[Application | Ophiuchus]

[necrowmantic]

✖ PLAYER:
Name & DW Journal: Siren, rainbowcrow
Plurk: blackbirding
Birthdate & Age: 09.27.1984; 29
Characters played in Ophiuchus: N/A

✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Henry
Canon: Fire Emblem: Awakening
PB/Image: [Here]
Info links: (for the character), (for the game)
Canon Point: Endgame: Grima
Gender & Sex: Male
Age: ~20
Birthdate/Sign: November 13/Scorpio (Canon)
Tattoo: On the top of his left hand, covering it.
Suitability: N/A

Power:
Henry's a dark mage in canon, so he has access to both tome-related magic (offensive spells cast through specific books), and hexes. Tome spells are typically elemental or dark in nature (summoning a bolt of fire, a cloud of cutting shadows, etc.), but are ultimately limited- since each casting wears the book down a little, eventually leaving it completely unusable. If possible, Henry would bring a couple of the basic tomes with him, which would be used up over time.

Hexes, on the other hand, canon is a lot more vague about, but seem to be extremely variable in function. Henry has a special fondness for death curses (with varying degrees of gore involved), though effectiveness is at least partially based on the willpower of the victim, and what sort of materials he has on hand. The more complicated the task, the more time/objects are necessary (like having the hair or blood of the target). Hexes are also capable of temporarily reversing time (as to briefly repair a broken object, or to force someone to experience the same moment repeatedly), communicate with the dead, switch bodies, or cause a perpetually runny nose. Though he's stated not having much of an interest in "useless" curses like the latter, Henry is capable of testing and creating new hexes based on whatever goal he's trying to accomplish. It's usually death-related. On a somewhat more sympathetic side, he also developed a curse that would kill someone instantly and painlessly the moment they were mortally wounded- purely so they wouldn't have to fear or suffer a lingering death. Offering to cast it on someone is a sign of friendship, really.

If hexing of any sort is allowed, anything that could affect another character would only be done with player permission. And though he's supposedly very good at it, he'd also be limited by the lack of natural resources. Willpower only goes so far. :x Sometimes you just really need a few dozen bat wings.

Personality:
The first thing to notice about Henry is his abundance of optimism. His good-nature is untouchable, his laughter so common as to be almost a verbal tic in itself. Whatever the situation is, he reacts with the same calm; nothing phases him, annoys him, bothers him, or causes him to pick up a grudge. Though not especially social, and with little-to-no experience with things like "friendship", his easygoing nature could make coexisting with him simple enough. If one can get over the fact that he's also overwhelmingly, shamelessly, happily, morbid.

His fascination with blood, death- anything gruesome and monstrous and terrible and vile- is nothing short of obsession. Not that this affects his disposition; Henry is exactly as cheerful when he's talking about blowing up foes, as he is about anything else (not that he talks about much else). Death and dying is his most favorite topic, and he'll discuss everything with an ever-present smile.

But it's not to say that he's excitable. He isn't; and despite his professed love for battle and slaughter, he never loses control, is never taken by blood-lust or anything other than a calm enthusiasm for killing. His roster description in game names him "the one with the lowest heart rate." Henry is not prone to emotions.

Even if his claimed happiness isn't exactly a lie, it's not entirely true either. He's not a secret angst bomb, he doesn't rue his terrible life; Henry just doesn't feel much at all. Good or bad or otherwise, he doesn't think too deeply about anything, and it's next to impossible to get him to admit (or even realize) that something is anything less than fun. And the worse something is, the more likely Henry'll consider it fantastic, especially if it involves bodily injury. Even if it's his own. Especially if it's his own. Despite that, he's not remotely masochistic (as pain is one of the only things he's stated to dislike), but it works out in the end- as his exceptional nerve damage has left him with a very limited ability to feel pain. Not sensation in general, apparently, but even deep stab wounds can go unnoticed if he's not careful. Henry considers this a good outcome overall, as it means the chance to enjoy a horribly gory death without having to feel it.

This personality didn't happen overnight, and is the result of his upbringing. His parents were neglectful, abandoning him much of the time to the forest, and Henry was primarily raised by animals instead of people. A wolf in particular was his best friend- at least, until she was killed by adults, after coming into his village to look for him. Henry claims to have murdered everyone involved, and it's implied that this was when his magical power really started manifesting. It wasn't long after this that he was sent away to an orphanage/school, where his guardians were extremely abusive. Apart from almost dying at least once, and ending up with permanent nerve damage during the course of his stay there, Henry is vague about what exactly happened to him. But he credits it for developing his "kind and gentle" personality, and treats the experience with the same cheerfulness as everything else. It's unknown when exactly he left the facility, though he does claim to have killed a hundred people there with a single curse. Probably. When questioned too much about it, Henry's as likely as not to decide that he doesn't remember the details, and to change the subject to something else.

When it comes to other people, Henry is not good at considering them as people. Foes are great and fun to slaughter, and even allies are seen in much the same light. This was exceptionally true when he was with the Plegian army, as he stayed there for only as long as it was interesting, and never formed any real connections to anyone. There was one commander, Mustafa, who Henry at least listened to, and according to other soldiers, was rather docile and obedient under him. Henry even describes Mustafa as treating him like family, and it is true that he left the Plegians soon after his death. But it would be too much to say that he cared- it was more that the one person who could control him wasn't there any longer, so he had no reason not to shrug and move on the moment he was bored, and something more interesting turned up. Even if the "more interesting" included murdering his former comrades to help out the enemy forces. Two years later, he joins up with the Ylisseans properly, and it's only then that he starts to develop at all.

But it's not retrospective, as despite all of that, Henry is completely indifferent to Mustafa's death, and doesn't seem to understand why he should hold a grudge against the Ylissean army for it, or for anyone else they killed that he knew. Not even in a sort of "you did what you had to" accepting sort of way- Henry honestly doesn't get why something like that should bother him. Why he should be at all conflicted by joining the Ylisseans, despite being from Plegia, from the country and army they'd recently been in war with.

So on a base level, Henry is easygoing and friendly and entirely callous. Even so, he doesn't mean badly, and to some degree is aware that he's not good with humans, and that his sense of morality is "a little messed up." Over time, with the way interaction works in Fire Emblem, Henry is still capable of forming supports with other characters, which generally progress from him seeing his new allies as being especially fun to potentially murder, to being willing to do anything he can to protect them. He still doesn't get emotional about it, and tends to laugh off direct questions about friendship, but it is certain that when he cares about someone, he does so very intensely. And shamelessly. If he avoids questions, it's not out of fear or embarrassment, but more an aversion to serious thought. And when he does admit to caring or love, it's abrupt and casual and entirely sincere.

On the flip side, most characters consider Henry unpleasant and creepy when they first meet him. When getting to know him, this reaction often changes to curiosity- and in some cases concern, as they pick up on how artificial his cheerfulness is. That no matter how much they talk to him, they never feel like they know who he is, and that his personality is just a facade. He's described by several characters as "hollow." Henry only laughs it off, and claims to not understand what they mean.

And at times, he actively encourages people to have a negative view of him. He doesn't protest insults, actively appreciates threats, and will go out of his way to make his carnage sound as random and unsympathetic as possible. He doesn't defend himself verbally, and on the rare occasion where he's actually complimented for something- he brushes it off, turning it back into praise for the other person, doing what he can to change the subject. Henry doesn't have the best self-image. Even when it was pointed out that he was deliberately avoiding getting innocents caught in the crossfire, that he was fighting in such a way as to keep enemies away from non-combatants- he ignored the statement and moved on. As much as he loves talking about blood and violence, and as much as he is willing to kill whoever necessary, whoever he's ordered to (as he describes himself as a good soldier), his brutality is not random. Remorseless and casual, but not without some sort of cause.

He also likes animals! Henry claims to be able to speak to anything that's alive, be it bird or tree or flower. It's left unclear if this is actually true, or whether he's lying, or just delusional- but he is very good with animals in any case. Crows in particular are known to follow him around. He also thinks turning into one would be pretty awesome, and loves the idea of horrible bodily mutations in general.

✖ SAMPLES:
"Ophiuchus" First-Person Network Entry:
Linked from Asgard: http://asgardeventide.dreamwidth.org/740700.html


"Cebalrai (logs)" Third-Person Prose Entry:

Optimistic.

Well, he couldn't argue with it. The only tiny, quibbling complaint Henry had was about the timing. He was just going off to fight Grima- the fell dragon, fully restored, fully capable of wiping out humanity and creating a future ruled by their shambling corpses. A future that had already happened... technically.

But win or lose, Henry could already imagine the kind of injuries he might end up with, and with as pleasantly disoriented as he was, he had to wonder if this whole other world thing was the result of a particularly strong mind-controlling hex. If so, he was impressed. He hadn't noticed a thing! The form letter was a nice touch too, and he appreciated the tiny touches of individuality. Optimism, huh; had someone been watching him? He'd have to find them later and melt their eyeballs out in gratitude. Or maybe something more personal? With no sign of the culprit in sight, he had time to think about it. With a world-encompassing spell like this in place, he really didn't want to disappoint any foes with something lame in return. And it certainly sounded like there was some sort of big fight going on somewhere, if the letter was to be trusted. And since there was no way of proving it was wrong- well, why not go along with it?

The new tattoo on his hand was another point of interest (not the mark of Grima, not the mark of anything he recognized), and had the look of something that should be sore. Maybe it would get infected! Maybe his entire hand would rot away, and wouldn't that be something?

Finding other people in the tunnels, Henry sidles up to them, and almost asks their opinion on the likelihood of hand-rotting- before another, even more pressing idea comes to mind.

"Hey hey, do you think we'll find a way out before we starve to death?" If the eagerness in his tone wasn't enough, it's punctuated with a laugh. Whatever this new world was, real or illusion, he could already imagine the possibilities.

"Maybe we'll have to eat each other!"