Invisible Full Moon
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
"One long-past innocent day, in my prefolly youth, I came upon a statement in an undistinguished textbook on psychiatry that, as when Kant read Hume, woke me forever from my garden-of-eden slumber. "The psychotic does not merely think he sees four blue bivalves with floppy wings wandering up the wall; he does see them. An hallucination is not, strictly speaking, manufactured in the brain; it is received by the brain, like any 'real' sense datum, and the patient act in response to this to-him-very-real perception of reality in as logical a way as we do to our sense data. In any way to suppose he only 'thinks he sees it' is to misunderstand totally the experience of psychosis."
- Philip K. Dick
| |
| Invisible Full Moon | |
| Player: @DescendingStars | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Controller |
| Security Level: | ' |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Joachim Nabokov |
| Known Aliases: | none |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 20 |
| Height: | 178cm |
| Weight: | 68kg |
| Eye Color: | red |
| Hair Color: | blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | homeless |
| Place of Birth: | Providence, RI |
| Base of Operations: | Perez Park, Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | Eva and Karl Nabokov (mother and father), Anthony, Theodore, Gregory (brothers), Monica (sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| insanity-causing eyes | |
| Known Abilities | |
| none | |
| Equipment | |
| mirrored sunglasses | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Origin
Born January 7, 1988 in Providence, Rhode Island, Joachim Nabokov was the second-youngest of five siblings, and raised by a perfectly normal upper-middle-class family. Aside from being born with albinism, giving him a unique pair of red eyes, there was nothing unusual about his birth.
His childhood was normal. One might even go so far as to call it enviable: A close circle of friends, above-average grades, center back on the Junior Varsity soccer team. But as he grew older, he grew more distant from others. He began showing less emotion, his behavior and personality becoming stranger as he complained often of blacking out and hearing voices. At age 17 he was brought in to a psychologist and diagnosed with schizophrenia and identity disorder, though no cause was found: No history of the illnesses were in either of his parents' bloodlines, his childhood held no stressors or traumatic events, nothing. A steady regiment of medication and psychological counseling was prescribed, but after two years nothing changed. Knowing that he couldn't get into college or get a job like this, he signed himself into Butler Hospital for full-time treatment.
His treatment at the mental health ward did little to change his behavior or cure his problems. Three months into his stay, however, he suddenly went catatonic, lying motionless on his bed. All attempts to rouse him or cause a reaction proved to be futile. Fortunately he awoke two days later, with his mood and psyche improved greatly: While still far from sane, his periods of disassociation had lessened in both frequency and duration, his speech was more collected and he was fully capable of differentiating between reality and delusion. One doctor asked him what happened during his catatonia, but his only reply was "parley."
There was one strange drawback: During his catatonia his eyes were changed somehow, causing any who made eye contact with him to be driven temporarily insane. Joachim could not provide an explanation for this, but apologised for what happened to the doctor that first discovered that it was possible. Fortunately a set of mirrored sunglasses was able to prevent this from happening and his treatment was able to continue without any more problems.
A few weeks after this incident orders were filed to transfer him to another ward across the state. Unfortunately the bus he was on at the time was attacked and run off the road by a gang trying to "rescue" one of their members. They were stopped by Joachim, who drove them to insanity with his eyes, then single-handedly took them down. After this, he disappeared, last seen walking down the road in the direction of Paragon City for reasons unknown.
Personalities
Joachim
Joachim is a very subdued person, rarely showing any sort of strong emotion. He speaks in a very slow, deliberate tone, often stopping mid-sentence to put his words in order before talking again. When he doesn't he often becomes incoherent, and either way he has a habit of referring back to himself no matter what the topic. Despite his mental illness he seems smart and non-threatening, though this does not stop him from sometimes talking and referring to his hallucinations/alternate personalities as if they were really there.
He has leftist leanings in both religious (as an agnostic who spent a great deal of time around the mentally ill, he's wary of anyone claiming to be connected to gods) and social matters, knowing that the current laws in Paragon can't stop crime effectively but still following them until something better comes along. While Joachim himself tries not to kill whenever possible, the same cannot be said for some of his other personalities, who often appear when working with people who do. None of them have any problems with stealing from criminals, though, which is how he earns enough to stay fed.
Luna
"Of course you hate women. *Everybody* hates women. They taunt and tease and are attractive and punish you for being attracted. Not that I blame them... heh."
One of the two female personalities, Luna is a self-described monster. She shows signs of personality disorder, [1] and [2], Luna is shameless, extremely confident to the point of arrogance and enjoys humiliating and shaming of other people, nearly all of which happen to be male (Joachim included). Luna claims to have been "born" from three things - man's lust for women, his anger at the denial of what he considers his by right and the guilt he feels over his actions and desires - and explains away her actions as simply giving men what they want: Punishment and victimization for their own faults. Wierdly enough, she gets along fine with other women.
Drago
"It is an outdated sentiment, to be sure, but please... allow this old fool his fantasies."
The most mature of Joachim's personalities, Drago comes across as being far older one might think. He is gracious, well-spoken, charitable and, while slow in action, usually sees things through to the end once begun. A pacifist, he often takes the role of mediator in conflicts (something which Luna finds very funny) and considers himself a white knight when it comes to women, despite knowing full well how meaningless it is in this day and age. For something which doesn't even exist he's very well-read, having a range of knowledge far greater than Joachim's. No explanation has been given for how or why this is even possible.
Dawn
"Well, y'know, if you wanted to do something later on I know this great spot in Striga, the sunrise there is frick'n GORGEOUS, and maybe after that we could, I dunno..."
The second female personality, Dusk is immature in both actions and speech, often stuttering, rambling on and tripping over her own words. She is easily distracted, very friendly to the point of making friends with villains, extremely emotional and filled with a childlike wonder for any new sights or events she comes across. She's also a lesbian, a fact that she very rarely mentions in conversation but often comes up, as she is the only one who shows any interest in women most of the time. The chosen target of harassment for Luna when she isn't needling Joachim.
Dusk
"You can't expect much from animals, after all."
Dusk (his given name, one he hates) is bitter, nihilistic (though he prefers the term "realistic"), cynical and condescending, even more so than Luna. He openly expresses disgust at humanity, calling them "animals" and their beliefs as "delusions," and is convinced that civilization is one big lie created by people to convince themselves that they're better than other life forms on the planet and that their self-destruction is not only inevitable but the most desirable, logical outcome. He holds mutants in even greater disgust, calling them "freaks" and refusing to speak directly to them whenever possible ("They believe themselves to be gods among men; a delusion twice-damned."). His appearances are far less frequent than the other three, though the other three don't consider this a bad thing.
Powers
"Lunatic Eyes"
Joachim's only power comes from his eyes and is triggered when people make eye contact, causing catatonia, paranoia, hysterical blindness, vertigo and/or psychosomatic pain, among other things. The insanity isn't permanent, although there might be long-term effects he isn't aware of. In order to keep everyone around him from going crazy, he wears a pair of specially-made mirrored sunglasses, only taking them off when absolutely necessary.
((OOC Notes))
- ((I based this toon on an old chat room RP character of mine as well as the character Inaba Udonge Reisen from the fighting game Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and someone I went to high school with. If you're reading this, hi Alex! *waves*))
- ((The names of Joachim's other personalities are based on the pen and paper RPG Exalted.))
- ((I'm looking for an active SG where Joachim might fit in. If you know of one, leave a message on the talk page!))
