Post by yellowbird on May 9, 2010 17:08:51 GMT -6
[/color]VALKYRIE,
CALIFORNIA
the ocean breathes salty, won't you carry it in?
The picture's far too big to look at, kid - your eyes won't open wide enough.
And you're constantly surrounded by the swirling stream of what is and what was.
[/font][/center]
WHEN THE OCEAN MET THE SKY ,[/color]
CHARACTER BASICS ,
you missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye[/color]
FULL NAME: Courtney Forrest Simon - a touch strange, but once you're on your seventh boy you're probably a little less precise about the naming thing.[/font]
NICKNAMES: Miraculously, not really. He's been teased a time or two but things like that hardly count - the only thing that might count is the occasional shortening to 'Court' his brothers employ from time to time on their lazier days.
GENDER: Male. Yes, I assure you - he is most certainly male.
AGE: Fourteen
GRADE: Freshman
ART INTEREST: Arts, academics and avoidance, if you must know. He's interested in music, really, insofar as making any art, though, his singing voice isn't the most 'conventional' - or, you know, 'good'. So - the bulk of his studies will probably lie in writing and perhaps journalism - though he doesn't intend to pursue the latter past educating himself. His studies are very important to him and despite a fairly common touch of deficiency in maths his grade have always been a slight, secret point of pride.
PLAYBY: Conor Oberst
YOUR BODY MAY BE GONE ,[/color]
CHARACTER APPEARANCE ,
i'm gonna carry you in my head, in my heart, in my soul[/color]
ETHNICITY: His mother is Norwegian and his father is Irish with a little Italian mingling in the bloodlines, so that would likely make the boy Caucasian.[/font]
HAIR COLOR: A rather common shade of brown.
EYE COLOR: A complementary shade of the same listed above.
HEIGHT: 5'4'' though he's likely to tack on another few inches before he's stopped growing.
WEIGHT: Nothing too far north of 100.
BODY TYPE: He's small - something that is likely to be spotted at first glace. Short of stature and a touch of emaciation to seal the deal, he's not exactly an intimidating figure. With large eyes, he might give the more medicated of the bunch the impression of a small bug who seems like it might be friendly, but is still terribly difficult to avoid squishing.
DISTINGUISHED FEATURES: To be completely honest his appearance is rather mundane - if you're the nurturing type and something causes your eyes to linger for a moment or two you might think something along the line as to how a decent meal might do the boy some good, but other than that it's not likely too many thoughts would be taken up in your head by the boy's existence. His eyes are large but not exactly what one would call enticing in colour, and more often than not they're hidden safely behind a book. He is thin and his hair does often appear as though it needs a good amount of attention, but such things tend to contribute to blending in rather than the opposite these days, anyways.
PERSONAL STYLE: Brand names have rather little sway over whether or not he's seen wearing something, though he's not totally against that. If he'll ever reach an age in which he'll care or feel the need to fully rebel he hasn't yet. When venturing outside without a hoodie, he can perpetually be seen with an Armani sweater of a rather plane style thrown over whatever T-shirt he's rolled out of bed onto and found mostly clean - hes like the cut of it, not skin tight or horribly baggy until you reach the sleeves that go clear out a few inches past his fingertips on both hands. Perpetually clad in blue jeans, he wouldn't be able to name you the brand. His mother used to make it her job to purchase him only the best, and he made it his job to put holes in the best. Buying jeans that came pre-destroyed got nothing but stony (as much as he could manage, anyway) looks from him, and declarations that he'd rather go out in public in his boxers than support such a travesty. Good thing his mother took the bait on that one. (He did wear them once IN THE HOUSE when his mother seemed down in an attempt to cheer her up a bit, but we won't speak of that.)
Being as slight as he is he seems to find himself perpetually cold and when sweater and hoodie combo alone aren't enough to protect him from the outside elements and he's tired of playing test-your-limits he might be bothered to throw on a jacket throwback to army greens. His style seems like a kid who grew up in the thick of the early nineties despite a healthy cash flow, who never quite got past that stage. He tends to prefer clothing that covers a good potion of himself, and doesn't make him stand out too much - for that reason he doesn't quite mind the school uniform.
OTHER: The gym shorts are killer, though. And not in that 'bad = good' way.
IN YOUR MOUTH, IN YOUR SOUL ,[/color]
CHARACTER PERSONALITY ,
the more we move ahead the more we're stuck in rewind[/color]
STRENGTHS: Reading comprehension, he's good at mediating, he's learning the guitar and the bass - he's loyal, and good at dedicating himself to things and tries to stand up for what he believes in, he knows a lot about prescription medication mostly due to his family's use, human gore rarely, if ever, bothers him and he's turning into quite the little poet - though he mostly keeps that part to himself, he's rather quiet and - usually accidentally - this makes it rather easy for him to creep around and sneak up on people unless..[/font]
WEAKNESSES: Unless he gets embarrassed / flustered (not exactly difficult to accomplish) in which case it wouldn't be atypical for him to trip over himself and walk into a wall, He's not good at lying to move ahead, or lying at all, really. If he attempts to do so - and, out of hopelessness, these things are usually avoided - it's more than easy to read his true intent. When it comes to social skills.. well, he's rather lacking. As to be expected. He's also not good in fights, whether physical or not. He just can't bring himself to do anything like that, and is fairly scrawny to boot - it's likely the only reason he's made his way through school in one piece, thus far, is the fact that he has six older brothers and it's likely that - with those odds - at least one of them will pulverize you if you mess with their 'baby brother' too much.
LIKES: Reading, Good films, 'Bad' gore/slasher films, Coffee, The Rolling Stones, His Family, Keeping notebooks with random things he finds interesting - usually info on deformities, serial killers, cults and the likes, chocolate, Rage Against the Machine (yeah a little out of left field for the boy, trust me) Musically and artistically inclined people, Coffee, Sphynx cats, Disinformation and conspiracy theories, Bob Dylan, Coffee, When he gets along with people without having to pretend to be something else, Carrots, Horror flicks, his Bass, Neil Young and related music, Coffee.
DISLIKES: People who write in books that don't belong to them, being allergic to cats, Bad reactions to medications and side-effects - in other people as well as himself, Hair Cuts, Twilight (the book(s) not the daily event) and such, Big dogs, Most movies based off of books, Nightmares, Animal abuse and the related, Alternative endings, Bad coffee places unless they have good live acts, Maths, loss of freedom / liberty / our shallow attempts at justice and equality / basic human rights / privacy.
FLAWS: A less prevalent issue, however, would be his nightmares. He refrains from referring to them as 'night terrors' - or referring to them at all - or anything as dramatic as that, but they make life difficult after the lights go out, and it's fairly safe to say that they do terrify him. When you examine some of the psychological issues of the rest of his family members, however, it's safe to say he was spared the shit end of the stick. He was diagnosed with dysthymia in his tweens (with the issues some of his brothers have had, sending the boys to therapy, even if it was only occasionally and to speak about their feelings about said-brothers, became a common practice amongst the Simon household). This affliction is, for the most part, medicated and only effects him from time to time. Over all, despite his strangeness he's generally pretty well-balanced - ordinary, even. One could go so far as to say boring.
HABITS: He's never smoked anything a day in his life, and while it's possible one of his brothers fed him a sip of something or other when he was younger he's never knowingly ingested anything alcoholic. He is on prescription medication for depression and does have sleeping pills - just in case - that go unused so often they can be considered forgotten. Caffeine, however, is a bit of an addiction and, being of the habit of drinking far too much coffee for a boy his age, the argument has been made that it has stunted his growth. He, however, finds this to be highly unlikely - or at least likes to tell himself this when he's back to drinking another cup.
SECRETS: His mother was an actress whose videos are regaining popularity due to clips being posted on YouTube - this is mostly because B-Scifi tends to be hilarious. Think Xena in space. She hasn't made a movie since the '80s, however, mostly due to psychosis. From time to time she lapses into episodes, where she believes she is the character she played in these movies and that she must protect the children of the earth - IE the entirety of the Simon family, and anyone she's dubbed under her care in such a state. This usually includes anyone close to one of her family members who she approves of. Read as: woman in her forties in a spandex costume chasing the mailman around with a surprisingly realistic prop sword.
BEST MEMORY: That one's simple - though he'd be a little sheepish to admit it. He's a bit of a mama's boy, but his best memory would have to go to the Rolling Stones concert he went to with just his father. Sure the tickets and merchandise were so unbelievable expensive that some might get on bellowing SELL OUT at fellow fans and the unsuspecting public alike, be he was young enough for it to have left a lasting impression on his memory that isn't likely to fade away any time soon.
WORST MEMORY: There's been a few times where family members were set away for involuntary commitment and things of that nature, but it's been the times where his mother has broken down and cried in front of him that still weigh heavily on his heart. For the most part, despite her issues, she is a strong person and can cope with whatever life throws at her, but when it gets to be too much she isn't emotionally capable of understanding the etiquette of shielding her children from her failures. It was probably this that deepened the boy's already strong sense of empathy.
OVERALL PERSONALITY: Courtney is, above all else, a fairly gentle human being - in most regards, at least. He has a strong stomach for very particular things, most notably human gore, and the most depraved scene in a slasher film isn't likely to get to him despite the way he can't bring himself to eat most things that had a face. In other matters, however, he is easily affected and tends to be overly empathetic. The sadness that gets to him from time to time is sometimes hard to justify in times of questioning - white, educated, affluent kid from the suburbs that he is. While his family is ripe with insanity there is none of the true drama brought on by outside forces (usually a lack of money) that lots of people go through, despite the way the suffering of other people tends to tug at his heartstings.
He is, however, most of the time a rather cheerful individual. Shy and quiet when you meet him - unless you seem lonely enough to get him to forget himself for a moment or so - and sometimes a little bashful from time to time afterwards, he does his best to get over his anxiety and function like a regular human being. His shyness does not equate to being overly physically self-conscious, however, having grown up with too many brothers for such a trait to have survived very well, and more often than not he gravitates towards physical comfort that can make some people feel uncomfortable.
Over all, people tend to fall into two categories when it comes to the boy - protector and antagonizer. Being the rather small, band shirt torn jeans and overly large sweater clad booknerd (Not to mention the fact that his name is Courtney and he doesn't even bother to make some attempt at masking it) that he is, it isn't incredibly hard to find one reason or another to mock the boy, and his inability to really strike out maliciously whether physically or in a verbal retort only seems to encourage such things. On the other hand, that also inspires a protective instinct in some people, and you wouldn't be the first person to realize that you're a bit kinder in your speech and actions surrounding the boy in an attempt to preserve his optimism in a world that seems likely to snuff it out. He's a morbid, good-natured, optimistic mother's boy - if that makes any sense - and even if it doesn't he's still just as likely to push himself out of his comfort zone to help you feel more accepted or struggle for that way to articulate himself to make his opinions clearly known without discrediting yours no matter how much he might disagree. Unless you're talking about Twilight. Then he might rant a little.
AND WE'LL BOTH GROW OLD ,[/color]
CHARACTER HISTORY ,
well i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, i hope so[/color]
HOMETOWN: Burlington, ME[/size][/font]
PARENTS: Robert, his father, is the type of person who can't phased - generally with a smile on his face too pleasant to keep you from thinking that, somewhere in his head, he's thought up the most amusing joke about you in his head. With seven kids and a high-pressure job he can't really be bothered to get bothered about whatever you're doing, and if anything will probably just continue to wear an expression that mocks the happy eyes emoticon. Deeply dedicated to his wife, and because of her emotional investment nearly as dedicated to the children, if his wife isn't in danger it isn't likely that you will ever find him without a cool head. His wife - when not having one of her episodes - spends most of her time behaving as a thickly accented rendition of a Betty Crocker wife.
SIBLINGS: From oldest down - Courtney's the youngest. Patrick, Matthieu and Damon (twins) Andrew, Rodger, and Philip - all males. His mother is thinking about having another child now, and Damon is trying to talk her into adopting.
OTHER: Courtney and his father are both allergic to cats, and in a home with so many people there isn't room for more than a few dogs - and if one boy gets one they'll all want one, so the rules was laid down against them and has not been broken. Some of the boys have various caged animals but the 'family' pet is his father's anaconda. Obviously, Courtney did not bring it with him.
LIVING SITUATION: He'd likely live in a student dormitory.
HISTORY: Tale as old as time - dorky younger brother of the main grip falls in love with the thickly accented lead in a poorly written, directed and acted B movie. The two love birds went on to have a child for every day of the week, and as her movies fell out of favor Roxy retired to be a home maker (excluding the times that she forgot to take her medication and was sedated by the cops for chasing the neighbor around with an old prop sword from one of her dust-gathering movies - oddly enough, they never seem to keep neighbors long) as Simon went on to get a steady job and a nice little house in a gated community with a white picket fence and a pet anaconda to slumber lovingly at his feet when he came home from work.
Courtney was the last of seven boys which, despite the eclectic nature of his siblings always guaranteed him someone bigger who was perfectly willing to tease and or stomp the living shit out of him - as brothers do. Their money always guaranteed him his own possessions, but he was always quite content crawling into whatever it was that the older boy's had lost attention in at the moment and it seemed to him that there was a wealth of things that were loved intensely when they were first spotted on the shelves at whatever top-end store was currently being passed, and quickly losing appeal just as soon as it joined the mundane environment that was their home. (Other people, however, didn't often use mundane to describe the home, once they ventured their way through the rather average front door into what lurked beyond.)
When Youtube made his mother's wretched films into cult classics, the revenue earned from her appearances (the first in decades - she'd spent most of her time out of institution in the house) promoted them into another tax bracket, and it seemed that with their new income (and the family was never strapped for cash even with the army of siblings that needed feeding, clothing and housing) that it was only fitting that Courtney, their little book worm, was freed from public schooling before it could corrupt him fully - though much like his older brother's he was hardly in danger of that fate befalling him.
His brothers' having issues was nothing new to the boy or the rest of his family, and his oldest brother Patrick having a bit of a problem controlling his temper certainly wasn't news. After stewing over an argument he, Patrick, had with Rodger, the boy must have been in the middle of a particular violent thought. Courtney asked for the salt. Please.
Big mistake?
Apparently. Courtney ended up with a chair to his face - something which Patrick, despite his many downfalls, in his right mind would have never done. Though the older boy managed to talk himself out of it a number of times, this inability to control himself left his father no choice - the boy was going to need much more intensive therapy - and he would likely need to be committed until they could get his temper in check.
One boy was sent to a therapeutic institute that was the namesake of some natural occurrence - a misnomer prevalent in many psychiatric facilities nationwide - the other sent to California to live with his uncle, who had settled in California after a semi-successful career in television (his dream was to be an actor - he ended up a working production on various commercials) who immediately sought out a boarding school that might help to keep the kid out of his hair until his family figured out what to do with Patrick.
COLLECTED MY BELONGINGS ,[/color]
ABOUT YOU AND FOR THE ADMINS ,
and i left the jail, well thanks for the time[/color]
YOUR NAME: Alice[/size][/font][/blockquote]
GENDER: Female
AGE: Nineteen
RP EXPERIENCE: I've forgotten more about role playing than the first person I saw answer this question in this manner has ever learned.
OTHER CHARACTERS: Currently, none. With my track record? It's likely.
ROLEPLAY EXAMPLE:It was likely that, had this whole Zombie thing never happened, one Courtney Simon would have been happy to have never laid hands on a gun in his life. He probably would have been completely content to leave the knives to the main characters in any survivalist or serial killer novels that might have slipped past his fingertips. In all likeliness, he would have been happy to do such a thing anyway. He had spent most of his life in the safezone, and though he tried to keep his mind open he - like most other citizens - couldn't see that really changing too much in the future. Sure, there were some kids his age that got their kicks sneaking off, catching some black market ride to Pest Central and offing some Zombies just to say they did. But even if the boy could scrape up the guts and double his testosterone levels, it was likely that he would turn any such adventures down with a mind for the people who he would hurt, if only slightly, by his death - and perhaps even more so by his subsequent reanimation.
That being so, it was the seemingly never-ending safezone that sprawled out in his mind, crafted not in what he was assuming to be obsolete descriptions of beaches and endless stretches of green. Instead it existed in the words of post-apocalyptic novels that told stores of hand powered industrial technology, long skirts, dirty feet and gravel ground down to bland sand. He wiped the people from this scenery and dotted it with slow moving smears of a garish green that could be contrasted only with the slate gray he shadowed it with. White vans streaked along in the distance (narrowly avoiding these smudges of what used to be people, and the military equipment trying to mow them down) painted crudely with a equal-armed crimson cross that would let those with enough of a mind left to register it know that they were carrying medical supplies and at least semi-trained professionals, it's antenna slightly jostled with each rock they obliviously rolled over, reaching up into the sun for any voices that might call out for help.
This image was only slightly amended with the addition to his brother being coloured into one of the back seats, strapped in next to the gurney and poorly tucked away IVs, jolted with each of those uneasy grabs forward, writhing about like the bastard sons of technology. A slight amendment - one of his brothers, as there were about six of them at last count, and probably his favorite one to boot, even if he didn't like to admit it. The one who had been, as far as the darkhaired boy could tell, doing idle research into medical volunteer work that would mean him leaving the city and taking a risky journey similar to the image swimming in his head.
He spent most of his time thinking - and thinking, and over-thinking. Even idle things which he probably wouldn't be able to recall at a later date. When he wasn't doing this it was likely that he was reading, though he really should have been doing neither at the moment, given the environment. Places like this trained you out of thinking. Places like this sent you out for coffee. This frame created for a movie that probably didn't exist, however, was on his mind at the moment - lingering in his thoughts longer that it would have otherwise, just as the impending end to his high school education lingered there with a question-mark signifying the end of that though which only seemed to emphasis his desperation at finding a path that might take him into the next phase of his life. And even if he didn't like the idea of following anyone mindlessly - even one of his family members - it was this particular brother that made his ideas and actions at least worthy of serious consideration.
It was just then that he came to a halt, Converse working with great efficiency to send a proportional amount of friction against his forward motion. Being that he tended to drift in and out of what he was doing, when it was grunt work like this was, or make his way from place to place with a book spread before him, he'd grown quick on his feet. And though making him awkward and robbing him of all dexterity wasn't exactly difficult, the leering man whose most defining attribute was his gaudy tie (his brother Phil would be appalled) didn't manage such a thing, only causing the boy to more tightly grip the cardboard contraption they'd issued him to complete such a task. Searching what remained of the coffee for the one he'd mentally dubbed 'ugly tie,' which he selected with only a touch of awkwardness, he delivered to the man before him with a polite smile. Receiving a frown in the way of thanks he merely gave a slight nod and ducked off.
As mindless as the job was he was happy for the internship - it would contribute to the credits he needed to graduate, give him work experience and look good on a college application, if that type of thing lead the way to his future. As much as he wasn't sure what he would do, remaining in high school forever wasn't exactly an appealing offer. He was no longer contemplating his other options, however, his near-run-in giving him a nice enough wake up, the smell of the coffee usually good enough in itself to keep his attentions. It wasn't long until he was down to the last disposable-cup-with-plastic-top, which he took just a moment to contemplate. Black coffee, he remembered that part easily enough, the last order the receptionist had given him on his way out. It took him a second to remember which office might receive it, mentally running down the ones he'd already been through, and when he located the one he believed to be the right one he only lingered for a moment before slowly, tentatively making his way in, as though he might expect someone to bark at him about an important phone call and to come back later (that would only make the third time today, which he was sure was good for a first day) screwing on a nervous smile that glinted with only a hint of nervousness.credit: format by lainey, lyrics by modest mouse
