APPLICATION TO EXSILIUM

[keep_smiling]

» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Lan
Current AGE: old
Player TIME ZONE: EST/USA
Personal JOURNAL: hellglass
IM & SERVICE: AIM: OcularDoomsday
Player PLURK: hellglass
Current CHARACTERS: Johnny D'Amico

» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Elmer C. Albatross
Canon & MEDIUM: Baccano!, novels
Canon PULL-POINT: 2002; post The Children of the Bottle but pre-Bullet Garden/Blood Sabbath. So, somewhere in the late spring of 2002.
Character AGE: 312. Physically, 21.

Character ABILITIES: Immortality. Elmer does not age, does not get ill, and cannot die. Any physical wounds done to him will repair themselves in a matter of moments. More details are outlined here!

Character HISTORY: I have several links to help. First is the Baccano wiki, the second is the general wiki and the TV Tropes which is strangely the most comprehensive. Click on the "Immortals" tab; he's the 6th one down.

Character PERSONALITY: Outwardly, Elmer is a nondescript, average-looking man, with one noticeable feature: he’s always smiling. In passing, this may come off well with others, bright and infectious. But to anyone who spends time and gets to understand what’s going on inside will realize that there’s a lot more to that smile. His outlook on how everyone should be smiling and happy reaches lengths that are twisted.

“I'd sell the souls of all humanity to the devil if I thought it'd get us a happy ending.”

These words summarize Elmer to a T. Despite a life of hardships and torture, Elmer keeps up positive and upbeat front, convinced that anything bad can be overcome if you just smile and feel better about it. This has lead others to believe that he’s simple, or oblivious. He lives in his own little world where everyone can be happy and get their happy ending. But this doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand the consequences of his action, or that he’s stupid. That’s not quite the case. He’s described as calculating and conniving in his attempts to get people to smile, since that’s the only consequence that matters to him. For example, he puts his life on the line just to prove a point to Czes. The only way to kill an immortal is to have another immortal “eat” them – placing their right hand on their head and imagining consuming them, which then happens, destroying the immortal. Upon first meeting again after 300 years, Czes places a hand on Elmer’s head, and Elmer doesn’t flinch. Later, when Czes asks him why he didn’t, Elmer simply grabs Czes’s arm and places his hand on his head, all in order for Czes to see he can trust Elmer, to make him see that there are worthwhile people in the world. Just to see if he would smile. Czes can’t handle this, though, and asks what if what would make him happy was if Elmer jumped off the roof they were on. Without a second thought, Elmer does just that. The levels he will go to make someone happy reach strange and twisted levels. Even when faced with the demon they summoned to gain immortality, he is told by the demon he would be granted any wish he wants – and Elmer wishes to see the demon smile genuinely. The demon remarks that this is the most difficult thing he’s tried to do.
The truth is, though, that even Elmer doesn’t know what his emotions are, since his treatment at the hands of the cult bled them away. He makes people smile to hope that someday, he’ll feel what it’s like to smile for real as well. In this way, all his attempts at making others happy are nothing but a selfish action in order to make himself feel better. After 300 years, it’s still not working, but this is just how Elmer is and always will be. He’s the same person from 1710 as he is in 2001. There’s no such thing as God and life has no purpose or meaning – so why not try to make people happy while they’re here?

To others, his constant smiling makes his true emotions hard to read. Maybe he is just blissfully happy all the time, or maybe he’s covering it up. His attitude can come off as insensitive or tactless, since he will stop and make people try to smile even in the worst situations. Occasionally, he does show other emotions from time to time, usually surprising those around him. When Fermet, another immortal, comes across Elmer by random chance on the Flying Pussyfoot, he tells him outright that he is afraid of Elmer because he never knows what he’s thinking. He’s also convinced that Elmer is an idiot, and won’t consume him because he’s afraid of Elmer’s “rotten” mind and personality might infect him. Elmer also physically throws Fermet off the moving train because he was making someone else nearby unhappy.

Elmer is also adept at reading other people. Being an expert in smiling, he can instantly tell when other people are faking it. It’s said he can spot a fake smile a hundred yards away. If you give him a fake smile in an attempt to placate him, he won’t leave you alone until he gets a genuine one from you. He might even give you an arbitrary time he’ll get one from you – something like “I’ll get you to smile in 3 days, 4 hours and 12 minutes!” - though this might not be arbitrary at all. He might actually have a plan to back that up to get you to smile.

Being immortal gives you a lot of time to travel and see the world. Elmer is very knowledgeable about many cultures of the world. He’s especially fond of Asian traditions, and has learned a lot about Japan from his friend Denkuro, another immortal. He’s spent time there and knows a lot about their holidays, literature, etc. Despite his age, he’s also is up to date on modern culture, making many references to movies, books and even video games. For a guy who seems to live in his own little world, he sure knows a lot about the world going on around him.

» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Elmer has no idea how to fight or how to wield a weapon. If possible, I'd like his weapon to be his immortality, as described and linked above. A man who cannot stay dead has many, many uses after all.

Character INVENTORY: Besides his clothes, Elmer only has a backpack with some clothes, some money, some fake passports and some handheld video games inside.

» SAMPLES
First PERSON: Have two posts from Some More Heroes: A voice post and a text post.

Third PERSON: [[This comes from his Some More Heroes application, but I think it should be fitting for most RPs!]]

Elmer has woken up in a lot of different places in his life, but usually he remembers getting from point A to point B first. Falling asleep in a town near the Arctic Circle, and waking up in what appeared to be a hotel in an American town was pretty disorienting. There was a letter ("Assassin"? What a joke), and a box (a flame thrower? How dangerous!), but not much more cluing him into the situation. Pocketing the letter and the strange cash, Elmer took to the streets, looking for someone who might know what on Earth was going on.
Armed with more than a smile on his face, Elmer wandered around for what seemed like a long time. This was a deceptively large town, and, while used to wandering unfamiliar locations, something about this one kept him from finding his way easily. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

After speaking with some random townsfolk, Elmer’s questions continued to go unanswered. No matter. He did have all the time in the world, but his friends might be concerned as to what happened to him, just up and disappearing like that.

The sun now hanging low in the sky, Elmer attempted to head back to the hotel, humming pleasantly to himself. The warm weather was a nice change of pace, at least, so the walk was enjoyable. However, it seems someone was following him, and as he turned down a dark street when someone grabbed him by the back of his jacket, swinging him around and slamming him off a wall. An angry man held a knife in one hand and Elmer’s collar in the other, growling at him. “Hand over your wallet! Now, fast!”

Elmer couldn’t help but look put out, with a lopsided smile on his face. The mugger caught him by surprise, which doesn’t happen often. Usually Elmer was the one stalking after people. But, he nodded at the mugger.

“Oh, sure! But, I want something in exchange.”

The mugger chocked out a laugh. “Buddy, this is a robbery, I ain’t buyin’ shit from you!”
Elmer smiled on. It was okay. A small knife was no concern to an immortal like him. Sure, getting stabbed would still hurt, but he’d be okay in the end.

“It’s not hard. Here.” Elmer carefully fished the money from his pocket, holding it tightly in his fist so the mugger couldn’t grab it. “All I want in exchange is for you to smile! You’ll have my money, so you’ll be happy, right?”

To hell with this. The mugger wasn’t playing around, and stabbed Elmer’s wrist to make him hand over the cash fast. Elmer lost his grip, and the robber grabbed the cash and ran, not giving his victim a second look.

“Ah… Well, at least he should be happy now,” Elmer murmured to himself. He looked down at his injured wrist. Something so small should have fixed itself in a matter of moments, but it was still open and bleeding.

Well, that might not be good. What exactly was going on here?

» ADDITIONAL NOTES

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