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
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]
Spoiler for Hiden:
Computers in Layla's Apartment [2/3]
Spoiler for Hiden:
Computers in Layla's Apartment [3/3]
Spoiler for Hiden:
A Work-Table in Layla's Apartment
Spoiler for Hiden:
Layla's Hide-out in City 27
Spoiler for Hiden:
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.
When music and art collaborate, fucked up shit happens. I was talking to a guy I know at my local deli, and we got to talking about the weirdest music videos we've witnissed; one thing lead to another, and by the end we'd watched a slieu of videos that looked like they'd come from Satan's Art Development Team on my phone.
Anyway, post the videos you've come across during your scouting about teh webz. Please post some that are lesser known; we all wanna see something new
My personal nominations?
Split the Atom - Noisia
Spoiler for Hiden:
Naked Woman caked in oily water watching a force-feed of explosions and metamorphosis; ye.
Machine Gun - Noisia
Spoiler for Hiden:
Hands going to war with each other: Equally as clever as it is fucked up.
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
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, the would be one of the most knowledgeable living human beings on the subject of Combine Technology.
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.
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
Lalya's Mental Condition: This isn't listed as an authorization, but it definitely worth mentioning. Layla's greatest flaw and greatest attribute are one in the same; perseverance. Against any and all odds, she continues to fight her own battles, sacrificing anything that stands in the way of herself and her goals. Her extreme attention to detail and quest for knowledge is an asset in analysis and research.
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
Remarkable Understanding of Combine Technologies - Despite knowing a lot about the technologies, they're still extremely confusing and intricate - If the character were to ever be discovered modifying combine technologies, she could become a significant target. - Any destruction or damage to hardware could critically impair progress of any project
Climbing & Physical Obstacle Agility - No matter what level of skill, the risk of injury is always present - Layla is a compulsive smoker who spends a lot of time inactive; staying fit would be a chore for her, but it's a necessity to stay physically able.
Layla's Mental Condition: Like I said, Layla's perseverance is also a great flaw. Her kind of addiction to research simply isn't healthy. When it comes to the point of dangerous narcotic use to assist in her projects, then it's definitely crossing the line.
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 computer hardware / software skills. 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.
Will anyone else need these auths? (If so, list OOC and IC name(s)) No one else will require these auths, just Layla.
Which server does this apply for? Outlands
Extra Notes (optional):
Yes. I posted it again. Frankly, I think that the conclusion that was come to the first time I posted this was reached far too hastily and without any regard for compromise. As you can see, I've amended what I'm asking for to what I think is reasonable. The Combine Tech Skills and Climbing Skills have been nixed in their entirety. I'd like to hear from admins only, and really don't want to hear from people like Raged or Hogs. Also, I'd also prefer if admins besides KMP and RTLK posted here, as I feel their opinions are (to a certain extent) biased.
Steam Name: Frolie Age: Fourteen, Fifteen in Early October. 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
- Remarkable Understanding of Combine Technologies
- Climbing & Physical Obstacle Agility (More or Less Parkour / Freerunning)
Write a detailed in-canon back-story how your character obtained these authorizations.
Spoiler for Hiden:
Yep, another auth app from me. I recently obtained a bit of a bad reputation due to an authorization I wrote a short while ago. Many administrators and other players considered it to be Over-Powered, and so it was nerfed down some, and later accepted. What I've written here in this spoiler box is not only a formal apology to any of those who think I've caused wrong, but also a plea for open-mindedness; while you may not approve of a single action I've caused in the immediate past, please don't let that totally sway your opinions on this authorization. Now, about the Back Story: I had been meaning to flesh out Layla's skill-set for some time, but after her first authorization was accepted, I didn't quite know how to do it. After being struck with a rather vicious cold last Friday, I set about finding a way. This character's first authorization was written from the perspective of a journalist, and Layla's Caseworker. If you'd like to read that first, the link is below:
Anyway, due to the character's secretive and paranoid nature, there's a lot the people don't know about her. This authorization is written from her perspective, allowing you to learn about all of her work before and after the 7-Hour-War, and begins shortly after she dropped out of high-school at 16. It was much longer, but I cut it down to just what was necessary to explain how the character obtained the skills and traits. You'll have to forgive me if it feels a little choppy. I've got nothing else to say, so I hope you enjoy what I've written- I promise it's not as long as my last one.
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, the would be one of the most knowledgeable living human beings on the subject of Combine Technology.
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. ___________________________________________________________________________________ City 27 (Concerns Details on Combine Tech and Freerunning)
City Twenty-Seven was a cesspool of shit and crime. The ghetto districts flourished more than civilized districts, and combine patrols and sweeps occurred through said districts on a routine basis. And this, of all places, was where Layla was to live.
It’s not as though she weren’t used to crummy neighborhoods. She spent most of her time with her biological mother inside a terrible household. But terrible neighborhoods of full of terrible people, the most concerning to her of which were thieves. And now more than ever, people wanted the things she had.
Layla still had the majority of her computers and engineering equipment. When the war began, she had been at her parent’s house, in her room, where she usually was. Her adoptive parents were out of the state at the time, going to the funeral of a close relative (Layla was very asocial and rude, so it was no surprise that she was not asked to join them). When her life was in danger, she set her strange priorities first; save everything she could. Amassed in four large bags were the majority of what was important to her; tools, computer towers, computer parts, laptops, cameras, and a myriad of other things. She took these things, and drove her car as far into the country as she could, dodging every peril in her path to get to safety.
She cowered in the country for weeks before taking an infamous sea-trade route out of America and into Russia, the home of City 27. Once she was there, she burrowed into a tall building, mostly out of reach of thieves and wary eyes, and settled in to soak up information.
A new interest had arisen. The combine sported technology unlike Layla had ever seen. It confused and enthralled her all at once, and she was desperate to get her hands on just one fragment to examine. But that chance didn’t come for a long, long time. All she could do was watch and wait.
But watching from one place was yielding no results. She was ridiculously paranoid about traveling on the streets, and thus stuck to roof level. Day in and day out, she’d cautiously stalk the combine from the rooftops, watching their every move. Over week and weeks of this routine, she could dart around the city on the roof faster than most could on the ground. Through trial and error, she slowly got better at climbing and running; to land on the balls of her feet to absorb the impact, to roll to relieve pressure from her legs, when to go under and when to go over. Her small size was a great asset in her new ‘sport’ she could move fast and crawl low. But she never intended to pick up the skill, it was simply inadvertently acquired during her pursuits of seizing combine technology.
Amidst her search from the rooftops, she at last came upon what she wanted. Some kind of scanner had been downed in the back alley of one of the streets. Immediate structural damage would lead her to believe someone had beat at it some a hard object, which caused something inside it to malfunction and thus, lose power. She took it back to her hideout, no easy feat what with a hulking 80 pound robot carcass in her arms.
The technology used by the universal union was an adaptation of earth technology, and otherworldly technology. Having already had a familiarity with how some of it worked, she used that knowledge to fill in the blanks. She slaved for weeks, carefully dissecting and examining every bit of the scanner, soaking up whatever knowledge she could. It eventually became such an obsession that she went to a local district narcotics dealer, and purchased a powerful amphetamine; powerful enough to keep her awake for consecutive days studying the mobile camera.
After four months of research, with little to no sleep, and minimum pausing to eat or drink, Layla felt she had absorbed everything the machine was willing to offer her. But a camera was hardly enough to satisfy her lust for knowledge. She went out again in search of more technology, this time with less patience.
Layla would attack low level patrol officers, and steal their equipment. She’d steal anything she felt was worth her prying eyes from anyone available, and added it all to her growing stockpile of things to study. At the end of two more months, she had attacked a total of twelve different patrol officers, two of whom were killed in said attacks. She’d stolen dozens of separate pieces of tech from GRID units, and had taken cameras off walls. As her intelligence grew, her scope for technologies did too. Eventually she could go so far as to use her computers to cause mass-malfunctions, then collect the resulting damaged materials. Her presence in the city became more and more of an outrage to patrol officers, but her illusiveness made her capture difficult. Eventually special divisions were assigned the project of rooting her out and capturing her.
It didn’t take long for Layla to catch wind of the project. On a unit’s PDA, there was a picture of her. This alone was too much for her. Her paranoid nature told her to pack what she could, and leave immediately. She filled dozens of crates and bags with the contents of her hideout, and moved it out of the city, before moving herself as well. And not a moment too soon; units had found her drug contact, and interrogated him until he gave up what he knew about Layla. It didn’t take long for the units to use this information to find her hideout, but it took to long to find Layla herself. She’d already left the city, and was going west into Romania, a suitable 20 city jurisdictions away.
Some Pics: Took these in my spare time, just to give you an idea of what you're looking at
Computers in Layla's Apartment [1/3]
Spoiler for Hiden:
Computers in Layla's Apartment [2/3]
Spoiler for Hiden:
Computers in Layla's Apartment [3/3]
Spoiler for Hiden:
A Work-Table in Layla's Apartment
Spoiler for Hiden:
Layla's Hide-out in City 27
Spoiler for Hiden:
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
Remarkable Understanding of Combine Technologies + Will be able to analyze and utilize combine technologies
Climbing & Physical Obstacle Agility + Will be able to maneuver around obstacles faster than regular refugees.
Lalya's Mental Condition: This isn't listed as an authorization, but it definitely worth mentioning. Layla's greatest flaw and greatest attribute are one in the same; perseverance. Against any and all odds, she continues to fight her own battles, sacrificing anything that stands in the way of herself and her goals. Her extreme attention to detail and quest for knowledge is an asset in analysis and research.
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
Remarkable Understanding of Combine Technologies - Despite knowing a lot about the technologies, they're still extremely confusing and intricate - If the character were to ever be discovered modifying combine technologies, she could become a significant target. - Any destruction or damage to hardware could critically impair progress of any project
Climbing & Physical Obstacle Agility - No matter what level of skill, the risk of injury is always present - Layla is a compulsive smoker who spends a lot of time inactive; staying fit would be a chore for her, but it's a necessity to stay physically able.
Layla's Mental Condition: Like I said, Layla's perseverance is also a great flaw. Her kind of addiction to research simply isn't healthy. When it comes to the point of dangerous narcotic use to assist in her projects, then it's definitely crossing the line. The same can be said about the Obstacle Climbing Auth. A dangerous climb for even an experienced climber would be attempted by Layla without question, for whatever reason was required of her to attempt it.
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.
And the Climbing & Obstacle Agility skills? Well, there's not as much to that as there was to the rest of the authorizations. It's simply a tactic of escaping harm, or getting for one place to another more quickly. It's also to give the character another notable goal; mobility. Quite recently, Layla was attacked by a crowd due to some negligent choices she had made. Consequently, she was severely beaten, almost to death, and later shot twice. Although the severity of the wounds has been toned down, she's still recovering. Given her small size, she relies on agility to get escape harm, which makes for better motivation in healing. It also adds to her constant 'Fight or Flight' tactic. She either fights with her hands or any tools made available to her, or takes off, knowing she can't face such insurmountable odds. 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 require these auths, just Layla.
It occurred to me that a lot of RP characters are inspired by characters from different movies or TV shows. obviously, if you've taken such a liking to them as to model a character around them, then you can peg them as 'best'. Anyway, my nomination for best TV show character is...
The Hound, from Game of Thrones
What need I say? The fucker simply exerts bad-assness.
Steam Name: Frolie Age: Fourteen, Fifteen in Early October. 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): - Skills in hunting (ICly might go out to hunt in the future, come back with some sort of animal, etc.)
- Very Advanced Melee Combat Skills, as well as strength that is high above the average. The combination would make the character a threat to the average man, and pose a variable danger to those with training, obviously with significant "Evening-Out", as they would be more-or-less equivilant in skill.
- Rudimentary Firearm Skill. This shouldn't come into play often, as the character detests the personal use of guns.
- The following combat weapons, as well as the skill and know how to weild each one: A steel Sickle, with a wooden handle, a 150 Pound Compound Bow, able to pierce completely through flesh (and even some woods), a small combat knife, mostly used for skinning hunted animals, or on rare occasions, as a backup weapon, a carpenter's hammer, for use in improvised combat, and to top them all off, a spear, two feet in length.
- A Thick Kevlar Vest, able to stop the penetration of small arms fire (9mm), and absorb some of the velocity of a higher caliber, hopefully keeping the bullet from piercing all the way through the target area (IE .357 rounds, shotgun pellets, and SMG rounds). Also, a long coat made from animal pelts, the result of the aforementioned Hunting Skills.
- Extreme Height, and (as I've mentioned before) above average physical strength. The character would almost reach seven feet in height, standing at 6 feet and 11 inches.
- Understanding of a variety of languages: English, French, Afrikanis, Kwangali, and Khoekhoe.
- Extreme Pain Tolerance, by no means completely immune to the physical sensation.
Write a detailed in-canon back-story how your character obtained these authorizations.
Part One: The Chieftain's Son...?
Spoiler for Hiden:
This is by far the longest portion of the back-story. Don't think it's all like this.
The Ziweti tribe of Namibia Africa was a peculiarity to behold. While embracing certain modern technologies, they continued to maintain their tribal heritage, and refused to leave their desert homeland. The tribe was of humble size, no more than eighty individuals within their camp. Among them they had three vehicles, all of them trucks, and some flashlights, but besides these royalties, the tribe kept their roots close. They hunted with bow and arrow, and on rare occasions even dagger. They fought among each other with similar weapons, for fun or for motive. Without doubt, they weren't strangers to killing. They’d kill poachers hunting for ivory, and occasionally even the rare Safari-goer. On a few occasions, the tribe members had dared to attack outlaws driving shipments of firearms across their land, but the retaliation from the locally famed Warlord ‘Sergei’ had been so fierce that none dared to attack them again.
Leading the tribe was Ghafi. His wife, Hourte, was given to him as a gift, a sort of peace offering from a few ivory hunters seeking safe passage through their land. He killed the hunters, and took the woman regardless. The pair had already produced a handful of children, the majority of whom had died in their infancy from famine, disease, or some other unfortunate fate. Hourte was pregnant with their twelfth child, which was little surprise as she always seemed to be pregnant. It was anticipated that this would be the last child Hourte would be able to bear, as both she and Ghafi were growing old. Ghafi was set upon delivering a healthy son to take his place as chieftain when he passed, as his surviving children were all female.
The child grew massive inside her mother, over-cumbersome. By Hourte's sixth month, she couldn't stand without being toppled by the immense mass that grew inside her. By her eighth month, she looked as though she were literally about to burst around the skin. Many of those in the camp assumed that the child wouldn’t survive given her disturbing status in the womb. Fearing for his child’s safety, Ghafi drove into the market and brought back a doctor who could act as a midwife.
After the ninth month, the child had still not come forth. The child’s size had become so extreme that Hourte was constantly in pain from the weight that she bore with her. The mid wife couldn’t make anything of the situation. On the tenth month, the labor finally began. It was a disturbingly grueling process that lasted more than eight days. In the final hours of the delivery, the doctor spoke with Ghafi, and told him the truth of the situation; the child was too large to pass through its mother. If Ghafi wanted his son, then the mother would die in the process. If the mother was to be spared, then it would cost his son’s life.
Hourte meant little to Ghafi; simply a woman to bear his children. With hardly any hesitation, he resolved that the doctor would deliver his son, no matter what the cost. The eighth day had almost transcended to its ninth by the time the child was finally ushered forward. The passage of the child resulted in Hourte breaking both her hips, pulling out most of her intestinal tract, and in the end, losing her life. But it was not a son. A fourth daughter came to him instead, spelling the end of his family’s line.
The passing of his wife had been an extreme he was willing to take for his child, and now that that boundary had been passed, there was no length to which he would not go to ensure he had a child to carry his name. The child was massive, and could be passed off for whatever he chose. The only people who knew of the child’s gender where himself and the doctor. He gave it little more thought before taking he midwife’s head.
Ghafi kept his child close to him for years, paranoid that the truth would be discovered. In his years of raising his child, he noticed several peculiarities. She never, ever cried. Nothing seemed to ever cause her pain. There was also her extreme height. By the time the child was at age three she was four feet and eight inches tall. By the age of six, she was five foot four. By eight, she had reached five and feet and eight inches, and was taller than both her father and the majority of the village. Another obvious flaw in Ghafi’s child was her reasoning. She made incontrovertibly stupid choices, and got in fight with many children her own age. As was socially acceptable within the camp, Ghafi would beat her. Nothing severe, and certainly nothing that changed her psychologically, but she certainly learned from her mistakes.
Sasil thought only what her father told her; she was a man. No one taught her or treated her any different than one, and without reference to contest otherwise, that’s what she took as fact. Not that anyone had any reason to contest her masculinity. She was taller than the most of the village by almost a half foot, and could truly not feel pain. It had been put to the test, on several occasions. One suspicious tribal even went so far as to hit her foot with a hammer. She made no reaction in the slightest, beyond the surprise that a villager would dare to inflict harm on the Chieftain’s son. Said tribal was later executed, at Ghafi’s order.
Ghafi knew that he needed to train Sasil in the ways of a warrior and hunter, if he wanted her to be accepted by the tribe as their new leader. However, he did fear the consequences of giving her the training to accompany her already violent behavior. None-the-less, he complied with what had to be done so his family name could live on. Petty squabbles were easy, but the way of war was new, and indeed, much different. But as the tallest of the village, and seemingly immune to pain, she took to it easily. By the end of her first week being taught how to fight with her hands, she could ward off most of those who fought against her in practice combat. Ghafi would say ‘A born warrior who cannot feel the sting of pain. Who would dare face him?’ There were no bounds to where Sasil wouldn’t excruciate herself.
After a handful of weeks training with her fists, Sasil graduated to being taught how to use a blade. There was a limited selection as to what sort of weapon she could use, but she was drawn to one an oddity, the sickle. Nonetheless, she was taught to use her weapon, and took to it with a professional attitude, as well with the mandatory weapon training with the spear, which was thought to be the most versatile, and there for most critical cog in a warrior’s arsenal. Melee combat came to her easily, but the same could not be said for battle at range.
Eventually, she was taught to shoot with a bow and arrow. At first she was frustrated with the weakness of the bow, and the slow, patient, practice of firing it. Their heaviest drawn bow could be easily pulled by her, and her aim has shoddy to say the best. Ghafi chose to teach her personally, that it takes patience and precision, and above all else, practice. Determined to get it right, she’d spend days and nights whole practicing until she was too tired to carry herself into a tent to sleep.
Nonetheless, her aim grew better, and not much a surprise to the community, she grew stronger. By her tenth birthday, she could wield a blade and shoot a bow like the best in the camp, and had reached a height of six feet feet. It was the decision of her father, and the other men of the camp, the she be taken on her first hunt. The first kill was a sacred rite of passage, as in to 'become a man'. Ghafi was intent on taking his child to slay her first beast. Sasil, her father, and four other tribal men went in Ghafi's truck, very early in the morning, armed with bows. They drove 80 miles of out, to patch of vegetation nearby the coast, and hid themselves among the tall grasses and tree tops, awaiting their prey of choice; antelope. The most common found species in this area were Gemsbok, but the occasional Springbok found their way out to the land, but were seldom killed, as they bore little meat in comparison to the Gemsbok.
After hours of patient waiting, the sun rose and the antelope came to eat. They came in packs of ten to fifteen, which made them ideal to hunt with a large pack, to take down as many as possible. Fortunately, Sasil had managed to teach herself to be patient through her long personal training with her bow and arrow. Ghafi told Sasil to fire first, and that the rest of the tribe would follow. After long minutes of finding her target and mark, she let fly with the first arrow, which, little to the surprise of Ghafi and the rest of the tribe, missed. The experienced huntsman managed to down one beast, and critically wound another. Ghafi ordered Sasil to finish the downed beast with her knife, to complete the ascendance into maturity. Sasil complied with her father's orders immediately, knowing she would be beaten for shaming the family in front of the other huntsman if she did not. She pulled the blade across the creature's neck, a variably quick death.
The first hunt ignited a new passion in Sasil. Having missed her shot the first time, she demanded to go on a second hunt soon, to which Ghafi willingly obliged. On her second hunt, she didn't shoot at all. She drew her bow, but after a moment of contemplation, slowly allowed the arrow to sink back on the cord. Instead, she watched the beasts and their movements. This went on until the beasts left on their own accord. This important practice was another great lesson in her life; silence and perceptiveness. This education in dead quiet and clear focusbecame a great attribute to Sasil's abilities, but for now, was just to impress her father. She repeated this process on several more hunts, and practiced her aim each time she returned home. On the nineteenth hunt, she finally left her second arrow fly. It was a perfect shot, just behind the shoulder blades of the antelope's front legs, piercing both lungs and the heart. The Gemsbok managed to run ten shaky yards before crumpling down into the dirt, dead.
After achieving the patience, the silence, precision, and discipline to stalk prey, fire a bow, fight with her fists, and wield a blade, learning more skills only broadened her horizon. Ghafi taught her to drive the truck, and the two went to and from the market twice a month, selling gathered herbs, animal pelts, and meat. She learned a large variety of languages at the market, as the dialect of Namibia was extremely diverse. Everything from French to Afrikaans was spoken there, and Sasil would learn from the negotiations her father had with the merchants. This was, more or less, the majority of her schooling within the tribe. While not being very bright herself, she was growing into a deadly weapon, and a true tribe leader; She was quick, quiet, precise, strong, and immune to pain. Ghafi called her 'The perfect warrior'.
Sasil could kill an animal, but a man was a different story. When she was eleven, she was driving to the market with Ghafi. While on the dirt road, they narrowly evaded a crash with another vehicle, which was run off the road. An angry black man exited the vehicle, with a rifle in his hand. Ghafi exited the truck, and tried to reason with him, eventually somewhat talking him down. But the visible tusks of a rhino in the man's vehicle revealed his profession; an ivory hunter. Such poaching was not allowed on the Ziweti's land, and Ghafi retaliated by shoving the man into the hood of the truck, a rather foolish move to pull on an armed man. But before the hunter could pull off a single shot, he met a brutal end. Sasil had watched the situation unfold, and had climbed out the window of the truck to make little noise. As the man raised his weapon, Sasil drew her Sickle, and took of his head without hesitation.
Sansil's first dance with death set into motion an unquenchable blood-lust. She'd patrol the Ziweti land, hacking down anyone foolish enough to stray too far off course. Even though she’d heard stories of what the gun-runners did to the tribals who dared attack one of their trucks, she couldn’t help be insulted and disgusted over the fact that they drove their vehicles on their land. While returning from a hunt one morning, she spotted one such vehicle; a hulking truck, visibly packed with wooden crates, likely filled with weapons. Outside of her father’s knowledge, or the knowledge of anyone in the camp, she killed off one such truck; the driver, a passenger, and a trio of guards in the back. She allowed the passenger to live unscathed, to tell the warlord Sergei transporting his goods on the Ziweti land would no longer be tolerated.
Sansil choices were the downfall of her tribe. When it came to the attention of the warlord Sergei that his shipment was not received, he was furious. He demanded the immediate elimination of the entire tribe, and hired mercenaries to carry out his dirty work. The attack took place early in the morning, during one of Sasil's solo hunting trips. While she was away, a team of thirty armed men rode into the camp, and slaughtered every man, woman, and child. They burned the tents, and the cabin, and filmed the executions of Ghafi and his daughters, as proof to Sergei that the job had been done. Sansil returned to the camp in stunned horror, the bodies of her family and friends strewn about the camp in small piles.
Part Two: Vengeance
Spoiler for Hiden:
Shorter than Part One, but still at moderate length.
Here in, revenge wasn’t an option, it was a necessity. Her father may have smacked her around some, but only when she earned it, and she never took a beating without also learning a lesson. Without her father, she’d never have learned to fight, with her hands or a blade, and certainly not with a bow. It was no longer a matter of if she’d get her vengeance, it was a when.
It didn’t take too much to learn who was at fault for her people’s death. The shells of bullets and the wounds on the bodies gave it away. No one else was armed liked the arms-dealer’s soldiers. Whatever was to be done from here, it couldn’t be reckless, like the actions that caused the tribe’s death. It was to be coordinated, and executed carefully.
Her weapons had not been lost in the destruction. She still had her bow, sickle, and spear. But what instruments she used were irrelevant. What she learned on her hunts, she put in place here; she watched first. She knew which way the trucks came and went, but that was all.
She gathered some food, and a good load of water, and then burrowed in, a short 500 feet from where she attacked the first truck. From what she could see, the truck and the bodies had been moved, but this too was irrelevant. After one week of hiding in a hole in the dirt (a large one, of course), finally a truck passed, wooden crates and armed men in the back. She watched them go, not moving a muscle. They had gone a decent 15 miles before her eyes failed her, and she could see them no more. She took her father’s truck (her truck now) in the direction she watched them go, burrowed in, and waited again.
This process continued, for more than three months. Of course, her skills never dulled. She had to kill to eat, and there was always something to kill. The trucks would come every two weeks, which made the process of tracking them very difficult, moving only about fifteen to thirty miles each time. But the trail did lead her somewhere, and that somewhere, to her surprise, was an authority checkpoint. A clever man would have figured it out within a minute, but Sasil wasn’t the smart sort. She burrowed in again, and watched the scene every two weeks. It was always the same: The truck would arrive, a man in the passenger’s seat would exit, the man and the evident officer in charge would exchange conversations, after which one would take a call with a satellite phone. The passenger would talk on the phone, then the guard would talk on the phone, and then one of the two would hang up. The passenger would receive a large envelope from the driver, give it to the officer in charge, and then the truck would drive off. The scene would begin and end in about a half hour.
She watched this happen three more times, another month and a half, before she put it together. Corrupt authorities, common in Namibia, but Sasil had never seen or heard of them. She’d only seen authorities once, a pair of vehicles riding across the desert. But she knew who they were, and knew what had to be done. On her fourth time watching the exchange, she waited until the phone call was over, and the passenger was fetching the envelope, before she let fly with an arrow. She was properly angled, and her bow was of great strength. It pierced clear through the passenger’s throat, and struck the driver in the eye. The passenger bled out in the road, but the driver died instantly.
No one knew where the arrow came from, but there were three armed soldiers on their highest alert, as were the four armed guards in the back of the truck. Those four were next; they were well armed, with automatic weapons. Best at moderate range, and still operable at close range, but in the tight quarters in the trucks back, they’d be in a tough position.
As expected, one of said guards made his way out of the back, and tried to shift the driver’s corpse to make an escape. Unfortunately, dead weight was too much for him to handle, and another one of Sasil’s arrows struck him in the back. At this point, her opponents had learned their lesson, and were staying behind their respective covers. Another planned move; when they can’t be hit, that can’t see. Sasil crept low, along the hillside, down to the side of the truck. She made short work of the three guards inside, with her hands and sickle. From the back of the truck, she dispensed two more guards with her bow, and killed the last guard while he fled from the scene, having thrown her spear into his neck as he ran.
She took the weapons-transport truck, and sped her way across the road as fast as the vehicle could take her, to make up for the time lost in the skirmish. The road forked into two directions. One led three hundred more miles to a small town. The other led about three miles, to a small trio of buildings affixed to a little air-strip, which could be visibly seen from Sasil’s position. For most, the small plane and air-strip may have tipped them off, but for Sasil, it was her experience as a hunter that told her where to go. The road to the houses obviously used very frequently; the other was clearly seldom utilized.
It had been almost six months Sergei had the Ziweti’s eliminated, and even then it meant little to him; a bump in the road, merely a necessity of business. Nothing was wrong with the day thus far. His phone call between the corrupt authorities and the shipment handler had come and gone, and besides the shipment itself being a bit late, everything was where it should be.
Sasil watched the trio of buildings. Months of dedication and planning would be meaningless if she couldn’t execute her plan correctly. Her mind told her to wait it out, watch the movements of the encampment, but her primal instincts told her to take the lives of those responsible for her family’s death. Before she could act on either option, an unexpected coincidence occurred. It was one in a million, an insurmountable collision of events. Four vans plowed down the opposite road, turned onto the encampment, and halted. Shortly after, armed men stormed out of them, at least five or ten in each van, collectively numbering upwards of thirty to forty. A barrage of gunfire ensued, from both the men from the vans and the encampment’s guard.
This occurrence was all that Sasil needed to know she had to act quickly. Whoever these people were, they threatened her chances of personally killing the man responsible for the death of her tribe. She left her vehicle, and rushed down to the firefight. In the blur of battle, she didn’t know how many she killed, or which side they fought for. Only after the battle had come to an intermission did she even realize that she had been shot in the hip. She paid no mind to the wound.
The first building was a sort of barn, or some type of storage area. The second was an accessory to the airstrip, likely a garage. The last was a massive house. It wasn’t fancy, but it was certainly large, and was ultimately a fortress. It was clear that several windows had taken bullets and hadn’t even shattered. While what was left of the armed attackers assaulted the front, Sasil went in from the back, scaling up onto a small balcony. She saw a Russian man barrel down the stairs, in such a panic that he didn’t even notice Sasil’s massive figure. She’d never seen him before, and didn’t know the characteristics that made him the locally famed arms dealer, but she knew it was him. She pursued him down the steps, and took another bullet in her ankle. Her pace didn’t change in the slightest. Sergei had evidently gone down into the underground garage, going for a vehicle to make an escape in.
He would have been safe, had he not stuck his hand out to close the car door. Sasil drew her bow, and shot it, pinning his hand to the door’s interior. She moved up closely, leaving no time for error. There was no Hollywood-esque speech, or even a definitive looked between the two. Sergei drew a pistol, and Sasil drew her Sickle. Sergei put a single round in her stomach, and Sasil took off his head. Though she couldn’t feel pain, it didn’t mean she wasn’t affected by it. She had sustained three bullet wounds in the long brawl, and she had finally crumpled to her knees, exhausted from a day long venture of killing. Feet rushed down the steps to the garage, but Sasil was unconscious before she could see who they were. When Sasil woke, she couldn’t move. She was limp as a corpse, but could see her surroundings. Her tribal clothing was gone, replaced with a sort of hospital gown (which barely fit). One leg was suspended in the air and in a cast. Her hip was heavily bandaged as well, but above all else, her stomach was a mountain of pale cloth dressing. She was seated in some sort of hospital bed. She didn’t know it, but she was not in a hospital. Wherever she was, it was a long way from where she had come from.
Part Three: Redemption in Business / War
Spoiler for Hiden:
Back to a little more detail, none-the-less, shorter than Part One.
Where Sasil was, was an expensive house in London, England. She didn’t know this yet, but a she was in the home of Raymond Dumont, an international weapons dealer. Sergei was bush-league. Raymond was the real deal. Sergei had gone so far as to take a tiny quadrant of Namibia as his own industry, and it cost him his life. Raymond had sent a squad of mercenaries to eliminate Sergei, coincidently on the same night that Sasil had gone to get her vengeance.
But what struck Raymond was that Sasil had accomplished what 38 armed and trained men couldn’t. She had infiltrated the manor, and killed Sergei personally. That she did so while killing his hired guns was irrelevant. She was a prize, a needle in the haystack find, and would be his new weapon of choice.
When Sasil had more or less regained her strength, she knew better than to fight. Instead, she complied with everything her captors asked of her. First, she was assessed by a doctor. She didn’t know much English, but because some of the merchants at the old market spoke French, she could communicate. A mental study was done first. The conclusion was that she had sadistic behavior, as well as problems in the field of gender identity. No matter who spoke against it, or presented an argument against her, she’d insist she was male. The second assessment was of her physical condition. After a handful of tests, it was ultimately decided that she suffered from a pituitary gland disorder that caused her extreme size, besides being large from birth. Her inability to feel pain was a result of a disorder called Congenital Analgesia.
Raymond was respected, but he didn’t have the iron fist to back up that respect with fear. He had enemies, and hired guns were variably successful, expensive, and simply liabilities to his reputation in the business. It was for such reasons that he made Sasil a proposition: She would work for him, on call, within the city, to handle targets personally chosen by Raymond based in and around Europe, Africa, and Asia. A ‘Consulting Assassin’ he called it. She’d be given clothing, a place to live, someone to look out for her, and enough money to purchase whatever she desired. She’d also be given a few teachers and instructors to hone on her already keen skills in murder. It was this option only. Should she deny, she’d be put to death. What else was she to do? She could fight when she was able-bodied, but with her existing injuries, no matter how little they ailed her, she couldn’t fight, so instead, she agreed.
It took several months for her injuries to completely heal. After they did, she was introduced to urban society. She despised it immediately. Loud, busy, and distracting, it wasn’t the ideal place for a tribal raised in Africa. Nonetheless, she would be forced to adjust to it. She was brought to her new place of residence, a nicely kept apartment building. Her floor had several rooms; a kitchen, a bath area, a living room, a walk-in closet (not that she was too picky about her clothes), and even a Jacuzzi. All this was new to her, and she didn’t indulge in any of it. There was only one thing that enticed her immediately, and that was her new live-in tutor, Lana.
Lana was paid by Raymond to keep an eye on Sasil, keep her fed, teach her English and other rudimentary skills, keep the apartment clean, and things of that sort. But she was much more to Sasil. As a result of her upbringing, Sasil always thought it was correct that she was to sleep with women, but Sasil had never slept with anyone anyway, and the last person that would be her first would be Lana. She was tiny, and frail, and Sasil was (perhaps literally) a giant. Besides the physical differences, Lana was a celibate.
Nonetheless, the two of them hit it off quite well. Lana would make food while Sasil would struggle to understand Math and English. By this point, she was seventeen, and almost reaching her maximum height, standing now at six foot three. Every day, Lana would drive Sasil to one of her various classes; She’d be taught to shoot at the range, which she never got too good at, besides her hating the use of firearms. Her skills in hand-to-hand combat were honed down to the professional by several different tutors, whom she’d visit every day for most of the day. When back at the apartment, she’d run on a treadmill, or lift weights, or some other physical exercise, or she’d learn more from Lana.
Eventually Sasil acted on her sexual feelings for Lana, a situation that ended with Sasil taking a few slaps to the face, for which she had no reaction in any way. Lana consulted Raymond personally about the matter, and eventually the resolve was to hire from a discreet escort service. After all, Raymond needed to keep his hitman happy. After Sasil’s first sexual encounter (no matter if it was a legal one or not), it became a regular activity. She’d have a woman, and on seldom occasions, a man, in her room almost every night. She was too stupid to understand that Lana paid them for their services.
Once the sexual feelings had been put aside, the Lana and Sasil grew platonically close. The two would play cards often, which Sasil found herself to be very good at, despite her deplorable reasoning skills. It was a year and a half of easy-going times, just exercise and training, card games and meals, before Raymond sent Sasil her first assignment. She was driven to a country manor in France two days after being briefed on her target: Damian Macintosh, an American who had wronged Raymond in some way or another, and this needed to be made an example of. Short work was made of him. Ignoring the tools entrusted to her, Sasil did the work with her hands, leaving the manor that evening with five dead, Damian included.
Grudgingly, Raymond accepted that Sasil would always refuse the modern technologies given to her to carry out her dirty deeds. Accordingly, he had a set of weapons made custom for her, maximized for use in combat. He had a Sickle made from galvanized steel, razor sharp, with a wide arc to make it easier on the arm. The compound bow was the most expensive venture. It too was made from steel, which was the only material that could sustain its incredible one hundred- fifty poundage. The spear was reconstituted as a hard wood pole, affixed to which was a blade made from aluminum and steel, to keep it light but strong. Among the weapons, he had a heavy Kevlar vest made custom for Sasil’s large figure, knowing that her ignorance of her wounds could well result in her death. With these accommodations, he made Sasil into an unstoppable machine.
Raymond gave Sasil more assignments over the continuing five years, each one becoming more and more reckless as she killed off more than necessary. She was becoming too much for Raymond to handle. Just as she had been for her tribe, Raymond knew she would be his undoing. He slowly cut his ties with her, finally using his assets in the police to have her put away. Such was no easy task, however. At the time of the raid, Sasil and Lana had been enjoying another game of cards. In the following cavalcade of confusion, Lana had been shot dead, and a trio of police officers had been killed. Sasil managed to escape (jumping from the fire escape to a neighboring building) with a duffle bag full of cash, her weapons, her Kevlar vest, a bug-out bag (which Lana had prepared for situations just like these), and one of the dead officer’s firearms.
Six years of mission experience told her that going after Ray was a lost cause, if it had even been him that was at fault. The only alternative was to escape, which was no easy task. She’d killed three officers, which certainly didn’t blow over quickly. Every block within a half-mile of the apartment had been cordoned off to assist in the search effort.
She took the elevator down to the basement floor of the building, and then took the stairs up to the ground floor. Once there, she broke down one of the windows leading into the street opposite of her apartment building. Two patrol cars sped down the street, but neither seemed to notice Sasil. Continuing on open roads was too risky, so she promptly made a decision to continue through the sewers. With her bare-hands, she pried open a man-hole that took her down into the drains, where she continued in any random direction she could. After bumping into several walls in the darkness, she eventually smartened up, and rooted around in her bug-out bag for a flashlight. After two more hours wandering about the sewers, she was sure she had moved out of the half-mile radius, because she could hear the sounds of traffic over head of her. After another five minutes searching for an exit ladder, she made her way out onto the street, where she promptly stopped a cab, and forced him at gun-point to drive her out of the city.
The cabbie put up no heroic act. He saw a man standing at almost seven feet with gross muscles, armed with a fire arm, and stained with blood. There was little he could do. Once they had left the city, Sasil forced him to continue until they were entirely off the main roads, and out into the country. Once reaching their ‘destination’, the driver was promptly shot in the head, and the cab pushed off out of view of any passing vehicles. She continued up the road on foot, until eventually another vehicle came along.
Just as with the cabbie, Sasil forced the driver (and his passenger) to drive for several hours. She wasn’t sure where she was headed, but she knew she had to put as much distance as possible between her and London. After a few hours of driving, she killed both occupants of the vehicle, and began the process over again. She did this with seven vehicles, leaving a total of ten dead bodies in her wake over the course of two days.
In a rather round-about fashion, Sasil’s path of destruction brought her to Scotland. With little hesitation, she found an expensive hotel (these were all she stayed in while away on assignments, always at Raymond’s expense. She didn’t really care where she stayed), paid in cash for a room, and settled in to sleep, which was much needed. In the entire day she had rest, the media had sensationalized ‘The Giant’ who had killed three police officers.
Sasil wasn’t too smart. All her actions lead the police right to her. The vehicles bearing dead bodies lead a path into Scotland, which gave validity to the tip from the hotel that a gigantic man had paid in cash for a room. When Sasil finally woke the next night, a variety of police vehicles had surrounded the hotel, and preparing to storm it. Completely surrounded, outmanned, and outgunned, there was no escape from this situation. But another chance occurrence coincided with her near-death encounter.
A hectic portal storm ripped the sky apart, and shook the earth below it. The quake was so extreme that several of the police vehicles outside were flipped completely over onto their side. What was happening, Sasil had no idea, but she began to make her way through the building that was literally falling to pieces as she ran. It took an entire hour to escape the death trap of the hotel as it crumbled to pieces, but when she at last made her way out, the world she looked upon didn’t seem to be much safer.
All manner of creatures were wreaking havoc on everything in sight. The majority of the police officers were dead, or being attacked by antlions, or their larger equivalent, antlion guards. Had Sasil thought things through, as she had learned to do through-out her life, she would’ve fled the scene. But again, her primal instincts enveloped her, and she began the longest and most vicious battle of her entire life.
She spent twelve hours out front of the hotel, killing anything and everything that moved. By the end of the battle, she was drenched in both red and yellow blood. She sat down on a wooden bench in front of the hotel, enjoying the first true silence she’d had in some thirteen years. More than a hundred dead Xenian creatures were sprawled out on the pavement, everything from Vortigaunts to Antlion Guards. The energy she gained from her day-long sleep had been fully exerted in the battle. She crept back into the remnants and of the hotel, and slept.
Part Four: Into the Valley
Spoiler for Hiden:
Very Short, just wrapping up the final details, and final inclusions of authorizations asked for.
When the time came that she rose again, she gathered her arrows from the dead bodies of the creatures outside, and sat down to tediously clean and wax everything. It was a boring and time-wasting exercise, but was entirely necessary to keep her weapons in their best condition. She waxed the cord of her bow, primed the sight, and sharpened her arrows. Then she cleaned her spear, and sharpened that as well, and finished by cleaning and sharpening her sickle. Somewhere along the trip, she’d lost her pistol, not that it mattered much. Besides hating it in the first place, she’d spent all the ammunition on unfortunate drivers. Before she left the scene, she tore the teeth of a dead Antlion Guard from its mouth, planning to make it into a necklace to commemorate her great victory.
From then, Sasil went back to her roots. She hunted wild game in the marshes and forests, gradually moving back South again. From the skins of animals she killed, she had a kindly Scots-woman who was selling her services as a seamstress to refugees in need fashion a coat for it. By no means was it very attractive, but it sealed out the cold well, and it was very intimidating, especially given the head of the wolf fixed to it that was utilized as a hood (a garment that would later earn her the title ‘Hound’, and to some ‘The Dog Man’). She swam across the English channel herself, fully clothed, and bearing her weapons. By no means did she make record time, but at least she passed. In her travels, she eventually met Beans, a kindly man who had befallen some harsh times. He hadn’t yet made his way into the canals yet, much less Ineu Pass, and was being hunted by a trio of do-good cannibal-hunters. In exchange for their deaths, Beans gave Sasil a 4-inch knife and promises of ‘favors in the future’. She didn’t think he’d last too much longer.
Time moved quickly. Eventually, she happened upon a trading caravan some year and a half after the war, and was hired as a guard. The trader who led the group, a Spanish man named Paolo, treated Sasil in a possessive manner, like she was his to command. In her time working for the caravan, she heard much about what was happening all around Europe, and eventually word of the group ‘The Crazies’, got to her, and of Beans, the man in charge. She resolved that the caravaneer’s life was not for her, and she was especially tired of being tried like Paolo’s dog. While he slept one night, she stabbed him in the eye with Beans’ knife. She could’ve taken anything she wanted from his supply, but she chose a select few items; a carpenter’s hammer, and a couple of maps detailing trade routes around Europe. After studying the maps for a while, she eventually found Ineu Pass, a seldom visited area in Romania. Not knowing why exactly she should go to Beans, she set out that very night, her weapons and attire in tow, towards Ineu Pass.
What will these authorizations give your character in regards to perks or defects? Perks Hunting and Gathering Skills + Will allow the character to remain self sufficient by living off the animals and plants of the land. + If desired, the character could sell off gathered meats and provisions as a source of income.
Very Advanced Melee Combat Skills + An obvious advantage in situations involving close combat against the average. + As Hound has done numerous times throughout her life, she could sell her skills to those able to pay.
Rudimentary Firearm Skill + Better than average skill with firearms, an advantage if she decides to use a firearm.
Weapons: Sickle, Compound Bow, Small Carving Knife, Hammer, Spear + Sickle: Would cause a lot of damage at close range, especially against an unarmed opponent. + Compound Bow: Would be extremely useful in both hunting and fighting, for taking out targets at moderate ranges. + Small Skinning Knife: A good weapon to hide away for use when needed (For example, skinning an animal). + Carpenter's Hammer: A weapon of blunt force. Would cause devastating damage at close ranges. + An obvious advantage when facing an unarmed opponent. + Obviously intimidating, espicially given the character's existing appearance.
Kevlar, Animal Pelt Coat + Kevlar will obviously be of great assistance, when faced with an armed with a small-arms firearm. + Animal Pelt Coat will sheild Hound from the cold weather in the valley. + Animal Pelt Coat could prove intimidating to certain individuals.
Extreme Height and Muscular Strength + The character's extreme height would make her especially intimidating to the majority of folk. + The character's muscular ability would allow her to accomplish extraordinary tasks the average man can't manage.
Understanding of the following languages: English, French, Afrikanis, Kwangali, and Khoekhoe. + Would allow the character to communicate in a variety of languages, with people of varying nationality.
Extreme Pain Tolerance + Would allow the character to persevere through unimaginable pain and suffering. + Would grant the character an almost mythical status (as mentioned in the back-story, 'The Perfect Warrior').
Defects Hunting and Gathering Skills - Hunting in the manner to which Hound is accustom is sometimes dangerous, and she could become injured.
Very Advanced Melee Combat Skills - Such skills add to her intimidating demeanor, and could make it difficult to forge allies / friends. - Her combat skills wouldn't give her a edge over a trained opponent.
Rudimentary Firearm Skill - Hound detests the use of firearms, and would choice her bow or other weapon without hesitation. - Her skill in firearms is very basic, as she never much cared for their use.
Weapons: Sickle, Compound Bow, Small Carving Knife, Hammer, Spear - Sickle: Though easy to handle, it arcs widely, making the attacks easy to dodge by an agile opponent. - Compound Bow: With such a high poundage, it would be extremely unweildy and dangerous to use. - Small Skinning Knife: Only four inches in length, it has little ability to reach a distanced opponent. - Carpenter's Hammer: Heavy and difficult to manage. Only an unwary victim would by vulnerable. - Spear: Wouldn't have much force to cause damage to a close target. - All weapons are frankly intimidating, and adds to her frightening persona, making it hard to forge allies.
Kevlar, Animal Pelt Coat - Kevlar would only entirely stop small caliber bullets, which would still cause damage. - Kevlar is useless against pulse ammunition. - Kevlar impairs mobility, which could make the character less effective in a fight - The coat could be looked upon as intimidating, making it difficult to forge friends or allies.
Extreme Height and Muscular Ability - The character's extreme height makes her easily identifiable, an extreme disadvantage when trying to stay covert. - The character's extreme muscular ability adds to her intimidating demeanor, which makes it difficult to forge friends or allies.
Understanding of the following languages: English, French, Afrikanis, Kwangali, and Khoekhoe. - The character speaks on rare occasions. Knowledge of these language is practically useless.
Extreme Pain Tolerance - Ignorance of life-threatening wounds could cost the character her life. - Ignorance of extreme wounds could result in crippling disabilities. - Without learning the consequence of dangerous situations, she's more likely to put her life at risk.
What do you plan to do with these perks/defects? I plan on creating and developing an intimidating character, which I will both be seldom utilized or developed with strangers. Ideally, the character would become more myth than person, surviving by word of mouth, almost like a horror story. In reality, the character would come out of the wood work when drastic measures need to be taken, I.E. when the Outlands faces a new foe, or when the OTA take an especially hard approach to their routinely raid.
Collectively, I hope to increase both active / action RP, and passive RP.
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):
Frolie [Returned From the Dead]: lol Frolie [Returned From the Dead]: I'm gonna post this version, just so admins have to read it. Frolie [Returned From the Dead]: MUHAHAHAHA Cpl. Tray [22nd AB NA] [MP]: Ok Cpl. Tray [22nd AB NA] [MP]: LULULUL Frolie [Returned From the Dead]: LULUUL
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.
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.
I, Hudson Clark hereby swear my mind, body and soul to the Universal Union forever so long as I draw breath. I do so knowing that my actions will be held accountable to me and solely myself. I also declare my knowledge that as a Member of The Universal Union that I will be required to perform tasks above and beyond as well as perform ANY task ordered to by ANY commanding person(s). I hereby acknowledge the fact that as a Civil Protection Task-force Unit that I will be losing most, if not all, communication and or past relationship with anyone outside of the Universal Union's operational bounds.
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:
Spoiler for Hiden:
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
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
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.
If anyone else out there is a Bethesda Fallout nut (like yours truly) then I'd like to hear your preference; New Vegas or Fallout 3.
From my perspective, Fallout 3 will take the gold. I still love New Vegas, but Fallout 3 got the perfect levels of disturbing, hilarious, and innovative locked down. I liked that in Fallout 3, your choices actually effected those around you (A pretty good example would be nuking Megaton). The plot was great, the music was ironicly kick ass, and the immersion was perfect, at least, in my opinion.
Also, having Liam Nesson demand to know what kind of person you are literal seconds after you're shot from your mother's baby cannon is also pretty great.
The Sirens are a moderately-sized pack of radical feminists with an extreme approach to moral authority. In layman's terms, it's a bunch of women in a pack that go around ineu pass fucking up the 'bad guys', often with methods far more extreme than the alleged criminal's crime. As the name and explanation suggests, it's women only (based on the principle that these particular individuals hate society in general and men in particular).
As of late, the members have occupied the Belles Town gas station as their 'Head-Quarters'. However, after having lost several significant members of their crew, the Belles Town gas station was burned down by The Sirens, in some sort of vague fashion of retribution.
Having currently gone through a wretched ordeal with The Crazies, The Sirens have found themselves more lacking in members than they had originally. That being said, the group will either fade from existence, and broaden their spectrum for membership; intentions thus far unclear.
Steam Name: Frolie STEAM ID: STEAM_0:0:41729694 Character Name: Alex Korbin Reason for the switch: Returning from the Outlands after his initial project had been completed.
If required, write a detailed backstory on how your character left the outlands: Alex left City 45 because he feared combine detection in his Precinct 3 safe-house. Knowing how long the strenuous activities involved in his coding project would take, he thought it best to relocate, until such a time that he the project is complete. He got in contact with the special-contraband dealer whom assisted in increasing Alex's computer technologies collection, and asked him to send a request further up the line, for some help moving himself and some boxes out of the city. After a considerable few months in the outlands, Alex contacted the same 'railroad' to help him get back in.
Time when it happened (if mis-click): Appeal is for IC reasons, so this part isn't necessary.
I'm sure that many of you are aware of this song, and it's notoriously odd (and to some, disturbing) music video. Because I'm full of myself, can write, and have an opinion, I'm doing a tiny analysis of the song and it's meaning. Now, coming from some one who's teachers have voiced, and even acted upon their beliefs that there is something fucked with me, I'm fairly certain that this song is supposed to gesture towards the circus of opinion and rash judgement, and is fittingly set in the breeding ground for these sort of actions; school. system. The literal lyrics describe the tale of Dexter Fishbourne, a young truant who's actions in and out of school have resulted in "The opinion of the entire staff that Dexter is criminally insane".
As above stated, crazy shit does indeed go down in the video. Ranging from a senior citizen playing the drums, to a turtle with a man's head, and even a transvestite doing a freaky rain dance, the completely bat shit crazy things that happen is simply that; crazy. The video is supposed to show how judgmental some people can be based on what they've seen other people do, and how those people imagine the typical 'Dexter' in his own imagination. Most songs by The Avalanches are like this one, but I figured this one was of the most deserving of any analysis. Feel free to post your own thoughts about the video -Frolie
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