sawthefirst

-YOU-

Name: Hanna/Panda
Email: I prefer if people ask me for my email
AIM: I prefer to get to know people a little first
DW username: playing_footsie
Munhead or previous character journals (optional): N/A
Timezone: GT+1


-THEM-

Character name: Quinn Abercromby
Series: Reign of Fire
Character history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Fire_(film)
Character personality: Quinn Abercromby was there when the first dragon awoke. He was in fact the first person to lay eyes on it, and understandably this experience shaped the man he grew up to be. He lost his mother in that first attack and spent an untold amount of time lying in an elevator shaft together with her dead body, not to mention the fact that after this the dragons devastated the earth in a matter of years.
One of his most defining traits is an enormous sense of responsibility for his fellow survivors, and while it isn't explicitly stated in canon I don't think it's unreasonable to speculate that he, to an extent, feels as if it was at least partly his fault that the dragons woke up from their sleep. Intellectually he probably knows that someone would have gone into the cave and found them whether or not he did it, especially since he was a child and shouldn't have been allowed in there to begin with, but somewhere inside him there seems to still be a trace of that boy who remembers seemingly waking a monster with his touch. A monster that ended up ruining everything that he held dear.
Before this he seems to have come from a somewhat broken home, it's hinted that his father is not taking an active part in caring for Quinn, and when it's suggested that he could help out economically to pay for Quinn's school because he's lost a scholarship that was apparently allowing him to go to the school he's in he actually apologizes to his mother for even asking. The family, meaning Quinn and his mother, were not well enough off to actually pay for whatever education Quinn was getting, and it was probably on him to be good enough to deserve the scholarship he was getting. Again something to early on instil a sense of needing to be the best and do the most.
When we see him as a grown up it's made increasingly clear that Quinn doesn't really think much of himself, and yet he's taken the role of leader in the community he lives in and has done a good enough job to earn the respect of most of the residents.
This has less to do with him being a natural leader and more to do with the fact that he is willing to deal with the less pretty parts of being one, and that he is determined to keep as many people as he can alive no matter what it takes. He is willing to be the bad guy from time to time and tell a man that he can't go out and harvest the crops yet and bring food home to his starving children because if he does, the seeds won't germinate and they won't have any crops next season.
With just a look he gets people slacking off in their work to pick it back up again, and that very likely did not come out of him being a fluffy bunny. "I'm your best friend, but sometimes even I don't like you" is something Creedy says to him at one point, summing up pretty well what role he's given himself in the community.
That said there very much is a softer side to him, and he takes no pleasure in being harsh. Around the children of the community he allows himself to be a bit more light-hearted, re-enacting famous movies with Creedy to entertain them. Children is rather obviously his biggest soft spot and they are always his first priority in times of immediate danger such as a dragon attack. As a very young man, he must have been a teenager at the time, he rescued and took on responsibility for a toddler he found crying next to his dead mother. That child has in the movie grown into a teenage boy, and his name is Jared. It's interesting to note that despite obviously caring very deeply for Jared and having taken care of him for a long time, Quinn has never taken on the role of father. He doesn't refer to Jared as his son, and Jared points out that Quinn is not his father to assert his right to go off with the dragon slayers. He says to Creedy at one point that he wonders if it would be as easy to dig in and hold out despite being starved if he'd had children, obviously missing the fact that he's more or less been a father for years now. It appears to be a bit of an emotional blind spot for him, though it's entirely possible that this is a form of sub-conscious self-defence. If he started thinking about himself as a father, perhaps it really would be that much more difficult to do what he needs to do.
Quinn is a visionary and a planner, coming up with schemes to outlast the dragons and to make the castle ruin he lives in a safer place for all the survivors in his care, and also to protect them from the other enemies that sadly do exist. The big flying reptiles aren't the only monsters around, and some humans prefer to prey on other survivors rather than working to get by with their own means. This has made Quinn more than a little suspicious towards strangers, though actually he's still more open than some would deem wise. He wants to believe in people, and if he could he would help everyone and let everyone into the castle. He's had to harden his heart considerably over the years to keep himself and those he cares about as safe as it is possible to be in a burning world.
More than most people around him, Quinn thinks ahead, thinks about a possible future. He's seen working furiously on some sort of record (most likely meant to be left to Jared) of everything that is known about the dragons and how they came to dominate the world so completely. He believes that knowledge is their only weapon, and he wants to pass as much of it as he has managed to collect along.
Quinn is a very passionate man but can probably come off as being somewhat emotionally stunted because of his generally quiet and severe demeanour and the fact that he as a general rule isn't very good at verbalising feelings connected with caring about people on a more personal level than his general protectiveness of the people in the castle. His most usual way of telling people that he likes them is actually to say that he doesn't, with an attitude that makes it clear that he's joking. Examples involve telling Jared that he thought he'd gotten rid of him forever when the teenager shows up, having decided to not go to London with the dragon hunters after all. It's obvious that Quinn is incredibly relieved, and he does give the kid a big hug, but he can't seem to get actual words out to tell the boy that he's glad he didn't go. Luckily for him, those close to him seem to be well aware of how much they mean to him anyway, and perhaps that isn't so strange considering how he works his ass off at all times to make sure they have the best life he can possibly make for them.
Much as Quinn can stubbornly hang on to his plans and beliefs, he still doesn't have much faith in himself as a person, especially not when it comes to his position as leader. He doesn't think he's the best man for the job by a long shot, but he seems to be the only one willing to do what he thinks it takes to be one and so he does it. If he thought someone else was up for the task and better suited to it, I think he would be more than fine with stepping down, at least so long as he thought this new leader was doing his or her job right.
When Van Zan tries to muscle in and take charge, Quinn resists it, but at the same time you can tell that on some level he thinks of himself as weaker than the other man. If he isn't absolutely and beyond all doubt certain that what he's doing is the right thing, his resolve is somewhat likely to weaken if there is someone he perceives as stronger than himself on some level around to oppose him.
Quinn is quiet and reserved, but friendly in his own way, and wherever he is he will work his ass of to make sure that people can live safe and happy lives in whatever ways he can think up. He might come off as a little uneducated to some considering the fact that his formal education was cut short, but he uses what knowledge he does have well and knows to delegate and utilize other people's knowledge as well without letting personal pride get in the way.
Quinn is a survivor, trying to make life a little less hellish in a burning world. His hope is that somehow humanity will manage to outlast the dragons, and he will do his part to make it happen.


-SAMPLES-

Journal entry sample: They tell me that I'm fictional. That my world and the people in it isn't real. But if I'm real now, the way I see it that means they all are too and always were because I remember them. I lived it, all of it. If I'm a real person, then what made me is real too. I still feel the loss of every single person I buried, every single one I've now been forced to leave behind because apparently I'm supposed to be here now. Why I deserve to get out and they don't is beyond me, and I don't really think there is any argument that could be given that I'd accept, but I guess I stopped really believing in justice a long time ago.

Still, if my memory is the only place that the people in my life are truly real in, then let this be my record of them, so that they can live in other people's minds too.

When I was a boy a species of animal was re-discovered that had drifted far enough out of memory and time that they'd become myths. Flying reptiles, who breathe fire to burn down everything they possibly can and feed on the ashes.

Dragons.

They hibernate for staggering amounts of time so that the world can repopulate and heal, and then they wake up again and the cycle starts over.

I saw the first. I was there. But that's not the point of this particular entry. Perhaps another one further down the line.

I live, or I suppose I should say lived, in a castle ruin in Northumblerland. We have a graveyard there, one that I've buried far too many people in. Far too many children. These are their names, along with some there weren't enough left of to bury.

[ What follows is a list of names and the age of the person who died, and also brief little descriptions of what they were like.

There is one that he saves for last, that takes a little longer to work up the strength to record... ]

Creedy. He was my best friend, and his death should have been mine. He'd punch me for saying it, but since he's not here I can say whatever I damn well please and he can suck it up if he's watching from some afterlife or other.

Dragon hunters had come to our home, again something for another entry, and they pulled the wrath of the Bull Dragon down on us. So much bigger than the others, capable of even more damage.

We'd gotten down to the shelters with as many others as we could round up, but there were still people left up in the castle. I wanted to go and get them and Creedy stopped me. He went instead, maybe because he knew it was the only way to make me stay put. He turned around just before he died and looked at me, and I knew then that the bastard had known he would die.

He kept me going, and I think he was one of the few in that castle who genuinely liked me. He was also one of the few who actually knew me,

He was happy and charming, and funny as hell. He also made just about the worst liquor in the known universe, but I suppose it's a feat that he managed to make any at all when you think about it. I don't know how he managed to stay so damn cheerful, but I guess someone had to be and that was one job I really wasn't cut out for doing. I could motivate people to work, but I'm pretty sure he was the one who kept their spirits up.

We were a team, and a damn good one.

It's a loss for every single one of you that you've never gotten to know him. Nobody could ever wish for a better friend.

I miss you, mate, and wish you were here so I could punch you in the face for dying on me like that.

Leaving it at that for now, need to rest my eyes and my hands.

I can't help these people anymore, but I'll be damned if I give up on the people who are still alive back there. They all deserve the kind of life that they could get here, and I will never stop trying to find a way to give it to them.
3rd person sample: Here and here