Michael Westen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thatsmyyogurt) wrote2014-03-02 06:51 pm
thatsmyyogurt) wrote2014-03-02 06:51 pm
Entry tags:
Mask or Menace app
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Orlando
AGE: 25
JOURNAL:paperback
IM / EMAIL: agreylady@gmail.com
PLURK: ElspethVimes
RETURNING: n/a
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Michael Westen
CHARACTER AGE: early 40s (if one assumes that the events of the series started in 2007, when it began airing, he was 40 then and time has passed since)
SERIES: Burn Notice
CHRONOLOGY: First half of season 4, after episode 8 ("Where There's Smoke")
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Random
BACKGROUND:
"My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy, until..."
Michael Westen was born in Miami to Madeline and Frank Westen, the first of their two sons. Michael and his younger brother Nate had childhoods which were rather less than ideal. Frank Westen was an abusive father and sometimes con man, and when Madeline couldn't keep him calm Michael often took the brunt of his father's attention (frequently in order to keep attention off of Nate). In his youth, Michael learned to do things like hotwire cars to get himself and Nate to school, steal groceries, and take a beating for stealing groceries. When he was 17, Michael had had enough. Thanks to his mother forging his father's signature on the appropriate paperwork, Michael joined the army.
Details on Michael's career are hazy. He spent time as a Green Beret. He came to the attention of the CIA, was recruited, and served as a spy for 15 years. He has spent time in: Russia (where he has achieved legendary status- no seriously), some other areas of Eastern Europe (hence knowing Czech), Ireland, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Gulf Arab states (if you speak Arabic like a Kurd, Michael will notice). During a time in Moscow, he met and became engaged to a thief named Samantha- but he called it off later as a result of meeting Fiona Glenanne while in Ireland.
And then, while on a mission in Nigeria, Michael got burned for no reason he could think of.
"When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you-"
Michael ended up dumped in Miami. He there reconnected with Fiona, currently an ex-girlfriend, and Sam Axe, an old friend who halfheartedly informed on Michael to the FBI agents who were tailing him (he stopped after a few episodes). And given the location, he had little option but to reconnect with his mother as well. Michael's attempts to find out why he was burned and how to reverse the burn notice were largely thwarted, with Michael having to constantly track down new people and use various methods of persuasion to get any worthwhile information. Michael eventually found and confronted the man who burned him...only for the man to be shot down while indicating the existence of a large conspiracy. He was then contacted by a woman who claimed to work for the organization that burned him, who proposed a meeting.
The woman was Carla, and she made it clear that she was going to be Michael's new handler...or else. Michael had little choice but to work for Carla, but did his best to also uncover things about her and what she was planning. In spite of Carla sending another operative named Victor to occasionally work with and keep tabs on Michael, Michael managed to put together enough pieces to discover that Carla was preparing for an assassination. But before he and Carla could have a confrontation, the assassin was killed and Michael was nearly blown up. Carla then hired Michael to find out who tried to kill him, as the culprit was causing no small amount of damage to her operation. Michael began by investigating the explosion at his loft, and managed to track down the bomber, while telling Carla as little as possible or flat-out lying to her. It turned out the bomber was none other than Victor- like Michael, he was intent on sabotaging the organization from within, though unlike Michael his preferred method was blowing everyone involved to bits. Michael and Victor teamed up to take down Carla and escape, but were caught by her before they could get away. Victor was fatally injured, and in order to save himself and still take Carla down Michael staged things to look like he had killed Victor and had Carla killed for the good of the organization. Carla's bosses, "Management," were pleased and offered him a better job, but Michael had really had enough and politely declined (jumping out of a helicopter because you'd rather take you chances with the ocean than these guys is polite, right?).
On returning to Miami, Michael's life became more complicated, as it turned out that the organization had been keeping him hidden from old enemies and the police. With that protection gone, Michael had to deflect attention from a number of sources, from a persistent detective to ex-KGB agents. After a time he was approached by a man named Strickler, who claimed to be connected enough to be able to get Michael back "in." At the same time, Michael started pestering a local CIA agent. After doing a bit of work for Strickler, the two of them had a disagreement over issues like Fiona living, and Michael shot him. Unfortunately, Strickler was well-connected, and his associates killed Michael's CIA contact and started looking pretty threatening. Michael ended up sort-of working for Strickler's partner, Gilroy. Not really surprisingly, that ended up going south too, when a psycho terrorist escaped, killed Gilroy, and started targeting both Managment and any civilians who might be around. It was this terrorist, Simon's, crimes which Michael had been framed for in order to get him burned. In the process of stopping Simon, Michael got arrested...and handed back over to the organization that burned him.
Michael was again offered a job- this time to help the organization take down some dangerous terrorists, the people responsible for Simon's release. This time Michael accepted, under the condition that he would be allowed to do things his way (more ridiculous personas, less shooting people). But doing any work for the organization turned out to have some serious costs, as Michael discovered when he accidentally burned a spy named Jesse Porter. In an ironic twist ofwriting fate, Jesse soon turned up looking for Michael's help and integrated himself into Michael, Fiona, and Sam's work. Michael and Jesse started conducting investigations into mysteries relating to Simon together.
Michael's also been up to a whole lot of "posing as criminals in order to take down other criminals" or "quietly sabotaging criminal operations." He seemed to get up to it nearly every weekon Thursdays.
PERSONALITY:
"'You're an educated sort of a swine,' he announced easily as he sat down again. 'An artist is a bloke who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function: who dreamed that one up?'
'Scott Fitzgerald,' Smiley replied, thinking for a moment that Bland was proposing to say something about Bill Haydon.
'Well, Fitzgerald knew a thing or two,' Bland affirmed. As he drank, his bulging eyes slid sideways towards the fence, as if in search of someone. 'And I'm definitely functioning, George. As a good Socialist, I'm going for the money. As a good capitalist, I'm sticking with the revolution, because if you can't beat it spy on it.'"
- John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Michael is a man made up of contradictions. Someone who constantly lies while placing great value in the truth, an often emotionally distant person who will go to great lengths for friends.
Michael's default state, in things not related to his work as a spy, is uninvolved. He takes his work extremely seriously and invests in it heavily, but when it comes to the rest of life it can be hard to get him to move. He's cooly practical- people who come to him for help will often find themselves rebuffed unless someone close to him urges him to get involved or they do something that causes more trouble. He tends to be to the point, even blunt, and will avoid unnecessary social interaction if possible. If he's making small talk with you, it's probably for a job- he's not that great at it in his personal life, when he even bothers to try. It's hard to throw Michael off-balance. Even when he's angry enough to kill, he'll often be precise and not even raise his voice (in season 3, he doesn't shout at Strickler before shooting him, he simply makes a very definite statement). Michael is a controlled person. If that control is taken away, he'll find some way to re-exert it.
But for all this, Michael can definitely be lead by emotion. It can take a long period of becoming used to someone, or a very definite point of sympathy for it to happen, but when he's close to someone, he is close to them. He gets seriously worked up whenever Fiona is in real danger. And he'll go to great lengths for friends (in season 4, he gets himself put in prison for a few days just to help a friend of Sam's). And there are other ways of getting him emotionally invested- he'll go a long way to protect kids, and he does believe that one good turn deserves another.
He can seem like a jerk to those who don't know him, but he is really a good person to know.
"'The ethic of our work, as I understand it, is based on a single assumption. That is, we are never going to be aggressors. Do you think that's fair?'
Leamas nodded. Anything to avoid talking.
'Thus we do disagreeable things, but we are defensive. That, I think, is still fair. We do disagreeable things so that ordinary people here and elsewhere can sleep safely in their beds at night. Is that too romantic? Of course, we occasionally do very wicked things'; he grinned like a schoolboy."
-John le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Michael holds to convictions very strongly. It is incredibly difficult to change his mind about things- whether that's his judgement of his family members or his belief that it's his duty to perform a job he doesn't currently have. This can cause problems, since it's also hard for him to, say, admit that he was wrong and apologize for something. But it's also what carries him through difficult situations- the determination to get things done, the belief that the end goal is right. Perhaps most importantly, it helps him set guidelines he can live by. He refuses, for example, to become a mercenary- he does what he can for the benefit of others, not just for money.
Still, he remains practical about things. Sometimes you have to work with people have been, or still could be, your enemies. Sometimes you have to commit a crime or two in order to stop a bigger one. Sometimes you can't actually stop something bad from happening, and all you can do is make sure the damage is less than it could be.
The problem with this practicality, combined with his stubbornness, is that Michael is able to rationalize a lot of questionable actions for the idea of the greater goal. This is why even though in terms of skill he's perfectly capable of working on his own, in reality he needs a support system - the structure and rules of the CIA, friends like Sam Axe and Fiona to question his decisions. When he's sufficiently cut loose from support like this, whether by accident or his own design, he is capable of doing things he knows are wrong and later regrets(it's implied, for example, that under the influence of the rather psychotic Larry, Michael did or simply permitted things in the Balkans which he is not proud of).
"A good agent must have entertainment value."
-John le Carre, The Honourable Schoolboy
For all his seriousness and professionalism, Michael is definitely not without a sense of humor. It is very dry, tending pretty much entirely toward deadpan snarking, but it is very present. It's both a way for him to deflect (this conversation is stupid and he's going to let you know it) and something that makes conversation easier for him and is genuinely a way he communicates with friends (see: conversations with Sam).
Michael is constantly putting on new identities. He'll change his hair, accent, clothes, and background at basically the drop of a pin. Is a cooly dangerous car thief, a drunken janitor, or a small-time criminal who did prison time up north just what's needed for this situation? Michael can be that. In-game, this isn't likely to come up immediately (since the powers that be already know who he is), but as soon as it's necessary, he'll be someone else.
POWER:
Convincing lies: Michael will be able to convince anyone that something he says is true, no matter how obviously false it may be. Hey, did you notice the sky turned green? How weird is that, now look at the sky while I go do something totally unsuspicious over here. However, this effect will only last for five minutes. The basis for this is, well, the fact that he lies all the time, and usually gets away with it for as long as he needs.
Small object transmutation: With effort, Michael will be able to change objects the size of or smaller than a tissue box into other objects. A brick into a brick of C4, for example. He won't be able to change anything big, or anything living, and doing it multiple times in a day will exhaust him. The basis for this one is Michael's tendency to MacGyver weapons, explosives, and other useful tools out of household items.
Accelerated healing: The recover time for any injuries Michael gets will be half of what it should be. If he breaks a toe, it'll heal in 2-3 weeks instead of 4-6. If he gets a cut on his hand, it'll heal in a few days instead of taking a week. Michael already has a tendency to shrug off or power through injuries that should be pretty serious- this would give him some justification for that behavior.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
Substituting with a test drive thread. If you need more or you need the community style specifically, I can provide that.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Nate would have appreciated this more, Michael suspected. Not the kidnapping part of course, but comic book-style heroics, the Jetsons vision of the future, those had all been more Nate's kind of thing than Michael's when they were kids. If Nate where here, Michael was sure, his first reaction to the cars would have been amazement, excitement about how cool they were.
Michael's first thought had been to wonder how to hotwire them.
No matter what they had put on his wrist, Michael doubted he was "hero" material. He had spent too long getting his hands dirty, and the spotlight the locals seemed determined to put on them was unbearable. Heroes were the people who set up clinics in dangerous neighborhoods, who ran unprepared into burning buildings to save the people trapped there. That wasn't Michael- he was the guy who shot the people trying to kill the heroes. He didn't fit in the spotlight, he belonged behind it.
He was trying to stay behind it now, sitting at a corner table and sipping a mojito that Sam would have denounced as inferior. He had the newspaper open to the crossword in front of him, filling it in idly as he watched the patrons. He thought most of the customers here were local- they dressed like it, spoke like it for the most part, and were all (thankfully) human. Most of them had sat themselves near the t.v. at the bar, intent on the first baseball game of the season. It was, in the face of apparent inter-universal abduction and government-issued tattoos, frustratingly normal.
56 Across: member of the U.S.S.R. first occupied in 1921
Michael penned in "Georgia" as another round of cheers rose from the bar.
Well, not everything here was Nate's kind of thing.
FINAL NOTES:
Michael would be arriving with a handgun on him. The government may confiscate that if it sees fit.
NAME: Orlando
AGE: 25
JOURNAL:
paperbackIM / EMAIL: agreylady@gmail.com
PLURK: ElspethVimes
RETURNING: n/a
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Michael Westen
CHARACTER AGE: early 40s (if one assumes that the events of the series started in 2007, when it began airing, he was 40 then and time has passed since)
SERIES: Burn Notice
CHRONOLOGY: First half of season 4, after episode 8 ("Where There's Smoke")
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Random
BACKGROUND:
"My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy, until..."
Michael Westen was born in Miami to Madeline and Frank Westen, the first of their two sons. Michael and his younger brother Nate had childhoods which were rather less than ideal. Frank Westen was an abusive father and sometimes con man, and when Madeline couldn't keep him calm Michael often took the brunt of his father's attention (frequently in order to keep attention off of Nate). In his youth, Michael learned to do things like hotwire cars to get himself and Nate to school, steal groceries, and take a beating for stealing groceries. When he was 17, Michael had had enough. Thanks to his mother forging his father's signature on the appropriate paperwork, Michael joined the army.
Details on Michael's career are hazy. He spent time as a Green Beret. He came to the attention of the CIA, was recruited, and served as a spy for 15 years. He has spent time in: Russia (where he has achieved legendary status- no seriously), some other areas of Eastern Europe (hence knowing Czech), Ireland, Afghanistan, the Balkans, and the Gulf Arab states (if you speak Arabic like a Kurd, Michael will notice). During a time in Moscow, he met and became engaged to a thief named Samantha- but he called it off later as a result of meeting Fiona Glenanne while in Ireland.
And then, while on a mission in Nigeria, Michael got burned for no reason he could think of.
"When you're burned, you've got nothing: no cash, no credit, no job history. You're stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you in. You do whatever work comes your way. You rely on anyone who's still talking to you-"
Michael ended up dumped in Miami. He there reconnected with Fiona, currently an ex-girlfriend, and Sam Axe, an old friend who halfheartedly informed on Michael to the FBI agents who were tailing him (he stopped after a few episodes). And given the location, he had little option but to reconnect with his mother as well. Michael's attempts to find out why he was burned and how to reverse the burn notice were largely thwarted, with Michael having to constantly track down new people and use various methods of persuasion to get any worthwhile information. Michael eventually found and confronted the man who burned him...only for the man to be shot down while indicating the existence of a large conspiracy. He was then contacted by a woman who claimed to work for the organization that burned him, who proposed a meeting.
The woman was Carla, and she made it clear that she was going to be Michael's new handler...or else. Michael had little choice but to work for Carla, but did his best to also uncover things about her and what she was planning. In spite of Carla sending another operative named Victor to occasionally work with and keep tabs on Michael, Michael managed to put together enough pieces to discover that Carla was preparing for an assassination. But before he and Carla could have a confrontation, the assassin was killed and Michael was nearly blown up. Carla then hired Michael to find out who tried to kill him, as the culprit was causing no small amount of damage to her operation. Michael began by investigating the explosion at his loft, and managed to track down the bomber, while telling Carla as little as possible or flat-out lying to her. It turned out the bomber was none other than Victor- like Michael, he was intent on sabotaging the organization from within, though unlike Michael his preferred method was blowing everyone involved to bits. Michael and Victor teamed up to take down Carla and escape, but were caught by her before they could get away. Victor was fatally injured, and in order to save himself and still take Carla down Michael staged things to look like he had killed Victor and had Carla killed for the good of the organization. Carla's bosses, "Management," were pleased and offered him a better job, but Michael had really had enough and politely declined (jumping out of a helicopter because you'd rather take you chances with the ocean than these guys is polite, right?).
On returning to Miami, Michael's life became more complicated, as it turned out that the organization had been keeping him hidden from old enemies and the police. With that protection gone, Michael had to deflect attention from a number of sources, from a persistent detective to ex-KGB agents. After a time he was approached by a man named Strickler, who claimed to be connected enough to be able to get Michael back "in." At the same time, Michael started pestering a local CIA agent. After doing a bit of work for Strickler, the two of them had a disagreement over issues like Fiona living, and Michael shot him. Unfortunately, Strickler was well-connected, and his associates killed Michael's CIA contact and started looking pretty threatening. Michael ended up sort-of working for Strickler's partner, Gilroy. Not really surprisingly, that ended up going south too, when a psycho terrorist escaped, killed Gilroy, and started targeting both Managment and any civilians who might be around. It was this terrorist, Simon's, crimes which Michael had been framed for in order to get him burned. In the process of stopping Simon, Michael got arrested...and handed back over to the organization that burned him.
Michael was again offered a job- this time to help the organization take down some dangerous terrorists, the people responsible for Simon's release. This time Michael accepted, under the condition that he would be allowed to do things his way (more ridiculous personas, less shooting people). But doing any work for the organization turned out to have some serious costs, as Michael discovered when he accidentally burned a spy named Jesse Porter. In an ironic twist of
Michael's also been up to a whole lot of "posing as criminals in order to take down other criminals" or "quietly sabotaging criminal operations." He seemed to get up to it nearly every week
PERSONALITY:
'Scott Fitzgerald,' Smiley replied, thinking for a moment that Bland was proposing to say something about Bill Haydon.
'Well, Fitzgerald knew a thing or two,' Bland affirmed. As he drank, his bulging eyes slid sideways towards the fence, as if in search of someone. 'And I'm definitely functioning, George. As a good Socialist, I'm going for the money. As a good capitalist, I'm sticking with the revolution, because if you can't beat it spy on it.'"
- John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Michael is a man made up of contradictions. Someone who constantly lies while placing great value in the truth, an often emotionally distant person who will go to great lengths for friends.
Michael's default state, in things not related to his work as a spy, is uninvolved. He takes his work extremely seriously and invests in it heavily, but when it comes to the rest of life it can be hard to get him to move. He's cooly practical- people who come to him for help will often find themselves rebuffed unless someone close to him urges him to get involved or they do something that causes more trouble. He tends to be to the point, even blunt, and will avoid unnecessary social interaction if possible. If he's making small talk with you, it's probably for a job- he's not that great at it in his personal life, when he even bothers to try. It's hard to throw Michael off-balance. Even when he's angry enough to kill, he'll often be precise and not even raise his voice (in season 3, he doesn't shout at Strickler before shooting him, he simply makes a very definite statement). Michael is a controlled person. If that control is taken away, he'll find some way to re-exert it.
But for all this, Michael can definitely be lead by emotion. It can take a long period of becoming used to someone, or a very definite point of sympathy for it to happen, but when he's close to someone, he is close to them. He gets seriously worked up whenever Fiona is in real danger. And he'll go to great lengths for friends (in season 4, he gets himself put in prison for a few days just to help a friend of Sam's). And there are other ways of getting him emotionally invested- he'll go a long way to protect kids, and he does believe that one good turn deserves another.
He can seem like a jerk to those who don't know him, but he is really a good person to know.
Leamas nodded. Anything to avoid talking.
'Thus we do disagreeable things, but we are defensive. That, I think, is still fair. We do disagreeable things so that ordinary people here and elsewhere can sleep safely in their beds at night. Is that too romantic? Of course, we occasionally do very wicked things'; he grinned like a schoolboy."
-John le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Michael holds to convictions very strongly. It is incredibly difficult to change his mind about things- whether that's his judgement of his family members or his belief that it's his duty to perform a job he doesn't currently have. This can cause problems, since it's also hard for him to, say, admit that he was wrong and apologize for something. But it's also what carries him through difficult situations- the determination to get things done, the belief that the end goal is right. Perhaps most importantly, it helps him set guidelines he can live by. He refuses, for example, to become a mercenary- he does what he can for the benefit of others, not just for money.
Still, he remains practical about things. Sometimes you have to work with people have been, or still could be, your enemies. Sometimes you have to commit a crime or two in order to stop a bigger one. Sometimes you can't actually stop something bad from happening, and all you can do is make sure the damage is less than it could be.
The problem with this practicality, combined with his stubbornness, is that Michael is able to rationalize a lot of questionable actions for the idea of the greater goal. This is why even though in terms of skill he's perfectly capable of working on his own, in reality he needs a support system - the structure and rules of the CIA, friends like Sam Axe and Fiona to question his decisions. When he's sufficiently cut loose from support like this, whether by accident or his own design, he is capable of doing things he knows are wrong and later regrets(it's implied, for example, that under the influence of the rather psychotic Larry, Michael did or simply permitted things in the Balkans which he is not proud of).
-John le Carre, The Honourable Schoolboy
For all his seriousness and professionalism, Michael is definitely not without a sense of humor. It is very dry, tending pretty much entirely toward deadpan snarking, but it is very present. It's both a way for him to deflect (this conversation is stupid and he's going to let you know it) and something that makes conversation easier for him and is genuinely a way he communicates with friends (see: conversations with Sam).
Michael is constantly putting on new identities. He'll change his hair, accent, clothes, and background at basically the drop of a pin. Is a cooly dangerous car thief, a drunken janitor, or a small-time criminal who did prison time up north just what's needed for this situation? Michael can be that. In-game, this isn't likely to come up immediately (since the powers that be already know who he is), but as soon as it's necessary, he'll be someone else.
POWER:
Convincing lies: Michael will be able to convince anyone that something he says is true, no matter how obviously false it may be. Hey, did you notice the sky turned green? How weird is that, now look at the sky while I go do something totally unsuspicious over here. However, this effect will only last for five minutes. The basis for this is, well, the fact that he lies all the time, and usually gets away with it for as long as he needs.
Small object transmutation: With effort, Michael will be able to change objects the size of or smaller than a tissue box into other objects. A brick into a brick of C4, for example. He won't be able to change anything big, or anything living, and doing it multiple times in a day will exhaust him. The basis for this one is Michael's tendency to MacGyver weapons, explosives, and other useful tools out of household items.
Accelerated healing: The recover time for any injuries Michael gets will be half of what it should be. If he breaks a toe, it'll heal in 2-3 weeks instead of 4-6. If he gets a cut on his hand, it'll heal in a few days instead of taking a week. Michael already has a tendency to shrug off or power through injuries that should be pretty serious- this would give him some justification for that behavior.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
Substituting with a test drive thread. If you need more or you need the community style specifically, I can provide that.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Nate would have appreciated this more, Michael suspected. Not the kidnapping part of course, but comic book-style heroics, the Jetsons vision of the future, those had all been more Nate's kind of thing than Michael's when they were kids. If Nate where here, Michael was sure, his first reaction to the cars would have been amazement, excitement about how cool they were.
Michael's first thought had been to wonder how to hotwire them.
No matter what they had put on his wrist, Michael doubted he was "hero" material. He had spent too long getting his hands dirty, and the spotlight the locals seemed determined to put on them was unbearable. Heroes were the people who set up clinics in dangerous neighborhoods, who ran unprepared into burning buildings to save the people trapped there. That wasn't Michael- he was the guy who shot the people trying to kill the heroes. He didn't fit in the spotlight, he belonged behind it.
He was trying to stay behind it now, sitting at a corner table and sipping a mojito that Sam would have denounced as inferior. He had the newspaper open to the crossword in front of him, filling it in idly as he watched the patrons. He thought most of the customers here were local- they dressed like it, spoke like it for the most part, and were all (thankfully) human. Most of them had sat themselves near the t.v. at the bar, intent on the first baseball game of the season. It was, in the face of apparent inter-universal abduction and government-issued tattoos, frustratingly normal.
56 Across: member of the U.S.S.R. first occupied in 1921
Michael penned in "Georgia" as another round of cheers rose from the bar.
Well, not everything here was Nate's kind of thing.
FINAL NOTES:
Michael would be arriving with a handgun on him. The government may confiscate that if it sees fit.