[Application] Plenty of Room

[junkyardgrouch]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Your name/Pseudonym: Mal
Your personal LJ: karmaschild
Your email: karmaschild[at]gmail[dot]com
Your chat handles: KarmasChild (AIM)
Do you currently have any other characters in this game? If so, which one(s)?: None currently.

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character's name: Bobby Singer
Character's canon: Supernatural
What type of canon is your character from? (eg, book, movie, tv show, etc): TV Show.
Character's LJ: junkyardgrouch

Brief history of your character (100-200 words): Bobby first became aware of the supernatural elements of the world when a demon possessed his wife Karen. He was forced to kill her, without any knowledge of another way to stop her. Grief stricken and drowning in guilt, Bobby spent the years following her death gathering all the information possible on every monster he could think of (and a fair number of ones he couldn't even have imagined).

His home became filled with shelves and shelves of books and documents of lore, as well as a small arsenal of various weaponry. He made himself an expert on how to identify, track, and kill a wide variety of monsters and the information he gathered, he also shared with the other hunters whose paths he crossed. His work gave him an outlet to do penance for the death of the woman he loved and to keep the same fate from befalling as many others as he could.

Occasionally he was also called upon to vet false identities used by other hunters when dealing with local law enforcement authorities. Other hunters carried business cards with phone numbers connected to a wall of phones in his home, each with labels such as "FBI" and "CDC" which he answers in the guise of a superior officer to whatever part the other hunter is playing.

Bobby met John Winchester through hunting contacts and became friends, but they had a falling out sometime prior to 2005 which resulted in Bobby threatening John with a shotgun and throwing him off his property. His relationship with the Winchesters remained strained and silent for nearly a year until John went missing and Dean and Sam called Bobby to enlist his help in finding him. Bobby helped the brothers track John and later took them into his home when John was killed by the Yellow Eyed Demon, allowing them to heal up from the encounter and repair their Impala.

After a self-inflicted injury during a demon possession left him paralyzed from the waist down, Bobby spent a number of months wheelchair bound. This left him feeling run down and useless which eventually caused him to entertain thoughts of suicide. These thoughts he eventually managed to suppress, owing largely to a promise made to Dean that he would not leave them.

A deal made with the crossroads demon Crowley returned the function of Bobby's legs at the cost of his soul, which he later won back with a little help from the ghost of Crowley's son and the Winchester boys.

To date, he continues to aid the Winchesters with their hunts, usually from his home in South Dakota, but occasionally he joins them in person when the circumstances warrant it.

Brief synopsis of your character's personality (100-300 words): Bobby has a gruff and grouchy exterior that belies his caring nature. He loves Dean and Sam like sons and would go to nearly any length to bail them out when they're in over their heads. In many ways, even before John's death, Bobby had taken on the role of surrogate father (or at the least, a close uncle) for Dean and Sam. Even so, he is not adept at showing that affection under most circumstances and instead chooses to deflect those "chick flick moments" whenever possible. He is often the voice of reason for the two boys, setting them back on track when they become distracted or discouraged on a hunt.

His affection for the boys comes into conflict with his practicality in some extreme situations. For example, his urging of Dean to allow Sam to drink demon blood in an effort to defeat Lilith and forestall the apocalypse. In Bobby's mind, it would do no good to have a "clean and sober" Sam if they all ended up dead in the end anyway.

In Bobby's mind, there is no such thing as doing just the bare minimum. He always gives the utmost effort in everything he does and asks very little for himself in return. In fact, asking for help is one of his very least favorite things to do. He is generally calm and clear headed, rolling with each problem as it comes and is rarely seen to lose his composure.

He does not suffer fools silently and is the first to tell someone when they're acting like a moron. That and some of his more stunning personality aspects are likely to contribute heavily to the fact that Bobby doesn't keep a lot of people close to him. Apart from Dean and Sam, Sheriff Jody Mills, and Rufus Turner he doesn't have many other people he would consider friends. Most everyone else he considers allies at varying ratios of usefulness to liability.

What is your character's sexual orientation? (Bear in mind that any sexual orientation is welcome, but must be supported by or unknown/ambiguous in canon - see Rules and FAQ): Heterosexual.

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION
What is the point of your character's canon in which you are introducing your character?: Shortly after the events of Season 6, Episode 4 - "Weekend at Bobby's."

Is your character alive or dead at the point of entry to the game?: Alive.

What skills does your character have?: He is well versed in many mythologies, lores, religions, exorcisms, and rituals. He is also an expert in armed combat, including the use of firearms, knives, rudimentary explosives, machetes, chainsaws... and the occasional wood-chipper. He can also pick locks and is an expert bullshitter.

When your character is shown to his/her room, he/she will find up to ten personal items belonging to them, which the Hotel has supplied. These things can ONLY be things they would typically have in canon. This will be known as his/her initial personal inventory. Please list what these things would be: A notebook/journal of monster info, a flask of holy water, a heavy-duty flashlight with batteries, a shotgun with ammo, a hunting knife, cell phone, laptop (as much as he hates the thing), a box of salt, a butane lighter, and a silver knife.

Write your character's entrance post (minimum 400 words. You will use this to post your character's entrance into the game.):

For the first time in weeks, Bobby allowed himself to relax. With the windows of the truck rolled down and the warm, summer's breeze whipping by, he let his mind wander. He had his soul back. It hadn't been easy and God knows there were loose ends aplenty, but for the moment, he was going to allow himself to enjoy that measure of success. For the rest of the day, he was going to allow himself not to worry.

The road from town out to his salvage yard stretched on and on. Quiet. Peaceful. Empty. Slowly, the thought began to form behind the pleasant buzz of relaxation that blanketed his thoughts... The drive home shouldn't take so long. He snapped out of it the instant he realized that the roadside scenery became desert landscape. South Dakota wasn't really known for its desert plains.

“What in the hell...?” He blinked several times as he applied the brake to slow the truck and pull to a stop on the shoulder. The engine idled while Bobby took stock of the situation. There was nothing out ahead of him but empty road and sand. What was worse was that in the rear view mirror, he saw more of the same.

“One day. Just one friggin' day of peace. Was that too much to ask?” He threw the truck into gear and made a u-turn to head back in the direction he'd just come. “Hell, it's not even a full day left. Just a few hours.”

Bobby continued to grumble steadily under his breath. The accelerator sank lower and lower. The more speed he put on, the more the road stretched out before him. It didn't make any sense. Even if he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and overshot his turn off, he still couldn't have been more than a few miles off the mark. Or, so he thought.

He drove. He drove for hours, first in one direction and then back the other way. He tried taking the truck off road only to find himself confronted with the same damn road suddenly appearing right before him. Something was messing with him. He knew it, but he couldn't do anything about it. How did you confront what you couldn't even see? He couldn't even call for help... his cell phone couldn't find a hint of a signal.

“This is insane.” The sky was burning with the last rays of sunlight and soon it would be dark. What was supposed to have been a half hour ride from the Sheriff's station back home had turned into an all afternoon odyssey. Bobby's eyes burned from staring ahead and hoping to see something familiar. The bones in his hands ached from gripping the steering wheel more and more tightly as the day flowed by him.

Then he had a momentary jolt of hope when he saw a turn off into a driveway and a building in the near distance. It wasn't home, clearly, but it was something and he could feel himself starting to drift off behind the wheel in spite of his anxiety over the situation. Whatever was going on, maybe the answers he needed would be found inside.

Did he really believe that?

No. Not really.

“Balls.”