Wish I Knew - Big Gigantic

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf8mR4K2Mgg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf8mR4K2Mgg</a>

Great band, unfortunately little known.

Hudson Clark's Civil Authority Application

OOC Name: Frolie

IC Character Name: Hudson Clark

1) Please write a minimum of 3 paragraphs OOC'ly detailing why your character wishes to join the Combine Civil Authority and what lead your character to do so.
1.     Hudson’s unrealized profession in medicine is something he always wanted to follow up on. CHowever, he never seemed to be able to properly line up his finances and emotions. Consequently, he never managed to finish his schooling. During his observations of the CCA, he found the prospect of joining NOVA division particularly promising, and is one of his primary reasons for wanting to enlist.

2.     Hudson frequently thinks things through before taking sides. During his observations on the rebellion (in his journal), he concluded that the rebellion was facing impossible odds, and at this point were causing more bad than good. In his desire to be part of the solution, Hudson figures that the CCA holds the greatest capacity for good, in a ‘best of a bad situation’ way.

3.     Although the character himself doesn’t realize this, Hudson is subliminally seeking control. For the majority of his life, he faced a number of unfortunate situations, but managed to keep his chin up. However, his struggles have left their mark. While he isn’t directly bitter, he seeks control in any fashion he can find, and that fashion has, in this case, manifested itself as membership in the CCA.

2) Please detail your characters traits. (Eg, Pure, Lawful, Trustworthy)
Patient, thorough, passive (usually), intelligent, perceptive, determined.

3) Please provide 2 paragraphs about what you are expecting the Combine Civil Authority to be like for you and your character.
For myself, I’m looking for a new experience. While I’ve had characters with similar roles to those in the CCA, I’ve never had a character actually positioned in it. Hopefully, the new perspective will grant me a different view on HL2RP. As for the last 8 or so months of my year at Catalyst Gaming has been spent in the Outlands server. I more or less abandoned city because citizen RP felt sort of bland to me. I’m hoping I can refresh my angle on City by adding a different style to the mix.

For my character, it’s likely he’ll try his hardest to join NOVA division. Given his inability to finish medical school, the CCA is like a second chance for him. He’s also looking to fulfill his desire for a clear-cut lifestyle, something he never really had before the war. He’s resolved that the only way he can escape the chaos and disorder that follows being a part of the bottom tier of power is to join the CCA.

4) Please provide a detailed back-story from an out-of-character perspective on your applying character. This section must be detailed and consist of a minimum of 300 words.
Hudson was born in London, the result of a one-night stand between British David Clark, and French Simone Beaugrand. While his parents never had any particularly compassionate feelings for each other, both of them wanted sole custody over Hudson, and the legal battle lasted throughout most of his childhood. During this time, Hudson’s time was spent between Simone and David, growing much fonder of his mother than his father. Nonetheless, the custody battles ended with David taking sole custody, and thus lead Hudson to detest his father.

Hudson’s father (who was a moderately wealthy executive for a private investment company) enrolled Hudson in a private boarding school, a decision the two managed to agree upon. Hudson excelled in school, and managed to graduate two years early at age 16. Determined to remain independent from his father, Hudson took up a scholarship offer and enrolled in Cambridge Medical University a short few months later, at age 17.

After an entire year at Cambridge (an experience Hudson thoroughly enjoyed), he received the news that his father suffered a stroke while driving his car, and passed away shortly after. Hudson, stricken with grief for his father’s passing (not to mention guilt for having hated him for the majority of his life), took a short recess from the University, as to properly mourn. Despite his original intentions, Hudson fins himself unable to bring himself back to the university, and instead takes up traveling about Europe, a goalless mission that lasted four years. Eventually Hudson returned to London and re-enrolled in his University, financed with the remainder of his father’s inheritance. However, after another four years of schooling, he again drops out, having exhausted his finances.

Now 26 and depressed due to his apparent inability to finish Medical School, Hudson makes his way back across Europe to Paris, hoping to find his mother Simone. Yet again, ill fortunate came upon him. While wandering the streets at night, Hudson was confronted by a vagrant, armed with a knife. The vagrant mugged him, and stabbed him in his stomach before fleeing, leaving Hudson on the pavement. Were it not for a passing pedestrian who called for the emergency services, Hudson would have bleed to death.

The rehabilitation process was particularly fierce on Hudson, and lead to a startling bill upon his recovery. Given his already desperate financial situation, Hudson found himself unable to properly pay his bills, and eventually wound up with no money, no home, and no source of transport. It wasn’t too long after word that the combine invasion occurred.

Hudson spent eighteen grueling hours cowering in the basement bath room of a hostel, while the world outside was obliterated by extra-terrestrial creatures. Hudson was found after Breen had negotiated for humanity’s safety, and hastily processed through registration (he wasn’t thought of as much, being a twenty-eight year old homeless man). He went from city to city, compiling a journal of his feelings toward rebellion and the Combine Civil Authority. When he eventually wound happened upon City 45, Hudson came to a conclusion; the CCA was where he wanted to be. He filled out a registration form and filled it out the following morning.

5) Have you ever had a CCA character here at Catalyst Gaming?  If so, explain why it was removed.
I've never had a CCA character here at Catalyst Gaming.


OOC Details

1. How long have you played on role-playing servers in general?
About two years.

2. How long have you played on serious servers?
I only ever had fun on serious servers, so as above stated, about two years.

3. How long have you played on Catalyst Gaming?
Coming up on a complete year now.

4. What Time zone are you in?
Eastern Time Zone.

5. In what country do you live?
United States

6. How old are you?
Fourteen, Fifteen in October.

7. What�s your most memorable quality RP experience?
On the CG city server, my most memorable RP experience was definitely during a exogen breach. Antlions were all over the city, so me and a half dozen other citizens were holed up inside the souvenir shop, doing our best to barricade the doors to keep them out, and treating the wounds of the hurt citizens. A CWU doctor was treating the wounded, and I was assisting him during the operations. The whole operation really caught the panic that was instilled in all the citizens during the breach, and the futility of trying to save the wounded.

8. Do you consider yourself a good listener?
Indubitably.

---

IC Section

Full Name: Hudson Clark
CID: 37101
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Height: Five feet, Eight Inches.
Hair Colour Black.
Eye Colour: Brown
Sexual Orientation: Gay
Weight: 115 Pounds.
Mental Distinctions: Exceptional at handling difficult or trying situations.
Mental Defects: Subliminal lust for control can occasionally conflict with objectives.
Mental Advantages: Perceptive and Intelligent.
Notable Qualities: Calm and Intelligent.


1. Have you ever been detained or apprehended for a Sociostability Infringement before? If so, explain?
On no occasion have I ever been apprehended or detained by a Civil Protection Unit.

2. Do you regularly eat Combine Civil Authority Issued Rations?
Regularly, and without question of it's contents.

3. Are you willing to give your life to the cause of the Universal Union?
I'm willing to risk, and even give my life for our Benefactors.

4. Do you as a Citizen and future Civil Protection Member accept ALL actions performed by you and those under your command as your OWN responsibility?
I do.

5. Will you remain loyal and faithful to the Universal Union as long as you live?
My loyalty to the union has been, and always will be, a life-long investment.

6. Why do you want to join the Combine Civil Authority?
I want to join the Combine Civil Authority so that I may serve the Union to the best of my abilities, and learn to skills that could eventually prove useful in my pursuit to assist our Benefactors.


Please sign the attached oath using only blue or black pen.

Looks good. Maybe once word gets around, I've got a character that could fit in.

Character name: Layla 'Razors' Blackburn
Citizen Identification Number: Not Issued

Physical description IC'ly:
Gender/sex: Female
Approximate age: Early 20's
Before official and/or unofficial faction: None.
After official and/or unofficial faction: The Sirens (Leader).
Country originated from: United States of America.
Current location: Outlands.
Accent: American.

Hair color: Matte Black
Eye color: Grey
Face marks (i.e. scratches, bruises, scars): None.
Hair design: Unkempt 'Pixie Cut' when relaxed; Pulled into a pony-tail when focused or stressed.

Mental good and/or bad skills:
+ Extreme Intelligence
+ Great Focus
+ Above-Average Determination

- Very Asocial
- Prone To Episodes of Unintelligible Anger
- Overly Withdrawn; Tends To Keep Grudges or Ideas not openly discussed
- Extreme Focus On Priorities; Often Shrugs Off Other Tasks or Peoples

Physical good and/or bad skills:
+ Very Short: Allows her to move more fluidly and with greater agility, not to mention access smaller areas
+ Slender Frame allows her to move faster than her average opponent when in combat

- Very Short: Makes the Blackburn easy to pick up or throw around

Character look-a-like image:

Clothing and/or protective armour and markings (bruises, scratches, etc) on the limbs:

Head: Razor-Blade Necklace around neck, Tattoo on back of neck (Sirens Angel)
Torso: Black Leather Jacket, Lined By a Grey Zip-Up Hoodie.
Front of the torso: Faded Nine-Inch-Nails T-shirt, tattered and stained almost beyond recognition
Back of the torso: Black-and-White Hive Tattoo across right shoulder-blade
Arms: Long Stretch of Tattooed Binary Code down shoulder, stopping before the Elbow
Hands: Fingerless Felt Gloves
Legs: C27 Denim Jeans
Feet: Black Steel-Toed Combat Boots, Modified With Ice-Grippers

Weaponry: Heckler & Koch Sub-Machine-gun, USP Match 9mm, Homemade Taser, Switch-blade Knife.
Equipment: Collection of Tools and Electrical Engineering Equipment
Known authorized items: None of any interest

In-game suffering information:
Suffering from: Undiagnosed Mental Disorder, of ambiguous singularity
Lost and/or replacement limbs or parts?: No Limb Replacements

Skills, perks and/or traits of the character:
Mechanical Engineering Skills
Electrical Engineering Skills
Hand-To-Hand Combat Expertise
Professional Firearm Accuracy and Handling Skills

Weaknesses and/or severe flaws:
Overly Prideful, Intolerable of Assistance, Asocial in the Extreme

Player Section

Steam Name: Frolie
Age: 14
How long have you been Roleplaying? (can be any game): About 4 years now, around the time Fallout 3 and Oblivion were coming out.
How long have you been playing Serious GMod RP?: About a year and a half, starting with HL2RP.

Character Section

Authorization(s):
Advanced Firearm Skills
Advanced Hand-to-Hand skills
Extreme finesse in electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as a rudimentary kit of tools

Name: Layla 'Razors' Blackburn
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Affiliation: None

Write a detailed in-canon back-story how your character obtained these authorizations.
I’m a big fan of trying shit in different ways, so I thought I’d attempt a different perspective on an auth app backstory. In the spirit of that idea, I decided a neat way to do it would be to do it all dialogue, through an audio interview. Here’s a bit of a backdrop: A patrol officer named Paul Bolan was murdered in his home, shot twice in the head with a semi-automatic pistol. Blackburn’s prints were peppered all over the apartment, and although she has no motive for the murder, she’s the primary suspect in the investigation due to her disturbing history, but hasn’t yet been apprehended by the police.



Booker: Alright, let’s begin. I’m interviewing David Griffin, the lawyer and caseworker of alleged murderer Layla Blackburn. David, you’ve stated repeatedly that you’ll be as open as possible about Ms. Blackburn’s history, so, give me a brief rundown of the family.

David: I’ve been Layla’s caseworker since she was 15 and a family friend since her birth. She has a mother, Merriam, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage five years ago, and a brother, Silas, who’s five years older than Layla.

Booker: Whoa, wait. I need details, especially on the mother, and dad. Readers eat this shit up.

David: The mother meant well, but couldn’t handle children. She had dementia, and Social Services took away Silas and Layla when he was 7 and she was 5. Dad was never really in the picture.

Booker: No information on the dad?

David: None. Merriam was exceptionally private about her private affairs.

Booker: How’d you know the family anyway?

David: Originally we were neighbors. One day the kid Silas came to my door crying. He said he fell off his bike, or something. I’m not sure; it was a long time ago. Anyway, I bandaged up his skinned knee and brought him back to Merriam’s apartment. To thank me, she had me stay over for dinner that night. We’d been fairly close ever since.

Booker: First impressions on the mother?

David: Oh… odd, I guess. Her house was an absolute mess. The city would’ve torn the apartment down if they could have seen the inside of it. She had strange habits. I remember she made me wash my hands in ammonia the first time I came into her apartment. But besides the fact that she was a total nut, Silas seemed happy, and Layla seemed happy… enough.

Booker: Yeah, about Layla. Give me some background from… let’s say birth until she was 5.

David: Quiet. She rarely said a word unless she had to. For a young kid, she was really smart. I taught her how to play chess when she was four. She seemed to really like that…

Booker: You’re getting off topic. No signs of violence during this time?

David: None.

Booker: Well… there’s nothing of significance there then. Social Services took the kids away, so they went to you?

David: Unfortunately no. I’m not actually part of the family, nor was I listed legally as a guardian. They went into foster care.

Booker: Anything notable there?

David: Well, the system isn’t perfect. Layla and Silas were split, and she went in and out of different homes, varying from good to bad until she was 12, and wound up with a particularly bad one.

Booker: What do you mean? She was abused?

David: Likely in more ways than one.

Booker: How did that situation end?

David: Badly. Layla injured him, very badly, and after an 8 month stay under the foster father’s care, she was admitted to a children’s psychiatric clinic.

Booker: Wait, wait. I need details, this is pretty big.

David: Fine.  A police investigation concluded that Layla dumped a bucket of gasoline on him while he slept, and set him on fire. He was admitted to the ICU, and his injuries eventually healed.

[Momentary Silence]

Booker: How long was she in the unit…?

David: A total of ten months. Social Services later re-evaluated her, and made found her a permanent installment with a good home. However, the evident damage was already done.

Booker: Permanent installment with the Hemmingway couple, right? Jordan and Shawn?

David: Yeah. By that point, I was following Layla and Silas pretty closely, and making sure the agency was treating them right. I called in a few favors, and was approved for guardianship over Layla. Without the approval of Jordan and Shawn, that probably would have never happened. Silas was already 18 by that point, so it wasn’t necessary on his part.

Booker: How did Layla fit in with a regular life?

David: Like I said, the damage was done, and apparently, she wanted anything but a regular life. She got in fights all the time, until eventually she got kicked out of the public school. Jordan and Shawn managed to enroll her in a private school for children of Layla’s… caliber. She didn’t really fit in too well there either.

Booker: She doesn’t seems to fit in anywhere.

David: She never really did. Anyway, between Jordan, Shawn, and me, we were pretty worried about her. Her grades were bad, she was in fights all the time, and she was almost never at home-

Booker: Wait, if she didn’t have any friends, then where was she going?

David: We never found out. We assumed she was squatting at some abandoned place or another. We were worried sick the first few times she dropped off the grid like this, but as that sort of activity picked up, we began to realize it was just something we were going to have to accept.

Booker: Huh… alright, so what were you saying?

David: Sorry? Oh, that’s right. We were trying to figure out what she was interested in, so we could show people how brilliant she actually was, instead of how stupid she seemed. After doing some poking and prodding, and trying a few different things, we got her into auto-body and engineering shop electives. She seemed to have a real knack for that sort of stuff. After we got her into that, things were going good for a while. She spent more time at Jordan and Shawn’s house, even if most of it was spent in the basement building some contraption or fixing something, and her grades even picked up a little.

Booker: You said ‘For a little while’. What happened?

David: Well, eventually she fell into a respective group. Her being one of the most troubled kids I’ve ever experienced, it figures she fit in better with people of equal repute. They got her into all kinds of crazy shit; fight clubs, guns, drugs-

Booker: Guns? Drugs? Jesus Christ…

David: The fight club thing was the worst of all. She’d come home sometimes bruised and bloodied to fuck all. Well, at least for the first few weeks. I guess she must’ve gotten better at fighting.

Booker: Details on the drugs and guns. That’s what I’m interested in.

David: Right. We knew she was taking some illegal prescription drugs, and at one point even ketamine. During a routine search of her room, Shawn found a handgun. She would give no explanation, but the serial number was filed off, so we were assuming it was purchased illegally.

Booker: This keeps getting better…

David: Of course, we wanted to take her illicit activities and turn them into something lucrative. We tried to get her into boxing, which she took for a few weeks then got kicked out, for putting the teacher in the hospital I might add. We even tried to cautiously twist her interest in firearms with range practice, but we pulled her from that because she beat up someone who pissed her off at the range.

Booker: How old is she by this point?

David: She was 16. She dropped out of high school the same year, and took all her engineering crap with her. It seemed as though she dropped off the face of the earth. We didn’t hear from her again, until 8 months later.

Booker: The armed robbery, I assume?

David: Yep. Her and some friend or another held up a 7-11 with a shotgun and a pistol. Police officers apprehended them 5 blocks away. We did everything we could to push for leniency in court, but her appearance and attitude didn’t really appeal to the jurors.  She was tried as an adult, and sentenced to 5 years in a minimum security prison. But, you know all this already.

Booker: Well, it’s nice hearing your perspective on it anyway.

David: Well, we visited her in prison. Apparently her fighting experience paid off, because her attitude wasn’t too attractive to other prisoners. We managed to console her enough to get her out in 3 years on parole, due to ‘good behavior’. I could tell she hated that.

Booker: Right, she was 21 when she was released. Then what?

David: We did our best to get her on the straight and narrow, and we were somewhat successful. She got a job at an auto-body shop, and moved in with her brother Silas. She went cold turkey on the drugs, and stopped seeing her old friends. We convinced her to quit the fight club thing, and we instead got her into some weird Israeli self-defense class at the local gym. We couldn’t shake her gun thing though. Between the range, the gym, and her job, she was too occupied to cause much trouble.

Booker: And then…?

David: Well, you know the rest. Silas said he saw her with one of her guns, and said he saw her leave the house one night with it. Then this cop turns up dead, and her prints are all over. It’s safe to assume what you think happened.

Booker: But what do you think happened?

[Momentary Silence]

David: I don’t know. I pray she’s innocent, but I can’t be positive what she’s capable of. I thought that Jordan, Shawn, Silas, and I had changed her, but there are some things you just can’t beat. I can’t help but begin to believe she’s guilty…

[Another silence]

Booker: I think we’ve covered everything. Thanks for your contribution David.

[The tape clicks off]

What will these authorizations give your character in regards to perks or defects?
Perks
Advanced Firearm Skills
  - Greater probability of striking an intended target
Advanced Hand-to-Hand Skills
  - Upper hand in melee combat situations
Extreme finesse in electrical & mechanical engineering, as well as a rudimentary kit of tools
  - Knowledge required to create electrical and mechanical utensils from scavenged materials
  - Knowledge required to repair, refurbish, or modify prewar mechanical or electrical utensils

Defects
Advanced Firearm Skills
  - Skills and experience coupled with Razors' personality could cause her to be bullheaded in dangerous situations
  - Ability to strike an intended target would be critically impaired by injury or feelings towards said target
Advanced Hand-to-Hand skills
  - Skills and experience coupled with Razors' personality could cause her to be bullheaded in dangerous situations
Extreme finesse in electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as a rudimentary kit of tools
  - Any built utensils would take a long time to construct (and would require further auth apps)
  - Any built utensils would require maintenance on a constant basis
  - To build/modify/refurbish/repair any utensil, more materials would need to be scavenged or purchased

What do you plan to do with these perks/defects?
I hope to add to my characters personality and back-story by backing her up with these sets of skills.  I also hope to apply a unique sort of character using these authorizations, which will hopefully lead to further RP. Also, passive RP is a lot more fun when you're actually doing something to which your character is applied to, in this case, engineering.

Will anyone else need these auths? (If so, list OOC and IC name(s))
No one else will need these auths.

Which server does this apply for?
Outlands

Extra Notes (optional):

I love coldplay!

I really enjoy the fine tunes of coldplay

Oh god, please tell me this is some sort of twisted joke.