ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛ ʙʟᴇᴀᴄʜᴇᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴇʏᴇs ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴀʟʟᴇʏ sᴀɴᴅ

[contradictings]

MUSE NAME: Kim, Minseok
PB NAME: Kim, Minseok
GROUP/SOLO: EXO
MUSE DW: contradictings
MUSE IM: #pop.sicles

AGE: 92.03.26; 24
RESIDENT OR IMMIGRANT: Resident of 2 years
OCCUPATION: Applied Linguistics M.A. student at The University of Hong Kong

RACE: Mutant
ABILITIES:
- Major: Energy absorption
- Minor: Self-healing & regeneration
LANGUAGES:
- Fluent: Korean, English
- Proficient: Mandarin
- Passable: Cantonese
- Minimal: French

HISTORY/PERSONALITY
Kim Minseok's birth was hardly anything of note, though of course it was quite the opposite to his immediate family. A baby boy born into an upper-class family in Seoul was something only celebrated by parents and grandparents, especially when Minseok was the second son born to his mother and father and not as important as his older brother. He was born healthy and screaming, far more energetic than his mother who had struggled through a difficult and exhausting pregnancy. Her survival was as much something to celebrate as the baby's, at the time. But his birth never earned more than obligatory words of congratulation from friends and coworkers who were infinitely more interested in their own lives and families than one more baby in Seoul.

He continued to grow, thriving in ways that babies seldom did. He suffered no illnesses, not even when his immune system was meant to be at his weakest. His father saw it as a blessing that his son would be so strong that even as an infant, nothing seemed able to stop him. It was curious that his nannies tended to fall ill instead, though, and a new one had to be hired nearly ever year to replace the one before. But the family thought little of it when Minseok was able to avoid whatever illnesses constantly plagued those around him.

Through the changing faces of nannies, there were few constants in Minseok's life. His father was often away on business or worked late into the night, leaving for the office before Minseok woke and returning far past his bedtime. His mother, though weakened by her pregnancy, kept up the life of a socialite and would sooner leave Minseok and his brother in the care of another than tend to them herself. Even Minseok's older brother, Minjun, was often too busy for him, burdened by extra studies as his father started grooming him from an early age to take over the family business. Though Minjun was only six years older, he was already learning as much as his tutors could manage in the day. This left Minseok alone most of the time, though all of that changed when his mother became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl.

Three years younger than Minseok, Minjung quickly became the center of his world, a bright spot in an otherwise grey life. He spent all of his time around her, doing his best to help the nannies take care of her though he was still too young to do anything. Once he was old enough to read, he could be found holding her hand as she fell asleep, telling her stories to sweeten her dreams. It wasn't until he was six that he started to understand that Minjung wasn't well, falling sick more often than their ever changing roster of nannies and tutors. The doctors couldn't explain it; there wasn't a specific problem. Minjung just didn't have the energy that a child her age was meant to have, or that she needed.

When Minjung died at the age of four, part of Minseok died with her. He withdrew from the rest of his family, who were all dealing with the loss in their own private ways. Minseok lost interest in all of the things that he had shared with his sister and distracted himself with studying. Perhaps starting school was a saving grace, getting him out of the house and away from the revolving door of nannies and tutors. The loss of his sister and closest friend made him shy, and though he didn't have words for it at a young age, he worried that anyone else he got close to might leave him, too. But he found a love for learning and eventually found friends who were willing to get close to him.

But by the age of ten, when his friends were far more likely to get sick than the rest of the school, when his teachers avoided getting too close to him, Minseok figured out that he had to be the reason.

"A common denominator" is how he'd explain it later, the realization that he was the only thing that was the same when everything around him was going wrong. He didn't know what it was in the beginning—maybe a curse, like the bad luck his grandmother would sometimes talk about only to be shushed by his parents. It was too horrible to be magic, though he had heard enough about demigods and vampires to know that not all magic was good. But he waited, and researched, and tried to figure out what he was without telling his parents because he knew that they'd blame him for Minjung; how could they not when he blamed himself?

He begged his parents to let him study in America, trying to spin it as an adventure but really needing time away from his family. Part of him knew that the could be alone there, and why had he begun learning English if not to use it at some point? So he lived in Los Angeles from the sixth grade through university, studying languages as the only useful skill that really stuck with him. Funny, how someone who did so little socializing could theoretically talk to so many different kinds of people. He tried not to spend too much time with any one person, wandering through various campus groups and then venturing out into the world.

Fast forward twelve years to his college graduation, and it's easy to see that life goes on. Even with his mutation under control, Minseok doesn't like getting too close to people he likes. No one's gotten sick because of him in a long time, but there's always that fear that he'll do something different or that he'll slip up. There's always the option of staying away from magic and hoping that's enough, but maybe Hong Kong will hold some answers for him along with further practice at control.


ABILITY
ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀ: ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ᴀʙsᴏʀᴘᴛɪᴏɴ
Minseok's primary ability centers on being able to absorb life energy from organic sources, such as plants and animals. With practice he has learned to control the amount of energy he takes, if any at all, though the strength of his control does depend somewhat on his mental state. Extreme emotions, either positive or negative, can make it more difficult for him to concentrate on his ability. It's also harder for him to manage his ability when he's exhausted or unconscious, so sharing a bed with him can sometimes be dangerous.

His power is based on touch, mainly through his hands, though he can focus this ability to a specific area of skin anywhere on his body. The amount of focus he has to put into the absorption depends on the sensitivity of his skin: the more sensitive, the easier it is to soak up energy without too much thought. For example, it is very unlikely that he would be able to accidentally pull energy from someone by bumping shoulders, even with skin-to-skin contact, simply because his shoulder isn't as receptive to receiving energy. He is also limited by how many people he can touch at once, since he only has two hands, though with some exertion could draw from three sources if someone were to initiate contact. The more sources he pulls from, the less he can take from each. For example, one source he could draw say 50% of their energy, two sources would be around 20% each totaling in 40%, and three would be 10% each totaling in 30%.


ᴍɪɴᴏʀ: ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ᴜsᴇ
Considering that Minseok absorbs energy from a variety of sources, a logical question to ask would be what he does with all of that energy. Passively, organic materials around him may go wither depending on whether or not he's focused on controlling his ability. Walking barefoot through the grass may leave behind brown footprints, or a finger up a spine might result in chills. The extra energy in him also means that his resting body temperature is higher than average, about the level of a mild fever. This makes him hot to the touch and prone to sweating if he keeps the energy and has to burn it off through his metabolism.

More actively, Minseok can use built-up energy to rapidly create new cells and speed up his healing process, though not to the extent of healing instantly. Small cuts and bruises under an inch can be healed with minimal time and effort; about two hours per inch at most for these minor scratches. Larger wounds over six inches require much more energy to heal as does replacing any lost blood, taking several days. For more extensive injuries, Minseok either has to have a lot of fresh energy stored up or actively draw from some source while healing. He can only heal himself, not others, as energy transference only goes one way for him.