With A Rebel Yell

Mother May I??

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 20:03:46 GMT

So because Martin's got a whole host of weirdness, I figured I would pull together a reference for things your character might pick up on about Martin and things Martin might pick up about your character. The Martin details are all automatically up for grabs when it comes to your character if it's applicable, the rest is mostly a survey about what he might notice and how you would feel about him picking up on it, or generally how comfortable you are with his weirdness in your character's vicinity.

OKAY. LET'S GET TO IT.

STUFF YOUR CHARA MIGHT PICK UP ABOUT MARTIN
smell: cigarettes, sweat, engine grease, something almost like the way the air smells before a storm.
medical stuff: he ages more slowly; he's essentially been stuck at the point he's at physically for the past 15 years at least. physically there's nothing obviously strange; he's got a heartbeat that's more or less within the normal range, he breathes like a regular human. but he doesn't need to eat or drink, and despite the way he looks on the outside his organs and cells and everything would suggest he's a lot younger. because of the healing thing.

WHAT CAN MARTIN PICK UP ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?
smell: in Martin's case this amounts to more of a psychic smell. he can smell fear and panic and pain, and everybody smells Distinct. almost like the way a werewolf can smell somebody, only for Martin it's more what you smell like at your core.

can he pick up on what your character is feeling?: y/n. if y please feel free to let me know when it happens and what exactly he's picking up on!

can Martin feed off your character?: a warning: the process hits people different ways. if you fit what's defined as an "anomaly" in his own world (i.e. somebody who has supernatural powers, be it psychic or otherwise), you mostly just feel a little drained, a little lighter. if you were terrified before being fed on, you'll find you're no longer scared, if you were hurting you'll find you feel less so. it's not permanent, obviously, but it's a nice side effect. however, if you're bog-standard human, it just drains your energy, leaves you feeling wiped out like you were dragged three blocks by a dump truck and then run over by said dump truck, which lasts for the better part of 12 hours if it doesn't outright kill you.

can Martin "terrorize" your character?: ...for the record, it's largely performative if he's just trying to eat. he won't actually physically harm the character, he just scares them enough to get a good meal out of it and then disappears as suddenly as he appears. he won't do it if he's not trying to get a meal out of it, so at least there's that?

comments

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 22:36:58 GMT

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER NAME: KaOS
OVER 18?: YUP
PREFERRED CONTACT(S): orderfromka0s on plurk, alphamikefoxtrot#9890 on plurk
OTHER CHARACTERS: none

CHARACTER INFORMATION

CHARACTER NAME: Martin, Project Incubus #1
CANON: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
TIMELINE: two months into his captivity by Blackwing, on the brink of death before Amanda teleports them out.

AGE: ??? hard to say, canon never actually states. but the actor was 54 at the time of season 2, and can probably pass for 40s so WHO KNOWS.

REFERENCE: The wiki is woefully unhelpful, so here's the gist:
Martin was born...at some point. Early on in his life his ability manifested itself, and since then his life has gotten progressively weirder. Martin feeds on the neurological energy of others, officially labeled a "psychic vampire" in the annals of top secret government literature, a fact which ultimately resulted in him being captured by a super secret arm of the military known only as "Blackwing". He was the first of his particular flavor, although ultimately four were collected overall, and collectively labelled Project Incubus. They were kept under lock and key for years, during which a plethora of experiments were performed to try to determine exactly what their abilities were and how they worked, but ultimately they were able to escape.

There, Martin renamed them the Rowdy Three, and since then they'd spent 15 years trying to keep out of the government's clutches, primarily wandering the world in pursuit of Dirk Gently. Dirk was another of Blackwing's former captives, and Martin had learned over time that others like him, others with strange abilities, were both a more substantive food source, and, unlike regular humans, tended not to die when fed from. Fear was one of the best conditions to feed during, meaning they preferred to terrorize their victims a little beforehand (although nothing more than property damage, it was chaos and anarchy with a purpose), which ultimately meant Dirk tended to run from them whenever possible, but it was all for the better, really.

And then they came across the Brotzmans.

It was an accident, really; they were drawn to Dirk, and in the process found Todd Brotzman, which led them to his sister Amanda. Amanda, who also didn't die when they fed from her, Amanda who wasn't all that afraid of them actually, Amanda who had visions in the aftermath. She was strange and an excellent meal, so they followed her, until they ultimately adopted her as one of their own. And then they got caught, or at least some of them did. Brought back into the fold, so to speak, and starved in the new "director"'s infinite lack-of-wisdom-or-experience, and it's from captivity that Martin comes, two months in and STARVING.

PERSONALITY: Martin is a protector. He protects his little group, a ragtag found family based in a common trait that he would die for if necessary. He's the first placed in Project Incubus, and consequently he seems to treat the others as something between sons and brothers, trying his best to keep them out of as much trouble as he can even when the trouble is of their own making. He's the one who "talks normal", the one who speaks for them and looks after them because he's the one who's the most together. He's blunt to a fault because he's never had much of a reason not to be, although he can pull it back to spare the feelings of people he cares about, and given the environment he grew up in, and his ability that made it hard to actually connect to most other folks without scaring them away, he's pretty emotionally stunted. He's got his own kind of wisdom, hard-earned from a rough life, but social mores are pretty lost on him, the questions you Aren't Supposed to Ask. He tends to act half-wild most of the time because he didn't learn how not to act like a feral dog because the people "raising" him didn't have much interest in giving him social skills or teaching him to act like a human being. Everything he's learned about that has been what he could pick up and model from those around him, so consequently it's a mess of id, pack mentality, and whatever he picked up from TV or his handlers. His previous handler even talks to him like some kind of misbehaving son, because he's so emotionally stunted appealing to him like he's as old as he physically is just doesn't really apply, he's effectively a rebellious 30-something who's finally broke from home.

The Rowdy 3 are known for sowing chaos, mayhem, and destruction wherever they go, striking fear into Dirk every time they cross paths for the simple fact that he knows they're going to suddenly appear, destroy everything around him, scare the crap out of him, then feed off his energy. But it's not without purpose; their ability is set up so that negative emotions taste the best and provide the most sustenance. So they scare people before feeding, because it's how they get the best meal. But, no matter how reckless and out of control they might seem, Martin is clear about the rules. They don't actually hurt anyone unless they're threatening others. When they go after Dirk to feed off of him, they very deliberately strike the ground around him and destroy property, and even when threatening Friedkin and their former handler they only ever aim for intimidation tactics and striking body armor. In fact Martin's general approach seems to be a combination of acting far less together than he is and a strange version of drunken boxing, where somehow the only people around him who get hurt when he's raging are people who deserve it, despite how absolutely out of control he might seem.

Because control has always been a tenuous thing in his life. He was picked up by Blackwing young, spent most of his formative teenage years locked up and tested on to determine the nature of his abilities and the limits of them. Heck, Blackwing was so worried about losing control over the Rowdy 3 that they had knock-out gas specifically made for them to account for their higher tolerances, and had cells specifically made to keep them contained, keeping them in straightjackets bound to metal structures and continuously sedated and underfed. Loss of control over his life is such a centerpoint to Martin's life that he even had the words "IN CONTROL" tattooed on his neck, likely put there after his first escape as a reminder of what he now had. But even so, he continually gives up control as a matter of course, from handing over the reins to Amanda after she breaks them out of Blackwing to telling Dirk that he's in charge when they are told that Amanda is about to be executed, and their entire life outside Blackwing consists of following Dirk around, and then Amanda, as if following an invisible string tugging them around. Because a huge component that underpins all the "anomalies" is that they're really only tools of the universe to ensure things happen the way they're meant to. To make sure people are where they need to be, or that bad people get punished, or that good people get protected. Martin never really has full control over his life, only the illusion of it, but there's a difference between having no control because you're in a cage and having no control because the universe has a purpose for you.

ABILITIES: list and explanations below:
⯌ energy leeching classified as a "psychic vampire", Martin literally feeds of the neural energy of others, which is generally closely associated with emotion. The more heightened the emotion, the more sustenance he gets from it, with fear being one of the most potent flavors. Unfortunately, the process kills bog-standard humans, although it seems to have no long term negative effects on those with other strange abilities, called "anomalies" in his own world.

⯌ accelerated healing Absorbing the energy of others also facilitates healing processes and the like; if he doesn't feed for long enough he will die, but feeding recharges his own energy stores and can heal major injuries. It also makes him more durable, with increased stamina and strength. His kind has been shown to be able to sustain electrocution without so much as a moment's pause.

⯌ energy sensing Because he's a "psychic vampire", he is immensely in tune with the emotions and feelings of others, and even the world around him. He can sense when something catastrophic or tragic has happened in a particular location, and he can sense when someone who means him harm is approaching, although it's really just enough time to escape or prepare for an attack, it's only a few minutes' worth of warning. He can even track particular energy signatures if he's familiar with the person it belongs to, considering he always seems able to follow Martin and Amanda no matter where they end up.

⯌ impeccable timing for whatever reason, all the supernatural folks that come up in the show, labelled "anomalies" by the government, seem to have an incredibly strange connection to the universe. They inexplicably end up where they need to be at the right time to provide some kind of "help", in the Rowdy 3's case generally some kind of protection, be it causing a diversion at just the right place at just the right time or taking out a group of enemies that would have ruined the main trio's goal if an intervention hadn't taken place. In a practical sense it looks a heck of a lot like strange coincidence, so I really only plan to ever use this particular trick for "Martin needs to be in a scene as discussed with all players for Reasons and I don't know how he got there or knew", with a full understanding that because of the nature of the game it could absolutely result in "but it wasn't the right place or time or people" or otherwise interfered with by the Powers That Be.

PERSONAL EFFECTS: his glasses, a half empty pack of cigarettes, a baseball bat, various pieces of jewelry (bracelets, rings, and earrings) that he will largely just wear on his person, and a lighter
PRIZED POSSESSION: a framed photograph of Amanda Brotzman. because dude is a weirdo.

CRAU PREMISE: n/a

SAMPLE

SAMPLE: link from a test drive elsewhere

comments

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:16:56 GMT

How am I doing? Any questions, comments, concerns? Lemme know!

comments

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:16:09 GMT

Martin

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Project Incubus #1
male
???
bisexual

Abilities

⯌ energy leeching classified as a "psychic vampire", Martin literally feeds of the neural energy of others, which is generally closely associated with emotion. The more heightened the emotion, the more sustenance he gets from it, with fear being one of the most potent flavors. Unfortunately, the process kills bog-standard humans, although it seems to have no long term negative effects on those with other strange abilities, called "anomalies" in his own world.

⯌ accelerated healing Absorbing the energy of others also facilitates healing processes and the like; if he doesn't feed for long enough he will die, but feeding recharges his own energy stores and can heal major injuries. It also makes him more durable, with increased stamina and strength. His kind has been shown to be able to sustain electrocution without so much as a moment's pause.

⯌ energy sensing Because he's a "psychic vampire", he is immensely in tune with the emotions and feelings of others, and even the world around him. He can sense when something catastrophic or tragic has happened in a particular location, and he can sense when someone who means him harm is approaching, although it's really just enough time to escape or prepare for an attack, it's only a few minutes' worth of warning.

Out-of-Character

⯌ Backtag I'm here for it!

⯌ Fourthwall Honestly he probably wouldn't even think twice, his life is already pretty weird

⯌ Off-Limits Nothing I can really think of. I don't play rape or pregnancy stuff, but that's about it.

⯌ Other Lorem ipsum

In-Character

⯌ Physical Contact Martin's a pretty tactile person by nature, even if he's spent ages with people being afraid of him and his family. He'll be a little confused at first, but will absolutely welcome it.

⯌ Mental Contact Sure! He's psychic but not that kind, so he's got some primitive defenses if he doesn't want it.

⯌ Flirt HECK YES PLS DO

⯌ Fight HE LOVES FIGHTING SO MUCH

⯌ Injury He'll heal from most stuff, so go for it.

⯌ Death With discussion first and if it's for a plot-relevant reason, sure

⯌ Other Lorem ipsum

by killthecake

comments

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 18:15:40 GMT

✰ AD ASTRA ✰

Player name: KaOS
Player age: 33
Player contact: orderfromka0s on plurk, or pm this journal
Other characters played: none yet

Character name: Martin
Age: who knows, honestly? the actor was 54 when the show was aired, but honestly he could pass for 40s just as easily, and thus far there's no telling how old Martin actually is canonically because *psychic vampire*
Canon: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (the 2016 tv show)
Info: The wiki is woefully unhelpful, so here's the gist:
Martin was born...at some point. Early on in his life his ability manifested itself, and since then his life has gotten progressively weirder. Martin feeds on the neurological energy of others, officially labeled a "psychic vampire" in the annals of top secret government literature, a fact which ultimately resulted in him being captured by a super secret arm of the military known only as "Blackwing". He was the first of his particular flavor, although ultimately four were collected overall, and collectively labelled Project Incubus. They were kept under lock and key for years, during which a plethora of experiments were performed to try to determine exactly what their abilities were and how they worked, but ultimately they were able to escape.

There, Martin renamed them the Rowdy Three, and since then they'd spent 15 years trying to keep out of the government's clutches, primarily wandering the world in pursuit of Dirk Gently. Dirk was another of Blackwing's former captives, and Martin had learned over time that others like him, others with strange abilities, were both a more substantive food source, and, unlike regular humans, tended not to die when fed from. Fear was one of the best conditions to feed during, meaning they preferred to terrorize their victims a little beforehand (although nothing more than property damage, it was chaos and anarchy with a purpose), which ultimately meant Dirk tended to run from them whenever possible, but it was all for the better, really.

And then they came across the Brotzmans.

It was an accident, really; they were drawn to Dirk, and in the process found Todd Brotzman, which led them to his sister Amanda. Amanda, who also didn't die when they fed from her, Amanda who wasn't all that afraid of them actually, Amanda who had visions in the aftermath. She was strange and an excellent meal, so they followed her, until they ultimately adopted her as one of their own. And then they got caught, or at least some of them did. Brought back into the fold, so to speak, and starved in the new "director"'s infinite lack-of-wisdom-or-experience, and it's from captivity that Martin comes.

Canon point: After being brought in by Blackwing, seething and starving in his cell since he's been there for almost 2 months.

Samples: one two three

Plans: ZOMG ALL THE ENERGIES Martin is going to be SO THRILLED. Also at not being in a cage anymore. And the nanites mean he probably won't kill the normal people when he has to eat, so he will be SO HAPPY. He tends to be a huge proponent of the found family trope since that's literally how the Rowdy 3 exist, so I would love him to make friends and get protective over them and generally learn how existing in the world when you're not constantly on the run feels.
Suggestions: IDEK.

comments