ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴜʀ's ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ʟᴀᴛᴇ

PLAYER INFO
Name: Jay
Contact: Wuzzafuzzle
Are you over 18?: ya

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Samuel T. Anders
Canon: Battlestar Galactica
Canon Point: Season 4, Episode 20 (final episode), just prior to death. ( linking this here, mostly as a note-to-self )

Appearance: Picture! Just ignore Kara there.
Age: Technically 2,000+. Physically looks late 20s - early 30s. Ish.

Setting: Battlestar Galactica on the Battlestar wikia.

History: Sam Anders on the Battlestar wikia.

Personality:

From grouchy hardasses to revered saints, Sam Anders can get along with pretty much anyone. If you're the one guy that just can't hack it, then there's probably some personality issues there. The function Sam fills time and again in BSG is that of a leader, on Caprica as the resistance leader, on New Caprica as one of the leaders of the Insurgency, and on the algae planet organizing the civilian workers into a motivated and willing group of militia soldiers. This works out for him because he's incredibly charismatic, and honest with people. He's social and generally likable, tends to adapt to the person he's talking to and their sense of humor, and is a people person. He's down to earth, telling the people on the algae planet that he's just as scared as them, but making a speech to inspire them about protecting the temple and making it back to the fleet, ready to head to Earth. He's reassuring and casual, and genuinely believes in the people following him, going out of his way to try to understand and level with them. Not to mention, he's also flirty as hell. He and Kara hook up the first day they meet, and Sam gets flirty with Seelix a while after Kara's "death", actually hooking up with Tory later, though that's likely creditable to the connection they feel, as they get closer to discovering they're part of the Final Five. He's generally cheeky, relaxed, and conscious of people around him, often teasing people he likes, though when it's someone he dislikes, Sam can be bitter and bitingly sarcastic, even cruel at points. But more often than not, he's amiable and outgoing, intelligent and quick to get the feel of people.

Sam functions as the conscience for many people, whether he means to or not, and he adheres to morality in a kind of way that's more impulsive, feeling a genuine drive to do the right thing, than consciously adhering to a code. Just one of those big puppies who want to make everyone happy. It often comes as a form of selflessness, putting himself in danger or in a less favorable position, even one of emotional harm, for the sake of what's right and what's good for others. Leading the resistance, he often goes with his men to set up a dangerous trap or attack, and he'll go charging into a place to save someone he loves. He'd sent Kara back to Kobol rather than having her stay with him, because the fleet needed her, and he decided it wouldn't matter if she returned or not (though obviously hoping and choosing to trust that she will). He genuinely wants to help people, though can reach a point where he decides to say "fuck the world, I'm going to do my thing" when he gets to a point of depression, mostly after being sort of beat down and abandoned by Kara. After escaping New Caprica, Sam leaves The Circle, the group made to be judge, jury and executioner of those who collaborated with Cylons on the planet. It feels wrong, and he can't pass judgment with no hard evidence and no word from the accused, and cannot kill someone over something that isn't completely certain. Later in the series, he feels guilt over shooting Gaeta's leg, which means he has it amputated, and it puts him into a spiral of depression, though it'd been done to stop a mutiny. His moral compass is a fierce and steady one, not to say he doesn't have conflicting moments, where he wants to be selfish about something, or not do a thing that's important because it isn't pleasant, but typically, his morality wins out, and he feels more compelled to do the right thing, like living with the guilt later will be worse.

If Sam is anything, it's loyal to those he's come to care for. With the war going on, and so many sides to things and backstabbing, Sam had learned to keep those special to him very close, the Resistance on Caprica becoming a tight knit group that he believes would have his back anywhere, as he would do the same for them. That continues even on Galactica, and when Baroley is killed by a Six later, Sam loses his mind over it, demanding the Six be shot for it, saying he can't just let it go, he can't just let Jean go. She'd meant so much to him and been with him through everything, having been one of the players on his Pyramid team before the fall. On the Demetrius, Sam is fiercely loyal to Kara, despite how the entire crew starts to get angry and accusing of her, calling her crazy and likely to get them all killed. He nearly gets into a fight with Pike over it, and speaks up often in her support, despite how harsh and detached Kara is with him for the entire mission. Once the Final Five discover what they are, Sam's immediate reaction is "no", it's not true, fiercely in denial, because being a Cylon means being a traitor to the fleet, to humanity, and to all of his friends he loves so dearly, and that's not something Sam can do. He decides to stay steadily loyal to the fleet/humans (unlike Tory), and refuses any other option, despite how viciously the fleet at large reacts to him. He's on the side of humanity and he will always be. It does make it difficult for him to come to accept what he is, but he does get there eventually, in some form.

While Sam tends to be sensible more often than not, there are definitely times he panics, like anyone else, and follows kneejerk responses, some he may regret later. He's as susceptible to fear and anxiety as anyone else, especially with things concerning the Cylon and what he is in comparison to them. While he may be at a point, now, that he recognizes himself as a Cylon and has accepted it, there's still some awkwardness that sits in him with it. Perhaps it will always be there, as he was so, so attached to his life as a human. It seems very surreal to him, and, in a way, still feels traitorous, after so much put into fighting the Cylons and hating them.

Emotionally driven, Sam is largely sentimental in things, and this is probably a large influence on what makes him feel compelled to follow his moral compass so often, and what connects him to people, understanding and inspiring them so well. While he isn't wildly, out-of-control emotional, what he feels about a situation or a person will have a steep impact on how he goes about handling them, mixed in with sensibility and checking himself on if it's the right thing to do. Much like with Kara, when their marriage is on the rocks, and she clearly has a thing going with Lee, Sam tells her to go to him, if she feels she needs to. That he'll deal, but she needs to do what she needs to do. After Kara leaves him on Caprica, he holds on to the dogtag she gave her, and constantly wears it both on Caprica and on the fleet later, on a cord around his neck. The only period it's taken off is when he separates from her, actually handing the tag over to her, as it's a symbol of him waiting for her and being loyal to her, but after they start to get back together, he's wearing it again. On Earth, before the war, Sam had written a song to play for the woman he loved, one that he'd also played for the other Five, and it gets repeated later to help the fleet find their new home. Objects and places mean a lot to him, especially related to people, like how he decided to become a pilot after Kara's death, in honor of her, and perhaps trying to chase her memory and keep a hold on it. Due to this, he's also easily emotionally hurt, and can be manipulated, especially by Kara, with this. When hurt, he tends to collapse inward for a while, becoming petty and bitter, and isolating himself, focusing on some kind of work or hobby in the meantime.

Though a valuable part of the military and the Viper team in general, Sam will always be a civilian over soldier. He's too human (hahahahaaaaa), too attached to his emotions, too incapable of making harsh choices (even shooting Gaeta in the leg to stop the mutiny, it takes him a lot of working up to pull the trigger, and he's feeling guilty for a while after). He does make a great soldier, and a great officer, but Sam will not support orders that he feels are wrong. He's not so duty driven as Helo or Lee or Adama are, and he just never will be. When he defended against the mutiny on the Demetrius, it was because he believed so fiercely in Kara, not because of his duties as a soldier, though they did sync up nicely. Sam seems much like one of the most human-like of the Five Cylons.

Getting philosophical isn't something Sam does a whole heck of a lot, and not much out loud, likely because he'd feel silly with his friends, but he does do a lot of deep thinking and reflection on life, such as his speech about perfection, that he gave when being interviewed about Pyramid and his goals for himself.

"Perfection. That's what it's about.
It's those moments, when you can feel the perfection of creation,
the beauty of physics, you know. The wonder of mathematics.
The elation of action and reaction.
And that is the kind of perfection that I want to be connected to."
He thinks a lot on that kind of harmony, and that's probably what makes him such a chill person - being more intellectual than physical (while Kara is sort of the opposite), and wanting that kind of harmony present in his life. It also makes what happens to him in the last several episodes, becoming a Hybrid, that much more appropriate for him. It's doubtful he gets into deep philosophical thoughts about a lot of less ambiguous things in life, but over the general state of it, and in reflecting on himself and his relationships, he does often enough for it to give weight in how he behaves in those relationships.

Sam is put through a lot of shit in this canon, from being abandoned on Caprica for nine months, to being sort of the accepted easy route for Kara in marriage, to the occupation on New Caprica, to Kara being really mean to him and using him for what he makes her feel, to Kara's death, to realizing he's one of the Five, to being imprisoned during Gaeta's mutiny, to taking a bullet in the base of the skull, and having his brain turned to mush, before becoming the Galactica's Hybrid and flying the fleet into the sun. Ahahahaha. Poor guy. But throughout this, Sam displays an admiral kind of resilience, repeatedly getting himself back up and facing the challenges, being ready to involve himself in them and protect the people around him, do the greater good, despite what it means for him personally. He'd learned how to survive on Caprica, and followed with that on New Caprica, taking both mental and physical hits during the occupancy and powering through them. There's a firm, real determination in this man that made him perfect for his function as one of the Five, and as the Hybrid for the ship that would lead them to their final home on the new Earth. And at the end, he was ready to leave when it was time, taking the fleet into the sun, and telling Kara "I'll see you one the other side."

Canon Abilities/Skills: (The In-Game write up I had for this is here)

CYLON/THE FINAL FIVE; As one of the Final Five, born biologically to Cylon parents on the Thirteenth Tribe's original Earth, there's some difference between the type of Cylon Sam is as opposed to the typical organic Cylons the Five created for the 12 Colonies' Cylons. He's closer to something comparable to a human body than the other seven models are, which are already pretty damn close to being biologically human-like. For the sake of canon blindness, I'll just cover everything that makes Sam different from a human rather than different from one of the seven Colonial Cylon models.

» Technically synthetic: though pretty much entirely biological, it's super confusing, I'm very sorry. Sam's body is organic, though someone could plug a network cable into him and he'd be able to interface with a computer. It's like a 90/10 split on what's biological and what's... whatever you call synthetic within an organic Cylon's body. It's honestly just easier to think of them as another organic race with technopathy abilities. They require oxygen, food and water, and are capable oooof...
» Reproduction: what was the mainly unique thing about the 13th Tribe's organic Cylons was that they were able to procreate on their own. It does get difficult when mixing 13th Tribe Cylons with Colonial Cylons or with humans, but is possible, as the populating of New Earth indicates. It's something that Colonial Cylons were not capable of achieving just between themselves, thus why they required Resurrection technology to continue their species.
» Technological interfacing/Hybrids: Colonial Cylon basestars are controlled by things called Hybrids - partly organic and partly technological bodies submerged in a datastream tank (it's a gooey, scifi liquid, kind of gross looking), and for all practical purposes are the basestars, experiencing damage and repairs and things like FTL jumps as a physical being, with sensation. Sam is capable of this as well, both in plugging a technological cable into himself and interfacing with a piece of technology, as well as being submerged in a datastream to interface with a ship entirely (he does this with the Galactica and essentially becomes it's Hybrid, able to Jump the ship on his own whim simply by mental output).
» Superhuman strength: While they can't pull car doors off, they can break handcuffs and send humans flying several yards with a good hit.
» Biological resilience: Colonial Cylons show a resistance to radiation and 13th Tribe Cylons display faster healing from things like decompression sickness and pneumonia.
» Projection: all Cylons can project their own interpretation of their physical surroundings, and share these projections with other Cylons, such as seeing a blank hallway as a thick, green forest, or a jail cell as a fully furnished and well lived in household.
» Recognizing other individual Cylons: They can tell individuals apart within the same model by sight, for example, Sam can tell Boomer from Athena, both Eight/Sharon models and otherwise perfectly identical. Colonial Cylon Raiders can also scan one of the Five and recognize them as Cylon by that alone.

ON STATION 72

Symbiote Specialization: Rho
Symbiote Ability: HYBRID STATE: While becoming a Hybrid is something Sam is capable of normally, it's not something that he can easily come back from, normally, or something he can just turn on without a datastream tank. His Symbiote will take this potential and make it something Sam can switch in and out of, as well as preform remotely. When activating this ability, Sam will be able to interface and take control of a technological system and essentially act as its Hybrid - boosting it's working ability, manipulating controls, repairing or deconstructing, and eventually sneak through to other systems and fuck with them aka like he projects the Cylon IFF and turns the other Hybrids off from a distance. Basically, technopathy. Hella technopathy.

The downside - he'll go a little crazy for a little bit. Sam will revert to the sort of 'word salad' thing, doing his Hybrid utterance thing that's half nonsense and possible half prophetic, depending on if he's allowed to ~know something~ about things going on, but he's not likely to A, be able to clearly communicate it or B remember it coherently enough to understand later. Additionally, he'll be, mentally, pretty useless for a period of time after going into his Hybrid state, either passing right out, going into a vegetative state. Once back to normal, Sam will remember what he did, mechanically, as a Hybrid, but won't remember anything he said or why he said it. If something prophetic came up, or anything a little too personal about someone that happened to have been around him at the time, the only way Sam will know about it is if someone recorded and played it back for him, and he won't be able to understand why he said it in retrospect or what it means. The longer he remains actively in Hybrid state, the longer this fallout will be afterwards.

» RANK I: Sam can interface with one shuttle-type ship, or a mechanical construct of equal size/complexity. He must be actively plugged into the construct via some kind of cable. He'll be able to retrieve information the construct's computers may have, and, given a firm connection to a foreign ship through direct communications, be able to scramble the signal of the construct he's interfaced with, forcing the other ship to find his the old fashioned way - eyeballs. His vegetative fallout from Hybrid state will be twice the length that he spend within active Hybrid state.

» RANK II: Sam can interface with a construct larger than a shuttle type ship but smaller than a carrier/battlestar. If a foreign ship/construct links to the interfaced construct in some kind of network for anything as small as a scan, he can use the connection only to affect how that ship receives data from the ship Sam is interfaced with, such as making his ship disappear from the other's radar, change the IFF the foreign ship receives from it, or make his ship look a lot bigger or a lot scarier than it actually is. Sam only needs to be in physical contact with the construct he's interfacing with, i.e. a hand on the hull of a ship. His vegetative fallout will be equal to the time he spends in active Hybrid state. NOTE: This is the current rank of ability Sam was at prior to going comatose.

» RANK III: Sam can interface with a construct with the size/complexity of a carrier/battlestar, though not with Station 72 or anything controlled by the Nest. It will take a lot of out of him, doubling his fallout time if it's done on something as complex as a carrier/battlestar/space station, but will be possible. With all lesser interfacing, his vegetative fallout will be half of the time he spends in active Hybrid state. He will also be able to invade foreign networks and go digging around for information and manipulating systems from a distance. If he's within eyesight of a construct, he can interface with it, though distance does factor into difficulty, and he'll have an infinitely easier time if he's in physical contact, or has a cord plugged into him from the construct. He may be able to control multiple constructs, or elements of those constructs, given complexity of each and proximity are on his side (like shutting off the Cylon Hybrids (for a window of time) from a distance in canon).

Inventory: Kara Thrace's necklace, with her dogtag, wedding ring and the bullet that was pulled from Sam's skull, clutched in his right hand. Besides that, whatever else he would've been wearing when he fell into his coma, or whatever he would've been put into for storage in the pod. He'd collected some clothes and stuff when he was on the last planet, but no idea if that would've been brought back for him. Plus, Daniel/Number 7.2, the tiny little droid he and Angel build together, who's probably been offline since Sam's been knocked out.

SAMPLES

Samples: TDM post + threads!

Rescue Write-up: (From his original application, first coming into the hive: )

Through the metal and wires and thick infrastructure that separates Sam from the sunlight, impossibly intense, blinding in its light, and yet somehow welcoming, cleansing, it seems like he can feel it. Still as he is in the datastream tank, rendered near paralyzed, only a mind connected to the endlessness of creation, he knows the feeling of the sun, and there are tears on his cheeks. Not from sorrow, not really. And not really from fear either. Awe, perhaps, and something else. Something that seems final, resolved, with a kind of gratification in it. His fingers curl and hold tight at the necklace Kara'd placed into his hand, thumb brushing over the lettering on the tag, then over the smoothness of the ring, and finally, over the dulled point of the bullet that'd taken him from her. As he goes, he feels like she's with him. Like she's waiting for him. Like their work is done, and it's time to rest.

The last relic of an age now gone by, an age that will be buried in time and forgotten, as it should be, to let the future be free. A slate washed clean. Sam has had enough of immortality, and humanity is his legacy. His and Kara's both - what they survived for, so much of what they'd been destined for played into fate. That song, from two thousand years ago, reflected in Kara's childhood, buried in her memory before either of them even intersected. Their meeting, and their love, wasn't an accident, he knows that now, and he finds himself at peace with it.

Lights in the CIC flash, white and red, like the dying monolith that this ship is, old and tired and on groaning it's last legs, but making it towards its rest with pride. It's an honor, Sam thinks, to go out with the Galactica. A legend, a stalwart protector, the ark of the people. It's a good death. It's a right death, and he's ready for it. Is he scared? Yes. Of course. It's uncertainty, and not even he, connected to the universe, to time, to every particle and every element that is, can know what's on the other side. But it's faith, perhaps not in the gods or God, but in the harmony that is life - in what brought Kara back, in what inspired him to write the song that saved them all, in what brought them here. And now, what will carry them home. He is ready.

It's time to go.

And then he hears it - footfalls. A lifeform, something he should have been able to see in his mind, to feel through the ship, to know, but this is beyond that, whatever this is. This is something he can't face, something that escapes him, and he isn't certain the fleet will make it to the heart of the star it's destined for in time. It's difficult to see anything from where he is, half submerged in the tank, given he'd hardly needed his human senses to know of every small chemical reaction and bend of metal occurring in the ship. It's hard to see it, whatever it is, over the rim of the tank - just something drenched in shadows, occasionally highlighted in the erratically flashing lights of the CIC, and it's coming straight for him.

His mind spins, scorching through thousands upon thousands of calculations all in an instant, searching, digging for anything to attack or defend with still available to him in the CIC, trying to decide if he would survive moving from this tank, if he'd have the strength to fight it.

"You don't have time, Sam." A woman's voice. Not Kara, not the Hybrids, no one he knows, but soothing all the same. He hadn't picked up on her either, but in a moment, between her voice and the strings of insight and secrets that swim through his mind, he knows she isn't the same as the shadowed assassin. "Come with me."

He can't. He has to finish it, this is supposed to be the end. And yet...

Are there more? Why come for him, when he's in the midst of dying anyway? All he can think of is a want to stop the destruction of the ships, and why do that? It isn't Cylon, it isn't sent from Cavil, it's something else, and with the new Earth so close, all of the survivors left defenseless on the planet's surface, he can only fear the worst. The only tech remaining with the fleet is Adama's Raptor, and they're too far out of comm's reach now. There's no one to warn them, no one at all.

"You can't help them if you're dead." The woman tells him, and Sam feels the pull of the universe whispering to him, everything bent out of shape, everything mangled, and this thing, whatever it is, is something wrong, something not part of the lay of the pattern, of the composition. It is an error that can't be ignored, but what can Sam do now, barely capable of moving to stop it, the Galactica hobbling towards the sun, not nearly fit to fight. What else can he do?

"We do the same thing we always do. Fight 'em until we can't."

Her voice, echoing in his mind as clear as crystal, as if she were here, whispering it into his ear. The other side will have to wait. Kara will understand. There's still something he has to do.

Voice a harsh croak, fingers curling into a fist around the necklace in his hand, Sam gives the final command to the ships, in the same blank, monotone voice he'd taken on since becoming this, the only significance in his final sentiment, bitten off in a tone that's everything Sam was in this war.

"Divert all power to thrust across fleet, the end is not nigh enough, allow for no trajectory shift, see you in hell, motherfrakker." Galactica jolts forward, all whining metal and screeching mechanics screaming towards the end, the heat of the sun starting to boil the air inside the ship, and Sam snaps an arm up, gripping firm at the hand offered to him. "Take me."

After that, it's only white light, drowning out all the chaos of Galactica's end.

CLIPS
2x4 - How Sam met Kara
2x4 - Kara and Sam play Pyramid
2x5 - Sam and Kara's morning after
2x6 - Sam and Kara say goodbye, post Farm
2x20 - Returning to Galactica with Resistance fighters, Sam meets Adama, Cavil found out
2x20 - Little sluuuuut
3x6 - The Hybrid intro
3x6 + 4x17 - Cylon projection
3x11 - Bitter and Leadery Sam on the algae planet PT 1
3x12 - Bitter and Leadery Sam on the algae planet PT 2
3x18 - Sam drunk, sad and falling off a plane, after Kara's death.
3x20 - Final Five reveal, Sam is like lol nah
4x1 - Sam trying to deal with being a Cylon
4x3 - Sam and Kara fight on the Demetrius and then resolve it with angry sex bc their marrige is super healthy
4x6 - Sam comforts dying Eight
4x10 - Sam admitting to Kara that he's a Cylon
4x15 - Sam getting his Earth memories back + bullet in head stuff
4x18 - Sam becomes Galactica's Hybrid
4x18-19 - Sam as Galactica Hybrid answering questions for Kara
4x20 YouTube - Sam's 'perfection' speech
4x20 YouTube - 'you betcha, galen' hybrid babble speech

The Plan - Watching the bombs fall on Caprica
The Plan - Attack on Cylon supplies, team deaths
The Plan - Jean and Sam see human Cylons for the first time
The Plan - Sam and Kara have really loud sex and traumatizing Cavil
The Plan - Sam and Cavils' gross heart to hearts + the angst blankie

HYBRID RAMBLE FODDER
Hybrid Utterances - on Battlestar wikia
Nursery Rhymes
Wise Old Sayings
Tech Jargon
Sci Fi jargon
Technobabble generator
AI Terminiology
AI Mini-glossary
Science trivia
Science Trivia 2
Physics trivia
Astronomy trivia
Astronomy trivia 2
this tumblr tho

GENERAL STUFF
Samuel Anders - on Battlestar wikia
Cylon Basestar - info on the Hybrids
Hybrid info - on Battlestar wikia