Andrew Archer started off as a pretty normal kid. Sure, his mom had disappeared when he was two years old, but he had been too young to remember her face, and lived a relatively boring life with his dad. Mr. Archer was a lawyer, and was therefore always busy. From the age of 6 onwards, Andrew found himself coming home from school to an empty house and instructions to heat up a frozen meal. His dad would come home late, and after a quick kiss to his son's forehead, would barricade himself in his office and work. Perhaps it was because he still grieved over the sudden disappearance of the love of his life, or maybe he just loved his work, but he never gave himself a day off or more than a few hours of free time. Andrew was, in many senses of the word, alone.
He wasn't a particularly sociable child, always off reading on his own or sitting inside all day as other children didn't really like to talk to him. He did, however, interact quite often with his teachers, who described him as a charming boy who always pulled at their heartstrings with his large eyes and small smile. One day, when he was 11 years old, his teacher cut her hand pretty badly. Seeing as she was his favourite teacher, he didn't like to see her in pain and was quite upset. He tried to help her out, and was pretty affected by the experience of seeing his teacher in so much pain. That night, he was up wishing and hoping for some way to stop her from ever feeling like that again. His wish wasn't granted, at least not for a few years yet, but he did spend more time trying to use his quiet charm for good. Unfortunately, the more he started to try to make friends, the more he found that manipulating them was a lot easier than actually trying to be friends naturally. He spent a lot of time lying, dramatizing everything, and even going so far as to cause trouble to make others feel sympathy for him.
The more Andrew manipulated people and the older he got, the more he found that regular activities bored him, that he was becoming more and more impulsive, and that manipulating people was just
so much fun. It took a few years before his father realized the change in behaviour in his son, and he only did so when he came home one night to find his son with talking with multiple people in a manner that was very unlike his usual self, getting them to do things that were not normal for 14 year old children (ie. daring them to steal or cross a highway without looking first). Mr. Archer was disturbed to see the massive change in his son's behaviour from when the other teens were there and when he was alone again.
For the next year or so, Mr. Archer tread lightly around his son and began to see more and more evidence that something strange was going on, that his son's personality was changing drastically. Andrew had become something of a leader to a group of people who sympathized with him and admired his confidant and vain personality, and he completely relied on their admiration and attention to keep himself entertained. They followed his orders most of the time, with any disobedience causing Andrew to dramatically say they've "betrayed him" or something along those lines. Over that period of time, he became so bored with his life that he would impulsively steal things from stores and other people, verbally (and occasionally physically) abuse his so called followers, and even got into some self-harming behaviour (such as burning himself for sympathy and extra attention or putting himself into dangerous situations for excitement).
Just a few months after Andrew's 15th birthday, he was finally taken to Brewster when his father could no longer handle the attacks of impulsivity or the fear of what Andrew was doing to himself on his own time. Andrew, meanwhile, was finding it increasingly impossible to control his impulses, and found that even the most exciting of things were becoming boring and useless, thus his turn to dangerous or harmful activities.
***
From the first day at the Brewster Juvenile Institute onwards, Andrew felt uncomfortable and detached, like he was missing something important. It was a more interesting, yet more constricting life than that of home. He slowly began to develop his powers with the help of the scientists and Kaleidoscope, starting off small but slowly realizing that his years of emotional manipulation helped him to understand his sensation manipulation powers just that much more. Within a year, he had pushed himself to the level of a C, and months later was trying to reach a B. However, he still felt strangely off, like he needed to change somehow to be truly comfortable again.
It was only when he found out about the naturals and slowly weaned himself off of the drug that he felt normal again; more in control of himself than before Brewster's, but less in control than when on the drug. For him, it was just the right amount of excitement. Now, he is a part of the Broken Mirrors as a natural, and desperately wants out of the confining and rule-bound Institute he has called home for about 2 years now.
