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 Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:09 pm
Questor Information Username: Tommy Christian Mule SN's: Tommy Christian IoDM Newbie? (Y/N): Yes, as new as they come Serum: Serum 54 (Vampire Bat) CODE for your quest banner(s): No banner yet, sorry. - Navigation - 1. Character Bio 2. Story - The IoDM Entrance Idea 3. Quest Animal Information 4. Art 5. Inventory / Funding 6. Reserved 7. Reserved
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Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:13 pm
Character Bio
Name: Thomas James Christian
Nickname: Tommy
Age: 21
Birthday: June 17, 1985
Occupation: Cadet and student at USAF Academy
Home town: New Orleans
Ethnicity: Italian/German (75%, 25% respectively)
Height: 72"
Weight: 195 lbs
Eye color: Greenish Gray
Hair: Dark brown, usually cut semi-short
Likes: Fencing, reading, writing, drawing, movies (zombie movies especially), video games, role playing (though he'd never admit it), creole food, intelligent discussions, social drinking (a polite term for a kegger), karaoke.
Dislikes: Tomatos, country music, doing things for reasons not explained to him, people who are ugly to others for no reason.
Education:
High School: Jesuit High School of New Orleans
College: Two years at the Air Force Academy
Personality:
When one first meets Tommy, he usually seems quiet and reserved. Someone knowledgeable of psychology could tell that this is a slight case of social anxiety disorder. However, upon the initial meeting, Tommy visibly loosens up and is much more sociable. Although Tommy may seem a bit brash and curses more than necessary sometimes, he is by no means a simple individual. He is actually highly intelligent but he acts this way subconsciously because it makes him feel comfortable when people view him as just another stupid kid. Again, when he gets to know someone well enough, though he still tends to curse too much, the stupid kid routine drops.
Tommy was born and raised as a Roman Catholic. Though he doesn’t go to mass much anymore, he still believes in the teachings of his church. Tommy is by no means close minded though. In fact, one of his favorite pastimes is having an intellectual debate with a friend.
Physical description:
While by no means being the peak of physical perfection, Tommy is also no weakling. Six feet tall and weighing in at 195, Tommy is required to keep his body in a good physical condition in order to stay at the Air Force Academy. While a good portion of his look is determined by being a cadet (short hair, clean shaven), Tommy enjoys changing that when he goes out on the town. He normally spikes his dark brown hair and wears a dark blazer with the sleeves rolled up. In a more casual setting, he wears his father’s old brown leather jacket usually with some sort of vintage t-shirt. Regardless of his upper body, he never goes anywhere without his dark jeans and black tennis shoes. While he has a pair of glasses, he almost never wears them, preferring contacts.
A Brief History of Tommy Christian:
Tommy was born to an upper-middle class family. He had great parents who brought him up well; he had an older brother, who he got along great with; he had another brother who was blind, mentally retarded, and had cerebral palsy. He considered helping his brother day to day more of a blessing than anything else. He also had his younger sister whom he was protective of. He followed in his brother’s footsteps, first going to Jesuit High School, and then going through the arduous process of getting into the academy. Once there, he was forced to interact with many people from all sorts of backgrounds which helped relieve him of some of his social anxiety disorder. This and the fascination of what causes people to make the decisions they do drove him to major in Behavioral Science. In his second year there, just by chance he was selected as one of the lucky few to visit Aviano, Italy for his summer Ops.
[Keep in mind that while I understand this history is rather short, I prefer to let it unveil itself through role playing]
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Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:58 pm
How he came upon the island:
[Summary] This was Tommy’s second summer at the Academy. He was supposed to spend three weeks in the Air Force Base in Aviano, Italy along with six other cadets. He traveled in the new C-17 once he hit the international leg of his trip. In mid flight, just clearing the Eastern shore of the United States, the large jet encountered a large flock of seagulls which knocked out two of the engines along with the head pilot.
[First Person Perspective **Caution: Profane Language***] It was May and my entire squad and I are anxiously awaiting to see where we’d be heading for Ops Airforce.
“Any luck?” I ask my roommate, a good (if incredibly nerdy) guy named Erick.
“Nothing yet, man.”
“Alright, well I’m going to go take a shower. I’ll be back in a few,” I say to him before doing just that. On my way back from the shower, it seemed the entire squad was talking as one. There were literally dozens of conversations going as one. Words like Rammstein, Nellis, and Seymore Johnson wafted toward me. I grin, knowing that the bases had come out. Quickly changing into PC (Physical Conditioning) Gear (it took all of thirty seconds, you learn to change fast at the Academy) I sit down at my laptop and log onto CAMIS II. Eric looked over quickly, “What’d you get?”
“Damnit, wait till I look it up!” I jokingly yell at him. Let’s see…password…log on…click on the dropdown menu…Force Protection and Accountability…no…ah! Academic Scheduling. There it is. I select that option and click on “Summer” and up comes my base. I sit there, grinning like a madman.
“Well? What’d you get already?” Erick asks impatiently.
“Oh…hold on a second….let me savor this….ahh…”
“Damn it, tell me already!”
“Aviano…as in, Aviano Italy.”
“You lucky sumbitch…I got Minot.” Erick sulks. I just burst out laughing. That poor b*****d got the suckiest of all bases while I got one of the sweetest.
“Oh man, Erick. I’m sorry,” I try to say through laughter.
---------------
I don’t care what they say, the C-17 is uncomfortable…I wish we’d just flown commercial, you know? C-17’s may be the newest cargo jet of the Air Force, but they suck to fly in. We had taken off a little while ago and were just heading over the Atlantic Ocean. Despite being uncomfortable, I began to doze lightly with my ipod helping to drown out the drone of the jet. The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack usually helped me fall asleep. All of a sudden, I’m blasted awake by turbulence you wouldn’t believe. I mean, there’s s**t flying everywhere. I hear this loud alarm blaring ‘n the rest of the cadets and I are just lookin’ around like deer caught in the middle of a highway. About this time the enlisted guys start shouting for us to get on our parachutes. All the while we were just shouting, trying to find out what was going on. I heard something about a flock of seagulls and briefly wondered why they were talking about an old band in the middle of all this. Anyway, we were supposed to have our parachutes on, but damn they were uncomfortable when we were wearing our civvies. I heft mine onto my back and begin strapping myself in. Crotch strap…one…two, alright…wait, damn, it’s twisted. I unclip them and do it again…there, done. Chest strap *click* alright…I look up at everyone else. I’m just in time to watch the last person out of the plane. Oh…crap. Well now it was my turn. Keep in mind I did soaring at the Academy instead of jump. There was no way they were going to get me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane voluntarily. So you can imagine I’m scared shitless. *sigh* but it was either that or go down with the plane….so I stand in the door. The first blast of cold wind almost made me tumble out, but I held on tight. I close my eyes and try to control my breathing…I put one foot out…and gravity decides not to let me go out myself as a bout of turbulence throws me out. My mind goes on auto-pilot at that point. Just because I didn’t do jump, doesn’t mean that I never got training on how to use a parachute. I arch my back to get myself horizontal with my face to the upcoming water, I count to ten. One…two…three…fou..ohcrap. The water is coming up awfully fast. I pull. A sharp jerk and the air rushing out of my lungs tell me that my chute has deployed. With a glance upward I check to see if the lines were crossed, and with a stroke of luck they aren’t. Now all there was to do was to drift on down to the ocean and climb into my auto-deployed and inflated one man life raft.
Within a few hours of drifting I spot black shapes floating on the water. I squint against the sun and quickly begin trying to maneuver my small raft over in that direction. My eyes brighten as I realize that it is the luggage floating on some of the flotsam. I breathe a sigh of relief because I know I had packed some snacks and sunscreen. Also, the clothing inside would help me cover up from the sun. By strapping my suitcase to one of the floating pieces of debris and strapping that to my raft, I lay down. Days past, I’m not sure how many really. My rescue beacon and radio both died sometime during that period. My food rations dwindled quickly and I was running out of the packets to make salt water drinkable. I can feel myself become delirious. My periods of wakefulness dwindle….I don’t know what happened next.
-----------------------------------------
What he brought to the island:
-Managed to salvage his suitcase, mostly he has clothes in there, including a few military uniforms. Also, kept his external hard drive in his suitcase. His computer has been lost to Davy Jones' locker.
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:52 pm
Quest Animal Information: The Vampire Bat A face only a mother could love Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Phyllostomidae
Subfamily: Desmodontinae
Physical Description:The vampire bat is much different from what most people think of as bats. While most bats have a long, rodent like snout with nose leafs, the vampire bat has a short conical like muzzle which lacks the characteristic noseleaf of its fruit eating brethren. Although by no means small, this type of bat has smaller ears than others. Also, their tail is almost nonexistant. Concerning their dental structure, vampire bats have razor-like front teeth and smaller back teeth. Their wingspan is over eight times the width of their body. Vampire Bats can move side to side and backward, similar to a spider with their long arms. Instead of taking off in flight from the ground, these bats actually launch themselves into the air with powerful pectoral muscles. Feeding: As one might guess, Vampire Bats feed on the blood of mammals. They fly through the night, making razor thin cuts into sleeping animals and proceed to lap up the resulting blood with long tounges. Because it is usually difficult for a Vampire Bat to find a sleeping body to feed on, it usually feeds in enormous quantities. The bats' saliva contains a chemical that keeps the blood from clotting, and another chemical in their saliva numbs the animal's skin and keeps them from waking up. A Vampire Bat finds its prey through a mixture of echolocation, smell, and sounds. Also, this bat has a heat sensor, similar to that of a snake, in its nose which allows it to locat the veins closest to the skin of its prey. If a Vampire Bat cannot get blood within a few days, it will die. Social Behavior: Vampire Bats are known for living in large communities while still possibly having lifetime monogamous relationships. The Vampire Bats aid their weaker members by regurgitating blood for those who have not fed in a while. Why the Vampire Bat? I have always been fascinated by what causes some species to develop adaptations that are completely alien to it's parent Order. Bats in general are a prime example of this. A flying mammal. What would make it so imperative in the ecosystem that a mammal's best hope for survival would have to be flight? The Vampire Bat only adds to this oddity. A completely liquid diet, a diet of blood no less. Why would this be advantageous? Anyway, suffice to say, I am more than fascinated by he Vampire Bat. I also think that this serum would work well on the island due to its questionable feeding source. I am hoping that this will help influence imaginative role playing.
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:57 pm
Reserved for Art:
Given the fact that at the moment I'm a lousy artist (I enjoy writing much more, and that usually takes priority to me practicing drawing) I have no depictions of the character as of yet. I am planning on commissioning for the five steps through monetary, rather than gold, means. The reason for this is because I'm still not too sure what is the best way to earn gold here. From what it seems the fastest way is drawing for others, but since that's out of the question...I dunno. Maybe someone would want a story...
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:58 pm
Inventory/Funding:
What I have:
Werefeet and Were Arms (closest thing I could find)
Witchcape
Black Wulf Headpiece
Zorro Mask
Gray Longjohns
What I need:
Something to cover up the bottom half of his face
Concept Art
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:58 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:59 pm
Updates:
11 July 2006: Updated my inventory/funding. Art to come soon.
15 July 2006: Took out the horns bit
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Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:58 pm
sounds like a fun character!
good job with him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:33 pm
Alrighty, seems like I've got all of my posts done/reserved...so...lemme know what you think! Thanks
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:42 pm
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:54 pm
I like his personality, believable, simple, to the point. No extravagant flaws or freakish attributes. Some might interpret this as boring but I think it's how the players plays the character that makes an interesting RP, not the weirdness.
Thumb way up for the vampire bat.
Thumb down for the horns. I just don't think they're necessary, I guess. Hargun's a horned bat also, so the redunancy strikes me a bit. Just an opinion though.
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Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:02 pm
Oh wow, completely missed that one. But yeah, I think you're right. I've been deliberating over that aspect for a while now and that just confirms it.
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