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Apr. 7th, 2016 01:50 amPlayer name: Carley
Player contact: shockvaluecola on aim and plurk
Player age: 26
Characters already played: Raylan and Orla
Name: Melinda Artemis Blackburn
Journal: burnthewicked
Canon: Pacific Rim OC
Canon point: March 2019, before the events of the film
Age: 23
Reference: http://pacificrim.wikia.com/wiki/Pacific_Rim_Wiki For her universe!
Melinda had a fairly typical childhood in Florida with a twin brother and older sister. She and her brother were overly codependent as children, but when they got to high school and had some choice and autonomy over when they could be together and apart, they got more independent of their own free will -- the problem had been when they were separated unwillingly. They chose to go into the Coast Guard to pay for college once they'd graduated high school in 2013. They were in basic training when the first kaiju attacked, and they committed to being career military because it became clear that getting out of the Coast Guard would be unrealistic.
In July 2015, the Jaeger program was opened for applications, and the twins -- currently separated by far-flung postings -- immediately applied, suspecting they'd be drift compatible. Their application was accepted quickly because the higher-ups suspected the same thing, and they began training to pilot a Mark 2 jaeger. At first their jaeger, Wicked Queen, was based out of Lima, Peru, with their first drop being in August 2016, not long after the Shatterdome there was established. In January 2017, Wicked Queen had her fifth drop and first kill. In July 2017 they were transferred to the new Los Angeles Shatterdome, where they've been since, racking up a total of four kills.
Personality: Melinda is very shy. She has legitimate social anxiety, particularly about public events or new situations, and has taken anti-anxiety medication to help her deal with it, although she'll only do this when there is no chance she'll have to pilot in the next twenty-four hours. The PPDC knows about her condition and is willing to allow her this medication as long as it's out of her system by the time she's in the pod -- for that reason, she can't take anything long-lasting. It helps that anxiety medication is a common prescription to handle drift hangover, so she's far from the only one. However, the easy assumption of a shy person is that she's secretly nice underneath the surface, which is not the case with Melinda.
Melinda can be kind of a bitch. She's not inclined to be polite or restrained if someone else isn't being so, and she finds the best way to defend herself against well-meaning extroverts is to come off like an ice queen. A girl in the corner who looks scared and shy might attract a flock of people trying to get her to open up; a girl in the corner looking bored and irritable will drive most people off. She's perfected the resting bitch face and cold glare. She finds it easiest, though, when her brother is there, because she can use him as a shield and have him do all the talking so she doesn't have to. This is how she tends to behave in public interviews or speaking occasions, letting Marek field the questions and just dropping in some snark periodically.
When he's around, Marek is about 85% of Melinda's impulse control. When she's without him she can still handle herself, but she tends to make stupid mistakes from not thinking things through, or get too fixated on the details. In her most natural state Melinda would be extremely reckless, but the military separated her from her brother and trained a lot of it out of her. Now, she tends to stew for a long time and try to learn everything about her opponent she possibly can, just to feel like she's doing something, until she can strike. As a result, she can get too fixated on details or hung up on small things that don't matter, rather than seeing the bigger picture. She's nitpicky.
Melinda and her brother bicker a lot, but it's sort of just how they talk, and calling each other bad names is how they say "I love you." She'll get this way with anyone she feels sufficiently comfortable with, although she'll pepper in actual terms of endearment for people who might not get it. Despite not liking people as a group, an abstract concept, she's a fan of some individuals. No one will ever come close to her connection to her brother, of course. She puts his needs above her own, which only stops short of putting his life first because she knows what it would do to him to lose her (because it would do the same thing to her if she lost him). She has independence and can function fine without him, but she feels like she's meant to operate in a team, and her brother will always be her first priority.
CRAU: n/a
Skills and attributes: Melinda is at a military level of fitness, reasonably proficient in basic skills like athleticism and marksmanship. She also has a high degree of control over her mind, necessary for piloting a jaeger. There's also a low-level psychic connection she has with her brother at all times, a side effect of drifting frequently and for long periods.
First person sample: http://templegetitgetit.dreamwidth.org/948.html?thread=181684#cmt181684
Third person sample: http://templegetitgetit.dreamwidth.org/948.html?thread=202932#cmt202932
Player contact: shockvaluecola on aim and plurk
Player age: 26
Characters already played: Raylan and Orla
Name: Melinda Artemis Blackburn
Journal: burnthewicked
Canon: Pacific Rim OC
Canon point: March 2019, before the events of the film
Age: 23
Reference: http://pacificrim.wikia.com/wiki/Pacific_Rim_Wiki For her universe!
Melinda had a fairly typical childhood in Florida with a twin brother and older sister. She and her brother were overly codependent as children, but when they got to high school and had some choice and autonomy over when they could be together and apart, they got more independent of their own free will -- the problem had been when they were separated unwillingly. They chose to go into the Coast Guard to pay for college once they'd graduated high school in 2013. They were in basic training when the first kaiju attacked, and they committed to being career military because it became clear that getting out of the Coast Guard would be unrealistic.
In July 2015, the Jaeger program was opened for applications, and the twins -- currently separated by far-flung postings -- immediately applied, suspecting they'd be drift compatible. Their application was accepted quickly because the higher-ups suspected the same thing, and they began training to pilot a Mark 2 jaeger. At first their jaeger, Wicked Queen, was based out of Lima, Peru, with their first drop being in August 2016, not long after the Shatterdome there was established. In January 2017, Wicked Queen had her fifth drop and first kill. In July 2017 they were transferred to the new Los Angeles Shatterdome, where they've been since, racking up a total of four kills.
Personality: Melinda is very shy. She has legitimate social anxiety, particularly about public events or new situations, and has taken anti-anxiety medication to help her deal with it, although she'll only do this when there is no chance she'll have to pilot in the next twenty-four hours. The PPDC knows about her condition and is willing to allow her this medication as long as it's out of her system by the time she's in the pod -- for that reason, she can't take anything long-lasting. It helps that anxiety medication is a common prescription to handle drift hangover, so she's far from the only one. However, the easy assumption of a shy person is that she's secretly nice underneath the surface, which is not the case with Melinda.
Melinda can be kind of a bitch. She's not inclined to be polite or restrained if someone else isn't being so, and she finds the best way to defend herself against well-meaning extroverts is to come off like an ice queen. A girl in the corner who looks scared and shy might attract a flock of people trying to get her to open up; a girl in the corner looking bored and irritable will drive most people off. She's perfected the resting bitch face and cold glare. She finds it easiest, though, when her brother is there, because she can use him as a shield and have him do all the talking so she doesn't have to. This is how she tends to behave in public interviews or speaking occasions, letting Marek field the questions and just dropping in some snark periodically.
When he's around, Marek is about 85% of Melinda's impulse control. When she's without him she can still handle herself, but she tends to make stupid mistakes from not thinking things through, or get too fixated on the details. In her most natural state Melinda would be extremely reckless, but the military separated her from her brother and trained a lot of it out of her. Now, she tends to stew for a long time and try to learn everything about her opponent she possibly can, just to feel like she's doing something, until she can strike. As a result, she can get too fixated on details or hung up on small things that don't matter, rather than seeing the bigger picture. She's nitpicky.
Melinda and her brother bicker a lot, but it's sort of just how they talk, and calling each other bad names is how they say "I love you." She'll get this way with anyone she feels sufficiently comfortable with, although she'll pepper in actual terms of endearment for people who might not get it. Despite not liking people as a group, an abstract concept, she's a fan of some individuals. No one will ever come close to her connection to her brother, of course. She puts his needs above her own, which only stops short of putting his life first because she knows what it would do to him to lose her (because it would do the same thing to her if she lost him). She has independence and can function fine without him, but she feels like she's meant to operate in a team, and her brother will always be her first priority.
CRAU: n/a
Skills and attributes: Melinda is at a military level of fitness, reasonably proficient in basic skills like athleticism and marksmanship. She also has a high degree of control over her mind, necessary for piloting a jaeger. There's also a low-level psychic connection she has with her brother at all times, a side effect of drifting frequently and for long periods.
First person sample: http://templegetitgetit.dreamwidth.org/948.html?thread=181684#cmt181684
Third person sample: http://templegetitgetit.dreamwidth.org/948.html?thread=202932#cmt202932
