[mercurycitysupers] application

[keepinitsaucy]

Player Info

Player Name: James
Over 18?: Yes
Contact:
plurk | lesgrenouilles
pms to character journal
Timezone: CST
Characters already in game: N/A


Character Info
Name: Andrew Bergman
Alias: Jersey Devil
Age and birthdate: 25 | October 31st, 1999
Home city: Mercury City
Type: Hero
Occupation: Part-time college student; part-time gas station attendant

Appearance:

PB / Icons: Adam Brody

Andy can be considered an alright looking guy -- when he cleans up. Most of the time, he leaves his hair messy, with that just rolled out of bed, maybe there was some gel in there from the previous day, 'I don’t know or care' look. At least he shaves, the alternative being one of those caterpillar ‘staches. (Though one day he wishes to grow a beard to see if it carries over to the Devil. You know. For science.)

His idea of dressing up is a polo, but most of the time, that never happens, Andy instead opting for graphic tees (of the comic variety) and jeans. His sneakers are often beat up and worn.

When out moonlighting as a superhero, he wears his own homemade costume. It’s a good thing he doesn’t realize how ridiculous it is because it consists of near-full body, purple spandex, a darker purple speedo (boxers seemed silly), a cape, black rubber science gloves, domino Halloween mask, and a big yellow JD on his chest. Hand stitched. In felt. Yes. He made it himself. No, don’t laugh.

Personality:

Andy is a huge dork. He tries really hard to be a good person, to do the right thing, all of that, but it seems that his own two feet have a habit of getting in the way, messing up anything and everything that he tries to accomplish. His heroic endeavors usually end up poorly for him, oftentimes accidentally aiding his superfoes rather than stopping them.

He does mean well, though, and his heart is in the right place. If anything can be said about Andy, it’s that he’s a nice guy, but that alone isn't going to get him very far in life. Though try as hard as he might, he’s still fairly socially awkward and has trouble connecting to people. He tries hard to impress, sometimes too hard, and that tends to turn people off to him, so he withdraws into his own little world of monster fighting and video games.

On occasion, his brain-to-mouth filter will malfunction, but that doesn’t seem to bother him, often saying whatever pops into his head first. Shame isn’t something he seems to lack, though, so this is never a problem for him. While it has the tendency to alienate him further depending on what’s said, at least what he says is genuine and it allows him to better weed out who potential friends might be.

Andy also has the tendency to get lost in his own fantasy world and is very much the day dreamer. He used to run a few games and plays lots more video games. While this gave him a healthy sense of imagination, it often led to him being picked on as a nerd at school, again making it hard for him to connect with people. If he could just continue to live in his own little fantasy world, that would be great for him. Being a long lost prince? Cool. Stopping mad scientists from destroying the world? Even better.

Even though he’s enthralled with being a superhero, Andy has no other real life ambitions. He’s content to live the life that he has and doesn’t really aspire to much else. The whole superhero thing is the only taste he’s had for anything of the sort, but that plays mostly into his desire to be something that he’s not. It's not that he doesn't dream of better things, he just lacks the drive to go out and get them.

Because of that, he is rather dependent on his little cousin and is sometimes lost without him. Charlie is far more outgoing and takes more initiative, Andy often going along for the ride. (Becoming superheroes was Charlie’s idea, things like that. His older cousin stands by as the protector and indulges in the fantasy because what’s better than being a superhero?)

Since moving to Mercury City, Andy is facing a lot of obstacles that he hasn't had to face before; being on his own is difficult and he doesn't have his little cousin to prod him into doing things. Because of this, he often spends more of his time indoors and with his video games.

Personal history:

Andy grew up in a Middletown in New Jersey, right next to a nuclear power plant. Really, he had a normal life up until the time that he hit puberty when, as we all know, changes start happening.

Unfortunately, those changes were just a little more than he had bargained for when he one night found himself transformed into what he would later dub the Jersey Devil. At first, Andrew was terrified, as he should rightly be, but soon he began to embrace this new ability.

Not long after, his mother’s sister gave birth to his baby cousin, Charlie, and Andy’s family up and moved from Middletown to Griggstown. Andy never used his power for much except to entertain Charlie as the child grew up, who became enthralled with his older cousin’s ability.

Andy never aspired to much as he got older. He went to college for a year before dropping out and coming back to live in his parents' basement. That seemed pretty alright with him and he still had Charlie to keep him company.

It wasn’t until one rainy afternoon that the boys were playing video games down in Andy’s basement bachelor pad that the idea hit them. Their conversation went something like this:

Charlie: Hey, you wanna know what would be really cool?
Andy: What?
C: If we were superheroes.
A: ...HELL YEAH.

And from that day on, they were set. Andy took the name of Jersey Devil and Charlie (after much arguing over the lameness) became the Griggstown Cow.

Together they... well. They didn’t stop much crime, but they tried.

Eventually, Andy's parents got tired of him living in their basement and not doing anything. Didn't he want to do something better with his life? Didn't he want to go out and meet people? Didn't he want to do something? They didn't so much kick him out as, well. Yes. They kicked him out, but helped him figure out what to do.

With his creativity, they helped him find game design programs at colleges and so he packed up and went to Mercury City to try to make something of himself (and the further away he was, his parents believed, the less likely he would be to move back into the basement.)

Since then, the attempted superhero act had quieted down as Andy focused more on school and his part-time job. Still, he kept the tights and mask safely tucked away in the back of his closet.

Powers:

Transformation
Andy’s only supernatural ability is shapeshifting, specifically into the form of the Jersey Devil, a horse-headed, imp like creature with bat wings. While in this form, he has enhanced strength, speed, and is less vulnerable to physical attacks. The wings don’t allow him to fly, but do give a boost to jumping and are good for gliding short distances.

Whether this is a mutant ability or something having to do with growing up next to a power plant remains a mystery. All Andy can tell you is that it's pretty neat.

Skills:

Andy can be considered a pretty creative guy, even if it's kept confined to his day dreaming. If he works at translating it over to his gaming degree, he might be able to find some success.

He also holds the high scores on several different games and don't you forget it.

Weaknesses:

Andy is incredibly clumsy and probably one of the most unlucky dudes around. His crime fighting and people saving wins are at an all-time high of zero. Supervillains consider it a plus when he shows up as Andy’s efforts to thwart evil oftentimes end up triumphing over the good instead.

Andy is also incredibly socially awkward and doesn’t really understand how to talk to people beyond family, so his relationships are usually hard to establish or tentative at best. Romantic relationships are laughable, if that, but that doesn’t stop the poor guy from dreaming.

Changing between regular Andy and Jersey Devil Andy can take a significant amount of energy to switch between forms. If too weak in one form or the other (seriously injured, on the brink of exhaustion), he won’t be able to change

RP Goals:

To break Andy out of his shell and have him become a semi-successful hero, even if it is just once.

Third person sample:

It was a lovely summer’s day in Griggstown. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and Mothman, that dastardly villain, was holding a bank heist. What could make the day more complete?

Andy had gotten the news (or, rather, had seen it on the news while flipping channels and pondering what game to play) and had suited up in his bike gear, costume safely tucked away in his backpack, as he headed down the asphalt street toward the bank. It sucked that Charlie was in school right now or else he’d have his little cousin sidekick with him, but this would make a cool story to tell him over homework later.

Today. Maybe today was the day that he would finally get to punch Mothman in his ridiculous, giant goggled face. That’s what the guy would get for going around, collapsing bridges, and trying to steal the girl he had a thing for. Not that she knew of course, but he’d get around to telling her one day, he was sure. It wasn’t like it was easy to talk when you went around fighting bad guys and stopping danger.

Oh man, maybe she’d be there to try to stop him too! Andy’s heart fluttered (or maybe it was the exertion of peddling so hard, he wasn’t sure) at the thought. The mental image of her there, with Andy standing over the defeated Mothman, hanging off his arm caused him to grin. Oh, Andy, you’re such a hunk of a hero, kiss me~

And it’d be like a real kiss, too, not like when he played seven minutes in heaven in 6th grade at that lame party and gotten his braces tangled with Jess Finkman’s. That didn’t count.

Andy’s head was soon in the clouds, he didn’t notice that the street was beginning to curve or that there was a large brick building was looming in the not too-far-away distance.

At least he was wearing a helmet.

In Character Responses


The greater good is… something we have to work towards!

Your greatest strengths are… I have the highest Pac Man score at the local arcade.

Killing is… something to avoid at all costs. There are ways around it and, er, it's not a means to any end.

Teachers and mentor figures would say you are… I think they'd say I was a little spacey. I, uh, tried though?

Sacrifice is… important when it comes to things that matter.

When you were younger you… wanted to be a superhero. Big surprise, huh?