Samuel Markuns

A stepbrother who is 3 years older than me, and a stepsister who was 3 years younger than me.

Agent Samuel Markuns (towards the end of his story):

Well, he doesn't really have a typical day, as such. He is willing and able to do all sorts of things. But a day like this one would not be unusual.

8am: He has already been awake, and at work, for several hours. When he is alone in the office, he goes through old case files to see if the investigator missed anything; or he will go through files on superpowered vigilantes (what the OSI officially calls superheroes) attempting to discover their real identities. By this time, other agents are starting to show up at work; it's time for him to start pretending to be normal, since most of them don't know about him.

9am: This is usually when his partner, Agent Danvers, shows up; he will review any open cases with her, and go over anything they expect to have to do that day (interviewing witnesses,

Samuel Markuns is isolated by his very nature. He had a rough childhood - he was raised by an emotionally abusive stepmother, and dealt with anxiety and various other issues. Eventually, he had a complete breakdown following the death of his stepsister during which his superpower manifested.

His power is basically a complete lack of feeling. He does not have emotions, wants, desires, fears, or anything at all like that. He does not seek out companionship because he gains nothing by it; he has no hobbies or interests; he does not have romantic or sexual attraction. He hides this from most people he encounters, pretending to be no more than an introvert. But the fact is, mentally and socially he has nothing in common with any other human being.

To Samuel:

1) How did you escape your abusive stepmother? What happened to your parents?

2) Do you still have feelings about your memories? Can you look back on an event and recall how you felt back then?

3) What do you do on your off-time? Do you watch tv? Read books? Sit in a chair facing the corner?
 * 1) I didn't escape her. When I turned 18 I joined the Army. The incident that gave me my powers happened when I was 27 [or so]. My mother died when I was 2, my father remarried the next year, then he died when I was 5. My stepmother was left with sole custody.
 * 2) I can recall the emotions I had that were associated with memories. They just don't have the same effect. Likewise I still experience the taste of food as I did before, but it has no effect on how I eat.
 * 3) I don't have "off-time." I am at work for most of the day, and when I am not I am doing other things to improve my physical and mental skills. I read a lot of information and exercise at least an hour a day, for example.

To Samuel:

1) Why were you so bothered by your stepsister's death?

3) Why do you improve your skills?

To Samuel:
 * 1) When I was a kid my stepmother was a terror and my stepbrother was a bully. The only family member consistently nice to me was my stepsister. But as we grew up we drifted apart. She had problems with drugs, and the last conversation I had with her, she blamed me for all of her problems and claimed that I had only ever been nice to her because I wanted to have sex with her. I found out about her death from overdose when I was in a mental hospital. My stepmother sent me a letter saying she had died and blaming me for it.
 * 2) After I became what I am, I made the decision to dedicate my life to helping other people. This is not a meaningful moral choice, but since I am pursuing it I will do so to the best of my ability. To that end I am continually improving myself and increasing my abilities.

1) Have you ever sought vengeance for your step-sister's fate?

2) What are you really bad at? Hope it's not too late to comment!
 * 1) I don't care about revenge or anything like that. She is dead, and so far as I know time is linear so I can't change that. I don't need to "feel better" about what happened. I haven't contacted my stepmother or stepbrother since I was released from the hospital.
 * 2) There is nothing I do regularly that I am bad at, at least in the sense that I perform well below average. I am not what one would term a very good cook, because I don't put much time into preparing food. Likewise, I am not particularly good at singing. Again, I don't sing very often.

Samuel Markuns has inspiration from a variety of sources. The basic idea of his appearance as lacking any notable features first came from Moist von Lipwig in the  Discworld  books, although his overall personality and habits are inspired by things that happened to me for the most part.

Agent Markuns works in Department 6 of the National Investigatory Agency in Dorland. He deals with crimes related to the use of superpowers. He has a power of his own, but it's an odd one - he feels no emotions and has no desires or interests at all. As a result he never does anything just because he "wants to" or anything like that.

Never too late, welcome to the challenges, I'm always glad for more content to read.

To Samuel:

1) Is "Apathy" your only special ability?

2) Why do you work as an investigator, if you have no desires?

3) What do the other 5+ departments do and what have been your interactions with them?

4) Who is the most dangerous criminal that you have faced?
 * 1) "Apathy" isn't the best word for what I am, but it will work. It gives me advantages in many ways. I can work harder for longer at a task because I am not affected by fatigue or stress or boredom. Aside from my ability I am of above-average intelligence and physical conditioning.
 * 2) I have a utilitarian motive behind all my actions. I seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people, who after all have real hopes and dreams and fears. At this time working in the NIA allows me to put my talents to use while gaining more skills and knowledge, although I do not intend to do it for the rest of my life.
 * 3) My author has written them down somewhere, but does not have access to them. He will update this later.
 * 4) Without question that would be Sheldon Grey, but the details of my encounter with him are highly classified. Instead I will mention Frank Carlton, a seemingly unassuming middle aged man who was the most ruthless crime syndicate boss in his city. In fact, I went undercover in his organization but was pulled out to deal with the Sheldon Grey crisis. But he and his underlings were responsible for dozens of murders; many of their victims were sex slaves they trafficked, or innocent people who got caught in his power struggles. Had he recognized me as a law enforcement agent I would have been brutally killed, of course.

To Samuel:

1) What is the most important task that you have ever done?

2) What do you plan to do after you finish with the NIA?

4) Who is the least dangerous criminal that you have killed?
 * 1) Besides dealing with Sheldon Grey specifically, two things are representative of what I've done. The first is that, because of some unguarded comments made by my partner Agent Danvers regarding her ex-girlfriends, I was able to find the real identities of several masked vigilantes. We thus were able to coerce them into participating in Operation Redstone. The second is when Agent Danvers and I met with a young girl named Kendra Dawson, and her family. Based on how I reacted to her versus how Agent Danvers did, we were able to ascertain that her "behavioral problems" were the result of an unusual superpower, not a personality problem. She was inadvertently creating an aura of sorts that made everyone around her think she was being rude, and they would react in kind. Agent Danvers (because of her mind-reading abilities) was extremely susceptible, whereas I am immune to all mind-related powers. After solving this mystery, Ms. Dawson was able to get help and rebuild her relationship with her parents.
 * 2) I will have to see what opportunities arise. Whatever allows me to most efficiently help people will be my first choice. [n.b. thanks to Operation Redstone he never really "finishes" with the NIA but that's neither here nor there.]