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Jul. 4th, 2013 11:31 pmPlayer info:
Name: Boots
Age: Over 18
Current game cast: N/A
Contact: Baekhesten (AIM)
Character info:
Name:James T. Kirk
Canon: Star Trek (2009)
Timeline: Just after Scotty's KO, on his way into the warp core
Age: 26
History/Setting: THANK.
Personality:
Jim Kirk is a cocky asshole.
He started down the path to cocky asshole early, when he stole his dad's car and ditched it in a quarry. Okay, to be fair, he only stole it because his abusive asshole of a stepfather announced he planned on selling the thing, and because it was the only connection Kirk had to his deceased father. Like hell he was letting Frank make a quick buck off of it. Okay, so driving it off a cliff didn't really help matters, but at the time Kirk probably felt he didn't have much of a choice. He felt powerless.
Powerless is not a feeling Kirk likes.
You could argue that Kirk's entire life in an exercise in not feeling powerless, in not feeling helpless. Though he was an infant at the time, it's made clear in the movie that the ghost of his father weighs heavily on Kirk. George Kirk died to save thousands. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with an increasingly long rap sheet, how is a kid like Jim supposed to follow in his dad's footsteps? Simple. Join Starfleet.
Except that's where Jim runs into a different kind of problem. He's a little bit rebellious. Maybe it's not a surprise. He's trapped between the ghost of his father's impossible legacy and the unfortunately reality of his deadbeat stepdad. He can never live up to one. He never wants to live up to the other. This unfortunately combination means that sometimes Kirk has a tiny problem with authority.
Oh. Sorry. Did I say sometimes? I meant "pretty much always."
For a kid like Kirk, so used to flaunting authority at every turn (easy, when your stepdad only gives you shitty orders), Starfleet has to be hard. And it is. There are multiple instances where Kirk gets himself into trouble, to the point he's nearly thrown out (only once that we know of) and later demoted. He's smart. He knows he's smart. When he actually reaches for things, he tends to get them. Alas, a long history of ignoring the rules and being able to charm his way out of trouble make him...
A cocky asshole.
Which is fine with Kirk, really. The cocky asshole thing ensures nobody ever gets too close. His romantic interests are less romantic and more one night stands. Even his closest friendships are antagonistic at best, and this appears, on the surface, to be exactly the way Kirk likes it.
To be fair, in some situations, that antagonism is exactly what Kirk needs. He's brash and impulsive, he doesn't look before he leaps, he makes his best decisions in high stress situations and as a result, deliberately seeks those situations out. Maybe that's why he gravitates to people who tend to look so long they never make the leap. He craves a balancing factor, even if he thrashes against its perceived authority with every stubborn, sulky cell in his body.
It's hard for someone who craves authority (superficially because he's a cocky asshole, more deeply because he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and save everyone) as much as Kirk does to submit to it at Starfleet as long as he does. No wonder he almost gets expelled. Of course, that isn't all it is. The Kobayashi Maru incident was born as much of his personal need "to be better" as it was his need "to be better than you," and that whole "need to be better than you" thing just comes from the fact that deep down (really deep) Kirk is (just a tiny bit) scared.
Being unable to do anything scares him. Being powerless scares him. Failing scares him. His whole life he's been compared to his dead father and he's never once measured up, not really. Behind the cocky asshole, the suave ladies man, the inexplicable genius, Kirk is just a kid who wants to make his dad (and himself) proud. He doesn't know how he'll ever begin to pull that off, but maybe leading hisvirgin much loved crew on his beloved ship is a decent place to start.
(It's also worth noting that at Kirk's canon pull point, he's pulling a bit of a Spock. Instead of refusing to sacrifice anyone ["All lives are important"] he's choosing to sacrifice himself ["The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."]. This is not out of character for Kirk, necessarily, but does mark a changing moment in his character as a whole--this is the moment where Kirk "grows up," if you will, and this shows down the road in his willingness to display a very intimate sort of weakness and vulnerability.)
Appearance: What gave you the RIGHT, sir? I mean really, how are his eyes even that blue.
Kirk stands a slightly-taller-than-average 6 foot or so, and he's got the powerful, broad-shouldered build you'd expect to see in an Iowa farm boy. He's also got the aforementioned beautiful baby blues, and he's not afraid to use them!
Skills/Abilities: Kirk is a certified genius. He got top marks in his tactical and survival classes, was treasurer of the xenolinguistics club (who cares if he only joined to pick up chicks?), and was good enough to be an assistant lecturer in hand-to-hand combat. Kirk is good at the things he does. Exceptionally good. He never met a task he couldn't master. He's a natural leader, his arrogance tempered by an innate charm (and those boyish good looks) and a genuine respect for (most of) the people around him. What Kirk does not have is experience, which leads to all kinds of rash, impulsive, potentially catastrophic decisions. But hey, he's managed to walk away from everything so far, which is kind of an ability in itself.
He also has an impressive ability for starting bar fights and is exceptionally skilled at getting a lot more drunk than anybody has a right to be (with the lingering hangovers to match).
Also, it's not exactly an ability, but Kirk is canonically allergic to...so many things, including common eye drops and vaccines. It makes Bones' life hell (and is also the reason that Kirk, bless his sweet heart, has to wear reading glasses. All those scientific and medical advances, for naught!).
Unfortunately, it's difficult to know more of Kirk's specific abilities. While Prime!Kirk's strengths and weaknesses are well documented, this Kirk's are less so. He's younger, not as tested and not as experienced. We just haven't seen enough of him yet to find out how he will grow into himself, and we don't yet now how different from (or similar to) his original iteration he'll ultimately become.
Items: His Starfleet blacks (no gold shirt here!), a broken communicator and a mostly discharged phaser.
Samples:
Third person sample:
Rani IV's second sun is just beginning to set when Kirk finally stumbles his way from the bridge back to his quarters. He'd thought after everything with the Narada ordeal and the inevitable media circus that followed that he'd appreciate the downtime that came with captaining the Enterprise through near endless drills and exploratory missions. Oh, he'd thought wrong.
It isn't that there's anything wrong with what they're doing on Rani IV. On the contrary, it's all very important, very significant, very diplomatic work. Hosting annual treaty renewals is a big deal, Kirk knows this. He's also bored to tears and if he has to eat one more "delicacy" from Rani IV's Southern Hemisphere, he might puke, diplomacy be damned.
Maybe he'll tell them he has an allergy to the spices. That's reasonable enough. Bones would back him up. Probably.
Kirk groans and falls face first onto his bed. It doesn't matter. They only have another day of this and then it's off to some other planet in some other star system for some sort of observe and report mission. At least that one sounds vaguely interesting. It's got a volcano. Kirk likes volcanoes. Or, well, he assumes he does. He dislikes glaciers so logically speaking, he likes volcanoes. As long as the thing doesn't blow up while he's standing on it, he reasons he'll like it just fine.
And even if it does blow up while he's standing on it, at least it can't be any worse than another round of "Braised Sargeesian Fleshworms," right?
First person sample: Q&A
Name: Boots
Age: Over 18
Current game cast: N/A
Contact: Baekhesten (AIM)
Character info:
Name:James T. Kirk
Canon: Star Trek (2009)
Timeline: Just after Scotty's KO, on his way into the warp core
Age: 26
History/Setting: THANK.
Personality:
Jim Kirk is a cocky asshole.
He started down the path to cocky asshole early, when he stole his dad's car and ditched it in a quarry. Okay, to be fair, he only stole it because his abusive asshole of a stepfather announced he planned on selling the thing, and because it was the only connection Kirk had to his deceased father. Like hell he was letting Frank make a quick buck off of it. Okay, so driving it off a cliff didn't really help matters, but at the time Kirk probably felt he didn't have much of a choice. He felt powerless.
Powerless is not a feeling Kirk likes.
"I don't believe in no-win scenarios."
You could argue that Kirk's entire life in an exercise in not feeling powerless, in not feeling helpless. Though he was an infant at the time, it's made clear in the movie that the ghost of his father weighs heavily on Kirk. George Kirk died to save thousands. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, with an increasingly long rap sheet, how is a kid like Jim supposed to follow in his dad's footsteps? Simple. Join Starfleet.
Except that's where Jim runs into a different kind of problem. He's a little bit rebellious. Maybe it's not a surprise. He's trapped between the ghost of his father's impossible legacy and the unfortunately reality of his deadbeat stepdad. He can never live up to one. He never wants to live up to the other. This unfortunately combination means that sometimes Kirk has a tiny problem with authority.
Oh. Sorry. Did I say sometimes? I meant "pretty much always."
For a kid like Kirk, so used to flaunting authority at every turn (easy, when your stepdad only gives you shitty orders), Starfleet has to be hard. And it is. There are multiple instances where Kirk gets himself into trouble, to the point he's nearly thrown out (only once that we know of) and later demoted. He's smart. He knows he's smart. When he actually reaches for things, he tends to get them. Alas, a long history of ignoring the rules and being able to charm his way out of trouble make him...
A cocky asshole.
Which is fine with Kirk, really. The cocky asshole thing ensures nobody ever gets too close. His romantic interests are less romantic and more one night stands. Even his closest friendships are antagonistic at best, and this appears, on the surface, to be exactly the way Kirk likes it.
To be fair, in some situations, that antagonism is exactly what Kirk needs. He's brash and impulsive, he doesn't look before he leaps, he makes his best decisions in high stress situations and as a result, deliberately seeks those situations out. Maybe that's why he gravitates to people who tend to look so long they never make the leap. He craves a balancing factor, even if he thrashes against its perceived authority with every stubborn, sulky cell in his body.
"Do you like being the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest?"
"Maybe I love it."
It's hard for someone who craves authority (superficially because he's a cocky asshole, more deeply because he wants to follow in his father's footsteps and save everyone) as much as Kirk does to submit to it at Starfleet as long as he does. No wonder he almost gets expelled. Of course, that isn't all it is. The Kobayashi Maru incident was born as much of his personal need "to be better" as it was his need "to be better than you," and that whole "need to be better than you" thing just comes from the fact that deep down (really deep) Kirk is (just a tiny bit) scared.
Being unable to do anything scares him. Being powerless scares him. Failing scares him. His whole life he's been compared to his dead father and he's never once measured up, not really. Behind the cocky asshole, the suave ladies man, the inexplicable genius, Kirk is just a kid who wants to make his dad (and himself) proud. He doesn't know how he'll ever begin to pull that off, but maybe leading his
(It's also worth noting that at Kirk's canon pull point, he's pulling a bit of a Spock. Instead of refusing to sacrifice anyone ["All lives are important"] he's choosing to sacrifice himself ["The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."]. This is not out of character for Kirk, necessarily, but does mark a changing moment in his character as a whole--this is the moment where Kirk "grows up," if you will, and this shows down the road in his willingness to display a very intimate sort of weakness and vulnerability.)
Appearance: What gave you the RIGHT, sir? I mean really, how are his eyes even that blue.
Kirk stands a slightly-taller-than-average 6 foot or so, and he's got the powerful, broad-shouldered build you'd expect to see in an Iowa farm boy. He's also got the aforementioned beautiful baby blues, and he's not afraid to use them!
Skills/Abilities: Kirk is a certified genius. He got top marks in his tactical and survival classes, was treasurer of the xenolinguistics club (who cares if he only joined to pick up chicks?), and was good enough to be an assistant lecturer in hand-to-hand combat. Kirk is good at the things he does. Exceptionally good. He never met a task he couldn't master. He's a natural leader, his arrogance tempered by an innate charm (and those boyish good looks) and a genuine respect for (most of) the people around him. What Kirk does not have is experience, which leads to all kinds of rash, impulsive, potentially catastrophic decisions. But hey, he's managed to walk away from everything so far, which is kind of an ability in itself.
He also has an impressive ability for starting bar fights and is exceptionally skilled at getting a lot more drunk than anybody has a right to be (with the lingering hangovers to match).
Also, it's not exactly an ability, but Kirk is canonically allergic to...so many things, including common eye drops and vaccines. It makes Bones' life hell (and is also the reason that Kirk, bless his sweet heart, has to wear reading glasses. All those scientific and medical advances, for naught!).
Unfortunately, it's difficult to know more of Kirk's specific abilities. While Prime!Kirk's strengths and weaknesses are well documented, this Kirk's are less so. He's younger, not as tested and not as experienced. We just haven't seen enough of him yet to find out how he will grow into himself, and we don't yet now how different from (or similar to) his original iteration he'll ultimately become.
Items: His Starfleet blacks (no gold shirt here!), a broken communicator and a mostly discharged phaser.
Samples:
Third person sample:
Rani IV's second sun is just beginning to set when Kirk finally stumbles his way from the bridge back to his quarters. He'd thought after everything with the Narada ordeal and the inevitable media circus that followed that he'd appreciate the downtime that came with captaining the Enterprise through near endless drills and exploratory missions. Oh, he'd thought wrong.
It isn't that there's anything wrong with what they're doing on Rani IV. On the contrary, it's all very important, very significant, very diplomatic work. Hosting annual treaty renewals is a big deal, Kirk knows this. He's also bored to tears and if he has to eat one more "delicacy" from Rani IV's Southern Hemisphere, he might puke, diplomacy be damned.
Maybe he'll tell them he has an allergy to the spices. That's reasonable enough. Bones would back him up. Probably.
Kirk groans and falls face first onto his bed. It doesn't matter. They only have another day of this and then it's off to some other planet in some other star system for some sort of observe and report mission. At least that one sounds vaguely interesting. It's got a volcano. Kirk likes volcanoes. Or, well, he assumes he does. He dislikes glaciers so logically speaking, he likes volcanoes. As long as the thing doesn't blow up while he's standing on it, he reasons he'll like it just fine.
And even if it does blow up while he's standing on it, at least it can't be any worse than another round of "Braised Sargeesian Fleshworms," right?
First person sample: Q&A
