+ BASICS +
FULL NAME: Ezra Simon Gates. MEANING: “Help, helper”; “God has heard”; “topographic name for someone who lives near a wall in a medieval town”. NICKNAME: Specter. MEANING: A source of terror or dread; a visible apparition of terrifying nature. AGE APPEARANCE: 27. BIRTHDAY: 24 April, 1917. ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus. GENDER: Male ALLERGIES: General hayfever— he has a very mild allergy to pollen. SEXUAL PREFERENCE: Heteroflexible, not that he knows that particularly well. THEME SONG: "Fight”, Icon For Hire.
+ APPEARANCE +
HAIR COLOR: Black, ( or deep brown, depending on lighting ). HAIR STYLE AND LENGTH: Frankly, it depends. When he’s out in the field for extended periods of time he allows it to grow out, and it becomes quite shaggy and unkempt. Otherwise, it’s short to medium length and generally within military guidelines. EYES COLOR: Brown. EYESIGHT: 20/20. HEIGHT: 6’1". WEIGHT: 173 lbs. DISTINGUISHING MARKS: He has a puckered, almost star shaped scar below his left ear— from a childhood accident involving some unruly animals and barbed wire. Several scars on his hands from general wear and tear, a burn scar on his right middle finger from a too-hot gun barrel. He also has a long scar from his left hip to his navel from a knife fight in the midst of a combat operation. SELF CARE: He constantly washes his hands and makes sure they’re impeccably clean; it’s a childhood habit and a bit of an odd one all things considered, but he can’t let it go. He also shaves every second week no matter where he is. FIRST IMPRESSION ON PEOPLE: He’s blunt and more than a bit grating regardless of whether or not he knows people. He makes few qualms about not making friends and although he’s perfectly capable of turning on the charm when it’s needed, he respects rank and his own means that he’s often operating under something of a tough-love doctrine. Certain people ( like Costin and Oriana and a handful of others ) impress him enough that he gets very warm and very open, generally very witty and sarcastically teasing but he cares about them immensely. SKIN COLOR: Olive. BODY TYPE/BUILD: He’s clearly very strong and well built; he takes it very seriously, keeping himself in decent physical shape. He’s a bit lanky in comparison to some of the other Commandos, owing to the fact that he tends to need to slip into spaces that others can’t get to but he’s very sturdily built. DEFAULT EXPRESSION: Something like this gif ( here ). POSTURE: Usually fairly relaxed, though sort of in the way cats can be— relaxed but clearly ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Relaxed but somehow constantly alert regardless. DESCRIBE THEIR VOICE: He’s got a fairly noticeable/typical Australian accent ( after some research I’m calling it a ‘general Australian accent’, his voice is relatively deep— though it tends to get that much deeper when he’s angry, or tired. It’s rough and usually fairly warm, all told.
+ RELATIONSHIPS +
MOTHER: He adores his mother, point blank period. He loves her more than almost anyone in the world, and he’d do anything for her. However, that didn’t stop him from causing an insane amount of trouble on their family farm as a child to get his mother’s attention. When he left home his mother was fairly devastated but he does his best to write to her when he can remember. FATHER: His father served in the military during the Great War, so Ezra didn’t meet him properly until he was a toddler ( not that that had much bearing on their relationship ). Ezra was, strictly speaking, a pain in his father’s ass at any given moment of his life. His father’s expectations for him were often much higher than any Ezra wanted to meet and they butted heads constantly before he moved out to live on his own. At the end of the day, he loves and respects his father a great deal, but they get along best when they’re fishing or working on the farm together - in other words, when they’re not talking. SIBLINGS: He has three older brothers, all of whom he’s butted heads with at various points in his life— Alexander, Peter, and Jacob, all of whom serve with the ANZAC’s in the War write Ezra as much as they can considering they never quite know where he’s stationed at any given moment. He misses them, but he also understands that some of the people he’s met in the Commandos are sometimes more family to him than his own but he treasures his brothers regardless. PAST LOVER(S): He’s had countless flings over the years, usually women though there have been occasions when he’s been fairly drunk where men have been involved. Otherwise, no one serious. CURRENT LOVER: No one at present. ABILITY TO WORK WITH OTHERS: Considering he’s the acting second-in-command of the Commandos he needs to be able to work well or at least exude an aura of command in relation to the other Commandos. He’s a straightforward, and fair officer and he takes his job incredibly seriously. As long as those under his command or in the Commandos in general do their jobs and do their jobs well, he has absolutely no problems with any of them. However, if they don’t— he can be cruel and downright malicious. HOW SOCIABLE (LONER, ETC): He can be perfectly charming and infallibly sociable when he has the desire to be but largely, he keeps to himself or to the other snipers. He gets along best with them and is witty, charming and brightly intelligent where they’re concerned. Otherwise, he’s a tad standoff-ish but still as friendly as he can be. FRIENDS: As mentioned above, he does consider his fellow snipers friends— especially Costin ( he considers him his closet friend in the Commandos and he would absolutely drop anything and everything for their Commander at any time ). PETS: None that he has with him, though he did have a Sheppard for a while before he enlisted. LEAST FAVORITE TYPE OF PERSON: Cowards, those who can’t do their work properly, disloyal people, almost everyone in the world ( honestly ).
+ PERSONALITY +
FAVORITE COLOR: Sage. FAVORITE FOOD: Cassava cake. FAVORITE ANIMAL: Timber wolf. HOBBIES: Reading ( occasionally ), maintaining his rifle, playing cards ( poker, blackjack, anything that he can learn in five or ten minutes ), drinking, sex, smoking, napping, lounging around with his fellow soldiers, listening to music ( either when the radio plays something other than news, or when someone finds a record player somewhere. it’s few and far between ), taking walks. DRINK/SMOKE/DRUGS: He drinks and smokes semi-regularly, but most of them do and it’s not really an issue in his mind. He does not, however, do any drugs. CLASS IN AN RPG: Assassin. BELIEVE IN GHOSTS: No. OPINION ON SWEARING: Considering how often he swears, he’s perfectly fine with it. DAREDEVIL VS CAUTIOUS: A mix of both. MUSIC TYPE: Sinatra, swing, big band and jazz. BOOK TYPE: He reads Hemingway and the Modernists pretty frequently. COMFORTABLE TEMPERATURE: He’s not a huge fan of the cold considering the climate in Queensland was relatively warm year round— he deals with it because of where he’s served but he’s an absolute grump in the cold. SLEEPING PATTERN: He sleeps a couple hours a night, on average. When he’s on watch or during missions it’s a wonder if he sleeps at all. He tries his best to rest but it’s never the easiest thing; he does what he can. CLEANLINESS/NEATNESS: In terms of personal hygiene he’s very neat, and he tries to keep his personal things the same way but they tend to be in disarray more often than not. He’s a little messier than he’d like to be. HOW DO THEY PASS TIME: Doing any one of his hobbies, or sleeping or thinking up new things to do to entertain himself around the camp. BIGGEST SECRET: That he’s more terrified of being in war zones than he’ll ever let on; that he’s terrified of leading the soldiers in his charge to their deaths. HERO/WHO THEY LOOK UP TO: Costin. WHAT ANIMAL WOULD THEY BE: Probably a wolf. FEARS: Losing his friends and family to the war, snakes, flying, losing a limb. COMFORTS: Tea, his rifle, his mother’s favorite Hemingway novel, a notebook he has with stories about interesting people he’s met through the Commandos, learning new languages from his fellow Commandos.
HOW DO THEY ACT WHEN THEY ARE...
SAD: He’s withdrawn and much more aggressive than usual when he’s sad. He’s reluctant to talk to anyone and when he does, it’s not usually kind. HAPPY: Usually smiling, teasing everyone in a five mile radius and doing it happily. He cracks jokes and plays cards with the other men and he’s just generally very bright and very social. ANGRY: He can get very physical when he’s angry but largely he’s not the sort of person to get explosively angry, he’s more the type of person who’s extremely quiet when they’re angry and he gets very intense, very quickly. AFRAID: He gets visibly jittery but otherwise tries his best not to make it clear when he’s afraid. LOVE SOMEONE: He tends towards affection but it’s usually not overtly public unless he’s really strongly feeling for someone. He’s a little bit less of an ass but he still has a tendency to tease, but he also has a tendency to not be able to be around them without smiling, so he can’t exactly hide his feelings well most times ( which he hates ). HATE SOMEONE: He’s malicious and outwardly cold to them without question, he doesn’t pretend to like them and he doesn’t care if they’re uncomfortable with it. WANT SOMETHING: He’s very clear about things when he wants them, he doesn’t think he needs to be shy about it. CONFUSED: His nose gets all scrunched up and he generally just looks frustrated and half ready to go beat at the problem until it’s less confusing. Otherwise he pretends everything is totally fine.