[OOC] [Jigokucho] Application

[curriculum_fictae]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Rho
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: I’m 18 x 2!
CONTACT: katoptron @ plurk, Rho#9327 @ discord, ishidaaaugh@gmail.com
CHARACTERS PLAYED: I’m brand spankin’ new!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Martin Blackwood
CANON: The Magnus Archives
CANON REFERENCE: Wiki page here!
CANON POINT: Post series
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: 31-ish
APPEARANCE: A tall and broad man with faded red hair and brown eyes. He always wears soft things, given a choice: jumpers, cardigans, that sort of thing. He always looks dimly rumpled and exhausted, though not nearly on the same level as his boyfriend, Jonathan “three possums in a trenchcoat” Sims. Despite his size, Martin is one of those people who is very good at making himself appear small. He always hunches in on himself, trying to take up the minimum amount of space possible. When his Lonely powers are active, he also tends to disappear from active memory unless people take specific pains to remember him. He is just SO soft and unremarkable under most circumstances that most people don’t give him a second look.
CONTRACT PAYMENT: Jon’s safety and having a safe place to live is more than enough for Martin. Since Jon is here in Jigokucho already, that takes care of the first part. If Jon ever drops, then knowing that Jon has gone SOMEWHERE relatively safe is still going to be enough. If neither of those two are sufficient, then helping to block the Fears from spreading to other worlds is also a perfectly acceptable form of payment, but again, Jon is going to be most effective. He just wants his boyfriend to be safe, wherever he is.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

What are your greatest regrets, if you have any? What would you have done differently?

Oh god. I’ve had entirely too many of those, yeah? Could make a top ten list without too much trouble. Um. Let’s start with not keeping an eye on Jon when he disagreed with our plan to, you know, save the world? WITHOUT murdering him?? I just - I KNOW him, and I know he pulls this shit all of the time, and I still … I wasn’t thinking. Thank god he’d left the lighter with Georgie or London would still be the epicentre of hell. But every time I think about the fact that I climbed the tower like we’d planned, but instead of Elias right there in the pupil of the Eye, waiting to be stabbed, it was Jon … And of course Georgie and Melanie were already working on exploding the tower from the bottom up, so it was either stab my boyfriend to death with my own hands or have us both die ANYWAY and just completely waste all of our chances at setting the world right. I mean, I understand that he couldn’t risk the Fears spreading to other worlds, but … it wasn’t just his decision. God, I just - I should have KNOWN he’d do something horribly stupid.

Yeah, um. That’s the biggest one. Suppose I could rattle off more too but. All sort of fades in comparison in having a chance to avoid stabbing your boyfriend to end the apocalypse. And not thinking clearly enough to take it.

Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not?

S. Sorry. They want ME to carry out, what. A MURDER? Are they sure they asked the right person. I mean, I am morally opposed to that? Of course I’m morally opposed to that. But I’m also apalled by their judgmenet? Who looks at Martin K. Blackwood and goes “ah yes, this is my incredibly efficient assassin. I’m sending him.” Right, just fuck off then. There’s no possible way you’re in your bloody right mind if THAT’S your plan.

I suppose if the target were right in front of me and I had a knife, then sure! I could do a murder. I’ve done it before! I have hidden talents! But they’d have to be a right jerk. Some situation where all the people love him but he’s secretly a wanker or something like that. I’ve definitely encountered people like that in my life.

And. Ah. I suppose if they threatened my contract as well … I can’t risk Jon, obviously. Here or not, he’s - he’s got to be safe. That’s the only thing I want. Everything else can go to hell - go to here? - whatever, you know what I mean! Just give me the bloody knife already and I’ll go do it! Christ.

What is your favorite diversion? Hobbies, indulgences, vices? Would you put off important things for that diversion, or would you be more strict about how you spend your time and/or money?

God I do love tea. Really missed that the most out of anything when we had an apocalypse going on. I had a nice little collection in my flat before the world ended, you know? Quite the array of rooibos in particular. There’s this utterly lovely sakura scented one that I can only find round springtime in this little Japanese tuck shop near Chelsea. I hope they came out of the apocalypse all right. Ms. Hashimoto always tucked extra sweets into my order.

Not sure how much I’d be willing to give up for it though? Mostly I didn’t HAVE anything to give up for it in the first place. Working at the Institute started off paying well, but it was the sort of place where you just didn’t get paid any more. And after eight years of working there, especially with paying for Mum’s home … what little gap I had wasn’t enough for anything really. But I would give up most minor amenities for it I suppose. Skip having a soda, or takeaway, that sort of thing. I would also much rather have a fine tea than a bottle of wine any day. The tannins give me headaches and all.

I wouldn’t, you know, murder anyone for it though. Just so we’re clear. Given we’re talking about hits and. All of that.

You've worked with your Faction awhile now and you feel like the reward of your contract is within reach. But at the last moment, you are told you have even more service to pay beforehand, an obscure clause in the contract being exploited to keep you under your boss's thumb even longer. Your Faction Leader hasn't spoken on this, and might be able to dispute it. Do you go to your leader? Do you argue the dispute yourself? Do you begrudgingly accept the additional work? Something else?

Honestly? I’d feel a bit relieved, to be honest. Contracts like these ALWAYS have a catch. And if they don’t have a catch? You just haven’t found it yet. And if the catch isn’t “secretly trying to end the world using my boyfriend as the centrepiece” then I’m coming out all right in my opinion. It can’t possibly be any worse than that.

But what would I actually do. Er. I mean - I’d have to argue a LITTLE bit. If you don’t put up a fuss they’ll just do it again, and that’s some bloody horseshit right there. Suppose I’d go to my boss first, yeah? See who they recommend me bleating at. After that I’d accept the extra work, of course, but I’d really want them to know that I’m not entirely pleased about it. Within, er. Reason. Not really any purpose in going home. And Hell is nice enough once you get used to it. Certainly a much better sort of hell than anything I had back home.

POWERS & ABILITIES:
It’s worth noting that Martin at this canon point is basically a normal human. HOWEVER. For the sake of powers regain, I am answering the question for Martin at the peak of his abilities, which was towards the end of S4. He will be unpleasantly surprised the first time he gets anything back; he thought he was past all that.

Martin is partially aligned with two of the cosmic horror entities that drive the world of the Magnus Archives. They are as follows:

The Lonely: Martin’s strongest influence; before the apocalypse happened, he was halfway to becoming an Avatar of the Lonely and was capable of using some of its powers:

Vanishing: Martin can disappear into (a pocket dimension version of) the Lonely, leaving no trace of himself behind. Technically, he ceases to exist while this effect is active, though obviously this doesn’t result in him actually leaving Jigokucho. While in this state, Martin can travel short distances (up to about ~100 feet max) and reappear instantaneously, as if he’d teleported. That being said, he can only traverse terrain that he can access normally on foot without undue difficulty. So he can’t go through a locked door (or bypass an obstacle course), for example, but could, say, teleport from the balcony of a first story apartment to the ground outside if there was an accessible path. The distance restriction is from the the initital starting point to the destination point, regardless of how long the actual footpath would have been.

If Martin vanishes in front of someone, they may forget that they were talking to him. The effect is mild and completely resistible, though. The effect works best when Martin can Batman it: you turn away and whoops, he’s gone! Who were you talking to again? Nobody, right? Vanishing is a strain on both Martin’s energy levels and his humanity. It’s not healthy to stay vanished for more than ten, fifteen minutes tops, and can only teleport two to three times per day. Generally speaking, this works best when he does it (you guessed it) while alone, though he could take up to one person with him if they’re holding hands. It won’t be pleasant if he does, though: anyone who comes along will get a direct look at an infinite expanse of feeling like no one ever loved you (or ever will) and may lose sanity points as a result. He could, in theory, use this effect offensively, and leave someone behind in the Lonely by letting go of their hand, but the effect is extremely short. Sixty seconds max, and less depending on how emotionally resilient the character in question is.

Colourless: Being touched by the Lonely has made Martin even paler than his ginger complexion would normally allow for. He’s frankly kind of blotchy and grey in spots, with his red hair having faded to a very dull roan. Intimate physical contact restores colour to him wherever said contact is made. This also applies to any clothing he wears long enough. Even the brightest neon pink jumper fades to grey given enough time.

In addition to the above, Martin’s Lonely influence means he essentially has a fragment of this awful eldritch fear god along for the ride, which will interact weirdly with telepaths, empaths, etc. And probably have other unexpected cross-canon interactions. Don’t stick your fork into the eldritch horror socket, kids, or you’ll get electrocuted. Mostly this fragment will be quite dormant, save for slowly devouring poor Martin’s humanity one failed social interaction at a time. (It can also be staved off/counteracted by positive social interactions, which will naturally reduce the Lonely’s power over him and also reduce the efficacy of his vanishing powers.)

The Eye: A much weaker influence, mostly eclipsed by the Lonely at this point. Martin doesn’t really have powers from this one as much as he will get access to hodge podge of unusual side effects:

- Reads statements (or regular books!) flawlessly, with full acting and emotional range.
- Can’t feed on statements like Jon, but does know what they taste like, and gets a minor energy kickback from doing so.
- Gets spied on via tape recorder from time to time, and can generally summon one to where he is (assuming he’s doing something the Web the Eye would want to listen to).
- Is metaphysically bound to the current Archivist. Since Jon is here, this won’t really have any effect, but he could get rather ill if Jon ever drops.
- Has a very, very slight compulsion effect when asking questions, 100% resistible. Basically, most people feel more at ease telling him things than they would normally do with some random person. (So, in other words, the standard level of “RP makes strangers dump info at each other for no discernable reason except that it’s fun.”)

SUITABILITY: Martin’s canon is one of the very worst ones to live in as a normal person, especially from S5 when the world literally ended. Honestly? Hell will be QUITE the pleasant upgrade in comparison. No notes.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

SHUTEN: Honestly, the least suitable faction for Martin. He’s not good being mighty (see his physical description and being a large but soft fellow), he has little interest in parties, and he lies like a fucking rug all the time. Like. You could put Martin in Shuten! But literally his only function would be to mother hen all these idiots getting drunk or whatever. Clan role: designated mum. He would only work as a contrast and would hate absolutely every minute of it. Someone has to be responsible, probably, but he would loathe the fact that it’s him.

TAMAMO: Martin would be surprisingly good at Tamamo clan. Not the sex work part - he has so many hangups about doing something like that himself - but restaurants and cooking and cunning? Yes, absolutely. Regaining his Lonely abilities would also result in him being able to literally disappear people as well, which is another piece that lines up nicely. Martin is also the sort of person who seeks to keep everyone comfortable and cozy, often at his own expense. At least up until the part where he finally snaps and goes apeshit. He would probably do quite well owning/helping at some kind of tea shop, ryokan, etc. He would be useless at sex work unless he was working the front/doing support stuff.

SUTOKU: Oh boy, another round with a Magnus Institute analogue. Martin would certainly do just as well here as he would at home, except with quite a bit more petty sniping. He would be DAMN good at it though. Oh sure, he would look like the bumbling assistant, but he’s already found from his own experience that people tend to blather more around people that they underestimate. He would also give Jon a look into this other clan since that’s CLEARLY Jon’s clan and Martin frankly finds it HILARIOUS that Jon ended up as a cop somehow. He would be an excellent researcher and a surprisingly good spy. Here, again, is where Martin’s eventual Lonely powers would help him.

ENMA: Literally the only reason to put him here is to grant him and Jon some semblance of mercy. Please, Hell, let them room together. Otherwise, Martin would join Jon in doing the admin work for the department far more than any enforcing. Oh sure, Martin could try to do enforcement, but he’d be really more of a good cop contrast to the more bad cop types in the clan. He would also do well as a librarian or other civil servant type. And he’s certainly the sort who prefers order in his own life when given a chance. He would do well in a non-cop civil servant capacity.

SAMPLES

TDM toplevel! I threaded with 7 different people (including Jon), so I assume that’s plenty, but let me know if you need a second link. I’ve played Martin in a lot of different games.