Oli Nelson

Oli Nelson is a character in Journal of Sociology.

Description:
Tall, gangly, with brown hair that hasn't been cut recently. Twentysomething years old, makes a tolerable living as an actor, is hoping to go into television and make a career out of it but hasn't had much (or any) success there. On stage, he's incredibly good at all sorts of characters, accents, and can improvise very well. He's relentlessly optimistic and easily distracted, doesn't take much seriously, and generally gives the impression that he stopped growing up after he turned twelve. He enjoys life, and is always up for whatever you suggest - which can get annoying after a while. Still, he can keep his boundless energy in check if you ask him to stop.

His clothes are always brightly coloured and usually mismatched; if the weather allows it he will wear an accessory such as a hat, scarf, or pair of gloves. His socks are never identical. He changes his outfit a lot, but at the start of the Grand Battle he is wearing a blue cloak with a gold fleur-de-lys pattern, a white top hat, a black T-shirt, light brown trousers, trainers, and socks - one black, one glow-in-the-dark. It looks quite hideous, which is typical of Oli's dress sense.

He keeps a rucksack containing a large assortment of clothes and props, most of them courtesy of various amateur dramatics clubs he's been a member of. There are bits and pieces of various costumes in there, though you're unlikely to find all the parts of a single costume. But there are clothes in almost every combination of colour and style, so Oli can usually improvise a costume that looks convincing. The props are small objects that look convincing on stage, such as plastic guns, ID cards (which a close inspection will show to be a membership card for the local Doctor Who Fan Club), glasses and goggles, pieces of jewellery, some wigs, a stuffed parrot (he lost the rest of the pirate outfit) and so on. A pocket on the side holds makeup and a few colours of body paint, which he uses only occasionally.

Items/Abilities:
Oli's improvisation and voice-acting talent is real, but the reason he can take a thrown-together costume and make it look genuine is because of a low-level psychic field he projects. When he is "in-character", anyone who looks at him will ignore the various flaws with his costume (e.g. the jacket doesn't match the trousers), and will assume he really is the character. This power only affects people's eyesight, not their deeper thoughts - there's nothing to stop people from realising he's in disguise if his cover is blown. It also requires him to look at least vaguely like the character he's portraying; he can't convincingly say "I'm wearing a suit" if he's clearly in a T-shirt and jeans. A rough guide is that his clothes need to be the right colour. His disguises are a lot more convincing if he changes his speech patterns and personality to fit his character; this is not provided by his powers and requires genuine acting skill, but Oli has genuine acting skill too so that's not a problem.

Getting "in character" and out again is instant, but crafting a costume is not. If Oli merely needs to not look like Oli (e.g. so he can lose himself in a crowd), he need only change his appearance a little bit (take a jacket off, change hats, etc.). If he needs to look like someone of a particular demographic group, he can usually find good enough clothes in his props bag, but he'll need to get changed. Same thing if he needs to wear a uniform - even if his props bag does not contain the exact uniform nobody will notice. Making himself look like someone specific is far more difficult; he needs to have seen the person he wants to look like, either in person or on video. He'll almost always need to apply some makeup to make his face look different. He also needs to know the character he's adopting at least as well as the person he's trying to fool does; this is not really a problem if the character is a celebrity, but is extremely risky if they know each other personally.

It's not particularly difficult for Oli to make himself look like a woman, but he prefers not to. If he wears body paint, he might be able to look like a humanoid alien. It probably won't convince anyone though.

His powers don't work over a recording or a video link.

The props bag is also special; its contents change to suit almost whatever Oli needs at the time. In fact, the clothes Oli needs will be found in the top of the bag when he opens it. It's limited in what it can produce; the only guarantee is that it will contain clothes of approximately the right colour and style.

Oli doesn't know he's psychic. If asked about his remarkable acting skill, he will exposit at length on how much of people's perception of you is based on body language, tone of voice, and their pre-existing assumptions. The example of how nobody realises Clark Kent is Superman despite the only difference being a suit and glasses may be discussed. He also thinks that "the camera hates him" and he simply looks better in person than on television, which is why his TV acting career hasn't taken off.

Biography:
Born the youngest child of three, his parents insisted he go to university to study business. There he joined the local acting club, and sank more and more of his time into it over the next few years. He passed his finals, but only just. He hasn't used his degree very much, apart from being the manager of his acting troupe. He works full-time as an actor, and while he's definitely not rich he makes enough money to rent a small apartment/studio. He has a lot of costumes, which at any given moment are scattered between his props bag, his wardrobe, and his floor. He still lives like a student. His parents are a little disappointed in him, but he doesn't mind and they approve of his ambition to become a TV star anyway. He's hopeful about the future but not especially ambitious. All in all he's happy with where his life is at the moment.