Apologies on my delay. Too much to do and never enough time to do it.
Hidden, your template is fine, as to be expected. However, I should point out one thing you mentioned in your bio: Chris's parents are dead. He lives with his older brother, Michael, who is also a teacher in the school. It should explain the details in Michael's template below.
Also, to those on the fence about rejoining: This time around will have the additional joy of playing off events of the last one. For instance, Michael's room might not explode this time around, but he might react like it will, telling everyone to get down, but not know why.
________________________
"Reality is but a prison."
Name:
Michael Russell
Age:
24
Gender:
Male
Abilities:
Infect
"Thought is an infection. In the case of certain thoughts, it becomes an epidemic." - Wallace Stevens
Michael contains the power of infection; the ability to implant his thoughts and will upon others. Over time, these implanted feelings will spread and grow, becoming stronger and stronger until it overwhelms them—like a blazing fire—and they are forced to act upon them simply to ease their suffering. Once the implanted thought or desire has been accomplished, the infected individual will be released from the infection. At the current time, his influence is mild, and weakens further when more than one person is infected. It also isn't currently concrete, and can be fought and even overwhelmed by a strong enough will.
Appearance:
Michael stands a tall six foot three, with a lean, overall unimpressive build. Atop his head sits a golden crown of blonde hair, which stretches to the back of his neck, and curves forward at the sides. His bangs, which would otherwise hang over his eyes, is brushed gently to the side, now settling just above his eyes. His eyes are a very light brown color, almost golden; they are praised for their incredible beauty by some, and feared for the primal, cold rage seen by others. Soft, radiant skin runs along his face, ending at a small stubble along his jaw line.
Michael sports a casual, black, long-sleeved coat with silver buttons, which he typically keeps open. Beneath it, he commonly wears a white collar dress shirt, two, thin, gray stripes running down each side beside the buttons, but will switch through different colors. Michael wears a pair of black dress pants while at work, rotating between khakis and blue jeans otherwise, and keeps them up with a black belt with silver studs. To complete his ensemble, atop his head sits a black fedora with a purple ribbon.
Personality:
Michael is infallibly polite, but not to the point that he would allow himself to be walked over, and still contains a somewhat outgoing personality. He is always friendly to people, an attribute his students praise, and appears a very even-tempered man. Though slightly strict, with his students in particular, Michael is always fair.
However, despite his kind demeanor, some are a bit uneasy around—with a few outright afraid of—Michael. Though when asked, they will state they aren't quite sure what, but that there is something just below the surface of his smile that puts them off. They further suggest there is something wrong by the fact that no one takes advantage of Michael's kindness, though most brush it off as them living in a small town.
Where his younger brother is concerned, Michael holds a mixture of strong affection and guilt toward him, the latter due to the incident that affected Chris six years ago in New York. Because of it, Michael has become overly protective of his younger brother, to the point of obsession, and got a teaching position at Jefferson High simply to watch over him. With both of their parents dead, Michael has taken it upon himself to raise Chris.
Biography:
Michael was born the second of three children to Jeff and Melissa Russell. Through most of his young life, Michael was constantly on the move with his family, his father, in the military, regularly transferred between bases. The Russell family made their final move Michael's Freshman year to New York City, where he completed his basic education.
Then the night that would forever haunt Michael occurred. His father, who had developed into a serious alcoholic, had been out drinking all night, and had missed the dinner plans his mother had set up for their anniversary. To ease her mother's feelings, Michael's elder sister took her mother to see a movie while Michael stayed home with Chris. About an hour after their leaving, their father returned, more asleep than awake in his drunken state. With his father home, Michael took the opportunity to head to hang out with his friends, and would regret doing so from that day forward.
After hanging out with his friends for about an hour, Michael hurried back home before his sister and mom made it back. When he opened the door, his heart sank to his soles. He found his drunken father in the process of raping his younger brother, whose face was bloodied and bruised, with one eye already swelling shut. The young man grabbed a baseball bat and used it to beat his father off his brother, hitting him twice in the back and once in the head to knock him out. However, even with him off of Chris, Michael continued swinging. He beat the man within an inch of his life, releasing all his built up hatred and anger onto the man. With his anger finally releasing him, Michael hurried the boy's pants on and rushed to the neighbor's, where they called the police.
Michael called his mother, who was just getting out of the movie with his sister, and the two rushed home, and in doing so, did not see the truck run the red light. Neither would ever make it home.
Michael's father was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison. He would later be found dead, a supposed suicide by hanging himself with his bed sheets. However, the events surrounding his death were questionable at best, but the ruling of suicide was enough to satisfy the state of New York. Michael did not grieve that day.
Filled with guilt, believing himself responsible for his family's death (having henceforth omitted his father as being apart of his family) and his brother's likely scarred future, Michael fled New York—from all those painful memories—and took Chris to the small town of Pleasington, where he got a job at the local school for the two to survive. Six years have passed since they arrived, and Michael has gotten on as a full-time teacher. He has remained very protective of Chris, who seems to have recovered from the incident (for the most part), always remembering what had happened to his little brother, and swearing to never let anything happen to him again.
Extra:
Michael is an extremely talented chess player, having never lost a match.