[Ryslig] Application

OOC INFORMATION
Name: TJ
Contact: teag 
Other Characters: N/A!

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Ryan Farrow
Age: 24
World Information:
His background is essentially in your usual super-original modern supernatural setting: 2014 Earth, with few differences save for the existence of the supernatural in most forms (which is kept quiet outside their own circles.) He sees and interacts with ghosts, he's in touch with a wizard and others in on the existence of the supernatural via internet forums, one of the local pests is a carnivorous water-dwelling shapeshifter, magic exists, vampires/werewolves and other fabled creatures are all real. Few normal humans learn any of this for certain unless they're either personally informed or happen to see something they shouldn't have, and thanks to the little changes myths and stories have gone through over the years to make them more entertaining, those humans who simply believe in the magical and weird side of things often have the details wrong. This secrecy is largely by general agreement, primarily for safety- in earlier eras when human myths about other creatures were developed, they were known and often hunted either out of revenge for feeding on humans, fear of what they were, or simply for their physical attributes (claws sharp enough to be made into weaponry, better meat than mundane game, even acidic blood.

In the case of supernatural humans such as magic-users and mediums, they aren't often a risk (as they're rarely believed enough to pose an actual threat of exposure), and are generally left alone. A person who sees and interacts with restless spirits will always become one of them upon their own death, and seeing as they've got all the time in the world... those with a benevolent bent (or at least a practical one) will seek out a living person or two with the same talent to pass on what they know and function as a sort of mentor, as Ryan's has done for him. Similar mentoring practices are common among those with some magical talent, with experienced mages taking apprentices to ensure they learn not to be a danger to themselves or others.

The internet has become such a large part of modern life and such a convenient tool that it's no longer something more traditional sorts can just ignore-- the information they've long safeguarded is slowly spreading across wider and wider areas, encoded or simply disguised as fiction, and individuals from all kinds of circles are connecting with each other to share their knowledge and experiences far more freely than they've ever been able. Forums for supernatural discussion may just have hidden boards you can't navigate to without being given the right directions and passwords-- and many of them use the public boards to keep an eye on theories, sightings, and discoveries so that they can debunk anything getting too close to the truth.

Of course, keeping everything completely secret just isn't possible, especially when some think the time for it has long passed. It's getting harder and harder to maintain in a world where the spread of information just keeps getting faster, where leaks are harder to stop.

Character Information:
Ryan saw ghosts from a very young age, and it was difficult to convince his five-year-old self that the deceased went anywhere when his great-aunt was quite clearly still around after her funeral; that could have worked out fine regardless, if it weren't for his sixth sense being so strong that they were tangible to him and might as well have been living people. Sure, there were clues sometimes (going through walls or objects, or just being completely ignored by everyone else around) but it took him a while as a child to really catch on that there was anything off about what he saw. His claims of seeing people that nobody else could were seen at first as just a kid being, well, a little kid with an active imagination- handling death by pretending his relative was still around, or making up imaginary friends everywhere. Past a certain age, though, it raised concerns with his parents and teachers; the resulting attempts to find out what was going on ended in a diagnosis of hallucinatory psychosis, and when no treatment really worked to stop him from 'seeing things' his family opted to just homeschool him.

It was in early high school that he discovered online forums for supernatural discussions and theory. He became a frequent poster on a few in particular, and when his messages caught the attention of others who recognized that he actually knew what he was talking about when it came to spirits, he was brought into the fold of users with legitimate supernatural experience. Realizing that he wasn't alone, that he really had that extra sense his family had always thought to be an illness, was a major turning point for him-- with the discovery of the other side of the world came a driving urge to know as much about it as he could, to find a place in it where he fit. Finally there was more reason to believe what he saw and less to doubt himself, to think that maybe they'd been right about him all along. And, most importantly, his time spent there gave him enough confidence to actually consider leaving home rather than folding to his parents' wishes for him to keep living with them after graduating.

Ryan's parents weren't thrilled with the idea of him living on his own, but he was capable enough of caring for himself that he managed to talk them into allowing him to get out of the city; his problem had never actively been a danger, only a hindrance, and he argued that in a less populated and stressful place he might even improve. They reluctantly agreed-- on the conditions that he stay in regular contact, keep up on online courses for college, and find somewhere not too far from their home in Seattle.

In the small coastal town he moved to, he soon found a bit more than the quiet he'd expected. The house his family rented for him was the home of a late medium who happened to still be around (only less corporeal), and she'd been known as something of a supernatural problem-solver for the area in life. She instructed him in handling hauntings and acquainted him with the ghosts who stayed there-- the population fluctuated as some moved on or decided to relocate themselves, and he added one or two himself once people caught on that he was the same sort of strange that Ms. Richards had been. They came to him as they'd come to her, still somewhat skeptical of the cause of their home disturbances but willing to acknowledge that whatever the mediums did, it worked.

Ms. Richards had studied the supernatural over her career and passed that knowledge on to her replacement-- spirits would always be a medium's primary focus, but they were protectors of sorts just as much as problem-solvers. Fortunately for them, the area was small and unimportant enough not to attract too much undue attention; on the other hand, small and out-of-the-way places sometimes were targets for the occasional lone predator, and that included the need to deal with a few minor ones like weak vampires. She instructed him in protective methods such as the creation of blood wards and various creature repellents, which he supplemented with his own research and a little help from the ghosts haunting the place. Well-timed phenomena such as streetlights flicking on or cutting out, electronics failing or seemingly working on their own, slamming doors and odd noises... all of those turned out to be decent intimidation tactics at times, at least for the weaker threats the area attracted, and with some practice he wasn't a bad hand with a dagger when all else went wrong.

And the ones that weren't threats? He had no problem covering for them when they needed it or providing them aid and shelter, so long as they hadn't come to prey on the town. The vast majority of his contact with others was online, and while the ghosts were generally decent company, he was still always enthused to have someone else living around.


Personality:
Despite being surrounded by death, he's a surprisingly optimistic person. Ryan doesn't have much fear of it anymore, not when it's so intimately familiar to him, and he finds there's actually a lot of comfort in speaking with the dead and in the idea that the end's not such a final thing. They're all normal people, just no longer corporeal, and he's got a largely positive outlook on his own life and work now that he's been spending time either helping them out or just making a quiet afterlife a little less lonely.

Ryan is, for the most part, fairly reclusive given the option to be. The internet is where he spends a good deal of time, particularly on the supernatural theory and discussion forum he moderates and online RPGs. Outside of the internet most of his free time is spent taking care of the house and working on the real-life hobbies he's taken up; he's taken enough lessons in cooking from Ms. Richards to be fairly proficient, and he's found knitting and sewing are great for keeping his hands occupied and giving himself something to do when he's stressed or nervous. Most of his clothes need a little tailoring to fit well, anyway.

At this point in life, he's largely grown accustomed to the idea that people are just going to think he's completely nuts, and his old intense shyness in public or in group settings has seen some improvement. Where he used to be scared to speak up for fear that the person he was talking to was invisible to everyone else, now he manages to be a good deal more social, a little more capable of not internalizing every odd look shot his way as a personal failure in 'playing normal'. His internet presence is still where he gets a good deal of his interaction, though-- the anxiety is by no means gone, and he's simply more comfortable with it. He still has a habit of being incredibly fidgety, apologizing a lot, and gesturing with his hands a little too much when he's excited.

He also tends to be insecure and a little desperate for contact and acceptance- someone he considers a friend being upset or annoyed with him is A Big Deal and he'll do whatever he can to try to smooth things over. Any accusations of clinginess are pretty accurate, and once he considers himself close to someone he's anxious enough about losing them to often prioritize their needs over his own.

Ryan deals with conflict, discomfort, and outright fear all in very similar ways: lightening the mood is his go-to tactic, and he tends to make cheesy plays on words or crack bad jokes at completely inopportune times. He also tends to laugh more when he's nervous or anxious, and that nervous laughter is sometimes his reaction to shock (which, predictably, doesn't do much to help the general impression of awkwardness.) It's not an across-the-board reaction to negative situations, though; he's a supportive and empathetic person when it comes to consolation and sympathy, which is a large part of why he's been spending his life helping out the dead. This also makes him generally slow to anger, but he's hardly above it; pushing his buttons by antagonizing supernatural entities or trolling the forum he mods will upset him more quickly than most things, and he's gotten into his share of internet arguments. Passive-aggressive responses are usually his method of choice for dealing with irritation, and while he's not exactly proud of that... well, he's not great at confronting things head-on.

As one of the few locals who has any idea how to deal with the stranger sorts of threats at home, he considers it sort of his duty to keep his area protected to whatever extent he can. Ryan mostly relies on subtler means for this; he's human aside from his extra sense and lacking in magical talent, and placing wards is about the most he can do to try to keep things at bay. He's gotten somewhat experienced in using protective blood wards, but he's incapable of putting extra power into them-- his personal wards for protection from spirits were all made by a mage he knows from his forums. Ryan also reads tarot cards, but he swears his deck hates him (despite this, he keeps consulting it because he's sure it'll be blunt with him.) Regardless of the type of problem, he's never used lethal force against anything-- he refuses to kill, partly because he knows exactly how easy it is to haunt him, but mostly due to personal discomfort. He aids the dead, he doesn't add to their numbers.

He's also grown pretty desensitized to gore, considering his ability. Violent deaths leave imprints that he sees the signs of, some ghosts still look like they've just died, and after twenty-four years of living with seeing all of that... well, you just get used to it. In fact, he's so used to writing off things like bloodstains that he tends to completely fail to react to them when they really are physically present. Similarly, he tends to be harder to spook than your average person after so much time spent around ghosts-- bumps in the night and odd phenomena are a fact of life for him, and he's more skittish about people than he is of a haunt. The exception to this is water: he's always had a fear of the ocean, and the thought of being in it freaks him out because of how wide-open and deep it is. His sight has let him see some of the things that inhabit it, as well as ghostly remnants of ancient, monstrous things that likely have no idea they ever died, and so despite living on the coast he's steadfastly avoided going down to the water. (He's also mildly afraid of fish, and terrified of the weirder-looking deep sea creatures. A friend dragged him to an aquarium once and it was the worst time of his life.)

5-10 Key Character Traits:
-Intelligent
-Curious
-Clingy
-Awkward
-Empathetic
-Aquaphobic/ichthyophobic
-Skewed sense of normalcy*
-Protective
-Reclusive
-Passive-aggressive when irritated

(*- specifically referencing being used to weird phenomena that go along with working with ghosts and other entities and not being spooked by these, along with being used to seeing the dead and signs of death everywhere as a result of living with his second sight.)

Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER?
Either! I'm more interested in one that suits him as a character, whether it matches his personality or not.

Opt-Outs:
Werebear, troll, minotaur, gargoyle, goblin.

Roleplay Sample:
Test Drive scenario!  I have another thread elsewhere on the TDM if you need more.