Zam Tolen App
Dec. 12th, 2010 04:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
complicatedcopYour name: Saphie
Your LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
psychicsaphie
Your email: psychic.saphie@gmail.com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: psychicsaphie
Character's name: Zam Tolen
Character's LJ:complicatedcop
Character's canon: DC Comics OC | The Legion of Superheroes [reboot era]
Race: Human
Home Planet: Earth
Affiliation: Science Police
Rank: Sergeant
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character: Zam's entire life is compartmentalized and split into different "modes." When she's on the job, she's all there, 100% dedicated to being an officer of the law, and the type to give you a stern look if you're joking around during something srs (though she's not above the occasional ascerbic crack herself, but usually only if someone is doing something stupid or foolhardy). Zam practically lives and breathes the law, and her duty as a Science Police officer comes before anything else.
Off-duty mode is another story entirely. She may be married to her job, but she knows how to have a girl's night out now and again. If you catch her during one of her rare times of relaxation, she does know how to chill out and actually has a pretty good sense of humor. In fact, her true nature is a little bubbly and cheerful, but cheerfulness is just something that doesn't work on the job, hence her tendency to flip back and forth between "work" Zam and "free time" Zam like a switch has been thrown. It's almost like she's two separate people.
In both instances, she has a very good head on her shoulders, and she often makes connections between different things that most wouldn't even think of. Some cops operate on instinct, but Zam cruises along mostly with sheer brains. She's no space-age Sherlock Holmes, but putting together the pieces in ways most people wouldn't consider is a gift of hers.
That said, her greatest gifts lie in leadership. She can be somewhat informal and while she's not necessarily rude (other than her racial insensitivity), her bluntness can sometimes be interpreted that way. However, overall, she is very decisive, completely calm in a crisis, and has an intuitive understanding of people, usually knowing exactly the right buttons to push and levers to pull to get people doing what they should to get things done (Getting Things Done is very important to her). In fact, she can even be downright manipulative and scheming, even if her bluntness helps mask this fact from most, since they think she's always honest because of it. She finds it easy to get people to do what she wants, and easy to navigate the waters of inter-departmental politics, and hey, if it's all for something important, like managing a police squad and making sure they get the perp, what matters is that she gets the job done, right?
Honest enough to never take a bribe, but dishonest enough to not tell her captain when one of her men decided to get a confession from a perp by taking liberties with their hand and a desk drawer, she is, at least, effective, and at heart, seems to care most about justice being served.
One major character flaw, however, and something that's prevented further promotions is her attitude towards many other species. While she believes no one is above the law, and that all sentients deserve protection under it, she is known to hold nasty stereotypes towards certain species of aliens and denizens of certain planets. Durlans can't be trusted, for instance, and Coluans are cold, arrogant schmucks (okay, that one is true, though), and, of course, anyone from Rimbor is a thief and a crook. She's willing to shove this aside for the sake of the job, but it sometimes causes friction, especially since she is known to make occasional biting comments out loud. If you're not human, respect comes a little grudgingly--she doesn't see nonhumans as not deserving of rights but she definitely sees them as different.
There are also times that Zam's behavior can be erratic, and her moods can shift strangely. Sometimes she acts with unnecessary paranoia, or unreasonable vindictiveness, but then acts perfectly normal again afterward. These inconsistencies happen for a reason. Zam has a dark secret, one she's willing to do anything to hide.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
To hear Zam tell it, she had perfectly ordinary upbringing in Metropolis, but what she tells to a rare few is that her father was a criminal, a low-rent thug always looking for his next get-rich-quick scheme, hoping to propel his family out of an impoverished life and into a well-to-do one. In the United Planets, the have-nots have more than they once did, but when the advent of the stargates led to changes in the transport of interplanetary cargo, Zam's father Ged lost his job as a laborer.
While not a horrible person, he made a lot of bad choices and eventually wound up in prison for quite some time. After that, Ged communicated with his daughter from prison and encouraged her to always look out for herself and do what she had to do to get by, but to at least try to make an honest living and not make the same mistakes he did. Nearly a juvenile delinquent, one near-arrest for vandalism and a harsh reality check from her mother spooked Zam into taking a different route than her father and eventually she joined the Science Police. Desperate to put her past behind her, Zam keeps details about her father a secret to most, and if pressed, will say she believes her father is still a good man, but she is far from soft on other criminals. In fact, she's colder and harsher almost to compensate and make sure she doesn't get too sympathetic with them, as if to prove she's nothing like them.
A few close calls and mistakes as a rookie officer gave Zam pause and made her wonder if she was suited for the job, but renewing her dedication to her duty, she studied protocol and practiced as much as she could to get better, and eventually got her feet under her. Since then, she's had a distinguished record on the force, and has worked some of the more difficult beats, such a stint as a prison guard in the infamous Takron-Galtos prison. She's also worked to stop drug trafficking out of Rimbor, doing some undercover work. In recent years, after working Homicide for a short time time, she started working as part of Metropolis's SWAT division until she was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and now manages a squad of SWAT officers out of Metropolis's main Science Police precinct.
Her actions have caused her to receive a number of commendations, but her somewhat xenophobic attitudes, something she'd inherited from both parents, have prevented further promotion.
On the more personal end, Zam has had several close friends over the years, including a reporter for the links, and a string of unsuccessful romantic relationships. Her dedication to the job has created problems with her personal life at times. Going away on undercover ops, long-term, has ruined a relationship or two, and the risk involved with working the SWAT team ruined other relationships when girlfriends couldn't deal with worrying that much about her. She was engaged once, to a Winathian woman named Nomi Kernz but prefers not to talk about it, because the engagement ended messily (and a lot of it had to do with Zam's speciesism).
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Silence reigned in the Sensorium as Zam practiced. Well, there wasn't total silence, there was the sound of fists punching flesh, bones occasionally crunching, and the grunts of the holographic goons as they hit the floor, but Zam herself was completely silent, focused as usual, her eyes darting sharply around her surroundings, quick and calculating.
Eventually, they were all down, and she was left standing there, surrounded by the bodies. For a moment, it seemed to be over, but in a flash, she had her regulation side-arm out of its holster and in her hand, and she aimed up ahead in one fluid gesture, and fired.
A nameless thug let out a cry and fell from the overhead balcony, his phase rifle clattering to the ground.
Taking one last look around, Zam holstered her weapon again, and just like that, the switch was flipped. The blank look left her face and she smiled, almost cheerfully, as Stacy intoned:
||Program complete.||
"Grife, you'll have to do better'n that, Stacy. Some of the beats I've walked in the past, there would'a been some sneaky little nasshead creeping up behind me, too." she placed her hand on her hip. "Think you can dial this thing up a few levels? I want a real challenge here."
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
NO POWERS OTHER THAN THE POWER OF COP-NESS.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
All Science Police are somewhat multi-disciplined, as they need a number of skills to do their jobs in whatever position they're in, but usually that's only basic working knowledge, with them specializing in what they need for their particular job.
Things Zam has some basic grasp on are:
• Forensics. She only knows the basics, like how to preserve a crime scene and do some basic analysis, dust for prints, etc. Hardcore analysis is beyond her.
• Computers/hacking. In a high-tech universe where every damn thing is computerized, every Science Police cop needs to know enough to just function. More than basic stuff is beyond her though. She won't be hacking into Stacy anytime soon.
• Driving. She is good at driving a hover-craft and knows some piloting, enough to give a high-speed chase, but she's no ace pilot or anything, and is definitely not the best person you could have behind the wheel.
• Shooting. She knows her way around a pulse rifle, and is a decent shot, but she's no sniper.
Things Zam has more extensive expertise in are:
• Detective work. When that evidence is analyzed, she's very good at putting the pieces together.
• Working in/Putting together undercover ops. Though she no longer does undercover work and is a little rusty, she still has the skills that made her good at it. She's a good actress, a savvy social manipulator, and a good long-term planner.
• Leadership. Having come straight from Metropolis' SWAT Division, she still has mad leadership skills. Those aforementioned planning skills really aid her in her job, and if plans go awry, she's got a cool head and is a quick thinker on her heels, too.
• Interrogation. She's very good at pushing the right buttons to get someone to talk and at trapping them in their own words.
• Interdepartmental politics. Zam, as mentioned before, is good at manipulation, and the queen of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours." She's often able to weasel things out of her superiors that her squad needs, and usually has favors owed to her for various things she's done at any given time.
An Important Note About Zam's Skills:
These are the base skills she has. Sometimes her skillset will be inconsistent, and she'll suddenly show far more advanced skill in something where she didn't have that level of skill in before, like computer hacking or even mechanical engineering. This is not her pulling new skills out of her ass just to be special, this is meant to be an actual inconsistency when compared to how good she is at that skill the rest of the time. If asked how she demonstrated such skill when she was shown to have less skill in something before, or claimed she didn't have that skill at all, she'll make excuses for it or pretend it was always there and she just didn't show it before.
There is a plot-based reason for this, that will eventually be revealed, and it's an entirely intentional incongruity. Remember that dark secret that's not mentioned in her history? Well, the mods have a longer history section than is on this version of the app.
An Important Note About Zam In General:
Some of what's contained in this app may be false. It's all written about as if it's true, but certain details may actually be manufactured rather than true. Zam has a few secrets, and while the other characters may discover they're not quite as bad as she seems to think, there are certain things she's not entirely honest about.
Your LJ:
psychicsaphieYour email: psychic.saphie@gmail.com
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: psychicsaphie
Character's name: Zam Tolen
Character's LJ:
complicatedcop Character's canon: DC Comics OC | The Legion of Superheroes [reboot era]
Race: Human
Home Planet: Earth
Affiliation: Science Police
Rank: Sergeant
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character: Zam's entire life is compartmentalized and split into different "modes." When she's on the job, she's all there, 100% dedicated to being an officer of the law, and the type to give you a stern look if you're joking around during something srs (though she's not above the occasional ascerbic crack herself, but usually only if someone is doing something stupid or foolhardy). Zam practically lives and breathes the law, and her duty as a Science Police officer comes before anything else.
Off-duty mode is another story entirely. She may be married to her job, but she knows how to have a girl's night out now and again. If you catch her during one of her rare times of relaxation, she does know how to chill out and actually has a pretty good sense of humor. In fact, her true nature is a little bubbly and cheerful, but cheerfulness is just something that doesn't work on the job, hence her tendency to flip back and forth between "work" Zam and "free time" Zam like a switch has been thrown. It's almost like she's two separate people.
In both instances, she has a very good head on her shoulders, and she often makes connections between different things that most wouldn't even think of. Some cops operate on instinct, but Zam cruises along mostly with sheer brains. She's no space-age Sherlock Holmes, but putting together the pieces in ways most people wouldn't consider is a gift of hers.
That said, her greatest gifts lie in leadership. She can be somewhat informal and while she's not necessarily rude (other than her racial insensitivity), her bluntness can sometimes be interpreted that way. However, overall, she is very decisive, completely calm in a crisis, and has an intuitive understanding of people, usually knowing exactly the right buttons to push and levers to pull to get people doing what they should to get things done (Getting Things Done is very important to her). In fact, she can even be downright manipulative and scheming, even if her bluntness helps mask this fact from most, since they think she's always honest because of it. She finds it easy to get people to do what she wants, and easy to navigate the waters of inter-departmental politics, and hey, if it's all for something important, like managing a police squad and making sure they get the perp, what matters is that she gets the job done, right?
Honest enough to never take a bribe, but dishonest enough to not tell her captain when one of her men decided to get a confession from a perp by taking liberties with their hand and a desk drawer, she is, at least, effective, and at heart, seems to care most about justice being served.
One major character flaw, however, and something that's prevented further promotions is her attitude towards many other species. While she believes no one is above the law, and that all sentients deserve protection under it, she is known to hold nasty stereotypes towards certain species of aliens and denizens of certain planets. Durlans can't be trusted, for instance, and Coluans are cold, arrogant schmucks (okay, that one is true, though), and, of course, anyone from Rimbor is a thief and a crook. She's willing to shove this aside for the sake of the job, but it sometimes causes friction, especially since she is known to make occasional biting comments out loud. If you're not human, respect comes a little grudgingly--she doesn't see nonhumans as not deserving of rights but she definitely sees them as different.
There are also times that Zam's behavior can be erratic, and her moods can shift strangely. Sometimes she acts with unnecessary paranoia, or unreasonable vindictiveness, but then acts perfectly normal again afterward. These inconsistencies happen for a reason. Zam has a dark secret, one she's willing to do anything to hide.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
To hear Zam tell it, she had perfectly ordinary upbringing in Metropolis, but what she tells to a rare few is that her father was a criminal, a low-rent thug always looking for his next get-rich-quick scheme, hoping to propel his family out of an impoverished life and into a well-to-do one. In the United Planets, the have-nots have more than they once did, but when the advent of the stargates led to changes in the transport of interplanetary cargo, Zam's father Ged lost his job as a laborer.
While not a horrible person, he made a lot of bad choices and eventually wound up in prison for quite some time. After that, Ged communicated with his daughter from prison and encouraged her to always look out for herself and do what she had to do to get by, but to at least try to make an honest living and not make the same mistakes he did. Nearly a juvenile delinquent, one near-arrest for vandalism and a harsh reality check from her mother spooked Zam into taking a different route than her father and eventually she joined the Science Police. Desperate to put her past behind her, Zam keeps details about her father a secret to most, and if pressed, will say she believes her father is still a good man, but she is far from soft on other criminals. In fact, she's colder and harsher almost to compensate and make sure she doesn't get too sympathetic with them, as if to prove she's nothing like them.
A few close calls and mistakes as a rookie officer gave Zam pause and made her wonder if she was suited for the job, but renewing her dedication to her duty, she studied protocol and practiced as much as she could to get better, and eventually got her feet under her. Since then, she's had a distinguished record on the force, and has worked some of the more difficult beats, such a stint as a prison guard in the infamous Takron-Galtos prison. She's also worked to stop drug trafficking out of Rimbor, doing some undercover work. In recent years, after working Homicide for a short time time, she started working as part of Metropolis's SWAT division until she was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and now manages a squad of SWAT officers out of Metropolis's main Science Police precinct.
Her actions have caused her to receive a number of commendations, but her somewhat xenophobic attitudes, something she'd inherited from both parents, have prevented further promotion.
On the more personal end, Zam has had several close friends over the years, including a reporter for the links, and a string of unsuccessful romantic relationships. Her dedication to the job has created problems with her personal life at times. Going away on undercover ops, long-term, has ruined a relationship or two, and the risk involved with working the SWAT team ruined other relationships when girlfriends couldn't deal with worrying that much about her. She was engaged once, to a Winathian woman named Nomi Kernz but prefers not to talk about it, because the engagement ended messily (and a lot of it had to do with Zam's speciesism).
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
Silence reigned in the Sensorium as Zam practiced. Well, there wasn't total silence, there was the sound of fists punching flesh, bones occasionally crunching, and the grunts of the holographic goons as they hit the floor, but Zam herself was completely silent, focused as usual, her eyes darting sharply around her surroundings, quick and calculating.
Eventually, they were all down, and she was left standing there, surrounded by the bodies. For a moment, it seemed to be over, but in a flash, she had her regulation side-arm out of its holster and in her hand, and she aimed up ahead in one fluid gesture, and fired.
A nameless thug let out a cry and fell from the overhead balcony, his phase rifle clattering to the ground.
Taking one last look around, Zam holstered her weapon again, and just like that, the switch was flipped. The blank look left her face and she smiled, almost cheerfully, as Stacy intoned:
||Program complete.||
"Grife, you'll have to do better'n that, Stacy. Some of the beats I've walked in the past, there would'a been some sneaky little nasshead creeping up behind me, too." she placed her hand on her hip. "Think you can dial this thing up a few levels? I want a real challenge here."
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
NO POWERS OTHER THAN THE POWER OF COP-NESS.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
All Science Police are somewhat multi-disciplined, as they need a number of skills to do their jobs in whatever position they're in, but usually that's only basic working knowledge, with them specializing in what they need for their particular job.
Things Zam has some basic grasp on are:
• Forensics. She only knows the basics, like how to preserve a crime scene and do some basic analysis, dust for prints, etc. Hardcore analysis is beyond her.
• Computers/hacking. In a high-tech universe where every damn thing is computerized, every Science Police cop needs to know enough to just function. More than basic stuff is beyond her though. She won't be hacking into Stacy anytime soon.
• Driving. She is good at driving a hover-craft and knows some piloting, enough to give a high-speed chase, but she's no ace pilot or anything, and is definitely not the best person you could have behind the wheel.
• Shooting. She knows her way around a pulse rifle, and is a decent shot, but she's no sniper.
Things Zam has more extensive expertise in are:
• Detective work. When that evidence is analyzed, she's very good at putting the pieces together.
• Working in/Putting together undercover ops. Though she no longer does undercover work and is a little rusty, she still has the skills that made her good at it. She's a good actress, a savvy social manipulator, and a good long-term planner.
• Leadership. Having come straight from Metropolis' SWAT Division, she still has mad leadership skills. Those aforementioned planning skills really aid her in her job, and if plans go awry, she's got a cool head and is a quick thinker on her heels, too.
• Interrogation. She's very good at pushing the right buttons to get someone to talk and at trapping them in their own words.
• Interdepartmental politics. Zam, as mentioned before, is good at manipulation, and the queen of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours." She's often able to weasel things out of her superiors that her squad needs, and usually has favors owed to her for various things she's done at any given time.
An Important Note About Zam's Skills:
These are the base skills she has. Sometimes her skillset will be inconsistent, and she'll suddenly show far more advanced skill in something where she didn't have that level of skill in before, like computer hacking or even mechanical engineering. This is not her pulling new skills out of her ass just to be special, this is meant to be an actual inconsistency when compared to how good she is at that skill the rest of the time. If asked how she demonstrated such skill when she was shown to have less skill in something before, or claimed she didn't have that skill at all, she'll make excuses for it or pretend it was always there and she just didn't show it before.
There is a plot-based reason for this, that will eventually be revealed, and it's an entirely intentional incongruity. Remember that dark secret that's not mentioned in her history? Well, the mods have a longer history section than is on this version of the app.
An Important Note About Zam In General:
Some of what's contained in this app may be false. It's all written about as if it's true, but certain details may actually be manufactured rather than true. Zam has a few secrets, and while the other characters may discover they're not quite as bad as she seems to think, there are certain things she's not entirely honest about.
