character name: Aaron Stampler/Roy
Fandom: Primal Fear (Movie Verse)
Timeline: Post-movie. As in, that night in jail would be his last in Chicago.
Character's age: 19
powers, skills, pets and equipment: Powers - none, Pets - None, Equipment - None, Skills - He is incredibly intelligent and manipulative. Non-Canon Powers - The ability to affect and perceive the emotions of those he is interacting with. [Of course with this a Permissions Post and OOC discussion before any use of this power would be used.]
canon history:
[Note: While I’m playing him from the movie, I am using both the information from the novel and movie for his past, as the movie does not provide a lot of insight into his past. In places where there is discrepancy, I am following the movie’s canon and where there are blanks I’m filling them in! Also, I haven’t been able to find if his birth name is Roy or Aaron so I’m going with Roy seeing as Aaron isn’t even real.]
Where to start. I guess the first thing I should mention is that Aaron Stampler as we know him from the movie does not really exist. So to start at the beginning, we will need to discuss the past of a boy named, Roy. Roy grew up in the small mining town of Crikside, Kentucky. His mother was essentially non-existent in his life as she died before he was old enough to have formed any lasting relationship with her. His father was abusive as hell, subjecting Roy to physical, emotional and even sexual abuse. The abuse didn’t stop with his father, unfortunately. When he was 14 he lost his virginity to his school teacher, who was considerably older than him. It was during his childhood that Roy began developing and perfecting the personality of Aaron Stampler.
At the age of 16, Roy ran away to Chicago and completely adopted the identity of Aaron Stampler, a shy boy with a stammer who believed the best in people and was as selfless as they come. His first few months in the city he was homeless, until Archbishop Richard Rushman, a powerful figure in the city, took him in and gave him a home. Rushman immediately took a liking to Aaron and made him head of the altar boys and a featured soprano in the church’s choir. What went on behind the scenes, wasn’t so pleasant. The abuse that Aaron had grown up with all his life continued and he was forced into making sex tapes for Rushman with the other altar boys and a girl named Linda, who Aaron (not Roy) considered to be his girlfriend. While Aaron chose to ignore it, Roy was aware that Linda was sleeping around on him.
Three years later, Roy killed Linda. Everyone who knew her had assumed that she had gone away and the matter was not looked into any further. Not too long after this, Roy couldn’t take any more of Rushman’s abuse and murdered the man. It was an incredibly violent and gruesome murder. He stabbed Rushman 78 times in the groin and chest and face, gouging out his eyes, cutting off his fingers and carving the code B32.156 into the archbishop’s chest (The code B34.156 was found to be the code on the book The Scarlett Letter in the archbishop’s private library. In the novel, the following passage was underlined:
No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true..)
After the murder, Roy became Aaron and fled from the crime scene where he was intercepted and arrested by police.
He became coined The Butcher Boy for the brutal murder.
At this point, Martin Vail, the best defence attorney in the city, decided to take Aaron’s case because of all the publicity it would generate. With Aaron’s stammer, boy scout looks and honest expression, Martin firmly believed that the boy was innocent. Aaron’s account of the murder included him being there beforehand to take out a book and seeing a third person in the shadows crouching over the Bishop. He then blacked out, or ‘lost the time’ as he refers to it, and woke up covered in blood.
Vail decided to hire a psychologist to assess the possible reasons for Aaron’s amnesia and eventually it was unveiled that Aaron had Dissociative Identity Disorder (though at the time of the movie it was still referred to as Multiple Personality Disorder) and that it was his alternate identity that murdered the archbishop. His alternate identity was a man by the name of Roy. In the book it was uncovered that Roy had been murdering since Aaron was five. While this was not stated in the movie, I am choosing to include this into Aaron’s history.
Unfortunately, by the time this discovery was made, Aaron’s plea was not guilty and it was too late to change his plea to one of insanity so Vail had to find another way to introduce Aaron’s condition to the court or he would be sent to death row. Just prior to Aaron’s condition being discovered, Vail managed to locate another one of the altar boys who revealed that Rushman had been making pornographic tapes that involved Aaron. When Vail brought the sex tapes up with Aaron, the boy become so overwhelmed that his secondary personality, Roy, came out.
After seeing Roy, Vail decided that the only way to get the court to see Aaron as insane rather than guilty was for Roy to come out during the trial, so he put Aaron on the stand as a witness. While questioning him, Vail continued to goad Aaron quietly, trying to force Roy out. It didn’t work for Vail. However, during the cross examination, the prosecutor was completely ruthless with Aaron and Roy ended up coming out and attacking the woman and holding her tightly around the neck in front of the entire court.
There was no doubt that Aaron was insane and he was let off and it was decided that he would be sent to a hospital to receive the help he needed. After Vail told this to Aaron, Aaron mentioned that he was sorry about the prosecutor’s neck and hoped it would be all right. It was at this point that Vail realized something was wrong. Aaron wasn’t supposed to remember what Roy did and he shouldn’t have known about the attack.
He confronted Aaron, who dropped the ruse, taunting Vail and revealing that it was him all along. He then admitted to murdering Linda (“the little cunt had it coming”) slipping seamlessly into Aaron’s voice in a mockery of Vail’s affection for the boy. He then admitted to murdering the Archbishop (“it was a fucking work of art.”) as well. Vail, shocked and feeling betrayed, concluded that there was never a Roy and Roy corrected him, stating, “There was never an Aaron.”
personality:
Aaron (Note: This is Aaron’s personality as conceived by Roy.)
Aaron is the most unobtrusive, polite, unthreatening person you could ever meet. Seriously. He’s dumber than a sack of bricks and more kind than Mother Theresa. This is a boy that would apologize if you stepped on his toe or burn all his possessions if you were cold and that was the only way to provide heat. This is a boy that has been abused his entire life and makes excuses to defend the people who abuse him because he’s too naive to even consider that there are malicious people out there who would want to hurt him. Or anyone for that matter. He has a definite stutter and it tends to surface the most when he’s nervous or when he’s talking about something that is ‘too smart’ for him.
Though it isn’t something he shows, Aaron oftentimes feels in over his head in situations. He isn’t able to take care of himself very well and often relies on others to help and guide him. When someone steps in to take this role as ‘protector’ he feels indebted to them and repays them with his loyalty. It isn’t a conscious decision (“Hey, you were nice to me so I’ve got your back!”) it’s more that he trusts them and is loyal to them out of blind faith. Their kindness to him convinces him that they could never do something bad and that they are a good person to stand by. He will believe anything they tell him because he always sees the absolute best in people and turns a blind eye to the worst, instead choosing to believe the person’s justifications for their bad actions as truth.
Aaron does not take criticism or anger well. When hard and raw emotions of a hurtful nature are directed at him he closes off and becomes frightened and overwhelmed. Oftentimes this is when Aaron will retreat and his alternate personality Roy will come forward to protect him. Roy, as an extension of Aaron’s psyche, is someone who is incredibly protective while also being quite charismatic. He’s not a mean person, but he is almost always called forward in situations where Aaron is feeling threatened and as such, Roy has no choice but to be hard and angry and defensive. He’s definitely violent and from the way he speaks, it’s safe to assume that he is an extension of Aaron’s abusive father in some regards. He is intelligent and as much as he protects Aaron, he also is the first person to put the boy down, mocking his stutter and commenting on his stupidity. He is constantly telling Aaron what to do and how to do it and blaming Aaron for the bad situations they get into. In some respects, Roy is also a personification of Aaron’s self-loathing for not being able to protect himself.
The Real Roy
It is time to discuss the real Roy! The Roy that created Aaron as a way of protecting himself from suspicion for the horrible things he’s done. The Roy that stabbed a man 78 times in the chest and genitals, carved out his eyes, and cut off his fingers. The Roy that refers to that murder as a work of art.
Long story short, he is a textbook sociopath.
Roy, when he isn’t being Aaron or even Roy the alternate personality, is a cruel person with a twisted sense of humour and no moral compass. His voice is much more high pitched than his other two counterparts and he sounds almost frenzied when he speaks. The true Roy is someone that will kill anyone who crosses Aaron (and by association himself). Most people however, will only see Roy in ‘alternate personality’ form because that is about as close to his true self as he ever gets. He knows that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and disguises the vinegar as honey to achieve his goals. This means that to anyone ‘lucky’ enough to meet the real Roy, he will seem like a very nice, polite, and confident boy. He is quite charming and the type of person that people are drawn to because he is so assured of himself. He’s incredibly intelligent and is easy to relate to. Despite the history of abuse, he comes off as a productive and useful member of society.
When he gets angry, Roy has no problem using force and intimidation to make sure he gets his way. He also isn’t above threats. Though, it should be noted that Roy’s threats are rarely empty and if pushed, he will act on them. Once he has settled, Roy is the type of person that will make sure to make amends and pull out his charm to ensure that the person knows he was acting as he had to. This shouldn’t be taken as guilt. Roy has no concept of guilt and has never and will never experience the emotion. He is completely about himself and holds little regard for other people’s feelings and lives.