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groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 03:30 pm
Entry tags:
applications
Eastbound is primarily an invite-only game — each existing player can currently invite up to one person per month, or get in touch about further invites. Existing players can hold two characters in game. A third character can be applied, if players can prove they have met activity requirements for two consecutive months with their existing two characters and have stayed engaged with the game. If you don't have an invite, somehow stumbled upon this neck of the woods, and you’d like to stay, drop the mod journal a line — we'll try to figure it out.
As of Oct. 1, cast/game caps are off. Please note, as of Dec. 1, Eastbound only has 3-4 months of gameplay left.
WHAT CHARACTERS CAN BE APPLIED?
YES: canon and original characters, if they have a solid and consistent personality and background. Characters brought in after they've died are a-okay. For characters taken from a time point just as they're in the process of dying, please read below on meeting medical requirements.
NO (at this time): real people, original characters set in a canon environment, characters from canons or canon instalments that have been released for less than one month, characters with imported development from other games (CRAU), alternate universe, or gender-swapped versions of canon characters.
Children or characters with very specific medical/magical/environment needs: appable, but please make a note of how your character will ICly meet their requirements and stay alive. Likewise, if you are applying for a character taken just as they're dying, provide a suggestion for how they can be kept alive on arrival (this might be easier in some app cycles than others). You can bend the world a little to make miracles happen (ex: a substitute for the medication your character needs to survive can be found for a high price at certain apothecaries, etc.)
Characters that were dropped or swept by activity checks: yes, but they’ll come back without their previous memories, if they are applied in by a different player.
APPLICATIONS CLOSED
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John Connor | The Sarah Connor Chronicles
CONTACT:
HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GAME?: Mod referral!
CHARACTER: John Connor
CANON: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
CANON POINT: End of Season 2
BACKGROUND: The Terminator franchise has a number of different movies and variants, set in alternative futures and timelines. The Sarah Connor Chronicles was envisioned as a sequel series to The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day movies, so the events of those movies represent John's past and count as canon for him. The later movies in the franchise take place in alternate timelines, and so are not relevant to this version of John. John's history in the show can be found in full here: Season 1 and Season 2.
In the future, an Artificial Intelligence called Skynet gains sentience, and causes the end of the known world by taking control of humanity's nuclear weapons systems and using them against them. The event is called Judgement Day; it permanently changes the face of the globe, destroying the environment and killing billions of people at once. Those who survive organise into the Resistance, led by John Connor, a charismatic and intelligent strategist who becomes an almost Messianic figure of hope. The machines create a time machine to send infiltration units called Terminators back in time, first to try and kill John's mother Sarah before he's born, and when that failed, to kill him in his childhood. Future John sends protectors back in time to save his own life; first, he knowingly sends his own father, Kyle Reese, back to rescue his mother and ensure that he's born. Then, he sends reprogrammed Terminators back to save his life.
In the Sarah Connor Chronicles, one such Terminator, Cameron, finds John in school and rescues him from the Terminator Cromartie. Together John, Cameron and Sarah decide to travel eight years into the future to try and stop the creation of Skynet and avoid Judgement Day. Cromartie manages to follow them. In the future, the Connors and Cameron take on new identities and work in secret. They are eventually joined by Derek Reese, John's uncle, who has come from the future with the same goal in mind. On John's 16th birthday, their efforts lead them into contact with the criminal Sarkissian, who John kills in order to save Sarah. Cameron then attacks John, after an explosion causes damage that reverts her to her original programming. John is able to remove her chip, but against Sarah's orders re-inserts it, unwilling to see Cameron destroyed.
Thereafter the group moves house and continues their efforts. John, traumatised after what had happened, acts out against his family and starts a relationship with Riley, a girl from school. Meanwhile others from the future arrive; first a dying Resistance fighter, who manages to leave a message which points the Connors to new targets, and secondly, a woman named Jesse with whom Derek is in love. Unknown to any of them, another machine taking the name Catherine Weaver has come back in time to take over the Zeira Corporation, which focuses on making a new AI system of its own. The Connors' targets take them close to Weaver, without their knowledge.
It is eventually revealed that Riley is also from the future, and is following orders from Jesse to seduce John and try to get him away from Cameron. When Riley is killed by Jesse, John reveals that he had suspected the truth for some time. Over the course of the second season, John slowly begins to accept his destiny and embrace the person that he is fated to be. At the very end of the season, the Connors finally encounter Weaver and the AI she is building to combat Skynet. When Cameron allows the AI to take her chip into the future, John makes the choice to follow, leaving his mother behind. He emerges into a version of the future where his name is not known because he had removed himself from the timeline, and the series ends there.
ABILITIES | POWERS:
Computer skills - John is notably proficient with computers. He's shown to like and have an aptitude for technology, and particularly for hacking; he's shown to be able to hack into sophisticated government and police computer systems. He's able to build complex computer viruses with ease, and able to build and repair computer systems. His aptitude is such that even when he travels forward in time, he quickly acclimatises to the new computer systems he encounters, and he is able to break into and read the data stored on the chip of a Terminator from 20 years in his future. John is both gifted and well practiced in this area, a combination that makes him the go-to tech expert throughout his life.
Combat and survival skills - John has been trained in combat since childhood. In Mexico he received paramilitary training, and as a result he's capable when it comes to self-defence. He's highly proficient in the use of firearms and is shown to be an expert marksman. He can use a wide variety of firearms, from simple handguns to shotguns and rifles. He's also experienced in making and using explosives, and knows how to check for traps, make bombs from chemical and mechanical parts, and set bombs. He's also picked up various survival skills with a criminal twist, thanks to generally living outside the law for most of his life; he can pick locks and hot wire cars, and knows how to pick pockets, practice sleight of hand, hack ATMs, and so on. Essentially he has the kind of training that might be expected from a guerilla soldier or a terrorist.
Mechanical skills - as well as being good with computer systems, John is a capable physical mechanic. He understands and can build and repair machines, from small alarm systems to cars, and even complex machines from his future. He helps Cameron (a Terminator from his future) to repair herself when she is damaged. As with his computer skills, John's aptitude extends beyond the machines and systems he is used to; he's shown to learn quickly, and can apply his skills to complex and futuristic systems that he hasn't worked with before.
Strategic mind - John has an intelligent, strategic mind, which comes to the fore throughout the series. To cultivate his skill in strategic thinking, he was taught to play chess from a young age, and retains a strong interest in it, displaying an awareness of current grandmasters and the various techniques and famous plays they have made throughout the years. He tends to think ahead; he is shown to familiarise himself with the local laws and expectations of the places he moves to, in order to exploit legal loopholes when needed. He's quietly analytical, watching the people around him and picking up on subtle cues that indicate they are not who they say they are. John won't always call them on their lies, but will play a long game to discover what their plans are, again showing his aptitude for strategy and tendency to treat the situations he's faced with like a game of chess.
Languages - John's native language is English. Thanks to spending parts of his childhood in Mexico, he speaks fluent Spanish (with an American accent). He is good enough to hold detailed conversations with native speakers.
Part 2!
John has a complex relationship with machines; although he is destined to be their enemy, he gives them more of a benefit of the doubt than the rest of his family. He is more willing to trust them, and more willing to work with them, despite the majority of the machines he's encountered being the kind who want to kill him. This is due to two very significant relationships with reprogrammed Terminators during his young life. The first became a pseudo-father figure for John in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. During The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John develops a strong attachment to the Terminator Cameron, for whom he cares very deeply. John is shown to trust and rely on Cameron, regularly sticking up for her when other characters are wary of her. Even after she is damaged and reverts to her original programming, John can't bring himself to destroy her; he re-inserts the chip (which he has tried to repair) in the hope that she will not try to kill him again, despite having no proof that his efforts have worked. After this event, John and Cameron's close relationship suffers, though it is not because John loses trust in Cameron - it is because she says that he cannot be trusted after risking himself to reactivate her. John takes this personally, holding a grudge against Cameron for some time. In spite of that, when he finds that she's been hoarding coltan for repairs, he tries to cover for her to Sarah. John's attachment to Cameron is a worry for Sarah, and certain sections of the Resistance in the future. Despite Jesse and Riley's attempts to drive a wedge between them, John ends the series closer to Cameron than ever, and is willing to risk everything to save her by travelling through time to try and get her back. Despite insisting several times that he knows Cameron, as a machine, cannot truly have feelings he spends a great deal of time trying to understand her, and is more willing to accept there may be a deeper level to her than anyone else. This is complicated even further by the knowledge that the machines are sent to John by his own future self, meaning that he is helping to cultivate their impact on himself. It's clear that Cameron means a great deal to John, both in the present and in the future; whether this is ultimately a good and healthy relationship remains to be seen.
The burden of his future weighs heavily on John's young shoulders. Throughout his life, John has seen the people who get close to him die just because he is in their lives. It is hammered into him, both by Sarah and by those who come from the future to protect him, that his life is what matters; he must be saved at all costs, because he will one day save everyone else. In the meantime, what John sees is a string of people either murdered because of him, or ready to sacrifice themselves for him. Derek tells John with some regularity that everyone in the Human Resistance would die for him, and many of them do. John is shown to deeply value human life, and is very upset when he witnesses a suicide at close quarters, and sees a Terminator kill people in front of him.
John is a lonely boy. Due to how often he and his mother have moved around, he has always found it hard to make and retain friendships with his peers. Even where he is able to make temporary friendships, he is not able to tell anyone who he really is. There is a part of John that would love to have a normal life; that would love to just go to school, hang out with friends, and think about what his life might be like if things were different.
As part of this, John wants a real family. He is extremely close to his mother, having spent most of his life only with her. Sarah is someone that John trusts implicitly, particularly after they were hunted by the T-1000 in his childhood. He has strong affection for her which is maintained throughout his life, with Cameron telling her that the John of her future still calls Sarah the best soldier he's ever known, despite him leading an army at that point. He is trained to protect himself, and knows to escape at all costs when he encounters a Terminator, but John regularly ignores this directive to save Sarah. Even when he knows she is being used against him, he struggles with leaving her in danger. He will always fight for her, and knows that she will always fight for him.
Despite this strong bond, John does struggle with the lack of other people in his life. He's very upset when Sarah abandons her relationship with Charley Dixon, who has become a father figure to John. Ultimately he still leaves with Sarah, but he reaches out to Charley more than once against her wishes, and when he discovers that Derek Reese is his uncle, he takes risks to keep him in his life. He displays the desire for stability in a world that's always changing, even going as far as to keep secret that a Terminator had come to his school searching for him so that Sarah would not move them on again.
This moment also showcases John's propensity for taking risks. His mother is cautious by nature; her focus is always on protecting and preparing John, and ensuring that their actions do not put him in any more danger than he needs to be. John plays somewhat more fast and loose with his own safety. John is more willing than Sarah to strike against the machines now, and try to stop Judgment Day from happening in the first place. He is seen to take risks with his own life early in the series, when he sneaks into the warehouse with the coltan despite both Sarah and Cameron saying it was too dangerous. While Sarah was horrified, Cameron was used to a future version of John who does such things regularly.
John's recklessness increases as the series goes on, and becomes more prominent after he develops PTSD following the death of Sarkissian. He begins to display behaviour which is likened to that of a war veteran; it's noted that he will check his exits when he enters a new room, and he becomes more intemperate, aggressive and rebellious. His desire to live his own life, unfettered by the demands of a terrible future, leads him to pursue a friendship and later a romance with Riley, a girl that he meets at school. Despite Sarah, Derek and Cameron all warning him about the dangers of it, John insists on keeping Riley in his life. More than once, he puts himself at risk of being caught by the Terminator Cromartie while separated from his protectors, and yet he keeps doing it. He also takes an enormous risk when he chooses to reactivate Cameron after she reverts to her Skynet programming and tries to kill him; he has no proof that his attempt to repair her has worked, but he still can't bring himself to destroy her and even holds his family at gunpoint to prevent them from stopping him. John is willing to take risks that other people wouldn't, even when he's advised against it and even when it directly puts his life in danger.
John also struggles to connect with the vast majority of other teens. Even before he kills Sarkissian, John has few friends; he's shown standing up for kids who are bullied, which alienates him from more popular crowds, and he tends to be drawn to and more interested in other loners. When he arrives at a teen house party, he's notably frustrated by the atmosphere of the place, and only wants Riley to leave with him; he has no interest in staying, and his PTSD appears to be triggered by the other kids pressuring him into playing video games (which, due to his lifestyle, he has never done and isn't good at). He quickly becomes aggressive, resulting in the other kids rejecting him. This moment, when he also seems frustrated and irritable with Riley for the first time, shows the distinct contrast between John and other teens his age; his experiences have made him more serious and more troubled than most of them, particularly as the weight of his responsibility gets heavier.
This is also the first sign that his relationship with Riley is not all it seems. After her death, it's revealed that John not only knew that Riley was not what she appeared to be, but that he had decided not to call her on her deception and put an end to what was going on between them. As a result, Riley's death weighs heavily on him. By this point, however, John has begun to accept the weight of responsibility that the future lays on him, and has begun to accept his destiny, rather than trying to run away from it. When he confronts Jesse, she realises that John is not trying to run away from his future; he's trying, deliberately, to turn into the man that the future needs him to be. John's trauma has matured him; he's no longer a boy looking for a way to escape a destiny that he cant handle. He's a man, willing to carry the burden of the future even when it hurts him.
Throughout the series, John is shown to have a brilliant strategic mind. He's an intelligent, thoughtful, and serious person despite his youth. He has an aptitude for tactics; part of his training involved learning to play chess, and he maintains a strong interest in the sport. He's also a quick thinker; when he and Sarah's presence in LA is questioned, John reveals that he has done research into legal particulars which give him ready answers for questions that appear to take Sarah by surprise. He has a tendency to keep his own counsel, particularly after struggling with PTSD; he keeps more to himself, and opens up far less to Sarah than she is used to. He doesn't tell anyone about his suspicions regarding Riley, instead choosing to investigate her for himself and make his own judgment about what should be done. This may in part be a reaction against his family's tendency to make decisions for him; John is increasingly prepared to make his own choices and live with the consequences of them. However, he does not do so without thinking about those consequences; he weighs them up and decides to take them anyway, though he is still young, and his decisions are not always the right ones. Despite that, it is already possible to see the John who approaches his life as though it's a game of chess; not everyone always agrees with the moves he makes, but more and more, he's willing to make them whether others approve or not, and he's willing to take responsibility if they're wrong.
SAMPLE: One; Two; Three.
INVENTORY:
NOTES: John is unlikely to use his real name in game. His 'John Baum' identity was blown at the end of the series, so if possible, he would adopt a different name; he'll call himself John Dixon, taking the surname of his surrogate father Charley Dixon.
IF ACCEPTED, WOULD YOU WANT A PLOT-LIGHT OR PLOT-HEAVY CUSTOM INTRO? Plot-light works for me!
APPLICATION RECEIVED
ACCEPTED
Thank you for your application!
ADMIN
NOTES
John’s Little Mermaid debut ends when he’s woken with fresh water, then greeted by a bootleg communication and translation device, and the concerned faces of journey mater Enam and his assistants, who would really rather have preferred him to be a fifth salmon.
After a brief communicator consultation on the side, Enam searches John’s forehead for a moment, before seeming satisfied. He informs John that he is a newcomer in a world where undead forces have been vying to wrest control from the living and each other. These undead summon reinforcements from other worlds, seeking to enslave or weaponise them in the conflict. Enam’s collaborator, the elusive Merchant has been organising efforts to identify, rally and transport these newcomers east, where sleeping beacons promise the possibility of sending these visitors back to their home worlds. They are currently travelling for that purpose. To his great luck, John is the latest addition to this party — and he has joined just in time to be schooled alongside his ‘comrades’ in the true stakes of the local hostilities.
The Merchant will later send a missive updating John on the story so far. You do not need to know the linked background material to play John at this time, but feel free to assume he has that knowledge, if you wish.