Profile
SOLOMAN
Summary
Name
Soloman Asche Lev
Nicknames
Bossman (by Rose)
Gender
Demi-Boy
Age
23
Race
...Blue?
Orientation
Gay
Occupation
Psychiatrist
Soloman Lev, a novice agent and a fully licensed psychiatrist for the Psychonauts Organization, is often someone who blends into the background due to his nervous and reserved nature. He is often skiddish and avoids any sort of interaction with others, but he's a genuinely nice and caring guy!
He can usually be seen with his intern, Rose, who drags him around constantly against his will, or out in the middle of a random hallway at 3 am drinking vending machine coffee.
Personality
Soloman is a very jumpy and anxious person and it's very easy to tell just by looking at him. He is awkward around everybody, even the people he knows. Doesn't pick up social cues very well so he just avoids people in general if he can. He's super secluded; people invite him to join in on things all the time, but he always refuses. Due to his (constant) work and literally being in other people's minds constantly, Soloman is always exhausted. He also sleeps very little, and when he does it's very sporadic.
Due to his secluded nature, Soloman doesn't really talk very much unless he's working with someone. After all, it is part of his job to speak to people and help them fix their own mental issues...sometimes quite literally helping them defeat their inner demons. Needless to say, Soloman has seen some things! His note taking is very professional and thorough - he can literally go minute by minute if needed. Even though Soloman is detail oriented he has trouble keeping his own office and space organized.
Due to his psychic ability he has had since birth, which takes away any sort of energy from the person he looks at without any glasses/other eye overings, he is extremely insecure and worried about everything around him. This, of course, makes him push away people quite often in order to keep them from him accidentally hurting them in some way. His mother, a powerful and high ranking Psychonaut named Margaret, took his ability very seriously and often isolated him away from others, which greatly impacted his social and emotional development.
Likes
- Video Games
- Technology in General
- Comics
- Coffee
Dislikes
- Crowds
- Heights
- Eye Contact
- Conflict
Story
Childhood
Soloman was born to Margaret and Gregory Lev; Margaret was a powerful psychic and in a high position in the Psychonauts, while Gregory was not. From the very moment he first opened his eyes it was obvious to see something wasn't right. With cyan irises and magenta pupils surrounded with a spiral, it wasn't just a physical oddity, but a psychic one as well. If Soloman made eye contact with any psychic their abilities would be blocked along with temporary blindness and ringing in the ears, much like a photoflash bomb. To non-psychics, however, are not affected by this at all. Margaret hid him away from the world for quite some time until Otto Mentalis developed a pair of glasses that (mostly) blocked the ability from deeply affecting other people. Despite the issue being under control, Margaret still held a tight leash on Soloman and how he developed and used his psychic abilities. Because of this, Soloman became withdrawn from others at a young age and spent most of the time in his room. He found his love for video games, reading, technology, etc from all of the time he had for himself. Greg also provided him with some broken game consoles and other stuff for him to work on - he's just as awkward as his son is, so displaying any sort of concern or attempts to console Soloman were passive at best. At least he tried, though.
When Soloman was old enough he was sent to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp in typical psychic tradition. Of course, since he spent most of his life inside or isolated from others, this was the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to him. No matter how much other campers or the counselors encouraged him to join the others, he refused, and usually ran away deeper into the forest or into one of the cabins to be by himself. That was, however, when another camper arrived a couple of days late. His name was Arum Damianita and let his presence known to everyone and everything. Arum immediately made it his goal to meet everyone and befrend them, which he did! All besides one person...Soloman. It took a while for Arum to track him down, but once he did and noticed how weird and awkward he was, Arum made it his goal to make this kid normal. From that moment on Arum dragged Soloman to literally everything much to Soloman's dismay. Even though they were complete opposites, the two surprisingly got along after a while! Along with this they both starting having huge crushes on each other and started dating like any other middle school aged teens. Yay! :)
Teen-Years
Soloman and Arum both entered the intern program at the same time. Due to Margaret’s status and position, she was able to convince and recruit Compton Boole to be Soloman's mentor. The two were already so similar behavior wise, and as one of the founding members of the Psychonauts itself, it would be perfect right? Mostly, but when you put two extremely paranoid and anxious people together - especially when both of them have abilities that have horrendously backfired when they're overwhelmed, it can be a lot sometimes. It was during this that Soloman and Arum starting drifting apart a little; Arum was beginning to feel jealous about Soloman having such an important person as his mentor and tried his best to be around them whenever he could to at least get a LITTLE acknowledgement, but was usually dragged off by his own mentor because both Soloman and Compton were too big of pushovers to do anything else.
It was when the two graduated from the intern program when their relationship started going downhill. While Soloman usually stayed back at the Motherlobe with his own program, Arum was usually the one who went on missions. Nothing seemed to be enough for him, though...he felt weak, that his potential was being wasted. The resentment started to build on Arum's side, especially once he started figuring out that this was all because of Soloman. Soloman continously tried to console Arum about this, but would be pushed away every single time. That was until Arum decided to take matters into his own hands. Without any warning Arum snapped at him, accusing Soloman of sabotaging his status as a Psychonaut due to being constantly overshadowed. He felt powerless and weak around him, and he knew it. No matter how much he pried at Soloman about this, however, he would constantly deny the accusations Arum was making and tried to calm him down. Arum realised there was one thing that he never really questioned before, but it all made sense; Soloman's glasses. He snatched the glasses off of Soloman's face, smashing the lenses and frames with his telekinesis. Soloman tried to defend himself - and Arum - by covering his face with his arms, but Arum wasn't going to take that. Before Soloman could warn Arum about what would happen, it was already too late.
Arum was immediately hit with a blinding light, all of his senses were completely blocked off and his psychic abilities were completely nullified. Usually this would only last for a couple of moments, but Soloman's intense emotions increased the effects of it tenfold. In a literal blind rage, Arum lunged at Soloman, hitting and scratching him like a wild animal as he let out aguished screams.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!" Arum shrieked, clawing at his own eyes in a crude attempt to clear his blocked vision. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?"
Current / Adulthood
Soloman didn't really remember what happened after this aside from the voice of Truman Zanotto calling out to other Psychonauts within the area to break up the fight. Arum was quickly apprehended, but he continued fighting back and lashing out at Soloman as he was being dragged away. Some of the others stayed behind to try and help Soloman recover, but he was in such a state of shock everything was just a blur. Soloman never saw Arum after that - it was said that Arum was taken to psychoisolation in an attempt to revert him to normal and gain his psychic powers back, but nothing else was ever brought up to Soloman after the inital attack. Deeply traumatized by the attack, Soloman only isolated himself further, only meeting others for psychiatric purposes only. He buried himself in his studies after this in an attempt to distract himself, and soon enough, Soloman had flown through college courses and gained his doctorate at the young age of 21.
Now Soloman is still very seldomly seen as he has been assigned to so many people within the Psychonauts organization to treat and give routine mental checks to. The only evidence of him even existing to most is just his office, which read his name. His work is almost constant and Soloman's tendency to overwhelm himself with tasks in order to keep him distracted and busy only increased his already high stress levels. However, he's usually too exhausted to care or react to anything most of the time. That was, until Agent Forsythe assigned him an intern...
Design
Appearance
- Tall and VERY skinny. A Walking Stick.
- The darker shades on his nose/face are an attempt to add the Psychonauts style...However he still has bags under his eyes that are very dark.
- Has HORRIBLE posture. Is slouched over a lot.
- Long and fluffy hair!
Clothes / Accessories
- Short sleeved button up shirt with neon pink, cyan, purple, and green trianlges patterned randomly on it with a longer forked "tail" draping the back. Wears a purple turtleneck under it.
- Wears dangled earrings with a piece of psitanium on the end of them. Gold ring on (his) left ear.
- Lenses of glasses are SOLID!! They can show his eyelids for expression as well.
- Lanyard and badge is optional!
Trivia
Notes
- Yes, he's an actual doctor! When you're essentially a child prodigy plus have the ability to literally go into people's minds and figure out all of their problems, you can grasp psychology pretty well. Most people don't believe this, even though the nameplate to his office says: Dr. Soloman Lev, MD. Even with this, when people refer to him as a doctor, he gets really awkward about it.
- His mental world is structed around a classic 80s style arcade. The main area is presented under blacklight and neon signs and posters line the walls. Different cabinets serve as the "stages", and each style is changed to fit a certain game aesthetic. Game mechanics also change with each stage as well, some areas are "two player" (Soloman joins the player (ex. Raz)) or solo, where the player is on their own. His mental representation of himself usually hangs out around a certain arcade game or within the "prize" area, which can give out small game-play boosters and stuff like that. Memory vaults are found in respective stages as well - mostly explaining what event inspired the level to begin with. The main boss, though? I guess we'll have to find out ;)
- Has a ton of random collections, the largest include comics, trading cards, and old video game consoles.
- He is diagnosed with autism and anxiety and has been from a young age.
PSI-Powers
- Astral Projection: The ability to take one's mental image and insert it into the mind of another to explore their Mental World.
- Telekinesis: The ability to either manifest a hand conjured out of psychic energy to lift the object or simply lift the object with their mind.
- Mind Reading:The ability to read someone's mind, with or without their consent.
- Plus many more! These are the most used by Soloman.
Relationships
Rose Apprentice / Student
Rose was assigned to Soloman by Forsythe without any warning in an attempt for him to actual focus on something else other than his work for once. When she arrived at Soloman's office with a handwritten assignment notice by Forstyhe herself, Soloman nearly had a heart attack. He had never had an apprentice before and explained to Rose that it was most likely an error and tried to send her on her way, but Rose was persistent. Her enthusiasim and excitement to be a Psychonaut was too optimistic to turn down, so Soloman admitted defeat and agreed to mentor her. It's not he had a choice, though.
Mother Margaret
Saying that Soloman is intimidated by his mother is an understatement - he's almost completely terrified of her. Her presence is powerful and strict in both professional and casual environments. From a young age Margaret kept Soloman on a short leash due to the fear of him affecting other psychics. She encouraged him to stick to book smarts, much as she did, and made him take more advanced courses to give him a "better head start."
Despite her overpowering and strict personality, she genuinely loves Soloman. Soloman loves her too, of course, as he knows that most of her behavior had come from her own troubles in the past and having a psychic anomaly as a child wasn't super easy. However, years of isolation and Margaret constantly looming over Soloman's shoulder has made him a very self concious person. As they both work within the Motherlobe, their interactions are mostly unavoidable, but Soloman tries his absolute best to avoid her there. After all, the last thing he needed was his mother controlling his work, too.
Arum Ex-Friend / Boyfriend
Arum and Soloman's relationship and bond was very genuine and positive for the majority of their time together. He showed Soloman the fun around him and encouraged him to be part of the group instead of isolating himself. Arum and Soloman were also a really good team, as Arum's energy and strength with Soloman's precision and accuracy came together to essentially rule over any other campers/interns when it came to activites.
Even after the incident that nearly shattered Arum's mind and completely nullified his powers, Soloman still feels immense sadness and guilt over the whole situation. Of course, he usually blames himself for all of it as well, as only if he could encourage Arum like he had done to him in the past, maybe things would have turned out better. Soloman genuinely misses him. However, even after all of these years, he still feels Arum's energy around him at times, even if it was completely taken from him to begin with...
