character info; (
sirenspull application)
Name: Liam
Age: 26
AIM SN: serial nostalgia
email: theboyharuka@yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? I play here!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Baccano!
Canon Format: anime, light novels
Character's Name: Czeslaw Mayer
Character's Age:233 or so 302, circa Baccano! 2001: Children of the Bottle
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a - Czeslaw looks like he's 11, but is in reality overtwo hundred three hundred years old.
What form will your character's NV take? It will have the same interface as a Nook e-reader, made of brown bakelite rather than the typical materials, with a black leather case.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: As an immortal in the Baccano! universe, Czeslaw has the ability to recover from any sort of physical injury - even fatal ones. Cut of an arm, it magically seals itself back on. Blow off his head, the head reconstructs itself. Not a single drop of blood can leave his body without finding its way back. He's also ageless, and the only way he can be permanently killed is to be devoured by another immortal through their right hand. Should he devour an immortal by placing his right hand on their head, he will absorb all of that person's knowledge and memories. He can also transmit his own memories and knowledge to a person in this manner. When he is in the presence of another immortal, he cannot 'hide' from them and can only introduce himself by his real name.
He's also clever and adorable, two things he exploits to be very, very manipulative.
Weapons: Other people, if he can help it.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: The only affection he had was for my pain. I’ll never trust anyone again.
Czeslaw Meyer was part of a group of alchemists who gained immortality by summoning a devil to the ship Advenna Avis in 1711. Unfortunately for him, he was only ten years old when he drank the elixir of immortality, and was thus doomed to a lifetime of being small, weak, and not taken all that seriously by adults. However, at first his troubles were much more direct, taking the form of Fermet - his guardian, who also drank the elixir.
Fermet wanted to test the limits of their immortality - at least, that's what he said. And surely he gained a lot of interesting information considering the years of brutal torture and death he put Czes through - pulling his eyes out with red-hot fireplace tongs, throwing him into a roaring fire, and so much more. As an immortal, even fatal wounds inflicted on Czeslaw would heal themselves after a time, and so Czeslaw endured uncounted deaths and tortures for at least a hundred years, tied to a bed so he could no escape. However, one day he got free of his bonds as he recovered from more gauged out eyes, and killed Fermet by devouring him when Fermet thought he was still recovering.
Absorbing Fermet saved Czeslaw's 'life' and most certainly his sanity, but it was an entirely unpleasant experience to gain the memories of torturing himself - and knowing the on person in the world he really trusted only kept him around to torture for his amusement. Shattered by the knowledge, Czeslaw grew paranoid and untrusting. When his old friend from the Advenna Avis, Maiza, contacted him and told him to come to New York, Czeslaw was certain it was to meet his fate. He was convinced the hand of friendship would be offered only to consume him - and that other immortals absolutely couldn't be trusted. This is the outlook he took with him when he boarded a train called the Flying Pussyfoot in 1931.
At first, things went well. Czeslaw befriended a young girl about 'his age' and passed time playing with her. The train ride quickly started going South when his games led him to the dining car, where he ran into delinquent Jacuzzi Splot and the over-enthusiastic, lack-wit thieves Isaac and Miria. Isaac imparted the legend of a monster called the Rail Tracer, a creature that chased trains and consumed the souls of passengers. It seems Jacuzzi also told Czeslaw about the shipment of ex. The meeting didn't go badly, but Czeslaw introduced himself with his full, real name: something all immortals are forced to do in front of other immortals. Oh, and there was that business of two heavily-armed gangs fighting to hijack the train. As soon as he could, Czeslaw escaped the tense situation and ditched his playmate. He decided to play up the angle of his childish sweetness and charm the ring-leader of one of the gangs, Ladd Russo, into cutting a deal with him. If Ladd would only kill all the people in the dining room for him (Czeslaw's plan being to find out who the immortal was that way), he'd be handsomely rewarded, and Czeslaw would blow up the rest of the train (probably using the explosives Jacuzzi was transporting), cutting down the work Ladd would need to do. However, Ladd was more interested in blowing Czeslaw's confidence right off his face. Which he did - if not permanently.
Czeslaw's power play didn't go unnoticed. The blood-covered form of the Rail Tracer - one Claire Stanfield, an assassin with a very twisted sense of justice and a love of violence - was also present in the car when Ladd shot Czes. And when the fine mist and goop that once was Czeslaw's head pulled themselves together and Czeslaw walked away no worse for wear, Claire was a little surprised.
When Czeslaw ventured into another car to regroup and think of a strategy on dealing with the other immortal on board (convinced he would need to eat or be eaten), he was cornered by Claire, who, for various reasons didn't appreciate Czes attempting to kill all the innocent people in the dining car. He choked Czes and broke his neck, only to watch the boy recuperate. Realizing the bind he was in, Czes tried to buck the madman from his case by bragging that there was no way Claire could show him a pain he'd never known, which Claire apparently saw as a challenge. He proceeded to bite Czeslaw's fingers off, then break his hand, then dangle him from the train so that his arm was ripped off - all while promising he'd show Czeslaw new worlds of pain beyond what he could even imagine for himself, recognizing Czeslaw's innate fear of the things he could not predict or protect himself from.
Isaac and Miria came across his pale, dismembered form collapsed beneath the rail car, and proceeded to attempt a rescue. Czeslaw struggled and caused all three of them to fall from the train. During this attempt, Isaac became injured and immediately healed - thus Czeslaw discovered that it was the fool who was the immortal he'd been searching out the whole time. He refused the hand Isaac reached out to him, convinced he would devour him, and the struggle very nearly threw all three from the train. Due to some quick-thinking from Claire (who luckily liked Isaac and Miria), they were saved. Isaac and Miria then threw themselves over dazed Czeslaw to protect him from the red mass of his own returning body parts, assuming them to be the Rail Tracer.
Czeslaw reached up with the intention to devour Isaac, but Isaac grabbed his hand and expressed his delight that Czes was okay. He and Miria they concluded the Rail Tracer had spared him because he was a good boy. Czeslaw insisted that he wasn't good and admitted he'd lied to the two when he introduced himself - he'd said he was meeting his parents in NYC, when in truth he was only meeting someone he knew and had no family and never would. Isaac and Miria were touched by the thought that Czeslaw would tell lies to keep others from worrying even though he had it worst of all.
In spite of things having turned out alright (except for the heaps of death and trauma), Czes was still anxious when he arrived in New York City to meet Maiza. He was certain Maiza would devour him, and somewhat steeled himself to it. But he couldn't convince himself to run away, nor to hurt Maiza himself, and in the end, their reunion resulted in a tearful embrace, with Czes sobbing that he'd missed his friend.
Touched by Czeslaw's solitary existence, Isaac and Miria decided to 'give' him to their friend Ennis, a homunculus also had no family, as a 'little brother'. The match-up seemed to work well, though, because Czes was still living with Ennis in 1933 - when he decided to tell the truth of his nature to Rachel, a woman who'd seen him die on the Flying Pussyfoot, and unexpectedly ran into Claire. In spite of the fact Claire told Czes he's off the hook since the train arrived safely, Czes was understandably terrified of him and took the soonest opportunity to run away screaming.
Because the greatest threat to the immortals - Szilard Quates, an immortal who ate other immortals for pleasure and to gain their knowledge - had been eaten by one of the new immortals - Maiza decided it was time to track down the other immortals and bring them together as a family. It's unclear what the gang in NYC did over WW2, but not too long after the war was over Maiza and Czes set on a tour around the world to find other other immortals. They were eventually reunited with Sylvie Lumiere and Nile, who became traveling companions.
In winter 2001 they found themselves in an odd, remote village in Europe. Here they were reunited with Elmer C. Albatross, an immortal and a self-described smile junkie. It was through conversations with Elmer than Czes began to truly understand how blessed he was to have such good friends, that being an immortal was a blessing, and that he himself was not a completely terrible person. Elmer begged Czeslaw to smile, but Czes couldn't bring himself to.
However, Czeslaw did find his smile in that odd incident. Kidnapped by angry and unforgiving villagers who thought he was a demon, in order to save himself and a strange little girl, he threw himself on a fire, embracing his immortal powers instead of fearing the pain. He laughed maniacally, frightening the villagers. It was a moment of pure, mad joy - though he wished he could've shared it with Elmer.
Point in Canon:After episode 16 of the Baccano! anime. Midway through Chapter 4 of the light novel Baccano! 2001 - Children of the Bottle, just after he's escaped being abducted by the villagers by throwing himself on a fire to free himself from the ropes.
Character Personality: I’ll devour all my friends before they devour me.
Czeslaw is described by Maiza to be fragile, the type that carries the whole world on his shoulders and probably wouldn't survive were he mortal. This is a very apt summation of Czes, but it is not his entire personality. He attempts to cover his painful vulnerabilities by conniving and lashing out before being hit first. Even when presented with continual evidence to the contrary, he persists in convincing himself that no one cares for him, others cannot be trusted and only want what they can gain from him. Thus, he is hyper-vigilant, always trying to think a step ahead of what he assumes others are plotting, and avoids forming emotional bonds to avoid being hurt, even going so far as to treat others as objects that are easily discarded. In other words, he has the classic personality traits of a survivor of long-term childhood abuse.
Adding to Czeslaw's cynicism is the fact that he knows exactly what went on in Fermet's head when he tortured him and how little he truly meant to his guardian. Not only is he tormented by the acts themselves - which represent a horrific betrayal from his only family - but the fact that the trust he naturally bore his childhood guardian was completely meaningless to him fills him with anger and self-loathing. Given the long timespan and gravity of the torture Czeslaw underwent, starting at a young age, and the fact he had to murder his one trusted person to escape it - and now holds that person's memories - his out-of-control paranoia and cynicism make plenty of sense. Survivors of intense trauma tend to view every single situation as fight-or-flight regardless of the real danger. For instance, rather than accepting there was an immortal on board the Flying Pussyfoot and resolving to find out who it was in a non-violent manner, or merely deciding to be more cautious, Czeslaw assumes that the immortal is out to devour him - just as he had assumed his old friend Maiza had invited him out to NYC to kill him - and decides to exterminate them along with dozens of innocent passengers (though, to be fair, Ladd would have killed them anyway). That's completely insane by most standards (only the loonies in Baccano! make it look tame), but it makes a twisted amount of sense if one takes it from the standpoint of someone who sees the entire world as a threat.
That being said, Czeslaw is not completely emotionally frozen. His conscience and heart are in tact enough that he understands his actions are wrong and he hates himself for them, but in spite not really feeling he deserves to live he quite fiercely protects his right to do so. Czeslaw appears to be cool-headed, scheming and even nasty at first glance - but he can quickly be overwhelmed with fear or self-loathing. It's difficult to separate the sincere, crushed child beneath the layers of brilliant cold, and it seems Czeslaw himself cannot always make the distinction. He's battling with a lot, particularly since the world's suddenly given him a dose of mercy with all his pain and bad luck, which doesn't fit with his typical world-view.
Update: 67+ years after arriving to New York, Czeslaw has become somewhat bitter about the fact that he will never grow older and the other immortals often treat him like a child. On top of that, he resents how the other immortals trust one another easily - a feeling that extends to anyone who trusts 'easily'. Czes remains cynical and guarded and somewhat manipulative, excusing it all as a way to guard his heart. However, after Elmer so willingly accepted him, he has begun to feel that he might not always have to keep his guard up.
Character Plans: Czes will be playing up the whole ‘help me I’m just a cute little boy I’m all alone’ all while attempting to involve himself with criminal elements. I’d definitely like to play with the idea of him being kidnapped to be experimented on and tortured, and have him ‘outed’ by escaping death in some violent and unusual fashion.
Appearance/PB: http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=tiny_schemer
Writing Samples
First Person Sample [Here is Czeslaw Meyer, looking as fresh-faced and darling as ever in his little bow-tie.]
Is it true some of you have special magic powers like those cape-wearing guys in my comic books? And some of you can kill those scary Darkness monsters?
What do you think about killing people, too? I think sometimes... they’re just as scary as the Darkness.
[And there’s just the slightest undertone of hardness there, beneath that treacly facade.]
I think... there are some elements in this town that someone should take care of. To the tune of twenty thousand dollars. [little smile] So are you interested?
Third Person Sample
The truth was, dying never really hurt any less, no matter how many times Czeslaw did it. There might be reasons for that - the hundred-times remade cells of his body were always new, so they relearned the pain every single time, or perhaps it had something to do with his own perception and tolerance, or the fact that all nerve damage would heal itself. The stabbing cold of a blade drawn across his gullet would never really change. Assuming the blade was of equal sharpness and its wielder equal strength each time, the effect would be naturally be the same as it sliced. His skin would never be any thicker, never give more resistance. The gurgle of his blood in his throat and spurting from his jugular would sound and smell exactly the same, and be of relatively the same temperature. These factors were variable, but really, his ability to feel pain was more or less unaltered from one flaying to the next.
After awhile, Czeslaw did grow used to it. A testament to human spirit, perhaps, that he did not go completely mad, or that he could at least grow to anticipate which pain it would be by the item presented to him. A white-hot fire poker. It would sizzle, just a little, burning the skin and faint hair of his brow and lashes as it was inserted into his eye-socket. He was able to predict and note it with an almost scientific calmness. But it never hurt any less when his eyes leaked out in boiling blood and vitreous humor, and most of the time, he still screamed his throat raw.
The fear went away. That made him a little bolder, enabled him to stare psychopaths like Ladd Russo in the face. He was able to see so much in faces. Years of studying the faint expressions of his caretaker through the blinding pain taught Czeslaw to read emotion. He recognized Fermet in the blond gangster, though his giddy sadism was so much less thinly veiled. Czeslaw wasn't sure if he hated or respected that, but he certainly didn't feel for him what he did for Fermet. He was not bound by Ladd in any way, and therefore didn't fear him. So what if Ladd shot him? He already knew what it felt like to be turned into pink mist. The low-life barely concerned him. Without the shadow of death looming over, Czeslaw was able to consider the real possibilities and methods of self-preservation. He could gamble with his life and lose nothing.
"Could you do something for me, sir?" Czeslaw's voice, like the sound of flesh tearing or sizzling or the smell of blood and burning hair, would never really change. It echoed off the walls of the freight car, saccharine, but more importantly, convincing. "All those people in the dining car - would you kill them for me, please?"
Age: 26
AIM SN: serial nostalgia
email: theboyharuka@yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? I play here!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Baccano!
Canon Format: anime, light novels
Character's Name: Czeslaw Mayer
Character's Age:
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a - Czeslaw looks like he's 11, but is in reality over
What form will your character's NV take? It will have the same interface as a Nook e-reader, made of brown bakelite rather than the typical materials, with a black leather case.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: As an immortal in the Baccano! universe, Czeslaw has the ability to recover from any sort of physical injury - even fatal ones. Cut of an arm, it magically seals itself back on. Blow off his head, the head reconstructs itself. Not a single drop of blood can leave his body without finding its way back. He's also ageless, and the only way he can be permanently killed is to be devoured by another immortal through their right hand. Should he devour an immortal by placing his right hand on their head, he will absorb all of that person's knowledge and memories. He can also transmit his own memories and knowledge to a person in this manner. When he is in the presence of another immortal, he cannot 'hide' from them and can only introduce himself by his real name.
He's also clever and adorable, two things he exploits to be very, very manipulative.
Weapons: Other people, if he can help it.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: The only affection he had was for my pain. I’ll never trust anyone again.
Czeslaw Meyer was part of a group of alchemists who gained immortality by summoning a devil to the ship Advenna Avis in 1711. Unfortunately for him, he was only ten years old when he drank the elixir of immortality, and was thus doomed to a lifetime of being small, weak, and not taken all that seriously by adults. However, at first his troubles were much more direct, taking the form of Fermet - his guardian, who also drank the elixir.
Fermet wanted to test the limits of their immortality - at least, that's what he said. And surely he gained a lot of interesting information considering the years of brutal torture and death he put Czes through - pulling his eyes out with red-hot fireplace tongs, throwing him into a roaring fire, and so much more. As an immortal, even fatal wounds inflicted on Czeslaw would heal themselves after a time, and so Czeslaw endured uncounted deaths and tortures for at least a hundred years, tied to a bed so he could no escape. However, one day he got free of his bonds as he recovered from more gauged out eyes, and killed Fermet by devouring him when Fermet thought he was still recovering.
Absorbing Fermet saved Czeslaw's 'life' and most certainly his sanity, but it was an entirely unpleasant experience to gain the memories of torturing himself - and knowing the on person in the world he really trusted only kept him around to torture for his amusement. Shattered by the knowledge, Czeslaw grew paranoid and untrusting. When his old friend from the Advenna Avis, Maiza, contacted him and told him to come to New York, Czeslaw was certain it was to meet his fate. He was convinced the hand of friendship would be offered only to consume him - and that other immortals absolutely couldn't be trusted. This is the outlook he took with him when he boarded a train called the Flying Pussyfoot in 1931.
At first, things went well. Czeslaw befriended a young girl about 'his age' and passed time playing with her. The train ride quickly started going South when his games led him to the dining car, where he ran into delinquent Jacuzzi Splot and the over-enthusiastic, lack-wit thieves Isaac and Miria. Isaac imparted the legend of a monster called the Rail Tracer, a creature that chased trains and consumed the souls of passengers. It seems Jacuzzi also told Czeslaw about the shipment of ex. The meeting didn't go badly, but Czeslaw introduced himself with his full, real name: something all immortals are forced to do in front of other immortals. Oh, and there was that business of two heavily-armed gangs fighting to hijack the train. As soon as he could, Czeslaw escaped the tense situation and ditched his playmate. He decided to play up the angle of his childish sweetness and charm the ring-leader of one of the gangs, Ladd Russo, into cutting a deal with him. If Ladd would only kill all the people in the dining room for him (Czeslaw's plan being to find out who the immortal was that way), he'd be handsomely rewarded, and Czeslaw would blow up the rest of the train (probably using the explosives Jacuzzi was transporting), cutting down the work Ladd would need to do. However, Ladd was more interested in blowing Czeslaw's confidence right off his face. Which he did - if not permanently.
Czeslaw's power play didn't go unnoticed. The blood-covered form of the Rail Tracer - one Claire Stanfield, an assassin with a very twisted sense of justice and a love of violence - was also present in the car when Ladd shot Czes. And when the fine mist and goop that once was Czeslaw's head pulled themselves together and Czeslaw walked away no worse for wear, Claire was a little surprised.
When Czeslaw ventured into another car to regroup and think of a strategy on dealing with the other immortal on board (convinced he would need to eat or be eaten), he was cornered by Claire, who, for various reasons didn't appreciate Czes attempting to kill all the innocent people in the dining car. He choked Czes and broke his neck, only to watch the boy recuperate. Realizing the bind he was in, Czes tried to buck the madman from his case by bragging that there was no way Claire could show him a pain he'd never known, which Claire apparently saw as a challenge. He proceeded to bite Czeslaw's fingers off, then break his hand, then dangle him from the train so that his arm was ripped off - all while promising he'd show Czeslaw new worlds of pain beyond what he could even imagine for himself, recognizing Czeslaw's innate fear of the things he could not predict or protect himself from.
Isaac and Miria came across his pale, dismembered form collapsed beneath the rail car, and proceeded to attempt a rescue. Czeslaw struggled and caused all three of them to fall from the train. During this attempt, Isaac became injured and immediately healed - thus Czeslaw discovered that it was the fool who was the immortal he'd been searching out the whole time. He refused the hand Isaac reached out to him, convinced he would devour him, and the struggle very nearly threw all three from the train. Due to some quick-thinking from Claire (who luckily liked Isaac and Miria), they were saved. Isaac and Miria then threw themselves over dazed Czeslaw to protect him from the red mass of his own returning body parts, assuming them to be the Rail Tracer.
Czeslaw reached up with the intention to devour Isaac, but Isaac grabbed his hand and expressed his delight that Czes was okay. He and Miria they concluded the Rail Tracer had spared him because he was a good boy. Czeslaw insisted that he wasn't good and admitted he'd lied to the two when he introduced himself - he'd said he was meeting his parents in NYC, when in truth he was only meeting someone he knew and had no family and never would. Isaac and Miria were touched by the thought that Czeslaw would tell lies to keep others from worrying even though he had it worst of all.
In spite of things having turned out alright (except for the heaps of death and trauma), Czes was still anxious when he arrived in New York City to meet Maiza. He was certain Maiza would devour him, and somewhat steeled himself to it. But he couldn't convince himself to run away, nor to hurt Maiza himself, and in the end, their reunion resulted in a tearful embrace, with Czes sobbing that he'd missed his friend.
Touched by Czeslaw's solitary existence, Isaac and Miria decided to 'give' him to their friend Ennis, a homunculus also had no family, as a 'little brother'. The match-up seemed to work well, though, because Czes was still living with Ennis in 1933 - when he decided to tell the truth of his nature to Rachel, a woman who'd seen him die on the Flying Pussyfoot, and unexpectedly ran into Claire. In spite of the fact Claire told Czes he's off the hook since the train arrived safely, Czes was understandably terrified of him and took the soonest opportunity to run away screaming.
Because the greatest threat to the immortals - Szilard Quates, an immortal who ate other immortals for pleasure and to gain their knowledge - had been eaten by one of the new immortals - Maiza decided it was time to track down the other immortals and bring them together as a family. It's unclear what the gang in NYC did over WW2, but not too long after the war was over Maiza and Czes set on a tour around the world to find other other immortals. They were eventually reunited with Sylvie Lumiere and Nile, who became traveling companions.
In winter 2001 they found themselves in an odd, remote village in Europe. Here they were reunited with Elmer C. Albatross, an immortal and a self-described smile junkie. It was through conversations with Elmer than Czes began to truly understand how blessed he was to have such good friends, that being an immortal was a blessing, and that he himself was not a completely terrible person. Elmer begged Czeslaw to smile, but Czes couldn't bring himself to.
However, Czeslaw did find his smile in that odd incident. Kidnapped by angry and unforgiving villagers who thought he was a demon, in order to save himself and a strange little girl, he threw himself on a fire, embracing his immortal powers instead of fearing the pain. He laughed maniacally, frightening the villagers. It was a moment of pure, mad joy - though he wished he could've shared it with Elmer.
Point in Canon:
Character Personality: I’ll devour all my friends before they devour me.
Czeslaw is described by Maiza to be fragile, the type that carries the whole world on his shoulders and probably wouldn't survive were he mortal. This is a very apt summation of Czes, but it is not his entire personality. He attempts to cover his painful vulnerabilities by conniving and lashing out before being hit first. Even when presented with continual evidence to the contrary, he persists in convincing himself that no one cares for him, others cannot be trusted and only want what they can gain from him. Thus, he is hyper-vigilant, always trying to think a step ahead of what he assumes others are plotting, and avoids forming emotional bonds to avoid being hurt, even going so far as to treat others as objects that are easily discarded. In other words, he has the classic personality traits of a survivor of long-term childhood abuse.
Adding to Czeslaw's cynicism is the fact that he knows exactly what went on in Fermet's head when he tortured him and how little he truly meant to his guardian. Not only is he tormented by the acts themselves - which represent a horrific betrayal from his only family - but the fact that the trust he naturally bore his childhood guardian was completely meaningless to him fills him with anger and self-loathing. Given the long timespan and gravity of the torture Czeslaw underwent, starting at a young age, and the fact he had to murder his one trusted person to escape it - and now holds that person's memories - his out-of-control paranoia and cynicism make plenty of sense. Survivors of intense trauma tend to view every single situation as fight-or-flight regardless of the real danger. For instance, rather than accepting there was an immortal on board the Flying Pussyfoot and resolving to find out who it was in a non-violent manner, or merely deciding to be more cautious, Czeslaw assumes that the immortal is out to devour him - just as he had assumed his old friend Maiza had invited him out to NYC to kill him - and decides to exterminate them along with dozens of innocent passengers (though, to be fair, Ladd would have killed them anyway). That's completely insane by most standards (only the loonies in Baccano! make it look tame), but it makes a twisted amount of sense if one takes it from the standpoint of someone who sees the entire world as a threat.
That being said, Czeslaw is not completely emotionally frozen. His conscience and heart are in tact enough that he understands his actions are wrong and he hates himself for them, but in spite not really feeling he deserves to live he quite fiercely protects his right to do so. Czeslaw appears to be cool-headed, scheming and even nasty at first glance - but he can quickly be overwhelmed with fear or self-loathing. It's difficult to separate the sincere, crushed child beneath the layers of brilliant cold, and it seems Czeslaw himself cannot always make the distinction. He's battling with a lot, particularly since the world's suddenly given him a dose of mercy with all his pain and bad luck, which doesn't fit with his typical world-view.
Update: 67+ years after arriving to New York, Czeslaw has become somewhat bitter about the fact that he will never grow older and the other immortals often treat him like a child. On top of that, he resents how the other immortals trust one another easily - a feeling that extends to anyone who trusts 'easily'. Czes remains cynical and guarded and somewhat manipulative, excusing it all as a way to guard his heart. However, after Elmer so willingly accepted him, he has begun to feel that he might not always have to keep his guard up.
Character Plans: Czes will be playing up the whole ‘help me I’m just a cute little boy I’m all alone’ all while attempting to involve himself with criminal elements. I’d definitely like to play with the idea of him being kidnapped to be experimented on and tortured, and have him ‘outed’ by escaping death in some violent and unusual fashion.
Appearance/PB: http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=tiny_schemer
Writing Samples
First Person Sample [Here is Czeslaw Meyer, looking as fresh-faced and darling as ever in his little bow-tie.]
Is it true some of you have special magic powers like those cape-wearing guys in my comic books? And some of you can kill those scary Darkness monsters?
What do you think about killing people, too? I think sometimes... they’re just as scary as the Darkness.
[And there’s just the slightest undertone of hardness there, beneath that treacly facade.]
I think... there are some elements in this town that someone should take care of. To the tune of twenty thousand dollars. [little smile] So are you interested?
Third Person Sample
The truth was, dying never really hurt any less, no matter how many times Czeslaw did it. There might be reasons for that - the hundred-times remade cells of his body were always new, so they relearned the pain every single time, or perhaps it had something to do with his own perception and tolerance, or the fact that all nerve damage would heal itself. The stabbing cold of a blade drawn across his gullet would never really change. Assuming the blade was of equal sharpness and its wielder equal strength each time, the effect would be naturally be the same as it sliced. His skin would never be any thicker, never give more resistance. The gurgle of his blood in his throat and spurting from his jugular would sound and smell exactly the same, and be of relatively the same temperature. These factors were variable, but really, his ability to feel pain was more or less unaltered from one flaying to the next.
After awhile, Czeslaw did grow used to it. A testament to human spirit, perhaps, that he did not go completely mad, or that he could at least grow to anticipate which pain it would be by the item presented to him. A white-hot fire poker. It would sizzle, just a little, burning the skin and faint hair of his brow and lashes as it was inserted into his eye-socket. He was able to predict and note it with an almost scientific calmness. But it never hurt any less when his eyes leaked out in boiling blood and vitreous humor, and most of the time, he still screamed his throat raw.
The fear went away. That made him a little bolder, enabled him to stare psychopaths like Ladd Russo in the face. He was able to see so much in faces. Years of studying the faint expressions of his caretaker through the blinding pain taught Czeslaw to read emotion. He recognized Fermet in the blond gangster, though his giddy sadism was so much less thinly veiled. Czeslaw wasn't sure if he hated or respected that, but he certainly didn't feel for him what he did for Fermet. He was not bound by Ladd in any way, and therefore didn't fear him. So what if Ladd shot him? He already knew what it felt like to be turned into pink mist. The low-life barely concerned him. Without the shadow of death looming over, Czeslaw was able to consider the real possibilities and methods of self-preservation. He could gamble with his life and lose nothing.
"Could you do something for me, sir?" Czeslaw's voice, like the sound of flesh tearing or sizzling or the smell of blood and burning hair, would never really change. It echoed off the walls of the freight car, saccharine, but more importantly, convincing. "All those people in the dining car - would you kill them for me, please?"