[ooc] undergrounds application

[falsify]

Player information
Name: Frank
Contact: firemansam
Are you 18 or over? Yup
Other characters played: N/A

Character information
Name: Eames
Age: 600~ish? He looks to be in his early 30s though.
Date of Birth: Autumn, 1415
Canon: Inception
Species:

Fae: Eames is of course a normal human in canon, just like everyone else, but he possesses a seemingly unique (or at least rare) ability to consciously manipulate his form within dreams, the text of the canon also strongly hints that he's a skilled forger, in that it stops just short of flat out saying it. He also joins the job out of curiosity rather than for money or any kind of desire to help, plus he's absolutely willing to leave them behind in the dream if everything goes to shit.

Basically a sense of curiosity and a willingness to "help" so long as it benefits/interests him and doesn't get him dead (or worse,) combined with a skill for creating falsehoods. Seems pretty fae-y to me.

Role: Unseelie court; specifically his curiosity about the people of Earth has made him an excellent aide when it comes to collecting debts or navigating potential threats in the mortal realm.
Rank: 1-2
Background:

Eames wasn't born to any fae of note or anything like that, but he was taught from a young age what it meant to be Unseelie. No overly strong familial ties in his family, but it was always important to them not to be embarrassed by the people with the strongest ties to you. It meant learning to purport oneself with the right type of dignity, like armour. The façade is just as useful a tool as magic, when used correctly.

A lesson he learned well, but no one 'close' to him really agreed with the way he chose to enact it.

Eames learned relatively young that he was just fascinated with Earth, the way it was so different, so small compared to the Other Realm. The way all the different kinds of mortal scurry about with their limited awareness and their little dreams. He started spending a lot more time there than most - learning what he could, learning to imitate humanity so that he could move amongst them without seeming alien. He spent a lot of time ingratiating himself with the less, ah... Perceptive denizens of the world. Never anyone too significant for fear of drawing the gaze of someone who'll see him for what he really is, but a decent enough web of connections - people who owe him or just people he's managed to trick into thinking he's someone they can trust for whatever reason. It might not seem too useful at first, but even a fae needs to find something every now and then.

After a while, he managed to spin this to his advantage. Instead of it being a love affair with the mortal realm, he made himself stand out as something of an expert within the Unseelie Court. Making a hobby of doing "favours" and collecting debts, almost in competition with the other fae around him. It made him the kind of person they could call on when they needed something from that realm. A debt collected, a particular person found. That sort of thing. The respect of the court comes with more personal autonomy - people are more likely to leave you be when you're not just useful to them, but respectable. Dignified. Someone whose unafraid to carve a station for themself in blood and ice. Those are qualities that Eames would like to say that he has.

He's still relatively young, but he's certainly an up-and-comer in the court. At least if he had to guess for himself.

Personality:

Eames is someone who affects a surprisingly relatable personality, how much is real and how much is an act is anyone's guess, but it's certainly good for drawing unsuspecting humans to him. A keen believer that "friends" are more valuable than those who're indebted after all, he'll often even go out of his way to make people think he's trustworthy. Even making the terms of a bargain sound favourable when they're not in the least. He does well to hide that fact that he thinks "friendship" is a weakness, something to exploit rather than nurture. It's extraordinarily rare for Eames to care about someone as more than entertainment or a tool, and rarer still for him to care enough not to leave someone by the wayside the second they become a real liability to him.

Politically speaking, Eames hasn't ever cared too much about power. Not someone who has huge ambitions for moving through the court, there's too much responsibility with being a Lord or a King. Too many eyes watching. He cares more about finding the sweet spot where he's trusted to be left to his own devices most of the time - where people trust his judgement and aren't always watching, and no one's interested in picking him off for their own ambitions.

He's fascinated by humans and the others in the ~real world~ in a way fae usually aren't. Not so far as to say he wishes he was one of them or anything so gauche, but he's spent a lot of time learning about them. Their history, politics, and so on. He spends almost all of his free time in the mortal realm and sometimes it shows - he sometimes finds his thoughts skewed towards the mundane, though he does his best not to let that show. A side-effect of intentionally trying not to make himself seem too fantastic, to stand out too much. Sometimes he worries humanity may be rubbing off on him.

His interpersonal manner is by and large playful, in many ways he regards life as a game, but a game he's playing by himself with rules he'll never tell. He has a certain skill with reading people that makes it easy to joke in a way they'll respond to, or to poke at them in a way he knows will wind them up. (Though he tends not to try and upset people intentionally unless they're someone he just cannot stand for whatever reason. It's bad business.) In this way, he can be someone kind of jarring to speak to when things are at stake. He'll switch gears between this and a purely businesslike attitude like it's nothing when negotiating, and his anger is something else entirely. It's difficult to really get him riled up like that, to say the least, but his anger is a cold fury. If he feels slighted he will make it his mission to destroy someone, a keen believer that death is rarely a suitable punishment.

Powers & Possessions:

In terms of physical strength, Eames is tough but it's nothing that would out him as supernatural. He's certainly never been afraid to get into a scuffle (and honestly, he kind of enjoys them,) but he's as expected for a guy his size, and more skilled along the lines of learning from 500 years of bar brawls than any kind of actual training.

Seeing as he hasn't managed to make himself an outcast just yet, (though occasionally it seems like he's really skirting that line,) Eames still has the standard abilities of his kind, though his personal strengths lie in illusions and shape-changing. Moreover, he's incredibly adept at replicating things and people he's already seen. Anyone he's watched long enough, he can imitate with incredible believability, and whilst he may not be reliably able to replicate the finer details of a scene, he can imitate the feel of it so well that the finer points become moot. It's amazing, after all, what humans would give for a glimpse of something that should be left alone.

He is curious, also, about the nature of enchanting and infusing an item with part of his power. This is something he experiments with a lot when he's in the Other Realm and has the time to himself, but he can't yet seem to do much than make a ring "lucky" or a bracelet that'll make someone punch a little harder. It's not something that comes quite as naturally to him.

Samples:

Gross emotional thread where Eames is dying
Helping a buddy out on the TDM
A short thread where Eames may be turning into a merman?