Physical Description

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He is shorter than average for a man with Dutch heritage and has a thin athletic build. His entire body is absolutely covered in freckles, some places being so run over that his color looks brown. He also has quite a few scars over his body from various failed fights or dodges. He has a wide jaw with deep-set eyes below heavy, low eyebrows. He has dark blonde to light brown curly hair that reaches the nape of his neck. His eyes are light brown with a single gold speck in the left eye near the iris.

Speech

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He has a very average male voice with a South African accent.He speaks in a very laid-back, quiet, albeit stern tone. Words don't always come easy to him but he might make it look that way at times. He speaks English fluently but his first language is Afrikaans.

Mental & Emotional

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He's your average human being with a high school education. He isn't especially great at math or science. Kobus has only ever wanted simple things and reading isn't a hobby of his. He usually finds himself thinking on his feet, even if he tried to do otherwise. Now that he doesn't have his twin brother anymore, he will go out constantly to crowded places just to be around people. He can't stand being stuck alone in his apartment for long periods of time and will carve his art in small public places. Loves silly jokes and clean humor. Kobus is the one who laughs along with their kid while watching an animated movie and can still be entertained by toddler shows like Caillou (right along with his son). He'll accidentally watch the entire thing even though his kid fell asleep 20 minutes ago.

His father, brother and he went on a fishing trip when he was 7 years old. They got caught in a storm on the way back home and the boys almost drowned when they were thrown overboard. They were stuck out in the ocean for a night and most of the next day before they were found. Kobus got his Hydrophobia from this moment but his brother moved on with the exception of never going too far out to sea again. When he lost his father to a heart attack (due to obesity from depression) and his mother to a mental hospital (due to depression), he promised himself that he would never be dragged down by his own thoughts, the thoughts of others or anything that tried to get ahold of him. When he lost his twin brother, it created a great determination in him to continue on, no matter the cost.

Beliefs

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He is not a religious person at all. His ideas on this is as follows; If there is a God, then why does he let good people suffer? He thinks that if God did exist, then he would do something about the world as it is today. He gave up on the belief of God after his mother left them. He doesn't like to kill people but will if he absolutely has to. Kobus respects everyone's abilities to make their own decisions and choices. He'll be respectful of someone else's beliefs.

Daily Life/Health

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He has made a very comfortable life for himself thanks to his talent for wood carving. He owns a tourist/commoner shop in the middle of Johannesburg. It's a very popular location for people looking to take back authentic African souvenirs or people that just like wooden carved sculptures. Of course, his aren't the only sculptures in the shop. In fact, his are in the minority and can be found all the way on the back wall behind a glass covering. His are more expensive and more likely to be bought by more serious people. The rest of the shop is filled with sculptures that have been made by other people that could have paid him to have their item sold here or that he paid to have them sell here. He lives in a very nice apartment in the middle of the city with an amazing view. It's very clean at all times because he has a cleaning lady that comes in every few days. No one else really comes into the apartment, outside of the girls he brings home sometimes. He doesn't drink alcohol and he makes sure to not put too much bad food in his body at one time because he wants to stay in shape. He doesn't smoke.

Powers/Abilities

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Through his dead brother, he can pull energy from the world around him to bring himself back from the dead or brink of death. This power can kill whatever he reaches for mentally so he usually tries to hold onto plantlife or small animals. If there isn't enough energy around him in the smaller things, he'll latch onto people. He would never hurt an innocent person so the only option would be someone he considered worthless or slip into the great beyond one final time. Most of the time his power couldn't kill a grown adult but it would kill a child. If he was dead however, it might send the adult into a coma; if the injuries that needed to be mended were severe enough. He would never have known about this power if his brother hadn'tt died. It could have only been activated through death and oddly enough, only through his brother.

Background/Story

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Growing up in the suburbs of Johannesburg, he had a normal childhood until his dad died of a heart attack. Kobus was twelve at the time and being as he loved his dad very much, it hit him hard. Clyde (his father) had issues with depression and obesity that eventually lead to his end. After all, his father was the one who taught him how to whittle/carve wood which would soon lead to one of his favorite hobbies and his greatest escape from reality. Outside of his father, Kobus grew up alongside his twin brother, Attie. After Clyde's passing, the two grew even closer. Susan's (their mother) mental health spiraled downhill so rapidly that she checked herself into a mental institution after her husband's passing. She left the two boys in the care of her sister and never came back. Their Aunt Marine, took them in half-heartedly and only because she felt she had to. She didn't actually care about Kobus or Attie and never really kept an eye on them.

Eventually, the two boys began noticing all the violence going on in South Africa and wanted to do something about it. So two teenage boys at the ripe age of 16, began taking boxing, parkour, and weightlifting lessons. They did anything they could to prepare their bodies for brutal nights and patrols. After all, who wouldn't want to be a superhero and who could tell two naive boys that it wouldn't be that easy? When Kobus and Attie turned 22, they went to a pawn shop and bought weapons. Kobus chose a pair of brass knuckles and an old police baton whilst Attie picked a machete (just in case things got out of hand and they needed to defend themselves better). They both agreed guns were off the table because not only were they very loud but most likely completely unnecessary. Along with their chosen weapons, they made sure to get an old police radio and an old car. Many months would pass with missed opportunities or nothing happening at all. Through trial and error, they managed to figure out how to work with the system.

One night, the two brothers attempted to intervene in a gang war and Attie, was hit with a barrage of bullets. He was fatally wounded and died several minutes after, choking on his own blood. In that moment, Kobus felt something almost physically sever within him while something else pushed through. In shock, he heard the police sirens and had to get away. Kobus hastily removed his brother's mask (to make him appear like a civilian) and left him there on the sidewalk. The next day, it was released in the papers that Attie Radel was the victim of a hate crime. As Kobus attended his brother's funeral, he swore that he would continue their work. Over the next month, he hunted down the people who were responsible for his brother's death and attempted to kill them. But because he couldn's think through his blind rage, he underestimated the difficulty of taking a gang out by himself. If he couldn's do it with Attie, how could he do it without him? He failed miserably.

The gang members were irritated to say the least and so decided to teach him a lesson before they killed him. They blew out both of his knees and stabbed him several times in the gut. When they were done, they threw him beside his brother's tombstone. While he lay there bleeding, struggling to get up, they mocked him. Distracted with patting each other on the back and full up on their egos, he grabbed one of their guns and blew them away. An uzi killed his brother, so fitting that it would be the instruments of their deaths as well. Satisfied, he then laid his head back against the cool stone of Attie's grave and closed his eyes. This would be the first time he would hear the words of the dead.

His brother's voice echoed into his mind, able to pierce through the veil in his near-death state. Though Attie's voice wasn't the only one in this graveyard, he was the loudest and most familiar. His brother brought him back from the brink and awakened an unknown power within him.

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He became a member of the JL but felt like an outcast in the stunningly glorious halls in the sky. He tends to watch over his city alone with a softly pessimistic outlook. Kobus maintains the ability to speak with those who've passed on while his brother makes sure he makes it back from the other side.

Trivia

• He loves the smell of coffee, split wood, Bar-B-Q, and fresh strawberries.
• His favorite time of day is in the evening, when the fading light of the sun lights up the sides of the buildings in Johannesburg. He has a beautiful view from his apartment terrace.
• His favorite season is summer. That’s when the tourists come to South Africa, and his favorite Bar-B-Q place is most active. He loves being around a lot of people, especially when they’re happy.
• He has never been a big fan of books. He couldn’t stand the thought of sitting still for a long time doing nothing. He always likes his hands to be moving. He would carve/whittle wood with his father instead.
• He mostly listens to whatever is popular on the radio in Johannesburg. He doesn’t seek out the time to find new music either. If the music makes him happy, and happens to be playing on the radio for his convenience, he’ll listen to it.
• His favorite place is a little Bar N’ Grill about 2 miles outside of Johannesburg. A lot of down-to-Earth people go there to eat, drink, and have fun. It’s a very pleasant environment. He sometimes goes there in his free time to have a few beers, and whittle a few sculptures. He’s even made friends with the old couple that run the place.
• He has always shied away from drugs because of his family history (on both sides) with depression and other mental disorders. He has even refused to take prescribed medication from certified doctors in the past. He doesn’t ever want to be dependent on a substance to help him through his life.
• He has never been a plant lover, and has always been a city boy. The closest he likes to get to nature is collecting, or purchasing the wood he needs to carve his sculptures. He has a few fake plants in his apartment for decorative purposes.
• He has never owned an animal in his life. His parents couldn't ever take care of one because of their own problems and he grew out of wanting a dog around 12 years old. He's had plenty of opportunities to get himself a pet, but doesn’t really feel the need to. He prefers the more majestic animals of the earth; the ones he can't own. He appreciates the rich culture where he lives, and loves to immerse himself in it. His favorite animals to carve are the Crocodile, Elephant, Giraffe and the Gazelle.

Stats

Personality

He's friendly when you get to know him but very stand-offish any other time. Kobus is a deeply caring person and highly motivated. Nothing will stop him once he's made his mind up. Let's just say it's best to be on his good side.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses. -George Eliot