Beyond the RIft - Application

[sweettooth]

About You - The Player
Name: Koree
Age: 28 29
Contact: aim; godgivenlemonade
Past Role Playing Experience: Mostly one-on-one over AIM, but my previous livejournal experiences were prose based: Digilife, a couple of private Digimon games on LJ and GJ, then route_29, gargleblasted, somarium, zodion, and previously at Exsilium, Abax, and a few others.
New Players (completely optional), if you'd like tell us how you found BTR: The most recent App This Please advertisement for the game, actually! The Psych cast was looking for a Gus and I/my Gus have been looking for a Psych cast. :D

The Character
Name: Burton Guster (Gus, among dozens upon dozens of Shawn given aliases)
Age/Birthdate: 30, and I can't recall that it's been specified yet. Sometime in 82' or 81.
Species: Human
*Type: Magic Head Wanderer
Canon:
*Pre-existing powers: None (unless you count a ridiculously large knowledge of drugs, poisons, and a sensitive nose)

*Rift Change, if applicable: Rubbing Gus' head and making a wish will grant small wishes, or parts of larger wishes.

If possible I'd like Gus' head to become magic or enchanted (however it would need to be labeled), so that when someone rubs his head and makes a wish (out loud or in their mind) it will be granted. The object will appear in the person's hand or in front of them by magic.

- They'd be small things like for typically sized objects, foods, or possibly some kind of mockery/fake weapon (a toy gun that looks real, a fresh double cheeseburger, a prop/rubber scimitar, etc.). Lamps, a shirt, nothing larger than a television or game console, for instance.

- Sometimes the wishes will backfire if the wish isn't specific enough ("I want the key to Gus' apartment!" - results in getting a key to SOMETHING IN Gus' apartment, not necessarily the front door. Opposed to "I want a genuine duplicate of the key to Gus' apartment's front door!")

- Wishes will provide the desired object... by taking it from someplace else. If it's no where to be found then nothing will happen. So wishing for a polka dotted penguin won't do any good unless there is a "Build-a-Bear" in the city of Chicago. P.S. I'm sure there is. Go for it.

- If you try to wish for something like a car you'll either receive-- in your hand --a toy car or PART of SOMEONE'S car, like the steering wheel.

Additionally, Gus cannot wish for a THING for himself, someone else has to be making the wish. Pretty much I'd just like for Gus' ability to continue to benefit Shawn, any cases or work they take on, and everyone around him BUT himself (it's kind of his thing to come up short 99% of the time okay).

Failing that/if this is unacceptable I'd like for Gus' tap dancing to have various effects on people (Tapping a relaxed or slower pace might put them to sleep or calm them down from a rage, but tapping fast could maybe daze them or something along those lines. Tapping in a repetitive rhythm could put them into a hypnotic state?). The rvival of "Tap Man", as it were.

Livejournal: chocolategenius
Played By: Dule Hill
Icon:

Appearance: Gus is actually a fairly attractive young man, but it's implied that his state of dress and general uptight appearance as well as his affiliation with both Shawn and near-death-encounters keep women at arms length distance. He dresses in a professional manner, seldom wearing sneakers and rarely seen in anything less than a dress shirt and sometimes a pair of jeans (or a ridiculous costume) when it's for the sake of a case. Initially he actually goes everywhere in a three piece suit and dress shoes, but his adventures with Shawn have taught him the error of those ways. He stands presumably a little bit on the tall side, taller than Juliet but shorter than Lassie, right around Shawn's height. His head is closely shaven unless we're talking about flashbacks or Shawn's dreams and his hair is always trimmed. He's got a chocolate-ish skin tone with dark brown eyes and black hair. He's constantly being mistaken for "Bud" (or the guy that played him at least) on The Cosby Show.

Personality: Gus tries his damnest to be straight-laced personified. He takes his responsibilities seriously, or at least he does most of the time. Over the years Shawn and their exploits have slowly been reforming aspects of Gus' personality. When Psych first started Gus was always the unwilling participant and sometimes even had to be tricked into helping with a case. Though that's still true he's a lot more go with the flow now.

Bless his heart, Gus has a very keen sense of self preservation. He's not very brave and he's not very selfless (he's stated several times (one would hope jokingly) that he is willing to leave Shawn behind if it becomes a matter of life-or-death, taken off running at the sight of a gun and continued running in spite of being told by Shawn that the threat was gone, accidentally disarmed a burgalar in the midst of a spazz attack, and sometimes through the course of the show be heard saying that so-and-so are on their own), in fact you could almost say he's downright vain. There are instances when he has no appreciation for the severity of a situation, his priorities and level of sensitivity towards others can be skewered from time to time in spite of his do-good attitude, though not nearly as much as Shawn's. He prides himself on his looks and intelligence, and ever since one particular case required going undercover as models Gus has yet to let his popularity amongst their "peers" go. He claims to go through a specific beauty regiment to keep his baby smooth skin smooth, and seems to be of a wussy delicate constitution despite being physically fit.

He has a modern-ish (IE: Highly sarcastic, sometimes condescending, and witty) sense of humor best demonstrated when in the presence of someone he knows. He's all together a good and charming person when he wants to be, but when it comes to situations that he's been dragged into against his will all of Gus' less endearing personality traits just come shining through. For all of his vanity and confidence Gus is actually prone to bouts of insecurity, usually in regards to the opposite sex. When he's been shot down he tends to fixate on "WHY" until a conclusion has been reached, even if he wasn't actually interested in the party in question (See Gus visiting a convicted killer who happened to be a lesbian in prison, JUST for the sake of confirming that it was her interest in the same sex and not his lack of charm and looks that resulted in his utter failure to score a kiss from her TWICE.). Oh Gus. We love you anyway.

Highly intelligent and methodical at times to the point of almost being OCD, Gus is definitely the person to have with you if you need expertise in pharmaceuticals, astrology (SHHH) astronomy, or in general anything intellectual. He is an extremely gifted and talented young man, and years at Shawn's side as his sidekick-in-denial has taught him just a FEW of Shawn's tricks. All on his own Gus has a LOT of quirks, and anyone that meets him is bound to discover at least a few on their own. He should fit in just fine, don't you think? Gus says no.

History: n/a

Events: This is easy, oh goodness. The absolute greatest life-changing event for Gus IS~

1.) Meeting Shawn - Shawn has easily been the biggest influence in Gus' life, arguably stronger than that of his family at times-- or at least as strong as. He's been friends with him since they were in diapers and they've always been the proverbial odd couple. Gus is the straight man of the comedic duo, and though he does a great deal keeping Shawn on track Shawn in turn has really gotten Gus to loosen up over the years. The two have almost no secrets from one another, they're so close as friends that they've even been mistaken for a couple once or twice. Shawn is constantly using his credit cards, getting him into dangerous situations, leaving him to foot the bill, convincing him to play dead, egging him on, indulging in childish fantasies, and in general managing to get Gus to regress to the maturity level of a six year old. This is proven by Gus' gradual change in dress from season 1 to present, as well as things like his He cares the world for Shawn, though, and has become almost as invested in "Psych" as he is in their friendship.

2.) Working at Psych - There are a lot of things that have happened to Gus over the years and I can happily recite a few more if you so wish, but those were things that came and went. Psych is the second biggest thing to happen to him in the history of ever, and is not only one of the few constants but is also responsible for a great deal of those other things that happened-- if Shawn wasn't the cause that is.

Ever since finding out that Shawn had put his name on a lease Gus has been... okay, well actually he was a real stick in the mud about it at first, but he warmed to the idea.

SLOWLY. Perhaps even more slowly than Lassie warmed to Juliet, or Shawn warmed to Henry being back in his life. He initially brushed off the fake detective agency as simply entertaining Shawn and protecting his name by keeping Shawn from doing anything too painfully reckless with his name on the lease. As the cases rolled in, though, it became apparent that Gus was taking it more seriously than some not-job on the side. He got to the point that he was legitimately disappointed about having to stop working at Psych because one of his supervisors threatened to fire him for moonlighting if he didn't leave. Shawn went to great lengths to ensure that that wouldn't happen, and though Gus would probably deny it nine times out of ten, he's grateful. He regards the agency, its expenses, their fees, and their potential case list seriously. Let's face it, that thing at this point has become he and Shawn's brain-baby, their mental-financial-... businessal-love-child if you will it is too a word, Gus.


Writing Sample: (Some of my sample was eaten in the pasting process-- sorry about that. D: Hope it's okay that I fixed it.)     

A young man stood deceptively calm but visibly brooding and thinking up a storm on the doorstep of a house. The sky was dark as it was well into the midnight hour when he'd suddenly appeared in a room on the upper level of the house. He wore jeans and a light blue dress shirt, neatly pressed for the most part, and if it wasn't then that was only on account of waking up in a bed made for a child and then been shoved out of the house after coming down to panic at the next best person investigate.

Beside him rested a backpack-- also made for a child --with his supplies for his "journey". In his hand rested a small ball, red on top, white on the bottom, and divided down the center by a black stripe and a large white button in the middle. His head still smarted a bit from being hit repeatedly by an angry purple primate. The primate's punishment was being put back in its ball. Now Gus could focus on the present.

This situation was not amusing in the least.

He was going to kill Shawn.

Of all the schemes that Shawn had dragged them into over the many years of friendship, this was the worst. Never mind that he couldn't think of any conceivable way that getting sucked into a VIDEO GAME was possible-- short of... landing in hell?

No, NO. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? This had to be some belated result of playing with that ouija board when they were kids, or maybe this was punishment for the mess during the Father Wesley case? Maybe this was punishment for playing Pokemon when Shawn wasn't looking (Gus has yet still somehow failed to catch on that there was no such thing as keeping secrets from Shawn.). That game was obviously from the devil! He was trashing his games as soon as he woke up or got back home. But why wasn't Shawn here? He wasn't even around to reap the punishment of it with Gus. Almost every time they had been on a crazy adventure it was together, being stuck in "Johto" didn't seem right without Shawn.

"He probably hasn't even noticed yet that I'm gone. I'll be he's snooping through my things right now!" Gus narrowed his eyes slightly in that very Gus-ish manner. He took a moment to look at the pack on the ground and the ball in his hand and frowned. How to get home? Praying hadn't worked (He'd been at it for an hour and had gotten no results.), so maybe he was there to learn a lesson? How did the games go again? Compelet the Pokedex, beat the gyms, get the badges, beat the Elite Four and Champion, then get a ferry ticket the hell out of there. It stood to reason that the game world couldn't be that big, so the ferry ticket MUST lead back to his own world.

He shouldered his backpack and thought himself lucky that he had done a bit of hiking here and there (forgetting that he kind of sucked at it). If he was really lucky, and this was just a dream(?), then he'd just kill time till he woke up. Simple enough, and after keeping his calm and coming up with such a solid plan he thought he'd earned a self-congratulatory pat on the back and matter of fact nod.

"But there is no way I am letting this crazy monkey out of it's ball again unless I absolutely have to, no joke. Burton Guster can handle a few measly Pokemon without any help. Say whaaaat?"

And with a strut in his step the newest victim addition to Johto stepped foot on Route twenty-nine.