Gabriel Volkov

[ComradeCharlie]

This is all GrimJack's fault! He asked for it!


The Big Damn Original Characters Application


Your ‘Real’ Name (or preferred 'out of character' Handle):
Charlie

How Often You Can Post:
Every day.

Tell Us About Your Roleplay Past/Abilities:
I'm addicted. Have been since starting on a MOO (let's just forget about the theme, eh?) about 9 years ago.

How Familiar Are You With The Firefly 'Verse?:
“Does that seem right to you?”

How Did You Hear About The BDV Site?:
I found it sneaking around the Internet...

____________________________________________________________________
In your mind, you can picture your Original Character...now let us 'see' them.

If you could 'cast' the role of your OC, who would play the part:
NOTE: Please check the OC Casting List pinned in the RP Applications Forum, your casting choice may already have been taken.

Rudolf Martin

(Posted Image)

What BDV ship/location do want to be assigned to:
Ares Shield

Character Name:
Gabriel

Character Occupation:
Weapons dealer

Gender:
Male

Age (the character, not the actor/actress):
39

Detailed Physical Description (2 PARAGRAPHS):
188 cm (6'2”)

He has the strong, athletic build of a swimmer; lean, but with good muscle and hardly any fat on his body. His receding dark hair is cut short for easy maintenance, but the style is what might be called fashionable in the more martial circles. His eyes are brown, changing to a deep amber in a certain light and are set under thick brows. His fast-growing facial-hair gives him an almost permanent five-o'clock shadow on his sharp-edged jaw and chin. He has no distinguishing marks such as tattoos, pronounced scars, missing limbs or piercings, nor does he wear jewellery of any kind.

He generally wears stylish, but low-key outfits. Designer jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts with some abstract print on the front or a black or charcoal button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. For more official occasions, he'll go as far as to wear a black suit with a dark shirt and a matching tie and very, very rarely when the situation calls for it he'll put on a tuxedo, complete with bow tie and cummerbund. For his exercises, he'll wear the appropriate outfit, whether it's Tai Chi, Kendo or any of the other many martial arts disciplines he masters.


Detailed Personality (2 PARAGRAPHS) :
Mind, body, soul.
Ends justify the means.

Gabriel is a very focused individual with clear goals and a strong determination to reach them, no matter the cost. In some ways his determination might be interpreted as simple-mindedness and stubbornness, but Gabriel himself will say that the ends justify the means. He's secretive about his past, not wanting to give too much away for others to use as potential ammunition against him. But he's also arrogant to the point where, when his goal is reached, he'll have a need to tell someone about the motives behind his actions and his reason for doing what he did.

He subscribes to the mind, body and soul philosophy, although not religious, he does find it important to be physically fit, while having a balanced mind so he can concentrate fully on the tasks he sets himself and that are set to him by others. He meditates and exercises regularly, often combining the two when doing Tai Chi. If he misses his morning rituals he tends to become restless and short tempered, leading him to become angry with himself for losing control.

Detailed History(2 OR MORE PARAGRAPHS):
Gabriel Volkov was born to Anna and Pyotr Volkov in a Jin Shan hospital on Persephone in 2479. An only child, he lived in the city until he turned four, when he father purchased a plot of land on Shadow and brought the family there to become farmers. Young Gabriel attended the village school from the age of six until he was fourteen, at which point his education had reached a level beyond that a village school teacher could handle and he was sent off to Shadow's largest city to attend boarding school at St. Ignatius School for Boys.

He didn't take well to the strict Catholic schooling and began rebelling, at first just skipping classes and acting out in those he did attend. The only class in which he behaved were the fencing lessons, which he found fascinating and challenging. As time went by his behaviour worsened and he attained a criminal record, getting arrested more than once for shoplifting and vandalism. It all came to a head when, at seventeen, he broke into the school's chapel and set fire to the crucifix. He was dismissed from the school and kicked out on the street with only the clothes on his back and a bus ticket back home.

He didn't go home, though. He hitched a ride on an outbound cargo ship and ended up on Beaumonde, where he had barely set foot off the ship before he was arrested again, because – as he explained to the officer – he had been robbed by those rutting thieves on the transport from Shadow and couldn't afford to pay for that (overpriced) pie and he was hungry, gorrammit! He was let go with a warning and a piece of pie and went on to lift a wallet on the way out of the fed station.

He never did find a job. Instead, he found his way into the lower ranks of a New Dunsmir Tong, where he began honing his skills with weapons, learning the art of Kendo from other members of the tong. He only stayed with the Tong for a few years, finding that he was too much of an independent type to submit to the sort of hierarchy found in most criminal organisations. He left Beaumonde three years after he had arrived with a few new skills under his belt and a good idea on how to go into business on his own.

On Persephone, he started slow, getting into the drug business as a street dealer. But he quickly advanced and made it known to the local street tongs that he could fix them up with anything they wanted. Drugs, guns, women. Anything. He steered clear as much as possible of the feds, but was arrested more than once for possession of illegal drugs and unregistered firearms, and in 2505, he spent seven months in jail for repeat offences.

War came around and Gabriel more or less dropped off the map, becoming more secretive about his person and activities. He didn't sign up for either side, and never let on to who he supported. He became more careful about who he sold to (after all, in wartime, it wouldn't take much for Alliance to execute anyone for treason) and his prices went up as the war escalated. Supply and demand, he said, when his customers demanded lower prices and more weapons. After all, in wartime, most weapons would be on the battlefields, in the hands of soldiers, not in the possession of criminals.

A few years into the war Gabriel found even the Border world of Persephone too strictly controlled by Alliance to be profitable anymore. Too many bribes had to be made to too many people and there was too much risk of having cargo seized in random inspections. He relocated to the Rim, setting up base on Silverhold, where the feds were easier to buy off and really enthusiastic buyers would still find him. And if they wouldn't come to him, he would come to them, in his newly purchased transport Wolf's Paw.

In the ten years since setting up business on Silverhold, Gabriel has become even more secretive about himself and his business, never letting anyone come to him anymore, but rather taking business to them instead. Those who have tried to scout his compound on Silverhold have been found dead, or have not been found at all, disappeared like snow in spring and never heard from again.

Strengths (1 paragraph):
Gabriel is an expert in the use of most weapons, from the simple blade to the highpowered sniper rifle and also has some experience with demolitions, though he prefers the more 'personal' approach of close combat, either hand-to-hand or using knives, staffs or other such 'primitive' weapons. With many years of training in martial arts, he has a good idea of how to conquer an enemy with little force necessary. While his speciality is kendo, he has practised a wide variety of martial arts and can combine them into new tricks if the situation requires it.

Aside from English and Chinese, he also speaks Russian fluently and has a talent for mimicking accents, so that he can sound as if he originates from Londinium one day and Dayton Colony the next. Somewhere along the line, though, he has lost his natural accent, making it hard to place his birthplace in the 'Verse.

Weaknesses (1 paragraph):
Arrogant
Weakness for women

Gabriel's major downfall is his arrogance. He feels superior to most people he comes into contact with and believes himself to be unbeatable, both in combat and wit. He might have met his match once or twice before, but he's yet to meet anyone who has been able to put his superiority complex to shame. And when he does, there's no telling what might happen...

And then there's his weakness for women. Beautiful women, in particular. Long-legged, strong, sexy brunettes to be even more specific. If there's anyone who could make him make mistakes or say too much about himself, it would be a Lara Croft type.

Sample Post: (3 paragraphs minimum/Third Person Past Tense): Please use the Big Damn Verse Styling Guide to format your post.

He knelt before the shrine, made up of a small mahogany table with short legs, a red silk cloth over it and sat directly in the middle was a fluted glass vase containing a single white rose. To the right side was a simple incense burner made of brass and to the left side, also made of brass, a small bell mounted on a wooden scaffolding, the striker place in a groove underneath it. It was a shrine, not to any gods or deities, but to the senses, and he knelt before it wearing only a pair of black drawstring trousers.

As the incense filled the room, he drew in deep breaths, letting the sweet scent fill his lungs as his eyes locked on the rose, tracing every perfection, every flaw of the petals, the stem and the leaves. In his right hand was a mala made of rosewood beads, but he wasn't praying; it was simply to bring the tactile into the ritual, his fingers sliding over the small beads, feeling the texture of the wood. He lifted the bell's striker with his left hand to tap it against the brass once every five heartbeats, filling the room and his ears with the clean note of singing metal. To complete the unity of the senses, he had placed a slowly dissolving flavour strip, which went through the five basic tastes in slow succession; Sweet, bitter, sour, salt and umami.

Once the strip on his tongue was completely dissolved, the ritual was over and he replaced the striker in its groove, put the lid on the incense burner and closed his eyes and folded his hands in his lap for a moment before leaning forward to place the mala in front of the glass vase, then rose to his feet in a fluid motion. The muted incoming message on the Cortex screen behind him had been flashing for the last five minutes, but he closed the doors to the shrine before he turned to check who dared disturb him in the middle of his daily ritual.

He identified the Cortex and gave a single blink of surprise, then reached out to turn on the screen, accepting the call. “Took ya long 'nuff,” said the man on the screen, shrouded in shadows, so that Gabriel couldn't see his face, but with the voice added to the ID number, he no longer entertained any doubts about who was speaking. “I got a job for ya, Gabe 'n I'm 'fraid saying no ain't an option.”

[Ertia]

The lack of any sort of history worries me a bit. Not that I don't rust you, Charlie, but I think we at least need a little bit of something there.

Having a secret history that only the admin knows is okay, but there really has to be something, anything, here, even if it's his "cover history given to him by the Alliance. Having no history at all on file is just begging for trouble down the road. ;)

[ComradeCharlie]

I'll give it a try, even if it'll just be a cover story. But I've been struggling with his background for about two months and he's been very secretive about it. :(

This might take a little while, though. But maybe now that we're getting closer to introducing him, he'll be more forthcoming. ;)

[GrimJack]

Charlie is being a real trooper here, as its my fault she doesn't have a solid history for Gabriel.

We are working on a collective history between Gabriel and Womack that explains his inclusion in Season 2...its my fault that I haven't given Charlie anything to work with.

Let me get on this and we will PM the history to the Admins...cause its still gonna be secret ;)

[ComradeCharlie]

Bumpity-bump for added background.

Some secrety background worked out an approved by the awesome duo GrimJack and Ertia.

[GrimJack]

"My name is GrimJack...and I approve this application!"

[Ertia]

Okee-dokee!