Apr. 6th, 2017

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PLAYER INFO
Name: Melissa
Contact: awarewolf @ plurk
Are you over 18?: HELL YEAh

CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Matrim Cauthon
Canon: Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
Canon Point: Last appearance in book 7, "A Crown of Swords", after a building drops on him.

Appearance: Mat is 5'11", with a wiry build, brown hair and brown eyes. He has a large uneven scar circling his neck, left by a rope, and various other scars from fights. Garrett Hedlund is TOO OLD but he's the best I can do, so I'm using his character from the disaster movie "Pan" as a PB.
Age: 20

Setting: The Wheel of Time series takes place in a world that's theoretically our own, but it's distorted enough by time and magic that it's unrecognizable (Mat wouldn't make any connection, unless he ends up comparing notes about the moon landing). The structure of the world itself and the societies built on it rely heavily on the dichotomy of good and evil; there's the Creator, or the Light, and then there is the Dark One and his evil manifestations and devotees. The technology of the world is pretty standard Tolkien-esque fantasy — swords and staves are common, but guns are unheard of. There is a system of magic based on the True Source, or the One Power — only certain people have access to it, and they're regarded with fear or reverence depending on the culture. The One Power and everything in the world is held together by the Wheel of Time, which is roughly equivalent to the concept of fate or destiny. History is seen as something that is constant, repeating, and unchangeable, meaning that people are simply pawns in the Wheel's grand scheme.

On a day to day level, this mostly means that people tend to be pretty superstitious, and all of them lean heavily into the idea of fate. Displays of the One Power are a mainstay, but they're rare enough that people usually react strongly to them. The individual societies are diverse, but they still hit standard fantasy tropes: there are warrior cultures, pirates, merchants, and societies based on medieval social hierarchies (lords, kings, etc). It's also worth noting that all of the cultures are varying degrees of sexist, and the world itself centers a male versus female dichotomy (pretty heavily linked to the themes of good and evil). The One Power itself is gendered, manifesting differently in men and women. More info @ the wiki!

History: At the wiki (a little outdated), or the encyclopedia.

Personality: Generally speaking, Mat is allergic to both authority and responsibility. His main priorities seem to be flirting and gambling, and he'll take nearly any chance to do one of the two — even when it's not strictly appropriate, like when he should be trying to save the world or healing from injuries. The people who are fond of him consider him clever, mischievous, brave and charming; the people who aren't (and sometimes still the people who are) would describe him as lazy, irresponsible, stubborn and brazen. Both views are mostly right.

Mat's wishes and his instincts have a habit of being at odds. While he'd like nothing more to shirk all responsibility and spend the rest of his life enjoying himself, his sense of loyalty (and past that, a general sense of what's right) tends to keep him from ever making a clean getaway. Since he first leaves Emond's Field, he spends literally all of his time doing the right thing and complaining very, very loudly about it. Throughout the books, Mat's attempts to cut ties and avoid drama result in his being drawn back by what he calls a sort of pull. He blames it on the Pattern (fate, as woven by the Wheel), and his status as a ta'veren interfering with his free will. While there's probably some truth to this, the simpler answer is that he actually just feels like a dick about it, and guilt always ends up wearing him down.

When he does commit to a task, he's relentlessly dogged. When Rand tasks him with seeking out Elayne and escorting her to safety, for example, Mat sees the job through. He complains the entire time, both to himself and out loud, but he stays true — even when it means that he first has to break into an impenetrable fortress, fight through a bunch of bad guys, and then suffer ingratitude and mockery from Elayne and company once he's finally found them. When Elayne says she won't go back with Mat, he eventually decides to accompany her on her quest, coming to the conclusion that it's the only way to keep to his promise and see her home safely. On her quest, Elayne is badly injured by an unkillable creature. Mat's grief and guilt when he thinks he's failed to protect her is intense, and he tries to avenge her without hesitation (it doesn't work, because unkillable, but Elayne later comments on his bravery).

Mat will act like a coward all day, but he's shockingly resolute in the face of danger. Admittedly, this is partly because he usually has no choice: despite his best efforts to stay out of the line of fire, he frequently winds up with a target on his back. He's reasonably calm in a crisis and, once he gives up on the chance of running, very brave. His status as ta'veren and companion to the Dragon Reborn means he's been forced to navigate a lot of scheming and a lot of violence, and while he might've been foolishly reckless when he first struck out from home, a steady chain of trauma has taught him to save recklessness for the unavoidable do-or-die moments.

On the trauma note, Mat's seen a lot of weird shit in a short amount of time. He spent a few weeks "possessed" by an evil dagger, which stoked his paranoia and hostility and very slowly killed him. He was separated from the dagger while on death's doorstep, but the experience marked a few significant changes. Memory loss, for one; he remembers most things about his past, but there are small, frequent gaps. Later, desperate to fix this, he accidentally asks some creepy magical fox-people to fill in the gaps in his memory. They do, in a roundabout way. Instead of returning his own memories, they give him the memories of men long-dead, most of whom seem to have been great warriors and military tacticians. While this winds up making him a formidable military leader, it also makes him less normal, which is the opposite of what he was going for.

As payment for this and other "gifts", the foxy people take his life. Mat is briefly dead, hanged at the neck until Rand revives him. It's an experience that Mat refers back to in his own thoughts frequently in the months after. He's bitter about it, of course, but he also seems strangely ashamed at having been so thoroughly tricked. The rope left a nasty scar on his neck, and he takes to wearing a scarf at all times to keep it hidden. In a world where everyone and their mom has cool battle scars, this is a strange choice. Mat himself seems comfortable with his other scars, sometimes even boastful. The difference is that this isn't a wound he got in a fight — it's the result of his being foolish, and hasty, and thoroughly in over his head.

In some ways, Mat hasn't really been changed by his experiences. He's still stubborn, he's still a little foolish, he still loves gambling, and he's wildly rude. When he isn't dwelling on past mistakes, he's fixating on old and new grudges. While some of his friends have become jaded by the violence they've seen, Mat continues to suffer extreme guilt and remorse in the face of loss, or having to commit (always justified) violence himself. When he has to kill two assassins in self defense, he spends a few days hecked up over it; much later, when he accidentally ends up in a fight to the death with one of Rand's enemies, he expresses frustration at things having gotten to that point. The biggest outward change is that he's much more pessimistic, a little better at listening to advice, and he tends to become hyper-focused on problems rather than aggressively ignoring them. If he does ignore them, it's just stubborn pretense.

In more significant ways, he's a completely different person than he'd been when he first set out from home. Practically speaking, the presence of other people's memories is enough to make this true; he remembers hundreds of conversations, people, battles and deaths. By this point in the novels, he's having a hard time distinguishing his own memories from those of dead men. His fierce desire to be normal — or at the very least not ta'veren — means that each slip up, all the times he speaks the wrong language or quotes something he shouldn't know, makes him more cautious and withdrawn. The paranoia and fear that had been instilled in him by the cursed dagger also left a permanent mark, leaving him far more negative and wary. Before leaving home, he had been more eager for adventure than any of his friends. His blind optimism and naivete made the harsh reality especially jarring, and he never really recovered that eagerness.

Canon Abilities/Skills:

COMBAT Mat learned staff fighting from his father, and it's a skill he's had a lot of practice with on the road. While he's mostly just scrappy when it comes to hand-to-hand, he's very skilled with throwing daggers and with anything resembling a pole. He favors tactics and agility over brute strength, and his uncanny luck also contributes to his overall success as a fighter.

HIVEMIND?? Not really, but he does have access to the memories of thousands of dead, and often legendary, men. This isn't something he can control at will. Most of the time, memories are triggered organically: a familiar face, a familiar situation, a song or a certain phrase. Mat tends to slip in and out of these memories without noticing it. He wouldn't be able to rifle through them and tell you what they are, but he might instinctively draw information from them to answer a question. The biggest perk is that he basically downloaded thousands of years of military experience, so he's super good with tactics and strategy (as they apply to a medieval setting, that is; he'll be kind out of his element in space).

LUCK In his own world, Mat's status as ta'veren means that he's got a particularly strong connection to the Wheel, or destiny. This means that the world around him — and the lives of the people in it — can be shaped by his presence, or his decisions. This isn't a conscious ability, and in his case, it mostly just plays out as having incredible luck. If a situation is completely down to chance, his luck will usually carry him through. If a situation isn't random, however, it's up to him to navigate it himself. This ability also gives him a sort of "Spidey sense", and he gets a strong sense of restlessness or unease leading up to significant moments in his life.

The catch is that his luck is very obviously reliant on his connection to the Wheel of Time and its Pattern, which may or may not exist in space. I'm obviously fine with nixing any concept of him influencing the world around him, but maybe it could just translate as being generally lucky and having a strong, if super vague, sense of intuition when it comes to very important events.

ON STATION 72
Symbiote Specialization: Rho
Symbiote Ability: Power Amplification

RANK 1 - Requires any kind of contact with another host. During contact, their abilities will be boosted to some specified degree (one rank? half a rank?), and the effect fades within a minute or so of breaking contact. At this rank, he can't control when it happens, and the effect will occur spontaneously during contact. When it's active, it will cause headaches for both him and the other host, and prolonged contact will cause intensely negative side effects until one or both lose consciousness (2-3 minutes). May also cause the abilities of other hosts to spontaneously trigger.

RANK 2 - Same as Rank 1, but with a bit more control and a little easier to sustain. He can control the intensity of the effect with enough focus, and is more likely to trigger it intentionally. If the intensity is turned down, then the effect can be sustained for longer (up to 10 minutes with a low boost), but it still maxes out at 5 minutes at full power. Both hosts will still experience negative side effects, the intensity of which correlate to the strength and duration of the ability's use.

RANK 3 - Can be controlled at will, though it still requires contact. Duration is improved and the intensity of the side effects is a lot lower; the power can be used without more than a headache for up to 5 minutes, after which the side effects will start to build. The effect can be maintained at full strength for 10 minutes without any serious setback, but anything past that will strain the hosts and might cause a loss of consciousness.

Inventory:
ASHANDAREI - black-hafted spear with a foot-long sword blade in place of a spear point, slightly curved and single-edged. The blade is adorned with two ravens, and the shaft has an inscription on it written in Old Tongue.
FOXHEAD MEDALLION - silver, a ter'angreal (fancy item connected to the One Power) given to Mat when he left Rhuidean. Protects him from the use of the One Power/chanelling, and grows cold when active. One eye bears the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai.
BLACK SCARF - worn at all times to hide the ridged rope scar around his neck.
GREEN COAT - fancy, looks slept in.
DAGGERS - he usually keeps these all the heck over his person, but I'd be fine with one or two (or none).
BROAD-RIMMED HAT - aesthetics, bought while he was stuck in the desert with the Aiel.
DICE - plain old set of dice, though the pips are organized a little differently (in circles).

SAMPLES
Samples: TEST DRIVE

Rescue Write-up:

The dice have stopped rattling in his head. The wood and stones around him haven't, and a stream of dirt shakes down into his face as he pulls against the weight on his chest, thinks burn Olver and then hopes, fiercely, that Olver's clear of the Seanchan. Mat tries to drag his legs up, get his feet under him, then stops as if he's been hit in the face with a block of ice.

Time to reassess. There isn't enough room to get his hand to his face and get the dust out of his eyes, but squinting's enough to confirm the obvious: an entire bloody building fell on him. The weight of the beam across his chest feels heavy more than it hurts, but the sharp pain in his leg is doing a good job making up for it. He can't see past the beam. Not knowing the damage feels like insult to injury, but he doesn't push his luck and try his leg a second time.

"Blood and bloody—"

The building gives a violent shake. It feels like the explosion's traveling right through the beam into his bones, and then he doesn't particularly care about his leg. A stubborn twist of his shoulders gets him some purchase on the beam, enough to push — not enough to push hard, obviously. The beam doesn't so much as consider moving, and a second reverberation nearly makes him bite through his tongue.

And then there's light, too harsh on irritated eyes. He hisses a curse and tries to block it out before sense kicks in, and then he squints up into it. Thinks it's help about half a second before he thinks it's the Seanchan and that he's well and truly dead — for good, for once — when a hand reaches past the rubble and stops, outstretched.

"Take my hand."

A woman's voice, mature, steady. Reassuring, maybe, but he wouldn't care if it was a Trolloc's voice. Mat reaches up to take the hand in a firm grip, and he has just enough time to notice how filthy he looks by comparison when another blast sounds. He feels the ground shake, hears the rough slide of stone, feels the pressure on his chest shift. Then the light blinks out.

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matrim CAUTHON.

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