application ( ryslig )

[sannikovas]

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Anne
Contact: passiones
Age:
Other Characters:

content warnings:
    ⨳ emotional manipulation
    ⨳ gaslighting
         ⤥ & fear of loss of sanity as a result
    ⨳ unreality
    ⨳ depersonalization
    ⨳ derealization
    ⨳ unusual experiences, including but not limited to
         ⤥ hearing voices
         ⤥ seeing visions
         ⤥ fear of persecution
    ⨳ assisted suicide

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Michael / The Distortion
Age:

It would be so neat if I could answer this concisely. The Distortion is millennia old, possibly "born" as early as the concept of lies and distrust began to bloom in the human mind. Michael Shelley's age has been contradicted in canon, making him anywhere from late 20s to late 40s at the time of his "death"; I'm planning to split the difference and go with late 30s. Michael as the Distortion was created 6-8 years before his unmaking. So the answer I'm going with is: tens of thousands of years, 38-ish, and 7. Who fucking knows.

Canon: The Magnus Archives
Canon Point: MAG 101, Another Twist, after his death
Character Information:

Michael Shelley ⨳ The Distortion

A NOTE ON IDENTITY ⨳ The Distortion was at one point a supernatural force of nature in alignment with the entity known as the Spiral. Michael Shelley was just some guy. The character I am apping is neither and both of these¹. Michael Shelley was thrust into the Distortion with the express intent of fucking it up by forcing it to contend with the concept of Self, of a truth of being, which is antithetical to its nature. As Michael himself describes it, "He became me. Even sharper than the joy of becoming is the agony of being opened and remade. To have your who torn bloody from your what, and another crudely lashed into its place. To become Michael." Imagine two lumps of playdough smashed together at high speed and mushed until it's almost (but not quite) entirely one color: that's what Michael the Distortion is. The character Helen who is mentioned in the Distortion wiki is, in the simplest terms, Michael's successor and as such not relevant to the weird mush of the character I'm applying for.

A(NOTHER) NOTE ON PRONOUNS ⨳ Michael uses both he/his and it/its interchangeably, depending on the moment, and is insistent on correcting to it/its when someone begins to treat it too much like a human being. On the other hand, when Helen takes over, there is no confusion: she does not want to be referred to as an "it". The conclusion I've drawn from this is that Michael switches between preferred pronouns at least in part due to his own identity confusion, which I will be incorporating into my RP. For the purposes of this app, I'm going to use he/him throughout for the sake of clarity since we already have so many identities jumbled up in here and I want the app to be comprehensible to the canonblind.

___________
¹ sorry

Personality:

“ He said his friend wasn’t like us, that having a name would only confuse them. ”

“ Honestly, I think [avatars like the Distortion] have it a lot worse than we do. Imagine being a hand that can conceive of itself — having impulses shot through you, being moved and clinched by some unseen mind — but never knowing the reasoning behind your own actions. ”

5-10 Key Character Traits:

⨳ in denial
⨳ conflicted
⨳ trusting
⨳ manipulative
⨳ bitter
⨳ playful
⨳ helpful (on his terms)
⨳ insecure

Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? Conflicts probably?????? Either??? I can't tell if he'd fit/conflict with fae so I guess either
Opt-Outs:

⨳ nymph (giorno)
⨳ mer (beato)
⨳ shade (lila???)
⨳ arachne
⨳

absolute no's: arachne, slime, troll, lich, sim, goblin, nephilim
may move: nephilim, shade

Roleplay Sample:

Comments

[sannikovas]

ARCHIVIST
Yes. But I’m only recently realising just how dangerous you are.

HELEN
Of course I’m dangerous, John. I’m a monster, just like you. and you can’t kill all of us.

ARCHIVIST
No. You’re dangerous because for all the torture and cruelty, you still somehow got us to think you’re our friend.

HELEN
I am your friend.

ARCHIVIST
No. You’re not. That’s just what you distort. It’s why you spin, but you never quite lie. The corridors, the warped body, it’s all just set dressing, isn’t it? It’s not the reality of what you actually are.

HELEN
And what, actually, am I?

ARCHIVIST
You’re a question.

HELEN
“What lurks behind the door?”

ARCHIVIST
To some. But that would be The Stranger or The Dark. No, you are the question of “What lurks behind a smile?” Is a friendship true, or is it reaching out with hands that cut you?

HELEN
Oh, I see. Very good.

ARCHIVIST
Even I didn’t see it properly, not at first. Not until the tunnels, when you wouldn’t help. When you laughed.

HELEN
Oh, come on. That wasn’t a deception, that was barely a betrayal!

ARCHIVIST
You worked to hurt us and help us, all with the same smile, until we can barely tell one from the other. Keeping us off-balance, constantly second-guessing our own opinions of you. Never quite crossing a line we could never forgive, but never putting yourself on the line either. And when one face finally stopped smiling, you just changed the face.

HELEN
Fine. So if that’s all true… why? Why would I do any of that? What’s my actual motive?

ARCHIVIST
I don’t think you even have one. It’s just what you are.

HELEN
Oh, well done. Very poetic.

[sannikovas]

ARCHIVIST
Helen… Was that… a lie?

HELEN
[Too quickly] No!

ARCHIVIST
A lie. A genuine untruth. Like a little bit of loose thread, flitting in the breeze.

HELEN
Fine. You can go.

[SHIFTING, AND A NEW DOOR OPENS]
There’s the door. Just go!

ARCHIVIST
Ceaseless Watcher!

HELEN
No!

[THROUGH THE INCANTATION, THE HARSH BUZZ OF STATIC MINGLES WITH CREAKING WOODWORK AND CRUMBLING CRICK]
ARCHIVIST
See this lie, this golden strand of falsehood. Take it in your gaze and pull it, follow through its curves and twists and knots as it unravels all before you.

HELEN (BACKGROUND)
No. No! No! No, Archivist! Stop! John, it’s me, it’s Helen. It’s me. I’ve always been your friend. Don’t do this to me. I have always helped you. I have always helped you and lent you doors. Think of all that I have done for you. If you do this, everyone inside me is dead!

ARCHIVIST
Unweave it now, its fear and its falsehood, its hidden teeth and the ones it wears so proudly.

HELEN (BACKGROUND)
You’re no different – You are no different from me! You can’t save anyone!

ARCHIVIST
Take all that it is and all that it has. It is yours!