(no subject)
PLAYER INFO
Name/Nickname: Reg.
Age: 23
Journal: regasssa
AIM/MSN/IM: regasssa (@hotmail.com)
Email: regasssa@hotmail.com
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: The Boss
Canon: Metal Gear Solid
Point taken from canon: At the end of MGS:3 Snake Eater, the point of her death
Age: 42
Gender: Female (BUT VERY MANLY)
Preferred Village: Yomisato
Appearance: The Boss is heavily built for a woman, well muscled after years of warfare, though still distinctly feminine where it counts. American by birth, she has naturally blond hair and steel blue eyes, and rarely if ever smiles. Lines about her eyes betray her age, if she lets you close enough to see them.
She walks with confidence, has very broad and well muscled shoulders and a straight back, but is - like Big Boss - capable of sneaking, moving long distances crouched down, and doing so quietly. Despite this, when necessary she presents a considerable grace to the people around her, but this is because of her noble childhood. While it's clear that she's quite rough, there is at least a modicum of pride in her appearance, at least enough to keep twigs out of her hair, though she's hardly a feminine woman. If her hair is in the way she finds a way to get it back - at the moment it's tied, but when it was shorter she used a length of bandana.
She's fond of colours that held her blend in, and clothes that are comfortable and practical, rather than attractive on her person. The one thing she does deliberately, however, is conceal the scar across her chest - except at one point, when she revealed it to Jack.
Her voice can be soft and compassionate, and is described as others as being a pleasant voice, but has a constant authoritarian note to it. It is confident, as she rarely doubts herself, and that comes across in her every action, as well as her physical bearing.
Background: Early life and career and The Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater
Personality: Born in 1922, along with the USSR that would claim and monopolise her life, the war-torn teenaged world she grew up in was one that shaped her very personality from the beginning. As a child she was born into a rich, influential family, and no doubt this instilled in her the original motifs of nobility that even a life of war hasn't been able to wrench from her. She is quiet, well spoken and thoughtful, knows when to obey orders (selflessly, as the need arises) and when to ask questions, and because of this makes both an excellent soldier and leader.
After her father died she was taken in by the Philosophers, supported as they trained her and shaped her into becoming a soldier of the future. At 20 years old she was already a leader, possessing of magnificent strength and patriotic ferocity that echoed in her achievements, as well as a sharp tactical mind. She lectured and taught others despite her youth, and formed a unit of her own, taking an unquestioned position as the Cobra unit's leader despite her age, and quite apart from the fact that the other members of the unit were men. Even heavily pregnant, and brain damaged from a shot to the head, she took part in the D-Day landings two years later, still resilient enough to do her duty, then strong enough to continue to fight with the Cobra unit for three more years even though her son had been taken from her.
Without doubt, The Boss commands respect from everyone around her. Whether it is fear or affection - perhaps a little of both - there are very few people, even enemies, who would question her, let alone raise a hand against her.
She is not at all eager about discussing her personal feelings--while she feels there is room on the battlefield for feelings, she goes to efforts to hide everything for the sake of her mission - such as her ill health- which puts an air of chill about her. Despite this outward cold, she is still human, and throughout her last mission - which she knows will end in her death and her being renounced as a traitor - she conveys this sadness subtly, but also reflects on her pride for her last student - Jack - openly as she lies on her deathbed.
There is a romantic, hopeful side to her despite how the world has mistreated her, despite having her son taken, and nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll taking the ability to have further children from her, she became a motherly figure in other ways, with both Ocelot and Jack being her "sons", though only one of them through birth. The side of her that regards them with motherly affection none the less supports a chill ability to put them in line when they go wrong with a look or - better yet - abject violence, just as she would tell off a soldier. Though it may look like it, this isn't a short temper; in fact since even the country that she loves betrays her in the end, it could be claimed that she has no temper at all, since she doesn't once raise her voice. Her love, particularly for Jack, is instead shown through a 'school of hard knocks' approach to learning, where she intentionally seems to make things more difficult for him to force him to prove himself.
The Boss is charismatic and patriotic; after all these years fighting for her country she's become something of a figurehead, though all of that has been gradually corrupted and destroyed behind the scenes. Despite this secret mistreatment and scapegoating - culminating in her death - she is an inspiration to those around her and awes her enemies, even causing the terrifying in his own right Volgin to take a step back when she once advances on him. With both Adam (Ocelot) and Eva, the Boss inspires obedience, as she commands both of them not to kill Jack and they both obey--this unquestionable ability to command others made her a threat in the end, as her patriotism and selflessness ensured that she could do no wrong, as far as her country was concerned. Equally it meant that others regarded her jealously, or desired her achievements for her own; for instance, the greed of a CIA handler causes a Russian spy to feed false information out, but the CIA use The Boss as a scapegoat, claiming that she had chosen a bad plant in the first place, and, when the Presidency changed at the White House, ensuring that she was considered as a traitor early on -- she is designated as a result of this to be the guinea pig in a dangerous space mission, in the hurriedly modified rocket that has been served by false and inadequate data all this time; a mission she barely survives, though she is pleased to do it for the sake of preserving her country's reputation in the space race.
In the end she dies so that Jack may live, and to return the world to how it once was, averting a nuclear and political crisis that would have otherwise ended with Russia and America at war with each other. Despite this, she knows that she leaves him to continue her work, and sadly, to the same misuse and self-destruction that had designed itself across her own life; the sadness of their parting moment and the events that lead up to it will linger, though there's no frustration or resentment there, only acceptance.
What she will be sad about, however, is that she was taken away from her death, which in many ways she felt she'd finally earned. Having caused the rest of the COBRA unit their honourable deaths at the hands of her student, she too had passed on, expecting to find the peace she never had in life, satisfied that her last mission and sacrifice had been worth what it would bring with it. Instead she was wrenched away from her eternal sleep, and from the once lover and companion that she had been forced to kill two years earlier during a mission. Of all the things to affect her, this one denial will no doubt wound her more deeply than any other, as she has spent months preparing for a death that was stolen from her.
Abilities/Strengths: The Boss has a comprehensive knowledge of weaponry and machinery up to but not including space age. As 'America's greatest hero', she would have been familiar with prototypes and technology before it came into service. Her greatest canon abilities are without doubt her mind; quick and accurate thinking, the ability to act and respond to any given situation, and a certain degree of intuitive logic that applies to any given thing or situation. She can drive, ride, presumably fly since she was a part of the space program at one point, and is also quite capable of using her body as a weapon, specifically through CQC. CQC (http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/CQC) stands for Close Quarters Combat, a method of switching between armed and unarmed combat, which combines a number of martial arts/hand to hand skills. Used correctly, it can be used effectively, quietly and quickly to disarm, knock out, capture or kill an opponent, making it an ideal tool when killing or causing a commotion simply isn't an option. She is also an extremely talented liar, as her missions have required her to conceal her true identity or her true purpose in the past. Knowledge of a number of different languages facilitate this; English, Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and enough Belgian, Dutch and Japanese to not get left behind in conversation.
In Peacewalker - beyond her death - her existence and strengths and weaknesses are programmed into an AI; this is because she was chosen as an ideal mind on which to frame a system that has decision capabilities that might effect the whole world. In the end the AI is absolutely perfect, and her strong will comes through it, so that even beyond her own death, she is willing to cause her own destruction for the sake of peace. If there is one selfish thing that she wanted, in life, it was to die selflessly. Her last wish was that if she had to die, she would do it in such a way as to bring about peace, and ideally unite the world. Therefore she is revered for her loyalty - specifically a 'loyalty to the end' that she references frequently; a trust that the conclusion is worth the sacrifice, even if it is her own health, her companions, or her life.
The Boss is an inspiration to others. One of her strengths is without doubt her attitude, which can cause both high levels of respect from her allies and her enemies. People are not inclined to approach her head on, even if they have great confidence in their abilities, while she also encourages others to so their best. For this reason she made an excellent teacher, leader, and additionally mentor to Big Boss, and easily won adoration from people like Strangelove and the people working on the Mercury Seven project during her time there. Even decades after her death, the very mention of The Boss as Big Boss' mentor is enough to make others pause for thought or win their loyalty to his cause.
She has a high pain tolerance, suffering the effects of radiation, and even giving birth to her child by cesarian section in the middle of a battlefield -- a battlefield she'd joined quite soon after coming out of a coma. Her own body's strength perhaps suitably rivals that of any of her male counterparts, and yet underneath that there is also a softer, motherly side to her, one that inspires devotion, even from people whose objectives would be compromised otherwise. Both Ocelot and EVA claim that they are helping/do not kill Big Boss because they made a promise to the Boss -- a loyalty that persists even after her death.
Having spent so long around the other COBRA members, specifically The Sorrow, she has some ability in sensing supernatural disturbance around her, though it's often little more than a feeling. At one point during her defection it 'rained blood'; an omen of what was to come.
Weaknesses: As well as being an inspiration, having such a well known past and endless talents inspires jealousy, which has dragged her slowly down in the last few years of her life. People have lined up to destroy her from a distance, including self-motivated members of the CIA and a President inspired to scapegoat her for things she didn't do. As a result, she has been manipulated from afar, and her own child was taken away and later used against her.
As a result of these methodical attacks over time, The Boss has suffered physically and mentally, and while losses only ever drove her to do better, her key weakness was perhaps primarily her outright loyalty. She took missions she knew might hurt and kill her, even going into space when only a 20% chance of her return was offered to her, and when she would inevitably get dosed with high levels of radiation.
Her mother instinct is very strong; just after she'd heard that she was pregnant she made a mistake and was caught without cover, and that mistake caused her to protect the new life within her. She was shot in the head, suffering as a result brain damage; now only one side functions, compensating for the other. She was in a coma for a duration after this incident, yet her firey dedication to duty had her immediately back on the battlefield with her unit straight afterwards.
She has a large scar across her chest, and though it causes her no trouble, this and the effect of nuclear fallout rain that fell after the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll has caused her to no longer be able to bear children. This "small" concern was however made worse when she went into space, served up as a guinea pig to attempt to beat the first man into space, she suffered a high dose of cosmic radiation, which - in conjunction with the pod's crashlanding to earth - resulted in her falling into a coma, and inflicted radiation burns and damage both inside and outside her body.
The radiation is her quiet weakness, one which she is ready to cover up. Since returning she had settled upon death, knowing that it was coming to her through the surrender of her body or through sacrifice to her purpose. Dying, she had finally been satisfied that it was time, and her pupil, Big Boss, would never have to know how she was suffering. Mentally, she is frought, and though well equipped to conceal the damage, which she will, she will be noticeably slower if pushed over her limits, both mentally and physically incapable of the same stamina she once had. Suffering from migraines, and occassionally unable to keep down food, but also deeply out of love with using her means as a soldier to achieve peace -- her last willful act, after all, had been to throw down her gun.
Defining Quote(s):
From The Boss
"Just because soldiers are on the same side right now doesn't mean they always will be. Having personal feelings about your comrades is one the worst sins you can commit. Politics determine who you face on the battlefield. And politics are a living thing. They change along with the times. Yesterday's good might be tomorrow's evil."
"Which will it be, Jack? Loyalty to your country, or loyalty to me? Your country, or your old mentor? The mission, or your beliefs? Your duty to your unit, or your personal feelings? You don't know the truth yet. But sooner or later you'll have to choose."
"Life's end... isn't it beautiful? It's almost tragic. When life ends, it gives off a final, lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die. I've been waiting, Snake, for a long time. Waiting for your birth, your growth, and the finality of today."
"I could see the planet as it appeared from space... That's when it finally hit me... Space exploration is nothing but another game in the power struggle between the US and the USSR. Politics, economics, the arms race... They're all just arenas for meaningless competition. I'm sure you can see that. But the world itself has no boundries - no East, no West, no Cold War (...) A world without communism or capitalism... that is the world I wanted to see... But reality continued to betray me."
"Snake, you were an atomic test subject, weren't you? On Bikini Atoll. That's part of the reason I was drawn to you. You and I are alike. We're both slowly being eaten away by the karma of others. We'll never have the chance to die peacefully of old age. We have no tomorrow."
Snake about The Boss
"Justice huh... The meaning of justice can change from one day to the next... A professional soldier doesn't bring Justice into the mission. The only ones who need a reason to fight, are the ones who fight for a living. That's what my mentor told me. Politics are fickle... they change with the times. So as long as we remain loyal to our countries, soldiers like us need nothing to believe in. She died out of loyalty, not to justice, not to her country, but to herself, for the mission."
Eva about The Boss
"Snake, the world will never know what she did. Future generations will revile her; in America as a dispicable traitor with no sense of honor, and the Soviet Union as a monster who unleashed a nuclear catastrophe. She will go down in official history as a war criminal."
Other:
A few clippings of headcanon as they come to me, for instance:
She wanted to create the COBRA unit to prove herself when she was younger, because she was tired of being underestimated physically because of her gender. Very quickly she proved herself more than capable, even while managing a unit of men, some of whom had experience far in advance of her own.
She never once considered trying to free her child from the Philosophers; at first because of her unshaking belief in her country, and later out of fear - not that the Philosophers might kill him, but that he wouldn't accept her as a mother; that war might have changed her too much. Jack was a conduit for her regret, but he became a ray of light in time, and she found his easy disposition and ignorance of anything but the mission charming. He learned quickly, and well, and she loved him. Not only did this mean that she didn't want to see him harmed, but that she considered him in the end truly the only person who meant her no ill will or harm, thus as hard as it was for him to kill her, she felt as though she couldn't possibly let anyone do it -- she wanted to die at the hands of someone she loved, like The Sorrow. This was also the noble end she wanted for her COBRA unit, thus sending each of them to face him; a final preparation and test for his own life, and death at the hands of a good man, rather than a world that could no longer understand them for her heroic companions.
The Boss conceals her weaknesses around others, and wants nobody to know how she is suffering after all these years of abuse, least of all Jack. There are only a handful of people who might see through her; The Sorrow and Dr. Strangelove. Of course she wouldn't be eager to reveal such to them, either.
The Boss started wearing a bandana when she was young to keep her hair out of her eyes during practice with the scopes on ranged weapons. She was young at the time, but willfully tore off a scrap of her skirt to serve as a makeshift and improve her times, ignorant of how it made her look. She was later given one as something of a reward for her creativity, and wore it ceaselessly since then, until Jack took it from her as he fell from the bridge. She wasn't sad to see him wearing it, though she did berate him -- it reminded her that she'd be remembered, and as she wanted him in the end to know the truth, it was something of a relief that he had chosen a memento of his own will. It meant that she had nothing more to give or teach him.
She makes an effort with all of her subordinates to make sure they consider the unit their family. In Jack's case, she did as a mother might, making sure that he even received presents from Santa when Christmas came round. And if he was too excited to sleep she'd tranquilise him first. His faith in such an innocent and harmless thing made her feel warm and happy, and since she had no son of her own to spoil and outlet those feelings to, he made a more than suitable substitute. Even so, though she loved him as a son, she never forgot that he was a soldier, and effectively - in the end - owned as she was. As well as peace, she desired above everything his freedom; that he would become disillusioned before the system destroyed him as it had destroyed her, though she herself was convinced it would never happen, and offered him those regrets herself: "One must die and one must live", with living being an equal punishment.
Action Writing Sample:
[The Hitomi has come on when it's caught with her thumb. The Boss, who's not used to visual communication being in such a scale, doesn't realise she's being recorded. Her expression is focused, certainly, on what she's doing, but also oddly unguarded, a softness at the edges of her eyes and the corner of her mouth. Her hair is loose, as it was when she'd fallen in the flowers, and as yet she hasn't paused long enough to pull her hair back.]
Recording. Maybe if the writing was a little larger...
[She lifts the device closer to her mouth, as though suspecting that because the audio input is clearly so much smaller it must be inadequate, and she keeps her voice quite loud to make certain she's audible. She is -- very loud.]
Did I make it to the other side? Are you here, my friends?
[There's a pause, as though she's waiting for something. After a considerable time has passed she continues.]
Perhaps if someone can answer me, my purpose here can be explained to me. Where am I, and how did I get here? Am I dead?
Third Person Writing Sample:
"Come," a voice said, scything through quiet satisfaction and heartache. It was over, but that voice was warm and familiar--she'd waited years to hear it again. "There's nothing you can do for him now."
Blue eyes opened; the summer sky above gave a crisper edge to the usually watery grey of her gaze, though for once the feeling that had dogged her - that had held on through her last days back at this terrible place where she had lost him and in turn been lost - was given satisfaction at last. The Sorrow was no feeling, no liquid illusion. He took her wrist in his hand, warm sure fingers smoothing across the back of her wrist, thumb on her pulse, and she in turn took his. Finding her feet unsteadily underneath her she found herself at eye-level with the once-lover that duty had made her kill, his body close to her own, his breath warm and familiar across her throat. He smelt of gunpowder still, as he had that day; of the jungle and river water, the wet earth that had clung to his body as she clung to it for a few moments now.
Though all of the pain of a moment before was gone, the guilt still lingered. It took some considerable effort to unattach herself, raising her head and gathering her returning strength, as the nobility in her body demanded. Jack stood beside her body, Patriot still held fast in his hand, as though even though he knew that the shot he had fired would kill her instantly, he expected her to get up and tell him that he'd done it wrong. She'd taught him everything, but in the end he hadn't needed it; those eyes that she had punished him for were filled with emotion now, though she had finally begun to understand just how valuable his clarity had once been. Unmarred, she had taught him betrayal and heartache and how to obey orders--even when that order was her last. Now she could see it in his remaining eye; the fruit of her last lesson to him.
The horse that had been her companion since arriving here approached, raised its great head and roared its sorrow to the echoing, distant hills. As it did so, the Sorrow's hand fell onto the center of her back reminding her of where she was, that it truly was time to let him go. When Jack began to move away she remained anchored to the spot by that touch alone, an unspoken command between them. She could not watch him travel any further down this path, he was on his own now.
"Let us go together," murmured her ghostly companion. "Finally together, all six of us."
The COBRA unit, right; the men who had lived and fought with her all those years ago, who had been her strength when she had thought herself lost, in those moments between losing Adamska - her child, her son - and fighting again. They were waiting for her on the other side, where she had sent them to wait for her. She spared one more glance
Jack had to be strong enough without her. If there was anything that this mission had served to teach him, it was the lessons necessary to survive. He would be used, just as she had been, but he would have to be strong and forward facing. He would have to do it without her. But it shouldn't be too much to ask; after all, they hadn't seen each other for years. From the child she had once admonished on the battle field, and the blossoming soldier that she had once trained beside, he had turned into a magnificent young man, if perhaps a little naive. She loved him, and she would miss him, regret for him, but they would meet again some day.
Water rose slowly, flames licking across the surface of the pool, coming first to her calf and then higher, until she was waist deep in it. The Sorrow's hand tightened on her own, reassuring. Burning petals, fire red, floated on the surface of the water, and light from no place in particular rose misty through mangrove swamps. They began to walk through the heavy water, hand in hand, away from the scene behind them and deeper, deeper, the flames and the body beside her giving up their reassuring warmth as they advanced.
"Be strong," came the voice beside her.
"I know what's coming," she answered. "How many times have you told me before? I'm prepared." The dead; her dead. People she'd killed back in the very beginning, in a war the world itself refused to forget. Mistakes she'd made, oversights, lives she'd taken, friends she'd lost--no, friends she had been ordered to lose. This was a river of the dead, of the lost, of misery. In crossing to the other side, she would grieve for the people that she had sent there before her, and they were numerous.
They advanced, hand in hand, until something cold slid across her ankle; something cold that slithered up. At first she was certain it was merely a part of the experience - how could she know better, when this was her first time dying? - but as a serpent reared out of the water, the expression of shock on the Sorrow's face told a very different story.
A snake whose broad, ice cold body looped about her torso and seized her tight - an Anaconda - turned its broad head to fix a single jewel bright blue eye on her, the light catching in its depths, as though it were shedding a single tear. The other eye, she noted, was gone. The snake tightened its grip, squeezed tight, and her fingers slipped in The Sorrow's hand, though she tried desperately to keep hold.
It was as though the snake were in part a rope pulling her under, dragging her down until it overwhelmed her as she fell, closing over her face, and though she didn't panic but reached for a knife, the snake was gone when she opened her eyes again; the snake and the river and The Sorrow; they were all gone.
Name/Nickname: Reg.
Age: 23
Journal: regasssa
AIM/MSN/IM: regasssa (@hotmail.com)
Email: regasssa@hotmail.com
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: The Boss
Canon: Metal Gear Solid
Point taken from canon: At the end of MGS:3 Snake Eater, the point of her death
Age: 42
Gender: Female (BUT VERY MANLY)
Preferred Village: Yomisato
Appearance: The Boss is heavily built for a woman, well muscled after years of warfare, though still distinctly feminine where it counts. American by birth, she has naturally blond hair and steel blue eyes, and rarely if ever smiles. Lines about her eyes betray her age, if she lets you close enough to see them.
She walks with confidence, has very broad and well muscled shoulders and a straight back, but is - like Big Boss - capable of sneaking, moving long distances crouched down, and doing so quietly. Despite this, when necessary she presents a considerable grace to the people around her, but this is because of her noble childhood. While it's clear that she's quite rough, there is at least a modicum of pride in her appearance, at least enough to keep twigs out of her hair, though she's hardly a feminine woman. If her hair is in the way she finds a way to get it back - at the moment it's tied, but when it was shorter she used a length of bandana.
She's fond of colours that held her blend in, and clothes that are comfortable and practical, rather than attractive on her person. The one thing she does deliberately, however, is conceal the scar across her chest - except at one point, when she revealed it to Jack.
Her voice can be soft and compassionate, and is described as others as being a pleasant voice, but has a constant authoritarian note to it. It is confident, as she rarely doubts herself, and that comes across in her every action, as well as her physical bearing.
Background: Early life and career and The Virtuous Mission and Operation Snake Eater
Personality: Born in 1922, along with the USSR that would claim and monopolise her life, the war-torn teenaged world she grew up in was one that shaped her very personality from the beginning. As a child she was born into a rich, influential family, and no doubt this instilled in her the original motifs of nobility that even a life of war hasn't been able to wrench from her. She is quiet, well spoken and thoughtful, knows when to obey orders (selflessly, as the need arises) and when to ask questions, and because of this makes both an excellent soldier and leader.
After her father died she was taken in by the Philosophers, supported as they trained her and shaped her into becoming a soldier of the future. At 20 years old she was already a leader, possessing of magnificent strength and patriotic ferocity that echoed in her achievements, as well as a sharp tactical mind. She lectured and taught others despite her youth, and formed a unit of her own, taking an unquestioned position as the Cobra unit's leader despite her age, and quite apart from the fact that the other members of the unit were men. Even heavily pregnant, and brain damaged from a shot to the head, she took part in the D-Day landings two years later, still resilient enough to do her duty, then strong enough to continue to fight with the Cobra unit for three more years even though her son had been taken from her.
Without doubt, The Boss commands respect from everyone around her. Whether it is fear or affection - perhaps a little of both - there are very few people, even enemies, who would question her, let alone raise a hand against her.
She is not at all eager about discussing her personal feelings--while she feels there is room on the battlefield for feelings, she goes to efforts to hide everything for the sake of her mission - such as her ill health- which puts an air of chill about her. Despite this outward cold, she is still human, and throughout her last mission - which she knows will end in her death and her being renounced as a traitor - she conveys this sadness subtly, but also reflects on her pride for her last student - Jack - openly as she lies on her deathbed.
There is a romantic, hopeful side to her despite how the world has mistreated her, despite having her son taken, and nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll taking the ability to have further children from her, she became a motherly figure in other ways, with both Ocelot and Jack being her "sons", though only one of them through birth. The side of her that regards them with motherly affection none the less supports a chill ability to put them in line when they go wrong with a look or - better yet - abject violence, just as she would tell off a soldier. Though it may look like it, this isn't a short temper; in fact since even the country that she loves betrays her in the end, it could be claimed that she has no temper at all, since she doesn't once raise her voice. Her love, particularly for Jack, is instead shown through a 'school of hard knocks' approach to learning, where she intentionally seems to make things more difficult for him to force him to prove himself.
The Boss is charismatic and patriotic; after all these years fighting for her country she's become something of a figurehead, though all of that has been gradually corrupted and destroyed behind the scenes. Despite this secret mistreatment and scapegoating - culminating in her death - she is an inspiration to those around her and awes her enemies, even causing the terrifying in his own right Volgin to take a step back when she once advances on him. With both Adam (Ocelot) and Eva, the Boss inspires obedience, as she commands both of them not to kill Jack and they both obey--this unquestionable ability to command others made her a threat in the end, as her patriotism and selflessness ensured that she could do no wrong, as far as her country was concerned. Equally it meant that others regarded her jealously, or desired her achievements for her own; for instance, the greed of a CIA handler causes a Russian spy to feed false information out, but the CIA use The Boss as a scapegoat, claiming that she had chosen a bad plant in the first place, and, when the Presidency changed at the White House, ensuring that she was considered as a traitor early on -- she is designated as a result of this to be the guinea pig in a dangerous space mission, in the hurriedly modified rocket that has been served by false and inadequate data all this time; a mission she barely survives, though she is pleased to do it for the sake of preserving her country's reputation in the space race.
In the end she dies so that Jack may live, and to return the world to how it once was, averting a nuclear and political crisis that would have otherwise ended with Russia and America at war with each other. Despite this, she knows that she leaves him to continue her work, and sadly, to the same misuse and self-destruction that had designed itself across her own life; the sadness of their parting moment and the events that lead up to it will linger, though there's no frustration or resentment there, only acceptance.
What she will be sad about, however, is that she was taken away from her death, which in many ways she felt she'd finally earned. Having caused the rest of the COBRA unit their honourable deaths at the hands of her student, she too had passed on, expecting to find the peace she never had in life, satisfied that her last mission and sacrifice had been worth what it would bring with it. Instead she was wrenched away from her eternal sleep, and from the once lover and companion that she had been forced to kill two years earlier during a mission. Of all the things to affect her, this one denial will no doubt wound her more deeply than any other, as she has spent months preparing for a death that was stolen from her.
Abilities/Strengths: The Boss has a comprehensive knowledge of weaponry and machinery up to but not including space age. As 'America's greatest hero', she would have been familiar with prototypes and technology before it came into service. Her greatest canon abilities are without doubt her mind; quick and accurate thinking, the ability to act and respond to any given situation, and a certain degree of intuitive logic that applies to any given thing or situation. She can drive, ride, presumably fly since she was a part of the space program at one point, and is also quite capable of using her body as a weapon, specifically through CQC. CQC (http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/CQC) stands for Close Quarters Combat, a method of switching between armed and unarmed combat, which combines a number of martial arts/hand to hand skills. Used correctly, it can be used effectively, quietly and quickly to disarm, knock out, capture or kill an opponent, making it an ideal tool when killing or causing a commotion simply isn't an option. She is also an extremely talented liar, as her missions have required her to conceal her true identity or her true purpose in the past. Knowledge of a number of different languages facilitate this; English, Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and enough Belgian, Dutch and Japanese to not get left behind in conversation.
In Peacewalker - beyond her death - her existence and strengths and weaknesses are programmed into an AI; this is because she was chosen as an ideal mind on which to frame a system that has decision capabilities that might effect the whole world. In the end the AI is absolutely perfect, and her strong will comes through it, so that even beyond her own death, she is willing to cause her own destruction for the sake of peace. If there is one selfish thing that she wanted, in life, it was to die selflessly. Her last wish was that if she had to die, she would do it in such a way as to bring about peace, and ideally unite the world. Therefore she is revered for her loyalty - specifically a 'loyalty to the end' that she references frequently; a trust that the conclusion is worth the sacrifice, even if it is her own health, her companions, or her life.
The Boss is an inspiration to others. One of her strengths is without doubt her attitude, which can cause both high levels of respect from her allies and her enemies. People are not inclined to approach her head on, even if they have great confidence in their abilities, while she also encourages others to so their best. For this reason she made an excellent teacher, leader, and additionally mentor to Big Boss, and easily won adoration from people like Strangelove and the people working on the Mercury Seven project during her time there. Even decades after her death, the very mention of The Boss as Big Boss' mentor is enough to make others pause for thought or win their loyalty to his cause.
She has a high pain tolerance, suffering the effects of radiation, and even giving birth to her child by cesarian section in the middle of a battlefield -- a battlefield she'd joined quite soon after coming out of a coma. Her own body's strength perhaps suitably rivals that of any of her male counterparts, and yet underneath that there is also a softer, motherly side to her, one that inspires devotion, even from people whose objectives would be compromised otherwise. Both Ocelot and EVA claim that they are helping/do not kill Big Boss because they made a promise to the Boss -- a loyalty that persists even after her death.
Having spent so long around the other COBRA members, specifically The Sorrow, she has some ability in sensing supernatural disturbance around her, though it's often little more than a feeling. At one point during her defection it 'rained blood'; an omen of what was to come.
Weaknesses: As well as being an inspiration, having such a well known past and endless talents inspires jealousy, which has dragged her slowly down in the last few years of her life. People have lined up to destroy her from a distance, including self-motivated members of the CIA and a President inspired to scapegoat her for things she didn't do. As a result, she has been manipulated from afar, and her own child was taken away and later used against her.
As a result of these methodical attacks over time, The Boss has suffered physically and mentally, and while losses only ever drove her to do better, her key weakness was perhaps primarily her outright loyalty. She took missions she knew might hurt and kill her, even going into space when only a 20% chance of her return was offered to her, and when she would inevitably get dosed with high levels of radiation.
Her mother instinct is very strong; just after she'd heard that she was pregnant she made a mistake and was caught without cover, and that mistake caused her to protect the new life within her. She was shot in the head, suffering as a result brain damage; now only one side functions, compensating for the other. She was in a coma for a duration after this incident, yet her firey dedication to duty had her immediately back on the battlefield with her unit straight afterwards.
She has a large scar across her chest, and though it causes her no trouble, this and the effect of nuclear fallout rain that fell after the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll has caused her to no longer be able to bear children. This "small" concern was however made worse when she went into space, served up as a guinea pig to attempt to beat the first man into space, she suffered a high dose of cosmic radiation, which - in conjunction with the pod's crashlanding to earth - resulted in her falling into a coma, and inflicted radiation burns and damage both inside and outside her body.
The radiation is her quiet weakness, one which she is ready to cover up. Since returning she had settled upon death, knowing that it was coming to her through the surrender of her body or through sacrifice to her purpose. Dying, she had finally been satisfied that it was time, and her pupil, Big Boss, would never have to know how she was suffering. Mentally, she is frought, and though well equipped to conceal the damage, which she will, she will be noticeably slower if pushed over her limits, both mentally and physically incapable of the same stamina she once had. Suffering from migraines, and occassionally unable to keep down food, but also deeply out of love with using her means as a soldier to achieve peace -- her last willful act, after all, had been to throw down her gun.
Defining Quote(s):
From The Boss
"Just because soldiers are on the same side right now doesn't mean they always will be. Having personal feelings about your comrades is one the worst sins you can commit. Politics determine who you face on the battlefield. And politics are a living thing. They change along with the times. Yesterday's good might be tomorrow's evil."
"Which will it be, Jack? Loyalty to your country, or loyalty to me? Your country, or your old mentor? The mission, or your beliefs? Your duty to your unit, or your personal feelings? You don't know the truth yet. But sooner or later you'll have to choose."
"Life's end... isn't it beautiful? It's almost tragic. When life ends, it gives off a final, lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die. I've been waiting, Snake, for a long time. Waiting for your birth, your growth, and the finality of today."
"I could see the planet as it appeared from space... That's when it finally hit me... Space exploration is nothing but another game in the power struggle between the US and the USSR. Politics, economics, the arms race... They're all just arenas for meaningless competition. I'm sure you can see that. But the world itself has no boundries - no East, no West, no Cold War (...) A world without communism or capitalism... that is the world I wanted to see... But reality continued to betray me."
"Snake, you were an atomic test subject, weren't you? On Bikini Atoll. That's part of the reason I was drawn to you. You and I are alike. We're both slowly being eaten away by the karma of others. We'll never have the chance to die peacefully of old age. We have no tomorrow."
Snake about The Boss
"Justice huh... The meaning of justice can change from one day to the next... A professional soldier doesn't bring Justice into the mission. The only ones who need a reason to fight, are the ones who fight for a living. That's what my mentor told me. Politics are fickle... they change with the times. So as long as we remain loyal to our countries, soldiers like us need nothing to believe in. She died out of loyalty, not to justice, not to her country, but to herself, for the mission."
Eva about The Boss
"Snake, the world will never know what she did. Future generations will revile her; in America as a dispicable traitor with no sense of honor, and the Soviet Union as a monster who unleashed a nuclear catastrophe. She will go down in official history as a war criminal."
Other:
A few clippings of headcanon as they come to me, for instance:
She wanted to create the COBRA unit to prove herself when she was younger, because she was tired of being underestimated physically because of her gender. Very quickly she proved herself more than capable, even while managing a unit of men, some of whom had experience far in advance of her own.
She never once considered trying to free her child from the Philosophers; at first because of her unshaking belief in her country, and later out of fear - not that the Philosophers might kill him, but that he wouldn't accept her as a mother; that war might have changed her too much. Jack was a conduit for her regret, but he became a ray of light in time, and she found his easy disposition and ignorance of anything but the mission charming. He learned quickly, and well, and she loved him. Not only did this mean that she didn't want to see him harmed, but that she considered him in the end truly the only person who meant her no ill will or harm, thus as hard as it was for him to kill her, she felt as though she couldn't possibly let anyone do it -- she wanted to die at the hands of someone she loved, like The Sorrow. This was also the noble end she wanted for her COBRA unit, thus sending each of them to face him; a final preparation and test for his own life, and death at the hands of a good man, rather than a world that could no longer understand them for her heroic companions.
The Boss conceals her weaknesses around others, and wants nobody to know how she is suffering after all these years of abuse, least of all Jack. There are only a handful of people who might see through her; The Sorrow and Dr. Strangelove. Of course she wouldn't be eager to reveal such to them, either.
The Boss started wearing a bandana when she was young to keep her hair out of her eyes during practice with the scopes on ranged weapons. She was young at the time, but willfully tore off a scrap of her skirt to serve as a makeshift and improve her times, ignorant of how it made her look. She was later given one as something of a reward for her creativity, and wore it ceaselessly since then, until Jack took it from her as he fell from the bridge. She wasn't sad to see him wearing it, though she did berate him -- it reminded her that she'd be remembered, and as she wanted him in the end to know the truth, it was something of a relief that he had chosen a memento of his own will. It meant that she had nothing more to give or teach him.
She makes an effort with all of her subordinates to make sure they consider the unit their family. In Jack's case, she did as a mother might, making sure that he even received presents from Santa when Christmas came round. And if he was too excited to sleep she'd tranquilise him first. His faith in such an innocent and harmless thing made her feel warm and happy, and since she had no son of her own to spoil and outlet those feelings to, he made a more than suitable substitute. Even so, though she loved him as a son, she never forgot that he was a soldier, and effectively - in the end - owned as she was. As well as peace, she desired above everything his freedom; that he would become disillusioned before the system destroyed him as it had destroyed her, though she herself was convinced it would never happen, and offered him those regrets herself: "One must die and one must live", with living being an equal punishment.
Action Writing Sample:
[The Hitomi has come on when it's caught with her thumb. The Boss, who's not used to visual communication being in such a scale, doesn't realise she's being recorded. Her expression is focused, certainly, on what she's doing, but also oddly unguarded, a softness at the edges of her eyes and the corner of her mouth. Her hair is loose, as it was when she'd fallen in the flowers, and as yet she hasn't paused long enough to pull her hair back.]
Recording. Maybe if the writing was a little larger...
[She lifts the device closer to her mouth, as though suspecting that because the audio input is clearly so much smaller it must be inadequate, and she keeps her voice quite loud to make certain she's audible. She is -- very loud.]
Did I make it to the other side? Are you here, my friends?
[There's a pause, as though she's waiting for something. After a considerable time has passed she continues.]
Perhaps if someone can answer me, my purpose here can be explained to me. Where am I, and how did I get here? Am I dead?
Third Person Writing Sample:
"Come," a voice said, scything through quiet satisfaction and heartache. It was over, but that voice was warm and familiar--she'd waited years to hear it again. "There's nothing you can do for him now."
Blue eyes opened; the summer sky above gave a crisper edge to the usually watery grey of her gaze, though for once the feeling that had dogged her - that had held on through her last days back at this terrible place where she had lost him and in turn been lost - was given satisfaction at last. The Sorrow was no feeling, no liquid illusion. He took her wrist in his hand, warm sure fingers smoothing across the back of her wrist, thumb on her pulse, and she in turn took his. Finding her feet unsteadily underneath her she found herself at eye-level with the once-lover that duty had made her kill, his body close to her own, his breath warm and familiar across her throat. He smelt of gunpowder still, as he had that day; of the jungle and river water, the wet earth that had clung to his body as she clung to it for a few moments now.
Though all of the pain of a moment before was gone, the guilt still lingered. It took some considerable effort to unattach herself, raising her head and gathering her returning strength, as the nobility in her body demanded. Jack stood beside her body, Patriot still held fast in his hand, as though even though he knew that the shot he had fired would kill her instantly, he expected her to get up and tell him that he'd done it wrong. She'd taught him everything, but in the end he hadn't needed it; those eyes that she had punished him for were filled with emotion now, though she had finally begun to understand just how valuable his clarity had once been. Unmarred, she had taught him betrayal and heartache and how to obey orders--even when that order was her last. Now she could see it in his remaining eye; the fruit of her last lesson to him.
The horse that had been her companion since arriving here approached, raised its great head and roared its sorrow to the echoing, distant hills. As it did so, the Sorrow's hand fell onto the center of her back reminding her of where she was, that it truly was time to let him go. When Jack began to move away she remained anchored to the spot by that touch alone, an unspoken command between them. She could not watch him travel any further down this path, he was on his own now.
"Let us go together," murmured her ghostly companion. "Finally together, all six of us."
The COBRA unit, right; the men who had lived and fought with her all those years ago, who had been her strength when she had thought herself lost, in those moments between losing Adamska - her child, her son - and fighting again. They were waiting for her on the other side, where she had sent them to wait for her. She spared one more glance
Jack had to be strong enough without her. If there was anything that this mission had served to teach him, it was the lessons necessary to survive. He would be used, just as she had been, but he would have to be strong and forward facing. He would have to do it without her. But it shouldn't be too much to ask; after all, they hadn't seen each other for years. From the child she had once admonished on the battle field, and the blossoming soldier that she had once trained beside, he had turned into a magnificent young man, if perhaps a little naive. She loved him, and she would miss him, regret for him, but they would meet again some day.
Water rose slowly, flames licking across the surface of the pool, coming first to her calf and then higher, until she was waist deep in it. The Sorrow's hand tightened on her own, reassuring. Burning petals, fire red, floated on the surface of the water, and light from no place in particular rose misty through mangrove swamps. They began to walk through the heavy water, hand in hand, away from the scene behind them and deeper, deeper, the flames and the body beside her giving up their reassuring warmth as they advanced.
"Be strong," came the voice beside her.
"I know what's coming," she answered. "How many times have you told me before? I'm prepared." The dead; her dead. People she'd killed back in the very beginning, in a war the world itself refused to forget. Mistakes she'd made, oversights, lives she'd taken, friends she'd lost--no, friends she had been ordered to lose. This was a river of the dead, of the lost, of misery. In crossing to the other side, she would grieve for the people that she had sent there before her, and they were numerous.
They advanced, hand in hand, until something cold slid across her ankle; something cold that slithered up. At first she was certain it was merely a part of the experience - how could she know better, when this was her first time dying? - but as a serpent reared out of the water, the expression of shock on the Sorrow's face told a very different story.
A snake whose broad, ice cold body looped about her torso and seized her tight - an Anaconda - turned its broad head to fix a single jewel bright blue eye on her, the light catching in its depths, as though it were shedding a single tear. The other eye, she noted, was gone. The snake tightened its grip, squeezed tight, and her fingers slipped in The Sorrow's hand, though she tried desperately to keep hold.
It was as though the snake were in part a rope pulling her under, dragging her down until it overwhelmed her as she fell, closing over her face, and though she didn't panic but reached for a knife, the snake was gone when she opened her eyes again; the snake and the river and The Sorrow; they were all gone.