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TLV Application
Oct. 21st, 2023 07:48 pmUser Name/Nick: Jae
User DW: N/A
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: PM or plurk at researchboner
Other Characters Currently In-Game: Hera, Willa Givens, Neal Caffrey
Character Name: Yellow
Series: Malevolent (Podcast)
Age: Technically four days and also the entirety of human history and then some??
From When?: Near the end of episode 23, as Arthur plays the song that "wakes up" John and replaces Yellow
Inmate Justification: Yellow is a piece of a malevolent entity that invades the minds of humans and drives them insane to do its bidding, among, y'know, other torturous hobbies. His first three days of independent existence were filled with insults, unanswered questions, and a very, very, very traumatized man taking the edge of his trauma off on the person-being who wasn't the friend he tried to save, which resulted in a virulent dislike of humans and equally virulent desire to return to the King in Yellow and be whole again.
At the time of his arrival on the Barge, he hates humanity, hates Arthur Lester in particular, and has resolved to reject everything that made John Doe John, including his sense of awe, his hope, his kindness, and his wonder. Yellow's primary motivation at the moment is to return to being the King in Yellow, a 'birthright' he knows about but doesn't truly remember. He'll pursue that end viciously, and being around other inmates and being influenced by their violent/fatalistic/etc tendencies, he's absolutely going to get a lot worse before he gets better.
Working with a warden--one who hasn't been brutally starved and psychologically tortured for months directly before inheriting his presence--will give Yellow the chance to discover the things that John Doe did as another piece of the King in Yellow given independence. Appreciation and maybe even love for the world, and the discovery of meaning in mortality and limitation. Or even a healthy and nuanced appreciation for immortality and power, maybe. Maybe.
Arrival: Absolutely was not given a choice lol
Abilities/Powers: The King in Yellow is a patron of artists, and as a result, any visual art created by Yellow will probably have a similar impact on people as John's--though his won't knock anyone out, it could definitely give them a migraine.
Since he's technically not a corporeal entity, his physical manifestation on the Barge will appear to be a yellow, hooded cloak, ragged at the hems, from which he can spin off small threads and ribbon-like tentacles to interact at a very basic level with the world around him. Of course, they are still ribbon tentacles, which means they have about -10 STR. In the hood of the cloak hover bits of a broken pale mask, barely complete enough show where his eyes should be, and a over the hood he wears a jagged gold crown. His physical presence is a projection from the crown.
Which, to elaborate on that point: for the barge, carrying or wearing his crown forces Yellow into cohabitation with whoever is in possession of it, if they choose to allow him that entry. Otherwise, they will be able to hear and speak to him while holding the crown. He has no choice one way or the other regarding this, but unlike John can't leave after possession occurs unless he is allowed to do so. In other words, if a warden sees him throwing a shitfit they can grab his crown and make him relax. Of course, this could become an issue if a fellow inmate decides to get handsy.
During possession, he'll gain access to one of the holder's senses at random/by player preference. He'll also be able to talk silently in the head of whoever has him in hand, but cannot speak out of his holder's mouth, read any of their thoughts, or actively control their actions. Certain supernatural senses and/or beings can hear him talking inside someone else's head even if the same senses couldn't just read someone's mind. (If some of this sounds familiar it's because I straight-up stole it from Danii's description of John's interactions and limitations. With permission!)
Inmate Information:
There's not a lot (and simultaneously so much) to say about Yellow, in truth--he's about three days old, with the patience of a toddler that hasn't had their usual nap. He is, presumably, a piece of the King in Yellow; an eldritch being, patron of artists, capable of inducing madness to get humans to act on his will. That or he's a piece of a piece of the King in Yellow, or a piece from an unknown timeline-- Look it's complicated and they haven't actually told us that one yet in canon.
Regardless, Yellow came into being when a piece of the King in Yellow (his heart, specifically) got broken away and sealed in The Dark World, a chaotic, evil terminus of all worlds and timelines, an unstable hellscape that this piece of the entity (a piece that in another scenario would become John Doe) never talks about except in the vaguest possible terms. He was trapped there for an immeasurable amount of time, and it's definitely informed his desperation to stay out of the Dark World in any way necessary, whether that means possessing, killing, lying to his chosen host--you get the picture. He will happily do whatever it takes to stay out of that place. It terrifies him.
Yellow is temperamental, easily irritated, impatient, and prone to bouts of sullenness and resentment that make him go from ANGRY YELLING to grumbly silence when you actually want him to say something. He's incredibly curious, but thanks to uh... a very traumatized host, that curiosity is tempered with the expectation that he won't get much of an answer about things he asks, if any answer at all.
It's driven home to him through Arthur's (VERY TRAUMA-INDUCED) cruelty that ignorance is a weakness he shouldn't display, which leads to him repeating declaratives that he's heard from others with the kind of authority that assumes they're true. (Arthur at one point says the people of the town they're in, Addison, don't seem particularly learned; when describing a desk later Yellow says it definitely belongs to someone more learned than the people of Addison. At another point, Arthur says they need to stop for a minute and consider their options; again, later, in a moment of similar stress, Yellow says the same thing word for word.) He also doesn't have much experience to be able to tell when someone is lying; he takes 90% of everything at face value, and that last 10% is suspicion that he's being walked into some kind of trick or trap when someone is too agreeable. (Again, Arthur did this, and again, while it was not great: SO MUCH TRAUMA, FRIENDS. SO MUCH.) Yellow is very bad at lying himself. So bad. So very bad.
He currently despises humanity, particularly Arthur, thanks to a man named Wallace Larson. Larson is a worshipper of the Old Gods, who--in a stunning display of cosmically horrible timing--went on a monologue about how humanity owes their respect to the greater beings of the universe. Yellow, hearing this after three days of feeling frightened, uncomfortable, unwanted, and small, latches on to the message with an intensity that doesn't bode well for anyone. He harbors a homicidal rage against Arthur Lester in particular (I've spoken to both Malevolent players about apping!) for 'trapping' him in Arthur's eyes when he should be a being of immeasurable power when compared to humans. He wants to rejoin the King in Yellow and become the thing that was taken from him eons ago, a thing he doesn't remember being but that he knows was powerful enough to never be this afraid. And he doesn't care what he has to do and who he has to do it to in order to make that happen.
As far as his actual, real, known history... It is, as mentioned, three days long. Wiki linked below!
Path to Redemption: There's a lot that Yellow needs to deal with before he'll be ready to graduate. His anger, his bitterness over being trapped against his will in Arthur's eyes even though Arthur was doing it to save a friend and it got Yellow out of the Dark World. His sense of inadequacy in the face of a version of him that he never knew or met. His fear of being openly ignorant, his fear of being generally vulnerable, his forced scorn of beautiful things created by humanity, his hatred of humanity which is based on a teeny tiny sample size in very extreme circumstances. His unwillingness to be in awe or to be generally curious about or appreciative of something, because of said fear of weakness and vulnerability.
Beyond that, there's his wholehearted belief that the only power worth having is power that puts you above others; that reliance on anyone else is weakness; that loving someone or wanting to be with them just because of who they are is stupidity; that usefulness is the only measure of worthl; that hope is a wasted emotion. There's also some lifetimes of Dark World based trauma tucked away in there that he ain't REMOTELY interested in engaging with thank you bye.
His reaction to being on the Barge will be........ mixed. He'll be delighted to be out of Arthur's eyes, and absolutely furious to be trapped somewhere else against his will. He'll be reactionary, as violent as it's possible for him to be in his current state, and will do everything he can to lash out at anyone who shows the remotest kindness while allying himself with anyone willing who seems to intimidate others. He absolutely doesn't trust kindness. Not onnnnne bit. Not after Arthur's see-saw mix of gentleness, longing, cruelty, and scorn. His only other example of kindness is Wallace Larson--whose friendly demeanor and seeming concern for Arthur was just to hide his own casually homicidal intentions.
Yellow will haaaate his warden at first, no matter who they are. He'll do everything he can to be obstructive and contrary. He'll need a lot of patience, a lot of kindness, and a firm but gentle hand to guide him away from bad decisions. What he wouldn't respond well to is an uneven temper or someone who tends to project Asshole or Unfeeling vibes. Again, he's Very Baby. What he sees is what he expects to get; nuance and emotional complexity is not his strong suit. If what he sees is someone who seems 'mean.' he's going to brace himself and 'protect' himself accordingly.
That said, someone who's familiar with violence but not casual about it would probably be a good fit. Not a requirement, of course, but Yellow's reactions to violence between individuals is often visceral and horrified. His reactions to animal violence (the wolves attacking them and later the dead wolves killed by hunters, for example) is far more straightforward and unemotional. He's also very willing to commit violence himself and even seems to delight in the prospect, particularly when he gets a rise out of Arthur. It's an odd dichotomy, and one I think that's a little bit like a child who assumes an action is easy or something they're quite capable of doing and then, when faced with the reality, they stumble. Of course, get him riled enough, and the horror of violence won't hold a candle to the pleasure of revenge.
As mentioned above, the best ways to reach him will be patience, kindness, and consistency. And a willingness to answer his ten million questions without irritation or dismissal. He's a feral cat who would really love to lie on that blanket in front of the fire but also absolutely believes there is a catch and probably you have a dog in there that wants to kill him.
History: Well I was just going to link Yellow's character page, but the Malevolent wiki link is SO SPARSE I'm going to link the episode summaries for where he appears instead.
Part Twenty One - The Unconquerable
Part Twenty Two - The Town
Part Twenty Three - The Past
Sample Network Entry: TDM Toplevel and following TDM Network Thread
Sample RP: TDM Prose Thread
Special Notes:
This is Yellow.
User DW: N/A
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: PM or plurk at researchboner
Other Characters Currently In-Game: Hera, Willa Givens, Neal Caffrey
Character Name: Yellow
Series: Malevolent (Podcast)
Age: Technically four days and also the entirety of human history and then some??
From When?: Near the end of episode 23, as Arthur plays the song that "wakes up" John and replaces Yellow
Inmate Justification: Yellow is a piece of a malevolent entity that invades the minds of humans and drives them insane to do its bidding, among, y'know, other torturous hobbies. His first three days of independent existence were filled with insults, unanswered questions, and a very, very, very traumatized man taking the edge of his trauma off on the person-being who wasn't the friend he tried to save, which resulted in a virulent dislike of humans and equally virulent desire to return to the King in Yellow and be whole again.
At the time of his arrival on the Barge, he hates humanity, hates Arthur Lester in particular, and has resolved to reject everything that made John Doe John, including his sense of awe, his hope, his kindness, and his wonder. Yellow's primary motivation at the moment is to return to being the King in Yellow, a 'birthright' he knows about but doesn't truly remember. He'll pursue that end viciously, and being around other inmates and being influenced by their violent/fatalistic/etc tendencies, he's absolutely going to get a lot worse before he gets better.
Working with a warden--one who hasn't been brutally starved and psychologically tortured for months directly before inheriting his presence--will give Yellow the chance to discover the things that John Doe did as another piece of the King in Yellow given independence. Appreciation and maybe even love for the world, and the discovery of meaning in mortality and limitation. Or even a healthy and nuanced appreciation for immortality and power, maybe. Maybe.
Arrival: Absolutely was not given a choice lol
Abilities/Powers: The King in Yellow is a patron of artists, and as a result, any visual art created by Yellow will probably have a similar impact on people as John's--though his won't knock anyone out, it could definitely give them a migraine.
Since he's technically not a corporeal entity, his physical manifestation on the Barge will appear to be a yellow, hooded cloak, ragged at the hems, from which he can spin off small threads and ribbon-like tentacles to interact at a very basic level with the world around him. Of course, they are still ribbon tentacles, which means they have about -10 STR. In the hood of the cloak hover bits of a broken pale mask, barely complete enough show where his eyes should be, and a over the hood he wears a jagged gold crown. His physical presence is a projection from the crown.
Which, to elaborate on that point: for the barge, carrying or wearing his crown forces Yellow into cohabitation with whoever is in possession of it, if they choose to allow him that entry. Otherwise, they will be able to hear and speak to him while holding the crown. He has no choice one way or the other regarding this, but unlike John can't leave after possession occurs unless he is allowed to do so. In other words, if a warden sees him throwing a shitfit they can grab his crown and make him relax. Of course, this could become an issue if a fellow inmate decides to get handsy.
During possession, he'll gain access to one of the holder's senses at random/by player preference. He'll also be able to talk silently in the head of whoever has him in hand, but cannot speak out of his holder's mouth, read any of their thoughts, or actively control their actions. Certain supernatural senses and/or beings can hear him talking inside someone else's head even if the same senses couldn't just read someone's mind. (If some of this sounds familiar it's because I straight-up stole it from Danii's description of John's interactions and limitations. With permission!)
Inmate Information:
There's not a lot (and simultaneously so much) to say about Yellow, in truth--he's about three days old, with the patience of a toddler that hasn't had their usual nap. He is, presumably, a piece of the King in Yellow; an eldritch being, patron of artists, capable of inducing madness to get humans to act on his will. That or he's a piece of a piece of the King in Yellow, or a piece from an unknown timeline-- Look it's complicated and they haven't actually told us that one yet in canon.
Regardless, Yellow came into being when a piece of the King in Yellow (his heart, specifically) got broken away and sealed in The Dark World, a chaotic, evil terminus of all worlds and timelines, an unstable hellscape that this piece of the entity (a piece that in another scenario would become John Doe) never talks about except in the vaguest possible terms. He was trapped there for an immeasurable amount of time, and it's definitely informed his desperation to stay out of the Dark World in any way necessary, whether that means possessing, killing, lying to his chosen host--you get the picture. He will happily do whatever it takes to stay out of that place. It terrifies him.
Yellow is temperamental, easily irritated, impatient, and prone to bouts of sullenness and resentment that make him go from ANGRY YELLING to grumbly silence when you actually want him to say something. He's incredibly curious, but thanks to uh... a very traumatized host, that curiosity is tempered with the expectation that he won't get much of an answer about things he asks, if any answer at all.
It's driven home to him through Arthur's (VERY TRAUMA-INDUCED) cruelty that ignorance is a weakness he shouldn't display, which leads to him repeating declaratives that he's heard from others with the kind of authority that assumes they're true. (Arthur at one point says the people of the town they're in, Addison, don't seem particularly learned; when describing a desk later Yellow says it definitely belongs to someone more learned than the people of Addison. At another point, Arthur says they need to stop for a minute and consider their options; again, later, in a moment of similar stress, Yellow says the same thing word for word.) He also doesn't have much experience to be able to tell when someone is lying; he takes 90% of everything at face value, and that last 10% is suspicion that he's being walked into some kind of trick or trap when someone is too agreeable. (Again, Arthur did this, and again, while it was not great: SO MUCH TRAUMA, FRIENDS. SO MUCH.) Yellow is very bad at lying himself. So bad. So very bad.
He currently despises humanity, particularly Arthur, thanks to a man named Wallace Larson. Larson is a worshipper of the Old Gods, who--in a stunning display of cosmically horrible timing--went on a monologue about how humanity owes their respect to the greater beings of the universe. Yellow, hearing this after three days of feeling frightened, uncomfortable, unwanted, and small, latches on to the message with an intensity that doesn't bode well for anyone. He harbors a homicidal rage against Arthur Lester in particular (I've spoken to both Malevolent players about apping!) for 'trapping' him in Arthur's eyes when he should be a being of immeasurable power when compared to humans. He wants to rejoin the King in Yellow and become the thing that was taken from him eons ago, a thing he doesn't remember being but that he knows was powerful enough to never be this afraid. And he doesn't care what he has to do and who he has to do it to in order to make that happen.
As far as his actual, real, known history... It is, as mentioned, three days long. Wiki linked below!
Path to Redemption: There's a lot that Yellow needs to deal with before he'll be ready to graduate. His anger, his bitterness over being trapped against his will in Arthur's eyes even though Arthur was doing it to save a friend and it got Yellow out of the Dark World. His sense of inadequacy in the face of a version of him that he never knew or met. His fear of being openly ignorant, his fear of being generally vulnerable, his forced scorn of beautiful things created by humanity, his hatred of humanity which is based on a teeny tiny sample size in very extreme circumstances. His unwillingness to be in awe or to be generally curious about or appreciative of something, because of said fear of weakness and vulnerability.
Beyond that, there's his wholehearted belief that the only power worth having is power that puts you above others; that reliance on anyone else is weakness; that loving someone or wanting to be with them just because of who they are is stupidity; that usefulness is the only measure of worthl; that hope is a wasted emotion. There's also some lifetimes of Dark World based trauma tucked away in there that he ain't REMOTELY interested in engaging with thank you bye.
His reaction to being on the Barge will be........ mixed. He'll be delighted to be out of Arthur's eyes, and absolutely furious to be trapped somewhere else against his will. He'll be reactionary, as violent as it's possible for him to be in his current state, and will do everything he can to lash out at anyone who shows the remotest kindness while allying himself with anyone willing who seems to intimidate others. He absolutely doesn't trust kindness. Not onnnnne bit. Not after Arthur's see-saw mix of gentleness, longing, cruelty, and scorn. His only other example of kindness is Wallace Larson--whose friendly demeanor and seeming concern for Arthur was just to hide his own casually homicidal intentions.
Yellow will haaaate his warden at first, no matter who they are. He'll do everything he can to be obstructive and contrary. He'll need a lot of patience, a lot of kindness, and a firm but gentle hand to guide him away from bad decisions. What he wouldn't respond well to is an uneven temper or someone who tends to project Asshole or Unfeeling vibes. Again, he's Very Baby. What he sees is what he expects to get; nuance and emotional complexity is not his strong suit. If what he sees is someone who seems 'mean.' he's going to brace himself and 'protect' himself accordingly.
That said, someone who's familiar with violence but not casual about it would probably be a good fit. Not a requirement, of course, but Yellow's reactions to violence between individuals is often visceral and horrified. His reactions to animal violence (the wolves attacking them and later the dead wolves killed by hunters, for example) is far more straightforward and unemotional. He's also very willing to commit violence himself and even seems to delight in the prospect, particularly when he gets a rise out of Arthur. It's an odd dichotomy, and one I think that's a little bit like a child who assumes an action is easy or something they're quite capable of doing and then, when faced with the reality, they stumble. Of course, get him riled enough, and the horror of violence won't hold a candle to the pleasure of revenge.
As mentioned above, the best ways to reach him will be patience, kindness, and consistency. And a willingness to answer his ten million questions without irritation or dismissal. He's a feral cat who would really love to lie on that blanket in front of the fire but also absolutely believes there is a catch and probably you have a dog in there that wants to kill him.
History: Well I was just going to link Yellow's character page, but the Malevolent wiki link is SO SPARSE I'm going to link the episode summaries for where he appears instead.
Part Twenty One - The Unconquerable
Part Twenty Two - The Town
Part Twenty Three - The Past
Sample Network Entry: TDM Toplevel and following TDM Network Thread
Sample RP: TDM Prose Thread
Special Notes:
This is Yellow.
