Application for holloways_keep

[dontfeartheme]

Name: Bri
Age: 24
Journal: brbsoulnomming
Contact: Plurk: brbsoulnomming | Email: briyamineko84@yahoo.com | AIM: xomgshinyx

1. Character's Name: Sorcha Katherine Coughlan “Ryn”

2. Age: 28

3. Background:

This is the story of a world torn apart by war. It’s one much like Earth, save for the fact that supernatural races were well known and existed alongside humans. Not that their existence could be called peaceful, and tensions between them reached the point where war broke out. Countries all over the world sided with either the supernaturals or the humans - usually depending on what the majority of that country’s leaders were - and no one managed to stay out of the war. The war dragged on, causing death and hardships, for long enough that people began to just want it over. And then there were those who realized that no matter which side won, everyone would lose. An underground resistance began to form of those who opposed the war, who didn’t want to live in a world of only supernaturals or only humans, but wanted peace for both groups.

All right, actually, that first sentence was a lie. This is the story of a world after that underground resistance won. The resistance’s ranks were bolstered by soldiers from armies of every country (supernatural soldiers fleeing their country when it had sided with the humans, and human soldiers fleeing a country that’d sided with supernaturals), human and supernatural citizens fleeing their countries for the same reason, and other citizens and soldiers who looked at what their country was doing, and didn’t want to live in a world like the one the leaders were making them fight for. And so, when those still fighting were weakened, focused on their enemies and unsuspecting, the resistance struck. The leaders - those who hadn’t already been assassinated, anyway - were forced to step down (and subsequently disappeared), and were replaced with those loyal to the resistance.

The resistance then revamped the UN, calling it the Core Republic, and placed its most prominent members from each country on it. Countries were allowed to continue ruling themselves more or less as they had been before, but everyone knew the countries’ leaders were only figureheads. The Core were the ones really in charge. They controlled the world’s greatest army, had agents everywhere, and enough Seers and telepaths that they were always watching. The one law they placed as universal: no more hate. No violence, no intolerance, no war. Petty crimes like theft or property damage would be handled by individual countries, but commit an act of violence, a murder, a brutal assault, a sign of bigotry, do anything at all that the Core didn’t like, and you’d find an agent on your doorstep. These criminals weren’t given a trial, they were simply removed from society, placed in one of the ‘rehabilitation facilities,’ that the Core had built, where they would stay until they were ready to be productive members of society again. To people whose lives had been ripped apart by a war fueled by hate and intolerance, this was more or less a welcome change. (And those who disagreed weren’t really allowed to voice their opinions, anyway.)

Years after this, when most people alive couldn’t remember a world different from the one run by the Core, Ryn was born in Killybegs, a fishing port in County Donegal, Ireland. Her father was a fisherman, her mother a teacher, and a happy, loving couple turned into a happy, loving family. From a very young age, it was obvious that Ryn was a supernatural, as she was never sick, and any injuries she sustained healed fairly quickly. Her parents weren’t at all opposed to this, considering it meant she was generally an easy child to care for. No childhood sicknesses for her. (It also meant that Ryn was pretty much the only child who never got to fake being sick in order to miss school, which she thought was entirely unfair.)

Ryn’s relationship with her father was stronger than that of her mother, which really stemmed partly from the fact that her father’s job was so much cooler than her mother’s. When she went to work with her father, she got to go on a boat! When she went with her mother, she got to go to school. Awesome. She spent as much time with her father as possible, helping him work on their boats, sailing with him during his off hours, and even joining him on his fishing trips whenever she was allowed. For the most part, the crew adored her, especially after she discovered she could not only heal herself, but others. They became the healthiest damn fishing crew out there, which didn’t hurt their profits at all.

When Ryn was fourteen, her father was killed in a car accident. Ryn and her mother were devastated, and her mother tried to cope with the loss by moving in with her favorite sister. Fortunately, this was also Ryn’s favorite aunt. Unfortunately, she was also the aunt who had moved to the States a few years earlier, which meant Ryn had to pack up her things and move to a small town in Washington. It was at least a coastal town, which meant Ryn didn’t have to give up sailing, though her father’s boats were left behind.

The move still pretty much sucked, as Ryn had to adjust to not only her father’s death, but having to leave behind her hometown and all of her friends. Still, eventually Ryn managed to make some new friends - and not just because they had a boat. Almost three years later, she’d settled in pretty well. She had a group of good friends, a boyfriend, an after school job at a boat repair shop, and she was even doing reasonably well in school. Of course, this was when life decided to screw with her again. Ryn and her boyfriend Tobias had gone into the nearby big city for the weekend, and there they were robbed. Crime was rare enough, violent crime was almost unheard of, and Ryn and Tobias had no idea what to do. In the confusion, Tobias was shot.

Ryn immediately healed Tobias, of course, and instead of drawing on her own energy to fix his injuries, she used their attacker’s. Whoever she drew the energy from to heal took on the injuries that had been fixed, and even if she healed them at a much faster rate, she wasn’t about to give herself a gunshot wound with the criminal still right there. And he deserved it, for what he’d done. With Tobias healed and their would-be robber lying on the ground with an injury from his own gun, Ryn and Tobias fled back to their hotel. Once they’d calmed themselves down enough, Tobias called the police to report the crime.

The police went back to where they’d been attacked, and found the criminal dead; without quick medical attention, he’d bled out from the wound. Tobias and Ryn were called in to give a complete explanation of what happened, and eventually released and allowed to go back home. No one expected an agent of the Core to show up the next day and tell Ryn to pack her things and say her goodbyes. But Ryn had killed - even worse, she’d killed using her powers - and the circumstances of the death apparently didn’t matter to the Core. Within an hour after the agent’s arrival, Ryn was carried away to the Nevada Rehabilitation Facility.

There she discovered the ‘facility’ was more like a walled in city. It was much bigger than either of the places she’d lived in, and even had a small forest and a lake inside its walls. The only thing that didn’t seemed to be going on was any form of rehabilitation. The facility guards left them pretty much entirely to themselves, aside from some harassment, only stepping in to stop escape attempts (which were rare, considering all residents of the facility were fitted with a chip at the base of their brain that would self-destruct should the person cross the fence). Instead, a number of gangs ruled the city. Ryn quickly learned the three most important players: the New Era, an entirely supernatural gang with a hatred of humans; the Fists of Humanity, an entirely human gang with a hatred of supernaturals; and the White Knights, a gang that wasn’t so much of a gang as it was the residents of the facility’s attempts at a police force. They did their best to keep the peace and protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

She also learned that once you hit a certain age, if you weren’t in a gang, you were pretty much fair game. Fortunately, the first friend Ryn made was a young man named Dale, who was a member of a gang called the Acolytes. Not a major player, but still one of the larger gangs, and one who accepted almost anyone, particularly those who were just looking for the protection being in a gang offered. Ryn joined immediately, and quickly got involved in the gang lifestyle, including a hatred for their rival gang, the Disciples. The Acolytes had given her a home, taken her in when she had nowhere else to go, and those who opposed them deserved her anger.

As Ryn become more devoted to the gang, its leaders learned of the potential of her powers. They gave her the name Reaper, and she began using her powers offensively, transferring any injuries she or her allies received to their enemies. It wasn’t long before Ryn had become a lieutenant in the gang. Aside from Dale, her closest friend was another lieutenant, the Executioner, an elemental who could control and generate electricity. They grew incredibly close, both as Reaper and Executioner, two lieutenants who often fought battles against the Disciples together, and as Ryn and Dominic, two people who stayed up to ridiculous hours in the warehouse that housed many of the gang’s members, training and rough-housing and eventually talking about all of the things they never thought they’d tell anyone. The fact that they knew each others’ real names - and occasionally called each other by them - was itself a sign of their friendship. It wasn’t common for gang members to even really know each other’s real names, let alone call them by it. She knew the real names of only a dozen or so other members, and only ever called five others by them.

Though she had no access to the ocean - the lake did not count - Ryn found a way to keep herself busy when she wasn’t on gang business, getting a job as a mechanic and throwing herself into that the way she once had working on boats. She missed sailing, missed her mother, aunt, Tobias, her friends - and still her father, and his crew - but she had a family here, and a purpose.

After almost four years of being Reaper, she started feeling unsettled. She looked back over her time with the gang, and realized they’d never really offered her the home she thought they had. They’d never offered any of the members what they’d thought. They offered membership to those who just wanted protection, new and young residents, made them feel a sense of belonging and debt, and used them to fight their battles. And she wasn’t the only one who’d started questioning this. When the subject in their late night talks turned towards the gang, Dom started revealing that he had some of the same doubts.

The death of one of the youngest members of the gang was what really hit this home. Though death wasn’t exactly uncommon in the gang, this particular boy had been fourteen, someone both Ryn and Dom had a soft spot for. The leaders must have been unaware of this, however, because it was Dom they talked to about getting a replacement for him. It was obvious that they cared nothing about the boy who died, just that they now had one less member, and they needed to get someone to take his place as soon as possible.

Dom and Ryn began planning to break away and make their own gang. They brought in only those they both knew they could trust absolutely, those who would not reveal their plans if they decided not to go. Eight people were told, and five joined in the plans. The same five who’d been the only ones she’d ever called by name. The Ghost, a telekinetic telepath (Aiden, a man who brought Ryn books about the ocean and would read them to her when neither of them could sleep); the Harbinger, a Seer with limitless energy (Cass, a woman who made s’mores over a fake campfire with her when they both found out the other missed camping on the beach); the Sniper, a crackshot capable of hitting pretty much anything with pretty much any weapon (Dean, a man who tried to teach her how to shoot a gun, realized she was never going to do it well, and mocked her about it relentlessly only when he found out she was a much better mechanic than he’d ever be and had ammo to mock him in return), the Mantis, an expert martial artist (Nik, a man who gave physical affection with ease, who once slipped and called her sister the day she agreed to allow him to cuddle up with her when he was injured and ill instead of just fixing it, because of a fever-enhanced fear of her being hurt by healing him), and Void, a demon capable of boosting or negating the abilities of others (Leonie, a woman who .

Much to her chagrin, Dale was not one of the ones who was told. After she’d joined the gang, she’d never been allowed to call him by anything but his gang name, and she knew he was far too loyal to the Acolytes to ever betray them. Still, he had been her first friend, and on the night they made the break, she left him a note, asking him to meet her somewhere the next night. He didn’t come, but he didn’t tell any of the leaders where she’d be, because there was no ambush waiting for her. After that, she reluctantly let him go.

They settled into the small house they’d managed to obtain - strategically close to the White Knights, who never got involved the fights between gangs, but would be more likely to offer assistance to a small group of people trying to break away from the violence of a gang. Dom was the one who’d come up with their gang name. There were seven of them, so why not the Seven Deadly Sins? As the gang leader, Dom took Pride for himself (even when Ryn pointed out that that meant he’d have to wear purple all the time, since they’d already agreed on always wearing the color of their respective sins). Ryn became Wrath, Dean became Gluttony, Aiden was Greed, Cass was Envy, Leonie was Sloth, and Nik became Lust.

For two years, it was just the seven of them. They were the smallest gang in the facility, but they also had some of the most powerful members. They stayed out of the other gangs’ politics, were able to hold their own against attacks, and even did some freelancing work for the White Knights. All of this made them a pretty attractive gang, and eventually some people began expressing interest in joining. (To be honest, they probably would have tried sooner, if Pride didn’t scare the crap out of most people. He tended to come off as menacing, and he did nothing to discourage this, even though he was actually something of a softy.) At first, they were refused, but eventually Pride decided a few more members couldn’t hurt. He told the Sins they could each pick one, if they wanted, someone who desperately wanted in and who the Sins thought would be a good match.

This resulted in the addition of five teenagers, new residents of the facility who had no families, and nowhere else to go. Of course, with these five additions, more began getting recruited. There was never any active recruitment, but most of the original seven found it hard to turn away those who had no other options, who were like they themselves had once been. Better the Sins than the Acolytes. At least their members generally only had to fight when they were attacked, rarely in revenge, and never just to attack another gang. Over time, their numbers grew to thirty-two, including the original seven members. Ryn herself only ever recruited two members: Rage, a teenager who’d started working at the same shop she did just before Pride’s first decision to open up membership, and who’d been one of the first five recruits by virtue of the fact that she’d spotted a few members of the Disciples sniffing around him; and, more recently, Hatred, another teenager who’d come looking for a job shortly after she’d finally opened up her own shop and who eventually confessed that he’d just lost his father.

After some time, Ryn made the decision to retire from active duty in the Sins. She would still be a member, of course, but she wanted to be able to focus more time on her shop. Shortly after this, Aiden and Leonie decided to retire as well - which was a surprise to no one, as they were the three with something resembling actual careers (Aiden was a professor at the college, Leonie was the manager of one of the city’s two banks, and of course, Ryn had her shop). Aiden and Leonie had already been making a gradual move from active participation to running the new House they’d moved into when they’d started having to accommodate new recruits (Admittedly, the idea of Leonie, who’d been one of the most deadly people Ryn had ever seen in battle, as a denmother had amusing - right up until she proved to be excellent at it. No one who didn’t know her then would suspect it at all, unless someone threatened one of her charges.)

It’s been a year since she officially retired - not that Pride really listened to her - and she has only been involved in the gang in a kind of mentor capacity, participating in decision-making, and, of course, being the gang doctor. Except one day, as she was heading from the House to work, she found herself at the Keep instead.

4. Personality:

Ryn has a bit of a temper problem. There’s a reason she’s Wrath, after all. She’s easily goaded to anger

Introduce the character to us! Are they sociable? Shy? Ornery? Are they light-hearted, or serious? What's important to them? What makes them tick? Do they have a particular philosophy on life? What would they do on a rainy day?

5. Previous Game Developments: N/A

6. Appearance: Ryn has brown eyes and red hair, cut to just past shoulder length. She’s tall, roughly 5’9”, with fair skin that never seems to darken no matter how much sun she gets. Her hands are callused and arms leanly muscled from work, and she can quite frequently be found with some kind of oil or grease smudge on her. She prefers to wear jeans and tanktops or tee-shirts, particularly when working, but tends to dress up more when going out. Ryn also has several tattoos: a small shamrock on her left ankle, a Celtic knot on her right shoulder blade, a circle of waves around her upper left arm, a red stylized ‘7’ on the left side of her chest, a winged heart on her right hip, a scythe on her back - the blade curving around her left shoulder blade and the staff going slightly diagonal down her back - and a rod of Asclepius along her spine, slightly covering the scythe.

7. Abilities: Ryn is more or less a healer. She’s able to tap into people’s energies or life forces, and draw from one to heal the other. Essentially, she can transfer injuries, illnesses, diseases, etc. from one person to another. Most commonly, she draws on her own life force to heal people, taking their injuries as her own. However, she can draw on the life force of someone nearby, passing the injuries onto them. Her range for this is roughly thirty feet. Each person’s energy feels different to her, so if Ryn has used her healing abilities on someone or merely opened her abilities to sense their life force, she will be able to recognize it should she come into contact with it again. Ryn is not capable of bringing back the dead. If someone’s life force is gone, there’s nothing for her to work with, and she won’t be able to heal them.

Her own rate of healing is enhanced. The more serious the injury, the longer it will take to heal, but it still heals at a rate significantly higher than a normal human. Most injuries heal instantaneously, though severe injuries may take a day or two or even a week to be completely gone. This also means that she is more or less immune to most diseases, or at least recovers from them more quickly than normal.

For the Keep, Ryn will no longer be able to use her abilities at a distance. In order to heal someone, she will have to be touching them (or very nearly touching them, contact through clothes will work). Similarly, in order to transfer injuries to someone, she will have to be touching them. If she is transferring injuries from one person to another, she will have to be in contact with both of them. Using her abilities will also tire her more. She will be able to heal small injuries without much problem, but the more serious the injury is, the more it will take out of her (in addition to actually taking on the injury, if she’s using her own life force). Generally, her abilities will take four times the amount of energy that they used to. Her own rate of healing will also be reduced, with injuries taking about four times as long to heal as they once did.

Aside from her healing abilities, Ryn is also a very capable mechanic, an okay shot, skilled in hand to hand combat, and fairly good with throwing knives.

8. Languages: English, Irish Gaelic

9. Items: A backpack with a change of clothes (long sleeved black shirt, jeans, black boots), some make up, a bottle of water, her lunch, a lottery ticket, a few cartons of cigarettes, her wallet, keys, cell phone, lighter, and iPod

10. Weapons: None!

11. Writing sample - Third Person Prose:

She was trying really, really hard not to just throw a wrench at Dean’s head. And most of the reason that she was succeeding was that if she didn’t actually try to hit him, he’d just dodge it, and it would probably end up hitting something important. If she did actually try - well, he might dodge it anyway. And if he didn’t, it was heavy, and she’d just end up injuring him. And then she’d have to heal him, which meant she was really just injuring herself. Or risking Dom getting pissed off at her for injuring the guy he’d sent as a messenger.

It would serve him right, though. Sending fucking Gluttony to tell her Pride needed her to do something. One, the only person who could get under her skin faster than Dean was - well, no one she would currently associate with, which meant Dom was being a fucking idiot and just trying to make her mad. Or he was trying to get her to control her temper or something, testing her by having the person who could annoy her easiest deliver news that was already irritating as hell. But that was one hell of a roundabout way to be going about trying to get her to put a lid on her irritation at Dean.

Two, Dean was Gluttony. He must’ve had more important things to be doing than telling her Pride wanted to talk to her. That’s what the baby Sins were for. Shit, Pride had four goddamn recruits of his own, he could have been sending any one of them. Not making Dean waste his time. Not that she had a care for whether or not Dean’s time was wasted on his day off.

“I don’t give a shit what Pride says,” she said finally, when the urge to hit him had subsided enough that she thought it would be safe to actually talk to him. “I’m fucking retired. And I have work to do, that can’t be dropped whenever he gets some idea into his head. Tell him if he wants someone to follow his every order, he can look to one of the newbies.”

“A refusal filled with cursing. I’m shocked. At least this time you didn’t tell me where I could shove Pride’s orders. Or his head, which by the way? You still owe me for the alcohol it took to burn that image from my mind,” Dean informed her. “Anyway, as much as I hate to return your predictable answer with another equally predictable response, go tell him yourself. You’re the one who insists she’s not the second in command. Means I don’t have to listen to you.”

“I’m still your boss, you wanker, I can fire you.”

Dean just raised an eyebrow at her, smirking.

Ryn rolled her eyes and ducked back under the hood of the car she was working on. If she was being honest with herself, half of her anger was because she knew she would give in. If Pride was asking her to do something, it would be important. She knew that. She trusted him that much. And she would piss and whinge and bitch at him, pick out all the holes in whatever it was he wanted to do, but that would just make him fix them, or explain it to her in a way that she couldn’t refuse. And then she’d do it, because it would be in their best interests, to keep them all safe, and he knew better than anyone that she’d do anything for that. They both would.

“Fine,” she grumbled without pulling her head out from under the hood. “But after work. Work that you now have, because if I’m to be out of here at any decent time, I’ll be needing another pair of hands. And after our after work drink. If Pride can’t fucking wait that long, he can come find me himself.”

She knew Dean was smiling without having to look up. Little shit. Just for that, she was making him buy, even though she was reasonably sure it was her turn.

And then she’d challenge him to try and drink her under the table, and hope he got alcohol poisoning.

That’d show him.

12. Writing sample - First Person:

You’ve got to be shitting me. Once wasn’t enough? I’ve got to be uprooted from my life and shoved into some place with people in charge who are claiming it’s for my own good but really they don’t give a fuck twice? Or is this actually the place people go when they’ve been ‘rehabilitated’? Because I’ve gotta say, I prefer the facility. At least there we had electricity.

And also? Why the hell are you picking on us? We’re not a major player. We’re not even a secondary player. Shit, go pick on the New Era or the Fists or the fucking Suits. And why me? I’m retired, damn it, it’s not gonna be making that big of an impact. Why not Pride? Everyone’d fall apart without Pride making decisions. ‘Ahh, Pride’s not here to tell us what to eat for breakfast today, we’re doomed!’ ‘Oh, let’s go ask Wrath, she’ll know what to do.’ The hell would I be knowing what to do?

[There’s a pause as she realizes she’s gone on a bit of a tirade.]

Look. If I break the law again, will you send me back?

[The tone of her voice says she doesn’t expect an answer, and she sighs.]

Tell me the rest of this place isn’t as medieval as the room I woke up in? Irritating as it’s going to be having to rebuild my shop, it’ll be even worse without one at all.

[She doesn’t sound very hopeful about that, either.]

I’m going to have to ride a horse to the village or whatever to buy my groceries and shit, aren’t I?

Hell.

Is there at least ocean access here?

13. Tattoo:

14. Room Preference: Anywhere’s good!