6I Application

[thecatinahat]

 

HISTORY

http://www.writeups.org/cougar-losers-dc-comics/

PERSONALITY OVERVIEW

In order for the Losers to work properly, the team needs to be in harmony and Cougar balances the team with his laconic personality. The silent space he provides is filled by the others,  but though Cougar is often silent, he’s always communicating. His first language is Spanish and he feels more comfortable in his native tongue, using words sparsely around the team. More than that, the experience of what he’s seen in the field and the nightmarish echoes of those memories, has left him without the words to speak about it. Brought up by a traditional set of values, Cougar keeps his emotions beneath the surface and works to present himself in complete control of the situation. As long-range eliminations, Cougar is often the guardian and eyes of the group as he monitors their safety. He may not be in control of the elements, just as he’s not in control of the world around him, but he’s a careful and measured man with patience and skill and knows how to evaluate his surroundings to best use them and survive. He is determined and steady, as his time with special ops has taught him to withstand the harshest of conditions and survive them. As a result of the army, he’s learned to be disciplined and follow orders. Because of the Losers, he’s learned when it’s appropriate to shirk the orders and do the right thing.

Cougar’s loyalty is strong and bound by experience, especially bad ones. He’s willing to do anything for the team that’s become his family, forged in blood and fire. That loyalty is not unbreakable, however, and betrayals can sever those ties instantly. Cougar takes betrayal extremely personally and he bears grudges that will always remain as a dark mark in his books. Cougar’s moral code may be grey as it can’t possibly be pure and clean given his actions in the past, but he holds steady beliefs that you don’t harm unless you have to and you should never hurt children in any way. When it comes to killing when necessary, stealing, and cheating, that’s when the grey starts to creep in. While Cougar might not be outwardly warm, his compassion and empathy lurk just below the surface. It isn’t easy to win Cougar’s friendship as he can often have high standards of the people around him, but once it’s won, you have a defender. He’s got his own sense of humour and finds amusements in his team and knows that unless you find the good in the bad, you’ll start to go crazy. Cougar isn’t without his issues, though. You can only find so much good before the bad starts to creep in and recent events that forced him to witness the death of 25 children have left him with emotional scars that manifest in night terrors and an overwhelming rage towards the CIA and the institutions that allowed it to happen. He uses his gun, the promise of a mission, and his friendships to get him through, knowing that when the right time comes, he’ll be able to pursue the revenge that will sate his grudge.

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

What skills does your character bring to the situation?: As a sniper and former Special Ops, Cougar possesses many skills that benefit the people around him (not to mention himself) when it comes to survival, defense, and, when needed, attack. He’s extremely skilled at gauging his environment to the smallest detail and taking it all into account to see how it shapes the bigger picture. Where others might see the trees, Cougar sees the forest and the path through it. His accuracy is extremely dead-on, which will make him a key asset when it comes to hunting, and his experience with clearing an area and recon will give him scouting abilities. He’s also going to be extremely good in a disaster, level-headed, quick-thinking, and good at prioritizing. Being in the field has also given Cougar other situational skills, such as his field medic abilities. While he isn’t a doctor by any means, he can do battlefield repairs such as stitches and other mild treatments.  Cougar’s pursuit of the right thing will help to guide him to be a resource and asset in a community, though he won’t be its most talkative resident.

Explain how your character would react to the following:

- Discovering that their memories may have been tampered with: Cougar’s desire to harness and shape the elements around him means that this loss of control will sit uneasily with him when he discovers that his mind may not be exactly as it should be. That said, it may also lead him towards a fervent curiosity as to whether it can be manipulated and controlled, just as a strong wind doesn’t mean a bad shot -- it just means he has to adapt. Cougar would try to see whether he could somehow work to remove or dampen the memories of the crash in Bolivia, turning something that rubs him the wrong way into a mission. His lack of control over his memories may turn him terse when he does speak and his trust may falter as he won’t be sure who he can trust apart from his team (who won’t be there)

- Having to do physical labor to survive: Cougar’s upbringing wasn’t short on his share of chores, which become a way of life when he went into the Army. He learned very quickly that in order to benefit the collective many, he had to pitch in and do his part. While he’s not the strongest, he’s determined and won’t stop until the job is done. As a result, his need to do physical labor to survive will just be another day in the Army for him, though in this case he will get to reap some of the benefits. He will be happy to do his part and on a subconscious level, it will allow him to feel that he is continuing to do good even if he cannot be serving a country or a unit anymore

- Having to share resources with others: While Cougar has had to share resources through his career in the army, he also values possessions that he’s marked as his. In the old world, those things are his hat and his gun, which he’s become selfish about and refuses to share, but apart from several totems of his life, Cougar knows that in order to survive and create relationships, it’s important to share food, housing, and other resources. He will still try and assert his own dominance in certain situations when there are better resources at hand (ie: better meat), but he would never leave anyone starving, cold, or hungry. He just might take advantage of his skills in order to get the better of the resources as a creature comfort to offset some of the strangeness of his situation

- Being unable to leave the area: Typically, the unit goes and Cougar follows. In Bolivia, he had been unable to leave the area because of a financial barrier rather than a physical/magical barrier such as Sixth Iteration, but he has experience in being immobile. It will chafe at him and make him feel short and angry at times, but only because Cougar doesn’t like being told what he can’t do. Orders for a mission are one thing; putting him down and telling him he can’t do something is an invitation to break those rules. Once he learns that he’s not able to leave, he’ll turn inwards and look for a purpose and a passion within the community. His inability to leave will morph from an irritation at not having the control to decide to taking control of his situation by deciding what he’ll do in the village if that’s where he’s going to stay. It might just be a perceived control he’s taking back, but it will settle his mind when it comes to the scratch that reminds him that something is holding him back.

- Doing without modern conveniences and technology and/or being around tech more advanced than they're used to: Cougar’s recently coming off a similar stint in which the amenities he’s used to are no longer provided and has learned how to adapt to being without modern conveniences. The one thing that he will be slightly disconcerted about losing will be his weapon -- while modern tech is not a critical need for him, so much of Cougar’s recent life has become shaped around his weapon to the point that it feels like an additional limb to him. Luckily, the skills he’s developed as a sniper are not specific to his weapon and he will eventually get over the bad mood of losing his gun (and his hat) and make the best of the situation by creating his own weapons and providing to the settlement by hunting, gathering, and scouting.

- Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable: Though isolation is hardly a preferred state, it’s one that Cougar has learned to exist in. He’s often separated from the team and in his own head, in a sniper’s nest for hours or even days at a time. It becomes a matter of managing the time in your own head and Cougar will use different coping techniques to get through the isolation of being separated from his team (who are the only loved ones he’s got anymore). That said, given the abundance of new people and a strange situation, Cougar will also use hard work and a scoping out of the situation and people as a gap filler for any separation issues he might experience. In their group, being left behind is sometimes a necessity and when it happens, you buck up and do your best by the situation. There might not be any danger of an attack or harm, but Cougar will have a role and in a way, he will see it as being deployed on another mission with a new group of soldiers at his side.

WRITING SAMPLES

Sample 1 - Test Drive - http://sixthiterationooc.dreamwidth.org/1179.html?thread=5019#cmt5019

Fic Sample (Star Wars Gen) - http://archiveofourown.org/works/5614756

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