Application
Senshi: (Lord) (Impala), (Astera) Senshi of (Translation)
Name: David Babel
Meaning:
Age: 30
Birthdate: Only month and day required.
School/Occupation: Unemployed with a trust fund. Bitcoin miner.
Major NPCs: His roommate, the long suffering Emmet Horne, 22 years old, hard working CS major/ tech guy, cares more about getting the rent paid on time than about destiny or humanity as a concept. Originally he helped David for the sake of money, but now, he has grown personally attached as well. He enjoys his slightly parental relationship with David because as the youngest in his middle class family, bossing anyone around was just not going to happen. He is really practical, motivated and good with computers. He is the technical side of David's bitcoin enterprise, and it was his idea. He enjoys how much happiness the idea has given David and also sees it as his ticket to success in the future, albeit in a much less idealized way. He also likes computer games and peanut butter. He is big where David is small, at 6'2 250lb and is biracial, with a black mother and a white dad. He grew up in Albany and came to NYC with a CUNY scholarship.
History
David was adopted as a baby by a wealthy and eccentric west coast heiress. They traveled together all over the world, from the time he was about 5 or 6. There was a house in New York, LA, London, and Pontevedra Spain. But they rarely stayed long anywhere, and she was mad about travels. Istanbul, Oslo, Dubai, they spent 3 weeks, 6 months, or more. He had a tutor that traveled with them, an elderly man who had been a tutor of his mother also. He emphasized an anachronistic focus on classics which included Latin and Greek language.
Showing a talent for language learning, a bright intellect and strong curiosity about the world, David was soon in addition studying French and Spanish, then Arabic, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Farsi. He made friends easily, but never stayed anywhere long enough to make really close friends, so the people closest to him, other than his mother and his tutor, were his mother's assistant Alicia, 12 years older than him, but with more perspective and common sense than about anyone else he got a chance to interact with, having grown up in a conventional middle class family, and accepted a position with David's mother as a college graduate with masters degrees in Business and Geography.
The two of them would go on field trips when he was a young teenager that were the type of adventure some young people might dream of, exploring jungles, visiting temples, slums , and palaces of Asia, trekking in Nepal, surveying ruins, and spending the night examining ancient texts in the private libraries of European capitals. Of course he fell in love with her. Of course his heart was broken. But she broke it so kindly, that he was able to continue on, and eventually even hold affection for other women, without ever losing his sense of awe and reverence for her wit, beauty, and spirit.
And when he wasn't off on adventures in exotic locales, he was online. He never was so good at computers as he was languages, but he loved following the blogs of everyday individuals from all walks of life, from porn stars to students, to stay at home Dads. He was absolutely entranced by the idea that throughout the world, millions of people went about their lives in utter obscurity, al with their own worries and hopes. So many people, each an individual.
Of course, all of this changed when he was 17. His mother, who was well into her fifties by this time, developed cancer. It was atypical, aggressive. She died in 2 weeks, and his life became different overnight. He had trouble accepting it. He became depressed. He was not her only heir, she had left large amounts of money to a wide variety of charities, and a certain amount to her long time staff too. His tutor was in his mid eighties at this point and retired to his native city of Columbus Ohio, to live out his years under the care of the attentive nurses of the Pinedale Villa's Retirement and Rest home. Alicia married her sweetheart, who it turns out, she had been corresponding with for years, and David, left more than well to do, but not fantastically wealthy, and with nobody left who was paid to care for him, fell into a deep depression. He lived in a hotel room in NYC, the city his mother had died in, ordering food from the internet and rarely leaving, or showering for that matter for several months. Finally concerned for his welfare, Alicia sent police to check on him, and he had a moment of clarity in which he realized that life wasn't over and that he had still to prove himself as an adult.
The next day he went out and bought 3 custom suits, and started the job search. It turns out he was somewhat hilariously unqualified for regular jobs. The one skill he had to fall back on was his facility with languages. He found that while permanent positions required a little more in the way of discipline, routine, and conventional relationships than he was strictly comfortable with, freelance jobs provided him with enough money, connections, and experiences that he was in no danger of impending destitution, even if he had been much worse with money and frivolous than he was. (He had professionals managing his investments.) His twenties were another sort of education, as he met people his age, dated, and invested his inheritance, to mixed success. He soon found that the friends he was most able to attract, and also the girls, were more interested in his money than himself. But he did have 2 or 3 fairly serious relationships. They all fell short of his childhood idol however, and he found himself restless and discontent.
When he turned 25, he decided to go back to school. He wanted a real degree. He wanted to meet people with whom he had something essential in common, he wanted to relive his youth and forget the jaded party kid of his early 20s. In 6 years, he had a bachelor's in Chinese from New York City University when he turned 31. During this time, he had a lot of false starts because while he was smart, he was utterly undisciplined. In his second year, he had a lab partner in a required science class who was a CS major. His name was Emmet. In order to get David to do his share of the group work, they evolved a routine of Emmett calling David just about every 4 hours and reminding him what he was supposed to be doing. The class went off fine, and half way through the next term, he called Emmet and offered him a salary to be his assistant and help him remember to go to class and do his work. He accepted. In later years this relationship evolved from assistant to roommate, and salary became living expenses as Emmet had more responsibilities of his own and David started to get the first clue about managing his time. Emmet in this way also introduced David to a more down to earth lifestyle, which David embraced with the aplomb of an aristocrat on safari in a hostile land.
His investments overall provided his income, although he occasionally also accepted translation work, but on Emmett's suggestion, in 2013 he put 10,000$ into a bitcoin mining operation out of a rented back room of a convenience store in the neighborhood. Emmett does the technical work, but David considers himself an entrepreneur none the less and keeps himself busy with ideas related to bitcoin and community activism, although sometimes only tenuously.
Personality
David is outgoing, positive, enthusiastic, and chronically out of touch. His focus is on the human experience and in focusing in on it too tightly, he most often misses the point, going through obsessions with mundane topics that come as fast as they go. He is smart and always wants to help but can accidentally come off as awfully condescending. He has a hard time really letting others in, and is emotionally quite stoic, keeping any hurt feelings to himself before gathering himself up and shooting off in another direction. He has a hard time learning from his mistakes as he tends to try to put unpleasantness behind him and trying to never think of it again. At the same time he has a very tender heart, and keeps from getting hurt by always keeping himself at arms length, often subconsciously considering himself as an observer of life and not a participant. He often says yes as a default, sometimes even while he is explicitly thinking 'No'. So he can be pretty flaky. He is capable of serious commitments though, when he resolves to do something within himself. He often finds it hard to carry these through, because of his terrible time management, distractibility, and short memory for missteps, but within himself, he hods these commitments sacred and in his own way takes them seriously. These include his eternal dedication to his first love, his desire to get a degree, his commitment to his 'business', and in general, his belief in the goodness of the human spirit.
His motivation comes primarily from his internal commitment to these ideas, He believes humanity is on the right course, and he believes that he and others have the privilege and opportunity to contribute to this progress. He desperately wants to be a part of life, the world, and human progress, which at the same time he feels strangely isolated from at a basic level. He believes that bitcoin and his 'business' is a part of this, as he believes it could solve many problems of society by changing the way we think of and use money. His belief in the value and experiences of everyday people also motivate him to read as widely as possible online and off, in all his languages, and to help people share their voices through translation. He feels that this is almost a holy calling, but like many people and religion, not a 24/7 gig.
He also has very mixed feelings about love and romance. He feels as though he is missing out on a part of life by not dating/ moving towards having a family one day, but he is torn by 1, fear of losing someone he cares about, 2, internalized idealization of his first love, which no real women can live up to, and 3, lack of experience and confidence in forging close relationships with anyone. What invariably happens is that David decides to find a girlfriend. Through whatever means, he meets a prospect who seems interested. He behaves awkwardly, misses dates that he agreed to without thinking about why he couldn't, and then sends mixed messages, acting hot and cold, trying to aggressively bond, and then running away, until the girl is convinced that he is either gay, mentally ill, or maliciously messing with her. This usually takes 2 or 3 weeks. Sex is off the table because while he is not a virgin, his adolescent fantasies of pure holy soul connection with Alicia are in such stark contrast to the awkward first erotic steps of a relationship, that he is convinced that for him anyway, sex has no place outside of a destined match between soulmates. Porn is fine though, and so are strippers, as long as they don't appear too oppressed. (He only wants it if he can pay what he thinks it's worth). Although for the most part he keeps his sexuality to himself.
In his free time he likes to read. He subscribes to several international newspapers to keep his language skills polished, he also practices online or helps others at websites for language learners. He loves reading history, especially from more than one cultural perspective and he is a relative expert on the 5th century. He would be happy to stay at home and read most of the time, if it weren't for his keen desire to be around people. At the moment, bitcoin related activities fill this niche for him. He attends meetups, lectures, buys and sells bitcoins in person occasionally. He has traveled for bitcoin conventions, and has tried to become a part of the community. In addition, he likes just walking the streets, especially in areas where there are lots of immigrants, eavesdropping their conversations, and offering a good deed where he thinks it might be warranted. He also loves the library and sometimes goes to events or lectures there, just to be surrounded by books and people. He also still follows blogs, although not as rabidly as in his youth. Some are of people he has followed for a long time, a few are new, but that is something he catches up on at home while falling asleep or at odd moments. And then of course there are the times when he has determined to get to the bottom of some subject, from urban architecture, to footwear fashion, which last usually only a few weeks, but during which he reads voraciously on the subject, spends usually too much money, and after achieving a satisfactory cursory understanding of the topic, or failing in his first attempts to achieve a more profound mastery, gives up in distaste to arrive at a new passion in another week or two. So he knows a little about a lot of things.
He loves to know something that nobody else knows. He loves pointless secrets, just for the fun of having something that nobody else knows, and if someone trusts him with one of theirs, he will never tell. He likes quality, and wants to know about and have if not the best of everything, at least something above the average. He is meticulous in the way he prepares his tea or coffee, and is kind of a nerd about drinking his beverages out of the correct types of glassware. He goes back and forth between loving his mustache and feeling like it makes him look so dignified, and shaving it off because of hipsters, or wanting to look more like obsession du jour. He seems like he would be quite conservative to some people, but he really isn't. Neither is he especially political at all, just in general (except if some cause or idea sparks his fancy for a week or two). He just sees politics as a historical continuum that ebbs and flows, but moves by fits and starts always towards human progress.
He dislikes losing things, which unfortunately he is prone to. He dislikes it when people ascribe him bad motivation or stereotype him as some kind of yuppie or rich out of touch 1%er. He dislikes having to think about troubles of the past. He definitely has mother issues although he is the last person to admit it. For that matter he has never really worked through his feelings about being adopted, and of not having a father figure any more paternal than his elderly tutor. He reflects often about Alicia, but has excised from his recollections, the awkward months surrounding his declaration of love, and he secretly likes to imagine that she and her husband in Nova Scotia have a preposterously chaste marital relationship. Similarly, his mother's death and the despair he felt for the year following that event very rarely come up in his speech and when he thinks about them, he makes sure to quickly think of something else. He does take pride in overcoming that period however. He will drink socially, but he has a kind of horror of hard drugs. He is quite comically uncomfortable being left alone with children.
Appearance
He is somewhat short and thin, about 5'7 and 120lb although he is in decent shape from walking around the city all the time. He has a fast metabolism and when he doesn't take care of himself, he tends to lose weight. He has dark hair and medium olive skin. His ethnic background might be Latin, or even Middle Eastern, but his eyes are a lighter cinnamon brown with almost golden hazel centers. He keeps his hair cut short on the sides and back, and longer on top and often pomades it into an artfully tousled look, but occasionally combs it straight into a more 50's vintage style. His chin is somewhat pointed with a square jaw and prominent cheekbones. His eyes are a bit slanted, but large, with long dark lashes, giving him a youthful look that is reinforced by his very clear skin and short stature. At 31 he could easily pass as 25, and with some effort, probably as young as 19.
His dress style is very influenced by the vintage sensibilities of the adults he grew up around. He wears a lot of suits, he has a kind of a rat pack meets James Bond kind of sensibility. He used to smoke cigarettes sometimes to finish off the look, but he dislikes the smell on everything and reluctantly gave it up a few years ago. Even his casual clothes are somewhat formal. He like everything to be clean and matching, and while he occasionally adopts a more modern style, it is pretty obvious that his outfits are never just thrown together. He tends to like white and navy blue, and items that have a shinyness about them. He almost always wears fragrance also, and takes pride in having a good sense of smell and good taste in scent. He likes them expensive and exotic, with sandalwood and incense notes, and they suit him. His shoes are always polished; he is not afraid to accessorize (although his taste in accessories is not always the best and in general he can go a little bit to far on the flamboyant side.)
Fuku
His fuku is like a tailored three piece suit with a black and white world alphabets print. Like imagine looking into a book that had a sentence written alternately in each of the worlds languages in random order. Now imagine that the page was a 60" wide bolt of cloth and it was made into a suit. The pants and jacket are midnight blue writing on a white background and the waistcoat and tie are white writing on a midnight blue background. It is single breasted, with narrow lapels and shiny midnight blue shoes that appear to be embellished with sparkly stars, with a belt to match and sparkly silver and white stone cufflinks. He also has a lightweight silver colored metallic circlet or crown that forms a V on his forehead and that supports large silvery curved horns like those of an impala that rise up from above his ears. Also included are dark blue leather gloves that only cover to the wrist and a matching shiny blue, silver sparkle embellished masquerade style mask that is shaped like 2 right triangles with their 90 degree angles near his ears, and the other points meeting on the bridge of his nose and extending halfway down his cheeks.
For mythic senshi, outfits are based on the sailor senshi fuku, your specific god or goddess (and the associated ancient civilization), and your individual character. For celestial senshi, outfits are based on the sailor senshi fuku and your individual character. Please be sure you've read over the Fuku information. Hair, eye, and other minor physical changes when transformed are allowed. We suggest including some form of image of your design as a visual aid.
Transformation
By the celestial power of Impala, Lord Impala appears!
A wind seems to pick up a cloud of glitter surrounding him as he yells his phrase. The sound of a deep voiced chorus starts to swell. Amidst the glitter he levitates about a yard off the ground as his his body turns horizontally parallel to the ground. Whatever he is wearing melts into a white sheet which winds around him loosely. The word print suddenly appears and as he rotates to face the ground and then the sky it clings to him forming his fuku. He then is returned to a vertical position as the voices rise in intensity. His mask, crown, gloves and shoes appear and then with a flash of light, the glitter disperses, the voices end, and he finds himself on the ground in his signature pose, a wide legged stance, with his right arm extended palm forward and the left extended back and to the side at head level. His transformation item is a pen which he raises above his head when he yells his phrase and which vanished during the transformation. It is invariably found in his pocket or even just clipped his waistband when he de-transforms. It is a modern style cartridge fountain pen with a subtly sparkly enamelled dark blue finish, and a silver edge on the clip, lid, and a white jewel in a silver bezel set at the end of the clip, and a thin silver stripe around the end.
Powers
Two powers. One always on when he is transformed.
The always on power, I guess I will call body language translation. This basically translates the subtle movements, looks, and body language of friends or opponents into an explicit understanding to give Lord Impala a kind of spidey sense about what people around him are doing. If they are waiting, if they are hurt, if they are about to attack. If they are really mad, if they are defensive, if they are expecting something, or hiding something. This doesn't go as far as mind reading, although putting 2 and 2 together is possible. It is more about understanding in explicit terms what he is seeing, so when someone leans left while they extend their weapon right, even just slightly, he might understand that they are planning a feint, for example. If two people ate talking, he should be able to understand what their relationship is for another.
A second attack would be Language Jamming
This basically is about Jamming opponents communication. Between their ears and their brain, Lord impala can create an effect that keeps people from understanding what others are verbally saying. He can use this to remove all meaning from words, crating the impression of jibberish, or he can create the impression that they are hearing a language that David speaks. He can in no way alter the content of a message, so he can't make it sound like someone is telling someone something that they are not. But he can make it sound like it is in Chinese or Spanish. This is a global effect, so it works on friends, enemies and bystanders. Everyone hears the same thing. All language is perceived as whichever language he chooses. If anyone can understand that language, they can certainly understand whatever anyone is saying despite the jam, unless he has decided to basically use a void of language which nobody including himself can understand. The effect lasts as long as he concentrates on it. It takes about the same level of concentration as sending a text message, so he can walk, listen, maybe pick something up of the ground while concentrating, but not really do anything that takes much attention, so maybe read a few large words, but not read directions or drive safely or tie his shoes. The power will affect anyone in about a 60 foot circle with Lord impala in the center. So language from outside will be jammed for people inside including things like headphones, but people outside the circle can hear language normally.
No guardian
Explanation
The asteroid Impala does not necessarily have an obvious connection with the power of translation. But it is a concept that has carried over from another project that I have done. I will give you info on that, and if I need to find another celestial body that ties in more closely I can try to do that too.
In my project, the asteroid Impala is an intelligence that has been trying to reach out to humanity. Using a kind of meta-reality program, it has come up with a translator to allow humans to interact with it, despite it's lack of a corporeal presence on earth. Unfortunately the way that the program interacts with the human mind causes a bug that spreads from person to person, causing hallucinations, mania, and despair. In my project, Impala has to fix the bug and eventually conscripts a group of girls who hunt down the infected humans to apply the patch. His program lets the girls see his presence as a ghostly Impala, based on the name that humanity gave to the Asteroid that is his physical body.
In my story, Impala has been observing humanity for eons, but only since the advent of radio waves has he realized the scale of their intelligence and the organization of their society, since from space it is hard to tell what relevance there was to just about anything people were doing. Impala's peers, being practically timeless had little interest in humans, or interactions of any kind, especially because their consciousness exists on another plane and to perceive our 3 dementions, requires a degree of hassle. But Impala, contrary to the norm of his kind had a fierce interest in understanding and being understood by creatures so different, that in many ways came down to a desire to translate. To understand the individual voices of humanity in ways that he could properly understand, and to translate in general between what is universal and what is individual, and in the end, to help humans understand the experiences of others in terms of themselves, enabling a deep sense of community between all life.
The asteroid impala was named by a South African astronomer for the animal impala. I did research the animal impala too. I learned that male impalas sometimes go off from the herd and travel alone for a year or more, coming back and rejoining with their kind later. I see this as relating to both David's wide travels at a young age, and also the idea that as yet he hasn't re-integrated with society or found his 'herd' where he belongs.
I read that the males maintain territory that they try to then lure the females into. The females go wherever the food is, and they mate with whatever male maintains that spot.
I feel like at this point, David is trying to build something that he can use to identify himself with the rest of humanity. So basically he is trying to protect his own little idealistic garden in New York that with any luck will grow into something that other people can know him by, and that will eventually lead to his re-integrating with people and society on a more personal level. Becoming a senshi will I am sure, tie into that protective feeling about his city, his niche and ultimately 'his' people.
Finally, when impalas are threatened they jump very high in all directions and basically bounce around and confuse their attackers.
All of David's powers are based on keeping the upper hand through understanding the scene while keeping his opponents disoriented and confused. Similarly, translation is only useful if you have a desire to communicate with more than one person.
The horns are the closest connection with Impala on his fuku because I wanted it to apply more closely with the 'translation' power, but if you think it would work better as a way to tie in the name of the asteroid, I can definitely work with that.
Writing Sample
David walked down the library steps. He had two volumes of Cervantes to re-read over the next week or two and he looked forward to it. He made his way leisurely down the sidewalk considering his plans for the rest of the week. The weekly Brooklyn Bitcoiners group meeting was tomorrow. He wanted to talk to Jeff, or was it Josh. The one with the crazy hair anyway, about trying to see if they could get a spot on some kind of local or student radio. If he recalled, that shouldn't be to difficult. Now that Bitcoin ATMs were popping up, he felt sure that the next phase would be to promote them in the community. But other than that, he had quite a bit of time coming up.
He turned the corner, walking closely behind a woman arguing on her cell phone in Mandarin. He was just tying to figure out who she was yelling at, when his own cell phone rang. It was Emmett.
"Hello friend," he answered it.
"Have you seen the price today?" Emmett asked excitedly.
"No, I haven't checked since last night. Is it holding?"
"Better than that, the wall is down, it's up to 280."
"Fantastic! that's Fantastic!"
"I just thought you'd want to know, you know, if you didn't feel rich enough already, we made a couple thousand dollars overnight".
"That does feel good to know. Although, it's not about getting rich, friend. I can't wait until the price breaks five hundred. That will be hard for the people to ignore. Next year, we could be paying our rent in bitcoin, you know?"
"Well we'll see about that when it happens, but 280 is very good. I just saw that and figured you'd like to know."
"Thanks, friend, that was thoughtful. Oh, what do you have going on tonight? Maybe we should get some kind of celebratory dinner?" Dave impulsively thought that maybe they could go somewhere a bit fancy. He felt like dressing up and getting some attention. He ate most of his meals with Emmett lately, and Emmet was not such a big fan of fine dining. "we can't eat pizza or burritos every night."
Emmet paused, "Actually I've got a date,"
"What?"Dave asked, confused, "How... Who are you going on a date with?"
"The girl from the interview last week" He explained." She called me back this morning. I didn't get the job, but I asked her if she wanted to go get a drink"
"Oh, well. I'm sorry about the job. And congratulations on the date, friend"
"Oh it's not a big deal, and thanks. I better get back to what I was doing, I just wanted to tell you the good news".
Dave said goodbye and sulked a little to himself as he walked. He passed a street musician repairing a broken guitar string. Then he pulled himself together. "If Emmett is having a special evening, well then I'll have a special evening of my own without him. I'll make a reservation at La Colomba for myself. Maybe I'll bring my book. Maybe I'll go to a nightclub afterward. Maybe I'll dance with a beautiful woman! I'm a successful businessman! Maybe I'll wear the pinstripes. Hmm" His pace picked up and he soon turned the corner onto his own street.
Questionnaire
Name: Laura
E-mail: xxxxxx
Homepage: (optional)
Referred by: (optional) How did you hear about SMyth? I was a member back in the before times. I had a senshi based on the star Aldebaran, and I was working on a Camelot senshi based on Sir Kay that I don't remember if I ever played. I happened to see that it was starting back up because I am still subscribed to the yahoo list.
Other RPGs: Sailor Myth was the only rp I ever participated in
View Application: May we post your application on the website if your app is rejected? Yes.
Name: David Babel
Meaning:
Age: 30
Birthdate: Only month and day required.
School/Occupation: Unemployed with a trust fund. Bitcoin miner.
Major NPCs: His roommate, the long suffering Emmet Horne, 22 years old, hard working CS major/ tech guy, cares more about getting the rent paid on time than about destiny or humanity as a concept. Originally he helped David for the sake of money, but now, he has grown personally attached as well. He enjoys his slightly parental relationship with David because as the youngest in his middle class family, bossing anyone around was just not going to happen. He is really practical, motivated and good with computers. He is the technical side of David's bitcoin enterprise, and it was his idea. He enjoys how much happiness the idea has given David and also sees it as his ticket to success in the future, albeit in a much less idealized way. He also likes computer games and peanut butter. He is big where David is small, at 6'2 250lb and is biracial, with a black mother and a white dad. He grew up in Albany and came to NYC with a CUNY scholarship.
History
David was adopted as a baby by a wealthy and eccentric west coast heiress. They traveled together all over the world, from the time he was about 5 or 6. There was a house in New York, LA, London, and Pontevedra Spain. But they rarely stayed long anywhere, and she was mad about travels. Istanbul, Oslo, Dubai, they spent 3 weeks, 6 months, or more. He had a tutor that traveled with them, an elderly man who had been a tutor of his mother also. He emphasized an anachronistic focus on classics which included Latin and Greek language.
Showing a talent for language learning, a bright intellect and strong curiosity about the world, David was soon in addition studying French and Spanish, then Arabic, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, and Farsi. He made friends easily, but never stayed anywhere long enough to make really close friends, so the people closest to him, other than his mother and his tutor, were his mother's assistant Alicia, 12 years older than him, but with more perspective and common sense than about anyone else he got a chance to interact with, having grown up in a conventional middle class family, and accepted a position with David's mother as a college graduate with masters degrees in Business and Geography.
The two of them would go on field trips when he was a young teenager that were the type of adventure some young people might dream of, exploring jungles, visiting temples, slums , and palaces of Asia, trekking in Nepal, surveying ruins, and spending the night examining ancient texts in the private libraries of European capitals. Of course he fell in love with her. Of course his heart was broken. But she broke it so kindly, that he was able to continue on, and eventually even hold affection for other women, without ever losing his sense of awe and reverence for her wit, beauty, and spirit.
And when he wasn't off on adventures in exotic locales, he was online. He never was so good at computers as he was languages, but he loved following the blogs of everyday individuals from all walks of life, from porn stars to students, to stay at home Dads. He was absolutely entranced by the idea that throughout the world, millions of people went about their lives in utter obscurity, al with their own worries and hopes. So many people, each an individual.
Of course, all of this changed when he was 17. His mother, who was well into her fifties by this time, developed cancer. It was atypical, aggressive. She died in 2 weeks, and his life became different overnight. He had trouble accepting it. He became depressed. He was not her only heir, she had left large amounts of money to a wide variety of charities, and a certain amount to her long time staff too. His tutor was in his mid eighties at this point and retired to his native city of Columbus Ohio, to live out his years under the care of the attentive nurses of the Pinedale Villa's Retirement and Rest home. Alicia married her sweetheart, who it turns out, she had been corresponding with for years, and David, left more than well to do, but not fantastically wealthy, and with nobody left who was paid to care for him, fell into a deep depression. He lived in a hotel room in NYC, the city his mother had died in, ordering food from the internet and rarely leaving, or showering for that matter for several months. Finally concerned for his welfare, Alicia sent police to check on him, and he had a moment of clarity in which he realized that life wasn't over and that he had still to prove himself as an adult.
The next day he went out and bought 3 custom suits, and started the job search. It turns out he was somewhat hilariously unqualified for regular jobs. The one skill he had to fall back on was his facility with languages. He found that while permanent positions required a little more in the way of discipline, routine, and conventional relationships than he was strictly comfortable with, freelance jobs provided him with enough money, connections, and experiences that he was in no danger of impending destitution, even if he had been much worse with money and frivolous than he was. (He had professionals managing his investments.) His twenties were another sort of education, as he met people his age, dated, and invested his inheritance, to mixed success. He soon found that the friends he was most able to attract, and also the girls, were more interested in his money than himself. But he did have 2 or 3 fairly serious relationships. They all fell short of his childhood idol however, and he found himself restless and discontent.
When he turned 25, he decided to go back to school. He wanted a real degree. He wanted to meet people with whom he had something essential in common, he wanted to relive his youth and forget the jaded party kid of his early 20s. In 6 years, he had a bachelor's in Chinese from New York City University when he turned 31. During this time, he had a lot of false starts because while he was smart, he was utterly undisciplined. In his second year, he had a lab partner in a required science class who was a CS major. His name was Emmet. In order to get David to do his share of the group work, they evolved a routine of Emmett calling David just about every 4 hours and reminding him what he was supposed to be doing. The class went off fine, and half way through the next term, he called Emmet and offered him a salary to be his assistant and help him remember to go to class and do his work. He accepted. In later years this relationship evolved from assistant to roommate, and salary became living expenses as Emmet had more responsibilities of his own and David started to get the first clue about managing his time. Emmet in this way also introduced David to a more down to earth lifestyle, which David embraced with the aplomb of an aristocrat on safari in a hostile land.
His investments overall provided his income, although he occasionally also accepted translation work, but on Emmett's suggestion, in 2013 he put 10,000$ into a bitcoin mining operation out of a rented back room of a convenience store in the neighborhood. Emmett does the technical work, but David considers himself an entrepreneur none the less and keeps himself busy with ideas related to bitcoin and community activism, although sometimes only tenuously.
Personality
David is outgoing, positive, enthusiastic, and chronically out of touch. His focus is on the human experience and in focusing in on it too tightly, he most often misses the point, going through obsessions with mundane topics that come as fast as they go. He is smart and always wants to help but can accidentally come off as awfully condescending. He has a hard time really letting others in, and is emotionally quite stoic, keeping any hurt feelings to himself before gathering himself up and shooting off in another direction. He has a hard time learning from his mistakes as he tends to try to put unpleasantness behind him and trying to never think of it again. At the same time he has a very tender heart, and keeps from getting hurt by always keeping himself at arms length, often subconsciously considering himself as an observer of life and not a participant. He often says yes as a default, sometimes even while he is explicitly thinking 'No'. So he can be pretty flaky. He is capable of serious commitments though, when he resolves to do something within himself. He often finds it hard to carry these through, because of his terrible time management, distractibility, and short memory for missteps, but within himself, he hods these commitments sacred and in his own way takes them seriously. These include his eternal dedication to his first love, his desire to get a degree, his commitment to his 'business', and in general, his belief in the goodness of the human spirit.
His motivation comes primarily from his internal commitment to these ideas, He believes humanity is on the right course, and he believes that he and others have the privilege and opportunity to contribute to this progress. He desperately wants to be a part of life, the world, and human progress, which at the same time he feels strangely isolated from at a basic level. He believes that bitcoin and his 'business' is a part of this, as he believes it could solve many problems of society by changing the way we think of and use money. His belief in the value and experiences of everyday people also motivate him to read as widely as possible online and off, in all his languages, and to help people share their voices through translation. He feels that this is almost a holy calling, but like many people and religion, not a 24/7 gig.
He also has very mixed feelings about love and romance. He feels as though he is missing out on a part of life by not dating/ moving towards having a family one day, but he is torn by 1, fear of losing someone he cares about, 2, internalized idealization of his first love, which no real women can live up to, and 3, lack of experience and confidence in forging close relationships with anyone. What invariably happens is that David decides to find a girlfriend. Through whatever means, he meets a prospect who seems interested. He behaves awkwardly, misses dates that he agreed to without thinking about why he couldn't, and then sends mixed messages, acting hot and cold, trying to aggressively bond, and then running away, until the girl is convinced that he is either gay, mentally ill, or maliciously messing with her. This usually takes 2 or 3 weeks. Sex is off the table because while he is not a virgin, his adolescent fantasies of pure holy soul connection with Alicia are in such stark contrast to the awkward first erotic steps of a relationship, that he is convinced that for him anyway, sex has no place outside of a destined match between soulmates. Porn is fine though, and so are strippers, as long as they don't appear too oppressed. (He only wants it if he can pay what he thinks it's worth). Although for the most part he keeps his sexuality to himself.
In his free time he likes to read. He subscribes to several international newspapers to keep his language skills polished, he also practices online or helps others at websites for language learners. He loves reading history, especially from more than one cultural perspective and he is a relative expert on the 5th century. He would be happy to stay at home and read most of the time, if it weren't for his keen desire to be around people. At the moment, bitcoin related activities fill this niche for him. He attends meetups, lectures, buys and sells bitcoins in person occasionally. He has traveled for bitcoin conventions, and has tried to become a part of the community. In addition, he likes just walking the streets, especially in areas where there are lots of immigrants, eavesdropping their conversations, and offering a good deed where he thinks it might be warranted. He also loves the library and sometimes goes to events or lectures there, just to be surrounded by books and people. He also still follows blogs, although not as rabidly as in his youth. Some are of people he has followed for a long time, a few are new, but that is something he catches up on at home while falling asleep or at odd moments. And then of course there are the times when he has determined to get to the bottom of some subject, from urban architecture, to footwear fashion, which last usually only a few weeks, but during which he reads voraciously on the subject, spends usually too much money, and after achieving a satisfactory cursory understanding of the topic, or failing in his first attempts to achieve a more profound mastery, gives up in distaste to arrive at a new passion in another week or two. So he knows a little about a lot of things.
He loves to know something that nobody else knows. He loves pointless secrets, just for the fun of having something that nobody else knows, and if someone trusts him with one of theirs, he will never tell. He likes quality, and wants to know about and have if not the best of everything, at least something above the average. He is meticulous in the way he prepares his tea or coffee, and is kind of a nerd about drinking his beverages out of the correct types of glassware. He goes back and forth between loving his mustache and feeling like it makes him look so dignified, and shaving it off because of hipsters, or wanting to look more like obsession du jour. He seems like he would be quite conservative to some people, but he really isn't. Neither is he especially political at all, just in general (except if some cause or idea sparks his fancy for a week or two). He just sees politics as a historical continuum that ebbs and flows, but moves by fits and starts always towards human progress.
He dislikes losing things, which unfortunately he is prone to. He dislikes it when people ascribe him bad motivation or stereotype him as some kind of yuppie or rich out of touch 1%er. He dislikes having to think about troubles of the past. He definitely has mother issues although he is the last person to admit it. For that matter he has never really worked through his feelings about being adopted, and of not having a father figure any more paternal than his elderly tutor. He reflects often about Alicia, but has excised from his recollections, the awkward months surrounding his declaration of love, and he secretly likes to imagine that she and her husband in Nova Scotia have a preposterously chaste marital relationship. Similarly, his mother's death and the despair he felt for the year following that event very rarely come up in his speech and when he thinks about them, he makes sure to quickly think of something else. He does take pride in overcoming that period however. He will drink socially, but he has a kind of horror of hard drugs. He is quite comically uncomfortable being left alone with children.
Appearance
He is somewhat short and thin, about 5'7 and 120lb although he is in decent shape from walking around the city all the time. He has a fast metabolism and when he doesn't take care of himself, he tends to lose weight. He has dark hair and medium olive skin. His ethnic background might be Latin, or even Middle Eastern, but his eyes are a lighter cinnamon brown with almost golden hazel centers. He keeps his hair cut short on the sides and back, and longer on top and often pomades it into an artfully tousled look, but occasionally combs it straight into a more 50's vintage style. His chin is somewhat pointed with a square jaw and prominent cheekbones. His eyes are a bit slanted, but large, with long dark lashes, giving him a youthful look that is reinforced by his very clear skin and short stature. At 31 he could easily pass as 25, and with some effort, probably as young as 19.
His dress style is very influenced by the vintage sensibilities of the adults he grew up around. He wears a lot of suits, he has a kind of a rat pack meets James Bond kind of sensibility. He used to smoke cigarettes sometimes to finish off the look, but he dislikes the smell on everything and reluctantly gave it up a few years ago. Even his casual clothes are somewhat formal. He like everything to be clean and matching, and while he occasionally adopts a more modern style, it is pretty obvious that his outfits are never just thrown together. He tends to like white and navy blue, and items that have a shinyness about them. He almost always wears fragrance also, and takes pride in having a good sense of smell and good taste in scent. He likes them expensive and exotic, with sandalwood and incense notes, and they suit him. His shoes are always polished; he is not afraid to accessorize (although his taste in accessories is not always the best and in general he can go a little bit to far on the flamboyant side.)
Fuku
His fuku is like a tailored three piece suit with a black and white world alphabets print. Like imagine looking into a book that had a sentence written alternately in each of the worlds languages in random order. Now imagine that the page was a 60" wide bolt of cloth and it was made into a suit. The pants and jacket are midnight blue writing on a white background and the waistcoat and tie are white writing on a midnight blue background. It is single breasted, with narrow lapels and shiny midnight blue shoes that appear to be embellished with sparkly stars, with a belt to match and sparkly silver and white stone cufflinks. He also has a lightweight silver colored metallic circlet or crown that forms a V on his forehead and that supports large silvery curved horns like those of an impala that rise up from above his ears. Also included are dark blue leather gloves that only cover to the wrist and a matching shiny blue, silver sparkle embellished masquerade style mask that is shaped like 2 right triangles with their 90 degree angles near his ears, and the other points meeting on the bridge of his nose and extending halfway down his cheeks.
For mythic senshi, outfits are based on the sailor senshi fuku, your specific god or goddess (and the associated ancient civilization), and your individual character. For celestial senshi, outfits are based on the sailor senshi fuku and your individual character. Please be sure you've read over the Fuku information. Hair, eye, and other minor physical changes when transformed are allowed. We suggest including some form of image of your design as a visual aid.
Transformation
By the celestial power of Impala, Lord Impala appears!
A wind seems to pick up a cloud of glitter surrounding him as he yells his phrase. The sound of a deep voiced chorus starts to swell. Amidst the glitter he levitates about a yard off the ground as his his body turns horizontally parallel to the ground. Whatever he is wearing melts into a white sheet which winds around him loosely. The word print suddenly appears and as he rotates to face the ground and then the sky it clings to him forming his fuku. He then is returned to a vertical position as the voices rise in intensity. His mask, crown, gloves and shoes appear and then with a flash of light, the glitter disperses, the voices end, and he finds himself on the ground in his signature pose, a wide legged stance, with his right arm extended palm forward and the left extended back and to the side at head level. His transformation item is a pen which he raises above his head when he yells his phrase and which vanished during the transformation. It is invariably found in his pocket or even just clipped his waistband when he de-transforms. It is a modern style cartridge fountain pen with a subtly sparkly enamelled dark blue finish, and a silver edge on the clip, lid, and a white jewel in a silver bezel set at the end of the clip, and a thin silver stripe around the end.
Powers
Two powers. One always on when he is transformed.
The always on power, I guess I will call body language translation. This basically translates the subtle movements, looks, and body language of friends or opponents into an explicit understanding to give Lord Impala a kind of spidey sense about what people around him are doing. If they are waiting, if they are hurt, if they are about to attack. If they are really mad, if they are defensive, if they are expecting something, or hiding something. This doesn't go as far as mind reading, although putting 2 and 2 together is possible. It is more about understanding in explicit terms what he is seeing, so when someone leans left while they extend their weapon right, even just slightly, he might understand that they are planning a feint, for example. If two people ate talking, he should be able to understand what their relationship is for another.
A second attack would be Language Jamming
This basically is about Jamming opponents communication. Between their ears and their brain, Lord impala can create an effect that keeps people from understanding what others are verbally saying. He can use this to remove all meaning from words, crating the impression of jibberish, or he can create the impression that they are hearing a language that David speaks. He can in no way alter the content of a message, so he can't make it sound like someone is telling someone something that they are not. But he can make it sound like it is in Chinese or Spanish. This is a global effect, so it works on friends, enemies and bystanders. Everyone hears the same thing. All language is perceived as whichever language he chooses. If anyone can understand that language, they can certainly understand whatever anyone is saying despite the jam, unless he has decided to basically use a void of language which nobody including himself can understand. The effect lasts as long as he concentrates on it. It takes about the same level of concentration as sending a text message, so he can walk, listen, maybe pick something up of the ground while concentrating, but not really do anything that takes much attention, so maybe read a few large words, but not read directions or drive safely or tie his shoes. The power will affect anyone in about a 60 foot circle with Lord impala in the center. So language from outside will be jammed for people inside including things like headphones, but people outside the circle can hear language normally.
No guardian
Explanation
The asteroid Impala does not necessarily have an obvious connection with the power of translation. But it is a concept that has carried over from another project that I have done. I will give you info on that, and if I need to find another celestial body that ties in more closely I can try to do that too.
In my project, the asteroid Impala is an intelligence that has been trying to reach out to humanity. Using a kind of meta-reality program, it has come up with a translator to allow humans to interact with it, despite it's lack of a corporeal presence on earth. Unfortunately the way that the program interacts with the human mind causes a bug that spreads from person to person, causing hallucinations, mania, and despair. In my project, Impala has to fix the bug and eventually conscripts a group of girls who hunt down the infected humans to apply the patch. His program lets the girls see his presence as a ghostly Impala, based on the name that humanity gave to the Asteroid that is his physical body.
In my story, Impala has been observing humanity for eons, but only since the advent of radio waves has he realized the scale of their intelligence and the organization of their society, since from space it is hard to tell what relevance there was to just about anything people were doing. Impala's peers, being practically timeless had little interest in humans, or interactions of any kind, especially because their consciousness exists on another plane and to perceive our 3 dementions, requires a degree of hassle. But Impala, contrary to the norm of his kind had a fierce interest in understanding and being understood by creatures so different, that in many ways came down to a desire to translate. To understand the individual voices of humanity in ways that he could properly understand, and to translate in general between what is universal and what is individual, and in the end, to help humans understand the experiences of others in terms of themselves, enabling a deep sense of community between all life.
The asteroid impala was named by a South African astronomer for the animal impala. I did research the animal impala too. I learned that male impalas sometimes go off from the herd and travel alone for a year or more, coming back and rejoining with their kind later. I see this as relating to both David's wide travels at a young age, and also the idea that as yet he hasn't re-integrated with society or found his 'herd' where he belongs.
I read that the males maintain territory that they try to then lure the females into. The females go wherever the food is, and they mate with whatever male maintains that spot.
I feel like at this point, David is trying to build something that he can use to identify himself with the rest of humanity. So basically he is trying to protect his own little idealistic garden in New York that with any luck will grow into something that other people can know him by, and that will eventually lead to his re-integrating with people and society on a more personal level. Becoming a senshi will I am sure, tie into that protective feeling about his city, his niche and ultimately 'his' people.
Finally, when impalas are threatened they jump very high in all directions and basically bounce around and confuse their attackers.
All of David's powers are based on keeping the upper hand through understanding the scene while keeping his opponents disoriented and confused. Similarly, translation is only useful if you have a desire to communicate with more than one person.
The horns are the closest connection with Impala on his fuku because I wanted it to apply more closely with the 'translation' power, but if you think it would work better as a way to tie in the name of the asteroid, I can definitely work with that.
Writing Sample
David walked down the library steps. He had two volumes of Cervantes to re-read over the next week or two and he looked forward to it. He made his way leisurely down the sidewalk considering his plans for the rest of the week. The weekly Brooklyn Bitcoiners group meeting was tomorrow. He wanted to talk to Jeff, or was it Josh. The one with the crazy hair anyway, about trying to see if they could get a spot on some kind of local or student radio. If he recalled, that shouldn't be to difficult. Now that Bitcoin ATMs were popping up, he felt sure that the next phase would be to promote them in the community. But other than that, he had quite a bit of time coming up.
He turned the corner, walking closely behind a woman arguing on her cell phone in Mandarin. He was just tying to figure out who she was yelling at, when his own cell phone rang. It was Emmett.
"Hello friend," he answered it.
"Have you seen the price today?" Emmett asked excitedly.
"No, I haven't checked since last night. Is it holding?"
"Better than that, the wall is down, it's up to 280."
"Fantastic! that's Fantastic!"
"I just thought you'd want to know, you know, if you didn't feel rich enough already, we made a couple thousand dollars overnight".
"That does feel good to know. Although, it's not about getting rich, friend. I can't wait until the price breaks five hundred. That will be hard for the people to ignore. Next year, we could be paying our rent in bitcoin, you know?"
"Well we'll see about that when it happens, but 280 is very good. I just saw that and figured you'd like to know."
"Thanks, friend, that was thoughtful. Oh, what do you have going on tonight? Maybe we should get some kind of celebratory dinner?" Dave impulsively thought that maybe they could go somewhere a bit fancy. He felt like dressing up and getting some attention. He ate most of his meals with Emmett lately, and Emmet was not such a big fan of fine dining. "we can't eat pizza or burritos every night."
Emmet paused, "Actually I've got a date,"
"What?"Dave asked, confused, "How... Who are you going on a date with?"
"The girl from the interview last week" He explained." She called me back this morning. I didn't get the job, but I asked her if she wanted to go get a drink"
"Oh, well. I'm sorry about the job. And congratulations on the date, friend"
"Oh it's not a big deal, and thanks. I better get back to what I was doing, I just wanted to tell you the good news".
Dave said goodbye and sulked a little to himself as he walked. He passed a street musician repairing a broken guitar string. Then he pulled himself together. "If Emmett is having a special evening, well then I'll have a special evening of my own without him. I'll make a reservation at La Colomba for myself. Maybe I'll bring my book. Maybe I'll go to a nightclub afterward. Maybe I'll dance with a beautiful woman! I'm a successful businessman! Maybe I'll wear the pinstripes. Hmm" His pace picked up and he soon turned the corner onto his own street.
Questionnaire
Name: Laura
E-mail: xxxxxx
Homepage: (optional)
Referred by: (optional) How did you hear about SMyth? I was a member back in the before times. I had a senshi based on the star Aldebaran, and I was working on a Camelot senshi based on Sir Kay that I don't remember if I ever played. I happened to see that it was starting back up because I am still subscribed to the yahoo list.
Other RPGs: Sailor Myth was the only rp I ever participated in
View Application: May we post your application on the website if your app is rejected? Yes.
Results
Really lovely details throughout! David's similar in some ways to a character I've been developing and I'm very curious to see how the two of them might interact (if I can get the app finished any time soon XD). I absolutely adore your choice of power base and enjoyed hearing about how it connects to your other project!
Accept with revisions as follows:
Character Info
- Consider adding name meaning, since it is pertinent to the power sphere.
- Add date of birth.
History
- Add mention of the source of his family's wealth.
- Please consider including his mother's name. It's an odd detail to not include, and she seems like the sort of person who might be notable in-universe (wealthy, eccentric heiress), or potentially descended from someone notable (source of wealth).
- Consider mentioning that Alicia went to Nova Scotia in this section.
- After his mother dies and Alicia intervenes, David tries to prove himself as an adult and does some freelancing work while meeting new people and dating. When he enrolls in college, it's stated he wants to put his jaded partying days behing him, but this partying element hasn't been established. Establish more clearly whether he was trying to be an adult, partying, or some combination.
- His age of graduation from college (31) doesn't match up with the age listed in his character information (30).
- Please clarify the timeline for his graduating and the bitcoin venture slightly -- basically just state "he graduated and immediately jumped into bitcoin mining and has been at it less than a year" or whatever the case may be. :)
Fuku
- You initially describe his fuku as having a black and white print fabric, then subsequently describe it as midnight blue and white. Please clarify.
- There s no description given for a shirt or buttons. (I did assume these things were included as they are standard fixtures on a suit, but please specify whether this is or is not the case.)
- While the textile pattern is certainly unusual, I feel this fuku needs something to distinguish it as being magical in nature and not simply human clothes made with an eccentric bolt of fabric. Add some form of adornment or modify the outfit in some way to further distinguish it from everyday clothes. (As this fuku seems to be based more on the Tuxedo Mask aesthetic, perhaps a cape would be a good starting point?)
Accept with revisions as follows:
Character Info
- Consider adding name meaning, since it is pertinent to the power sphere.
- Add date of birth.
History
- Add mention of the source of his family's wealth.
- Please consider including his mother's name. It's an odd detail to not include, and she seems like the sort of person who might be notable in-universe (wealthy, eccentric heiress), or potentially descended from someone notable (source of wealth).
- Consider mentioning that Alicia went to Nova Scotia in this section.
- After his mother dies and Alicia intervenes, David tries to prove himself as an adult and does some freelancing work while meeting new people and dating. When he enrolls in college, it's stated he wants to put his jaded partying days behing him, but this partying element hasn't been established. Establish more clearly whether he was trying to be an adult, partying, or some combination.
- His age of graduation from college (31) doesn't match up with the age listed in his character information (30).
- Please clarify the timeline for his graduating and the bitcoin venture slightly -- basically just state "he graduated and immediately jumped into bitcoin mining and has been at it less than a year" or whatever the case may be. :)
Fuku
- You initially describe his fuku as having a black and white print fabric, then subsequently describe it as midnight blue and white. Please clarify.
- There s no description given for a shirt or buttons. (I did assume these things were included as they are standard fixtures on a suit, but please specify whether this is or is not the case.)
- While the textile pattern is certainly unusual, I feel this fuku needs something to distinguish it as being magical in nature and not simply human clothes made with an eccentric bolt of fabric. Add some form of adornment or modify the outfit in some way to further distinguish it from everyday clothes. (As this fuku seems to be based more on the Tuxedo Mask aesthetic, perhaps a cape would be a good starting point?)