Sample Application/Arclite

1) List your previous roleplaying and/or MUSH experience, as well as any characters you have played here at M3.

Current alts: Alloy

Past alts: Cold Man, Aeolian, Dr. Doppler

2) If you are applying for an OC, list their Faction, Function, Quote, Profile and Skills (See 'News Skills'). If you are applying for an FC and want to suggest changes, list them here.

Faction: Repliforce

Function: High Energy Assault

Quote: "Done right, done fast, done cheap. Pick /one/, and we'll go from there."

Profile: Arclite Gear is an engineering reploid who has grown out of her assigned lot in life. An electrician by trade, Arclite was content at first to fulfil her purpose; with military assaults and terrorist attacks leaving devastated infrastructure behind in their wake, there was certainly no shortage of contract work to keep her occupied! Yet the constant, repetitive work began to wear her down... coupled with stories of her brother Riot's exploits and a growing discontent with her Sisyphean task of putting the pieces back together, Arclite began to yearn for something more meaningful than endless rebuilding. This desire was crystallised abruptly with the murder of two of her sisters by one of Alexia Ashford's Numbers - barely a week had passed after their funeral before Arclite resigned her contracter's job and enlisted in Repliforce with the intent of bringing their killer to justice. Sharp-eyed sergeants in boot camp beat /that/ notion out of her, fortunately, drawing out her practical engineer's side and moulding her into an effective soldier. While she has respect for individual humans, Arclite views humanity as a whole in less than favourable terms, noting their over-reliance on robots and inability to reconcile the needs of their 'children' with their own desires. Arclite harbours a hatred for Euro-Arcadia especially, but she tempers her anger with the promise that they and every other murderous thug with a gun will meet their fate someday. And then she might get to enjoy the fruits of all her labour.

Skills: Sparkie, Personal Hero: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Never Send A Human To Do A Machine's Job, Trope Avoided: Angry Young Maximal, Magical Girl Lyrical Arclite, Speak Firmly And Carry A Big Damn Sword, Long Jackets - Stylish, Cool AND Dramatic!

3) Describe your character's physical form. Also, are they human-form, animal-form, or some other 'form'?

Arclite is a humaform reploid about five and a half feet tall. She wears a white ankle-length jacket with yellow interconnected diamond patterns across its surface, and has jet harnesses on her lower legs that can bolt themselves together into a rocket surfboard.

4) What is the character's origin and history?

Arclite is one of the creations of Melissa Granger, head designer for Head Gear Robotics. Activated in the autumn of 2217, she barely had time to get oriented and familiarised with her family as such, before she was attached to the reconstruction project in Seoul in the aftermath of the Black SHIELD coup attempt. Arclite observed the Battle and Chase games, and soon learned how the (relative) lack of destruction during these events with the exception, rather than the norm. She worked contracts - occasionally new construction but more often rebuilding - in several major cities and on every continent.

This continued for nearly two and a half years, during which she observed constant warfare between the major factions and watched politics dictate the fate of robots, seesawing back and forth. Arclite was particularly irked when she was kicked off a contract in Melbourne, Australia when that country's government decided to remove the problem of the Sigma Virus quite literally, instead of extending their aid to the suffering reploid populace. So the American government snapped up a large number of suddenly jobless contracting engineers and put them onto the Space Elevator, Arclite included.

Arclite's involvement in the world-shaking events of the last few years has been minimal, restricted to picking up the pieces after enormous events like the Force Metal bomb that devastated San Angeles (where she worked for a few months maintaining emergency electrical supplies for aid workers before being pulled out when the situation worsened) or waiting on the sidelines and hoping her brothers, Riot amongst them, wouldn't die. She /was/ among the volunteers who helped set up the electrical systems for the Ragnarock and Roll concert though, something she is rather proud of.

In the months that followed afterwards, Arclite's opinion of the reigning powers made a notable dive. Stunts like the Neo Arcadia peace deal and politicians' general apathy toward the welfare of robots in general evoked helpless anger in her that made the endless work of rebuilding circuit after circuit, building after building, almost unbearable. When two of her sisters were brutally murdered by Death Mantis, it proved to be the breaking point. Not long after their funeral was held, she rashly resigned from her contract, marched to the nearest Repliforce recruiting center and signed up.

Arclite the Angry Young Maximal had thoughts of finding her sisters' murderer and putting him behind bars. Occasionally this fantasy didn't involve beating him to a bloody pulp first. More than once. Boot camp ripped that fantasy out of her and ground it under the heel of her far angrier drill sergeant. There is no dramatics in Repliforce. There is no grand heroics, she was told. There is only the greatest army in history. Ultimately, Repliforce's boot camp chewed up an angry young engineer with delusional thoughts of justice and turned out a reliable, grounded and well-tuned soldier, who has since done her old sergeant proud and demonstrated admirable restraint when fighting in the European theatre.

5) What is your character's personality? How does s/he interact with others? What things does s/he like and dislike? What is something your character would never do? What are his/her goals and aims? Don't limit yourself only to these questions, since the more detail in this section, the better.

Arclite is - for the most part - a naturally sensible person. More than two years as an electrical engineer taught her the basic concept of applying known principles to solving practical problems. She tries to approach the problems she encounters in Repliforce with the same methodology, and finds it usually works. The public, the enemy and her squadmates generally see the professional while she's on-duty - boot camp impressed upon her that what she does in the uniform reflects upon Repliforce as a whole. People have to know she is a reliable, capable and trustworthy officer of THE LAHW, and know it right away. This never quite leaves her even after she hangs up the cap and goes out for some R&R, but rather than being the nevermelting ice-queen one might expect Arclite is quite cheerful and happy. She genuinely enjoys her job, being a Repliforcer, and is satisfied at the end of the day that she's helping people.

When /not/ fighting for everlasting peace, Arclite is perfectly willing to go out on the town, or socialise with friends, although she tends to be less self-starting in this area. Given that she's working in a military romance doesn't seem terribly appropriate to her, so she has avoided the possibility so far. She also sets aside time for study, as she's working on getting her Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT through distance education. This is obviously something of a long-term project, considering her duties in Repliforce.

Arclite limits her mentoring of other soldiers purely to fighting technique and other professional matters, recognising that some of her views on humans are little far out on the spectrum and not really in line with Repliforce policy. Beyond her mother and a few professional acquaintances, most humans simply dissolve into the sea of humanity that has relied on robots to support their industry, fight their wars and go into harm's way rather then risking their own skins. While Arclite's work involves protecting humans - and she /does/ sympathise with the people she meets who are individually suffering because of death and/or violence - seeing the political machinations, the blithe ignoring of robot /needs/ for spiritual fulfilment beyond battle, all of these complaints caused her to start turning away from humanity as a parent race. It remains to be seen if the ADF is up to the task.

While Arclite doesn't have much respect for humans /as a whole/ though, she has considerable respect for many individuals. Dion Seers took a fair leap up the scale when he demonstrated a brave sacrifice for his political opponent. Even if he was another human...that took guts. Enzan Chaud, and pretty much all of STARS, really, she has respect for. She doesn't deduct points for their reliance on power armour - humans are naturally frail by comparison with robots, so they need adequate tools for the job. That's something she totally understands. /Other/ humans, beyond her mother and a few professional acquaintances, however, get short shrift. She can work with them as she has done on rebuilding projects, even coordinate tactics with them, but don't expect her to give them much more than the time of day until she gets to know them and their resolve better. Even then, that's hardly any guarantee that they can do the job right. After all, you shouldn't send a human to do a machine's job. This somewhat elitist perspective had led her into conflict with members of STARS especially, early on. She's since learned to keep her mouth shut.

Arclite still harbours a desire to see Euro Arcadia ground into the dust, and ultimately would like to see all such extremist organisations smashed - Mavericks included. She might be a bit far out on the scale, but those guys are waaaaay off the deep end and need to be put down hard. Whatever purpose their rebellion originally served, they've moved past it - but not in the right direction. Arclite practices more of a 'don't bother me and I won't bother you' philosophy.

6) Why is your character in a particular faction? How does s/he view fellow faction members and facheads? How does s/he see other factions?

Arclite is in Repliforce because among the 'good' factions it appeals to her sense of hardworking, reliable effort to overcome the evils of the 23rd century. Unlike the Hunters who are too chaotic and unstable, and may ultimately implode, Repliforce has weathered numerous crises, many of which struck at the core of their being and would have shattered lesser people. She respects, above all, their dedication to their duty. In this, Storm Owl, Colonel and General are the exemplars of this attitude.

While she sympathises with the original complaints of the Mavericks, in the waning years of Sigma's rule and since, they have devolved into a band of complete terrorists with only the barest thread of legitimacy, in her opinion. While the humans they rail against can be pretty contemptible as well, in her view, the Mavericks are just irredeemably evil after razing a good part of an entire continent and killing with such abandon and excess. The Robot Masters...they're just plain screwy. Comes from serving a mad scientist, really.

7) Please include a sample pose or short RP example involving your character.

Arclite dances back, jacket ruffling as she backflips, plants one hand on a cement mixer and pushes off again just before it is crushed underneath the tremendous force of Guts Man wielding an I-beam like a rather long baseball bat. She twists athletically in the air, her sword's magnetic lock disengaging as she pulls it from her hip. She lands, sword out but not ignited yet, jacket pooled around her as the triple barrels of her shock cannon unfold and lock into place on her left arm.

The admittedly imposing stance Guts Man takes as he looms over Arclite, flexing his mahssive bohdy fails to impress or amuse the Repliforcer. Oh, boys, she thinks, gripping the handhold of her cannon. When are you going to learn that work and play just don't /mix/? She levels the cannon at him. The two outer muzzles of the weapon glow threateningly, reaching critical voltage in a satisfyingly short time. Arclite thinks the command, and her weapon obeys, spitting out jagged blue bolts of electricity at the grandstanding Alpha.

8) Give us your character's statistics. (If you are applying for Armor, include stats for all of their modes, separated by mode. Charisma, Intelligence, and Courage remain the same throughout all armor modes.) (See 'News Application Example')

Charisma: -
Intelligence: -
Courage: -

Weaknesses: -
Resistances: -

Armour 1: Assault
Agility: -
Dexterity: -
Endurance: -
Firepower: -
Strength: -
Velocity: -

Combat stat total: 42
Size: 3

Abilities: Armor, Hover, Forcefield, Generator

Primary Attack: Chain Lightning = ---

Secondary Attacks:
---


Armour 2: All Range Mode
Agility: -
Dexterity: -
Endurance: -
Firepower: -
Strength: -
Velocity: -

Combat stat total: 42
Size: 3

Abilities: Armor, Flight, Forcefield, Generator

Primary Attack: Chain Lightning = ---

Secondary Attacks:
---

If you have Armor, list the name of each armor form with a set of stats, attacks, and abilities for each mode. Remember that weaknesses, resistances, Charisma, Intelligence, and Courage remain the same in all armor forms.

9) Explain your character's name and justify any attack with a level over 6, any effects on weapons, any ability, any stat out of the average range, resistance(s), and weakness(es). Also, please provide a brief explanation of the primary and each secondary attack where applicable. Some attacks are self-explanatory, but other ones may require a sentence or two to explain.

Name: To tell you the truth, I don't know what the word Arclite actually means. It doesn't come up in dictionaries, so I guess it's just because it sounds awesome!

Abilities:
Flight - In order to maintain mobility, Arclite has two booster arrays strapped to her legs. For high-speed response and pursuit, she can have them fold down and bolt together into a 'rocket surfboard' that improves her speed and mobility at the cost of diverting power from other systems.

Generator - In her civilian life, Arclite was occasionally called upon to provide emergency power for buildings and in order to test rebuilt electrical systems before the final installation of mains connections/generators was completed. As a Repliforcer, she is easily capable of producing considerable amounts of power to fuel her weapons and defensive systems, not to mention providing a clean, reliable source of power for her comrades.

Forcefield - Arclite's defensive systems come in the form of an energised jacket, capable of reacting instantaneously to attacks by using energy from Arclite's systems to harden and protect her without harm. In more severe situations, she can skip the reaction step and simply generate a full forcefield through the jacket's systems.

Armours: Arclite uses two modes - one for standard operations, and an alternate mode that allows her easy transport for herself and a couple of other people, plus rapid pursuit or aerial ops, by turning the two boosters strapped to her legs into a full-blown rocket surfboard, ala Optimus Primal. This mode requires re-routing of power from other systems to give her enough speed to make it worthwhile.

Resistance: ---
Weakness: ---

Attacks:
Primary - Chain Lightning is exactly what it sounds like. Arclite produces a high voltage, sustained bolt of lightning that strikes one person, and arcs to the next person, and the next, and so on. If it misses one person in the chain, well, that breaks the arc.

Secondary attacks:
Saber & Plasma Saber attacks - Arclite's primary melee weapon is a saber she can energise to produce a shaped field of plasma surrounding the metal blade, considerably larger than the physical blade (and herself). She can use this weapon in a variety of ways to attack individuals or groups of people, through main frontal attacks or in speedy fly-bys when in All Range Mode (this is why she loses the higher level attacks in this mode, as those are sustained melee assaults).

Arclite Coil, ranged electric/elec+fire attacks - Arclite's primary /ranged/ weapon is an adapted Khan Industries Shock Cannon. A pair of squarish columns unfolds out of her left arm, one above, one below, connecting together in front of the handhold to form a three-barreled weapon not unlike Fefnir's cannons. It can produce powerful electrical assaults of various voltages and intensities as well as magnetically contained streams of plasma. The 'coil' attacks are plasma shots in varying configurations, with straightforward beams, double helixes and so on, culminating in a 'supercharged' shot that uses a central beam surrounded by two spiralling bolts, the magnetic fields of all three stabilising and reinforcing the flight paths of the others.

Staccato Lightning - A rapid series of sharp electrical pulses designed to confuse and shut down systems. Of course, it also plays merry hell with a human's body.

Bead Lightning - A similar effect but drawn out, with less pulse intensity thus disrupting the target's functions to a lesser degree.

Power Thrust, Charged Fist - Arclite's hands are built with moderate reinforcement and energy channels that allow her to deliver shockingly powerful punches.

Static Lightning - A localised electric charge channeled through Arclite's hand, but not earthed properly against her target's body. If her coil cannon is too badly damaged, she can't create lightning bolts with it safely, and must resort to this backup method, which can have poor results for her as well.

Thruster Wash, Jet Flash - Two attacks that involve shoving a booster jet into someone's body (or preferably their face) and giving them a taste.

Lorentz Force/other elec+barrier attacks - YES MORE PHYSICS. Arclite generates an electrical field around herself, creating a physical barrier that she can use to ram other people. Pinball Surge is where she deliberately aims to bounce off multiple people in the process.