Application: Witches Reign
Name: Steven/Mon
Journal: captain_gemhed
Contact: Replis Monathin on AIM, Monathin on Plurk.
Character Name: Isaac Clarke
Series: Dead Space
Gender: Male
Age & Canon Point: Age 46, Canon Point post Dead Space 2.
Requested Sponsor: N/A
Entry position (Cadet, SeeD, Instructor, other): Instructor - Psychology (PSY 101) and Engineering (ENG 101) classes.
History: Isaac Clarke has had a pretty rough life.
Born in the (comparitively) far flung future of 2465, Issac grew up with his Mom - a Unitologist. (But we'll get into that here in a bit.) His dad - a ship designer, left before Isaac could get to know him. Despite this, Isaac took after many of his father's traits, and worked through his schooling to obtain an education in electrical and mechanical engineering. Isaac's knack for these stood out, so much so that he was selected to attend a prominent engineering academy. Unfortunately, his mother, a devoted Unitologist, spent much of the family's incomed to purchase a vested-level title inn the Church.
This was only the start of Isaac's dislike of Unitology.
Nevertheless, he worked hard, eventually going to a more backwater engineering academy, and graduating from there with high honors, becoming a systems engineer. Several years later signing up for the Merchant Marines - essentially a force of the navy focused on dry-dock operations. From there he was able to considerably illustrate his engineering skills, coming up with several original engineering solutions to problems he faced there. Impressed by the progress he made, Isaac's superiors agreed to promot him closer to major shipping lines. It was presumably here he got a taste of what would eventually become the ship of his nightmares.
The USG Ishimura.
Along the way, he met and fell deeply in love with one Nicole Brennan. Despite this, however, he began to stagnate in his own career around her assignment - and promotion - to the USG Ishimura. Nevertheless, he encouraged this promotion and assignment, pushing Nicole to pursue her career. Time passed, uneventfully. Nicole and Issac were still madly in love, even two years later. And then... the Ishimura's communications suddenly went dark.
It is here the nightmare begins.
As a Concordance Extraction Corporation (Usually referred to as 'C.E.C.') Engineer, Isaac was selected along with two other members as part of an emergency response unit tasked to investigate and possibly repair the blackout on the USG Ishimura, as well as any other problems. Due to a malfunction, their transport - the U.S.G. Kellion - is forced to essentially crash land in the Hanger bay, stranding them aboard the Planet Cracker-class vessel. Upon exiting the ship, they find the ship seemingly deserted. In the flight lounge, however. They found out what happened to the crew:
Necromorphs. Seemingly (and later confirmed to be) created from the remains of the crewmembers, these beings are heavily mutated, alien undead, viciously destroying the pilots of the Kellion transport. Isaac is separated from the remaining members - senior security officer Zach Hammond and computer and communications specialist Kendra Daniels. Taking a nearby elevator to a lower level, he finds a corpse with a slightly modified Plasma Cutter - a futuristic welding torch - and a message written in blood: "CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS." With this new information, and a 'weapon' to defend himself with, Isaac starts to set out. Able to keep in touch with Kendra and Hammond through commlink and holo-link, Isaac starts the task of repairing the Ishimura. The next few hours are filled with fright and stress, as Isaac has to do several tasks in order to preserve the USG Ishimura. Among these include.
- Repairing the Tram System
- Retrieving the Captain's RIG to gain access to the ship in mass.
- Refueling and Restarting the Engine
- Restarting the Centerfuge (Preventing a decaying orbit from the Ishimura's planet cracking)
- Restarting the Asteroid Defense System, as well as manually operating it for a brief period as automated systems powered up.
- Clearing out Hydroponics and restarting Life Support en masse (particulary oxygen recycling and air filtration, along with destroying a necromorph known as the Leviathan, first by attempting to poison it and the corruption it spread, then by combating it directly.)
- Repairing the Communication Arrays to send a distress signal.
Along the course, Isaac is defeating Necromorphs every step of the way as he picks up audio, video, and text logs supplementing and filling the blanks in on the Ishimura's horror story. The short version is that the Ishimura was on an planet deemed unapproachable by EarthGov - original seeming like an illegal operation, it was revealed that the Unitologists (remember them? Yeah, they show up a lot) staffed on the Ishimura were entranced by the find of an artifact on the Ishimura - the Marker. The Marker transmits waves on basically all known electromagnetic spectrum and brainwaves. Transmitting its genetic code. What is this genetic code for?
Why, Necromorphs, of course! Damn Unitologists. Speaking of Unitologists, one of them's alive! A Dr. Mercer, who creates an unkillable Necromorph - the Hunter. It chases Isaac around for a while as Mercer rants about how Necromorphs are life after death, the next stage of evolution, better than humans, works of god... the usual Mad Scientist bent. Long story short, Isaac manages to cyrogenically freeze it during his repairs and get the hell out of dodge.
Later on, Issac managed to send out a distress signal, hailed by the USM Valor. This is before the communication array gets up and running, so they're unable to warn them that the escape pod they picked up contained a necromorph which then spread across the entire ship, essentially destroying the unprepared crew easily. This causes the USM Valor to crash into the Ishimura, because... there's no pilots.
Whoops.
Isaac investigates the Valor's ruins, slaying more Necromorphs, and learning that the Valor was coming to obliterate them ANYWAY, so apparently someone besides him, Hammond and Kendra who know about the clusterfuck that's been unleashed. Well, besides Dr. Mercer anyway.
Hammond dies defending Isaac, who retrieves a Flux Capacitor Singularity Core from the heart of the engine and once again gets the hel out of there. He uses it (and some navcards he has to find) to power up an escape shuttle... before meeting the OTHER mad scientist still alive - Dr. Terrence Kyne. He rambles on, half-insane, explaining that returning the marker to ther surface will quell the Necromorphs - and also the big bad Hive Mind, lord of the Necromorph ecosystem, that they uncorked when they cracked the planet.
But before they can put that plan into action, after loading the marker onto the shuttle, Kendra reveals herself to be a HUGE TRAITOR, killing the poor Dr. Kyne and explaining the whole reason she was here is that she was a government agent trying to retrieve the Marker. She takes off, and Isaac seems in absolute despair... until. Suddenly, Nicole.
Nicole appeared earlier in the depths of the mining area, as Isaac worked towards the homing beacon, but now she was here and trying to help him. He recalled the shuttle with the marker - watching Kendra eject from it from a control panel, and gearing up to take the Marker to Aegis VII.
Nicole helped guide Isaac through the remains of Aegis VII, positioning the Marker back on its pedastal, which, due to some science-esque magic not known to him at the time (the scientists built the pedastal to suppress the Marker's influence over the Necromorphs), stops the Necromorphs. Except in another reversal of fate, Kendra yet again shows up, planning to take the Marker back and revealing the truth - Isaac's gone insane. The video Isaac was watching of Nicole? Yeah, turns out the ending he never watched ended with her killing herself via lethal injection. Which means 'Nicole' was a projection of Isaac's mind. Isaac dwelled on this little at the time, due to the disabled gravity tethers keeping the massive chunk of cracked planet in place, meaning that the large chunk of rock was on its way to the planet - and Issac had to escape, fast.
As he makes his way to the shuttle, Kendra's timely escape is derailed - and her own self killed - by the very thing Isaac was trying to stop - the Hive Mind. Unable to return the Marker at this point, Isaac dooes the only thing he can - using the aresenal of power tools he's been using on everything else in the Ishimura, takes down the Hive Mind by sheer force.
After fighting down the Hive Mind, Isaac climbs on the shuttle, taking off from the planet as the continental-sized chunk of planet crashes into the crater, destroying the Marker, Hive Mind, and the remains of the Aegis VII colony. Given his first chance to relax in hours, he sighs wearily. But something catches his eye and - OH GOD NECRO-NICOLE AAAAAAHHHHHHH
The next time we see Isaac, he's being pulled out of what looks like some sort of insane asylum - being attacked by Necromorphs. Wonderful! We soon learn from a source trying to get him out that he was found some time after the cut from his adventures on the Ishimura that he was more or less found floating in space. We also learn that his memories were being constantly wiped for some sinister purpose. It's also three years since Isaac's escapades on the USG Ishimura.
He also ends up learning he has a unique form of dementia - which can and will kill him the longer he's awake. The contact trying to rescue him - one Daina Le Guin. With the Earth Government on his tail after his breakout from the asylum, Daina tells Isaac she can help him cure the unique, Marker-driven dementia - shown as occassional flashings and visions of the dead Nicole. With little choice in the matter, Isaac agrees to meet her, traversing through the massively infected Sprawl - one of the first planet-cracking attemps, and a major hub of activity. Isaac starts to get suspicious as he has to travel through the remains of a Unitologist church as EarthGov sends gunships to look for him. When he gets to the top of the building, Isaac discovers his mistake: Daina is another devout Unitologist, and it is revealed the three years Isaac has been in stasis, the EartGov has been forcing him to make another Marker. Before Daina can make her move, however, an EarthGov gunship from earlier opens fire, killing her and the two guards holding Isaac. Isaac attempts to escape, but is persued by the Tormentor - a powerful Necromorph who grabs him, throwing him to the gunship, and is utimately destroyed when Isaac uses his weapons to ignite the EarthGov gunship's draining fuel supply, being catapulted to yet another part of the Sprawl.
After landing once more, he's contacted from a patient who also escaped the asylum and who attempted to contact him earlier - Nolan Stross. Nolan explains that they can destroy the Marker. Isaac reluctantly agrees to trust him, despite his run of bad luck with trusting people, and Stross tells Isaac that the Marker is in the Government Sector. As Isaac trudges forward, he finds yet another survivor - Ellie Langford, a CEC officer and pilot who - after trading barbed dialogue with Isaac - joins their mission, deciding she need their help to survive. They progress through the Sprawl as Hand Tiedmann, the station administrator, repeatedly tries to stop them from getting to the Marker. However, Stross quickly starts to become a bit of a liability, his dementia continues to worsen as he rambles about having illed his son and wife. It gets to the point where he attempts to attack Ellie, removing an eye from her. Stross later comes after Isaac, who is forced to kill him in self-defense. As Isaac gets closer and closer to the Marker, the visions of Nicole get more and more vivid as she tries to deter him, even once seeming to try and drive a syringe into his eye - which, upon shaking himself out of the hallucination, Isaac realizes he was trying to stop himself from stabbing himself in the eye. Eventually he comes to accept he cannot run away, the vision of Nicole asking him why he can't forget her. Isaac responds, saying he can't because he was the one who egged her onto the Ishimura to pursue her career in the first place - and that she was his everything, and he sent her to her death. The apparition becomes friendly and peaceful, telling him that he's learned the final step, the one Stross was never able to get past: Acceptance.
As they make their way to the Government sector, Isaac traps Ellie on a gunship, saying that he needs to save someone, much to her horror and despair. He eventually comes across Tiedemann's security force, Isaac reroutes and disables the secrurity, allowing the Necromorphs to rampage through the Governmennt Sector. Isaac comes upon the Marker, surrounded by Necromorphs. As he looks on, it ignites in a swirl of energy, beginning an event foretold by the Unitologists - Convergence. With Nicole's vision once again guiding him, he comes across the machine that unlocks the blocked, Marker-infected area of his mind, which Nicole says will help him. He then fights his way to the Marker, chased by the 'Ubermorph' - a natural form of the Hunter that Dr. Mercer created. He eventually comes across Tiedemann: scorched and insane, he attempts to kill ISaac, but Isaac keeps kicking, and is forced to kill Tiedemann with his own weapon - a Javelin Gun. The Nicole apparition embraces Isaac, before telling him it's -time to die-.
Being betrayed once more, Isaac is sent into the center of his own mind, where Nicole reveals that the Marker has to absorb the ones who created it in order to be "reborn". After a length battle, Isaac is able to destroy the Nicole vision, and all traces of the Marker's influence from his mind and in doing so, destroying the Marker he himself created.
Exiting his mind, Isaac slumps to the ground, ready to accept the embrace of death as the destruction of the Marker causes the station to fall around him. Not satisfied with that, Ellie reappears, breaking through the ceiling with the gunship Isaac sent her away on, enraged that this was "his big, stupid plan" and demands Isaac live and escape. Isaac, relieved to see Ellie, kick the Zero-G thursters into high gear, reaching the gunship and grabbing Ellies hand as Titan Station collapses, the two of them peacefully escaping.
Garden History: Isaac first arrived soon after his escape from Aegis VII. Initially he was confused - and very frightened. He thought upon arrival that he was dead and that he was eaten by his dead girlfriend. When assured this was not the case and was due to crazy time bullshit, Isaac decided the place was okay - if a little too perfect. Which made it a worry. Isaac took solace in the classes - often taking many Survival Skills lessons and applying them to urban or futuristic enviroments to see how they would pan out. Engineering, ironically, was not much of a challenge - once he knew the systems, he aced the class - not without challenge, but without excess stress. At some point, he figured with his knowledge on engineering, he could teach a thing or two - especially from where he came from, so he started work to pass the classes and teach Engineering.
He did not however, go out of his way to talk to many people. Isaac has never done well in social situations, and with the weight of the Ishimura incident upon him, he did even worse without freaking out or thinking someone would turn into a necromorph at the slightest instant. Most of this was rampant, if largely unbased paranoia, but you can't hardly blame the man. Despite this, he offered his services to whoever would need it in the terms of Engineering.
Abilities & Physical Abnormalities: Isaac has a will of steel, in terms of resisting psychosis and any of its handy effects - in situations that would drive lesser men mad, Isaac can soldier on. Aside from that, he has no abnormal abilities.
What he does have, however. Is a suit that looks like a partial tank.
Called ‘Resource Integration Gear’ or a ‘RIG’, they’re worn by most members of society in the Dead Space universe. However, Isaac’s RIG gives him certain abilities to make use of.
- One pair of Magnetic Boots, for Zero-Gravity Environment navigation. Magnetism able to be switched on or off.
- Built in air-powered flaps, also for Zero-G navigation.
- One built-in air supply, automatically triggered when the suit detects a vaccuum. (Rated 120 sec.)
- One Kinesis Module: Targets a heavy, inanimate object, allowing one to lift, move, and launch it.
- Stasis Module: Targets one moving object, living or otherwise. Drastically slows that target and moving objects around it for 3-5 seconds. Can only be used 4 times before a 1 minute recharge downtime is needed.
- Armor plating to resist heavy damage.
- Audio and Video conferencing from long-distance, as long as two RIGs are synched.
Upon arrival the first time, Isaac was wearing the Intermediate Engineer Rig Equipped with various plates of armor for damage resistance. Upon his update, it was switched with the Dead Space 2 Engineering Suit, which functions similarly.
Personality: Isaac is one determined, crazy guy. If forced to put it into a single sentence.
If forced to explanation into several sentences, Isaac is a man who is tortured by his own guily and demons, and yet tries to pull out of it through sheer force of will. He is a nice guy - or at least he tries to be. Even despite the fact death is happening all around him, he continues to try and reach out and trust people, and help them. He continuously reaches out awkwardly - as he is notably unsure in what social situations occur - and shows a stubborn temperament to external forces. His stay in an asylum confirmed that his will and strong mental fortitude is what kept him stable, despite heavy Marker influence. But we’ll get to that.
Also of note is the fact that he can come off as very snarky, when the situation warrants it, his reactions to people while under stress are considerably deadpan when he gets to know them. When asked if he’s alright on top of a giant drill fighting off Necromorphs, he responds with a cheeky “oh yeah, fun times!” He Is at heart one for bantering, and very caring and compassionate, despite odds and trauma. But we’ll get to that, too.
Moreove, Isaac has a strong distrust of most religion - especially Scientology Unitology. His mother’s payment towards it cost him higher education, and the Scientologists are behind many of the events that have transpired in the last few years of his life. This extends a bit beyond the casual case of bigotry, in that it will set off his paranoia in a particularly epic fashion. But we’ll get to that.
He has a very well-measured guilt complex against himself. He feels bad he has not been able to save quite a few people - most of all, Nicole. While this has been overcome, to some degree, it is by no means conquered - he has accepted that Nicole was a driving force in his life, and that he feels guilt for pushing her to take the job on the Ishimura - which led to her untimely death, through no fault of Isaac’s own. But we’ll get to that. He has not yet accepted and been able to move on from her death entirely.
Now, to what we were getting to, a large facet of Isaac’s personality is in fact, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Partially caused through Marker strain on his mental faculties (as the Marker will cause hallucinations, mental instability, and other Really Bad Things), Isaac suffers from several major symptoms of PTSD, which persisted throughout his asylum stay. He has had hallucinogenic nightmares, is constantly alert, and tries to avoid certain stimuli associated with the trauma (most notably are vents and other Necromorph spawn points, especially the USG Ishimura. He also shows strong cases of “survivor guilt”, willing to give his life to destroy another Marker, and feeling shaken up by being the only survivor of the Ishimura incident. His paranoia and several other hangups connect to this, causing him to react - occasionally violently - when hallucinogenic flashbacks occur. Their usual form will be of his wife, Nicole. A detailed assessment of Isaac’s psychological condition, post Dead Space 1, can be found here.
So yes, in short. Isaac is one crazy dude.
What are your plans for the character in-game? Honestly? To have fun, maybe make other people have fun with my crazy engineer, and overall try out a new game full of fun people I have heard good stories about.
Anything else? He hates vents. Hates hates hates. He may (with mod approval, of course) have a “Plasma Cutter” in his hands upon arrival. A handy picture is here.
Complete TWO out of the FOUR options.
i) IC Questionnaire (can be found on the application page)
(As this questionnaire is entirely IC, your character is free to lie.)
What do you prefer to be known as?
“Call me Isaac. I don’t mind.”
How old are you?
“Last I checked, around fourty… six? Depends on if they hit my birthday when I was knocked out.”
Do you have any history in combat?
“Against vicious, mauling undead causing chaos and madness and generally being hell to fight? You could say I’ve had practice.”
If so, have you ever killed?
“…Yeah. A lot of people.”
i) How do you feel when you get involved in some project that calls for immediate and rapid activity?
“I get to work, I have to. If it involves me having to work and work quickly, I’ve been there before.”
ii) Do you organize and initiate leisure activities?
“…Not really, no. I don’t have a lot of leisure time that I can recall.”
iii) What role do you take when working in a group?
“I’m the working man. Other people have goals, objectives, I carry them out as best I can to make sure everyone stays safe.”
iv) How talkative are you around other people?
“Not…very. Least not usually. I’ll reach out, but I’m not exactly a man of many words.”
v) What three things would you want to have with you on a desert island? State your reasoning.
“Plasma cutter with ammo. Could cut down trees better than I can. Kinesis Module, to lift things heavier than I am, and a medical pack, just in case.”
vi) Is it important to be liked by a wide range of people?
“Don’t really know. I knew people, but was I liked by them…? Some of them were my friends, but… [Trails off.]
vii) When the odds are against you, is it worth taking a chance?
“Always. Better to try than be doomed.”
viii) Do you consider yourself to be an impulsive person?
“Not particularly, though I guess some people would disagree.”
ix) Would you agree that planning things ahead takes the fun out of life?
“Not really. Sometimes it’s fun to have a goal.”
x) Do you like surprises?
“No.”
xi) Do you sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with you?
“No. I know there is.”
xii) Do you consider yourself to be smarter than your superiors, and disagree with their decisions?
“I know more about a ship than most people would… other than that, not particularly.”
xiii) Lastly, how do you feel about cabbages?
“…I don’t know. I’d eat them, I guess.”
ii) Prose sample (can be general or a response to the post's prompt).
This was hell.
He could swear he heard them, crawling around in the vents - it might’ve been years ago, but he remembered the sound very well. Scurrying, screeching, a panicked buzz in his ears bringing him to alert as he would whirl around and see blades and claws and abominations stalking behind him, ready to attack. Abominations that were once human… or perhaps not so much, considering the Leviathan and its friends. He could feel the air - heavy with blood, he could see his own foorsteps - illuminated in blacklight, the steps he took years ago that were caked in blood, from wandering through cooridors, stomping these monsters, the Necromorphs, to death as they crawled at him despite shooting off their legs, or their arms, or their heads…
Shoot the limbs, they had said. To this day that was the only bit of advice he felt worth keeping and passing on.
An audio log came on - Elise. He had found her fighting for her life as he escaped the Sprawl, and it was for her and Stross and himself that he went into the bowels of the ship he knew better than anyone living right now.
“Isaac, are you alright?” She asked. She wondered why he was keeping radio silence.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine… this place just brings back some bad memories.” You cut the comm at that.
If she only knew… well, better she didn’t.