Trans9 App
Your name: Andy
Your LJ: Nique
Your email: 2icsection9 (at) gmail (dot) com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: dominoak47 (AIM)
Invited by: Cocoa
Character's name: Nikolas Andreyvitch Kamarov, codename: Winter
Character's LJ: anothercoldwar
Character's canon: Stormwatch/ Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Wildstorm Comics)
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Nikolas Kamarov is, at his core, a good man trying valiantly to make up for past sins. In his youth, he was impulsive and brash, and his time in the Russian Spetsnaz wore away at him. Had he not been injured and recruited by Stormwatch, it is quite possible he would have continued a decent into total callousness. Thankfully, removed from the environment of the Soviet special forces, he was able to find a new purpose, working to help the world and hopefully make up for some of the atrocities he'd willingly committed.
Nikolas is a smart, capable man, willing to take orders but not follow leadership blindly. If he disagrees with something, he will speak his mind on the matter, and is not above going behind the backs of his superiors if he feels the action is warranted. He puts the lives and safety of others--both coworkers and civilians--before his own, and has undertaken what can only be termed suicidal risks on more than one occasion.
In his daily interactions, he can be somewhat awkward. He tends to come off as a loner, but the truth is that while he enjoys the company of other people, he feels inadequate in many social situations and does not know how to properly connect with others. He suffers chronic depression, makes him susceptible to moody behavior and the occasional outburst in times of stress, no doubt compounded by the fact that he has received numerous psychological shocks in the past, including spending several years in what can only be termed unimaginable torment after an attempt to sacrifice himself for the greater good went horribly wrong. Despite this, and the memories of that time, which still plague him, he is capable of being a functional human being, which speaks to the sheer willpower and determination he possesses.
While others have described the man as a hero, in Nikolas' own eyes, he is just a deeply flawed human being doing his very best to make up for his past mistakes.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
Nikolas Kamarov was born and raised in Siberia, in what was then the USSR. As a young man, he pursued a career in gymnastics as a way to escape the harshness of his homeland, and effort that eventually paid off, earning him a spot on the Russian Olympic team. During a training trip to Florida, Nikolas became entranced with life outside the grip of the Soviets, and attempted to defect. He was detained and placed at the mercy of the Soviet government, which decided to repay his insolence by enlisting him in the army special forces known as the Spetsnaz.
Nikolas proved to be a very good soldier, but it was a career that chipped away at his humanity. Along with his friend Constantin Yevgraf, Nikolas became one of their most highly skilled soldiers, sent on a great number of very brutal missions. Finally, he was ordered to kill Yevgraf, who had volunteered himself for a secret armed suit project and subsequently gone mad. While Nikolas offered no objections to killing one of his best friends, Yevgraf apparently retained more humanity, because instead of killing Nikolas, as he easily could have, he simply beat him severely.
Rendered immobile as he recovered from his injuries, Nikolas had time to reflect on the things he had done and the person he had become. Despite his outward callousness, the atrocities he had committed haunted him, and he longed for some chance to try and atone for his actions.
That chance came in the form of the UN backed peacekeeping force known as Stormwatch. Consisting of both regular and posthuman operatives and based on the orbital space station Skywatch, Stormwatch had a mandate to assist in incidents involving UN member countries whenever requested. Having been alerted to abnormalities in Nikolas' medical profile, Stormwatch recruited him, the Soviet army all too willing to cede their now broken soldier to the group.
With his abilities activated, Nikolas became a full member of the group, working with his team members around the globe to help in whatever conflicts they were asked to assist in. The fact that Stormwatch could only intervene in incidents when requested by the nation involved, however, chafed Nikolas' newly rekindled sense of social justice, causing repeated clashes between himself and Stormwatch's leadership. It also resulted in Nikolas acting of his own accord in several instances, without Stormwatch approval.
Despite his behavioral difficulties, Nikolas proved to be a very good field agent, eventually being given command of his own team. Conflict reared its head again with the discovery of a world parallel to their own, under threat of alien invasion. Nikolas insisted on action--he felt it their duty to help in any way they could--but then-head of Stormwatch, Jackson King, insisted they do nothing. In the end, they were forced to watch as parallel versions of themselves sacrificed themselves to save their world.
This act caused serious conflict between Nikolas and Jackson, one that might have had serious consequences, had Stormwatch not found itself almost immediately under attack by a hostile alien race themselves. With Skywatch infested, many of his team dead, and himself wounded, Nikolas chose to make the noble sacrifice and stay on the station while the rest of the survivors evacuated so that he could guide Skywatch into a planned impact with the sun, thus incinerating it and the threat on-board.
For most people, that would be the end. Unfortunately for Nikolas, his energy-absorbing talents worked against him. While his body was incinerated along with all of Skywatch, his consciousness remained intact, bound to the sun in unending torment. This fact was not known until a series of attacks on earth that seemed to originate from the sun itself. The renegade superhero group, The Authority, investigated and discovered the truth. Unfortunately, they were unable to free Nikolas, instead containing his consciousness in a quantum cage within the sun itself, in order to prevent further attacks.
Years later, Jackson King, now assembling a new Stormwatch team, received a call from the Authority's Doctor, proposing a way to resurrect Nikolas. While the previous Doctor had not been able to separate Nikolas from the sun, the new one thought he could, and used DNA Stormwatch had on file to create a new body for the Russian soldier. Then, with the aid of Jackson's telepathy, he guided Nikolas' consciousness back to his body. The risky procedure proved a success, restoring him fully to life. Following his resurrection, Nikolas took up his old job with Stormwatch, now funded by the United States, helping to keep various post-human threats under control.
(Nikolas will be taken from after issue 12 of Post Human Division, before the Armageddon event occurs in the Wildstorm Universe.)
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Test run here: http://testrun-box.livejournal.com/269573.html
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
Nikolas is a posthuman, one of a number of people from his world who gained special abilities though one force or another. In his case, the change occurred due to the 'comet effect' which mutated the DNA of certain individuals, giving them potential for super-human abilities if activated by another person with the talent to manifest latent abilities. Nikolas is an energy absorber. His powers allow him to absorb energy and either store or redirect that energy in a number of ways. Nikolas has the ability to absorb any sort of energy--from thermal to solar, from nuclear to the energy found in a thrown punch--and use it for his own purposes. The simplest use of his ability is simply to redirect it into blasts of pure energy. However, he can also utilize it to increase his speed and physical strength, and even fly, though he rarely utilizes the latter. Owing to this talent, he can also identify and track significant sources of energy. In addition, stored energy is utilized by his body to produce a sort of healing effect. Small injuries heal rapidly and automatically (assuming he has a charge) while larger injuries can be healed by absorbing some source of available power.
For all of this, Nikolas has his weaknesses. While he can absorb magical energy, doing so causes him a great deal of physical pain. In addition, while he has been shown able to absorb a very large quantity of energy, if he cannot for some reason release it, it can cause him physical damage which will continue until the excess can either be expelled or metabolized by his body. If Nikolas expends all of the energy he has stored, the result is fatigue, which can either be corrected by absorbing any source of energy, or plain, old fashioned rest. As far as canon has shown, he cannot subsist solely on his posthuman talents. He still requires food and rest, the same as any other person. Nikolas can control his abilities, although there is always some low-level passive absorption of energy from his environment.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
In addition to being a trained gymnast, Nikolas served in the Russian Spetsnaz, and thus possesses excellent hand-to-hand combat skills, as well as a proficiency in the use of firearms, although due to his posthuman abilities, he rarely uses the latter.
Your LJ: Nique
Your email: 2icsection9 (at) gmail (dot) com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: dominoak47 (AIM)
Invited by: Cocoa
Character's name: Nikolas Andreyvitch Kamarov, codename: Winter
Character's LJ: anothercoldwar
Character's canon: Stormwatch/ Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Wildstorm Comics)
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Nikolas Kamarov is, at his core, a good man trying valiantly to make up for past sins. In his youth, he was impulsive and brash, and his time in the Russian Spetsnaz wore away at him. Had he not been injured and recruited by Stormwatch, it is quite possible he would have continued a decent into total callousness. Thankfully, removed from the environment of the Soviet special forces, he was able to find a new purpose, working to help the world and hopefully make up for some of the atrocities he'd willingly committed.
Nikolas is a smart, capable man, willing to take orders but not follow leadership blindly. If he disagrees with something, he will speak his mind on the matter, and is not above going behind the backs of his superiors if he feels the action is warranted. He puts the lives and safety of others--both coworkers and civilians--before his own, and has undertaken what can only be termed suicidal risks on more than one occasion.
In his daily interactions, he can be somewhat awkward. He tends to come off as a loner, but the truth is that while he enjoys the company of other people, he feels inadequate in many social situations and does not know how to properly connect with others. He suffers chronic depression, makes him susceptible to moody behavior and the occasional outburst in times of stress, no doubt compounded by the fact that he has received numerous psychological shocks in the past, including spending several years in what can only be termed unimaginable torment after an attempt to sacrifice himself for the greater good went horribly wrong. Despite this, and the memories of that time, which still plague him, he is capable of being a functional human being, which speaks to the sheer willpower and determination he possesses.
While others have described the man as a hero, in Nikolas' own eyes, he is just a deeply flawed human being doing his very best to make up for his past mistakes.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
Nikolas Kamarov was born and raised in Siberia, in what was then the USSR. As a young man, he pursued a career in gymnastics as a way to escape the harshness of his homeland, and effort that eventually paid off, earning him a spot on the Russian Olympic team. During a training trip to Florida, Nikolas became entranced with life outside the grip of the Soviets, and attempted to defect. He was detained and placed at the mercy of the Soviet government, which decided to repay his insolence by enlisting him in the army special forces known as the Spetsnaz.
Nikolas proved to be a very good soldier, but it was a career that chipped away at his humanity. Along with his friend Constantin Yevgraf, Nikolas became one of their most highly skilled soldiers, sent on a great number of very brutal missions. Finally, he was ordered to kill Yevgraf, who had volunteered himself for a secret armed suit project and subsequently gone mad. While Nikolas offered no objections to killing one of his best friends, Yevgraf apparently retained more humanity, because instead of killing Nikolas, as he easily could have, he simply beat him severely.
Rendered immobile as he recovered from his injuries, Nikolas had time to reflect on the things he had done and the person he had become. Despite his outward callousness, the atrocities he had committed haunted him, and he longed for some chance to try and atone for his actions.
That chance came in the form of the UN backed peacekeeping force known as Stormwatch. Consisting of both regular and posthuman operatives and based on the orbital space station Skywatch, Stormwatch had a mandate to assist in incidents involving UN member countries whenever requested. Having been alerted to abnormalities in Nikolas' medical profile, Stormwatch recruited him, the Soviet army all too willing to cede their now broken soldier to the group.
With his abilities activated, Nikolas became a full member of the group, working with his team members around the globe to help in whatever conflicts they were asked to assist in. The fact that Stormwatch could only intervene in incidents when requested by the nation involved, however, chafed Nikolas' newly rekindled sense of social justice, causing repeated clashes between himself and Stormwatch's leadership. It also resulted in Nikolas acting of his own accord in several instances, without Stormwatch approval.
Despite his behavioral difficulties, Nikolas proved to be a very good field agent, eventually being given command of his own team. Conflict reared its head again with the discovery of a world parallel to their own, under threat of alien invasion. Nikolas insisted on action--he felt it their duty to help in any way they could--but then-head of Stormwatch, Jackson King, insisted they do nothing. In the end, they were forced to watch as parallel versions of themselves sacrificed themselves to save their world.
This act caused serious conflict between Nikolas and Jackson, one that might have had serious consequences, had Stormwatch not found itself almost immediately under attack by a hostile alien race themselves. With Skywatch infested, many of his team dead, and himself wounded, Nikolas chose to make the noble sacrifice and stay on the station while the rest of the survivors evacuated so that he could guide Skywatch into a planned impact with the sun, thus incinerating it and the threat on-board.
For most people, that would be the end. Unfortunately for Nikolas, his energy-absorbing talents worked against him. While his body was incinerated along with all of Skywatch, his consciousness remained intact, bound to the sun in unending torment. This fact was not known until a series of attacks on earth that seemed to originate from the sun itself. The renegade superhero group, The Authority, investigated and discovered the truth. Unfortunately, they were unable to free Nikolas, instead containing his consciousness in a quantum cage within the sun itself, in order to prevent further attacks.
Years later, Jackson King, now assembling a new Stormwatch team, received a call from the Authority's Doctor, proposing a way to resurrect Nikolas. While the previous Doctor had not been able to separate Nikolas from the sun, the new one thought he could, and used DNA Stormwatch had on file to create a new body for the Russian soldier. Then, with the aid of Jackson's telepathy, he guided Nikolas' consciousness back to his body. The risky procedure proved a success, restoring him fully to life. Following his resurrection, Nikolas took up his old job with Stormwatch, now funded by the United States, helping to keep various post-human threats under control.
(Nikolas will be taken from after issue 12 of Post Human Division, before the Armageddon event occurs in the Wildstorm Universe.)
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Test run here: http://testrun-box.livejournal.com/269573.html
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
Nikolas is a posthuman, one of a number of people from his world who gained special abilities though one force or another. In his case, the change occurred due to the 'comet effect' which mutated the DNA of certain individuals, giving them potential for super-human abilities if activated by another person with the talent to manifest latent abilities. Nikolas is an energy absorber. His powers allow him to absorb energy and either store or redirect that energy in a number of ways. Nikolas has the ability to absorb any sort of energy--from thermal to solar, from nuclear to the energy found in a thrown punch--and use it for his own purposes. The simplest use of his ability is simply to redirect it into blasts of pure energy. However, he can also utilize it to increase his speed and physical strength, and even fly, though he rarely utilizes the latter. Owing to this talent, he can also identify and track significant sources of energy. In addition, stored energy is utilized by his body to produce a sort of healing effect. Small injuries heal rapidly and automatically (assuming he has a charge) while larger injuries can be healed by absorbing some source of available power.
For all of this, Nikolas has his weaknesses. While he can absorb magical energy, doing so causes him a great deal of physical pain. In addition, while he has been shown able to absorb a very large quantity of energy, if he cannot for some reason release it, it can cause him physical damage which will continue until the excess can either be expelled or metabolized by his body. If Nikolas expends all of the energy he has stored, the result is fatigue, which can either be corrected by absorbing any source of energy, or plain, old fashioned rest. As far as canon has shown, he cannot subsist solely on his posthuman talents. He still requires food and rest, the same as any other person. Nikolas can control his abilities, although there is always some low-level passive absorption of energy from his environment.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
In addition to being a trained gymnast, Nikolas served in the Russian Spetsnaz, and thus possesses excellent hand-to-hand combat skills, as well as a proficiency in the use of firearms, although due to his posthuman abilities, he rarely uses the latter.