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Mask or Menace app
Feb. 3rd, 2015 11:23 pm〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Chris
AGE: 26
JOURNAL:![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
milennialfalcon
IM / EMAIL: daccodacc @ AIM / canadia.dayo@gmail.com
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
gazzafizza
RETURNING: Lana Baumgartner
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Frank Rickards | Cleveland
CHARACTER AGE: 46
CANON ORIGIN: original
CHRONOLOGY: circa late 2012, just after the presidential election
CLASS: vaguely heroic? he's a good guy, certainly not a villain, but definitely going to work from the background
HOUSING: housed alone, please
BACKGROUND:
The world Frank comes from would be indistinguishable from our own to the average citizen. All the same historical events took place, all the countries' borders are where they ought to be, all the political leaders are the same, be they elected or born into leadership. The thing is, those leaders aren't the ones with the real power to run their respective countries. That task lies in the hands of secret organizations known as Orders. Every developed country has one, with operatives granted a superpower and codenamed after the city they represent. You can read more about the formation of the original British Order here. As British colonialism spread across the globe, so too did the Order's influence. As the colonies gained independence, their respective Orders became independent units as well (often having had a hand in realizing their country's independence).
The US Order started in the mid 1600s, alongside British colonization. Originally, the British Order sent operatives to the colonies in order to keep them in line. Around the time of the Revolutionary War, the French helped the American operatives persuade St. David's, the power-bestower from the British Order, to defect and help recruit and grant powers to more operatives in America, thereby forming a full-fledged US Order. Things didn't always run smoothly for the US Order, just as things didn't always run so smoothly for America-- from the Civil War to JFK's assassination, the Order had to change and adapt in order to keep America running. (Using JFK's assassination as an example, the operative codenamed Hyannis was created specifically to weed out any dissenting thoughts surrounding the President and prevent any future assassination attempts.)
The main players in the US Order are Washington, DC, gifted with precognition; Boston, given the ability to grant new operatives their abilities; and Baltimore, gifted with mnemokinesis, or memory manipulation. After recruiting a candidate to become an operative, Boston bestows upon them the power assigned to whichever city they will represent. When it's time for the operative to retire, Baltimore wipes their memories of the Order and creates a new cover story and identity for them. Other high-on-the-food-chain Order members include New York (coercion), Langley (telepathy), Chicago (invulnerability), and Chapel Hill (energy absorption), but there are many other operatives in the US Order.
There first became a Cleveland operative in 1936, one hundred years after its incorporation as a city. Cleveland's operatives are given the power of camouflage (sort of like invisibility, but not quite, seeing as St. Alban's already has that power) and are traditionally chosen for their ability to blend into an environment as a way to do reconnaissance. They're placed in positions of business to prevent corporations from having too much sway on the government. Frank is the fourth operative to take the Cleveland position.
Before getting recruited into the Order, Frank was a middle-management pencil pusher at a magazine printing company in central Indiana. He had no wife or children, was an only child, and his parents were either dead or on death's doorstep, making him an excellent candidate for recruitment. He relished the chance to do something more meaningful with his life, and was sworn into the Order officially in 1998, when he was 32 years old. His position isn't an extremely important or influential one, but he did take part in the collapse of Enron in 2001, and was investigating the role of Super PACs on the 2012 Election just before being Ported into the game.
PERSONALITY:
The Order tends to summarize each operative using three basic characteristics. Some examples of these would be "VAIN - NEUROTIC - AMBITIOUS" for Los Angeles, or "GENUINE - MILD-MANNERED - RELIABLE" for Houston. Cleveland's three characteristics? "SIMPLE - MIDDLE CLASS - UNASSUMING." It's not exactly a compliment to be chosen as the Cleveland operative. Let's just say neither Frank, nor any of the previous Clevelands, were destined for greatness. More like... destined for something slightly higher than mediocrity.
Frank grew up in your average, white bread, picket fenced middle-America household. He's too young to be a baby boomer, but he's the typical child of postwar America. His family wasn't rich, but they wanted for nothing. They had a Chevrolet and a color TV in the living room. This upbringing instilled a moderate work ethic in Frank in that he'll put 100% into the task at hand, but never 110%, and he holds no ambitions for anything above his station. He's satisfied to serve, whether he's serving his company or his country.
Frank has a sense of humor and likes to crack a joke every now and then (not always in the most appropriate situations), though they don't always go off the way he intends them to. Many of his jokes are what you might call "Dad jokes." You know the kind. A joke so bad it's embarrassing. He likes to think of himself as a funny person, but even he knows he's not the life of any party, and he's not going to be a standup comedian anytime soon.
Frank's main motivational force is service, out of a sense of duty or obligation. He doesn't complain about the work that needs done, he just buckles down and does it. He's the kind of guy who's up at six regardless of whether or not he has anywhere to be that day. He always eats a complete breakfast, and likes to read the paper and catch up on emails every morning.
Part of Frank's training as an Order operative has led him to be more calculating than one might guess he would be. He is actually quite intelligent, having graduated magna cum laude (albeit from a tiny college in Illinois). He's skilled at ingratiating himself with the right people to gather information that would help the Order. And, if those methods don't work, he simply uses his power to clandestinely sit in on important business meetings.
For someone so unassuming, Frank has sharp interpersonal skills. Part of his job as an operative requires him to infiltrate Thr high levels of business, so he's good at schmoozing and rubbing elbows with America's top professionals. That said, he's just as smooth when interacting with ground-level personnel. It's rare that Frank is ever completely open and honest with anyone-- being in a secret organization will do that to you-- but he's able to play it off so the other person would never know they aren't getting the full story.
Frank likes to consider himself a good and moral person. He was raised in a religious (Methodist) household, but isn't a particularly religious person himself. He puts on the persona of someone superstitious or religious if it suits the situation, but he considers himself Agnostic. This belief was further cemented when he learned of the existence of the Orders. He began to wonder whether there could be a God when such godlike beings walked the Earth, or whether their powers were given by God Himself. In the end, he decided it wasn't for him to know, and he stopped questioning it.
Frank is a solitary individual by circumstance rather than by choice, and he can get lonely. He reasons that his position as Cleveland operative allows home to meet and get close to many different people, but he never really gets truly close with anyone. As such, there is a hole inside Frank that desperately wants to be filled, but he would never admit to it. Frank's not a "sappy," emotional kind of guy. He can count on one, maybe two hands the number of times he's cried. That said, one wouldn't describe Frank as "stoic," because he displays his other emotions openly and wears his proverbial heart on his sleeve. Or, at least, he plays the part of someone who wears his heart on his sleeve. But what makes Frank such a great chameleon is that the person he portrays himself as is never too far removed from who he actually is.
When finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, Frank's top priority becomes getting the lay of the land and gathering as much intel as possible. When traveling, he makes a point of checking in with the local Order operative, as is protocol, though he also sees it as a way of catching up with friends (or what amounts to the closest thing Frank has to friends, anyway). He will be very surprised and confused to learn that there is no Order in the world of Heropa, and will be cautiously suspicious of that fact. After all, the Orders are centuries old organizations. They can't just not exist. He'll believe it's more likely that the Order of this world just doesn't trust him with the secret of their existence yet. Whether he'll work to earn that trust, well, that remains to be seen.
POWER:
Canon ability: Cleveland operatives are given the power of camouflage. This means that they can blend in with their surroundings the same way a stereotypical chameleon can. This is not the same as invisibility, however! It just works in a way very similar to invisibility. It differs from invisibility in that, were someone to wave their hand behind an invisible person, you could see it, because you're looking through the invisible person. Were someone to wave their hand behind Frank, however, you could not see it, because Frank's power is merely imitating the color/pattern of whatever's behind him. Think of it like the Marvel comics character Miles Morales' camouflage power, as it's basically the same thing.
Game-given ability: Hyperthymesia, aka total autobiographical recall. This is the ability to remember highly specific pieces of information about one's own life, dating back to childhood. For example, Frank could tell you that April 3rd, 1979 was a Tuesday, and that he wore a red shirt and had spaghetti for dinner. Why this power? What use could it possibly serve? Who knows.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The person on the screen is not what you'd expect out of a typical imPort. He's a middle aged, balding, chubby white man. He's definitely not a superhero if looks are anything to go by. He looks familiar enough with the use of a smartphone, however, so he at least has that going for him. ]
Uh, hello, "imPorts?" I take it that's what they're calling those of us who were brought here, anyway, although it sounds strange to say it out loud...
[ He shakes his head. Back on track. He's only making this recording to gather information. That is what he's good at, after all. ]
In any case, what I want to ask is, what year is it? I mean, one second I'm in my living room in Cleveland, Ohio in the present day-- 2012-- and then the next thing I know, they're "debriefing" me and letting me out into this city where it's sort of the fifties but futuristic at the same time? I... don't get it. I mean, I've never really been into science fiction, myself.
[ He looks around, as though trying to come up with something else to ask. ]
I guess that's it. So... yep. Anybody who can clear up this year issue, call me back. Thanks.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Test drive meme thread
FINAL NOTES:
Frank will be arriving with just the clothes on his back and his Order-issue cellphone, programmed with the numbers of several other operatives. While it will be rendered unusable upon his entrance into the game setting, it is still highly encrypted as it contains secret Order information, such as photos and emails. It's password protected, and any Order-related files require Frank's thumbprint to unlock.
NAME: Chris
AGE: 26
JOURNAL:
milennialfalconIM / EMAIL: daccodacc @ AIM / canadia.dayo@gmail.com
PLURK:
RETURNING: Lana Baumgartner
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Frank Rickards | Cleveland
CHARACTER AGE: 46
CANON ORIGIN: original
CHRONOLOGY: circa late 2012, just after the presidential election
CLASS: vaguely heroic? he's a good guy, certainly not a villain, but definitely going to work from the background
HOUSING: housed alone, please
BACKGROUND:
The world Frank comes from would be indistinguishable from our own to the average citizen. All the same historical events took place, all the countries' borders are where they ought to be, all the political leaders are the same, be they elected or born into leadership. The thing is, those leaders aren't the ones with the real power to run their respective countries. That task lies in the hands of secret organizations known as Orders. Every developed country has one, with operatives granted a superpower and codenamed after the city they represent. You can read more about the formation of the original British Order here. As British colonialism spread across the globe, so too did the Order's influence. As the colonies gained independence, their respective Orders became independent units as well (often having had a hand in realizing their country's independence).
The US Order started in the mid 1600s, alongside British colonization. Originally, the British Order sent operatives to the colonies in order to keep them in line. Around the time of the Revolutionary War, the French helped the American operatives persuade St. David's, the power-bestower from the British Order, to defect and help recruit and grant powers to more operatives in America, thereby forming a full-fledged US Order. Things didn't always run smoothly for the US Order, just as things didn't always run so smoothly for America-- from the Civil War to JFK's assassination, the Order had to change and adapt in order to keep America running. (Using JFK's assassination as an example, the operative codenamed Hyannis was created specifically to weed out any dissenting thoughts surrounding the President and prevent any future assassination attempts.)
The main players in the US Order are Washington, DC, gifted with precognition; Boston, given the ability to grant new operatives their abilities; and Baltimore, gifted with mnemokinesis, or memory manipulation. After recruiting a candidate to become an operative, Boston bestows upon them the power assigned to whichever city they will represent. When it's time for the operative to retire, Baltimore wipes their memories of the Order and creates a new cover story and identity for them. Other high-on-the-food-chain Order members include New York (coercion), Langley (telepathy), Chicago (invulnerability), and Chapel Hill (energy absorption), but there are many other operatives in the US Order.
There first became a Cleveland operative in 1936, one hundred years after its incorporation as a city. Cleveland's operatives are given the power of camouflage (sort of like invisibility, but not quite, seeing as St. Alban's already has that power) and are traditionally chosen for their ability to blend into an environment as a way to do reconnaissance. They're placed in positions of business to prevent corporations from having too much sway on the government. Frank is the fourth operative to take the Cleveland position.
Before getting recruited into the Order, Frank was a middle-management pencil pusher at a magazine printing company in central Indiana. He had no wife or children, was an only child, and his parents were either dead or on death's doorstep, making him an excellent candidate for recruitment. He relished the chance to do something more meaningful with his life, and was sworn into the Order officially in 1998, when he was 32 years old. His position isn't an extremely important or influential one, but he did take part in the collapse of Enron in 2001, and was investigating the role of Super PACs on the 2012 Election just before being Ported into the game.
PERSONALITY:
The Order tends to summarize each operative using three basic characteristics. Some examples of these would be "VAIN - NEUROTIC - AMBITIOUS" for Los Angeles, or "GENUINE - MILD-MANNERED - RELIABLE" for Houston. Cleveland's three characteristics? "SIMPLE - MIDDLE CLASS - UNASSUMING." It's not exactly a compliment to be chosen as the Cleveland operative. Let's just say neither Frank, nor any of the previous Clevelands, were destined for greatness. More like... destined for something slightly higher than mediocrity.
Frank grew up in your average, white bread, picket fenced middle-America household. He's too young to be a baby boomer, but he's the typical child of postwar America. His family wasn't rich, but they wanted for nothing. They had a Chevrolet and a color TV in the living room. This upbringing instilled a moderate work ethic in Frank in that he'll put 100% into the task at hand, but never 110%, and he holds no ambitions for anything above his station. He's satisfied to serve, whether he's serving his company or his country.
Frank has a sense of humor and likes to crack a joke every now and then (not always in the most appropriate situations), though they don't always go off the way he intends them to. Many of his jokes are what you might call "Dad jokes." You know the kind. A joke so bad it's embarrassing. He likes to think of himself as a funny person, but even he knows he's not the life of any party, and he's not going to be a standup comedian anytime soon.
Frank's main motivational force is service, out of a sense of duty or obligation. He doesn't complain about the work that needs done, he just buckles down and does it. He's the kind of guy who's up at six regardless of whether or not he has anywhere to be that day. He always eats a complete breakfast, and likes to read the paper and catch up on emails every morning.
Part of Frank's training as an Order operative has led him to be more calculating than one might guess he would be. He is actually quite intelligent, having graduated magna cum laude (albeit from a tiny college in Illinois). He's skilled at ingratiating himself with the right people to gather information that would help the Order. And, if those methods don't work, he simply uses his power to clandestinely sit in on important business meetings.
For someone so unassuming, Frank has sharp interpersonal skills. Part of his job as an operative requires him to infiltrate Thr high levels of business, so he's good at schmoozing and rubbing elbows with America's top professionals. That said, he's just as smooth when interacting with ground-level personnel. It's rare that Frank is ever completely open and honest with anyone-- being in a secret organization will do that to you-- but he's able to play it off so the other person would never know they aren't getting the full story.
Frank likes to consider himself a good and moral person. He was raised in a religious (Methodist) household, but isn't a particularly religious person himself. He puts on the persona of someone superstitious or religious if it suits the situation, but he considers himself Agnostic. This belief was further cemented when he learned of the existence of the Orders. He began to wonder whether there could be a God when such godlike beings walked the Earth, or whether their powers were given by God Himself. In the end, he decided it wasn't for him to know, and he stopped questioning it.
Frank is a solitary individual by circumstance rather than by choice, and he can get lonely. He reasons that his position as Cleveland operative allows home to meet and get close to many different people, but he never really gets truly close with anyone. As such, there is a hole inside Frank that desperately wants to be filled, but he would never admit to it. Frank's not a "sappy," emotional kind of guy. He can count on one, maybe two hands the number of times he's cried. That said, one wouldn't describe Frank as "stoic," because he displays his other emotions openly and wears his proverbial heart on his sleeve. Or, at least, he plays the part of someone who wears his heart on his sleeve. But what makes Frank such a great chameleon is that the person he portrays himself as is never too far removed from who he actually is.
When finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, Frank's top priority becomes getting the lay of the land and gathering as much intel as possible. When traveling, he makes a point of checking in with the local Order operative, as is protocol, though he also sees it as a way of catching up with friends (or what amounts to the closest thing Frank has to friends, anyway). He will be very surprised and confused to learn that there is no Order in the world of Heropa, and will be cautiously suspicious of that fact. After all, the Orders are centuries old organizations. They can't just not exist. He'll believe it's more likely that the Order of this world just doesn't trust him with the secret of their existence yet. Whether he'll work to earn that trust, well, that remains to be seen.
POWER:
Canon ability: Cleveland operatives are given the power of camouflage. This means that they can blend in with their surroundings the same way a stereotypical chameleon can. This is not the same as invisibility, however! It just works in a way very similar to invisibility. It differs from invisibility in that, were someone to wave their hand behind an invisible person, you could see it, because you're looking through the invisible person. Were someone to wave their hand behind Frank, however, you could not see it, because Frank's power is merely imitating the color/pattern of whatever's behind him. Think of it like the Marvel comics character Miles Morales' camouflage power, as it's basically the same thing.
Game-given ability: Hyperthymesia, aka total autobiographical recall. This is the ability to remember highly specific pieces of information about one's own life, dating back to childhood. For example, Frank could tell you that April 3rd, 1979 was a Tuesday, and that he wore a red shirt and had spaghetti for dinner. Why this power? What use could it possibly serve? Who knows.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[ The person on the screen is not what you'd expect out of a typical imPort. He's a middle aged, balding, chubby white man. He's definitely not a superhero if looks are anything to go by. He looks familiar enough with the use of a smartphone, however, so he at least has that going for him. ]
Uh, hello, "imPorts?" I take it that's what they're calling those of us who were brought here, anyway, although it sounds strange to say it out loud...
[ He shakes his head. Back on track. He's only making this recording to gather information. That is what he's good at, after all. ]
In any case, what I want to ask is, what year is it? I mean, one second I'm in my living room in Cleveland, Ohio in the present day-- 2012-- and then the next thing I know, they're "debriefing" me and letting me out into this city where it's sort of the fifties but futuristic at the same time? I... don't get it. I mean, I've never really been into science fiction, myself.
[ He looks around, as though trying to come up with something else to ask. ]
I guess that's it. So... yep. Anybody who can clear up this year issue, call me back. Thanks.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Test drive meme thread
FINAL NOTES:
Frank will be arriving with just the clothes on his back and his Order-issue cellphone, programmed with the numbers of several other operatives. While it will be rendered unusable upon his entrance into the game setting, it is still highly encrypted as it contains secret Order information, such as photos and emails. It's password protected, and any Order-related files require Frank's thumbprint to unlock.
