Jeep (from Psi High)

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Jeep (22)

Project: YA Novel (Psi High)

Known as: Jeep (for GP, or guinea pig)

Real name: Henry Reams

Group affiliation: The Omegas

Physical description: Jeep is a scrawny, small-for-his age 15-year-old. He has sandy blond hair, straight as an arrow, cut in a bowl style. He wears thick glasses, old blue jeans and t-shirts with super heroes.

Personality: Jeep is a doormat. He’ll basically do anything in order to have people let him hang out with them. Given his powers, this includes letting them bruise him, give him a fat lip or a black eye, and the like. He just likes the attention and will cover with the administration if any questions are asked (after all, he let the other kids hurt him). He’s the kid that takes any dare or does anything for a dollar really, he’s doing it for the attention (and his power protects him from his foolishness).

He is a sad, lonely kid. He’s not particularly exceptional at anything and this makes him have low confidence. In another school he’d be able to find others who shared his interests (B-grade horror films and comics), but Coldwater is so exclusive that he doesn’t have much luck in this department. He is grateful to the Omegas that he is allowed to hang out with them but even with them he feels like he doesn’t really fit in and they tolerate him out of pity.

History: Jeep only needed a few things to fall his way and his life would have been different. Born to an upper-class Electi family, both his parents were psychic healers and doctors. In the world of Psi High, the mere presence of healers promotes health. While they can’t lay hands on people and instantly cure cancer or the like, people around them are less likely to get sick, have infections, etc. and are also more successful recovering from ailments and injuries. This improvement has been scientifically demonstrated (it’s not just a belief), so healers are very prized Electi (especially as medical professionals).

Jeep’s parents were very successful and planned to focus on their careers rather than family. Jeep was both a bit of a surprise and the result of some carelessness. Still, they loved and wanted him, it’s just that growing up their careers, causes, and social events kept them very busy. He had any number of affectionate caregivers but was a very undemanding child that was easy to ignore. This made him a bit of a loner, while at the same time desperate for attention.

Things didn’t improve once testing revealed his Electi power in adolescence. Jeep was a healer like his parents and an unusually strong one, but with a caveat. Jeep was the rare healer whose power was only focused inwardly. Thus, he was hale and healthy, recovered quickly from injuries, and was resistant to poisons and the like. While amazing, the problem was he could not improve the health of others. This made him a disappointment to his parents and really anyone else who heard about it (“You are a healer! Great! My uncle has this thingwhat’s that? You can’t heal anyone else? Umm. Well, that’s nice for you, I suppose”).

Once uncovered, his classmates would have some fun “testing his power.” What would happen if someone drank this glue? What if they snorted this candy? Henry was game to try lots of things, because at least people were paying attention to him. This got him the nickname “guinea pig” since people liked to test things on him. Later this was shortened to “GP” and still later to “Jeep.”

It would be bad enough if this was just a cruel nickname from cruel kids but Jeep also sees it has his future. There has already been interest from people around testing him to see if his ability can be replicated. If not that, he is the most low-risk human test subject on the planet. Note that while he recovers from things quickly and thus the duration of painful events is shorter, he still feels pain.

So a sad kid with a sad future. Of course, were he to find a way to use his power to improve himself

Role in the narrative: Poor Jeep. I’m afraid he’s going to be a tragic figure in the work. The history above describes his state at the beginning of the story ignored, picked on, etc. Selena and the Omegas are kind enough to him but their pity in some ways upsets him more than those who “play” with his powers. He will be a minor character by design early in the story, easy for the reader (just like everyone else) to ignore and forget about.

At some point, he’ll realize he can use his power to control his body to a greater degree. He’ll put on quite a bit of muscle and become a jock. He’ll attribute it to a “growth spurt,” but in truth he’ll be directing his body to develop that way. Given testosterone will be key to this, his personality will also shift (yes, bit of a steroids allegory here). He’ll become more popular but also move from an abused to an abuser.

Worse still will be when he tries to address his aggressive tendencies by manipulating his neurotransmitters. Eventually he will discover he can make himself euphoric any time he wants, and that will be the ultimate end of him (yup, drug allegory).

BTW, the automotive “Jeep” came from the military’s General Purpose vehicles, called “GP” and ultimately “Jeep.” I just expanded it to “guinea pig.” I think it will seem like a derogatory nickname early in the story, but kind of a cool one later.

Abilities: Jeep is a super self-healer. All traces of small injuries bruises, black eyes, fat lips tend to vanish within a day. A broken bone can heal in a couple of weeks. His body is fast to reject toxins, diseases, and bacteria, so he is usually fine. Give him arsenic and he’ll most likely vomit it up quickly and survive.

But he’s not Wolverine. He couldn’t be a super-soldier or the like because his healing isn’t so fast that he’d recover from a fatal gunshot wound (it would just be fatal).

Later he’ll find with concentration/meditation he can influence his body’s processes. So, without particularly exercising he can encourage his body to develop muscle. He will also be able direct the chemicals in his body to some degree (things like adrenaline, serotonin, and the like).

Inspirations: Man, in an effort to avoid one cliché you get pushed into another. I wanted to have a “psychic healer” type, but then remembered Psi-Force had one. So, I thought I’d do a variation, and ended up with Wolverine-lite. Still I like the “Jeep” (from guinea pig) thing and believe he will be an interesting allegory for a few things (which, of course, might end up making his character preachy I think the key will be that the downfall of Jeep was he never found true confidence in himself).