Ghoul was essentially killed by the Theta virus - his body is long since dead, yet he’s still alive. Ghoul’s decaying body can easily be damaged, but he doesn’t feel pain or shock, doesn’t bleed or has vital organs, and can somehow reattach torn limbs (perhaps by literally stitching them back).

Ghoul’s main power is that he can talk with the dead, and sometimes receives strong, recurring visions of impending doom and death - often centered on a person which is doomed to die (this is the Occultist (Precognition) subskill at work ; some visions might not cost HPs if they are triggered by the GM). He can harm the spirit of the recently departed, though in the vast majority what he does is summon a ghostly image above the corpse and with the dead person - who answers aloud, if in an eerie ghost voice.

After the death of the Exiles, Ghoul didn’t pass on and patched himself together over a month, somehow rebuilding his body from vegetal debris. After this experience he started seeing things that normal persons can’t, and developed quasi-mystical powers of forceful persuasion that can stop aggressive crowds cold. His eyes glow when he employs the latter.

There exists a claim that Ghoul will see the death of any person he touches, as an extention of his morbid precognitive abilities.

According to secondary sources, Ghoul is highly intelligent and a proficient programmer.

History

Jon Martin was reportedly a serious student, with his eye on a career in engineering - presumably computer science. When he was about 17, he was hit by the Theta virus, and narrowly saved by the intervention of Dr. Rachel Demming. The random empowerment left him a sort of living zombie, with some odd abilities and perceptions.

Martin joined the other Theta survivors who had agreed to help Deming in her work to save other victims of the virus - the Exiles. Ghoul apparently did not participate much to field missions due to his appearance, but his technical skills were useful at Stronghold, Dr. Deming’s base.

When Deming ordered a general assault on the base of her enemy, corrupt businessman Malcolm Kort, Ghoul was among the other Exiles. He and his friend and fellow Exile Tinsel had to be left behind on the op site, and were captured by Kort’s superhuman enforcers. Ghoul was thrown into the biological wastes disposal system, but narrowly escaped. Tinsel was handed over to the mercenary Bloodbath, and burned his eyes out in self-defense when he attempted to sexually assault her.

Weakened, Tinsel was gunned down by Bloodbath, and Ghoul arrived minutes too late to help her. Enraged, Ghoul killed Bloodbath, then killed his spirit to empower himself. He went on a murder run using Bloodbath’s advanced guns to avenge Tinsel and blew up the top floor of Kort’s corporate HQ, apparently killing everyone - including himself.

A few hours later, most of the Exiles were killed in an accident.

Until you come back to me

Ghoul, however, did not die, and his body reconstructed itself from vegetable matter near his grave, leaving him forever changed. His return from the grave triggered strong public reactions when it was revealed an ultra had survived death - but Hardcase intervened and calmed the crowd). Ghoul met with Dr. Deming, who had narrowly survived but confirmed that her involvement with ultrahumans was over. Martin then checked Deming’s grave for the Exiles, but could not contact their spirits since it had been too long.

The despondent Ghoul was convinced to join with Contrary and her pupil Pixx, and later ended up joining Ultraforce along them both. He was instrumental in the fight between Atalon and Ultraforce, and later solved a case of a faked rock star suicide, leading to a plague of copycat suicides, in a solo investigation.

Description

Ghoul’s scarf originally belonged to Pixx, and he has been keeping it as a memento since her death.

Personality

Ghoul is several things :

• Tough. He’s been dead and is apparently unkillable, and sometimes hints as having “seen things” when he was dead. It is almost impossible to frighten or intimidate him ; however he can feel tension and will get stressed. At the same time, he’s fully aware that he’s a physical wimp, and acts in a careful, almost physically cowardly way when faced with physically powerful foes. Unless angry, of course.
• Sarcastic. Ghoul is a undead monster, and compensates by being extremely cynical and sarcastic. He’ll make numerous flippant remarks, most having to do with death, his appearance or the fact he’s disposable. Given his unfeazable streak, he’ll continue making flippant, even slightly insulting remarks in the face of ultra-powerful foes. He’s really good at gallows humour.
• Hurt. Ghoul mays seems scary but funny ; however sometimes he reacts with uncharacteristic aggressively, either verbal or physical. These are often tied with the death of others ; for instance when someone attempts to commit suicide, when he’s afraid somebody will die, or when a loved one dies. In those cases, he stops being funny and is just scary, taking direct action while he normally stands by the sidelines due to his lack of direct powers. He tends to grow kind attached to young well-meaning innocents, such as Tinsel or Pixx.
• Removed. Ghoul is distant from normal persons, and rarely explain himself - on some level he feels his plight justify whatever he does, and he’s very aware he’s an outcast.

Since he now longer has to care about such things, Ghoul smokes and drinks heavily (through the effects of alcohol on his “organism” are fleeting) and eats complete junk.