My Little Jamjar App

[nvcr]

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!"