Entry tags:
Application - Synodiporia
P L A Y E R;
NAME: Blue
AGE: Over 18
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OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Matthew Swift
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Susan Sto Helit
CANON: Discworld
POINT IN CANON: Post Soul Music
AGE: 16
APPEARANCE:
Susan's physical appearance is striking - she has pure white hair, with one black streak, that is naturally a frizzy mass. When she's older, she'll develop the ability for her hair to magically style itself - most often into a prim bun. However, at this age, it's utterly uncontrollable.
She also has a birthmark on her cheek, in the shape of three finger-like lines left from when her grandfather struck her father. Most of the time, this birthmark isn't visible - but it shows when she blushes, and glow when she's angry.
In terms of build, she's skinny and slightly built - which, when she's filling the role of Death, verges into being bony.
CANON HISTORY:
wiki link
CANON PERSONALITY:
Susan has always been sensible - something which she has always regarded as a serious character flaw. This is in large part due to her upbringing, where her parents made a concentrated effort to bring her up as logical, straight-forward, and normal. This was an attempt to protect her from her heritage as Death's granddaughter - who, as an anthropomorphic personification, was the furthest you could get from 'logical' or 'normal'. This, unfortunately, did little to inoculate her against being drawn into this world, and was also probably not the best course of action on the Disc in particular, a world that practically runs on illogic. But she's stuck with the personality, now, and the need to always take a practical, straightforward-approach.
She's also someone who keeps her cool in dangerous situations, and is usually the one who's holding it together when everything goes to hell. When someone says, 'someone ought to do something', that someone often ends up being Susan. She has little patience, though, for people who are inefficient and unfocused, and tends to take a dim view of excessive sillyness.
She is, however, curious, and hates leaving mysteries unsolved or not knowing things. She's simply a nosy kind of person, and tends to see not much issue with invading the privacy of other people. (At least, when she is the one doing the invading. Obviously, it's wrong for other people to do so. Just not Susan.) She also has the kind of stubbornness that will lead to her doing the exact opposite of what she's told to do, especially if the person telling her is her Grandfather.
When it comes to relationships, Susan is a very chilly character who almost never demonstrates affection. Part of it is that she is naturally undemonstrative anyway, and straightforward to the point where she is perhaps not the best person to go to if you want a shoulder to cry on rather than someone to point out exactly everything you've done wrong. She also rarely has romantic relationships, both because people are intimidated by her and because she really doesn't know how to express attraction for someone. But it's also because, thanks to her heritage, there's always a part of her mind that views humans as just a temporary and fleeting collection of atoms.
She also completely lacks any kind of romanticism. She regards most great literature as pointless, and much prefers logic and maths to disciplines like language and history. Philosophy also is something to be distrusted, since she views it as a gross oversimplification. In general, Susan just doesn't have much appreciation or ability for art. She's distinctly unmusical, and when presenting with something like a poem on daffodils her response is to say that while people can like daffodils, they shouldn't be allowed to take up a whole page saying so.
But while Susan is often a cold character, one emotion she does often demonstrate is anger. It takes a lot to rattle her, and she tends to react not by getting scared to upset, but by getting angry. To her, this is preferable to fear - fear will control you, but anger can be used as a weapon.
Also of note with Susan, is how she changes as she grows older. During Soul Music, when she's sixteen, she's logical to the point of stubbornness. Seeing something that couldn't possibly exist, she will insist, is no reason to actually believe in it. And then once she can no longer refuse the existence of the supernatural, she moves onto trying to be as normal as possible and distancing herself from her supernatural heritage. She also lacks the confidence and assurance that she will develop as an adult, and has that mix of feeling superior and special while also still wanting to be a normal person who isn't different at all. Susan's also hopelessly idealistic and naive, in the way that only teenagers can manage. She thinks that only the bad should die young, and will insist that people should 'change the world for the better' if they can, even if there are complex and good reasons why they might not be able to do that. She insists that things should be fair, even though life isn't fair at all. By the end of Soul Music, she has started to understand that things are more complicated than she realises, at least in regards to Death. But she still has a lot of growing to do, at this age.
In just a few years time though, in Hogfather, Susan has matured considerably. She still hopelessly attempts to be 'normal', even though she's regularly battling the monsters that the children who are her charges see. And she also feels the need to visit Biers, a pub for other entities who don't fit into human society, when the pressure of being 'normal' gets too much - even though she doesn't actually like the place. But she's no longer as naive and hopelessly idealistic, and in her role as governess she's developed into someone who is actually very good with children. They respond to her sensible personality and unusual tactics - like handing a child complaining of monsters a sword, or giving them coursework too advanced for them so that they learn. Children, as far as she's concerned, are people who should grow up to be adults, not coddled or romanticised.
Later again, in Thief of Time, Susan has matured even further. At this age, she's come to terms with the fact that she isn't completely human. She's living a human life, but she freely uses her abilities in her daily life now, and accepts that much of the universe doesn't abide by the rules of logic. In fact, she now detests those who adhere only to 'the rules', like the Auditors, who give no room for the chaos and changeability of life. She's also much more accepting of her familial ties with Death - before, she often pushed him away because his world wasn't one she wanted to be a part of. But with the acceptance of her partially immortal nature, she's also more accepting of Death himself.
She's also a force to be reckoned with, cutting an imposing, intimidating figure who has a manner that makes her seem older than she really is. She is a schoolteacher, yes, but she's not the bright, cheery kind - she's the kind who's authority and rule over her classroom is unquestioned. She's the strict, demanding teacher with high standards, who pushes you not to see you fail but to see you grow.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: NA
VETERAN?: NA
ABILITIES:
Susan is the granddaughter of Death, and as such she has inherited some of Death's powers. This is in defiance of all the rules of biology - seeing as Death is a skeleton whose daughter, Susan's mother, was adopted - but when it comes to anthropomorphic personifications like Death, logic and basic biology don't really apply. So Death is in Susan's family, and she's inherited an instinctive knowledge of Death's work and is a mix of human and an anthropomorphic personification herself. She is 'a little bit immortal' - what exactly this means in practice is never specified entirely, but she can die. Presumably, while Susan can be killed, she's not bound by the usual human limitations of ageing and time.
And time, indeed, is something she can manipulate to an extent. Susan lives in time, but she's not bound by it. She can pause it, entering into a kind of personal time loop until she's finished what she want to do. And when time stops entirely, while all life on the Disc is utterly frozen Susan is unaffected, and can move around unhindered. Her memory is also not entirely linear, as she has the ability to 'remember' the future. For the most part, though, this is largely unhelpful - as unlike Death, her mostly human mind can't handle remembering everything all at once. So all she sees if flashes of fragmented images and dreams, which don't mean much until she actually gets to the future.
She also seems to have some nebulous ability to manipulate space as well - she transports her class to other places all over the Disc, where the classroom manages to exist both in, say, Uberwald, and Ankh-Morpork as well. The exact limits of this ability, however, aren't really defined, and it possibly only applies to the classroom, which is her domain.
She has more direct abilities, however. Susan can walk through walls, and there's no door that's closed to her. She can also make herself unnoticeable - not just in the case of making it so that people don't see her, but even making it so that they don't remember that she was even there in the first place. Not all creatures are affected by this - other mythological entities will see her perfectly well, as do any creature that is used to seeing things like her, such as wizards and cats and children.
Susan herself can also see the world as it really is - which is much harder than seeing things that aren't there, which humans do naturally all the time. Bogeymen, tooth fairies, other anthropomorphic personifications - Susan can see them all quite clearly, and she has a kind of hyperawareness about the world around her.
She can also speak using Death's voice, which is INDICATED BY SMALL CAPS. Described as being more like actions than words, Death's voice works by stating the way that the universe will be. As such it can be used to intimidate others, and to compel people to obey or answer her. However, even the power of an Eldritch voice can only go so far - she can't make anyone do anything they'd really never do (such as making a head teacher give her a raise, an always impossible task).
She can also summon the scythe of Death, at least when she's 'acting' as Death. She doesn't summon it when Death himself is in the role. But she does certainly have an affinity for stick-like weapons, with the fireplace poker being particular notable. She might not have any formal training with a sword too, but she certainly isn't uncomfortable using one and it's possible that she's inherited some knowledge of how to use one as well.
If she knows a person's name, she can find anyone she wants to. However, this doesn't apply to things that cannot die - for instance, she can't locate Lobsang, who as the son of Time is not bound by Death. And indeed, limits on death itself are limits on Susan's power - in places where death has no power (such as Tooth Fairy's house - where in this child-created world people don't die, they "go away"), none of Susan's abilities work at all.
While she didn't gain this ability until she was seventeen, her hair also has the ability to self-style itself. Partly according to Susan's direct wishes, but also according to her general mood (hence why it takes the form of a severe bun most of the time, but loosens when she's performing Death's duties).
Outside of her supernatural abilities, Susan is highly adept at logic and mathematics, speaks multiple languages, and has in general had a very good education. When she's older, she uses this education in her roles as both a governess and as a teacher. She is in fact very good with children, who respond well to her practical sensibility and unusual teaching methods.
She can also give you the Look. The Look is not threatening, or aggressive. It just makes you want to never, ever, see it again. The Look is also something she's developed over time - she's a master of it as a teacher, but when she's still a teenager her glares had none of this effect.
INVENTORY:
Just her school uniform.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
While I'm taking Susan from her canon point in Soul Music, if she sticks I do plan to canon update her later on. So, I've also included information on her personality and abilities in later books here, since they're where she's headed in the future.
Also: Powercapping.
Since Susan's powers are inherited/derived from Death, most of the same powercaps that apply to him will apply to her. Not all of them - Susan's only 'a little bit immortal' (whatever that means), and she doesn't have his Hammerspace or Teleportation abilities. But she will share the following caps:
There a few things though, that aren't covered by Death's powercaps but might still need capping for Susan:
M A R K S;
JUSTIFICATION:
VETO:
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: Test drive thread
PROSE SAMPLE: Musebox post
NAME: Blue
AGE: Over 18
PLAYER JOURNAL:
blue_rampionTIMEZONE: UTC +10
CONTACT: blue[dot]rampion[at]gmail[dot]com |
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Matthew Swift
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Susan Sto Helit
CANON: Discworld
POINT IN CANON: Post Soul Music
AGE: 16
APPEARANCE:
Susan's physical appearance is striking - she has pure white hair, with one black streak, that is naturally a frizzy mass. When she's older, she'll develop the ability for her hair to magically style itself - most often into a prim bun. However, at this age, it's utterly uncontrollable.
She also has a birthmark on her cheek, in the shape of three finger-like lines left from when her grandfather struck her father. Most of the time, this birthmark isn't visible - but it shows when she blushes, and glow when she's angry.
In terms of build, she's skinny and slightly built - which, when she's filling the role of Death, verges into being bony.
CANON HISTORY:
wiki link
CANON PERSONALITY:
Susan has always been sensible - something which she has always regarded as a serious character flaw. This is in large part due to her upbringing, where her parents made a concentrated effort to bring her up as logical, straight-forward, and normal. This was an attempt to protect her from her heritage as Death's granddaughter - who, as an anthropomorphic personification, was the furthest you could get from 'logical' or 'normal'. This, unfortunately, did little to inoculate her against being drawn into this world, and was also probably not the best course of action on the Disc in particular, a world that practically runs on illogic. But she's stuck with the personality, now, and the need to always take a practical, straightforward-approach.
She's also someone who keeps her cool in dangerous situations, and is usually the one who's holding it together when everything goes to hell. When someone says, 'someone ought to do something', that someone often ends up being Susan. She has little patience, though, for people who are inefficient and unfocused, and tends to take a dim view of excessive sillyness.
She is, however, curious, and hates leaving mysteries unsolved or not knowing things. She's simply a nosy kind of person, and tends to see not much issue with invading the privacy of other people. (At least, when she is the one doing the invading. Obviously, it's wrong for other people to do so. Just not Susan.) She also has the kind of stubbornness that will lead to her doing the exact opposite of what she's told to do, especially if the person telling her is her Grandfather.
When it comes to relationships, Susan is a very chilly character who almost never demonstrates affection. Part of it is that she is naturally undemonstrative anyway, and straightforward to the point where she is perhaps not the best person to go to if you want a shoulder to cry on rather than someone to point out exactly everything you've done wrong. She also rarely has romantic relationships, both because people are intimidated by her and because she really doesn't know how to express attraction for someone. But it's also because, thanks to her heritage, there's always a part of her mind that views humans as just a temporary and fleeting collection of atoms.
She also completely lacks any kind of romanticism. She regards most great literature as pointless, and much prefers logic and maths to disciplines like language and history. Philosophy also is something to be distrusted, since she views it as a gross oversimplification. In general, Susan just doesn't have much appreciation or ability for art. She's distinctly unmusical, and when presenting with something like a poem on daffodils her response is to say that while people can like daffodils, they shouldn't be allowed to take up a whole page saying so.
But while Susan is often a cold character, one emotion she does often demonstrate is anger. It takes a lot to rattle her, and she tends to react not by getting scared to upset, but by getting angry. To her, this is preferable to fear - fear will control you, but anger can be used as a weapon.
Also of note with Susan, is how she changes as she grows older. During Soul Music, when she's sixteen, she's logical to the point of stubbornness. Seeing something that couldn't possibly exist, she will insist, is no reason to actually believe in it. And then once she can no longer refuse the existence of the supernatural, she moves onto trying to be as normal as possible and distancing herself from her supernatural heritage. She also lacks the confidence and assurance that she will develop as an adult, and has that mix of feeling superior and special while also still wanting to be a normal person who isn't different at all. Susan's also hopelessly idealistic and naive, in the way that only teenagers can manage. She thinks that only the bad should die young, and will insist that people should 'change the world for the better' if they can, even if there are complex and good reasons why they might not be able to do that. She insists that things should be fair, even though life isn't fair at all. By the end of Soul Music, she has started to understand that things are more complicated than she realises, at least in regards to Death. But she still has a lot of growing to do, at this age.
In just a few years time though, in Hogfather, Susan has matured considerably. She still hopelessly attempts to be 'normal', even though she's regularly battling the monsters that the children who are her charges see. And she also feels the need to visit Biers, a pub for other entities who don't fit into human society, when the pressure of being 'normal' gets too much - even though she doesn't actually like the place. But she's no longer as naive and hopelessly idealistic, and in her role as governess she's developed into someone who is actually very good with children. They respond to her sensible personality and unusual tactics - like handing a child complaining of monsters a sword, or giving them coursework too advanced for them so that they learn. Children, as far as she's concerned, are people who should grow up to be adults, not coddled or romanticised.
Later again, in Thief of Time, Susan has matured even further. At this age, she's come to terms with the fact that she isn't completely human. She's living a human life, but she freely uses her abilities in her daily life now, and accepts that much of the universe doesn't abide by the rules of logic. In fact, she now detests those who adhere only to 'the rules', like the Auditors, who give no room for the chaos and changeability of life. She's also much more accepting of her familial ties with Death - before, she often pushed him away because his world wasn't one she wanted to be a part of. But with the acceptance of her partially immortal nature, she's also more accepting of Death himself.
She's also a force to be reckoned with, cutting an imposing, intimidating figure who has a manner that makes her seem older than she really is. She is a schoolteacher, yes, but she's not the bright, cheery kind - she's the kind who's authority and rule over her classroom is unquestioned. She's the strict, demanding teacher with high standards, who pushes you not to see you fail but to see you grow.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: NA
VETERAN?: NA
ABILITIES:
Susan is the granddaughter of Death, and as such she has inherited some of Death's powers. This is in defiance of all the rules of biology - seeing as Death is a skeleton whose daughter, Susan's mother, was adopted - but when it comes to anthropomorphic personifications like Death, logic and basic biology don't really apply. So Death is in Susan's family, and she's inherited an instinctive knowledge of Death's work and is a mix of human and an anthropomorphic personification herself. She is 'a little bit immortal' - what exactly this means in practice is never specified entirely, but she can die. Presumably, while Susan can be killed, she's not bound by the usual human limitations of ageing and time.
And time, indeed, is something she can manipulate to an extent. Susan lives in time, but she's not bound by it. She can pause it, entering into a kind of personal time loop until she's finished what she want to do. And when time stops entirely, while all life on the Disc is utterly frozen Susan is unaffected, and can move around unhindered. Her memory is also not entirely linear, as she has the ability to 'remember' the future. For the most part, though, this is largely unhelpful - as unlike Death, her mostly human mind can't handle remembering everything all at once. So all she sees if flashes of fragmented images and dreams, which don't mean much until she actually gets to the future.
She also seems to have some nebulous ability to manipulate space as well - she transports her class to other places all over the Disc, where the classroom manages to exist both in, say, Uberwald, and Ankh-Morpork as well. The exact limits of this ability, however, aren't really defined, and it possibly only applies to the classroom, which is her domain.
She has more direct abilities, however. Susan can walk through walls, and there's no door that's closed to her. She can also make herself unnoticeable - not just in the case of making it so that people don't see her, but even making it so that they don't remember that she was even there in the first place. Not all creatures are affected by this - other mythological entities will see her perfectly well, as do any creature that is used to seeing things like her, such as wizards and cats and children.
Susan herself can also see the world as it really is - which is much harder than seeing things that aren't there, which humans do naturally all the time. Bogeymen, tooth fairies, other anthropomorphic personifications - Susan can see them all quite clearly, and she has a kind of hyperawareness about the world around her.
She can also speak using Death's voice, which is INDICATED BY SMALL CAPS. Described as being more like actions than words, Death's voice works by stating the way that the universe will be. As such it can be used to intimidate others, and to compel people to obey or answer her. However, even the power of an Eldritch voice can only go so far - she can't make anyone do anything they'd really never do (such as making a head teacher give her a raise, an always impossible task).
She can also summon the scythe of Death, at least when she's 'acting' as Death. She doesn't summon it when Death himself is in the role. But she does certainly have an affinity for stick-like weapons, with the fireplace poker being particular notable. She might not have any formal training with a sword too, but she certainly isn't uncomfortable using one and it's possible that she's inherited some knowledge of how to use one as well.
If she knows a person's name, she can find anyone she wants to. However, this doesn't apply to things that cannot die - for instance, she can't locate Lobsang, who as the son of Time is not bound by Death. And indeed, limits on death itself are limits on Susan's power - in places where death has no power (such as Tooth Fairy's house - where in this child-created world people don't die, they "go away"), none of Susan's abilities work at all.
While she didn't gain this ability until she was seventeen, her hair also has the ability to self-style itself. Partly according to Susan's direct wishes, but also according to her general mood (hence why it takes the form of a severe bun most of the time, but loosens when she's performing Death's duties).
Outside of her supernatural abilities, Susan is highly adept at logic and mathematics, speaks multiple languages, and has in general had a very good education. When she's older, she uses this education in her roles as both a governess and as a teacher. She is in fact very good with children, who respond well to her practical sensibility and unusual teaching methods.
She can also give you the Look. The Look is not threatening, or aggressive. It just makes you want to never, ever, see it again. The Look is also something she's developed over time - she's a master of it as a teacher, but when she's still a teenager her glares had none of this effect.
INVENTORY:
Just her school uniform.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
While I'm taking Susan from her canon point in Soul Music, if she sticks I do plan to canon update her later on. So, I've also included information on her personality and abilities in later books here, since they're where she's headed in the future.
Also: Powercapping.
Since Susan's powers are inherited/derived from Death, most of the same powercaps that apply to him will apply to her. Not all of them - Susan's only 'a little bit immortal' (whatever that means), and she doesn't have his Hammerspace or Teleportation abilities. But she will share the following caps:
- Her use of DEATH'S VOICE will not work on Travellers with Psychic Protection II, and can't be used on infiltrators without Susan learning Infiltrator Mind Reading
- She will have no abilities to manipulate time (which also means no ability to 'remember the future', since we figure that's a subset of time manipulation)
There a few things though, that aren't covered by Death's powercaps but might still need capping for Susan:
- Being able to find anyone she knows the name of that can't die - this would probably only apply to other Discworld characters
- Her vague and extremely undefined ability to manipulate space. Considering how vague this ability is in canon, it's probably a lot easier to just assume it only applies to Susan's classroom in Ankh-Morpork and doesn't work anywhere else
M A R K S;
JUSTIFICATION:
- Magician: There's quite a few of Magician's idiom that fits Susan - Personal power, practicality, self confidence, being objective, determination, initiative. Not to mention Rose's liking for people who are intelligent - Susan is certainly that. She's someone who can't abide mysteries, and will just have to keep poking at them until she figures them out.
- Emperor: Emperor is a ridiculously good match for Susan. Stability, authority, discipline, control, command, common sense, order, structure...she hits quite a lot of Emperor's idiom. This one in particular fits her even more as an adult - she's a caretaker of children, but her style is in the vein of the Emperor's rather than Empresses's - she's the hard taskmaster, who pushes her charges and is always in control, not the soft, nurturing type. She's not yet fully grown into that as of her current canon point, but she’s definitely heading there.
- Justice: While one day Susan will grow from her more simple teenage thinking, and come to realise that the world is more morally complicated than black and white, there's still a big part of Susan that wants to divide the world up into ideas of Right and Wrong. Susan is the kind of person who holds high standards of justice, and wants to enforce those standards upon the world. And she fits with other parts of Justice's idiom as well - Impartiality, coldness, an objective mind, cleverness, intellect, analysis, rationality, logic and reason.
VETO:
- Empress: While Susan might seem like a good fit for Empress, with her becoming a very powerful woman and her career involving the care of children, I have to veto her because Empress just seems alltogether the wrong match for Susan. She might care for children, but she is not at all mothering.
- Death: Because as amusing as it would be for the Granddaughter of Death to be marked by Death, he doesn't particularly fit. Also, Matthew's already been marked by him already.
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: Test drive thread
PROSE SAMPLE: Musebox post