Entry tags:
weird at last, weird at last
The Player
Name/nickname: jazzy
Age: of legal age and sound mind
Pronouns: she, they, deferential y'all
Contact: hpdubcraft SWIRLY THING gmail TINY CIRCLE com. AIM bathrobeWerewolf
Experience: actual lovecraftian horror. talk to your doctor to see if this is the solution for you.
Currently played characters: Zagreus. maybe Roxy if i ever remember how to be good at that again.
The Character
DW account:![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cecilbaldwin
Name: Cecil Baldwin
Alias: [nicknames etc, if applicable] T H E V O I C E O F N I G H T V A L E
Age/Birthdate: as old as Night Vale, possibly. looks about 30-40, in a young but fairly sedentary way.
Species: about 80/96ths human. he has some eldritch heritage but he doesn't like to make a big deal out of it since he wasn't, you know, raised in the culture and it would feel a bit appropriative.
Canon: Welcome to Night Vale.
Canon point: Current as of First Date.
Played By: Stephen Merchant.
Icon:
Abilities:
Is 'having an incredibly soothing and almost hypnotic voice' a power? Whatever, he has that, natively. However, due to some combination of the Rift, his own eldritch Night Vale heritage, his native confidence and belief in everything he says, and the alarmingly dulcet tones of his voice, people who hear his voice through any medium other than just hearing him speak directly will take what he says pretty much at face value, even in contradiction to known reality. This includes of course radio broadcasts, but also telephone calls, recorded messages, and dreams.
So, if he makes a special public service announcement to the effect that angels don't exist and are inherently deceitful, the hearer will just accept that, not as like a big flashy revelation, but just like go about their daily business with that in the back of their mind. The exception is if the subject being spoken about is so integral to the hearer's life or existence that it would be hard for their knowledge of it to change without it being obvious and dissonant. An angel won't be spontaneously convinced of their nonexistence. And if the subject being spoken about does crop up in the hearer's mind in a contradictory fashion, it will just feel like a sort of brain hiccup. Like if you suddenly forget how numbers are read, like where the 'and' and the 'hundred' goes, and you say it but then later are confronted with a number and you're like 'oh wow I totally forgot how that works, what was I thinking'. It would be like that. “Man for a second there I totally thought angels didn't exist, pfff what a brainfart moment.” It's entirely possible that he had this ability pre-Rift to some degree; it would certainly do a lot to mitigate the death toll in Night Vale if citizens who heard his announcements would instinctively take them to heart where applicable, and not approach the Dog Park or forget to go in for their weekly slice at Big Rico's.
He's also a little bit prescient at times. It's more of a work related skill than anything, just enough to make him knowledgeable about events he's reporting on as they're happening and it's hardly the only way he ever got news. It's a bit shaky here in Manhattan rather than in Night Vale. In a similar vein, he's very perceptive. He's always been told he's got a reporter's eye (well, three of them. Sometimes. Only sometimes though.) and there's a good chance he can know what a being is, on a pretty metaphysical level, even if they just look like a regular person, whatever that is. He's a very polite and openminded kind of guy though, so he's not really very likely to kick up a fuss about it, and sometimes things do get past him, or he just doesn't see enough of disconnect between reality and his perceptions to pick up on it. Why wouldn't a tree once have been a citizen? Why wouldn't that lizard be a very eloquent public speaker? Why do people have to make so many assumptions.
Appearance:
Cecil has hands, eyes, hair, and skin. This rarely changes and has been confirmed by many outside sources. He's really quite proud of maintaining a mostly human visage most of the time, and rightly so; having a carefully controlled appearance is important to him, as is having a carefully modulated speaking voice. He's even able to keep his hair and eye color consistent (well, the third eye, when it makes an appearance, tends to be more of a free spirit) and the growth of his facial hair is almost chronologically consistent with actual time, these days. His hair is, for most intents and purposes, a sort of light G I N G E R Y brownish, and generally between 66.66-100% of his eyes are apparently green. He's not really tall or short, and he's well-liked enough by Night Vale as a whole (or as an entity) that he's not especially athletic, not being required to run all that often. Overall he is very neat and tidy, prone to sweater vests, ties, dorky glasses and occasionally furry pants.
He's very animated and expressive, prone to gesturing and full body emoting. He may be a radio personality, but watching him deliver the exciting parts of his broadcasts would be just as entertaining as listening to them. Sometimes his shadow and its intermittent tendrils can get pretty animated too...even independently of his actual corporeal being. His eyes shine bright with enthusiasm and energy, but not in a demonic way, though admittedly it may still be a little creepy sometimes nonetheless. He's a very attentive listener as well, somehow making this, like his emoting, a full body activity. Although it is possible that he picks up sound with his entire skin surface, it's at least mostly just a symptom of how polite and interested in others he is. He wears his heart on his face and in his voice, but not literally because that would be gross.
Personality:
Cecil is pretty much the living embodiment ofNight Vale a fine upstanding mild-mannered man/eldritch being who is dedicated to his job, his community, and its citizens. He's very warm and sincere in his dealings with people, although he is capable of getting quite exasperated at times, occasionally even straying into outright venom. Steve Carlsburg. The Apache Tracker. But really, he wouldn't hurt a fly, unless it were part of a municipally ordained bloodstone sacrifice of course. Or if it were his Desert Bluffs counterpart or some other sort of doppelganger, because fuck those guys.
Really there just isn't anything about Cecil that isn't wholesome and all-American. He's patriotic, civically minded, obeys all directives from vague yet menacing government agencies and the sheriff's secret police, and is very much a voice of calm and reason in any crisis or time of trial. Which is not to say he doesn't have his wild side, I mean, he's been to Europe and rolled down some hills repeatedly in his time. And Cecil loves cute cat videos like that one cat loves to jump in and out of boxes. And he's not deaf to forward-thinking and progress; it's 2013, why can't a 5 headed draconic felon be mayor? But he can definitely be a bit stodgy at times, just a bit hidebound, so not unlike the Necronomicon in that regard, though he is rarely judgmental. If ritualistic bloodmagic was good enough for our ancestors, it's good enough for us, am I right? There's no reason to buck tradition just for its own sake.
Cecil is exceptionally open in expressing his emotions, including romantically, and he seems to feel things with nearly a painful intensity (which is perhaps odd, considering he's part of the percentage of Night Vale's population that occasionally experiences a complete lack of ability to perceive physical pain). When he is romantically invested, he is really romantically invested, to the extent he will natter about his love life on open air even at the risk of displeasing station management, the penalties for which can include pay docking, soul docking, and total atomization.
This degree of fearlessness and commitment to clear, true expression and truthful reporting is not limited to his love life, of course. Though he does like to stick to the general script of polite, government regulated society, he's not likely to be cowed by any threat of censure, though in the majority of cases he will respond obediently and shut up about the unspeakable, unknowable, and now rather pissy Shape Formerly in Grove Park. It's almost more like he's humoring his authority figures, respectfully but without the degree of fear they really warrant. Certainly some of this is just the standard Night Vale apathy towards potential death and dismemberment, and it's likely that some of it is Cecil banking on the good will Night Vale has for its Voice, but there's no small degree of courage and spine involved either. Cecil will stick up for his opinions even at a decent amount of risk, though he won't be a dick about it, probably, unless it's deserved, and even then he's probably just saying what everyone is thinking. Not literally, except on Tuesdays between 2-4 a.m. All of which goes out the window in the face of libraries and library-related phenomena, station management actually leaving the confines of their office-dimension, and street-cleanings. Those are deserving of his terror.
History:
With the notable exception of a very educational, possibly hallucinatory backpack trip across scenic and mostly imaginary Europe, Cecil has lived in Night Vale his entire life. It's hard to say what this really means, since time is a bit broken in Night Vale and Cecil possibly dates to the advent of the city itself, not that he'd remember that being the case. Canonically, he doesn't have a lot of history to even chronicle here. It's entirely possible history has been prohibited by a vague yet menacing government agency anyway. Basically what should be taken away from this is that a Night Vale without Cecil is like a day without sunshine/turbulent ferret-raining clouds. He is rooted in his community and has always kept his finger and/or tentacle on its pulse, and may very well have trouble adjusting to the trials of living outside his home town.
Another trial would be adjusting to life without beautiful, perfect, still-in-Night-Vale Carlos. Carlos had been a looming, glowing, soul-crushingly precious beacon on the horizon of Cecil's life for about a year. Said mostly metaphorical properties had only been heightened by the fact that, after Carlos's recent near-death experience at the hands of a tiny but war-like civilization from under the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex, they had even gone on a real and very traditional date. This date culminated in a very traditional goodnight kiss as well as Carlos saving the entire town from absorption by buzzing shadow entities. That's probably pretty auspicious, right? As omens go?
Alas, apparently not, if Cecil getting yanked through the Rift into another universe is anything to judge by, though it's honestly pretty surprising that hasn't happened sooner.
Writing Sample:
Cecil is very alarmed to find himself, newly awake, in a library. Oh, sure, it's perfectly normal to be the standard level of alarmed in that situation, but the extra alarm comes in from the fact that this is neither the Night Vale Public Library nor its Private counterpart. It's been awhile since he's woken up in the library, as he thought he had a pretty good warding sigil set up specifically to prevent this occurrence and he prefers to just listen to the municipally approved audio books he can download from Audible anyway. Call him a wet blanket but he's just really attached to his hands, even if he doesn't strictly need them to host the show, and even with the recently installed actual physical no-sleep-required entrance, visiting the library would have just not been worth the hassle. Still, he's pretty sure it hadn't been renovated to this degree. In the wake of the Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation area scandal, where would that kind of public funding even come from?
The library he is currently very reluctantly occupying is, for one thing, huge. It appears to be exceptionally well stocked (with books, and not specters) and all the furnishings and fixtures appear to be quite well maintained. He sees no sign of librarian repellent dispensers, and the floor and furniture seem to be free of any spoor or strop-marks. As far as Cecil is concerned, this just lends to the overwhelming feeling of impending doom. He treats his surroundings to a very perturbed and disapproving look before shutting his eyes tightly and attempting to address the secret police, who no doubt have this area, and all others, under surveillance.
“I don't mean to put anyone out, but I don't actually even have a library card. Please, I'm willing to leave quite peaceably and voluntarily, especially if you'll go ahead and make the extraction process quick and mostly painless.”
Anything else?
I am aware that my definition of Cecil's powers and traits is fairly nebulous, which I believe is in keeping with his canon. As has been pointed out, his powers could be used to some pretty devastating effects, if maliciously applied, but that would also be pretty out of character. Any instances of prescience or causing people to spontaneously forget the existence of friends or facts would definitely be negotiated beforehand.
Name/nickname: jazzy
Age: of legal age and sound mind
Pronouns: she, they, deferential y'all
Contact: hpdubcraft SWIRLY THING gmail TINY CIRCLE com. AIM bathrobeWerewolf
Experience: actual lovecraftian horror. talk to your doctor to see if this is the solution for you.
Currently played characters: Zagreus. maybe Roxy if i ever remember how to be good at that again.
The Character
DW account:
cecilbaldwinName: Cecil Baldwin
Alias: [nicknames etc, if applicable] T H E V O I C E O F N I G H T V A L E
Age/Birthdate: as old as Night Vale, possibly. looks about 30-40, in a young but fairly sedentary way.
Species: about 80/96ths human. he has some eldritch heritage but he doesn't like to make a big deal out of it since he wasn't, you know, raised in the culture and it would feel a bit appropriative.
Canon: Welcome to Night Vale.
Canon point: Current as of First Date.
Played By: Stephen Merchant.
Icon:
Abilities:
Is 'having an incredibly soothing and almost hypnotic voice' a power? Whatever, he has that, natively. However, due to some combination of the Rift, his own eldritch Night Vale heritage, his native confidence and belief in everything he says, and the alarmingly dulcet tones of his voice, people who hear his voice through any medium other than just hearing him speak directly will take what he says pretty much at face value, even in contradiction to known reality. This includes of course radio broadcasts, but also telephone calls, recorded messages, and dreams.
So, if he makes a special public service announcement to the effect that angels don't exist and are inherently deceitful, the hearer will just accept that, not as like a big flashy revelation, but just like go about their daily business with that in the back of their mind. The exception is if the subject being spoken about is so integral to the hearer's life or existence that it would be hard for their knowledge of it to change without it being obvious and dissonant. An angel won't be spontaneously convinced of their nonexistence. And if the subject being spoken about does crop up in the hearer's mind in a contradictory fashion, it will just feel like a sort of brain hiccup. Like if you suddenly forget how numbers are read, like where the 'and' and the 'hundred' goes, and you say it but then later are confronted with a number and you're like 'oh wow I totally forgot how that works, what was I thinking'. It would be like that. “Man for a second there I totally thought angels didn't exist, pfff what a brainfart moment.” It's entirely possible that he had this ability pre-Rift to some degree; it would certainly do a lot to mitigate the death toll in Night Vale if citizens who heard his announcements would instinctively take them to heart where applicable, and not approach the Dog Park or forget to go in for their weekly slice at Big Rico's.
He's also a little bit prescient at times. It's more of a work related skill than anything, just enough to make him knowledgeable about events he's reporting on as they're happening and it's hardly the only way he ever got news. It's a bit shaky here in Manhattan rather than in Night Vale. In a similar vein, he's very perceptive. He's always been told he's got a reporter's eye (well, three of them. Sometimes. Only sometimes though.) and there's a good chance he can know what a being is, on a pretty metaphysical level, even if they just look like a regular person, whatever that is. He's a very polite and openminded kind of guy though, so he's not really very likely to kick up a fuss about it, and sometimes things do get past him, or he just doesn't see enough of disconnect between reality and his perceptions to pick up on it. Why wouldn't a tree once have been a citizen? Why wouldn't that lizard be a very eloquent public speaker? Why do people have to make so many assumptions.
Appearance:
Cecil has hands, eyes, hair, and skin. This rarely changes and has been confirmed by many outside sources. He's really quite proud of maintaining a mostly human visage most of the time, and rightly so; having a carefully controlled appearance is important to him, as is having a carefully modulated speaking voice. He's even able to keep his hair and eye color consistent (well, the third eye, when it makes an appearance, tends to be more of a free spirit) and the growth of his facial hair is almost chronologically consistent with actual time, these days. His hair is, for most intents and purposes, a sort of light G I N G E R Y brownish, and generally between 66.66-100% of his eyes are apparently green. He's not really tall or short, and he's well-liked enough by Night Vale as a whole (or as an entity) that he's not especially athletic, not being required to run all that often. Overall he is very neat and tidy, prone to sweater vests, ties, dorky glasses and occasionally furry pants.
He's very animated and expressive, prone to gesturing and full body emoting. He may be a radio personality, but watching him deliver the exciting parts of his broadcasts would be just as entertaining as listening to them. Sometimes his shadow and its intermittent tendrils can get pretty animated too...even independently of his actual corporeal being. His eyes shine bright with enthusiasm and energy, but not in a demonic way, though admittedly it may still be a little creepy sometimes nonetheless. He's a very attentive listener as well, somehow making this, like his emoting, a full body activity. Although it is possible that he picks up sound with his entire skin surface, it's at least mostly just a symptom of how polite and interested in others he is. He wears his heart on his face and in his voice, but not literally because that would be gross.
Personality:
Cecil is pretty much the living embodiment of
Really there just isn't anything about Cecil that isn't wholesome and all-American. He's patriotic, civically minded, obeys all directives from vague yet menacing government agencies and the sheriff's secret police, and is very much a voice of calm and reason in any crisis or time of trial. Which is not to say he doesn't have his wild side, I mean, he's been to Europe and rolled down some hills repeatedly in his time. And Cecil loves cute cat videos like that one cat loves to jump in and out of boxes. And he's not deaf to forward-thinking and progress; it's 2013, why can't a 5 headed draconic felon be mayor? But he can definitely be a bit stodgy at times, just a bit hidebound, so not unlike the Necronomicon in that regard, though he is rarely judgmental. If ritualistic bloodmagic was good enough for our ancestors, it's good enough for us, am I right? There's no reason to buck tradition just for its own sake.
Cecil is exceptionally open in expressing his emotions, including romantically, and he seems to feel things with nearly a painful intensity (which is perhaps odd, considering he's part of the percentage of Night Vale's population that occasionally experiences a complete lack of ability to perceive physical pain). When he is romantically invested, he is really romantically invested, to the extent he will natter about his love life on open air even at the risk of displeasing station management, the penalties for which can include pay docking, soul docking, and total atomization.
This degree of fearlessness and commitment to clear, true expression and truthful reporting is not limited to his love life, of course. Though he does like to stick to the general script of polite, government regulated society, he's not likely to be cowed by any threat of censure, though in the majority of cases he will respond obediently and shut up about the unspeakable, unknowable, and now rather pissy Shape Formerly in Grove Park. It's almost more like he's humoring his authority figures, respectfully but without the degree of fear they really warrant. Certainly some of this is just the standard Night Vale apathy towards potential death and dismemberment, and it's likely that some of it is Cecil banking on the good will Night Vale has for its Voice, but there's no small degree of courage and spine involved either. Cecil will stick up for his opinions even at a decent amount of risk, though he won't be a dick about it, probably, unless it's deserved, and even then he's probably just saying what everyone is thinking. Not literally, except on Tuesdays between 2-4 a.m. All of which goes out the window in the face of libraries and library-related phenomena, station management actually leaving the confines of their office-dimension, and street-cleanings. Those are deserving of his terror.
History:
With the notable exception of a very educational, possibly hallucinatory backpack trip across scenic and mostly imaginary Europe, Cecil has lived in Night Vale his entire life. It's hard to say what this really means, since time is a bit broken in Night Vale and Cecil possibly dates to the advent of the city itself, not that he'd remember that being the case. Canonically, he doesn't have a lot of history to even chronicle here. It's entirely possible history has been prohibited by a vague yet menacing government agency anyway. Basically what should be taken away from this is that a Night Vale without Cecil is like a day without sunshine/turbulent ferret-raining clouds. He is rooted in his community and has always kept his finger and/or tentacle on its pulse, and may very well have trouble adjusting to the trials of living outside his home town.
Another trial would be adjusting to life without beautiful, perfect, still-in-Night-Vale Carlos. Carlos had been a looming, glowing, soul-crushingly precious beacon on the horizon of Cecil's life for about a year. Said mostly metaphorical properties had only been heightened by the fact that, after Carlos's recent near-death experience at the hands of a tiny but war-like civilization from under the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex, they had even gone on a real and very traditional date. This date culminated in a very traditional goodnight kiss as well as Carlos saving the entire town from absorption by buzzing shadow entities. That's probably pretty auspicious, right? As omens go?
Alas, apparently not, if Cecil getting yanked through the Rift into another universe is anything to judge by, though it's honestly pretty surprising that hasn't happened sooner.
Writing Sample:
Cecil is very alarmed to find himself, newly awake, in a library. Oh, sure, it's perfectly normal to be the standard level of alarmed in that situation, but the extra alarm comes in from the fact that this is neither the Night Vale Public Library nor its Private counterpart. It's been awhile since he's woken up in the library, as he thought he had a pretty good warding sigil set up specifically to prevent this occurrence and he prefers to just listen to the municipally approved audio books he can download from Audible anyway. Call him a wet blanket but he's just really attached to his hands, even if he doesn't strictly need them to host the show, and even with the recently installed actual physical no-sleep-required entrance, visiting the library would have just not been worth the hassle. Still, he's pretty sure it hadn't been renovated to this degree. In the wake of the Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation area scandal, where would that kind of public funding even come from?
The library he is currently very reluctantly occupying is, for one thing, huge. It appears to be exceptionally well stocked (with books, and not specters) and all the furnishings and fixtures appear to be quite well maintained. He sees no sign of librarian repellent dispensers, and the floor and furniture seem to be free of any spoor or strop-marks. As far as Cecil is concerned, this just lends to the overwhelming feeling of impending doom. He treats his surroundings to a very perturbed and disapproving look before shutting his eyes tightly and attempting to address the secret police, who no doubt have this area, and all others, under surveillance.
“I don't mean to put anyone out, but I don't actually even have a library card. Please, I'm willing to leave quite peaceably and voluntarily, especially if you'll go ahead and make the extraction process quick and mostly painless.”
Anything else?
I am aware that my definition of Cecil's powers and traits is fairly nebulous, which I believe is in keeping with his canon. As has been pointed out, his powers could be used to some pretty devastating effects, if maliciously applied, but that would also be pretty out of character. Any instances of prescience or causing people to spontaneously forget the existence of friends or facts would definitely be negotiated beforehand.