Application for lastvoyages

[keepsthemsafe]

User Name/Nick: Ramen
User DW: blackswanevent
AIM/IM: bubblegumofficer
E-mail: rpcomments@yahoo.com
Other Characters: On file.

Character Name: Shane Walsh.
Series: The Walking Dead [TV Film]
Age: In his late twenties, early thirties. Unmarried.
From When?: After being shot by Carl, post reanimating as a zombie. It is worth noting that reanimation and the subsequent transfer to the barge has cured him of the airborne zombie virus (as the information that Jenner imparts to Rick, which Rick imparts to him is that they're all infected. This makes it an airborne virus.)

Inmate/Warden: Inmate. While Shane is technically a deputy sheriff and has experience in law enforcement, he does spend most of the first and second season being motivated by positive means. The stress of living in the world that he lived in and dealing with the decisions that he made has made him a murderer and a manipulative man. He is capable of intense rage, violence, and anger and harbors a very deep grudge against his former best friend and his family.

Shane is not inherently a bad man. In both the series and the video game (which is considered series canon) he saves lives and acts with the best interest of others at heart initially, however that is motivated by having Lori and Carl's support. Losing that sends him over the edge and into the abyss and gradually, beginning in episode TS-19 he becomes a drinker and eventually ends up a monster.

That's not to say that Shane wouldn't make a good warden either. He does his best to get his unconscious best friend out of the hospital, takes care of Lori and Carl and gathers a group of survivors together to help them. He's just not as good a leader as Rick is in the long run, and lacks the strong moral compass that makes Rick a sort of omega man in a world full of walkers.

Item: N/A

Abilities/Powers: Shane is pretty physically strong, built compact and short. He's the brawn to Rick's brain, and the two make a pretty good team because of it. Other then that Shane has the skills of a cop, sans the promotions aspect. As a deputy sheriff he's better back-up then actually making any decisions himself. (Not that he feels that way.)

Shane's claim to fame however would be making pretty consistent headshots. When he gets a hold of a gun his shots go where he tells them to with very little room for error.

Personality:

Shane Walsh is described as a loose canon, as someone reckless and someone who adapts to the brave new world a little too easily. Joss Whedon once said however, that you can never know a man until you see him at his weakest moments. Shane is brought to his knees at least three times during the series and we learn that he is loyal, ready to kill for those who he wants to protect. We learn that he's always had a reckless streak, that when compared to others in his profession perhaps he does it for the wrong reasons. We also learn that he loves deeply and perhaps feels isolated and alone. The biggest thing however is that Shane is a product of his environment and the world he lives in. He is a different man then the one we see vaguely at the beginning of the series, going from a man who is a decent person to a man who is willing to kill his best friend and steal his best friend's wife not out of malice or hating him but because he feels that he can protect them better.

That's the tragedy of the Walking Dead. When civilization is stripped from a human being the question of where will they go and what will they become is paramount on the human mind. Society is a construct and there are some people who are willing to build it and some people who can function just fine without it. Shane is one of those people, someone who is willing to murder to get something that he wants. Had he been allowed to live it's difficult to predict how he might have regressed further, but while Rick's time on the barge would be impressed with the amenities, Shane will initially be disgusted by the barge and feel angry that the people who he wants to care about in his warped sense of mind can't enjoy the same thing that these supposed "criminals" are enjoying. That will be something that gets him through the early months until he acknowledges his own mistakes.

Shane is inherently loyal and a decent human being. In the beginning he cared about his best friend a great deal and he holds him in high esteem. His initial feelings about the man's wife are there, they did and do exchange glances occasionally but when the chips are down Shane wants to get him out of there or at least try to. When he realizes that he can't he assumes the most logical conclusion (that Rick had died). The concept of "assumptions making an ass out of you and me" cannot exist in an apocalyptic wasteland. Shane clearly acted in Rick's best interest knowing that Lori and Carl deserve to live.

The biggest relationship is between Shane and the Grimes family. Shane was a welcome guest in the Grimes home with he and Rick quietly ribbing each other and Shane performing basic tasks around the house. Shane had a close relationship with Carl, Rick's son and had a relationship with Lori as well that was friends bordering on polite interest. When the world ended they came together and Shane, immersed in the destruction realizes that they were important and that he missed out. As he tells Rick, "I thought I was keeping them alive but they were keeping me alive." It's the truth. All of his life he lived with isolation and when he realized what was really important he decided that he'd have the will to fight for it.

The reasons behind his abusive treatment of Lori has to do with his sense of isolation and inability to deal with his own screw ups. His own acknowledgement that - in short his life was wasted. Hence his irrational attachments. (something that even Rick recognizes. "You don't love her, you just think you do.") a good idea would get him to find somebody to care about, but that may not be entirely possible.

Hence his reaction to Rick returning. The two of them swim in the oldest fight known to man - my mate versus yours. Shane is an alpha male, someone who wants to take charge without the civilizing aspect. He's dangerous when things that he wants to take care of are taken away, hence his ultimate reaction and his ultimate downfall.

Barge Reactions: Shane's first reaction, honestly will be "I have died and gone to heaven" or alternatively "Hell is a lot more comfortable then most people thought it would be." this is a man who's had to fight for every comfort that he's experienced for almost a year. He'll embrace the food and the showers for at least a good couple of weeks. Once the reasons that he's here for sink in, Shane will become annoyed and then angry. The magical aspects of it might not phase him, however there will be a very real sense of anger at doctors and nurses and at least one brief episode where he'll ask - possibly when drunk -for the ship to turn around so these people can use their magic to help his world.

His first flood won't break him, but his second/third flood might at least get him to open up a little bit. He will however make friends easily, and in the case of ports probably end up one of the best shots on the barge (aiming always for the head).

Path to Redemption: First off? Get him to trust you. He feels betrayed and isolated in a world that relies on individuals and relationships for survival. Shane is not going to be an easy rehabilitation, It will take a great deal of time for him to trust someone who is set above him, not to mention feelings of anger at the barge at large. (Honestly you all have no right to be complaining at all) He'd treat that person as a surrogate Rick which means they'd get his anger and his frustration unless they allowed him to make at least a couple of decisions and respect those decisions. Shane doesn't feel appreciated by Rick, and doesn't feel that Rick can cut it in the brave new world that they all live in.

Shane's problems stem from a deep sense of insecurity about his position in the world and a worrying sense of isolation. He honestly never cared about things like family or having someone there specifically for him, so the next thing to do is rebuild some of that sense of security that he had from living in the world prior to the zombie outbreak. (This will be difficult and the longest part of his rehabilitation because it means breaking Shane from some of the hard-core inborn survival techniques that he's had to develop and restoring his faith in humanity, basically making him feel safe.)

That's pretty easy to manipulate however, so if there are floods and opportunities to question Shane about some of the harsher aspects of his time with the group and some of the decisions he made. He should make apologies, perhaps contribute to groups that he wronged in some way (namely Women for Andrea and even Lori.) while a warden should encourage him to recognize that his behavior towards Lori was wrong out and out accusing him of improper behavior is the wrong way to go about it. As his file will state, Lori herself apologized for her behavior and neither of them were really responsible. It was just a set of circumstances that really went awry and given how Shane felt about Lori, he should be encouraged to just get his emotions out and make his peace by owning up to how hurt he is. He buries these feelings deep.

A good warden should also try and encourage him to regain some of the humanity that he's lost, which is demonstrated by how back when the plague first happened Shane was at least a semi moral person. Encourage him to ease up on the survival aspect of living and remember that things shouldn't always be that way. Once you've done that, people should be ready to support how hurt he'll be.

Shane should be encouraged to talk about his feelings and his sense of competition with Rick, a warden will need to address the issue of Rick's wife Lori and how Shane realized just how much he'd missed out on by being a typical womanizer. Ask Shane to confront his own mortality and his own sense of isolation and lack of accomplishments. Rick has a family and was a pillar of the community, Shane was recognized mostly with Rick, and the idea will be to split him from him. Recognize that his friend has his own life to lead and that Shane can live a life on his own.

A good warden would insist on that, facilitate meetings with others and make Shane being a part of a group a mandatory exercise...but they would also make being part of a group a mandatory exercise under a leader key so that he could learn how to take orders. They should make sure that it's a person Shane respects.

History:

Shane Walsh's family has been in King's County for decades with a legacy that leads back to the civil war. Raised by his father and grandfather (his father locally known as the town drunk, his grandfather a doctor of some renown. He first met Rick when his family moved from Atlanta to King's County and the two grew close with Rick tempering Shane's natural wild streak. After dodging an arrest as a teenager, his best friend convinced him to take the straight and narrow path. Shane was one of those people, a guy who chose police work as opposed to criminality, the kind of person who understands both sides because he was on the other side.

He's defined by his relationships that he had to make for himself as opposed to the ones he's made with his family and the biggest one of those is with Richard "Rick" Grimes, the son of a local deputy who became his best friend. They did everything together, went to school together, and when Shane began dating Patty Taylor from Biology, he convinced Patty to introduce Rick to her best friend at the time, Lori. Lori got pregnant, Rick was Shane's best man. (And he gave him no end of ribbing afterwards. As if getting pregnant was any reason for marriage in today's society according to Shane Walsh.) Rick and Shane settled in, with Shane doing basic jobs for Rick and his family. He became a sort of surrogate uncle to Carl and didn't think anything less about it.

Shane's own trysts with females were short and to the point, the most serious one being with Patty Taylor, his longtime girlfriend. The two remained friends, Shane living with a warm circle of people that he cared about. Life was good until one afternoon when he and Rick were asked to assist with a Linden County bust and stop a police chase. Rick was shot and Shane saved him, but Rick fell into a coma.

Things got progressively worse. Shane shoots Patty Taylor, saves her father (only to have her father end up attacked later), and sorts out an arrangement with another group of survivors. He saves Lori and Carl, telling them that Rick had passed on and that he would keep an eye on them. Lori, out of either dissatisfaction with her husband or desperation begins an affair with Shane. They form a pretty succinct family unit until Rick arrives - turning out to be alive.

Shane, confronted with losing relationships that he had taken for granted (and never acknowledged that he actually needed in real life) becomes worried about their affair. He takes a secondary role with Rick, but the two turn out at odds several times. Shane, happy to have his friend is also worried that the power that he enjoyed will be taken away and that his sense of belonging will be removed by his friend returning. Shane, having lived through the early months of the decay of society is unstable and doesn't understand why Rick continues to cling to an outmoded way of humanity and doing business. Throughout the first few months together, Shane and Rick keep things normal but when Rick intends to seek out government assistance they butt heads. When Jenner tries to lock them into the CDC compound to die together, Shane loses his mind temporarily and shoots out all of the computer screens.

Rick convinces Jenner to let them all go free but the next decisions that the group makes continue to frustrate Shane. He tries to leave until one of the children in their group disappearing drags him back. Ultimately, they end up at a farm where the group's inner tensions become exposed. Shane, Rick, and Lori face the consequences of their actions and Shane demonstrates his decaying moral values by shooting another member of the group when they go looking for supplies to save the boy's life. Later, when members of the Greene family endanger the lives of the group Shane fights back and puts their lives in danger while Rick clings to a sense of humanity. When the barn is revealed to be full of walkers and that the child the group was looking for was in fact in the barn and infected, Shane loses it and the group is forced to exterminate all of the walkers as he lets them free.

Lori, despite using Shane in that relationship announces that Shane has ideas about what belongs to Rick and what belongs to Shane. She tells her husband that he's becoming a threat.

Meanwhile, Shane decides that he can't live with Rick in charge and that he's unworthy of the life that he had. Luring him out to the fields around the barn he attempts to kill him. Rick stabs him in the chest instead saying "You made me do this, it wasn't me it was you." Rick's moral compass begins to decay himself as Shane rises as a walker and Carl approaches and shoots him in the head.

From there, he ends up on the barge angry at Rick and the group at large, mistrusting humanity as a whole and angry with the barge's system. He's feeling that despite everything that rick did, the fact that Lori and Carl and even Andrea and the others deserve the things that these people are taking for granted but it's not upsetting enough for him to want to do anything about it besides stew in anger and frustration at everyone else.

Sample Journal Entry:

[The camera turns on to reveal a gaunt man in a dark shirt with his sleeves rolled up, holding his shaved head. When he looks up a necklace gleams in the light and he looks at the camera straight on.]

I want my damn gun back.

I don't care who any of you are or what the fuck you want but I want my goddamn gun back. Don't care how safe this place looks. I want my damn gun back.
------

[Shane is sitting in zero with his arms tucked behind him staring dispassionately at the camera.]

See that was almost what you'd expect from a real jail. Now don't even consider this anythin' but what it is. It's a jail, and we're here to be fucking punished.

All this...fancy shit. All these relationships and all this bullshit you're putting out there then sitting there whining about your feelings like that fucking flood.

[He just looks disgusted] I'm not apologizin'. Not one goddamn bit.

[His muscular arms across over his chest.] No. No fucking way.

[Private to his Warden]

Not even fucking sure what to say about that but don't ask me a goddamn thing. [He whimpers] Not one thing.
...Please.

Sample RP:

Shane Walsh didn't sleep.

It was too quiet, too secure. He kept reaching over to the side of his bed in the apartment he'd abandoned looking for something. Someone, sleeping in shifts. The sound of another human being. Nothing. Just an overwhelming oppressive silence. He'd roll out of bed then and drink - the bar had been the first thing he'd sought out and the bartender had looked away for just that one moment and that bottle of whiskey had become his new best friend.

It helped drown the sense of frustration at this place. These people who were enjoying services and things that Lori and Carl deserved, activities that Andrea had given up. Even Rick.

Thinking about Rick made him sit up and stare at the blankets. He ran a hand across his forehead and licked his lips. One swig of the alcohol. You're a Walsh Shane, you have a legacy to uphold.

He waved away his father and ignored the sound of his conscience. It sounded suspiciously like Rick and he hated it. If he'd managed to summon enough willpower to give a shit about anybody else in this goddamn boat he was sure that he would have found it in him to be angry on Rick's behalf about this place. These were criminals getting services. If he'd been able to summon the ability to care about them he would have seen just how hard this place was on people.

He just didn't.

He woke up at night and reached over to a space where Lori should have been and thought about Carl and Rick and the rest of the group and something tore itself up inside of him.

"To my only true friend." He tilted the whiskey bottle back, "Don't ever fucking leave me."

The last of it burned on the way down and Shane threw it hard across the room. It shattered against the wall, breaking the photograph of he and Rick at their academy graduation. He smiled.

"I beat you to it. Fucking should have killed you first whiskey bottle."

He lay back on the bed and waited for it to kick in. Something wet trickled down his cheek and he tried not to be afraid. Reaching over he grabbed for a pillow and hugged it against him as he lay back hoping to sleep and not dream.








Special Notes: