Let's put it this way.

Subject: Let's put it this way.
Author: Huinesoron
Posted on: 2008-11-03 23:51:00 UTC

You spent three rather long paragraphs simply on his physical description. For a character bio on a website, fine. But not for a Permission request. Time enough for all that later. What we want is a brief synopsis so we can be sure he's not Prince Gary of the Magical Land of Fairydust, Middle-earth, and that he's not a copy of any other Agents (unless that's a plot device, of course). We want to know Department, fandom, and any major personality traits which could mark him as a 'Stu. By all means keep all the details, for use later, but right now they're unnecessary and we can't get through them.

Also, no one really has a clue who you are yet. You say you were here a couple of years ago, and while I don't actually remember you I'm willing to believe that, but that's just it. No one remembers. So keep posting until we know you, then we'll see.

All of which boils down to a temporary Permission Withheld, with the understanding that once you've been around for a while, you can post again without this affecting our decision one way or the other.

hS, temporary spokesperson for the Permission Giver Hive Mind

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Permission, part one by kgarrett on 2008-11-03 09:18:00 UTC Reply

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well, and none of you are offended by my daring to ask permission. The rules were not that clear on where former semi-regulars stood as far as the "one month" thing went, so since I used to be at least somewhat active in '05/'06 I thought I would be allowed to try. I am writing up the sample as well, but this part will only be the agent bios, both for length concerns and because I want to make sure my ideas are accepted before I waste my sample on concepts that might not even be approved. When it is finished I will probably put the sample in as a new topic. I am basing the layout of the profile on the agent profiles on the wiki for convenience, if that is alright. I'll do Marcus first, and then Zodfang. As Marcus is an entirely original character, and Zodfang is an Ork, Marcus required more work and putting both in this one will honestly take too long. I will then put Zodfang's bio in as a reply to this post. I hope you don't hate it too much, and I apologize for the ungodly length (at least, it's really long on my computer, it might be different for yours, different monitors and stuff). I'd appreciate it if you let me get both bios up before giving feedback, but if you do before I've gotten the next one up I'll take what you say into account and try to improve upon the characters.

Agent Marcus
Name: Marcus Langston
Age: 41
Species: Human
Home Continuum: the Real World/Earth One
Department: As a veteran PPC agent, he has done at least a few missions with several of the Action Departments, especially the Department of Mary Sues, but as of his re-instatement he has been temporarily assigned to the Department of Floaters.
Division: Freelance
Response Center: RC #5593
Partner: Agent Zodfang
Fandom(s): Has grown familiar enough with several fandoms over the years to at least function in missions there, a measure he took out of necessity, but his personal fandoms are M*A*S*H, Metal Gear Solid, Half Life, The Godfather, Halo, Legend of Zelda, Doctor Who, Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Rings (but only in passing), Les Misérables, Battle Royale, and Street Fighter.
Lust-object(s): Prefers "real" women to the natives of the various continuua that make up the multiverse, partly due to the hazards created in the event of a lust object being in the fic a mission goes to, and partly due to the fact that it just seems weird to him. He is, however, something of a playboy at times, and gladly flirts with whatever female catches his eye at those times, whether they're canons, badfic characters, civilians or even PPC agents, even if at the same time keeping some respect for them and their personal space. It's not enough to be a male Lux, just prevalent enough that it's a notable facet of his personality and reputation. He suppresses this as much as possible during missions, however, even being known to take doses of anti-Lustin hours in advance if he thinks a mission is imminent.
Favourite(s): Has no real favourite characters. Not out of not liking any, but just that there's none that he would say are his favourite above all, especially since in some cases he's met the actual canon character on missions (and, of course, neuralyzed them) and either thought less of them or there are just too many people he likes and respects for one to really rank above everyone else.
Weapon(s): A ferociously dirty fighter, he'll use whatever is on hand when in a fight to incapacitate, kill, or simply injure the opponent. Primarily uses handguns and either swords or knives, but has also dabbled in the use of submachine guns (FN P90 for example), shotguns, and explosives, though he is not as good with those and rarely uses explosives. He likes to switch up his weapon loadout if he thinks he'll need it for a mission, and used to stop by the armoury with annoying frequency to acquire new weapons. His current armaments are a BFR .50 Beowulf revolver (he sometimes switches this out with a Colt M1911 .45 pistol which is sometimes more useful in a firefight), a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, and a 40k power sword which he tends to save for tougher opponents and is therefore left in his response centre about as often as he takes it with him. He was known to use a machete in his earlier missions, as well.

Appearance: Standing at 6'1, Marcus is slightly taller than average, and his 193 pound frame doesn't look nearly as old as Marcus actually is. Not very obviously muscular with his clothes on, Marcus is still fit-looking and toned, with corded muscles and something of a six-pack visible. More an athletic figure than that of a bodybuilder, his frame actually looks a bit thin if you look at him right, belying the fact that he is actually very strong and works hard for his strength (when he moves into a new response centre, one of the first things he does is start building a gym in the first place he sees where it would be reasonably out of the way). Understandably, he does have a few notable scars on him, one going from just above his left cheekbone next to the eye to next to the corner of his lip (knife wound sustained during his first mission when the Stu attacked him while he was reading the charges, luckily his partner killed the Stu while it was grappling with Marcus to finish him off), another from right temple to just above his right ear (burn from a bullet grazing him), a horizontal line half an inch long in the middle of his gut (slashed by a Sue in a swordfight, dodged most of the blow so only the very tip of the blade cut him), and a circular burn-like scar under his left shoulder (shot in the flesh of the armpit area in a firefight, was able to kill the Sue and get back to Medical in time to be treated and save the arm, though) are his most outstanding. He has a few other small scars from scuffles and the like, but they've long faded by now and even the big, notable, scars have been worn by him for so many years now that sometimes one has to look closely in order to really make them out. He doesn't tan very well, his caucasian heritage obvious, but he isn't exactly sickly-pale either.

Barring some stubble on the chin, he keeps his face clean-shaven, and his features are strong, still at least somewhat handsome (but not too attractive, just also not quite ugly) despite his scars and steadily increasing age. Not too round, but not too angular, he enjoys a decent middle ground between the two. His jawline is slightly squared, giving his face a solid appearance, and he has high, nicely-defined cheekbones. His nose, of medium size and length, is straight and unbroken, not drawing much attention. His eyes are a little smaller than average, but not much, just slightly smaller than medium, and they are a dark, somewhat dull, green. The dark/dull colour of his eyes lend to the feeling of disinterest people get from him, as even when he's completely focused on something there's almost a sense of inattentiveness. Like his hair, his eyebrows are brown, and surprisingly not starting to show signs of greying yet, bushy but not too much so, a bit high up but not much and arching a little, complimenting his eyes well. It's difficult to tell if his hairline is receding or if he just slicks his short brown hair (only goes down to mid-neck in the back) back, but probably either the latter or some combination of both where the former isn't that noticeable. He has a nice smile on the rare occasions he shows it, but not perfect. Overall his face gives the impression of a tired man who probably looked better when he was younger but, while not the most attractive agent, is hardly ugly despite his work wearing him down.

Marcus has no tattoos or other body modifications. His legs are slightly bulkier than his arms, but not disproportionately so, the muscle in the thighs and calves and the like is just more noticeable. His neck muscles are powerful but not that girthy, one of the first few clues that his apparently average-sized frame is stronger than it looks from years of fighting and exercise. His uniform is a black jumpsuit similar but not identical to Solid Snake's sneaking suit circa the second Metal Gear Solid game, modified to give the maximum range of movement without being so skintight, the flashpatch proudly displayed over Marcus' heart. He isn't out of uniform often, but when he is he tends to wear casual black clothes, usually a black t-shirt, some black sweatpants, and steel toed boots.

History: Marcus was born in Manitoba, Canada, on 15 January 1967. Having been an energetic and slightly bratty child, he loved to cause trouble for his parents at first, but was fundamentally good at heart and never really stirred up more than his parents could handle, though at times said parents hated raising him because of it. All that aside though, the Langstons were a relatively happy family comfortable with their more or less middle class status. Growing up, Marcus had a mostly normal life with a good, caring, family, though he had a firey temper which lead to several fights at school. He did start to mellow out eventually, though, especially once he discovered the wrestling team as an outlet. Years passed uneventfully, and he went through school, made friends, passed time with the family, and all in all enjoyed life as a young person was supposed to. He even discovered an interest in the law and made moves towards getting a criminal justice degree and joining the police force.

At twenty five, he finished all of his schooling, and with some of his friends had a wild party to celebrate. That was how he discovered the PPC. Like many Earth One agents, he fell through a plothole. The difference? Marcus had been monstrously drunk and barely able to stumble along without falling over, gotten separated from his friends, and leant against a wall only to discover that it wasn't a wall when he then found himself laid out on the floor of what he would eventually know as HQ, with two very startled Agents in the room.

A couple of queries as to what the hell was going on, a mumbled "okay..." to a question he didn't hear, and a hangover the next morning later, and Marcus found himself recruited into the PPC. Needless to say, he freaked out. After waking up in (what he would later know as) Medical where the two agents had put him the other night so he'd sober up, he grabbed the person who looked like they had the most authority and demanded to know what was happening. So the person offered to take him to someone called "The Marquis de Sod". Too confused to stammer out anything other than "Uh...sure?", he followed, only to do a double take when he noticed the 'Marquis' was a giant Daisy. That asked him with telepathy what he was doing there. Naturally, Marcus' first question was whether he was high and everything in the building was a bad trip. This, unfortunately, got an annoyed "no" from the giant flower, who proceeded to take quite a while to convince Marcus otherwise while trying to tell him what was going on.

After a while it simply assigned him to something called the "Department of Mary Sues", a "response centre #7589985", and told him to meet someone named "Agent Wilson" there. If not for the fact that the person who'd brought him to the giant flower's office hadn't offered to take him there the bewildered 25 year old might've been lost for quite a long time. "Agent Wilson" turned out to be a red haired man dressed in black who looked a bit younger than Marcus was, but who walked like he'd been in wars already. He was friendly to Marcus though, helping him out with the uniform and how to understand all the stuff the Flower had told him, even giving him a weapon. The console in their room eventually bleeped, and Wilson prepared for the "mission", telling Marcus to come along and offering to walk him through it.

The first mission was a disaster, and if Wilson hadn't been there Marcus would have been killed. He'd followed all of Wilson's instructions, written down the things Wilson said to mark as charges, and then when they had portalled the Stu out of the fic Wilson let Marcus read out the charges. The Stu was scared, though, and pulled out a knife. It charged as Wilson called out a warning, and Marcus was slashed in the face, though he was able to tangle up the Stu's arms before it could get a fatal stab in. He went to the ground with it, and tried to keep the knife away, and then there were suddenly two sharp cracks. The Stu fell dead, Wilson holding the smoking gun. He asked if Marcus was alright, and Marcus said "hell no!". So Wilson took him to Medical after the mission report was submitted.

They were more careful for the next few missions, being sure to restrain the Sue or Stu thoroughly before reading the charges, but Marcus was still shocked about the incident, not just how close he had been to death but watching a living being, more or less a person as far as he knew, die right in front of him. He got used to the "seeing people die" bit quickly, but the first time Wilson handed him the gun and told him to do it, Marcus almost choked. After a few more missions he started getting used to that too though, stopped feeling so guilty. "Those things are a threat to the multiverse," Wilson had told him after Marcus had loudly questioned why they were going around murdering random fanfic characters or whatever the hell they were doing, "We leave 'em in there, they distort and rot the whole canon. You ever seen gangrene work? It's like that. Danger to pretty much everything that exists, will exist, or did exist."

At first Marcus wasn't sure he bought it, but he tried not to bring it up. After a while it stopped bothering him. More missions came, and eventually Wilson was transferred, another agent being put in as Marcus' replacement partner. By then he was starting to be a capable agent himself though, so he could start working with his partner instead of using them as a tutorial. Eventually it was he who got transferred, and she who got the replacement.

His next partner, however, got killed. It was only his third partner, but Marcus already had a lot of missions under his belt by then, and seemed to know more about how things worked than the other boy. It was their fifth mission together, to a Batman Stufic, and while Marcus was compiling charges the boy, Agent Paul Hargrave, got overexcited and charged the Stu as it ducked into an ally, startling it and causing it to shoot him dead. Needless to say Marcus immediately returned the favour, not even citing the charges since "Murdering a PPC agent" really topped all of the ones he'd had down for that one.

Eventually, Marcus stopped hating himself for letting Agent Hargrave die, and life moved on. More partners went in and out of his life, some died (those he mourned), some went insane (those he pitied), some retired (those he envied), and some just got transferred (those he identified with because it happened to him too many bloody times). It didn't help that after a while he seemed to have been bounced around the Action Departments like a pinball, which got annoying. He'd be in one Department, randomly transferred, and then put back just as randomly after a few missions. Eventually he just directly asked the Sod to stop doing that.

Marcus eventually became quite a good agent, though he tried to stick to the background. He did well in missions, and tried to avoid trouble when it popped up elsewhere, like in the case of the DIS. That wasn't to say he didn't fight when necessary, he just didn't take it further than he had to. In neither the Reorganization nor the Black Cat invasion was he a key player, but he wasn't completely uninvolved. Just stayed out of the spotlight as much as he could because he was more concerned with staying alive. Until late 2007, he wasn't really at the centre of any real scandal.

It was some time near the end of December '07 when it happened. The mission he'd been sent on, to a Warhammer 40,000 Stufic (as unlikely as that sounded), went awry. People analysing it in the future would probably call it a "meta ... up". At the disciplinary hearing they said that the fic had still been in progress and that looking at the Words indicated the Stu had been about to die an

Not a P.G. by any means, but... by Sedri on 2008-11-03 21:31:00 UTC Reply

As I recall, Permission Requests are supposed to include a short biography for each character. As in, a paragraph or two, not their entire history. Any PG evaluating you will need quite a bit of time available just to read all this once.

Also, though I could be wrong here, I believe the rules about 'one month' was made with less concern about how long any person has been here and more emphasis on being a regular and active community member.

Don't take this the wrong way - I'm not an expert nor in any position of authority, but if I were a PG, I would really, really, prefer having a lot less to read, so for their sake, might I suggest that you summarise?

Oh, adding to the last part by kgarrett on 2008-11-03 22:50:00 UTC Reply

Forgot to mention this, but I assume the length/detail of the personality, at least, is acceptable? I understand summarizing the history, but wasn't entirely sure if you were also saying the personality needed to be cut down on.

Let's put it this way. by Huinesoron on 2008-11-03 23:51:00 UTC Reply

You spent three rather long paragraphs simply on his physical description. For a character bio on a website, fine. But not for a Permission request. Time enough for all that later. What we want is a brief synopsis so we can be sure he's not Prince Gary of the Magical Land of Fairydust, Middle-earth, and that he's not a copy of any other Agents (unless that's a plot device, of course). We want to know Department, fandom, and any major personality traits which could mark him as a 'Stu. By all means keep all the details, for use later, but right now they're unnecessary and we can't get through them.

Also, no one really has a clue who you are yet. You say you were here a couple of years ago, and while I don't actually remember you I'm willing to believe that, but that's just it. No one remembers. So keep posting until we know you, then we'll see.

All of which boils down to a temporary Permission Withheld, with the understanding that once you've been around for a while, you can post again without this affecting our decision one way or the other.

hS, temporary spokesperson for the Permission Giver Hive Mind

Fair enough by kgarrett on 2008-11-04 00:06:00 UTC Reply

That all makes sense, thanks. And yeah, goes back to the "way too detailed" thing, it seems. That's just a habit of mine from my other websites (since they stress giving a detailed description so people have a clear image of him, it's a habit that grew on me). Just a mistake on my part due to transferring writing styles. I do appreciate your input though, this really is helpful. I'll edit this and work on the sample and other agent bio while I get to know people then. I mentioned the years thing because I was more looking at the letter of the rule than the spirit, I guess. I hope I didn't offend you, thank you for your pointers. I think part of my error was sheer eagerness, heh.

Yeah, I know what you mean by kgarrett on 2008-11-03 22:44:00 UTC Reply

This is, so far, a massive first draft, and I'm used to writing more detailed histories so I got a bit carried away. So I understand what you mean when requesting I make a more summarized version, it really could do with being shorter. I'm currently doing Zodfang's, but after he's done I'll take Marcus' and make it a bit less insanely long. As you said, they'd need a while of time available just to read through it. Sorry about that, heh.

Thank you, though, for clearing up the month thing. I was confused by that. I can't edit on this, so I assume it'd be okay to put the more cut down version in a new reply, with an advisory that it should be read over the previous one?

Um... by kgarrett on 2008-11-03 09:26:00 UTC Reply

There seems to have been a problem with the length of the bio. I apparently made it too long, so I have to type up the rest. So yeah, two parter, and I'll make a mental note to not make Zodfang's so bloody big.

"yway, marking a point in the story where it would improve, but Marcus interfering early to kill the Stu before it could escape (as it did look like it was about to escape) not only prevented that but created a parodox. The Words were shown, describing a "figure in black" levelling a pistol at the Stu's head.

That bit there, the alleged "accidentally being written in" (despite Marcus' claims that it was impossible), damned Marcus' whole case. Killing without charges was excused by them being in the middle of combat, but a potential security leak? Causing a parodox in the fic? It didn't matter if it was true, if it was Upstairs' fault for giving him a mission to a fic that was in progress, none of that mattered. At the end of the day, Marcus still insisting the hearing had been biased against him, he was found guilty on all counts and his license as an Agent was temporarily suspended. At least three years they said, most likely. There were concerns about if he would be able to adjust to civilian life, so he was allowed to continue to live in the New Caledonia city (especially since they figured they might need to contact him), but he wasn't allowed in headquarters and wasn't considered an Agent until the suspension was lifted. Through all that, Marcus continued to appeal it.

After a few months, Marcus all but gave up. However, events such as the Macrovirus plague and the Sue invasion came by, devastating the PPC. A few months after that, his case was finally put back under review by whoever (hell if he knew). Almost a year after the hearing and suspension, the verdict was overturned and he received new orders: report back to the Marquis de Sod for reassignment.

Needless to say, Marcus' first thought was "what the hell took those Flowers so long?". His second was "I hope I haven't gotten rusty."

Personality: While not the emotionally dead shell you might expect a 16 year vet of something like the PPC to be, Marcus definitely gives off the impression of being tired, in the literal sense of suffering from fatigue, oftentimes people conversing with him feel as if he'd rather be asleep than talking to them. This is through no fault of his own, or of the other party, however, more due to the relaxed, almost lazy way he typically carries himself. The fact that he often IS quite tired doesn't help things, but he's still more laid back than people expect, which does give the impression of aloofness.

He is more alert than he looks, though, right down to the seemingly calm gait he walks with, every step calculated as if half of him were checking for traps and the other half was ready to explode into action and rip the throat out of the nearest living creature in an instant. Like anyone who lasts more than a couple of missions in the PPC, he is a remorseless killer when you get down to it, and a highly dangerous one at that, if more controlled and only really willing to kill when he has to (his justification for mercilessly killing Sues is a third "they're a threat to the multiverse" a third "If I don't kill them, they'll kill me" and a third "it's my job"). He is much slower to anger than when he was younger, not as rash or impulsive. Hardly cold and unflappable, it just takes a lot more to actually get him pissed off nowadays, and except for a couple of instances his fury tends to be more cold than hot. When provoked, he usually assaults the person responsible with no warning.

He has always been sarcastic and snarky, but it seems age has only increased this trait in him, along with increasing the sheer venom in his words. He has no tolerance for stupidity, and will make that known at the slightest provocation. When it is not used to lay people low, however, his "smartass" sense of humour is still quite potent, and can be amusing in the right situation. More often than not though, he just comes across as an asshole and makes people angry. Not for a lack of trying though, when he can be arsed he definitely puts on a strong effort to come off as a decent and likeable person, and has actually made some friends in the organization, but it's always easier said than done for him, especially since he constantly has to convince himself that there's even a point in trying. Where that many years in the PPC make many others too paranoid to ever be in contact with anyone else, it took him a while to get past that himself, and figure out that his best chance of actually making it was to stick with people.

It isn't just pragmatism that drives Marcus to occasionally try to reach out to people, though. Every time he gets close to someone and they die, or get reassigned, or go crazy, or just retire, it hurts him greatly, but he always tries again, mostly due to the desire to form a sort of "normal" life in the organization, especially since at this point he is sure most of his friends and family in the "outside world" believe he is dead. That fact, and the inevitability of their having moved on, used to depress him, but by now he's largely gotten over it and been able to find a place in life where he is content, if not always happy. The sense of being a part of something greater, of actually being valuable to the protection of what is basically all of existence, is both overwhelming and extremely satisfying to him, and he still sometimes falls back on reminding himself that people *need* the PPC when he isn't sure he can keep going without that kind of boost.

As said before, Marcus is also something of a playboy and flirt, when the mood takes him he can pretty reliably be seen hitting on whatever girl catches his eye, though not absurdly and not to the point of harassment. If he can get in their pants, great, if not, he backs off, as just the act itself helps him establish that connection with another human he is typically after when on such endeavours, and he usually feels better than he did before. Some have suggested that this means he's more flirty/perverted when he's depressed, but he denies this. Overall, Marcus is someone who likes to put on a strong face for everyone else, though he isn't afraid to let it down every once in a while. He has actually started to wonder if he is starting to get too old for the job, on the grounds that the pressure can be so overwhelming at times.

All that having been said though, he is still sometimes capable of the same hot-blooded insanity as other PPC agents, it just shows up less frequently."