multiversal } { application
Out of Character Information
Name: Emily
Username: iluvroadrunner6
Are you over the age of eighteen? Yes
Current characters in Baedal: Sam Winchester (Supernatural)
In Character Information
Basics
Character Name: Alec McDowell // X5-494
Username: im_apimp
Fandom: Dark Angel
Played By: Jensen Ackles
Icon: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/102319312/16884240
Canon Character Section
Physical Description: Alec comes to about 6’1”, and weighs two hundred pounds, all of that muscle. He’s not overly big, though-the point of X5s were to blend in, not stand out-so he’s just nicely muscled. He’s also attractive, Manticore built them to be pretty, with boyish good looks, blondish hair and green eyes. He tends to use those looks to his advantage, as he was trained to. He moves with the comfortable ease of someone who knows his body well and exactly what it can do. When he’s in top form, he’s got catlike grace and poise, but most of the time, he’ll putz around like a normal person and often fake a bit of clumsy nature, just to seem more “normal” than he actually is.
He normally dresses in layers-Seattle is both cold and wet-with t-shirts under sweaters and topped with a leather jacket. He’s also fond of jeans, as they allow a good range of movement, and combat boots.
Sexuality: Sexuality with transgenics is complicated, as they were raised only to have one when it was convenient for a mission/the company’s best interests. Alec has had twenty years of being Manticore’s golden boy, and most of that when he was a child, so there’s no doubt that there might have been some kind of abuse there, and I also don’t doubt that there may have been a time when Alec went gay for a mission-and it’s likely that he didn’t enjoy it as he was a) probably somewhere in the range of sixteen to eighteen and being forced to have that kind of sexual contact, and b) he doesn’t swing that way. Add to the fact that after the genetics lab was destroyed, Manticore instituted a breeding program, forcing their kids to reproduce in order to keep replenishing their ranks, and the fact that female X5s go into heat, and those hormones effect X5 males in the appropriate way, and … well, sex, when it’s not sought out by Alec himself, is an uncomfortable thing. He can play it cool a lot of the time, and he likes to flirt, but unwanted sexual contact will get you a broken arm-if not worse.
However, in canon, when looking for sex, it’s been shown that Alec pursues women, and the one and only person he ever loved romantically was a woman. And he does like sex-one of the first things he did when Manticore fell was steal a car, get laid, and watch TV, but it needs to be found on his own terms. He’s also rather open-minded in terms of sex-he doesn’t get hung up on a lot of the kinks that humans do because of social norms, so he’ll try anything once. Personally, he’s got a preference for a bit of rough and tumble, but if you’re the kinky sort, it’s very unlikely that he’s going to judge you for it-he’ll just let you know whether or not he likes it.
History: Here, written by me
I’m picking Alec up from the beginning of the series finale, 222: Freak Nation, just after he’s been shot by Normal. It’s one of my favorite canon points for him, because it’s a choice that forces Alec to pick a side. Not that it’s much of a choice-Alec has always been one for picking his own kind over humanity and normalcy, but Normal is his friend, and it’s showing his friend that he’s one of the monsters he’s so scared of, and possibly losing him for good. Alec’s got to have faith that Normal’s going to do the right thing, and instead of making him make that choice and see the end result, I’m sending him to Baedal to hem and haw over it some more.
It’s much more fun that way. Plus, bullet wounds!
Powers: Alec is what’s called a transgenic, meaning he’s not entirely human. In fact, to be specific, he’s a third human, a third kitty DNA, and a third that’s the X5 cocktail. In the Dark Angel universe, transgenics were created to be a better class of soldier, and the X5s were trained to be the generals, while the X6-8s are more of the infantry class of soldier.
As far as the X5 cocktail is concerned, it comes in two parts. Mentally speaking Alec has an eidetic memory and a genius IQ. This allows him to pick up new skills extremely quickly-for example, he went from beginner to classically trained pianist over the course of a few days. He’s also multilingual. Physically, his body produces bonus stem cells which allow him to heal more quickly from injuries. All transgenics are also O negative, so they can swap blood quickly in battlefield situations. He has a much faster metabolism which allows him to process drugs and other narcotics more quickly, has been inoculated for every disease known to man-and some that aren’t-and his natural body temperature is several degrees higher than a normal human. He also has enhanced speed, called blurring, which allows him to move faster than the human eye can process, making him a literal blur, as well as enhanced strength. Max has been shown as having the ability to hold a full grown man upside down off a balcony several stories up without breaking a sweat or losing her grip. Alec, having more muscle mass and concentrated training, probably is stronger. All that extra strength allows him to jump higher, hit harder, and throw further than any normal human would.
As far as the kitty DNA is concerned, Alec has all the senses of a big cat. He has enhanced sight for seeing long distances and night vision, as well as a stronger than normal sense of smell and hearing. He has a better sense of balance, a natural grace, and enhanced flexibility. He lands on his feet-most of the time. He also has a taste of cat instincts, which can include sensitivity to the supernatural-there’s a reason cats were used as familiars for witches-but it’s nothing overtly informative. It’s mostly a feeling, like something’s rubbing against him the wrong way-he won’t know what it means. It also includes a strong kill instinct-cats are natural hunters and killers, and Manticore was especially careful to nurture that instinct in their soldiers.
He also purrs. It’s sort of adorable, in the way a giant tiger purring is adorable.
Talents/Abilities:: As for his soldierly skills, Alec’s been trained to be a killing machine since he was old enough to hold a weapon. He’s proficient in almost every weapon known to man, as well as multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat, and he could probably kill you with just his pinky. He was raised to be a field leader, so he’s a strategist, and trained in infiltration, retrieval and assassinations. He was also trained for deep cover, so he can fake accents and slips on another identity just as easily as he would a pair of jeans.
He can also play the piano like a beast.
Personality: There are two distinctive facets to Alec as a character: X5 - 494, the soldier he spent most of his life becoming, and Alec, the person who’s free of Manticore and still trying to figure out who he is, as a person. There’s not a large difference between the two, but one can’t exist without the other and it shows Alec’s growth as a character, even over the course of one season. That, as well as the impact of several important relationships in his life, helps form the ball of Alec and who he is as a person. There are some general traits that accompany Alec at any point in his life just based on his genetic make-up, regardless of how he was raised, and they are as follows:
1) He does not consider himself human. A person, yes, and he can pass for human, but he’s not. He knows he’s not, and he’s comfortable with what he is. It’s the who that gets a little sketchy a lot of the time. He’s just recently come to the realization that he deserves to be treated as a person instead of a thing, and he’s fiercely protective of that. He will not tolerate anyone trying to treat him or anyone else of his kind like he’s less than they are. Because they’re wrong. He’s better.
2) He relies on his nose. A lot. He’s been seen in canon sniffing his money to make sure that it’s real, checking his food to make sure that it’s good. He’ll always try and get the smell of something first before he moves forward into it. He relies on his hearing and eye sight as well, but his nose is his best friend, especially for things he doesn’t understand.
3) He has a penchant for high places. In canon, he and Max have both been seen as sitting on the rim of the Space Needle when they want to go somewhere to think. That’s a kitty thing. Cats like to be up high because they’re a) out of reach of predators, and b) can see everything that’s going on around them. That’s a little bit of the instinct that’s slipped in as far as the X series of transgenics is concerned.
4) He likes things that go fast, fast, very fast. He has a motorcycle (he calls her Shelley) and has been seen in other pretty, fast pieces of machinery. He takes better care of the motorcycle than he does most of the other items he owns, mostly so that it can continue to go fast, fast very fast.
5) His fighting style preference is hand to hand first, guns and other weapons second. He’s always armed as a precaution-he is living around a group of people who want him deader than dead-but he’ll always disarm and knock unconscious before he’ll go for the kill with a gun or a knife. The people who go after him are human for the most part, so he tries to do the best he can to not be the killer he can be/people think he is unless he absolutely has to be.
6) His speech patterns are an odd mix of military slang, street slang and correct civilized English. He always uses his proper “be” verbs in the right place. The street slang can sound a little odd and off when he uses it because he learned it in a class and not in the world, but after a year outside with the rest of the world, his ear’s accustomed to more of the proper usage. He’s still much more comfortable with the military slang. This is very easy to notice because Alec Never. Ever. Shuts up. And it’s not because he likes the sound of his own voice, he just really likes to talk.
X5 - 494:
For the first twenty years of his life, Alec wasn’t Alec, he was X5 - 494, and he wasn’t a person, he was a weapon. He was raised in an absolute military lifestyle, with the same structure as any military set-up in the country. He was trained, from a young age, on how to be the perfect soldier, and for the most part, he was their golden boy. He followed orders, performed well on missions, and on the surface, was the perfect example of what Manticore was looking to create, even at a startlingly young age. He performed in the function that he was created to perform-nothing more, nothing less. He didn’t have a life outside of Manticore, no friends, no family. He didn’t even have a birthday-the only reason he knows how old he is, is because he adds one every January. He didn’t view himself to be a person because the people who were running the show, training them and teaching them, told him that he wasn’t, and he toed the line with the people running Manticore, under fear of death or worse-reindoctrination. He already had to go through it once-there was no way he was going to go through it again unless he had to. There was no exposure to art, music, or literature unless absolutely necessary, as well as popular television or world news because they didn’t want them to start thinking for themselves and forming opinions of their own. They were forced to swallow whatever Manticore wanted them to believe, and 494 did exactly that, no questions asked.
He never had a childhood, he never had parents. His early years as an X5 focused on training for simple basic skills that every X5 would be required to perform, from holding his breath for extended periods of time underwater, up to and including his first kill at age eight. He never looked at the world with awe-like wonder; he never was innocent by any means. Manticore wanted these children to be killers, to eventually grow up to be the best assassins in the world, and therefore they didn’t believe in the importance of establishing a moral code that would be deemed acceptable by most societies. They were taught that it was okay to lie, steal, cheat or kill for the good of a mission, regardless of the consequences, and if you got caught you were as good as dead, so it was best not to get caught. The only thing that deviated from the “the only line is the bottom line” mentality is the idea that you did not leave your unit behind, no matter what the cost. They taught the kids to have loyalty to each other, which is something that strongly stuck with 494.
Their “unit” became the closest they had to a surrogate family. They looked after each other, took care of each other, and on occasion fought for each other. When the unit that Max was in escaped from Manticore in 2009, all of the X5 class was brought in for what they called “reindoctrination,” which essentially amounted to brainwashing to make sure that the kids weren’t thinking too much for themselves. Because 494’s twin (an X5 with the same genetic code) was in the group that escaped, he spent six months in their Psy-Ops division to make sure that the impulse to escape wasn’t accidentally written into their genetic code. He was nine years-old, and it was one of the closest things to Hell that he experienced at the hands of the doctors at Manticore. They drugged him (large amounts due to his high metabolism), white washed memories, and reinforced his place as X5 - 494, and his position in the Manticore hierarchy. To this day, he still carries a heavy resentment towards his twin and the rest of that unit, even though he hadn’t met them before that point, because in his mind, they committed the ultimate crime one transgenic could do to the other, and left their kind behind. This is the first time that Manticore used the reindoctrination techniques on 494, but it won’t be the last. (See: Rachel.)
When Manticore was training the X series to hunt and to kill, they appealed to a lot of their natural cat instincts. They made deals with the local prisons and recruited death row inmates for their kids to practice on, released them into the woods, and said if they could get to the fence without being caught by the kids. They gave the man a gun and a head start, and exploited the natural hunt and kill instincts that the kids possessed and praised every kill they made. This instilled an idea that killing, while always acceptable behavior, because they didn’t want them killing anyone they happened to find on a mission aside from the target or any of the Manticore employees when they did something the kids didn’t like, was a good thing when necessary-for example, on a mission or when they needed to get out of a situation and not leave any witnesses. They were taught the best way to dispose of bodies so that they would never be found, and as a result, the element of wrong in taking someone’s life never fully sunk in. 494 kills without remorse or apology-in fact, on a level he even enjoys the hunt and culmination in the kill. It soothes the predator instinct in him. He understands the permanence of death, but the moral ramifications don’t always affect him the way it should. Post-Manticore, Alec understands the idea that killing someone is wrong, but he doesn’t allow the past deaths to weigh on his conscience. He only kills as a means of self-defense or in defense of someone else, and if he’s exhausted all other means. But when he does kill, it’s quick and ruthless, and it’s highly likely that he won’t be feeling bad for it later.
The people who were raising him at Manticore were not the highest shelf of human beings. As far as they were concerned, 494 was a creation of science and not a person. They did experiments on the kids, cutting them open without the appropriate anesthesia, due to their fast metabolisms. Alec is pretty much traumatized in terms of all things medically related, and would rather treat his own injuries himself. He doesn’t have to worry about illnesses or infection; he mostly has to worry about bleeding out and making sure the bones set right, and he can do that on his own, or with the members of his unit. He has a violent reaction to any other kind of medical attention and he will not set foot in a hospital on his own behalf. He will go to save a friend, a person he cares about, but he will not do it to save himself without being forcibly put there-and it takes a lot to force him there.
Manticore also tried to raise their X series operatives without emotions influencing their actions. As a result, they’re supposed to emotionally detach from what’s happening to them and keep focused as soldiers. 494 could handle short term missions where he didn’t have to deal with the people involved, but when he was placed on a long term deep cover assignment, he managed to connect with one of the targets romantically. Having never experienced that before, nor understanding what the feeling was, he fell for her hard and nearly blew the mission trying to protect her. He was again sent to reindoctrination and had the memories filed away in his brain, but that mission still colored the remainder of the missions he did for Manticore, up to and including his working as a double agent against Max in 201: Designate This, his first appearance, which is when 494 switches over to Alec.
ALEC:
Alec didn’t really become Alec until Max named him in that first episode. At first, he didn’t really care about the name-his designation number had been his identity for so long that he didn’t feel he needed a name, but when Manticore was brought down, he needed to use some kind of name to get around in the world-he couldn’t go around calling himself 494. He had liked Alec when initially named it, and decided to keep it. And it was good that he liked it, but because her second choice was “dick.” That possibly would have been more appropriate, considering that in the beginning, Alec really was. At first he came off as being Max’s friend-not forcing her to copulate with him due to their being breeding partners, and vouching for her in front of Madam Renfro. That was all to earn her trust, however, as he intended to use her to get to Logan. Even as he had Logan dying on the floor and a gun on Asha, he maintained that it wasn’t anything personal-he was just doing what he was built for. Eventually Max took him down and managed to release the location of Manticore to the world regardless, but by the time Alec returned to Manticore, Renfro was already sterilizing the site, and the only home he’d ever known was coming down around his ears.
At first, Alec’s intention was to get as far away from the mess as possible, but that ingrained loyalty to his unit and to the other members of the X series brought him back. Alec is intensely loyal to his own kind, including Max, and will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Even when he was captured by Ames White and told to kill three of his own kind and collect their bar codes in order to obtain his freedom, he didn’t go through with actually killing one of them, and when he tried to get Joshua’s bar code, unaware that he didn’t have one, he couldn’t go through with actually killing them. He was taught to never leave a man behind, and he wasn’t going to turn on them and start killing them either, no matter what it meant for him.
His own kind, however, is where the selfless streak ends, with a few notable exceptions. Alec is not a hero. He isn’t out to better the world, and he isn’t out to save people he doesn’t know. He knows about his abilities and what he could do with them, but he’s not going out of his way to save a world that doesn’t want him and would only kill him for doing so. Alec will fight to the death for the people he cares about, those he considers his friends and family, and he would kill for them, but only them, and it is very hard to make his friend list. You need to show that you would do the same for him, or he would really have to like you in order to really make it stick. He plays his cards very close to the chest, and will more likely offer up a smartass, out for himself façade than let people know he actually gives a damn.
Alec is a smartass, however, with an insatiable knack for getting himself into trouble and trying to talk his way out of it. The phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” is incredibly appropriate for this particular X5. After growing up in such a structured and isolated environment, being faced with all that freedom was a daunting position, and he wanted to try and experience as much as possible. He had been out in the world before, but always with Manticore’s leash around his neck. He wasn’t allowed to explore on his own, which meant he needed to learn relatively quickly which areas he was allowed in and which areas he wasn’t. He also wasn’t sure how to handle keeping what he was from the general public. Max hassles him a lot in his early days as a free agent to keep his bar code covered and not doing anything that grabbed too much attention, but he didn’t always listen. He got busted by White when he was street fighting to hustle up some quick cash and betting on himself.
Seattle in 2020 is in the middle of an economic depression and people do whatever they have to do to make a quick buck. Aside from betting on himself in the beginning, he also got a job working at Jam Pony as a bike messenger, while supplementing his income with some light burglary. He’s an unrepentant thief and a firm believer in finders’ keepers. Considering that everyone else was hustling to try and make a quick buck, he didn’t see the problem in doing it himself, and he was better at it than most people. He also is a person to take advantage of opportunities, no matter how awkward it may seem. When a fellow X series transgenic was killed on the course of a mission, Alec all too quickly moved into his now vacant apartment, taking the space his family had left behind without seeing a problem. It made things uncomfortable for him and Max at first, but he needed a place to live, and it was only natural for him to take what had belonged to his kind and made sure it stayed where it belonged.
Alec does have a temper, however, and a violent one at that. When a fellow transgenic, Biggs, was killed by a lynch mob in 221: Love Among Runes, Alec was one the one leading the transgenics to find those responsible and make them sincerely regret the decision. Alec would kill for the people he cares about, and he would feel one bit of guilt about it. The way he sees it, humans have the police, the armed forces, and their rights to protect them from other people, but transgenics aren’t afforded the same courtesy. They need to protect themselves, whether the rest of the world likes it or not. As soon as they get afforded the same rights and privileges as the rest of civilized society, Alec will stop protecting his people his way.
It’s also important to mention that along with being shut away from the rest of the world and not understanding how it works around him, he didn’t really have a childhood. Therefore, he will have the potential to get excited about things that a six year-old would, like it was the first time he’s ever experienced it, because odds are, it is. He doesn’t look at the world with awe-like wonder, and he’s not a big believer in magic-he’s a byproduct of science. If you tell him that fairies/demons/werewolves/etc are real he’s going to look at you like you’re crazy-but he might tell you that a slinky is one of the coolest things he’s ever seen.
Object: Alec’s object is going to be Rachel’s locket that he gave up shortly before she died. He’s going to be very confused as to why he has it, but it’s something that ties him to more of his humanity than anything else. It’s also a reminder of what he’s lost, which sometimes he needs to be reminded of.
Reason for playing: Alec is a character I’ve always enjoyed writing, mostly for his interesting viewpoint on the world. I like that he’s learning it as he goes and that he doesn’t fit into the world socially. He’s still picking up the rules and trying to find his place in it, and picking him up from those moments and bringing him into a place where the rules are completely different and he has to learn them all over again is always an interesting challenge.
Also, unlike Sam who just finds trouble, Alec is the kind of character who actually makes it. He’s got a devious nature and the curiosity of a cat, so often times doing what he believes is best for him gets him into more trouble than he intended. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a heart though-you just have to earn seeing it. That road to trust could be really interesting to play out in a place like this.
Gods: I think the god most likely to be drawn to Alec is Rundas. This is all through the combined fact that he’s a person who lacks a set place in the world, luck tends to apply to him a lot, and he’s part cat. So-a cat-friendly goddess would probably be happy to creep all over him. Not saying that she’s creepy, just saying that he would keep her interest. Alec is also a person without a real home. He’s trying to find one in Seattle, but he’s still got that sense of transience to him, which could appeal to the traveler in her.
Another god who will show interest in Alec is Gediron. Alec was raised to be an officer, not just a soldier, so he was thoroughly trained in tactics and quick thinking. Add his high IQ to the table, and everything he does is thought of in strategic form. It keeps him sharp and aware of what’s going on around him, and if Gediron ever wants to play strategic games-Alec is definitely the kind of kid who would enjoy it, and do well at it, all at the same time.
Finally, Eliande is also another option. Alec has feline instincts with a really strong hunter instinct. He controls it a little better than his twin did, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the feel of the kill. It’s instinct for him more than anything else. What he doesn’t have, however, is a strong sense of justice, because he really just does what’s best for himself. That’s where these two might part ways.
Writing Samples
First-Person Network Post: Here, from a previous game.
First-Person Journal Post:
Third-Person Arrival Post:
Alec is sitting on a roof, somewhere in the city, nursing a bullet wound in his shoulder.
He knows this isn’t the place to be taking care of it, but there are some instincts that are louder than others, and finding out where he is takes precedence over his own physical health at the moment. Besides, it’s just a flesh wound. He’ll be fine. Thankfully, it has already stopped bleeding, and he’s immune to any infection that he could happen to pick up somewhere along the way.
Granted, that’s home and Alec doesn’t think this is home. Nothing smells familiar, and everything is new and different. He’s currently cursing his luck, because he was just starting to get used to Seattle and all it’s strange and different glory, and now in the course of the day he’s been shot by one of his best friends, woke up in a room with no way out, and told that hi, this is Baedal, and you are now so very screwed. Excellent job, Alec. Max is going to have a field day with this one. Never mind the fact that somehow, whoever left him here, got Rachel’s locket, and left it for him, like it’s some kind of welcoming gift. Alec doesn’t see it as much of a gift. He sees it as someone making a point, and it’s done nothing but piss Alec off.
In a big way.
One hand fists the thin chain in his pocket, while the other holds up the CiD for his careful study. It’s pretty basic technology, and it didn’t take it long to figure out how to work it, let alone page back a bit and see what information is there. There doesn’t seem to be much information on this “cohort” that doesn’t go back longer than a month or so, but it’s enough for Alec to see that there’s someone here with his face. Someone who isn’t Ben, from what he can tell, which is only confusing him more, and he isn’t going to make any rash assumptions until he can get up close and personal with this guy. It’ll just make his life easier if his nose is the one to make that decision-not that he’s inclined to get close anytime soon. Right now he just needs to figure out a game plan, stay off the network, and not attract any undue attention.
He’s absolutely capable of that. “Blending in” is his middle name.
But that doesn’t mean he can’t touch base with the one person here he does know, and hope she’s not from a time where she hates his guts. There’s a quick private message to Max over the network, and then the CiD gets tucked safely back in his pocket as he waits for her response. This day has been rough enough without getting the whole world in on it.
If there is ever a dude in serious need of a hug-this is it.
Third-Person Action Post: Here. This is technically AU and a crossover with Alias, but personality wise for Alec, it’s not incredibly so. If that’s not okay, I can come up with another one.
Misc
Other: N/A