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application;
PLAYER INFO
Player Name: Chase
• Player Contact:
• Player Age: 18+
• Permissions: Here.
CHARACTER INFO
• Character Name: Heartman
• Character Age: Unknown, most likely mid to late 40s
• Character Canon: Death Stranding
• Canon Point: Roughly around the end of Chapter 8, after obtaining Mama's umbilical cord and conspiring with Deadman and Sam without Die-hardman's knowledge.
• Character History: wiki link
• Character Personality: Provide information about their personality, both negative and positive aspects — with three of each. Give examples of how they've behaved this way. You do not need to provide an essay, but please submit enough to give a feel for the character.
— Intelligent and Curious: Heartman is very much an extremely nerdy individual. Even before the Death Stranding he was working as a scientist, and losing his wife and child has only exacerbated his hunger for information. Heartman feels his best while actively pursuing knowledge, trying to solve problems, or coming up with theories. Outside of searching Beaches (passages to the afterlife in the simplest terms) in search of his family, Heartman spends the vast majority of his waking moments trying to figure out the literal mysteries of his post apocalyptic universe. Even his fis 'free time' between deaths, studying, and sleeping and eating are spent consuming the large quantity of movies, films and music he's collected from before the Death Stranding. Heartman is constantly trying to learn as much as he can: his curiosity has caused him to join a three-year expedition Westward in an attempt to unite a fractured America and study the many unknowns about the post-apocalyptic world they all inhabit despite his health.
— Calm and Collected: An easily flustered scientist is an easy stereotype to lean on, but Heartman has proven himself quite able to work well under pressure and remain calm, collected, and focused. The ups and downs of dying every 20 minutes seem to have tampered a lot of his panic response: he understands situations at hand and how urgent they are, and doesn't let that affect him in the least. Deadman and Heartman working together and purposefully obfuscating information from Die-Hardman is a prime example of this: Heartman's collected enough that he'll purposefully mess with his AED settings, mute communications, and straight up alter data to give him time to talk to Sam privately out and show him things away from others' prying eyes. He's also requested Sam deliver Mama's corpse to him while purposefully not telling Sam he's also transporting valuable research that has been snuck in. If there's a conspiracy theory, you can trust Heartman not to narc or give it away. If he trusts you, he'll be the first to help without any hesitation.
— Hopeful and Optimistic: Heartman has it rough. Due to a combination of dogged pursuit of science and poor health his already terrible heart now gives out every 20 minutes to the point that he needs a piece of machinery to keep him alive. He lost the vast majority of his research colleagues from the first BRIDGES expedition to various Death Stranding phenomena, he lives an incredibly isolating, lonely life, he devotes all of his time to trying to reunite with his wife and child every time he dies in an attempt to move on, and on top of everything else he suffers from DOOMS, causing frequent night terrors. Despite all of this, Heartman remains enthusiastic, eager, and willing to learn. He firmly believes that the only way for humanity to move forward from the end of the world is via connection, empathy, and understanding. Heartman's losses are tremendous, but he remains confident that if he works hard enough, encourages others to do so, and surrounds himself with like minded people, he can help to rebuild not just the United Cities of America, but the whole world. He's quick to flash a thumbs up, tries his best to hold conversations despite science and math being his stronger suit, and won't hesitate to jump in as a team player.
— Socially unaware: For all of his intelligence and love of teaching people about his research, Heartman has a lot of difficulties having an actual conversation. A lot of this can be chalked up to the game suffering from Kojima Monologues, but Heartman is fully aware of the fact that he has difficulties speaking and connecting with others. Some of the first things he says to Sam during the first three minutes of thier first meeting is explain that due to his condition he doesn't have time for sex. He even asks if Sam wants to see an xray of his heart, Sam says no, and he shows it to him anyway because he's excited. He pauses oddly during words, stutters a little, and his eye contact is strange at best: Heartman loves people, but has been so lonely and isolated for years due to his condition and the fact that his research occupies almost all of his every waking moment. He's capable of conversation of course--he quite enjoys it, it's just very easy for him to come across as a bit "off."
— Scattered: Heartman may be smart and able to explain things to others fairly easily despite his monologuing--in a different universe he'd probably make a fantastic university professor--but he's also consistently thinking of several things at once. There's a strong chance that during a completely normal conversation he'll be theorizing about the Ancient Egyptian death practices, or thinking about the affect of too much Chiralium on a human body. It can be extremely difficult to keep up with what he's saying simply because his attention is constantly being pulled elsewhere.
— Unable to let go: As mentioned, Heartman's life has been filled with immense loneliness and hardship. Heartman spends the 20 minutes he's alive before he goes back into cardiac arrest passing time or writing down his findings about the beach, but it's those three minutes of death mean that mean the most to him. It gives him a chance to search for his wife and child in the vain hope to reunite with them--Heartman dedicates his life to researching the Beach because of it, voluntarily trapping himself in an endless cycle of death-rebirth for years on end. He states very plainly that the only reason he's alive is to continue his search, and has no qualms with telling Sam how affected he is by it.
• Character Skills:
• Homo Loquens: A self-styled phrase Heartman uses for himself, he's extremely gifted in science and math and has been called one of the most brilliant minds in the United Cities of America. His research specialty as the Beach scientist closely aligns with things like the multiverse, the afterlife, evolution, and extinction.
• Character Inventory:
— ITEM ONE: A framed photo of wife and daughter
— ITEM TWO: His Chiral hourglass - While it does contains Chiralium, it will just look like gold sand or dust: it will be standard hourglass in game.
— ITEM THREE: Mama's umbilical chord - A small sealed tube that contains a piece of an umbilical cord that's been preserved/frozen in time due to Chiral contamination on the cellular level. Heartman's research. This will have no affect or do anything, it's mainly to mess with him.
• Important Notes:
—As discussed on the FAQ, Heartman's medical condition will no longer cause him to die every 20 minutes, and the AED he uses for it will be completely non-functional save during the Aurora. He'll still have a bad heart, however, which will put him great physical disadvantage.
—He'll also have his cuffs open arrival. Happy to nerf the fact that it's a mini computer/map/etc even during the Aurora and have it function as a pair of fancy handcuffs that lights up during the Aurora to match the wearer's physical condition.
-On top of his heart condition, Heartman suffers from DOOMS. The abilities from this are a nonissue in a game setting (better understanding of the Beach, higher tolerance to chiralium exposure, ability to travel Beaches etc) but the drawbacks should remain. Heartman luckily doesn't have the erratic behaviour, suicidal or homicidal tendencies, but he still suffers from extreme nightmares.
• Writing Samples: Players must provide TWO prose writing samples. These both must be log threads. Due to the fact there is no network in this game, 'network' or 'texting'-style threads will not be accepted.
— SAMPLE ONE: Here
— SAMPLE TWO: Here