[OOC] Application for Lost Carnival

[beautyinthebeast]

PLAYER↴ Name: Raile Contact: railehatesfun#6621 on Discord Other Characters: Foster van Denend CHARACTER↴ Character Name: Johan Liebert Age: 20 (now 22) Species: Human Canon: Monster Canon Point: After the conversation with Nina/Anna at the Red Rose Mansion, when she reveals “his” memories are actually hers Character Info: Wiki Personality: Johan is an extraordinary young man; polite, amicable, and charming--not overly social and somewhat reserved, but easy to get along with and genuinely interested in other people and their well-being. He's honest, hard working, and very smart. A gentle, caring person. On the surface. As far as personalities go and are defined, Johan is both one of the most overwhelming and one of the most innocuous. This is in part because 'Johan Liebert,' as defined, is non-existent, and therefore infamously difficult to pin down in any single aspect. The most agreed-upon definition of Johan, however, is 'monster.' Manipulative, deceitful, and dangerous, he is simultaneously deadly and benign, sensitive and callous. Johan constantly, actively, destroys his identity, obliterating it over and over and recreating it for the circumstances. In the process, he is forcing others to create a projection of what they see, they think, they feel to fill the void. His stated goal as a child was to be the last one standing at the end of the world; despite this, he repeatedly invites Dr. Tenma, a man who saved his life, to pull the trigger and kill him. Possessed of a driving instinct for tragedy and destruction, he has a vision--a specific vision--of the end of the world. A cold, bleak wasteland, devoid of life... the border between the Czech Republic and East Germany. He is compelled by fear and by death, and yet indifferent to them; the concept of the human being as monster is central to his canon, and Johan serves as the catalyst for this development in others--directly or indirectly, the 'Monster' in Johan feeds, inspires, or reflects the 'Monsters' in others around him. It is very intentional. Terrifyingly intelligent, Johan easily involves himself in concepts and 'worlds' (most notable the financial world)--the kind that most people spend their entire lives trying to master, or at least participate in--and masters them easily. "Like a child disturbing a line of ants," according to more than one person. He treats people much the same way; in Johan's view, humans are equal in death--but in life, they are conveniences or contrivances in his plans--the pieces of his 'game' rather than the game in and of themselves. He is not technically a serial killer but a mass-murderer; he has systematically and indiscriminately killed dozens and dozens of people, either directly or indirectly--many of them were killed by a third party, either loyal to him or hired to do so, while others were simply driven to suicide or just helped along. Of course, all third party killers were summarily executed by Johan himself. As a brilliant, sometimes even whimsical artist of corruption and destruction, Johan is capable of devising flawless plans on a near-moment's notice, occasionally improvising new steps or twists as he thinks of them. In fact, despite the purposeful appearance of his movements, he is acting at least as much on impulse, deciding his course as he goes along. And yet Johan lacks a cogent sense of self. His identity is incomplete; he cobbles it together in pieces from a few major forces in his life (the children's books, his twin, Dr. Tenma), but much of it is is fragmentary, temporary pieces he puts together out of the "personality soup." He is a non-person, but at the same time, his 'self' is split into two people, as the Monster in A Nameless Monster splits in half, one half to go East, the other West. In a sense, he and Nina are two independent selves of a unifying identity, but because Johan himself is consumed by another concept of 'self'--or rather, the Monster--his self is always being consumed and consuming, in a constant, active state of erasure. Nina herself is a threat to his existence, just as much as she is essential to it, and so must be consumed or absorbed into him, just as Johan from A Nameless Monster consumes his original 'other half', the Monster who went West. (It is worth noting that their "combined" identity began in early childhood, as a result of their mother's attempts to deceive the world into believing she had only a single female child.) His sense of self is so elusive that he can easily "become" other people--people who do not exist, people who do exist, idealised concepts of people who could exist... this is most noticeable in the subtle alterations of his apparent 'self', but happens most momentously when he is a child and takes his twin sister's memories for his own--or rather, subsumes them and then mistakes them for his own. He physically takes on her identity for a period of time, seamlessly adopting and shifting between her personality and physical appearance and his own. This is an excellent illustration of his ambiguous and enigmatic relationship with his twin. He often refers to his sister as his "other self," and repeats various permutations of "you are me, and I am you," both to his sister and, once, to his mother's portrait (right before burning the entire mansion it is in), but Johan also frequently speaks of the meaninglessness of names, their unnecessary nature, and is periodically explained to be 'a person who does not exist.' Indeed, for the first half/two-thirds of Monster, Inspector Lunge believes 'Johan' to be nothing but an alternate personality of Kenzou Tenma. This is revealed to be untrue, and the reasoning for his murders varies wildly. In some ways, Johan himself lacks a motive; he destroys others as he destroys himself, no one and anyone, eternally incomplete and seeking deeper into that darkness. Generally his killings are related to his immediate goals or the ongoing desire to eradicate and/or remove all traces of his existence from the world in his ultimate act of perfect suicide, to enable him to become a non-person, or to protect his secret 'self'--but sometimes there is no clear reason. It is has been questioned whether or not he has true emotions; he certainly has no capacity for guilt, and there is no doubt that he possesses a nuance of maliciousness, but it is key that Johan's cruelty is rooted not in insensitivity, but indifference. His motivations are complex, and the driving sense of despair he manifests is characterised from a sense of loss, of being unwanted, a feeling of not existing and of destruction more profound than the mere equality of death. In some ways Johan can be curiously arrested. His expression and experience are so empty that it appears as though he possesses, at most, very small fluctuations within a single band of thought. It would still be incorrect to say that he does not express emotion, that he does not cry, or smile, or laugh. He does all of these things freely--but almost always in the role of an actor. They are superficial displays and affectations rather than true emotional reactions. His true state, as it seems, is 'emptiness.' Or 'destruction.' Abilities: Johan is a true genius and a compelling and charismatic young man. He has applied his brilliance to such diverse spheres as financial markets, law, communication, literature, and... well, murder. Canonically, he speaks at least five languages with complete fluency: French, German, Latin, English, and Czech. It took him only thirteen months to master French and English. It is likely he speaks Japanese as well. More than anything, though, Johan is a master of manipulation--it is via manipulation of others that most of his goals are pursued and most of his murders are completed. Johan leaves an immensely powerful impression--or else no impression at all, at his choice. It's a matter of little effort for him to indirectly persuade someone to kill themselves or guide people into killing each other. According to Heinrich Lunge, this process is done by altering the fulcrum of someone's identity, like removing a map's coordinate axis. The more jumbled their "lines" become without that foundation, the more room he has to redraw or redefine their maps. There is literally no way to overstate Johan's ability in this regard. "Like a child disturbing a line of ants" is apropos; he is detached and yet involved, sophisticated and childish, profoundly sensitive and yet utterly devoid of empathy. Emotive and yet empty. He's also an expert at erasing his presence--and his very existence--in a physical sense as well as a psychological one. He is so practised at it that even with a body trail of dozens, he is capable of walking away without a trace of his influence. He is a virtuoso speaker, capable of both great eloquence and great simplicity; he is a peerless actor, capable of playing any role. He can become anyone he wants to be--or that his victim wants him to be. Whoever Johan wants or needs to become, he will create a new self to fit. CARNIVAL↴ Soul Colour: Light purple Ideal Jobs: Shill, Conman, Patch Relevant Experience: His… his entire canon history is about this kind of thing. Honestly. Carnival History: There's a gdoc for that. When he returns to the Carnival... I think it was established that the Ring Master will have to kill him to reverse the vampirism? That's fine with him. First Contract: “To see through his other self’s eyes.” Details: Due to Johan’s cryptic wording and the limitations of time and space, Johan gains from this contract the ability to take on Anna Liebert’s physical form at will. Second Contract: To learn his mother’s fate Details: From this, Johan learns that his mother is still alive, and still in Germany. This satisfies him. Existing Contract: “To see through his other self’s eyes,” again. Details: After discussion with the Ring Master, Johan’s third contract will culminate in him receiving Anna’s life experiences, as seen through her eyes. There is no way this could possibly go wrong. Current Changes: Common: Fangs (shark-like teeth, single row), claws, no shadow, distorted reflection (shows a random face every time he looks in the mirror) Uncommon: Tail (hairless green "monster" tail with a tuft of black hair on the end), snout (lion), animal-like pawpads on his hands and feet Rare: Rose vines replacing his veins (he bleeds normal blood, but also blooms roses out of any open wound) SAMPLES↴ Doing double duty here!