Arthur Centino

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

Arthur Centino
Portrayed by Johann Urb
Codename:	Longshot
Affiliations:	X-Factor
Birthdate:	May 30, 1979

Journal:	xp_longshot
Player:	Walks

"Now, if I've learned anything, you have to take a risk to earn any real reward."

Actor, Stuntman, Survival Star, Mutant, Private Investigator.
A series of twists and turns once swept Arthur Centino into the mansion. The potential to do good and help others has kept him there.

Details

Character Journal: xp_longshot

Real Name: Arthur Centino

Codename:

Aliases: Longshot

First Appearance: May 2, 2014

Date of Birth: May 30, 1979

Place of Birth: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Citizenship: South African, American

Relatives: Henrik Centino (father), Anne Jordaan (mother)

Education: United States High School Diploma

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Reality Star/Celebrity, Former Stuntman

Team Affiliation: X-Factor

Biography

Childhood in South Africa (1979–1993)

Arthur Centino was born to a middle class military family in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. His father was an administrator, and the family moved rarely from the port town. His mother worked as a doctor on base. They were relatively stable and happy.

Arthur’s early years were filled with a love and fascination for his father’s hobbies of rock climbing and sailing. He pursued interests that built upon this physical skills: football, marital arts, Cub Scouting, mountaineering, and surfing. Academically he did not stand out in his first cycles — instead seen as being more concerned with gym sciences as opposed to more general studies.

The abolishment of Apartheid did little to influence Centino family life, but the downsizing/diversification of the military that accompanied the End Conscription Campaign did. Henrik was discharged, but Rita’s contacts secured them opportunities abroad. At age 14, the family immigrated to Boulder, Colorado.

Teenage Years in America (1993-1998)

Arthur may have not even noticed a change. He was, by this point, already incredibly adaptable and fairly happy to have the majority of his father’s attention with his mother’s success as a specialist. American high school was not a huge change, and the culture shock of grunge did little to wipe away the boy’s constant smile. And, honestly, Arthur’s young life was very boring in how average it seemed: he was blessed with no major diseases, ailments, or injures, and Colorado was a veritable playground of outdoor adventure.

He was noticed for his physical skills — to help supplement family income, Arthur competed nationally in climbing competitions and had a small, uneventuful gig modeling. He earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate at age 17. He was an all American Gymnast specializing in the High Rings and Tumbling.

Academically, Arthur was nothing special. He did take special interest in Drama, and enrolled in acting classes after some lucky casting in community theater (lead got sick) and high school productions.

After graduating, Arthur decided he was destined for Hollywood.

Hollywood Stunt-Double (1998–2010)

Things landed quickly in Los Angeles for Arthur. At age 18, he got a small background role in Paradise Point that, at age 19, matured into a few speaking lines with a “dramatic” reveal after meeting a casting director at the DMV. He spent these first few years getting his feet wet in a variety of television cameo appearances (procedurals) and regrettable commercials. Downtime was spent in the traditional side roles of waiter and bartender.

However, this ultimately led to dissatisfaction. He never really had to try hard, but it was clear from the lack of calls and break-out parts that acting was, perhaps, not the best choice for him. Luckily, he diversified his portfolio by enrolling in several stunt instruction. This shift proved to be a much faster track: his good lucks and physical abilities landed him many high profile roles in the late 90s/2000s in film either as stunt doubles (mainly action) or one off characters (lots of one note villains, one Bond henchman).

Phase 1

Surviving Reality Television (2007–2014)

Arthur earned the nickname “Longshot” across the Hollywood set due to his amazing ability to pull off tricky stunt work, and soon found himself with a gigantic network and opportunities to produce his own work. He had never given up on his interest in the great outdoors — filming work was always punctuated by skilling or climbing trips — and he, under the encouragement of friends, created a series of survival webisodes in the style of Bear Grylls and Les Stroud that catch fire on the internet. This, in turn, caught the interest of United States media companies and Arthur had soon signed a two season contract with MajorDomo Studios.

While this split into television was good for Arthur creatively, it also put him into a different sphere than his stunt friends, namely one Rita Wayword.

Arthur starred in two seasons of “Ways of the Wild” where he, armed only with a single shot camera and minimal supplies would document the case. There were also three seasons of "Longshot for Survival” — another survival show intersected with commentary on technique and easy to learn first aid/defense maneuvers — (airing on US Cable Networks), and he became an international face for man against nature while wearing a smile and winking. Bloggers noticed that the rise in difficulty of his adventures jumped drastically during "Longshot for Survival," which placed him in more unlikely (and unsurvivable) conditions. His event appearances began diminishing around the same time.

What the internet didn't know is that Major Domo Industries, a subsidiary of Discovery, was owned via back-channels by Mojo Enterprises. This company had, in fact, confirmed Centino’s mutant status and began to use a telepath (his agent, one Minni Douglas) to limit Arthur’s downtime between “episodes” and mind wipe away trauma in an effort to limit lucksnaps and ensure radical probability shifts for drama.

Impossible Odds (2014)

Word came in mid-2014 that media darling “Longshot” was about to start filming a new, exciting series called “Impossible Odds.” In February 2014 he was spotted on the mutant island Avalon, filming before and after a tsunami touched down on the island. In June 2014 he outbid Wade Wilson for a date with Cecilia Reyes, spending an amazing amount of money on her, though when he met her again at a book signing event in October he acted like he had never met her. His attitude earned him a slap, and then lightning struck the building.

Several other chance encounters put Arthur into contact with mansion residents over the remaining months, including a phone call made in duress that went to Cecilia's voicemail.

Events came to a boil in December 2014 as a string of "lucky saves" (including vanquishing a dragon in Kansas and stopping a Black Friday robbery in Utah) put Longshot front and center in the X-Men's curiosity. All points of contact were cut short, however, as Arthur was unable to be reached. His contacts claimed he was "going on a brief holiday after recent prolonged stress." This, however, was quickly overshadowed by news that the train he was traveling to Salt Lake City in crashed with no survivors in the Nevada mountains.

Arthur's luck ensured this was not the case. He managed to spend a few days off the grid before reaching out, desperately, to Cecilia with an accidental phone call to Xavier's medlab off an advertisement in a local yellow pages. The X-Men mobilized quickly, but not quickly enough to stop an altercation between Mojo's goons and Arthur (and the subsequent luck snap that almost engulfed Lake Tahoe Valley). A quick intervention by Jennie Stavros and Wanda Maximoff stabilized the situation and Arthur was safely moved to the mansion and asked, politely, to calm his power down.

The Dark Phoenix (2015)

Longshot laid low for the remainder of 2014. David Haller provided much needed therapy for the man's spotty memories, and Arthur bounced back quickly with a gung-ho attitude.

This was needed, however, when the events of The Dark Phoenix began to unfold. He provided initial support and hugs for the mansion's youth as several of the mansionites were lost (A Touch Of Brimstone). He was recruited by Wanda to provide support for X-Force as the team tailed Apocalypse into India (Fires From The Ashes) and then star in gratuitous action scenes during The Trial of Jean Grey. His powers proved key to helping calm Clarice Ferguson's breakdown after sacrifices were made to ensure the team's extraction.

There was little calm as the remaining X-Personages returned to find the mansion in ruins. Arthur was among the teams that worked to save buried children, and was among the survivors addressed by Xorn between reality went catawampus (The Dark Phoenix).

Phase 2

New Universe, New You (2015 -2017)

The fun-loving freedom earned by unemployment faded fast, and Arthur found himself recruited into X-Factor Investigations by Adrienne Frost. His luck proved valuable on initial cases, as well as his way with people. Turns out his acting isn't that bad, either, but it could be a side effect of his luck. He helped out in several investigations in 2015, and even helped Lorna rescue her kidnapped fiancee. In 2016 he helped to stop a mutant terrorist attack at Penn Station, as well as to clear Hope Abbott's name when she was framed for espionage.

Arthur and Alex continue to grow close to Maya as she interned at X-Factor (XFi). When she needs an adult to go with her to the Women’s March in Salem Center on Saturday next and the ensuing thread devolves into Alex and Arthur planning their fake wedding.

His luck continued to serve him in to 2017, when the Avengers attacked SHIELD and he aided in medical help for injured people (by distracting the attacking Avengers so the doctors could work). Arthur is embroiled in the conflict of X-Men Mission: A vs X, specifically lending his luck against Hawkeye and Iron Man to protect Sharon as she treats Firestar and War Machine.

A Case of jealousy breaks out in Green-Eyed Monster for XFi as they tracked the truth of the case to limit the outbreak in the mansion. Sue traced back the first cases of sickness in the mysterious mutant ‘plague’ case, and based on her research Arthur discovers that the first confirmed cases were in Chinatown days before falling ill.

As Dark Dimension Homecoming unfolded, Arthur joined Amanda's rescue expedition into the Dark Dimension to save Clea and Topaz. Arthur found his powers work in opposite there, causing havoc and bad luck for himself with good intentions. Amanda and Arthur end up confronting Dormammu and Arthur channels that vibe, helping to distract and disorient the higher power. Clea was freed, and the Ancient One and his followers and helped everyone escape back to their normal reality.

2020, Fear of the Dark

During the events of Fear in the Dark, XFi investigated a case which leads to a missing, once Brotherhood man, who turned out to be the bearer of a hammer. This escalated quickly into a race to protect District X and distract the newly empowered Cain Marko.

2021

In A Fistful of Nanites, Arthur got a shock as Maya confessed on a nature hike that she planned to leave XFi. After Maya collapses in pain, Arthur calls in Clarice due to her hearing aide being infected with nanites. When Scott and Logan discovered the Blackbird has been targeted, the tag team of Scott and Jean-Phillipe are mission-bombed by Arthur in an attempt to EMP the jet’s systems in flight to prevent the plane being used against them.

Arthur was caught in Monster Mash with Meggan and Molly inside a reality twisted to be a Zombie movie, with Nica and Maya as the undead. When the follow up to Avalon collapsing during Halloween, Topaz's disappearance causes Wanda, Arthur, and Felicia to try to bend the universe to give her back. This results in a Lucksnapgiving as the combined effect doesn't work as intended, but instead opens everything that can be opened, including a bevy of new, confusing streaming stations all produced by Mojoverse. This specifically caused Arthur to be distressed due to his own dealings with a Mojo in the past.

Arthur retreats a little during this period, letting his own worries about the rules governing his powers to encourage inaction and a mounting depression.

2022

New faces were the theme of 2022 with the arrival of April Parker and Sarah Rushman, the latter of whom Arthur ended up driving to freedom in a New York City car chase from the mafia.

Arthur spent most of the year helping to build out community outreach programs at the newly opened District X Community Centre.

A case of missing children turned wild as Callisto gave X-Factor a lead in Clan Akkaba - Case File: Inception.

During Halloween, Arthur had an encounter with Illyana Rasputin during a Halloween fundraiser at the Community Center.

2023

New Powers, New Problems

The year started off at a frantic pace as X-Factor got some disturbing news from Inez Temple. Arthur bonded with Inez as the rest of the team got to work evaluating potential leaks, moles, and the viability of Underground connections. This breech in who could be trusted in the Underground, only adding to his general feeling of ineffectiveness, continued to plague his personal interactions through the beginning of the year.

In March, Arthur was one of a number of folks at the mansion exposed to the Chimera Contagion, causing him to gain April's powers temporarily. Both he and Alani Ryan learned that she had received his powers, but more than he had been anticipating. Arthur learned that he also possessed psychometry, either as a new development or as something he'd been deliberately suppressing.

He renewed his powers counseling sessions with the recently returned David Haller and developed into a closer friendship. Their experimentation continues over the year as Arthur eagerly tries, catalogues, and learns what he could do with his new, more active ability. Marie-Ange was also consulted, providing Arthur with a recorder to better capture his visions. This friendship also reveals that Arthur can use his power to see people's (namely Haller's) astral selves.

Arthur was the first to discover an elaborate April Fool's joke played at the DXC. He proceeded to text Marie-Ange with two mysterious notes made out to her.

The influx of new young adults into the mansion finds Arthur acting as a Cool Uncle, with him making connection with Match, Madin, Liam, Sharon, and Shatterstar. It turns out that he also shares a connection with the last one, as he was good friends with (Arthur Centino Superfan) Shatterstar's mother, Rita. The relationship with Shatterstar particularly grows as Arthur offers to teach him stunt moves and knife throwing. Arthur continues to interact with the Generation X group by organizing trips into the city and to the Salem Centre Haunted Corn Maze Extravaganza.

His new powers have mixed reception on the XFi side. Arthur asks Hope to observe him while he uses his new powers, and she becomes wary of his new abilities — primarily the ability to feel other's emotions through objects. Warren, newly returned, and him bond on a rooftop over horrible per-mixed cocktails. Quentin is typically eager to exploit the usefulness of Arthur's new abilities.

The reemergence of Jessica Jones finds Arthur reaching out to reestablish their friendship. His shared psychic trauma also makes him uniquely suited to understanding her new situation.

During the Labor Day celebration, Arthur learns of Shatterstar's multiple personalities through accidental touch and finds that his interactions with the youngest of Haller's alters (Davey) has transferred knife throwing over to Jim.

In September, an object reading at Kirby's ends up with Quentin and Arthur meeting Sam. This relationship, matched with Alani's recommendation and difficulties with flooding later in the year, leads to Sam joining XFi.

A Haven to Call Home

Arthur is one of the members of X-Factor to first travel, following a lead, to the mutant commune of Haven in Oregon. Arthur has reservations over the place's bad vibes, but he helps the commune fix some of their larger infrastructure issues with some well-placed good luck.

Haven doesn't come back up for him as more than background knowledge until the end of October, when Arthur meets with Haller after he had been “healed” by Radha. Arthur offers to do a psychometric reading to see David's forcefully integrated status, but his powers instead give a vision of Haller's future. Arthur reaches out to Marie-Ange in a panic about this escalation of his powers.

This foreknowledge, however, provides useful as the details of Haven's corruption fall into place. Arthur's advice helps Haller make the decision to not step in during the District X flooding and subsequent riots. Arthur barricades himself into the X-Factor offices during the power flares (experienced by his teammate, Alex) in order to extend his luck to help those he can. He ends up finding a young woman named Beatrice pleading for help in exchange for information about the Brotherhood. Arthur gets Bea to the mansion and places her into Haller and Kane's care.

Arthur takes statements from the quarantined X-Men following the riots, but more importantly uses his powers to read the bomb fragments and bracelets left at the scene. These visions reveal that the true culprit of the ongoing mutant plague and harsh reality are actually Radha and her leadership at Haven, hoping to create the apocalypse they foresaw.

After this meeting, Arthur makes a vow to have Haller's back during the upcoming altercation.

Arthur is not involved in direct conflict on Radha's psychic plane when she takes in everyone in her commune, but his presence at what remains of the Haven headquarters ensures that no one brought back by Haller and Hope are hurt. He is, luckily, in exactly the right place to grab Haller when the man is spit out of the astral plane.

Collective Soul and Lingering Touches

Haller is catatonic for over a month. Arthur is one of several people who visit him and help take him on walks for physical therapy.

In late December, various residents of the mansion - who all have a connection to Haller - begin to experience psychic hallucinations. Shatterstar and Arthur both share of a vision of a living rabbit doll with a clock for a face, which Benji is able to trace back to Haller. Arthur confesses that he knew of Benji's existence earlier, and his hope that they can grow as close as Arthur is with Shatterstar.

Arthur emails Jean and Scott about the encounter he and Shatterstar had.

Upon Haller's awakening at the end of December, many in the mansion find themselves experiencing a second hand version of Arthur's psychometry — his own memories imprinted on objects he touched. Arthur discovers this right before Christmas when he volunteers as Santa at the DXCC's first Santa Sleepover Lock-In. Arthur texts Haller with extreme concern after he discovers what's happening.

The Lock-In also ensures that Arthur isn't at the mansion for the arrival of one very confused girl.

Physical Characteristics

Arthur’s build can be charitably described as "reedy", or unkindly as "stringy"; in his teens he was full-on gangly, with far more knee and elbow than any one human being actually needs. These days, he is less ungainly; after a while of watching him, people begin to notice that he never stumbles, never reaches for something that isn't there, never loses his balance. He never gets lost. It isn't that he's graceful, like ballerinas or athletes or martial artists are graceful. He isn't graceful at all. It's just that he has an easy, carefree confidence in where — exactly, down to atoms and quantum mechanics — he is in relation to everything else in the world.

His eyes are deeply set and intensely blue; his skin is weathered. His early career was marked by closely cropped hair and handsome features, but for the past few years he’s let his blonde locks grow out to a medium length. He is rugged, but in the sort of affable and handsome way you’d want from a wilderness guide who moonlights on college girl’s walls.

His facial features are the rugged sort, too — what's typically described as "hawklike". His expression is usually glued in a congenial smile, unless he is really impressed or really surprised, or both. When he smiles it shows all of his teeth and goes to his ears.

Arthur lives outdoors; his skin is tough, his muscles are toned in a “constantly active, needs to eat more” kind of way, and he has long ago conquered sunburn.

Height: 6’0”

Build: Lanky and lean

Eyes: Blue (Right eye glows bright yellow when one of his powers are active)

Hair: Blonde

Other Features: Missing pinky on right hand from an Arctic campaign, Light South African accent

Powers

Uncanny Luck

The world reorganizes itself to allow Longshot to be “lucky.” The joke is that the universe loves Arthur Centino, but that honestly isn't too far off.

This power is manifested as probability manipulation centered upon altering “luck” in such a way that will benefit Longshot’s survival, goals, and intent. His powers are a passive area effect that affects people, objects, or events localized around himself while creating a karmic feedback loop (“lucksnap”) randomly for others within a two block radius — he gets good luck, you get bad luck. A lack of others in random proximity pools feedback in such a way that putting Longshot with others is essentially arming a luck time-bomb.

At his most powerful, Arthur is lucky to the point where probability means very little. His power can warp the very foundation of the world, constantly rearranging the rules of physics and defying logic to his advantage, whether Longshot wants it or not. This comes with little to no learned control — where some other probability manipulators can narrow the scope of their manipulations, Longshot's power is always a hammer. He cannot turn it off.

His power's negative drawbacks are, however, dampened in two ways.

1) Population. If he were to fall off a cliff and survive without a scratch and there was only one person around, that person would have a very bad day. Yet if this happened at, say, a cliff-side mall or theme-park, many people would feel a small stub in their toe. The karmic loop can be be spread out for less whiplash.

2) Intent. Positive thoughts create good luck for Arthur, but feeling down creates good luck for others and bad luck for him. Arthur has to believe something is right and true for his powers to work ideally. If he believes he's acting selfishly or evilly, his powers backfire and rebound luck in expected ways or fail to work to any effect at all. The universe may love Arthur, but it specifically loves Arthur the hero. The universe is fickle.

His left eye glows brightly when utilizing his powers to the point where a conscious manifestation will result in a brief starburst of light.

Psychometry

Arthur can read psychic imprints that people leave on objects that they have handled as a form of both retrocognition (strongest) and precognition. This is directly tied to to strong emotions associated with the object as tied to memory — he'll get very little to see from a object only used in its intended, bland purpose by a wielder, but stronger impressions if it was used to kill or injure someone in a moment of passion (or, say, it was beloved). He also receives the emotion felt during the event as a form of empathetic backlash, meaning that Arthur feels exactly what happened. These memories can chain with other associated memories, leading down a complicated emotional history that make not be directly tied to the object in hand.

He sees these images from a first person perspective in his mind, but this can be warped by the memory holder's perceptions and state of mind.

Longshot can telepathically "read" the recent memories of a person by making physical contact with him or her. This also allows Arthur to perceive how the person "sees" themselves in a small way — interactions with true telepaths have shown that he can perceive how the individual pictures themselves on the astral plane. The effect is also more poignant with individuals who either frequent the astral plane (and have a better definition of their psychic footprint) or those with multiple identities.

At its most abstract level, this power allows Arthur to read the course of choice a person might have based upon their current casual chains and intent — decisions that create a clear pivot or choice can be seen as a limited sense of precognition, and is represented as seeing a vision of two different versions of the individual being read. This is currently unreliable and hard to test in use.

IC Knowledge Cheatsheet:

Those who know Arthur is able to read the past by touch: Wildly known to the mansion as a whole in abstract, but X-Factor Investigations and David Haller know that he specifically has an empathetic connection and cost to what he sees. Hope Abbott does not trust the cost. Arthur has openly discussed it with Shatterstar.

Those who know Arthur is able to see the future by touch: David Haller, Marie-Ange Colbert, possibly disclosed to Doug Ramsey and Amanda Sefton by Tarot

In-Game Use of Precognition:
- A Haven to Call Home — Before Halloween in 2023, Arthur sees his "chains of causality" for the first time when reading the integrated David Haller. Read the story on Dreamwidth
- Behold A Pale Horse — While reading armor knocked from the Horseman of Death in January of 2024, Arthur sees how to help Marius Laverne. Read the story on Dreamwidth