Sanctum Application

[churchismybestfriend]

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Plum
Contact Information: email: Karen.wood88@gmail.com, plurk: pureplum
Personal Journal: topolina
Age: 26
Characters Played: None
IN-CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Michael J. Caboose
Fandom: Red vs Blue
Age: 23
Canon Point: Post Season 10
Original Universe or Alternate Universe? OU
Personality: Caboose is a very curious, naive, but well-meaning man. Considered to be the least intelligent person in all of Blood Gulch, Caboose regards a lot of what goes on around him in a childlike manner; he talks to and ends up befriending tanks and bombs, he treats most conflicts that come across them as some form of game, and he may call the Red team his enemies but he views them as friends. His good intentions however usually end up backfiring to negatively affect his team in some way. For example, he tried to save his team mates Church and Tucker from getting shot by the Reds in season 1 and accidentally killed Church. In season 6, Church takes advantage of Caboose's unfortunate attempts to help his friends by asking him to help a retreating Agent South which lead to Caboose immediately accidentally shooting her.

Caboose is naturally friendly and is very easily attached to people, often calls strangers he meets his 'new friends', maybe even 'new best friends'. That said, the permanent position of best friend ever, of all-time, belongs to the former Blue team leader Leonard Church, regardless of whether Church feels the same way about Caboose or not. Caboose's attachment to his friends usually comes across as annoying, oblivious, and maybe a touch possessive but Caboose is a loyal to a fault for his friends. He is very trusting and usually ends up getting manipulated by his team mates in some way but he takes it all in good stride. It takes a lot to make Caboose angry or purposefully mean to anyone, but he does get sad very easily. As a consequence of his deteriorated mental state however, these strong negative emotions either don't last for long or he forgets about them, making him quick to forgive, or easily distracted.

He is blissfully ignorant of a lot of innuendo or darker themes that are talked about in his presence. Even before his mental state took damage from hosting multiple AIs and the battle they had inside his brain, Caboose has shown to not fully understand the things he recites even if he can recognize the statements to be of a certain theme. To use an example, Caboose understands that the phrase, "why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free" can be used in relation to talking about girlfriends and marriage since that is how the phrase was taught to him, but he does not comprehend the full meaning of what the phrase really means. Perhaps because of how far out or unbelievable some things are, Caboose is sometimes one of the only members of the Blood Gulch crew that understands certain crucial plot points such as Church being a computer program rather than a ghost like everyone else believed him to be.

Despite the silly exterior most people know him for, Caboose knows that he's broken. When he's alone it shows more; he's more prone to depression, frustration and seeking any distraction to keep him from dwelling on what's wrong with him.

Background:
Michael J. Caboose's history page

Caboose was the youngest and only boy out of eleven siblings when his father died when Caboose turned 12. His mother moved on to have a boyfriend, which is where three more sisters came from before that boyfriend left. Eventually, she remarried and Caboose got four more sisters before he got shipped out to the military.

Other Notables: Caboose has only nine toes. Church shot off his pinky toe early a short while after they first met.

For all of his lack of cohesive brain power, Caboose is surprisingly strong and sturdy. He has the highest muscle strength out of the soldiers located in Blood Gulch, demonstrated when he flips a toppled over warthog vehicle from its side to right way up as well as from the fact that he could singlehandedly lift Andy the bomb (an explosive device that was said to require at least two people to carry) for an extended period of time. There have also been several occasions when Caboose has fallen from a great height and has managed to land unharmed.

As a consequence to being one of many hosts for the hostile AI known as Omega/O'Mally, Caboose had 'learned to be mean'; in other words, Caboose enters a berserker like rage for a short period of time. During his angry time, he becomes violent and speaks with a deep voice and says somewhat menacing things. After it’s over, Caboose has no memory of what was done or said during the rage. In fact, he even forgets how to be mean or angry to induce the rage but can be reminded of it by an outside source to reproduce the destructive results. In his regular state he has solid aim with a rifle and some raw but undefined upper body strength for melee but a terrible throwing arm. Never hand him a grenade.

Caboose is fairly good with machines and AIs. With the exception of Omega, Caboose managed to befriend the AI of a battle tank named Sheila, and an explosive named Andy. While Epsilon-Church was trapped in a memory unit, Caboose was the one who eventually transferred the AI to a piece of ancient alien technology and has since helped transfer the AI to other hosts. It is never shown what he does exactly, but usually if he tinkers with things long enough he can get them to work the way he wants.

Not a lot is discussed amongst his teammates on the mental strain Caboose went through hosting multiple AIs several times over the course of him working with the Blues. However, through the glimpses into his mind whenever Alpha-Church has possessed him, we see that his mind seems to have gone through a severe deterioration. Most of this change was the result of Omega possessing Caboose's mind and trying to turn it against him. It is possible that in an attempt to better control Caboose, Omega had started to do to his mind what the Director of Project Freelancer did to the Alpha AI to create the other fragment AIs. The first to fragment in Alpha was his Logic, which would explain Caboose’s departure from reality and his own circumstances. The next fragment for Alpha was his rage, which could relate to the berserker state Caboose can be triggered into. After that, it's possible that Omega made one last fragment before he was removed and it is this fragment that is at the helm of Caboose’s body most of the time. For Alpha, it was Theta; his innocence.

Caboose is a little hard of hearing. Growing up he learned how to do ASL but since he joined the military he hasn’t needed to use it or his hearing aid as much thanks to the built in sensory enhancements in their issued armour.

Inventory:
One UNSC standard issue default blue mark V armour and helmet.

SAMPLES
NETWORK SAMPLE: In which Caboose tries to make snowmen and friends.

LOG SAMPLE:
The space was too blank for Caboose’' liking; too white and empty, even though the new apartment was warmer and nicer than the box fort in the alley he had made and lived in for those first couple of days before he'd found a job and moved in. The neighbours had been nice, some had held open doors for him while he moved in and one had even thrown a free bar of soap at him. Then again, maybe that was because he hadn't been able to wash since he first arrived in the Sanctum. That bath had been one of the best moments he'd had yet in his new living quarters. It would take a while still before he could truly call it home but that was nothing a bit of creativity and imagination couldn't fix, and over the next few weeks Caboose would work hard to change that.

***

The keys jingled in the lock before Caboose entered his apartment with a bright call of, "I'm home!" There was no reply but that didn’t stop Caboose from being cheerful. As he passed by a couch turned into a fort, with his armor sitting inside the propped up cushion walls, he waved at the painted red cut outs of figures stuck to the wall behind the couch.

"Hey guys! Still keeping things going in the red base? That's nice."

Setting down a small bag of groceries on the counter, Caboose dug inside until he pulled out a can of alphabet soup. Emptying the contents into a bowl, he carried it over to the microwave. A few toilet paper rolls had been taped together and stuck on the top of it, while a few more had been taped along the sides as if they were supposed to be wheels. If you squinted, you could almost say it looked like a tank.

"Sheila, could you make this hot please?"

Still no response, but the beep and hum of the microwave running was comforting all the same. With his hot bowl of soup in hand, Caboose took it over to the other side of the room where a couch fort similar to the first one sat; although this one had blue figures. As he ate he looked around his place with a small smile. It had taken time, several boxes of cookies and a few pinched fingers from the safety scissors he’d bought to finish but finally his apartment was starting to feel like home.

Sitting back into the sofa he smiled at the aqua figure and the blue and yellow figure stuck to the wall over his shoulder. "It's almost like you guys are right here with me! Yeah…" he murmured as he tipped his head to look down at the last few letters sitting at the bottom of his bowl.

"…Almost."