hits_different | (no subject)

BASICS

NAME samuel zachary guthrie

CODENAME cannonball

NICKNAMES sam

AGE & DOB 23 / october 17

PRONOUNS he/him

AFFILIATION x-men

HOMETOWN cumberland county, KY

MARK lower back

POWERS

THERMO-CHEMICAL ENERGY FIELD PROPULSION he can make said energy and release it from his skin. he uses it to fly (fast), which makes him hit (hard).

BLAST SHIELD: the energy can function as a shield, for himself and others around him. shockwaves upon impact.
NIGH INDESTRUCTIBLE WHEN HE'S BLASTIN': [self-explanatory.]

HE DOESN'T NEED THE GOGGLES he just thinks they look cool.

SKILLS

PILOT pilots the jet, drives the cars, knows how to avoid flipping vehicles over in times of high stress.

FARM STUFF animal husbandry, operating machinery, getting up at 4:30 a.m., not whining about manual labour, handling firearms (namely rifles), mending clothes, helping with homework, child-rearing.

HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT learned on the job, danger room included.

PAINTER?? baby level skills. when i say "he has no hobbies" it's kind of a lie because he winds down by following along with The Joy of Painting episodes.

APPEARANCE

HAIR blond EYES blue HEIGHT 6'0"

the build of someone who was destined to be lanky until he was handed a lifetime pass to manual labour, the danger room, and a protector complex.

everything he wears is practical and well-worn. mostly flannel and henleys and jeans. doesn't spend much time thinking about his appearance. owns one (1) suit for weddings, funerals, formals, dates, interviews, and big apologies; it's not too short, he just has to avoid raising his arms or knees. owns one (1) going-out top, a paisley button-up and he made paige choose the colour (burgundy).

he has a tattoo of a swallow on his chest.

REFS: X, X, X

PERSONALITY sam turned 45 on his 5th birthday. a good-hearted, responsible boy scout type. hard-working, brave, compassionate. honest (sometimes to a fault), cool-headed (diplomacy first!), steady presence.

perpetual caretaker & protector who doesn't know how to define himself or his wants outside of his ability to help others. this man does not spend time chilling or exploring hobbies. internalizes guilt when something happens to someone he sees as his responsibility.

wary of authority because he had to be one from a young age (& knew he knew NOTHING) & because he had people like donald pierce taking advantage of his abilities in vulnerable times.

has a fear of small, dark spaces.

HISTORY

FAMILY every time i start this i get exhausted, i'll do it later

NOTABLE RELATIONSHIPS LILA CHENEY, ex-girlfriend. lila is a famous musician & lead singer of the band Cats Laughing. she met sam in late 2023 at a show where the x-men foiled an assassination plot against her. the relationship took sam into a party phase that saw him ignoring most of his responsibilities for little emotional reward. while the breakup 7 months later was allegedly amicable, lila's resurfaced a couple of times and each time, sam's been wrapped around her little finger.

sam's father told him that education was his—and his family's—ticket to a better life, and he took it to heart. he was a quiet kid, polite, an early reader, a good student. he skipped the fourth grade and his free time was always spent helping his parents with the farm or his siblings. just go look at the timeline.

TIMELINE

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2016 - AGE 14 ty guthrie, sam's father, dies from the black lung. sam puts his studies on the backburner to give his mother more help with their family and farm.

╳

2018 - AGE 16 - MINES, POWERS sam drops out of school and begins working in the mines to help make ends meet.

on his first day: something dark stirs in the depths of the mines, compromising the structural integrity of the mineshafts and causing a cave-in. frantic to escape with his father's friend, sam's powers manifest to help them blast out of the mine.

╳

2018 - AGE 16 - THE HELLFIRE CLUB hellfire club member donald pierce locates the young mutant and recruits him by offering discretion, steady work, and a hefty salary. sam's kind of lost and thinks this is his only chance at (1) leaving his hometown before his family gets mutant blowback and (2) a stable job to help them.

sam's team is tasked with kidnapping charles xavier. over the course of the ensuing fight, he comes to realize that he's been working for the bad guy and also that he's about to get his ass kicked. they don't kidnap the bad guy and, yes, the x-men totally kick his ass.

╳

2018 - AGE 16 - XAVIER'S, BRIEFLY sam receives an invitation from charles xavier and he complies so he can apologize.

sam immediately enrols in xavier's school for gifted youngsters. one week later, sam drops out — he can't deal with the homesickness and, even though professor xavier assured him his sins had been forgiven, he can't decide if he trusts yet another father figure coming out of the woodwork to miraculously solve all of his problems.

he returns to kentucky, his family, and the mines.

╳

2021 - AGE 19 paige manifests totally ~~gross~~ amazing powers! she enrols in xavier's and sam follows her to make sure she's safe (he still doesn't trust the man). because he dropped out of school a few years prior, they're placed in the same grade.

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2022 - AGE 20 sam registers under the mutant registration act. while he doesn't voice his feelings on it, it's plain the boy's unasy.

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2023 - AGE 21 - X-TINCTION AGENDA sam is among those kidnapped for labour on genosha; paige saves him.

╳

2024 - AGE 22 sam graduates! he sticks around xavier's, eventually falling into the role of de facto groundskeeper as a way to keep himself busy.

PLAYER name (pronouns) TIMEZONE timezone PB pb name CONTACT dropbox

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