ataraxion: application
Dec. 14th, 2015 06:42 pmP L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: MJ
OOC Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unbeliever
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: No
Email + IM: deathfromahug1979@gmail.com
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Remus Lupin, Fenris
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name:Mr. President Thomas J. Whitmore
Canon: Independence Day
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: End of the film
Setting: Earth, 1996, with some subtle differences, including a real (but hushed-up) alien crash near Roswell back when and alien abductees who are telling the truth, alternate-universe political figures (such as this character), and a recent full-scale alien invasion that completely wrecked a number of the world's major cities before being thwarted by a lack of McAfee.
History: Apparently this franchise has a wiki.
Personality: Whitmore is good in a crisis. While Earth is being invaded by super hostile alien forces, he stays cool under enormous amounts of pressure, quiet and focused about his self-doubt, and--though obviously devastated--dry-faced, if not dry-eyed, through the death of his wife. He's the kind of man who stands his ground and tries to follow the path of a ricocheting bullet while everyone around him ducks blindly. At one point he attempts to have civil peace talks with a violent invader that's communicating via a tentacle wrapped around the throat of a freshly-killed corpse. He's very hard to shake.
Out of a crisis, unfortunately, he's not so impressive. After being elected--at a noteworthy young age--on the basis of his Gulf War leadership experience, Whitmore was a disappointment to his electorate and plunged in the polls when he traded his unyielding campaign rhetoric for attempts at compromise and actual governance. A background pundit remarks that the American people elected a warrior but got a wimp, and his approach to Congress is compared to little orphan Oliver asking for more gruel. Throughout the film, he's shown to let his advisors push him around more than is admirable, until he finally snaps and fires his Secretary of Defense--the only time in the film he really raises his voice, and even that is something he might not have done if the whole planet weren't backed into a corner and he hadn't just lost his wife.
His coolheadedness doesn't translate into good decisions, crisis or no crisis. When the invading space ships park above a number of major U.S. cities, Whitmore chooses not to evacuate them to avoid a panic, and the resulting death toll is staggering. He also nukes Texas and accomplishes approximately nothing. Neither of these things makes him break down, but he does bend under the weight of it. He misses war--normal war--because it was simpler when the orders were coming down from someone else and what he had to do was laid out in black and white. When they do land on a plan, he's quick to trade his suit and tie for a jumpsuit and helmet and go back to what he's really good at.
It's difficult to separate Whitmore from his job, which is a 24/7 gig, but he's shown to be warm and doting with his wife and daughter, whom he calls Munchkin with all but literal heart eyes, and he gets along well with the members of his staff who are not assholes. Meanwhile, he's cold and unimpressed with David Levinson in a way that suggests he doesn't easily forgive slights against his dignity or his beautiful presidential face. Sometimes he's funny, in a subdued, dry way. He takes criticism calmly and is more likely to grow resigned and bitter than angry; facing an onslaught of insults from the morning press before he's even had his coffee, his response is a smile and, "Isn't it amazing how quickly everyone can turn against you?"
Whitmore has a small daughter who would be orphaned without him, so in Ataraxion finding a way home will remain his top priority for probably ever.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Whitmore is a baseline human whose skills include flying fighter jets, military/wartime leadership, manful cowboy squinting, and delivering speeches without teleprompters. He briefly had an invading alien telepathically invade his head and reveal their whole world-destroying strategy, so he may know a thing or two outside normal human experience and be able to bring a unique perspective to something, someday, but it's nothing that will translate into usable skills. He is President of his world's United States, but he isn't actually very good at it.
Inventory: Flight suit and helmet/accessories; PA system; wedding ring.
Species/Race: Human
Appearance: Bill Pullman c. 1996, 6'2", with particularly presidential hair.
Age: 45, let's say.
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Your Name: MJ
OOC Journal:
unbelieverUnder 18? If yes, what is your age?: No
Email + IM: deathfromahug1979@gmail.com
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Remus Lupin, Fenris
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name:
Canon: Independence Day
Original or Alternate Universe: Original
Canon Point: End of the film
Setting: Earth, 1996, with some subtle differences, including a real (but hushed-up) alien crash near Roswell back when and alien abductees who are telling the truth, alternate-universe political figures (such as this character), and a recent full-scale alien invasion that completely wrecked a number of the world's major cities before being thwarted by a lack of McAfee.
History: Apparently this franchise has a wiki.
Personality: Whitmore is good in a crisis. While Earth is being invaded by super hostile alien forces, he stays cool under enormous amounts of pressure, quiet and focused about his self-doubt, and--though obviously devastated--dry-faced, if not dry-eyed, through the death of his wife. He's the kind of man who stands his ground and tries to follow the path of a ricocheting bullet while everyone around him ducks blindly. At one point he attempts to have civil peace talks with a violent invader that's communicating via a tentacle wrapped around the throat of a freshly-killed corpse. He's very hard to shake.
Out of a crisis, unfortunately, he's not so impressive. After being elected--at a noteworthy young age--on the basis of his Gulf War leadership experience, Whitmore was a disappointment to his electorate and plunged in the polls when he traded his unyielding campaign rhetoric for attempts at compromise and actual governance. A background pundit remarks that the American people elected a warrior but got a wimp, and his approach to Congress is compared to little orphan Oliver asking for more gruel. Throughout the film, he's shown to let his advisors push him around more than is admirable, until he finally snaps and fires his Secretary of Defense--the only time in the film he really raises his voice, and even that is something he might not have done if the whole planet weren't backed into a corner and he hadn't just lost his wife.
His coolheadedness doesn't translate into good decisions, crisis or no crisis. When the invading space ships park above a number of major U.S. cities, Whitmore chooses not to evacuate them to avoid a panic, and the resulting death toll is staggering. He also nukes Texas and accomplishes approximately nothing. Neither of these things makes him break down, but he does bend under the weight of it. He misses war--normal war--because it was simpler when the orders were coming down from someone else and what he had to do was laid out in black and white. When they do land on a plan, he's quick to trade his suit and tie for a jumpsuit and helmet and go back to what he's really good at.
It's difficult to separate Whitmore from his job, which is a 24/7 gig, but he's shown to be warm and doting with his wife and daughter, whom he calls Munchkin with all but literal heart eyes, and he gets along well with the members of his staff who are not assholes. Meanwhile, he's cold and unimpressed with David Levinson in a way that suggests he doesn't easily forgive slights against his dignity or his beautiful presidential face. Sometimes he's funny, in a subdued, dry way. He takes criticism calmly and is more likely to grow resigned and bitter than angry; facing an onslaught of insults from the morning press before he's even had his coffee, his response is a smile and, "Isn't it amazing how quickly everyone can turn against you?"
Whitmore has a small daughter who would be orphaned without him, so in Ataraxion finding a way home will remain his top priority for probably ever.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Whitmore is a baseline human whose skills include flying fighter jets, military/wartime leadership, manful cowboy squinting, and delivering speeches without teleprompters. He briefly had an invading alien telepathically invade his head and reveal their whole world-destroying strategy, so he may know a thing or two outside normal human experience and be able to bring a unique perspective to something, someday, but it's nothing that will translate into usable skills. He is President of his world's United States, but he isn't actually very good at it.
Inventory: Flight suit and helmet/accessories; PA system; wedding ring.
Species/Race: Human
Appearance: Bill Pullman c. 1996, 6'2", with particularly presidential hair.
Age: 45, let's say.
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
They've fixed a few machine guns on the turrets, by now. It's raining hot, tropical buckets, and from out of the jungle, something is coming. Not now, not yet, but soon enough that this can't wait until the clouds disperse. Whitmore has mud coating his pants, up to his knees, and his hands are slipping on an oily link of bullets. His hair does not look nice.Comms Sample:
"At home, I had people for this kind of thing," he says.
By people, he means the United States military. But his sardonic tone is quiet, aimed inward. He's not bragging. He's apologizing for his slipping fingers, even though there's nothing particularly inexpert about them. He knows his way around guns maybe half as well as he knows his way around a fighter jet, but that's still quite a ways around.
As soon as he's said it, the bolt fixes in place.
Whitmore stands up to wipe both hands on the relatively clean thighs of his pants and survey the weapon--not with any air of self-satisfaction, or even relief. More like he's glad the gun decided to cooperate before he had to do something drastic and he has his eye on it in case it gets any further ideas.
[ Whitmore has a good face for television, but no one gets to see it right now. His voice isn't bad, though. ]
I've been been informed that some of you--those of you who aren't from this world--
[ There's a flicker of a pause. This world is wrong. No one he's addressing is from this world. If he were writing this down first, he'd scratch it out. But, again, it's only a flicker. ]
--have returned home before, somehow. I understand that you don't know how or why, and I understand that a lot of you have But I would like to speak with you about it. If someone has kept records on the phenomenon, I need to see those, too.
[ There is a delay long enough for him to remember that no one here cares who he is. Eventually that might be kind of nice. Right now, it's grating. But he adds: ]
When you have time.
Please.
