OOC: Institute App

[snowguns]

PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Jex
ARE YOU AT LEAST 14 YEARS OLD?: Yes; 21
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: N/A
CONTACT: dreamstodreamers@gmail.com
PERSONAL JOURNAL: cyndilauper
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A


CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Grit (AU Name: Billy ‘Grit’ Smith; Goes by Grit as a military name and an in school name)
CANON: Advance Wars
CANON REFERENCE:
Grit Himself
Advance Wars Black Hole Rising Dual Strike - The Games
AGE: 31
GENDER: Male.
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: History teacher; also handles an ‘archery’ range out back

APPEARANCE: Here
PERSONALITY: ‘Possum spit! This area wasn't Blue Moon's to begin with. Blue Moon is just plain greedy. That's what it is. Fightin' for these folks just don't sit well with me. Well, I'll guess I'll just mosey on out and see what happens.’

Grit isn’t exactly seen as the most stand-up individual. Towards some people, he’s a traitor, who left his original country for no good reason at all and to others, he’s a lazy, unmotivated sort of man who needs to be forced to do just about anything. However, to a few select people who have seen him and all his sides, he’s a hero. He’s done a lot for his country of Blue Moon, despite all of his bad traits.

According to his commanding officer, Olaf, he’s the worst kind of person. He’s a lazy scoundrel, who is just out to annoy him. He’s often caught sleeping on the job, and other times Olaf comes in and yells at him for not being prepared for battle. Often times, especially in the first game, Grit is caught speaking out against him and his actions.

Olaf : Blast! We're running out of opportunities.
Grit : I don't see the need to get so worked up. It's not like this was Blue Moon property to begin with.
Olaf : What did you say? After all my work and planning?
Grit : It's common theft, man! Nothing more, nothing less.
Olaf : Why, you insolent little...
He doesn’t agree with Olaf’s actions all the time. Especially in the midst of the very first game, Grit believes Olaf is completely out of bounds for what he’s doing. Despite how much of a ‘scoundrel’ he can be, he’s got morals; at least enough to tell himself that what Olaf has been doing, going through Orange Star and tearing it up to conquer it, is wrong.

However, his morals might come into question when it comes to his loyalty. Grit has already hopped from one country to the next one over with barely a word, and he was very close to doing it again. From his first country of Orange Star, he’s already jumped ship once to Blue Moon due to a love triangle being formed (he left so his best friend, and Orange Star Commanding Officer, Max, could be happy with Nell, the highest ranking Commanding Officer in Orange Star), which got him labeled as a traitor by his best friend. When confronted about it, he simply replied that he ‘goes where he wants to go and that’s that’. Meanwhile, he nearly considered hopping ship over to Black Hole, the common enemy of all the armies, because he simply didn’t care about land. However, his issues with people getting killed needlessly and things getting destroyed come into play, and it’s the reason he turns them all away. He doesn’t want to be part of a group that sets out to destroy everything in sight. Adder, the Commanding Officer currently leading that Black Hole brigade, gets a lashing and is now considered one of Grit’s number one enemies.

The reason why Black Hole wanted him so much is that he’s far more competent than he happens to let on. His laziness is part of an act. When it comes down to crunch time, he doesn’t hold back. Grit becomes a hyper competent man, working well behind and in front of the scenes to help his army and the people he’s helping succeed with his intel that he delivers. He seems very quick with information, delivering it as fast as he possibly can to the necessary parties. He looks like a bumpkin that doesn’t know much at all, and he has the speech to match. However, it’s either a chosen act or just a really great coincidence of events, and he can push through that to prove his worth as a second-in-command.

Grit doesn’t have much in the way of an ego, despite his title. He’s a very relaxed fellow, and isn’t one to have his praises sung. In fact, he tells anyone who does it to just knock it off and they’re embarrassing him. He has the title of Sharpshooter, but he doesn’t introduce himself with that. He just introduces himself as Grit, and that’s the end of that for him. Other people talk well enough about him that he finds no real need to.

He’ll occasionally tease Olaf, and anyone else he gets to know, mostly in the way of nicknames and a little hint of sarcasm littered throughout. His commanding officer gets the most of his teasing (‘O bearded one’ happens to be his favorite there). However, other members fall under this as well (Max gets called Maxie, and the younger Commanding Officers get names like junior and kid). However, everything seems to be in a very good nature, and Grit’s normally friendly disposition has everyone besides Olaf appreciating these teasing jabs as simple affectionate jokes. His personality is very friendly, which is why no one takes his teasing too seriously. He’ll make jokes, but he’s a good spirited person and his jokes aren’t spiteful or bitey. When he’s serious or angry, he’ll let it be known.

However, for the most part, he’s laid back. He doesn’t get too excited or upset about anything. He’s a very chill person, and it can be seen in his battle tactics (long distance units take two turns: one to move, and then the next one to fire, so things go very slowly). He doesn’t see the need to move quickly, or react to things quickly. It makes him very level headed in that respect, as he’s able to keep a clear enough head for battle and so he can constantly perform at a strong level, rather than get frazzled and lose his focus.

Grit is a hard worker underneath it all, and just likes to hide it. He’s a good person, with a good set of morals, it’s just often a shame that some of them get passed over for his comfort levels. His biggest issue is his loyalty, and it’s something everyone should watch out for.

POWERS/ABILITIES:
- Ice Manipulation: Grit can manipulate ice, and in turn water, for his own use. Although his use of it is rather limited, it can only create firearms, but with it, he can create many different types of hand held guns. The only limits he has is the amount of water and ice that are hanging around. The larger the firearm, the more material it ends up using (a small pistol uses about an ice cube tray, but a rocket launcher would take a bathtub of water to freeze for enough power). Once he runs out of bullets, the gun simply breaks and falls apart, leaving him weaponless but allowing for him to escape without lugging around a large weapon. The weapons don’t work in extremely hot temperatures, and must be handled while wearing gloves.

- Weaponry expert: Grit knows what’s what when it comes to guns, able to easily identify what is what, what bullets they use, and overall, knows his shit when it comes down to it all.

AU HISTORY:
Billy was born in a town small enough in southern America that he’d be troubled to find it on the map. He grew up in a family of a mother, a father, and a bunch of siblings, of which he was the oldest. They all went to the single schoolhouse in the area to learn and grow. It was a normal childhood, one that he enjoyed very much. He didn’t have a ton of close friends as people kept moving about, and became very close with his family. But that didn’t last for very long.

At around the age of eleven, during a cold winter, Billy was traversing through a forest due to exploration. When he got into the deep forest, he heard the bushes rattling. He ducked down below to the snow and placed his gloved hand on it. What came out of the snow into his grasp was a pistol. Not that he knew how to use guns, but this was better than nothing. He quickly fired a few shots at whatever it was... it being a simple rabbit. But it certainly piqued his curiosity. After all, when you were that young and you suddenly found yourself with a gun made of ice in your hand, you start to want to know more.

With very little material on the subject in his town, he simply went back into the deep forest every night to practice making the gun. While it took awhile to get it to actually happen, eventually he was able to make it go on command. There wasn’t much information at all about why this was happening, and he knew better than to bring up the subject to anyone. The ability was unstable still, and the gun would fire off without warning, and when his finger wasn’t even on the trigger.

Eventually, he knew that he couldn’t stay here in this town. So at around sixteen, Billy went off to join the military. When he arrived, he wrote down his name as ‘Grit’, in order to differentiate himself. He wasn’t the boy that grew up in that town anymore. He was a different man. And he would be called by a different name. He did not speak of his own abilities, especially after seeing someone with similar powers getting discharged from the army. A danger to the society, they said. Grit knew that if he let his powers slip, he would be in the same trouble they were. But as far as he was aware, all he had to worry about was not getting too close to ice.

As the years went on, he quickly climbed the ranks of the military, reaching the rank of lieutenant and quickly building his ice powers during the off time to a respectable strength. The guns he could choose between were much stronger and he was starting to actually get the hang of all of this. And he continued to watch other people with abilities that were not completely far away from his own get caught and tossed out. They aren’t threatened with death... he doesn’t like watching it but he doesn’t have much of a choice. The area is covered in snow itself. By the age of twenty five, he’s allowed to finally return home for, this time, good. But he doesn’t return to the town he use to call home. Instead, he spends a few months up north, in the northern part of Canada, perfecting the technique he has.

He quickly finds out that he doesn’t have much of a choice anymore to hide it. Mutants are starting to be looked for more and more. After doing a bit of research (something that was actually useful up here), he found out about the Xavier Institute. Despite being too old to be a student, about ten years older, he knew he had to go there so he could eventually leave and be a normal citizen. Applying for a position as a teacher, he headed towards there, prepared to start a new life.

SAMPLE
1ST PERSON SAMPLE:
[Grit turned on the video feed, sitting at the front in a classroom.]

‘lright, so everyone, you’ve got a history quiz on the Monday because I’m kind ‘nough to give you the weekend to study. Yes. Study.

[A list of books are attached to the screen with page numbers.]

This is what ya should study along with everythin’ else. This is yer midterm. If you need to talk ‘bout it before hand, lemme know. Because apparently if you fail, I do too.

...Also, if yer learnin’ things about ice, meet me at the archery field at nine tonight. We’ll get some practice in.

THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
He still can’t get over the pain that comes from this manipulation. No gloves have ever been good enough to hold this new power in his hand. And dropping it at all is dangerous.

That’s how one forest fire started, after all.

He’s got a fire lit up and a bucket of water underneath him at the archery range, with one beside him just in case. He’s got things coated in some sturdy metal just for this practice. It cost him quite a bit of money but he can’t let this go long without practice. Snatching up the fire in his hands, he paused and shut his eyes to focus. Taking a few deep breaths, he quickly made a gun out of it, dropping the rest in the water below.

The heat was getting to him. He was panting, sweating and feeling tired already. Opening his eyes, he immediately went to take a shot at the target. Taking a few ones before he had to let the gun drop into the water below. Shaking his hands out, he let everything cool down before he looked up. The target was blazing right now.

This was a dangerous power, and Grit knew it. The worst mutation. If he stumbled around with this one, people were going to get seriously hurt. But he has no idea how to improve it at all. The practice he has been putting in daily has done nothing to improve its power. He grabs the second bucket, and moves over towards the fire and throws the water onto it. Sighing lightly, he flops back down on the ground.

Air and Earth are both less dangerous and Ice he can handle just fine. So all he has to hope for is that he never needs to visit a volcano or a town full of pyromaniacs, and he’ll be perfectly fine. He chuckled, and pulled the hat back over his eyes. Well, at least he knows what might end up killing him so he can completely avoid it.

Again, until he finally finds that town of pyromaniacs. And with his current luck, he’s not so sure they aren’t already here.