Carlos Mendoza

PLAYER: Xep
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: Yep
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: I'm 18 uvu
CONTACT: Plurk - xep_lag, Skype - xep-lag
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Jack Ryan

NAME: Carlos Mendoza
CANON: Saints Row 2
CANON REFERENCE: His wiki page.
AGE: In canon he seems to be around 23, but in this AU he'll be 17.
GENDER: Physically and mentally male.
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: 11th grade.
APPEARANCE: Picture here.
Somewhat pale for his heritage, Carlos is a Mexican gangster standing at about 5'8" with dark hair shaved to the skull and medium brown eyes. He wears a purple skullcap and a golden chain with a large cross on it no matter what he's wearing, and generally runs around in a wife beater and gym pants to emphasize that he is from the streets. His style will probably improve as the game goes on.

Note: This AU of him used to have large white wings (wingtips touched the back of his knees while folded) that have since been amputated and left only ugly scars and a few odd spots where feathers grow on his shoulder blades. The loss of them has left him temporarily unable to walk, as he's still getting used to balancing himself without them. He also has plenty of scars left over from the incident that led to his wings being amputated, and will be covered in bruises and bandages for the first few weeks after he enters the game.

PERSONALITY: We would like at least four paragraphs here. If you can do more, that's great, but anything less will be given an automatic revision. What we want here are the ins and outs of the character. Their motivations, personal strengths, and weaknesses. What makes them tick, so to speak. This is not a history section. If at all possible, please back up major personality points with canon examples. Site canon whenever possible. If there are some differences in the personality due to the AU nature of the game, please note them here, but remember that your character's personality cannot be too drastically different. The core character should remain the same.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Before he came to the Institute he had a pair of huge, magnificent white wings. They have since been broken beyond recognition and subsequently amputated, but in theory they could be replaced and he still has the skills to learn how to fly with new wings. With wings Carlos was skilled at flying, dodging thrown objects in midair, flight stunts, the whole deal, and had plenty of stamina. But that's hardly relevant unless he gets new wings.

More importantly, he emits a low level of healing energy to everyone around him. He can't heal himself reliably, but being around him for an hour is enough to clear up minor cuts and prolonged exposure to him prevents scarring and may even have positive effects on mental disorders. If he concentrates hard he can boost this energy for a few minutes, but it's exhausting and causes his energy supply to shut off for a while while he recovers.

As for himself, healing his own body is a manual effort and he's not very good at it. If he gets a minor wound or an injury he was expecting, it will usually heal normally. But if he's flipping out and absolutely sure he's going to die, he gains a healing factor just long and strong enough to keep himself alive. He cannot regrow limbs, nor can he recover from, say, having his stomach sliced open or his head cut off, because that would require too much energy too quickly and his powers wouldn't be able to take over in time. He was, however, able to survive being dragged behind a truck for several city blocks through a mixture of his powers and the belated medical attention his boss got for him. Although it has left him with some rather nasty scars.

Despite the fact that all of his scars eventually fade, his healing factor can't do anything about the scars where his wings used to be.

AU HISTORY: Carlos was born in Stilwater, Michigan. He grew up with a low-income mother and an older brother named Diego. His father was killed in the crossfire of a gang war when Carlos was very young, but Diego insisted he'd been shot by the police (although he never gave a reason). Instead Diego was his father figure; eight years older and non-mutant, he devoted most of his time to keeping Carlos out of trouble and teaching him how to keep his wings out of sight as they steadily grew with their owner.

Eventually their mother died and the boys were on their own, and it was nearly impossible for Carlos to leave the house without the risk of being shot at thanks to the rise of gang activity and police brutality on top of anti-mutant violence. Diego joined a gang himself, the Third Street Saints, whose aim was to wipe out the other gangs and thus restore some semblance of peace to Stilwater. This led to Carlos having a gang escort of at least three men whenever he left the house, starting at the age of ten. This led to him idolizing the Saints, as he idolized his brother, and because of it for the last seven years he's been working toward becoming a Saint himself.

Three years after Diego joined the Saints, the gang was all but destroyed by police forces and Diego was killed in battle. Only two diehard Saints remained; Johnny Gat, and a person we'll called The Boss from now on because he never gets a name in canon. (Never explicitly has a gender, either, but that didn't happen until the second game so we'll assume he's male.) Johnny was incarcerated and protected in prison by an ex-Saint who was now chief of police, and the Boss fell into a coma after the actual leader of the Saints attempted to murder him with explosives, and he was kept on life support in the local prison. In an effort to reclaim the glory that he associated with the Saints, Carlos let himself be caught by the police for his own crimes, convinced the chief of police to plant him in the prison with the Boss, and watched over him for the next four years.

Unknown to Carlos, his healing energy took effect as he stayed in the prison and helped the Boss recover from his injuries over the years. Unfortunately, there was no way to hide his wings in prison, and he was subject to plenty of brutality from the guards on account of his mutanism even if the chief of police could keep him from leaving the place for anywhere worse. Eventually, four years after he entered, the Boss woke up and he got himself shanked to come visit him in the infirmary. This was the first time he had had some semblance of control over his powers; he managed to help himself and the Boss recover from their injuries well enough to break out of prison, but it left him exhausted and he napped for 12 hours once he'd found a safe spot.

Now 17, Carlos helped the Boss rebuild the Saints from scratch and became one of his three lieutenants along with Shaundi and Pierce Washington, serving under Johnny Gat and the Boss himself. It was the happiest he'd ever been, and he developed a sort of puppy crush on the Boss as he began to view the Saints as family and the Boss took him under his wing. He tried constantly to prove himself to the Boss, ultimately ending in the incident that led to him coming to the Institute.

The Boss sent Carlos to contaminate the tattoo ink used by the leader of The Brotherhood, a local gang Carlos was in charge of destroying, with radioactive waste. He succeeded, but the leader's girlfriend retaliated by kidnapping him and slashing his wings when he tried to escape. He was chained to the back of a truck by his legs, and dragged across the pavement for half of the city before the Boss managed to rescue him. Bleeding viciously, missing a good portion of his skin and with his wings crumpled in a bloody mess, Carlos was just barely rushed to the ER in time and very nearly killed again by The Brotherhood during his hospital stay. After spending about a week in a coma, he awoke to be told by the Boss that he was being sent to New York to keep  him safe, until he could learn not to get himself killed so easily.

Stressed by the Boss's words, the loss of his wings and the transportation from Stilwater to the Institute, Carlos has been here for a month but barely spoken to anyone. He's been staying in the infirmary until he enters the game, at which point he'll be allowed to move into his room but will be confined to a wheelchair and still sporting many bandages. Eventually, though, he will return to his usual self. If a bit aged by his trauma.

NETWORK SAMPLE: Here.

LOG SAMPLE: Here.
Or here.