Heavensent

Aaron Ashmore as James Baxter

Name: James Baxter Codename: Heavensent Faction: N/A Position: N/A Age: 23 Hometown: N/A Gender: Masculine Height: 6ft (1.83m) Build: Fit Skin: Caucasian Hair: Blond Eyes: Blue

Details

Background

James "Jimmy" Simon Alvin Baxter was originally born as Alexei Adrian Petrikov. For context, let's step back a generation.
In young adulthood, Fedora Irina Petrikov was visited and inhabited by an angelic being. She resisted its call for a time, but soon after the birth of her son Yakov, she left and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Yakov was born as essentially one-third angel himself, with power that fed into great magical potential. He used his power for selfish ends, and often the acquisition of even more power. He had sons of his own, from different women: his favoured son Kir; the middle child Andrei; and in 13th November 1995, Alexei.
Yakov's badness came to a head in 2002, when he attacked New York's Sanctum. He brought Alexei with him, intending to use him as a sacrifice to break through the Sanctum's protections and summon forth DARK MASTERS. The Sanctum's defenders, and others from the Consortium Arcana, fought Yakov off and rescued Alexei. They renamed him (with an extra middle name to protect from 'True Name' shenanigans) and brought him to a trusted orphanage.
Jimmy grew up in the system, caught up on schooling he missed, and went to university. He buried as much as he could as 'bad dreams', including his own budding powers.
Then came 12th December, 2014. Such widespread and intense fear and pain broke through his mental blocks to kickstart his empathy, and with it his other powers. Though confused about WTF was going on with him, he jumped into action and helped as best he could, pulling people from the rubble. He didn't stay to answer questions.
Being a good boy, he registered that he had powers, though not his extracurricular activities — which are mostly focused on rescue and interrupting violent crimes. He keeps his toe firmly dipped in the crime-fighting water, and has never actually chosen a codename.
Last year, he graduated, and is now interning as a counsellor. He still takes night classes at a medical school, having been inspired by the events of 2014 to learn how to help people physically as well as emotionally.

Powers

• Psychic Empathy: Jimmy can sense others' emotions in ways far stronger than reading faces and hearing tones of voice, out to a radius of roughly 50,000 feet (from one end of a city block to halfway down). He can even sense the direction an emotion's coming from — useful for noticing the anger coming up behind you before the baseball bat swings, or for locating a terrified person buried in a collapsed tunnel. But this is not telepathy: he can't read specific thoughts or probe your memories. He might detect a lie, if your feelings are at odds with your words. ("She's acting scared, but since we suggested taking her back to base, she's been RADIATING smug satisfaction.") Strangely, this power can even detect the emotions of artificial intelligences that have such things. Chalk one in the 'robots can have souls' column?
  • Empathic Projection: Jimmy can also project emotions outward. His maximum range for this is roughly 5,000 feet (the size of a good ballroom). He's limited to emotions which actually exist within his perception range. Faced with a scared civilian, Jimmy could project his own sense of calm or courage, or project the civilian's fear into the terrorist who caused it; but he could not generate a feeling of 'amusement' out of nowhere and make him start laughing. He can project a weak 'mood' through his entire radius (enough that projecting 'happy' would make several people crack a small smile); or with focus and line of sight, he can have a much stronger impact on a single subject at a time, limited by the sum of available emotions.

• Spirit Sword: Part of Jimmy's soul has transformed into a weapon against evil. With an effort of will and imagination, he can conjure up one or two objects made of solidified white energy. They can last for hours, but will dissipate if he loses consciousness. Despite the name, he can shape them into whatever he can easily imagine — though usually simple shapes, like swords, knives, and shields. The energy can cut many 'intangible' spirits, and can often cut a possessing entity without harming the host, but these are not absolute: some spirits are too formless, or bond too closely with their hosts. (Read: GMs can declare this clause inapplicable if it would totally ruin things.) The weapon's ethereal power is especially potent against profane or evil creatures, and its touch (though not its glow) can harm vampires like sunlight. The material is a bit stronger than good steel, but leagues below exotic material like vibranium or adamantium. If he throws or breaks an object, he can spend a moment 'dismissing' and re-conjuring it. The objects are unwieldy in others' hands; he can't conjure up tools for someone else to use.

• Angelic Soul: He generates more and stronger life force than most, enhancing his body's healing processes.
  • Stamina: His stamina normally recovers faster than he can use it. Under most circumstances, he can subsist on one hour's sleep per night (or eight hours once a week). A full 24 hours of standard labour or combat will exhaust him into needing a night of full rest, and greater effort (especially spiking his Strength higher than normal limits) will exhaust him much faster.
  • Ageless: It staves off aging, such that growing old is just not a problem for him.
  • Healing Factor: Jimmy's healing is impressive. He resists most mundane diseases and toxins (including intoxicants); at worst, he'll shrug off the effects in a few minutes, or a few seconds if he enters Angel Mode (see below). However, empowered diseases/toxins (whether magical, superscientific, or other kinds of 'special') still affect him, and he can't heal injuries fast enough to be useful in the fast pace of most combat. Thus, injuries can still debilitate him during a fight or knock him out entirely, and he can still be killed. Mild injuries (small bruises, surface cuts, first- or second-degree burns) heal in minutes; moderate injuries (extensive bruises, large or deep cuts, third-degree burns) heal in hours; severe injuries (broken bones, large AND deep gashes with major blood loss, blackened fourth-degree burns) heal in three days at most. In Angel Mode (see below) Jimmy can even regenerate lost limbs and organs. This takes hours or days, and thus is unlikely to save him if he's lost a vital organ. While he's in Angel Mode, a regenerating limb is visible as a white ghost image, intangible and semi-transparent.

• Angel Mode: Most of Jimmy's most impressive powers require him to transform. Though this doesn't take much time or effort, it's quite obvious: skin shining like polished metal; a face glowing like distant lightning; eyes blazing like searchlights; and a reverberating, tumultuous voice That Must Always Be Capitalised. This is necessary for the following powers.
  • Veil: According to legend, angels can disappear from view, cloak others to simply /walk/ out of prison, and even hide a door from a rampaging mob. This is the closest Jimmy gets. He can project an effect around himself and maybe one or two other people he carries, reducing the amount that other people notice and pay attention to them. Range isn't an issue, but effectiveness is. It doesn't work on non-sapient machines, nor on people with strong wills, anti-psi training, or who had been paying close attention to Jimmy before he activated it. Further, it takes some amount of concentration and 'bandwidth'. Anything more demanding than a moderate sudoku puzzle, or flying at highway speed, will also drop the veil and present a Big Glowy Target; naturally, this includes unconsciousness."
  • Wings: Jimmy projects wings made of ethereal fire, which allow him to hover and fly. His top speed is about a hundred miles per hour, though he can more comfortably maintain highway speeds of 60-70 mph.
  • Strength: He's considerably stronger than normal. He can handle 10 tons of weight without much effort. More effort and a 'high glow' can spike this higher.

Skills

• Psychology: Jimmy has a bachelor's degree in psychological science. He knows good therapy practices, can understand patterns of attitude and emotion, and can recognise signs of mental health disorder.
• Biology and Medicine: Though not a full-fledged medical doctor, Jimmy's knowledge is a bit more advanced than ordinary first aid, and he can treat many kinds of injury.
• People Skills: Jimmy is a personable guy. He can talk his way into places, or just get someone talking and glean some important information from them.
• Myth and Legend: Jimmy has read about a great many mythologies, Abrahamic included. And in this world, a lot of myth has some bearing in truth.
• Spirit-Swordsmanship: A combination of self-taught practice and intuitive wieldiness make him a skilled combatant with the spirit swords he generates.

Advantages

• Therapist Intern: Jimmy is employed as an intern at a mental health clinic.
• Med Student: Jimmy is actively studying medicine, and this gives him access to the medical school — potentially including medicines or tools needed to help someone with illness or injury.
• Methodist Church Member: He regularly attends a Methodist church that's active in the community, with at least passing friends among many of the congregation. Thankfully, Methodists don't have to do confession like "I turn all glowy and beat up muggers".
• Bus Pass: Because sometimes, you want to get around without relying on wings of ethereal fire.

Flaws

• "Captain, I Sense Great Pain": The empathy doesn't turn off. Especially intense emotions can sweep Jimmy up in their wake, such that he's debilitated by *someone else's* anguish. This can also make him more vulnerable to being swayed by sob stories, or to those paving their way to Hell with genuinely good intentions.
• Big Glowy Target: In angel mode, Jimmy is rather an attention-grabbing figure. It could be hard for him to hide or escape when necessary, and it is quite viable for the mooks to say "HOLY DRAGON BALLS, SHOOT THE SHINY WEIRDO FIRST"
• Aura Aura Aura: Even when he's outside angel mode, the mystically sensitive could feel Jimmy's presence like a punch in the face.
• Supernaturally Delicious: Such a strong soul makes a tempting morsel for things that feed on souls. Or life force. Or blood (he's even O-!). Or dark magicians who want to tap or sacrifice something to help the mana cost. Or…
• Only Five-Sixths Human: Jimmy's angelic side has mystical drawbacks. Certain binding spells could at least suppress his powers, if not bind Jimmy himself entirely. Certain dark magics hit him harder than they would other people. And weapons with 'blessing' similar to his own spirit sword — including some applications of holy water, Shinto talismans, and suchlike — can bypass his healing factor entirely, leaving him healing at normal rates, at best.
• All By Myself: Jimmy isn't a mutant, an inhuman, a magician, or anything else that could come with community attached. It's hard being one-sixth angel; can anyone else understand?
• Keeping Tabs: The Consortium Arcana knew about Jimmy since before he was even named Jimmy. Though the law's off the books now, he's already registered and in the files. If someone has clearance, he can't really keep himself as secret as he might like.

Contacts

• Ben Grimm: He's a good dude. Down to earth. Nice taste in coats.
• Darcy: I'm going to call you Darcy. Not the nicknames you bring up to try to make me blush.
• Eve: Another like me.
• Isis Marik: She's a… handful. Very feline. Been through a lot.
• Jemma Simmons: She's sweet. It's charming how she babbles when she gets excited. She's more than just the hand and the eye, you know?
• Keiko: She's been through a lot; I hope Doctor Yendez can help her. Still worried just when she's going to hunt me down.
• Koriand'r: She's definitely… something.
• Nick Gleason: A tough one. And he knows better than anyone how much a handful Isis can be, I'm sure.
• Pepper Potts: She's clever. And that's quite a phone she's got.
• Sarah Black: Strong, professional, and confident.
• Voodoo: She's a sweetheart, really. Thoughtful and strong. But she seems to want to isolate herself.

Hooks

• Counsellor Intern: Jimmy interns at the office of mental health counsellor Dr. Victor Yendez, who often receives referrals for especially exotic cases.
• Medical Student: Jimmy also studies part-time at a medical school.
• Volunteer: He does volunteer work when he can grab the time, from service at a food kitchen to working reception at free clinics, donating blood, and similar tasks.
• Heroism: If you'd rather meet Heavensent first, he'll likely swoop in on any situation requiring heroism — disaster rescue efforts as well as combat.
• SHIELD Consultant: He's on the books with SHIELD as someone who can be relied on to help out.
• Roll on the Random Encounter Table: And most of these can also be applied to Random Social Encounter situations. Maybe he's studying from a medical textbook while out having tea; maybe he stops for dinner after his volunteer shift at the shelter ends. That kind of thing.

And once you're in a scene with him, you might notice:

• Kindness: He just generally tries to be a sweet guy.
• Awkward: …but he's also a bit blush-ful and socially clumsy.
• Mystical Curiosity: If you can sense mystical things, Jimmy's presence might come off like a warm summer day. (See his "Aura Aura Aura" flaw.)

Gallery

Logs

2019-07-02 - Welcome To SHIELD Agent Baxter
Summary: Consultant Baxter gets an orientation tour of SHIELD and gets information on a lead he's...
(jemma-simmons jimmy-baxter plot sarah-black viralweapon)

2019-07-02 - Just Call Her McGee
Summary: Darcy celebrates making the team. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date: Tue Jul 2 00:18:57 2019...
(darcy-lewis jimmy-baxter social)

2019-07-01 - A New Consultant
Summary: Sarah catches up with 'oi you with the wings'. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date: Mon Jul 1...
(jimmy-baxter sarah-black social)

2019-06-30 - Weirding Module
Summary: A meeting is interrupted by a Werewolf with a Voicebox. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date:...
(dominant isis-marik jimmy-baxter nick-gleason pepper-potts plot venom)

2019-06-28 - A Song For The Birds
Summary: This diner has gone to the birds. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date: Fri Jun 28 08:15:52...
(dominant isis-marik jimmy-baxter jimmy-baxtor nick-gleason pepper-potts plot)

2019-06-27 - Not Coffee At The Coffee House
Summary: Jemma meets Jimmy at a coffee shop, where neither of them have coffee. But they do talk...
(jemma-simmons jimmy-baxter social)

2019-06-27 - It's Coming Down
Summary: A hooded figure explodes out of a derelict building. Three heroes jump in to help in the...
(eve jimmy-baxter plot sarah-black whitestar)

2019-06-26 - Old Goths
Summary: Eve and Jimmy meet for the first time, sensing each other's Weird Log Info: Storyteller:...
(eve jimmy-baxter social)

2019-06-26 - Falling Skater
Summary: Darcy finds a new cinnamon roll. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date: Wed Jun 26 04:33:51 2019...
(darcy-lewis jimmy-baxter social)

2019-06-26 - Angel and Demon
Summary: Keiko goes to try and see an counsellor and finds an Angel instead. How uncomfortable. Log...
(jimmy-baxter keiko social)

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