Application: multiversal

[lazarusrisen]

In Character Information
Basics
Character Name: Adam Monroe
Username: lazarusrisen
Fandom: Heroes
Played By: David Anders
Icon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/1044972/1155813


Canon Character Section

Physical Description: Adam is 365. And a half. But he could pass for thirty. He stands six feet tall and has a slender but physically fit build, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He tends to dress well but not ostentatiously—slacks and button-downs that look casual but are, to someone that has the eye for such details, high-quality and expensive. He carries himself gracefully, with the easy air of someone unafraid to assume responsibility if it's needed (he likes to pretend he's not always after it in the first place); he's soft-spoken unless angered.

Sexuality: Adam is bisexual. He didn't start out openly identifying that way, because he was afraid of his family's disapproval or of being rejected by his peers in the conservative, religious community into which he was born. But as he grew into adulthood and realized his village was too small for him, and then he left and began traveling the world, he became more comfortable first with taking lovers of any gender, and then with being open to all kinds of sexual practices. That openness has remained over his life—you can't live for centuries without getting bored with what you've always had, and being willing to try new experiences.
He likes sex—he craves the release, he likes using it to pass the time, he digs people who can make it novel. He also likes how he can sometimes use it to have power over people. He will use it, and use the people offering it, to his own best advantage; he'll remain monogamous or get into a long-term relationship if it benefits him to, or he'll have multiple partners or casual relationships if that serves his needs best. Just like everything else with him, it's all about what Adam gets out of it.

In canon he had ten wives, always marrying women. I suspect that's both a slight preference for long-term relationships with women as it is a function of the societies he was part of when he married each time. His last marriage was in 1973; marriage, in nearly every case, was something he did because it was expected of him or he wanted to cultivate the appearance of respectability, and in those eras, respectability and marriage meant he married a woman—again, it comes back to what benefits Adam most. I don't think he'd be adverse to a long-term relationship with any gender in a more permissive setting.

History: http://heroeswiki.com/Adam_Monroe/Season_Two

Adam hails from the end of season 2, coming to Baedal live from being buried alive, because I am a horrible person, and because season 3 sucked so bad, you guys.

Also I want to address the Takezo Kensei thing: I find it problematic that this legendary Japanese hero was revealed to be a white guy, so I do not play Adam as though he was ever really that heroic figure, or that this is an identity he chose to take on or to identify with. In my headcanon, he did go to Japan, he did learn how to speak the language and wield a sword and get along in their society, but he was not Takezo Kensei. Hiro believed him to be and got him to perform all the feats of legend, but it was actually Hiro Nakamura who was Takezo Kensei, not Adam Monroe. Hiro made the heroic feats come to pass, and in the end, Hiro was the one who saved Yaeko and her father and foiled the evil warlord's plans.

Adam wouldn't recognize the stories as his exploits or himself as this legendary figure; his sword is Kensei's but it rightfully belongs to Hiro, not Adam. If you ask Adam, he was in Japan as a world traveler and con man, and he joined in Hiro's heroic exploits and was betrayed, but he was not this legendary figure, nor did he try to be. Yaeko spread the tales of Kensei based on Hiro's doings, not Adam's presence.

Powers: Adam has the power of rapid cellular regeneration. His body will heal from any injury, up to and including death, making him effectively immortal. Minor injuries heal on the spot; the more severe the injury, the longer the healing process, though he can return from death in just a few minutes.

Talents/Abilities:: Adam is a master swordsman, he's highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat, and reasonably good with a handgun. He's had military training, though it's about a century out of date. He's fluent in French and Japanese.

Personality: Outwardly, the face Adam presents is one carefully crafted to present him in the best light possible. He is the wise friend upon whom you can rely and in whom you can have absolute trust. He is the leader in whom you can have faith and whose experience can guide you. He is the reluctant hero who only exercises his great power in furtherance of the greater good, or to protect those who need it. He is the man made lonely by the power fate conferred upon him and the great responsibility he feels goes hand in hand with it, his own needs and yearnings necessarily set aside by the burden he is required to carry.

All of this, however, masks Adam's true nature. He's a coldhearted manipulative bastard, calculating to the last, who'd just as easily sell you out or kill you as he would protect you or remain your friend. He puts on a good show, but at the end of the day the only person he cares about is himself and the only interests he's willing to protect are the ones that directly benefit him. He can certainly be charming, caring, grow fond of people, and benevolent, but if the choice came down to looking after someone else, or himself? He'd pick himself every time.

Adam is driven to be the way he is due to weariness. He's seen a few centuries turn, and he's seen the same dramas play out over and over again. Empires rise and fall, wars are launched, people die, resources are used up, people are oppressed or rise up, fortunes are made and lost. Nothing ever changes. The only thing that he has seen change at all in three and a half centuries is man's pride, his growing need to own, to control, to take. Adam can't handle what he sees as man's growing inhumanity. It's led him to develop an "every man for himself" mentality--it's what he lives by and what he expects others to do to him.

This is why he'd love to just wipe everyone out and start all over again. He thinks God had a good plan with that Flood of His. He'd love to wipe the slate clean--literally--and start all over again with a worthy chosen few. Maybe the world could turn out the way he wished it had, rather than the disaster he sees it to be now.

Adam is also horrifically self-centered, self-serving, and distrustful of others. He feels he lost everything that was good in his life through betrayals, and he pretty much goes through life now waiting for people to betray him again, or using his certainty that they will as an excuse to try to control them or do terrible things. He's an overgrown child at times, wanting things exactly his way or he'll throw a tantrum and stomp home. As much as he's weary and wary of man's growing pride, he's at times blind to his own, which is just as overwhelming, just as needy and wanting to take and control as he sees everyone else's to be.

Object: His sword.

Reason for playing: It's something of a similar idea to the reason why I play Rachel—Adam is another case of an ordinary person having an extraordinary power that they did not ask for dropped on them. But where she deals with it on a small, personal scale, Adam's immortality makes his struggle a bit more wide-ranging and epic. He's a god among men, and he's had a lot of the softer things that make a person a person stripped from him or willingly subverted by the sheer length of his lifespan. What should have been a gift is a curse; the source of his power and strength also undercuts his humanity. I like the idea of playing with those divisions.

He's a gameplayer, too, manipulative, craving power, wanting to be right, to be the best, to be the most loved/feared. He's much more likely to get involved in business and politics than any of my others, more willing to be a public figure, a man of industry, a mover and shaker. And he wants to play hero, but unlike my captains, he really is only playing at it. So this should give me a different CR path from the rest, the opportunity to have someone more involved in the city's business and industry.

Gods: Vell, because "can get really dramatic with his woe-is-me act, sometimes with casualties" could've been written about Adam. Adam is quick to want vengeance, very ambitious, hiding a lot of feelings and anger inside, and he's totally embittered. And Adam totally has the two-faced thing going on himself, outward appearance not matching with who he really is.


Writing Samples

First-Person Network Post: http://betenoire-rp.livejournal.com/282532.html?thread=12259748#t12259748
http://betenoire-rp.livejournal.com/186646.html

Third-Person Arrival Post: http://myheathenways.livejournal.com/523.html

Third-Person Action Post: http://myheathenways.livejournal.com/997.html (sexual content)
http://betenoire-logs.livejournal.com/170612.html
http://betenoire-logs.livejournal.com/141649.html

Misc