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Name/Handle: Andy
Timezone: CST
Personal LJ: Nique
E-Mail: 2ICSection9[at]gmail[dot]com
AIM/other: DominoAK47
Series: Cowboy Bebop
Character: Grencia Mars Elijah Guo Eckener / Gren
Age: 29 for both.
Sex/Gender: Male ( please see physical description for important info) / Male
"Real" Name: Gregory Michael Koval
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
There is almost no information on Gren's past before the age of 26 or so. Snapshots on the walls of his apartment seem to indicate a fairly normal childhood, and given he served in the Martian Army in the conflict on Titan, it's a reasonable assumption that he grew up somewhere on the planet. There are several snapshots pinned to Gren's cork board depicting him at a younger age, smiling, surrounded by family or friends.
In his mid-twenties, he was involved in the conflict on the colonial outpost of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. While little is revealed about the exact nature of the conflict, it was clearly a harsh war utilizing trench-style warfare under hostile environmental conditions. It was on Titan that Gren met Vicious, serving in the same squadron as the syndicate member. Both flashbacks and Gren's comments to Faye on the subject seem to indicate that Gren felt a special affinity for the man, viewing him as a close comrade, someone he trusted and looked up to despite being two years Vicious' senior. In one of their early encounters, Vicious gave Gren a small crank-powered music box after the musician inquired about the tune it played, hoping to play the song on his saxophone when he returned from the war. This seemingly innocuous gesture would have devastating consequences. At the end of the war, and upon his return home, Gren was arrested upon suspicion of spying for the enemy. Convicted, Gren was then sent to a military prison.
Hearing that it was Vicious who testified against him, Gren's hold on reality began to slip, and insomnia set in. He was then subjected to an experimental drug being tested on prisoners. It proved both highly addictive and very damaging--causing an imbalance of hormones which warped the young man's body into one that was neither completely female, nor strictly male anymore. Eventually escaping prison, Gren fled to the colony on Callisto, a frigid moon of Jupiter. He landed a job playing saxophone at the Rester House in Blue Crow, and it is there he encountered Julia. Little is known about their encounter aside from the fact that Gren told her about both Vicious and what happened to him in prison, and that upon hearing of the music box Gren had been given, she advised him to open it up and look. Inside was a solar transmitter, no doubt the origin of the spying accusations. Julia stayed on Callisto for a month before vanishing again.
Two years pass before Faye Valentine sets foot in the same bar. After a short exchange in the Rester House, and a quick brawl in an alleyway she ends up talking to Gren in his apartment, and it is during her time there that she recognizes a photograph of Vicious pinned to Gren's cork board. At the same time, a call comes in. It's Vicious on the other end of the line, confirming an arranged drug buy. Now wary, Faye pulls her gun and goes to confront Gren in the shower, thereby discovering his secret.
Gren tells Faye everything, and then admits that he's going to confront Vicious in order to learn if the man really did betray him. Faye pulls her gun again and Gren subdues her, leaving her handcuffed on his bed while he goes off to meet his fate.
Gren has arranged a deal with Vicious, a trade of Red Eye for Titan Opal. Disguised as a woman, he meets with his old comrade to make the exchange. He seems to know that he will be betrayed again, shooting open the case which Vicious has given him, revealing a bomb that then explodes. It's here that his hurt and anger with Vicious become apparent. He questions Vicious about the betrayal, but Vicious gives no answer to the accusation, though he does seem to know about the transmitter in the music box. Angry with the lack of answers, Gren attempts to shoot him, but ends up killing Lin instead. The confrontation is interrupted by Spike, who has been searching for Vicious. Both Gren and Vicious escape to personal spacecraft, and Gren's ship ultimately becomes a casualty of Vicious and Spike's dogfight. The bomb Gren has placed in the Red Eye given to Vicious (triggered by the music box that started it all) goes off, forcing Vicious to retreat to a waiting Red Dragon syndicate ship. Spike finds Gren, fatally injured by the crash, hoping to learn more about Julia's whereabouts. Unfortunately, there is little Gren can tell him. Fulfilling the dying musician's last wish, Spike helps tow his ship into space, setting him on a course for Titan, one last time.
Gren only appears in the series itself for two episodes, a two-part arc entitled 'Jupiter Jazz.' The episodes themselves take place roughly over the course of a day, so there is not much room for demonstrative character growth, especially for a secondary character like Gren. From the backstory we are given, however, it is possible to tell that Gren entered the war on Titan as a friendly, carefree individual who ended up trusting the one person he should not have. By his own admission, Vicious' betrayal was very damaging for him, but on Callisto, he appears to be a man who has conquered many--though not all--of his demons. The choice to confront Vicious may be a nihilist one, but it's not irrational. Likewise, for all that he might want to believe that Vicious did not betray him, the fact that he brings a gun with him to the meeting, easily uncovers the bomb Vicious has planted, and plants a bomb of his own in the parcel given to Vicious proves that he no longer carries the same feelings of camaraderie and admiration as he once possessed.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Gren would be coming into the game post-death. This would obviously lead to some confusion in his part, possibly causing him to wonder if he'd really even managed to escape prison, at first, though he'd soon realize that it wasn't just some bizarre hallucination in his part. It wouldn't likely affect his interaction with canonmates much--of the three he interacts with in the series (Vicious, Faye, and Spike) Spike was the only one who knew he'd sustained fatal injuries when his ship crashed, and Gren really doesn't know the man, outside that brief encounter.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
The first impression Gren gives is that of a friendly, outgoing person. He has no qualms about striking up conversations with strangers, and is a ready listener, willing to hear out another person and discuss their problems with them. In the series, he follows Faye and helps her escape a gang of men even though she brushed off his concern earlier on, and has no obligation to help her at all. Gren cares about people, sometimes more than he should, and human contact seems very important to him. Music is also important to him. Gren makes a living playing saxophone in a bar called the Rester House. In addition, there is a piano in his apartment, and other musical paraphernalia that make it obvious that this is a large part of his life. From the number of books that line the shelves in his apartment, it's likely he's a fairly prolific reader as well.
Gren is also, however, a young man with a very troubled past. He served in the war on Titan, which from all appearances was a very brutal conflict. Flashbacks depict trench warfare style combat, and from information revealed in the movie Knockin' on Heaven's Door, it's known that the Martian army went so far as to test biological weapons on some of their own soldiers. All this leads to the conclusion that the war was not an easy thing to live through. Flashbacks show Gren with the same outgoing personality, but from the way he describes his experience there to Faye, it's clear the war has left its mark on him. It was on Titan that Gren encountered Vicious, and formed a close attachment to the man. Gren is openly gay, and it's possible his feelings for Vicious were not entirely platonic. Whether this is the case or not, it's clear that his admiration for Vicious was very strong.
Upon returning from the war, Gren was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason, and sent to a military prison. Such a place would be trying for the toughest of souls, and for someone like Gren, who possesses a kind, artistic nature, it would likely have been trying, all on its own. Unfortunately for Gren, things were not that simple. He learned that it was Vicious who had testified against him, and this information plagued the young man, eventually leading to insomnia and insanity. It was this that lead to Gren being administered an experimental drug that proved both addictive and destructive, leading to the hormone imbalance that wreaked havoc on his body. This experience, on top of Vicious' apparent betrayal and Gren's wrongful imprisonment, would be taxing to even the strongest of people. However, Gren managed to overcome his addiction, and gather his wits again in order to not only effect an escape from a military prison, but also evade the authorities and make it to Callisto where he began his life over, albeit under the constant threat of arrest. The fact that he managed to do such a thing when it would likely have been far easier to give in to hopelessness and despair speaks to the strength of Gren's character, and a determination to keep on going despite the hardships placed in his path. Any one of the things Gren experienced might have caused lesser people to crumble; the fact that he survived all of them and manages to hold on to an optimistic viewpoint is nothing short of remarkable.
While he has managed to conquer at least some of his demons, it's also clear that Gren is a man still deeply tied to his own past. His apartment walls are covered with innumerable snapshots, from different points in his life. There are even photos from Titan--one of Gren beneath a palm tree, and a second which features both Gren and Vicious, sitting side by side in a trench. This picture in particular is notable, because it has been obviously torn in half, and then taped back together again. The fact that the tear is straight down the middle, effectively removing Vicious from the picture, seems to imply that at some point, Gren tried to eliminate the man from his past. The fact that he then taped it back together and put it on display with snapshots of himself as a child, teenager, and adult seems to indicate ambivalence in his current feelings towards Vicious. The man is both the direct and indirect cause of nearly everything that has gone wrong in Gren's life, and removing him seems the logical thing to do, but even after everything that's happened to him, he can't quite seem to let go. Friendship seems very important to him--he discusses it with Faye, both in regards to her own issues with her comrades, and with his own, saying that while Faye doesn't need them, he's drawn to that word 'to the point of tears.'
While Gren remains calm throughout his encounter with Faye, and generally seems difficult to anger (even when he discusses Vicious, it's without any apparent malice) it's clear that his feelings towards the man are very complex, and somewhat conflicted. Finally confronting the man, it's clear that Gren is angry, but that anger seems born of a deep seated hurt over the fact that Vicious betrayed him. Gren just wants to know why. The fact that he brought a gun and planted explosives in with the drugs he exchanged could be pointed to as a wish to see Vicious dead, but it seems far more likely they were a result of the fact that, deep down, he knew that Vicious had betrayed him, and he knew that it was likely he would do so again.
We're not given much insight into Gren's exact feelings on the current state of his body, but given that he goes to the effort of concealing his condition, and the fact that in three years, he apparently only told Faye and Julia about it, leads to the conclusion that at the very least, he would much rather have his body the way it used to be. His condition has apparently also had detrimental effects on his health, and from discussion with Faye, it seems that he knows he doesn't have very long to live, and while his assertion that death doesn't frighten him might not be entirely true, he comes across as at the least accepting of this fact. He does not appear to be suicidal in any real way, but at the same time, he walks into the conflict with Vicious knowing full well he probably won't survive the encounter. Once fatally injured, he declines Spike's attempts to get him an ambulance, asking instead to be sent back towards Titan one last time. In those final moments, it seems he is finally at peace with everything that has happened.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Gren is rather tall at 6' 2" and weighs 172lbs. He has blue eyes and usually wears his black, waist-length hair loosely tied back. To all outward appearances, he's a normal, handsome young man. However, owing to an experimental drug that was tested on him while incarcerated in a military prison, Gren's body has been permanently feminized to a large degree. Thus, while he was born male and possesses male genitalia, his body looks more female. He continues to present himself as male to the public (presumably binding his chest to do so) and would appear as such to others unless he was somehow prevented from doing so (he meets Vicious at the end of Jupiter Jazz pt. 2 wearing a dress as a disguise, and in this instance looks convincingly female, at least until he speaks). It seems, from what he tells Faye before he leaves for his encounter with Vicious, that his health is failing him, as he says that regardless of what happens, he 'doesn't have long to live,' no doubt a result of the experimentation that was done on him in prison. (However, given the rate of time-passage in the game, this is unlikely to cause a major impact, at least physically).
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
None.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Gren is a trained musician. He plays the saxophone, and as one is shown in his apartment, it can be extrapolated that he also plays the piano. He's skilled enough at the former to make a living at it--albeit in a bar in a backwater colony. He was also in the army, and is shown firing a rifle in flashbacks, as well as a handgun in Jupiter Jazz pt 2. The fact that he manages to disarm Faye also suggests that he has at least basic hand-to-hand combat training, likely as a result of his army service.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Gren is not the sort of person who takes difficult situations lying down. He's had a rough life over the past few years, and they've made him into a strong person. Upon arriving at the institute, he'll likely be disorientated (as he was, for all intents and purposes, dead) and because of his background, may not be sure at first just how much of what is going on is 'real.' There might be some doubt as to whether or not he actually escaped from prison at all, or if he's still there, dreaming all of this. It's not an impression that's likely to last very long at all, however. Gren has been legitimately crazy before, after all, and he's able to tell the difference between madness and a nightmarish reality that is all too real.
Once he realizes just the sort of situation he's caught in, he's going to be looking for any way to get out of it. He managed to escape from a military prison in the past, despite having suffered a mental breakdown and becoming addicted to an experimental drug there; he won't let the people trying to convince him he's crazy or the nightmarish environment of the Nightshift stop him from trying to gain his freedom, though being placed back in a setting so much like the one he escaped is bound to pose new changes for him in terms of continuing to maintain his mental well-being.
A social person, he'll probably also be doing his best to network and gain a group of people he feels he can trust--he's a trained soldier, but one without special abilities, so he's going to look for others he can work with to compensate for his own shortcomings.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
In general, while set in the future, Cowboy Bebop lacks fantastical sorts of monsters and phenomena. There are plenty of man-made horrors, however, such as the war on Titan, which seems to have taken a toll on all of the characters known to have been involved (of the four Titan vets in the series, two--Vicious and Vincent--are clearly psychologically damaged, while Gren and Electra seem to have faired somewhat better). In addition, the Mars army clearly experimented on its soldiers. Gren was on the receiving end of this in prison, and as such, he's no stranger to the sorts of horrors that can be inflicted on a person. While supernatural occurrences are likely to surprise him at first, they are not likely to inflict more of an emotional and psychological toll on him than his own life already has.
Additionally, he's a grown man with combat training, so while he won't be able to compare to those with special abilities, he's hardly helpless.