Post by Cannonball on Sept 12, 2006 8:54:52 GMT -5
Name: Samuel ‘Sam’ Zachary Guthrie
Codename(s): Cannonball
Affiliation: X-Men
Age: 27
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 181lbs
Hair Colour: Blond
Eye Colour: Blue
Appearance: Sam is what could loosely be referred to as a ‘long drink of water’. He’s tall and slender, with almost precision-cut, neat hair. He wears neat, always tidy clothes and generally appears well groomed and presentable.
Until about 10am.
Then he seems to…start disintegrating. By that time, his natural tendency to look like he’s been dragged through a hedge backwards kicks in. No matter how much he irons his shirts, by lunchtime they look like they’ve been screwed up and used as basketballs and his jeans look like they’ve been buried in dust and jumped up and down on.
He’s a good looking man and part of that is the fact that he’s unaware of the fact.
Personality: Sam is almost eminently likeable, friendly, open and honest. He’s a good ol’ down-country kind of a boy whose first priority is, and always has been, his family. Since the death of his father, Sam has been the ‘man’ of the family, and given the age difference between him and the younger kids, he has an air of responsibility about him. He will defend those of his family to the death despite fighting with every single one of them tooth and claw.
He’s also something of a slapstick practical joker and finds nothing funnier than watching someone wash their face with black-ink soap, or look through a soot-ring telescope.
In short, Sam is almost gloriously uncomplicated.
He’s also as loud and enthusiastic as his mutation. Guile is for other people, not Sam Guthrie.
Powers and Abilities: Cannonball has the ability to absorb and then release thermochemical energy through his skin. This release can act in many ways, the most common of which are allowing him to propel himself through the air like a human rocket at speeds approaching the supersonic, or channelling the release as concussive blasts from his hands. The release of the energy is almost always accompanied by smoke, flame and condensation, so he can’t exactly act as an agent of stealth.
The field of energy also acts as a pretty impenetrable blast field which with concentration he is able to extend to an approximate three-person radius around himself.
In terms of non-mutant abilities, Sam is a keen student of Aikido and is proving most adept at this particular martial art. He can hold his own in a brawl or fist fight as he has proved on more than one occasion.
Weaknesses: Sam is still mastering the basic art of ‘stopping’. He can mostly control his energy blasts, but sometimes, particularly when over-enthusiastic or under duress, he quite literally can only be stopped by one of two things. Either his reserves of energy dwindle and die, or he hits something with enough mass to physically stop him in his tracks. A tree wouldn’t do the job, for example, but a solid concrete structure would slow him enough (although he’d most likely pass through a couple of interior walls first: protected by his shield he wouldn’t do himself TOO much damage – but certainly some).
He’s also quick to temper, but that’s somewhat countered by the fact that he also forgets and forgives very easily.
His biggest weakness is his tendency to be gullible. If anything sounds remotely plausible, he’ll believe it. When he was a student at Xavier’s, this resulted in him being wound up on regular occasions.
History: The oldest of the twelve Guthrie siblings, Sam was eight years old before his parents starting the mass production of the rest of the clan. Paige (Husk) is his closest sibling and he cherishes her with a sort of fierce brotherly pride, despite that fact that he despairs of her at times.
When he was fifteen, he first went down the mines with his father and spent six months working them before disaster struck. A faulty seam collapsed on Sam, his father and Don, a family friend and co-worker. Sam’s father was killed instantly, but Sam was unhurt. He realised, much later when he had more of a handle on his powers that this was because his mutation had immediately kicked in and created an impenetrable shield around him and Don. His father had been outside the shield’s reach.
Seemingly trapped beneath the rubble, it was a terrified Don who witnessed the first full manifestation of Sam’s mutation when the boy grabbed hold of him and blasted the pair of them directly up and out through the rubble.
Far from making him a local hero, this now obvious mutant was immediately distrusted by the local community, and whilst they didn’t shut him out completely, they certainly made it evident that he wasn’t welcome.
Sam went through a period of depression following the death of his father, sincerely believing it was his fault. He was left as the ‘man of the house’ with seven younger siblings to care for. (His mother later re-married and had four more children by her second husband, Jebediah Guthrie’s cousin). He went from being a popular boy to being an obvious outcast – except within his family, all of whom loved and accepted him for who he was.
At sixteen, he was contacted by Charles Xavier, and gladly accepted the Professor’s invitation to the Institute. He was one of the earliest students and at the age of twenty, he left to go home to Kentucky, far more in control of his faculties and abilities to work as a civil engineer on several mining projects. He’s not done too badly for himself, all things considering, and whilst he never initially became one of the X-Men, he was happy doing what he did best – going down mine shafts and coming out covered in soot.
At twenty four, he married a young woman called Brenda Williams, an architect and most definitely his intellectual superior. It was an ill-fated marriage and sadly, due to what she cited as ‘irreconcilable differences’, the couple’s relationship broke down six months before he got the call from Storm. He is presently in mid-divorce and failing to understand any of the specifics.
With the dawn of all the issues surrounding the Brotherhood and in particular in the knowledge that at least one of his siblings has manifested a mutation, Sam is one of those who has been recalled to the mansion to bolster the X-Men’s numbers.
Sample post: “Sam, Sam, Sam.”
“What, what, what?” The eldest Guthrie grinned wickedly at Scott Summers. He was lying amidst a heap of broken concrete, dust covering him and the entire floor of the simulation inside the Danger Room. He was seventeen years old and like many of those currently at the Institute, considered Scott Summers to be twenty two going on approximately one hundred and ninety four.
“The idea behind this exercise was to stop before you went through the school. If we look at the facts…” A screen lit up and numbers filled it. Scott surveyed them thoughtfully. “Yes, if we examine the facts, your careless landing in the side of St. James’ Primary resulted in the deaths of 450 children under the age of 11, seven teachers and approximately twelve other employees. That’s hardly a success, is it?”
As the simulation flickered out around them, Sam’s open, genial, honest face fell. “That many?” he said. “I was aiming for the gym. Figured that since it were lunchtime, there weren’t gonna be nobody in there.”
“The gymnasium doubles as the lunch hall.”
“Well, shit. Guess I need more practise.” The young man scratched his head. A cloud of dust puffed up, making Scott cough.
“Sam, please.” Scott folded his arms across his chest. “You have to start taking this seriously. You’re lethal once you’re airborne. If you don’t learn to control your propulsion, you’re going to end up killing those kids for real one day.”
“But them kids ain’t real, Scott. I’m gonna get the hang of this before you let me out into the real world, ain’t that right?”
“It doesn’t matter that they ain’t…I mean, that they’re not real. The point of the simulation was to come to a complete, controlled stop before you ploughed through the walls.”
Sam’s brow furrowed.
“But they weren’t real. Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Scott, I’ll just keep trying until I get it right.”
“It DOESN’T MATTER…” Scott calmed himself. There was something about Sam that drove him nuts at times. It was the refusal to admit defeat, ever. He would keep going on and on and on at something until he got it. And whilst Scott endorsed such behaviour in most people, Sam did it in a particularly destructive way.
“Reset simulation,” he said, with a sigh and brushed more dust off his hair.
Player Info: That’d be Sarah, then.
Codename(s): Cannonball
Affiliation: X-Men
Age: 27
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 181lbs
Hair Colour: Blond
Eye Colour: Blue
Appearance: Sam is what could loosely be referred to as a ‘long drink of water’. He’s tall and slender, with almost precision-cut, neat hair. He wears neat, always tidy clothes and generally appears well groomed and presentable.
Until about 10am.
Then he seems to…start disintegrating. By that time, his natural tendency to look like he’s been dragged through a hedge backwards kicks in. No matter how much he irons his shirts, by lunchtime they look like they’ve been screwed up and used as basketballs and his jeans look like they’ve been buried in dust and jumped up and down on.
He’s a good looking man and part of that is the fact that he’s unaware of the fact.
Personality: Sam is almost eminently likeable, friendly, open and honest. He’s a good ol’ down-country kind of a boy whose first priority is, and always has been, his family. Since the death of his father, Sam has been the ‘man’ of the family, and given the age difference between him and the younger kids, he has an air of responsibility about him. He will defend those of his family to the death despite fighting with every single one of them tooth and claw.
He’s also something of a slapstick practical joker and finds nothing funnier than watching someone wash their face with black-ink soap, or look through a soot-ring telescope.
In short, Sam is almost gloriously uncomplicated.
He’s also as loud and enthusiastic as his mutation. Guile is for other people, not Sam Guthrie.
Powers and Abilities: Cannonball has the ability to absorb and then release thermochemical energy through his skin. This release can act in many ways, the most common of which are allowing him to propel himself through the air like a human rocket at speeds approaching the supersonic, or channelling the release as concussive blasts from his hands. The release of the energy is almost always accompanied by smoke, flame and condensation, so he can’t exactly act as an agent of stealth.
The field of energy also acts as a pretty impenetrable blast field which with concentration he is able to extend to an approximate three-person radius around himself.
In terms of non-mutant abilities, Sam is a keen student of Aikido and is proving most adept at this particular martial art. He can hold his own in a brawl or fist fight as he has proved on more than one occasion.
Weaknesses: Sam is still mastering the basic art of ‘stopping’. He can mostly control his energy blasts, but sometimes, particularly when over-enthusiastic or under duress, he quite literally can only be stopped by one of two things. Either his reserves of energy dwindle and die, or he hits something with enough mass to physically stop him in his tracks. A tree wouldn’t do the job, for example, but a solid concrete structure would slow him enough (although he’d most likely pass through a couple of interior walls first: protected by his shield he wouldn’t do himself TOO much damage – but certainly some).
He’s also quick to temper, but that’s somewhat countered by the fact that he also forgets and forgives very easily.
His biggest weakness is his tendency to be gullible. If anything sounds remotely plausible, he’ll believe it. When he was a student at Xavier’s, this resulted in him being wound up on regular occasions.
History: The oldest of the twelve Guthrie siblings, Sam was eight years old before his parents starting the mass production of the rest of the clan. Paige (Husk) is his closest sibling and he cherishes her with a sort of fierce brotherly pride, despite that fact that he despairs of her at times.
When he was fifteen, he first went down the mines with his father and spent six months working them before disaster struck. A faulty seam collapsed on Sam, his father and Don, a family friend and co-worker. Sam’s father was killed instantly, but Sam was unhurt. He realised, much later when he had more of a handle on his powers that this was because his mutation had immediately kicked in and created an impenetrable shield around him and Don. His father had been outside the shield’s reach.
Seemingly trapped beneath the rubble, it was a terrified Don who witnessed the first full manifestation of Sam’s mutation when the boy grabbed hold of him and blasted the pair of them directly up and out through the rubble.
Far from making him a local hero, this now obvious mutant was immediately distrusted by the local community, and whilst they didn’t shut him out completely, they certainly made it evident that he wasn’t welcome.
Sam went through a period of depression following the death of his father, sincerely believing it was his fault. He was left as the ‘man of the house’ with seven younger siblings to care for. (His mother later re-married and had four more children by her second husband, Jebediah Guthrie’s cousin). He went from being a popular boy to being an obvious outcast – except within his family, all of whom loved and accepted him for who he was.
At sixteen, he was contacted by Charles Xavier, and gladly accepted the Professor’s invitation to the Institute. He was one of the earliest students and at the age of twenty, he left to go home to Kentucky, far more in control of his faculties and abilities to work as a civil engineer on several mining projects. He’s not done too badly for himself, all things considering, and whilst he never initially became one of the X-Men, he was happy doing what he did best – going down mine shafts and coming out covered in soot.
At twenty four, he married a young woman called Brenda Williams, an architect and most definitely his intellectual superior. It was an ill-fated marriage and sadly, due to what she cited as ‘irreconcilable differences’, the couple’s relationship broke down six months before he got the call from Storm. He is presently in mid-divorce and failing to understand any of the specifics.
With the dawn of all the issues surrounding the Brotherhood and in particular in the knowledge that at least one of his siblings has manifested a mutation, Sam is one of those who has been recalled to the mansion to bolster the X-Men’s numbers.
Sample post: “Sam, Sam, Sam.”
“What, what, what?” The eldest Guthrie grinned wickedly at Scott Summers. He was lying amidst a heap of broken concrete, dust covering him and the entire floor of the simulation inside the Danger Room. He was seventeen years old and like many of those currently at the Institute, considered Scott Summers to be twenty two going on approximately one hundred and ninety four.
“The idea behind this exercise was to stop before you went through the school. If we look at the facts…” A screen lit up and numbers filled it. Scott surveyed them thoughtfully. “Yes, if we examine the facts, your careless landing in the side of St. James’ Primary resulted in the deaths of 450 children under the age of 11, seven teachers and approximately twelve other employees. That’s hardly a success, is it?”
As the simulation flickered out around them, Sam’s open, genial, honest face fell. “That many?” he said. “I was aiming for the gym. Figured that since it were lunchtime, there weren’t gonna be nobody in there.”
“The gymnasium doubles as the lunch hall.”
“Well, shit. Guess I need more practise.” The young man scratched his head. A cloud of dust puffed up, making Scott cough.
“Sam, please.” Scott folded his arms across his chest. “You have to start taking this seriously. You’re lethal once you’re airborne. If you don’t learn to control your propulsion, you’re going to end up killing those kids for real one day.”
“But them kids ain’t real, Scott. I’m gonna get the hang of this before you let me out into the real world, ain’t that right?”
“It doesn’t matter that they ain’t…I mean, that they’re not real. The point of the simulation was to come to a complete, controlled stop before you ploughed through the walls.”
Sam’s brow furrowed.
“But they weren’t real. Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Scott, I’ll just keep trying until I get it right.”
“It DOESN’T MATTER…” Scott calmed himself. There was something about Sam that drove him nuts at times. It was the refusal to admit defeat, ever. He would keep going on and on and on at something until he got it. And whilst Scott endorsed such behaviour in most people, Sam did it in a particularly destructive way.
“Reset simulation,” he said, with a sigh and brushed more dust off his hair.
Player Info: That’d be Sarah, then.
But I would like to see Cannonball's face when he sees his baby sister all over some guy!
