Michael Cavaliere is a plain-looking, middle-aged human male who'd often pass unnoticed except by those blessed or cursed with particularly high empathy, who in his presence might find themselves all too aware and focused on the ills and wrongs of the world and on all kinds of suffering and negative impacts, be it personal or not, be it for a particular reason or those inherent to being alive, leading to potentially crushing depression, anxiety, hopelessness and feelings of inadequacy and guilt. But he is also capable of projecting such feelings on those who do not pick up on them on their own, sometimes doing so unintentionally, though that does require the target being capable of such feelings and awareness and, at least at some level, understand the causes behind them.
Yet his much more palpable ability is turning emotional pain into physical pain. Sometimes it's turned inwards, but he is capable of applying it on others if necessary or desired, the intensity of the pain obviously being directly proportional to the emotional suffering experienced by the target, not necessarily at that particular moment, past feelings, even long buried, also being usable, albeit with greater difficulty. Understandably, this ability can't work if the target is incapable of such feelings, or of emotions in general, or if they've been so incredibly fortunate as to have never had any reason to experience them.
And yet another trait, albeit less extraordinary and possibly both an advantage and a weakness, is that his general pessimistic outlook and lack of belief in success or good outcomes means that he can't be particularly demotivated or too disappointed, though at the same time he isn't determined or motivated to do much of anything. That might even apply to fighting for his own life if he wouldn't find the alternative even more disappointing and pointless, so for the time being he keeps trudging and, at some level, fighting along, just wanting to be allowed to continue on his way.
Post edited October 03, 2025 by Cavalary
