[Application] Exsilium

[ozymandates]

» PLAYER INFORMATION

Player NAME: Nemo.
Player TIME ZONE: US Central.
Personal JOURNAL: pwnyo
IM & SERVICE: AIM: turretfodder
Player PLURK: pwnyo

» CHARACTER INFORMATION

Character NAME: Erwin Smith.
Canon & MEDIUM: Attack on Titan; manga.
Canon PULL-POINT: Chapter 30, returning to the Walls.
Character AGE: Mid-thirties.
Character ABILITIES: Erwin possesses no supernatural abilities, but he is a highly skilled soldier. As such, his strength, dexterity, and endurance are well beyond those of an average human. Well and far beyond. Backed by the sheer volume of determination this man is capable of harnessing, he can be a near-unstoppable force even in the face of grievous injuries. In addition to being trained in hand to hand and airborne combat, he is a remarkable strategist both on and off the field. Whether it be long-term planning or split-second decisions, Erwin has the ability to judge the best course of action for the sake of humanity without hesitation, despite the losses it might incur.

Character HISTORY:
World overview.
Erwin Smith is the 13th commander of the Survey Corps, one of the three divisions of the military. It is charged with exploration and reclaiming land lost to the titans' advance, and less formally, research on the titans. He is first introduced on the last expedition outside of Wall Maria before its fall, though on par with most expeditions, it isn't successful in the slightest. He is introduced proper after the fall, when the Survey Corps is working to clear a town beyond the intact walls. They discover titans encroaching upon Wall Rose, and move in to address the possibility of a breach.

After Eren Yeager discovers his latent ability to become a titan, and this ability is used to block the breach in the wall of Trost, he is detained by the military police and imprisoned. Erwin is eventually permitted to speak to him, and explains his plan to retake Wall Maria and Shiganshina in order to reach Yeager's house, where his father is suspected of keeping further research and information on the titans in the basement. Eren requests to join, and Erwin accepts, under the stipulation that he is the responsibility of Levi, "Humanity's Strongest Soldier", and should he turn on them or find himself unable to control his power, he would be killed on the spot.

A military tribunal is held to decide Eren's fate: to be detained, dissected, and killed by the Military Police, or join the Survey Corps and serve to aid humanity in its counterattack against the titans. Erwin, along with a firm and violent display from Levi, persuades the court to give them custody of the titan shifter, and they move him to the old Survey Corps headquarters to train him and study his power further, in addition to those of two normal titans they have captured.

However, the captured titans are killed shortly after their arrival by what is believed to be a fellow soldier. Suspecting a traitor in their midst, Erwin approaches each of his soldiers in turn to bluntly ask them what they thought the enemy was, in order to gauge their reactions. Unsatisfied that anyone present was responsible, he takes a gamble, planning his next expedition to capture the traitor in the event they have abilities similar to Eren's. After gathering more recruits, speaking honestly to a massive crowd of soldiers about Eren Yeager's apparent benefit to humanity, as well as the dangers involved regarding enlisting in the Survey Corps, he is left with a small handful of troops, to which he professes his utmost respect.

These troops and the rest of the Survey Corps study Erwin's 'Formation for Long Distance Enemy Detection', a spread-out formation on horseback designed to spot titans on its fringes and relay the information back to its center in order for a change in course to be returned. Eventually, this plan is put into effect and the Survey Corps sets out beyond the Wall. Unfortunately, their perfectly executed operation is thrown into disarray when a highly intelligent female-form titan breaks through their ranks, though it no doubt confirms Erwin's suspicions. He leads the formation into a nearby forest, and sure enough, the female titan manifests in a manner similar to Eren. After an attempt to capture her goes awry, costing the lives of most of his soldiers and compromising the mission beyond recovery, Erwin is forced to signal a retreat back to the Wall, abandoning the bodies of his troops along the way.

And so in defeated flight, he comes to Exsilium.

Character PERSONALITY:
The fate of mankind is an incredible weight. One very visible atop the shoulders of Erwin Smith, though for all its crushing force, he manages to carry it with impeccable, unfaltering grace. Grace steeped in stoicism, able to face the open maws of Hell itself straight-backed and stony-eyed, as respectable as it is terrifying. And oh, how he has garnered both in spades. Responsibility of this nature requires a cold and ruthless exterior, an ability to order hundreds of men and women to their deaths with the same effort it takes to specify how one takes one's tea in the morning, and an acceptance of the fear and hatred from the masses such orders inevitably carry. All firm traits in the 13th Commander's repertoire.

At this point, it becomes fairly easy to mistake the man for a sociopath in the highest order. A malevolent, unfeeling person of power casting lives off the metaphorical chessboard like pawns meaningless in the grand scheme. On the contrary, nothing could be farther from the truth. One of the very reasons he garners such reverence among his troops, if not among civilians, is because he holds them in equal and utmost esteem. He understands the impossible decision of joining the Survey Corps: the most strenuous, horrifying, and deadly branch of the military, and the meager handfuls of individuals he receives to command get nothing short of the highest regard.

How such value for human life and willingness to cast it aside can coexist in the same being is difficult to fathom, but above all else, Erwin strives to act in humanity's best interests as a whole. The Greater Good is always the top priority, and if the loss of a hundred men will better thousands of others, he will issue the order without a second thought. As it is so frequently and eloquently put, if one is not willing to sacrifice everything, one can never hope to change anything.

Anyone this strong and influential is liable to gain a bit of an invincibility complex, especially with all the commander has come out of unscathed under one's belt, but again, expectations are defied. Whether issuing commands from a central, safer location or leading the charge into certain death, Erwin is fully aware and accepting of the fact that he is just as vulnerable and dispensable as the next soldier. There was a 12th commander before him, there will be a 14th after. By no means is he brazenly suicidal, he simply does not allow his own mortality to cloud his judgment and skew his orders, as compromise of the leader's integrity is wont to quickly infect his ranks and endanger the mission as a whole.

Erwin's very essence is a fairly obvious product of his environment. His interaction with civilians as well as other soldiers, underlings and superiors alike, is strict, blunt, and formal. Though he is never one to sugar-coat or stain his words with fragile optimism, he is at least pleasant and charismatic when the situation permits a lapse in strictest military form.

» EXSILIUM INFORMATION

Chosen WEAPON: Erwin's three-dimensional maneuver gear will be coming along with him. Precisely what it says on the tin, 3DMG is equipment that allows the user to propel and maneuver themselves at high speeds in a three-dimensional space via compressed air and a system of wires and piston-shot grappling hooks. In addition to using this gear to move, it also comes equipped with a scabbard and several spare blades that can be slotted into the handgrips to act as dual-wielded swords.

Evolutions the gear could obtain could be better fuel efficiency or replenishing tanks, self-sharpening and replenishing swords, toughening and streamlining the mechanism to keep it operating smoothly in harsh conditions...

Though for the future, an evolution could be to somehow shift all of its controls to the left hand. This is less of a strength and more to make him less nerfed should he ever be canon-updated.

Character INVENTORY:
- Military uniform (white button-up shirt, white pants, brown half-jacket emblazoned with the Survey Corps crest, brown sash wrapped at the hips, knee-high leather boots.)
- Survey Corps cloak, also sporting the crest.
- Three-dimensional maneuver gear harness.
- Bolo tie.

» PREVIOUS GAME INFORMATION ( IF APPLICABLE )

» SAMPLES

First PERSON: (voice.)
I don't see how you expect an ounce of respect from men and women kidnapped and forced into service.

[well that was forward. the voice isn't enraged at the surface, but it is low and forceful, commanding that it be listened to.]

Especially those torn from their own ideals and responsibilities to fight for a stranger's. They've no reason to sympathize, therefore no reason to devote their hearts. You'll get nothing from such a soldier but fear and resentment.

Compliance through fear, but resentment all the same. Though I don't suppose it matters where it comes from to anyone prepared to wage war on borrowed force.

Third PERSON: (theoretical scouting out that shiny new winter wasteland. apologies if the logistics of the location are all wrong!)
At least the cold is proving to be a constant compared to the turmoil of new information that had been buffeting about over the past few days, and it is nothing short of hellacious. The wind at such a speed yanks viciously at the thick cloak wound as tightly about his person as his equipment allows while still able to yank him through the frigid air. Flying on a methodical rhythm of pops and zings with every launch and reel of the cables at his side, the sound is sure to carry in the silence, though perhaps it would concern him more if the landscape hadn't been nothing short of desolate. The size of the trees above the snowline is paltry in comparison to the massive forests dotting the wilderness beyond Wall Rose; enough to fling a single man on a set of maneuvering gear along well above the ground, but hardly enough to hide anything capable of striking one out of the sky.

With one final snap, the commander propels himself onto the nearest rooftop visible above more snow than he had seen in a collective lifetime. Even the well-tractioned soles of his boots find little purchase in the icy shingles, bringing Erwin to a swift, albeit steady knee as he skids to a halt across the frictionless plane. No aspect of the gear is proving particularly conducive to freezing climates, but it remains the swiftest and most efficient method of familiarizing oneself with the foreign landscape.

As foreign in geography as it is in purpose. It's as much a frustration as it is an indignity, being stripped of his own squad and forced into compliance with another. He'd soldiers to return home, inquiries to address, potential spies to unearth, and here he is, drafted into someone else's frozen, desolate, guerilla war. Not to say he was ever languid in his position of power, he is capable of taking orders—few and far between as they might be, there are men from which he takes orders—but to have his words stripped of their weight...

If he is to be completely powerless to reject his new position, than so be it. Perhaps the sooner he finishes up here, the sooner he'll be permitted to return to his duties proper. Seems the only thing for it was to acclimatize and wait for further instruction.

Sliding his foot to a bare patch of roof, Erwin braces himself to launch again, shooting across the plane of ice and snow toward the nearest mar on the horizon.

» ADDITIONAL NOTES