Post by Wayne Dietrich on Oct 20, 2019 12:11:08 GMT -5
The Basics
Trigger Warning: Car Accident, Amputation
Name: Gordon Wayne Dietrich
Nicknames: Wayne. Just Wayne.
Age: 90 (06/12/1930)
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Orientation: Asexual/Demiromantic
Desired Rank/Job: Recruiter/Substitute ESL Teacher
Powers: Mechanical Attunement: The ability to control the movement of mechanical objects without the need for a fuel supply whether they would normally work or not. Couples with a minor ability to "speak" to such mechanics and "feel" what's wrong with them. Does NOT work on items without moving parts (no electronics). Side effects include anemia, stiff joints, constant metallic taste in mouth, and a faint aroma of clean engine grease.
Play By: Clint Eastwood
The Details
Hair Color: Grey-white and thinning
Eye Color: Grey-green-blue (light hazel)
Height: 5' 10"/178cm
Any Piercings? No
Any Tattoos? A few; some cultural, others job-related. None visible in his usual clothes.
Any Scars? Who doesn't at his age? Still, not visible in his usual clothes.
General Appearance: Wayne is an old man and he admits it gruffly. He stands about 5'10, but still has a decent amount of muscle from his youth, making him a surprisingly spry and active figure for his age. He looks like a grizzled war veteran and can act the part well enough, and rather consistently has a very intense look on his face - usually when working with his machines. Still, he smiles more than he grumps, and that at least makes his family happy.
While he dresses in a nice three-piece suit for work (usually in navy blue and khaki), outside of work he tends to be very relaxed, dressing down in jeans and long T-shirts without worries. He figures that he's old enough to wear whatever the Hell he wants, so if anyone wants to complain, they can kiss his backside and call it "Mother". He also likes to wear hiking boots all the time, even at work - they help with the joint stiffness associated with his powers.
One other thing that isn't hard to notice is that Wayne is missing his right arm and leg. This happened in a car accident when the man was forty and his 1954 MG TF was hit by a train on a dark road in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. Despite this, Wayne has little to no use for a wheelchair or even a cane - he fashioned himself a new set of limbs, geared up and looking like something out of a steampunk novel. The limbs are consciously powered by Wayne himself, though he has built a rather quiet and very small steam engine for his leg to help lift some of the burden. These false limbs are the same size as his other limbs and can be hidden under clothes (since the moving parts are encased in metal and glass).
Personality: Wayne is a gruff old goat, but he mostly likes to talk tough and pull people's legs. He's been through a lot in his years, but he's of the mind that he shouldn't take it out on people - he treats most people politely unless they don't, and then he gives them a piece of his sharp mind. He doesn't tolerate excuses and is a very strict individual when it comes to those under his wing. He has a deep bond with his family (though distant), and despite himself is a very friendly and genial guy.
There's a bit of an issue with Wayne's demeanor, though - he never wanted to get married or have children, but once he had he fell for his wife hard. Andrea was a wonderful woman, and when she passed away Wayne was crushed. He hasn't really recovered from it, though he throws himself into his work and "inventions" whenever he gets too depressed, leading to people not seeing him for weeks at a time if they don't catch him at work. He has frequent bouts of insomnia and can snap at people if he thinks they're prying, but really he just thinks that no one can ever really replace his wife of fifty-eight years.
Wayne is very much against social normality, but at the same time has a hard set of rules and morals. He grew up in a Christian home but grew away from the church as he aged, even if he still kept a lot of the tenants close to his heart. He hates seeing people use faith as an excuse and with become quite angry at the sight of persecution for any reason; being different, not sharing a faith, or even (especially) just plain bullying. Despite his old age, he will throw himself in the middle of a fight in order to break it up, and he's not afraid to knock someone flat on their ass if they refuse to see reason.
This isn't really a personality thing, but Wayne's always had an affinity for languages and picks them up faster than kids get colds. He knows a number of them, including (but not limited to) German, Swedish, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Swahili, and Cherokee. He tends to write things down multiple times and in multiple languages, just so he can keep from getting rusty.
Your Vices
Likes: Machines (especially things built before 1960), kids, languages, sea shanties, showing off his limbs at steampunk conventions
Dislikes: Prejudices (for any reason), foggy weather, animal fur in his workshop, people who pick fights for their own amusement
Strengths: Tinkering with machines, inventing "gearbox" contraptions, public speaking, learning languages, calling it like he sees it. Is a Senior Airman of the US Air Force(SrA, or OR-4), holds a substitute teacher license for the state of Vermont, and has a BA in Linguistics from NYU.
Weaknesses: Knowing when not to get involved in a problem, not using his powers all the time, being formal/polite, getting around in wet weather.
Family Ties
Father: Robert Alexander Deitrich - deceased
Mother: Emilia Roslyn Dietrich (sans Wellington) - deceased
Siblings: Isaiah Langley Dietrich - deceased, Mary Elizabeth Wilson (sans Deitrich) - deceased
Spouse/Partner: Andrea Sabine Dietrich (sans Beaumont) - deceased
Any Other Important People:
Melody Lenore Engel (sans Dietrich) - Daughter
Alphonse Conrad Engel - Son-in-law
History
Born in 1930, Gordon Wayne Dietrich was the firstborn of three children in his family. His siblings were born the next year - a pair of fraternal twins, Isaiah Langley and Mary Elizabeth. Unfortunately for the growing family, the Great Depression had hit hard and fast, leaving them even poorer than the young parents began and scrounging for anything to make ends meet. The family migrated west with so many others, and along the way the children grew up with many different languages around them.
Metahumans were basically still rumor to most people at the time the children were growing up, so it was an odd surprise when the twins were twelve that they started speaking strangely - saying "we" and "us" rather than "I" or "me", even when they were alone. Their parents thought the trait rather unnerving and sought the guidance of their preacher, who determined that the children were possessed. Wayne didn't really understand what was going on himself, but when the exorcism did nothing and the preacher became irate and thundering, he was frightened. Not of his siblings, no - but of what the holy man would do to them. Fortunately, this odd turn of events had been going on for some weeks, and before anything else drastic could occur a man appeared down the road and came upon their group.
He said that he was working for a school for people like Mary and Isaiah - people who might be strange or act differently. The preacher nearly ran him off for "espousing such blasphemy", but the family allowed him shelter for the night since there were heavy rainstorms in the area. Wayne couldn't sleep, and thus heard his parents talking to the man without the preacher. He said he could help the twins, give them someplace to stay where they wouldn't be hurt. But, ever superstitious, their parents refused. They would trust the preacher rather than a stranger, no matter what.
Wayne and his siblings escaped with the man that night, and fled back east into the mountains of Vermont.
While he was still a boy, Wayne did everything he could to help out while the twins were in school. Pilot Ridge was still barely anything in those days, and the school little more than a boarding house, but it was still better than anything they had seen in their young lives. For a couple years, the oldest Dietrich boy worked hard on the grounds and did what he could; fed horses, planted gardens, cleaned hallways... The school was taking care of him and the twins and teaching them, so whatever he could do was always done.
Eventually, the school obtained a broken automobile as a donation, and it was here at age 16 that Wayne discovered his power. He had been looking over the vehicle with a number of other students and staff as it sat in the new metal shop, and it suddenly started up the minute he touched it. No key or anything, but chugging away like it would have if there was a driver, despite its need for essential repairs. The school took the boy into training and tested his abilities, and he took about four years to master them. Meanwhile, the twins went on to become minor stage actors, and at just after 20, Wayne himself received his certificate from the school.
Unfortunately, that was in 1950, the year the Korean War broke out. There was call for soldiers and careers of all types and, thinking it might be the best thing for his family and country, Wayne joined the Air Force. Mostly, he was a mechanic and munitions man, so he didn't see much of the conflict outside of the base being shelled until 1953. Then tensions became really hot, and he started seeing soldiers coming back looking like they were half dead. "Shell shock", people called it.
After the armistice was signed, Wayne went back home and found that his parents had reunited with the twins and made amends. Apparently, Isaiah and Mary had been worried that they would not be able to find their parents if word came back that Wayne wasn't coming home; so the twins contacted them, finding them in California. Wayne was more than willing to let things lie, but he kept those that birthed him at arms length for the rest of their lives.
Shortly after his return, the oldest boy (now a man) grew antsy in his own right, wishing to see more of the world than the sliver of Hell that had been Korean warzones. Sensing that their son would leave them once again, Robert and Emilia introduced him to the daughter of a friend of theirs; a woman barely older than a girl from California named Andrea. They said that they had promised her parents that they would find someone to marry her, and who better than a war hero like him? Wayne adamantly refused for months, only finally caving to the idea when he realized that they were very much alike. Unlike many women, Andrea loved cars as much as he did, and their similarities grew from there. They were married in the spring of 1955.
Wayne was still unsure about this married lifestyle, and despite his parent's wishes that the two of them would settle down, he bucked the trend and took his wife with him to see the world. He didn't want to just abandon her - that would be incredibly unfair to her, despite his expectations. For about six years they traveled around, going wherever they could and peddling their skills to trade. They finally settled in West Germany in 1967 after Andrea became pregnant, and Wayne made one last trip to the States to see his family again.
Trigger Warning: Car Accident, Amputation
That last trip nearly cost him his life. Having left a wonderful car with his siblings in Boston (where they had moved in the years past), Wayne made a cross country trip in the car, taking one last trip to see his parents after they moved back to California. He drove as long as he could each day and well into the night. Then, a storm blew up as he passed through Oklahoma, drenching the world in darkness and water. It was because of this storm (and likely his own exhaustion) that Wayne didn't see the train barreling down the tracks until it was too late. The locomotive crushed his vehicle and him inside, tossing them off the track like so much tin foil. Though it felt like hours, it was only minutes until someone came and rescued him - the train operator had stopped the locomotive and they had brought him on-board to be treated by a surgeon.
When he woke, he was missing an arm and a leg.
End TW
Still, life went on despite that. The train had incidentally been bound for California, and Wayne was able to receive some treatment for his battered self. He demanded to be sent home, back to Germany, but instead his worried barely 30 year old wife and their newborn daughter came to him. They moved to Vermont once again, and there he recuperated.
After a couple of years, Wayne began tinkering again and thought to fashion himself another arm. It took him six years, but in late 1976 he managed it at last. The leg he fashioned took only a year, and he went back to work, once again as a mechanic as he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics at NYU. He's worked for Hammel as a recruiter, even through the year his wife died and his daughter got married to a seemingly nice German boy. With a very empty house and too much time on his hands, he simply left the world alone to tinker with his clocks, cars, and inventions, leaving mostly to go to the school, teach, and bring newly manifested metas into Hammel's accepting arms.
Player Information
Name: Eris, Kallisti, or Kalli!
Age: Old enough to be someone's parent.
Player Pronouns:They/them or neopronouns preferred
How Did You Find Us? It's what I do; I roleplay, and I know things.
Other Characters: N/A (for now)
