The Hollow Man (R.E.M.)

NAME/ORIGIN
Character name	Hollow Man
Song/Album	"Hollow Man"/ Accelerate
Act	R.E.M.
Writer	Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
Release Date	2008
ABILITIES
Powers	-See sound once it bounces off an object "I see this echoing" -Invert himself instantly (is not affected much by gravity) "I went upside-down" -Ingest all objects in the vicinity into his hollow insides "I emptied up the room"
Skills	Is persuasive "Persuading things" "You trusted me"
Attributes	-Does not reflect sound "Echoes fall on me" -Hypocritical, but self-aware about it "Persuading things I didn't mean and don't believe." "Believe in me/ Believe in nothing" -Absent-minded/Introspective to a fault "I got lost inside my head" -Tends to repeat words and actions "I'm on repeat"
Vulnerabilities	-Gains solidity when threatened "Corner me and make me something" -Cannot ingest people who can withstand his inhalation for 30 seconds "Thirty seconds left/ I can't believe you stood your ground"
Formidability	High, but within the space of a single room Likely, outdoors, his range is limited to what is in his vicinity
Attractiveness	Low
Source	N/A
Goals	"I don't want to be The Hollow Man"
POSSESSIONS
Weapons	N/A
Amulets	N/A
Objects	N/A
Clothing	N/A
Vehicles	N/A
Dwelling	N/A
Milieu	N/A
BIOGRAPHY
Gender	Male
Age	adult
Physique	Is hollow "I'm emptied out"
Ethnicity	N/A
Origin	N/A (see Notes)
Ancestry	N/A
Profession	Physicist or even astrophysicist experimenting with black holes?
Education	N/A
SES	High. Can ingest many valuables.
Relationships	None, and is upset by that "I'm incomplete"
Pets	N/A
PERSONALITY
Morality	Conflicted
Intro/extrovert	Is an introvert trying to become an extrovert
Intelligence	Average
Emotions	-Low self-esteem "Believe in me/ Believe in nothing" "I'm incomplete" -"Overwhelmed"
Sanity	Low
Enemies	N/A
Narrative Function	Protagonist
Other Notes	Hollow Man's loneliness is so thorough that he has come to somehow contain a black hole of some sort. He resembles a normal person, but inside his skin is a bottomless void. It is unclear whether he eats or inhales objects and even people, or simply absorbs them through his skin with osmosis. But he can vacuum up all the contents of a room and still be empty, which means one of three things: 1) Those objects are inside him somehow, in an infinite space. 2) Those objects are inside, but only on molecular form with all the "space" between particles removed, so even a car would be the size of a pea. 3) Those objects have been obliterated and no longer exist. Some of these processes can be achieved by dropping something in a black hole. So one possible origin story is that he is a scientist trying to create a black hole in a lab. His work isolates him and be grows ever more lonely. Somehow the black hole, now a metaphor for his own infinite internal emptiness, appears not in the lab but in him. He becomes hollow, a walking black hole, but can still somehow function as a human. His internal gravity somehow alters his relationship with sound. Sounds are absorbed by him instead of bouncing off, and he can see sounds bouncing off other things. Also, his internal gravity, which pulls in all directions at once and is balanced against the Earth's gravity, causes him to suddenly flip upside down if he is out of contact with a surface like the floor or chair. He does not wish to remain hollow. But he has learned that when he is threatened, he becomes more solid. Perhaps this is how he maintains his form-- simple air pressure can keep his shell of skin intact. He tries to create confrontations, but people just leave him, and he is not violent. So he turns to persuasion to keep people around... but only so as to use them to generate the threats (or leaving?) he needs to re-solidify. Only someone who cares will stay to fight long and hard enough for it to work. And now he found someone who could stand her ground for 30 seconds. So he has a sliver of hope.