Sample Application || Reno
Player
Name/Handle: Maia
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Personal Journal: melanthe_v
RP Experience: Close to three years, in varous communites such as damned, ontheedgerpg, midgar_lies (GJ), and fightingsky_rpg, plus a number of others.
Character
Name: Reno (As an orphan with unidentified biological parents, Reno actually does not have a last name, something that worked out just fine given the Turks tend to drop surnames as it is.)
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Physical Appearance: No changes. Same ridiculously red hair still tied back as usual, and always that look in his blue eyes that can make a person feel like he's teasing them even when he's not. He may appear a bit older, considering he’s pushing thirty at this stage, but that’s about it. Reno is forever young, anyway.
Personality:
Cocky, cynical, and blunt, Reno often comes off as lazy and obnoxious. That’s not to say he’s a total deliberate asshole all the time; indeed, the more of a stranger a person is, the more likely he will play nice...until they piss him off. Few get to see the professional side of him, which does exist beneath his normally playful and flippant exterior and only comes out when he’s on the job (and sometimes not even then). Though quick to anger, twelve years of being a Turk has taught to suppress his temper just as fast if the situation calls for it.
Good-looking and damn well aware that he is, Reno won't hesitate to use sex to his advantage, whether he's just looking for a one-night stand to cure his boredom or actually hunting down a source of information. Either way, he can flirt with the best of them.
While he’s certainly no dreamer, his stubbornness sometimes causes him to have more optimism than one would usually expect from him. He has no trouble seeing reality for what it is, but whether he’ll accept it is another story. He won’t conform for the sake of conformity, and hierarchy has no place in his mind: he respects those he deems worthy of it. Even then, he’ll be hard-pressed to outwardly show that respect, and the only real sign one could spot is that he’ll willingly listen to that person. To him, rules are a made to be broken; authority is to be scoffed at. Though he can-and will-bend if there’s no other way, he’ll be far from happy. When it comes down to it, he'd rather take a beating than swallow his pride, even while he's aware that it's an idiotic move (although experience over the years has wised him up a bit).
Rarely will something capture his full attention for long. He’s easily bored, and he’ll always be fidgeting-playing with his hair, drumming his fingers, or fiddling with whatever he can get his hands on. More often than not, he’s smoking a cigarette, downing some form of alcohol, or both. The only time he will pay attention is when he finally sets his mind on completing whatever task has been assigned to him. He’ll bitch and moan (and bitch some more) about having to put in any sort effort whatsoever, but when he finally decides to do something, he makes sure it gets done.
He’s got a sharp tongue and can gossip like a housewife if the mood strikes him. He also likes a good brawl if he can get one. Considering his quick temper and often cutting words, he usually has no trouble in doing so. Fighting dirty definitely isn’t beneath him, and he is both shameless and highly prone to improvisation in his combat tactics-if it looks like it'll even remotely make a good weapon, he'll use it. Though impulsive, his sharp instincts and perceptiveness tend to help him out in making the right call (emphasis on tend). Sometimes, though, he’ll take on more than he can handle. He’s not the best at plotting things out in advance, either, which is probably just as well considering he has trouble sticking to any plans at all.
He also likes to think himself as not needing anyone. This may be true to some degree, but he certainly needs people around him, if not necessarily with him. He hates (and will never admit he’s scared of) absolute isolation, and if it comes down to that, it won’t be long before he starts talking to himself or pretending there are people in the room when there isn’t. He doesn’t trust easily, although he’ll be sociable to anyone who doesn’t rub him the wrong way. He particularly hates those who condescend, and avoids people who can apparently read him too well (with the exception of Rude).
Very few fall into the category of "close friends," but those who do get his full loyalty. It’s safe to say he wouldn’t hesitate to risk his life for them. This isn't something he'll ever admit - too sentimental - but anyone who knows him well enough can conclude that the only thing that might be stable about Reno is his loyalty to the Turks and Rufus. It is important to note, however, that to Reno, the "Turks and Rufus" are very separate from Shin-Ra overall, a distinction that holds less significance now than it did back when Shin-Ra Sr. and idiots like Heidegger were running the company.
He’s quick and efficient, both of which is mainly due to the fact that he’s one to avoid work as much as possible. After all, the faster he gets his work done, the more time he has to do his own thing. He has a general “live and let live” attitude towards others, and what people do is entirely their business-until it interferes with him. He doesn’t like being wrong or bested, but he also doesn’t have enough ambition to want to be the very top of anything. He generally likes having a leader, anyway, which may seem odd given his disdain at authority, but his reasoning is that it’s always nice to have someone to point the finger at should things go wrong (plus, he’s got to have someone to argue with). In truth, it's because he knows what he's capable of and sitting down to analyze the big picture in detail is not it. He's far too rash for that, although his ability to make quick decisions on the spot means he is able to lead in the field.
All of this is not to say he won't pick up the role of a leader ever. He will, but only when it seems no one else will do it or if whoever’s in charge is totally useless.
History:
Paperwork. Boozing. Paperwork. Sex. Bothering Rude. Pissing off Tseng. Was paperwork mentioned?
In all seriousness, though, there probably has been a crapload of paperwork for Reno. It was bad enough when Shin-Ra ruled the world, but when the company fell, so did its vast network of intelligence-which means gathering data, data, and more data.
It also means Reno’s been preoccupied with rebuilding the contacts Shin-Ra once had, hoping to regain the quality (not to mention quantity) of intelligence they used to have and to prevent the leaks that have become common nowadays. As well, he’s been scouting for Turk recruits under the radar (although he’s already noted that he will not do interviews) and while he hasn’t found many who’ve caught his attention, he has sent a few recommendations up to Tseng.
That aside, there hasn’t been much else to do. Jenova’s presence is gone, the last traces of Geostigma has been wiped out, and the reconstruction of the city is going rather smoothly. The social issues regarding the increasing drug trade don’t quite concern him because hell, it’s not his problem, and really, since Shin-Ra’s operating more in the background, he figures it’s way easier just to dump the political responsibility on the WRO instead.
All in all, life has returned to the way it was when he was first hired and Shin-Ra had no one challenging its power: meetings, nine-to-five office hours, and hours spent in front of a computer surrounded by files.
Which is probably why a blurred, black-and-white photo on the third page of Thursday’s edition of The Broken Edge became the most interesting thing he’d seen in years.
Specialized Abilities:
Does bullshitting count? Reno’s faster than average-it's mentioned in Before Crisis that he’s known as the fastest of the Turks-and...he can apparently scale a wall really well, really quick. 8D;; That aside, he does technically have his nifty little pyramid attacks and whatnot, but given those are awkward to RP out, it’s safe to assume that he will just be using the basic whack-and-shock with his EMR.
He’s a decent shot (nowhere near as good as Elena, but he gets by), and while he's adept with hand-to-hand combat, he prefers to avoid outright confrontations if he's doing a job. The entire point is to get it done, and Reno would much rather go in and get out instead of wasting time with a scuffle and risk failure. (That, and let's face it - brute force just isn't his thing.)
Interrogation would be another highlight on his resume: he’s good at extracting information, whether it be through bribes or outright coercion. He can also hold his liquor really, really well and probably has the record as the biggest chain smoker in Shin-Ra history. Whether or not this is a skill is debatable, but Reno will certainly insist that it is.
And as crazy as it would seem for a person to hand someone like him the keys to any kind of flying machine-never mind climb aboard-Reno is quite capable of piloting a helicopter. In fact, it’s likely he’s better at flying a chopper than he is at driving a car. (Which might not be saying a lot given his driving skills, but hey, the point is that he's never crashed the damn thing, all right?)
Third Person Entry:
Dim, sickly yellow-orange lights greeted him when he swung open the door to the lobby of his shabby apartment building. Upon entering the stairwell, though (the elevator had been busted since last week), he discovered that dim lights were better than no lights.
As he took another step, something crunched beneath his foot. He paused. Glass. Glancing up, he realized where it came from: the light bulb was broken.
The door to the stairwell swung shut with a slam, plunging him into darkness.
Reno scowled. "Fuck's sake," he muttered, digging around in his back pocket for his lighter. He flicked it on and made his way up the steps, crunching more glass along the way. It was clear someone had deliberately smashed the lights, no doubt in a drunken stupor. Not the most uncommon occurrence around here. Still, he couldn't help but pause midway and glance around before continuing on.
The lighting wasn't much better when he reached the inside of his apartment, either, with the bulb flicking on and off, on and off. Damn, he really needed to get his stuff repaired. It wasn't so much that he didn't have the money-Shin-Ra had its benefits, after all, especially for high ranking employees-and if he'd wanted, he could've chosen to live in a more well-off neighbourhood. But he preferred to stay where he was. He didn't really take to the rich or even the high middle class.
Besides, it wasn't like he used his apartment for much. Sleeping, eating, drinking, and sex was about the extent of it. Not necessarily in that order.
Yanking open the door of his fridge, Reno reached inside, intending to get a beer, but changing his mind when he realized he hadn't eaten anything since noon. He was starving. Of course, finding food here would prove difficult. He really didn't have much aside from alcohol, a slice of slightly greenish pizza from God knows when, and an open bag of stale cookies. Which were for some reason in the fridge.
Dammit.
True, he could go out again and maybe find one of those twenty-four hour convenience stores, but he didn't feel like going anywhere. That would require navigating through the pitch black, glass-covered stairwells again. Maybe he had something in the cupboards? Whatever, he could give it a shot. If worst came to worst, he could make an attempt to find a place that delivered in the middle of the night. Or find some material to blackmail them into doing so. There had to be some use to all those files Shin-Ra had stored away.
Reno shuffled through several shelves of empty cereal and cracker boxes before locating a loaf of bread shoved up high in the corner. He could see spots of greenish-white spattering the half-eaten loaf as though someone had splashed it with paint. There were larger patches of mould near the top and center.
Edible enough.
He pulled it down and tossed it on the kitchen counter, then opened up a drawer. Knife...knife...crap, where the hell was a knife when you needed one? He knew he had one here somewhere-some hooker had almost stabbed him with it a couple of weeks back.
Hunh. Maybe she'd taken it with her? Yeah, probably. Goddamn it, couldn't she have tried to kill him with her own knife? Or at least returned it?
Exhaling in annoyance, he removed the switchblade in his pocket and began to absently slice at the bread, not really focusing. He wasn't even hungry anymore; now he was just finding something to-
A sharp pain in his finger snapped his attention to what he was doing. The blade clattered to the tiled kitchen floors. He shook his hand, cursing under his breath. Blood welled out of the cut on his right index finger. Some of it had made it into the bread, and there were spots of red in addition to the original patches of green. The loaf looked like some sort of macabre Christmas decoration.
Reno sucked gently on the wound, but his attention was distracted elsewhere. It felt like there was somebody else here. Eyes on him. He'd call it paranoia, except...
He took a step back, intending to take a look in the living room and reassure himself that nothing was wrong. As he did, a loud screech erupted, enough to make him jump.
He spun around. A furry streak of grey darted halfway across the kitchen floors before stopping to glare at him, slitted pupils conveying unadulterated outrage at having her tail stepped on.
"Shit, who told you to stand behind me like that?" he snapped.
So the cat was what had been watching him. Nice to know that it hadn't totally been his imagination.
Turning his back on the still-hissing animal, he crouched down to retrieve his switchblade.
And that was when the bulb chose to go out, plunging him into a pitch black. Again.
Oh, hell. Sonofabitch.
First-Person Entry:
You deal with it. God’s sake.
-R
Disclaimer: Yes, I understand and agree.
(and a picture.)
((Note: Reno-mun fully acknowledges that she has way too much time on her hands and therefore got a little carried away in a couple of the sections. As a result, she would like to emphasize that something shorter and more concise is perfectly acceptable. In the end, we're looking for quality over quantity. :3))
Name/Handle: Maia
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Personal Journal: melanthe_v
RP Experience: Close to three years, in varous communites such as damned, ontheedgerpg, midgar_lies (GJ), and fightingsky_rpg, plus a number of others.
Character
Name: Reno (As an orphan with unidentified biological parents, Reno actually does not have a last name, something that worked out just fine given the Turks tend to drop surnames as it is.)
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Physical Appearance: No changes. Same ridiculously red hair still tied back as usual, and always that look in his blue eyes that can make a person feel like he's teasing them even when he's not. He may appear a bit older, considering he’s pushing thirty at this stage, but that’s about it. Reno is forever young, anyway.
Personality:
Cocky, cynical, and blunt, Reno often comes off as lazy and obnoxious. That’s not to say he’s a total deliberate asshole all the time; indeed, the more of a stranger a person is, the more likely he will play nice...until they piss him off. Few get to see the professional side of him, which does exist beneath his normally playful and flippant exterior and only comes out when he’s on the job (and sometimes not even then). Though quick to anger, twelve years of being a Turk has taught to suppress his temper just as fast if the situation calls for it.
Good-looking and damn well aware that he is, Reno won't hesitate to use sex to his advantage, whether he's just looking for a one-night stand to cure his boredom or actually hunting down a source of information. Either way, he can flirt with the best of them.
While he’s certainly no dreamer, his stubbornness sometimes causes him to have more optimism than one would usually expect from him. He has no trouble seeing reality for what it is, but whether he’ll accept it is another story. He won’t conform for the sake of conformity, and hierarchy has no place in his mind: he respects those he deems worthy of it. Even then, he’ll be hard-pressed to outwardly show that respect, and the only real sign one could spot is that he’ll willingly listen to that person. To him, rules are a made to be broken; authority is to be scoffed at. Though he can-and will-bend if there’s no other way, he’ll be far from happy. When it comes down to it, he'd rather take a beating than swallow his pride, even while he's aware that it's an idiotic move (although experience over the years has wised him up a bit).
Rarely will something capture his full attention for long. He’s easily bored, and he’ll always be fidgeting-playing with his hair, drumming his fingers, or fiddling with whatever he can get his hands on. More often than not, he’s smoking a cigarette, downing some form of alcohol, or both. The only time he will pay attention is when he finally sets his mind on completing whatever task has been assigned to him. He’ll bitch and moan (and bitch some more) about having to put in any sort effort whatsoever, but when he finally decides to do something, he makes sure it gets done.
He’s got a sharp tongue and can gossip like a housewife if the mood strikes him. He also likes a good brawl if he can get one. Considering his quick temper and often cutting words, he usually has no trouble in doing so. Fighting dirty definitely isn’t beneath him, and he is both shameless and highly prone to improvisation in his combat tactics-if it looks like it'll even remotely make a good weapon, he'll use it. Though impulsive, his sharp instincts and perceptiveness tend to help him out in making the right call (emphasis on tend). Sometimes, though, he’ll take on more than he can handle. He’s not the best at plotting things out in advance, either, which is probably just as well considering he has trouble sticking to any plans at all.
He also likes to think himself as not needing anyone. This may be true to some degree, but he certainly needs people around him, if not necessarily with him. He hates (and will never admit he’s scared of) absolute isolation, and if it comes down to that, it won’t be long before he starts talking to himself or pretending there are people in the room when there isn’t. He doesn’t trust easily, although he’ll be sociable to anyone who doesn’t rub him the wrong way. He particularly hates those who condescend, and avoids people who can apparently read him too well (with the exception of Rude).
Very few fall into the category of "close friends," but those who do get his full loyalty. It’s safe to say he wouldn’t hesitate to risk his life for them. This isn't something he'll ever admit - too sentimental - but anyone who knows him well enough can conclude that the only thing that might be stable about Reno is his loyalty to the Turks and Rufus. It is important to note, however, that to Reno, the "Turks and Rufus" are very separate from Shin-Ra overall, a distinction that holds less significance now than it did back when Shin-Ra Sr. and idiots like Heidegger were running the company.
He’s quick and efficient, both of which is mainly due to the fact that he’s one to avoid work as much as possible. After all, the faster he gets his work done, the more time he has to do his own thing. He has a general “live and let live” attitude towards others, and what people do is entirely their business-until it interferes with him. He doesn’t like being wrong or bested, but he also doesn’t have enough ambition to want to be the very top of anything. He generally likes having a leader, anyway, which may seem odd given his disdain at authority, but his reasoning is that it’s always nice to have someone to point the finger at should things go wrong (plus, he’s got to have someone to argue with). In truth, it's because he knows what he's capable of and sitting down to analyze the big picture in detail is not it. He's far too rash for that, although his ability to make quick decisions on the spot means he is able to lead in the field.
All of this is not to say he won't pick up the role of a leader ever. He will, but only when it seems no one else will do it or if whoever’s in charge is totally useless.
History:
Paperwork. Boozing. Paperwork. Sex. Bothering Rude. Pissing off Tseng. Was paperwork mentioned?
In all seriousness, though, there probably has been a crapload of paperwork for Reno. It was bad enough when Shin-Ra ruled the world, but when the company fell, so did its vast network of intelligence-which means gathering data, data, and more data.
It also means Reno’s been preoccupied with rebuilding the contacts Shin-Ra once had, hoping to regain the quality (not to mention quantity) of intelligence they used to have and to prevent the leaks that have become common nowadays. As well, he’s been scouting for Turk recruits under the radar (although he’s already noted that he will not do interviews) and while he hasn’t found many who’ve caught his attention, he has sent a few recommendations up to Tseng.
That aside, there hasn’t been much else to do. Jenova’s presence is gone, the last traces of Geostigma has been wiped out, and the reconstruction of the city is going rather smoothly. The social issues regarding the increasing drug trade don’t quite concern him because hell, it’s not his problem, and really, since Shin-Ra’s operating more in the background, he figures it’s way easier just to dump the political responsibility on the WRO instead.
All in all, life has returned to the way it was when he was first hired and Shin-Ra had no one challenging its power: meetings, nine-to-five office hours, and hours spent in front of a computer surrounded by files.
Which is probably why a blurred, black-and-white photo on the third page of Thursday’s edition of The Broken Edge became the most interesting thing he’d seen in years.
Specialized Abilities:
Does bullshitting count? Reno’s faster than average-it's mentioned in Before Crisis that he’s known as the fastest of the Turks-and...he can apparently scale a wall really well, really quick. 8D;; That aside, he does technically have his nifty little pyramid attacks and whatnot, but given those are awkward to RP out, it’s safe to assume that he will just be using the basic whack-and-shock with his EMR.
He’s a decent shot (nowhere near as good as Elena, but he gets by), and while he's adept with hand-to-hand combat, he prefers to avoid outright confrontations if he's doing a job. The entire point is to get it done, and Reno would much rather go in and get out instead of wasting time with a scuffle and risk failure. (That, and let's face it - brute force just isn't his thing.)
Interrogation would be another highlight on his resume: he’s good at extracting information, whether it be through bribes or outright coercion. He can also hold his liquor really, really well and probably has the record as the biggest chain smoker in Shin-Ra history. Whether or not this is a skill is debatable, but Reno will certainly insist that it is.
And as crazy as it would seem for a person to hand someone like him the keys to any kind of flying machine-never mind climb aboard-Reno is quite capable of piloting a helicopter. In fact, it’s likely he’s better at flying a chopper than he is at driving a car. (Which might not be saying a lot given his driving skills, but hey, the point is that he's never crashed the damn thing, all right?)
Third Person Entry:
Dim, sickly yellow-orange lights greeted him when he swung open the door to the lobby of his shabby apartment building. Upon entering the stairwell, though (the elevator had been busted since last week), he discovered that dim lights were better than no lights.
As he took another step, something crunched beneath his foot. He paused. Glass. Glancing up, he realized where it came from: the light bulb was broken.
The door to the stairwell swung shut with a slam, plunging him into darkness.
Reno scowled. "Fuck's sake," he muttered, digging around in his back pocket for his lighter. He flicked it on and made his way up the steps, crunching more glass along the way. It was clear someone had deliberately smashed the lights, no doubt in a drunken stupor. Not the most uncommon occurrence around here. Still, he couldn't help but pause midway and glance around before continuing on.
The lighting wasn't much better when he reached the inside of his apartment, either, with the bulb flicking on and off, on and off. Damn, he really needed to get his stuff repaired. It wasn't so much that he didn't have the money-Shin-Ra had its benefits, after all, especially for high ranking employees-and if he'd wanted, he could've chosen to live in a more well-off neighbourhood. But he preferred to stay where he was. He didn't really take to the rich or even the high middle class.
Besides, it wasn't like he used his apartment for much. Sleeping, eating, drinking, and sex was about the extent of it. Not necessarily in that order.
Yanking open the door of his fridge, Reno reached inside, intending to get a beer, but changing his mind when he realized he hadn't eaten anything since noon. He was starving. Of course, finding food here would prove difficult. He really didn't have much aside from alcohol, a slice of slightly greenish pizza from God knows when, and an open bag of stale cookies. Which were for some reason in the fridge.
Dammit.
True, he could go out again and maybe find one of those twenty-four hour convenience stores, but he didn't feel like going anywhere. That would require navigating through the pitch black, glass-covered stairwells again. Maybe he had something in the cupboards? Whatever, he could give it a shot. If worst came to worst, he could make an attempt to find a place that delivered in the middle of the night. Or find some material to blackmail them into doing so. There had to be some use to all those files Shin-Ra had stored away.
Reno shuffled through several shelves of empty cereal and cracker boxes before locating a loaf of bread shoved up high in the corner. He could see spots of greenish-white spattering the half-eaten loaf as though someone had splashed it with paint. There were larger patches of mould near the top and center.
Edible enough.
He pulled it down and tossed it on the kitchen counter, then opened up a drawer. Knife...knife...crap, where the hell was a knife when you needed one? He knew he had one here somewhere-some hooker had almost stabbed him with it a couple of weeks back.
Hunh. Maybe she'd taken it with her? Yeah, probably. Goddamn it, couldn't she have tried to kill him with her own knife? Or at least returned it?
Exhaling in annoyance, he removed the switchblade in his pocket and began to absently slice at the bread, not really focusing. He wasn't even hungry anymore; now he was just finding something to-
A sharp pain in his finger snapped his attention to what he was doing. The blade clattered to the tiled kitchen floors. He shook his hand, cursing under his breath. Blood welled out of the cut on his right index finger. Some of it had made it into the bread, and there were spots of red in addition to the original patches of green. The loaf looked like some sort of macabre Christmas decoration.
Reno sucked gently on the wound, but his attention was distracted elsewhere. It felt like there was somebody else here. Eyes on him. He'd call it paranoia, except...
He took a step back, intending to take a look in the living room and reassure himself that nothing was wrong. As he did, a loud screech erupted, enough to make him jump.
He spun around. A furry streak of grey darted halfway across the kitchen floors before stopping to glare at him, slitted pupils conveying unadulterated outrage at having her tail stepped on.
"Shit, who told you to stand behind me like that?" he snapped.
So the cat was what had been watching him. Nice to know that it hadn't totally been his imagination.
Turning his back on the still-hissing animal, he crouched down to retrieve his switchblade.
And that was when the bulb chose to go out, plunging him into a pitch black. Again.
Oh, hell. Sonofabitch.
First-Person Entry:
You deal with it. God’s sake.
-R
Disclaimer: Yes, I understand and agree.
(and a picture.)
((Note: Reno-mun fully acknowledges that she has way too much time on her hands and therefore got a little carried away in a couple of the sections. As a result, she would like to emphasize that something shorter and more concise is perfectly acceptable. In the end, we're looking for quality over quantity. :3))