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runes_brandAPPLICATION
Player Name/Handle: Kaylin
Plurk Handle:
Preferred pronouns (optional): she/her
Player Status: Current Player
Other characters: Stacia Novik
Invited by: n/a
Character Name: Brandon “Brand” Saint John
Fandom: The Tarot Sequence by K.D. Edwards
Character Journal:
runes_brandOU, AU, CRAU, Canon OC, or OC? OU
Canon point: After “Scenes from Quarantine” novelette
Age: Brand is mid-to-late thirties
PB: David Giuntoli
SETTING BACKGROUND
For all characters types, please give us some background on the setting they're from here. This should be extremely basic. (Please keep this under 200 words.)
The Tarot Sequence is the story of Rune, heir to the fallen Sun Court of New Atlantis, his partner-slash-bodyguard Brand, and the found family they build along the way. The setting is largely similar to the modern world, except that humanity discovered the existence of the hidden magical island of Atlantis in 1961. This, naturally, lead to a lot of freaking out and also a World War; and now New Atlantis has made its home in what used to be Nantucket. It’s a story of secrets, trauma recovery, magic, and occasionally righteously losing your shit and lighting everything on fire.
HISTORY
For all types: Regardless of character type, list your character's history in bullet points format. (Please keep this under 800 words).
(cw: sexual assault of a minor)
➤ Born after the Atlantean World War, an infant Brand was acquired from a couple from Boston by a powerful Atlantean family and metaphysically bonded to their own infant son Rune
➤During childhood, Brand was trained in everything necessary for him to be a good Companion: armed and unarmed combat, reading a room for threats, all that good bodyguard stuff. He googled his biological family, but that was sufficient to satisfy his curiosity on that front; he much preferred to stay with the life he knew
➤When Brand and Rune were fifteen, the Sun Court was raided by unknown attackers and everyone else was killed. Brand was incapacitated and Rune was assaulted for hours before the two of them managed to escape
➤Rune and Brand were taken in by Lord Tower, Rune’s father’s best friend. Tower’s son tormented Rune, creeping on him and cornering him, and Brand beat the shit out of Tower’s son so thoroughly that not even healing magic could straighten his nose again. Brand still has scars on his back from being whipped as punishment. The lesson Brand took from this was “don’t get caught”
➤Over the course of the next twenty years, Brand honed his own skills, taught Rune how to fight dirty, and the two of them made a reputation for themselves as, effectively, private investigators
➤In their mid-thirties, Rune accidentally becomes guardian of a teenage boy named Max, in part because he ignored Brand’s order to stay put. Brand shoves Max’s head in the toilet for being rude to their housekeeper, Queenie
➤Lord Tower hires Rune and Brand to find his (adult) godson, Addam. This includes many shenanigans, including a lot of attacks by the undead, Rune seducing Addam by being nice to Addam’s younger brother, and Brand having to let Rune go into danger without him three separate times
➤Brand, Rune, and
➤Max is almost kidnapped by the Hanged Man (THM), a powerful Atlantean to whom Max has been promised in marriage. Brand and Rune agree: fuck that noise
➤Brand finds an excuse for them to investigate THM: the disappearance of Layne Dawncreek, the oldest child of a former member of the Sun Court
➤Brand and Rune almost have a fight stemming from their respective fears and traumas. This is important because they have literally never fought before. It’s awful and they end up all but cuddling in the middle of the local red light district
➤Rune officially claims his father’s throne so that he can formally petition for a raid against THM. Brand is super proud of him, and also gets to blow shit up with smuggled plastic explosives
➤THM kidnaps the rest of the Dawncreeks and everything is horrible for a bit, especially the part where THM takes control of Brand. Brand manages to stab him and fuck up his plans anyway, and THM gets dead
➤Brand, Rune, and company (now feat. the Dawncreeks) move back to and start repairing Rune’s family’s Estate
PERSONALITY
What is the character's personality like? Please take care to talk about both their thoughts and motivations and their outward actions. (Please keep this under 1000 words.)
Brand is diligent, attentive, and constantly vigilant. He lost his whole family and failed to protect the most important person in his life all in a single night, and he’ll be damned if it happens again. If that means that he has to run background checks on all the waitstaff in a restaurant for a date night, fight an unkillable undead wizard, or hide a camera in Rune’s room because the man cannot dress himself, then so be it.
Above all, Brand is committed to safeguarding Rune, and will interpose his body between his friend’s and danger without a second thought. The prospect of outliving Rune is his greatest fear, and he has been known to secretly punish those who have harmed Rune.
He is dedicated to gathering knowledge, skills, and other tools for every conceivable situation he and Rune could possibly end up in, and those situations are only getting stranger and more dangerous. Fortunately, he is a man of many skills, many pockets, and many, many knives. He’s also the type of person to replace the laces in his running shoes with garrotes, just in case. He’s focused primarily on the practical, how to make things work and how to make sure everyone he cares about makes it out alive. He also strives to empower the people he care for and ensure that they know how to defend themselves in his absence. This doesn’t mean that he won’t let one of his people fall flat on their face in a situation that isn’t life-or-death; he’s more than happy to sit and watch in smug silence as his person discovers the mistake for themselves. How else are they going to learn better in the future?
Brand isn’t exactly possessive of his people, but he is territorial – again, especially when it comes to Rune. His attitude there can be boiled down to “this isn’t a competition. But if it were, you’d lose”. Once he feels that fact has been established and understood, he’s perfectly happy to co-opt the new arrival into the care of his people: for example, after demonstrating to Addam that he is, in fact, a smokin’ hottie with a big dick, he makes it clear that he’s not putting the movies on Rune but is actually massaging an old injury. When Addam expresses interest in the care of said injury, he and Brand have a perfectly pleasant conversation.
While Brand is adept at providing emotional support to his loved ones, he’s not comfortable with “sappy stuff”. He’s a problem-solver and a straight-shooter, he won’t flinch from saying “what’s wrong”, “I love you”, “you’re important to me”, or any number of other things along those lines; but trying to say something like that back to him will at best get you an eye roll and a playful shove. However, he does have a blind spot when it comes to things his loved ones have buried or refuse to talk about. He doesn’t dig, and since they don’t want to talk about it, he’ll allow himself to ignore it.
In general, Brand is taciturn, gruff, and impatient. He detests small talk and would prefer to be left alone or to sit in companionable silence (with a beer, for preference). He’s also a motivated morning person, and has a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor. He can be hotheaded and impertinent, especially in response to perceived arrogance or self-importance in those around him. Brand is very comfortable with physical violence and is sometimes unconcerned with collateral damage in his pursuit of Rune’s safety.
CANON POWERS
If they have superpowers in canon please list a full list of them here just so we have them somewhere, even if you're not using them in game.
The only powers Brand has in canon are through his Companion Bond with Rune. Mostly, that means that Brand can sense Rune’s emotions, be healed by Atlantean magic, and he ages at the same rate Rune does (forward or backward). The Bond can be used to affect Brand (Rune has sent energy along it to shake Brand free from mind control and someone more powerful than either of them once reached out to Brand through it), but he is a passive recipient only.
POWER SELECTION
Canon/Noospheric Powers
Canon powers:
I’d like to keep the Companion Bond between Rune and Brand (with Kelly’s permission) such that they can sense each other’s emotions.
Noospheric powers:
Source of the powers: Brand is a bodyguard and, as such, uses his body as a physical source of protection for others (mostly Rune).
Powers: Body-swap
Brand can switch places with a single person within his line of sight. Doing so is approximately as tiring as sprinting the relative distance between himself and the other person, and can be disorienting for both people if he and his target are facing different directions. He cannot swap places with someone through a video feed; binoculars are theoretically possible but even someone in as good of shape as Brand is would be exhausted after making the attempt.
ABILITIES
➤Combat: Brand is trained in a variety of martial disciplines, both armed and unarmed. He has a strong preference for knives, throwing knives, handguns, and sniper rifles. He is in excellent physical shape due to his diligent training regime.
➤Siegecraft: Sometimes a guy has to be prepared to fight an army from a fortified location. No biggie.
➤Human anatomy: Not just limited to where to deliver a kidney punch, Brand also knows a thing or two about how to make things stop hurting: he trained with a massage therapist for six weeks as a present for Rune, and gives excellent back massages.
➤Security: Every time they visit Lord Tower, Brand finds and crushes all of the listening devices in the room. He also puts these skills to work tossing rooms when he and Rune are working on an investigation, and to make sure that they’re not being tailed on the road.
➤Adaptability: Brand and Rune work as a pair and Rune occasionally does things that are unexpected and unusual. Or, sometimes, Brand gets locked out of a room where Rune is under attack and he has to make a new door (car through a wall works pretty well). And sometimes Rune is a lying little shit and Brand has to figure out what he’s not saying.
➤Technology: Brand is very comfortable with technology, especially things like drones, explosives, and other security technology. He also knows more about Rune’s cell phone than Rune does, like how to check the GPS to see if Rune’s actually exploring or if he’s just taking a nap on a couch.
➤Motorcycle: Brand can drive one, because he’s just that cool.
➤Emotional support: Brand is really good in that protective-older-brother, don’t-try-to-reciprocate kind of way. He’s not shy about showing and speaking his love and support. He’ll also let worried little kids distract themselves by styling his hair.
➤Strategy and tactics: As a human among magic practitioners, Brand has developed strategies for distracting and disabling people way more powerful than himself.
➤Dancing: Brand is a fantastic dancer, good enough that other club-goers of all genders pause and give him space so they can watch.
➤Lack of body-shyness: Raised by Atlanteans, Brand is comfortable in revealing clothing or nudity.
➤F-bombs: Brand swears so much all the time. Even the presence of a swear jar and small children won’t stop him.
SETTING/SUITABILITY
➤ How do you expect your character to respond to the setting? Even if they plan to rebel in the long term, will they be able to at least obey enough to not get shocked to death?
As long as Rune is alive, Brand is capable of dealing with Jorgmund in a way that won’t get him killed. Granted, if Rune does die, Brand’s probably not going to be very functional either.
➤ What do you hope to do with your character long-term?
I’d like to play with Brand having actual powers he needs to deal with. Brand is used to knowing his limits very well, and having to start from the ground up on something will be an interesting situation for him to deal with. I’d also like to develop strong CR with the other characters, he doesn’t get attached very easily but once he does, he’s all in.
➤ Does your character currently have skills that would allow them to adapt, survive, and do the heroic things being asked of them? If your character doesn't, do you think they'd have the capacity to learn quickly?
Brand is absolutely prepared to adapt, survive, do heroic things, and grumble under his breath about it the entire time.
➤ If they're not used to cooperating with others, what makes you think they'll be able to adapt to cooperating with the group?
Brand has moved beyond the days of “take out your own dodge ball team so they can’t stab you in the back”, but he still doesn’t necessarily like cooperating with others. He knows how to do so now, especially when they’re also competent professionals. He also knows how to work with people who don’t know what they’re doing too, but he complains more about that.
➤ Will your character have long-term plans to rebel against Jorgmund? If so, how? Will they betray the other PCs and cooperate with Jorgmund? If so, how do you plan to handle the negative CR that might arise?
They kidnapped Rune and kept him separate from Brand for an entirely unacceptable length of time, Brand will join in plotting and undertaking Jorgmund’s destruction with a fiery passion. And anyone who betrays the PCs better have plans to stay well out of Brand’s reach.
SAMPLES
Network Sample
I. After they get the welcome spiel and see the slideshow, your character is put in front of a camera for an interview and attached to a polygraph. The polygraph may not be accurate, and can potentially give false positives and false negatives, so players can play with that all they want. If the Jorgmund staff interpret a response as a lie, they'll demand a different answer, causing characters to potentially need to respond honestly, craft a "creative" truth, or tell very good lie. The questions are completely absurd, especially after such a hostile welcome to the rig.
(200 word minimum)
If you could get rid of any one of the US states, which one would you get rid of and why?
Are you fucking kidding me.
[It’s not inflected like a question because Brand doesn’t expect an answer. Still, after kidnapping him, disarming him, doing some sort of unpleasant magic to him, torturing him with a shitty slideshow and an internal shock collar, Brand was not expecting them to blindfold him and triple-down with small talk. If not for the fact that he could sense Rune and Rune’s lack of immediate distress, this would qualify as a very bad day. Brand jerks pointedly at his restraints, trying to assess their make and how well they are attached to the chair.]
Mr. Saint John, please answer the question.
[Brand growls. Fuck but he hates small talk.]
Florida. They have the worst fucking tourists.
[Whatever they’re looking for, that answer seems to be acceptable. His interrogator moves on:]
What is your least favorite thing about humanity?
[Brand snorts derisively.]
Humans are fucking off-putting at the best of times.
[Isn't Brand himself human? Biologically yes, but they hadn’t asked that and he'd been raised in New Atlantis, surrounded largely by Atlanteans and their own Companions. Who are also fucking off-putting at the best of times. Individuals are occasionally acceptable, but "people" in general? Ugh.]
What are three positive character traits you don't have?
[Gods, really? Can they see Brand rolling his eyes behind the blindfold? He hopes they can, it’s a good fucking eye roll if he does say so himself.]
I’m not patient. I’m not peaceful. And I don’t fucking forgive. [He waits a beat, a trick he’s learned from watching Rune watch the Tower.] Are we done here?
Prose Sample
Your character is taken into a large gym area, with all kinds of equipment, weapons, and other items, and told they have to demonstrate a talent in front of a group of corporate executives and middle management.
(200 word minimum, 600 word maximum)
Self-important, arrogant assholes. At least fucking Arcana had real power to back themselves up. Brand could take these people unarmed with both hands tied behind his back. Half of them aren’t even paying attention to him, which indicates poor things about their threat assessment skills because Brand would really like to harm them and could probably do so before whoever has their finger on the button took him down. He won’t, because that would absolutely keep him away from Rune, but he’d really fucking like to. Maybe that’s why they’re so smug.
Brand considers the tools available to him, considering his own skills and trying to select one that’s interesting to watch but also doesn’t give them any more information about what he can do. They took his knives off of him already, so they’ll know he’s skilled enough with them to have and carry his own set, so he goes to check out the weapons rack.
Their knives are shit. This is embarrassing; this should be fucking embarrassing for them. Brand pulls them off of the rack anyway and glances at the training dummies before shooting a dirty look at, what is that guy, a handler?
“Those things bleed?” he asks, jerking his chin at the training dummies. “This looks more impressive when they bleed.”
The dummies are replaced with different dummies with a speed and efficiency that’s almost satisfactory. The handler also arranges for them to move and attack, though Brand doesn’t have high hopes for the results. The Jorgmund suits are still absorbed in whatever it is they’re doing, so Brand clashes the shitty blades of their shitty knives together.
“You’re the ones who fucking brought me here,” he growls when they startle. “So pay attention. I’m only going to do this once.”
Then he rips through the dummies. It’s not flashy, Brand’s never been good at flashy, but it’s fast, it’s efficient, and it’s utterly brutal. The dummies bleed blue, like it’s some fucking menstrual pad commercial, but that’s not his concern. When it’s all over, Brand dumps the knives in a pile on the floor rather than cleaning them and resheathing them. It’s just not worth it.
“That fucking satisfy?”
ADDITIONAL INFO
Brand was absolutely armed when he ended up in the Gone-Away World, most notably with a set of obsidian knives inlayed with coal and coral. He’s going to want those back for missions, those are expensive.
FINAL QUESTIONS
The players won't know what the mods are doing with these questions until sometime later.
➤ Will your character suspect some kind of guiding intelligence has brought them to the game? Or will they think it was random or done by Jorgmund?
Brand isn’t going to take Jorgmund at their word when told that they brought him here, because he’s a suspicious bastard. He’s definitely going to want to put heads together and figure out everyone’s theories though.
➤ If they think it was something other than Jorgmund, like God or some other force of fate, what character traits do they think of that intelligence as having? Is it cruel or kind? Capriciously punishing them or doing it for good reason?
Brand’s come down hard on the “the gods are capricious and cruel” side after his childhood. If he and Rune were brought here for a reason, it’s probably “for the lulz”.
