havenmods | Applications Two

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED!
The next application opening date is Friday 16th January, 7pm EST.
The next application processing date is Friday 23rd January, 7pm EST.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE POST YOUR APPLICATIONS HERE ON THE NEW APPLICATION PAGE

We're so glad you're thinking of joining us in Haven, where we are all safe.

In order to apply for a canon character, please fill out the information below and post it in a comment in this entry. For an OC, please apply using the OC information. Please do not link to applications, all applications must be posted here. Please do not delete your applications; if you do not want it to be seen, you can request for it to be screened after a decision is made.

You may apply for two characters every application round, to a total of six characters. Only two of these may be from the same canon, and they cannot be too familiar with one another. Please make sure to mark the header of your comment(s) with RESERVED or NOT RESERVED, as well as the character name and canon. App challenges are not allowed currently.

Try to remember spelling and grammar are important, and in app length quality and not quantity is what matters. All parts of the application must be your own work, plagiarism will not be tolerated, though you are welcome to reuse your own old applications.

If you are asked for revisions, please don't panic! It doesn't mean the mods don't like you, only that we probably need more information before making a decision. If you are asked for revisions, you will have one week to supply them.

Applications are open on a monthly cycle, where they will be opened on the second Friday of every month for a week, and then processed on the third Friday of the month, before being closed again.

We now have a test drive community at haventest which is continuously open. Posts there may be used in lieu of a sample in the application. You may also link posts, logs, or threads from other games and memes in lieu of samples, though we ask that they be no more than one year old. As of November 22nd 2014, samples cannot be "where am I" intro posts. The reason for this is that we often find it hard to gauge characterization from those, as most people when immediately in a new surrounding are confused or frightened.

While we encourage players who have dropped to re-join us, we do not encourage the continual rapid dropping and re-apping of the same character in a short time period. You are welcome to request specific housing, and all attempts will be made to accommodate that request, but it may not always be possible.

To see what we are looking for:
Canon Characters:
Sample Application (Faith Lehane)
Sample Application (Iroh)

Original Characters:
Sample Application (Mors)
Sample Application (Vera de Barr)
Sample Application (Malkus Iverwelling)

Previous Game History:
Sample Application (Abel Nightroad/Mayfield RPG)
Sample Application (Bolin/Discedo)

The old application post can be found here if you would like to look through past accepted applications.

Applications will be open on the following dates (from 7pm EST):
12th-19th December
16th-23rd January

Applications will be processed on the following dates (at 7pm EST):
19th December
23rd January

To apply for a canon character, please fill out this form:
Name: Your name or nickname Contact Info: Email, plurk, IM... as long as there's a way to contact you, it's fine! Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Haven. Requested apartment: Please put N/A if you have no preference. Character Name: Names and nicknames, in Western order (first name, surname) Canon: Canon Point: Where in the series are you taking them from? Background/History: A link to a source about the canon is fine for this. Previous Game History: At least two paragraphs on important events for the character and how they have been shaped by the previous game. If this is not applicable, please delete this section. Personality: This is the most important section! There is no specific word count, but anything less than three paragraphs likely isn't detailed enough. Abilities/Powers: Please assume canon-blindness and explain in as much detail as possible. Items/Weapons: Which three items and/or weapons will your character arrive with? Sample Entry: At least ten sentences in first person/action bracket format, please. A link to a previous post or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome. Sample Entry Two: At least two paragraphs in third person/prose format, please. A link to a previous log or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome.

To apply for an original character, please fill out this form:
Name: Your name or nickname Contact Info: Email, plurk, IM... as long as there's a way to contact you, it's fine! Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Haven. Requested apartment: Please put N/A if you have no preference. Character Name: Names and nicknames, in Western order (first name, surname) Background/History: At least three paragraphs, please. Try to focus on events in the world history that have had an impact on the character. Previous Game History: At least two paragraphs on important events for the character and how they have been shaped by the previous game. If this is not applicable, please delete this section. Personality: This is the most important section! There is no specific word count, but anything less than three paragraphs likely isn't detailed enough. Abilities/Powers: Please explain in as much detail as possible. Items/Weapons: Which three items and/or weapons will your character arrive with? Sample Entry: At least ten sentences in first person/action bracket format, please. A link to a previous post or thread under a year old with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome. Sample Entry Two: At least two paragraphs in third person/prose format, please. A link to a previous log or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Personality: At a first glance, John is as ordinary as they come. He keeps to himself, doesn't take sugar with his coffee, wears bland woolen jumpers, likes a night out with a pint and some mates, flirts with the occasional female who smiles his way--
He is also an adrenaline junky who kills a man to save someone he has known for less than a week; more impressively, however, he manages to surprise a self-proclaimed sociopath who thought he knew all there was to know about the man.

Captain/Dr. John Watson is a paradox, as an army doctor he likes peace but he feels the most alive in battle; he can break a man's arm, and then prescribe some pain medication to go with it; his leg flares up with pain, but the real wound is in his shoulder; he has night terrors about Afghanistan, but he misses the war more than he is haunted by it. All these things and more are what intrigued Sherlock to take a second look at the man, but who the good doctor actually turned out to be was what made the detective value his friendship.

"Please don’t feel obliged to tell me that was remarkable or amazing. John’s expressed the same thought in every possible variant available to the English language."- Sherlock

John is uniquely qualified to be Sherlock's companion for several reasons; for one, his adoration placates the detective's ego. Unlike the police force of London whom Sherlock routinely delights in outdoing, John, rather than being annoyed at Sherlock's ability, instead finds it fascinating. Perhaps one of the reasons Sherlock's deductions impress rather than offend, is because John came back from Afghanistan feeling like he was nothing. Hearing Sherlock rattle off so much about his life from one simple look likely gave him hope there was still something left in him, after all.

"No, I know you’re for real."-John
"A hundred percent?"-Sherlock
"Well, nobody could fake being such an annoying dick all the time."-John

Of course, Sherlock couldn't depend on someone who just behaved like a doormat, which is why the second part of John Watson, his stubborn, sarcastic streak, is just as important. John Watson is not afraid to speak his mind. Over the course of several seasons, even when practically abducted by strangers, he can't resist throwing out a smart comment. John also isn't afraid to stand up to Sherlock, yelling at the man when he steals his laptop or getting in his face about not taking proper care of himself. When the two gradually become more famous, he becomes a helpful 'translator' to Sherlock; going as far as to instruct him on when to say 'thank you'. John also rarely takes any of Sherlock's insults personally, which means he isn't afraid to wound the detective's a bit in return. In A Scandal in Belgravia he tells Sherlock no one cares about his blog cataloging '240 types of tobacco ash.'

"You’re very loyal, very quickly."-Mycroft
"No, I’m not. I’m just not interested."-John

As a soldier, John has strong morals and knows where he stands with them. He is shown to feel relatively no guilt for shooting the cabbie in order to protect Sherlock; after all, the man was a serial killer, John knew in that precise moment he had to act or another body would be in the morgue. John was quick to tell Mycroft, he isn't actually that quick to trust people, and despite all he does for Sherlock, we learn this is true. By the second episode, John is shown having grown disenchanted with Sherlock; telling himself his initial fascination was a passing fluke and nothing more. He was quicker to say 'colleague' than 'friend' and felt unsure of how to conduct himself around Sebastian who referred to Sherlock as something of a freak of nature.
By the end of season 1, Sherlock does eventually earn John's trust properly; by then their bond has grown so strong, John is more than willing to die with Moriarty if it means Sherlock might escape and live.

"You don’t seem very afraid."-Mycroft
"You don’t seem very frightening."-John

To say John is comfortable around violence is putting it mildly, John doesn't just tolerate danger, he needs it. As best stated in a conversation with Mycroft: "You have an intermittent tremor in your left hand... You’re under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady. You’re not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson ... you miss it." And therein lies the final puzzle to John's character. John was alive and useful on the battlefield, he had never intended to get sent home early. While John does not show it as vocally, or as quickly, as his flatmate, the former soldier regresses back to his depressive state when he has nothing useful to do. John goes with Sherlock willingly and it is clear despite the many near death scrapes John finds himself in, he would gladly do it all again if it meant the same successful result. As Sherlock perfectly summarized: "I said 'dangerous', and here you are."

When John panics he does so internally, with quiet control. As shown in the season finale the Great Game, when John is wired up to explode by Moriarty, he is clearly shaken but rational enough to think the whole way though; even when the returning psychosomatic pain causes his knees to buckle, he manages to wait until the threat has abated to safely collapse. The only time we see John truly lose his composure from fright, rather than anger and annoyance, is when he is dosed up with a drug designed to enhance fear when presented with a stimulus.

In addition to being 'difficult to ruffle', John has strong sense of humor. It isn't that death and violence brings him joy, he isn't sadistic, but he knows how to make the best of a bad situation and remain calm with a lighthearted comment. In Season 3, after being apart from John for so long, we see Sherlock tries (very poorly) to also attempt to use humor in tense situations, despite never having done it as much before; the possibility that this was due to John's influence is hard to overlook.

While John Watson may be a soldier, he is also a doctor; which leads John to bizarrely disassociate from the brutality of a crime while still being able to sympathize with the victims. He has a strong inclination to care for people; regardless of how well he knows them, and is usually the only member of his party to treat a witness delicately. Although it may have to do with John's need to feel useful, we can assume John at least partly cares for the well being of others, as he becomes rather offended when Sherlock claims to care more about the challenge of solving the case than helping the hostages in the Great Game.

"For the record – if anyone out there still cares, I’m not actually gay."-John

Contradictory to the running joke that John is Sherlock's lover, John is shown to be very attracted to woman. Though the relationships seldom last due to Sherlock's constant neediness, he nevertheless tries and does succeed quite often to get a couple dates in before being dumped. While we don't see the actual flirting, the fact he manages to keep his job after falling asleep his first day and get a date out of it speaks for itself. Of course, there is plenty of
evidence to give people the assumption he is romantically involved with his flatmate. In addition to living with Sherlock and following the man at nearly any hour, John frequently gives up his plans with other people to appease the Detective. During a Scandal in Belgravia, Mycroft tells him to cancel his date on Christmas because it might turn out to be one of Sherlock's 'danger nights' (in which he will be tempted to do something reckless). Even Mrs. Hudson never quite seems to believe his orientation, telling him not to worry because there are 'all sorts around here.'

Applications Two

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