Re/Aligned Application

[cliffjumper]

Player Information
*Name/Alias: Chibi
*Your Journal: sparklight
*Age: 27
*Contact Information: You have this already. :P
*Characters already in the game: Jetfire (DW), Elita One (Classics)

Character Information
*Character Name: Cliffjumper
*Character Canon: Transformers: Classics
*Age: Over eight million years old, adult
*Race: Cybertronian
*Timeline/Pull Point: Post Reunification, but pre Invasion.

*History: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cliffjumper_%28G1%29#Marvel_Comics_continuity (the only thing that counts here, technically, is the US-only story.)
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cliffjumper_%28G1%29#Classics.2FShattered_Glass

*Personality: Cliffjumper is a trigger-happy, short-tempered and suspicious 'bot by nature. He has, though, had to amend his reactions lately, ever since he got shunted off into a different dimension where things are quite reversed from what he's used to. It's necessary to rein in your paranoia if you're going to work with what you've known as enemies for practically forever, and now they're suddenly the good guys. One could probably assert that being kicked to the negative polarity universe has settled Cliffjumper in a way nothing that could have happened in his home dimension would. Having to think before you shoot what suddenly are your allies tend to make one do that (or mess up one's reaction times, in Cliffjumper's opinion). Not to say he's not still paranoid or suspicious, especially since Cyclonus' betrayal and assassination of Megatron as an undercover agent for Alpha Trion, but he's no better at sniffing out potential traitors or spies, either, and has definitely toned down his public suspicions and accusations.

He's gotten slightly better at not just rushing in and shooting everything deemed "enemy" (read "Decepticon"), if only because getting caught by Autobots probably worse than any "normal" Decepticon requires him to be more careful about what he does. On the other hand, he takes the 'reversed' Autobots almost as a personal insult, and his eagerness to "sort 'em out" (especially Prime) is well-matched with Sideswipe's urge for revenge. He is, however, still prone to just act or rush right into a situation if it's right in front of him, usually not bothering to plan much. On the other hand he's also learned to think and plan, as he acknowledged to Starscream that he would usually be the first to suggest (and the first in line) to rush to Megatron's aid when Ricochet had him in Do Over, but instead advocated for a smaller, planned strike force while they continued with the preparations for the launching of the Nemesis.

Cliffjumper's probably had more "learning experiences" since he came to this universe than he's had in his entire earlier function in his home universe... Of course, it could just be that he's never bothered to pay attention, or learn anything, from the earlier ones enough to actually let them affect him. If you're on Cliffjumper's side, he'll defend you, and the cause, until he can't move anymore, and even then, if he can still fire a gun or a cannon, or hit something, he'll do that. Size and relative strength/power of his opponent(s) doesn't matter; he'll do his best and (attempt to) get through it on sheer determination (or anger) alone. This trait hasn't been lessened by his relocation, rather strengthened and reinforced (Megatron taking a shot meant for him during the attack against the Ark's launching platform for no other reason than that all life is sacred certainly helped to convince him he could work with these backwards Decepticons, though). Perhaps to a level the Decepticons of the mirrorverse aren't always comfortable with, but then, they've always questioned Cliffjumper's eagerness to get into a fight (with the Autobots), and his zeal with his weaponry.

Simply put, Cliffjumper, besides being simply zealous, is courageous to a fault and can knowingly (and not so knowingly) get into situations he might not be able to handle if it's the "right" thing to do, or if someone's in danger. He also has a pretty strong idea of right and wrong and especially what the Autobots stand for, and speaks out for that. He isn't easily "kicked down" by a bad situation, and can cling to stubbornness and sheer anger to get through something. He's not the most... competent at apologizing, even if he can admit he's wrong when proven such (as in having an easier time admitting Sephie's "upgrade" in Transhuman went okay, but having a bigger problem apologizing to her for his earlier attitude and suspicion). He's brash, confrontational, suspicious and definitely has a problem with his temper (as well as with his mouth), but he's also a principled, genuinely nice mech even if he's a little socially/interpersonally awkward and can get flustered at certain matters (unfamiliarity with femmes/"female" cybertronians, for example).

*Powers/Abilities: As a cybertronian, Cliffjumper's capable of changing his frame into an alternate mode, in his case a hatchback sports car that takes cues of several models of Earth cars, and not a single particular one. He's further one of the fastest Autobots (from his reality), and he's got access to radio/wireless communication on particular bands/to other cybertronians, as well as scanners for his surroundings and internal diagnostics.

Cliffjumper possesses a gun that can fire a gas that, upon contact with metal, will turn it brittle, akin to glass, making it a lot easier to shatter. Glass gas, being a gas is highly vulnerable to wind direction, and if Cliffjumper isn't careful, he could just as well end up with a faceful of the gas himself as hitting his intended target. The gas further only lasts (naturally) a few minutes, and take a minute or so to fully affect what it has hit.
Further, as of the story Transhuman, there's some pointers that the glass gas, while capable of being produced artificially as Cliffjumper knows the formula for it, should also be possible to come directly from Cliffjumper himself, as an inherent power from his spark and something called a power chip rectifier. If this is the case, he certainly can't do it currently, but might, perhaps, learn to do it... probably causing the glass gas effect by touching whatever it is he wants to affect.

He's also a very good shot/sniper - the latter part which he might have trained up while in the negative polarity universe or it's always been there, but either way he's good/confident enough to have offered to Starscream to snipe at the Autobots when they were planning on how to deal with getting Sephie back. He still has tachyons and temporal particles in his field/energy signature from crossing between the positive/negative polarity divide.

*Inventory: A jetpack which turns into a trailer/jetski while Cliffjumper's in altmode, a gun capable of firing glass gas, one huge cannon, one laser blaster and a (sniper-)rifle, various materials to make bombs, two rods of negative polarity energon, a broken-off length of (currently) inert piece of mane from a (very) giant purple gryphon a G1 Megatron created in Axiom Nexus.

*Starting Polarity: Go wild.

If AU, how does your character differ from canon?: First and foremost, he's had to deal with - yet again - being plucked out of his (current) dimension by ending up yanked over into Axiom Nexus by TransTech Shockwave. Considering he's had to deal with "the same and yet not" of meeting individuals he recognizes but aren't the ones *he* knows before, it was mostly a question of trying to sort the good/evil Autobot/Decepticon issue (again). He was offered to share apartment with a Skyfire, but soon had the place to himself as the shuttle got sent home. Despite struggling a bit to keep up with the rent, Cliffjumper never got the idea to ask anyone to move in... he'd taken the initial offer, but he didn't really trust - or like - any of the potential mechs that might need some place to live. Despite this, and since he did have some initial understanding of "universal variations", he made a few friends from Autobots he knew well enough from his original dimension.

At one point, he ended up helping to take down a giant-and-upgraded version of a particular Megatron's Giant Purple Griffin, and since he hasn't changed tack while being shunted into the mirrorverse, why would he now? Which meant he went head-on with the creature, attempting to go at the head up close and personal, despite the prehensile cables it had as a mane. A short while later, a Tyran Bumblebee appeared in Axiom, and, being quite willing to trust a "positive polarity" if from another dimension than his own Bumblebee (maybe even as a way to remind himself of his own/the regular versions instead of the mirrorverse variation), Cliffjumper offered the mech a place to stay if he needed it.

A while after this, the event that have arguably affected Cliffjumper the most - even if he'd deny it, and have been "dealing" mostly by shoving it away - was being kidnapped by Nemesis Prime (IDW-verse) and injected with various chemical concoctions. While Cliffjumper dealt with that while it was happening with his usual confrontational, do-first-think-later attitude, the aftermath was a lot less easier to deal with, especially as there was no real closure as the twisted Prime had made sure Cliffjumper couldn't remember any full details of the mech who did all of that to him. Cliffjumper was gone for three days, and upon coming back, besides dealing with something of a hangover and withdrawal, also had some trouble keeping mechs who only meant well apart from enemies and/or their mirrorverse counterparts. And, as noted, he hasn't exactly dealt with this so much as just recovered enough to ignore it, though he did have some help from a particular Praxian Optimus Prime and his drone Roller, which led to talking to the Prime himself.

Later, after it was clear the Tyran Bumblebee had been sent home and after some mess during Halloween (Cliffjumper forgot about an energon cube given as a "treat" for giving something to the interdimensional trick-or-treater that stopped by, and ended up a lot larger than he usually was for about a day) Cliffjumper followed up on Optimus' earlier offer to move in with himself and that Prime's Jazz, but they'd hardly settled from that when the information that Shockwave had been caught and they were all being sent home were dropped on them.

Writing Samples
*First Person Sample: [...] Glitchin' carburator exhaust slag--- [the brief feed, going from audio to staticky video and then dead, perhaps for the best considering the language being thrown around, shows Cliffjumper lit from beneath. Clearly the only light wherever he is is being supplied by his own headlights.]

---nce wasn't fraggin' enough, should probably been more--- finally! [The deeply furrowed scowl on the gray faceplates smooths out into a... slightly less fierce expression, but not by much, as the video comes back. It's still staticky and the sound quality isn't the best... Clearly, he's nearly out of reach for the Link to function this badly.]

Some stray overgrown sharkticon managed to get the drop on me, and, er... Well, it's dead, but--- [And the feed goes dead again, abruptly, before it pops back up to the noise of Cliffjumper's growling engine.]

Piece of slaggin'-- [The sigh could perhaps just have been static from the bad connection, but really isn't.] Right. Kinda got in a mishap. [Technically, he'd seen the mechanical monster wandering around and decided he could - and should - take it, and attacked. Near a trench.] Got slammed into a wall with the jetpack first while fightin' it, an' then we fell down...

[Cliffjumper grimaces and grunts, and out of view of the feed, one hand tenses into a fist.]

If someone could just start to send the coordinates for somewhere in the Haven so I got somethin' to follow that'd be great.

[And then just hope the connection held so he'd receive them...]


*Third Person Sample: So maybe he hadn't ended up with Skyfall, Landquake and Breakaway in Axiom Nexus, but rather in a negative polarity reality when he took the Caretaker's stellar sp--space bridge. And maybe he hadn't taken it in the most graceful way when he first landed in said opposite polarity dimension. He'd dealt later. Dealt and settled and decided to stay and help. Partly because while there were still Decepticons at home, it had felt kind of strange to wake up after over a decivorn in emergency stasis-lock. Technically it was a negible amount of time, but a lot of things had happened between Starscream nearly killing him and being woken up and told the war was over.

Did that somehow mean the slagging multiverse could decide to yank him around to a million other places and not put him where he wanted to go now that the TransTech had decided to send them home? He'd resigned himself to not be able to finish dealing with the psychotic Autobots and just go back to business as "normal" when he was sent to his original universe since the TransTech would send them "home" and not to where they came form most recently.

He wasn't pleased at all with the prospect, because, fraggit, he'd promised he'd help, and he didn't want to leave the Decepticons high and dry. At least, though, going back to his original dimension would mean getting to kick the normal Decepticons' collective afts again (... what was left of them, anyway). Except he wasn't home. Or in the negative polarity 'verse he'd most recently come from, even if he had the distinct feeling he'd briefly been back there - bounced, in a way. Either way, the fact that he wasn't where he wanted to be was severely torquing him off. He had things to do, Earths and Cybertrons to help protect and rebuild, mechs to kill, evil, slagging Optimus Prime to beat into deactivation with his own legs. A thousand things that didn't involve going through a Transtech stellar--- space bridge and waking up being told that he'd ended up on a Cybertron only barely created and still being formed.

Once again no way of getting home. And apparently this Cybertron didn't (yet) have Primus inhabiting the planet? That... felt seriously off after having found out that Primus was, indeed and definitely inside Cybertron, was Cybertron, in his first dimension. He just wanted to be able to deal with one thing - one dimension at a time without ten others being added! Cliffjumper groaned, kicked a rock-and-metal outcropping and grimaced at the sound his bumper made when connecting with the material. Couldn't things be easy for once?

Final Notes: I would like to try for Cliffjumper to end up capable of producing the glass gas effect by touching things at some point, if possible (considering using the gun would be more effective in some/most situations still, anyway).