Ataraxion app
Jun. 22nd, 2014 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nutsaboutscansWarning: This app has mentions of comas, depression, OCD, PTSD, violence, police brutality, murder, and illegal drug use.
P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Kate
OOC Journal:pixiesticks
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: nope! 22
Email + IM: kjmajor92@gmail.com + kiwikat11
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None but applying for Marissa Wiegler this round too
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: John Kennex
Canon: Almost Human
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: End of 1x13
Number: RNG me please!
Setting: The City in 2048, Almost Human.
If that doesn't cover it, it's Earth in 2048. There's more advanced technology, medical practices, transportation, etc. There are now robots that pretty much can look and act like people. Most are used in law enforcement. Some are used in maintenance jobs, and the rest are 'sexbots,' used in the sex industry.
History:
A year and a half to two years or so before the canon start point, John was in charge of a raid against Insyndicate, a crime organization, that ended terribly. His partner died, he lost his right leg, and was betrayed by his girlfriend. He was in a 17 month coma. He took a break from the force. The psychiatrist said 'Kennex is suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD, and psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.' He also said John should never be allowed back on the force. Thankfully, he's close with the captain and was allowed back on the force. They discuss some details about Insyndicate case and the captain reveals that John is the only one she trusts with this information.
John visits a recollectionist to try to remember the events of the raid (and also got some pills, explained later). He shouldn't be doing it since he hasn't been fully conscious for a year, and also because it's practicing black market medicine. When John was trying to save his partner at the raid, a MX (one of the robot cops) decided they were not worth saving and abandoned them. This seemed to spark a strong dislike for robots, as he requested a human partner. He was denied and given a MX. When he visits a crime scene, the MX accidentally triggers a PTSD episode by saying 'myklon red' (which was at the scene of the raid). When the MX says that he thinks he needs to report the episode, and also brings up the night before that he was acting suspiciously, John opens the car door and pushes the bot out onto the highway.
He's issued the DRN, the previous line of bots, and thus becomes partnered with Dorian. The DRN were made to be as human as possible. John says they went crazy, Rudy says some had problems dealing with their emotions. John initially is pretty prickly around Dorian. He goes back to the recollectionist and pushes it to the limit. Dorian saves him. But not before he remembers that his girlfriend was a part of Insyndicate, and that's why she disappeared. They crack their current case and take down the bad guys before they can take something from the evidence room. What they wanted, they don't know. He warms up to Dorian a little after that.
In the second episode, John and Dorian investigate a case involving sexbots. A man in the sexbot industry is killed while on a “date” (really, he was investigating her to see if she had human DNA). The killers leave no evidence behind, but the suspect leaves human DNA, which matches a woman taken from a parking garage. He and Dorian discuss death and how to remember someone. John learns a little about how robots can feel, too, through Dorian and the case. He tries to be good with kids, trying to entertain them by stabbing his synthetic leg, but he ends up scaring them. But he gets better when he talks to one of the victims' son and gets him talk, giving up something that was obviously precious to him (a little toy giraffe robot that moves when you touch its head). He finally goes to his old partner's kid to tell the kid about his dad after he and Dorian solve their case. In the third episode, he and Dorian head toward a hostage situation instead of following orders and evacuating. He bonds with Paige, one of the hostages hidden in a closet, over the phone. He and Dorian end up saving the hostages and taking down the bad guys. His insubordination is overlooked.
In the fourth episode, a cop John is friends with is killed. They go deep into the drug scene and put Rudy, their tech, undercover. When they find the guy in charge (Bishop), John goes after him. The Bishop says, “You stupid cop. I'll bury you like I buried your loser friend, Cooper. I'm a Captain. This'll be a mistrial-” at which point, John kills him. It is unclear whether the murder is justified in the eyes of the law, or if John said it was self-defense. All in all, the situation is a good example of his brutal side. At the end of the episode, John goes off to a bar to celebrate with Dorian and Rudy. In the fifth episode, they are protecting the last witness to a murder- a psychic/medium. John is dubious of her. She tells him he needs to listen more and that he's surrounded by 'a very strong aura of red' ('the color of anger and frustration'). The murderer's clones kidnap Stahl, and Dorian, John, Rudy, and Maldonado play a trick to get her back. The psychic/medium testifies at the murderer's trial. Dorian and John bond with her, and John finds himself a little more open to the idea of it. He bonds with Stahl over a soccer game, and the psychic/medium's vision comes true.
In the sixth episode, John and Dorian investigate a case where people are given synthetic hearts- with timers so they'll stop working unless they pay he supplier. This episode mostly involves Dorian's growth. At the end, they solve the case, and the people are given free hearts. Int the seventh episode, a mad man with revenge on his mind straps bombs to people's necks and plays sick games with them. John and Dorian can't disarm the bomb in time for the first victim. They find the next victim. Dorian tells John to put up the shield, basically saying he doesn't have enough time to save her, but John doesn't and instead helps Dorian, and they disarm it just in time. Simon, the mad man, is furious, convinced John stole the approval he so desires (He posts them online and seeks the internet's approval. He is humiliated by the victim and John, and he loses all his viewers.) Therefore, he kidnaps John and straps a bomb to his neck, cuffing his leg to a bench. He says they're like one another, that their black marks on their records follow them. Dorian takes down Simon and John disarms the bomb attached to him.
The eighth episode starts with John in an anger management group. He says he's great, and the therapist points out all the horrible things that have happened to him and asks if he's lying. He insists he's doing great, and doesn't take the session seriously. A man is killed at the public transit station. An MX gives a far-fetched theory and John blows him off, listening to Dorian instead. The MX insults Dorian, calling him inferior, 'a retired, old system,' and 'appropriately canceled partner.' John initially puts his hand over his mouth, and then he shoots the MX in the head. The MX was Det. Paul's partner, so he's livid, as is Capt. Maldonado. Maldonado yells at him for firing when there was no danger. Paul threatens Dorian and John says, “Don't even look at Dorian.” Maldonado berates him for shooting a police officer. John says, “Let me explain something to you. I'm a police officer. You're a police officer. And as much as it pains me to say it, Richard is a police officer. Now you can dress these machines to look like cops, you can program them to drive a car or shoot a gun like a cop, but they're not cops. They're bullet-catchers. And if you force me to work with a faulty machine, then I will dispose of it with the same degree of compassion that I would a toaster that burns my toast.” Maldonado berates him more, but John says this was just a bump in the road, that his anger management is doing him good, and she lets him leave. They continue to investigate the murder of that man. Maldonado is interrogating the man they caught from the Insyndicate attack on their evidence room. He wants to be let go in exchange for what he was looking for, or he'll tell them where Anna is. He taunts John, asking him how badly he wants to strangle her. John is mad that Maldonado would negotiate 'with a murderer'. She's afraid something terrible is in the evidence room. They don't agree to the deal. John doesn't agree with scrubbing (a method to forget memories). He stops the victim's girlfriend from scrubbing her memories, and they catch the bad guys. The victim's girlfriend thanks him and tells them she and her boyfriend wrote each other hand-written notes, and gives John the pen they used as a gift.
In the ninth episode, a robot commits a crime to get in the evidence room. It rips its head off and puts on another head in an evidence locker, which we find out belongs to the XRN, a robot that is more of an unstoppable soldier than a cop. The same company that made Dorian made the XRN in a bid to save their company. During the demonstration, a lot of people were killed until they finally took down the XRN. Only the head was left. She grabs a new body and runs into her creator. When John and Dorian visit the scene, Dorian's creator is happy to see him being a cop. They track down Danica, the XRN, and take her down, with the help of John's synthetic leg. He takes the pin to the grenade strapped to her and kicks her into an elevator, where she explodes. John had Dorian's back and admitted that he could get used to his synthetic leg. It turns out, though, that the creator is the one behind this, as he's disappeared from the station with the synthetic souls (what makes a DRN or XRN). He's on the move with the supplies he needs to create a small army of robots.
During the tenth episode, we see that John is still popping those red pills, and has the shakes. They turn out to be Membliss, which 'is a drug that assists those working with a Recollectionist to remember memories that are hidden by opening up memory clusters in the brain.' (that phrase was taken from the wikia since they phrased it better than I could.) He's using it to try to remember things about the raid. Dorian and Maldonado notice it, and Dorian confronts him about it. John says he needs them and he's got it under control. He gets flashbacks throughout the episode. John blacks out while driving due to the side effects of Membliss (the side effects are paranoia, visual distortions, short-term memory loss, migraines, heart palpitations, increased risk of aneurysms, and blackouts.) He and Dorian are okay, though part of Dorian's ear is torn. Maldonado tells John to stop using the pills and let the memories come naturally. Now that the memories were coming back, they'd have to contact IA (Internal Affairs). He doesn't listen, popping a pill while visiting the recollectionist again. He remembers Anna giving him a nesting doll. He asks a lab tech to check it out for him off the record. They solve the case. IA comes to talk to John. When he hints that John's hiding something and John muses about, the IA guy says “I don't know. Look at your father.” It turns out the nesting doll that Anna gave him is a listening device.
In the eleventh episode, a 'smart house' is overridden and kills a couple, and another body had been found on their lawn almost exactly one year ago. John and Dorian investigate, taking Det. Paul's shift for him since, according to John, he's having surgery. Throughout the day, he makes up more and more ridiculous reasons for him having a surgery. In reality, Richard is having a personal day. They figure out who the bad guy is going after and who the bad guy is. She was a girl in love with the boy found on the lawn and she was getting revenge. Also John is not reprimanded for telling people different stories about Paul's day off, even though Capt. Maldonado hears about it. And John wore guyliner. That's important.
In the twelfth episode, John and Dorian solve a case involving a guy using nanobots to kill them and take their features for his own face. John tries to talk him down when the suspect stands on the edge of a building. He says he understands how he must feel. The suspect asks if he's ever been loved. John says he has. The suspect says “Then you wouldn't understand. We're supposed to be loved.” and lets himself fall off the side of the building. John seems to feel something about this man, as he has his profile up after the case has been closed and is staring at it. He takes a chance and almost asks Stahl out on a date... but he finds out she already has one before he can ask.
In the thirteenth episode, a committee is doing a check-up investigation into Dorian. John, Maldonado, and Rudy say nothing but good things. They find a victim cut open and filled with straw. There have been other cases of this, and the man behind those (Costa) is behind bars. Even more interesting, the lead detective on the case was Edward Kennex, John's father. He says it was the collar of his career right before he was killed. Dorian says John's father was under investigation for stealing robotic tech from the evidence locker and reselling it on the black market. Turns out that John's father visited Costa right before he died, and told him he believed him that he was innocent. Rudy has a theory that the bodies are not the real bodies. John's father circled pictures of the feet. The body is flat-footed, which points to a sort of printer that can recreate the victim, but not the organs, so the bad guy fills them with straw to hide it. They see a pinprick on her hand and figure out his hunting grounds are the shelters. John tells a story about his dad where he refused to be a dirty cop and says that's who he was, and that he's why John became a cop. They discover that the bad guy has been the one stealing robotic tech and trying to integrate it into his body to save himself. John kills the Straw man, and clears his father's name. Dorian passes with flying colors, thanks in part to John saying that Dorian's the reason he wants to stay on the police force. He finds John at a noodle joint and gives him a better leg as a thank you. They share a bro moment before they're called back to duty.
Personality:
John sometimes has a rather prickly personality. One example of that is when he shuts the door on his MX and demands a new partner. Another is when he gets tired of the MX, he pushes him out the car door onto the highway. He can be an asshole. For instance, he hangs up on Maldonado, his captain, and tells Dorian to go in quiet mode. He can get on people's bad sides with the way he reacts sometimes. John is also stubborn as hell. One instance of this is when there's a hostage situation and he ascends the stairs instead of evacuating like his captain told him to. He also stubbornly goes back to Recollectionist time and time again to figure out what happened during the raid.
John can be rather awkward. For example, he's awkward on the phone to Valerie, whom he has a crush on, especially when in episode eight, he thinks she means she got him a present when she means she's got something for him on the case. He also thought kids would like to see him stab his synthetic leg. Naturally, he frightened them. He also thought kids would like to see a picture of a man's arm blown off. One of the kids vomited. He can also be a little shit, though. He insists on bringing Dorian to eat noodles. Dorian says that he can't eat. John then says in that case, he's buying. Also, when he's blowing off his captain he makes a bunch of sounds into the phone as if he were getting cut off and ends with 'Christmas.' I don't know how else to put it. He really can be a little shit. He's got a sarcastic sense of humor, frequently making sarcastic comments. For instance, in his conversation with Maldonado when he gets back, she says, “'Kennex should return to service never.'” and John says, “Never? That's a long time.” She goes on to say, “'[He's suffering from]... psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.'” and John says, “Well, that last part is true.”
John can also be bold and brash. He takes a lot of risks, such as going after the hostages and carrying on when they see the device in the first episode. He also tends to beat up the criminals he interrogates, especially if they did something to cops, like in the fourth episode for Rudy and the first episode for Detective Vogel. He also has Dorian hack into things without a warrant a lot. He's got some loose morals, as shown in the first episode when he sees a black market recollectionist and beats up a suspect in an interrogation. He also kills a guy in the fourth episode that is discussed in the history section. John also has quite a temper sometimes. He spends a lot of the time angry about his girlfriend's betrayal. He also shoots an MX, a man, and beats up suspects when he wants information. That's a lot of pent-up anger.
He rejects anything robotic. This is because during the Insyndicate raid, an MX left him and his partner for dead. In his psychological report, the department's psychiatrist says that John is suffering from psychological rejection of his synthetic body part. In the first episode, he tells his new robot partner 'Come' and he tells Dorian 'synthetic off' instead of asking him to be quiet. He also calls Dorian a 'synthetic' throughout the first episode, which Dorian hates. John eventually warms up to Dorian and even learns to trust him, but he still has a dislike for robots, as shown by him shooting an MX in the head when he was talking bad about Dorian and by his speech after that (which is written out in the history section).
He also has some psychological problems that aren't always shown. He is 'suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD, and psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.' This all came from the trauma of the raid and losing his leg, and also from his coma. He has a PTSD episode in the pilot episode where he stares off to space and has flashbacks to the raid, triggered by just a phrase that he recognized from the raid 'myklon red'. He also had some memory loss of the raid and possibly more than that, but has since gained some of those memories back. John also is using an illegal black market drug called Membliss (discussed in the history section) that has a lot of side effects, some of which are starting to affect John in canon.
Most of all, he's a jerk with a heart of gold. He may not always follow the rules, but he tries to do what's right. He warms up to a little boy in the second episode when the boy's mother was taken. He makes the boy smile and gives him a toy giraffe. It's also obvious that he showed that heart of gold to his girlfriend, by the video she sent him before the raid. He seemed truly in love with her. He also tries, even when he's inconsiderate. When he was interrogating the sex bot and Dorian asked her where she was born instead of where was she made, John echoed him. He really is a good man deep down.
The most prominent people in John's life are Dorian, Anna, Captain Maldonado, Det. Stahl, Rudy Lom and Det. Paul. Dorian, Capt. Maldonado, Rudy Lom, Det. Stahl, and Det. Paul are his coworkers. Det. Paul is annoying to John. Paul blames John for the failed raid and the deaths of his fellow officers and thinks he won't last. Stahl thinks Paul is jealous of John, but Paul denied this. At times, things can get heated between Paul and John, sometimes because of their rivalry, sometimes because he says something about Dorian. Either way, it's not a great relationship, but they still work together. Rudy Lom is the robot guy who repairs and maintains the robots. He's also the techy sort of guy. John and Rudy have known each other for a while, since before his coma, and act friendly.
Detective Stahl is an Intelligence Analyst 'with a gift for identifying case-relevant insights in data (such as behavioral tendencies and criminal patterns).' John is interested in her romantically, but she doesn't seem interested. Captain Maldonado and John are close. She says he's the only one she trusts in the department. They rely on each other and help cover each other, especially during John's insubordination or his medical problems. Maldonado was also the one that gave him a shove in the right direction to go back to work. Anna is John's ex-girlfriend. She and John were dating at the time of the raid. All we know about her is that she traveled and sent John videos. He had memory loss after the raid, so for a long time, he thought she just disappeared. When he regained his memories with the recollectionist, he saw that Anna was at the raid, and that she's a part of Insyndicate and told them about the raid, causing all the officer deaths.
Dorian and John's relationship is complicated. John dislikes robots, blaming them for what happened at the raid. Dorian becomes the exception, someone he can trust and rely on. Dorian wants to feel and be treated well. He wants what John is squandering. They work together well, John taking the needed risks and Dorian tethering him down when needed. John slowly learns how robots feel, how they think. He begins to actually trust Dorian and help him, like when he disguises himself as one of the suspects in the third episode to back Dorian up. They sometimes bicker and make fun of each other, such as in episode four when John says “If I lived in a cabin, I'd kill myself.” and Dorian says “You should buy a cabin, John.” But truly, they trust each other and look out for each other, like in episode seven when Dorian climbs a building to stop a maniac from blowing up John.
John's motivations vary. There's his want to keep innocents away from harm, like he shows in the third episode by trying to help Paige. Then, probably most importantly, is his path to redemption. At least in his eyes, he let down a lot of people. He lost his partner and everyone in that raid. He sees remembering things and taking down his ex-girlfriend as the path to redemption. He has a need to prove himself. He would still probably work at this in Ataraxion with the pills or any help from characters to remember things. And then there's his need for justice that he inherited from his father. His father would do anything to get to the truth, and to make sure that the bad guy paid. John stops at nothing to do that, including disobeying direct orders from his superior multiple times and shooting a man. And finally, there's the want to help or protect the ones closest to him. He displays this in the fifth episode when he won't let Dorian get out of the vehicle when people are shooting at them because he doesn't have a chest plate.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Abilities
-went through the police academy
-pretty good at hand-to-hand
-an expert marksman
Weaknesses
-psychological issues
-anger
-stand-offish attitude
-breaking the rules
Inventory:
- (1) phone
- (1) badge
- (1) gun
- (1) black ink pen
- (1) silver case filled with red pills (Membliss)
- (1) Bitcoin, 'a type of digital currency used in the Almost Human series. It is kept on USB sticks.'
- (1) small flashlight
- (1) switchblade
- (1) robotic leg wrapped in blue paper with a bow on it
Appearance: John is played by Karl Urban.
full body, without leg, with leg, leg with camouflage device
John is 6'1 and weighs 160 pounds. He has short brown hair and gray-green eyes. He has two tattoos, as explained on his wiki page: 'One on the bicep of each arm. On the left side it appears to be a small rectangular marking and on the right, a dragon, three clawed, in the Japanese style.' John has a robotic leg that connects halfway through the thigh.
Age: 41
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
John set down his gun on his bed, sitting beside it and running a hand over his face. He had to admit that this was hard. It was hard to be away from his job, his things, his life... It was hard to be away from his colleagues, Maldonado and Stahl, and, of course, Dorian. It was hard not to have Dorian by his side to look up things, analyze situations, and to argue with. It was difficult living here, and it was inconvenient. But he was just going to have to get used to it. This was where he lived now and he'd have to start doing some good. Even if that meant battling monsters or whatever would happen on his time on the ship. He would have to keep going and fight for these people. It's what his dad would want.
He sighed, getting up and grabbing a washcloth. He went over to the mirror in his room and looked at his reflection. He winced at the cuts, scrapes, and bruises on his face. Not a look he was unfamiliar with. He found an old cup of water and wet the washcloth, dabbing at his wounds. They still stung.
He'd really made a mess of things while fighting those creatures. Sure, everyone came out okay, but his flashbacks were making it difficult. He'd just... froze. What would have happened if he'd been in the middle of fighting one of those things? He'd just been on the sidelines that time. Maybe... just maybe... it was time to ask for help. He wiped at his wounds with a grimace. He'd think about it. Maybe it would make life here a little less difficult.
Comms Sample: [(I'm pretending creatures have attacked the spaceship.)
John turns on video, looking battle-worn.] This is Detective John Kennex. We've got more of those creatures on this side of the ship. I'm not sure how long we can hold them back.
[He stops and sighs, feeling bad leaving it at that. So he continues.]
Listen... when I was a kid, I used to go ice-fishing with my dad. Well, one day, I fell through the ice. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think... I was sure I was going to die. But my dad, he jumped in and pulled me out. Even though I wasn't sure we would get out, I knew I was safe. Because I knew I wasn't alone. You're not alone. Don't lose hope.
[He smiles encouragingly before turning off the camera.]
P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Kate
OOC Journal:
pixiesticksUnder 18? If yes, what is your age?: nope! 22
Email + IM: kjmajor92@gmail.com + kiwikat11
Characters Played at Ataraxion: None but applying for Marissa Wiegler this round too
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: John Kennex
Canon: Almost Human
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: End of 1x13
Number: RNG me please!
Setting: The City in 2048, Almost Human.
If that doesn't cover it, it's Earth in 2048. There's more advanced technology, medical practices, transportation, etc. There are now robots that pretty much can look and act like people. Most are used in law enforcement. Some are used in maintenance jobs, and the rest are 'sexbots,' used in the sex industry.
History:
A year and a half to two years or so before the canon start point, John was in charge of a raid against Insyndicate, a crime organization, that ended terribly. His partner died, he lost his right leg, and was betrayed by his girlfriend. He was in a 17 month coma. He took a break from the force. The psychiatrist said 'Kennex is suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD, and psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.' He also said John should never be allowed back on the force. Thankfully, he's close with the captain and was allowed back on the force. They discuss some details about Insyndicate case and the captain reveals that John is the only one she trusts with this information.
John visits a recollectionist to try to remember the events of the raid (and also got some pills, explained later). He shouldn't be doing it since he hasn't been fully conscious for a year, and also because it's practicing black market medicine. When John was trying to save his partner at the raid, a MX (one of the robot cops) decided they were not worth saving and abandoned them. This seemed to spark a strong dislike for robots, as he requested a human partner. He was denied and given a MX. When he visits a crime scene, the MX accidentally triggers a PTSD episode by saying 'myklon red' (which was at the scene of the raid). When the MX says that he thinks he needs to report the episode, and also brings up the night before that he was acting suspiciously, John opens the car door and pushes the bot out onto the highway.
He's issued the DRN, the previous line of bots, and thus becomes partnered with Dorian. The DRN were made to be as human as possible. John says they went crazy, Rudy says some had problems dealing with their emotions. John initially is pretty prickly around Dorian. He goes back to the recollectionist and pushes it to the limit. Dorian saves him. But not before he remembers that his girlfriend was a part of Insyndicate, and that's why she disappeared. They crack their current case and take down the bad guys before they can take something from the evidence room. What they wanted, they don't know. He warms up to Dorian a little after that.
In the second episode, John and Dorian investigate a case involving sexbots. A man in the sexbot industry is killed while on a “date” (really, he was investigating her to see if she had human DNA). The killers leave no evidence behind, but the suspect leaves human DNA, which matches a woman taken from a parking garage. He and Dorian discuss death and how to remember someone. John learns a little about how robots can feel, too, through Dorian and the case. He tries to be good with kids, trying to entertain them by stabbing his synthetic leg, but he ends up scaring them. But he gets better when he talks to one of the victims' son and gets him talk, giving up something that was obviously precious to him (a little toy giraffe robot that moves when you touch its head). He finally goes to his old partner's kid to tell the kid about his dad after he and Dorian solve their case. In the third episode, he and Dorian head toward a hostage situation instead of following orders and evacuating. He bonds with Paige, one of the hostages hidden in a closet, over the phone. He and Dorian end up saving the hostages and taking down the bad guys. His insubordination is overlooked.
In the fourth episode, a cop John is friends with is killed. They go deep into the drug scene and put Rudy, their tech, undercover. When they find the guy in charge (Bishop), John goes after him. The Bishop says, “You stupid cop. I'll bury you like I buried your loser friend, Cooper. I'm a Captain. This'll be a mistrial-” at which point, John kills him. It is unclear whether the murder is justified in the eyes of the law, or if John said it was self-defense. All in all, the situation is a good example of his brutal side. At the end of the episode, John goes off to a bar to celebrate with Dorian and Rudy. In the fifth episode, they are protecting the last witness to a murder- a psychic/medium. John is dubious of her. She tells him he needs to listen more and that he's surrounded by 'a very strong aura of red' ('the color of anger and frustration'). The murderer's clones kidnap Stahl, and Dorian, John, Rudy, and Maldonado play a trick to get her back. The psychic/medium testifies at the murderer's trial. Dorian and John bond with her, and John finds himself a little more open to the idea of it. He bonds with Stahl over a soccer game, and the psychic/medium's vision comes true.
In the sixth episode, John and Dorian investigate a case where people are given synthetic hearts- with timers so they'll stop working unless they pay he supplier. This episode mostly involves Dorian's growth. At the end, they solve the case, and the people are given free hearts. Int the seventh episode, a mad man with revenge on his mind straps bombs to people's necks and plays sick games with them. John and Dorian can't disarm the bomb in time for the first victim. They find the next victim. Dorian tells John to put up the shield, basically saying he doesn't have enough time to save her, but John doesn't and instead helps Dorian, and they disarm it just in time. Simon, the mad man, is furious, convinced John stole the approval he so desires (He posts them online and seeks the internet's approval. He is humiliated by the victim and John, and he loses all his viewers.) Therefore, he kidnaps John and straps a bomb to his neck, cuffing his leg to a bench. He says they're like one another, that their black marks on their records follow them. Dorian takes down Simon and John disarms the bomb attached to him.
The eighth episode starts with John in an anger management group. He says he's great, and the therapist points out all the horrible things that have happened to him and asks if he's lying. He insists he's doing great, and doesn't take the session seriously. A man is killed at the public transit station. An MX gives a far-fetched theory and John blows him off, listening to Dorian instead. The MX insults Dorian, calling him inferior, 'a retired, old system,' and 'appropriately canceled partner.' John initially puts his hand over his mouth, and then he shoots the MX in the head. The MX was Det. Paul's partner, so he's livid, as is Capt. Maldonado. Maldonado yells at him for firing when there was no danger. Paul threatens Dorian and John says, “Don't even look at Dorian.” Maldonado berates him for shooting a police officer. John says, “Let me explain something to you. I'm a police officer. You're a police officer. And as much as it pains me to say it, Richard is a police officer. Now you can dress these machines to look like cops, you can program them to drive a car or shoot a gun like a cop, but they're not cops. They're bullet-catchers. And if you force me to work with a faulty machine, then I will dispose of it with the same degree of compassion that I would a toaster that burns my toast.” Maldonado berates him more, but John says this was just a bump in the road, that his anger management is doing him good, and she lets him leave. They continue to investigate the murder of that man. Maldonado is interrogating the man they caught from the Insyndicate attack on their evidence room. He wants to be let go in exchange for what he was looking for, or he'll tell them where Anna is. He taunts John, asking him how badly he wants to strangle her. John is mad that Maldonado would negotiate 'with a murderer'. She's afraid something terrible is in the evidence room. They don't agree to the deal. John doesn't agree with scrubbing (a method to forget memories). He stops the victim's girlfriend from scrubbing her memories, and they catch the bad guys. The victim's girlfriend thanks him and tells them she and her boyfriend wrote each other hand-written notes, and gives John the pen they used as a gift.
In the ninth episode, a robot commits a crime to get in the evidence room. It rips its head off and puts on another head in an evidence locker, which we find out belongs to the XRN, a robot that is more of an unstoppable soldier than a cop. The same company that made Dorian made the XRN in a bid to save their company. During the demonstration, a lot of people were killed until they finally took down the XRN. Only the head was left. She grabs a new body and runs into her creator. When John and Dorian visit the scene, Dorian's creator is happy to see him being a cop. They track down Danica, the XRN, and take her down, with the help of John's synthetic leg. He takes the pin to the grenade strapped to her and kicks her into an elevator, where she explodes. John had Dorian's back and admitted that he could get used to his synthetic leg. It turns out, though, that the creator is the one behind this, as he's disappeared from the station with the synthetic souls (what makes a DRN or XRN). He's on the move with the supplies he needs to create a small army of robots.
During the tenth episode, we see that John is still popping those red pills, and has the shakes. They turn out to be Membliss, which 'is a drug that assists those working with a Recollectionist to remember memories that are hidden by opening up memory clusters in the brain.' (that phrase was taken from the wikia since they phrased it better than I could.) He's using it to try to remember things about the raid. Dorian and Maldonado notice it, and Dorian confronts him about it. John says he needs them and he's got it under control. He gets flashbacks throughout the episode. John blacks out while driving due to the side effects of Membliss (the side effects are paranoia, visual distortions, short-term memory loss, migraines, heart palpitations, increased risk of aneurysms, and blackouts.) He and Dorian are okay, though part of Dorian's ear is torn. Maldonado tells John to stop using the pills and let the memories come naturally. Now that the memories were coming back, they'd have to contact IA (Internal Affairs). He doesn't listen, popping a pill while visiting the recollectionist again. He remembers Anna giving him a nesting doll. He asks a lab tech to check it out for him off the record. They solve the case. IA comes to talk to John. When he hints that John's hiding something and John muses about, the IA guy says “I don't know. Look at your father.” It turns out the nesting doll that Anna gave him is a listening device.
In the eleventh episode, a 'smart house' is overridden and kills a couple, and another body had been found on their lawn almost exactly one year ago. John and Dorian investigate, taking Det. Paul's shift for him since, according to John, he's having surgery. Throughout the day, he makes up more and more ridiculous reasons for him having a surgery. In reality, Richard is having a personal day. They figure out who the bad guy is going after and who the bad guy is. She was a girl in love with the boy found on the lawn and she was getting revenge. Also John is not reprimanded for telling people different stories about Paul's day off, even though Capt. Maldonado hears about it. And John wore guyliner. That's important.
In the twelfth episode, John and Dorian solve a case involving a guy using nanobots to kill them and take their features for his own face. John tries to talk him down when the suspect stands on the edge of a building. He says he understands how he must feel. The suspect asks if he's ever been loved. John says he has. The suspect says “Then you wouldn't understand. We're supposed to be loved.” and lets himself fall off the side of the building. John seems to feel something about this man, as he has his profile up after the case has been closed and is staring at it. He takes a chance and almost asks Stahl out on a date... but he finds out she already has one before he can ask.
In the thirteenth episode, a committee is doing a check-up investigation into Dorian. John, Maldonado, and Rudy say nothing but good things. They find a victim cut open and filled with straw. There have been other cases of this, and the man behind those (Costa) is behind bars. Even more interesting, the lead detective on the case was Edward Kennex, John's father. He says it was the collar of his career right before he was killed. Dorian says John's father was under investigation for stealing robotic tech from the evidence locker and reselling it on the black market. Turns out that John's father visited Costa right before he died, and told him he believed him that he was innocent. Rudy has a theory that the bodies are not the real bodies. John's father circled pictures of the feet. The body is flat-footed, which points to a sort of printer that can recreate the victim, but not the organs, so the bad guy fills them with straw to hide it. They see a pinprick on her hand and figure out his hunting grounds are the shelters. John tells a story about his dad where he refused to be a dirty cop and says that's who he was, and that he's why John became a cop. They discover that the bad guy has been the one stealing robotic tech and trying to integrate it into his body to save himself. John kills the Straw man, and clears his father's name. Dorian passes with flying colors, thanks in part to John saying that Dorian's the reason he wants to stay on the police force. He finds John at a noodle joint and gives him a better leg as a thank you. They share a bro moment before they're called back to duty.
Personality:
John sometimes has a rather prickly personality. One example of that is when he shuts the door on his MX and demands a new partner. Another is when he gets tired of the MX, he pushes him out the car door onto the highway. He can be an asshole. For instance, he hangs up on Maldonado, his captain, and tells Dorian to go in quiet mode. He can get on people's bad sides with the way he reacts sometimes. John is also stubborn as hell. One instance of this is when there's a hostage situation and he ascends the stairs instead of evacuating like his captain told him to. He also stubbornly goes back to Recollectionist time and time again to figure out what happened during the raid.
John can be rather awkward. For example, he's awkward on the phone to Valerie, whom he has a crush on, especially when in episode eight, he thinks she means she got him a present when she means she's got something for him on the case. He also thought kids would like to see him stab his synthetic leg. Naturally, he frightened them. He also thought kids would like to see a picture of a man's arm blown off. One of the kids vomited. He can also be a little shit, though. He insists on bringing Dorian to eat noodles. Dorian says that he can't eat. John then says in that case, he's buying. Also, when he's blowing off his captain he makes a bunch of sounds into the phone as if he were getting cut off and ends with 'Christmas.' I don't know how else to put it. He really can be a little shit. He's got a sarcastic sense of humor, frequently making sarcastic comments. For instance, in his conversation with Maldonado when he gets back, she says, “'Kennex should return to service never.'” and John says, “Never? That's a long time.” She goes on to say, “'[He's suffering from]... psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.'” and John says, “Well, that last part is true.”
John can also be bold and brash. He takes a lot of risks, such as going after the hostages and carrying on when they see the device in the first episode. He also tends to beat up the criminals he interrogates, especially if they did something to cops, like in the fourth episode for Rudy and the first episode for Detective Vogel. He also has Dorian hack into things without a warrant a lot. He's got some loose morals, as shown in the first episode when he sees a black market recollectionist and beats up a suspect in an interrogation. He also kills a guy in the fourth episode that is discussed in the history section. John also has quite a temper sometimes. He spends a lot of the time angry about his girlfriend's betrayal. He also shoots an MX, a man, and beats up suspects when he wants information. That's a lot of pent-up anger.
He rejects anything robotic. This is because during the Insyndicate raid, an MX left him and his partner for dead. In his psychological report, the department's psychiatrist says that John is suffering from psychological rejection of his synthetic body part. In the first episode, he tells his new robot partner 'Come' and he tells Dorian 'synthetic off' instead of asking him to be quiet. He also calls Dorian a 'synthetic' throughout the first episode, which Dorian hates. John eventually warms up to Dorian and even learns to trust him, but he still has a dislike for robots, as shown by him shooting an MX in the head when he was talking bad about Dorian and by his speech after that (which is written out in the history section).
He also has some psychological problems that aren't always shown. He is 'suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD, and psychological rejection of his synthetic body part.' This all came from the trauma of the raid and losing his leg, and also from his coma. He has a PTSD episode in the pilot episode where he stares off to space and has flashbacks to the raid, triggered by just a phrase that he recognized from the raid 'myklon red'. He also had some memory loss of the raid and possibly more than that, but has since gained some of those memories back. John also is using an illegal black market drug called Membliss (discussed in the history section) that has a lot of side effects, some of which are starting to affect John in canon.
Most of all, he's a jerk with a heart of gold. He may not always follow the rules, but he tries to do what's right. He warms up to a little boy in the second episode when the boy's mother was taken. He makes the boy smile and gives him a toy giraffe. It's also obvious that he showed that heart of gold to his girlfriend, by the video she sent him before the raid. He seemed truly in love with her. He also tries, even when he's inconsiderate. When he was interrogating the sex bot and Dorian asked her where she was born instead of where was she made, John echoed him. He really is a good man deep down.
The most prominent people in John's life are Dorian, Anna, Captain Maldonado, Det. Stahl, Rudy Lom and Det. Paul. Dorian, Capt. Maldonado, Rudy Lom, Det. Stahl, and Det. Paul are his coworkers. Det. Paul is annoying to John. Paul blames John for the failed raid and the deaths of his fellow officers and thinks he won't last. Stahl thinks Paul is jealous of John, but Paul denied this. At times, things can get heated between Paul and John, sometimes because of their rivalry, sometimes because he says something about Dorian. Either way, it's not a great relationship, but they still work together. Rudy Lom is the robot guy who repairs and maintains the robots. He's also the techy sort of guy. John and Rudy have known each other for a while, since before his coma, and act friendly.
Detective Stahl is an Intelligence Analyst 'with a gift for identifying case-relevant insights in data (such as behavioral tendencies and criminal patterns).' John is interested in her romantically, but she doesn't seem interested. Captain Maldonado and John are close. She says he's the only one she trusts in the department. They rely on each other and help cover each other, especially during John's insubordination or his medical problems. Maldonado was also the one that gave him a shove in the right direction to go back to work. Anna is John's ex-girlfriend. She and John were dating at the time of the raid. All we know about her is that she traveled and sent John videos. He had memory loss after the raid, so for a long time, he thought she just disappeared. When he regained his memories with the recollectionist, he saw that Anna was at the raid, and that she's a part of Insyndicate and told them about the raid, causing all the officer deaths.
Dorian and John's relationship is complicated. John dislikes robots, blaming them for what happened at the raid. Dorian becomes the exception, someone he can trust and rely on. Dorian wants to feel and be treated well. He wants what John is squandering. They work together well, John taking the needed risks and Dorian tethering him down when needed. John slowly learns how robots feel, how they think. He begins to actually trust Dorian and help him, like when he disguises himself as one of the suspects in the third episode to back Dorian up. They sometimes bicker and make fun of each other, such as in episode four when John says “If I lived in a cabin, I'd kill myself.” and Dorian says “You should buy a cabin, John.” But truly, they trust each other and look out for each other, like in episode seven when Dorian climbs a building to stop a maniac from blowing up John.
John's motivations vary. There's his want to keep innocents away from harm, like he shows in the third episode by trying to help Paige. Then, probably most importantly, is his path to redemption. At least in his eyes, he let down a lot of people. He lost his partner and everyone in that raid. He sees remembering things and taking down his ex-girlfriend as the path to redemption. He has a need to prove himself. He would still probably work at this in Ataraxion with the pills or any help from characters to remember things. And then there's his need for justice that he inherited from his father. His father would do anything to get to the truth, and to make sure that the bad guy paid. John stops at nothing to do that, including disobeying direct orders from his superior multiple times and shooting a man. And finally, there's the want to help or protect the ones closest to him. He displays this in the fifth episode when he won't let Dorian get out of the vehicle when people are shooting at them because he doesn't have a chest plate.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Abilities
-went through the police academy
-pretty good at hand-to-hand
-an expert marksman
Weaknesses
-psychological issues
-anger
-stand-offish attitude
-breaking the rules
Inventory:
- (1) phone
- (1) badge
- (1) gun
- (1) black ink pen
- (1) silver case filled with red pills (Membliss)
- (1) Bitcoin, 'a type of digital currency used in the Almost Human series. It is kept on USB sticks.'
- (1) small flashlight
- (1) switchblade
- (1) robotic leg wrapped in blue paper with a bow on it
Appearance: John is played by Karl Urban.
full body, without leg, with leg, leg with camouflage device
John is 6'1 and weighs 160 pounds. He has short brown hair and gray-green eyes. He has two tattoos, as explained on his wiki page: 'One on the bicep of each arm. On the left side it appears to be a small rectangular marking and on the right, a dragon, three clawed, in the Japanese style.' John has a robotic leg that connects halfway through the thigh.
Age: 41
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
John set down his gun on his bed, sitting beside it and running a hand over his face. He had to admit that this was hard. It was hard to be away from his job, his things, his life... It was hard to be away from his colleagues, Maldonado and Stahl, and, of course, Dorian. It was hard not to have Dorian by his side to look up things, analyze situations, and to argue with. It was difficult living here, and it was inconvenient. But he was just going to have to get used to it. This was where he lived now and he'd have to start doing some good. Even if that meant battling monsters or whatever would happen on his time on the ship. He would have to keep going and fight for these people. It's what his dad would want.
He sighed, getting up and grabbing a washcloth. He went over to the mirror in his room and looked at his reflection. He winced at the cuts, scrapes, and bruises on his face. Not a look he was unfamiliar with. He found an old cup of water and wet the washcloth, dabbing at his wounds. They still stung.
He'd really made a mess of things while fighting those creatures. Sure, everyone came out okay, but his flashbacks were making it difficult. He'd just... froze. What would have happened if he'd been in the middle of fighting one of those things? He'd just been on the sidelines that time. Maybe... just maybe... it was time to ask for help. He wiped at his wounds with a grimace. He'd think about it. Maybe it would make life here a little less difficult.
Comms Sample: [(I'm pretending creatures have attacked the spaceship.)
John turns on video, looking battle-worn.] This is Detective John Kennex. We've got more of those creatures on this side of the ship. I'm not sure how long we can hold them back.
[He stops and sighs, feeling bad leaving it at that. So he continues.]
Listen... when I was a kid, I used to go ice-fishing with my dad. Well, one day, I fell through the ice. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think... I was sure I was going to die. But my dad, he jumped in and pulled me out. Even though I wasn't sure we would get out, I knew I was safe. Because I knew I wasn't alone. You're not alone. Don't lose hope.
[He smiles encouragingly before turning off the camera.]