Application (personal reference)

[notsocommon]

* Your name: Cerie

* Your personal LJ: sheikah

* Who do you currently play at Tabula Rasa?: Jack O'Neill, Jacob Black, Princess Zelda, Niko Leandros

* Please list the dates of your participation requirement threads or posts for each pup for the two previous calendar months:

* Have you dropped any pup since your last application? n/a

* If so, why did you feel the need to drop them? n/a

* What month and year is this application for?: P4 July 2010

* Your character's name: Dr. Helen Magnus

* Your character's canon: Sanctuary

* What type of canon is it (Book series, film, etc.): television series

* Your character's LJ: lastof_five

* How should your character's tag look?: dr. helen magnus

* Is your character living or dead at their time of entry?: Living

* Does your character have any pre-existing disabilities of a medical, physical, or psychiatric nature?: No

* Tell us about your character's background:

Hidden away among the sleek fixtures of modern North America is a shrine to the unknown, a haven for the unusual fittingly called the Sanctuary. Home to the world's most rare and unusual creatures, the facility is run by Dr. Helen Magnus, a woman just as enigmatic as the organization she runs. After years of playing caretaker to a menagerie of the fantastic, it can be difficult to remember that once Helen was a normal woman who came of age in Victorian London. Helen never fell into the stereotypes of her era and pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable for her gender and station. Her father's influence allowed her to study at Oxford and, while there, Helen met some of the greatest minds of the age: James Watson, Nikola Tesla, John Druitt and Nigel Griffin.

Longing to be an equal and not just a novelty, Helen begged her father to share his secrets, to share with her the research he'd poured over for the entirety of his life. He relented, unable to deny her anything, and Helen found herself in possession of pure, untainted vampire blood. While the blood's effects were wildly unpredictable, Helen and her colleagues agreed that the possibilities were endless; super strength, long life and other unusual effects could only be the tip of the iceberg. Helen, yearning to prove herself, injected herself with the blood first and awakened supernatural longevity; while the years passed, she would never age.

The others developed powers beyond all reckoning; Tesla awakened latent Vampiric qualities, Druitt teleportation, Watson a preternatural intelligence and Griffin developed the power to become invisible. But while Helen's new abilities left her with nothing more than a longer span of years to continue her research and scientific pursuits, the others could not handle their powers quite so easily. Seeking to protect herself and others, Helen broke ties with the rest of The Five.

Lonely and in need of purpose to fill her days, Helen helped her father to develop the Sanctuary, a group of safe havens across the for those like herself, for Abnormals. As expected for someone of such long life, Helen has experienced most of the hallmarks of history. She earned her medical degree from Oxford and later specialized in the fringes of known science: exobiology and teratology.

In spite of her accomplishments, Helen still felt the need to push herself, to keep herself relevant. She conceived a daughter, Ashley, through the miracles of science and after 157 years of existence, she took on a protege, Will. Through his eyes, she can still see what fascinated her all those years ago back at Oxford: explaining the unexplainable. She and the rest of her team travel the globe to protect those that need protecting and, in the case of a few, capture what needs capturing in order to maintain the fragile balance between humanity and Abnormals.

Helen enters Tabula Rasa during the events of Sanctuary 2x08 (Next Tuesday).

* Your character's personality:

In spite of the years removing her from the hazy gaslight of late 1800s London, Helen Magnus is still very much a Victorian woman. She is somewhat more reserved than a modern woman would be and, while she can be coy or flirtatious, has a very strong sense of propriety. She is discreet in all things, especially those of a romantic nature, and believes that such things should be kept behind closed doors. This sometimes leaves her on the outside of those things considered modern and popular culture, but Helen is unwilling to leave manners behind entirely just to blend in.

Helen's age and abilities also lend her something of a guarded nature. Having outlived most of the people she's loved, Helen doesn't like to get close to others; what's the purpose when she's only going to see them die in a few short decades? This reserve and caution, born out of both longevity and her own era, make it difficult at times to read Helen's moods and to form any sort of intimate relationship, romantic or otherwise, with her. As such, Helen does occasionally suffer from bouts of loneliness and occasionally questions her decision to become an immortal.

But while Helen has occasional doubts about her immortality, she sublimates her loneliness into her true passion: science. While a beautiful woman who, in her own time and age, could have made a great many matches, Helen has always defined herself as an intellectual and scientist first and a woman second. Her work has always been her passion, the only thing that can continually challenge her throughout the years and never ask for anything she cannot give in return. Even Helen's greatest achievement, the conception of her daughter Ashley, was ultimately the result of scientific breakthrough.

These qualities could leave her a cold, aloof woman but Helen works past all that in order to truly show how much she cares to the ones that matter. She has a close relationship with her daughter, sharing with Ashley her research and her passion for the Sanctuary project. She treats the majority of her staff as her family and feels a special kinship with the Abnormals she rescues, unable to completely keep herself from being worn away by the agents of time and emotion.

While complex, brilliant and somewhat reserved, Helen, beneath it all, still loves those she lets in with a fierceness and loyalty that is unparalleled.

* Why do you want to play this character?:

Currently, many of the characters I play are quite young. Helen, in contrast, is much older and has a different outlook on life. I think exploring the island through her eyes will be a new way to experience the collaborative writing experience that is Tabula Rasa and lend something new to the fabric and dynamic of the game at large. Internally, Helen has always struggled with her longevity, alternately viewing it as both a blessing and a curse and watching her wrestle with the fact that she is once again a mere mortal will be a new way to tackle the issues that Tabula Rasa provides for all characters.

Helen is also a scientist and an intellectual, giving her the chance to interact with new groups of characters as she shares her knowledge with the island at large. Her skills as a doctor and scientist could benefit not only the clinic but also the labs and can help contribute to the overall quality of life on Tabula Rasa in a meaningful and, I hope, memorable way.

* Your character's initial personal inventory:

[1] wetsuit, black and purple
[1] swimsuit, tank-style, brown in color
[1] set of pearl earrings
[1] dive mask
[1] set of black rubber fins
[1] snorkel
[1] waterproof digital watch
[1] waterproof nylon bag, containing:

*[1] acetelyne torch
*[1] spare oxygen tank
*[1] survival knife
*[1] spear gun, loaded with harpoon

[1] waterproof and airtight suitcase, containing:
*[1] black dress, Chanel
*[1] Hermes scarf, black and white floral
*[1] pair silk stockings, black
*[1] pair of stilettos, Prada
*[1] set black lace panties and bra, La Perla
*[1] black silk nightgown, La Perla
*[1] Macbook Pro laptop and charger (battery 85%)
*[1] iPhone and charger (battery 90%)
*[1] black cosmetic case, including:

**[1] lipgloss, pale pink, M.A.C. (90% full)
**[1] bottle of foundation, Lancome (85% full)
**[1] pressed powder compact, Lancome (50% full)
**[1] eyeliner, black, Lorac
**[1] mascara, black, Lorac (75% full)
**[1] eyeshadow, dark grey, M.A.C (65% full)
**[1] bottle of perfume, Chanel No. 5 (90% full)

*[1] black velvet jewelry case, containing:
**[1] multi-strand necklace, black Tahitian pearls
**[1] strand of pearls, white
**[1] pair of half-carat and platinum diamond earrings
**[1] ring, platinum and black Tahitian pearl
**[1] passport, issued to Helen Magnus

*[1] black leather wallet, containing:
**[1] driver's license, issued to Helen Magnus
**[1] black American Express card, issued to Helen Magnus
**[1] $225.50 in cash, mostly in twenties.
**[1] photograph of Helen and Ashley Magnus

*[1] Southern Atmospheric Sea Scorpion, about the size of a large dog and quite vicious.

* Your character's entrance post:

Vampire squid were supposed to be docile creatures. Helen clung to this as she dove deeper, trying her best to fit the helicopter transponder through the narrow grates of the maintenance shaft. Why, only an hour ago she and Will had been loading up their particularly lucky find and gearing the chopper for the flight back to the US mainland. It was to be a quick and easy capture with boundless opportunities for research once she'd gotten the squid back to the Sanctuary in Old City and even Will could go on his bloody stupid trip to Iceland to spend time with Sigrid or whatever her name had been. Truthfully, she'd tuned out a little when he'd started whining about it; it was something approaching unbecoming to be so open about a romantic tryst with someone you barely knew.

And now, barely an hour later, she was free diving over thirty feet in an attempt to get a signal out so that someone would think to come rescue them from the abandoned oil rig. Filing the phony flight plan had seemed a stroke of brilliance before, a way to ensure that their precious cargo would be far away from prying and exploitative eyes, but now it seemed another strike of bad luck. Helen still wasn't sure how the helicopter had gone down and her attempts to think through it logically had been thoughtfully derailed by said vampire squid's irrational display of territorial aggression. She would think through it later, after she'd gotten home and was ensconced in the warmth of her office with a cup of tea and not while swimming so deeply that her head was starting to ache from the change in pressure.

She kicked, trying to focus on the movement of the muscles in her legs and the sure strokes of her arms, muscles working in a glorious concert. Thinking about this, the simple propulsion of her body, would distract her from other, more dire concerns. The squid was nowhere to be seen, after all, and there was no sense in worrying herself over things that could not be changed. A long life tended to cure even the most worrisome human of that aspect and Helen liked to think she'd left undue worry and stress in the past. For now, her hand was just in reach of the maintenance grate, long, manicured fingers brushing against the rusted metal as her other hand gripped the transponder like a life raft.

She'd been stranded at sea exactly once before and as Helen slipped her hand through the grate she thought about that night. April 14, 1912. The North Atlantic. They'd all said the Titanic was an unsinkable ship but Helen had seen the schematics, knew the engineering failings. If only they'd let someone else check the design before setting her to sail. It was a harsh memory, stark amongst the hazy pastels of her life, and she still remembered the way her fingers curled around her life jacket, the way her breath made puffs in the frigid air. She was one of a very lucky few who was pulled from the water that night, hauled into a boat by Molly Brown herself, and from that point on Helen had decided she'd never get stranded at sea again.

That sentiment had lasted for nearly a hundred years but, like all things, came to a sudden halt. Helen pulled at her hand, her memories distracting her for precious seconds and now, it seemed, she was stuck. The harder she pulled the more it seemed to catch and she struggled beneath the water, the sharp grate bruising her knuckles and catching at her fingers. Her lungs burned for want of oxygen and Helen tried to resist hyperventilating, knowing that would only serve to poison her more quickly with the carbon dioxide rapidly building up behind her mask. The mask had gone foggy from condensation and, exhausted from her struggle, Helen went limp. Will would come. He would have to know she'd been down too long.

It felt like mere moments before she woke, the gentle lapping sounds of the ocean bringing her from sleep to awareness. There were birds too, singing and trilling about and Helen had to wonder how, exactly, there were birds more than two hundred miles offshore. She made a quick inventory of her body, kicking off the fins so she could wiggle her toes, wiggling her fingers. She opened her eyes last, blinking at the harsh sunlight, and wondered at how she'd ended up on a beach, waves curling against her toes.

Another inventory, this one with eyes opened, revealed her personal suitcase (waterproof and arguably one of the best things she'd ever purchased) and her diving kit, seemingly unscathed there on the sand. At least those things had escaped the wrath of the squid even if the helicopter had not. Thank God for small favors, after all.

"Well, Helen, what mess have you gotten yourself into now?"