Post by Alain on Aug 13, 2010 12:39:09 GMT -5
Name: Alain Byrne
Age: 24
Birthday: February 15, 1986
Gender: Male
Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Face Claim: Jared Padalecki
Nationality: Irish-American
Languages Spoken: English, Spanish, French
Description: Alain is a big guy, though most people don’t realize just how much so: he tends to hunch over, and his mannerisms hide rather than showcase his size. Generally found lounging in a relaxed pose, it’s mostly on the rare occasions that he feels threatened that he stands up to his full height -- a touch over 6’4” when barefoot, and solidly muscled throughout.
Alain’s general rule for his hair is that if it’s long enough to be put in a ponytail, it’s too long much. Other than that, though, he let’s it grow at least enough to cover his ears. Keeping it long enough to fall in front of his eyes gives him a younger appearance at times, and also helps soften his otherwise imposing stature
Skills:
Brewing. It was a hobby of his parents, though he wasn’t really interested in it until after he became a free human again. The little things seemed to matter more.
Making things work. Ever since he was a child, Alain had a knack for taking things apart and putting them back together. The objects simply got more complex as he grew older.
Judo Alain was never huge into fighting competitions, and he didn’t grow up doing taking karate classes. However, when he got into the refugee camps he tried out judo at the coaxing of some of his friends. To his surprise, he really enjoyed it, and wasn’t half bad, either. He still didn’t pursue outside of recreational interests.
Personality: For the most part, Alain seems like a laid-back guy. Much of this image comes from the fact that he doesn’t share his opinions -- much less his concerns -- with people he doesn’t feel like he knows very well. It’s hard for him to open up to people on a deeper level, and he prefers to keep them at arm’s length with a smile and some light-hearted jokes. When something does bother him, Alain is prone to brooding. Overall, he can appear to be very aloof, though he’ll certainly go out of his way to help other people and obviously cares about their well being.
For how forgiving he can be with other people (forgive but never forget), his absolute, unfettered hatred for the Yeerks is probably surprising. He tries to keep it hidden because he knows it’s unhealthy, and might cause people to “worry” about him, but he hates them. For him there can be no distinction between YPM or Empire: they don’t deserve to live -- or at least not anywhere on Earth, and certainly not in the heads of other humans. If someone offered him a magic button that when pushed killed every Yeerk in the galaxy, he wouldn’t hesitate to push it.
A good deal of this anger stems from his guilt about becoming a willing host at the turn of the all-out-war. Even though he knows he had good intentions when he made the decision, he faults himself for being naive enough to think that life as a Controller wouldn’t be the hell that it was. He funnels this self-loathing into more of his hidden pool of rage at the Yeerks. Part of him knows it’s a psychological fault, and that wrath this strong is just as likely to destroy him in the end, but just thinking about what the Yeerk’s have done makes his heart start to race and his fists clench.
Bio/History: Alain grew up in a nice townhouse in St. Louis, MO. He was the youngest of three sons and was raised by his single father. His mother left them when he was young, succumbing to a drug problem. His father wasn't the most sensitive man but he loved his sons and tried to do his best by them. He steadily got promoted at the Budweiser headquarters that were located in the city and he showed all three sons the secrets of brewing on the weekends and on their occasional camping trips.
When Alain was 10 his oldest brother, Connor, went to college on the USA's dime after he enlisted in the Army ROTC. Connor graduated with honors and went on to become a superb army officer. For a while Alain thought he wanted to follow in his footsteps but changed his mind after Connor was killed in the brief and bloody war with the yeerks when Alain was 13.
His father packed up the entire family at the first sign of trouble and they went to ground in the surrounding country side, leaving the Gateway City to its fate. For the next couple of years as the yeerks worked to subdue humanity Alain and his father kept their heads down. Trevor was a competent man but a simple one and he worked everyday to keep the remainder of his family safe. His skills a brewer bought them passage more than once as the world's supply of beer began to run out, especially in the small, hide-out communities in which they found themselves.
Eventually Logan, Alain's remaining brother, also went off to join the doomed war effort on some front or another. Alain was 18 before he showed back up with a group of controllers behind him. Somewhere along the way Logan had switched sides, becoming one of the first Shepherds. Facing infestation anyway, Alain convinced his captors that he would voluntarily accept a yeerk as long as they gave him someone intelligent. He convinced them that he could be useful and they believed him. His only condition was that Logan be made to suffer the slavery his deal with the yeerks had spared him from. The acting yeerk officer, a young but ambitious sub-visser, decided Alain was a better bet and had both brothers infested though he gave Alain to a promising young yeerk named Diya 387.
Alain's estimation of his own abilities were, if anything, a little below the mark. He had a talent for the sciences that no doubt would have landed him in a good college before the war broke out. Over the next couple of years he and Diya worked as good pair, their successes accelerating the career of the Sub-Visser who was their patron. They were assigned to many of the yeerks most important projects and it was their last that brought them into contact with Cassie. When Cassie went hunting for a scientist working on the new orbiting kadrona project Diya was who she caught. Alain was freed and sent to one of the nascent human communities to recover and to pass on a few of his scientific skills. Cassie hoped he would eventually join the group of human scientist she was trying to form in order to combat the yeerks technological edge. But after some soul searching, Alain decided to join the animorphs instead.
But Cassie isn't someone who gives up easily and she was loathe to waste a valuable resource like Alain. She managed to exact a promise that he would retire after two years and sent him the Academy instead of straight to the frontlines so that he could have access to the scientific facilities and scientific personnel during his training. She still hoped he'd change his mind but that was only because she didn't know him that well.
Starting Morphs:
Land: Meerkat
Bug: Scarab Beetle
Other: River Otter
Scene with Parent:
Alain put a cap on the bottle and slid it towards the rest of their finished products. He pushed a little harder than was warranted and the resulting ching of colliding glass caused his father to look up from his own work. Trevor Byrne didn't say anything. He just watched his son's frustrated movements and sullen expression with a calm most assumed was born of stupidity. He'd watched Alain's frustration grow over the past few months and he knew it would come to a head eventually. Boys were like that and he'd raised two before this one (lord knows Logan's teenage years hadn't been enjoyable) so he just waited.
Alain knew his father was watching him and he bent his head to his task instead acknowledging the look. But his eyes kept darting up in anger and finally his father sat back in his chair. "Alright. Out with it boy," his father said in a voice roughened by too many cigarettes but no less warm because of its harsh quality, the lazy mid-western accent pulling at his words and stretching them out before dropping them before he'd quite finished his pronunciation. Midwestern Americans would do the French proud.
"Nothing." Alain said and continued to bottle their home brewed beer for the next shipment. His movements were clumsy and awkward, another source of his frustration. He felt like his hands were too big and Trevor had the same thought as he watched him. Alain may not realize it yet but he was on his way to being quite a large man. Unfortunately those big hands and extra long arms only got in the way at the moment.
"It's obviously not nothin' Alain. You look like your head's about to pop off." Alain shook his head, his short hair stuck out in all directions and was starting to grow long enough to brush his eyebrows. That was too long in Trevor's opinion but he stayed off the subject. Years of parenting had taught him that every conversation would be a fight until the boy was at least 20 and he would pick and choose his battles carefully. Greeted with Alain's continued silence Trevor decided not to push this one. "Alright, have it your way."
"As if," Alain muttered a little too loudly for Trevor to pretend he hadn't heard it. He wanted to pretend anyway but he didn't.
"What's that?" he asked, his shrewd eyes looking back up at his youngest son. Alain didn't respond and Trevor began to grow impatient. "Alain if you got something to say you better say it or let us both get back to our work."
"What's the point," Alain almost yelled, looking up to look his father straight in the eye for the first time all afternoon. "What's the point of any of this anymore? We sell beer so we can scrape by for another day and then what?" Trevor just watched him. He knew that whatever was running through Alain's head had been there for a while and it would be better if he just got it off his chest. "I mean, we've got nothing and we're not gonna have anything. Our planet was fucking invaded-"
"Watch your language!" Trevor snapped immediately, bringing Alain's rant up short like an angry dog on a leash. "Now I know things are bad but they can always be worse. There are people out there who are slaves to those slugs and-"
"And that's worse than this?" Alain pushed himself away from the low table he'd been bent over for the past few hours. "At least they live like human beings. They don't scratch around in the dirt like-"
"That's enough." The calm tone of command stopped Alain immediately. Trevor was scared by what he was hearing. He knew Alain was frustrated and unsatisfied with their position. Part of it was just usual teenage discontent. But a good portion of it was boredom. Trevor's son was smarter than he realized, and ambitious. Trevor had seen how angry he became with the lack of opportunity in the refugee camp. But even hearing Alain talk about the poor bastards that had slugs in their heads with any sign of envy was too much. "Get back to work." Trevor ordered and was glad when he saw Alain sit back down to the table. A painful tightness in his chest relaxed slightly when he saw Alain listen to him. But beneath the momentary relief was a real strain of fear. He didn't think he could control Alain forever and he worried that his son would fall into more than he could handle. Too bad Alain was not the son he had to worry about.
Age: 24
Birthday: February 15, 1986
Gender: Male
Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Face Claim: Jared Padalecki
Nationality: Irish-American
Languages Spoken: English, Spanish, French
Description: Alain is a big guy, though most people don’t realize just how much so: he tends to hunch over, and his mannerisms hide rather than showcase his size. Generally found lounging in a relaxed pose, it’s mostly on the rare occasions that he feels threatened that he stands up to his full height -- a touch over 6’4” when barefoot, and solidly muscled throughout.
Alain’s general rule for his hair is that if it’s long enough to be put in a ponytail, it’s too long much. Other than that, though, he let’s it grow at least enough to cover his ears. Keeping it long enough to fall in front of his eyes gives him a younger appearance at times, and also helps soften his otherwise imposing stature
Skills:
Brewing. It was a hobby of his parents, though he wasn’t really interested in it until after he became a free human again. The little things seemed to matter more.
Making things work. Ever since he was a child, Alain had a knack for taking things apart and putting them back together. The objects simply got more complex as he grew older.
Judo Alain was never huge into fighting competitions, and he didn’t grow up doing taking karate classes. However, when he got into the refugee camps he tried out judo at the coaxing of some of his friends. To his surprise, he really enjoyed it, and wasn’t half bad, either. He still didn’t pursue outside of recreational interests.
Personality: For the most part, Alain seems like a laid-back guy. Much of this image comes from the fact that he doesn’t share his opinions -- much less his concerns -- with people he doesn’t feel like he knows very well. It’s hard for him to open up to people on a deeper level, and he prefers to keep them at arm’s length with a smile and some light-hearted jokes. When something does bother him, Alain is prone to brooding. Overall, he can appear to be very aloof, though he’ll certainly go out of his way to help other people and obviously cares about their well being.
For how forgiving he can be with other people (forgive but never forget), his absolute, unfettered hatred for the Yeerks is probably surprising. He tries to keep it hidden because he knows it’s unhealthy, and might cause people to “worry” about him, but he hates them. For him there can be no distinction between YPM or Empire: they don’t deserve to live -- or at least not anywhere on Earth, and certainly not in the heads of other humans. If someone offered him a magic button that when pushed killed every Yeerk in the galaxy, he wouldn’t hesitate to push it.
A good deal of this anger stems from his guilt about becoming a willing host at the turn of the all-out-war. Even though he knows he had good intentions when he made the decision, he faults himself for being naive enough to think that life as a Controller wouldn’t be the hell that it was. He funnels this self-loathing into more of his hidden pool of rage at the Yeerks. Part of him knows it’s a psychological fault, and that wrath this strong is just as likely to destroy him in the end, but just thinking about what the Yeerk’s have done makes his heart start to race and his fists clench.
Bio/History: Alain grew up in a nice townhouse in St. Louis, MO. He was the youngest of three sons and was raised by his single father. His mother left them when he was young, succumbing to a drug problem. His father wasn't the most sensitive man but he loved his sons and tried to do his best by them. He steadily got promoted at the Budweiser headquarters that were located in the city and he showed all three sons the secrets of brewing on the weekends and on their occasional camping trips.
When Alain was 10 his oldest brother, Connor, went to college on the USA's dime after he enlisted in the Army ROTC. Connor graduated with honors and went on to become a superb army officer. For a while Alain thought he wanted to follow in his footsteps but changed his mind after Connor was killed in the brief and bloody war with the yeerks when Alain was 13.
His father packed up the entire family at the first sign of trouble and they went to ground in the surrounding country side, leaving the Gateway City to its fate. For the next couple of years as the yeerks worked to subdue humanity Alain and his father kept their heads down. Trevor was a competent man but a simple one and he worked everyday to keep the remainder of his family safe. His skills a brewer bought them passage more than once as the world's supply of beer began to run out, especially in the small, hide-out communities in which they found themselves.
Eventually Logan, Alain's remaining brother, also went off to join the doomed war effort on some front or another. Alain was 18 before he showed back up with a group of controllers behind him. Somewhere along the way Logan had switched sides, becoming one of the first Shepherds. Facing infestation anyway, Alain convinced his captors that he would voluntarily accept a yeerk as long as they gave him someone intelligent. He convinced them that he could be useful and they believed him. His only condition was that Logan be made to suffer the slavery his deal with the yeerks had spared him from. The acting yeerk officer, a young but ambitious sub-visser, decided Alain was a better bet and had both brothers infested though he gave Alain to a promising young yeerk named Diya 387.
Alain's estimation of his own abilities were, if anything, a little below the mark. He had a talent for the sciences that no doubt would have landed him in a good college before the war broke out. Over the next couple of years he and Diya worked as good pair, their successes accelerating the career of the Sub-Visser who was their patron. They were assigned to many of the yeerks most important projects and it was their last that brought them into contact with Cassie. When Cassie went hunting for a scientist working on the new orbiting kadrona project Diya was who she caught. Alain was freed and sent to one of the nascent human communities to recover and to pass on a few of his scientific skills. Cassie hoped he would eventually join the group of human scientist she was trying to form in order to combat the yeerks technological edge. But after some soul searching, Alain decided to join the animorphs instead.
But Cassie isn't someone who gives up easily and she was loathe to waste a valuable resource like Alain. She managed to exact a promise that he would retire after two years and sent him the Academy instead of straight to the frontlines so that he could have access to the scientific facilities and scientific personnel during his training. She still hoped he'd change his mind but that was only because she didn't know him that well.
Starting Morphs:
Land: Meerkat
Bug: Scarab Beetle
Other: River Otter
Scene with Parent:
Alain put a cap on the bottle and slid it towards the rest of their finished products. He pushed a little harder than was warranted and the resulting ching of colliding glass caused his father to look up from his own work. Trevor Byrne didn't say anything. He just watched his son's frustrated movements and sullen expression with a calm most assumed was born of stupidity. He'd watched Alain's frustration grow over the past few months and he knew it would come to a head eventually. Boys were like that and he'd raised two before this one (lord knows Logan's teenage years hadn't been enjoyable) so he just waited.
Alain knew his father was watching him and he bent his head to his task instead acknowledging the look. But his eyes kept darting up in anger and finally his father sat back in his chair. "Alright. Out with it boy," his father said in a voice roughened by too many cigarettes but no less warm because of its harsh quality, the lazy mid-western accent pulling at his words and stretching them out before dropping them before he'd quite finished his pronunciation. Midwestern Americans would do the French proud.
"Nothing." Alain said and continued to bottle their home brewed beer for the next shipment. His movements were clumsy and awkward, another source of his frustration. He felt like his hands were too big and Trevor had the same thought as he watched him. Alain may not realize it yet but he was on his way to being quite a large man. Unfortunately those big hands and extra long arms only got in the way at the moment.
"It's obviously not nothin' Alain. You look like your head's about to pop off." Alain shook his head, his short hair stuck out in all directions and was starting to grow long enough to brush his eyebrows. That was too long in Trevor's opinion but he stayed off the subject. Years of parenting had taught him that every conversation would be a fight until the boy was at least 20 and he would pick and choose his battles carefully. Greeted with Alain's continued silence Trevor decided not to push this one. "Alright, have it your way."
"As if," Alain muttered a little too loudly for Trevor to pretend he hadn't heard it. He wanted to pretend anyway but he didn't.
"What's that?" he asked, his shrewd eyes looking back up at his youngest son. Alain didn't respond and Trevor began to grow impatient. "Alain if you got something to say you better say it or let us both get back to our work."
"What's the point," Alain almost yelled, looking up to look his father straight in the eye for the first time all afternoon. "What's the point of any of this anymore? We sell beer so we can scrape by for another day and then what?" Trevor just watched him. He knew that whatever was running through Alain's head had been there for a while and it would be better if he just got it off his chest. "I mean, we've got nothing and we're not gonna have anything. Our planet was fucking invaded-"
"Watch your language!" Trevor snapped immediately, bringing Alain's rant up short like an angry dog on a leash. "Now I know things are bad but they can always be worse. There are people out there who are slaves to those slugs and-"
"And that's worse than this?" Alain pushed himself away from the low table he'd been bent over for the past few hours. "At least they live like human beings. They don't scratch around in the dirt like-"
"That's enough." The calm tone of command stopped Alain immediately. Trevor was scared by what he was hearing. He knew Alain was frustrated and unsatisfied with their position. Part of it was just usual teenage discontent. But a good portion of it was boredom. Trevor's son was smarter than he realized, and ambitious. Trevor had seen how angry he became with the lack of opportunity in the refugee camp. But even hearing Alain talk about the poor bastards that had slugs in their heads with any sign of envy was too much. "Get back to work." Trevor ordered and was glad when he saw Alain sit back down to the table. A painful tightness in his chest relaxed slightly when he saw Alain listen to him. But beneath the momentary relief was a real strain of fear. He didn't think he could control Alain forever and he worried that his son would fall into more than he could handle. Too bad Alain was not the son he had to worry about.
