Name: Lucas Vance
Nickname: Luc
Age: 32
Faceclaim: Aaron Paul

Abilities:

Chlorokinesis: Lucas at all times has a natural connection with plant life, able to form an empathic connection with and mildly interact with them with ease, though the extent of it is relatively limited when used in that way. However, when living plant matter is exposed to his blood he can do much more. Commonly referring to it as his "magic fertilizer", Lucas's blood is quickly absorbed which gives him the ability to quickly grow, harden, manipulate or even mutate plant life at will in a multitude of ways. Wood and bark can become hard as steel or bend and stretch effortlessly. Vines can spring up from the grass at shocking speed and tightly hold things still or pull heavy objects. The more blood that is absorbed by plant life grown in this way the stronger connection Lucas has with it and the more fine-tuned control he can exert over it.

Seismic Senses: While most of the time this ability is subconscious in nature his connection with the plants around him make him keenly aware of his surroundings. While this can be muted a bit in more developed or urban areas he can pick up on slight vibrations in the ground in his immediate area. This sense does not give him much detail, but when he focuses and "roots" himself he can extend the range of this sense considerably. Additionally, he has learned how to grow specific plants that allow him to pick up movement within a certain radius of it, acting as organic tripwires. However, he needs to regularly supply blood to such plants otherwise he will lose connection with them over a couple of days.

Weaknesses:

Anemia: While he can achieve amazing things in regards to manipulating plant life all these things are powered by a very limited fuel supply, the blood running through Lucas's veins. Larger feats require a larger supply. Use too much or use a lot too often and this can leave him lightheaded, weak, and vulnerable. He does his best not to push himself to such limits but he knows to over-exert himself can very easily kill him.

Old Wounds: Several events surrounding how he gained his abilities have left him physically maimed. He is mostly deaf in his left ear and his left arm had to be amputated just above his elbow, though he has found a way to partially compensate for that (See Distinguishing Features).

Other Special Abilities: His brief tenure as a police officer along with his time working as a guard at the Adelphi Compound has given him some skill in physical combat. He trained for several years in Kravmaga and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu and knows how to properly handle most handguns and basic assault weapons. More recently he has started learning more about basic horticulture and agriculture though admittedly he still has a bit to learn.

Theme song: No Time To Die, Heaven Nor Hell

Physical Description: While he wouldn't love to admit it, Lucas doesn't cut an overly imposing figure. Standing just a hair over 5'8" tall does what he can to not draw a lot of attention to himself, like someone who prefers to stay out of the limelight whenever possible. He's fairly muscular despite his slim build, though this is mostly born out of habit rather than any attempt to impress people. He keeps his dark hair in a buzz cut for ease of maintenance and rarely will let his facial hair grow beyond just a small amount of scruff. The main thing people tend to notice about him first is his generally intense gaze, his resting expression that of a harsh glare though once you have his attention and he is more aware of the expression he is making that tends to quickly melt away.

Distinguishing Features: His left arm is a tree. More accurately his missing limb has been replaced with an artificial one grown from a seed that he planted into his stump, much to the chagrin of his doctors. For the most part, it remains stationary unless he intentionally wills it to move. When controlling this limb in such a way it has just as much articulation as a normal arm and hand but he is also able to grow and change its shape just as he would any other plant. He usually wears long-sleeved shirts and gloves to cover it up but it is the clearest giveaway that he is Gifted.

Additionally, plants that have been affected by his abilities take on a red or pinkish hue, like a white flower left in a vase with water that has had food coloring mixed in it. Any flowers the grow from his plants are speckled with red and any fruit or vegetables he grows to take on a slight pinkish coloring though they taste the same as normal and he's had them tested to confirm they won't negatively affect anyone who eats them.

Personality Description: Despite his resting bitter face Lucas's general demeanor would be less described as grumpy and more just tired. He was unwaveringly loyal to Adelphi for almost 5 years and found out the hard way that this loyalty was misplaced. Since joining up with Griffin and his camp things have unquestionably gotten better for the man but he still struggles with an impulse to immediately distrust people he doesn't know. He does his best to try and be respectful and is quick to smile or make a joke to diffuse a tense situation but he approaches most interactions with an air of caution.

History: Growing up Lucas idolized his mother. As a child he would pretend she was a superhero, going on grand adventures and saving the day during the long months she spent away. Rachel Vance even had her very own superhero uniform that she wore every once in a while when she was home, though she would always just call them army fatigues. Kevin, his father, knew very well that his wife didn't have superpowers like young Lucas liked to pretend but he never really went out of his way to correct him. It filled him with pride to hear his son talk about her like that. Sadly, it was right around the age when he got old enough to know better that his father got sick and passed away. So Rachel came back to stay, for good this time, and she swapped her old super suit out for another one. This one came with a badge.

By the time Lucas was out of high school, his mother was a Police Lieutenant. Finances were a bit tight sometimes and there were several nights where Rachel wouldn't get home until after Lucas got home but he did his best to understand the tension she was under. While some kids would have rebelled and would have resented his mother for this, he only grew more proud of his mother. And he wanted to make her proud too, wanted to follow in her footsteps. That was why he went to college to study criminology. That was why as soon as he could he signed up to go through Academy where he passed with flying colors. He swore the best moment of his life was the day he officially was able to pin that badge to his chest.

He was in his first few weeks acting as an on-duty patrol officer when the world started to go crazy.

He didn't realize it at first but he was very fortunate to not be swallowed by the slow-burning chaos that was those first few weeks. For someone so new to the job it was difficult to enforce the new lockdowns and quarantines, especially as the orders seemed to change daily. Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time as Lucas did his best to keep up. But he kept moving forward. Kept doing his best every day to do his mother proud.

Then he got the call telling him that Rachel's precinct had been overrun. He doesn't really recall much of the ensuing week. The earliest thing he can remember after that is sitting in the back of a crowded transport truck taking him somewhere that he would be safe. Adelphi Compound.

It took a long time for Lucas to find his footing again but eventually, he would decide he couldn't just wander aimlessly through this hellish new world they found themselves in. He needed purpose again, he needed something to keep him going. He found that purpose by continuing his former life as a law enforcement officer, though martial law worked quite differently compared to what he'd learned in the Academy. But he would make do. He would adapt. He had too.

So for several years, Lucas worked as a lower-tier security guard for Adelphi Compound. Simple work of keeping the peace amongst the civilians to keep them safe. Patrolling the outer wall to ensure that none of the Mutants threatened their home and to ensure that none of the filthy grifters that wanted to steal from them could get in. Occasionally he would travel between Adelphi and some of their other allied Compounds, trading food and supplies and occasionally protecting heavily armored trucks containing who knows what. He never really knew what was inside some of these trucks and his superiors made it very clear that it would be his head if he tried to sneak a peak. And so he was a good little dog and kept his nose out of it. There is a part of him now that wishes that he had.

It was during one of these transport mission that the convoy he was protected got swarmed by mutants. A veritable horde of them. Half of the other guards were dead before they truly understood what hit them. Only a handful of them made it back to Adelphi in one piece but they knew they had been exposed. There was no question, a few of his comrades had started to feel feverish before they even saw the front gate. When they finally got home they submitted themselves for quarantine and observation willingly. Most of the guards would turn and be summarily disposed of as was the procedure. But Lucas and one other soldier started to recover. Started to show signs of being Gifted. Lucas was offered idealistic imagery of what could be done if he were to submit himself for testing. He had only really heard stories about these Gifted individuals, at times he'd doubted it was even real. But he trusted in Adelphi's mission, believed they were doing what was best for humanity's chances to progress towards a world free of this virus.

In the initial pitch they never fully explained what those experiments entailed. They tortured Lucas for months. Treated him like an animal. Less than human. Something to be played with until they got bored and threw him back in his cell. They struggled to identify the exact nature of his abilities for the longest time. They'd determined that he'd gained the power to interact with plant life but he could rarely do more than make leaves and grass shift and change color. Very slight shifts but nothing more. Fed up with the lack of progress they shipped him off to another compound to see if they could make any headway, see if another method of torture would yield more substantial results. It wasn't until a frustrated guard wearing a uniform much as he used don expressed his displeasure with the lack of progress and struck Lucas, causing a splash of blood to soak into the plants they were using for testing. He suddenly felt the connection. Felt like it was an extension of himself. At first, the scientists hadn't realized what they had done. So Lucas capitalized.

He'd managed to escape but he didn't manage to escape unscathed. The soldiers there were less interested in recapturing Lucas as much as they were in neutralizing him. The grenade was a clear indication of that. He'd used his newfound powers to throw the explosive away so that he was not killed in the blast but he was not fast enough to avoid a brutal injury. But still, he managed to get away, using the blood spray caused by his grievous injury to kill the last of the men that had pursued him away from hell.

He would wander for several days, though his progress was slowed with pain coursing through his left side. His arm had been torn to shreds in the blast. He'd done what he could to bandage it but it was quickly becoming badly infected. He was convinced he would succumb to his wounds, alone and pathetic, his life proven to be devoid of purpose when a small caravan from Griffin Lolek's Nomad camp stumbled across him. He would later consider himself lucky that they didn't mistake him for one of the mutants with how pale he was and how grotesque his injuries were.

He lost the arm. There was no avoiding that with how far the infection had spread but after months of medical care, Lucas was nursed back to health. He was hesitant at first but eventually, he would fall in with these Nomads. What other option did he have? But this was better than it had ever been at Adelphi. He followed Griffin's advice and didn't make it common knowledge amongst his new family who he once allied himself with, but he knew whatever loyalty he had for that place had died a long time ago. What's more, he didn't have to hide his Gift amongst these people. He could be a part of something again. Granted it was with a camp of roughnecks living in the middle of a godforsaken wasteland but it was something that gave him at least the tiniest sliver of hope that things could eventually get better.

Wouldn't mother be proud?