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"This is Cecil. I'm not here right now. Or maybe I am, but just hiding from the phone in a desperate attempt to pretend that no one is there.

Either way, feel free to leave me a message here for...well, for whenever. I will be listening."

For

route_29 .

I'll put something nice here when I have the energy to find or make one.

[It's Cecil again. This time, he's sitting in the living room of a sleepy, somewhat bare-looking apartment, small clutches of eggs wrapped in blankets on the floor as Cecil looks on from the sofa.]

Alright. Without mentioning anyone who might want me for reasons I could only begin to speculate on...I found an apartment. Carlos? Carlos, if you're listening to this...call me.

[Ballou's with him on the sofa, so he gives the Meowstic a few ear scritches before continuing.]

For everyone else, I've got eggs! I'm not sure exactly how it happened, as no one in this world knows anything of Pokemon mating rituals, but to be honest? Some questions are better left unasked.

So, if you want goat eggs, or formless specters, or cute little kittens with eyes that stare into the uncertain abyss that is your future, well...you're in luck! I'll admit that it's just a little concerning to send these eggs off to trainers unknown to me or any of my Pokemon, but I trust your judgment. And if I can't, well...my Pokemon are watching. They are always watching.

[OOC: It's another egg post! You can have your character respond to this post, or claim their egg here!]

[The feed opens to Cecil and his Pokemon--a Bronzong, a shiny Froakie, and something with white paws holding the Gear--sitting in a clearing somewhere, a collection of lit candles and interesting-looking rocks arranged in front of them in concentric circles, with two eggs in the center of the makeshift ritual circle.

Those who look may be able, in the quickly advancing dark of twilight, to tell that's a Skiddo egg and a Munna egg. Though that might not be immediately obvious, given that they're also covered in various sigils and runes drawn in what appears to be red permanent marker.

Cecil gazes at them with an intensity great that each of his tawny eyes could inspire fear and awe in even the mightiest of beasts. Then, as the white-pawed Pokemon--a female Meowstic--starts banging on the Bronzong and reveling in its resultant hellish chimes, Cecil chants in a guttural and long-dead language, his volume crescendoing until he's practically howling.

One of the eggs cracks, then another.

They awaken.]

Aaaaw, aren't they just precious?

[See Cecil. See Cecil standing over three clutches of carefully-nested Pokemon eggs, all sorted out and placed onto colorful blankets, as some of his other Pokemon look somewhat unimpressed on a sofa.]

I'll admit, I don't think any of them are particularly rare, but listen: no Pokemon is perfect. It only becomes perfect once you learn to accept it for what it is. And within each of those eggs lies an innocent, wholly new creature, ready to place its affection and trust with you as you inevitably train it to destroy anything and anyone that displeases you!

Ahem.

I tried setting the prices to something I felt was pretty cheap for this first round, but I'll also accept barters: another egg of your choosing, for instance, or canned goods, or even plasma! You should really get yourself an egg.

Especially those three over there.

[He points to a clutch of three dark blue eggs, all sitting on a black fleece blanket.]

Yup. I'd really love to see those go to a new home. I don't know why anyone would ever set them aside!

[He might be uh, pushing a bit hard for those three.

Anyway, the claims post for the eggs is here!}

[There is a man on the feed. He is not tall or short, not thin or fat, and he looks to be somewhere in his thirties, with black geometric tattoos sprawling out from the rolled-up sleeves of his sweater.

He also has just about the worst fashion sense of any man you could ever see, I'll tell you that right now.

More important than any of his other physical attributes, however, are the look of senseless fear upon his face that only years spent huddled in needless isolation can bring, as well as the oaken baritone that escapes his lips when he finally manages to speak:]

...hello? Is anyone here? I don't think this is Night Vale, I...where is this place? And why is there a woman in this house who claims to be my mother, when my real mother had always warned me to beware of any possible mirrors? Also, to beware of just about anything, but oh, you know how parents can be. I miss her so much...

Oh. I almost forgot.

[He puts on a face of stony insularity, and, with a piercing-yet-vacant glare, points at the viewer.]

INTERLOPER!

[His expression returns to normal, and he puts his hands back into the pockets of his furry pants.]

That was the traditional Night Vale greeting to all outsiders...although I suppose in this situation, I'm the interloper? It's so hard to tell when your entire life fades away in an instant, leaving behind nothing but fuzzy memories and the sense that none of it was ever real.

Sorry about that.

On to more pressing concerns.

[He gestures towards the Bronzor near him, which currently looks nothing like a Bronzor. Most of this has to do with the paper shopping bag draped over its body, hastily-cut-out eye holes visible but not helping one bit..]

Uh, does anyone have an idea what this...being eats? It didn't want any of my trail mix, and when I tried feeding it a rice ball and some pickles it just stared at the food blankly, before hovering into this house's bathroom in disappointment and concern. I am afraid that I might have offended it enough to bring a terrible curse upon us all...or at least, have it telepathically assault me, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

Name: Indy
Personal Journal:

butcherpete
E-mail: dizzydances@gmail.com
AIM/Plurk/Etc.:

swirlix
Timezone: US Central oooor GMT -6
Current Characters in Route: ...I don't think I have any

Character
Name: Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Series: Welcome to Night Vale
Timeline: After Episode 56. "Homecoming"
Canon Resource Links: For the canon itself
Cecil's wiki page. I'm not sure if it's been updated recently, so I'll talk about a few more recent canon points in his personality section.

Personality: It's a bit unclear as to how much of the "real" Cecil we can get from canon, since the majority of episodes take place from his point of view. And boy howdy, this guy is one hell of an unreliable narrator.

However, before I go any further, one thing needs to be clear: Night Vale is more or less a police state. Seriously, it's like a somehow even more fucked up Airstrip One. Saying, doing, or endorsing anything that the local government deems dangerous or forbidden is grounds for painful re-education, if you're not outright disappeared or killed. And there's one thing that's obvious about Cecil: he's a boatload of contradictions in a sea of doublethink and cognitive dissonance. Years of conditioning have left a mark on him, and while he does have some inkling that what he's been taught is wrong, fear and doubt keeps him from being an out-and-out rebel.

There are, for all intents and purposes, two sides to Cecil: the Cecil that years of indoctrination and fear have shaped, and the Cecil that exists despite all of this. I'll be covering both in separate sections.

Indoctrinated Cecil:
"He was raised in the Night Vale tradition of silence. And with a belief in the power of hierarchy and bureaucracy."

Cecil's biggest flaw is his complacency: he doesn't like to question the "rules" by which his society functions, and becomes very uncomfortable when he finds others--especially people he cares about--doing so. This is especially horrifying because of the nature of Night Vale itself: human sacrifice, police brutality, and other acts of violence are ingrained in Night Valean culture, and because of his upbringing, Cecil has an extreme aversion to tackling the morality of these things head-on. It could also be that he's conditioned to see them as normal, which, once again, is not a good thing in the least. Cecil is also content to keep power in the hands if a privileged few, and fears the instability brought on by any sort of social change--things that do not bode well if anyone he knows starts sticking their nose into things they shouldn't.

Being this conditioned to accept the way society works would also, likely, extend to any new settings that he finds himself in. Without the City Council or the Sheriff's Secret Police to make the rules, he's likely to find some authority figure to latch onto and regiment his routines for him, and is likely to feel somewhat directionless if given absolute freedom. He's also superstitious as hell, and latches on to folk beliefs in much the same way.

The only time he openly stood up to an authority figure in canon was when they posed a threat to his community and their way of life. And let me tell you, that was one hell of a "better the devil you know" scenario. Without a direct threat like that, it's entirely likely that, should any authority in Route do something questionable, Cecil would keep his head down and avoid asking too many questions, lest he incur whatever wrath they have. And if he does ever criticize anyone, it'd be indirectly.

Night Vale in general is also extremely wary of outsiders (the traditional way to greet an outsider has been to point at them and shout "INTERLOPER!"), and as of recent events in canon, this xenophobia has gotten worse. As a result, while he's extremely unlikely to be hostile to any new CR he gains in this game, one can expect a lot of suspicion from him initially.

"Real" Cecil:
"I sometimes wish I could tell you more, but I cannot. I cannot tell you everything I think you should hear because it is…boring. Or, it is unnecessary. Or it is very necessary, but unapproved."

Despite what Night Vale has done to him, however, Cecil still has a personality that isn't scary dogma or shoutings of "INTERLOPER", and part of that personality is a journalistic curiosity of any happenings he deems interesting or unusual. Upon first arriving in Route, he's going to want to take a look at all the things. Unfortunately, Cecil's sense of self-preservation is practically non-existent, so someone might need to babysit him for a while.

This is a case where nature--Cecil's investigative streak--runs completely counter to nurture--the oppressive government he lives under trying to stamp it out. And at the canon point I'm taking him from, recent events have led to him only starting to question the ideals he was brought up on. However, he's taking baby steps, and isn't completely divorced from the oppressive regime that raised him yet. It's entirely possible that with time in-game and the right CR, he can become more honest with his words and be able to be more critical authority when needed, but that would take a while.

He's also shown courage when push does come to shove, and, while he's not exactly the sort of person who can fight directly, is willing to risk his life to give necessary support to people who can. Once again, I'm going to have to stress that in order for this to occur, his "community" has to be threatened in some way.

Speaking of community: while his workaholism prevents him from socializing much in a lot of cases, Cecil derives a lot of his self-worth from being a part of a community. He feels safest and happiest when with a close-knit group of people who accepts each other, does things together, and helps each other in times of need. As such, he's fiercely protective of and nurturing toward anyone he considers part of his "group", and being around strangers for too long can leave him feeling very adrift until someone gains his trust. His protectiveness also gives him the side effect of the worst vindictive streak you will possibly ever see on a human being: it's shown multiple times in canon that he has no problems getting downright violent with people who threaten the people he loves.

Even in his dorkiest moments (and boy howdy, has he got a lot of them) Cecil is charismatic as fuck. His speech has a hypnotic, lyrical sort of quality to it, and he uses it at pretty much every opportunity he can, often waxing philosphical and lyrical at things that really do not deserve it. He's extremely dramatic that way. He was able to successfully become the voice of Night Vale's resistance movement against Strex in this way, and it's implied that his voice and charisma is a large part of the reason other people--namely his current boyfriend Carlos and friend Earl--find him attractive.

Cecil is also sassy as fuck. Once again, he does tend to be more subtle and at least censor himself a little when directing his sass towards someone he believes can punish him for it, but people he deems equal or inferior to him are not spared in the least from his sass. Actually, this is part of a larger problem of Cecil having absolutely zero brain-to-mouth filter and not knowing when to shut the fuck up--a problem that Cecil flaunts at just about every opportunity he gets.

All of this also makes him a huge hypocrite, but hey, we have all been hypocrites at some point or another in our lives.

STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES:

+ "At night, you can see the red light blinking on and off on top of the radio tower. A tiny flurry of human activity against the impeccable backdrop of stars and void." Cecil's charismatic and an excellent public speaker. It comes with the territory of being a radio host.
+ "A friendly desert community..." Cecil has a wonderful sense of community and civic duty, and is generally always willing to do something if it'll better the greater good.
+"May we always be human--beautiful, stupid, temporal, endless." He can get pretty philosophical a lot of the time, and, despite being conditioned to view even the worst of atrocities as normal, does believe that every person has inherent value. He also offers up (usually good) advice at the end of each episode, so despite him being wrong a good deal of the time, he certainly has the potential to be a good mentor.
+"I had to reach far back into my past and remember the skills that got me my Advanced Siege-Breaking Tactics Scout badge from when I was 12, but…here I am, inside, a few carefully-planted explosives later." He has a number of survival skills that would come in handy on a Pokemon journey, thanks to having been a Boy Scout.

+"And then he looks back at the house, as the man on the radio says that he looks back at the house." Can do remote viewing dealios (implied in canon as to how he knows certain events are going on). This has a chance of failing, and he can't see outside of the range of places he's been before in most cases. Feel free to nerf this as you wish.
+"Well, it’s been several months, and the kittens have just been growing like you wouldn’t believe! They’ve molted twice, and some of them are already getting their grownup kitty spine ridges!" There's nothing much to say here, except that Cecil is a huge smoosh around children, animals, and his boyfriend.
+"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not. We never are. The real question is--are we living a life that is worth the harm?" During the time Strexcorp took over the radio station and the rest of Night Vale, Cecil directly rebelled against authority for what may very well have been the first time in his life, risking his life in the process. If he can process that someone is wrong and doing horrible things, and if that someone poses a threat to whatever he considers his "community", he has absolutely no problem with acknowledging it and helping to take them down.
+"Yours is the best voice of all." Cecil has what is probably the most beautiful and sonorous of baritones to ever grace a set of vocal chords. Seriously. Give it a listen.
+/-"For the first time, I looked out at the faces of my fellow citizens and saw them – not as friends and companions, but as a dangerous combination of suppression and indoctrination." He's already begun, after 50something episodes, to question the willful ignorance that's been a part of his being for his whole life.
+/-"The baristas will be required to return to their caves just on the outskirts of town, near the Sand Wastes, in the Barista District." Cecil's senses of reality and normality are a little bit...divorced from a "normal" person's, and he's come to accept horrible, horrible things such as torture, mass death, and human sacrifice are totally normal. This is good for conditioning him to survive in the hell that is Night Vale, but not so good for most other situations.
+/- "Regret nothing until it is too late. Then regret everything." Cecil has a lot of enthusiasm for his job as a reporter, and as such, is ready and willing to investigate just about any new thing that comes up. However, this is a double-edged sword: it comes with a complete and total lack of self-preservation. Giant vortex appears in your studio? Jump inside! Shape outside of your station vaporize a few of your interns? Continue talking about it and making it angry! Mysterious subway appears in town that no one's returned from? Take a ride on it!
+/- "Ours is a quiet now. No one is speaking but me. If speaking took me any energy, if it were not merely a reflex of my living form, then I, myself, would not be speaking either." This guy does not know when to shut up. He will tl;dr about plenty of things, and often get into territory you wish he hadn't, but the main deal is that he's just so fucking chatty that any silence from him is downright disturbing.

+/-"I don't believe violence is the answer. Violence is a question. The answer is far more terrifying." He does meet the minimum standards of human decency, at least most of the time.
+/- "Why would I say that? Why would I say anything? Words? No, these are just strange noises I'm making with my face!" This guy is full of sass, even when that sass can come back to bite him in the ass.
+/-"I first met him at the wedding. He’s busy, or he says he is. He does always seem to be at the station. Or at least, he used to be." Cecil is one hell of a workaholic in the absence of people who can snap him out of it. He does seem to be becoming more self-aware in this regard, though, since he mentioned in the latest episode that he "needs to get out more".
- "D’awww, listeners, Daniel is blushing! He is very, very red. You have a lot of blood, Daniel!" Cecil often makes thinly-veiled threats against anyone who earns his ire. While it's hard to make it onto his list, his antagonistic and unnecessarily bloodthirsty behavior towards people who do definitely isn't a good thing. In addition to his more violent remarks, Cecil can also be unnecessarily catty to others, and has no problem airing out any dirt he has for them in public: note that a lot of his jerkish remarks were said on the air.
-"NO! NO! STEVE CARLSBERG! WE ARE OUT OF TIME FOR QUESTIONS, GOODBYE!" He's an asshole to his brother-in-law to an unnecessary degree a lot of the time.
-"The government makes no secret that they can control the weather, and earthquakes, and monitor thoughts and activities. That’s the stuff a big government is supposed to do! Obviously, you have never read the Constitution!" While Cecil has shown open rebellion towards authority before, that authority was Strexcorp: an outside corporation unpopular with Night Vale that invaded the town and threatened the local populace. When it comes to the government of Night Vale itself, Cecil is more resistant to seeing them for the oppressive force that they are, and is uncomfortable with the idea of change. It's entirely likely that this would also apply to any other authority Cecil starts getting used to.
-"'She will learn only what she is allowed to learn in schools!' he explains to me regularly, and loudly. 'Don’t poison her with education!'" A large part of Cecil--the part that's still affected by the police state that is Night Vale--is pretty insular and dogmatic to a scary degree. It's only recently that he's begun to get over some of his willful ignorance.

-"I’m sure there is vengeance to be found! I’m sure I will find it! I'm sure; I just have to find the right recipient." Yes, he's protective of the people he cares about. This has the side effect of making him vicious and vindictive as hell towards anyone who threatens them-he's sworn revenge on Strex because they maimed his cat, and tried to murder Kevin when he thought the latter would be a threat to his town.

-"Also, I'm battling Lyme disease." He's not in especially good health due to...well, look at the quote.
-"Drink to forget." Some bits of canon hint at him being borderline alcoholic, including mention in a later episode that he supposes he'll take up "drinking and crying alone in a quiet room".
- "I tell him he looks like a baby boomer mall mom on a cruise vacation." Seriously, this guy's fashion sense is horrendous.
-"People pick at the hummus. They want to be polite." Brings mediocre pita chips and hummus to potluck events

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder although he's not going to be very good at it
Starter: ~~Someone's going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror. Mark my words, chi~~ Bronzor
Password: SPRING ROLLS

Samples
First Person Sample:

...hello? Is anyone here? I don't think this is Night Vale, I...where is this place? And why is there a woman in this house who claims to be my mother, when my real mother had always warned me to beware of any possible mirrors? Also, to beware of just about anything, but ah, you know how parents can be.

Oh. I almost forgot.

[He puts on a face of stony insularity, and, with a piercing-yet-vacant glare, points at the viewer.]

INTERLOPER!

[His expression returns to normal, and he puts his hands back into the pockets of his furry pants.]

That was the traditional Night Vale greeting to all outsiders...although I suppose in this situation, I'm the interloper?

Sorry about that.

On to more pressing concerns.

[He gestures towards the Bronzong near him, which currently looks nothing like a Bronzong. Most of this has to do with the paper shopping bag draped over its body.]

Uh, does anyone have an idea what this...being eats? It didn't want any of my trail mix, and when I tried feeding it a rice ball and some pickles it just stared at the food blankly, before hovering into this house's bathroom in disappointment and concern. I am afraid that I might have offended it enough to bring a terrible curse upon ...or at least, have it telepathically assault me, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

Third Person Sample:

Someone's going to kill you one day, Cecil, and it will involve a mirror. Mark my words, child.

Okay, so those were never exactly words Cecil wanted to hear in his life, but there was no undoing prophecy, especially when the prophet in question happened to be your own late mother. And besides, he'd made adjustments. No mirrors in the house. Covered up all the mirrors in his workplace. Have everyone else in the world learn to adapt to his....well, haphazard driving skills, especially in the wake of all the traffic signs in town being switched to Braille. It was fine. Everything was fine.

But now he was standing face-to-face with this creature, whatever it happened to be. The impostor in the living room who claimed to be his mother (and he'd doubted her from the start; his mother was dead) said they were going to be friends. And while he'd been wrong about many things before, this...Pokemon, they said it was? Looked awfully... mirror-y. It even made a clinking noise when it hovered around, which also suggested that it just might be some new type of lizard or something, but really, Cecil didn't want to take any chances. Nope. Not at all.

He reached out to touch the Bronzor--with his hand stuck in a pillowcase, of course--before confirming that it was, indeed, real.

Nope.

Not dealing with this.

Or at least, he didn't want to deal with it. Not at first. But the more he turned away from the Bronzor, the more it hovered closer, trying to attract its attention. It was, if Cecil was being totally honest with himself, terrifying. And maybe a little cute.

Okay, he supposed he couldn't exactly fault the poor mirror-creature for being...well, a mirror.

Five minutes and the acquisition of a paper grocery bag later, he'd found the solution to his problem. Sure, the Bronzor looked utterly ridiculous with a bag over its body and lopsided eye-holes cut out, but that was still a lot better than dying.

Okay.

Crisis averted.

For now.

OOC Information:
Name: Whatever handle you go by.
Are you over 15? If not, sorry but stop here.
Contact: Should we feel the need to contact you privately, what is your preferred method?
Current characters in the game: Include preincarnation's name and canon, or none if applicable - please do NOT delete this section entirely!

IC Information:
Name: Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Past self) | Kevin Bauldino Palmer (Reincarnation)
Canon and Medium: Welcome to Night Vale (Podcast)
Age: No major differences, both are around 36-37
Preincarnation Species: Never outright stated in canon, but implied to be human
Preincarnation Appearance: A concise description or link to an image will do.
Any Differences: His reincarnated self isn't nearly as inked as his former self, although there's still some geometric designs on his upper arms. He also lacks the scarring present in his former self, but otherwise, they're pretty similar.
Starting Location: Las Vegas!
Preincarnated History: What happened to your character in their canon? You don't need to explain the entire series to us, just the relevant parts in regards to the character's development, and some context to make sure it makes sense. Headcanon should be written in italics.

If you prefer you may write a bare-bones history and post a link to a wiki or resource that covers more details. If the character is an original character, please outline the world they live in as well.

Reincarnated History:

ALSO HERE IS HIS FAMILY:

Raised by a single mother who I now dub Josephine Palmer, now dead
Twin sister: Pamela Mitchell (nee Palmer)
Niece who is around Janet's age but slightly older: Trish Mitchell
6-year-old adopted daughter (niece by blood): Janet Palmer
College-age younger half-sister/Janet's birthmom: Vanessa Palmer

No one really lives with him as of this moment other than Janet.

First Echo: ACTUALLY THIS IS THE REASON I PICKED LAS VEGAS FOR CECIL'S ECHO POINT AND NOT THE OTHER CITY. Night Vale was a desert town. He doesn't know everything yet, but he gets the feeling that he's somewhere that is home, particularly on desert nights, and

Preincarnation Personality: What sort of person were they in their past life? Headcanon should be clearly marked in italics. This section is important, as it helps us gauge your grasp on the character, so spare no expense here.

Any Differences: You are encouraged to deviate from the original personality in three or four major ways, made to make their personality logical to the setting and their new history (which, by default, varies from their original life). If the personality does not differentiate significantly, or if the differences do not make sense given the rest of your app, revisions may be asked for.

Abilities: What abilities did your character's preincarnation have? To what extent were they used? Include any equipment they had access to and any skills they had. Headcanon should be indicated in italics, as before. You may write a brief synopsis and link to a more detailed resource if you wish. Favor conciseness here, and try to limit (or else otherwise elaborate upon) canon terminology to avoid confusion.

Roleplay Sample - Third Person: Some form of extended, third-person prose exhibiting strong voice and key behaviors of your character. If the voice is weak or the characterization appears to be off, revisions may be asked for.

Roleplay Sample - Network: Same as above, but in network-style format, using text, video, audio, etc. This MUST be on the network.
*Note: One of the samples (of your choice) must be done from the perspective of the reincarnated character, set within the game. Samples from the test drive community may be used for this purpose.

Any Questions? If you need to clear up any lingering questions or concerns, here's the place to do it.

[The following was made the week after Homura and Ike's deaths, after the music room was unlocked.

It is recorded on a self-erasing cassette, sorry.]

Hope's Peak? Am I doing this right?

This is Cecil. Um...Cecil Gershwin Palmer. If you are listening, then I am most likely already dead. I do not know if more will die after me, or if I will be the last, but as of this recording, Tran, Miriam, Saki, Hanaekoma, Homura, and Ike have all fallen to the terrible trap laid to us by Monobear.

First off: there will be a watch on my desk. I was going to let Homura have it before her death; you can decide amongst yourselves now who gets it. It was a gift from my Carlos.

I'm sorry, for so much.

There were times when I thought about murdering one of you. There were times when I thought about murdering so many of you, and about how easy it would be for some, and for others, how uneasy I would make myself.

...only, I never would do that. I would never willingly let myself become a part of the headmaster's game; I would never take what chance another human being--or, well, any other sapient person--had to survive when we all had so much at stake.

You are all so, so beautiful, and I am glad. Glad that, out of all the infinite accidents in the universe, you were still able to exist.

Is that not beautiful, Hope's Peak? To know that you were deemed worthy of existence? That you have survived everything up until this point?

...

I will keep this short. I can't say whether any of you will ever find my boyfriend Carlos, or my niece Janice, or Tamika Flynn, or anyone else in Night Vale. I can't say, even, if any of you will do me the honor of watching Strex burn.

But there is someone out there who is still, possibly, within your grasp.

There is a woman. She is not in Night Vale, or even the desert that cradles our little town, or the forbidden dog park where only hooded figures and their attendant staticky hums lurk.

She is somewhere else, wandering the desolate roads and rocky wastelands, leading a masked army of giants, with her only connection to Night Vale a phone that, even after all these months, is still working. She is young, but in her travels she has grown and accumulated wisdom as vast and unknowable as the distant cliffs of the universe.

If any of you ever meet my former intern Dana Cardinal--and she is somewhere in this dense yet fragile web of universes--tell her what happened. Tell her that I am sorry that I couldn't escape, and that I hope everyone--after destroying Strex and escaping this wretched murder-hive of a school, of course--can live their lives unchained and unafraid for as long as they can. Perhaps, even...that I hope Carlos can still find someone else to live his life with, if he has not lost hope.

Tell her, too, that she has always been important.

I have no doubts that more of us will die. That more of us will fall into despair and desperation and drive ourselves to murder. But hear this: we are all slowly dying. We are all impermanent, and everything the headmaster does is just an unnecessary reminder of the fact.

So, use that impermanence well.

And, well.

Goodbye, everyone.

Goodbye.

On the desk:

An empty coffee cup. A large spider has built its web on the interior and taken to living here since Cecil's death, and rooting around the inside will reveal an egg sac.
A watch. It's not a particularly expensive or distinctive watch, with a worn leather band, but it's crafted well enough and the timepiece still works.
A very nice-looking card decorated with a black ribbon, some glitter, and a bird skeleton. If you hold it to your ear, you can hear a distant weeping. Inside a child has written "I love you, uncle Cecil! --Janice" in messy handwriting.
A stack of papers all written in Navajo. It appears to be a list of all the students and their various threat levels, or Cecil's other opinions on them. Some things have been circled or annotated, but it's mostly indecipherable apart from names. Another stack, also in Navajo, appears to be a journal of sorts from the dates that make up the header on each page.
An envelope from the regret motive. Inside is a picture of a paddle, like the kind used in auctions. The back of the picture has the text "LOT #37" scrawled on it in handwriting no one here recognizes.
A Showa Radio that looks like it was obtained from the Monomono machine, mostly because it was
A slip of paper containing his secret.
The DVD from the second motive.

On the bed:

A self-erasing cassette underneath the pillow.
The bed is unkempt and unmade
Some tumbleweeds on the floor
Some books at the foot of the bed. One of them is a book of photos of mesas and desert flowers and animals from the Sonoran Desert; others are on various subjects, mostly involving angels, dream interpretation or various poisons. All of the books are written in either English or Spanish.

In the trash:

A picture of a smiling, eyeless woman in blood-spattered clothing is crumpled up at the top. The portrait is riddled with arrow holes.
A crumpled-up piece of paper with only the words "BELIEVE IN A SMILING GOD"
An entire bottle of brandy drained of its contents and tossed carelessly in the trash. No, it doesn't smell of almonds. It doesn't smell of anything except brandy and possibly loneliness and suffering.

On the walls (note that this was before the property damage rule):

Large pictures of Carlos and Janice pinned near Cecil's bed, along with pictures of some floating cats (complete with spinal ridges and tendril hubs). Notably, the picture of Carlos has his name on it, surrounded by several hearts.
Sketches of various landmarks around Night Vale--the Whispering Forest, the Brownstone Spire, the Lights above the Arby's, etc.
Some badly-drawn sketches of mutated deer and a single sketch of an angel--black wings, many eyes, elongated and terrible body--surrounding the pictures of Carlos and Janice
Bright pink runes, smeared in some places but otherwise with excellent detailing, at the head of Cecil's bed.

Let's not dwell on our corpse-strewn past. Let's celebrate our corpse-strewn future!

Keepers

029 - Leaf Fundoshi
A fundoshi which emphasizes one’s manliness. Its design is simple, with a single leaf drawn on white cloth.

057 - Showa Radio
A classic-style radio, with a retro appearance but state-of-the-art technology on the inside. However, you can’t listen to radio broadcasts in the school. (Given to him by Naomi)

Scarab Brooch

Consumed/Destroyed/Given Away

003 - Luwak Coffee
Made from coffee beans taken from the feces of the Indian Civet. It has a unique fragrance, and is one of the most rare and expensive in the world. (Consumed; sorry anyone that wanted half-decent coffee processed through a small mammal's butthole)

REGAIN: Pair of dolls
A completely ordinary pair of dolls, one in a green dress with red hair, and one in a blue dress with a light blonde hair and a crown. (Given to Anna)

002 - Cola-Cola
A carbonated drink that combines strong stimulation with sickly sweetness. Its ability to be combined with junk food is ironclad. (Consumed)

75% Of a box of Thin Mints

Up for Grabs

024 - Gloves of Tomorrow
Boxing gloves ingrained with much effort and passion. When you wear them, you will want to make cross-counters.

053 - Berserker Armor
Armor that grants its wearer power like that of a berserker. As compensation, it erodes the wearer’s life force.

023 - War God Talisman
A charm with the letters of Kashima-Daimyoujin, a god of military arts, written on it.

045 - Endless Dandelion
A toy dandelion. It’s fun to blo~w the seeds away. The flying seeds have a thin thread still connecting them, so you can wind them back up and have as much fun as you want.

055 - Silent Caller Phone
A mysterious telephone where you can’t hear the voice of the person on the other end of the line. The other person can’t hear what you’re saying, either.

004 - Rose-Hip Tea
An herbal tea said to be good for one’s complexion. Has a somewhat elegant feeling.

25% of a box of Thin Mints

017 - Eternal Friendship Bracelet
A handmade bracelet made by weaving several threads together. They say that if you create one once, you can never cut it again.

078 - Oblaat
A thin, easily-dissolvable film made from starch. It’s useful for when you need to swallow a bitter pill, or to speak badly of someone.

035 - Hand Bra
A brassiere made to look as if they’re completely covered by a pair of hands. As stated by the tag line, “The left and right hands are for support only”, wearing it gives a new sensation.

050 - Muramasa
The ultimate weapon handed down throughout the world, with which one can enter dungeons, warp through walls and reduce everything to ash. But it’s from a different world so there’s no meaning to the thing.

HIDDEN (stashed away in various hiding places in his room; your character will not know about them unless he tells you in a thread or they break in)

054 - Self-Erasing Cassette Tape
When you record sound on this, a chemical reaction occurs after playback and erases the playback mechanism.

048 - Rose Whip
A whip made with real roses. Even beautiful roses have thorns.

Index of random Cecil quotes, I guess.

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Player Name: Indy
Player Journal:

butcherpete
Age: 22
Contact:

indigodagger on Twitter,

swirlix on Plurk!
Characters Played: Gwen Madder

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Canon: Welcome to Night Vale (Original), Dangan Roleplay (CRAU)
OU/AU/OC: AU
Canon Point: Post episode 50 (the finale of "Old Oak Doors" +   post-execution in Dangan Roleplay
History: Has a wiki page!

After the events of "Parade Day", Cecil was yanked by mysterious forces outside of his own space and time to participate in a School Life of Mutual Killing before being placed (by angels or Facebook or something) post-execution back into Night Vale (for Company Picnic up to Old Oak Doors, which are all in that wiki.)

While in Hope's Peak, he tried to keep the group's morale up and guide the younger students. It didn't work too well, but hey.

Notable CR here includes Akemi Homura and Princess Cynthia of Ylisse, two girls that Cecil was a weird uncle figure to, as well as friends Simon Petrikov, Betty Grof, Himeko Inaba and Augustine Sycamore. There was also Lysandre, a man from the same world and region as Professor Sycamore, with whom Cecil worked with respectfully if somewhat distantly to try to work against Monobear.

There was also Hanbei, who Cecil thought was mostly okay UNTIL  CASE FIVE WHICH I WILL GET TO BECAUSE HANBEI YOU JERK

Things finally came to a head during the sixth week's lockdown, where Monobear tried motivating people to kill via starvation and sleep deprivation. Cecil told Hanbei Takenaka, terminally ill historical figure and one of his fellow classmates, about the events of Parade Day. Unbeknownst to Cecil, Hanbei decided to save him. He obtained a feather from Lysandre's Honchkrow to use as a  (very sloppy) framejob, and built a bomb that would be activated by Cecil stepping on a tripwire.

After receiving an invitation to the Physics Lab one morning, Cecil accidentally stepped on the tripwire, setting off the bomb that killed Hanbei. In a fit of panic, adrenaline, desperation and denial, he disposed of what evidence he could and decided he would try to graduate. It was at the trial when he realized that he couldn't live with himself if he graduated, and confessed to hiding the evidence.

Apparently, accidental killing still counted as murder, though, and Cecil was executed by Monobear by being strangled with a microphone cord. He died with a whole lot of rage in his heart and finally snapped before heading off to his death, delivering a speech about how everything Monobear did would be ultimately pointless and how he would exact whatever revenge he could beyond the grave.

He died, but he was brought back to Night Vale to be tormented by the Company Picnic and help rally the uprising against Strexcorp (his latest OU canon point).

Personality: Cecil's highly personable and extroverted. However, one of his glaring flaws is that he is absolutely unable to shut up. As Strex grows more oppressive, he becomes increasingly vocal against them to the point of death threats. This ends up with a lot of unintended consequences.

There are times when, given his tone of voice, he seems to not really be entirely okay with some of the death and destruction wrought upon the town by the government, but he realizes that outright saying he disapproves would get him fired and reeducated (tortured) at best and detained indefinitely (while still being tortured) at worst. On the times he does slip up and say something he's not supposed to (usually out of ignorance that it's taboo), he stops immediately after being reprimanded and "corrects" his previous statements. This happens a lot, given Cecil's curiosity and journalistic enthusiasm.

Somewhat odd for a guy who grew up in a police state, though, is the fact that Cecil has no filter when it comes to anything else in his life. He calls one guy (a white dude who wears a cartoonishly inaccurate plastic Native American headdress and calls himself the "Apache Tracker") a racist and culturally appropriative "asshole" on air whenever he has to mention him, which is actually pretty extreme since Cecil almost never swears otherwise. There's also STEVE CARLSBERG, who Cecil hates for...some reason or another, and who also gets called a jerk at every opportunity. Oh, and one time Cecil talked about how he had the hots for a five-headed dragon.

Oh, and Carlos, his love interest. Beautiful, perfect, magnificent Carlos. Cecil can hardly shut up about the guy like, ever. He's waxed lyrical about the guy's hair too many times to count, talked at length about their first date, and brought up his annoying habits after they became an item RIGHT ON THE FUCKING AIR CECIL HAVE YOU NO TACT

Either way, when it comes to people who cross the fucking line in terms of oppression or whom he just doesn't like, Cecil has no qualms about saying what's on his mind. In terms of relationships he can even come across as a bit needy, although Carlos is married to his job as a scientist so it's difficult to pin down how much Cecil is in the right when he complains that Carlos puts science first too often.

It's also shown that Cecil is a little bit less eloquent when he's off-air, since he's been revealed to talk in a typical valley girl manner from time to time ("And I was like: ummm, okay?") and, when beautiful, perfect Carlos tells him about some interesting science, all he can say when he'd rather be suave is "NEAT!"

He also seems to be easily annoyed and irritated, getting grumpy at the mere mention of someone he hates and being prone to minor road rage (Quote from episode 27: "First Date": "A woman ran at our car, screaming, a few of the shadow people chasing her, but before I could even touch the brake, she must have changed her mind because she had already turned into a shadow person herself. It’s like, ugh, run from the shadow people or become one. Make up your mind, lady!")

For the most part, Cecil is fairly good at feigning calm so that you don't know whether he's acting or is generally apathetic. The one exception to this ambiguity seems to be the interns, where he doesn't seem to care much about their well-being (with one exception, I'll get to that later). Hell, in one episode he even says: "to the parents of Intern Jesus, well, you know, the usual. Sorry, I'm just distracted."

He is, however, not immune to freaking the fuck out when the situation calls for it--and when you find Cecil freaking out, you know shit's about to go down. Currently, over 33 episodes we have these displays of distress:

His panic when he invokes the wratch of Station Management, a Lovecraftian creature that cannot be perceived by mortals and communicates by letters slid under the door to its office
His sheer terror at Street Cleaning Day, which apparently involves some sort of bloodbath where you have to RUN, RUN, FORGET YOUR CHILDREN AND LEAVE BEHIND THE WEAK if you ever want to survive.
Similar terror when he finds himself transported to the Desert Bluffs radio studio, which is where Kevin, implied to be Cecil's doppelganger, broadcasts. While Cecil's studio is more or less a normal studio, Kevin's is made entirely out of gore and viscera.
When Carlos is wounded by a subterranean race of tiny people living in the pin retrieval area of Lane 5 of the town's bowling alley, he's assumed dead. Before Cecil receives the news that Carlos survived, he's sobbing.
The fear and unease he expresses when the radio station is bought by Strexcorp.
His anger and denial when he finds a cassette of himself at age 15 that apparently has a recording of him dying, complete with crushing it to tiny bits.

Cecil is quite attached to his hometown despite the constant surveillance and horror, because hey, it's home. He has an overwhelming desire to protect it from outsiders and see the general population happy, even if he doesn't really care about the majority of townspeople as individuals, and freaks out when an outside Strexcorp buys the radio station from the eldritch abominations that are NVCR Station Management. In fact, the Strexcorp takeover seems to have sucked the life right out of Cecil (metaphorically, not literally), since he sounds rather depressed after the Strex takeover.

Sure, he's a radio host for a propaganda-laden show in a hellish Orwellian Pandora's Box, but he is, ultimately, still human.

Strengths: Popular fanon is that Cecil is clairvoyant/has remote viewing abilities to some extent, being able to see what other people are doing as it's happening. Also, astral projection is confirmed in canon to be something a lot of Night Vale residents can do, since in one early episode Cecil informs the public of new school regulations that require teachers to be physically present in the classroom during lessons, rather than teaching through astral projection. This theory also has the endorsement of Cecil's voice actor, Cecil Baldwin (yeah, I know, they have the same first name), so it's the one I'll use.

Feel free to nerf this/place whatever restrictions you want, although I'm not sure how that applies to remote viewing.

Additionally, Cecil has a beautiful, deep, rich, smooth, sonorous voice that's downright addictive. No, seriously, it's lovely. (VA Cecil Baldwin uses the exact same voice for the actual podcast as well, and in interviews, since it's basically his natural voice.)

I'm pretty sure that this isn't an actual power, though, and just the way his voice naturally is.

He's also obviously pretty good with public speaking, being a radio show host.

Weaknesses: Lots of this section has to do with the fact that Night Vale is more or less a police state. Obviously, this has done a number on his personality.

Cecil's inability to shut up has also been covered.

As an actual, non-personality related weakness, here's one: Mirrors. When he was a child, his mother warned him that someone was going to kill him, and that his death would involve a mirror. And when he was 15, he was attacked by a flickering something when looking into a mirror--an event that he has no memory of as an adult. He probably doesn't have any mirrors in his house, and keeps all of the ones in his workplace covered, so any uncovered mirrors are going to be a source of great tension for him.

He also reacts badly to doppelgangers for pretty much the same reason. And by extension, Cecil has terrible fashion sense and probably looks a bit scruffy much of the time, just because he can't check his own reflection.

He also has little to no sense of self-preservation other than the mirror thing (for himself OR most other people), often going into dangerous situations such as mysterious vortexes or people-eating subways, or sending his interns out to investigate things that always lead to their deaths.

Cecil also claims in episode 3 to be battling Lyme disease, although we never hear about this aspect of him after that episode. Still, I'm putting it here for posterity.

But Cecil's biggest weakness is probably that he doesn't believe mountains exist.

Possessions: He doesn't have anything particularly fancy or powerful, buuuut:

Khoshekth the cat! This time with an eyepatch that makes him totally badass.
His note from Homura.
A pair of slippers that have rollerskate wheels attached to them
A fundoshi with a simple leaf pattern
The clothes on his back (furry pants and the watch he had from Carlos)

Pony/Animal Type: Unicorn Pony! Night Vale is a town that's all about the supernatural and weird, so something inherently magical would suit him.
Cutie Mark: A silhouette of a microphone overlapping a luminous full moon
Pony Picture:

SAMPLES
First Person:
[AUDIO]
[That voice. What is that sonorous voice?!]

...Friday the PTA will be having a bake sale at Night Vale Elementary. Parents and teachers who wish to participate should clearly label their treats if they contain any common allergens, such as: peanuts, soy, ennui, gunpowder, reactor-grade plutonium, aaaaaaand insects. And as always, remember that wheat and wheat byproducts are permanently banned, and anyone caught selling this scourge, this affront to our little town, will be reported to the Sheriff's Secret Police for indefinite detention.

And finally, to make up for last week's scheduled temporal paradox, the City Council has booked two Saturdays in a row.

...

Here's something odd. I am trapped, dear listeners, in a meadow overlooking a town, full of houses, houses with thatched roofs and quaint stone walls, white as the blistering sun. And instead of a microphone or a recording device all I have is this scroll of blank paper, which I am speaking to out of confusion or fear or a lack of anything else to speak to-

[A pause. The voice becomes even more unsure and disturbed as it moves on, but still not crossing the line into fear.]

...I'm not even sure if this is Night Vale. There are certainly more trees than Night Vale--apart, of course, from the Whispering Forest--and I see some grass and even a stream in the distance.

I am reaching right now to touch the grass, and I have confirmed that it is, in fact, real, and probably not another one of our city-wide shared dreams. And-wow. Are those hooves? Are these my hooves?

Listeners, if you can hear me, I need you to contact the Sheriff's Secret Police. Drop whatever you're doing, because we have to track down and arrest whatever wretch has been dreaming about horses. Or, if this is not a dream, been transmogrifying innocent Night Valeans into horses without their prior consent! Because that is rude, pure and simple.

But until I can find a way home, listeners, until I can pierce the question of why I have assumed this new, equestrian, and wholly uncomfortable form, I bring you:

The Weather.

Third Person:

It had been about a week since Cecil made his arrive into Equestria, and if he was being really honest, things were too quiet. Sure, the forest had that population of cockatrices that he could go bother if he was looking for a taste of just what might have happened if this was Night Vale, but really, there was no place like home.

Still, with no hope of return, the best he could do was get used to it.

Everyone Cecil asked said that if he wanted to learn more about Equestria, he could probably start at the library.

...the library. Cecil had dreaded to hear those words, to remember the dreadful numbers reported of Night Valeans who suffered from librarian maulings each year, the deadly punishments the librarians metered out for overdue books. The piercing eyes and lolling tongues of their wretched kind...allegedly.

He had seen twelve-year-old Tamika Flynn liberate the town's children from the Summer Reading Program in his mind's eye that day, after all, her left hand crinkling a blood-spattered sticker chart. Tamika had been made of stronger stuff than he ever could be, because while Cecil could load and fire a rifle just like they'd taught in elementary school, he still wasn't sure that that alone could ward off a vicious pack of librarians.

And doing any marksmanship in his current, unicorn form was simply out of the question. How was he going to face the librarian here if she proved to be like all the rest? He could run, but he couldn't run forever.

The library door cracked open. Cecil could not see who was inside, not in the darkness of night, and not when he didn't receive an answer in the requisite .08 nanoseconds it took to determine if a library was safe.

So, like any sensible Night Valean would do, he turned tail and fled, off into the horizon of the night sky that was filled, as always, with stars and void.

"I WILL NOT BECOME A STATISTIC!"