Brett "Skirmish" Wakely

[Brett Wakely]

Name: Brett Wakely
Age: 18
Origin: Bristol, England
Codename: Skirmish

Power: Brett has the ability to cause one person, the aggressor, to attack another person that he chooses, the target. He does this by creating a convincing illusion over the target, making them appear to be an enemy in the eyes of the aggressor. Those with a solid telepathic resistance can ignore the the illusion. The illusion is automatically made to suit what the aggressor would be willing to fight against, and Brett has no conscious control over what particular illusion is created. The illusion covers all of the senses; the target will even sound differently to the aggressor, perhaps even taunting the aggressor if s/he falls completely into the illusion without any resistance. The effect only lasts as long as Brett maintains it, and dissipates fairly quickly once he's no longer around those affected by his power. If he chooses an aggressor without picking a target, Brett automatically becomes the target.

Brett can also create completely illusionary copies of himself. These copies can in no way cause any harm or even effect their environment, but they fool the senses just as well as the illusions he casts over his targets. Therefore, if one of his copies were to punch someone, their senses would be fooled into thinking that they had been punched, and their body would react accordingly (feeling both the impact and the subsequent pain, for example). The copies dissipate from existence if they have been sufficiently "hurt" by those looking upon them (e.g., someone under the illusion stabs or beats the hell out of one of the copies, etc.) Again, sufficient telepathic resistance can break the illusion. Currently, Brett can make two copies of himself at a time.

Personality: On the surface, Brett can seem confident, especially of his power and his abilities. In the right situation (typically a very small group of enemies), he can effectively hold his own by sewing discord among them. However, he is not too used to being in serious fights, and thanks to a disastrous situation or two caused by using his power against a single person without choosing another target for them to go after, he can easily turn into a coward if things start to go south. Recent Danger Room training has somewhat lessened this tendency.

Description: Brett is about 5'9", with brown hair and brown eyes. He's fairly good-looking, with an average, slightly athletic build. Often wears jeans and polos or long sleeve t-shirts.

Background: Brett grew up in a stable household with his mother and older brother. He's never really faced any anti-mutant sentiment himself, although he was mildly tormented by his brother a bit as he grew up. He's chosen to attend the London Institute to learn more about his power and hopefully put it to use...and being around a lot of college girls who won't care that he's a mutant doesn't hurt, either.

[Samantha McManus]

As dependent as his power is with controlling another person, it seems to me to be a fairly funkilling situation.

[Brett Wakely]

I had considered that being an issue already, although I will say he's not the type to use it against anyone except in situations where it's required. Thus, why he hasn't had too many opportuities to use it much. It also doesn't take a whole lot to resist it, especially if the aggressor he chooses happens to have some fairly decent bond with the target.

[Rachel O'Brien]

I think that in practice, this powerset could become very, very annoying for all concerned.
Either people would be constantly ignoring Brett's attempt to manipulate them, or people would take offense at being constantly godmodded into fights.

The secondary power also makes me a bit uncomfortable, as in practice it could become an excuse for all sorts of meta-gaming.

[Ryan Gabriel]

I have to agree here... this is a power that's going to end up being extremely troublesome to all involved.

[Brett Wakely]

Fine, no influencing whatsoever.

[Domanic Taylor]

What might make this power more palatable to the other players on the board is if it worked slightly differently. For instance: The power does not take direct control of the other party, it merely changes their sensory input so they think that their friend is actually one of the foes present in the fight.

This would also give the power a lot more broad application so you could have fun using it in non-combat situations. If you can switch the image of anyone around, you can use it in a basketball game to cause a miss-pass, or for a variety of low-key pranks in regular life.

Or maybe instead it's a confusion power, makes people hallucinate and be unsure of who is who, and where things are.


Either way those power accomplish much the same as what you wanted, but without robbing someone of direct control of their character. You're free to come up with other options, of course, but hopefully you like one of those or they help you figure out something else fun you'd like.

[Brett Wakely]

Edited, for your consideration.

[Samantha McManus]

So at present it seems like it's Dani Moonstar's power, but with anger instead of fear motivating the illusion.

Would you say that's correct?

[Brett Wakely]

Y'know, that didn't occur to me, but yes, that's pretty much right.

[Samantha McManus]

I'm not even really slagging it because of that. If anything, having a known point of reference in the Marvel Universe for comparison helps your changes as we can grasp what it does better.

[Domanic Taylor]

With the edits, it looks much better to me. It now designates someone as a foe, but allows the person viewing the 'foe' to decide what to do about that.

Approval 1/2

[Barbara Chronopolis]

Looks good.

Approval 2/2