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[headinjuries]

APPLICATION
Player Name: Sam
Plurk Handle: estamir
Other characters: Hal Jordan (ringslinging), Donatello (nerdninja)

Character Name: Sam Alexander
Fandom: Marvel 616
Character Journal:
OU, AU, or OC? OU
If canon, canon point: Nova v5 #23
PB: -
Superhero Name: Nova

History: wiki!

Additional OC and AU Background: -

Personality: What do you do when your father tells you stories about being special ops in an intergalactic force of space cops, fighting evil and visiting alien planets?

If you're Sam Alexander, you don't believe him, and it really screws with your relationship.

Sam was always considered one of the losers at school; money is always kind of tight, his father was the school janitor (when he wasn't drunk off his ass and not showing up), and Sam is mouthy enough not to just take the bullying and shut up. He's constantly in trouble for getting into fights, his attendance record is in the pits, and when his story starts, he's got a tremendous chip on his shoulder about all of it - but especially about his father. He's mad at his father for being drunk, for being a loser, for telling all his stupid stories about adventures in space - but despite all that, he still loves his father and there's a reparable relationship in there somewhere. For all the complaining and the trash-talking, Sam does everything in his power to cover for his dad, support his family, and try to make things better. He sneaks back into school after hours to clean bathrooms when his father is too drunk to finish, and he's careful not to shatter any of his little sister's illusions about how great their dad is.

And when he finds out that all of the space bullshit was actually true, and his father is stranded somewhere out there in the galaxy in need of help, Sam is determined to find him and bring him home.

Getting superpowers initially has about the expected effect on Sam of handing massive power to a teenage boy; he has some big ego trips, blasts off half-cocked, and makes messes of things before he makes them better. But even if he is most definitely a smartass, cocky teenage boy, Sam is also a genuinely good person under his bluster, and so it's not long after he's inherited his father's power as Nova that he starts to adjust to the responsibility that comes with it. His first few attempts to do heroic deeds go pretty horribly, but he does his best to straighten out his messes and do better the next time - which he usually does, even if "better" still usually translates to "rushing straight in and realizing the bad parts of that plan after they blow up in his face."

Still, it isn't really accurate to call Sam stupid; his school principal observes at one point that Sam is intelligent, and really isn't much like the usual truancy cases he deals with. Sam goes out of his way to learn Morse code so he can talk to spaceships he's bailing out, Sam gets put in the chess club as a deal to stay out of detention, and while he initially complains a lot, he's seen to really warm up to it over time. When a temporary issue with his powers and his injuries keeps him grounded for a while, he appears to be doing a pretty solid job in school - it's just that staying still isn't in his nature, nor is keeping his mouth shut, and he'd rather act (or mouth off, or both) first and think about it afterwards.

What it all comes down to, really, is that when Sam cares about something, he goes all out and he's a force to be reckoned with - when lives are on the line, when his family is on the line, when he sees something and knows he can help with that. But a lot of the mundane stuff hardly clicks, in comparison, or it's a choice between homework and heroism, and the one where people might die if he doesn't do something wins.

Keeping his mouth shut never wins, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Canon Powers: He can tap into the Nova Force, which does all kinds of things as the plot requires, but mostly we see him using flight, enhanced physical capabilities, and energy manipulation. He's made some convincing illusions - in one case he tricked an enemy into thinking he was surrendering, but it was just a holographic projection of himself. His helmet does some quality-of-life stuff like translating and navigating for him.

Game powers: One super badass power: energy manipulation. Mostly this comes down to blasting things, shielding himself, and charging straight through things at high power, but he's done some more out there stuff, like focusing his energy into a starship's dead battery to get it working again, that I think would still be possible this way.

Abilities: He speaks some Spanish, but isn't fully fluent, and knows Morse code, but still tends to make some mistakes when using it. He's a good skateboarder, mentions that he used to play baseball, and is good at video games, which he cites as having helped him get the hang of blasting around with his powers.

Setting: Superhero adventures in space are right up Sam's alley, so he'll be throwing himself headfirst into helping the Legion - maybe throwing himself headfirst a little too hard, but a lot of his character arc has been doing stupid shit and then getting help from more experienced heroes to realize what he did wrong and what he needs to do about it, which I expect will continue here. The fact that he's legally an adult in this setting might get to his head a little, but he's generally receptive to having some sense knocked back into him once he cools down and gets over his initial bout of "you can't do that."

SAMPLES

Prose Sample:
Your character is with the team at a fancy diplomatic party and a UP dignitary (Coluan, naturally, because man, that whole planet seems to be chock fill of arrogant dicks) has called into question the character's ability to be a Legionnaire and whether or not they, some weirdo interdimensional stranger, have the personal character to help protect the United Planets. How do they respond?

Naturally, the question came when Sam had just stuffed three too many hors d'oeuvres in his mouth at once, because fancy stuff was boring but at least the food was pretty okay, and for some reason the fancier the food was, the smaller everything got. What was even the point of that?

Naturally, he didn't stop to consider this before he tried to answer the question, and his first attempt was lost in an unintelligible blur.

"Csssmmnova -" Okay, not getting anywhere. He shook his head, swallowed, and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "Sorry. I mean, not too sorry, those things are delicious, whatever they are, but anyway - because I'm Nova."

There was a beat, as he considered how thoroughly unimpressed the group of diplomats seemed to be by that proclamation.

"Right, okay, I know, it doesn't sound that great here, since nobody's even heard of us in this dimension." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "But the Nova Corps is kind of known for the same thing as your Legion, back where I come from? Or was. I'm the last one, as far as I can tell, and the others were gone before I even got the power, so I've kind of had to teach myself what I'm doing..."

"And that has gone well?" one of the dignitaries asked, leaning in with a touch of interest.

"Hell no, it hasn't. I accidentally saved a slaver from the guys who were trying to catch him and gave him his escape route halfway across the galaxy." Sam took a deep breath. "But as soon as I found out what was really going on, I chased him back down, and I stopped him. I've done some pretty stupid stuff because I didn't know any better. But I'm learning, and I'm doing everything I can to fix my messes when I make them. I just want to leave things better than I found them."

The Coluan looked like he would settle for that answer, at least, even if he wasn't impressed. Yeah, whatever, I'll show him sooner or later, he thought, and after a moment, he hazarded a look across the rest of the group.

The others seemed more content with his answer. One or two even did look impressed.

Hey, maybe I didn't do so bad. Just don't ruin it, don't ruin it -

"And come on, maybe I got all my really big screw-ups out of the way in my home, so I won't make them in yours?"

- yeah, totally ruined it.


Network Sample:
Welcome to the Legion, rookie. As a way of helping your character cope with their circumstances and have an optimistic outlook towards the future, the existing Legionnaires want them to record a message to their future self with their thoughts on their current situation, what they hope to accomplish in their time with the Legion, and the first thing they want to do when they get sent safely home or to the dimension of their choice.

[ Sam doesn't have a problem getting the recording going, albeit at a slightly pretentious "this'll look great on Instagram" angle, and he doesn't look a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera. Benefits of coming from the selfie generation. ]

Okay, message for my future self. Didn't we get this as an English assignment once? Is it really that bad to bail on an assignment if I'm the only person who winds up grading it?

Good job, Sam! A-plus for you, back to punching bad guys now.

[ And then he sighs and leans back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. ]

...yeah, yeah, and I'd still know I bailed. Having a conscience is no fun sometimes.

But I think this'll be pretty okay, I guess. I mean, it's kind of like hanging with thirtieth century Avengers, but they're younger and probably have cooler taste in music than Captain America. It's kind of nice to have somebody at your back. To not...be alone.

So maybe by the time I watch this again I'll have learned some totally sick new moves or something. Fastball Special? I guess I never really needed anyone to do the throwing part, though.

And hopefully they'll have this going home stuff figured out, because Dad's still out there and now there's another galaxy in the way.


Additional info: At current canon point, he's just broken his arm. I don't know if the UP's level of medical tech is good enough to fix that quickly or if he'll have to put up with it for a while, but I'm happy to play it either way, because what fun is a character if you don't give them reasons to hate everything.