Dara Callaghan [Pulse][Student]

THE BASICS

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Back home in Limerick, Dara didn't particularly stand out of the crowd for his looks. With a strong chin, straight brown hair, and a relatively handsome face frequently bedecked with a smile, he seemed perfectly normal were it not for the fact that his eyelids never opened. Unfortunately, being non-Japanese in Tokyo is a huge beacon for attention no matter what he tries to do. 

This is especially troubling as his disability causes him to feel somewhat self-conscious in large crowds, as he feels like he's always being stared at even when he isn't. Between his eyelids permanently being closed and having to walk with a cane, his disability might not be as visible as a wheelchair or an oxygen tank, but its nonetheless hard to miss. 

In terms of his wardrobe, he wears a slightly messy U.A uniform even during off-hours, choosing to just wear anything that feels comfortable rather than worrying about connotations. At least he knows whilst wearing it that he's wearing something normal - His friends from back home would often encourage him to buy things with strange prints on them, so by banking on a sure commodity it avoids embarrassment. When cold enough, he may also wear a coat and a scarf, but he rarely chooses entirely new wardrobes.

His hero costume is somewhat simple, being formed of a hooded coat, a white t-shirt, a pair of thick trousers and leather boots. It almost looks more like civilian gear, but since his quirk is about manipulating sound it makes sense to go light and flexible, allowing him to make noises without being muffled by gloves or armour.  His boots replace his cane, giving out beeping noises above humans' hearing range so as to act as a way of location and understanding what's going on around him.  

PERSONALITY

Dara is a far-sight from the other students from U.A. Coming from a different culture, a culture that prides itself more on individuality and living to a set of specific morals than that of the community-minded Japanese identity. A Protestant through heritage but not through belief, Dara is a self-declared agnostic even though he is proud about the country and people he comes from. 

A natural outsider in this place he's found himself in, were it not for the year of warning he was given before moving he wouldn't even speak the language. As it is, he speaks it somewhat stiltedly, with many cultural concepts not making a lot of sense to him. For instance, he is constantly surprised by the sheer lewdness allowed to be broadcast over radios and televisions. One might almost consider him to be innocent-minded, even whilst being sarcastic and playful. 

In terms of his day-to-day interactions, one could see his personality as being jovial and sarcastic. He tries to see the best in most situations, and will go out of his way to compliment others even if done in a sarcastic way, but he nonetheless has very little tolerance for bullshit. Used to people who would sugarcoat things, he prefers brutal honesty and insults over false compliments and lies. 

This hatred of liars is also connected to his dislike of special treatment in general. In general, he finds people either try to coddle him or find him weird and difficult to speak to. He resents both people, wanting to be treated normally. Perhaps that's another reason why he's fine with being insulted, as long as it isn't related to his disability. This wish is what pushed him to want to become a hero, trying to embody the hope of those who have similar experiences to himself. 

This wish has also led to his resentment of his siblings. His older brother treats him like he's made of glass, actively trying to talk him down from pursuing his career as a hero. His younger sister, meanwhile, resents that he gets more attention from their parents and has become a drama queen to try and get attention herself as a result. In truth, he's not sure which is more despicable, and spends most of his time away from home. 

As a final note, he dislikes crowds and noisy places. Not just because he has weird relationships to other people, but because the larger the group of  people the more the sound interference from his quirk. Yet, at the same time, he dislikes complete silence, as it feels like being alone in a void. As such, when in quieter areas, he tends to have an earphone in one ear, using the other to act as his eyes in the area whilst still enjoying audio books or music. He's a big fan of older music, like Beatles and The Who. 

BACKGROUND HISTORY

In a world where 80% of the population is in some form or other a mutant, its sometimes hard to tell what mutation in someone's DNA is their quirk or is just a biological mishap. In Dara's case, he was born with a severe case of Anopthalmia, resulting in him being born without eyes. 

Being a late bloomer, Dara was your average blind child, given a guide-dog and treated like a porcelain doll. It was only due to his frequent medical tests that they didn't assume he was part of the 20% when he went past age 4 without presenting a quirk. Or perhaps  he had already developed his quirk, and had yet to show it due to it being far more passive. 

Raised outside of the hero-mad society of Japan, he was born and raised in Limerick, Ireland, the son of a Linguistics teacher and a carpenter. Raised as a proper Protestant, he was very much a good kid growing up, the perfect child in many people's eyes. At school, he worked hard every day trying to make friends, but found it difficult when kids are naturally cliquey to begin with. His family weren't exactly rich, but they managed to get him a laptop to work with on a daily basis, allowing him to keep up with classwork. Maybe it was the different treatment he got from his teachers or maybe his disability was just an easy thing to pick on him for, but he was bullied whenever people weren't able to see. 

As he grew older and this exclusionary behaviour continued, he grew more and more irritated. He was put to the side in PE even when he was able to keep up with the others, and was given better treatment than others during exams and tests even when he was one of the first to finish. To ignore this constant source of irritation, he looked further afield for something to focus on and came upon the field of Pro-Heroes. 

He would spend many days in breaks and after school listening to interviews and stories of the Pros, and as time went on he began to fixate on the idea of becoming one himself. Noticing Pro-heroes with abilities like his but none on the leader-board, he began to focus on an ideal. He would become a Pro-Hero no matter the cost, if he couldn't get to the Number One Hero slot then he would at least stand on the podium. If the Top Ten were supposed to inspire everyone, he would stand there as a beacon of a promised tomorrow. A reminder to not treat people like they were made of glass. 

This fixation resulted in him training in arts, preferring eccentric arts since they would get attention more easily. As much as he hated being considered an oddity, he knew he had to stand out from the crowd if he was going to get to the peak. Pairing that with a need to be able to use his cane in day-to-day situations, he studied the "Art of Gentlemen" Bartitsu, competing in minor competitions locally. 

This pattern continued until he was around 14. The economy was drying up and his mother risked losing her job in another round of budget cuts from the local school board. Joining up with an organisation, she was recommended a job in Tokyo teaching English as a foreign language. His father's carpentry was a movable commodity as he sold his products online, resulting in them moving in a year's time. 

During that year, he studied the Japanese language to prepare for his move. He wasn't particularly excited at the idea of the move, but it wasn't like he had a choice. Nothing would be gained by complaining and whining, so instead he simply prepared the best he could. 

With his exceptional grades, he had his choice of academies to go to. Following his heart instead of his head, he applied to U.A., and was admitted as a late entry after a test. 

THE ARMORY

- U.A Uniform 
- Phone (1000+ songs, 20 Audio Books)

- Scan Cane: Although Dara doesn't use a traditional white cane due to having his own form of vision, he carries away a cane to help with mobility. Made of carbon fibre, lightweight and tough, it is designed to both help with mobility and to be strong enough to be used in combat. Buried in the handle of the cane is an ultrasonic emitter, designed to hum quietly to act as a constant source of undetectable scanning noise. Should the emitter be damaged, the cane is important since it allows him to safely direct himself around until it can be replaced. 

As a matter of principle, he keeps multiple canes, even if he only takes one out per day. Whilst simply wearing the boots would be more effective, the canes hold sentimental value, like a comfort item. 

- Scan Boots: Based off of the same emitter as the cane, Dara's Hero Costume includes a pair of leather boots with the emitter in the shoe cuff. Designed to allow for him to go without cane in situations where it wouldn't be appropriate, such as stealth missions, it allows him to function on the same level as other Heroes whilst being minimalist.  

QUIRK & SKILLS

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RESONANCE

TYPE: Emitter
RANK/LEVEL: C

SUMMARY:  Born in an eternally dark world without sight, Dara felt trapped in his own body as a child before his quirk developed. Upon the generation of his quirk, however, one could say that Dara sees more than most people. His quirk, resonance, grants him exponentially greater hearing than most people. His hearing range is altered, closer to that of a bat than that of a human - 20Hz to 200,000 Hz.

His hearing is also far more refined, allowing him to track sounds to their source and giving him a limited field of 360' vision by tracking how sound bounces off objects in his periphery, akin to a bat's echolocation abilities. Of course, to do this he has to make noise, risking broadcasting his location just to see the things around him. This is why his boots and cane both create ultrasound, giving a constant ultrasonic hum to avoid distracting other people. It is at a very quiet volume so as to not make listening to other people difficult, but it is there nonetheless. 

A secondary ability of this quirk is the manipulation of preexisting sound by altering characteristics of the sound-wave. Through creating noise, then manipulating the frequency of the vibrations of the sound, he is able to create destabilising quakes through an object, causing structural dissolution by breaking apart the things holding it together. He can, at most, take out 5 feet of inorganic material per post due to the difficulty of fine-tuning the sound and having to localise it to the relevant area. 

Offensively, Dara can amplify sound waves with his fingers to create bullet-like spheres of invisible force. He can do this directly to noise he makes or remotely, but the more remote the sound is the weaker it becomes. Amplifying these sounds too close to Dara, however, is a double edged sword however as these sounds though directed towards his enemies also comes with the backlash of both disorienting Dara and temporarily blinding him from seeing the area by which he sent the attack. These bullets are, currently, capable of disorienting and knocking people back, but lack the true offensive power required to do serious damage.

Dara can also use a variation of the Sound Bullet Shot. With this variation, he causes the sound bullet from being focused to instead rapidly violently expand out in front of him causing something akin to a little middle explosion between both him and his opponent. Using this attack however is ill advised due to both people being to close to the blast radius causing potential harm to both effected. Like with the bullet, it too lacks the power to do major damage, instead just knocking people back and disorienting them. 

Constant disorientation from these attacks causes his world to distort and causes Dara to rapidly become sick from seeing the world shake so violently. At most he can use seven of these shots before becoming far too dizzy to properly utilise this ability again without time to recover (end of thread, or IC timeskip of at least an hour). He will also likely puke due to being sick and will become unable to properly aim his shots with any degree of accuracy. Another attempt to use this ability after this point will cause him to develop a massive migraine, increasing to the entire world blacking out from a second shot and the third after that will render him passed out.

N.B: As the human body is capable of reacting faster from hearing than seeing due to how the brain processes information, he's got a faster reaction speed than most people. That said, whilst hearing is registered ten times faster than seeing, this only gives him a fraction of a second head-start on reaction. 

WEAKNESSES/LIMITATIONS: The first and most major drawback of this quirk is the fact that he is permanently blind. Unlike those who were born without sight who could have their vision restored by a healer's quirk, he was born without eyes and a stunted vision centre of his brain, meaning that even were he given a prosthetic it would never work properly. Whilst this is more of a biological fact than a side-effect of his quirk, he finds it hard to believe someone who was born with this quirk just happened to also have been born blind. Especially since nobody else in his family has it. 

Whilst his ultrasonic scanning allows him to "see" things in a 360' field, this is only the outlines of things. He can tell the amount of people, their size and shape, even things that people's sight wouldn't be able to see like whether they're hiding a weapon in their pockets, but that's about the limit. Like seeing someone's silhouette, he couldn't tell if someone's hair colour was different or what their expression is, making it hard to read people's mood or predict certain things. He may be able to see the shape of a television but not what's being broadcast on it. Furthermore, people who are silently hiding behind something thick enough to absorb all of the sound are able to hide from his worldview.   

Furthermore, his range of echolocation is far smaller than a normal person's sight. He can sense literally everything happening within a 50m radius, but the price for that level of information is being unable to see past that 50m at all. His horizon is that 50m, and to see beyond it he has to move towards the source of the noise, risking throwing him headfirst into danger. 

Then one has to factor in that this is only possible through the creation of sound. Whilst he can hear above the human range, he cannot create sounds in that field, meaning he needs access to his cane and boots to do so. If their emitters are destroyed, he has to constantly hum or make noises himself, acting as a beacon of his presence.

Lastly, he is also more sensitive to loud, unexpected noises (screaming in his ear, sudden carhorns, jackhammers, low flying aircraft, etc.) as they act like static in his worldview, making it hard to focus on anything. Extremely loud noises, like flashbangs or large explosions, can incapacitate and stun him due to the pain they cause.

RANK: C
SUMMARY: Absolute Pitch is a rare skill tied to hearing that allows one to recognise every-day sounds as musical notes and reproduce them. It also grants the ability to match the key of such noises, reproducing music heard through recognising the order of such things. 

RANK: C
SUMMARY: A uniquely British martial art, Dara learned this martial art in order to protect himself in close quarters combat. With one hand almost always on his cane, he had to find something that incorporated it into his fighting style, and so he studied an art entirely revolving around such strikes and counters. Incorporating the cane into holds, strikes, counters, as well as some techniques stolen from Jujitsu and French kickboxing, he's a versatile fighter. Bolstered by his higher reaction speed, he is very capable with this art.

GES

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