#pluto-has-rights

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Danni

Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers

Age: 16

Timezone: EST

Anything about yourself: I’m cooler than Jay. Not cooler than Geta though, who is my bae.

Skype: -removed-

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION

Character’s Name: Oswald Konig

Age and birthday: 25, March 10th

Occupation: 1st year law school student, intern, currently looking for a part-time job.

Location: Reveille, in a spacious apartment that his father bought after the bursting of a housing bubble. He’s always lived there, and he takes the bus to law school every morning.   

Nationality: ½ German, ¼ French, ¼ Chinese

Three (or more) positive traits and 4-8 sentences of explanation:

Observant – Oswald’s curious. He observes the world carefully. When he finds something he doesn’t understand—something inexplicable and interesting—he has to get to the bottom of it. As Oswald has always been observant, he has yet to encounter anything (or anyone) that’s permanently stumped him.

Righteous – Oswald is interested in doing what is right. He’s always been taught (and always believed) that doing the right thing isn’t always going with the easy way out. This trait extends beyond himself. He wants the world to do what is right: to follow laws, to vote in local elections, and to do it for moral reasons rather than social obligation. This is the part of what draws him to criminal justice. (Which is rather funny, as this requires him to defend the guilty as well as the innocent. Still, Oswald believes in the right to a fair trial, no matter who it is.)

Perspicacious – As he’s observant, Oswald can’t help but be clear-sighted. He sees things very clearly, and knows how the little pieces fit into a bigger picture. He believes that there is a greater good, and that we’re all bound by humanity to obey it. Having grown up in a Roman Catholic household, this view also applies to religion. Oswald believes that everyone answers to God, no matter their gender, socioeconomic status, or beliefs.

Loyal – It takes a while for Oswald to become attached to anyone, and longer still for him to trust anyone. However, once you’ve earned his trust, you’ve earned it forever (unless you do something worthy of losing it). In this vein, betrayal is one of the things that Oswald will always have trouble grasping. He understands the concept, and he has seen it in action—yet his understanding of betrayal is abstract. Oswald could never betray anyone himself, and as such, he doesn’t understand why other people could feel any different.

Three (or more) negative traits and 4-8 sentences of explanation:

Unyielding – Oswald doesn’t compromise. Things go his way, or no way at all. Not only does this make him a pain to work with on mock cases in law school, but he also unintentionally drives wedges between himself and those closest to him.

Unforgiving – Oswald finds it difficult (and nearly impossible) to forgive and forget. Fights from years ago plague him and hinder him from behaving normally. As a result, he may come across as dispassionate, aggressive, and even cruel. In the aftermath of a harsh fight, he’s torn between wishing to forget and allowing his bitterness to ferment.

Unaware (of himself) – For most of his life, Oswald has gone along with his family’s plans for his future. He was told that being a criminal court attorney was practical, so he chose to go to law school. He was brought up in a Roman Catholic household, so he believes in Roman Catholicism—and even if he learned about other denominations of Christianity in European History, he never seriously applied their nuances to himself, or even considered a wholly different religion. In the end, as outwardly observant as Oswald is, his greatest failure is his misunderstanding of what he himself most wants and needs.

Indecisive – That is, if the right person came along and suggested that perhaps the world was not just so. As he has never been offered a perspective other than his own, he unwittingly seeks validation of his views. In being denied that, he’d hesitate, falter, and perhaps come to a full-stop. He’s always had a feeling he’s missed the truth by a hairsbreadth anyway.

Bio: In Oswald’s first memory is in greyscale. He’s holding a hand that’s just a bit smaller and warmer than his own. The hand extends into an arm into a tether: a small but solid weight keeping him grounded in the winter wind. He’s been told this memory is a dream. He’s an only child, and he finds the distance between two hands a hard one to breech.

Oswald remembers his second memory. He’s just not sure what it is. By then, the world was overflowing with color and sound. His parents took him out on picnics in meadows of bluebells and bought a piano—black and ivory keys—and hired a teacher. He went to school. His father made car parts and his mother was a paralegal. They weren’t well off. They weren’t badly off. He grew taller. They said, “Thank you for this meal. Amen.” He was so loved his parents often reminded him that lawyers can find work almost anywhere as he went through high school, so he took the requisite courses and applied first to university and then to The Glen School of Law.

Sometimes he wonders if he has it all backwards. Sometimes he wonders if he should dream in color. He doesn’t know what color that girl’s eyes are, but her hand presses with its phantom touch long into his waking hours. Sometimes she sings a song. Sometimes he plays her song on the piano. Sometimes someone laughs and names it something whimsical.

His parents have bright hopes for his future. Oswald just wants to understand the strange tingling in his fingers when he stands in a courtroom. But for now, he has to pay off his student loan and graduate.

Roleplay Sample: His sleeve snags on the battlements. It snags and leaves behind thin streams of black thread. They are nearly invisible against the aged stone. Behind him, the tour guide is talking about the castle’s multi-layered walls. One meter thick, he hears, and some slumbering shadow murmurs, no, that is not so. This wall is not quite so thick or tall. This wall is just high enough for fear and high enough for that person (oh, who?) to find the seams of the sky and tear it down.  

Oswald loosens his grip on the edge of the wall. The rock has worn imprints on the palms of his hands. He scribbles down notes on the notches in the battlements and the scorch marks along the stone, but he writes nothing of the threads waving in the air like spider legs.

The tour guide is moving on, down the stairs and out of the sun. He shields his eyes. For miles and miles, nothing but green. A long time ago, maybe here, someone with grassy eyes fell. Oswald hopes he was caught.