are you alive

P L A Y E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Samm
OOC Journal: neveryourmuse
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: 25
Email + IM: neveryourmask @ plurk, nneveryourmaskk @ aim
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Charles Xavier

C H A R A C T E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Caprica Six
Canon: Battlestar Galactica
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: Season two, episode eighteen, "Downloaded". During the cave in.
Number: 006.

Setting: Battlestar Galactica is a science fiction setting, where a society called the Twelve Colonies were almost entirely eradicated by the intelligent, robotic race known as the Cylons, which humanity created themselves some few decades ago. We follow a fleet of spaceships, led by the giant warship, the Battlestar Galactica, as they try to find a home among the stars (specifically, Earth) and defend themselves from the Cylons that pursue them. A lot of other complicated bullshit happens. In the case of Caprica Six, much of her story takes place on the irradiated, occupied planet called Caprica, which she is named after.

The tech levels are very similar to a contemporary Earth with exception to advanced spaceflight, light-laser weaponry, and complex artificial intelligence. Which are obviously quite divergent. It is a world heavily laden with mysticism, with the dominant religion closely resembling the ancient Greek gods of our world, while the Cylons worship a monotheistic entity that bears more resemblance to Christianity, minus a messiah. The Cylons, at the start of the series, hold the belief that they must destroy humanity, their creators, before they can advance as a society, and so enact genocide on the human race.

They develop human-like models, eight of which are known to them, all of which have numerous copies, which is where Six comes in.

( content warnings for: genocide, child death. )

History: After a forty-year armistice between humankind (also known as the Twelve Colonies), and the Cylon (a race of robots with complex artificial intelligence created by man before they rebelled), a nuclear war is about to be launched against man. Although Cylons that look like humans are unknown to the human race at this time, the audience is introduced to them via model Number Six, a Cylon resembling a tall, blonde, white woman. The copy this app is for, then simply identified as Number Six (but I shall continue to call her Caprica Six for the sake of clarity), roams the planet known as Caprica, distinctly unusual in her affect in some nameless way. She is different from the people that mill around her.

She stands over a baby's pram, marvelling at its innocent fragility, and snaps its neck, walking away to the sound of its mother's hysterical screams. This was an act of mercy.

Caprica Six enters the apartment of Dr Gaius Balter, a famous computer scientist with friends in high places and various military and government contracts. He doesn't know her name, despite that they've been together for two years, carrying out a passionately sexual and romantic relationship so that she could get from him the access codes to the defense mainframe of the Twelve Colonies. He's believing he's merely doing her a favour to please her unknown employer, so that she could take a peek around government sysetms for a contract bid. In reality, these access codes are used to crumble the defense system of the human race, and enact nuclear war.

Bombs fall, cities burn. Billions of people die. The human race dwindles down to the low forty-thousands in a matter of hours, across multiple planets. Caprica Six returns to Gaius to tell him the truth of her nature, and what she has done. She has developed feelings for this ridiculous and hopelessly flawed human, and needs him to understand why his species is about to be eradicated. As shockwaves from devastating explosions flood Caprica City, she shields his body with hers, saving his life while her consciousness is downloaded into a new body.

She awakes as a war hero.

As the Cylons begin clearing the mess they made of the now occupied Twelve Colonies, Caprica Six is left to adjust to a new life and existence. She is the first Cylon 'celebrity', when previously, the Cylon were a race of indistinguishable model numbers, one through eight, and due to her work on Caprica, she is named after the planet she helped destroy. With this new found individuality comes other flaws -- doubt, pity, other glitches jamming up the cold robotic certainty of the things they had done. As if to encourage this along, she begins hallucinating Dr Gaius Baltar (whom she believes dead, and will henceforth be referred to as Messenger Baltar), whose role in this life seems to be nettling her about her act of genocide and the differences between herself and the qualities possessed by humans. He would also help her, giving advice into what to say in order to survive.

Because survival is becoming an imperative. Individuality is not to be trusted. All Cylons vote along with their model number, disagreement and independence trapped along the lines of their make. All Sixes must agree. All Fives, all Threes.

But she isn't the only one that stands apart. An Eight known as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii has awoken from download, having completed her mission as a sleeper agent. She was programmed to believe herself completely human, a Raptor pilot of the Colonial Fleet, and after being compelled to shoot Commander William Adama, she was killed by a member of crew, and her consciousness transported back into the Cylon fold. But she hadn't been able to adjust, and a Three approaches Caprica Six with a task -- talk to Boomer. Help her with her reintegration. Or else she would have to be "boxed", a sort of Cylon cold storage, to prevent her memories and individuality from infecting all other Eights.

Caprica Six agrees, and visits Boomer, where she is staying in her old apartment in Delphi. Boomer is initially resistant, reeling back from any talk of God (something Messenger Baltar rebukes Caprica Six for), claiming that the only love she cares about is the love of her friends back on her ship, the Galactica. In a fit of rage, Boomer smashes a framed photograph, and one of the fragments cuts Caprica Six's face, mellowing out the tension. Of course, Caprica Six was not injured -- she cut herself with the edge of her fingernail in order to show that she, too, bleeds. Caprica Six, following some advice from Messenger Baltar, manipulates Boomer by talking about the love she knew for Gaius.

But when Boomer tells Caprica Six that not only is Baltar alive, but also the Vice President of the Twelve Colonies, Caprica Six realises she's been lied to. And that perhaps, given her celebrity status, much like Boomer's, she's on the outs as well, and just as in danger of being boxed.

This, she determines with both Messenger Baltar and Boomer (separately), while they talk at a cafe outside Boomer's apartment building, along with the conclusion that Three might have manipulated the situation to see them both put into cold storage. Speak of the devil, Three arrives to interrupt, asking how things are going. Caprica Six lies, telling her that Boomer is going to move out of her old apartment, a sign she's embracing reintegration. Three enthuses that they should do so straight away, although it is more than likely that Three detects a deception and is planning to fast track her plan to box them both.

We don't get to find out, not immediately. As they enter the building, a bomb placed by human freedom fighters goes off. Many Cylons are killed, and the Three, Boomer, and Caprica Six are protected from the collapse by the structure of a stairwell above them, but also trapped in the parking garage beneath the building. Caprica Six is severely injured, and during a brief moment of unconsciousness, she is taken to the Tranquility.

Personality:

NUMBER S I X
Cylons begin with a template personality. Many never stray from this. Others develop incrementally individual quirks based off memory and experience. The Six line seems to be the most prone to adaptation and differentiation -- for example, all other Cylon lines have a single name they share, such as Doral, or Leoben, or Sharon. In the Six line, they either refer only to Six, or develop their own names.

But they all start from somewhere. The Six model have some very defined traits. They are known for being incredibly physical, both in reference to their fighting prowess and violent tendencies, but also very sensual. They are skilled in manipulating humans through sexual overtures, although this often came across as too intense, or somewhat off. While other Cylons may exhibit more subtle nuance, such as Cavil's easy mimicry or Simon portraying a kind persona, Six lacks in this and suffers from an abundance of innate curiousity.

They seem, all, to possess a certain fascination with human emotion, by virtue of interacting with it. Specifically, love.

CAPR I C A
When she was put on Caprica, Six had a specific mission to carry out. She was going to win a man's heart and mind, and extract from him the information necessary to further a plan of genocide. Her mission defined her behaviour, learning as she went, a long game of two years of emotional manipulation that perhaps did not result in love from Gaius in a way he was prepared to lend voice to, but certainly trust enough to hand over the key to the defense mainframe. Considering the personalities involved, this was probably not a difficult task. That said, Caprica displays an adeptness for emotional manipulation -- her interaction with Boomer was a play up until she realised she was in danger, such as cutting her face to garner sympathy.

Her execution is not flawless. She possesses a commitment to the Cylon God that can often get in the way of her relating to humans who reject these beliefs, a shared commitment (save for the Ones) that manifests itself as devotion, love, child-like admiration, and also fear, and even in her ruse, she seems unable to deny her beliefs. Although this is true of all Sixes, Caprica has a sense of destiny -- later in the series, she is plagued with prophetic dreams. At current, she's just plagued by a hallucination of a messenger in the shape of Gaius Baltar. (A note on how I propose this is handled in game can be found at the end of the application.) It is a position she doesn't reject, but doesn't quite understand.

The Cylon society is one built on replication. First came the massive metal robots that began the uprising in the first place. When the humanoid Cylons were created, only eight were made, of various gender, race, and age, and copies were made based off each template. As such, this is a society that is unused to concepts of individuality and autonomy, with conflict running along the lines of model Numbers, but infighting and a great amount of variation is avoided.

Although the Sixes seem inclined to express more individuality, they still all agree with one another, and at this stage during canon, this hasn't changed. Due to Caprica's deeds before the attack on the Colonies, she has been elevated into a sort of celebrity status, one she has so far mainly tried to hide, for want of understanding what it is she could do with it. Celebrity is a foreign concept amongst the Cylons, for one reason -- it means she has a voice, a remarkable voice that is all her own and independent of other Sixes, and other Cylons may listen.

Her perspective is unique. She is beginning to doubt the things they have done, and the things she was directly involved in. This is in part due to her own developing sensitivity towards life having been planted after her two years undercover, as well as the goading of Messenger Baltar.

Revenge is not of God. And that's all they've been doing.

In the day to day, it becomes clear that Caprica is a more complex woman than the tunnel visioned seductress persona carried out by Messenger Six across the galaxy, or even who she was before the bombs started to fall. The Messenger Six that haunts Gaius is very representative of the woman he knew her to be, in the same way she perceives Messenger Gaius as the man she knew him to be -- slick, competent, challenging, which are true, but dismissive of his weaknesses. By the same token, she displays vulnerability and uncertainty, and when in the midst of her Cylon brethren, comes across almost humble -- that said, context counts, and this was at least partly due to the fact she had a secret to keep, as well as playing down that she stood out for any reason before she knew what she could do with her position, other than not get boxed.

She is adaptive, and wilful, and increasingly solitary. Given a task, she is able to focus on it and accomplish it with a brutal sort of efficiency, showing a steely willpower when tested, reminiscent of all Sixes. Similarly, her belief in God is strict and unwavering, and love is a tricky concept that she is trying to understand -- through sex, through lies, through punching, whatever it might take.

While being emotionally manipulative, achieving her goals by causing others to feel certain ways -- almost mechanical cause and effect type manipulations such as being sexually provocative -- it is when she starts to feel, or desire to feel, that she finds herself lost. Much of her divergence from her template personality stems from attempting to understand why she feels so off about the annihilation of the human race and what, if anything, she's supposed to do about it, both practically and emotionally. It's finding a way to put everything back to rights that seems to lock her back into a more certain mindset.

She is curious. She has a broad sense of how humans work, but almost does not seem to understand her own nature, and looks to humans in order to fulfil that. She looked to Gaius, primarily, but this feeling would evolve into a certainty that Cylon and human must co-exist. On the Tranquility, this is not a conclusion she has yet come to, but one she will explore through the character relationships she will build.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: Cylons of the skinjob variety are difficult to separate from human beings, physically speaking, but they are granted some advantages. They are far stronger than a human, as evidenced by being able to snap a pair of metal handcuffs, cracking thick prison glass with a headbutt, and other signs of physical endurance such as never (or at least, rarely) tiring, withstanding higher levels of radiation poisoning, and so on. Six herself is known as the most combative Cylon, with sophisticated martial training coupled with violent tendencies.

Being cybernetic in nature, Cylons enjoy an intuitive knowledge and understanding of advanced technology and computer systems. While they cannot remotely/wirelessly control other machines, they can plug in physically by jamming a connective wire into their own veins and seemingly psychically perform all kinds of tasks, such as creating viruses, destroying viruses, erasing systems, building them back up, and so on. This may or may not be relevant in game, but could be fun to play with, with mod permission.

Cylons are also capable of "projection", which is generally used as a personal means of changing their perception of their environment to suit themselves, a sort of willing hallucination. Caprica has stated that she likes to see her surroundings as a forest. They are able to share this hallucination with others, both Cylon and human, although it is not done often.

While enjoying biological weakness and function that make them appear human -- Kara Thrace noted that they sweat -- the Cylon are still inhuman. There is a lingering question as to whether or not they can turn off pain, and later in the series, Caprica claims that she desires pain so as to better her experience as a living being -- that they experience pain is a choice in their programming, in the same way they need air to survive being a physiological one. Their bodies are disposable.

This also means that they are broadly programmable, enabling memory erasure, the placement of triggers and commands, etc., but requires advanced, unique Cylon technology to do.

Another weakness is that the biological makeup of the Cylon means that they can catch diseases and viruses that mankind is immune to, while remaining immune to some diseases and viruses that mankind is not. They are also as killable as the next human, but granted the ability to resurrect into a new body with all their memories retained. However, upon the Tranquility, Caprica will have no such luxury.

Their spines glow when they have sex.

Inventory:

clothing; a pair of jeans, a black tank top, a few pieces of silver jewellery, a pair of boots, a pair of high heels, and a red dress

a purse, and within it is a Cylon transponder (which, obviously, will not summon a Cylon fleet, but Caprica Six and any other Cylon aboard the Tranquility will be able to sense it when activated)

Appearance: The Six line expresses more physical individuality than any other model, with various Sixes changing their hair and personal styles and temperament of their own volition. They do appear to have a default sort of look and attitude, however. Invariably, they are all 5'11" white women with blue eyes, and most wear their hair cut above shoulder, platinum blonde, and so does Caprica Six. She smiles like a xenomorph, half-snarl and threat, and her features are borderline handsome in their severity, but are very expressive and prone to softening in moments of vulnerability. She is played by Tricia Helfer.

Age: 30ish.

AU Clarification: N/A

S A M P L E S
Log Sample:

[ Are you alive?

A tiled floor, hard under her cheek. Fluid of the stasis chamber (resurrection bath) runs viscous off her body where it's collapsed into a heap simply to breathe, and she slides her flattened hand across slick surface, attempting to remember. How she died. Her head is spinning.

But no. No, this is wrong.

She shouldn't be on the floor. Her sisters should be here. Her brothers. Gaius. And.

And. An inevitable conclusion, if equally as impossible: she did not die. Death hurts and she doesn't hurt. The memory of it should be sparking through cybernetic pathways, jolting her back to life, reintegrating memory into new form as if jamming something square through something round. She remembers the cave in. She remembers D'Anna, following them, waiting--

Caprica's fingers curl into talons as she lifts her head, watching as strangers move around. Cold suspicion stands out hard along jawline and flat blue eyes. Blonde hair, tinted blue and dripping and tangled, sticks to her face, her neck. Something icier than adrenaline seems to be coursing through her veins, something more electric.

Someone makes the mistake of coming closer. Her hand finds their throat, squeezing fragile under her palm both before, during, and after she redirects their back up against the wall.

She has questions. ]

Comms Sample:

Hello.

[ This woman has not only graced this network before, but in different varieties, but it's been a while, so she's read. The bones in her face are naturally hard, but there's a softness, now, to the inquiring focus committed through her communicator, her brow pinched, her mouth relaxed. ]

Some of you may know me. Most of you don't. For the former, I don't remember you. I don't remember this place at all. But I take it that that's just how things work around here. Maybe you should introduce yourselves before we have a misunderstanding.

[ She blinks. A little uneven. Her composure is precise, but flawed. ]

Many of you have been here for a long time. Endless, elaborate corridors. Confinement in a vast, and strange prison. The same rooms, the same people, the same nightmares. Monotony where variation never portends anything good. At least I can see things the way I want to see them. I know that not everyone has that luxury.

So tell me.

[ She smiles in a way that displays her eye teeth. There is something both very intent and removed in her blue eyes. ]

How do you stop yourselves from going completely crazy?

Note: Because I wasn't sure where to fit it, here is a final note on Messenger Baltar -- how I'd like to handle it is more minimal than is depicted by the show, long stretches of time where she is alone, and then occurrences that are not prophetic in nature, but either trolly, assuring, or motivating. The most I can imagine is his advising her in a way that might save her life, but this would only be done during player motivated plots or with mod permission. That said, I can eradicate him altogether, or minimise further as fleeting hallucinations or whatnot, whatever mods are comfortable with.