Oliver

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Oliver</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Oliver is a largely inactive member of the Travelers.

Personality

Oliver lacks confidence in himself and can be complaintive.<ref>Oliver had been saturated with self-doubt, loathing, all the things that made him introverted, passive, even whiny. He’d been brought to tears at one point, even. Marissa had been brought back to the stage, her focus turned to her relationship with her mom. - Excerpt from Migration 17.6</ref> He was largely passive and unassertive.

Given how he gained abilities and the manipulation by the Simurgh, it was difficult if not impossible to grow out of this.<ref name="17.8 e1"/>

It was largely his job to keep Noelle company when the other Travelers were off base.

Appearance and Powers

Before gaining his powers, he was a short and dumpy blonde kid with a bad haircut.<ref name="17.1">Oliver and Chris were standing outside the door. A more different pair was hard to imagine. Chris was Marissa’s friend. After Marissa had dropped all of her old hobbies and joined the team, Chris was the only one of her friends who’d stuck around. Krouse didn’t see why, but Chris tended to have girls all over him. He was worlds different compared to Oliver, who was short, pear shaped, his blond hair cut in an unfortunate bowl-style that wouldn’t have suited someone four years younger.
[...]
Krouse looked at Chris and Oliver. Second stringers. He’d been one of them, more or less content to watch as everyone else had all the fun. Oliver was trying to get to a competitive level, but he wasn’t very good. Chris only participated to keep Marissa company and to earn some pocket money. - Migration 17.1</ref> Afterward, his power caused his face and body to continuously shift according to his basic perception of attractiveness, which slightly changes every time he sees a new face to the point that even his friends have had trouble recognizing him. Additionally, he can now become skilled, mentally and physically, at anything he focuses on for an extended period of time.<ref name="17.8 e1">Krouse pulled the car into the driveway. Oliver was outside, and hurried to Krouse’s side.

Oliver was taller than him, now. The baby fat was gone, and he was fit. Krouse had wondered at times why Chris had been so attractive to the ladies. He didn’t wonder with Oliver. Oliver was attractive in a way that meant he could model, he was naturally athletic, he was even smart. It was scary how fast he was picking up new skills.

But he was still Oliver. Whatever gradual transition his power was offering, it hadn’t changed the person at the core of it; an insecure, socially stunted teenage boy. In a way, it had made it worse. Oliver’s face and body changed according to his basic perception of attractiveness, and that changed a little every time he saw a new face. In little ways, his face changed day by day, to the point that it wasn’t always easy to recognize him.

Fuck you, Simurgh, Krouse thought. They’d all been forced to deal with their individual tragedies. [...] Oliver got a physical and mental overhaul without any fixes for the real problems - Excerpt from Migration 17.8</ref><ref name="Cast2">Oliver (Returned home) – A noncombat member of the group. He gained powers that alter his appearance and improve his ability to learn or physically better himself. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>

Throughout his changes, he seems to keep certain basic physical features,<ref name="Cast1">Oliver – A member of the Travelers, a blond boy who takes a more backseat role on the team. - Cast (Spoiler Free)</ref> such as the blond hair originally had.<ref name="17.1"/>

His power also lets him impersonate Eden, which was used to great effect in the final battle against Scion.<ref name="30.6 e1"/> This is due to the Balance vial being the distilled form of Eden's humanity.<ref>

What would happen if someone drank a vial that was nothing but Balance.

Oliver. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

History

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Background

Oliver was friends with Noelle from a young age. He had a strict and domineering mother<ref name="17.3e1">“Hope there’s nobody hiding in there,” Oliver muttered. Mewled might have been a better word.

Krouse didn’t generally dislike Oliver, but the guy was hard to like, too. He’d joined the group when they’d started their gaming club at school, had once been one of Noelle’s friends, back when they were in kindergarten or something. Now he was in a few of Krouse’s classes, but despite the associations, he remained a second string member of the group. Krouse was willing to admit to himself that Oliver was a second string friend, too. He was short, a little pudgy, with an unfortunate haircut and no real personality, rarely joining in of his own volition.
[...]
Oliver’s mom was a hardass in her own way, too, but he had buckled under that domineering pressure, breaking rather than thriving. In contrast to Marissa, his identity had been ground away. - Excerpt from Migration 17.3</ref>, which was the likely cause of his meek personality.

Oliver was a member of a professional-level MMORPG video game team on Earth Aleph. He was a back-up man, since his skills weren't exactly up to par.<ref name="17.1" />

When the Simurgh attacked Madison, Wisconsin on Earth Bet, she took Oliver along with the rest of the gaming team from Earth Aleph and stranded them on Earth Bet. He did not deal with the effect of the Simurgh's singing well.<ref>Oliver opened it. He looked like twenty four hours had passed and he hadn’t slept a wink. Oliver’s eyes were red, and he averted his gaze as he saw Krouse and Cody.

How’s she getting to him? Oliver’s biggest weakness would be his self confidence. Was she tearing him down like his mother would? Raising memories of past embarrassments, times people had laughed at him? - Excerpt from Migration 17.5</ref>

Later, Oliver drank half of one of the Cauldron vials found by Francis, with the other half being given to Noelle. Initially, it did not seem to have any effect on either of them,<ref>“Half of Division,” Krouse said, “Funny. But it doesn’t look like Noelle has powers. She’s said her skin fizzes, whatever that means, but maybe it’s incomplete…”

“I’ll take half,” Oliver said.

All eyes turned to him. Oliver continued, “If Noelle doesn’t want to finish it, I’ll take half. I’m not strong, I’m not brave, or smart, or creative. I don’t have it in me to be a hero. So as long as you don’t ask me to risk my life fighting stuff like the Simurgh, I’ll take the half, try to find other ways to help.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Krouse said. “You’re a decent guy.”

“Maybe,” Oliver said. He sounded sad, “Maybe I’m decent. But I’m not a great guy. Like I said, nothing about me is special. Nothing’s exceptional. So I’ll take half.”

“Okay,” Krouse said.
[...]
There weren’t many cars on the road, this time of morning, and less in the rest stop parking lot. Cody pulled in just beside the front door. Before Krouse was able to pull into another parking spot, Oliver was out of the door, running for the bathroom.

Oliver hadn’t changed either. Half a dose apparently wasn’t enough. - Excerpt from Migration 17.7</ref> but they both had drawn out trigger events.<ref>Again, he was somewhere else. He saw energy condensing, two figures intertwining, and the summary birth of countless entities, as if from the birth of a star, only they were alive.

No, he thought. Need to focus. This is because of Noelle. I’m getting caught up in whatever’s affecting her. A sympathetic reaction.
[...]
Noelle screamed.

This is taking longer than mine did.
[...]
Before Krouse was able to pull into another parking spot, Oliver was out of the door, running for the bathroom.

Oliver hadn’t changed either. Half a dose apparently wasn’t enough. It did seem to make the aftermath of drinking the stuff worse, though. Oliver’s condition had been nearly as drawn out as Noelle’s after he’d taken his dose. - Excerpt from Migration 17.7</ref>

After the Travelers became established on Earth Bet, Oliver settled into the role of taking care of Noelle.

Story Start

When the Travelers arrived in Brockton Bay, Oliver largely remained in Coil's base.

Post-Echidna

Oliver returned to Earth Aleph with the remainder of the Travelers.

Gold Morning

Oliver was initially left behind by Khepri as she gathered capes from across the multiverse.<ref>There were capes in Earth Aleph, barely C-list by our standards. Sundancer, Genesis, and Ballistic were there as well, the former two in civilian clothes, retired, the latter in a lavish penthouse, fully done up in costume. My portals opened, and I had control of them. I left Oliver behind. - Excerpt from Speck 30.4</ref> He later participated in the final battle, where his power caused Zion to briefly believe he might be Eden. This shattered Zion's will to fight and allowed Foil to shatter his defenses with rods imbued by her power.<ref name="30.6 e1">I opened a doorway, and I found one individual I’d left behind.

The boy with the changing faces.

The number man had said he’d taken a dose that had been focused on helping the entities be human.

I couldn’t change his face intentionally.

As it turned out, I didn’t have to.

I could feel Scion’s reaction, through my senses and the individuals I controlled.

Hope. For just a second. Not even the faint hope he’d experienced with the fake my teammates had put together.

Because somehow, this boy registered as being like this entity’s companion had been. Registering as the same state, as the power that made it so similar.

In the moment that hope died, the girl with the injured hand used her power on the iron rods. Infused them with the energy he was afraid of. - Excerpt from Speck 30.6</ref>

Trivia

• Oliver's power is best classified by the now-defunct Shifter classification.<ref name="22.6c1">Oliver would be a low-level shifter. Wildbow comment on Cell 22.6</ref>

References

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The Travelers
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