OOC: Application for dystopian_flux
Player Details
Name/Nickname: Ferus
Age: 26
Personal LJ Username:ferus_preliator
E-mail:begabterMusiker@aol.com
IM/Instant Messenger(s):begabterMusiker
Time Zone: EST
Other characters in RP:Jason Piers
Character Application
Character Name: Russell Kline
Series: Original Canon
Gender: male
Birthdate:November 3rd
The Item: A wooden rosary, a present from his mother before he left for the Academy
Point with which your character has been taken from canon: One year after he leaves Blaine and is getting ready to go back to SPAWA territory
Appearance: PB: Patrick Dempsey
6'4" and weighing about 215 pounds, Russell is fit and looks it. He takes pride in his appearance just enough to keep fit and keep the perpetual scruff on his face from turning into an actual beard. Or that's what he claims. He puts a bit more work in it than that, but he's careful to keep it looking like he doesn't spend much time on his appearance. Dark hair is kept looking like he just ran his fingers through it and then there's the aforementioned scruff. He likes to smile, everything from small, contemplative ones to leers and a smile that he's been told makes him look like a wolf more than anything else.
Personality For the most part, Russell isn’t a bad guy. Okay, so maybe that’s not the truth. His personality tends toward the more sarcastic, cynical and jaded while still managing to charm the pants off almost anyone he meets, usually literally. He's definitely the "love 'em and leave 'em" type, and while he might harbor some fondness for past lovers, actually earning his loyalty is a very hard thing. He’s a sarcastic bastard, sex fiend, way too blunt about certain things, and makes no apologies about it. There is a decent person buried underneath, provided Russell doesn’t toss a couple more shovelfuls of dirt on top of him, but for the most part he doesn’t like the fact that he can be genuinely nice to people and that there are parts of him that care still. He prefers to think he can just use people without getting involved with them emotionally, but that doesn’t stop him from helping someone he cares about for no other reason than the fact that they need him. He justifies it to himself later, reburying the 'decent man' that tries to surface and adding on a few more inches of dirt just in case.
While he does have a nice streak, that doesn’t mean that he’s a 'nice man'. Thanks to a lifelong desire to be on top, he doesn’t take losing or getting beaten easily or well. If you managed to beat him at anything he prides himself on, even if it's just a little, he'll make sure it never happens again. Not only won't it happen, he'll make sure to crush you in return, should you dare try to play up on it. Otherwise, he likes to tease and poke fun at other people. It's usually, though not always, goodnatured. After knowing a person for more than a week or two, he is very good at knowing where to draw the line, but if he steps over it, you can safely assume that he did it quite deliberately. And don't expect an apology either, or at least not a genuine one. Admitting he was wrong is not something that comes easily to him. He can do it, but only if it was a really huge screw up and he cares about the person in question a lot. So far the only person to get an actual apology from him that wasn't his mother is Blaine.
Powers/Abilities CANON: No "powers" just a BadAss Normal here. As far as skills though he's a skilled marksman and hand to hand fighter. He's a hitman, so most of his skills revolve around killing/beating people up in some way. He has some explosives knowledge as well. He speaks English, decent Russian and Spanish and spotty Chinese. He also has a chip in his head that, like Blaine, allows him to communicate mentally with others who have the same chip, like on a cellphone.
Powers/Abilities AU: No powers, so no reduction
Character History: : Russell Kline was the only, illegitimate child of Marian Kline. He was the product of a one night stand, and Marian never really intended to have a child, especially not at the age of 18. But she tried to do what she could for the boy, and if they weren't rich they had enough to get by, and she tried to do her best as a mother for him. He still writes her once a month and tries to go home for Christmas when work allows. Call him a mama's boy and he will shank you.
Russell always wanted to be in the military, and there was never a time in his life where he thought about doing something else. The games he played as a child were always war games, and he routinely beat any children who dared to question his command, especially the older ones. When he got old enough to go to a prestigious military academy, he didn't think twice about enlisting himself. He knew that if he excelled he could get an officer's commission straight out of the academy, and he was always at the top no matter what he did... until it came to submitting to authority. When push came to shove, he was steadfast against following orders of those he deemed lesser and inexperienced, whether it be fellow classmates or even instructors. Suffice to say, he found few he respected and trouble followed at his heels. It was only his prowess in his classes and the promise of so much potential that spared him expulsion after many incidents that escalated quickly in scale during his last two years.
During the time he was discretely encouraged by one of his instructors, a man named Peter who unbeknownst to him was a recruiter for SPAWA, the local mafia organization. Peter would leave his mark on Russell in more ways than one, passing on many of his traits to the protégé he took under his wing. He found him jobs with SPAWA, small ones to get him interested that slowly became more and more illegal. Russell ate it up, the thrill and the danger and the money, though he tried his best never to get caught. With Peter helping him out he was able to fly completely under the legal radar. But then, as planned, Peter made sure he was caught, betraying Russell and counting on the younger man's dependence on him (and the fact that they had been lovers for several months prior) to give him time to work the other man over to his way of looking at things. Russell didn't even give him the chance, shooting his mentor and managing to escape by the skin of his teeth. He never went back to the academy, never said goodbye to his classmates, he just left, leaving it all behind. He refused SPAWA's offer of a steady job, turning instead to mercenary work. Since that day he never looked back.
Using the contacts he had gained from his time doing mercenary work, Russell found that he had little trouble supporting himself outside the strictures of the Organizations. He was intelligent, street smart and highly motivated. He wasn't going to be anyone's bitch he decided, he was his own creature, now and always. Luck and wits would see him through the many scrapes he would get into until experience taught him better. He was good, at the top of his game, working in the dark behind the scenes and doing the dirty deeds even the Organizations wanted to keep under wraps. He made good money, and if he made as many enemies as allies, what did that matter? He was alert enough to keep from getting killed, picking up bits of info and contacts as he went until he had quite the network going. It was during this time that he would meet Itsuki Fox, a doctor who never asked or cared where the injuries he needed stitching up came from, and who had provided needed backup more than once. While Russell's natural caution about the man never really led him to think of him as a friend, he was a co-worker, and someone who gave him a much appreciated base for his contacts in the SPAWA territory, who had never really forgiven him for shooting their recruiter and then turning down their job offer. Thanks to the older man's occasional advice Russell was able to build a good base for business in the SPAWA sector. Not that he ever acknowledged the help except when it suited him.
Russell would meet Blaine Thorps in his mid-twenties, just as his mercenary work was starting to take off. It was a brief meeting, and while it would have an impact on both men, it wouldn't be felt until years later. It was during an extended stay in SPAWA territory, a few years after their first meeting, that Russell would change. He saw potential in the boy and subtly encouraged his interests in guns and the military, eventually successfully bringing him into the life of a soldier. He would become his unofficial teacher, showing the young man everything he knew of weapons and strategy, subjects that Blaine showed great interest in, an interest which has persisted to the present day.
Russell would rebuff Blaine's first few (bad) attempts at flirting and seduction for several months, but he would eventually take the younger man as a lover when Blaine was seventeen and he twenty-seven. It was still more a teacher-student relationship than one of equals, with Russell as usual taking the lead. It is an attitude that persists even today, and Russell is still very much in the habit of taking command when it comes to their relationship.
Russell was unable to stay still for the most part, though he would return to SPAWA territory, it was only sporadically and for brief visits. At least, until Itsuki called to turn in a favor, one of many Russell knew he was owed.
It was a strange favor, and smacked of foul play, neither of which had ever proved to be something to make Russell even flinch in the past. Then he finds out that the other person involved is Blaine, his sometime student and lover. He almost refuses, but curiousity and a still strong attachment to the boy (who is now very much a man) cause him to accept. And so, ten years after they first went to bed together, he witnesses Itsuki's failed attempt to rebuild Blaine into something he was not. He helps "rehabilitate" Blaine after the incident, unaware of Itsuki's plan to transfer Blaine's feelings from his college friend to Russell and he plays the part of a concerned friend and lover far easily than he would ever want to admit. Close to the end of the whole thing, Blaine tells him everything that's been going on, though Russell had pieced together most of it already. The whole thing leaves a slightly bitter taste in his mouth and he leaves, on "business" as it were, and has not seen Blaine in the intervening months, and has no real intention to ever again.
World Background: Blaine's world is a more technologically advanced one than our own. It can easily be seen as our world in the not too distant future. [Circa 2159, since people are going to ask him] Convenience is the word of the century and everything is being brought out to make everyone more connected, so people can take less steps, and automation is everywhere. Flying -more like hover- cars have become a reality, though they are very expensive and limited to the rich and upper class. They don't move higher than a few feet above the ground due to limiters that have been placed there for 'safety' until the logistics of highway traffic in the air have been planned for. Of course, those can be removed. Limit-released models are hot on the black market and truer to the name 'flying car'.
Embedded microchips are not uncommon, though most are used for emergency medical information or even links to organizers in mobile devices. BioMicrochip technology has grown in leaps and bounds with both public and private funding. Using the electric impulses in your own brain to both power and relay its own messages, it has proven to be an amazingly secure way of communication between people through satellite and has been used by the military almost exclusively until recently. Some private companies -including a few of the higher grossing illegal organizations- have also started using them with a few tweaks.
With advancements in the BioChip, prosthetics that are hooked directly into the nerve endings have also grown in leaps and bounds. The research hasn't gotten close to a true android -a marriage of man and machine- but arms and legs are being developed for amputees or other deformities. Gene therapy is used, but it still has not reached its peak effectiveness. Splicing of genes of different organisms -two different species of mammal, for instance- is being tested and is highly controversial.
Compared to BioChips, prosthetics, and flying cars, moving sidewalks seem a small step. Once only common in airports, they have become a perk of closed communities or high-class neighborhoods. Most people are very mobile and landlines aren't found in most households. The internet is in 90% of buildings, business, homes, public or private. With everyone being connected, it isn't difficult to track someone 24/7 and it takes substantial effort to get off the grid no matter where you live as wireless signals are available just about anywhere, even underground.
Set in the United State, politics haven't changed overly much. The government plays a smaller role than before, but it is still an entity with the power to reach into anyone's life. The down-size was necessitated by most first-world countries in order to preserve themselves. Despite the continual doom and gloom proliferating the media, most people are in the middle-class and satisfied with their lives. The country is more socially-even overall, with equal pay and rights for people regardless of sex, race, or sexual preference, but in practice there are still trends from the past, but not nearly as skewed. Many people are also bilingual, speaking English and Spanish.
Organized crime has adapted with the times. They are usually small and concentrated in one area, or have grown into sprawling areas where only one group rules. There are a few who fall in-between in size and they are mostly in the mid-west. The number of known members is almost opposite to the area owned. The Gangs cover a smaller area but get most of their money from drugs. They saturate their area with their members and are a constant and visible threat to others. They sometimes have different chapters in other cities that have the same name, but operate independently of one another. They don't require bloodline family relations, but brothers and sisters do join.
More on the discrete side but no less intimidating, the Mafia is big on family. They are still predominately of Italian/Sicilian decent, but with so much blood mingling in the United States, are not strict on that requirement. They are more willing to stay out of one another's way and share a territory as long as there is enough money to be had. Their legitimate businesses are most often used to launder their illegally gotten monies and as meeting places for convenience. If they make money with their legal business, like a restaurant, that's a bonus. Their area size usually stays small.
Organizations, Orgs for short, are the other extreme of Gangs and they work on a large scale, spanning cities, counties, and sometimes over state lines. They're run a lot like companies and diversify their interests. They're more willing and able to change their whole game if something gets too high-profile while incurring minimal damage on their income. Drug running, prostitution, and gambling are just a small section of their portfolio. They run many legitimate businesses initially funded with drug money that turn into profit making companies that spawn other businesses. Through that they can easily and unbeknownst to the locals or police take over entire areas. Much of their existence is because of high levels of security and rigid control over all members. The number of people actually in the know on just how diversified an Org is is extremely low. In that sense, Orgs and the Mafia are similar in controlling information flow. On the other hand, they are like gangs because they don't share territory very well, if at all. The lines between all three are not so clear cut, with many falling in the shaded gray areas between terms.
Mafia, Gangs, and Organizations have several things in common. One being that much -if not all- of their activities are illegal. Another is a strict structure, though some are more strict than others. All three deal in prostitution and drugs, but some have a bigger portion of their wealth come from those alone. Most importantly, all will resort to violence at some point. Gangs are the most violent of all, with the other two more calculating in who they decide to have killed, but all rose to power by climbing over the corpses of their enemies.
Organizations backed with enough money and the correct resources have capitalized on a new market that has everything to do with people's desire to individualize and personalize pieces of their lives. Designer drugs have taken on another meaning. Not only are they different drugs that have the same effects as an illegal one, but many are personalized for groups of people or even one person, depending on how much they're willing to pay. It's on a greater and much more expensive scale than just the hundreds of varieties of marijuana. SPAWA is one of the first to try out this system with information gleaned from their associate's travels cross country. Their connections to the medical world -most coming from Itsuki- give them the knowledge and power to spearhead the new movement before others can jump aboard.
Illegal splicing has also started to take hold with various -and sometimes disastrous- results. Some test subjects die, and others have distorted senses, for better or worse, than before the genetic manipulation. A few of the more adventurous Orgs and Mafia had looked into possible uses for splicing, but there have been no positive constants with the trials that have been done [supposedly only on animals].
Depending on the Org, the people in their territory may be better or worse off than their neighbors. There are tiny no-man's lands between two different Org territories, and they are where those unaffiliated with an Org or fledgling gangs tend to dwell and commit their petty crimes. Each territory is much like a little country, and it's the luck of the draw where a normal person might end up unknowingly.
RP Sample [First Person]: [steps outside, rolling his shoulder as he glances back at the door that has just slammed shut behind him]
Bunch of god damned amateurs, the fucking lot of 'em. Should have given 'em a real fight.
[grins and shoves his hands in his pockets]
Oh well, I guess there's always next time. Now, let's see if the ass end of nowhere, Russia has any smokes.
[Heads off to find out]
Why do you play this character? Because he's fun, and an asshole