Vital Regions? Mind your own first, Herr Dummkopf.
..APPLICATION...mun related questions.
NAME:
Crystal
AGE:
17
TIME ZONE:
PST
LIVEJOURNAL:
onacrystal
CONTACT
EMAIL: PM for it, please.
AIM: PM for it, please.
MSN: PM for it, please.
PLURK: (will get one soon?)
OTHER: none
HAVE YOU READ THE FAQ AND RULES?:
Yes
THIS RP IS A YEAR LONG GAME. CAN YOU COMMIT TO THE CHARACTER YOU ARE APPLYING FOR?:
Yes
COMMENTS:
The song is stuck in my head now. |D
I'm sorry. Please blame my Halloween cosplay photoshoot.
.character related questions.
NAME:
Roderich Edelstein
NATION/STATE:
Austria
AGE:
26
PRIOR JOB TITLE:
MIDI engineer in Yamaha Corporation
Assistant software developer in Steinberg Company
EDUCATION:
He graduated from Vienna University of Technology with a master's degree in audio engineering (sub-division of Electrical Engineering), and a diploma in SAE Institute, Vienna
HAS YOUR CHARACTER EVER COMMITTED A CRIME? IF YES, PLEASE EXPLAIN:
No
DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN NATION CORP. WILLINGLY?:
Yes. After 3 months of unemployment and break-up with his girlfriend, Roderich became more depressed as time went by. He sees the offer from NationCorp as an opportunity to change his life, even if it means he has to leave his beloved city. Besides, he has never been to places outside Europe before, so it would be a chance for me to see the outside world.
SKILLS:
From sight-reading to installing a sound system, Roderich is proud of his music and audio skills. Musically, possessing perfect pitch allows him to hear notes accurately and visualise music into staffs in his mind. He has strong eye-hand coordination, which enables him to sightread music in any instrument. He also has a strong pitch memory to remember melodies and rhythms. On the other hand, he uses his acute ears as an aid to produce the best sound quality for his work, ranges from recording music in studios to invent new audio-related products, such as media players, voice-control systems, and loud speakers. He always welcome new ideas that would help him improve his work, and keeps an eye on the newest technology, always seeking chances to become more skilled. Apart from music and work, he loves to spend weekends in buying ingredients to bake Austrian pastries for his friends and coworkers. Baking is one of his most favourite hobby -- although his kitchen often explodes for some unknown reason, his pastries, which are made with the finest ingredients, are very delicious.
PPERSONALITY:
Judging from his appearance and everyday life, most people would presume Roderich Edelstein to be a person who enjoys a relaxing and elegant life. The Austrian truly enjoyed a slow-paced life spent doing hobbies such as playing classical music and baking pastries, earning him the nickname "young master". Being educated in a strict environment shaped him into a well-mannered person, if not into a gentleman, whom treats people with respect.When facing strangers, he always maintain a subtle smile on his lips that creates both friendliness and distance between him and others.
However, his colleagues may see a different Roderich than a casual passerbyer. He is a perfectionist and therefore is not a fast worker. He doesn't like to meet deadlines, to be honest. He prefers to use his time to make things perfect. Nevertheless, he is a responsible person who values punctuality -- his work is always of a high quality and turned in on time, which is why some people working on his team may have a hard time meeting his exceptionally high standards.
Although he dislikes being controlled, he tends to perform worse when working alone in comparison to when he works with a group. Perhaps he enjoys being a leader who keeps things running smoothly or perhaps group work provides the outlet for him to achieve perfection. He is practical and down-to earth. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and believes that rules and guidelines are meant to be followed, not broken.
He is very serious about his duties and responsibilities, but that doesn't make him entirely a horrible person to hang out with or work with. He likes working with others but he treats most of them as acquaintances or as simple co-workers. Because he only has a few close friends, many people perceive him as a loner. Although he appears happy and relieved when the usual troublemakers are not around, he feels somewhat lonely. Nonetheless, he tends to keep those feelings to himself. He treats all his friends with warm regard and is willing to help whenever they are in need.
Roderich is not a cold person: his rationality and indifferent attitude towards most of the things (maybe except pranks) do not reflect his complete self. Years of music education enables him to understand the artistic, the subtle, and the implicit. Additionally, it helps him to perceive and to treat things with both rationality and empathy. He can be very sentimental over relationships and personal failures, but his rationality prevents mental outbreaks most of the time, allowing him to maintain his image as a well-reserved and elegant aristocrat.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
The strand of hair that blatantly defies gravity, to Roderich's embarrassment, is always a great topic to discuss during science classes. Since birth, Roderich and his family have tried many attempts to tame the hair down, but it remains intact and curves graciously. The hair seems the react to Roderich's emotions, too.
His silky and wavy brown hair, inherited from his father, is amazing malleable. Roderich likes to comb it back to make himself look neat. His pair of violet eyes remind people of a set of amethyst jewelry that reflect mysterious and subtle light. His pair of glasses represented intelligence and musicianship -- he would look dumb without glasses because he can only see blurry things. His thin lips enables him to play woodwind instruments very well (he is not a brass player, unfortunately). For some reasons, he carefully protects the mole below his lips from being touched. He is very proud of those long and delicate fingers on his pianist's hands.
Although he is about 172 cm (5"7) tall, his willowy figure makes him look relatively shorter among his friends. Because he dislikes outdoor activities, his skin is fair and pale. He purchases clothes in plain colours and simple designs that would establish his intelligent, professional image. All his clothes are kept in excellent condition. Unlike others, he does have a habit to iron all his clothes before wearing them. He also has a collection of glasses in various styles, so he can change his appearance for different situations.
HISTORY:
Roderich was the only son born to the strict, conservative and affluent Edelstein family. His father was a professor in Konservatorium Wien (a music conservatory), who wished to shape his son into a fine musician, while his mother was a Hapsburg (a powerful familiy that owns a series of prestigious companies, including Imperio LLP, a real estate development firm), and wished to shape her son into a pragmatic (non-music) professional [1]. Despite such a huge parenting difference, both parents agreed that Roderich should be raised to become an elitist. As a gifted musician, he picked up musical instruments in an early age, however, to balance to musical upbringing, his mother would make him memorise the multiplication chart.
Although Roderich was sent to the prestigious Catholic boarding school--Kollegium Kalksburg--in Liesing, his family, which lived in Döbling, still had a strong influence on him. He was not a physically sturdy person and was often a victim of bullying since primary school (he was mocked at for being beaten up by a girl). He was not strong enough to fight back, yet there was always someone who became his close companion and protected him [2]. He excelled academically and musically, performing well in both art and science classes. Influenced by his mother, he became fond of crafts and pastries. In an aspiration essay he wrote,he dreamed of becoming a pâtissier or a musician in the future.
As he reached the age for secondary school (Gymnasium), his physical condition improved significantly. He also developed strong leadership skills and used it to control others (and bully them). He also attracted more friends and started developing social connections. He had thought about entering BRG Klagenfurt-Viktring because of its emphasis on musical education, but his mother strongly discouraged him from entering the music career. Eventually her wish came true -- after witnessing the cruel reality of being a professional musician, he understood that pursuing a science career in this technological world would make him a good living. He continued to study in Kollegium Kalksburg for secondary school, focusing on science, but his love for music and pastries never abated. He realised that although he didn't like to be treated as the centre of attention, he enjoyed being elected as Klassensprecher (prefect/president of the class). [3]
In high school he planned to attend Technische Universität Wien for his future undecided science career (but not University of Vienna because of its emphasis on the field of arts and humanities). However, he also understood that Germany, not Austria, had better technology programmes, so he took the abitur exam just in case he must attend German schools. Also, he met one of his favourite teacher, Mrs. Theresa. Her encouragement and guidance helped shape Roderich into a more well-rounded person.
Because of his love for the city, he chose to attend TU Wien with many of his friends, but conflicts in his peer group started to annoy him. To find a balance between music and science, he chose to major in audio engineering (under the electrical engineering field). In his second year, he decided to participate in a long exchange program to TU Berlin. To his surprise, his second cousin, Gilbert, was enrolled there to major in mechanical engineering. Due to some previous childhood conflicts, their rivalry sparked instantly [4]. Living next to each other (they both lived off campus) further worsened the problem. There were times that their relationship improved lightly -- teaming up in Rohde-Schwarz international engineering competition [5] and Ludwig (Gilbert's brother)'s invitation to live together (partly because he didn't want to witness kitchen explosion from next door anymore) allowed Roderich to know more about his rivalry [6]. But the harmonic situation ended shortly -- to everyone's surprise, when Gilbert outperformed Roderich in the finals. Argument and cursing were exchanged, and the third year ended discordantly, with Roderich returning to Vienna to continue his study. [7]
Studying in Berlin was not completely his displeasure. He was very fortunate to intern at Steinberg Company in audio software. His love for audio engineering grew during his stay. During college, he was active in various music performing groups. In 2006 (his third year), his company was sold to Yamaha Corporation. Because of his outstanding performance during internship in Berlin, Yamaha hired him to continue his internship in the studios after returning to Vienna. He was very happy about this, and believed that would build a strong foundation for his future career as an audio engineer.
During his fourth year he decided to forget about the rivalry and concentrate on his studies, by occupying himself with SAE institution courses and graduation essays. After graduation, he pursued a master's degree while working with Yamaha. At the same time, he starting comitting to his first love, a girl he met during school. Their relationship developed so close that others always assumed that they were already married [8]. After Graduate School he received a promotion as a team leader, yet he started to have a hard time cooperating with his co-workers. For some reasons they disliked having Roderich as their group leader, and one of the extremely dissent ones swore to take over his position. The conflict escalated to the point that Roderich could no longer stand it. That unruly worker contributed to Roderich's job loss and break-up with his girlfriend, plunging him into long period of depression. [9]
He kept searching for jobs in Vienna, but due to the global economic downturn, not many positions were available. He finally had a chance to pursue his childhood aspiration as a musician, playing piano in hotels as part-time job, but months of job searching made him wondered if that was the end of his engineering life.
One day he received an offer from Nation Corp to work in its New York headquarter. Having spent most of his life in Vienna, he thought this would be a chance to change his life. He accepted the offer within a week, and after spending his 26th birthday in Vienna, he left his home country for a new stage of life.
[1] Refers to the Habsburg Monarchy that ruled Austria for over six centuries.
[2] Refers to the comic strips where Switzerland protects Austria from being beaten up by Hungary.
[3] Rulers from Austria were often elected to be the emperor of Holy Roman Empire, the collection of German states.
[4] Refers to German dualism, the long conflict between Prussia and Austria from 18th to 19th century.
[5] Napoleonic Wars, one of the international wars that Austria and Prussia were allies.
[6] Anschluss -- Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938.
[7] Austro-Prussian War -- the final conflict between Prussia and Austria. German Confederation was dissolved, and the unification of German
[8] Refers to "the marriage between Austria and Hungary" -- the formation of Austro-Hungarian Empire shortly after Austro-Prussian War in 1866.
[9] The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia triggered World War I, which resulted in the disintegration of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire.
OTHER:
I had a long talk with both Prussia and Spain mun about our history before writing this app, so it should be okay.
. roleplay samples .
ACTION POST SAMPLE:
[As Roderich walks slowly back to his room with a mug of Blue Mountain coffee, he hears something bumping against the wall from his direction. He blinks and walks faster to see what was going on. Then he hears the sound of pens, paper, and computer keyboard falling on the floor, laughter and yelling from his workers. He approaches the crowd, and sees one of his unruly worker lifting up his cubicle table, making his eighth attempt to move his spot into Roderich's room when he is away for some coffee.]
How many times do I have to tell you that it's time to give up? The cubicle doesn't fit into my room. I understand that you have too much energy to waste -- would you rather write me another 20-page report, which is due tomorrow, or have a nice duel against the frying pan again to entertain us?
PROSE SAMPLE:
For the past three months in Grand Hotel Wien, Roderich Edelstein would sit in the centre of the lobby, playing music for the well-dressed guests every night -- a job that one of his friends recommended to him. He still couldn't believe he defeated fifty other candidates from the music conservatory in the audition. Before the musical night began, the manager came by the piano and greeted Roderich, telling him that he did not have to play any audience-oriented repertoire, but play to his heart's content. Roderich shook her hand in bewilderment, suddenly not knowing what to play. Playing to his heart's content... that was probably one of the weirdest requests he had ever taken.
Nevertheless, he positioned himself carefully and started his job. To match the mood of the day, he started off with an andante piece -- Fugue in C major by Bach. As the music began, people consciously lowered their speaking volume, allowing the music to flow freely in the lobby. He chose a C-major piece with a purpose -- the refreshing, simplistic key would somehow wear off the stress and tiredness floating in the atmosphere.
Although it was a short piece, he concentrated on imitating the bright tone of a harpsichord. As usual, he felt like a giant music box, entertaining those indifferent guests as they drank their wine. That was expected, he kept telling himself to refrain from feeling disappointed, but the question popped up after months of negligence -- How did I end up playing here?
Where are my coffee, my computer, my desk, and other office items that have been accompanying me for four years? As he kept kept thinking, he ended the Bach and proceeded to the next piece, finale from sonata in c minor by Beethoven, a work that contained dramatic contrast on dynamics and with skeptic melody and arpeggios on the right hand, accompanied by broken chord bass on the left hand. His emotion, or his anger, intensified along with the descending chromatic runs in crescendo, followed by four strong, powerful chords ending in half cadence. Memories from the past two years working for Yamaha flooded his mind, forcing him to face the reason of his joblessness again.
But when the Serbian worker flashed in his mind, the memory of this worker challenging him with an intention to disrupt the harmony he had been maintaining within the work team, triggered his mental outbreak. He automatically switched to play Revolutionary Etude by Chopin with an unbelievably fast tempo. His mind became chaotic; he wanted to blame and retaliate at his former worker just to get his job back after three months of "unemployment". At this moment, an inside voice spoke out: This is your opportunity to step onto the music career now, wasn't this your aspiration since childhood?
Without paying attention to the audience applauding, his memory flashed back to his carefree childhood with Debussy's The Little Shepherd, a light and peaceful piece. He remembered those times when he could proudly proclaimed "I want to be a musician in the future!" in front of his parents and peers. Those memories were pleasant, but they only existed in the past, after all. Time passed away so fast that it seemed like his master's credential became useless. Were those years dedicated into studying laying in waste? This melancholy could only be expressed by Étude in E-flat minor, the only slow etude Chopin had ever wrote.
Playing piano was a lovely hobby, but was never a job. Not only did it involve too much effort, he felt that he was capable of various skills. Dejection, solitude, and simple boredom clung to him for the past three months when something urged him to abandon his job searching, causing him to think "What is the good of doing anything, when the best part of my life is being wasted like this?** " , and sank himself into depression like Tolstoy once did, with Rachmaninoff's prelude in c-sharp minor...
"Are you alright?" asked the manger, who approached him and patted his shoulder. "Very emotional performance. Now, would you like to play something to conclude the night?" She left him an assured smile and left the stage.
Roderich, for the first time, looked around the lobby and found people giving the performance their full attention. A bit astonished, his rationality returned with a slight smile as he stepped on the soft pedal and began playing consolation no.3 by Liszt. The peaceful music had a mysterious power that soothed the soul. He emptied his mind, allowing his left hand to play smooth waves against the sparkling star on the sky. There were natural climaxes, not as dramatic as those in Revolutionary Etude. People applauded as he lifted the sustain pedal slowly, making him feel content and peaceful.
"You are a very talented performer..." the manager said as she handed Roderich the paycheck in the staff room. "...but seems like you prefer to do other things besides music. That's great too! I'm glad that you really enjoy in your own music today. Auf Weidersehen!" She smiled and left the room. Roderich always thought that manager was amazing -- not only did she understand music, but she also seemed to read a person's mind very well.
As he was about to leave, a tall, stern man in tuxedo with a white mask blocked his way with his long arms. Roderich was stupefied. This "Erik the Phantom" slowly lifted his head, stared at the Viennese, and spoke in American English:
"Are you Roderich Edelstein?"
"Yes, I am." Yes, I am," Roderich finally managed to squeeze out some English words after a long pause, having learned English after spending years learning the language in school. He stared at Erik the phantom. 'Aren't you supposed to dress up as someone from Sound of the Music instead of Phantom of the Opera? And I'm sorry, but you've traveled to a wrong city -- this is not Paris...***' he thought, almost making a Freudian slip. The American man certainly did not have much common sense. "How did you know my name, sir? How may I help you?" The American man said nothing. Instead, he simply handed Roderich an envelope before leaving the hotel.
"NationCorp cordially offers you a job in New York." Roderich read softly aloud to himself. "Housing is is included in our salary package, along with other fringe benefits such as insurance, health care, paid vacations..." A job offer. Did that mean an opportunity for change? Or to get his job back?
Losing a job didn't affect his life that much -- with his family's wealth, he could easily support his jobless life for ten years or so. To him, a job meant acknowledgement of his accomplishments and provision of a strong sense of belonging. He grasped at the letter and left the hotel with a profound decision to make. In his car driving back home, he started considering the job offer.
And as usual, when he drowned himself in deep thoughts while driving, he got lost in the city where he lived for almost twenty-four years****.
** This is directly quoted from Tolstoy's short story, The Family Happiness.
*** Americans really love The Sounds of Music, and often associate this movie with Austria. The Phantom of the Opera is staged in Paris.
**** Roderich spent two years studying in Berlin, so 26 - 2 = 24 years.
Music used (youtube links included)
1. Bach: Fugue in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier (book 1)
2. Beethoven: Finale of the Piano Sonata #5 In C Minor, Op. 10
3. Chopin: Étude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor (Revolutionary Étude)
4. Debussy: Children's Corner - The Little Shepherd
5. Chopin: Étude Op.10 No. 6 in E-flat minor
6. Rachmaninoff': Prelude in C-sharp minor
7. Liszt: Consolation no.3
----
BBS SAMPLE:
Title: Broadway tickets
Is anyone interested in spending an evening with world-famous musicals in Broadway? My friend offers me a discounted price for orchestra-pit tickets in Elf, the new musical in November. We can carpool together (if my GPS works) and have a nice dinner before watching the show.
If you would like to reserve your ticket, feel free to leave a comment here.