player information.

name: Phoenix
are you over 18?: Yes. 21.
personal dw: birdburning
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: plurk: birdburning
characters in abax: N/A


in character information.

series: Next Avengers
name: Henry Pym Jr.
age: 12
sex: M
race: Human
weight: 90 lbs
height: 4'7"
[OPTIONAL] cause of death: N/A
canon point: The end of the Next Avengers film, when the Next Avengers officially assemble for the first time.
previous cr: N/A

history: History here.

personality:
Henry Pym Jr. is a twelve-year-old genius orphan who glows in the dark, and his life has never been anything but weird. He was raised on stories of his parents' murder at the hands of the robot Ultron, grew up in a hidden bubble with only Tony Stark and his siblings, and has been told as long as he can remember that one day it would be up to them to save the entire world. His general attitude is a mixture of perky know-it-all preteen brattiness, horrifically blase acceptance that the world is terrible and bad things happen, and a tiny core of anxiety.

Pym is the family clown. He's actually a typical youngest child for a fractured family when the superheroics are stripped away: the child whose approach to the problems the family contains is to laugh, joke, irritate, and distract. His manic energy and full speed ahead approach to problems are the hallmarks of a child ill-equipped to actually solve emotional issues who looks to ignore and minimize them instead. Pym is relentlessly happy because everyone else he knows isn't. He has a strong desire to help, and this is the only way he knows how. Factor in that his 'normal' is incredibly abnormal and you end up with a kid who can zip through a warzone and appear to come out unscathed by what he's witnessed. Bad things have happened, and Pym rises above.

Of course, this isn't exactly the case. A lot of how Pym works is based on the fact that the bad things have already happened, and it doesn't seem like things could get worse. His family will save the world because it's what they have to do. Pym is a superhero because his family are superheroes. A typical issue for young heroes is that they struggle with going from normality to their new life, or they're surrounded by normal people and envy their lives. For Pym, this is what normality is, and it'd be becoming 'normal' that would be his problem. He knows that his life isn't a game and he has a great many responsibilities, and his flippant attitude seems to him to be perfectly fine. After all, his family might find it obnoxious, but nobody has told him that he's not good or serious enough to live up to his parents' legacy.

The bubble he grew up was an echo chamber in a very literal sense. Pym has been shielded and guided by his older siblings and Tony for his entire life, with them always around to deal with his errors and way of approaching problems. Pym has never really suffered major consequences for his impulsiveness and naivety: Pym doesn't really know how to lie, or how to spot deception in others. Everything in his life has been straightforward, if often difficult, and all he knows about complexity is mechanics and computer code. Good people are good, bad people are robots (although some robots are good), and there is no problem that can't be entrusted to the leadership of Tony and James to be definitively overcome. Pym is defined by trust that has never been betrayed and obstacles that have been frightening but ultimately always resolved for the best. Moral shades of grey are foreign to him, but instead of reacting with absolutism it means that Pym, as an empathetic and caring child who is deeply invested in making other people happy, will be easily led to defending anyone who shows aspects of complexity. Being bad, to Pym, means literally being relentless evil. Everyone else must be possible to help, right? That's what's superheroes are for.

Pym isn't just a bundle of glowing upbeatness, though. He can be very snotty and obnoxious to get a rise out of people, and he loves teasing and cracking bad jokes. He's certainly capable of being a little jerk, but being so young and protected with a solid moral upbringing means he's never really malicious. Actually hurting people is terrible, and he'd feel incredibly guilty if he managed it. He's also insecure, what with being the smallest and weakest of his siblings, and he's readily frightened--which doesn't preclude being brave, as Pym knows, but he feels (and is) the most emotionally transparent of his siblings that way. In fact, anything Pym feels he shows, whether or not he wants to. He usually can't even conceive of a reason for hiding his feelings, what with only actually knowing a handful of people.

The fact that all Pym knows is his family leads him to treat everyone he meets like family more or less immediately. After meeting Barton it takes Pym moments to start treating him much like he treats his brothers and sister, with jokes, playfulness, and trust. While this can be endearing it can also be off-putting or even dangerous when directed at the wrong people, and it will take time for Pym to learn degrees between 'stranger' and 'sibling'. He trusts adults as authority figures immediately (referring to the Vision as 'Mr. Vision' and looking to him for guidance), unless they're obviously incompetent and fearful (like Dr. Bruce Banner). Pym comes from a place of strange innocence, and it remains to be seen how the impact of a more complex world will change him.

abilities/powers: Pym carries the effects of the Pym growth particles from both sides of his family, allowing him to shrink to a few inches high or grow to the height of a seven story building. The Pym particles protect him from the effects of the square-cube law via comic book science, as well as changing his mass appropriately. Marvel!

When Pym is shrunk, he sprouts small wings that allow flight like a wasp or hummingbird, he glows green, and he can fire a 'sting' of energy--the amount of energy he produces varies from a sharp sting like a pinch to a more powerful beam that can actually do structural damage, although it can't seem to harm metal and he couldn't give tissue more than a bruise. Despite the fact that his larger size can do much more damage, Pym prefers to shrink and use his prodigal intelligence to deal with problems, since he has a fear of being destructive.

Speaking of intelligence, Pym is a genius, although as a twelve-year-old genius he clearly hasn't come into his own yet--he was trained by Tony Stark, though, so he can manage a lot with robotics and computers, as proven by his surety he could rewire the Vision and his ability to figure out the controls of the Helicarrier after being on it for only a few hours.

Pym's greatness weakness is...being twelve, and a highly sheltered twelve at that, despite growing up in a post-apocalyptic world. He's naive, trusting, excitable, often says stupid things, and needs other people to protect and guide him. Despite all his training with his family he is distinctly the baby, and he acts like it.

first person sample:

[Pym is fluttering over the camera and grinning like a ridiculous loon, zipping side to side with unrestrained enthusiasm. Are you ready for word vomit, oh citizens? One hopes so, because it's incoming.]

I'm building batteries!

[He disappears briefly and returns, waving a bit of wire around.]

We raided the stores the other day and got a bunch of chemistry supplies and stuff, and now I'm building batteries! And things! Really, whatever you guys want. Man, you're lucky I'm here--Henry Pym Jr., genius at large. Anyway, since I'm super smart and you're all in trouble, I'm opening up a--[he frowns and glances sideways, mouthing 'tech support?' at an unseen person, then grins at apparent confirmation]--tech support office! Just bring me any stuff you want fixed or built, and I'll help.

Oh, um--but you have to trade me stuff for it? I don't know why, but Francis says it's important not to do things for free, even though that seems kind of a jerk thing to say. But I guess that's how it works? Oh, well. If you could bring candy, I'll do it for candy. Candy is awesome! Did you guys know I never even had it before? Crazy, right? Anyway, see you when you need things! Pym out.

third person sample:
Pym flew up to the top of the empty theater and tracked through the dust, which was as heavy as snow around his feet--although he didn't know much about snow, except that it was colder and wetter than this. Up here was just dry, shot through with wood rot, and it reminded him of the bellies of dead logs at home.

It was hard to understand that he wasn't going to go to sleep in his own bed again. He scuffed his boot against the wooden beam and jumped off, free falling for a few seconds with wings tucked back before spreading them wide and zooming to alight on Azari's shoulder. He sat down, swinging his legs, and hummed loudly to get his attention.

"Yeah, Pym?" Azari turned his head and smiled at him--a little tiredly, a little distracted. Azari was always like that when he was worried.

"I saw a moth up there," Pym reported, like he'd been on an adventure. It was a game they used to play when Pym was still little. The Adventure Game, where Pym would go exploring and come back with elaborate make-believe stories. They'd stopped when Pym got too old, but tonight, with everything that happened after getting Tony, with what they knew now--

Pym missed being little, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"I had to wrestle it to escape. It was so cool. They have a whole city up there, for all kinds of creepy-crawly bugs. it's too bad you're not awesome like me or you could come see it, but they'd probably hide it from you even if you got up there. They said to say hi, though." Pym scooted closer to Azari's neck and rested his head against Azari's jawline, safe and familiar. And now shaking with suppressed laughter.

"I'm sure, Pym. You should go to bed. We've got a big day tomorrow." Azari scooped him off his shoulder and set him down on the pillow the Scavengers had given him, where Pym lay down and tugged on the sleeve of the scratchy pajamas they'd loaned him. When they'd asked how he could shrink clothes with him he'd shrugged and said he didn't know--easier than explaining the whole thing to people who'd never even learned about particles.

He must be tired, to not want to talk. His yawn proved it, and he stretched--and stretched and stretched until he was normal-sized. When Azari went to take his boots off Pym didn't protest, and he continued not protesting when Azari tucked him in, even though he wasn't a baby. These were special circumstances.

"You should go to bed too," Pym murmured, curling up under the blankets. Azari smiled and ruffled his hair with a nod. Pym didn't know if Azari really did sleep, because he went out like a light as soon as he closed his eyes. He didn't remember what he dreamed about. (Snow. Snow and the real sky for the first time he could ever remember, and they weren't going home. But that was okay, because he was home already, as long as he had his family.)

case no: No preference.