Underground application

[blind_badass]

Player information
Name: Belmont
Contact: on plurk, draculabackwards
Are you 18 or over? By far. 37.
Other characters played: n/a

Character information
Name: “Snake” but his actual name is Light. He doesn't have a canon last name...not really. The creator jokingly threw out “Field” in a question and answer but given that it would make his name Light Field and his sister Clover Field, that just doesn't sound right. So I have chosen “Averly” as a last name, just so he has one
Age: 24
Date of Birth: nothing canon, so, 3/25/91
Canon: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors aka 999
Species: Metahuman, although mostly hides as a human – To explain and spoil some key parts of 999, Snake and his sister Clover were kidnapped as part of a massive experiment testing a form of telepathy. Only instead of having one person be a telepath – reading minds and giving info to people – it's broken down into two roles. Some people are more likely to project thoughts and information and other people are more likely to receive that information and react to it. Snake is the type that can receive information from people who project their thoughts strongly enough. I would certainly be happy to work with the mods about limits, but would mostly go with Snake mentally shielding himself most of the time and then unshielding himself when actively trying to mentally search for information. I'd put in a permissions post to see if characters would inadvertently project thoughts for Snake to pick up to be fair.
Role: Redbright Institute as a new teacher/instructor, preferably in physics. With time he might be interested in researching the physics of metahuman abilities.
Rank: 1 or 2, he's a newbie!
AU Background: Snake lost his sight and half his left arm at the age of 9 due to drunk joyriders in his neighborhood. During the emergency surgery, one of the hospital staff, a fae, used its powers to try to stop the swelling in his brain. It worked in that he lived. Although he became blind and an amputee, the assist by the fae also gave him the power to listen to thoughts of those who project strongly enough, consciously or unconsciously. Snake's parents claim they were approached by a hospital staff member during the emergency surgery who told them Snake would pull through but might suffer unique challenges as he grew up.

The ongoing legal battle for prosecuting the people responsible for the accident bankrupted a powerful family in Washington State. It didn't help that other family members of the responsible parties kidnapped Snake as a teenager and tried to force his family to ransom the hefty punitive damage reward that has gone towards Snake's rehab and prosthesis replacements.

During that traumatic period, Snake found out his ability to hear thoughts and managed to get himself out of that situation. However, dealing with a world with two physical handicaps was bad enough. At this point, Snake's parents recalled the mysterious staff member at the hospital and realized that it had been a fae who'd given them a vague warning about Snake's new ability. With the help of his family, Snake mostly deals with his ability by not talking about it and learning to shield his mind, passing as a human and it pretty much works.

As a graduate student in physics/sciences, it's time for him to jumpstart his career. London is far from Seattle. However, knowing that people see his handicaps as drawbacks – as unfair as it is – he needs to take a job wherever he can find it, get experience and then be able to work back home to be with his family. He's very close with his sister, Clover, but knows that working in London is a chance he can't pass up.

He is supremely confident in himself except his occasional mind reading. His parents have been extremely supportive except for the mind reading, fearing it could do him harm if he were open with the ability. Snake has learned to function around it, treating it like another handicap which can mostly be ignored as it's not visible to anyone else. He doesn't like to rely on it because it could easily be used as a crutch to compensate for the two other physical handicaps he already possesses and he has WAY too much pride to use a crutch unless absolutely necessary. However, if he actually got to know some metahumans, he might change his mind about that.

Snake also got his nickname because of his dead-eyed blind stare, like a snake. He usually has his eyes closed but when he particularly wants to intimidate or piss off someone, he stares at them with eyes open.

Personality: To people who'd treat Snake as a second class citizen because of his handicaps, he'd happily disabuse them of the notion and be the asshole. To people who treat him like anyone else, he treats them in kind, because that's all he really wants.

He's a voracious reader and has knowledge on multiple subjects. He clearly loves to learn which is definitely why he comes down so hard on people who clearly do not give a crap about books. In addition to being well versed in multiple subjects, Snake can read music and play the piano and harp.

Despite how rude and trollish he can be to strangers, he has a lot of affection and warmth for his youngest sister, Clover. Even though she is not as book read or as quick as he is, he naturally gives her all the patience and caring in the world. He and his sister have a deep bond of trust and familial love. In canon they were both abducted as part of an experiment in telepathy and as a result, Snake developed an ability to “read” thoughts “sent” to him by his sister. They were both kidnapped AGAIN ten years later and forced to perform the same puzzles.

He has a surprising temper that you only find out if you mess with his sister. All bets are off and in one canon scenario, after being shot point blank multiple times, he got a death grip on his sister's killer and made sure both he and the murderer didn't escape a trap and were incinerated to death. If he were to care about anyone that deeply, it's likely he'd do the same thing if they were injured. For the people he cares about, Snake will easily resort to highly questionable actions. It doesn't matter: it's for them.

Being forced to struggle through a horrific accident and painful rehab, Snake's life has been altered by his handicaps. However, he strives not to be recognized as "the blind guy" and the object of pity but as the smartest person in the room. Overcoming such odds stacked against him, he's proven that he can succeed in life and is quite content as he is, which gives him brimming confidence. In situations that might rattle most people, he keeps his cool, using logic and intelligence to figure out a solution. Even when kidnapped in his canon, both times, while people lost their tempers and got into fights, Snake stepped in to try to get people focused on how to escape.

Snake's goals for life are fairly simple but encapsulate him well: to be a respected intellectual in the field of academia, to be respected by his peers and friends, to make sure his sister is safe in whatever she does and to prove to his parents that their years and years of encouragement and help with rehab will allow him to live independently.


Powers & Possessions: Reading the thoughts of people who consciously or subconsciously project them outward. Not as powerful as a telepath who can read AND project their own thoughts. Also being able to shield his mind from picking up thoughts and having his own thoughts picked up by others.

Also, being blind, he has way better hearing than the average person, can move around without a cane or a guide dog and read braille. He has a prosthesis that replaces his left hand to his elbow. It's top of the line and isn't evident at all as Snake is quite adept in using a prosthetic. It would only be somewhat noticeable if Snake were asked to do something the arm couldn't do, which would be climbing, picking up very small objects and performing precision actions with the fingers.

If permitted, Snake has a phone with him that renders speech to text and vice versa.

Samples: http://blind-badass.dreamwidth.org/3506.html
http://thetube.dreamwidth.org/1764.html?thread=563428#cmt563428

World building
Locations: n/a
Items: n/a
Magic: n/a