InsaneJournal

basic information.
FULL NAME: Luka Mihovilich Harding.
ALIASES: People sometimes mispronounce or misread his name and end up calling him Luke, which doesn’t bother him all that much. He isn’t some anal guy who gets up in arms about a simple misunderstanding, though he does prefer to just be called Luka.
CODENAME: Umbra.
AFFILIATION: Xavier’s School for the Gifted.
AGE & D.O.B.: 28. July 25th 1981.
NATIONALITY: English.
STATUS: Faculty; Film & Media Studies.
REGISTERED: Yes.

appearance.
Average is a good word to describe Luka, a man who stands 5’11 and weighs approximately 159lbs. at his heaviest. He is lean, bordering on athletic but lacking the muscle definition that would push him into that category. He is not a strong man, and he knows it, but he isn’t slow when he puts his legs to work, and as such, makes up for what he lacks in strength in speed instead. He has a young-looking face, but he isn’t baby-faced; there’s a sort of flawless boyishness to his features instead, and while that is tempered when he allows stubble to grow, it’s quite possible he will always look youthful. With brown hair that is naturally curly and green eyes, it’s not hard to label Luka as a nice guy just at first glance; there’s nothing hard or harsh about him, and he just gives off that air of ‘the boy next door’, the guy you can trust and get along with.

Contrary to popular belief, Luka does not dress like an English professor, sad to say. There’s no tweed in his wardrobe and certainly no elbow patches; he also wouldn’t dream of touching a pipe. Instead, it’s all very simple, t-shirts and sweatshirts, button-downs, jeans or slacks, tidy shoes or presentable sneakers, perhaps a simple pair of boots once in a while. There’s no flair or real finesse to Luka’s attire, and that’s fine with him. He doesn’t see the point in dressing to impress when he’s there to teach, and he prefers to be casual but professional at the same time, so you can bet that any button-down shirts he wears will be tucked in and ironed, at least when he has a class to teach.

mutation.
shadow manipulation. Luka can, by sheer force of will and by the power of his conscious mind (and sometimes his subconscious mind), manipulate pockets of shadow, the effects depending entirely on the requirements he has at any given time. He cannot create shadow; he can only command it when it is readily formed, whether naturally by an absence of light, or by another mutant who has shadow/light-related abilities.

The most casual use of his ability is mostly subconscious, and somewhat reminiscent of Peter Pan, in that Luka’s own, personal shadow often moves in ways that his flesh-and-blood body does not, flickering or moving even if he is motionless. Nine times out of ten, Luka does not register this occurrence himself, and it is something that frequently catches others by surprise. He has become so accustomed to it that it is very, very normal now, at least to him.

Luka can conceal himself in a significant pocket of shadow, by simply stepping into it, seeming to vanish, becoming ‘one’ with the shadow itself, more or less invisible to the naked eye, so long as he stays motionless. He can affect tangible matter in this state, with a poke or a shove, but once he leaves the natural/artificially-created shadow, he becomes fully visible again. Moving while concealed would create a spectral kind of effect; the shadow would ripple, like a smoky figure, revealing his position, and though he becomes virtually invisible while in concealment, he can be touched or wounded, if he reveals himself, unintentionally or otherwise. If he remains motionless, the shadow appears flawless. So long as the shadow is sizeable enough, and Luka maintains physical contact, he can take other people into concealment, but that contact must be held at all times, or they lose their own shelter, and become fully visible again.

So long as the object is small enough to fit the dimensions of his personal shadow, Luka can conceal items within it, such as a pen, a book, or an apple; anything that fits the width/height of the shadow at the time of its storing. He can move from place to place, without affecting or damaging the item stored in his personal shadow, and so long as his shadow is wide/tall enough to release the same object again, he can retrieve it without incident. It is unclear even to Luka himself where the item ‘goes’ when it is in his shadow, but this is a skill he keeps rather on the low-key side of things, to avoid questions that he cannot answer.

Finally, Luka can manipulate shadow to take on a form; the larger the form he commands it to take, and the longer it is maintained, the more it tires him mentally, the extent of which would leave him feeling faint; dizzy and weak. The shape itself is limited only by Luka’s imagination; anything from a cat to a ‘dragon’ of some kind would be conceivable, so long as Luka himself can imagine it. They are easily animated, but the shadows rarely take on three-dimensional form, lacking the ability to become tangible and in any way solid, and are mainly for distraction or intimidation, should the need arise. The shadow that Luka manipulates can be a person’s, or one cast by a building/shape blocking the light.

skills and limitations.
SKILLS: Horsemanship. Good memory. Knowledge of film and television.
LIMITATIONS: to be announced.

personality.
Luka is one of those annoying ‘I’ll be your friend’ guys; one of the teachers who tries to see things from a student’s point of view, and earn himself a few eye-rolls along the way. He’s harmless, genial to everyone, and always ready to listen or laugh at someone’s terrible joke, unless it is in any way cruel. He isn’t really one for mockery or teasing, believing that unnecessary ridicule is the root of many of the world’s problems; he doesn’t like segregation, racism, etc, and Luka is the type of guy who wants to believe that ‘world peace’, or at least some kind of united truce, isn’t completely impossible, even if it takes five, ten or twenty years to come about. He is rather optimistic, as a general rule, wanting to see the best in everybody and believe the best about most situations; of course, if something explodes, he isn’t about to shrug it off and say everything will be fine. He’s optimistic, but he’s not a moron; he can be just as realistic about problems as anyone, wanting to face them head-on with a level head, and a loose plan of action. Organisation isn’t his best strong point, but he does like to have a rough idea of where he’s going, something that shows through in his classroom.

Open-minded, and attentive, Luka can often be found, during a class, perched on the end of his desk, listening to one of his student’s opinions about one topic or another, enjoying a good, clean debate, believing them to be a source of interest and a good learning experience. Even though he is rather anti-confrontational, and not a fighter by any standard, he will always step in during a fight in his classroom, or in the halls, or even on the journals if he sees one taking place; if he can find some way to diffuse a situation, or steady a frayed nerve, he will do his best to at least try and settle things, without rubbing people completely the wrong way. He’s a teacher, and he does his best to act the part.

Having grown up in the country, around animals and nature, Luka is an obvious lover; a highly-skilled horseman, he enjoys riding and simply being with the large animals, of the opinion that they are one of the gentlest, most beautiful creatures on the planet. He likes just about any animal, wild or domestic, and metamorphs intrigue him; he envies them, in a way, and is fascinated by their powers, and their limitations, always wanting to know the little details and facts about their abilities, but while he is a curious individual, he does respect peoples’ boundaries, and doesn’t push if he sees that someone is uncomfortable with something.

Though he is English, Luka doesn’t enjoy having it rubbed in his face, meaning he has heard just about every ‘witty’ comment or joke under the sun about his nationality, the Queen, scones, afternoon tea, and all of that stupid stuff. He will tolerate it, but a change in the topic is inevitable if the subject comes up; he isn’t ashamed of his heritage, mixed as it is — if his name didn’t give that away — but teasing isn’t something he really enjoys.

The type of man to leave violence as a last resort, Luka, while having many skills, does not count combat as one of them; in a fight, it would be all reflex and messy instinct, and generally ‘not good’. He avoids violence as much as he can, preferring to rely on his powers as an alternative. He understands that violence is needed, sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

history.
Born in plain old Norfolk, England, Luka Harding actually had a rather interesting childhood, as countryside childhoods go. An only child born to an English mother (who gave him her surname, perhaps in an effort to make his childhood that little bit easier) and Croatian father, he became fluently bilingual by the age of eight, showing a quick interest in music, books, film and television, spending many an evening hour in front of the TV, especially when the weather was typically brutal, as English weather often is; rain, snow, sleet — as often as he had to trudge through the slush, puddles or mud as a child, he was never bored. He always had something to read or watch, his parents often buying him random, independent films, or novels by new authors, wanting to feed his curiosity and nurture his hobby. There was no huge event to act as a landmark in his youth, leading up to puberty, when things really kicked off, in the terms of identity and mutation.

Speaking of mutations, Luka’s was discovered quite by accident. Trusted by his parents, he had been out with some friends in one of the closer cities, after seeing a movie and getting something to eat; a fight started to break out, escalating quickly into something of a brawl, and Luka, having never liked violence or unnecessary confrontation, backed away from it instinctively, not even feeling his back bump into one of the brick walls behind him. He didn’t feel it because it did not happen. And when his friends looked around to find him, he was baffled as to why they couldn’t see him; he was standing not three feet from one of them, close enough to reach out and poke him. Which he did. The friend, naturally, as unaccustomed as he was to being poked by shadow, gave a yelp and ran, reacting before he could really think about what had happened. Luka was much the same. It wasn’t until the brawl had been toned down and contained by police that his remaining friends told him he had ‘vanished’.

Weeks passed before it happened again, though Luka had noticed odd things about his own shadow, the way it sometimes shifted; warped or flickered, or even seemed to move independently from his actual body. It was just his mind playing tricks on him, he decided quickly. Until the ‘vanishing’ happened again. And again. Before long, Luka had begun to experiment, discovering his own shadow hadn’t been a mere trick of the mind, but an actual manipulation, as subconscious as it had been. He came to learn the extent of his mutation, the way he could manipulate, use or alter shadow, using it to his own advantage many times.

The move to Xavier’s School for the Gifted, while a big step in Luka’s so-far rather routine life, was something of an inevitability; a logical leap for his parents. People had started to talk; rumours had started to spread. It was in everyone’s best interest, for the family and beyond. Luka, a people-pleaser, agreed, curious about this new school. It was whilst at Xavier’s that he learned of his real potential, pushing himself further than before. He also made up his mind on what he wanted to do, graduating earlier than the norm for American students, given his prior education in England; he moved back to the United Kingdom after his graduation, to enrol in a Media Studies course at one of the colleges near his family home. Naturally, University followed, where he earned a Degree, which has inevitably led him all the way back to America, and to Xavier’s.

trivia.

connections.
platonic;

LORNA DANE; POLARIS. polarfields
INFO HERE!

MICHELLE SAX; AEGIS. melinex
INFO HERE!

LUCILLE MOLTISANTI; VERVE. vervacious
INFO HERE!

KIERAN WALSH; BREAKDOWN. zingboom
INFO HERE!

antagonistic;

LOGAN; WOLVERINE. mmmbeer
INFO HERE!