and crass, but he doesn’t try to touch wen anymore. not after the incident.

viii. wen plans to put as much distance between his father and himself as possible, and the 2,062 kilometers from hong kong to incheon, south korea is perfect. gumi international university for the powered is his only ticket out of here; they offer him a full ride and he accepts. he packs the few personal belongings he has before boarding the plane, and he tries not to look back.

ix. the alpha team are rowdy and loud and everything he despises, but the camaraderie among them is something he secretly desires. he never intended to join a legacy, but they take him in under their wing his first year abroad to show him what it’s like to have fun. it’s absolute hell, but he comes to love it, slowly, but surely.

x. he doesn’t know if this is home yet. but he wants it to be.

WHAT CAN THEY DO?

DEFINITION

disease manipulation is the ability to control all forms of diseases. its applications are vast, and it can be utilized as infectious blasts, inducement, suppression, and to a much lesser extent, healing. by using his gained knowledge on various illnesses, wen is able to inflict diseases onto other people, causing them to gain the symptoms and the associated pain with that given disease. however, he needs to have a solid understanding of how it affects the immune system and the human body, or he will be unable to use that particular affliction. he cannot replicate a disease he hasn’t read on, nor can he simply create one that does not exist yet. he is also unable to induce sudden death, but he can speed up the process to cause more suffering if he so wishes. to add onto that, the more life-threatening a disease he chooses to inflict is, the more taxing it is on his own body; in exchange for spreading these diseases, he gets weaker in turn. he primarily uses it as an offensive power, and infectious energy can be released from him in waves to temporarily disable his opponents. not only that, but in the same way that he can inflict diseases, he can also heal them of it. it is not an instant cure, but rather a transferal of the disease to himself, thus being the one to now harbor the infection. while the disease he now carries may lay dormant, it will slowly eat away at him if he does not get treated. this application of his power is done quite rarely, as most of his attacks can be cured by taking the proper antibiotics, and are not, in any way, supposed to be permanent. 

WEAKNESSES

as said before, he cannot induce disease in others if he does not have prior medical knowledge on the subject. he is also not immune to his own powers; he is not less susceptible to falling ill, and he can theoretically contract the common cold as easily as anyone else. moreover, while wen is able to heal diseases in other people, he knowingly makes himself sicker in the process. he is unable to transfer diseases from one person to another, and he can only choose to transfer it to himself, causing his own healing to be null at this point. he also feels the phantom pain of the diseases he inflicts on others because of the imagination it requires, which has taken a remarkable toll on his psyche. getting fatigued usually sets in at the three hour mark, as it involves a lot of concentration to spread a disease as well as stopping himself from unconsciously making others sick in his day to day life. it can be easily negated by someone with a regenerative healing factor, and he can only spread his diseases within a fifty feet radius of himself, as well as only up to ten people at a time. to take a disease away from someone, however, he finds that it works best if he touches the person directly with his hands. lastly, the usage of his power is highly dependent on his own mental stability. depending on the emotions he is currently feeling, his powers can begin to fluctuate as a result. 

DID YOU KNOW?