Character Sketch - Pathological Liar

Born to middle-class circumstances, Elvin Harper grew up in the 'burbs. His life was comfortable, even if he may have wanted for things he could never get. Elvin and his sister, Lea, got along fine, and though they may have fought, they learned to get along. He was an average student, an average friend; in short, an average person. All his life, Elvin hoped his life was nothing more than a lie. He just wanted more, and wasn't sure how to get it.

One day, he stole a candy bar, Hershey's finest. A small thing, but when his mother confronted him, two things happened. First, he shook his head and denied it, stating he'd been saving his allowance. Second, he heard her thoughts: "I know I raised you better than that."

Elvin kept it up for a couple of years. Cautious to take too much, he would walk in a convenience store, and walk after someone a little seedier than him. He would wait until the shopkeep's thoughts gravitated towards the other person, then pocketed something small. Then, he'd keep on walking for a few minutes, sure to leave before the other person did. Elvin mapped out a series of stores which he would haunt, making sure never to hit one twice in a row.

The suspicions grew stronger, but he was able to deflect them, especially his sister. Oh, so slow, Lea. What tripped him up, eventually, was puberty. Caught up in exploring his sexuality, he didn't realize that masturbation shut down his thought processes. So it was, in the bathroom, a stolen porn magazine nearby, his pants around his ankles, Lea barged in. It was pretty hard to find a way around this, and despite his best fabrications, he was somewhat lost, being unable to read their expressions, having relied so long on their thoughts, caught in the afterglow.

He was grounded for two weeks, and thereafter forced to work for free at the store for a year. That entire year, as he mopped, Elvin would scowl at the world, hearing the mindless rumble of the shopkeep, some old fat man that he couldn't care less about.

For her part, Lea tried to fix their relationship, but Elvin held a grudge. After the year was up, he continued working at the store, accumulating a little money, grinding a metaphorical whetstone, listening, listening, listening. He'd long since abstained from sexual pleasure, to keep his mind sharp.

Then, he realized, as he was hearing some old biddy's mental gossip about her young stud, as an elderly man came in, and they walked out arm in arm, that he would have his revenge. Elvin started working his tail off, i.e. cheating via the consensus of the entire class, all their minds coming up with answers. He found a way to get an internship at the state capital. Mysteriously, Elvin rose quickly through the ranks, a most nondescript aide, who seemed to know everything about everyone. During his senior year, a lobbyist found a way to gift to him, not his family, but him, a house of his own, which he moved into. Anything he wanted, he knew someone that knew someone that could give it to him. This unusual activity brought him to the attention of the Group.

The Group recruited Elvin Harper with a story so preposterous, only a pathological liar could believe it. As a matter of fact, the [Group Team Captain - Multiple Personalities - Team Captain personality] gave him a story that he believed completely, that he was working from: alien invasion. Elvin had never met anyone that could lie to him, and it never occurred to him that someone lied to [Team Captain personality]. He'd had most of what he wanted, but now, [Team Captain personality] wove a story which described just how Elvin could, and would, lose everything. Even a liar has to believe someone once in a while, and who else could tell he could read minds? He signed on, and disappeared.

El is in his late teens, and going prematurely bald, a side effect of both the mind reading and the stress of keeping these stories. He tends to dress discreetly, save for an expensive watch and high-quality shoes, two things that will demonstrate just how powerful he is, without making a big deal of it. His teeth are crooked, which makes his smile more a leer. If not for his teeth, he would be quite attractive. Average height, average weight, average everything. El is confident, to the point of excess, though not entirely persuasive (outright offensive at times). Everything for him is about the words, but he tends to put people off. If their thoughts do not mesh with their body language, and he reads them orrectly, they are thrown off. El eats saltpeter (and is there a drug with the side effect to lower sexual desire, not female birth control? Would it be better to show him start to take the pill, and watch him develop female secondary sex characteristics, and throw people off even more?) to suppress his sexual desires, with various effects.