Straw Man
 The Straw Man |
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| The Straw Man (Scenesys ID: 639) | |||
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| Profile | |||
| Name: | None | ||
| Superalias: | The Big Bad Wolf | ||
| Gender: | Other | ||
| Species: | Undefined | ||
| Occupation: | The Accuser | ||
| Citizenship: | Nations are nothing. | ||
| Residence: | The soul | ||
| Education: | What a quaint concept. | ||
| Theme: | Original (OC) | ||
| Groups: | Mystic Arts | ||
| Details | |||
| Apparent Age: | #-1 ARGUMENTS MUST BE INTEGERS | Actual Age: | #-1 ARGUMENTS MUST BE INTEGERS |
| Date of Birth | Since the second thought | Played By | You |
| Height: | Ambiguous | Weight: | Ambiguous |
| Hair Color: | Ambiguous | Eye Color: | Ambiguous |
| Twitter: | |||
| Theme Song: | Ring around the Rosey | ||
Contents
Character Info
Profile
He's nothing, but he's everywhere, and most importantly where you do not want him. He's the dark of your soul, the fleeting nightmare that you can't quite remember when you wake. He is the big bad wolf, the wind that blows down your straw house. You can't shake his hand or punch his face, but he's there, lurking in the far corner of your soul, the part you dare not visit yourself. He calls it home.
Timeline
Timeline:
When was the beginning? Was there a big bang? Was there creation? Does any of this exist for the question to matter? The Straw Man was there. When there had yet only been two thoughts in the universe, when there first was a reason to reason, he was there. When things happen to him are rather irrelevant. Why they happen is far more interesting. Throughout history he slips in and out, never a player, never a presence worth noting, but always shaping the fortunes of life. He is the fleeting moments of a dream that go unremembered, yet shake the soul. A wind that howls down the chimney like the big bad breath of another planet. All things blow aside in his path, yet then it was never there. Like it never happened.
He never happened.
Did he?
IC Journal
{{{ICJournal}}}
Personality
The Accuser:
Everyone has dark thoughts. Lust, anger, jealousy, pride. Go on to name seven or seven hundred deadly sins, they are The Straw Man. Motivation for that which only scarcely can be defined to exist is difficult, suffice to say that ill is the intent. Or maybe it's gain. Truly it depends on who The Straw Man haunts. Whatever the darkest corners of the soul, the Straw Man takes their form.
Character Sheet
Powers
Ambiguous Presence:
Where The Straw Man exists cannot be so simply defined. He speaks to the soul, and can speak to several at once, but each is their own conversation, he does not have the ability to have a normal conversation with multiple people together.
Full Surrender:
There is one exception to his indirect control If a person completely and totally surrenders mind/body/spirit to his games and tricks, if they are fully whittled down to nothing, he can come out and speak directly in body to other people. He still cannot reveal things about other people when he is puppeting the body of another.
This is also not permanent. The person who has surrendered still is present, and still active when The Straw Man speaks, it is just simply that their will has been so manipulated they are in sync with the Straw Man. Usually, though, if this happens, someone who cares about them needs to be able to speak with them and shake them free from it, but it is their decision whether they want to be free. Neither the Straw Man nor the loved one can force the freedom.
Intangible:
The Straw Man has no physical form. The Straw man has no mental presence. Neither physical nor mental attacks have any effect upon him, regardless of how powerful the weilder of those traits may be. He is only soul. He exists in the world of soul to soul. He has no concept of how a door, or the wall of a house is meant to keep him from getting to his target. He has no understanding of why distance should save someone from him. These are things of the physical world, and he is not.
He can interact with the physical world only through others. His influence upon them is his only means of effecting history. As he is no demon, he does not possess, and he has no mind that he might exert mind control over another. He is a nudge. A nagging thought. His conversations with people happen in their soul. He can project himself to appear to someone. Their mind can comprehend him, and their eyes sometimes can see him, but he's not there.
Knowing the Heart:
The Straw Man knows a person's darkest desires and fears. Sometimes they are less hidden from him than they are from the person themselves. He may not always pursue to know these things. For reasons known only to him, he will also casually refrain (read: anytime a PC doesn't want this for their character, he just won't go that route). He has no timeline, no concern about meeting a deadline or an objective. It's all for his own personal amusement.
The only real defense against this is to erase them completely from a person. One of his benefits that he brings to those are of pure heart, he will help them find what little vestiges of darkness still need to be purged. Perhaps he's not a villain. Perhaps a hero in that regard.
It may seem incredibly unstoppable to think he knows the darkest parts of a heart, but don't worry, he's not a gossip. He'll never tell another soul. It's just between you and him. He may use them to drive a person to reveal them to others, but it's always their decision. Under no circumstances will he reveal any individual's thoughts to any other individual, not because he's unwilling. He's simply unable to do it. It's not some code that he lives by, such information simply cannot be transferred through him directly, and the only spell that can overcome it is a person's own free will.
Prop Power:
The Straw Man can manifest things upon a whim when he desires, but they are all a deception. In a dream, he might give a vision of an entire sequence of ficticious events taking place. When they awake it will be clear that it was just a bad dream, even if they may incite the thought of such things really happening.
While they are awake the illusions are much more minor, and may take the form of a mask, or a bottle of scotch, or other harmless prestidigitations that amount only for show in his point making. For instance, if he gives someone a drink and they accept it, they may find afterward that they are holding the bottle, it was really them that took the bottle from their own shelf on their own power, not him. He might toss someone a ball which they believe they have caught, only to find that it does not exist at the end of the conversation.
He can, when he chooses, appear before someone, as if they are really there. Dependent on the person, they may or may not initially recognize that they are the only one who can see the him (read: whatever is more dramatically appropriate). Likewise his appearance can change. He can look like virtually anything, but that said, because he is speaking to the soul, there's never a mystery to the person he interacts with. He could bear an exact likeness of a person's child, but they will be granted instinctively the knowledge it's not their child, but this tormentor in the soul mocking them with the form, regardless of how smart or foolish they might be. The only identity the Straw Man might deceive a person with is their own. But then, perhaps the question is...is he already them?
Skills
Master Manipulator:
It's really the only thing the Straw Man does, and is the only thing he has done for history ad eternum. He knows how to get under the skin. He knows what buttons to push, and his words are placed with incredible precision.
Resources
All Things:
The Straw Man needs nothing. He wants nothing. He has everything. More accurately, the resources of anyone that is under his influence are at his disposal, but they are still not his, for that person is still in control of their own actions.
(OOC Translation: Various NPCs can be bad guys for him in a scene or plot!)
Weaknesses
Drugs:
It's not the wisest way to fend off the voice of the Straw Man, but it's a temporary relief. The Straw Man can't easily be present when mind altering drugs are in play. Hard hallucagins or perhaps getting drunk can provide a little relief while the effects last, but be sure, he'll come back even stronger when they wear off.
Indirect:
The Straw Man can't actually do anything, when it's looked at from another side. For all his bravado and all of his intimidation, he is invincible against mental and physical attacks only because he, in fact, is nothing. That nagging thought in the back of your heart may be frightening, but that thought can do nothing on its own. It requires someone else to act upon it for it to be dangerous.
Magic & Mind Control:
Magic is a little tricky with The Straw Man, because to ward him it's like warding off a piece of a person's self. It comes with danger. Things that alter a person's perception, or change their personality, might help stop him, but it's the forcible changing of another person. Magic that will cause someone to focus outside of themselves can weaken The Straw Man's hold on a person, but only as far as it is effect strikes the person. A powerfully effective spell might drive him out all together. When such magic wears off, it is up to that individual to keep him away.
Mind Control can work in a similar way, as it takes the free will away from a person. The Straw Man can only affect people who have their own free agency to act, so while someone is mind controlled, he is quite paralyzed with that person. He can still affect others, but that particular target is immune for the duration.That's not the same as to say cast out. He can still lurk in the soul, gnawing at it even d uring mind control, but he can't actually create any direct effect. With each of these, one would suppose you have to make your own decision whether the cure is worse than the cancer.
Only What He Is Given:
The Straw Man truly has absolutely no power. He cannot force anyone to do anything. He cannot mind control, he cannot make a physical obstacle, or possess an enemy. The only power he has over any person is what they allow him to have. They are at all times in complete control of their decisions. In reality, he has no power at all.
Religion:
Many people have devout faiths. That faith can give them better focus, and steel them against such internal assault. Which religion? Well, that depends on the person. A Catholic might pray the rosary. I protestant might spend time meditating on Scripture. A Bhuddist might try to enter transcendental meditation. Of course, the Straw Man will most certainly press back to try to prevent this, but it is the most effective logistic manner to ward him off.
Selflessness:
The Straw Man operates fully in the realm of the self. Regardless of a person's strength or resolve, the more that they are inwardly focused, the more presence he can have. It doesn't matter if they are proud, ashamed, arrogant, greedy, or just very self-reflective. The more they dwell on themselves, the more he can use.
On the contrary, a person who is outwardly focused, dwelling on the good they can do to others, the less power he has. Those who earnestly rely on others, whether in a good way or bad way, will also find that The Straw Man has little foothold to begin his manipulations.
Role-Play
Logs
To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.
Straw Man has
16 finished logs.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| An Unexpected Guest | February 7th, 2023 | An otherworldly entity dressed as Lydia's mother stops by her apartment for a chat. |
| A first meeting | January 23rd, 2023 | An acient power, and a cosmic power walk into an island.. they hace a interesting conversation |
| The world you call your own | January 18th, 2023 | Raz is visited by the Straw Man in her solitude. |
| Red and the Volcano | January 5th, 2023 | Hellboy, Luke Cage, and Meggan Constantine punch some demons in Hawaii! |
| Ghosts of our Past | September 6th, 2022 | Artemis has a very real nightmare about her past sins.. |
| Bovine Scatology | June 29th, 2022 | Valerie is visited by a ghost from the past. The ghost of...Gilgamesh the stuffed giraffe? |
| GIRL Belittled in Lab | October 1st, 2021 | While working in a lab at GIRL HQ, Harper Row is plagued by doubts, fears and phantasm of her abusive father (the ever so 'friendly' touch of The Straw Man). In the heat of the the moment she concludes that something is influencing her so knocks herself out with her own stungun. Coming to unsure about her previous conclusion she gets back to work and develops improved stun bullets. |
| Considerations | July 15th, 2021 | Late night and Elektra is musing on her own choices until she receives a very unexpected visit from a dead man. |
| How's America | June 4th, 2021 | Nazo meets a ghost of her past, and is faced with an uncomfortable part of her personhood. |
| The Torment That Lingers | May 7th, 2021 | Another bout of PTSD nearly gets Jessica in a world of trouble, but luckily, Elektra was there to save the day. But was it PTSD...? |
| In Your Head, In Your HeeeEEEEAAAaaadddd | May 7th, 2020 | Jessica gets another visit from the Straw Man, which she once again sees as Kilgrave. But this time, Straw Man decides to take the mind games deeper, making Jessica start to question her sanity. |
| The Straw Man Cometh | April 7th, 2020 | Peter comes across the strangest |
| Talking Someone Off a Ledge, Literally | March 27th, 2020 | Roberto and Stephanie help a depressed man under the influence of The Straw Man. |
| Demons Of The Past | March 5th, 2020 | Jessica sits at Josie's Bar like every other night, but this time she encounters some demons from her past. Whether phantoms or real, like her High School bully, Flash Thompson. |
| Temptitle | March 4th, 2020 | No description |
| Lions and tigers and... | March 3rd, 2020 | Floyd meets a rather strange man named...also Floyd? |
Cutscenes
To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.
Straw Man has
16 finished logs.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| No logs submitted yet. | ||
Entertainment Credits
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Straw Man has been credited in
0 shows.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| No shows submitted yet. | ||
Straw Man has been credited in
0 albums.
| Title | Release Date | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| No music submitted yet. | ||
Straw Man has authored
0 books.
| Title | Release Date | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| No books submitted yet. | ||
Gallery
Group Memberships
Straw Man has been listed in 0 groups.
