LOST CARNIVAL: app

[flambebe]

this page contains nongraphic mentions of torture, rape, animal death, and infanticide.

PLAYER↴ Name: gray Contact: oisiflaneur@plurk, discord info available on asking Other Characters: nada CHARACTER↴ Character Name: Achilles "Killjoy" Desjardins. Age: oh fuck i actually know this do i have to reread Species: Human being, unfortunately. Canon: The Rifters Trilogy by Peter Watts. Canon Point: Right after Lubin knocks him unconscious in Lenie's old house. Character Info: The best thing the internet has to offer me here is a few mentions on tvtropes so alright, let's do this the hard way. Fastforward to the year 2050 or so. Close enough to scare you, but far enough to suspend your disbelief on the science. After the power crunch reached critical mass, quebec used their access to hydroelectricity to gain the continental monopoly, which is why everyone in N'AmPac uses quebucks and french slang. It's also why what used to be america has the Grid Authority, which sends trauma survivors to the ocean floor to maintain geothermal generators for an alternate electricity source, since quebec taxes out the fucking nose. This actually does impact Achilles, but only because of Lenie Clarke. We'll get to her, I swear. But first: Brought up in the privileged atmosphere of a former minority province that had just established itself as the new authority in north america, Achilles will tell you that he had a typical childhood. And this is, by and large, true. He grew up with two parents, a three story house just outside the city; pretty much everything except the literal white picket fence. Everything was as normal as normal can be: except for the little things like realizing as a preteen that he, well... really likes to see people suffer. Not like, a little spanking, either. Not even 'whips and chains excite me'. Nah, he needs third degree burns and broken bones to get it up. That didn't exactly jive well with his strict Catholic Guilttm upbringing. And kind of understandably freaked him out. So fast forward another few years, because as soon as he could, Achilles applied for the to be a 'Lawbreaker at CSIRA ( Complex Systems Instability-Response Authority ). Also known as the Entropy Patrol. Their job is to try and keep together a world that's coming apart at the seams. 'Cause the whole bit about quebec running the continent? That's just one aspect of the dystopia, since Watts worldbuilds are dense as fuck. Climate change has made sure that the weather is just as deadly as the frequent terror attacks, constantly mutating diseases wipe out entire cities at a time, and what used to be called the internet has turned into a maelstrom (title drop!) of semisentient viruses eternally trying to consume each other and wreak havoc in the systems that they invade. To keep these forces at bay and keep the human race alive, CSIRA employs people under the influence of Guilt Trip. Okay, bear with me here, because this is pretty crucial to Achilles' development. The Trip is a genetically engineered drug that acts as a virus, latching onto the hosts' brain chemistry to change their behavior, making them incapable of doing anything bad. If they try to do something that goes against 'the greater good', they'll go into convulsions and possibly die. There's an obvious loophole here; it depends on what the person thinks of as right or wrong, but generally it works well enough that the government keeps it mandatory, and members are regularly tested for the presence of the drug. Every day when they clock in, and if they fail, they're fired. Because there needs to be some failsafe for these people in place. The members of the Entropy Patrol have access to more resources than almost any other class of citizen, and they have to use that access to make choices like "do I kill everyone in quarantine, or risk those hundreds escaping and infecting thousands?". The drug has been engineered so that the greater good means more lives saved, and so they trust anyone under the influence to preserve human life. The Guilt Trip turns these decisions into a numbers game; Absolution is the drug that CSIRA gives them to feel better when they lose that game. After all, it's just chance. The screening process and the Trip stack the odds in their favor, but you can't win 'em all. This is one of the biggest reasons that Achilles applies to the force. He knew that the job requirements would make morality easy. He figured that, once infected with the Trip, he'd be kept in line by his own biology. And fortunately for him, he was essentially right! He also happened to be pretty damn good at the job itself, earning a reputation for making tough decisions in a blink, and almost always having a higher survivor count than body count. Lawbreakers are already kind of like rockstars, and he was the darling of the Entropy Patrol. Unfortunately, things got significantly worse after Lenie Clarke emerged from the pacific, the furious and revenge obsessed vector for a plague that destroys all living organisms slowly and painfully on a cellular level. And she's determined to spread it and bring about the apocalypse by herself, if she has to. Yeah. It's one of those books. The problem is, Lenie kind of has a point. She's bent on destroying the society that destroyed her from the inside out ( but that's another story and basically the whole first book ) and by the time she makes landfall, that story has gone public. This means that lots of other people that the government has fucked over start rallying behind her, and she becomes something of a symbol. The Mermaid Madonna, or more brutally, the Meltdown Madonna. People dress in her GA uniform and call themselves M&Ms. On more than one occasion, they facilitate her escape from the authorities hunting her. And, without really even knowing why himself, Achilles decides that he should help her out, too. Despite knowing that she's the main cause of the Behemoth virus spreading, and that it would be in humanity's best interest if she -- and everyone she's come into contact with -- is eliminated. Somehow, regardless, he manages to leave his post and track down Lenie, getting the shit kicked out of him by her assassin companion Lubin in the process. This would be where it becomes clear that the Trip isn't working quite how it should. It doesn't take too long before he finds out that Alice, one of his inferiors at CSIRA ( and only friends ) has infected him with a countervirus: Spartacus negates the Trip entirely without removing it from the system. However, it does so by blocking the brain's receptor for the chemical that makes somebody feel guilty -- therefore never triggering the seizures -- but leaving the host without even the natural response of guilt that their body might generate. This means that Achilles gets to keep his job without keeping its influence on his behavior, which is essentially the opposite of what he wants. His reaction to this is basically barely restrained panic, and he tries even harder to be the golden boy of the Patrol. For a little while, at least. Unfortunately, since Spartacus blocks all feelings of guilt, when Alice discovers his porn stash, he realizes pretty much instantly that now she knew she had made a mistake. And with her connections, she'd be nothing more than a liability in terms of keeping his post; and his entire life. So, obviously, he murdered her. There was... kind of no turning back after that. He kept up the facade of his CSIRA position as the rest of the organization fled from the spread of Behemoth, but it was pretty much solely so that he could turn an abandoned Toronto into the location for the new Desjardins rape & torture palace. Which is great ( for him, obviously ), for a while. But then his cat dies, and he sets a baby on fire in retaliation, and there's really no turning back. By the time Lenie and Lubin climb out of the ocean again to figure out who's fucking up america so badly, he's fully renegade and willing to do whatever it takes to protect his 'kingdom'. Thankfully, they eventually corner him and Lubin manages to snap his neck. The end. God bless. Okay, finally, moving on. Personality: Pretty much everyone in the series is a study in the cycle of abuse: Achilles Desjardins in particular is a study in the role repression plays in that. Pretty much everything about him is average, by design. Once he realized that he was a freak, Achilles does everything that he can to make himself blend into the crowd. The few times he's described physically, it's as "handsome in a generic way", "a brick with sad eyes", and "his hoodies don't even have fiberoptic screens in the front". In a world where the trends lean towards glowing tattoos and singing jewelry, he prefers to be... Well, plain. It's like camouflage for him: if he matches the environment and doesn't make any sudden movements, he can escape detection. When this doesn't work to keep people from taking an interest, he settles for just being rude. If he bothers to talk to someone, his contribution to the conversation is usually brusque. He swings by a futuristic cocktail bar after he clocks out from work, and outright dismisses any patrons who try to flirt with him -- along with any advances from Alice, who starts calling him "Killjoy", ostensibly because he's the No Fun Friend who never goes out. We see him interact with his superiors, but the only real friend he has is his cat. Well, and Alice, but despite her best efforts, he manages to keep even her at arm's length. It's an isolated existence, but he likes it that way; at least, that's what he tells himself. And he's extraordinarily good at fooling himself, too. Maybe even better than he is at fooling others. After being infected with Spartacus, he doesn't even consider that there could be an issue with his Trip: if he can go help Lenie, then that must simply be the right thing to do. Earlier, when he by chance encounters a masochist who's interested in him, he brushes her off and thinks to himself that he "doesn't need to get involved with a freak like that", without any irony. And it makes sense, because he has to buy into that mentality, or he can't live with himself; his thoughts might be reprehensible, but his actions make up for it. This is also indicative of a major aspect of his worldview: that embracing anything 'abnormal' is a choice, and one made only by fools. After all, he works so hard to keep his weirdness in check; anybody who doesn't do the same must be even crazier than he is. Abilities: Absolutely the only thing nonstandard about Achilles is his brain, and it's highly debatable whether that's any kind of help. The way people of his generation interact with what we call the web is so different that he's going to have to do a lot of adapting to the technology level. He's literally moving from full VR to smoke and mirrors. CARNIVAL↴ Soul Colour: Not black, but pretty dark. Let's go with a dark, desaturated navy. Ideal Jobs: Patrol, Shill, Scout, Cashier, Game Operator. General problem solver. Great with software, not so much with hardware. Very good at pretending to be a normal guy... Most of the time. Relevant Experience: Casually referred to as 'Lawbreakers, the organization that Achilles works for is technically above outside international regulation; that'd be why the Guilt Trip is mandatory to work there. He also manages not to get caught when he does literally break the law, so he's pretty good at the ol' fake it 'til ya make it. Reason for Joining: Have I made it clear yet that guilt is a big theme here? I think he breaks something COME BACK TO THIS AAAAAAH SAMPLES↴ aaaaaaaaah somebody please suffer for my art FINAL NOTE: I'm taking him from between the Trip starting to fail and him realizing what's actually going on, mostly because I'd like for the carnival's effects to replace it. I assume that if he's convinced he's still bound by certain rules, the fae influence will sort of step in? Please let me know if this doesn't work for whatever reason!