Alejandro Borges

Alejandro is a jerk with a heart of rusty steel; he arrived on March 2011, and lives with a couple of other asshole engineers in an apartment. Wacky!

age: 32

origins: Dead Space

app link: HERE

hmd: WILL ADD

played by: Alba

contact: NightblitzWakka

Setting
Here's a bit of an understanding of the Dead Space universe: the year is 2414, and at the rate the human race has went, the resources of Earth has become scarce to none. As such, humanity sets out through the universe, hunting for minerals and scraping for survival. Mining typically done with a "Planet Cracker" class ship; they take a piece of the planet where the minerals are strong, holding it up with the ship, and... well, mine it. There are, of course, many other kinds of vessels in space. Another thing to understand is a prominent religion known as Unitology; it is immensely popular, but many also consider it to be more or less like a cult and for others it's a joke. For a comparison's sake, Unitology is very similar to Scientology, but taken to the extremes if that is believable.

When it comes to this Dead Space-verse, there are a few unique traits in it that sets it apart from other scifi video games. In this case, one of the normal things to have in this universe is a RIG, AKA a Resource Integration Gear. It appears as a hologram on the spine of an individual; a blue glow is perfect health, a green glow is normal, yellow is unhealthy, and red is dangerously low. Another thing to keep in mind that there appears to be no other alien life in the universe thus far by human discovery, aside from the original Black Marker -- but whoever first created the Marker is currently unknown, as well as the fact that it even exists is masked by the government.

The other thing to keep in mind is the Marker. For Unitology, is a symbol of their faith; what it truly means is that it was originally an alien artifact that was never meant to be found by humanity. It emits a signal that often drives people insane, hallucinating their loved ones, and causing them to either kill themselves or each other. In turn, the Marker will infect corpses and mutate them; these monstrosities are known as necromorphs, and by the standards of the necromorph, they are imperfect creations. The necromorphs seek to kill others and continue to "reproduce", having the corpses mutate and continue the process. These creatures are also extremely difficult to kill, as merely shooting them in the head is not sufficient enough to kill them -- you need to cut off their limbs in order for them to die. The Marker and who it affects is the true center of the Dead Space mythology.

For Alejandro himself, he didn't come across the same type as necromorph outbreak as Isaac Clarke had; on board the USG O'Bannon, Alejandro along with several other engineers were to attempt to stabilize the decaying planet Aegis VII. The true purpose was not revealed immediately to him; after the events of the original Dead Space the entailed Isaac's first experience, the Red Marker -- a man-made replica of the original Black Marker -- was shattered upon impact to the surface of Aegis VII. The specific events were obscured to Alejandro; all he ended up discovering was that the one shard that they ended up finding was enough to drive Nikolas Kuttner crazy and kill Alejandro's beloved cousin, Noah.

This caused both distress in Alejandro (obviously) and as well as destruction to the stabilizer, as Noah had been near it and Kuttner had damaged the controls. Due to this, the planet was literally ready to explode at any given moment; the group scrambled away, with three members dying on the way to the shuttle. The other shuttles began their way back, with the ship ready to leave to escape the impending explosion. Alejandro piloted the shuttle stubbornly towards the ship, avoiding asteroids and the engines in order to barely make it back to the ship. From there, Aegis VII exploded, some of the pieces impacting the ship and causing hull damage. Ignoring the damage in favor of his personal rage, Alejandro confronted the captain, demanding answers about the shard.

The captain provided information that the shard was worth immense amounts of money, which would provide for Noah's family. This was hardly enough to calm Alejandro, as he lashed out and struck the captain once before he was put to work to help fix the ship. Bitterly, Alejandro accepted, quietly mourning his cousin as he went on his way to work on the USG O'Bannon.

All the meanwhile, unknowingly to Alejandro, Nolan Stross was working on the shard and caused an outbreak of necromorphs on the ship. During the attack of the monsters, Alejandro put together some materials in order to survive the beasts. Reluctantly, Alejandro saved Kuttner from being saved into space, knowing that he was needed to fight against the necromorphs, although he was hardly pleased with this fact. During the battle on the ship, they made their way to the engine, as it was the only source that could properly destroy the shard.

Stross hesitated, even while everyone yelled at him to toss it in. Fed up with the situation and Stross's growing insanity, Dr. Cho took matters into her own hands by punching him and throwing the shard in.

Personality
The first thing one will notice about Alejandro is how boisterous he is, having little to no problem speaking his opinion extremely bluntly and right to the point. For example, both he and his cousin both have no qualms about generally mocking their fellow engineer's religion, seeing it as a ridiculous concept. Granted, it is Unitology, but neither of them show any particular respect towards Omar. This aspect of Alejandro's personality certainly comes out much easier while he's suffering internally after Noah's death, bluntly telling individuals how insane they are and snapping at the captain as he sees fit.

After Noah's death, Alejandro is permanently scarred emotionally, feeling remorse and regret over someone he viewed as likely a younger brother. He was protective of him, proud of him, and lashed out furiously and had been tempted to kill Kuttner mostly due to his close connection to Noah. On his own, Alejandro mourns him, but in front of anyone else, he snaps at everyone and has no qualms about unloading his mind with all of the classiness of a sailor. It's simply easier to lash out than show how he's essentially on the verge of tears. So essentially, Alejandro can appear extremely tough, but underneath is emotionally crippled over his dead cousin, especially since Kuttner essentially is unpunished by killing him.

Despite his rage and grief, Alejandro does have a strong sense of morality. Despite his very vocal opinion of certain individuals, such as Stross and Kuttner, Alejandro does go out of his way to save Kuttner from being sucked into the vacuum of space. This could be attributed to the fact that Kuttner's battle skills were needed against the necromorphs, but it's also extremely likely that Alejandro would rather prevent the death of any individual. This is related to an earlier instance of Omar being crushed to death by falling debris, where he's clearly nothing but smeared gore on the ground, but Alejandro does try to go back and help him even if it's impossible. Even earlier, it's explained how Alejandro received his robotic limb; his younger cousin Noah explains that during a mining operation, there had been an accident. Although fifteen men died, Alejandro managed to save five of them -- losing his arm in the process. These three incidents suggest Alejandro may not necessarily have faith in humanity, but he does have a powerful sense of morality despite his personal circumstances.

Basically, despite being a temperamental asshole, Alejandro would be kind of a decent straightforward guy who's weeping on the inside over his dead cousin baw.

Abilities & Weaknesses
As far as abilities go, Alejandro is primarily a skilled engineer who is capable of throwing a few items together in order to make them into defensive weapons, such as hooking up a flamethrower to his mechanical arm for use. While he is not near the genius of Isaac Clarke, he's handy in his own right. Unlike his fellow engineer, he's physically fit, which is probably required of him in order to handle the weight of his robotic limb. He can also pilot on the fly when it comes to shuttles and ships, but no one ever said he could pilot well.

Alejandro's weakness and strength stems from the death of his cousin; his anger can be an excellent motivator, but it also clouds his judgment in how to appropriately handle situations. His sense of morality does permit him to protect other people, even people he hates.

Another major weakness is that Alejandro has a crippling fear of spiders. A LEGION OF SPIDERS would decimate him, pretty much.

Character Relationships
Isaac Clarke - Complicated. Alejandro has a habit of walking all over Isaac since the older engineer is kind of spineless in comparison, which is probably the only reason why Alejandro can get away with staying at his apartment. In return, Clarke can hang over Alejandro's head that he's a better engineer, which pisses off Alejandro. Moreso, Alejandro learned that Isaac knew all along what happened on Titan Station, which is where the rest of Alejandro's family was. You guessed it, they're all dead now, and since then, Alejandro has been extremely angry with Isaac for not telling him sooner. This didn't work well when Isaac was de-aged during the Age Event, abruptly becoming kind of an adorable college student. This unfortunately has caused Alejandro to develop an extremely one-sided crush on Isaac; when things went back to normal, Alejandro's been doing his very best to avoid Isaac in person.

Michael Altman - A little less complicated. Although Alejandro knows who Altman is, the guy is too nice to stay angry at. As such, Alejandro has been able to settle with the fact that circumstances with Unitology is not entirely Altman's fault and not something he ever wanted, so forgiving him has been easy enough. When Altman nearly died due to the black rocks, Alejandro did have a good cry about it and realized that he probably does care too much about people on Sacrosanct, something he can no longer avoid. He accepts the fact now that he does have friendship with Altman and is doing his best to look out for him.

Vandal AKA Karrie Norton - A female engineer from Titan Station. Initially, Alejandro went out of his way to patch her up and invite her to stay at Isaac's apartment. However, she admitted that it was her fault that Titan Station was infested with necromorphs that would eventually kill the rest of Alejandro's family. Some days later, Alejandro got her a few beers, debating if he should settle with this information. However, since then, Vandal has acted verbally viciously towards Alejandro, which is frankly not unlike how Alejandro has acted towards many others on Sacrosanct so the behavior makes sense -- but it's not something Alejandro has realized himself. He doesn't understand why Vandal is acting this way since he'd done nothing but help her, and since has decided to not forgive her and bitches her out in return.

Skyfre AKA Charles Sagan - Skyfire is so nice that it angers Alejandro from time to time. He doesn't understand Skyfire's patience, or perhaps even desperation. He has tried many times to drive him off verbally; these are temporary fixes, though, as Skyfire just comes back around eventually. In due time, though, Alejandro just accepts that Skyfire was probably one of his first friends on Sacrosanct and does quietly appreciate him, although he is terrible at showing it.

Rapunzel - An extremely sweet young girl. Alejandro remains very polite to her in his best way, and has big brother tendencies.

Toothless - A GODDAMN DRAGON. Shit that's cool.

Shockwave AKA Logan - A real douchey egotistical British former robot fuck that needs to be punched on occasion. On the other hand, though, Shockwave has shown himself to be compassionate and helpful in his own way, namely saving Altman's life. Since then, Alejandro is working to reevaluate his opinion of Shockwave.

Samus Aran - Frankly, one of Alejandro's favorite people, not that she needs to know that. Teasing Samus is a hilariously great time, and he's surprised she hasn't punched him more often. She's kind of a real badass, very strong, and he feels she needs to learn how to calm the fuck down. Although he does genuinely care for Samus, it's harder for him -- who is more emotional by comparison -- to get to know her personally -- who is pretty much an ice queen.

York - Seems like a simple enough dude who likes to chill, play video games, and have a normal damn life. Alejandro can respect simple goals like that, and likes him well enough.

Wash - A real douchebag who has no respect for those who fear spiders. Fuck you spiders are awful.

Iowa AKA Franklin Donut - At first Alejandro wasn't really impressed since most of the armored assholes are... well, assholes. But, over time, Donut totally gets the arachnophobia thing and the two seemed to hit it off when Donut found a way to fluster the hell out of Alejandro. He likes Donut well enough and figures he's a decent enough guy, mostly has fun flirting with him. One night stand inbound, proceed with booty calls.

Tucker - Whatsherface, she has good hands. They had a one night stand, will probably do random booty calls with each other.

Noble Six - One tough chick. She managed to pull shit together to deal with the necromorphs when they came to Sacrosanct. Alejandro respects her and remains rather polite with her, willing to fix her gadgets for no charge.

Psychology AKA "Why Alejandro is such a big douchebag."
There are a lot of matters that go into why he does what he does and says what he says. Making himself seem like a moron or generally just an unlikeable jerk is his perception of "get people to hate me because I really can't deal with all the crap I've experienced". Essentially, it's his way of getting himself to be punished for what's happened with both the O'Bannon and the fact that Noah is dead -- something he blames himself for and cannot deal with properly.

Basically, he's trying pretty hard to get people to hate him in order to settle with the fact that he's alive, people who should be are not, and that he's damn safe and cozy on Sacrosanct.