[OOC] In Too Deep - A futuristic Lovecraftian experience

[DeadDrop]

Yum yum.

[ihinka]

Working on my underwater archaeologist/archaeozoologist I hope I'll be ready by tomorrow evening.

[DeadDrop]

Discord maybe o.o?

[ONL]

Hider

Basic Information

Name:

Kristoffer Foyn Sørstad

Nicknames:

Kris/Chris, Greenie

Gender:

Male

Age:

36

Ethnicity:

Caucuasian

Nationality:

Norway

Occupation:

Marine biologist and Greenpeace activist

Appearance

Physique:

Kristoffer's build is what you'd call 'fairly average'; He's got some muscles here and there from occationaly working out and manning the ship, but isn't muscular in that sense.

Height:

175cm - 5ft 9 inches

Weight:

74 kilograms - 163lbs

Hair:

Dark brown

Eyes:

Brown

Skin:

Fair

Scars / Markings / Etc:

N/A

Clothing Description:

Kristoffer can be seen wearing practical clothing that fits the occation and current situation. On a warm and sunny day, he wears a buttoned shirt with its sleeves upfolded and knee-high shorts with too many pockets than he has use for. But when nature is at her worst, he does whatever good Norwegian feels neccecary and changes his attire; a navy blue, woolen beanie on his head, a thick water-proof jacket, a good pair of pants and proper boots. And don't forget the fingerless gloves!

Inventory

• Nikon camera w/ shoulderstrap
• Swiss army knife
• Smartphone
• Notebook and pencil
• Laptop and external harddisk
• Binoculars
• ID
• Headphones

Identity

Personality:

One of the first things you might notice about Kristoffer upon first sight, is that he smiles. A lot. And surprisingly to those only knowing of the Norwegian stereotype, the smile is genuine. He shows a open politeness and interest in getting to know new people around him, happily striking up conversation with people he's yet to meet. The same applies for those he like to call friends, showing kindness and generiousity towards them.

He believes in the value of all living beings, especially after experiencing what pain are caused human greed by his very own family. Therefore he never takes kindly to people treating animals poorly, and is one of the main reasons he became a marine biologist in the first place. All in all, Kristoffer is actually a really nice guy.

Really, as long as he's not got a fight to pick with you.

And a fight he's got to pick with many; fishermen and whalers, oil-tychoons, industrialists, fur-farmers, climate-change deniers, the list goes on. He's polite until he realizes you're one of these people, and then the northernen comes out in him. He'll have the tendency to shout at you and argue his face blue why you're wrong and he's right. Now he won't go as far as to hit you in the face...intentionally at least, but he'll give you looks that could kill you.

Possibly even arrange a Greenpeace demonstration against the whaling-ship and cause it to sink...

Strengths:
Kristoffer is dedicated to all forms of life and the preserving of their lives, and is this deeply curious as to what can be learned about them. This dedication combines finely with his sharp eyes and quick thinking, helping him to notice movement out at sea and down in the darkness, him ready with his camera or phone. It helps that he's quite experienced after many years out at sea. This experience has hardened him too, making him shrug off minor injuries, bad weather and the like.

Weaknesses:

What then can be argued to be his weaknesses? Well...he might have a bad habit of not working so well with people he either doesn't like, or doesn't agree with. You can blame his previous experiences with his family and protests for that, causing him to go as far as to sabotage other people's work research. Or you could hammer him with his family's past enough to make him flip out at you.

What else? Oh yes, he's what you can call an 'idealist'. Kristoffer firmly believes in the value of ALL animal life, even if his own or other people's lives are in danger. It won't be uncommon for him to stop others from stopping a dangerous animal, say for example a big shark, about to attack them, just because he always thinks there is a peaceful way out of the sticky situaton.

Likes:

• Photography
• Reading
• Lazy days on a calm ocean during the day
• Cooking. Eating hardly any meat, if any at all, he's come to enjoy experimenting with food and gotten half-decent at it too.
• Proving himself right over others

Dislikes:

• His family
• Spending too much time on land. Perhaps he's gotten too much salt-water in his veins?
• Know-it-alls. Nothing get's on his nerves than stubborn people not understanding that he's right. Can you believe him?
• Anything and anyone clearly endangouring the enviornment.
• Cats. He doesn't know why, there's just something...esoretic about them that gives him the creeps.

Fears:

• Failing to save marine life
• Never getting out of his family's past
• Never going back to sea
• The shapeless presence that he's seen in his dreams...no, not dreams, but nightmares.

Biography

Kristoffer Foyn Sørstad. The black sheep of the Foyn Sørstad-family. The one to break away from everything the family stood for and attempt to carve out his own mark on history. The younger brother who became the outcast, and yet, not the first one to be of particular interest to our story. But that's not important now, so let us focus on Kris himself. Kristoffer was born into the relative wealthy family of Foyn Sørstad, decendents of a famous and equally important whaler from the 1800's. Like their predecessor, his family continued the line of work of whale-hunting and processing, which was still not banned in Norway at the current present.

Kristoffer himself, however, knew little of the harsh reality his family dabbled in as he grew up. The younger brother in the flock of siblings showed from an early age a commendable source of joy and compassion, continuesly smiling and playing with both his siblings and other friends. Not that there were too many other children around his hometown, located far north in the least populated area of Norway. He didn't think about why they had decided to live there, for to him it was a normality. It wasn't until many years later that he started to question his parents' reasoning for living relatively isolated for such a wealthy family.

It was when Kristoffer was perhaps 12 or 13 years old that his grandfather decided to take him with him on a little trip. Perhaps he thought that Kristoffer was old enough to witness the work that his family had done for ages, or perhaps he was simply a little bored? We don't know, but the first was certainly not what happened. Kristoffer was taken down to the harbour where he and his grandfather waited. And waited. For what? Kristoffer asked, but his grandfather wasn't saying. Not that he can remember much of what they were talking about in the meantime, just of some old story about a relative a long time ago and witnessing something horrific in the Pacific Ocean. What he do remember is what one of the ships dragged into the harbour.

A whale. A living, but bleeding whale, dragged by the big ship that carried the name of his family. Whatever his grandfather, or the rest of his family matter thought he would think of this, they surely didn't expect Kristoffer to react how he did. He cried. A mix of immense sadness for the sorry animal desperatlely trying to escape its imminent fate with ever weaker efforts, and anger towards those responsible for it. The sailors, the harpoon-gunner, the captain, and his family. No matter what they tried to tell him afterwards, he couldn't see them as anything other than...than...than cruel.

Fast-forward six years, and Kristoffer finally left the only place he had called home. He simply couldn't live with the people he once knew as family anymore. The distance had only grown over those years, turning Kristoffer into a young man loathing them. He travelled south to the capital, Oslo, to begin a new life. The worst part was to find a new place to live, but he found something much better; a friend. He got into contact with an animal-welfare activist protesting outside the parlimanet, slowly but surely understanding his place in this world full of cruelty; if the animals couldn't fight back, then he would fight for them.

Part of that destiny involved learning as much as possible about said creatures, and with the help of various new friends and a few loans, Kristoffer applied, went to and managed to pull through university with a master's degree in marine-biology. What followed was small odd-jobs for various museums, animal-welfare and enviornmental groups, before he was given a job at a government research vessel. Some argued that he duly deserved the job due to his skills and zeal, while others hinted that his family might not have wanted their son to end up in the gutter. Kristoffer doesn't accknowledge the second theory at all.

By the time Kristoffer was well over 30, he had worked with more marine life than he could count and supported various protests against anything threatening marine- and animal life. Even by that age he had experienced half the world's ocean and every continent, coming into contact with many indigenous people in assitance of their livelyhoods, just to name a few. Perhaps that was why he was given an offer to work on an UN-mission. The destination was the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. The mission, to investigate the decline of marine life in the area. How could Kristoffer refuse?

Skills and Stats

Gifted(+5): Biology - Awareness
Adept(+3): Persuasion - SERE - Geology
Average(+2): Anthropology - First Aid - Stealth
Novice(+1): Engineering - Hand-to-Hand - History - Crafting

Languages
Norwegian & English

Relationships

Relationship Status: Single
Family: None that he wishes to speak of.
Opinions of Other Researchers/Crewmembers:

• None as of yet

Miscellaneous

Other:

[DeadDrop]

You have some minor spelling to fix bro.

[MegaOscarPwn]

@ONL HAHAH I LOVE HIS SMILE IN THE PHOTO.

[BingTheWing]

This still open?

[Graviloquence]

@BingTheWing Yeah, if you're interested in applying you're more than welcome to.

@ONL I'll get right on reviewing your CS tomorrow, after my macroeconomics exam. For now, I desperately need to study and then sleep.

@DeadDrop A discord server would be great for this once we've figured out who will be participating in this, and if everyone's got an account. But for now I gotta hold off on making one. Soon, though.

[TheMadAsshatter]

This looks pretty dope. I'm down for a bit of scifi horror mystery stuff. Now, to make my character a researcher or a psychologist...

[DeadDrop]

@DeadDrop A discord server would be great for this once we've figured out who will be participating in this, and if everyone's got an account. But for now I gotta hold off on making one. Soon, though.

@Graviloquence

Hype :)

[ihinka]

Basic Information

Name: Martina Nikolova
Nicknames: Marti, Nik
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Nationality: Bulgarian
Occupation: Underwater archeologist/archeozoologist

Appearance

Physique: At 5'5'' Martina is not a tall woman. And with her medium build and fit, athletic physique she is not a delicate one as well. She is by no means bulky and is not short enough to be considered stocky, but she looks strong and spry for a woman in her late thirties. An expert diver and a lifetime martial artist she is constantly training and exerting herself, which keeps her well enough in shape and somewhat removed from the ideal Renaissance body type.

Height: 5'5''

Weight: 125 lbs

Hair: Dark brown, peppered with some white

Eyes: Hazel

Skin: Fair, burns easily in the sun, with some freckles here and there

Scars / Markings / Etc: A small scar across her lower lip, left side. Has several tattoos and piercings. Some readily visible, others hidden by clothes.

Clothing Description: Martina dresses for comfort and functionality. Jeans, nothing skinny or too tight fitting, shirts and tees, boots or sneakers. She has some quirky tastes when it comes to socks and underwear.

Inventory

• Underwater Kinetics Blue Tang Titanium Dive Knife
• Professional underwater camera and accessories
• A picture of her parents

Identity

Personality:
Nik is a warm and friendly person, but she is more often than not lost in thought chasing some ancient mystery with her mind. Whenever it comes to work she is laser focused and dedicated. She is a bit solitary in general and keeps to herself. She is used to being on her own having grown up a single child. But she is by no means withdrawn and antisocial. She might not actively seek the company of her fellow colleagues, but she will gladly join in any comunal activities she is invited to take part in.

Her years as a diver have taught her to literally be calm under pressure. If not by virtue of her diving experience, the years practicing Aikido have ingrained in her the philosophy of this Japanese martial art. She approaches problems and obstacles with calm presence and at times unnerving patience. She rarely rushes headlong into anything. She will analyze and ascertain, and try to find a solution that offers the most beneficial outcome of a situation.

In her close personal relationships Martina is jovial and almost cheeky with a ready, if a bit sardonic, sense of humor. She practices self-irony often and believes it is a sign humility. People that do not know her well might find her sense of humor a bit stiff and offensive, but once they realize she treats herself to the same those of that particular medicine, they feel at least a bit vindicated and relaxed.

All that said, Martina is a bit on the shy side when it comes to forming close personal relationships – friendly and romantic alike. She is a little bit looser when she knows that only friendship is at stake. But if she finds out that romantic feelings are involved she can be a bit awkward and bashful, and adorkably tongue-tied.

Strengths:
Grace under pressure
Single-minded focus
Humility

Weaknesses:
Can be absentminded and distracted when working on something important to her
Is conscious of it and tries hard not to, but can be preachy at times on the subject of humility and Zen philosophy

Likes:
Anything related to Japan and the Japanese culture, especially their cuisine and the arts of origami and rock balancing
Diving and underwater exploring
Dimples
Reading, listening to music and dancing
Vampire themed books and movies /none of that sparkling vamp garbage though/
Video games and tabletop games

Dislikes:
Dill
Inconsiderate people
Duplicity
Smoking
Excessive drinking

Fears:
Losing her parents while she’s away at an expedition
Mother Nature – she is one scary Lady whenever she decides to throw her weight around
Losing people under her watch. She is always extra cautious whenever she is leading her teams of underwater explorers.

Biography

Born in the early twenties of the twenty-first century by doctor parents Nik grows up wanting for little and receiving the best of education a kid can get. As an only child her parents tended to spoil her a bit, but ultimately managed to instill in their daughter important values like honesty, hard work, discipline and self-improvement. Her parents started grooming her early on to follow in their footsteps, when little Martina showed signs of a bright mind and genuine thirst for knowledge.

Still, just as much kids can resemble their parents, they can also be very different from them. And such was the case with Nik. As the years went by Marti’s parents learned that unfortunately their daughter absolutely did not possess the predisposition for exact sciences. Which unfortunately shoved the option of her becoming a doctor like her parents straight out of the door. Instead little Nik’s interest in ancient history and mysteries grew more and more up to the point that she was dragging her parents all over the country visiting ancient sites – Thracian tombs, temples, or ruins of long forgotten cities.

As a single child that was on the bookish side her parents didn’t want their daughter to be left alone with little to no friends, so they enrolled her in several group activities to provide Nik with the choice what she would stick with. From the half a dozen activities among which rhythmic gymnastics, ballet and contemporary dancing, football and aikido, the only thing the young girl really took to, was her aikido practices. She excelled in all things that required and physical prowess with an athlete’s natural grace. But she found the ceremony and rituals that accompanied her aikido courses to be extremely interesting and so that’s what she chose and focused on during the years to follow.

Steadily with the passage of time Martina’s interest with the ancient world and civilizations grew from a childish fascination to a serious adult interest so much so that young Nik decided to study archeology. However since that particular branch of the sciences wasn’t very well represented, her parents decided it would be best for their daughter to benefit from the best possible education. Both her mother and father, being wells established physicians, had no qualms relocating the family and it was decided that they would move to England where Martina would try to apply as a student in archaeology in all the best schools and programs.

The family’s transition from their home country to England was relatively smooth. English was by this point in time a must know language for any non-native speakers and the entire family knew it well enough for it not to be a hindrance. Young Martina was enrolled in an archaeology program of her choice and her parents found work in their respective medical fields. And so continued the life of Martina Nikolova in England. She went on to study her chosen subject with avid zeal, burrowing deeper and deeper into the planet’s ancient past.

Another pivotal point in her life was the discovery of the sunken ancient cities phenomenon and a hole knew archaeological opportunity opened up before her. Suddenly the challenge to practice her chosen profession under such difficult circumstances became extremely appealing to the ever seeking self-improvement through adversity young woman. She immediately enrolled in diver training and shifted the focus of her studies to underwater archaeology with a side interest in archaeozoology. She felt it necessary to supplement her understanding of the disappearance of the ancient civilizations with the understanding of the dying out of the ancient fauna and megafauna as well.

By the time she finished her studies and received her PhD in Archaeology and Archaeozoology she was already a master diver and had explored most of the underwater ancient sites multiple times. She is a published author of articles in the field, but most of her work is considered fringe much to the chagrin of her mainstream doctor parents, as she readily accepts the possibility that humanity’s history might be much, much older that what the mainstream academia deems it to be. Having explored and studied multiple sunken sites, she is convinced that our planet witnessed an earlier civilization prior to our current one and is desperately trying to find proof for her hypotheses.

Skills and Stats

Gifted(+5): Archaeology, Biology
Adept(+3): Hand-to-Hand, History, Awareness
Average(+2): First Aid, Anthropology, Persuasion
Novice(+1): Marksmanship - handguns, Engineering, Crafting, Stealth

Languages
Bulgarian - Bilingual
English - Bilingual
Japanese - beginner
Is well versed in several ancient languages /Sanskrit, Egyptian, Sumerian, etc./

Relationships

Relationship Status: Single
Family:
Father – Daniel Nikolov, alive, warm relationship
Mather – Elena Stoyanova, alive, warm relationship
Opinions of Other Researchers/Crewmembers:

• Not as of yet

Miscellaneous

Other:
Has an extensive knowledge of all types of rope knots, from the more basic, to the most complex.

[Leidenschaft]

I'll have reviews for @ONL and @ihinka up soon.

[Leidenschaft]

Kristoffer by @ONL
Spelling errors
Albeit not that many exist

Bad dreams
We'd like you to omit this part of the character. As it stands, it feels like something completely tacked on, and if characters are already being effected by horror scenarios then it eliminates the impact the game's events will have on them. The reason that Elgappa's character's bad dreams worked is because he made it part of his character with real effects on him and his family, a reason we were fine with it. Simply stating that Kristoffer has a shapeless presence in his dreams makes it seem like you finished the CS and then went, 'oh, yea, this'd be cool' and just tacked it on. It almost detracts from the solidity of the character, which brings me to the next point.

Self-Preservation
Every human comes with a sense of self-preservation. It's what's kept us evolving for millions of years and all led up to you reading this and me typing it out prior. I am a-okay with Kristoffer being a dirty treehugging hippie DEMOCRAT, but I'm sure that even scientists have an obligation to their fellow human to keep them from dying. I can put money on a vegan stabbing an animal if it attacks them. I'd be okay with Kristoffer being a pacifist, but IIRC, even pacifism has a clause on self-defense and self-preservation. Putting that quirk into his personality traits almost detracts from the character and makes him unlikeable, knowing he'll be a hindrance in any dangerous situation.

Nik by @ihinka
Occupation
Let me preface this by saying that I do apologize, because this critique is entirely my fault. I should have steered you in the right direction from the get-go instead of just going '*like* lol teehee great!'

This is a science expedition put together by the UN to figure out why aquatic species are dying off at catastrophic levels. A mission like this probably wouldn't recruit an archaeologist. I am fine with keeping the archaeozoology, as it's tangentially related to the mission, so you may keep either archaeology or archaeozoology as her Minor and her passion.

The sheet itself is completely squeaky-clean, but all you'd have to do is ctrl+f on Microsoft Word(Or OpenOffice for cool kids like me) and replace archaeology with something else. All that really needs to be done is have Nik major in something that is relevant to the team's mission at hand.

[ihinka]

@Leidenschaft Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. It would require rewriting her biography. Although I do consider her to be equally expert in both archaeology and archaeozoology.

I'll think some on it and I'll inform you what I've decided.

[Elgappa]

@Leidenschaft

Found a picture of my Char, even through he would look a bit more Beefy and rugged on the picture and more "I spend multiple years of my life letting people beat my face in, and then took up drunken Fencing"....

[MegaOscarPwn]

@Leidenschaft Microsoft Word for cool kids?

Tough chads like me use Grammarly :^).

[Leidenschaft]

@Leidenschaft Microsoft Word for cool kids?

Tough chads like me use Grammarly :^).

@MegaOscarPwn

>Not using notepad as your only word processor

[MegaOscarPwn]

@Leidenschaft

>not writing on mspaint, making a screenshot of it, put it as a PDF and then asking a family member to check if the grammar is correct

[DeadDrop]

Mom did I spell it right c:

[Leidenschaft]

@MegaOscarPwn
>writing on paper towels with a crayola marker, using laptop camera and YouTube capture to upload an unlisted 240p video of you flipping through the paper towels in sequence and linking it here.