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application. ataraxion.
Jan. 4th, 2016 04:12 pmP L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Samm
OOC Journal:![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
neveryourmuse
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: 27, somehow.
Email + IM: neverrryourmask @ gmail, nneveryourmaskk @ aim
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Charles Xavier, Garrett Hawke
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: David Levinson
Canon: Independence Day
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: End of the movie, 1996.
Setting: The world from which David hails is an almost exact replica of a conventional, contemporary Earth, twenty years ago. The bigger difference is less Earth itself and more the universe beyond, which contains more in the way of confrontational alien life than usual. The urban legends surrounding UFO sightings and abductions are probably not all true, but some of them are. In particular, Area 51 has always existed as a secret government facility dedicated to the study of aliens when an alien craft crashlanded in the 1950s, known famously as the Roswell incident.
But the secret was contained so well that even the current President of the United States was ignorant to its existence, with only a secluded handful of experts in the know with oversight from the United States Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director, not to mention the scattered handful of people dismissed as crazy for telling of their strange encounters.
All of this changed in the July of 1996, when an alien race launched a full-scale attack on Earth with the intent to exterminate all human life and take their earthly resources. These aliens outstripped mankind technologically, obviously in the realms of space-flight but also in weapons and defense. However, their biology is fundamentally similar, and apparently, so is much of their software, as David was able to create a computer virus that destroyed their mainframe defenses, allowing the human race to claim a categorical victory. The outcome of these revelations and exposure is yet to be seen, although there awaits a future of advancing earth technology based on the wreckage left behind, but that's all far past this canon point.
History: Wikia just has everything.
Personality: There are a few defining characteristics that we're introduced to when David happens on screen, one of which can be described as a desire to save the world in the most passive way possible, cited by his estranged wife (Constance Spano) as a lack of ambition. Being a technological genius did not stop him from taking a job as a cable guy, despite the fact that his spouse at the time, with her connections and aspirations, could have landed him all kinds of important contracts, but his interests and goals for personal happiness skew away from money and power. There is a clear sort of dissatisfaction in the world and what humanity is doing with it that is only challenged when bigger questions are forced into his life, like for instance, what role will he take when the world is threatened by an unstoppable destructive force, and how mellow is he really when conversations around a nuclear solution begin spawning?
The answer to this latter one is: not very. He cares about the state of the world but around the beginning of the movie, he's long since accepted his limited powers to change it, containing himself with idle comments about how long styrofoam cups take to decompose, the health effects of cigars, and why does no one use the recycling receptacles? When it comes to poisoning the planet with nuclear war against the alien invaders, he takes it hard on a personal level -- clearly, this is several million times worse than littering, and a lot of people would have similar reactions of horror, but the point is that his concern is first and foremost for the future of the world and the people in it, rather than doing whatever is necessary to destroy the enemy.
And as for the questions surrounding his proactivity, this is a clear change in him over the course of the movie, but it becomes clear that a lack of drive and ambition is an oversimplification as to how he works. When asked why he never before wanted to be a part of something special, he tells Constance that he thought he was a part of something special, that being their relationship. Despite his speciality and expertise for problem solving and engineering, David's thinking, his needs, and his philosophies are fairly simplistic, which sit at odds with a complex world. He is low-key romantic and passionate, necessitating triggers for this to arise in the form of yelling, romantic declarations, or punching the future President in his stupid handsome face.
In every day interaction, he comes across as mellow, a touch aloof despite all his flannel and bicycle riding, not very difficult to get along with (despite actually being a little difficult to get along with), and a sort of undying sense of humour that might crop up at inappropriate times, inherent both in deliberate jokes as well as just the way he speaks. He likes to tease others and evoke reactions and is fairly immune to criticism in return, save for if it's something he doesn't like about himself either.
If other people can save the world (and he is absolutely certain of their capabilities or his lack thereof), he will more readily step aside. It takes certain extreme circumstances, like the apocalypse, to get him to step into proactive roles, but once he is there, he makes a crazy bee-line of determination to do whatever needs doing, especially in instances when he's the only one who knows the relevant information, can act on it, or accomplish it.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: He has no special powers, save for being Jeff Goldblum. He is a smart engineer who can install HBO or dismantle the defense mainframe of an invading alien force, but otherwise, he's just a guy.
Inventory:
flannel shirt
wedding ring
flight suit
his glasses
bicycle
a cigar
Species/Race: Human.
Appearance: He is portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, circa 1996. He is 6'4" and kind of built in a disproportionate sort of way, but no one let him take his shirt off despite his best efforts. Dark hair, dark eyes, usually flannel-wearing save for when he must save the world, but tortoiseshell glasses remain a constant feature.
Age: 39
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
It's the first day since he arrived, sunlight now brilliant in a clear sky, allowing him to see further than just the long shadows of the dark night he initially stumbled out into. Now, he can see it, and after standing in its shadow for several minutes, he began the lengthy walk down the path of destruction it had carved in the jungle however many months ago they said it was.
He smiles at those he passes with a sort of fixed, nervous energy. He mostly goes ignored.
Once a few minutes east, he turns back, planting his hands on his hips. Yep. That sure is a space ship, crumpled and broken up as it is, an ugly piece of galactic garbage in the midst of all the wild green. It's not like what he's seen before, more insectile than the massive spinning discs that drifted impossibly in the earth's atmosphere, but other parts of it ring familiar. Its scale, for one.
"Size isn't everything," he comments, to no one, before he sits down. Just sits down, there, in the dirt, pulling off his glasses and rubbing his face vigorously, before keeping his hands where they are, clapped over his eyes.
This is nice. Let's just stay here for a--
The cellphone in his pocket vibrates, and he considers ignoring it. There's only one person here who might bother to contact him directly, and it's no one he even likes. Still, he answers. "Hello? I'm about to go in a tunnel, so you should make it quick."
Comms Sample:
So... so, here we are. On an alien planet.
[ The voice over this transmission is at once hesitant, sardonic, anxious all at once, and that of a man if not into his forties, then closer on that scale. ]
Or we are. The aliens, that is. Invading force, already-- already cluttering up the ecosystem with our--
--hey, so. Have we tried to make contact with the natives? And I don't mean the ones with spears. I mean, you know, say you're an alien who's accidentally crash landed in the middle of the Amazonian jungle, do you think what you see is what you get? Bunch of trees, some monkeys, some jaguars, but then you wander four thousand miles north and you hit downtown Los Angeles.
And yeah, so, we're trapped within a radius of about two miles, but we have this remarkable phenomenon called telecommunications and-- I mean, I'm holding a cellphone. Do we have the equipment to, I don't know, say hello?
Unless we're hiding, or something. But a slow death by isolation doesn't sound, um. Better.
Your Name: Samm
OOC Journal:
neveryourmuseUnder 18? If yes, what is your age?: 27, somehow.
Email + IM: neverrryourmask @ gmail, nneveryourmaskk @ aim
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Charles Xavier, Garrett Hawke
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: David Levinson
Canon: Independence Day
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: End of the movie, 1996.
Setting: The world from which David hails is an almost exact replica of a conventional, contemporary Earth, twenty years ago. The bigger difference is less Earth itself and more the universe beyond, which contains more in the way of confrontational alien life than usual. The urban legends surrounding UFO sightings and abductions are probably not all true, but some of them are. In particular, Area 51 has always existed as a secret government facility dedicated to the study of aliens when an alien craft crashlanded in the 1950s, known famously as the Roswell incident.
But the secret was contained so well that even the current President of the United States was ignorant to its existence, with only a secluded handful of experts in the know with oversight from the United States Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director, not to mention the scattered handful of people dismissed as crazy for telling of their strange encounters.
All of this changed in the July of 1996, when an alien race launched a full-scale attack on Earth with the intent to exterminate all human life and take their earthly resources. These aliens outstripped mankind technologically, obviously in the realms of space-flight but also in weapons and defense. However, their biology is fundamentally similar, and apparently, so is much of their software, as David was able to create a computer virus that destroyed their mainframe defenses, allowing the human race to claim a categorical victory. The outcome of these revelations and exposure is yet to be seen, although there awaits a future of advancing earth technology based on the wreckage left behind, but that's all far past this canon point.
History: Wikia just has everything.
Personality: There are a few defining characteristics that we're introduced to when David happens on screen, one of which can be described as a desire to save the world in the most passive way possible, cited by his estranged wife (Constance Spano) as a lack of ambition. Being a technological genius did not stop him from taking a job as a cable guy, despite the fact that his spouse at the time, with her connections and aspirations, could have landed him all kinds of important contracts, but his interests and goals for personal happiness skew away from money and power. There is a clear sort of dissatisfaction in the world and what humanity is doing with it that is only challenged when bigger questions are forced into his life, like for instance, what role will he take when the world is threatened by an unstoppable destructive force, and how mellow is he really when conversations around a nuclear solution begin spawning?
The answer to this latter one is: not very. He cares about the state of the world but around the beginning of the movie, he's long since accepted his limited powers to change it, containing himself with idle comments about how long styrofoam cups take to decompose, the health effects of cigars, and why does no one use the recycling receptacles? When it comes to poisoning the planet with nuclear war against the alien invaders, he takes it hard on a personal level -- clearly, this is several million times worse than littering, and a lot of people would have similar reactions of horror, but the point is that his concern is first and foremost for the future of the world and the people in it, rather than doing whatever is necessary to destroy the enemy.
And as for the questions surrounding his proactivity, this is a clear change in him over the course of the movie, but it becomes clear that a lack of drive and ambition is an oversimplification as to how he works. When asked why he never before wanted to be a part of something special, he tells Constance that he thought he was a part of something special, that being their relationship. Despite his speciality and expertise for problem solving and engineering, David's thinking, his needs, and his philosophies are fairly simplistic, which sit at odds with a complex world. He is low-key romantic and passionate, necessitating triggers for this to arise in the form of yelling, romantic declarations, or punching the future President in his stupid handsome face.
In every day interaction, he comes across as mellow, a touch aloof despite all his flannel and bicycle riding, not very difficult to get along with (despite actually being a little difficult to get along with), and a sort of undying sense of humour that might crop up at inappropriate times, inherent both in deliberate jokes as well as just the way he speaks. He likes to tease others and evoke reactions and is fairly immune to criticism in return, save for if it's something he doesn't like about himself either.
If other people can save the world (and he is absolutely certain of their capabilities or his lack thereof), he will more readily step aside. It takes certain extreme circumstances, like the apocalypse, to get him to step into proactive roles, but once he is there, he makes a crazy bee-line of determination to do whatever needs doing, especially in instances when he's the only one who knows the relevant information, can act on it, or accomplish it.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: He has no special powers, save for being Jeff Goldblum. He is a smart engineer who can install HBO or dismantle the defense mainframe of an invading alien force, but otherwise, he's just a guy.
Inventory:
Species/Race: Human.
Appearance: He is portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, circa 1996. He is 6'4" and kind of built in a disproportionate sort of way, but no one let him take his shirt off despite his best efforts. Dark hair, dark eyes, usually flannel-wearing save for when he must save the world, but tortoiseshell glasses remain a constant feature.
Age: 39
AU Clarification: N/A
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
It's the first day since he arrived, sunlight now brilliant in a clear sky, allowing him to see further than just the long shadows of the dark night he initially stumbled out into. Now, he can see it, and after standing in its shadow for several minutes, he began the lengthy walk down the path of destruction it had carved in the jungle however many months ago they said it was.
He smiles at those he passes with a sort of fixed, nervous energy. He mostly goes ignored.
Once a few minutes east, he turns back, planting his hands on his hips. Yep. That sure is a space ship, crumpled and broken up as it is, an ugly piece of galactic garbage in the midst of all the wild green. It's not like what he's seen before, more insectile than the massive spinning discs that drifted impossibly in the earth's atmosphere, but other parts of it ring familiar. Its scale, for one.
"Size isn't everything," he comments, to no one, before he sits down. Just sits down, there, in the dirt, pulling off his glasses and rubbing his face vigorously, before keeping his hands where they are, clapped over his eyes.
This is nice. Let's just stay here for a--
The cellphone in his pocket vibrates, and he considers ignoring it. There's only one person here who might bother to contact him directly, and it's no one he even likes. Still, he answers. "Hello? I'm about to go in a tunnel, so you should make it quick."
Comms Sample:
So... so, here we are. On an alien planet.
[ The voice over this transmission is at once hesitant, sardonic, anxious all at once, and that of a man if not into his forties, then closer on that scale. ]
Or we are. The aliens, that is. Invading force, already-- already cluttering up the ecosystem with our--
--hey, so. Have we tried to make contact with the natives? And I don't mean the ones with spears. I mean, you know, say you're an alien who's accidentally crash landed in the middle of the Amazonian jungle, do you think what you see is what you get? Bunch of trees, some monkeys, some jaguars, but then you wander four thousand miles north and you hit downtown Los Angeles.
And yeah, so, we're trapped within a radius of about two miles, but we have this remarkable phenomenon called telecommunications and-- I mean, I'm holding a cellphone. Do we have the equipment to, I don't know, say hello?
Unless we're hiding, or something. But a slow death by isolation doesn't sound, um. Better.
