[MoM] application the second

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉

NAME: Heather
AGE: 26
JOURNAL: calluna
IM / EMAIL: heather.roleplays@gmail.com
PLURK: heatherberry
RETURNING: N/A

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉

CHARACTER NAME: Saul Goodman
CHARACTER AGE: Late 40s
SERIES: Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul
CHRONOLOGY: Episode 5x15, Granite State / Episode 1x01, Uno (I have two canonpoints listed because BCS is a prequel, but the first few minutes of the first episode deal with the aftermath of the BrBa episode listed here)
CLASS: Anti-Hero
HOUSING: Randomly assigned housing in Heropa

BACKGROUND:

Back in the day, Saul was a criminal defense attorney-slash-local celebrity based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known city- and state-wide for his campy demeanor and questionable legal practices. He dealt mostly with drug addicts and small-time dealers (as well as dabbling in the occasional class-action lawsuit, divorce case, workman's comp claim, anything to make a buck, etc.), though his connections appeared to reach much further than that. Until Walter White and Jesse Pinkman came into his life in 2009, his most volatile clientele were members of a Mexican drug cartel that Saul had, a little unwillingly, gotten tied up with years earlier when he was still working as a public defender under his real name: James “Jimmy” Morgan McGill. After Walt and Jesse came into his life, things went way, way uphill; Saul made more money during those months than he likely made with all of his smaller clients combined over years of practicing. For a while, things were looking good: He finally found the financial success he’d been striving for almost his entire life (i.e., getting rich), and he was doing his thing as a lawyer and doing it well. But there was no way a partnership between the unstable Walter White, the easily manipulated Jesse Pinkman, and the greedy Saul Goodman could last — and it didn’t. Who would've thought a relationship that started with a kidnapping would end badly? Ha, ha.

Shady as Saul’s methods were, he found himself being pushed to the brink by Walt during their time as business partners. In order to keep everything under control and keep his clients out of jail (and, perhaps more importantly, keep himself alive), Saul covered their tracks by covering up deaths, faking others, suggesting more, laundering money, hiding evidence, and doing whatever he was told—including helping Walt poison a child.

There’s a season-by-season breakdown up to S5a over on Saul’s original MoM app; episode 5x08, where that summary ends, is where the shitshow really begins. He knew from the second he did it that poisoning Brock, Jesse’s almost-surrogate-son, was a major fuckup. That’s why he tried to get out while the getting was still good, but instead, he found himself even more tangled in the web they’d woven together. He struggled to keep things from falling apart, but Jesse’s already loose grip on sanity started slipping further, Mike went missing (and Saul knew what that meant for his beloved old PI), and Hank, Walt’s brother-in-law, figured out the Heisenberg mystery. Saul tried to save Jesse (and, let’s be real, his own ass) by offering to help the kid start a new life. It almost worked.

But then Jesse realized what actually happened to Brock, figured out Saul’s part in it, went to Saul’s office, and almost killed him. Now, Saul, being the smart man that he is, realized it was time to get the hell out of Dodge no matter what the cost, so he kissed his identity as Saul Goodman goodbye and took up residence in Nebraska under the alias Gene (no last name given). He went from being a successful, wealthy lawyer to being the mustachioed manager of a Cinnabon franchise in Omaha, and went from spending his nights counting money to sitting in front of a TV, drink in hand, watching his old commercials like a high school quarterback reliving his glory days.

This is who gets pulled into Heropa: Gene the Cinnabon Manager, also known as Saul Goodman the wanted criminal, also known as Slippin’ Jimmy McGill, also known as the guy who literally has nothing left to lose.

PERSONALITY:

Jimmy to Saul...

In 2002, public defender James M. McGill took on the alias Saul Goodman for reasons both business and personal. That change was one of many he'd made in his life up to that point: He changed from a conman to an inmate to a mail room clerk to a public defender, all in a relatively short amount of time.

Jimmy, as he was known then, spent the better portion of his late twenties and thirties trying his gosh darndest to clean up his act and follow in the footsteps of his very respectable, intelligent, and well-off big brother, Chuck. Chuck, then 1/3 of the Albuquerque-based law firm Hamlin, Hamlin, and McGill, bailed Jimmy out of prison after Jimmy pooped in the open sunroof of a vehicle carrying young children was locked up for performing a "Chicago sunroof," which could have turned out very badly if Chuck were not the brilliant, respected lawyer he was. Chuck helped his dear little brother out on the condition that he turn his life around, so Jimmy took up a position at HHM as one of the mail room employees and spent the next while dutifully delivering letters and packages to everyone above him, both literally and figuratively speaking.

But then he became a lawyer. Chuck was less than thrilled with this development, to say the least. To say it all: Chuck was so angry and jealous over his little brother gaining the ability to practice law in a fraction of the time it took him to do the same thing that he actively sabotaged Jimmy's attempts at success, blocking him every step of the way. The two of them have a massive falling out, which is just as well, considering how Chuck was holding Jimmy hostage with his "illness" — an allergy to electromagnetism (known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity) that left him living in his own little Amish paradise in the middle of suburban ABQ. Chuck depended on Jimmy. Jimmy bailed. Jimmy made a series of poor decisions, starting with going back to his old stomping grounds in Cicero, Illinois, and ending with the decision to pick his old conman name back up: Saul Goodman, a play on "It's all good, man."

To understand Saul is to understand that most of the persona he presents to the public is a big ol' fabrication. He's a smart guy with high emotional intelligence and a thirst for success, which is as dangerous a combination as it sounds. Toss in a bit of greed and paranoia, and you've got someone who's willing to do anything to get what he wants. And Saul? Saul knows exactly what he's doing. And I'm not just talking law, here — nearly everything about him is part of his carefully-constructed public persona, from his campy office to his loud wardrobe to his license plate (LWYRUP) to his pun-tastic name. All this is part of how he makes money, and lots of it. As he says to Walter, he changed his name from McGill to Goodman to attract more business and seem more credible: "The Jew thing I just do for the homeboys. They all want a pipe-hitting member of the tribe, so to speak." (And hey, let's be honest, wouldn't you want to disown your family name if your brother stabbed you in the back the way Chuck did?)

The fact is, Saul is an excellent, extremely competent lawyer and a great sniffer-out of legal loopholes, but in order to attract his target clientele — criminals desperate for someone to get them out of trouble, so much so that they'll pay anything for the help — he can't seem too serious. The inflatable Statue of Liberty on his office roof might as well be a bug zapper, the Declaration of Independence wallpaper adorning his chambers flypaper. He knows people; he knows how to work them, how to play them, and how to get them out of trouble.

This is not to say that he's preying on his usually not-that-bright clientele, because that would cast him as more malicious than he is, at this point, capable of being. Saul's two greatest motivators are money and fear. If the price is right, or if his ass is on the line, he'll do what he thinks is necessary to maintain his cushioned existence — often, though, what he "does" involves passing the task on to someone else on his payroll.

He's resourceful. He knows guys who know other guys who know other guys who have cousins — they're the ones who usually do the dirty work. Saul is more of a mediator in those situations, which suits him just fine since he takes a percentage cut almost every time. In spite of this, there's no hiding the fact that Saul is, as Jesse points out, a criminal lawyer. This, in part, is why he's so protective of his clients and so cautious-bordering-on-paranoid. If someone like Walter goes down, guess what: Saul's going with him.

Saul is opportunistic and, occasionally, quite crass. After the Wayfarer 515 disaster in which two planes collided over Albuquerque and 167 people died, Saul took to the airwaves with a commercial: "Were you, or a loved one, or an acquaintance hurt, killed, upset, or inconvenienced by the tragedy of Wayfarer 515? At times like this, we ask ourselves deep questions: Is there a God? How could He let this happen? Who did this to me? Who can I sue?"

He's also prone to wisecracking and sarcasm. This tendency, combined with his seemingly vast knowledge of pop culture (either that, or he's just a nerd in disguise), leads to a lot of unkind joking and general snarking. After Jesse gets the crap beaten out of him by Hank, Saul meets Jesse in the hospital, takes a photo of his face, and says, "Yo, Adrian. Rocky called – he wants his face back." (This is what most people would call a defense mechanism, but Saul would insist all that psychobabble is a load of hooey. In reality, though, it's totally a defense mechanism.)

But he's not all bad. His alignment could best be described as true neutral (though some tend to put him in the lawful neutral category, and it's entirely possible he toes the line between the two like he toes the line with many things in his life); for this reason, he's able to act as both an observer and a dispenser of brutally honest advice. For all that he lies, he can — and will — point out stupid, reckless behavior when he sees it. He's definitely a guy who calls 'em like he sees 'em, and from his position, he sees a lot. His role as a lawyer also casts him as the mediator, which is a role he plays often in canon, usually between Walt and Jesse. He also has a few moments in canon where we see his façade slip, if only momentarily: He looks genuinely troubled after Walt confesses his fear that he might be "the bad guy," and half-jokingly advises Walt not to hang himself in the closet. When we see Saul in his car after this scene, he’s obviously unnerved. This happens again after he has his secretary, Francesca, call Hank with a fake report that Marie was in a car accident and is en route to the hospital. By the time season 5 rolls around, Saul has more oh shit I'm in way over my head moments than his previous appearances combined thanks to Walt and Jesse, and he grows increasingly uncomfortable as a result of these — after Walt literally corners him and growls a threat in his face, Saul is so submissive (for the next few episodes) that he's hesitant to even speak out of turn, which is a stark contrast to the Saul we meet in season 2.

Another part of Saul's hesitance to engage is him dealing with Having Feelings. For all that he seems aloof and removed from most situations, he does care. A good example of this is his relationship with Jesse: he cares about the kid, at least enough to nudge him toward happiness and safety. When Jesse asks Saul how Andrea and Brock are doing, Saul suggests Jesse should find out for himself. He looks fairly pleased after this scene. Later, toward the end of the series, Saul encourages Jesse to start a new life away from the mess they've made in Albuquerque and seems genuinely relieved that Jesse has the chance to start fresh. These feelings kind of come back and bite him in the ass, though, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Saul likely considers having feelings some kind of weakness. But he's either resilient or stupid, because he appears to keep trying to let Feelings be a part of his life even though it never seems to turn out well. Anyway, he's a good ally to have, but there's a flip side to that as well — due to his far-reaching (and slightly questionable) connections, you wouldn't really want to have Saul for an enemy unless he's too afraid of you to do anything... which is likely.

Saul's adaptability is both good and bad. He knows what people want to hear, he knows how to wiggle his way out of trouble, and he knows how to react in any given situation for his own and/or his client's benefit. After he's kidnapped by Walt and Jesse, he panics, thinking the cartel he's had previous dealings with is responsible. He repeats "yo siempre un amigo de cartel" (I am always a friend of the cartel) over and over, practically begging for his life until he realizes he's not actually dealing with anyone from the cartel, at which point he's suddenly (and comically) all business. "What can I do for you gentlemen?"

The most notable thing about Saul is probably his physical appearance, which is very much a manifestation of his adopted personality. Seriously, look at this mess of a wardrobe. He tries to make his tastes seem extravagant and expensive — see: those suits, the golden scales of justice and glass paperweights in his office, all those big leather-bound books, his manicured nails — but all of this only serves to perpetuate the seedy, "cheap" image he's cultivated for himself.

Another important part of his personality is his physical presence itself, as there's one word that sums his up pretty well: energetic. He's constantly moving, even when he's seated. He talks with his hands, he fidgets, he bites his lip, waggles his eyebrows (he's been gifted with an expressive face, too), taps his foot, adjusts his suit, etc. etc. He's only still in extremely tense moments, and even then it's the kind of tension that suggests he could snap at any second like a rubber band pulled too far. He's not energetic in a nervous way, though. He's pretty smooth. Cool. You know. Mostly. He's well-aware of his surroundings at all times and, in true Saul fashion, is likely to adjust the way he's acting based on where he is and who he's with.

He's generally not intimidating unless he's trying to be (and even then, not really), but he's a pretty casual invader of personal space. He's touchy-feely with people's possessions more often than he is with people themselves, though he tends toward both — a pat on the shoulder here, a nudge there, invading someone's privacy by picking up whatever they're reading, messing with someone's laundry... on the flip side, he doesn't like it when someone else is doing the space-invading, and in moments like that he usually moves away.

His voice is a little gritty and a slight Midwestern accent comes through his speech at times, which is easily noticed because he talks a lot. When he's not talking, he's not in control. And that's bad.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Saul possesses no superhuman abilities or fighting skills, but he can hablar Español. He's also very sly, slippery, and manipulative, and knows a hell of a lot about law — and how to work around it. His high emotional intelligence is his biggest asset; more than he knows how to work the law to his favor, he knows how to work people, and obviously has no problems doing so. He also knows how to plan for all contingencies, as evidenced by the drawer full of spare cell phones he keeps and his extensive connections with everyone and their mother.

But none of this changes the fact that he's a greedy coward. Saul's desire for wealth often gets the better of him; it's what determines whose side he's on and the extent to which he'll go to keep himself aligned with the winner. When Saul's back is against the wall, either figuratively or literally, his whole demeanor changes. He becomes so submissive that even his posture changes and he can't seem to make eye contact — it's a stark contrast to Saul in his natural element, behind the safety of his desk.

...and Saul to Gene

It becomes painfully clear during Saul's last appearance in BrBa that the Saul Goodman everyone knew and loved tolerated is dead and gone. He's dressed in black slacks and a white button-down, he speaks quietly, he's dropped the act and he knows it's all over. The next time we see him, he isn't Saul; he's Gene the Cinnabon Manager, and we don't know much about him.

What we do know, though, is some sad shit.

The melancholy lyrics of "Address Unknown" play in the background of a black-and-white scene: Gene and his coworkers preparing and baking Cinnabons. Gene tidying up. Gene standing, terrified, at his cash register. He thinks someone from his past has come back to haunt him — and probably kill him — but it turns out that someone is just there to meet his family and not commit murder. This is probably a common occurrence for him, seeing as how he's a wanted man, and all. Then Gene retrieves a sign from the food court, presumably closing the stand down for the night, and goes home to an unremarkable little house where he sloppily pours himself a drink and sits down to watch some presumably boring television. He then gets up and moves to a hall closet, grabs a box containing photos, passports, and envelopes, and pulls out a VHS tape. He flops back into his recliner to watch said tape, and just to hammer home how shitty his life has become, the television screen's reflection on his glasses is the only thing in color. It's one of his old commercials, and Saul Goodman's voice cuts through the silence: "Don't let false allegations bully you into an unfair fight..."

Gene's expression hasn't changed (or showed any emotion, really) for the entirety of this cold open except for the few moments he thought he was in trouble. While watching the clips, he chews the inside of his lip. He's trying not to cry.

The scene cuts away just as Saul says, from the television, "It's never too late for justice! Better call — "

As soon as Saul finds himself back in Heropa, he's going to be mad. In his mind, Walt and Jesse are to blame for his life taking the turn it did. It'll only be a matter of time before he discovers that they're both still around, and then it'll only be a matter of time before he tries to figure out what to do about that. The universe is giving him one more chance, and by God, he is taking it. A lot of his actions will be influenced by previous in-game experiences — he knows Walt and Jesse are around, and he can only imagine how much more out of control Walt's gotten in the months since Saul was last in Heropa.

POWER:

Saul's powers will be the same as they were when he left: Invisibility/Intangibility/Imperceptibility (which will collectively take up one slot), an ability called Psychic Shield, and the power to shapeshift.

His set of powers allows him to effectively render himself non-existent, but only for a limited amount of time, and he hadn't yet mastered any of those abilities before being dropped from the game.

Invisibility is what it says on the tin, as is intangibility: He's able to turn himself invisible and walk through solid matter and/or have solid objects pass through him without harm. Limitations for this power include having to hold his breath while passing his entire body through things like walls/doors and having to consciously activate the intangibility component (that is, him turning invisible does not automatically cause him to become intangible as well), thus still being vulnerable to physical damage while invisible.

Invisibility and intangibility allow him to hide himself from sight; intangibility allows him to cover up all other parts of his physical existence, blocking animals and people from smelling him, sensing him (physically or mentally), and hearing him, etc.

For this group of powers, any object on his person or in his hands is also rendered non-existent as long as he is in that combination of states, but that requires him to burn even more energy.

Psychic Shield is something of an unconscious ability that reacts to his mental state. Thanks to his lowkey constant level of paranoia, it'd be more difficult for a psychic to read his thoughts than it'd be for them to read the thoughts of someone without this ability (depending on the psychic). When he's actively thinking about protecting himself/his thoughts, the shield strengthens, and anyone trying to read his mind will be met with static.

Shapeshifting is also pretty self-explanatory. Saul is limited to human forms (no animals or weird, humanoid creatures), and his DNA (blood, saliva) will not be changed when he shifts. He's also limited in how much time he can spend in any given form, depending on his energy levels/metabolism. Also, shifting hurts like hell> — even changing minor aspects of his appearance is painful.