Application for themainframe

[tributetothesea]

OOC Information
NAME; Blue
AGE; Eighteen
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED; N/A

IC Information
CHARACTER NAME; Thane Krios
AGE; 39
CANON; Mass Effect
CANON POINT; Between Mass Effect 2 and 3.
FAMILY TYPES; From Dark Area, Deep Savers, and Unknown, please!

APPEARANCE; Thane is naturally a drell, one of a reptilian species comparable in looks to a humanoid snake. Needless to say he isn't going to look quite himself on arriving in the Terminal Building - he'll be keeping his leanly-muscled build and penchant for sleek-fitting dark clothing (and probably his keeping his chest partly exposed, out of habit - it was advice he was given somewhere in his Kepral's syndrome treatment to help him breathe, and though he'll be relatively well here, just in case), but his body'll otherwise be that of a human man, slightly gaunt, with the same almost marble-carved shape to his facial features, large and dark-ringed green eyes, and slicked-back dark rusty-brown hair.

PERSONALITY; As far as can be gleaned, Thane didn’t have much of a childhood, conventional education, or relationship with his parents – in fact, they were rather proud when the hanar came calling to take their six-year-old for grooming into a weapon. Instead, he spent most of his early life being trained to kill things, and he grew up with his position as an assassin at his core, and for a while, it was all he knew, and he did and does accept that - although he had little room or prompting to give much thought on becoming what he is, he became it all the same, and he owns and defines himself as an assassin. Thane is a perfectionist who values resourcefulness, capableness, and finesse, which carries over outside work – he is proper, well-dressed, and well-spoken, as first-impression traits – as well as a workaholic, for the worse where his eventual family life was concerned. He’s made it a point to become an absolute master at his trade, taking it far enough to call it an art.

Mind that in spite or perhaps because of the fact that he’s spent so much time becoming acquainted with, facing, and causing death starting at such an early point in his life, Thane isn’t callous about killing – he takes life and death every bit as seriously as he takes assassination, and all three run hand in hand; and he is an assassin, one originally at the express command of his society’s well-respected government, no less, and not a murderer. While he takes some satisfaction from a job well done just as anyone does, he doesn’t kill because he enjoys it but because he’s good at it, and it can be helpful, and if one has a special skill that can be put to relatively good use, better to use it than not. Wanton killing is uncouth, undisciplined, and unethical. He never kills without a purpose and earnestly prays in penitence any time he non-self-defensively takes a life.

Thane’s spiritual side is as essential to him as his profession, and the two are in fact more complementary than contradictory. For starters, traditional drell philosophy is dualistic, considers the body and the mind rather separate, keeping responsibility for killing off an assassin – though their body actually does the killing, the decision to kill was made by a different mind. He still acknowledges his role in forcing others’ lives to an end and that it isn’t ever an entirely good thing, hence the praying; if he has a choice, he could be said to kill only for the sake of others’ protection. Since his release from serving the hanar government, he accepts only contracts he judges highly challenging on targets he judges highly corrupt, threats to others – and it’s interesting to note he admired Irikah from the second he saw her because he was at the time surprised to see someone willing to block a bullet to protect a complete stranger. He doesn’t make his spirituality an excuse or pardon for anything – it works rather nicely as a way for to keep himself in check but not conflicted, free to let himself use his skills as an assassin and be a decent person at once.

Just as well for him and most others, since regardless of his morally-dubious profession, Thane is a surprisingly nice person. He is sympathetic and magnanimous, exercised in ways from killing innocent workers’ abusive bosses to buying candy for the stray children who used to help him with reconnaissance. He’s quietly even friendly – though he seems a bit aloof on first impression, he is very polite and will gladly follow along if engaged in conversation, and doesn’t completely lack a sense of humor, either, even if it is mild, dry, and reserved for friends.

As it is, he still keeps to himself by nature. He doesn’t actively seek out others’ company, contenting himself with, say, meditation or reading in his free time if he has a choice, letting others come to him if they’re sure he’s the one they want to share their time with. Though this may seem like an interesting word to use, he actually seems a bit shy, with relationships if not interactions – he seems a tad wistful if Shepard tries to encourage him to make friends with the rest of the squad, and he stalked his wife-to-be for a short while in the period between falling in admiration and love at first sight and declaring it. That could be owed to the fact that while he’s dealt with plenty of people one way or another, he’s really just not used to making others a part of his own life. They weren’t, until falling for a certain orange-eyed beauty gave him the first hint of the idea however solid a sense of one’s own essence they have they’re not complete without making others’ lives a part of their own. Although he himself will say he was never truly alive until then, even after it, Thane seems to recognize his own bouts of loneliness best in retrospect.

Keeping primarily to himself by first instinct gives Thane plenty of room to spend quite a bit of time thinking and philosophizing, which he is happy to use, and he is the sort who could be said to think too much and too gloomily. He hasn’t had an easy life, making a living off of dealing with the sort of people others would want dead, doing some pretty sobering deeds, being regularly exposed to danger, and hurting his family. His thoughts are liable to go to mood-ruining if not downright unhealthy places, especially concerning his own life and past deeds. It isn’t helped a bit that Thane’s entire species have not so much photographic as videographic memories. Thane can remember every detail of nearly everything he’s ever done and regret past decisions as if he’s just made them. That and his personality set him up to be an intense thinker.

But distressing thoughts are hardly all he’s liable to fixate on. Thane is dutiful, which, like most everything else about him relevant to his job, holds just as true outside its context; and he values the few close bonds he forms with others deeply – he credits Shepard as essentially his new reason to live for not only giving him new direction and purpose but helping him reconnect with his estranged son, even affectionately calling a female Shepard “siha”, very roughly translating to “guardian angel” or "Valkyrie". He’ll dedicate heart and soul to anything and anyone he considers it “right” to, out of sympathy, gratitude, or whatever happens to be relevant.

Bringing it back around, one of his sources of will along with his dedication is his pride – pride in being able to follow through and deliver on his dedication and loyalties, pride in his moral integrity, and pride in his discipline and finesse. It’s only notably when his pride is stepped on or challenged that Thane isn’t so pleasant – he thinks of most hired arms as seldom more than short-sighted and unprincipled thugs, and takes on a little of a condescending tone with Jacob when the latter calls an assassin “just a precise mercenary”. But naturally, held close, pride encourages courage and further driving at polish, perfection, knowledge, and self-challenge, all at least among Thane’s highest-priority personal needs – he could have and likely does accept the Omega-4 mission without pay because it’s expected to be as profoundly dangerous as it is beneficial to the galaxy, and there’s another point: pride can spark inspiration to help the world in ways it’s unlikely anyone else could even try. Thane has an unshakable concept of self and desire to identify and purify it down to its very best – the one measure important to achieving that best he isn’t accustomed to is greater connection to places outside that self to keep him from losing himself in it.

HISTORY; Thane's history and the events of Mass Effect 2. The Mass Effect series's protagonist and playing-out are heavily influenced by the player - for the purposes of a solid background, to this incarnation of Thane, Shepard was a female Paragon (more straightforward good-guy as opposed to a more morally-gray and aggressive Renegade) who didn't court him, successfully completed all twelve loyalty missions, and destroyed the Collectors' base.

SAMPLES

FIRST PERSON;

3.) If you were given the option to stay in the Digital World or return to your home, which would you choose? Why?

I... have accepted that I have reached the end of my usefulness to my home world. And I would not want to abandon one who needs me. My partner has awaited our meeting all her life. I hope that through my presence, she can attain the strength she seeks. And that she doesn't.

But whether I stay or return, I fear I am abandoning someone. There are goodbyes I would have liked to say, had I known that I would be pulled from my universe. To my son. To allies.

I expect I'll deliberate further on the matter, if the time comes that I'm compelled to make such a decision.

5.) You have one choice. That choice will result in either the end of the world or it will save it. Which way would you go?

That is not a question. If I found that such a choice rested on me, I would save it.

6.) What would make up your ideal friend?

Friendship is something I've seldom sought. One who is willing to keep principles have my respect. One with compassion unhindered by fear of taking action as they deem right has my interest. I determine that to be necessary for friendship. Yet friendship between any two individuals requires something more. Something that cannot be found until the same two meet.

THIRD PERSON;

Even if it isn't terribly recent, I hope that this will do - it's in the guise of comment spam, also, though the key parts were introspective and essentially prose in brackets. I'll write up a new sample if for any reason(s) this doesn't do, natch!