Richard Alpert (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theintermediary) wrote2013-08-10 06:09 pm
theintermediary) wrote2013-08-10 06:09 pm
Site-B
OOC
Name: Lysoke
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Lysoke
Timezone: CST
Current Characters: Jet Link (002) |metalicarus
IC
Name: Richard Alpert
Canon/Medium: LOST | T.V. Series
Canon/Medium Point of Origination: 5x16 “The Incident” Just before he goes to help John Locke with his bullet wound.
Age/Sex: 150 (appears 35) | Male
History Link: Canon Wiki | Character Wiki (I apologize for the time shenanigan cluster fuck)
Richard was transported to Asgard just as he was approaching the area where he would help John Locke with the bullet wound in his leg, understandably confused, he was told he’d been brought to Asgard by his patron goddess, Hel, to help defend the city and bring it back to life. He was told he had a new power, a gift from Hel, that would allow him to fight in the upcoming wars that plagued the city and how to use it before being released into the city proper to explore.
Once he’d actually begun exploring, he discovered Jacob was there as well and learned all that he needed to know about Asgard from him. He and Jacob continued on with their friendship while Richard met other people, learned more about his and other’s powers, and even began taking swordsmanship lessons from (BBC’s) Lancelot. It was generally peaceful with only the occasional small skirmish for four months when the first real battle started. It lasted days and there were casualties on both sides. Richard worked on the offensive side, fighting the best he could with his powers and the earthly weapons he had with him as well, he suffered a few injuries, the worst being a gash on his side, but he was only put out of commission when he depleted his energy by using the shadow powers. He spent a good deal of time recovering (under Jacob’s patient eye) and was able to rejoin the battle on the final day when Asgard finally won. (Though, at the cost of one of the god’s lives.) Just as the enemies are retreating would be the last memory he would have.
Appearance: Richard isgorgeous 5’11 and slender with dark hair and eyes and what looks like permanent eyeliner but is actually just a case of really thick eyelashes.
Special Abilities:
> Immortal
> Medical knowledge on par with a field medic
> Pretty freaking strong
>Shadow Manipulation. It comes in stages that are achieved through time and practice and he would have to go through these stages again if he got his powers back, if only at an accelerated pace because he’d done it before. Stage one is manipulating his own shadow into a separate specter or whatever object he can think of. Stage two is manipulating the shadows of people he has an attachment to/people he’s familiar with, again same rule of separate thing or items. Stage three is being able to manipulate anyone or anything’s shadow into whatever he wants and even control it from a reasonable distance away.
SAMPLES
Sample Network Post:
You don’t honestly believe what they’re trying to tell you here, do you?
Clones?
[What kind of a side-effect was memories anyway? Maybe it was just the gap in technological knowledge, but it all seemed ridiculous to him. Besides--]
More likely than not, there’s something else at play here, the man behind the curtain, if you will. There always is.
[Jacob was the one who brought people to the island, a seemingly random event to those it concerned, but was truthfully perfectly planned. Asgard had been the result of gods and a war Richard hadn’t signed up for, who was to say it wasn’t the same here just because no one had noticed it yet? Well he would look for it, there had to be some other explanation.]
Sample Prose Post: --Asgard’s Prose sample post—
So, he was back in this place. He had never really had anything against it unlike a few people here who seemed to, he just hadn’t ever really known what to do with himself. Back on the island, he knew exactly what he was doing and why he was there; he served Jacob and helped advise his people, and he would do this until it was time for Jacob to share the rest of his plan with him. He had a purpose there.
Here, he knew he was supposed to help bring life back to the city and help in a war, but it all seemed vague and undefined; it wasn’t the job he had been used to for over a century. Sure, Jacob was here, but he wasn’t doing what he normally did either, so how could Richard?
That was why he found himself out on the streets today: not only did he need to re-familiarize himself, he was also in search of something to do. Maybe he’d get a job somewhere, a job that normal people had that he only pretended to have when he went to the mainland.
To be fair, it didn’t really matter what the job was so long as it was something that kept him busy; if there was one thing he hated it was the feeling of being useless.
PERSONALITY
- How does your character feel about what he/she is doing with his or her life? Are they satisfied, or do they feel like they are waiting for something better?
This depends on what point in time you look at. Richard is one of those people who needs to have a goal, both short term and long term, otherwise he falls into depressive thoughts and spends his time wondering how he can end his life. For 150 years, working for Jacob and working towards his ‘big plan’ was his long term goal while his short term goals consisted of advising the people who were brought to the island and he was fairly satisfied with that. Until he found out Jacob was lying to him. Then he tried to kill himself until he gained a new goal in the form of stopping Jacob’s killer from leaving the island.
In Site-B he’d go through the same process of trying to find something to latch onto as a goal. He won’t be happy with life (he’s never happy with life) but he’ll be distracted from it.
- Describe a situation where this character was forced to ask for help with a task. Was he or she reluctant to seek assistance? Why?
There was a time, after he found out the last 150 years of his life didn’t mean anything, when he just wanted to kill himself. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t do that, so he asked Jack to help him with it; if Jack lit the stick of dynamite and Richard stayed near it, it would blow up and Richard would finally be able to die. He had literally no problem asking this of Jack and since they weren’t really all that close, he figured Jack would comply.
Normally speaking, however, Richard rarely needs help with what he’s doing but, if he does, he’ll readily ask someone he thinks will be most likely able to help him.
- Describe a situation in which the character begins a new relationship. Did s/he take the initiative? Was s/he reluctant to make a new friend/lover?
Richard is forever alone since his wife died and he doesn’t tend to make friends. Friends only happen when they grow on him like moss and he doesn’t notice until it’s too late.
- How does your character view the world? Do they find it pleasant or do they wish there was something else out there?
Richard’s life has pretty much been a non-stop train of suck. His wife, the love of his life, gets sick and he desperately goes to the doctor, offering him everything he has to get the medicine, but the doctor turns his back on Richard, Richard accidentally kills him in a scuffle, and his wife ends up dying before he can even get back home. After this, he asks for salvation from a priest before he’s about to be hung and the priest denies him only to turn around and sell Richard into slavery. He is well aware of how the world works, it’s goods and it’s bads. However, he had a choice between helping the man who thought all of mankind was corruptible and evil and the man who thought that, at their core, people were good and Richard chose to work for the latter. He’s a very practical man, he doesn’t expect the world to change, just do much of the same the best way it can and that’s all he wants of it.
- Describe how your character would thank another. Does s/he jump on the opportunity?
He doesn’t necessarily jump on it, but he’ll give out thanks readily enough, he doesn’t have any problems showing gratitude. Well, except when the person expecting the thank you shoots someone who had a gun on Richard, he wasn’t too pleased about that.
- Describe a situation in which your character is exposed to another character who is in bad spirits. Did s/he try to cheer them up? Did s/he leave them alone?
Generally speaking, Richard is a kind man and he doesn’t like to see people down. He’ll often sit down with them, quite literally, and try to help them out, but in that way where he leaves it for them to figure out the solution and act on it. If it’s merely a matter of poor spirits and not a problem, then he tends to try and be gentle while also exercising his dry humor.
- Describe an important task that your character was responsible for. Did they abandon the task or stick with it to completion?
Richard never abandons a task he feels is important. He was given a job by Jacob to advise the people he brought to the island and Richard did just that for 150 years without question. It was only after Jacob died that he stopped doing his job because he couldn’t see the point anymore. However, as soon as he had a new task laid out for him, he pursued it head on and never gave up on it, even after he got tossed into a tree by a pillar of black smoke.
- Describe a situation where your character deliberately hurt someone or destroyed property that does not belong to them. What was their justification? Are they stricken by remorse?
When Richard does something, he rarely regrets it. He has assaulted people, broken things, hit his leader over the head with a gun, and killed people without hesitation. Again, this was largely all in the name of Jacob and doing what he wanted or what would be best for the goal he had. Richard isn’t heartless, but he focuses on what needs to be done over anything else and will do whatever to see that it’s carried out.
The only time we see him regretting something he’s done was when he accidentally killed that doctor. Yes, they were struggling, but the doctor fell and hit his head on the table; Richard never meant for him to die, he just wanted the medicine for his wife. Even here though, his guilt is obvious for a moment before he moves past it and focuses on what he needs to do instead.
- Describe a situation in which your character was out of his or her element --
Whether with an unfamiliar group of people, in an unfamiliar place, or with an unfamiliar task.
This happens to Richard a lot, one of the most used expressions he has is his ‘wtf face.’ When he first arrived on the island and whenever he had to take on new people, he always just rolled with it. It was the same with arriving in Asgard, there was a moment of confusion, but once he knew what was going on, he just went with it. The only time his reaction was different than this was when Jacob died and he basically fell apart; understandable considering this had been his life for over a century and suddenly it was rendered pointless.
- Describe your character's religious beliefs.
Due to being born in the early 19th century to the Canary Islands, (where the Roman Catholic faith is most common) Richard was brought up in a very religious environment and has a very strong belief in Heaven, Hell, and God. It’s this faith that drives him to believe he will go to Hell for killing the doctor and say he wants to live forever when Jacob says he can neither give Richard his wife back nor absolve him of his sins. While he doesn’t necessarily turn away from his faith while working for Jacob, he does seem to put it out of mind until he finds his wife’s cross again (which he buried) and puts it on himself. It is also this belief that makes him think--both when he first arrives and later when he loses faith in Jacob--that the island is Hell.
- Has your character ever made a decision that benefited them for the moment but had severe or even dangerous repercussions in the long run? If not, has your character ever made a decision that would benefit them in the long run but brought them anguish or even misery in the interim?
Both and it was one decision. When Jacob told Richard that he would give him anything he wanted in return for working for him, Richard asked to live forever (after asking for his dead wife back and being absolved of his sins were both shot down.) He sad this because, while he wanted to die and be with his wife, if he killed himself he’d end up in Hell and if he died without getting his sins absolved he’d go to Hell; he was convinced his wife was in Heaven, so it stands to reason why these options weren’t appealing.
Of course, when he said this, it’s very unlikely that he believed it to be true, likely not until he lived through something that should have killed him or realized he hadn’t aged a day in a decade. It benefited him because he’d get to have time to make up for killing the doctor and find a way to move past Isabella’s death that didn’t include killing himself and, later, would mean he’d get a chance to save the world. But it hurt him because it meant he spent decades living because he had no choice and watched as people around him died, preventing him from forming attachments out of self-preservation.
- Describe a situation in which the character accomplished something very difficult or with the odds stacked against them. What was their initial reaction? Were they prone to bragging or did they humbly and quietly enjoy their success?
Richard never brags, nor does he even seem to celebrate. The only acknowledgement he gives when he finally reaches his goal at the end of the series and prevents the ‘big bad’ from escaping is a look of relief.
- Describe a situation in which your character described his or her feelings to another character. Was your character reluctant or more than happy to get things off his/her mind?
Richard isn’t afraid to speak his mind about how he feels about something, but the more personal it is, the more clinical he gets. He tells Jack about how he wants to kill himself but he can’t because he was made immortal by Jacob and one of the rules for this is that he can’t kill himself. (Likely because Jacob is pretty much omniscient and likely foresaw that Richard had those inclinations. It would be a waste to make yourself an intermediary who was just going to off themselves.)
Now, to be fair, his voice shakes and wavers, so he’s not a perfect stone statue when it comes to really personal things, but he doesn’t ever actually break down. The only time that happens is when he’s able to talk to his long-dead wife through Hurley playing medium, which is an entirely understandable time to breakdown.
Name: Lysoke
Contact:
Timezone: CST
Current Characters: Jet Link (002) |
metalicarusIC
Name: Richard Alpert
Canon/Medium: LOST | T.V. Series
Canon/Medium Point of Origination: 5x16 “The Incident” Just before he goes to help John Locke with his bullet wound.
Age/Sex: 150 (appears 35) | Male
History Link: Canon Wiki | Character Wiki (I apologize for the time shenanigan cluster fuck)
Richard was transported to Asgard just as he was approaching the area where he would help John Locke with the bullet wound in his leg, understandably confused, he was told he’d been brought to Asgard by his patron goddess, Hel, to help defend the city and bring it back to life. He was told he had a new power, a gift from Hel, that would allow him to fight in the upcoming wars that plagued the city and how to use it before being released into the city proper to explore.
Once he’d actually begun exploring, he discovered Jacob was there as well and learned all that he needed to know about Asgard from him. He and Jacob continued on with their friendship while Richard met other people, learned more about his and other’s powers, and even began taking swordsmanship lessons from (BBC’s) Lancelot. It was generally peaceful with only the occasional small skirmish for four months when the first real battle started. It lasted days and there were casualties on both sides. Richard worked on the offensive side, fighting the best he could with his powers and the earthly weapons he had with him as well, he suffered a few injuries, the worst being a gash on his side, but he was only put out of commission when he depleted his energy by using the shadow powers. He spent a good deal of time recovering (under Jacob’s patient eye) and was able to rejoin the battle on the final day when Asgard finally won. (Though, at the cost of one of the god’s lives.) Just as the enemies are retreating would be the last memory he would have.
Appearance: Richard is
Special Abilities:
> Immortal
> Medical knowledge on par with a field medic
> Pretty freaking strong
>Shadow Manipulation. It comes in stages that are achieved through time and practice and he would have to go through these stages again if he got his powers back, if only at an accelerated pace because he’d done it before. Stage one is manipulating his own shadow into a separate specter or whatever object he can think of. Stage two is manipulating the shadows of people he has an attachment to/people he’s familiar with, again same rule of separate thing or items. Stage three is being able to manipulate anyone or anything’s shadow into whatever he wants and even control it from a reasonable distance away.
SAMPLES
Sample Network Post:
You don’t honestly believe what they’re trying to tell you here, do you?
Clones?
[What kind of a side-effect was memories anyway? Maybe it was just the gap in technological knowledge, but it all seemed ridiculous to him. Besides--]
More likely than not, there’s something else at play here, the man behind the curtain, if you will. There always is.
[Jacob was the one who brought people to the island, a seemingly random event to those it concerned, but was truthfully perfectly planned. Asgard had been the result of gods and a war Richard hadn’t signed up for, who was to say it wasn’t the same here just because no one had noticed it yet? Well he would look for it, there had to be some other explanation.]
Sample Prose Post: --Asgard’s Prose sample post—
So, he was back in this place. He had never really had anything against it unlike a few people here who seemed to, he just hadn’t ever really known what to do with himself. Back on the island, he knew exactly what he was doing and why he was there; he served Jacob and helped advise his people, and he would do this until it was time for Jacob to share the rest of his plan with him. He had a purpose there.
Here, he knew he was supposed to help bring life back to the city and help in a war, but it all seemed vague and undefined; it wasn’t the job he had been used to for over a century. Sure, Jacob was here, but he wasn’t doing what he normally did either, so how could Richard?
That was why he found himself out on the streets today: not only did he need to re-familiarize himself, he was also in search of something to do. Maybe he’d get a job somewhere, a job that normal people had that he only pretended to have when he went to the mainland.
To be fair, it didn’t really matter what the job was so long as it was something that kept him busy; if there was one thing he hated it was the feeling of being useless.
PERSONALITY
- How does your character feel about what he/she is doing with his or her life? Are they satisfied, or do they feel like they are waiting for something better?
This depends on what point in time you look at. Richard is one of those people who needs to have a goal, both short term and long term, otherwise he falls into depressive thoughts and spends his time wondering how he can end his life. For 150 years, working for Jacob and working towards his ‘big plan’ was his long term goal while his short term goals consisted of advising the people who were brought to the island and he was fairly satisfied with that. Until he found out Jacob was lying to him. Then he tried to kill himself until he gained a new goal in the form of stopping Jacob’s killer from leaving the island.
In Site-B he’d go through the same process of trying to find something to latch onto as a goal. He won’t be happy with life (he’s never happy with life) but he’ll be distracted from it.
- Describe a situation where this character was forced to ask for help with a task. Was he or she reluctant to seek assistance? Why?
There was a time, after he found out the last 150 years of his life didn’t mean anything, when he just wanted to kill himself. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t do that, so he asked Jack to help him with it; if Jack lit the stick of dynamite and Richard stayed near it, it would blow up and Richard would finally be able to die. He had literally no problem asking this of Jack and since they weren’t really all that close, he figured Jack would comply.
Normally speaking, however, Richard rarely needs help with what he’s doing but, if he does, he’ll readily ask someone he thinks will be most likely able to help him.
- Describe a situation in which the character begins a new relationship. Did s/he take the initiative? Was s/he reluctant to make a new friend/lover?
Richard is forever alone since his wife died and he doesn’t tend to make friends. Friends only happen when they grow on him like moss and he doesn’t notice until it’s too late.
- How does your character view the world? Do they find it pleasant or do they wish there was something else out there?
Richard’s life has pretty much been a non-stop train of suck. His wife, the love of his life, gets sick and he desperately goes to the doctor, offering him everything he has to get the medicine, but the doctor turns his back on Richard, Richard accidentally kills him in a scuffle, and his wife ends up dying before he can even get back home. After this, he asks for salvation from a priest before he’s about to be hung and the priest denies him only to turn around and sell Richard into slavery. He is well aware of how the world works, it’s goods and it’s bads. However, he had a choice between helping the man who thought all of mankind was corruptible and evil and the man who thought that, at their core, people were good and Richard chose to work for the latter. He’s a very practical man, he doesn’t expect the world to change, just do much of the same the best way it can and that’s all he wants of it.
- Describe how your character would thank another. Does s/he jump on the opportunity?
He doesn’t necessarily jump on it, but he’ll give out thanks readily enough, he doesn’t have any problems showing gratitude. Well, except when the person expecting the thank you shoots someone who had a gun on Richard, he wasn’t too pleased about that.
- Describe a situation in which your character is exposed to another character who is in bad spirits. Did s/he try to cheer them up? Did s/he leave them alone?
Generally speaking, Richard is a kind man and he doesn’t like to see people down. He’ll often sit down with them, quite literally, and try to help them out, but in that way where he leaves it for them to figure out the solution and act on it. If it’s merely a matter of poor spirits and not a problem, then he tends to try and be gentle while also exercising his dry humor.
- Describe an important task that your character was responsible for. Did they abandon the task or stick with it to completion?
Richard never abandons a task he feels is important. He was given a job by Jacob to advise the people he brought to the island and Richard did just that for 150 years without question. It was only after Jacob died that he stopped doing his job because he couldn’t see the point anymore. However, as soon as he had a new task laid out for him, he pursued it head on and never gave up on it, even after he got tossed into a tree by a pillar of black smoke.
- Describe a situation where your character deliberately hurt someone or destroyed property that does not belong to them. What was their justification? Are they stricken by remorse?
When Richard does something, he rarely regrets it. He has assaulted people, broken things, hit his leader over the head with a gun, and killed people without hesitation. Again, this was largely all in the name of Jacob and doing what he wanted or what would be best for the goal he had. Richard isn’t heartless, but he focuses on what needs to be done over anything else and will do whatever to see that it’s carried out.
The only time we see him regretting something he’s done was when he accidentally killed that doctor. Yes, they were struggling, but the doctor fell and hit his head on the table; Richard never meant for him to die, he just wanted the medicine for his wife. Even here though, his guilt is obvious for a moment before he moves past it and focuses on what he needs to do instead.
- Describe a situation in which your character was out of his or her element --
Whether with an unfamiliar group of people, in an unfamiliar place, or with an unfamiliar task.
This happens to Richard a lot, one of the most used expressions he has is his ‘wtf face.’ When he first arrived on the island and whenever he had to take on new people, he always just rolled with it. It was the same with arriving in Asgard, there was a moment of confusion, but once he knew what was going on, he just went with it. The only time his reaction was different than this was when Jacob died and he basically fell apart; understandable considering this had been his life for over a century and suddenly it was rendered pointless.
- Describe your character's religious beliefs.
Due to being born in the early 19th century to the Canary Islands, (where the Roman Catholic faith is most common) Richard was brought up in a very religious environment and has a very strong belief in Heaven, Hell, and God. It’s this faith that drives him to believe he will go to Hell for killing the doctor and say he wants to live forever when Jacob says he can neither give Richard his wife back nor absolve him of his sins. While he doesn’t necessarily turn away from his faith while working for Jacob, he does seem to put it out of mind until he finds his wife’s cross again (which he buried) and puts it on himself. It is also this belief that makes him think--both when he first arrives and later when he loses faith in Jacob--that the island is Hell.
- Has your character ever made a decision that benefited them for the moment but had severe or even dangerous repercussions in the long run? If not, has your character ever made a decision that would benefit them in the long run but brought them anguish or even misery in the interim?
Both and it was one decision. When Jacob told Richard that he would give him anything he wanted in return for working for him, Richard asked to live forever (after asking for his dead wife back and being absolved of his sins were both shot down.) He sad this because, while he wanted to die and be with his wife, if he killed himself he’d end up in Hell and if he died without getting his sins absolved he’d go to Hell; he was convinced his wife was in Heaven, so it stands to reason why these options weren’t appealing.
Of course, when he said this, it’s very unlikely that he believed it to be true, likely not until he lived through something that should have killed him or realized he hadn’t aged a day in a decade. It benefited him because he’d get to have time to make up for killing the doctor and find a way to move past Isabella’s death that didn’t include killing himself and, later, would mean he’d get a chance to save the world. But it hurt him because it meant he spent decades living because he had no choice and watched as people around him died, preventing him from forming attachments out of self-preservation.
- Describe a situation in which the character accomplished something very difficult or with the odds stacked against them. What was their initial reaction? Were they prone to bragging or did they humbly and quietly enjoy their success?
Richard never brags, nor does he even seem to celebrate. The only acknowledgement he gives when he finally reaches his goal at the end of the series and prevents the ‘big bad’ from escaping is a look of relief.
- Describe a situation in which your character described his or her feelings to another character. Was your character reluctant or more than happy to get things off his/her mind?
Richard isn’t afraid to speak his mind about how he feels about something, but the more personal it is, the more clinical he gets. He tells Jack about how he wants to kill himself but he can’t because he was made immortal by Jacob and one of the rules for this is that he can’t kill himself. (Likely because Jacob is pretty much omniscient and likely foresaw that Richard had those inclinations. It would be a waste to make yourself an intermediary who was just going to off themselves.)
Now, to be fair, his voice shakes and wavers, so he’s not a perfect stone statue when it comes to really personal things, but he doesn’t ever actually break down. The only time that happens is when he’s able to talk to his long-dead wife through Hurley playing medium, which is an entirely understandable time to breakdown.