Anima John-Hicks, deckhand for the 'Piphany

[Peace]

Your ‘Real’ Name (or preferred 'out of character' Handle): Still the same until the law catches up to me again :P


How Often You Can Post:Often


Tell Us About Your Roleplay Past/Abilities: A bit.


How Familiar Are You With The Firefly 'Verse?: Would like to try the Mudder's Milk in Jaynestown


How Did You Hear About The BDV Site?: Technically haven't heard anything about it yet, it's all print. :P


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




What BDV ship/location do want to be assigned to: The Epiphany


Character Name:Anima John-Hicks


Character Occupation: Professional fighter (retired), Deckhand


Gender: Male


Age (the character, not the actor/actress):45


Detailed Physical Description (2 PARAGRAPHS): Anima is a huge beast of a man; six and a half feet tall, well over 300 lbs. Prefers a shorn head simply out of comfort. Grey eyes under a prominent brow ridge that has been called Cro-Magmon by a few brave souls. There isn't more than six square inches on his body that doesn't have a scar or story. Despite advancing middle age, he is in very good physical conditiion and can still work like a machine long after the younger bucks have grown tired and called it a day.

Tends to wear hard wearing clothes for practicality's sake. Denim, flannel, wool are the fabrics of choice. Imagine every dock worker you've ever seen in life or in film and you get the idea of his wardrobe.


Detailed Personality (2 PARAGRAPHS) : Anima (Ani to his friends) is actually a rather friendly individual despite his fierce appearance. His brain's not what it used to be but that's to be expected with all the punishment his brainpan has endured over the years in the arena. But he's still got a million stories of the bright lights and the fast times of his somewhat checkered past. While he never married, he's especially good with kids especially since his punchiness has settled in; they simply believe he's humoring them.

But the brighter the picture, the darker the negative. He WAS a professional fighter and has lived well past the life expectancy of those modern day gladiators which speaks both of his viciousness in combat and tenacity. Still prefers to use his gnarled ol' meathooks rather than weapons but is very skilled in utilizing most anything at hand to win the fight.

Detailed History(2 OR MORE PARAGRAPHS): Anima (His mother, the student of old languages, named him in the Latin for "soul") started scrapping early much to his sainted mother's chagrin. He was bigger than the other kids and didn't back down from what he thought was right, so he came home with bleeding knuckles more often than not. It wasn't long before a promoter noted him brawling in the slums of Persephrone and offered to train him to be pro in the sometimes illegal world of fighting, maybe make enough money to get him mom out of the 2 room shack they lived in.

But nothing, especially the get rich schemes of young men, goes according to plan. The promoter got rich sure, but Anima wasn't clever enough to translate the fine print of his contract and received only a pitiance. His mother died in that shack while he was out on Beaumonde, putting his life on the line for less than hundred credits. After her death, Anima lashed out, fighting anyone anywhere with a savagery that earned him the nickname of "Animal". Name a fighting style and a place and chances are Anima fought someone using it on it.

Years past, promoters came and went, all promising riches and just not mentioning that they meant riches for themselves. Finally, the years took their toll: he started slowing down, innumerable injuries began galling him, synapses struggled to connect after being scrambled again and again by the barrage of blows his head endured. Finally, his crowd draw dropped below a profitable margin and his last promoter cut him loose.

Now nearing the age where most men are slowing down and relying on their years of education, experiences and wisdom, Anima can only hire himself off down at the docks for hauling freight. His punch addled mind realizes that this too will dry up as soon as his considerable might wanes enough but in the end all he can do is what he always has done.

Keep on swingin'.


Strengths (1 paragraph):Anima is an intimadating fellow and knows it. By just scowling slightly, he's actually stopped more than one barfight. His size and strength are material for borderline tall tales and this is also his main marketable skill. He can read and write (he usually has to sound out words longer than three syllables) but only just. He don't know much, but what's inside his head is a lifetime of going toe to toe with opponents and coming out on top. Or at least not as banged up as the other guy.


Weaknesses (1 paragraph): There are several euphanisms that apply: the brainless bull, the mindless hulk, all muscle and no brain. Anima doesn't really understand those sayings at all. He doesn't have much formal education (although the concept of subtraction he REALLY understands). As such, he tends to rely on other people to tell him what to do.


Sample Post: (3 paragraphs minimum/Third Person Past Tense):
He remembered his mother's voice. Remembered that it was soft and kind and always so warm. He remembered when he came home one day nursing a broken wrist from fighting a mob of kids his age who kept calling him "Little Ragamuffin Annie," like the popular commercial mascot. She wrapped his hurt hand and told him that she had named him Anima which meant soul in the Latin because he was her life, her soul He sniffled and hugged his mother tight after that.

Anima's attention came back to the here and now where he crouched in line, back to the wall, of the labor commission building. Everyday, like so many of the others in line with him, he came here because he had no where else to go, in hopes of finding work moving freight or the like. And like many others, most days he returned to his bunk at the mission without anything to show for it. It was bleak but it was all he knew so he bore it no particular ill will, it was just the way the match played out: you bidded your time ducking and weaving until you could land the matchender.

"John-Hicks," the uninterested dispatcher called over the antiquated PA system and obediantly, he stood and made for the door. Why had he been thinking about his mom after so many years? There was something important about her but he couldn't remember anymore. He stopped before the dispatch desk which they had turned into an enclosure with some steel fencing and picked up the slip of paper the skinny man flicked at him. "Um, scuse me," he interupted the man's reading of a racing form which seemed to annoy him more than finding bugs in his half eaten candy bar "but what dat say?" Anima smiled and patted his front pockets of his flannel jacket as an excuse, "los' my glasses."

"It says Epiphany, lot 8616." the uncaring man went back to his paper as Anima took the paper in a big calloused hand and left the employment building. Again his thoughts turned to his mother. He couldn't even remember her face anymore, why had he been thinking of her?

As the giant made his way to the Boros docks, a small slip of paper where he had been sitting was caught in the wind and set adrift. Written in unsteady script by hands that more used to punching than writing was the reminder: "mom's berfday, send flowrs."

[Jeth Fiction]

If you ever wanted some of his fighting history to coincide with the IPFL, you could drop me a line. A lot of it is actually fairly well established, and the further back you go in its history the more brutal it gets.

Edit: Here is an app for Nait Moore, which has some IPFL stuff in his history.

[Peace]

Hey thx for the heads up and I might take you up on that offer, we'll see how John-Hicks pans out.

[Ertia]

Hmm..

Let me think on this. The thing is I LOVE the character! But... I'm just not sure that Archibald and Elias would hire him...
An ex fighter with few brain cells left is not someone you want around your fourteen year old daughter. Anima might be more suited to Tilly or Shangren than Epiphany...

Let me think about it and I'll have an answer for you in a day or two!

[Piecemeal]

Heh I love causing those moral quandaries, I like to wave at them as they go by :P And also, think of the bodyguard possibilities: a 300 lbs anchor weight following Sprite around in a crowd would make a lot easier to spot in a hurry XD

[Ertia]

Okay, Arch and Elias both informed me that they kinda like the guy and feel a little sorry for him, so I guess he's hired as a deckhand.
Feel free to make an intro!

[Synthia Lyndon Heller]

I'll put the final approval in :)

[Anima]

whadda pal :P