Player Section
Steam Name: Frolie
Age: Fifteen.
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):
- Ambidexterity (Equal Strength in both hands)
- Eidetic Recollection (Photographic Memory)
- Exceptional Mathematical Intelligence
- Extensive Knowledge & Collection of Computer Technologies
Name: Layla 'Razors' Blackburn
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Affiliation: None
Write a detailed in-canon back-story how your character obtained these authorizations.
Brief Forward
(Concerns details on generality of the character, and brief mentions of skillsets)
Layla Blackburn, daughter to Merriam Blackburn, was a mental-medicine fascination. No direct diagnosis was ever made for her, but there had been dozens of claims and approximations; Low Latent Inhibition, Autism, Paranoid Schizophrenia, Mental Retardation, Bipolar Disorder, Savantism… nothing was ever made clear. The most likely reason for that was her refusal to cooperate. She’d sit in stubborn silence, ignoring teachers and doctors alike. She never made friends, and failed every class she ever took in the time she attended public school. The majority of those who were aware of her assumed she was either psychotic, or mentally challenged. But inside her head, and in her own time, Layla was a literal genius.
She was a skilled mathematician, a gifted computer hacker and programmer, a talented electrical and mechanical engineer, and in the future, she would become dangerously obsessed with combine technologies, and the pursuit of other-worldly knowledge.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Layla's Apartment in Seattle
(Concerns Details on Computer Skills)
Layla was sitting at her computer, the same place she'd been all night. It was nearly two in the morning, and she hadn't slept in two days. She was running soft-ware updates on a variety of the programs on her main computer. The computer itself was a glorious testament to diligent work and thousands of dollars. Two computer towers shared a single Twenty-Seven inch Monitor. Collectively, it had 128 gigabytes of Ram, supported by two military-grade MSi mother boards. In terms of storage space, each computer tower had an internal single terabyte hard-drive, and was also connected by USB to two other external hard-drives, each of which stored three terabytes.
Besides her primary computer, she also had a back-up laptop, which she utilized while working outside of her apartment, as well as a myriad of micro-controllers and circuit converters. The contents of the room she sat in was worth more than half the tenants in the apartment building make inside of a year, and had been what had gotten her into the building in the first place. Using the resources available to her, she had created an entirely false identity, beneath which the apartment was registered to.
Computers had gone almost hand in hand with skills Layla already had, but for some reason, she felt much more secretive about it than her other interests. She hadn't much thought about the practical use of computers until she was about fourteen. By then, her interests in electrical engineering had already been piqued, and she had begun to hone down on that skill, but she temporarily set it aside to pursue her new interest.
She had started with what she knew; the guts. Computer hardware was much like a more finely-tuned, much more complex version of electrical engineering, so she applied what she already knew on a more microscopic level. She hadn't turned on her first computer a single time before she pried it open and studied what made it work. Within a week, she had a rudimentary understanding of how the majority of the parts worked. She had gone to a nearby library and taken out some books concerning the topic, and then, displeased with the content of said books, went to a more comprehensive library a ways further into the city, and took out more books there.
After three weeks of tireless study and precise coordination, she knew just about everything there was to know about the hardware of her own computer. She reassembled it the same night she felt she had an exact familiarity with the machine, and finally learned how it worked from the outside. She found the software aspect of computers considerably more frustrating than the hardware, which in turn made her more perseverant in understanding it. It took more months of studying and reading books to achieve what she thought was required of her. She knew hexadecimal binary in its entirety, completely by memory, after three weeks of study. She was writing her own code shortly after, and creating rudimentary programs. Originally, she had intended to somehow tie in the skills she learned her to skills she already had, but after almost an entire year of cut-throat study, little to no sleep, and thousands of dollars frivolously spent modifying and experimenting, she had let herself flow into an entirely different tangent of ideas and curiosities.
There was never such thing as a safe hobby for her. Everything was either pursued obsessively, or not pursued at all. On paper, she was a psychopathic high-school dropout, even considered retarded by a few doctors and specialists. But she lived a secret life of hidden genius, only known by those close to her, which was a very limited crowd. She was about 60% to 80% sure that she possessed a photographic memory, but she was never one to make a self-diagnosis of any kind (she barely trusted any diagnosis; her relationship with doctors was never that great).
She eventually shut the monitor of her computer off, figuring it was best for her health if she got some sleep. She let the software updates continue as she wondered down the hall into her bedroom, and read for a while before shutting the light off. She lay awake for little more than 30 seconds before she fell deeply into sleep.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Washington Correction Facility for Women
(Concerns Details on Ambidexterity, Math Skills, and Eidetic Memory)
Layla had managed to settle into her cell in her new home in the past 4 months. She was lucky she had only been caught for armed robbery, and nothing else. Nonetheless, any time in prison was unfortunate. She'd always had a mostly hands-off approach towards crime, but she had been desperate for money, and hadn't had a job in months.
As far as prison went, this wasn't too horrible. It was a highly regarded institution that Layla's caseworker had to negotiate to get her into, due to her, quote 'fragile mental condition'. He knew she hated titles like that, but he was just doing as necessary. The accommodations of her cell were good enough; in fact, it even had a computer. Of course, it had a firewall, which when confronted with Layla's skill-set, didn't stay up long.
Of all the time the time Layla spent in prison, she spent the majority of it in the library. At her adoptive parents’ request, as well as those of her brother and her caseworker, she applied for, and easily passed her GED. Her traits as a reader and researcher were unparalleled in comparison to other inmates. Several notable traits were discovered of her, the easiest of which to notice was her ambidexterity. Layla was aware of this attribute, but never really understood what made it such a peculiarity, much less cared. It was frequently observed that she would begin writing with one hand, and continue with another. Occasionally she would even write with both at once. Whether this was something she acquired naturally, or if she worked at it consciously was irrelevant.
Several months into her stay in the penitentiary, it was observed, not just by the acting librarian, but by numerous different on-duty guards and even the warden herself, that Layla had an unfounded memory. Everything that she read or noted was seemingly cataloged mentally, and could be recalled with little to no hesitation for thought. She also had the unparalleled gift of numbers. She could do entire math equations in her head, the kinds that even experienced mathematicians had to write out on paper, or do on a calculator. It was obvious that Layla was very gifted, but her unusual mental status made her difficult to understand.
The warden consulted Layla with a proposition; if she took both an IQ test, and an Eidetic memory test, then she could apply as a ‘mentally reinvigorated inmate’, and a special deal could be cut to lower her sentence, not to mention lift her variable title as mentally retarded. It was clear that the warden believed that her time in the penitentiary had allowed her to focus on education, and thus, made the system work. That’s why the program for mental re-invigoration was created in the first place.
Of course, given her distaste for authority and general stubbornness, she disregarded the warden’s claims, ignoring her entirely. In turn, the warden called Layla’s caseworker, who visited Layla at the Correction Facility, and begged her to take the deal. After three more days of weighing the pro’s and con’s in Layla’s eccentric thought-process, she finally agreed. After taking the test at 17, her IQ was revealed to be at 148, well above average. Her skill in mathematics was truly amazing, nearing the level of Savant. The results of the Eidetic Memory test confirmed the suspicions of her family members; Layla did indeed possess a Photographic Memory. As Layla’s initial sentence was set at three years (due to relentless testimony, not to mention her being a minor), the deal would guarantee her release within the month, on the condition that she take residency with her adoptive parents. Layla was released from the penitentiary two weeks after her tests.
___________________________________________________________________________________
C27 bit was no longer necessary; was cut from the back-story
Some Pictures (Was bored, this should give you a better idea of the character's set-up)
Computers in Layla's Apartment [1/3]
(http://s13.postimage.org/ddkqnmyrq/2012_09_25_00005.jpg)
Computers in Layla's Apartment [2/3]
(http://s14.postimage.org/i5furamc0/2012_09_25_00003.jpg)
Computers in Layla's Apartment [3/3]
(http://s18.postimage.org/6swtq4fmw/a_S.jpg)
A Work-Table in Layla's Apartment
(http://s13.postimage.org/9nuam81om/2012_09_25_00007.jpg)
Layla's Hide-out in City 27
(http://s12.postimage.org/h3p5ab9l8/Warehouse.jpg)
What will these authorizations give your character in regards to perks or defects?
Perks
Ambidexterity (Equal Strength in Both Hands)
+ Can write or draw with both hands
+ Can equally distribute weight between appendages
Exceptional Mathematical Intelligence
+ Can perform mental mathematics equations in her head
+ Can come to a conclusion on complex arithmetic much faster than average
Eidetic Recollection (Photographic Memory)
+ Will be able to remember and reconstruct insurmountable details
+ Will be able to catalog information mentally
Extensive Knowledge & Collection of Computer Technologies
+ Will be able to use knowledge and hardware to build new things
+ Will (possibly) be able to use knowledge and hardware to attack others
Defects
Ambidexterity (Equal Strength in Both Hands)
- Although a valuable attribute in research, it serves little practical purpose
Exceptional Mathematical Intelligence
- Layla's Over-Analysis can at times become over-cumbersome, resulting in mental anguish of variable levels
Eidetic Recollection
- As with her mathematical skills, over-attention to detail can at times become too much for Layla
Extensive Knowledge & Collection of Computer Technologies
- Any fruitful progress made from her hardware and knowledge would take a lot of time
- Moving the hardware would be difficult, due to it's quantity and weight
- If any of the hardware were destroyed or damaged, it would critically impair Layla's progress
What do you plan to do with these perks/defects?
The majority of the authorizations asked for are mainly for increasing passive RP, and adding to one of (in my opinion) my most intriguing characters. Passive RP is a lot more fun when you're doing something that involves more than one party, and is especially fun when you're working towards a goal with one of your character's skills. Pending acceptance, my character would have skills in electrical and mechanical engineering (pre-requisite authorization), as well as combine technology and computer hardware / software. Obviously, that's a lot of honed-down professions, but certainly doesn't make the character totally rounded. In short, the character will need the assistance of other characters to assist in completing projects, no matter how rudimentary or advanced they are.
Some of the other authorizations I've asked for (Ambidexterity, Mathematics skill, Eidetic Memory) have been requested to develop my character. Given that she's very paranoid, and extremely asocial, many other characters don't have much to base their perspectives on her around. I hope that with what they observe (pending authorization), they can put together a better portrait of the character, without actually being able to interact with her. In short, this auth should add more to her as a character.
Will anyone else need these auths? (If so, list OOC and IC name(s))
No one else will need these Authorizations, just Layla.
Which server does this apply for?
Outlands
Extra Notes (optional):
Backup Sections => Authorization Applications => Applications and appeals => 
Half-Life 2 Roleplay => Archive => HL2RP Development[ARCHIVE] => Accepted Authorizations => Topic started by: Frolie [Jellykid] on October 20, 2012, 03:12:21 AM