Clay Kaczmarek (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whatcenturyisit) wrote2012-05-26 07:27 pm
whatcenturyisit) wrote2012-05-26 07:27 pm
APPLICATION ▶ ZODION
✖ PLAYER:
Name & DW Journal: Killiana /diciassette
Birthdate & Age: 6-17-88 (23)
Characters played in Zodion: Altaïr, Nathan Drake
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Clay Kaczmarek
Canon: Assassin's Creed
PB/Image: This guy!
Info links: Clay @ the AC Wiki
Canon Point: Assassin's Creed Revelations // Deletion
Gender & Sex: Male/Male
Age: 30
Birthdate/Sign: Virgo; September 6; non-canon // Virgos are known for being altruistic, dedicated, and sharp in their criticisms -- a good match for a man that killed himself in order to pass on a message to his successor. Dedication is pretty much Clay's defining feature, his talent for planning and organization is evident in his carefully planned suicide, and he typically favors being blunt, snarky, and honest over other means of communication.
Tattoo: Over his heart
Suitability: N/A
Power: Earth Manipulation (clay)
Personality:
Clay's been rendered a bit of a tangled mess since his run-in with Abstergo, on account of the personality-destroying experiments and the betrayal and the death. And, because of what has happened to him, he's made it hard for others to make heads or tails of his motivations or thought processes. That's not entirely his fault, of course, but there's an element of deliberation in his obscuring antics. He doesn't talk much about himself when it comes to helping out Desmond, even though he psuedo-sulks over Desmond never being told his name. He makes few references to his own life or experiences unless he's talking about his death and the Bleeding Effect. When he does talk about such personal subjects, he adopts a careless and morbid sense of humor about them. He refers to his deceased body as worm food, and acts like it's no big deal when denied the opportunity to escape the Animus for good.
While his careless, casual attitude isn't exactly an act, it's not a natural state of mind for him, either. When Clay's sanity fell to pieces, it took his personality down with it, and he's only recently been able to start picking apart the wreckage in search of something salvageable. He feels and acts and claims instability because he is unstable. After he accepted Lucy's betrayal, he latched to his mission of assisting Desmond because it was all he had left. William was out of reach, Lucy had thrown him to the wolves, and the only decent company he had an ancient recording of a long dead 'god' made thousands of years ago. That's the sort of thing that changes a person, and, for now, it's changed Clay into something of a snarky, sarcastic troll.
While it may be how he appears, it’s really only how he presents himself to others; in truth, there's quite a bit about himself that Clay hides and doesn't call attention to anymore. After all, the last time he really trusted someone he got burned -- and badly enough that it ended with his messy suicide. So he dodges and misdirects and doesn't say, for example, that he's someone that's always wanted to make a difference. He wants his work to have purpose. He may have gone to school for engineering, but he was originally interested in history, and he only shifted his focus away from that under pressure from his father. He's not someone that can exist happily doing work that lacks a greater purpose. Before being recruited to the Assassins he was cagey, belligerent, and obsessive; he responded poorly to criticism from his peers, and was demanding when speaking with his psychiatrist. At one point he even stole said psychiatrist's notes.
Once given a purpose (which at first was to serve as a member of the Assassin order, recently is to protect and assist Desmond Miles, a fellow Assassin), Clay is an entirely different person. He's happier, calmer, and more focused than he would be otherwise. He's dedicated, and whatever duty he chooses for himself (or in some cases is chosen for him) is an anchor that keeps him stable. When dealing with something related to said duty, Clay can keep a calm head in nearly any situation. Alarms going off all around him aren't a big deal when he's got something important to take care of! He's got an earnest, straightforward, and level-headed air about him when he's doing something that matters.
And when he's not, he's almost an entirely different person. He's got a lot of anger towards his father, Harold, for a lot of different reasons -- trying to control Clay's life, driving his mother away, berating Clay for his life choices, and demanding Clay's money to support himself -- just to name a few. For a long time, Clay saw his father as a good father, someone worth looking up to. The veil was lifted after Harold drove away his wife, Clay's mother, with the harsh demands his made of his family.
And he can get dragged into even deeper levels of despair than that. Since recompiling himself inside the Animus, Clay hasn't had quite as many fits of trauma or stress over his death. But, they are still there, lurking just below the surface when he runs out of distractions, and when the enormity of what was done to him really crashes down on him. The Bleeding Effect will pull at his mind as long as he's in a body with the DNA to match. Its effects no longer crop up as often as they used to, but when they do it leaves him prone to hallucinations, paranoid tangents, fits of rage, crying jags, and other unpleasant, unexpected behavior.
Finally, there are several people in Clay's life that deserve a mention for the huge impact they've had on him. First off is Lucy. Lucy betrayed him. She betrayed him and he knows it, and to an extent he even knows why. He cared about Lucy, and he protected her as best as he could. On one hand, he feels like he failed at the whole protection thing. On the other hand... well, she still betrayed him. His thoughts on Lucy are best summed up with 'it's complicated'. He still cares about her, and he's still upset that she opted to trap him in Abstergo rather than help him escape. But, he's an Assassin, she's a Templar, and he doesn't think the two of them can bridge the gap between their fundamentally different beliefs. He doesn't trust her anymore, and he probably never will again.
Desmond, on the other hand... Desmond is something else altogether. A fellow Assassin and a fellow prisoner of Abstergo, Clay first 'introduced' himself to Desmond by tearing open his wrists and using his blood to paint symbols all over the walls of Desmond's future prison. He died in the process, but left further messages for his successor to discover later on. And within these messages were encoded pieces of an AI reconstruction of Clay himself. This AI was Clay's only means of living on, and it was all up to Desmond to put the program together to give Clay a second chance. Oh, and when Desmond eventually slipped into a coma and needed to be protected from the Animus' attempts to delete the two of them, Clay ended up giving up his life a second time to protect him. He's put a lot of faith in Desmond's ability to succeed at saving the world, and sacrificed a lot in order to help him. Dying twice isn't going to curb that drive to assist and protect the younger Assassin.
And then there's William Miles: Desmond's father and the current de facto leader of the Assassin Order. Even though he's a distant, cold, unfeeling, and very difficult man to work with, Clay has a tremendous amount of respect for William. Old Bill is the one that recruited Clay to the Assassins when Clay had no direction, and is the one that gave him the opportunity to do something more with his life, the way Clay had always wanted. He followed William's orders willingly - and maybe even a little blindly. Clay puts a lot of trust in William, and he's willing to go through a lot of dangerous situations because he trusts what William says is best for the order.. Clay's thoughts on William are the most straightforward, but that doesn't make them any less significant.
✖ SAMPLES:
"Zodion" First-Person Network Entry: Isn't it customary to send the invitations before dragging someone to the party? [There's the sound of crinkling paper. Clay's obviously found his letter.] The phone is a nice consolation prize, at least.
[The sound of crinkling paper grows louder as Clay crumples up his letter.] So who's to thank for the surprise vacation, free tattoo, brand new phone, and this comfortable apartment? And what are you expecting in return for the generosity I literally couldn't refuse?
"Zodionlogs" Third-Person Prose Entry: Well, this was certainly different. It felt-- real, in a way he wasn't used to anymore. The pain on his chest where the new tattoo had abruptly appeared was unfamiliar by now. Having a body felt strange and heavy after more than a year of working with the Animus, and two months living in it. Realizing that reality was now the strange part, with the Animus as the norm, was a depressing thought. That didn't keep him from thinking it.
It didn't stop him from wondering, either.
Carefully he pushed himself upright, for the moment more intrigued than annoyed by the return of muscles that he hadn't actually had for the past however many weeks. That would get old before long, he was sure; the physical exhaustion would be unfamiliar to the point of being debilitating after he'd gotten so used to only worrying about his mental state anymore. Now he had both to contend with, but...
But he couldn't convince himself that was altogether a bad thing. He felt fine, which was something else he wasn't used to. He wasn't sure what sort of effect this 'being resurrected from the dead' thing would have on him -- or anyone -- but it would be a lie if he claimed that he wasn't curious.
Before long his curiosity would overtake his caution, and he'd be pushing himself again. But for now... for now, he was going to let himself have a quiet moment. It would be nice to have one for his own reasons, and not just because he had no other option.
REVISION REQUEST: 1ST PERSON SAMPLE
Alright, after a bit of thought I decided to write a database entry for Clay's revised samples. In canon, Clay writes and maintains a database of people, places, and events to provide support to his fellow Assassins (but usually Desmond), and he'll continue this practice once he settles into Zodion.
Zodion. The name is appropriate, what with the Twelve presiding over us and the tattoos we all receive upon arrival. The basics are fairly simple. There's a god for each sign of the western Zodion, with three signs and one district for each of the four traditional elements. You'll find Earth to the north, Air to the east, Fire to the south, and Water to the west. There's a temple for each district except for Earth, which has both its own temple and the main one. The market district can be found in the middle of the island.
But I'm sure the geography lesson is boring you. What really makes this place interesting is the worship that goes on here, with worship taking the form of sex of any type. Sex happens a lot even without prompting from all-powerful forces, but here it's also required. There are 'encouragements' if you abstain for too long, though many of the residents view them more as punishments. You'd think consequence-free sex would appeal to more people.
Apparently not. The first two weeks of abstinence you won't notice much. On the third you'll start to get dreams; persistent, disturbing, and pushy. The fourth week is the fun part. Not only will you need sex, it'll also be the only thing you can think about anymore. You're only required to do the deed once a month. Once every other week sounds like a safer bet to me.
Why? The Twelve need it, according to them. They say that worlds are in danger. All of them, apparently. They won't really say from what, of course, and they seem content to dodge around the matter of 'how' Honestly, though, what did you expect? Mythological figures aren't exactly known for their honesty or forthrightness.
Name & DW Journal: Killiana /
diciassetteBirthdate & Age: 6-17-88 (23)
Characters played in Zodion: Altaïr, Nathan Drake
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Clay Kaczmarek
Canon: Assassin's Creed
PB/Image: This guy!
Info links: Clay @ the AC Wiki
Canon Point: Assassin's Creed Revelations // Deletion
Gender & Sex: Male/Male
Age: 30
Birthdate/Sign: Virgo; September 6; non-canon // Virgos are known for being altruistic, dedicated, and sharp in their criticisms -- a good match for a man that killed himself in order to pass on a message to his successor. Dedication is pretty much Clay's defining feature, his talent for planning and organization is evident in his carefully planned suicide, and he typically favors being blunt, snarky, and honest over other means of communication.
Tattoo: Over his heart
Suitability: N/A
Power: Earth Manipulation (clay)
Personality:
Clay's been rendered a bit of a tangled mess since his run-in with Abstergo, on account of the personality-destroying experiments and the betrayal and the death. And, because of what has happened to him, he's made it hard for others to make heads or tails of his motivations or thought processes. That's not entirely his fault, of course, but there's an element of deliberation in his obscuring antics. He doesn't talk much about himself when it comes to helping out Desmond, even though he psuedo-sulks over Desmond never being told his name. He makes few references to his own life or experiences unless he's talking about his death and the Bleeding Effect. When he does talk about such personal subjects, he adopts a careless and morbid sense of humor about them. He refers to his deceased body as worm food, and acts like it's no big deal when denied the opportunity to escape the Animus for good.
While his careless, casual attitude isn't exactly an act, it's not a natural state of mind for him, either. When Clay's sanity fell to pieces, it took his personality down with it, and he's only recently been able to start picking apart the wreckage in search of something salvageable. He feels and acts and claims instability because he is unstable. After he accepted Lucy's betrayal, he latched to his mission of assisting Desmond because it was all he had left. William was out of reach, Lucy had thrown him to the wolves, and the only decent company he had an ancient recording of a long dead 'god' made thousands of years ago. That's the sort of thing that changes a person, and, for now, it's changed Clay into something of a snarky, sarcastic troll.
While it may be how he appears, it’s really only how he presents himself to others; in truth, there's quite a bit about himself that Clay hides and doesn't call attention to anymore. After all, the last time he really trusted someone he got burned -- and badly enough that it ended with his messy suicide. So he dodges and misdirects and doesn't say, for example, that he's someone that's always wanted to make a difference. He wants his work to have purpose. He may have gone to school for engineering, but he was originally interested in history, and he only shifted his focus away from that under pressure from his father. He's not someone that can exist happily doing work that lacks a greater purpose. Before being recruited to the Assassins he was cagey, belligerent, and obsessive; he responded poorly to criticism from his peers, and was demanding when speaking with his psychiatrist. At one point he even stole said psychiatrist's notes.
Once given a purpose (which at first was to serve as a member of the Assassin order, recently is to protect and assist Desmond Miles, a fellow Assassin), Clay is an entirely different person. He's happier, calmer, and more focused than he would be otherwise. He's dedicated, and whatever duty he chooses for himself (or in some cases is chosen for him) is an anchor that keeps him stable. When dealing with something related to said duty, Clay can keep a calm head in nearly any situation. Alarms going off all around him aren't a big deal when he's got something important to take care of! He's got an earnest, straightforward, and level-headed air about him when he's doing something that matters.
And when he's not, he's almost an entirely different person. He's got a lot of anger towards his father, Harold, for a lot of different reasons -- trying to control Clay's life, driving his mother away, berating Clay for his life choices, and demanding Clay's money to support himself -- just to name a few. For a long time, Clay saw his father as a good father, someone worth looking up to. The veil was lifted after Harold drove away his wife, Clay's mother, with the harsh demands his made of his family.
And he can get dragged into even deeper levels of despair than that. Since recompiling himself inside the Animus, Clay hasn't had quite as many fits of trauma or stress over his death. But, they are still there, lurking just below the surface when he runs out of distractions, and when the enormity of what was done to him really crashes down on him. The Bleeding Effect will pull at his mind as long as he's in a body with the DNA to match. Its effects no longer crop up as often as they used to, but when they do it leaves him prone to hallucinations, paranoid tangents, fits of rage, crying jags, and other unpleasant, unexpected behavior.
Finally, there are several people in Clay's life that deserve a mention for the huge impact they've had on him. First off is Lucy. Lucy betrayed him. She betrayed him and he knows it, and to an extent he even knows why. He cared about Lucy, and he protected her as best as he could. On one hand, he feels like he failed at the whole protection thing. On the other hand... well, she still betrayed him. His thoughts on Lucy are best summed up with 'it's complicated'. He still cares about her, and he's still upset that she opted to trap him in Abstergo rather than help him escape. But, he's an Assassin, she's a Templar, and he doesn't think the two of them can bridge the gap between their fundamentally different beliefs. He doesn't trust her anymore, and he probably never will again.
Desmond, on the other hand... Desmond is something else altogether. A fellow Assassin and a fellow prisoner of Abstergo, Clay first 'introduced' himself to Desmond by tearing open his wrists and using his blood to paint symbols all over the walls of Desmond's future prison. He died in the process, but left further messages for his successor to discover later on. And within these messages were encoded pieces of an AI reconstruction of Clay himself. This AI was Clay's only means of living on, and it was all up to Desmond to put the program together to give Clay a second chance. Oh, and when Desmond eventually slipped into a coma and needed to be protected from the Animus' attempts to delete the two of them, Clay ended up giving up his life a second time to protect him. He's put a lot of faith in Desmond's ability to succeed at saving the world, and sacrificed a lot in order to help him. Dying twice isn't going to curb that drive to assist and protect the younger Assassin.
And then there's William Miles: Desmond's father and the current de facto leader of the Assassin Order. Even though he's a distant, cold, unfeeling, and very difficult man to work with, Clay has a tremendous amount of respect for William. Old Bill is the one that recruited Clay to the Assassins when Clay had no direction, and is the one that gave him the opportunity to do something more with his life, the way Clay had always wanted. He followed William's orders willingly - and maybe even a little blindly. Clay puts a lot of trust in William, and he's willing to go through a lot of dangerous situations because he trusts what William says is best for the order.. Clay's thoughts on William are the most straightforward, but that doesn't make them any less significant.
✖ SAMPLES:
"Zodion" First-Person Network Entry: Isn't it customary to send the invitations before dragging someone to the party? [There's the sound of crinkling paper. Clay's obviously found his letter.] The phone is a nice consolation prize, at least.
[The sound of crinkling paper grows louder as Clay crumples up his letter.] So who's to thank for the surprise vacation, free tattoo, brand new phone, and this comfortable apartment? And what are you expecting in return for the generosity I literally couldn't refuse?
"Zodionlogs" Third-Person Prose Entry: Well, this was certainly different. It felt-- real, in a way he wasn't used to anymore. The pain on his chest where the new tattoo had abruptly appeared was unfamiliar by now. Having a body felt strange and heavy after more than a year of working with the Animus, and two months living in it. Realizing that reality was now the strange part, with the Animus as the norm, was a depressing thought. That didn't keep him from thinking it.
It didn't stop him from wondering, either.
Carefully he pushed himself upright, for the moment more intrigued than annoyed by the return of muscles that he hadn't actually had for the past however many weeks. That would get old before long, he was sure; the physical exhaustion would be unfamiliar to the point of being debilitating after he'd gotten so used to only worrying about his mental state anymore. Now he had both to contend with, but...
But he couldn't convince himself that was altogether a bad thing. He felt fine, which was something else he wasn't used to. He wasn't sure what sort of effect this 'being resurrected from the dead' thing would have on him -- or anyone -- but it would be a lie if he claimed that he wasn't curious.
Before long his curiosity would overtake his caution, and he'd be pushing himself again. But for now... for now, he was going to let himself have a quiet moment. It would be nice to have one for his own reasons, and not just because he had no other option.
REVISION REQUEST: 1ST PERSON SAMPLE
Alright, after a bit of thought I decided to write a database entry for Clay's revised samples. In canon, Clay writes and maintains a database of people, places, and events to provide support to his fellow Assassins (but usually Desmond), and he'll continue this practice once he settles into Zodion.
Zodion. The name is appropriate, what with the Twelve presiding over us and the tattoos we all receive upon arrival. The basics are fairly simple. There's a god for each sign of the western Zodion, with three signs and one district for each of the four traditional elements. You'll find Earth to the north, Air to the east, Fire to the south, and Water to the west. There's a temple for each district except for Earth, which has both its own temple and the main one. The market district can be found in the middle of the island.
But I'm sure the geography lesson is boring you. What really makes this place interesting is the worship that goes on here, with worship taking the form of sex of any type. Sex happens a lot even without prompting from all-powerful forces, but here it's also required. There are 'encouragements' if you abstain for too long, though many of the residents view them more as punishments. You'd think consequence-free sex would appeal to more people.
Apparently not. The first two weeks of abstinence you won't notice much. On the third you'll start to get dreams; persistent, disturbing, and pushy. The fourth week is the fun part. Not only will you need sex, it'll also be the only thing you can think about anymore. You're only required to do the deed once a month. Once every other week sounds like a safer bet to me.
Why? The Twelve need it, according to them. They say that worlds are in danger. All of them, apparently. They won't really say from what, of course, and they seem content to dodge around the matter of 'how' Honestly, though, what did you expect? Mythological figures aren't exactly known for their honesty or forthrightness.