APP FOR ryansgulch

[diedinnewyork]

☞ Player Information;
Name: Ramen
Player Journal: blackswanevent.at.dreamwidth.org
Age: 25
Contact: plurk me at socalramen

☞ Character Information;
Character Name: Edward Blake [The Comedian]
Canon: Watchmen
OU or AU?:OU
Canon point: Early in his book history, reaching into the before watchmen series.

Setting: Please provide all information concerning your character's home world or original setting as it relates to them. While we would prefer this section to be written out, providing links will be acceptable in the case of fandom characters.

History: If applying for a fandom character, you may provide a link here as long as the information provided in that link is sufficient. If not, we will ask you to write an expanded history.

Personality: Bruce Wayne once said that "Someone who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues." this statement is apropos to Watchmen because the series deals with individuals who feel the need to take on an identity and use it to do good, becoming people that they themselves wish they could be. A commentary both on superheroes and the people who love to read about them, it asks questions about who they are and why they do what they do presenting a world of people who are scared, frightened, ostracized and perhaps more desperate for acceptance and love then the rest of humanity because they are willing to take desperate action to be accepted-putting on masks and costumes to make themselves feel accepted and be the people who they want to be. They are to be envied, they are to be pitied, and the comedian is right up there with the best of them.

Edward Blake is a borderline sociopath with anti-social personality disorder. He is described as a particularly violent and brutal man who seems to enjoy the act of taking life and doing harm to others. While he calls himself a "masked hero" he defines vigilante. However he acts out of a need for justice and apparently has cleared most of the crime from the docks of New York city single handedly. Whatever sense of justice he has however deteriorates quickly in the course of his life and he becomes known as a mercenary, a soldier of fortune-the United State's fortune in particular.

The comedian is described as someone who practices Nihilism. According to Wikipedia is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Discussing his anti-social personality disorder it's easy to point out that earlier in life he came to believe that life was not worth living and a combination of potential depression and other psychological disorders dissolved into Life really sucks and I won't hear otherwise. It's this blank outlook on life however that gives him more insight into just how people like him work.

The Comedian does not fight for a cause in a costume, he fights for it because he knows he's a screw up and a fuck up (if you'll pardon the common terms). Being aware of your moral failings and the problems in your life can be detrimental, by his inclusion in the Crime Busters he has almost completely given up on human life and says that with the threat of nuclear war there's no real opportunity for anyone to do anything. His outlook is bleak and it could be argued that he knows it's his fault and that failures in his early life were responsible.

He is undoubtedly arrogant, arrogance being his only coping mechanism apart from violence. He describes the world as "A cruel joke that only he understands" That points to a sense of isolation from the rest of humanity. People who fight for a cause-even if it's their own warped version of a cause-could very easily either be looking for a fight or could have no understanding of what that cause means. The comedian is the latter, as illustrated later in his life attempting to reconcile with his daughter and her mother. As he grows older there's a sense of Oh shit, I might have really screwed up which is what makes him a candidate for the barge.

Misspent youth dissolving into isolated adult who was taught that violence was his only coping mechanism. It could be argued that the revelation of Viedt's insanity and his plan to bring about peace to humanity is responsible for his change of heart. He breaks into his enemy's apartment and rambles incoherently about the island and the squid. (Squiiiid.) Having put everything together and facing just what his problem was he realizes that life was worth living and that he had made mistakes. The final piece of evidence? His letter to his daughter:

Dear Laurie,

I don't know what your Mom has told you about me but I really

Well, I think that something terrible is going to happen soon, and before I die I just wanted you to know I lo

The comedian was a man afraid of everyone and nothing, representing the darker side of humanity encouraged by Stan Lee, Kirby, Major Wheeler-Nicholson, IDW, and the other comics. The notion that in order to fix his problems he would put on a mask and a costume and try to be something that he wasn't until he realized that too was futile and it was better to be the boogeyman. He put on a costume to defend himself from barbs and give his life meaning and purpose, it failed and he died with his faith in humanity a mystery-an issue that deserves to be explored

Abilities: Blake is a vigilante, a military man with military training and self training in discipline and self defense. He's proficient in at least five types of guns. He's fit and in good physical condition despite years of smoking cigars and hard living (seemingly). I'd like to assume he speaks at least one other language-in this case Russian due to his cold war activities.

He also demonstrates detective skills based on his discernment of Hooded Justice's sexuality (although presumably the others had discussed this at some length he was simply the first person to bring it up) but his tracking down of various enemies along with his discovery of the plot at the core of the book. (And what a plot. Squid. :( )

For the sake of his planned application, Eddie will be a few years younger (in his mid thirties) and resemble John Winchester

How did your character arrive in Rapture? "Hollis Mason arrived with a group of workmen to work on the bathysphere's replacing the trans Atlantic express. He is in fact, a cover government agent who is here investigating all of the things doing on under the sea.

Why are you choosing to continue your character's development here from another RP? Nope.

Network sample:

[Have a grumbling man in a very thick mustache who has his arms crossed.]

New arrivals to the city, 'specially us working men ought to have a pretty solid base for eating. Not eight rapture dollars for a turkey sandwich.

[He doesn't toss it however.]

This is the part where any sane man'd throw your food in your face Rapture. But seein' as how I gotta eat, I will parcel out my lunch. Lord knows I've lived on less.

Just a friendly reminder from the bottom of the barrel.

NETWORK SAMPLE TWO

[The network opens on a face. The face has been beaten and bruised. It's clearly the face of a splicer, but either he was asleep or low on Adam but now he's breathing through a broken nose and a voice, a sly voice speaks.]

Say it.

[The splicer spits blood.]

...saaayyy it.

[The splicer whimpers before speaking.] This is a warning to the criminal underworld of R-Rapture, your excuses wi-will not be tolerated- b-beware or y-you'll be cat food?

[That makes him stop] Cat food? How are we cat food?

Because you're fish. Under the sea dumbass. [Another wack, and the camera twists away to reveal a man in a leather mask.]

Hi boys and girls. Violent or not, there's a severe lack of justice in this city, and the police are doing shit. Rallys and protests do not win wars kids so here's how it works. Let's all obey the rules like a nice group of kids to avoid a bat upside the face.

I will give you credit however Ryan. For a zoo, this place is a place of opportunity.

Log sample: ookout you pissant commie fucks.

It was the police-those goddamn johnny blue backs bored with their position and what they'd been doing. This was their fault, and how any man expected to sleep easy when the city had been reduced to chaos was entirely another matter. So much for fucking loyalty.

As for loyalty take a look at them, the sheep, the ones the shepards had left behind barking jumping, licking howling.

Dan was saying something across the way, "...Police Strike is Over."

More people threw things. Fuck the Police. How decidedly catchy, "Dan this is getting us nowhere." He was about to suggest that they leave and disperse when a can came sailing up out of the crowd-close to hitting him hard.

"All right that's it."

This is the difference. One pissant commie fuck versus another. Who says they get to be treated differently?

He selected a woman and curled his fist and hit her as hard as he could. Then a man. He alternated between kicking and punching before the owl ship (Dreiberg had a shit name for it, some kid thing. It was a ship. That was it.) landed and the crowd dispersed.

"...We can't keep this up forever." He looked out of place in the night. The Comedian twisted his head around and studied a flag painted on the wall.

"You see this shit?" He kicked a can and people scattered, "I've seen it painted on walls. Some kind of crack about us."

"what are we going to do?"

"They're passing a new law that's going to outlaw masks." He clicked the gun's safety off, "We'll be out of a job in five or six hours. Just sit tight. Til then the city's ours." Charlie, recon, all of that. He could handle it. Like the clear purity of nam'. The roar of a battle field.

"What happened to us?"

How very like the self proposed owl to look for meaning in nothing. Dan was a special class of people between sheep and shepards. Monsters and Victims. Someone who looked up at the heavens and asked why.

One of these days he was going to get a knife in the ribs. And hell, given the way masks might go-it might very well be the Comedian who did it. Edward Morgan Blake shook his head and studied him with something like pity. In the animal kingdom there were the lions and the lions were America and it was only a matter of time before they became indulgent and their women became the hunters and the men stayed home and looked impressive.

Dreiberg sounded sad and horrified and a dozen or so possibilities went through Edward's head as he watched him slap his legs in frustration, "What happened to us? What happened to the American Dream?"

They'd still turn on each other. This was a prelude to the 20th century. America owned it. In all it's vainglorious splendor. "...It came true. You're looking at it."