an app.
Player name: Kim
Journal: voltaireontoast
AIM: voltaireontoast
Email: kim.best3@gmail.com
Other characters: Sue Smith.
Character name: Maxim.
Age: late 30s.
Canon: Night Watch (talked to Kota about castmates. :D)
Canon point: After the confrontation with Sveta on top of the TV tower.
Totem: A wooden Russian Orthodox crucifix, worn on a string around his neck. During a fissure, it changes into a traditional crucifix, without the top or bottom crossbars.
Weapons: A magical knife made from a piece of wood. It is capable of killing Dark Others instantly, without leaving a wound. It only functions for him, and only works on Dark Others. To anyone else, it’s just a pointy bit of wood.
Abilities/powers: His full powers, in case they ever become relevant are the following:
- His enchanted wooden dagger can kill and leave no mark. At all. Ever. It can only be used against someone classified as 'Dark' in this fashion. Against anyone else, it's just a very sharp piece of wood.
- He acts as a 'mirror' in the Twilight. This means that he is as powerful as any wizard facing him - and can reflect any magic used against him back at his opponent; now he's been trained, it'll work against virtually any spell. But this only really applies if you're from his world.
- He can step into the Twilight 'like stepping off a pavement' - Most wizards have to DECIDE to do it, and it's not usually the easiest thing in the world, especially if you haven't been trained. But Maxim can do it without thinking about it. In the real world, the Twilight is everywhere, so he can do this pretty easily. Stepping into the Twilight is something magicians in his world can do at any time - it allows them to be undetectable by regular humans, and only visible to each other - this is also how they can see full, and proper auras. The Twilight is where he draws his power from, and what he needs to use them to his full ability. It allows him to operate undetected by humans, and the Twilight has several layers. He CAN get stuck in there if he spends too long there, but given how powerful he is (the more powerful you are, the longer you can stay there), this is unlikely to happen.
- He can read auras - but only those of Dark Others.
In Limbo, this will be significantly limited due to the lack of the Twilight to use, so all his powers except the wooden dagger and ability to see any amount of Dark in someone are effectively nixed. He can only see Darkness in magical or non human beings - Vampires, werewolves, wizards, etc. There will be a permissions post for this when he is in play, but for the high majority of characters, he won’t be able to see a thing, as they’re humans.
(A SUB NOTE: A permissions post will be set up, explaining the difference between Dark and Light Others, and what Maxim might be able to see for other folks’ characters)
Location:Ostankino TV Tower, Moscow . An instant addition to the skyline! It has 360 degree observation deck, suspiciously done up like a command centre, and a restaurant at the top. The top is accessed by lift only, and now Limbo can have it’s very own piece of Soviet architecture. There is a small green lawn around the bottom of the tower, and the rest of the tower is just a lift to the observation deck. Oh, and it lights up at night.
Personality:
Maxim is serious, precise and ruthless where he needs to be. Most of the time, he comes across as a relatively distant and cold individual, but nothing more; he’s not particularly welcoming or friendly, but will meet social obligations, be as friendly as he has to be to ‘get on’. For the most part, he seems like a relatively normal man at first impression - a tired, detached man, but a normal one. This is an image he doesn’t necessarily cultivate, but comes to him naturally when he’s not using his powers or in the Twilight; he’s a normal, unremarkable man, apart from what he chooses to do on spring and autumn nights.
His powers, which he knew about, but never understood from a young age, have dominated the nature of most of his personality - not consciously, but as he realised what his powers could do, and what he could see, it influenced how he saw and reacted to the world. Being able to see only the darkness in people, and none of the light, meant that he built himself up in his head as being a soldier against the darkness - the only person who could protect ‘the sheep’ from the ‘wolves’. He took it as both a duty and a burden to kill Dark Others, one which developed a sense of grandeur and purpose within him - he truly believed he was ‘a sighted man amongst the blind’, and could see all the real dangers hiding within people who seemed relatively normal themselves. He convinced himself that the killings - which for a while, he detached himself from - were protecting and helping people from themselves and each other.
As he knew nothing about the Twilight, or the Night and Day Watches, he had to come up with his own reasonings as to why he could see the darkness within people, and why he had a knife that could kill them so easily. His conclusions often veered between divine purpose - he could see the stains on people’s souls, and had been given the means to eradicate them - or wondering whether he was actually mentally ill. Either way, he kept what he did a secret from everyone around him, including his wife and family, which leads to him being secretive, paranoid and cautious - as he might be pretty safe from legal prosecution, but the shame he would have felt if his wife found out was too much to bear. He is, on that note, capable of loving people and does love his wife - but is also much happier for her to assume he’s having an affair or seeing prostitutes than for her to know the truth. His love often comes in the form of obsessive protection - both in personal terms, and in larger societal terms - he does love humanity, and only hates the Dark amongst them, or those who protect the Dark, despite his disdain for the rest of humanity being so blind. To some extent, he has developed a God complex, as he believes himself to be a higher judge than any of humanity is capable of, and since becoming an Inquisitor, the ways in which he enacts this have become more controlled and regulated, but has only furthered his sense of being an ultimate authority.
Only being capable of seeing the Darkness (and ignorance of the Light) around him has led Maxim to have an exceptionally depressing view of the world - there is evil all around, and no matter how hard he tries, it cannot be eradicated, and everyone bar him is entirely unsuspecting. Now he knows it is not the case, and that the Night and Day Watch provide checks and balances, but he equally still believes that Darkness should be eradicated, and despairs that it cannot be, as well as that the Night Watch, in his view, seem to enable the Dark to act at times. It is noted that he has never been a soldier ‘for the Light’, but always one ‘against the Dark’. He actually enjoyed his ‘normal’ life, mostly for its unremarkableness, the fact it was good, but he never ‘got above himself’ - his powers were what brought all the misery and difficulty to his life.
Maxim, in his previous, normal, day to day life, wanted nothing more than to be good, but not exceptional. He wanted to do a good job and get on well, but not stick his head above a parapet or be noticed; more than anything, he didn’t want to be special, but he didn’t want to be meaningless either. It seemed to him as if someone had decided ‘you’ll be a bit better than the rest. Only a little, but still better’. This, to some extent, was part of him distancing himself from the actions his powers led him to take - so he could believe they were him losing control or going momentarily crazy, or even God’s will, but also this is demonstrated in how he performs his murders. He doesn’t want anyone to know it was him, and doesn’t want to build himself up in anyone else’s eyes as a vigilante hero against the Dark Others. He just wants to get on with the ‘job’ quietly and efficiently, standing in the background, protecting people. He treats his role as an Inquisitor the same way - he knows and still feels like he has God-like power, he knows that he is something special, but would still rather fly under the radar. His God complex and desire to be nothing more than mediocre are not entirely contradictory - to some extent, he martyrs himself on his ‘burden’ - taking it as a grim duty, but one which must be performed, and only he is capable of doing it. It’s not something he enjoys or wishes to revel in, but is a solemn task and mission.
He does disassociate his day-to-day life from his murderous behaviour to a large extent, not just through secrecy, but also through telling himself that the murders are part of his ability, not caused by his ability. He wanted to see the murders as something that happened to him, rather than something he did. He almost feels detached from himself when he is committing murder, but the murders are all his own decision, are carefully calculated (he follows the Others he intends to kill and plans ahead), and are the result of his powers. For a long time, Maxim saw darkness all around him, and had been given the means to correct the darkness in his magical wooden dagger, due to the manipulation by the Day Watch. His decision to murder Dark Others was down to his desperation to act upon the darkness he saw around him, not something his powers forced him to do, but a result of how his powers made him view the world, without the proper training to use them or understand them properly.
Maxim, through believing himself a higher power, is exceptionally judgemental - he believes he has the right to judge others, the right to judge people for their Dark actions and natures, and will not hesitate in assuming all Dark Others are dangerous and a risk to humans, but this judgemental nature does not extend much into how he interacts with humans themselves.
When he arrives in Limbo, Maxim has been already trained as an Inquisitor, and now has a greater understanding of his basic powers, as well as training in understanding higher levels of magic. Therefore, he is unlikely to perform murders like he used to, but as he will be able to see the Darkness within people, he will have certain expectations of them, and of Svetlana, which he will be perfectly willing to enforce, which may end potentially in him committing murder again, but initially, he will be much more controlled, and to most people would seem like a normal, slightly distant and slightly troubled guy.
History:
When Maxim was 12, he and his friend Petka (he freely admits he was probably his only friend) whittled daggers and swords to play knights with, much like many other children in his neighbourhood. They were on opposing sides, and Maxim took Petka ‘prisoner’ - Petka then offered him the dagger and asked him to kill him instead of taking him prisoner, all as part of the game, but when Maxim went to ‘do’ it, Petka was suddenly afraid of him and said he could keep the dagger as a trophy, a reaction Maxim never fully understood. Maxim gladly did so, but didn’t use it to play with again - instead keeping it with all his other sentimental items. He went on to live a very normal life, being very careful not to ‘get above himself’ - he worked as an auditor for a major foreign company, owned a Toyota (slightly better than other cars, but not flashy), got married and had a daughter. His life carried on like this until, in his words, when he was in his late twenties, ‘the dagger summoned him’ to eradicate the Dark in the world, which he set about doing, murder at a time - usually when his powers flared up in the Spring and Autumn. He went entirely unnoticed by both Watches, to the point where it may have seemed deliberate. His magical dagger did not leave a single mark on the body of his victims, only the cuts in their clothes being left by the dagger. He heard of Petka’s death, probable suicide by jumping from a building, and he got drunk and finally took the life of a Dark Magician who he was gathering information on. Three months later, he killed Galina, a Dark were-panther, and the next three or four days became exceptionally complicated.
After he killed Galina, he came to the attention of the Day Watch who complained to the Night Watch about her mysterious death. Galina was just a normal Dark Other - never really hurt anyone, was just a were-panther who was a bit selfish. In investigating these complaints, they discover not only that there have been other, similar deaths, but also that it must be an exceptionally powerful wizard, due to the weaponry and magic used. They don’t think it’s any of the night watch, which means there’s an unregistered Light Other with immense power just wandering around. So they set out to look for him, and to clear their own names. The only name that doesn’t come up with clear alibis for the murders is Anton’s, who insists he hasn’t committed the murders, and there is general concern that it was a Day Watch plan to entrap Anton, as revenge for previous encounters with Zabulon, the head of the Day Watch.
In order to trick the Day Watch into setting up the wrong person, Anton and Olga, another agent, swap bodies, and Anton is ordered to stay with Svetlana for the whole night and probably longer. Anton and Sveta go to dinner at the Maharajah, an Indian restaurant, whilst in disguise. Maxim, not just by coincidence, was out with his wife at the same restaurant as after the murder the previous night, he felt guilty about lying to her, so took her out for dinner. He still had the wooden knife in his pocket, though. As he’s sat there, he notices another Dark Other, and is astonished that another ‘assignment’ has come up so soon. He decides to kill him - that he must kill him. The Dark Other goes to the bathroom, and Maxim follows him, to kill him. Sveta and Anton only notice when the Dark Other does not return quickly, and a body, again with no immediate wounds, is discovered in the men’s room soon after. As Anton discovered the body, even as Olga, everything points back to him again. Maxim, meanwhile, had gone back to dinner with his wife, and left before the body was discovered. Maxim then, inadvertently saves Anton’s (as Olga) life, as the Day Watch showed up to the scene of the crime almost immediately, and confronted both him, Svetlana, and Boris Ignatevich, who’d turned up even quicker. In the ensuing fight, a passing car allows Anton to jump in - Maxim is the one driving the car, and he lets Anton off at a Metro station, at which point, he goes underground.
This, however, means he’s having a massive argument with his wife when he realises the presence of Yegor, and that he, also, must be killed. Maxim walks out of the house and goes to find and kill Yegor. He’s actually starting to crack under the pressure of three murders in two nights, and starts to worry that he might get it wrong one day and kill someone normal - he starts to doubt God and wants his ‘burden’ to go away and leave him alone.
Meanwhile, the Night Watch realise that Maxim is having victims laid on for him, just to set up Anton, and probably, get Sveta to slip up, lose control, and make a fatal mistake. The Night Watch decide that they have to find the Maverick (Maxim) and hand him over to the Day Watch for punishment - probably destruction. Sveta remembered his wife’s aura, and seeing Maxim leave the bathroom - the first clue in finding Maxim. The Day Watch are now officially AFTER Anton. He then realises that he’s just the bait for Sveta - Sveta nearly lost it when the Day Watch showed up. Whilst trying to escape notice, Anton gets his body back, and runs into a fallen Other in the Twilight, who directs him to the TV tower. He then discovers (after shooting a Dark Other) that they’re aiming to kill, not to capture him. Anton discovers that the TV tower is the base of operations for the Day Watch, and kills, then steals, the Dark Other’s body, considering himself entirely outside the rules at this point.
Anton goes, as the Dark Other, to the TV tower, and is surprised to find it entirely empty - that would be because the Day Watch influenced them all to leave - after a confrontation with a Dark security guard, in which the security guard fell off the tower, Anton then swaps clothes with one of the human security guards left, in order to gain further access and not be caught. Whilst there, he overhears a conversation between a Dark Other and the Light observer, Tiger Cub, in which they discuss what really might be going on here and their suspicions - including trying to keep the Day Watch from going after Anton. He then realises that the search is... remarkably unprofessional, and mostly a front, just another part in baiting him or Svetlana.
Anton then tries to formulate a way out of the situation, and realises that Yegor is the next target going to be thrown in Maxim’s way - so instead of doing anything else, he rushes off to stop it happening. He anticipates the Day Watch to catch Maxim, kill him, and remove any possibility of an alternate killer by simply not announcing they’d caught Maxim.
Maxim, meanwhile, had regained a little of his nerve, remembering the story about how he had acquired his dagger, and that his role was to protect and care for, not necessarily love. Maxim regains a little of his faith and confidence - considering himself the guardian and the judge, and that taking care of people was as good as loving them. When he finally found Yegor, he was then horrified to discover that the Dark Magician was nothing more than a child and a young boy - only 12 years old. Eventually, though, he strengthens his resolve by telling himself that he is saving the boy from the Dark, stopping him living a life where he might hurt others, and attempts to kill him.
Anton then arrives on scene, coming through the Twilight, he knocked Maxim off his feet and then tries to explain the situation to a very confused Maxim, who’s never heard of the Night Watch, and the only way he can tell if Anton is Light is by the absence of Dark. He tries to persuade Anton to allow him to kill Yegor, as he cannot be wrong and has never let one escape - Anton is then faced with a decision to either become his accomplice, or kill Maxim and destroy his own alibi. Anton considers failing to stop Maxim, as then he will calm down and listen to reason, but dismisses it as a possibility, as he cannot allow Yegor to die. Anton prevents Yegor’s death, and ends up in a full scale fight with Maxim, realising the extent of the other man’s powers - that he can reflect any magic used against him, and that this was how he had gotten away with it for so long. At the point when Maxim has stabbed Anton with his dagger - non-fatally, as Anton is Light, Boris, the boss, arrives on scene, and decides that Maxim will make a good Inquisitor - for his cold, incorruptible logic. Anton then discovers that Boris had planned the whole thing as a test for Svetlana - a test of her self-control, one that it turns out she passed, despite all the people Maxim and Anton killed. Maxim was then trained as an Inquisitor, to judge both the Light and the Dark, and an executioner - to destroy those in severe breach of the Truce. Maxim then went on to give permission for the Night Watch to use the Book of Destiny and rewrite Yegor’s history, which was yet again, another test for Svetlana, rather than of actual intent. After this event, he went to bed, and woke up in Limbo.
THIRD PERSON NOT APPLICABLE.
1st person sample:
A clean, empty city. If you excuse us few intruders, the city is clean, the air is clear, and everything is empty, like it was just waiting for us.
Stop, listen. The silence. The emptiness, the solitude. It could drive a man mad, I suppose. But there is not a sheep to be slaughtered tonight.
Beautiful, isn’t it? You could call it imprisonment, you could call it kidnap or some evil plot against us. But you could call it a new start, a fresh world, somewhere to make our mark. Somewhere to see more than we have ever seen and know more than we have ever known.
I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective.