Entry tags:
Application - The Last Voyages
User Name/Nick: Blue
User DW:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blue_rampion
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
blueflowers | blue[dot]rampion[at]gmail[dot]com
Other Characters Currently In-Game: NA
Character Name: Matthew Swift / The Blue Election Angels
Series: A Madness of Angels
Age: Mid-late 30s
From When?: Sometime after The Glass God.
Warden Justification:
Matthew is someone who could very easily be on the Inmate side of the equation, and he's self-aware enough to know it. He was driven by revenge against the man responsible for his murder, and there's a long list of people who are dead thanks to Matthew's actions. And from Matthew's own point of view, while he'd like to be a good person, deep down he doesn't really think he is. Particularly from earlier on in his canon, Matthew could quite easily have ended up an Inmate.
However, despite all of that, Matthew is also someone who has been able to learn from his mistakes, and who does not want others to suffer or die. He values people, explicitly so, over building and institutions. He's also got a lot of empathy for others, including those to have done terrible things (even to Matthew himself). One notable example of this is Oda - a woman whose fanatical religious beliefs had believing that magic was an evil force. Despite the fact that she quite frequently threatened to kill Matthew, she was still someone he was able to eventually empathise with. He could understand where she came from, and how she ended up the way she did, even if he absolutely did not condone or agree with her actions.
He's also taken on the role of a mentor figure before, particularly with his apprentice Penny. His focus with her is mostly on teaching her magical control, but it does also extend to helping her deal with the consequences of how her losses in control have hurt others.
Item:
A very, very tacky London souvenir magnet, shaped like a double-decker bus. The magnet can stick to anything in the direction of Matthew's inmate. Including the inmate themselves.
Abilities/Powers:
Matthew is an urban sorcerer, which means that he essentially derives his power from the city. Things like street lights, gas mains, power lines, water pipes, the traffic of the streets - these are the sorts of things that power Matthew's magic. On a deeper level, magic in Matthew's universe is comes from life. A city might not be alive biologically, but the routines and movement of living creatures within it imbue it with the trappings of life, and therefore power.
Sorcerers like Matthew differ from magicians in that magicians rely upon pre-written incantations, spells, and the invocation of powerful magical entities, while a sorcerer's magic relies on will, raw magic, and a more intuitive understanding of mystical forces. This gives sorcerers much greater power and flexibility, but it also means that they run the risk of getting lost in the magic of particularly powerful places.
Urban places aren't the only places that sorcerers can gain their power from - some sorcerers are more suited to drawing their power from nature, and things like blood and living creatures will always contain magic. As an urban sorcerer though, Matthew is naturally more suited to deriving his power from cities, and he's best with cities he's familiar with. Given enough time and motivation, he can adapt - but generally if you stick him in the forest he'll have very little that he can actually do.
As for what sorcerers actually do - quite a lot, and the limits are very fuzzy since it's a magic that is so dependent and changeable according to environment. But at it's core, sorcery is a manipulation of one's surroundings, and of the things which are already there.
Examples of what sorcerers have been seen to be able to do are:
As wide ranging as a sorcerer's abilities are, there are limits to them - since much of it is essentially a manipulation of what is already there, they can't pull things out of nowhere. In order for them to manipulate a gas main, it has to be there in the first place. It's easier to make someone fall asleep if it's the middle of the night and they are already tired, so they probably couldn't make someone who was wide awake fall asleep in the middle of the day. They can manipulate perceptions, but only by manipulating what people already expect - such as expecting that someone in a boring beige coat isn't someone they need to pay attention to.
In addition to his abilities as a sorcerer, Matthew is also sharing his body with the Blue Electric Angels. It’s more of a mind-merging than possession, though it does look an awful lot like possession. The angels are spirits of the telephone wire, who were born from the 'life' of people's conversations made over them. As such, they come with their own specific abilities.
As telephonic spirits, they can recall anything that people said into the phones, word for word (although presumably this only applies to things said before they were resurrected, and in their own universe). They can connect a mobile phone to a telephone switch-box and listen in on conversations on the wire. They also tend to know instantly whenever telephone conversations are happening nearby, and when they are close enough they can listen in without having to connect to a wire. They can also understand all of the languages that have been spoken on the telephone - but this is aural only, as they can't understand written language the same way.
The angels also have a very strong affinity for electricity and fire. They don't generate it out of nowhere, but they can draw upon the power of the city to create blue electric fire that burns across their skin. Manipulating electricity comes very naturally to them. And given enough power - enough meaning a hell of a lot - this can even manifest as a pair of blue electric wings that they can actually fly with. This is a dangerous move though, as the power to manifest the wings also means accessing so much power that they come extremely close to being lost in it, and it makes the angels dangerously high on the power.
Their blood also has unique properties, appearing as wriggling worms of bright blue light. (Their blood isn't always blue - often it's a normal red - but seems to become blue when they choose it to be so, or are doing particularly angely things.) They can set their blood on fire, and if their blood enters another person's bloodstream, they can use it both to curse that person or to keep them alive (although this isn't a very good way of healing, as it's extremely painful for the person being healed, and also can't completely heal someone).
Wardening Strategies and Philosophies:
How will your character respond to and operate on the Barge at large?
Matthew will have a lot of conflicting feelings about being a Warden. In many ways he will question the ethics of what they are doing here, and whether the Wardens really have the right to imprison and rehabilitate other people. He will whether he, specifically, can be justified acting as a Warden when he is all too aware that he could easily be an inmate.
However, he also knows the value of second chances. He might doubt the system he's agreed to be part of - but as long as he thinks there's hope for them, he absolutely will be motivated into trying to make things better for inmates. He knows from personal experience what it's like to have made bad decisions with terrible consequences.
How will they view their role as warden, and how will they engage their inmate in their efforts to help them on their path to redemption?
Matthew is not going to want to approach Inmates from a 'prisoner' and 'jail keeper' dynamic, because that is very much a dynamic he would detest. He's more likely to try and take the approach of a mentor or teacher, or even a friend (if the relationship with his Inmate lends itself to that). That doesn't mean that he'll take shit from them, however. There's a good chance that he may end up being that friend or mentor who tells you when you're being a shit and to get your act together.
What are their wardening strengths and weaknesses likely to be?
Matthew's ability to empathise and understand other people will be one of his biggest strengths - as well as the fact that he's someone who can personally understand what it's like to have done things you regret. For some of the Inmates, he's not going to see himself as being all that different from them.
On the flip side though, the fact that he's distrusting and wary of this entire arrangement could be a big weakness. There's also the fact that it's very hard for Matthew to trust people, and he tends to keep many of his thoughts, feelings, and history close to his chest.
What sorts of inmates would your character pair best with, and conversely, what sorts of inmates would they not be such a good fit for?
He'll do well with anyone who has control issues (as in many ways being a sorcerer is all having having to learn control). He absolutely will not do well with anyone who has become an inmate via serious abuses of other people, particularly if they have come from a position of wealth and power. Matthew's empathy does not extend to corrupt bankers, high-flying CEOs, or the 1% in general.
Deal:
Matthew is going to be wary of making a deal, because in his experience making any deals with incredibly powerful, mystical entities like the Admiral is an inherently risky action.
But at the same time, in Matthew's time as Midnight Mayor London has faced a number of increasing threats, and he's worried about others potentially still to come. Additionally, while London already does have a lot of magical defences, they're not perfect - and they often focus on saving the buildings and stones and places over people.
So, Matthew will ask for the Admiral to help set up an additional magical defence for London - one that focuses specifically on protecting ordinary people from supernatural threats.
History: here
Sample Network Entry: TDM thread with Arthur
Sample RP: TDM thread with Jedao
Special Notes:
As discussed a on Matthew's thread on the potential applications thread, I plan to use the fact that Matthew's magic is suited to city / urban environments, and not whatever the hell the Barge is, as a way to limit his ability to manipulate it in game-breakey ways. He'll still be able to use his magic, but it'll be in smaller ways (for example, he'll be able to do things like draw out electricity and make wards, but won't be able to manipulate the network and listen in to other conversations).
He's also going to regard the Barge as some Serious Magic Shit, and from his perspective it'll have some very significant magical defences that he can't just break through.
User DW:
blue_rampionE-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact:
Other Characters Currently In-Game: NA
Character Name: Matthew Swift / The Blue Election Angels
Series: A Madness of Angels
Age: Mid-late 30s
From When?: Sometime after The Glass God.
Warden Justification:
Matthew is someone who could very easily be on the Inmate side of the equation, and he's self-aware enough to know it. He was driven by revenge against the man responsible for his murder, and there's a long list of people who are dead thanks to Matthew's actions. And from Matthew's own point of view, while he'd like to be a good person, deep down he doesn't really think he is. Particularly from earlier on in his canon, Matthew could quite easily have ended up an Inmate.
However, despite all of that, Matthew is also someone who has been able to learn from his mistakes, and who does not want others to suffer or die. He values people, explicitly so, over building and institutions. He's also got a lot of empathy for others, including those to have done terrible things (even to Matthew himself). One notable example of this is Oda - a woman whose fanatical religious beliefs had believing that magic was an evil force. Despite the fact that she quite frequently threatened to kill Matthew, she was still someone he was able to eventually empathise with. He could understand where she came from, and how she ended up the way she did, even if he absolutely did not condone or agree with her actions.
He's also taken on the role of a mentor figure before, particularly with his apprentice Penny. His focus with her is mostly on teaching her magical control, but it does also extend to helping her deal with the consequences of how her losses in control have hurt others.
Item:
A very, very tacky London souvenir magnet, shaped like a double-decker bus. The magnet can stick to anything in the direction of Matthew's inmate. Including the inmate themselves.
Abilities/Powers:
Matthew is an urban sorcerer, which means that he essentially derives his power from the city. Things like street lights, gas mains, power lines, water pipes, the traffic of the streets - these are the sorts of things that power Matthew's magic. On a deeper level, magic in Matthew's universe is comes from life. A city might not be alive biologically, but the routines and movement of living creatures within it imbue it with the trappings of life, and therefore power.
Sorcerers like Matthew differ from magicians in that magicians rely upon pre-written incantations, spells, and the invocation of powerful magical entities, while a sorcerer's magic relies on will, raw magic, and a more intuitive understanding of mystical forces. This gives sorcerers much greater power and flexibility, but it also means that they run the risk of getting lost in the magic of particularly powerful places.
Urban places aren't the only places that sorcerers can gain their power from - some sorcerers are more suited to drawing their power from nature, and things like blood and living creatures will always contain magic. As an urban sorcerer though, Matthew is naturally more suited to deriving his power from cities, and he's best with cities he's familiar with. Given enough time and motivation, he can adapt - but generally if you stick him in the forest he'll have very little that he can actually do.
As for what sorcerers actually do - quite a lot, and the limits are very fuzzy since it's a magic that is so dependent and changeable according to environment. But at it's core, sorcery is a manipulation of one's surroundings, and of the things which are already there.
Examples of what sorcerers have been seen to be able to do are:
- Make wards, either through the use of circles or by spray painting symbols of the city (such as the London Underground symbol)
- Use spray paint to curse a building, which causes nylon chairs to give electric shocks, markers to squeak on the whiteboard, hinges to rust, glass to run, windows to stick shut, fans to whir, chairs to break, computers to crash, paper to crease, pens to smear, pipes to leak, cooler to drop, pictures to sag, phones to crackle, and wires to spark
- Manipulate vibrations to amplify a sound enough to burst people's eardrums, or pull sounds from the environment to release as thunder or force
- Control/manipulate parts of the environment, such as by pulling pipes or wires out of the walls and wrapping them around people, or warping concrete
- Pulling the light and heat out of lights, and then releasing/controlling that light
- Controlling the air, making it into walls of force, or using a fire extinguisher to make a small tornado from the gas
- Manipulating glass to shatter it, make it into a whirlwind of glass, or a protective barrier
- Draw strength and speed from electricity
- Transmutate objects, such as changing water into acid (although this is difficult and Matthew doesn't do it much)
- Change the shape of uncut keys to fit any lock
- Borrow the eyes of animals that live in the city, or communicating with them
- Hide from notice by enchanting the kind of coat that is ubiquitous to make people not notice you
- Manipulate the perception of objects, such as by making a quickly-flashed Oyster card look like official credentials
- Make someone unattentive or sleepy
- Manipulate machines, such as by tricking an ATM into thinking a business card is a bank card with unlimited balance, making CCTV cameras turn away, coaxing alarms into giving up their codes
- Scry someone from their belongings, or (with much more difficulty), from a phone connection after they've called
- Using city rules and regulations to create barriers - in London, the strongest ward you can create involves the Oyster card for the London Transport system
- Summon mystical entities such as the spirit of a railway line
- Sensing magic (which, due to the nature of their magic, also means sensing things like electrical and gas mains)
As wide ranging as a sorcerer's abilities are, there are limits to them - since much of it is essentially a manipulation of what is already there, they can't pull things out of nowhere. In order for them to manipulate a gas main, it has to be there in the first place. It's easier to make someone fall asleep if it's the middle of the night and they are already tired, so they probably couldn't make someone who was wide awake fall asleep in the middle of the day. They can manipulate perceptions, but only by manipulating what people already expect - such as expecting that someone in a boring beige coat isn't someone they need to pay attention to.
In addition to his abilities as a sorcerer, Matthew is also sharing his body with the Blue Electric Angels. It’s more of a mind-merging than possession, though it does look an awful lot like possession. The angels are spirits of the telephone wire, who were born from the 'life' of people's conversations made over them. As such, they come with their own specific abilities.
As telephonic spirits, they can recall anything that people said into the phones, word for word (although presumably this only applies to things said before they were resurrected, and in their own universe). They can connect a mobile phone to a telephone switch-box and listen in on conversations on the wire. They also tend to know instantly whenever telephone conversations are happening nearby, and when they are close enough they can listen in without having to connect to a wire. They can also understand all of the languages that have been spoken on the telephone - but this is aural only, as they can't understand written language the same way.
The angels also have a very strong affinity for electricity and fire. They don't generate it out of nowhere, but they can draw upon the power of the city to create blue electric fire that burns across their skin. Manipulating electricity comes very naturally to them. And given enough power - enough meaning a hell of a lot - this can even manifest as a pair of blue electric wings that they can actually fly with. This is a dangerous move though, as the power to manifest the wings also means accessing so much power that they come extremely close to being lost in it, and it makes the angels dangerously high on the power.
Their blood also has unique properties, appearing as wriggling worms of bright blue light. (Their blood isn't always blue - often it's a normal red - but seems to become blue when they choose it to be so, or are doing particularly angely things.) They can set their blood on fire, and if their blood enters another person's bloodstream, they can use it both to curse that person or to keep them alive (although this isn't a very good way of healing, as it's extremely painful for the person being healed, and also can't completely heal someone).
Wardening Strategies and Philosophies:
How will your character respond to and operate on the Barge at large?
Matthew will have a lot of conflicting feelings about being a Warden. In many ways he will question the ethics of what they are doing here, and whether the Wardens really have the right to imprison and rehabilitate other people. He will whether he, specifically, can be justified acting as a Warden when he is all too aware that he could easily be an inmate.
However, he also knows the value of second chances. He might doubt the system he's agreed to be part of - but as long as he thinks there's hope for them, he absolutely will be motivated into trying to make things better for inmates. He knows from personal experience what it's like to have made bad decisions with terrible consequences.
How will they view their role as warden, and how will they engage their inmate in their efforts to help them on their path to redemption?
Matthew is not going to want to approach Inmates from a 'prisoner' and 'jail keeper' dynamic, because that is very much a dynamic he would detest. He's more likely to try and take the approach of a mentor or teacher, or even a friend (if the relationship with his Inmate lends itself to that). That doesn't mean that he'll take shit from them, however. There's a good chance that he may end up being that friend or mentor who tells you when you're being a shit and to get your act together.
What are their wardening strengths and weaknesses likely to be?
Matthew's ability to empathise and understand other people will be one of his biggest strengths - as well as the fact that he's someone who can personally understand what it's like to have done things you regret. For some of the Inmates, he's not going to see himself as being all that different from them.
On the flip side though, the fact that he's distrusting and wary of this entire arrangement could be a big weakness. There's also the fact that it's very hard for Matthew to trust people, and he tends to keep many of his thoughts, feelings, and history close to his chest.
What sorts of inmates would your character pair best with, and conversely, what sorts of inmates would they not be such a good fit for?
He'll do well with anyone who has control issues (as in many ways being a sorcerer is all having having to learn control). He absolutely will not do well with anyone who has become an inmate via serious abuses of other people, particularly if they have come from a position of wealth and power. Matthew's empathy does not extend to corrupt bankers, high-flying CEOs, or the 1% in general.
Deal:
Matthew is going to be wary of making a deal, because in his experience making any deals with incredibly powerful, mystical entities like the Admiral is an inherently risky action.
But at the same time, in Matthew's time as Midnight Mayor London has faced a number of increasing threats, and he's worried about others potentially still to come. Additionally, while London already does have a lot of magical defences, they're not perfect - and they often focus on saving the buildings and stones and places over people.
So, Matthew will ask for the Admiral to help set up an additional magical defence for London - one that focuses specifically on protecting ordinary people from supernatural threats.
History: here
Sample Network Entry: TDM thread with Arthur
Sample RP: TDM thread with Jedao
Special Notes:
As discussed a on Matthew's thread on the potential applications thread, I plan to use the fact that Matthew's magic is suited to city / urban environments, and not whatever the hell the Barge is, as a way to limit his ability to manipulate it in game-breakey ways. He'll still be able to use his magic, but it'll be in smaller ways (for example, he'll be able to do things like draw out electricity and make wards, but won't be able to manipulate the network and listen in to other conversations).
He's also going to regard the Barge as some Serious Magic Shit, and from his perspective it'll have some very significant magical defences that he can't just break through.