App [Siren's Pull]
Player Information
Name: Bear
Age: 27
AIM SN: Naturalcyber
email: realisticfakefish@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: noboatbigenough boywillbegirl
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here! (Note: Xavin was not accepted until the 28th and wasn't included in this check, but activity links can be provided if necessary.)
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Angel: The Series
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Allen Francis Doyle
Character's Age: 25ish
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played.
What form will your character's NV take? A modern cell-phone with a keypad, in blue and green. It's big, due to the screen-size, but super-thin and very portable.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Doyle is half Brachen demon and can transform to a demon form with green skin and blue spines on his face and neck. In his demon form he has a very enhanced sense of smell and is stronger with more stamina and dexterity than a normal human. He can also withstand injuries to an extent because of that strength and dexterity, such as surviving getting his neck “snapped” without any bad after-effects. However, getting knocked around a bit too much or even something like sneezing can force his demon side out without his willing it.
He used to have clairvoyant visions, but he lost them due to giving them to someone else.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Actually, since he lost his visions, I'd like to have him develop a similar ability in Siren's Port due to the Core, because it would be fun to play with and interesting for character development. The app page says it's possible, and since we don't get to see much of him from the time when he didn't have the visions it seems reasonable to ask if he can have something similar. However, instead of the specifically targeted visions he got in canon of people that specifically need the group's help, the ability would be more general. It would be limited clairvoyance triggered by heightened emotions or energy (mental/spiritual). Distress would cause it to trigger more often than happiness, for example, but it would be very stressful and tiring during Darkness because of all the monsters. The bigger the trigger the further in advance he'd be aware of it, but most things would trigger the ability at most an hour before the event, and usually fifteen minutes or less. A huge event, like a big earthquake with many casualties could trigger his ability up to a day in advance.
The base state would be flashes of heightened intuition--urges to go somewhere suddenly (more a general area than specifics) and things like that--that would likely put him either in the "right place at the right time" or the "wrong place at the wrong time." The intuition wouldn't always lead him into good things or situations where he would be able to help or belong, and he wouldn't, for example, be able to intuit a winning lottery number or anything. It would basically be a draw towards whatever was triggering his ability (so if something good triggered it, he could wander into a party or something). This would come with mild, but frequent insomnia.
As the ability expanded, the intuition would be joined by "visions" though not necessarily something seen. It could be any sense--sight, sound, touch, even taste, smell, or a combination--and would have an echo of the trigger somewhere in there. So if someone was getting stabbed, he'd feel their distress and the physical pain briefly. So distress-triggered visions would be very unpleasant and until he could learn to control the ability this stage would be debilitating, causing very interrupted sleep and daily life. Once he learned control he'd be able to filter out most triggers unless he wanted to but he would still need to exercise judgment. His visions would never be particularly precise or clear, just very brief flashes. He might get a vision where he'd smell smoke, feel fear, and had an urge to go to the north end of sector 4 and that would be it.
Weapons: N/A
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Doyle grew up in Ireland, raised by a single catholic mother and not ever knowing the identity of his father. By nineteen he had moved to L.A. and was a certified elementary teacher. He met his ex-wife working as a volunteer in a soup kitchen and after a whirlwind romance they were married before they turned twenty. A small amount of conflict aside they were happy and planning on starting a family until he turned twenty one and his demon side surfaced. At first both of them reacted very badly but his ex-wife came to support his demon side while he was still terrified and loathed it. His trouble coping and general hatred of himself drove them apart so eventually she walked out.
Shortly after this he was visited by another half Brachen demon searching for help against a group of demon purists called the Scourge. Terrified and not wanting anything to do with his demon side Doyle refused and drove the demon away, only later to receive a painful and intense vision showing him said demon and his family slaughtered. When he investigated he found that what he’d seen was true and it drove him even further down the road that discovering his demon side started him on. That is, until Angel was thrust into his life a few years later.
Guided to Angel by his visions Doyle began to help Angel and in doing so, begin to help himself. His visions, while very painful, helped Angel discover people in need of help and he was able to put his skills in research to use behind the scenes. He also developed feelings for coworker Cordelia and struggled with whether or not to reveal his demon half to her.
During different cases, he was able to use his other abilities as well, such as his sense of smell to track an object Angel had hidden. Shortly after beginning to work with Angel, though, his self-destructive gambling came back to bite him. He'd wracked up terrible debt to demons and they were sent first to collect and then to kill him. During that time Cordelia was looking for a new apartment so Doyle used one of his contacts to find her one while asking Angel to help with the debt collectors. Unfortunately the apartment was haunted and the debt collectors were persistent, but eventually they were able to sort things out. Doyle revealed he knew a lot about exorcism, but couldn't speak Latin during the incident.
Not long after that, his ex-wife showed up asking him to finalize their divorce, as they'd never actually signed the papers. Doyle revealed that he still loved her, though he knew their breakup had been his fault and that he truly did want to her to be happy. He was overprotective of her with her demon fiance, to her great annoyance, but eventually even agreed to attend the man's bachelor party for her sake. There he found out that the demons had a ritual of eating the ex-spouse's brain during their bachelor parties and nearly got the top of his head taken off. Though Doyle had been right regarding the fiance being bad news, he and his ex-wife weren't able to reconcile right then and he moped until a vision hit.
The next big event that happened was that he had a vision of a group of half-demons needing help from a pure-demon extremist group called the Scourge. Doyle was able to give one of them hope and worked hard to save them, in spite of his fear of the Scourge. He revealed his demon half to Cordelia and asked her out for coffee but they were interrupted when the Scourge trapped Doyle, Angel, Cordelia and the half-demons in the hold of a ship and lowered a device down that emitted a light that burns anyone with human blood to a crisp. In order to stop it a cord on the machine needed to be pulled, which would cost the one who did it their life. Angel was set to sacrifice himself but Doyle punched him off a catwalk in order to do it himself. In his final moments he gave Cordelia a farewell kiss-transferring his visions to her-and leaped to pull the plug. He succeeded but at the cost of his life.
Point in Canon: Season 1, EP 9: Hero
Having started to come to better terms with his demon half, Doyle had done his utmost to help a group of part-demons flee from a nasty group called The Scourge, and even revealed his demon side to Cordelia. The group plus the part demons were trapped in the hold of the ship with a device that would kill anyone with human blood and in order to atone for his past Doyle chose to be the one to stop the device. He stopped Angel from doing it, kissed Cordelia and confessed his feelings, and heroically but suicidally managed to save everyone in the hold.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Doyle’s personality comes in layers. On the surface he’s an amiable, twenty-something man with a slight hint of scoundrel. He drinks and gambles and is down on his luck, living alone and owing debts to unsavory people. The kind of life that, in his words, “doesn’t inspire high expectations.” He tries to come across as cheerful and devil-may-care, making jokes and quips at frequent intervals but there is more under the surface. Indeed, even his surface personality has gone through many changes and evolutions according to his experiences.
Doyle was once a very caring and driven young man, working to help people and taking charge of his life. He tried to help others, with both volunteering at soup kitchens and with his teaching. He maintains his love of children to this day. He loved his wife dearly and tried to take care of her, even though it sometimes got on her nerves. He was upstanding, loved teaching, and did his best to be a good person. He did have his faults, however. He could be a bit smothering in his attempts to take care of people and even then he was prone to drinking too much. However, for the most part he was a good person, just with a few minor issues that were made terribly worse by what he discovered about himself when he turned twenty one.
Then he discovered he was half-demon and his perfect world crumbled. He developed a fear and loathing of himself and lashed out at everyone, driving his wife away and sending his life spiraling into a cycle of self-destruction. He developed depression and in his state refused to help anyone-resulting in deaths for which he feels incredibly guilty about to the present. Self-destructive came to be in part self-punishing; Doyle underneath the surface not quite believing himself worthy of more than the meager, dangerous existence he forced himself to live. His experiences on the underside of life made him become just a little cynical and hardened but the core remained.
Then he met Angel and changed again. Inspired by something of a kindred soul--at the least, another who knew what it was like to carry deep guilt and self-loathing--Doyle allowed himself to open up again, slowly starting to show off the core of himself. Helping others and forming friendships helped him regain some of his self-confidence and start to accept himself for what he really was instead of what he was afraid he was. And his last heroic act was an act of atonement to assuage his guilt somewhat. In his last moments his core personality shone through again.
That core is the kind, intelligent, and empathetic man who thinks of others before himself. Doyle is still very kind at heart, even though he's spent years running from himself and his experiences being down and out have hardened him slightly to the plights of others. Ultimately this is because he knows that if he would just choose to get his act back together he'd be able to get out of the hole he's dug for himself, so he tends to be slightly more judgmental on the surface. When it comes down to it, he will still help people, he'll just be more sarcastic about it.
His guilt is still there, and will probably never leave. Now that he's done running from it, due to his growth under Angel's and Cordelia's influence, it will continue to motivate him to atone for the lives he's hurt. He will take greater risks and go farther than the twenty year old that worked in the soup kitchens.
He's overcome a lot of his fear, though there's still some ways to go, and will now choose to stand and fight rather than run. He is still cautious about how others see him and his true self-image isn't the greatest--though he'd call himself fairly handsome out loud--because that long hating himself and his demon half has left a mark. Still, the act of showing his demon side to someone he really cared for, and cared about the opinion of, shows that he's working through this.
He is still fun loving and enjoys a good joke, but now he's more likely to honestly feel this way on the inside, rather than something he projects to distance himself from the world.
In short, Doyle has grown a lot in his short life, and gone through many tough times but he's come out better and stronger for it.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans:
Doyle will try to put together a life for himself and then he'll start trying to help people again. He'll definitely do a little volunteering in the soup kitchens but will probably be torn between taking up teaching again or continuing the kind of 'helping the helpless' work he was doing with Angel and co. He most certainly will hate the very idea of both of the companies, and will be easily convinced to fight against them. In short, continuing his character development.
Appearance/PB: Icons!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The feed opens to a young man lounging on a beat-up couch. He grins a little sheepishly and waves at the camera.]
So, way I hear it, this is Canada, yeah? I always wanted to visit but I'm hoping they won't be asking for my passport or anything. Hell will freeze over before I ever find that again, is my thinking.
One thing about Canada, is that the people are all generous-like. They really do have all the best toys here, and given out for free even. The month's rent is just icing on the cake. It's the kind of thing that really humbles a fella.
[He pauses and leans forward.]
But there's something missing, yeah? It needs a housewarming present to myself! So, where can a fella get a good bottle of scotch around here?
Third Person Sample
Doyle had no regrets. Well, almost no regrets. He did wish he'd gotten longer to say goodbye, but he didn't regret saying it. It'd needed doing, saving those Listers, and he knew he had to be the one to do it. The world needed Angel too much. He'd gone gladly to his death to save them and... ended up here.
Hell if he knew where he really was though--and the monsters he'd seen after dark hadn't ruled out that either. Doyle was pretty sure that this wasn't where he was supposed to be. Maybe. So, he needed to figure that out. That was easier said than done. Or maybe just easier said than believed.
"Canada, really? They've got to be kidding," he muttered to himself as he walked. He didn't believe it yet, but that was the answer he'd gotten--and some kids playing on the other side of the street caught his attention. Doyle hoped to God that this wasn't a hell dimension, because he'd hate to see kids go through that. These ones looked like they were having fun though, so Doyle continued on. He didn't want to get in the way of their fun.
Except he did anyway, when the football--he'd never get used to calling it soccer--bounced off his head. The kids all clustered together, giving him guilty looks as he bent to pick up the ball. He gave them his best smile and kicked the ball back--not bad, if he did say so himself.
He waved off their thanks and pulled up his collar, "Be careful not to catch cold, yeah? Bit nippy!"
He didn't linger, even if he wanted to. He had to figure this place out, and then he could relax and do what he wanted.
Name: Bear
Age: 27
AIM SN: Naturalcyber
email: realisticfakefish@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: noboatbigenough boywillbegirl
Conditional: Activity Check Link: Here! (Note: Xavin was not accepted until the 28th and wasn't included in this check, but activity links can be provided if necessary.)
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Angel: The Series
Canon Format: TV Show
Character's Name: Allen Francis Doyle
Character's Age: 25ish
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played.
What form will your character's NV take? A modern cell-phone with a keypad, in blue and green. It's big, due to the screen-size, but super-thin and very portable.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
Doyle is half Brachen demon and can transform to a demon form with green skin and blue spines on his face and neck. In his demon form he has a very enhanced sense of smell and is stronger with more stamina and dexterity than a normal human. He can also withstand injuries to an extent because of that strength and dexterity, such as surviving getting his neck “snapped” without any bad after-effects. However, getting knocked around a bit too much or even something like sneezing can force his demon side out without his willing it.
He used to have clairvoyant visions, but he lost them due to giving them to someone else.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them?
Actually, since he lost his visions, I'd like to have him develop a similar ability in Siren's Port due to the Core, because it would be fun to play with and interesting for character development. The app page says it's possible, and since we don't get to see much of him from the time when he didn't have the visions it seems reasonable to ask if he can have something similar. However, instead of the specifically targeted visions he got in canon of people that specifically need the group's help, the ability would be more general. It would be limited clairvoyance triggered by heightened emotions or energy (mental/spiritual). Distress would cause it to trigger more often than happiness, for example, but it would be very stressful and tiring during Darkness because of all the monsters. The bigger the trigger the further in advance he'd be aware of it, but most things would trigger the ability at most an hour before the event, and usually fifteen minutes or less. A huge event, like a big earthquake with many casualties could trigger his ability up to a day in advance.
The base state would be flashes of heightened intuition--urges to go somewhere suddenly (more a general area than specifics) and things like that--that would likely put him either in the "right place at the right time" or the "wrong place at the wrong time." The intuition wouldn't always lead him into good things or situations where he would be able to help or belong, and he wouldn't, for example, be able to intuit a winning lottery number or anything. It would basically be a draw towards whatever was triggering his ability (so if something good triggered it, he could wander into a party or something). This would come with mild, but frequent insomnia.
As the ability expanded, the intuition would be joined by "visions" though not necessarily something seen. It could be any sense--sight, sound, touch, even taste, smell, or a combination--and would have an echo of the trigger somewhere in there. So if someone was getting stabbed, he'd feel their distress and the physical pain briefly. So distress-triggered visions would be very unpleasant and until he could learn to control the ability this stage would be debilitating, causing very interrupted sleep and daily life. Once he learned control he'd be able to filter out most triggers unless he wanted to but he would still need to exercise judgment. His visions would never be particularly precise or clear, just very brief flashes. He might get a vision where he'd smell smoke, feel fear, and had an urge to go to the north end of sector 4 and that would be it.
Weapons: N/A
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Doyle grew up in Ireland, raised by a single catholic mother and not ever knowing the identity of his father. By nineteen he had moved to L.A. and was a certified elementary teacher. He met his ex-wife working as a volunteer in a soup kitchen and after a whirlwind romance they were married before they turned twenty. A small amount of conflict aside they were happy and planning on starting a family until he turned twenty one and his demon side surfaced. At first both of them reacted very badly but his ex-wife came to support his demon side while he was still terrified and loathed it. His trouble coping and general hatred of himself drove them apart so eventually she walked out.
Shortly after this he was visited by another half Brachen demon searching for help against a group of demon purists called the Scourge. Terrified and not wanting anything to do with his demon side Doyle refused and drove the demon away, only later to receive a painful and intense vision showing him said demon and his family slaughtered. When he investigated he found that what he’d seen was true and it drove him even further down the road that discovering his demon side started him on. That is, until Angel was thrust into his life a few years later.
Guided to Angel by his visions Doyle began to help Angel and in doing so, begin to help himself. His visions, while very painful, helped Angel discover people in need of help and he was able to put his skills in research to use behind the scenes. He also developed feelings for coworker Cordelia and struggled with whether or not to reveal his demon half to her.
During different cases, he was able to use his other abilities as well, such as his sense of smell to track an object Angel had hidden. Shortly after beginning to work with Angel, though, his self-destructive gambling came back to bite him. He'd wracked up terrible debt to demons and they were sent first to collect and then to kill him. During that time Cordelia was looking for a new apartment so Doyle used one of his contacts to find her one while asking Angel to help with the debt collectors. Unfortunately the apartment was haunted and the debt collectors were persistent, but eventually they were able to sort things out. Doyle revealed he knew a lot about exorcism, but couldn't speak Latin during the incident.
Not long after that, his ex-wife showed up asking him to finalize their divorce, as they'd never actually signed the papers. Doyle revealed that he still loved her, though he knew their breakup had been his fault and that he truly did want to her to be happy. He was overprotective of her with her demon fiance, to her great annoyance, but eventually even agreed to attend the man's bachelor party for her sake. There he found out that the demons had a ritual of eating the ex-spouse's brain during their bachelor parties and nearly got the top of his head taken off. Though Doyle had been right regarding the fiance being bad news, he and his ex-wife weren't able to reconcile right then and he moped until a vision hit.
The next big event that happened was that he had a vision of a group of half-demons needing help from a pure-demon extremist group called the Scourge. Doyle was able to give one of them hope and worked hard to save them, in spite of his fear of the Scourge. He revealed his demon half to Cordelia and asked her out for coffee but they were interrupted when the Scourge trapped Doyle, Angel, Cordelia and the half-demons in the hold of a ship and lowered a device down that emitted a light that burns anyone with human blood to a crisp. In order to stop it a cord on the machine needed to be pulled, which would cost the one who did it their life. Angel was set to sacrifice himself but Doyle punched him off a catwalk in order to do it himself. In his final moments he gave Cordelia a farewell kiss-transferring his visions to her-and leaped to pull the plug. He succeeded but at the cost of his life.
Point in Canon: Season 1, EP 9: Hero
Having started to come to better terms with his demon half, Doyle had done his utmost to help a group of part-demons flee from a nasty group called The Scourge, and even revealed his demon side to Cordelia. The group plus the part demons were trapped in the hold of the ship with a device that would kill anyone with human blood and in order to atone for his past Doyle chose to be the one to stop the device. He stopped Angel from doing it, kissed Cordelia and confessed his feelings, and heroically but suicidally managed to save everyone in the hold.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character Personality:
Doyle’s personality comes in layers. On the surface he’s an amiable, twenty-something man with a slight hint of scoundrel. He drinks and gambles and is down on his luck, living alone and owing debts to unsavory people. The kind of life that, in his words, “doesn’t inspire high expectations.” He tries to come across as cheerful and devil-may-care, making jokes and quips at frequent intervals but there is more under the surface. Indeed, even his surface personality has gone through many changes and evolutions according to his experiences.
Doyle was once a very caring and driven young man, working to help people and taking charge of his life. He tried to help others, with both volunteering at soup kitchens and with his teaching. He maintains his love of children to this day. He loved his wife dearly and tried to take care of her, even though it sometimes got on her nerves. He was upstanding, loved teaching, and did his best to be a good person. He did have his faults, however. He could be a bit smothering in his attempts to take care of people and even then he was prone to drinking too much. However, for the most part he was a good person, just with a few minor issues that were made terribly worse by what he discovered about himself when he turned twenty one.
Then he discovered he was half-demon and his perfect world crumbled. He developed a fear and loathing of himself and lashed out at everyone, driving his wife away and sending his life spiraling into a cycle of self-destruction. He developed depression and in his state refused to help anyone-resulting in deaths for which he feels incredibly guilty about to the present. Self-destructive came to be in part self-punishing; Doyle underneath the surface not quite believing himself worthy of more than the meager, dangerous existence he forced himself to live. His experiences on the underside of life made him become just a little cynical and hardened but the core remained.
Then he met Angel and changed again. Inspired by something of a kindred soul--at the least, another who knew what it was like to carry deep guilt and self-loathing--Doyle allowed himself to open up again, slowly starting to show off the core of himself. Helping others and forming friendships helped him regain some of his self-confidence and start to accept himself for what he really was instead of what he was afraid he was. And his last heroic act was an act of atonement to assuage his guilt somewhat. In his last moments his core personality shone through again.
That core is the kind, intelligent, and empathetic man who thinks of others before himself. Doyle is still very kind at heart, even though he's spent years running from himself and his experiences being down and out have hardened him slightly to the plights of others. Ultimately this is because he knows that if he would just choose to get his act back together he'd be able to get out of the hole he's dug for himself, so he tends to be slightly more judgmental on the surface. When it comes down to it, he will still help people, he'll just be more sarcastic about it.
His guilt is still there, and will probably never leave. Now that he's done running from it, due to his growth under Angel's and Cordelia's influence, it will continue to motivate him to atone for the lives he's hurt. He will take greater risks and go farther than the twenty year old that worked in the soup kitchens.
He's overcome a lot of his fear, though there's still some ways to go, and will now choose to stand and fight rather than run. He is still cautious about how others see him and his true self-image isn't the greatest--though he'd call himself fairly handsome out loud--because that long hating himself and his demon half has left a mark. Still, the act of showing his demon side to someone he really cared for, and cared about the opinion of, shows that he's working through this.
He is still fun loving and enjoys a good joke, but now he's more likely to honestly feel this way on the inside, rather than something he projects to distance himself from the world.
In short, Doyle has grown a lot in his short life, and gone through many tough times but he's come out better and stronger for it.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans:
Doyle will try to put together a life for himself and then he'll start trying to help people again. He'll definitely do a little volunteering in the soup kitchens but will probably be torn between taking up teaching again or continuing the kind of 'helping the helpless' work he was doing with Angel and co. He most certainly will hate the very idea of both of the companies, and will be easily convinced to fight against them. In short, continuing his character development.
Appearance/PB: Icons!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The feed opens to a young man lounging on a beat-up couch. He grins a little sheepishly and waves at the camera.]
So, way I hear it, this is Canada, yeah? I always wanted to visit but I'm hoping they won't be asking for my passport or anything. Hell will freeze over before I ever find that again, is my thinking.
One thing about Canada, is that the people are all generous-like. They really do have all the best toys here, and given out for free even. The month's rent is just icing on the cake. It's the kind of thing that really humbles a fella.
[He pauses and leans forward.]
But there's something missing, yeah? It needs a housewarming present to myself! So, where can a fella get a good bottle of scotch around here?
Third Person Sample
Doyle had no regrets. Well, almost no regrets. He did wish he'd gotten longer to say goodbye, but he didn't regret saying it. It'd needed doing, saving those Listers, and he knew he had to be the one to do it. The world needed Angel too much. He'd gone gladly to his death to save them and... ended up here.
Hell if he knew where he really was though--and the monsters he'd seen after dark hadn't ruled out that either. Doyle was pretty sure that this wasn't where he was supposed to be. Maybe. So, he needed to figure that out. That was easier said than done. Or maybe just easier said than believed.
"Canada, really? They've got to be kidding," he muttered to himself as he walked. He didn't believe it yet, but that was the answer he'd gotten--and some kids playing on the other side of the street caught his attention. Doyle hoped to God that this wasn't a hell dimension, because he'd hate to see kids go through that. These ones looked like they were having fun though, so Doyle continued on. He didn't want to get in the way of their fun.
Except he did anyway, when the football--he'd never get used to calling it soccer--bounced off his head. The kids all clustered together, giving him guilty looks as he bent to pick up the ball. He gave them his best smile and kicked the ball back--not bad, if he did say so himself.
He waved off their thanks and pulled up his collar, "Be careful not to catch cold, yeah? Bit nippy!"
He didn't linger, even if he wanted to. He had to figure this place out, and then he could relax and do what he wanted.