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The next processing date is Friday 11th October
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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 two weeks, 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. If you wish to request a specific apartment, please do so in the relevant part of the application. 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.
Every attempt will be made to place a character in their chosen apartments, though this may not always be possible depending on the slots available.
Applications are open constantly, but are only processed every other Friday at 7PM EST. The Saturday following acceptance, an IC mingle log will be posted for characters to be introduced to the game.
We now have a test drive community athaventest 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.
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)
Previous Game History:
Sample Application (Abel Nightroad/Mayfield RPG)
Sample Application (Bolin/Discedo)
Applications will be processed on the following dates:
11th October
25th October
8th November
22nd November
6th December
20th December
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Arcade Gannon | Fallout: New Vegas | Not Reserved
Contact Info: practicedrowning@gmail and aim, stopcounting@plurk
Other Characters Played: None
Preferred Apartment: None
Character Name: Arcade Gannon
Canon: Fallout: New Vegas
Canon Point: Immediately post-game, see ending 11 on the wiki.
Background/History: wiki
Personality: If you believe what Arcade Gannon tells you about himself, he's boring. Really boring. Roughly as interesting as watching grass grow in a barren waste, actually. He informs you of this fact during your first conversation, then elaborates by describing a childhood filled with intrigue, lies, and narrow escapes, and finally finishes the lengthy dialogue by letting you know that he doesn't talk about himself and that he deflects all personal questions. If you believe what Arcade Gannon tells you about himself, he's committed himself to solitary research because he's not a people person. He'll explain this while standing in the closest thing New Vegas has to a hospital, wearing a blood-smudged lab coat because he trained to be a doctor. Finally, after informing you that he doesn't get along with others, he'll agree to accompany you as long as you "keep working to help people around here get a fair shake," then suggest that the two of you hurry up--there are people to help and things to learn (though, he does add, maybe not in that order).
It wouldn't be fair to call him a liar, but if you believe what Arcade Gannon tells you about himself, you're only getting part of the story.
New Vegas and the surrounding desert are unforgiving grounds for an idealist, which is why Arcade will tell you that he's not one. Don't be fooled. His dry wit and self-deprecating sense of humor mask the spirit of someone who deeply and earnestly wants to improve the lives of those around him.
Fallout: New Vegas is about a city caught in a struggle between two major forces: the NCR (generally considered the good guys, although Arcade believes they wield too much power) and Caesar's Legion (unquestionably the bad guys: Caesar leads an army of captured slaves who can only hope to achieve any degree of autonomy by climbing the hierarchy through success in battle), as well as the current ruler, a person known as Mr. House who hasn't been seen for two hundred years. Though Arcade believes that New Vegas should be independent, he is most adamantly opposed to Caesar's Legion, and the one rule he sets down before joining your party is that you not provide any help to the Legion.
Arcade is extremely intelligent, and lists his hobbies as medicine and reading books about failed pre-war socioeconomic policies. He taught himself Latin from books, sheet music, and gladiator movies, and he tends to pepper dialogue with Latin phrases--particularly quotes from Cato, which are a subtle nod to his adversarial relationship with Caesar. His manner of speaking is quick and generally casual--despite envisioning himself as a loner, he seems at ease when speaking with others.
Born to a family in the Enclave (a militant political group in earlier Fallout games that was fractured at the end of Fallout 3), Arcade spent most of his early years with a group of Enclave Remnants who were being hunted across the country by other factions, integrating themselves into other communities and disguising themselves to evade capture. His father died when he was very young ("I never got over it," he says in a casual, dismissive tone) and he was raised by the Remnant group and his mother, whom he was very close to. Arcade eventually joined the Followers of the Apocalypse, which seems more like an alliance of convenience than a true loyalty. Because the Followers of the Apocalypse aren't vying for control of New Vegas and do what they can to help individuals in need, their philosophies don't conflict with his own. In addition, their leader lets him pursue his research unhindered. However, even after his mother's death, Arcade stayed in contact with the Remnants. He spent his formative years with them and considers them family, although he's decided to pursue a different path. The Remnants are forced to stay hidden for their own protection, but Arcade wants to actively work to make the world a better place.
Because his early life was filled with deceit, loss, and the constant danger of capture and execution, Arcade is afraid to get close to others--hence his insistence that he's boring and not worth the effort of getting to know. However, the fact that he shares personal details so readily suggests that he's not naturally a secretive person, and he faces a constant internal struggle between the desire to connect with others and the intellectual knowledge and conditioning that tells him to keep them at a safe distance. When discussing previous romances, Arcade says that "lovers make poor confidantes," underscoring his difficulty forging relationships based on deep trust. However, the fact that he's tried multiple times serves as evidence that personal connections are more important to him than he claims.
Life is hard for everyone in the Mojave but Arcade possesses an unusual amount of combat ability for a doctor, showing talent with both firearms and melee weapons. The fact that he learned both styles when one would have been sufficient shows a certain meticulousness of character: when Arcade decides that he wants to know something, he's not satisfied to simply pick up the basics. We also see this in his Latin: he doesn't just toss around memorized quotes, but has taken the effort to become entirely fluent in a language that's useless in his daily life. It's not a matter of pride, but a streak of perfectionism. He mentions that his investigation of natural remedies seems to have reached a dead end, but he continues to pursue his research even after deeming it hopeless. When it comes to matters of intelligence and skill, something in him can't accept the idea of giving up before achieving his goal.
Another important aspect of Arcade's personality is his adaptability. He spent his first years in a military base north of San Francisco, but after that, the Remnants moved from community to community in an effort to escape detection. Even as a child Arcade would have needed to maintain the facade, so it's reasonable to assume that he can quickly adjust to unfamiliar surroundings. Unfortunately, this talent has a downside: because he moved so often and led so many different lives during his youth, Arcade has trouble accepting permanence, and during the game he struggled with not knowing where he belonged. As mentioned above, his work with the Followers of the Apocalypse was more a matter of mutual interests than faction loyalty, and it seemed to feel interstitial. When he reunited with the remaining members of the Remnant group, though, it was clear that their lifestyle was incompatible with his own. This conflict was partially resolved when he made the decision to remain with the Followers rather than accompany the Remnants to the Battle of Hoover Dam, but part of Arcade will always feel like an outsider.
Abilities/Powers: According to game stats, Arcade is highly intelligent (10/10) and moderately charismatic (6/10, making him the most charismatic companion). He's been trained as a medical doctor by the Followers of the Apocalypse, though he likes to keep himself at an emotionally safe distance and focus on research instead, particularly concerning the ways that local plants and wildlife can supplement the community's dwindling medical supplies. Although he prefers to use an energy pistol, he's also skilled with melee weapons. He understands the subtleties of complex politics, and considering the way he taught himself Latin, it's probably fair to say that he's a fast learner. His childhood with the Enclave Remnants means that he has a bit of knowledge when it comes to technology (they were one of the most advanced factions in Fallout), but it's nothing spectacular. His ability to understand and adapt to changing environments is what really gives him an advantage in his world.
Items/Weapons: One Plasma Defender (an energy-based pistol), a Ripper (essentially a butcher knife with a chainsaw-esque blade), and one stimpack (a first-aid injection syringe).
Sample Entry One:
[The face on the viewscreen is unfamiliar, yet somehow, Arcade already looks bored with his surroundings. Broken-down everything, cracked cement, evidence of a civilization long-lost and long-replaced. If he hadn't spent the last few hours focused on his phone, he'd probably find the whole thing funny: close your eyes in one reappropriated post-apocalyptic city, wake up in another. Nihil novi sub sole indeed. However, it seems that the other refugees or prisoners have run out of questions, and the radio silence has lasted long enough that Arcade senses no further information will be forthcoming. Might as well get this over with.]
Right, I get it, we're all stuck in some invisible fortress and everyone has their own idea or story about how we ended up here. There's decent scavenging, a clean well, all the makings of a fine civilization. Great. I only have one question.
[The sarcasm's dry but not acerbic; Arcade is just reciting the few solid details he's learned so far, and really, when it comes to civilization, he's seen far worse. Where there's civilization there are politics, though, and knowing nothing about the area's balance of power makes Arcade more uneasy than finding himself in a high-tech prison to begin with. Unfortunately, he can't ask for information: abstractions are one thing, but in practice, those sorts of details can only be learned through observation. Instead, the cellphone turns to focus on the sidewalk, where a scraggly straw-colored weed pushes its way through a deep crack. It's not like the weeds of the Mojave, the weeds that his research had dismissed as useless. No, this is something new. Something that might have medical potential, though he can't tell if it's alive or dead.]
What do you know about the plants?
Sample Entry Two:
It had been a productive trip. Uneventful, aside from a vague uneasiness, but Arcade had chalked that up to the fact that he'd never been in a real, well-stocked library before. In the Mojave, paper made better tinder than reading material, and most libraries had been looted long before his birth. It only makes sense that a place full of books would feel haunted.
Regardless, his bag is now full of reading material--enough to last at least a week, maybe two. He'd started out picky, leafing through volumes before tucking them into his bag, but as the paranoia intensified he'd changed his strategy to choosing based on titles, and finally, in the moments before he left, he made selections based on nothing but the color of the spine. Back in his room he lowers the bag onto his bunk and sits down to inspect the spoils. The first book he pulls out, a red one, must have been one of the last he'd chosen, because its cover bears no imprint. Arcade shrugs. If it turns out to be useless, there are plenty more where it came from. Opening it reveals blank pages: it's some kind of journal, then. Possibly valuable, if he can find a pen. The next book proves to be the same, but it's not until Arcade empties the bag onto his bed that unease turns to alarm. No titles. No text. Nothing.
But he'd...
Quickly, Arcade dumps the pile of books back into the bag, which he zips firmly and shoves under his bed with enough force to hear a dull thump when it meets the wall. Absens haeres non erit.
He's not the type to go crazy. There has to be some other explanation.
Re: Arcade Gannon | Fallout: New Vegas | Not Reserved
Your application is in the queue and will be processed on January 4th.
-> ACCEPTED