Ethan

"This is an inspirational quote said by or somehow relating to your character!"

Casting: Freddie Highmore
Gender:
Date of Birth: July 27th, 1992
Age: 19
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Med Student
Ability: Telepathy
Power Grade:
Registration Status: ☒ REG
Theme Song: "Title" by Artist
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Ethan Brooks is a genius, a med-student, and a geek!


Background

Ethan and Ethel Brooks were born July 27th, 1992. They were very different: They had different eye colours (Ethan’s were blue like their mother’s, where Ethel’s was green like their father’s), different hair colours, and while Ethan was perfectly healthy, Ethel was sickly from birth. (Later she would be diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.)

Despite their differences, Ethan and Ethel shared a bond as tight as any identical twins. If separated, they cried. If one was hurt, both would cry. When they were older, Ethan would know instantly if Ethel was sick and needed help even if they were in different rooms.
They had something else in common as well: They were both brilliant. By the time they were three neither had to be told something twice, they’d learn immediately. Their mother started bringing early-level textbooks home to start teaching them. By the time they entered kindergarten, they both could read and spell at a grade four level and do math at a grade three level.

For their first few years in school, they stayed at grade level for social development. By the time they ended grade two, though, it was starting to become obvious that it just wasn’t working. Ethel was missing more school than she was attending with being sick so often, and Ethan was frustrated both intellectually and socially. Ethan could literally read his sister’s mind, (though only their parents understood at the time that it went that far), but without that connection he just couldn’t figure out how to deal with other kids, especially in an environment where they found activities difficult that he found so easy.

The year starting just after their eighth birthday, Ethan and Ethel’s parents hired a specialized teacher to do home schooling. Or, rather, they hired three, the first two were too ‘creeped out’ by the way the two kids would occasionally giggle like they shared jokes but never had to actually speak to each other.

Their third home teacher, however, Mr. Aaban Jafari seemed to understand perfectly. He taught the kids that they were not alone. He had visions of the future, visions that had led to him applying for the job. He taught the kids about their ability and urged them to practice, and try to stretch it to see if they could ever hear the thoughts of others, but also to keep it secret and to sometimes stop and spend time with only their own thoughts like other people do.

Under his guidance, both kids flourished. Not only did they race ahead in grades, Aaban got Ethan a membership in a Mensa-supported youth group where he finally found other kids who thought on the same level he did, allowing him to find an identity separate from his sister. Ethan proved to be the smarter of the pair as well when separated, and started the equivalence of high school at eleven.

About that same time, a very bad case of pneumonia took hold of Ethel. Worse than any previous infection she’d had, she came very close to dying. As scary as it was for Ethan, it was also inspiring. The doctor in charge of her case dedicated himself to saving her. He’d check in regularly day and night, until she was out of danger. It was then that Ethan decided he wanted to be a doctor.

It started out just games, and he’d declared he wanted to be four or five different things by that point, but his parents relented and signed him up for a Red Cross kids’ basic first aid course.

Ethan’s interest persisted, though, as the years passed. When given subject choices, other than persisting interest in English when he was allowed to choose novels, he focused on math and the sciences. Whenever he got a chance he was asking Ethel’s doctors questions.
Ethel continued to be his best friend, and they spent almost all their free time together. They practiced their telepathy and did exercises Aaban suggested, but neither could expand their perceptions beyond each other.

Ethan ‘graduated’ with his homeschool diplima at fourteen, but his parents convinced him he shouldn’t start college until he was fifteen, to give him another year to be a kid.

Keeping him from university didn’t keep him from his dream, though. He found an online copy of Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body, and started studying it. He also started volunteering at LAC+USC Medical Center, where they offered special volunteer programs for teens interested in medical careers. He had to pass a physical and get immunized against a variety of things, but he went through this happily, simply to be able to work in a medical environment.

Then, in March 2007, a few months into volunteering at the hospital, there was a solar eclipse that changed everything for Ethan. For the few minutes of the eclipse, Ethan and Ethel, who were playing a game of chess while waiting for Ethel’s checkup at the time, lost contact with each other. For the unusually extended duration of the eclipse, they were completely unable to connect to each other.

Finally, contact was restored, but where Ethel’s ability returned as was normal, Ethan’s was different. Instead of just hearing his sister’s thoughts, he heard everybody in the crowded doctor’s office. The ‘sound’ was deafening, and he had to cut himself off as Aaban had taught them. Then, slowly, with Ethel’s help, he was able to gain control over the next few weeks. Just in time for college.

His time volunteering at the LAC+USC Medical Center gave him some great contacts, including a sponsor for a scholarship, something he desperately needed. Shortly after turning fifteen, he started a 4-year ‘Pre-Health’ program at USC Dornsife, which was close enough to home to not force his parents to move on his behalf. (He was too young to stay on his own, of course.)

At school, things went very well. He got very good grades, as was usual, and between classes he would open up with his abilities and listen to the noise, picking up thoughts and practicing deeper scans occasionally, looking for memories, but he noticed that while few noticed his light surface scans, they did notice the deeper ones, though rarely did they figure out what was going on.

Then in 2008, the world changed. People suddenly knew about abilities, and they were a lot more varied than his telepathy and seeing the future like Aaban. Ethan kept his ability secret, though, at least at first. He could sense the fear in those around him, and he was worried if they discovered him it’d ruin any chances of being kicked out of school.

Things changed, as the years passed, and by the time he finished his four years, those with abilities were at least a little more accepted, and he really had to come out anyway. Keck School of Medicine (USC’s med school) had added testing for abilities to their list of vaccinations and health tests needed to apply. They, at least, didn’t care and accepted him anyway after he registered and added it to his application. Given that his MCAT tests were given by computer, they knew he couldn’t have cheated and was a very qualified student.

That same year, Ethel entered college herself, having waited until she was older and healthy enough to look after herself. She, however, entered MIT, taking her across the country. It was going to be a hard separation, but MIT was as much Ethel’s dream as being a doctor was for Ethan. After all the expenses of Ethan applying to medical school (the scholarship didn’t cover application and testing fees), the last of the money the family could afford went to helping Ethel move and get the supplies and everything she’d need to look after herself.

Then, a month before both their classes started, Ethan’s scholarship mailed him, declining further funding on the grounds that he was a telepath. This put ‘grave doubt’, in their words, in the academic achievement required for the scholarship.

He thought his chance at going to med school was over, until he had an idea. One stolen right out of one of his favourite sci-fi series: A commercial telepath.

Logs

  • Notable IC events.

Quotes

  • "Memorable quotes!"

Trivia

  • Interesting miscellany.
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