Cape & Cowl Application
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Nix
AGE: 30
JOURNAL: Doktor_Nix
IM: lostxboi42
E-MAIL: doktornix @ gmail.com
RETURNING: N/A
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Ziggy Stardust (His Martian birth name is very difficult to spell/pronounce in English, but ‘Ziggy’ is derived from it)
FANDOM: David Bowie’s concept album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust”
CHRONOLOGY: I am taking Ziggy from right when his fame is peaking and he’s beginning to lose his focus to ego and excess, but before his fall.
CLASS: Hero, if not a great one. He has a messiah complex and a strong draw to help others, but is selfish and childish.
SUPERHERO NAME: Ziggy Stardust / Stardust
ALTER EGO: With a need to live a more ‘average’ life, he’ll take on a more believable name. Jonathan S. “Ziggy” Freecloud is something passable for every day use and for finding a new job or career. He’ll still look for work relating to music or performing, however. Probably something in radio hosting/DJing or playing and singing in bars and clubs. Something that will provide him with an audience.
BACKGROUND:
In a time when space rock was all the rage, Ziggy was a real spaceman. He was born on Mars, or, at least, inside of it. In one of that world’s underground cities. There, population growth and thinning resources had given people little hope of survival. Worse yet, few noticed or cared. The adults had grown cold and docile, living out the repeating patterns of day to day life. Wake, work, eat, sleep, repeat. For a very long time, they had all lived under the unquestioned guidance of a man made God; a powerful computer called Prayer. It ended all war, crime, and poverty for those who obeyed. It also took risk, choice, and passion out of life.
Technology, convenience, and fear of one another --of returning to darker, more dangerous times-- had forced people apart. It separated people from understanding what let them live and what made life worth living.
The little hope left existed with the young (what few there were anymore, since Prayer began population control). Some were born with the rules of the cities and followed the rules and laws without question, but some rebelled. Some hoped for something better and knew there had to be another way. A few older rebels and far more of the youth formed small free towns outside of Prayers influence. They were seen as dangerous and Ziggy was their prophet of a better future. He grew up eager for a new world, better than what they lived in. A new way of living. He sensed there was one, just outside of his grasp. He dreamt of it. He had visions. At his instruction, they built a radio receiver and picked up the voices of this far off world. They heard those voices singing.
When they were told they had only five years (just over 10 Earth years) left before their resources would begin to be tapped out, there was far less panic than there should have been. Far too many hearts too cold to cry out or care. Whatever the danger, Prayer would save them. Ziggy and his followers took action, however. They had little time, and many had to risk capture by the authorities or worse, but they were able to send Ziggy to Earth. They sent him as a way of giving them all a chance.
On Earth, in 1968, Ziggy turned to what he loved most about the world and it’s inhabitants: their music. With some effort, talent, and charisma to spare, Ziggy became the front man for ‘The Spiders From Mars’ and recorded numerous hits, mostly thinly veiled references to his own world and their plight. It was all, ostensibly, to bring in the money and the attention he’d need to help bring more of his people to Earth and save them from a slow and terrible death. Fame, however, became a bit blinding. He got wrapped up in the excess and indulgence of it all. Liquor. Drugs. Sex. Even just the bright lights and the crowd’s adoration for him became an addiction of their own. He was to be a savior to his own world and he was a God in this one. He became drunk on the power and his own sense of importance.
He promised to save his world from its end and to save his fans from their miserable lives, and failed to notice he might need saving himself. His band became bitter and tired of their frontman’s sense of self importance. The crowds and fans became more and more rabid and eager to have their piece of him.
Finally, at the last show of a massive stadium tour, the fans managed to rush the stage. The grabbing hands and trampling feet were too much to see through and the screams too loud to hear over as, in the eye of the fray, Ziggy was crushed and torn apart in a sudden and terrible end.
PERSONALITY:
Ziggy is, at his core, very passionate and very loving. Likely too loving. He breaks a lot of hearts because he falls in love quickly and powerfully, but will fall in love with another just as easily. He is, over all, enamored with human emotion and experience, in general. He’s a glutton for it. He can be terribly over dramatic at times because it gives him that opportunity to be intensely expressive. However, if he doesn’t immediately relate to something or understand another’s reaction, he can come off very cold. This is often the case with those hurt by his flitting from one lover to the next. He often simply fails to see ‘why not?’
He absolutely adores his fans, because they adore him. He gives more time to things like signing autographs, shaking hands, and offering hugs than most stars would bother with. However, he also sees no problem with letting those who want to, and who he approves of, come back to his dressing room or tour bus and give themselves to him completely. It hardly seems like taking advantage, if they’re offering and get to be so close to a star in return.
In his time on Earth, he has become more and more of a hedonist. It began with his need to witness, feel, and express emotion. It has since grown to include liquor, sex, and drugs. He drinks fairly heavily, finding the buzz pleasant and that drunkenness drowns out unpleasant visions and thoughts. He’ll try any drug once, and rather enjoys weed, some pills, occasional acid, and cocaine for just before a show. Sex has also become something of an addiction for him. There are so many different types and shapes of beauty on Earth. He spends a lot of time with groupies and, off tour, a lot of times in strip clubs and brothels. He loves women --and everything about the female human form-- but also likes to play at seducing men.
Ziggy likes to think of himself as a hero and a savior, and truly does want to help his world. The trouble is that he’s not terribly clever, just very passionate and blessed with certain insights. He also lacks very strong willpower. He tries to regain focus, at times, but distracting pleasures always seduce him again.
At the point where I’m playing him from, he’s only really begun his slip into excess and narcissism, though it’s far enough that being without his fans and wealth is a potentially devastating prospect.
POWER:
Prophecy: (expanding on canon) Ziggy gets visions of things to come. These are often negative, or warning things and frequently quite vague. They can come to him in his sleep or in calm moments when he’s awake, though alcohol and drugs do inhibit the ability to a large degree.
Empathy: Going well beyond just being a good read of people, he’s able to actually feel the emotions of those near him. Very intense feeling can even affect his own mood to match theirs, if he isn’t careful. It’s something he’ll need to learn to control and limit. With more effort, he can pick up emotions from broadcasts and recordings, but it’s far more difficult and requires actual concentration, rather than being a passive ability in this context.
When his own emotions become very strong, they can also be felt by those in close contact with him at the time, whether they recognize what’s happening or not.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[Video]
[Ziggy switches on the camera and leans back to assure he’s in frame, waving to his audience]
Hello, there. Isn’t this network just marvelous? Everyone’s so connected and all so open, as well. Good for you, darlings! You seem so lovely. Most of you, at least. Some of you are right wicked, aren’t you?
[ He winks and smirks for those watching.]
I’ve just got to the city. It’s...strange, to put it lightly. I’ve lost a lot of years...it was 1972, last I checked...and I’ve missed some...important things.
[He frowns, suddenly solemn for a moment and distant. Something dark he isn’t saying.]
I’ve got a lot to catch up on, it seems, and a lot of things to get used to. Not even quite sure what to do for a job here, unless there’s someone hiring on entertainers? I need to get out a bit. It’s been hard for me so far, but I can’t be a hermit all my life. There are people to meet, places to see, and a new life to build. I hope to make the most of it, if there’s no turning back.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
It was 2011. After that bit of news, everything else seemed to just fade into a dull hum in the background. Ziggy listened to the short welcome speech the porter droned at him and stared at the brochure, but his mind was elsewhere. It was 2011. He was too late. He had failed, completely and utterly.
He made his way to his new living accommodations in a dull, numb haze; spouting emotionless pleasantries and gratitude to those he passed or who assisted him on some sort of autopilot. When the door finally closed behind him, leaving him alone with his thoughts, he couldn’t even have fully explained how he got there. The new dogtags jingled around his neck, as he dropped down onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. The room was drab, sparse, and sad looking but he hardly noticed. There were far worse things. He was alive, after all, and a whole world --his world-- was dead. All of them, most likely. After so long... He had failed them and abandoned them, even if he hadn’t intended to, and they had no other hope.
Ziggy laid still and silent, locked away in a shell of shock and disbelief, for what could have been minutes or hours. He was in no condition to tell the difference. When the icy surface of that realization finally broke, it shattered horrifically. The long, still silence erupted in a loud, painful, guttural scream. A cry of heartbreak and fury that echoed through the small apartment as the dams gave way and tears and emotion began to flow. He tore off the dog tags and hurled them across the room to clatter against the wall. Lamps and tables were tossed and overturned. Nothing made it better, though. No level of tantrum was going to change what had happened. He tore through the room until he was spent, falling to a sobbing heap on the floor.
That’s when he began to notice it. With his barriers down and his own feelings exposed, spent, and worn around the edges, he began to sense and feel other emotions. Giddiness, anxiety, bitterness, expectant joy... these weren’t what he should be feeling. They didn’t even seem to come from him. He felt he was losing his mind, on top of everything else. He curled up tighter and tried to clear his head, but to no effect. He climbed into his bed, miserable and afraid, and hid beneath the covers, eventually finding sleep.
The bombarding emotional onslaught seemed to be gone when he woke. Perhaps part of his breakdown? When he left the safety of his apartment to see about purchasing food and replacing what he had broken, however, the problem seemed to return. Not as bad or as muddled, but with each person he came close to, there was a surge of some strange and alien feeling. Their feelings, Ziggy eventually determined. It became unbearable when he entered the busy grocery store. So many hearts and minds out of sync and bombarding him at once. It felt very much like losing his mind. He felt sick before he finally managed to check out and hurry back to the safety of his apartment.
He loved people and loved being around humanity as much as possible, but now it seemed like a nightmare. He wondered if he’d ever be able to leave his room again, safely. This was like a hell for him, and only seemed to get worse. He was the last of his kind, now, and cursed to be alone. At least there was a communicator to use. A way to speak to the outside world and to hear back from them. Maybe someone could help or give him some answers...take his mind off all that had gone wrong. Though...he wasn’t sure he could ever even tell anyone what his problems were.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Ziggy does not really mean to be a slut or a jerk, really, he just doesn’t notice either and finds it rude for others to point it out.