Zeke "Deadman" Donovan

[Zeke]

Name: Zeke "Deadman" Donovan

Age: 18 years (although looks slightly younger)

Sex: male

Occupation: Student

Powers and Descriptions:
Netherworld Protection
Thanks to his coin pendant imbued with an unknown spirit, called a folk, from the Land of the dead aka the Netherworld, Zeke has the ability to travel to the Netherworld at night to commune with the souls of the dead when a certain condition is met. The spirit in the pendant effectively makes it and the twine holding it indestructible. To travel to the Netherworld Zeke needs to obtain a memento belonging to a person of whom he wishes to communicate with. Once gone to the Netherworld Zeke disappears from the human world until morning regardless of how long he spends in the Netherworld.

Regenerative Resurrection
Regenerates from an indestructible skull to a full working healthy body and comes back to life, on average, about a 5 minutes after death, it varies. Tends to wake up feeling nauseous from the regeneration process. If he was to end his own life the nausea tends to be considerably worse.


Personality:
Very friendly, a bit of a peacekeeper, energetic, a little eccentric and far from subtle if he gets worked up about something.

For the most part he is a pacifist since he'd always prefer if people could just get along. Since he is well able to take a hit he would rarely bother fighting back if harassed and the more someone pisses him off the less seriously he takes them. But that's not to say he won't fight. If the situation calls for it he can hold his own and, since he feels no pain, he can be very persistent and put more force behind his hits, sometimes he'll even break his own fingers as a result of trying to knock someone out. Fighting is a rarity though and he'll stop if simply asked to. For Zeke to ever resort to serious violence someone will have to REALLY piss him off, and even then the physical conflict on his part would be very brief, just enough to make his point. There are exceptions though when in the Netherworld.

Zeke is always up for some shenanigans and making new friends. He is pretty loyal and can often end up going out of his way to be sure he doesn't offend anyone. And after years of dying a fair few times and never knowing what pain feels like, he is typically pretty much fearless with one of the few exceptions being his irrational fear of balloon animals. Slipways and docks make him uneasy due to what happened to him at the age of 9. Also he is convinced that flat 7up cures common illnesses.

Another thing about Zeke is that he can be obsessive, very one-track minded. It's great for achieving goals but the concentration can cause him to be very unobservant and unresponsive at times.

Appearance:
Average height, medium length dark shaggy curly hair, ginger goatee, orange eyes, teal denim bucket hat since he's not a big fan of the sun. Wears an old irish pound coin around his neck from 1994 on a piece of twine. Teal combat pants a size or two too big using a long school tie for a belt. Black fingerless gloves. Baggy white shirt with a smiley face that has X's for eyes. Wears a ragged knotted bracelet on his right wrist made from various strands of fabric. He doesn't wear any shoes thus he goes around bare foot all the time.

History:

Pain-free in Inishmore

Born and raised in one of the gaeltacht regions of Ireland on the island of Inishmore off the coast of Galway, Zeke has always been considered an outcast due to his oddities, especially after his powers started to show. In the first 12 years of his life he grew up on the island in a very friendly society of tradition. Irish (aka Gaeilge/Gaelic) is thus his first language but he also became perfectly fluent in english by the age of 5, as an award his father made a pendant for Zeke to wear around his neck made from a 1994 irish punt/pound coin and twine. When he was 2 his family noticed that he would never cry when he came to harm after he burnt his left hand on an oven tray and just stared back at his mother's horrified expression with a blank oblivious look on his face. This burn left a nasty scar on his left palm for many years. When he was taken to a doctor for the burn he was diagnosed with CPI or Congenital Pain Insensitivity.

During years 2 through 9 this inability to properly feel pain caused his father Jarleth and his mother Mary much grief because he'd never report whenever he got hurt because most of the time he simply did not notice. So he'd end up with infected scrapes and broken limbs as a result. Townsfolk often called him odd and unlucky because of this. Roughly around age 7 or 8, Zeke got pretty good at talking and often got his own way and eventually convinced almost half the town he was magic, which he found hilarious. Normally CPI is considered a bad thing, a very bad thing, due to the major damage and possibility of permanent damage . Luckily for Zeke, he soon discovered how special he was and how CPI was not a big deal for him at all.

Death at the docks

Age 9 he slipped while playing on the Inishmore docks, fell into the sea and cracked his spine and neck off some of the rocks in the low tide. He was quickly retrieved by some fishermen and laid down on the ground surrounded by teary-eyed locals...

However, after the better part of 4 minutes people started to notice that the burn on his left palm he has had since the age of 2 started to heal rapidly and disappear to the point it was like it had never happened at all. And then his other scars and bruises healed up too. Some of the devout church goers started shouting about miracles, some about satan and others about magic. Then just when 5 minutes had passed since he slipped, there were to loud snaps and Zeke's eyes burst open. He springs up screaming, swearing, crying, townsfolk were screaming, running and fainting. It was absolute mayhem. That's the day when everyone, including Zeke, discovered his ability to come back from the dead perfectly healthy and scarless.

Samhain in the Netherworld

He was shunned and avoided for the next few years until he was 13. His family saw it wasn't getting any easier for them so they moved to the mainland to live in a small seaside village called Doolin on the west coast of Ireland. It's a village of rumours and strange happenings so they figured they could blend in with clean slates. It wasn't long though before things got weird. While sleeping Zeke started hearing a voice telling him to go to the henge, a very old rock formation nearby, on halloween night aka "Samhain", a night rumoured to be a night when one can meet the dead. His curiosity got the best of him so he went. When he got there he noticed the alter in the middle of the henge was glowing blue and there was a shimmering shadow flickering upon it. "Fáilte (Welcome)" it said in a calm pleasant voice. Zeke's pendant started to glow like the alter and started to pull towards the shadow. On contact the shadow was sucked into the pendant, colours of blue and green swirled around it and then dissipated as the voice rang out again saying "Pasáiste sábháilte leis an sealbhóir fíor an punt (Safe passage to the true holder of this pound)". Zeke could hear a faint sizzling coming from the pendant and saw that those words were now being engraved on the coin. He couldn't have been more excited! He started to feel tremors from under his feet as a line of stone slabs started to rise forming a mound. Another mixture of glowing colours came from a newly formed opening that revealed a staircase leading down underground. The pendant started to drift towards it so Zeke followed and went down. Down the stairs was a short corridor with big tall doors ahead. As he approached, the doors opened to reveal a massive sort of crypt with intricate pale green designs glowing in the slabbed floor. At the far end of the hall there was a tall floating silvery gate thing. It shifted and pulsated as it floated, surrounded by radiant pink butterflies. Same voice from before said, this time in english, "step through the gate into the netherworld, the faeries will explain". Doing as he is told, still excited so much he felt like yelling some made up words in joy, he approached the gate, chimes and bells ringing a hauntingly beautiful tune as he stepped onto each piece of green floor. Right in front of it he gets sucked into the gate as broken bits of pure light. Next thing he knows, he's standing in a little pond next to a tall flower that's chiming like the floor he was just treading on. In front of him is a peculiar looking creature. Humanoid in appearance, height the same as Zeke himself. "Fáilte to the Faery realm human" it said. "The Faery realm? Is this part of the Netherworld?" Zeke responded. "Yes, and you are our first visitor in years. Normally only guardians and messengers can enter the Netherworld but you... you appear to be an extraordinary case. You are oddly accustomed to death. You have died before, yet you still live with a pure heart. It's rare for a half life to gift an individual with the power to transcend to the many realms of the Netherworld but... to be fair, you are just as rare." "A half life?" "Otherwise known as folk. They are the spirits of the dead. Anyway, there have been people like you before but usually the idiotic God complex your species possess makes them untrustworthy. But not you, no... you were raise just right... In the right place, by the right people, at the right time. Purely a coincidence of course but one to be embraced. That's why a spirit has merged itself with your necklace. That necklace is your ticket to and from this place. That said, this visit in particular will be a short one. On the night of Samhain it's easiest to travel between our two planes but normally, you'd need a memento to gain access to a realm. Think of it this way. You have one free limited pass that expires after an hour." "You mean to say I only have an hour here?! Well... That's a bummer." "Only for tonight. In future, if you find a memento, visit the alter at night, find the gate and open it for a few days and visit the realm that that particular deceased resides in for however long you like. The spirit in your necklace will give you the location of the gate the memento opens if there is no alter to go to." A door appears out of nowhere to Zeke's right. " Ah I see your time is up." "Wait, WHAT?! I've only been here like 10 minutes, 20 minutes tops!" "Yeah... I forgot to mention that time works differently here. Sorry. But I assure you that your hour is up. The door will take you back to the henge. Best hurry or else you'll be stuck here, forever. Them's the rules on Samhain." Zeke used the door and sure enough was back at the henge. The mound leading into the crypt was gone again and it was morning. Eager to go back he waited for someone to pass away in the village so he could go say hi to them. But fortunately no one did. For about 2 years Zeke lived in Doolin. He managed to keep himself safe and avoided suspicion, only going to visit the Netherworld on Samhain. Although due to his nature he could not avoid making friends with almost anybody and everybody he met.

Uncle Lorcan

Also while living on the mainland he finally got to meet his extended family, most of whom had to take time to come to terms with his abilities with the Netherworld travel being an exception, Zeke wanted to keep it a secret, not even his parent knew about it. One member of his extended family however took the news surprisingly well. This was Zeke's uncle Lorcan. As it turns out uncle Lorcan also had powers, two of them. Lorcan could teleport, which would explain why he was always the first to show up to family get togethers, and he could control and make bubbles at will from moisture in the air and water. Naturally he got on very well with Zeke from the get-go and eventually took to calling Zeke "Deadman" as a sort of harmless tease. As a result, the nickname stuck with him. On Zeke's 15th birthday uncle Lorcan brought a man named Bobby to met Zeke. Bobby was an Irish representive or something for Solstice Academy on the De Leon islands in the Bermuda Triangle. Bobby explained what the school was and what it offered. Zeke and his parents were thrilled and loved the idea of Zeke fitting in as who he was. Come Summer, preparations were made and he was ready to head out for the Bermuda Triangle.

Solstice

Summer ended, Zeke was sent off to Solstice Academy. Since he has never been anywhere outside of Doolin or Inishmore, let alone Ireland, being this far away from made him unusually quiet and withdrawn, at least until he got used to things around the Academy. He was excited and curious once he saw the Academy for the first time but he kept it bottled up since he didn't want to draw attention to himself, partially out of habit. First day went well, he spent it getting used to the layout of the academy. He met the janitor Jack Daniels and instantly started to feel more comfortable, even though it was more of a brief passing rather than meeting. The janitor mentioned something about whiskey, which he reeked of by the way.

Day 2 Zeke was taking a walk around the Island getting to know the place say a quick "Hi, how are you?" with his usual friendly smile to anyone he came across. Eventually he was approached by a seemingly pleasant girl in a bikini top with a massive scar down the middle of her chest, oddly enough this made Zeke feel nostalgic about a time he was playing around a construction site.

Unfortunately for Zeke this happened to take place in a secluded area he wandered into. The girl was there and one minute they are having a nice casual conversation then the next, suddenly she has a knife in the side of Zeke's neck. 5 minutes later he wakes up to complete darkness and is surrounded by dirt. He tried to push up out of it but to no success. He couldn't move at all, the soil was too heavy, he must've been buried about 6 feet deep. For about a week he'd try yelling for help until he'd suffocate, regenerate, yell some more, die again. Then he just gave up on yelling at all, instead he'd just think to himself. For the sake of his sanity he thought of it as a test of patience, certain that eventually he would be dug up by accident. He started doing math problems, reminiscing about music he liked, making up heroic stories in Irish , all inside his head, he found that he was alive longer when he didn't talk or struggle so he avoided it. This continued for 3 long years.

Then comes the present day, Zeke would've been starting his 4th year in the academy. Still buried, he was yet to realise that after 3 years of continuous deep thought, suffocation and nausea he was finally about to be noticed and finally get to experience the Solstice Academy and try fulfil his goal of becoming a good friend to all. However he won't let missing out on 3 years of his life go unpunished.


Code Words: Fantasy Reference

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[Moderator Alo]

Approved.