Tiberius Hill

[Tiberius Hill]

The Basics

Name: Tiberius William Hill
Nicknames: Tibby 
Age: 45 (September 4th 1974)
Pronouns: he/him

Orientation: bi
Desired Rank/Job: Powers Trainer
Powers: Illusions - Tiberius is a middling illusionist, able to engage in both auditory, visual, and olfactory illusions. However, tactile and taste are beyond him. He can affect multiple people in a room with the same illusion, and can maintain an illusion for up to an hour before it collapses, although it he pulls on multiple senses, the strain on his powers is greater and it might disappear earlier. His side effects include headaches, an increased need for glucose calories, propensity towards dizziness spells, and the potential to get caught up in his own illusions which can create a slight gap between those and present reality.

Play By: Mahershala Ali

The Details

Hair Color: black
Eye Color: brown

Height: 6'2

Any Piercings? none
Any Tattoos? a nondescript entirely black butterfly less than an inch large along one wrist 
Any Scars? a few minor ones from forgetting that his own illusions aren't real 

General Appearance: Tiberius is a tall gentleman with impeccable style. At work he wears suits unless he has a session scheduled for a student with a particularly destructive power - however, when possible he prefers to work with psychics, which is less damaging to his clothes and thus allows him to dress well for work. When dressed more casually he has a penchant for sweater vests and for a variety of hats. He has a pair of glasses, as well, although he only wears them for driving or for reading. During the winter months he likes to dress in a style that veers towards cozy, but never sloppy. Warm sweaters and giant scarves come out of storage as soon as the temperatures drop, but once they rise again he's back to dress shirts and jackets. 

Because of his penchant for stress baking he carries more weight around the middle than is strictly speaking healthy, a fact that his doctor occasionally fusses at him about. He's prone to slouching when he sits unless he's interacting with someone in more authority than him in a professional capacity.

When speaking his voice is a deep bass, slow and gentle and soothing. He tends to overemphasize his Rs rather than dropping them at the end of words (a notable exception being mirror, which he ends in a schwa in much the same way as he would end, say, the word 'yellow'). The Oh sound also typically shifts into a schwa, so that words such as 'for' become 'fer'. Ah sounds tend to shift into oh, so that long becomes Lohng, as an example. He doesn't drop the G at the end of 'ing words.

Personality: Tiberius is a very empathetic person which has given him a great deal of success in his job. He has a gentle touch and rarely raises his voice, and is very astute at physical cues that tell him whether or not a hug or a hand on the shoulder would be welcome. He's not a loud person, very self-contained and quiet on the whole. He's steady and reliable but doesn't especially love working in groups; he would rather work with his students with minimal meetings about how that's going. If he's having a particularly troublesome time with a student he'll reach out to his superiors, but otherwise he considers most of that oversight a frustration rather than valuable. 

He's not a particularly ambitious person, content with his current life. He doesn't want to move up the academic ranks into administration and nor does he want the reflected glory of being friendly with administration. Not that he won't be friends, but he has no interest in using that for special treatment. He doesn't even expect that his side will be the one taken if mediation is necessary, unlikely though that is. Unfortunately the reverse of this is that he can be a little lazy with work that he sees as unnecessary. Anything absolutely required will get done, albeit reluctantly if he doesn't personally see the value in it. If it effects other people he'll prioritize it. But if it's not pressing and he's the only one effected it might never get done even if it would make his life easier in the long run. 

He's definitely a stress baker, so that although he doesn't show much outward sign of upset his friends will still be well aware when he's feeling down because they'll find themselves gifted with more than one cake or pie with no circumstances on their end that might have warranted such goodies.

Your Vices

Likes: 
skiing (when he's well enough)
curry
baking
butterflies 
jazz music 
hats

Dislikes: 
- the fall/winter sick season because he catches everything that goes around the school 
- anti-vaxxers 
- coffee 
- macaroni and cheese (to the chagrin of his family, who has a Special Recipe) 
- gas station smell 

Strengths: 
+ baking
+ gentle
+ reliable
+ harmonica


Weaknesses: 
- asthma 
- teamwork
- some people pleasing tendencies
- procrastinates work he thinks is pointless 

Family Ties

Father: Alvin Hill (70, retired bus driver, non powered)

Mother: Myrtice Hill nee Fletcher (67, retired hair dresser, non powered)
Siblings: Tangela Whitaker (sister, age 43, non powered)

Spouse/Partner: none

Any Other Important People:
Laraline Gray (age 47, sister in law, telekinesis)
Marissa Jackson (15, daughter, auditory illusions) 
Candace Jackson (40, ex-wife, non-powered)

History

Tiberius was born a month premature to a mother who had been unable to afford much in the way of prenatal care. He was only two when his baby sister came along, young enough that he has no clear memories of a time when she wasn't part of his life.  He protected her during daycare, making sure to claim a spot in whatever group she was in even if that meant he spent more time with the younger children than those in his own age group. He was the first member of the family she came out as lesbian to, and he was proud to be a part of her wedding when she married the woman of her dreams. 

His parents' jobs kept them away more than they would have liked, and so when day care wasn't an option (and it wasn't, always) they spent time with neighbors and with grandparents, all over the block. In the same way, when his parents were home there were often neighbor children around, as well, while their parents tended to errands and responsibilities that didn't allow children underfoot. But there was no shortage of love to go around, and he never felt neglected even when he wished they could spend more time at home - more time listening to his mother play the harmonica or his father use funny voices to read stories to them. 

He grew up in the suburbs of Alabama, an area more segregated than not, which made attending Hammel a bit of a culture shock. Vermont was so much whiter than anywhere he'd ever experienced before, and while Pilot Ridge itself was less white than Vermont as a whole it was still far whiter than his hometown had been. He struggled to fit in, and struggled to connect with his very white powers trainer. Nobody in his family had been powered, and so he had little help from them. They wondered aloud if perhaps powers were simply a white thing, and he'd been unlucky. Nobody much envied him that he'd been taken away - Pilot Ridge had more in the way of opportunities, but at the expense of a community he felt comfortable with. He had to put on an act, to smile and not make too much noise even when a teacher believed he'd been the instigator in trouble that someone else (whiter) had actually started. 

It was this struggle that sparked in him the desire to return to Hammel to train other young meta humans. He wanted very much to help ease the cultural difficulties of students who didn't have the WASPy background that would allow them to blend in with the rest of Vermont. In college he majored in Education. In a sea of young white women he stood out, and not always in a positive way. His different perspective was sometimes considered aggressive, even when people ostensibly asked for his opinion. He made a few friends, regardless, but overall he wasn't close with many of his classmates. 

As soon as he graduated college he found himself back in Pilot Ridge, although as an adult he was able to connect more with the broader African-American community in the surrounding areas as he had more freedom of movement. He met his wife in Burlington, in fact. Perhaps they wouldn't have married had Candace not become pregnant before their first year of dating had passed. They had a shotgun wedding, and then a baby that neither were exactly prepared for. It wasn't that Marissa was unwanted or unloved, but her parents hadn't been expecting to get married and had only done so for her benefit. 

This wasn't the basis of a healthy, strong relationship. The strains of a newborn and then toddler proved too much for their relationship, and before Marissa was in Kindergarten they divorced. It was about as amicable as a divorce could be, both parents agreeing that they wanted to maintain what ties they could so that Marissa would know both her parents. This hasn't been the easiest dynamic to maintain, and there have been some back and forth regarding holidays and vacations as she's grown older. Tiberius was never happier than when she manifested and arrived at Hammel, because this allowed him to see her more often than he otherwise might have. 

Player Information

Name: Oreo
Age: old
Player Pronouns: she/her

How Did You Find Us? here 5ever
Other Characters: Josh Bernstein, Irving Coley Jr, James Fawcett, Glenn Traupel, Orlando Pareja, Marlow Estes, Chalina Noriega, Reema Taghvai 

[Sean]

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