Asher Bastien
Apr 17, 2011 2:54:53 GMT -5
Post by Asher Bastien on Apr 17, 2011 2:54:53 GMT -5
[/i][/size][/right]The Basics
Name: Asher Philip Bastien
Nicknames: Ash, Rainbow Brite, Elmo
Age: 26
Orientation: Heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: Hammel Security
Powers: "Chromokinesis, also called Chromakinesis, Chromatokinesis or Pigment/Color Manipulation is the ability to mentally manipulate photons in order to change the color of any subject. One with this ability can change the color of any desired subjects, including one’s own skin, hair and eye color, to look as though one were a different race (or as if one had/didn’t have a disease), etc." Source
Ash's power is mostly aesthetic and about as useful as going into a boss fight with a piece of wet spaghetti.
No, he can't manipulate things to the point of being invisible. But hey, if you decide that you'd rather be wearing a pink shirt instead of blue, he's totally your guy. Any changes he makes to the chromatic scale last longer on nonliving organisms than living ones; either way, they'll start fading as soon as he stops thinking about it.
He can make the photons surrounding a person cast into the exact same color in what could technically be termed a blackout, making it difficult for the target to continue a fight 'blind', find their way out of it without stubbing their toes (WHICH HURTS LIKE HELL. So, you know, take that), or not be pretty disoriented about the whole thing. Ash can only target people within short-range distance and the blackout area can be anywhere from 10'x10' to twice that size (the larger it is, however, the larger the headache, and anything kept up for longer than a minute or two will usually knock him out). From an outsider's POV, it's pretty much a big black box where there shouldn't be a big black box. While this really doesn't up his kick-assery quotient since it's not really an aggressive maneuver and all you need to do is get out of it is keep running, it slows down most close-range fights to a grinding halt 4 times out of 5 due to sheer 'wtf just happened?'-ery. It's like the most passive aggressive thing ever.
Oh, and it helps him know the difference between Eggshell and European White at Home Depot on account of having developed a chromatic scale rivaling that of your average everyday OCD-woman-who's-decided-that-the-living-room-isn't-quite-the-right-shade-and-has-dragged-her-husband-to-spend-three-hours-looking-at-color-swatches. Meaning that yes, he can have an intelligent conversation with you about which color napkin goes better with the drapes despite probably not wanting to, and he knows that periwinkle is a shade of purplish-blue and not a vestigial organ or something.
Ash tends to gets sick watching black and white films, and will literally begin to feel nauseous if he's in a room of all-white or all-black surroundings, or one completely bereft of light. Meaning he's a wuss and needs a nightlight if he doesn't want to vomit all over the place. Also, his kids seem to end up colorblind. Go figure.
Play By: Gerard Way
The Details
Hair Color: Red (naturally brunette)
Eye Color: Hazel
Any Piercings? N/A
Any Tattoos? The name Kim on his right calf with a VOID stamp over it. You know that adage about never, EVER getting names tattooed on you unless it's a dead family member or your own kid? Yeah, Ash understands why it exists now.
Any Scars? ON HIS HEART ARGH. No, he's fine. If he's got any nicks anywhere they're too small to be relevant.
General Appearance: Ash was a pudgy kid through many of his formative years. While he wouldn't be considered chubby or overweight now, the baby-fat on his face is something that he'll probably never be rid of. He's the type of guy that'll look twenty when he's thirty, and thirty when he's forty, and so on and so forth, and while this is some small comfort (since everyone likes to tell him that same old 'well you'll look great when you're older' bit ad nauseum), the added bonus of getting hassled whenever he wants to go to the club is just fantastic, guys, he loves being asked if his mother knows that he's out past curfew.
He clocks in at 5'11" without any shoes on. It's not like he wears platforms or anything so any other height-altering factors are nominal at best; it's pretty much 5'11" the whole way through, and while that's that not a terrible height to be or anything, Ash isn't exactly the most intimidating fellow working at Hammel. He's not even built particularly well, slight enough to not be considered outright chubby but possessing the skeletal structure of someone genetically inclined to weigh more. This is more commonly known as 'ENJOY BEING SKINNY WHILE YOU STILL CAN MUAHAHAHA' syndrome.
His unaltered haircolor is brown, the dull kind that looks black if he goes out at night, but since he's in a crappy band and like, all band dudes totally need weird hair because OHMIGAWD THEY NEED TO, it's dyed red. Briiiiight red. As in if he bends over to tie his shoe dogs try to pee on his head. His daughter thinks he's wearing Elmo as a hat. All he needs to do to beat traffic is stick his head out the sunroof and start making siren noises. ARE YOU GUYS GETTING HOW OBNOXIOUSLY RED IT IS? PLEASE? I'M RUNNING OUT OF ANALOGIES.
I should point out that it's red ALL the time because it's hair dye, not actually anything to do with his power. It doesn't go 'bloop' and fade back to brown in his sleep, it stays right there because he's totally BFFs with his hairdresser.
Personality: Some people are born with self-confidence and an unwavering belief in their own infallibility, while others have to learn a decent facsimile of it through a difficult trial-and-error phase that, in many cases, can take the better part of one's life; Asher was definitely one of the latter. A shy student when he attended Hammel, he 'came out of his shell' once he hit college and realized that some girls really, really liked guys who could play guitar to the point that they'd put up with almost anything. It took a few years until he found an equilibrium between that timid, insecure teenager and that cocky twenty-something taking his past frustrations out on clueless young women, but he considers himself in a good place now, and really only uses his 'skills' for good. Kind of like Scott Pilgrim. He doesn't like vegans much either.
It's not that he's fully confident in himself - just that Asher's learned how to fake it, and as long as you can walk the walk people are usually more than willing to believe that you're what you're pretending to be. It might have been a completely different case if he'd had some awesome ability like being able to throw fireballs or explode peoples' heads like in Scanners, but nope, he got the afterschool special when awesome genetics were being handed out. Anyone who delves a little deeper past Ash's crunchy outer shell of friendliness and relative charm can realize how exactly unsure he is about everything. He's a worrier and not one of those people that just drifts through life without a care. Technically, you could call it being responsible. Because he's cultivated a talent for endearing self-deprecation, he calls it being a loser.
He does NOT take bad situations well. Outwardly he'll deal with them if there's a crowd, but start a fight and he's likely to glare, give some sort of retort, move on, then agonize over it when he's trying to fall asleep. His occasional necessity to seek peace and general acceptance is a complex that's been around for at least two decades, and he can't stand having someone be mad at him for reasons he deems unfair (which are most reasons because who the hell's going to be all like, "oh, yeah, that's totally reasonable to slash my tires over a disagreement over Pringles"). Ash is one of those people who always wants to work things out immediately and pretty much makes the situation that much worse by starting a confrontation instead of waiting patiently for the other person to calm down.
Overall, though, he's a nice guy. He can lose his temper, he can say things that he doesn't mean, and he can certainly hurt other people through his actions (and a life spent only trying to make other people happy isn't worth living, after all, so everyone has that problem), but his default mode isn't set to 'insult everybody'. If you're nasty to him, he's defensive - if you're pleasant, he's pleasant right back. He'd give the shirt off his back to a stranger (although this most likely stems from his longing for acceptance as a youngster) and he's been known to exhibit occasional acts of chivalrous behavior. Ash is fully the type to hold open doors for women, young and old alike, and sometimes guys if they kind of speed up and it's awkward to just let it close because they're RIGHT there; he walks on the part of the sidewalk closest to the road, he carries shopping bags, he lies whenever he's cornered with any variation of the DOES THIS DRESS MAKE MY ASS LOOK LIKE A MAMMOTH question. He's complimentary and has the capacity to be a terribly sweet person as long as the little things are of any consequence to a person; he's more likely to bring a friend soup and a video when they're ill than he is to take a girlfriend to Paris on a whim. Probably because he can, you know, actually afford soup and a video and the last time he did anything major for a girl it resulted in her leaving him and breaking his widdle heart BAAAAAAW.
Your Vices
Likes:
Henley
Pizza
Hamsters
That one really pretty recruiter
Raindrops on Roses
Whiskers on Kittens
Doorbells
Sleighbells
Warm Woolen Mittens
Dislikes:
OH MY GOD HIS EX SHE'S NUTS ASDHKAHSDLJAHSD.
Walt Disney. Not so much the company but the dude was an ass.
Match.com commercials
The name Kurt
Strengths:
Talking to people. Ash has the just the right balance of humility and confidence, and it makes him an especially approachable person under most circumstances. He has no issue starting a conversation with a stranger and tends to show interest in what other people have to say; it's not uncommon for him to go out of his way to make someone feel better.
He plays guitar pretty decently. He's not a musical genius but he's proficient. Asher's dad got him a low-end Fender for Christmas when he was eight and he's spent enough time on it that he knows his way around a guitar, and he currently plays lead for his band (which is obviously not that well-known if he has to work a day job to pay rent). AND I BET YOU WERE ALL LIKE 'OH LAME GERARD WAY CHARACTER I BET HE SINGS'. NOOOOOPE. Well, sometimes he's backup. THAT DOESN'T COUNT.
Weaknesses:
Fragile Ego. While he's dealt with plenty of rejection in his life, it still hits him hard when someone tells him no, whether it's 'No, we're out of pizza," "No, I'm not interested in dating you," or "No, I'm kind of busy right now but we'll hang out soon." Ash either wavers between his usual healthy level of self-confidence or degeneration into a lump of sad, sad meta. Small things will bother him for hours if he's not prepared to take rejection and big things will put him out of emotional commission for weeks. And he's not one of those classy 'I'm sad but I'm going to take it like a man' people - he's the type that pulls the drapes and won't get out of bed and plays depressing classical music the entire time while clutching a photo frame to his chest. Yeah. THAT kind of sad.
Trust issues - he has them. Ash loved his ex but she's an idiot in more ways that anyone can count, and it's left some tender bits in his persona that can easily be exacerbated. Despite not being an especially difficult person to be around, he tends to start questioning peoples' motives if someone trips the mental alarm system he's got set up in his brain.
Fears: He would seriously flip out if anything happened to his daughter. His daughter's mum, not so much, but he pretty much lives for the small amount of time he gets with Henley and would be absolutely devastated if anything happened to her. It's the sort of thing that keeps him up at night. He nearly has a brain aneurysm if she trips on something.
He's also a bit terrified that Kim might pick up and leave town for whatever reason, which would obviously mean that his visitation rights would be cut.
Other than that, alien abductions, tidal waves, earthquakes, the apocalypse, whatever, he'd deal with them.
Secret: Ash was 19 and in college when he was first kissed. Pretty sad.
Family Ties
Father: Franklin Samuel Bastien, 59
Mother: Irene Marian Bastien, nee Norman, 55
Siblings: N/A
Any Other Important People:
Kimberly Carla Lowry, 26, baby mama/total douche/I actually really like her
Henley Roxanne Bastien-Lowry, 4, daughter. Yes, they named their kid after a shirt. That was the SANER choice of names. Kim wanted to call her Cheetara.
History
Asher isn't the first of the Bastien family to have attended Hammel; his father graduated from the Institute back in 1971 and went on to enroll at the community college, and then transferred to the University of Vermont, where he met his future wife. Irene came from a family that was ballsy enough to call themselves old money without much proof to fall back on, and while she was instantly smitten (or at least that's how she tells the story, and Asher's always taken everything she's ever said with a grain of salt due to her proclivity for exaggeration), the rest of the family weren't exactly welcoming to anything different than the standard American dream. Frank made the choice to conceal whatever past he could, doctored his resume, and bullshitted like crazy to get enough into the good graces of Irene's family that they approved of their marriage and eventually gave them a very nice blender.
Five years later, their wedded bliss was interrupted by the arrival of a son, although they were pretty pleased about the whole thing and for the most part don't regret it. Asher's never been in a situation where his parents were neglectful, cruel, or domineering - Irene's praised him since the second he first opened his eyes and was the type to spend fifteen minutes extolling the virtues of every fingerpainted piece of paper he brought home, while Frank, who's worked hard for most of his life as the owner of a local H&R Block, is quiet by nature and hasn't had a harsh word to say about anybody in the entire time that Ash has been alive. They're thoroughly nice, low-key people, and have made every effort to raise their son along the same vein.
While Frank was never ashamed of his gifts, he found himself using them less and less over the years, especially with his in-laws living nearby. Irene knew about them, of course (it was part of what had initially attracted her to him). However, they both agreed that unless Asher started displaying any sign of abnormality beyond the scope of weird-kid-syndrome -which happens to even the best and most prepared of families- it was their little secret. Asher never once figured Frank to be anything more than a reedy accountant that liked to jam to Led Zeppelin with him and was worse at catch than he was until he'd turned fourteen.
Ah, yes. FOURTEEN. Great age, great age. Until, you know, you wake up and your hair's pink (which would be pretty awesome if you're a girl named Mary-Sue Sunshine and you rode everyday to the magic academy on your unicorn named Twinkles, but not so much when you're a fat kid with absolutely no girly inclinations whatsoever). There honestly wasn't any dramatic reveal - he was sick for a few days, his hair went back to normal, things around the room would change color at random, and a short while later he received a letter in the mail telling him that YER A WIZARD HARRY. Actually no. It was the best next thing though. Kind of.
He was sent to Hammel after many reassurances that it was a thoroughly decent school and that if it was good enough for his dad (... to cover up) it was good enough for him too. And it was a little better. There were, of course, people who thought that the whole thing about the Earth revolving around the sun was some conspiracy and the sun, in fact, revolved around them, and there were people who were snide and otherwise unpleasant to be around. The important thing was that there were also some of his peers that were just as scared and confused as he was and he able to be friendly enough with those types that he didn't turn into one of those weird psychopathic kids. Ash was still quiet and shy and certainly struck out with the one or two girls he had developed crushes on, but he did well enough in school and tried hard to develop his skills, which did pay off enough to the point that he wasn't labeled WORST STUDENT EVER or anything and eventually graduated without killing anyone via seizures or having pig blood spilled on him.
Asher was accepted to a nearby college and managed the opposite of freshman fifteen - he actually flourished on the college diet since his mother wasn't around to shove food at him, and eventually the girls he liked started liking him back. He partook of plenty of the standard college things - joining a band with your loser friends (going on 7 years now - everyone in it is still pretty much a loser, but at least they're hot losers), dating awful people, sleeping around; Ash eventually realized that if he wore tight jeans and band shirts and talked loudly about being in one himself that he stood a better chance of attracting women, and after a point he realized that it wasn't actually that hard and he could get away with being a massive douche if he really wanted to. Eventually he 'settled' down with a girl named Kimberly, who turned out to be the sort of person that you can't trust with fifty cents and a stick of gum without expecting to find both on fire two minutes later. Ash loved her, though, and they supported each other through their last year of schooling. They moved in together, worked multiple jobs to get rent paid mostly on time, and as young, carefree couples often find when they get TOO carefree, they were thoroughly knocked up a few months into living together.
Ash proposed and she accepted, although they never closed the deal; after Henley was born Kim was hit with severe postpartum depression and disappeared for a while. Irene was ecstatic to take care of her granddaughter and while Ash tried hard to track down his fiancee, he eventually gave up and turned into a mopey angst bucket. When Kim did come back, she announced that she had decided that she wasn't marrying material (especially to mopey angst buckets), gave back the ring, and exercised her right as Henley's mother to take her and raise her as she saw fit - without Asher. It was eventually decided that he'd get her every other weekend and while he's still pretty miffed about the whole thing, he's been advised to just take it and not complain since American custody hearings are pretty whack towards dads.
After a month of two of feeling sorry for himself in an empty apartment, Asher dropped his extra job and proceeded to search for other employment in a more stable environment than grocery stores and packing companies, and decided to apply to his alma mater; for some reason probably having to do with his relatively spotless criminal record and low liability for lawsuits, he was hired as additional security around campus. Aaaaand he's been here ever since.
Roleplay Example
Stevie plays Nico Dahl as well and since he seems to be swearing or flailing in most of his posts I probably shouldn't use him as a sample.
^ Please accept this kitten gif in lieu of proper rp sample?
What About You?
[/blockquote]
Name: Stevie
Age: 23
Experience: Ages.
How Did You Find Us? My daughter-in-law Chez.
Ready To Play? I think soooo?
