APPLICATION: gargleblasted
OOC:
Name: Seimiya
Are you over 16?: y.
Personal LJ: lichborne
Email: theyellowedpage[@]gmail.com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: AIM: beat my machine
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: AA cast.
IC:
Character name: Alexander “Commander Wuertz” Renson
Fandom: OC
Timeline: Post-Threshing (the novel he’s from)
Age: 38
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: He can shoot fire from his palms.
How would they use their abilities?: As a paranoid, scowly guy, he uses it primarily to intimidate people and to stop corrupt people from being jerks.
Appearance:
Alex is tall, broad shouldered, and muscular, frequently with a few days of stubble and s scowl. He wears his hair short, almost buzz cut, and has dark eyes and plenty of worry lines in his face. This, of course, can only be seen when he’s not wearing the gas mask he tends to have on around strangers: his intense paranoia from being found out in canon would probably stick with him for a while. His clothing tends to be simple, modern, and well-worn: black army boots, jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket with a teal number seven on the right breast. Also, he wears leather gloves most of the time, to hide his badly scarred hands. While he can shoot fire, he’s not immune to it, though he’s learned to cope with his hindered manual dexterity and the impressive layers of scar tissue built up on his hands. He usually has a gun on him as well.
While he is somewhat handsome, the heavy worry lines and frequent scowl on his face detract from that. A cop-turned-vigilante, he is very fit and works out at least three times a week to burn stress.
Background/Personality:
The world Alex grew up in might be our own. On the surface, it is exactly the same: subways bustle underneath New York City, businessmen mumble and grumble, wives gossip. But there are differences - big ones. The world that Alex Renson was born into was rocked by an explosion of bizarre proportions three hundred years before his birth. This explosion attacked life based on population density more than structure, generating monstrous casualties in the big cities but leaving small towns and rural villages mostly alone. As a result, technology was saved, but people and world commerce ground to a halt and were forced to rebuilt the global economy. During this time, power was in flux, with many of the big governments having lost the vast majority of their members: Washington, Beijing, Moscow, and more suffered. In the early days, it was not unusual to walk miles without seeing anyone else alive, though people did eventually bind together in the shadows of their big cities, leaving whole suburbs empty. However, these enormous holes in the sociopolitical running of the world begin to get filled by the ambitious and charismatic (though not always good) people that could and did grab it. Obtaining power in a city was dangerous, and without enough people in one place to form a real police force, those who wanted power from the man or woman in charge was certainly free to obtain it however they wished.
Some say it was luck that started the Jupiter Organization, but to be honest it was nothing more than the growing ambitions of a likeminded group. This group of people - geneticists, politicians, (none of them particularly generous individuals) realized across the world that these small groups would take too long to rebuild the world that once existed, and with a lot of trial and error and the strong-arming of many, they came in contact with one another. Rather than killing each other, they bound together, understanding strength in numbers: they called this group the Jupiter Organization, and used it to run the world, pulling it quicker than should be possible back to where it once was.
While the Jupiter Organization runs the world, the world makes some major changes. For one, powers start appearing: people can suddenly shoot fire and walk through walls, though they learn that it’s not quite like what they’ve seen on TV. That fire still burns, for example, and even if you can walk through walls, your ipod and clothes don’t have the same power. Jupiter, made of the smartest and nastiest people in the world, quickly realizes that these powers can’t run amuck in their new Earth. For one, it’s too dangerous, too risky, to have people being able to lift buildings.
It’s with this in mind that they pull even closer together (not that they don’t occasionally kill each other for the position of leader) to create a pill that suppresses these powers. It doesn’t work 100%, but it certainly makes things manageable. The pill becomes mainstream, becomes something that you do, if you have powers. In a couple of hundred years, it becomes as natural as putting your clothes on.
The Jupiter Organization is not the only super-entity that rises out of the ashes. While Jupiter might be concerned with running the world, they don’t have much interest in business itself, only power. Not only that, but they can see the ease in having one bastion of power (besides them) to look after. It’s with this in mind that they allow Ceres Limited to come into existence. Ceres is a mob of ambitious businessmen who don’t give two shits about science, and though they understand that Jupiter is a stronger power, they don’t like it. But it’s more profitable, they realize, to work with them rather than against. So, Ceres flourishes too, a group made for business rather than about any particular product. They can manipulate and control the burgeoning world economy at will, and it’s with this power that they attract dumb muscle. Seeing the benefit, Ceres grows a huge black-market side, allowing its owners and CEOs (which murder each other less, but still occasionally) shockingly wealthy in an age where money’s hard to come by.
As governments begin to take shape, Jupiter realizes that it’s much more useful to them to be a smaller group working in shadow: there, they’re less easy to be toppled, and they have far more fearmongering power, something they use in spades. It takes a while, but they put their people in government positions: some say that now, all the major world leaders are Jupiter members, but generally that’s not true (...generally). They leave the blatant controlling to Ceres and become a shadow, a mystery, and something conspiracy theories talk.
Jupiter only appears out of the woodwork in person when people aren’t taken their pills (they get three strikes, send in letters with no return address and no named signe) and then get killed. Ceres becomes a beauty & skincare giant, absorbing companies that work on hair, nails, face and beauty.
Under these two groups, the world grows back to its former self. It’s not difficult to have technology become something, as all the factories and buildings are perfectly stable. And now with people to lead and coax the world into where it should be, all they need is the population increase and the schooling.
It’s with this kind of growing that the world grows back to the way we’re accustomed. The stock market starts up again: oil barons become fantastically rich, there are people on welfare, medicaid, and everywhere in the middle. Though the powers remain suppressed, it seems they’ve wiped out most terrible diseases aside from the rare case. They’re also a non-topic: people who have powers are told not to talk about it or their pills, or to use them in public. After all, it’s best just to be a normal person living your normal life, regardless of what you do or where you do it.
Of course, it goes without saying that not everyone’s happy with this arrangement. There are plenty of conspiracy groups and theories discussing the existence of what has now become a shadowy group of people controlling the world. There are plenty of people who know and hate that the biggest company in the world is also the most corrupt. There are plenty of policemen who get paid to shut up and feel sick and trapped about it. And then there are those who try to take a stand against one or both of these forces.
Fast forward. A boy named Alexander Renson is born, and lives a fairly average life. His father is a policeman and his mother, a housewife. Alexander is a pretty average kid, a little on the snide side, very athletic, with the desire to be a police officer. His father, understanding the corruption in the police organizations and the organized crime rampant in New York City, objects strongly.
During puberty, Alexander discovers something awesome: he can shoot fireballs. Not without burning himself (they’re on his hands, after all!), true, but he can do awesome things. Then, suddenly, his mother starts making him take these pills that dull his powers significantly. Avoiding taking them gets a sharp scolding and even a whack in the face. So he does. But not without wondering where they come from, and why he’s got to do it.
And, true to his dream, he enrolls in police academy. It is in the academy that Alexander begins to understand the corruption that exists, and when he graduates, he becomes a police officer in New York City’s seventh precinct. When he refuses to bow to that corruption, his father ends up dead.
Enraged, he creates a vigilante group which he calls “The Sevens.” He styles himself as Commander Wuertz and dons a gas mask to avoid the possibility of anyone learning his true identity. Over thirteen years, Alex slowly finds out that the source of the corruption is none other than Ceres Limited and it’s CEO is a ruthless, charismatic gentleman named Christopher Gavin who can manipulate the dreams of others. Even now, he fights against his friend and all the shit that New York City (especially the Seventh Precinct) has to deal with.
Ten years is a lot of time to be fighting a battle where the odds are stacked largely against you, but so far Alex getting along. The persistent and constant fear of getting killed himself - which he’s gotten pretty close to, several times - or getting his fellow policemen kidnapped, blackmailed-against, tortured or also murdered has always been a constant weight on his shoulders. That burden’s allowed him to grow up quick, though, and learn how to fight his battle as best he can, with the limited funding and numbers he has.
For now, he keeps fighting.
Growing up, Alex was a damn good kid, who worked hard and was generally nice to people. He was always a little bit on the wry side as well. However, the multi-year term he’s been serving as the incorruptible leader of a police organization that is very prone to corruption has taken its toll on his once-cheerful demeanor. These days, that wryness and sarcasm is in full-blown mode and compounded with suspicion of everything, general world-weariness and burnout. He’s got a hardened (some might say paranoid) demeanor, carefully sizing up everyone he meets to see if they will try to a) betray him, b) want to join his cause or c) are just an average john doe. Generally, though, he puts people in category A, knowing full well that his last best friend is now his worst enemy. Alex is accustomed to hiding his weakness as to avoid his enemies taking advantage of it, and keeping few friends (none, hopefully) so that Ceres cannot manipulate him through others. Though he truly misses connections he had before becoming Commander Wuertz, he keeps fighting his noble battle.
Make no mistake, Alex has never been afraid to share how he thinks things should go - got him into plenty of trouble in school. Being the leader of a bunch of vigilantes, however, is a better place for that kind of personality. He’s pretty good at making decisions, though he sometimes treats people as means to an end, especially if he barely knows them. But once he makes a decision he barely ever changes his mind - the stubbornness, like his somewhat large mouth, can be a good or bad thing. And the decisions he makes always come in a couple of moments, generally on instinct. He tries to keep on his temper, but there are some things that always get him, and, if left alone for long enough, the melancholy, burnout depression can catch up to him, and man does he become an angry emo kid. And he knows it, too, so even if he doesn’t like the company of others, he prefers it to the alternative.
However, Alex does maintain a sense of humor, even if it’s a little strange at times. Plus, his trust (though nearly impossible to gain) is unshakeable after it’s been given. Alex understands, though, that sometimes you have to use dubious methods to get what you want. His favorite way to get something done is with an in-your-face, brutal attack; he isn’t a fan of cheating, sneaking around, or lying. He’s killed, but he doesn’t like it.
Why should that character be in this game: Alex is deeply entrenched in the sociopolitical web of his world, and I’m curious to see how he’d respond to being torn, rather rudely, from that web. Also, he’s a really fun character to play.
Why do you want to continue their history here: N/A
Have you read up on how the game works?: LJ = FlamingFerret. Money: jobs, missions, leeching.
1st person sample:
[The video flicks on. You are treated to a man wearing a gas mask, a black jacket, and jeans. Either the masks mutates his voice, or he’s got something in there that does, because he sounds a bit like a tracheotomy patient. He starts off calm and slowly gets angrier as he talks.]
You have to wonder why the hell they pick you. Or me, in this case. It’s part of that existential crisis that humanity is constantly faced with. Why are we here? Why am I here? What is my purpose? And why the fuck would I get all attached to everything happening and act delicately to fix things and make shit up and get things working if all you’re going to fucking do is blow it up?!
[He takes a long hiss of a breath.]
It really raises the hairs on my neck, you know? I’m damn sure I wan’t any more or less important than all those people no matter what I did or how I did it. Granted, there are some people that I would have been glad to have been killed if they were the people representing me, but there’s better choices than me. As you can see, I’m a sour, grouchy asshole.
[Pause. He turns his head away from the camera.]
Fuck. I suck at first impressions.
3rd person sample:
If nothing else, there was a certain comfort in knowing he could hide behind his mask. His universe had been destroyed and all his friends and enemies were gone and everything he’d ever known ceased to exist but, at least he could hide and pretend everything was okay. Or at least, make it appear to others that everything was okay. There was probably some deep psychological issue with his mask-wearing, and the comfort it gave him, and all the things that seemed slightly more all right when it was on, but given the fact that his planet was destroyed, it wasn’t something he felt was a high priority.
Without his job and his half-fumbled handling of his disintegrating life, he never realized how few of his hobbies no longer interested him. He’d been an avid car fan, a video game kid, and everything under the sun, but these days it seemed like, even if there were video games and cars here, they were boring. Nothing really compared to fighting vigilantes in warehouses and setting paparazzi cameras alight. He was antsy, and he knew it. There had to be something here that could keep his attention.
He found the people here were all stages of strange and weird, and hard to trust. They’d lost their worlds, how could they smile like that? How could they laugh or enjoy a food or anything? Everything was gone, and even with his resistance to general depressing despair, he found it was hard to not think about it.
He tugged off his glove, popping fire into his hand and smelling burning flesh. At least some things never changed.
Questions?:
Has anyone really been far as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: yes. >:3