Application to MoL

[has_been_faking]

Player
Name: Lan
Age: super old
Personal Journal: hellglass
Contact: hellglass
Other In-Game Characters: Johnny D’Amico, Sparks Nevada, Graham Specter

Character (Original Character)
Name: J. Edward Grayson, III. But Ed or Doc works just fine.
Age: Technically 82, appears around 35. Was actually turned immortal at age 30.
Gender: male
Canon: original
Canon Point: 1953

World History:
Doc’s world bares a similar timeline to our own, with some key differences. One is the existence of magic. It’s known to exist by the general populace, but to those who aren’t involved in it often regard it with trepidation and fear. It’s not well understood by them. You have to be born with a certain something that lets you cast it, even though you still have to go through rigorous studying and training in order to use it. Those who do practice it tend to gather in guilds in major cities across the globe, in order to teach one another and share their knowledge and supplies.

Along with that comes the existence of magical creatures. This doesn’t mean they’re parading down the streets or penned up in zoos. Most are brought in as summoned creatures, using spells, from what is assumed to be neighboring dimensions. They often only stay anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, though there has been some success in keeping them on our side of the universe. One of those is an intelligent lifeform that learned to take on the form of humans. Simply known as Shadows, no one’s quite sure who or when the cosmic door was opened for these creatures, but they’ve been on Earth for several centuries, generally living just outside of society in groups. Their normal form is that of a wispy, shadowy form that looks vaguely human shaped, but they can take on a solid human form for a time of several hours to several days, depending on their strength. They can also retreat into the shadows and exist in a sort of in-between region of reality, and have the ability to hypnotize humans into doing things for them while they can’t take a human form. A Shadow will sometimes take a human and so distort their mind that they become totally hypnotized, which tend to be called dolls. Dolls tend to be empty-minded slaves, completely lost of their identity and memories, who only function by commands of their masters. Getting them to come back to their senses can be incredibly difficult, almost impossible.

Shadows have tried to become a real part of society for decades, wanting to be allowed to live among humans. But their own complicated social hierarchy, as well as their tendency to make unwilling slaves of people, have kept them firmly out. The reason to know all this in context is in regards to Doc’s wife, Guinevere, who was a former doll of a nobel Shadow.

Magic used to be left alone by society at large, and spell casters could do what they wanted in the privacy of guilds. It was a social rule among casters that you don’t go around being flagrant, but it did happen from time to time. A big change would come in 1948 when an incident that caused a lot of death and destruction in San Francisco blew up, one that Doc was indirectly responsible, that got him arrested by the FBI. After that, spellcasting would be highly regulated.

Character History:
Juno Edward Grayson, III, was born in 1871 to a pair of performers in Philadelphia, USA. His father was a stage magician - the sleight of hand kind, not the spell slinging kind - and his mother was the lovely assistant. His paternal grandfather was a spellcaster of some note, focusing in alchemy, and little Eddie spent a lot of time with him while his parents worked. He was fascinated with his grandfather’s work, but like his father, they had both had no natural aptitude for magic. This fact would haunt Ed his whole life, but it never stopped him from trying to learn. Alchemy was a good focus, thanks to its basis in actual chemistry, and Ed studies that and math voraciously from a young age along with magic. He worked on his own projects as they travelled, coming up up with potions and concoctions that he sold before and after shows. Thanks to not being able to cast magic, transmutations were a skill he could never get the hang of, but his potions sold well. Not because they worked - mostly they were a double edged swords, with awful side effects. But by the time the buyers could discover this, Ed was long gone from their town. His ability to use charm, stage presence, and slight of hand was quickly shaping him into being an incredible snake oil salesman.

When vaudeville started to pick up in the 1880s, the family joined a traveling troupe and began to tour the US. Ed worked along with his family, not so much on stage but helping his parents come up with new tricks and props for the act. He got to learn stagecraft and performing for audiences along with his alchemical studies as they traveled, giving Ed a fairly unique set of skills.

Ed’s grandfather was a member of a national, important magic guild called Lumen Conscientia (LC), which had recently opened a branch in San Francisco. Usually the only way to get into guilds were by being incredible talented, incredibly rich, or use nepotism. Ed had no skill in magic, and his family was poor. But his grandfather was a talented member, and he could use that as his gateway in, and he joined when he was 21. He was so good at faking his ability as an alchemist, he managed to fool the seasoned spellcasters in the guild and was accepted. Ed knew they’d figure him out sooner or later, and studied as much as he could while there. He also secretly stashed books and supplied away, so after two years of being their student, he had managed to build up quite a stock. One night, he collected it all and took off, effectively stealing dozens of important magical books and items right under their noses.

After that, Ed moved outside of the city in a small, lonesome house where he could work, and hopefully not be found by the LC. He eventually got together enough to sell, goes under fake names, got himself a horse and a carriage and took his show on the road around California. He also takes on the stage name Doctor Gravity, his now-retired father’s stage name, as his own, but it ended up getting shortened by others as Doc G. As magic wasn’t a widely-accepted practice among the normal population, and was completely unregulated except when guilds stepped in, a large black market existed everywhere for magic reagents and supplies. A lot of higher-quality supplies came from some pretty illicit sources, like parts from magical creatures or shapeshifters. Ed had a lot of connections, and his hub was a seedy tavern near the wharf that was run by his best friend, Ash Rookwood. Doc often sold there too, and usually made a killing there. One day, Ash comes to Doc confidentially, needing help - turns out his best friend is a shapeshifter, a werewolf, and he had no idea. Ash was hoping that maybe Doc could come up with something that would help keep him from transforming, and Doc sets to it as soon as he can. It’s around this point, too, that Ed manages to make his immortality potion, the one that actually works - making him the first (and only) person in history to do so. He tells no one for a long time, however, not even Ash. It’s dangerous knowledge to let out. Besides, the potion is flawed as all of his are, and for some reason, he can no longer sleep. He can’t even so much as be knocked unconscious for more than a few seconds.

His plans to help Ash get interrupted by a nasty case of love at first sight. Ed runs into a woman who is silent and empty-looking, gorgeous and haunting. Turns out she’s in company of a dangerous looking man called Voltaire - a Shadow. The woman is his doll. Through his connections, Ed learns a lot about the Shadows and how they take on slaves, and he’s outraged. He can’t get her out of his mind, and sets aside working on Ash’s potion for a way to break the brainwashing of Shadows instead. Even worse, Ed conscripts Ash into helping him - and foolishly, Ash agrees, due to some feelings he’s very quietly harboring for Ed. Ash and Ed manage to find and corner Voltaire - Ash beats him within an inch of his life, and Ed uses his potion on the woman to free her. Miraculously, it works! But the woman (who he will find out is named Guinevere, or Gwen for short), has permanently lost her voice. Whether or not it was a side effect of being a doll or from Ed’s potion is hard to tell, but she’s grateful nonetheless. Sadly, her brainwashed state left her with amnesia, not knowing where she came from, who her family is, or if Gwen is even her real name. Ed does what he can to help her get her on her feet, and slowly over time, the two develop a relationship - much to Ash’s chagrin.

While all this is going on, a member of the LC has been looking for Ed. Konrad Kleiner, a fellow student and something of a mentor to Ed back in the guild, is the one who gets blamed for Ed making off with so much of their stuff. Outwardly cool, Konrad is furious over losing face, and the embarrassment and punishments Ed's actions put him through. He’s since been looking for him, and manages to track him down in his own city, only made even more angry to find out he’s been hiding under his nose the last few years. What Konrad doesn’t know is that Ed is aware some of the shady things he’s been up to behind the scenes, finding out that Konrad has been selling kidnapped victims to Shadows, so they could be turned into dolls. He even worked on spells and potions for them to make their dolls more subservient. Ed is torn about how to alert the LC of what Konrad is up to, without exposing himself, and instead (stupidly) attempts to confront Konrad himself.

The two finally come to head one day. Konrad finally flies off the handle, and attacks Ed openly in the streets of the city. Ed is no fighter, and Konrad is an exceptional caster, excelling not just in (actual) alchemy, but fire spells. Konrad starts firing everything he’s got at Ed, and practically a whole neighborhood starts to go up in flames. Ash ends up coming to Ed’s rescue, but tragically gets killed trying to protect him. Even worse is that Ash didn’t know Ed was immortal, and would have survived a mortal wound. Ed never recovers from the guilt of this. The LC eventually shows up to the fight and Konrad is defeated. Ed’s afraid of being caught, but the LC lets him go so long as he stays quiet about the horrible things Konrad was up to within their walls.

Ed goes on to marry Gwen, and he confesses to her about the immortality. Sadly, Gwen had been weakened considerably by her time as a doll, and passes away in 1920. Ed has barely been in a relationship since. He is and always will be heartbroken. While there was little to be done to help her, Ed blames himself for not being able to help, since he can't do actual magic and his works weren't potent enough to save her life.

His time as a snake oil salesman comes to an end, and Ed spends a long time working in the magic black market, selling his wares and making a lot of deals. He’s known as a trusted information source, and that his wares should be avoided. Still, he makes friends with a lot of seedy types like himself, and often works as the magical supply version of a Prohibition rum runner. Magic has more and more scrutiny placed on it by the American government every year, so the black market becomes more dangerous and important every year as well.

In 1943, Ed meets a teenager named Theo Crawford who begs to become his student. Ed is too afraid with the life that he lives to take on a student, and isn’t interested, but ends up taking on the destitute runaway on out of pity. However, he’s not a good mentor. He’s often neglectful and dismissive of Theo, too absorbed in himself and his own problems to worry about someone else’s. Theo is just as brilliant as Ed, but the paranoid and antisocial student takes these actions from his teacher very personally. He puts up with it for years, but eventually pulls on Ed what Ed did to the LC - steals his stuff and runs off to study on his own. Theo had been interested in necromancy, which guilds forbid. Not that snobby magic guilds would accept him - Theo’s family was dirt poor, and he didn’t come from a line of spellcasters. All of this bitterness settles deep into the disturbed young man, who decides to show everyone just how talented and powerful he was - by creating a gigantic horde of zombies that he lets loose on San Francisco. It’s horrific, utter chaos, and by the time it’s contained, over 1000 people were dead (not counting the original zombies), and Theo had been killed by FBI agents. After some investigation, Ed is implicated as an accomplice, and his many other black market crimes come to light, as well as his immortality. He’s hauled off by the FBI and ends up in federal prison, where he’s been for five years before showing up in Crystallis.

His time in prison wasn't uneventful. Knowing he was immortal, the government experimented on him often, using the excuse of time off of his sentence if he complied. New weapons, new drugs, diseases - all manner of things were used on him, and of course, Ed bounced back from them every time. With the way this immortality works, the effects or damage done to him just disappear. If he is bleeding, the wound will just suddenly seal and the blood will seem to vaporize in an instant. Even though he didn’t suffer long lasting physical effects, it didn’t mean it wasn’t painful, cruel, and demeaning. Coming to Crystallis and dealing with its problems seems like a walk in the park after what he’s been through.



Personality:
Ed’s personality has changed a bit over the years. He’s still smart, charismatic, has a tendency to ramble, and craves attention. Thanks to the things he’s been through, and the effect of immortality on his mind, he’s not the same man he once was. He hasn’t slept since 1901, and it’s now 1953. He doesn’t suffer any long term physical effects of his condition or trauma, but mentally it’s taking a toll.

Generally, Ed is an outgoing guy, eager to meet people and talk talk talk. He has a way of talking in circles, intentionally, that people forget what’s going on. It’s one of the ways he’s been an effective snake oil salesman in the past. He has a genial charm that helped lure in unsuspecting customers. It’s not that Ed’s evil, but he’s selfish enough and wanted to make enough money that fleecing people with his useless or tainted potions didn’t bother him. To him, it was just his job. The more potions he sold, the more he had to make, so the more practice he got. He’d get it right someday! Right?

Well, no, he wouldn’t, but Ed’s ego and faith in his own intelligence carried him pretty far. His confidence was a forced to be reckoned with back in the day, but lately, it’s gotten shaky. Being in federal prison will do that to some people. That confidence is still there, buried, but for now it’s been hamstrung. It’s possible that one day, he might get back to being his old self again. It’s debatable as to whether that’s a good thing or not. He does have a selfish streak, and often forgets about others in the pursuit of what he wants. He uses people, and doesn’t even realize that’s what he’s doing to them. His levels of self-absorption can be staggering. While usually good at faking his emotions to the average person, whether feigning interest or hiding his own motivations, there have been a lot more cracks in the mask lately.

Ed is an incredibly intelligent person, and he knows it. That’s usually a bad thing, coupled with his ego and confidence, and he often would stride into situations without a plan, sure that he can handle it and will be able to solve it on it his. His smarts and his charm might get him so far, but he’s hardly as perfect as he thinks he is. He’s come to that realization in the last few years, especially since his lack of sleep had started to cause memory problems.

Thanks to all these traits, Ed also craves attention and validation from everyone around him. He wants to be the smartest guy in the room, and he wants it to be acknowledged. He’ll do a lot just to get the attention of people he likes or admires. Impressing people makes him feel good. That big ego wants love, damnit.

In the last few years, however, he’s been suffering from a lot of anxiety problems brought on by insomnia and his prison sentence. He absolutely hates it, but he can’t control it. When situations are out of his control, or he’s in danger, or any other highly stressful situations cause him to panic and shut down, his confidence dashed. Talking him out of it helps, but he often doesn’t have someone to help him with it. Fifty years of immortality and long nights alone have left him with a crushing sense of loneliness, and sometimes he can be caught talking to himself aloud. He doesn’t even realize he’s doing. Such loneliness has only amplified his craving for attention.

Deep down in there, somewhere, is a decent person. Ed could be capable of good, but his motivations are so often self-serving that he forgets the bigger picture. Being thrust into a situation like the one on Crystallis might pull these traits out of him, but that remains to be seen...


Third-Person Sample: From the 4th wall event

Mognet Sample: Time for a little networking.

Good day, Crystallis!

What say you to a get-together this weekend? I’ve met some of you already, but I’d like to know who all the other Heroes are and hear about what’s been going on with your group since we’ve arrived. It’s not just a good idea to get acquainted with one another, but to share information about our very complex situation. I’ve learned some surprising things from some of you already, and I’m sure there’s more than that came from.

Besides, we just got out of living underground for practically seven months. Let’s cut loose! I’m willing to offer up my home for this, but I’ve been told the Observatory is a good place for such things. It has more room, that’s for sure.

Sincerely,
Ed Grayson


Crystallis
Moogle Name: Mogrissa
Moogle Gender: Female

First Job: Scholar
Second Job: Blacksmith (Alchemist advanced Job)

Limit Break: A Lesson in Charity
If brought close to death, Ed will temporarily regain his immortal body, but only if he chooses to protect those he’s fighting with. Before the effect wears off, Ed can choose to either replenish the health and energy of the entire party, save for himself, or help his comrades escape while staying behind. Once he has accomplished this task, the effect will wear off and the damage he had taken before the limit break will return. Healing or boosting spells will have no effect on him for the remainder of the battle.