these are my rules: no one hurts innocent people.

 How am I doing with Jaime? Comments and concrit here please. I appreciate it.

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PLAYER
Player name: Danni
Contact: smithsyndicate
Characters currently in-game: Lilith

CHARACTER
Character Name: Jaime Reyes
Character Age: 16
Canon: DC Comics
Canon Point: Post-"End Game" (Blue Beetle #28)
History: I didn't choose to have this power. But I can choose what to do with it..
Personality:

For all intents and purposes, Jaime Reyes is a pretty normal kid. He’s sixteen years old. He’s smart, but no genius. He’s got a sister, a dad, and a mom. They live in Texas, they’re middle-class, they’re Catholic; Jaime is an average, unsurprising, everyday Mexican-American teen living in the new millenium.

But how very normal he is belies what a true, honest-to-goodness superhero Jaime is. It’s not so much how powerful he is (very) or how many times he’s saved the world (once, but it was a doozy, okay) that matters to him: in fact, he doesn’t even choose to acknowledge himself as a superhero for a long time. While Jaime does value that whole Truth, Justice, and the American way schtick, his first priority is helping people rather than specifically going out of his way to be, well, super. In his eyes, doing good and being kind isn’t anything particularly special, or worthy of praise, it’s simple human decency. “I don’t know anything about being a ‘superhero’,” he says, when gearing up to rescue the daughter of a potential enemy: “she’s a baby.” Being a hero is something that he just does, not to impress anyone, not to prove anything, but because it’s a thing that he can do, should do, and chooses to do.

He also isn't a show-off or a braggart because of his abilities. In fact, he's usually impressed by other, more experienced heroes, looking up to them, seeking their advice, and living by their example. He idolizes Ted Kord in particular and has read up on his (and Dan Garrett’s) notes as much as he could. Heck, he’s dedicated enough to have a corkboard in his room dedicated to “What Would Ted Kord Do?”: notes, strategies, newspaper clippings, all to inspire him to look to the past and do the best with his present. (And, well, yeah, the kid’s a bit of a fanboy too.) All in all, he’s the sort of person who thinks before he acts, preferring to plan first as opposed to getting in over his head. Which is an extremely valuable quality to have in the high-pressure world of superheroics. Humble and respectful of the past though he is, he’s not afraid to call out anyone who does things he’s morally opposed to, no matter who they are. He doesn’t blindly follow the past so much as use it as a guide to make his own life and choices from a more informed perspective.

Whether or not doing the right thing is always something particularly lawful is another question, though: Jaime’s priority is, again, to people and not to the established law. For example, he successfully manipulates Bruce Wayne into buying an entire hotel to accommodate typhoon victims in Mexico (all poor and unable to pay for shelter), and he lets an aged former supervillain go free, believing that the old man had already repented for his crimes. It’s not that he entirely distrusts the system, but he’s very quickly becoming aware of the holes in it: "I have to be a hero for everyone-- no matter who they are, where they come from, or how they got here,” he says, rejecting an assignment to patrol the Mexican border later in his canon. “Oh, and by the way... the guy responsible for all this? Rich white guy. Just sayin'."

To get around the holes in the system, Jaime’s learned how to be flexible and to think outside the box. Jaime’s no genius, nor is he a cold strategist, but he’s definitely a critical thinker, able to turn problems upside down to find creative solutions. He’s also not a lone wolf, unlike some OTHER heroes around hi, batman. Jaime is very aware of his limitations, and isn’t afraid to reach out to others for help if it’ll make things easier. Stubbornly working alone is far too rigid for the way that he operates, and he has a lot of faith in friendship and community efforts.

As you can probably guess, Jaime is a moral person through and through, and the center of his moral compass, is, in effect, life. Jaime firmly believes that every being deserves the right to a life on their own terms: no one deserves to have their agency taken away from them, not because of anyone around them, because they’re of a different background, or because they happen to be, um, particularly subjugate-able by aliens. He’s also firmly against killing. In his eyes, there’s always a way to do good without having to take a life. When asked why he won’t kill, he’s got a simple answer: “Because my mother didn’t raise me like that. It’s wrong.”

This dedication to the freedom of choice extends to how he operates as a hero. Jaime’s abilities should have effectively turned him into a monster, but through sheer stubbornness he overcame it. The freedom of choice, however, doesn’t absolve him of responsibility-- another value he holds very close. Instead of trying to get rid of the Scarab or letting it take complete control of him, he immediately accepts that he's got to be responsible when dealing with its immense power. He learns how to use it correctly AND for good causes. Not to mention that he offers the possibility of a new life to the Scarab itself. He’s not a terribly judgmental person: anyone, or anything, can turn from a negative path to a more positive one should they really put the effort out there to try.

“I didn't choose to have this power. But I can choose what to do with it. Just like--we don't choose the life we're born into, but we can choose what to do with it.”

Family is by far the most important thing in Jaime’s life. His family is very close-knit and he’s got a great relationship with his parents and sister-- the expected sibling bickering aside. His father is his biggest role model, and he respects his mother like nothing else. His upbringing-- where he came from, his hometown, and his culture-- are things that have built him up to the kind of person that he is today, which he respects; Jaime’s extremely down-to-earth and makes choices based on whether they agree with the values he’s set out for himself and whether they’ll be things that’ll do his family proud. He also considers his friends honorary members of his family, granting them the same amount of love and loyalty. His tendency toward thoughtfulness has given him quite the gift of being a good listener and a mediator, something his friends value him for.

It’s still a work in progress, but as both a teenage boy and a superhero with two great predecessors, Jaime’s working very hard to establish his own identity and to get out of the shadows of people who have come before him. He still respects these people, yes, so these growing pains take the form of self-doubt as opposed to resentment towards Ted (or Dan, or the JLI). Therefore, he comes across as... a little awkward. Jaime sucks at public speaking and witty fight banter; he’s not awesome with girls and, while friendly and well-intentioned, is prone to occasionally messing up social situations. His self esteem isn’t dangerously low, however: he’s mostly just a confused teenage boy trying to wrestle his way into adulthood.

Jaime occasionally has times where he feels inadequate or discouraged when he makes a mistake, and early on in his canon, was often confused, anxious, and frustrated because of it. His inexperience and his acute knowledge of that inexperience are his greatest flaws: Jaime is his own greatest critic and has a tough time forgiving his own missteps and faults. Another unfortunate consequence of his giving, open-hearted personality is that he tends to ignore his own needs and blame himself when things go wrong. If he saves a few hundred people in a typhoon and misses a dozen or so, he’ll fixate on the dozen. “I should have saved them all.” It’s here that his humility becomes a fault. He can’t always take complete pride in how genuinely good he is because his faith in his own abilities isn’t completely... complete just yet. This also connects back to his uncertainty of himself and his own identity: if he isn’t doing the hero thing right, what if he’s just not good enough for it?

And finally, serious moral concerns aside, Jaime is funny. Sometimes it’s by accident (awkward teenage boy, remember), but he’s a pleasant, easy-going guy and it shows in how fun he is to be around. His sense of humor can also turn a bit sarcastic or snarky, sometimes in a way that is self-deprecating, but he always means well in the end. After all, he’s just a kid. A pretty great one, but a kid nonetheless.

Inventory:
Not much! Just Khaji Da, the Blue Beetle scarab (seeing as it's latched onto his spine) and a wallet containing a learner's permit, his high school ID, $5 plus change, and a few photos of his family and friends.

Abilities:
(I'm aware of how overpowered Jaime's Scarab can be, since its canonical limitations are only very vaguely defined. If there are any nerfs that need to be put on Khaji Da I am more than happy to accept 'em!)

On his own, Jaime does not have any powers, aside from being bilingual and of moderate intelligence. He knows a little bit about hand-to-hand combat and is clever enough to strategize well as a superhero, but his real superpowers lie within the Blue Beetle Scarab.

The Blue Beetle Scarab (Khaji Da) is bonded to Jaime's spine. Previously, it belonged to Blue Beetle I (Dan Garrett) and Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord). Dan partially activated it using magic, damaging it, and Ted further damaged it by exposing it to Booster Gold's time cooties. It gives him a HUGE selection of powers, many of which he isn't aware of or willing to use at all (it's apparently capable of WMD-level force). If Jaime is ever incapacitated in a battle, however, the Scarab will take over; it doesn't have many reservations about its abilities. Since it is attached to Jaime's spine, removing the Scarab is extremely dangerous, if not fatal, for him. Additionally, Jaime is the only one who can hear the Scarab, unless it chooses to externally broadcast itself in some way.

Jaime's main powers include...

Blue Beetle Armor - Jaime's armor is made of a tough alien material. While it can be punctured, it does take a good deal of force to do it. Blunt force will still be able to hurt him, but the armor is strong enough to withstand entering the Earth's atmosphere without disintegrating. The armor can also change shape and, to some extent, form: Jaime can do things like turn his arm into a blade, create a shield, sprout wings, and so on. It can also reconstruct itself when broken.
Scarab Sight - This power is active whether or not Jaime is wearing the armor. The Scarab is able to detect things that are hidden in other dimensions, see in the dark, and study people around Jaime in a great amount of detail--for example, Jaime once was able to determine that a woman was pregnant very early in her term.
Tracking - Jaime can track energy (including magical energy), several types of electrical signals, and he has the ability to locate people that he has met at least once before. Jaime's also able to pinpoint his own specific location.
Flight, Strength, Agility - He's got wings and a suit of alien armor!
Energy Blasts - Jaime can turn his arm into a laser cannon. While nonfatal, they are painful and are capable of stunning.
Insulation - The suit protects Jaime from heat and cold: Jaime has stood directly under a rocket launch and flown to Antarctica in it. It isn't invincible, however--extreme temperatures will still hurt. It's also capable of withstanding the effects of being in space... not that it's entirely pleasant.
Neural Link to Scarab - Khaji Da is linked completely to Jaime's nervous system through his spine. It can sense and report any abnormalities in Jaime's body, override some functions (it is capable of numbing nerves), and it is also capable of taking complete control of Jaime's body should the need ever arise.
Healing - The Scarab gives Jaime a slightly accelerated healing ability when it is active. It isn't, say, Wolverine-level, but he still heals wounds much faster than he would without the armor.

He also has several miscellaneous powers. (The Scarab's like a superpowered alien Swiss army knife, really.) These include but are not limited to: Creation of magnetic fields, wi-fi and telephone, printing, re-forming Jaime's clothes after he's deactivated the armor (both the paper from printing and his clothes are made of dead skin cells and misc. waste, very gross), and simulating radiation (he's even faked Kryptonite once).

Flaws:
Jaime Reyes is a human being, just like everybody else. Sometimes he doesn't pick his underwear up off the floor, and other days he doesn't put the seat down after he uses the bathroom, and sometimes he puts empty milk cartons back in the fridge-- okay, okay, Jaime on his own is a normal, if not especially noble, teenage boy. He isn't host to too many personality flaws that are Door-worthy. The Scarab, however, is an alien killing machine programmed to infiltrate worlds in order to eventually subjugate them under the rule of an alien empire. It's only recently learned about the wonders of mercy and not murder, thanks to Jaime, and even then it takes a much more flexible stance toward its morality than Jaime and his strict no-kill rule. And in spite of this, Jaime does have blood on his hands: he's inadvertently responsible for the deaths of an indeterminate amount of Reach invaders as well as over a dozen civilians during a supervillain-based typhoon in Vista Verde, Mexico. He made the utmost effort to save whoever he could in both circumstances.

It's also worth mentioning that Jaime has been tempted to use the Scarab's extreme force. The opportunity to darkness rests very much within his reach, and while he'd never succumb to it, it's still an idea that he has to wrestle with as he and the Scarab come to terms and learn to work as a unit.

SAMPLES
Action Log Sample:
Jaime Reyes liked to think he was a pretty all right kid. Decent grades, brushed his teeth three times a day, didn't complain about babysitting Milagro all the time. (ALL the time.) No gangs.

Unless you counted the gangs coming to HIM.

And it wasn't like he'd gone out of his way to head to the rougher part of town either. Fires don't discriminate between the rich and the poor. (Wait. But lower income housing's made out of worse materials that are closer together-- never mind. Splitting hairs.)

Well, it was too late now. Lesson learned: if you want to walk home from superheroing to protect your family's secret identity, be prepared to protect yourself too.

Some punk had clocked him on the back of the head in an alleyway in the dead of the night. (Seriously? No pre-mugging banter? Rude.) He'd only weaseled his way out of it with an elbow jab to the gut and a pair of quick feet; without the Beetle suit, stifling his puffing breaths, and hearing his heart beat insistently in his ears, Jaime was huddled behind a dumpster in a different alley. Too close to change into his armor without being conspicuous, not enough time to flee. Like a scared child hiding. Dang, this was downright embarrassing.

Peacemaker's words rang briefly in his head. Something about making a choice to kill, to not kill. Uhm, sure-- if he didn't somehow get rid of the guy stomping his way over with a loaded gun clutched in his sweaty palms, he'd wouldn't have a choice about being dead in an alleyway for no good reason.

Twenty, eighteen, fifteen seconds left 'till he was spotted. There was a broken bottle of beer to the immediate left of his foot. A part of him considered the jagged glass edges; how easy, how simple would it be to slice through flesh with it?

But that was too easy. There was absolutely no way he was going to kill someone-- take the simple way. He was better than that.

Jaime swallowed the lump in his throat. The footsteps were getting louder, and he needed a plan. "Think, Reyes, think," he murmured to himself. Now wasn't the time to panic. He needed to stay calm, consider the surroundings, take it all in and process it and do something... completely tactical and also completely ridiculous.

"What would Ted Kord do?"

Wouldn't shoot a guy dead, for one, he thought. His gun thing wasn't even a REAL gun.

--Of course, of course--he could partially activate the armor, right? All he needed was to stun before the guy got a chance to figure out what was going on! Jaime quickly morphed his arm into something more useful and scrambled to his feet as soon as the thug stepped into the mouth of the alleyway.

"Prepare to die, punk!"

Jaime grinned. "Not this time."

He shut his eyes and fired the (nonlethal) laser in the thug's direction. The alleyway was engulfed in blinding white light, and the man groaned, his arms brought up to shield his face--and his pistol clattering to the ground.

Now was Jaime's chance.

With a shout and a tackle that'd make Guy Gardner proud, he lunged forward to shove the man into the dumpster. Still fairly blinded, Jaime's enemy gasped and collided hard, the wind knocked out of him. He swore and flailed his arms wildly.

Jaime scooped up the gun.

"Stealing's wrong, you know. And so is killing people."

He opened the chamber, letting the bullets clatter to the pavement.

And then clubbed the guy upside the head with it, knocking him out cold.