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applications.
Applications are currently: OPEN.
As of April 2021, Redshift is a sandbox game! We still have apps for some degree of quality control, but the form has been simplified to streamline the process for new players. Here's how it works:
▶ New Players joining us after April 2021 will need to submit an application for their first character coming into the game by using the appropriate form below. This is so we know who you are, and so we can make sure your character will be a good fit for our players!
▶ Returning/Current Players who have been with us since before April 2021 or are coming back to us only need to claim their character using the form below to bring in new characters. New players may do the same after two months.
▶ Returning/Current Players who have been with us since before April 2021 or are coming back to us only need to claim their character using the form below to bring in new characters. New players may do the same after two months.
Application Guide.
▶ Submission Format: All applications must be posted to this entry, and must fit within one comment with a subject line in the format of "CHARACTER NAME | CANON | RESERVED/NOT RESERVED." While applications should not be linked in the entry, players may link to an alternate source such as a wiki for the character's history and powers; for original characters, the world history may also be linked from an alternate source such as an entry on the character journal.
▶ Accepted Character Types: Fandom Characters, Original Characters; CRAU is welcome and encouraged. Please see the Rules & Game Standards page for more in-depth explanations of appable, non-appable, and case-by-case characters.
▶ Application Verdicts: Applications will receive a verdict of ACCEPTED, REVISIONS, or DECLINED. Revisions must be submitted within 48 hours of the revision request being sent out. If this is impossible due to extenuating circumstances, please contact the mod team. Declined applications can be reworked and resubmitted during the next application cycle. If an application is declined 3 times, it cannot be resubmitted.
▶ App Challenges & Reserves: Redshift will not have application challenges, but if you would like to apply for a character that is on reserve, please submit the application with "not reserved" noted in the subject line, and your application will be considered if the reserved application is declined or not turned in by the end of the application cycle. Applications will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis.
▶ Character Limits: Players may have a maximum of 3 characters in the game; the option to increase the number of character spaces may become available at a later date. A player may submit up to two applications at a time.
▶ Samples: Linked samples should be from a publicly accessible source, and no more than 1 year old. Screencaps or transcripts from locked sources are not acceptable as samples, unless the character is being apped as a CRAU from a locked game, and in these cases permission from the other participant(s) in the thread must be obtained and submitted as screencaps along with the sample. All samples should represent the character as they are being applied for; for example, samples cannot come from an AU setting or break the fourth wall (Dear Player, etc.) As long as they meet this criteria, samples from other games, museboxes, memes, other websites (Tumblr, Insanejournal, etc.) or any other source are acceptable. For CRAU samples a link from the character's original game would be preferable, in the form of a link to their tag on the relevant communities, or specific thread links.
Submit an Application.
To submit an application or claim a character, please fill out the information in the appropriate text box below, and paste it in a single comment in response to this entry. Applications should not be linked, though portions of them may be if a bulky history or world section would put them over the character limit for one comment.
eugene hicks | oc
Name: Roy
Contact: journal PM
Current Characters: I have a reserve in for Steve Rogers because I can't contain my WW2 feelings ig.
Name: Eugene Hicks.
Canon: Original.
Canon Point: The year is 1947. Gene is 23 at this time.
World Description: WW2 is done and past, the war in Korea is just getting underway. Gene's world takes place in the financial boom immediately post-war and for the most part, his world looks very much like ours. With the small exception of Gene and his family, that is. All the males of his family line going back to time immemorial have seen ghosts. It's not a traumatic or terrible thing for them, it's just part of their family lore. Everything else — the world, the way of the war, the future up to our present is all the same. I like to think maybe Trump never became president, but. Wishful thinking!
Character History: Gene was born in 1924 to loving parents (and their +1, who was a fond fixture of his childhood he knew as 'Aunt Ysobel') as the oldest son of what would eventually be four boys. His childhood was an idyllic one — endless hours spent playing with his brothers, sitting at his father's knee (or his mother's, or his 'aunt's') to learn about the way of the world. He was bright and adventurous and absolutely fearless, the sort of kid that could break an arm jumping off a bridge and be right back out there the next day to do it all again. He was the hero to his younger siblings in every respect, all of them adored him and tried to emulate him as much as possible.
Seeing ghosts was never treated as an aberration or something to fear so he never really learned to see it that way. It was just a skill he had, like being good at baseball. His mother died when he was eleven and his father was injured in a mining accident shortly thereafter, which resulted in Gene leaving school to find work. Child labour laws of the time were... well, lax. Gene worked in an abattoir for several years at this time, though 'work' is sort of a loose definition. More like, he cleaned up the floors of a slaughter house for pennies and the occasional animal leavings that could be turned into sausage. His mother's ghost stayed around as well to make sure her boys were looked after, and her and her husband's lover Ysobel assisted as well on her meager teacher's salary. They had a few hard, lean years, but they survived, and by the time the nation was crawling out of its economic rut the Hicks' family was doing much the same.
At fifteen, Gene spent the summer in New York with Ysobel's brother doing an apprenticeship in carpentry. He didn't make any money doing this — it was hardship enough just to provide him room and board, but the skills were invaluable. It was here that he met Reggie Holiday, a boy who would become his lifelong friend. Reggie was the son of two affluent British doctors who'd come to New York to chase the American dream. There was a complete difference in class, but they clicked. When Reggie's parents died following a car accident, Reggie came to live with Gene and his family in Agathine for a time, though he eventually went back to Europe to stay with his grandfather. The two kept in touch via letters, sometimes several sent in a week. Gene was barely literate, but would toil over letter-writing for hours to send them off.
On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbour happened. And Gene, like so many other young men of his time, signed up just as soon as he was able, which followed shortly thereafter on his 18th birthday. He served in an airborne infantry unit, one of the first of its kind. Gene was selected to serve as a medic (in those days, an officer pretty much went down the line and went 'congratulations, you're a machine gunner, you're a rifleman, you're a medic') and underwent the requisite 2-3 weeks of first aid training in addition to the typical paratrooper infantry training. His unit was activated on July 6th, 1942.
Gene survived the war, nearly lost a leg at the Battle of the Bulge and later used the GI bill to go to Auburn Polytechnic, where he obtained a degree in veterinary medicine. Afterwards, he opened his own clinic in Agathine.
Personality: Gene is a polite, forthcoming man. He's of gentle character not because he is innately gentle but because he made the decision to be so, because he sees it as an attribute of value. He's quite sheltered (he'd never had alcohol before his enlistment, and he didn't have significant exposure to Humans Being Terrible at least in a personal sense, though he of course had access to ghosts and all their sundry stories) but not terribly naive in any which way. He tends to believe the best of people, which means he's easier than he'd probably like to be to manipulate.
Gene is soft-spoken but very stern, and he's very difficult to intimidate or fluster. Call it a side-effect of his upbringing, where his parents both taught him to stand up for himself and those who may be in need of protection, these teachings were later augmented by the War. Gene Does Not take other people's shit in any respect, but due to his being quiet and calm people are often lead to assume he's a pushover too. These people learn otherwise the hard way — Gene may be a peaceable man without much inclination towards violence, but he asserts himself with ease and confidence when necessary.
He looks out for those around him, occasionally to his own detriment. Gene has a meticulous and nurturing nature, and has no especial fear of death. When you've been surrounded by it all your life, it doesn't really amount to much in the long run.
He's friendly and genuinely cares for others, but he's not really friends with people by and large. Being a medic meant he had to hold himself apart from other men in the war, and he finds great satisfaction in his own company. It's a rare person that can get Gene to open up emotionally to the point where he considers them a friend. Reggie was his First and Only, and when he died in the War, Gene didn't feel the need to seek another soul out to replace him. As a result he can seem kind of remote and untouchable. There's not really any question that he cares about others, but it's also obvious that he doesn't really let them in.
Powers/Abilities: Gene can see ghosts! There's no big hurrah over this, it's not a point of angst or terror for him. It's just a Thing he can do. Occasionally, skin-to-skin contact with others can result in them seeing ghosts too. They're like a weird STD. I usually say he has no control over this part of the ability, and therefore tend to limit it to very close CR or use it for plot purposes rather than just willy-nilly throwing it out there. Happy to impose whatever limits on this the modship deems necessary.
He's a medic. Limited of course by the antiquity of his time, he's nevertheless very skilled at critical injury care. Spend a few years patching up bullet holes and you would be too! He may not have furthered his training in a human sense, but he's also completed his degree in veterinary medicine, which means he's capable of performing surgery on animals legally and ethically, and humans... in a pinch. He's literally had his hands inside men's chest cavities, okay. He knows his way around this business! He can also, you know, jump out of planes and not break both legs on landing.
He's a decently skilled carpenter, a fair hand with any of the half-dozen languages he'd have encountered in the War (French, German, some Dutch, the tiniest bit of Russian) and he makes a mean buttermilk pie.
Inventory: Honestly, all I want is a bag of ww2 medic gear. As well as his clothing (+ dress uniform maybe?) and a cane, since he walks with a bit of a limp especially in damp or cold weather.
Anything Else? Gene's best friend Reggie Holiday died in the war, a real Baker Street Irregular, and his ghost has been a near-constant presence in Gene's life ever since. He followed the 505th around, warning Gene of any impending ambushes and the like, and passing critical information along to better serve the war effort. If possible I'd like him to be Nebulously Around? I can play Gene without him, but he'd feel more comfortable/at home with Reggie around looking out for him. If you guys are cool with Gene keeping the whole 'I can share ghosts via skin contact' thing, other PCs would potentially then be able to see/interact with Reggie as long as they were in physical contact with Gene. Reggie is a very cavalier guy, bright and vivacious despite the whole 'dead' thing, but if he were to crop up in a thread in that way he'd be less than fifteen percent of the overall interaction. I have some examples of how I utilize Reggie in the linked sample threads.
( wow, is it clear he doesn't have a clue what he's doing or what? gene is holding the damn thing upside down, a slight frustrated furrow to his brow as he pokes at it. when he thinks he's got it mostly figured out (he doesn't) he clears his throat.
still upside down. screen auto orientation when? . he speaks it's in an even tone, soft and sure. ain't no bare hint of unease, and his accent is thickly southern. alabama, for those skilled at picking up on that manner of thing. )
Ah. Hey, all. Won't say it ain't weird to be transmittin' out into the ether and hopin' some other soul picks up on it, but — my name's Gene. Eugene Hicks. If'n anyone finds themselves needin' medical attention, please don't you hesitate to seek me out.
Prose/Brackets Sample: here.
Accepted.
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