application @ empatheias

[barredheart]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Peace
Contact: sundrymunity
Age: 22
Current Characters: n/a


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: White (born Mary Macbeth)
Age: At least 21
Canon: Blood Blockade Battlefront
Canon Point: Episode 8

Background: Link to the canon but since her background’s more than a little lacking I don’t mind dropping some history on here.

!! Spoilers below !!

The Macbeths were a family with generation after generation of psychics, all of whom joined the League of High Order Spirituals (L.H.O.S.) as Casters. Each mother and father had powers from their mothers and fathers, every child from their parents, right up until one Mary Macbeth was brought into this world completely normal. Her twin brother, on the other hand, had been born with enough psi-powers for the both of them.

This led to Mary constantly questioning herself and her own worth, and though her parents genuinely loved her no matter what it only made her feel worse. The nail in the coffin always came from William, her brother, refusing to use his psi-powers for whatever reason, even if he was being beat up by the other boys.

(Mary always thought he was stupid for that, even if she took on bullies twice her size and won for him.)

After finding a camera in the closest, Mary begins her life as an amateur photographer and takes pictures of everything from the sheep on their farm to strangers sitting at a cafe, trying to find out how to leave her mark on the world. Because you get one life and a limited time with it, so you need to do something to leave a legacy. Even at a young age she thought about this.

But it wasn’t meant to last. The boys who’d bullied William asked her for her camera one day and she’d only given to them with a shrug. Her brother, seeing the exchange, ran after the bullies and told them to give the camera back. They responded by throwing it into the river and he dove after it, landing himself in the hospital.

Mary’d been angry. Angry, but worried, and she made it abundantly clear that she hated how he always seemed like he was looking into his life from the outside, like “it just happened to someone else,” and that the reason she started to cry was because if she’d lost William, then she couldn’t bear it. He’s her brother, her twin brother, and as much as she resented him for not using his powers, as much as she hated how he acted about his own life like it didn’t matter what happened to him, she still loved him very much and couldn’t stand the thought of him dying. Mary’s the kind of girl who’d do anything to keep what’s important to her safe.

Including a deal with the devil. But that’s in a moment.

Afterwards, the twins talk one night about why William had stopped using his psi-powers and honestly it’s all news to Mary - she doesn’t even remember him popping her perfectly made mudball she’d so proudly shown off to him. She finds out he’d taken a picture of her before (inspired by her taking so many amazing ones) and it’s of her sleeping, drooling face. Unexpectedly, Mary starts to cry, and while William doesn’t understand it’s not because he took a blurry picture of her in such a vulnerable state he gets that it’s okay when she thanks him with a hug.

Fast forward a few years later. New York City and the Alterworld have begun to collide - an overnight phenomenon that’d herald the name change of Hellsalem’s Lot in time - and Mary runs through the city to find her family, all of whom she’d been split up with. She picks up a gun from a dead man and finds William under a tree, calling out for him. He tells her to stay away because it’s dangerous and a blue light springs from the side.

It’s unclear what’s said, as it’s a one sided conversation, but William gives up his body, his mind, everything to the energy ball to use - on the condition that it leaves his sister out of it. That it doesn’t hurt her or drag her in. Satisfied with the pact, the blue light seeps into William’s body and he slumps a little. Mary cautiously calls out his name, only to be rebuffed.

“Nope,” the voice that sounded so much like her brother’s, twisted into a mocking tone, “my name’s...”

It’s not disclosed to the audience, but whatever its name is leaves her crying. This is headcanon right here, but it makes a good deal of sense considering the following scene: It’s at this point that she makes a deal with the entity, that she would do anything to help him that she could if he’d give her William back, and it’s accepted. William wouldn’t remember this.

Sometime later, Mary and William find their parents after he’s returned to himself. Mary lies unconscious herself, but what happens is that their mother and father sacrifice themselves in order to help seal up the collision of the two worlds, part of what would become Hellsalem’s Lot iconic “mushroom cloud” appearance. It’s unclear what happens to Mary here as well (for now, anyway, though this screenshot shows that she’s got blood over her heart from her “first death”) but at this point or a little earlier is when her heart is replaced with the same barrier around Hellsalem’s Lot.

Essentially, the seal of the city is in her chest. Anything that disrupts the seal beneath the city sends her to the ground, clutching her heart area in wheezing pain, but nothing of the sort happens until the commotion in episode 9 when one of the seal points is destroyed by a Blood Breed (the vampires of BBB).

Fast forward again, three years exact this time. Mary, now going by her childhood nickname of “White”, lives in a hospital on the excuse of having a “heart condition”, though she seems perfectly healthy and energetic. It also doubles as her hideaway from the L.H.O.S., who have her penned down as “missing” while her brother is actually a registered Caster, though the reason for this is unknown. It’s guessed that it’s due to the seal on her heart, and while it’s not brought up between the twins it seems like Black (William’s childhood nickname) knows, most likely due to the King of Despair, and the L.H.O.S. would probably trap her someplace farther from the public than she is now. And Black already feels guilty about keeping her in the hospital, the least he can give White is the chance to meet other people under the guise of just being there for treatment. She likes spending her days out of her room when she can, generally in a graveyard not too far off from the hospital’s fountain - and this is where she meets Leonardo Watch, the protagonist of BBB.

Leonardo unconsciously opens his eyes enough for her to see his All-Seeing Eyes of God - a necessary component in that entity (dubbed the King of Despair by himself) from before’s plan - and like a true femme fatale, White quickly befriends him for her own gain.

They hang out a lot together, mostly because Leonardo has the luck of an acrophobic tightrope walker and continues to get put into the hospital due to his involvement in Libra (a secret organization at urban mystery level). Even on his better, less accident-prone and troubling days he visits her. To anyone’s clear eye - and certainly to White’s - he’s getting a pretty big crush on her. Head over heels, man.

Which is all too good in her books, though she starts to find herself growing attached as well (also like any femme fatale, though it’s unclear if it’s returned romance or simply friendly affection) to the point of mild protest to the King of Despair’s plans when it comes time for her end of the bargain that would return William (“Black” as she calls him now) to her. She ends up going with it and succeeds without a hitch in the plan, though she feels guilty for betraying her friend and sends Leonardo’s monkey friend Sonic after him.

That part’s ahead of the episode I’m taking her from, but everything before the previous paragraph is on point. It’s just important to know.

Personality: At the heart of it all, White is someone who would go to the ends of the Earth for her brother (and he’d very much do the same for her). It’s this strong bond that pulls her through every decision, every life choice, good and bad. It’s not just because he’s all she has left - though that’s a good deal of it, now - it’s because they’re twins and one could say that a sibling relationship is a sibling relationship, but twins are more entwined because they’ve been together even before the moment they were born. Every second is filled with a memory of the other, and to have that taken away or the threat of it is unthinkable until it happens. White’s desire to return her brother to her is what ultimately makes up the most of her conflict in BBB, her strength and her weakness, and is easily taken advantage of by the King of Despair.

That said: White is a very friendly, outgoing, and perceptive young woman. She quickly makes friends with Leonardo (and charms him to boot), has lived long enough in Hellsalem’s Lot to know its odd population and be comfortable with being around them (and befriending them too, like with Zed), and is shown to be on good terms with the hospital staff too. Which makes sense, seeing as she’s spent the last three years there. She describes herself as a “ghost” and is a little odd at times, like she’s hiding something, but there’s not a malicious bone in her body. Everything she does is necessary. No more, no less.

She’s also very stubborn. And tomboyish, but cutely enough that side of her is shown more in her childhood and to her brother than to more “outside” people. She likes taking risks if it has a high benefit for her (like Leonardo sneaking her out of the hospital to see a movie) and tries to stay strong, pretending like things are fine when they’re not and that she’s unbothered by her situation. That’s also very present in childhood when she calls her photography a “distraction” and is rebuffed by her brother for it, feigning a careful indifference towards the boys who’d asked her for her camera and what happened to it. White had been more concerned about her brother’s life after that incident, yeah, but she’d taken at least thirty pictures with the Polaroid she’d found, so it hadn’t been for nothing, it hadn’t just been a distraction, and even in the present she tends to try and detach herself mostly from people.

Unfortunately, she can’t. She’s an empathetic girl, someone who knows what it’s like to be useless and the situation hopeless, and the friendlier people are to her, the more someone seems to have similar circumstances, the more she can’t help but like them and wants to keep them around. Even if all she wanted from them were their eyes. White’s main problem with Leonardo is that his sister sacrificed her eyesight for him, just how Black sacrificed his body for her, and so she draws a lot of comparisons between them, gets attached, and that ultimately leads to part of her conflict with the King of Despair’s bargain.

White is a selfish girl. She wants her brother returned but she doesn’t want to lose Leonardo as a friend. She’d do anything for that. Even before the King of Despair asks her to fulfill her end of the deal in episode 9 she’s probably been hoping that it wouldn’t end so soon, that she could continue having happy days with her dear friend and her brother (as borrowed on time as she, Black, and the King of Despair are, though it’s not exactly known what is meant by that), that her fantasy would come true and everything would be fine.

Of course, not every “once upon a time” has a happy ending. Mary and William Macbeth might not be related to the play Shakespeare wrote outside of their last name, but their story is certainly a tragedy no two ways about it.

White’s also pretty cynical about society as a whole, as much as she’d like it to be a better place. She comments that even after 2000 years after humanity was given a clean slate (referring to Jesus Christ, though she doesn’t pray or believe in God herself) they still didn’t have peace, that there were still war and conflict abound. She’s fond of reading science journals despite her thoughts about people as a whole though and she’s not violent herself, the most injuring thing being a fond flick to the forehead.

And, surprisingly, she's gullible. A sharp mind who knows how to get what she wants, but when it comes to decision making she'll pretty much put her eggs in the one basket that sounds best and not think about the consequences of that. Perceptive enough to know that Leonardo likes her and that whenever the King of Despair comes to talk it's about "business", but she doesn't see how the latter is pulling the wool over her eyes about what his plan exactly entails for it to work out for him. Poor girl.

To summarize: White is a “femme fatale” type character who befriends Leonardo purely for her own gain, for his All-Seeing Eyes of God, and ends up appreciating him to the point of conflict. The King of Despair even tells her not to “get stupid” on him an episode after I’m taking her from, just to show just how attached she got. What she needs those eyes for is to save her brother from the King of Despair’s control after Black willingly gave up his humanity to keep her safe, and she would do anything to that end - including planning to betray one of the best friends she’s ever had. She tries to be indifferent about things and people, but her true feelings are often the opposite of what she needs to believe. A stubborn, kind young woman who wants so much more than she’s able to get, who wants a happy ending when the world tells her she’s not allowed one without consequences and is naive enough to believe she'll get it anyway.

Abilities: None. She’s perfectly normal, heart condition aside. It doesn’t grant her any special powers.

Alignment: Peromei. White is very much a loving, friendly young woman, but behind her smile she hides a lot of grief for what’s happened the past three years and her ongoing struggle with what she needs to do (get her brother back) and what she wants to do (get her brother back without losing her friend). It's that conflict that really drives the whole hope-despair thing home.

Other: Regarding her heart condition: Since it’s the seal to Hellsalem’s Lot, it won’t effect Verens or the world around it. However, I’d like it if she’d be the one affected instead, particularly by spikes in positivity and negativity generally speaking. It won’t affect how she acts like it does the Arehtei, but where a big positive push would make her feel fine and light on her feet and big negative push would cause her pain.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: The masquerade had been fun. It wasn’t anything like White had ever been to, so showy and bright and nice, but then again she was still getting used to being able to be out in general. The rumbling and giant tree had been a little more like home - Hellsalem’s Lot had a big one like that too, and it’d caused just as much destruction when it grew as the bridge between the human world and the Alterworld - but the petals are new. They’re beautiful, too, shimmering as they cascade down from the top of the tree, and she unconsciously pulls one towards her in her curiosity, the gentle wind landing it right in her palm.

She almost drops it when she sees her father’s smiling face, looking down at her from his perch beside her on the cobblestone wall. It’s of when he told her to take care of her brother. To make sure he didn’t get into any trouble, when he’d laughed about their matching names of “Black” and “White” that he’d given them himself after drinking.

The next that falls into her open hand is Black in the hospital, breathing softly. White remembers just as the memory plays out itself, taking a seat beside him and laying her head against his chest, listening to his slow heartbeat as he slept off the danger of death.

Cooking with her mother, watching the sheep, taking picture after picture of her world, meeting Leonardo, the movie date-- she collects every familiar sight, encasing them in her fist and looking for more. Another petal flickers with something and her hand snatches it close, freezing at the look on her brother’s face.

"Will?" She remembers asking, voice shaking. The sneer widens.

"Nope. My name is--"

The petal twists between her fingers as she trembles, tears spilling hot from her eyes and the wind picking up to blow away every other flower that dares to touch her. The ones clenched so tightly in her other hand - the happy memories, everything she’d want to keep close - rip from her and they scatter. White lets out a quiet sob and sinks into the tree’s mighty roots, tucking against them with her knees to her chest as the wind pulls at her long hair violently.

Of all days, why that one?

Questions: None I can think of.