Joshua Denis Nakamura

Name: Joshua Denis Nakamura Codename: None yet Nicknames: J.D. Date of Birth: December 3 Age: 17 Place of Birth: San Francisco, California Father: Michael Mother: Zoe Siblings: none Occupation: Student Physical Description Height: 5'6" Weight: 140 lbs Hair: Black Eyes: Brown Distinguishing Features: Joshua has a prototypical gymnast's build; broad shoulders, thick chest, trim waist, proportionately short muscular limbs.  His hair is naturally unruly and takes a lot of effort to make neat.  He takes after his French/Italian mother, though his father's Japanese heritage is hinted at in a shading in his skin color and the shape of his eyes. Hobbies/habits: Joshua developed an interest in gymnastics at age six, and has been training for and competing in it ever since; he is considered elite for his age group.  He is accustomed to training sessions before and after school.  His other primary hobbies are listening to music and dancing; he is also an accomplished cook.  He is extremely well traveled and speaks (and is literate in) several languages; he learns languages with amazing speed.  He is a conscientious but indifferent student, who studies because he knows that it is expected of him rather than out of any love for learning. He has little interest in television, film, theater, or other spectator activities, except for gymnastics competitions or performances of the Cirque du Soleil, but will participate in group gatherings of this sort in the name of sociability. Powers Mutant Power: Joshua can fly.  The mechanic is self-telekinesis rather than any sort of thrust; he wills himself into the air, and moves where his mind directs him.  The power has no tangible sensory effects. When flying, Joshua naturally tumbles around his center of mass the way an astronaut does in zero-g.  This tumbling can be countered via body maneuvering and judicious small applications of his power, but it is quite challenging; it's quite easy for him to send himself into an out-of-control tumble while trying to maneuver.  It will take a lot of training and practice before he can manage any sort of enthusiastic aerobatics. The power itself requires no effort or concentration; relaxed and still, Joshua has successfully hovered in one location for eight hours without any difficulty.  However, the body maneuvering required to maintain/retain his orientation involves considerable effort and is tiring; his effective active flight time will increase with practice and conditioning. It's entirely unclear what his maximum potential speed is, as he would have to deal with a variety of effective limiters, such as the difficulty of breathing when moving above a certain speed and the resultant wind chill to begin with.  Beyond that, the sound barrier and presumably air friction would become issues.  Further, he's affected by centripetal forces when he turns at speed; sudden turns, starts, and stops impose the same sorts of problems that fighter pilots have with maintaining consciousness during high-G turns. Also, while he and anything he is wearing are not affected by gravity while he is flying, objects of any significant size that he is carrying are affected; he has to support the weight of the objects, and they will have a profound effect on his center of mass.  Thus, carrying items (or people) while flying would be very difficult for him.

Personality: Outgoing, high-energy, a bit of a showman.  Playful, yet kind.  Almost puppyishly eager to make friends, though he knows how to back away from someone when he knows that he is being too much for them.  Capable of being serious when it is necessary, and he speaks his mind when he is serious. Psychological Background: He is largely driven by the fact that he's completely used to moving every year due to his parents' occupation, and thus having to make new friends all of the time.  The constants in his life have been his parents and his gymnastics, which seem to have been enough for him. Personality Quirks: Joshua is fully refreshed with only six hours of sleep a night, but he sleeps very deeply and does not awaken easily. Interrupting his sleep makes him out of sorts.  His extensive travels have caused him to feel as if he is a citizen of the world; he does not affiliate himself overmuch with any one country. History General Background: Joshua was the only child of Michael and Zoe Nakamura.  The couple worked for Worthington Industries, and at the time of Joshua's birth, they had already established themselves as an elite business troubleshooting team.  Michael was the business mind and master of process, multilingual Zoe was the people person and translator, and under their guidance subsidiary after subsidiary became efficient and profitable. At first they were unsure how they were going to change their lives to accommodate their son.  However, soon after Joshua learned to talk, they discovered that he had inherited at least a sizable portion of Zoe's prodigious linguistic talent (Zoe herself was fluent in more than fifteen languages and could add new ones with astonishing speed), they decided that it was possible for the boy to travel with them. It worked out remarkably well.  Joshua seemed content to be with his parents and did not seem to miss living in one location for more than a year or growing up with one group of children.  Joshua developed an interest in gymnastics at age six which soon became a passion; this provided a convenient focus for his life. His life developed, if not a routine, at least a certain rhythm.  His family would move to a new city for his parents' next assignment.  If the language there was not one he know, he would be home schooled for a few weeks as his mother got him to a level where he could benefit from classroom schooling.  He would be enrolled in a local school, one with a gymnastics team if one was available, and would be signed up with a gymnastics club for lessons and training.  His vibrant charm allowed him to make friends quickly, and the hours he spent at gymnastics kept him out of trouble.  After a year, give or take, the cycle would begin again.  Through all of this, he maintained solid grades and his relationship with his parents was rarely turbulent. This rhythm was abruptly broken sometime shortly after his seventeenth birthday.  While practicing at his gymnastics club in Paris, he attempted a difficult vault, but a small error abruptly sent him into an uncontrolled tumble through the air.  Awaiting an awkward and possibly injurious landing, he was surprised to discover that he was instead hanging in the air, still tumbling.  As the onlookers stared at him with wide eyes, Joshua, after moments of shock and confusion, searched within himself and realized that he was manifesting some sort of power that kept him held in the air.  He figured out what he was doing and turned it off, and fell harmlessly to the floor.  Before the onlookers could recover, he make a hurried exit. Once home and with windows shaded and the door locked, he attempted to invoke his power once again and after some time and frustration trying to regain the mental state he'd achieved, he found the trigger, and soon found himself tumbling gently above the floor.  It was only once he had figured out how to turn the power on and off at will that he allowed himself to succumb to his fear over what had happened. Joshua was terrified as he demonstrated his power to his parents when they got home, but they were open-minded and supportive.  Together they figured out what had happened and what he was.  Recognizing that being outed as a mutant in a country where he was not a citizen was potentially dangerous, his parents booked him an immediate flight to what was nominally their home: San Francisco, a place they normally only came to for holidays and other family occasions.  There he holed up while they tried to figure out what to do next.  Joshua used an empty room to get some practice with his flying ability, and began to get a handle on how to control it.