SAMSON, Cooper
Mini-Application/IntroductionFull Name: Cooper Murry Samson
Age: 36
Occupation: Vice-Principal & Drama Coordinator - Mt. Pleasant High School/Mayor - City of Isle of Palms.
Status: Widowed
Affiliation: Good.
Power: Force Fields
Favorite Color: Grey
Preferred Type of Toothpaste: Close Up (Cinnamon flavored)
Family: Stanly Samson (father)
Anita Samson (mother)
Courtney Samson (younger sister)
Brianna Samson
nee Donald (wife, deceased)
Not-So-Brief History: Cooper Samson was born in to a comfortable, upper-middle class life. His parents, both long time island residents, both worked out of Charleston: his father as a history professor, his mother as City Hall's executive accountant. They were the sort of couple that rarely slowed down. Lucky for them, as soon as their son could walk, he eagerly followed in their footsteps.
As a child, Cooper was always setting goals for himself, whether he knew it or not. Once he decided he needed to do something, he'd become so focused that it was hard to get him to do anything else. He wanted to be the first to read, the first to hit the ball and actually have it go somewhere, the first to ride his bike without training wheels. Somehow, he managed to be an incredibly driven child without alienating any of his peers. He still made friends quickly, and kept them by his side. Throughout grade school, he proved himself to be fiercely loyal, standing up for any of his buddies at any time. That earned him a lot of detentions, but that never phased him. Not a lot did.
High school was an exciting time for him. He joined the football team early on. Though not particularly huge and intimidating, he was incredibly fast on his feet. He didn't pigeonhole himself in to one category, though. That would have been too easy. Cooper also joined theater, the chess club, concert band...anything and everything he had time for. He buddied up with everyone, no matter what he was doing. That was the kind of guy he was, outgoing and friendly no matter what the situation. After he graduated, he decided to branch out. He attended college in New York, coming home on holidays to be with his family and high school friends. For awhile, he jumped back and forth between majors, before finally settling on education. His father was somewhat baffled that he chose not to take it all the way and become a professor, but Coop was sure that he would be happy teaching high school.
Cooper moved back to the island, landing a job at the high school as the physics teacher. Eventually, he expanded that, and moved on to teach drama as well. It was a strange combination, but he made it work. He actually enjoyed jumping back and forth. There was a nice balance there. While in his late twenties, he fell hard for one of the substitutes that worked regularly at the school. Her name was Brianna Donald, and after two years of wooing her, he finally worked up the nerve to propose. They married the next spring, bought a house only a few blocks inland, and got ready to make their lives together.
Within a few years, Cooper started taking courses again, wanting to get validated to do even more within the school. When the principal retired, the vice-principal was promoted. He grabbed at the vacated spot. Although that meant he had to drop his physics gig, he insisted on keeping Drama. After all, he knew most of the kids, and didn't want to let the seniors down when they knew what to expect from their coordinator. He eventually won the school board over, in that charming way of his that he used to get almost everything that he wanted. Now he had an office with a view to go with the job he wanted.
Things took a downward spiral shortly after his thirty-third birthday. His wife was killed, hit head on by a drunk driver on her way home from Charleston after a shopping trip. The news was, naturally, devastating. It didn't seem fair. They'd only had a few short years together, and she'd been taken from him, just like that. He took several months of leave, doing his best to surround himself with friends and family. As much as it hurt, he eventually managed to make his way back in to his old life. He went back to school, grateful to see how supportive the other staff and the students were. Despite that, he couldn't bring himself to pack up Brianna's things. To this day, his home is decorated the same way. He even kept the frilly couch covers.
Bit by bit, he regained some of his old smiling self. It became easier to submerge himself in work. Once again, he branched out, and started doing other things for the community. He volunteered for anything he could and joined all the boards he had time for. When the elections for mayor opened, he ran. His opponent didn't really stand a chance. Cooper was well liked, charismatic and friendly with all the right connections. He won in a land slide. With even more responsibility, he was twice as happy. It felt good, knowing that he was making a difference in the town he loved so much.
Currently, he's been mayor for two years. He's still the vice-principal, and he still teaches drama on the side. Really, this guy has no life outside his jobs. But that doesn't bother him at all. At the very least, he's never lonely. Things have been fairly interesting for him lately, though. A little over six months ago, he stumbled in to his powers. Since then, he's been working privately to see just what exactly he can do with them. From his perspective, it's just another of those goals that he's got to master. Once he feels comfortable with his new abilities, he's going to start looking for other people who can do similar things. After all, there's no way he's the only one...
Brief Description of Power Capabilities: -
Force Fields- Cooper can mentally generate and project force fields of tremendous strength, which he manipulates for a variety of effects. The fields are able to repel solid objects, even those of great mass and momentum, and can repel all but the very strongest energy attacks. He can also 'push' the force fields outward, knocking aside anything within a small radius.
Eventually, Cooper will work his way up to 'force constructs', making him able to will his force fields in to more specific shapes (battering rams, darts, etc.). Right now, he's still trying to master pushing something away, without knocking his entire house down in the process.
