Whoops! I'd had this thing near-finished yesterday and forgot to post it. Sorry if the writing sample appears a smidge short, I am capable of writing long-form. I just wanted to give more of a scene describing my style more than my length. So yep, with all these magic folk I decided for a science-guy, sans Bill Nye-itude, and a more unhealthy obsession with the strange, paranormal and creepy-itude. [hider=Daniel Collins] [b]Name:[/b] Daniel Collins [b]Age:[/b] 27 [b]Appearance:[/b] Daniel Collins does not look like he should be investigating anything. He's thin, with a pasty complexion and a haphazard beard that in inconsistently trimmed. His light brown hair has begun to thin, apparent by his natural widow's peak. He simply "styles" his hair with a touch of gel to keep it parted upwards, without any care how it looks. His nose is pronounced and is probably one of the few memorable features he sports. He usually keeps gaudy double-bridged glasses on. His clothes tend to be threadbare, clean but in dire need of replacement. His usual attire is simple: a worn black t-shirt, blue jeans, his lucky socks (which have a multitude of holes in them), and worn grey sneakers. When the temperature requires a jacket, he sports a faded black zip-up hoodie. The only accessory he carries (apart from his inventions) is a worn leather messenger bag with the initials [i]A.N.C.[/i] printed over the metal clasp. [b]Concept:[/b] Inventor and obsessor of the strange and paranormal, with only a tangential connection to the other side. He supplements this by his haphazard inventions, which occasionally work in helping to monitor things beyond his mortal comprehension. [b]Powers/skills:[/b] [i]Smarts:[/i]Daniel possesses a keen intellect buttressed by almost insane creativity. He holds multiple degrees in engineering and design, though he spends all of that brainpower in creating inventions made mostly of junk. The redeeming quality of the junk is that it works, for the most part, unless something shorts, breaks or snaps in the process of investigation. [i]Journaler:[/i] Alongside his inventions, Daniel keeps journals of his findings and any interesting encounters he is involved with. Daniel has multiple spiral-bound notebooks and leather journals with his findings, dating back to his childhood spent with his family as they worked in the Australian brush. Any time Daniel has a chance to gain new information on anything paranormal, be they cryptics, monsters, spirits or demons, he is quick to jot down the information for later. He also has a talent for sketching and has various sketches of cryptids he claims to have seen. [i]Spiritually Unnattuned:[/i] Daniel's connection with the otherworld is tenuous at best. While awake, his senses to the other side are extremely dull. Where even a normal person would feel a chill or have their hair raise in the presence of something unnatural, Daniel feels nothing. The only time he is connected at all is when he is asleep, experiencing some connection to the [i]Dreamtime,[/i] a spiritual plane believed in by Australian indigenous peoples. [b]Things Your Character Wants to Happen (probably won't):[/b] To successfully investigate and explore the aspects of the paranormal world with concrete evidence, including the existence of multiple cryptids, paranormal creatures, ghosts, and extra-planar creatures. Then to become the de facto authority on the study of said creatures. [b]Things You as a Write Wants to Happen (Maybe will):[/b] To see Daniel undergo trials as a character. I want to see shit blow up in his hands, force him to come to terms that he is extremely out of his element, and have him step up and still face trials beyond him. To be creative is extremely dangerous situations and allow his inventiveness not to be a deus ex machina that is common with "inventors" but instead be something that helps the entire team. [b]Writing Sample?[/b] - [hider=Writing Sample] [i]Beep. Beep. Beep.[/i] The world was extremely blurry as Daniel groped around for his glasses. Between the sudden wake-up call from the old 1990's clock he'd rebuilt and rewired and the fact that he'd only gone to sleep [i]forty-five minutes ago[/i] was enough to have his internal systems screaming at him. Any normal person would be full of piss and vinegar being forced to awaken with such a start. But for Daniel, this means it was another chance to chat more observations. He found his glasses on the floor, and quickly unfolded them, placed them over his face, and then just as quickly removed them. He vigorously wiped the mucus from his eyes, replaced the glasses, and stumbled forward to an old Amiga monitor, hooked up to various open cases with countless wires flowing in and out of them. He was the Victor Frankenstein of junk, and his monstrosities would help him change the world. He typed in a few lines of DOS, before a graphic interface popped onto the screen, showcasing various numbers. [color=gray]"Let's see,"[/color] he muttered to himself, his eyes nearly crossing as he scanned the data. The specimen's temperature remained static throughout the tests, it had barely moved and no recordable sounds were coming from the container. But it [i]did[/i] move. He ran across the concrete floor of the garage that acted as both a laboratory, a bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom and stopped at a small plastic jar. Inside was a thick, viscous liquid, with a hastily scribbled label that read: [b]Skunk Ape Mucus[/b]. Just as the name implied, it had been pungent when he'd scrapped the small amount into the jar last week in the Florida Panhandle. He took out a thick marker and drew a solid black line around the bottom rim of the clear plastic container. If it moved now, he'd be able to record where and how far. He turned quickly, gripping a thin spiral-bound notebook, flipping pages until he found the entry, and began writing frantically, muttering to himself as he scribbled. [color=gray]"Skunk-Ape mucus possibly trying to return to origin body..." [/color] Another thought entered his brain, and he quickly dashed over to a plastic table with various pieces of junk on them. He quickly found what he was looking for, and grabbed it. In his hands was a gray, blocky 1989 Nintendo Gameboy handheld gaming system-or, at least, it once was. Now it had various wires coming in and out of it, as well as a thick incandescent light bulb extending from the top of the device. He turned the device on, and the light bulb began to grow dim. He began walking towards the mucus, and the bulb grew in power, flickering as he scanned over the container with the bulb like a wand. [color=gray]"Fascinating..."[/color] he mumbled to himself, turning the device off and gingerly placing it on top of another surface. [color=gray]"Could the mucus contain trace amounts of ectoplasm?"[/color] Was the skunk ape even a living cryptid, or was it something otherworldly? He'd need to get his gear together and borrow some more money to fill up the van. He had a ghostly primate to hunt in the Florida panhandle. [/hider] [/hider]