David Allard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fiveagainstradley) wrote2013-04-12 08:27 pm
fiveagainstradley) wrote2013-04-12 08:27 pm
Entry tags:
City of Ariel app
→ OOC
□ Name: Chris
□ Age: 24
□ Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
gazzafizza
□ Journal:milennialfalcon
□ Do you play anyone in Ariel?: no
→ IC
□ Name: David Allard
□ Journal:fiveagainstradley
□ Series: Eight Days of Luke
□ Canon point: Approximately three years post-book
□ History: Wiki link. David is an average boy with an average life, save for the fact that he's an orphan. He was made to live with his Aunt Dot, Uncle Bernard, Cousin Ronald, and Ronald's wife Astrid, who all treat him horribly and expect him to always be grateful. One evening, after his relatives were particularly awful, David storms out to the backyard where he begins cursing them, making up words as he goes along, not really expecting anything to happen. Instead, his made-up curse sets free a mysterious young man named Luke, who turns out to be Loki, Norse god of mischief and fire. Over the next week, Luke and David become fast friends, and David finds himself wound up in a mystery treasure hunt involving all sorts of Norse deities he never thought could be real. In the end, his awful relatives are driven out of town, except Astrid who turned out not to be too bad after all, and Luke is free from his prison forever.
□ Personality: David is a bright boy, although it usually takes someone else pointing something out to him before he realizes it. Still, he's clever and able to come up with plans and schemes at the drop of a hat. Perhaps more importantly, he's able to come up with plans B and C when his first plan fails.
He's had a bit of a sad life, with his parents dying and leaving him to be raised by relatives who didn't care about David at all. His parents left him enough money to put him through public (which in England means private and posh) school, and his relations pilfered his money for themselves to boot. The only ally he has in the house is Astrid, who during the first week with Luke is shown to feel almost as much of an outsider as David. Astrid actually picks up on Luke's identity a hair before David puts it all together, further showing how David can be smart and yet slightly oblivious at the same time.
David can be, as most teenagers are, a little self-centered. He's no egotist by a long shot, and even amuses himself by making imaginary contests out of the pity parties his relatives throw trying to get sympathy from each other, but at the same time his world view is very David-centric. At one point Astrid makes mention of David not caring if she gets an awful head[ache], to which David responds that he would care. What he doesn't say is that the only reason he'd care is because when Astrid gets a headache, she's a pain to be around.
David's relatives try so hard to make him feel guilty that he's almost completely managed to ignore the feeling whenever he can. When Luke sets a building on fire just because David said he was bored, David starts to feel a little guilty but pushes the feeling aside fairly well, until he sees two girls trapped on the roof. When his guilt affects other people, he can't ignore it any longer. It's times like this that David feels particularly responsible for Luke, who, as David puts it, "did not operate by the same rules as other people." Because Luke is this ancient thing of chaos and mischief, David takes it upon himself to watch out for him, to make sure no one gets hurt by what he does, and Luke listens to David, so it works out pretty well.
In addition to guilt, David is used to people trying to tell him what to do or trying to threaten him, and he can ignore that as well. The better way to get David to do what you want is to be nice to him rather than try to scare or intimidate him, because that just won't work.
Before Luke, David doesn't really have any other friends to speak of. This is evident when he meets another boy, Alan, and describes him as having "the makings of a real ally." Note that David doesn't think to call Alan a friend, but an ally. He's so unused to having friends that he's stopped looking for them and instead just classifies peers as whether they'll make his life easier or more difficult. Luke is the great exception, because he is so grateful to David for freeing him that he does everything in his considerable power to make David happy, and he succeeds.
□ Age: 17
□ Gender: Male
□ Appearance: Rather tall (approx. 6'), with light brown hair and blue eyes. Dresses like a typical British teenager from the seventies, in denim and earth-tone rugby shirts.
□ Abilities/Powers: N/A. David is your average, ordinary teenager, except that he's a bit clever and perhaps more willing than most to suspend disbelief.
□ Personal Items: The clothes on his back, a box of matches, and a cricket bat and ball.
□ First Person Sample:
"How does this--? You just think and it broadcasts?" Soon enough, David blinks and the video comes on, the interior of his flat coming into view. Except he doesn't realize it's come on. "How'm I supposed to know?" The view pans around the flat almost nauseatingly until David settles on a mirror, leaning in close and pulling at his eyelid. "Hello? Can anybody hear me?" He knocks at his head, thinking maybe it's like a wireless with a poor antenna connection. Eventually he decides to give it up as a bad job and raid the kitchenette for some food. The video cuts out halfway through making a sandwich.
□ Third Person Sample:
David stood and surveyed the room. The walls were bare, his trunk packed and his bed made. There wasn't much to pack but it had still taken him the better part of the morning to do it. With Alan's school already started and Astrid working all day at a shop in town, it had been just him, Alan's mum, and Alan's sisters around the house for days. And Luke.
Standing here on the last day of summer holidays before his last year at school made David wonder. It made him think about university, and inevitably, about life after university. What did he want to do with his life? He had no clue, except that he wanted to stay best friends with Luke, and maybe have a job involving cricket somehow. He wasn't good enough to play professionally, but maybe he could be an announcer, or work for a team in administration or something. He's not too bad at maths, he thinks. Maybe he could keep score.
He stood thinking for a while, until he reached in his pocket without thinking and his hand hit his trusty box of matches. He could hear from the rattling around that it was getting light. He'd have to pick up a new one soon. Or he could get a lighter, though he always preferred matches. They felt better in his hand, more traditional somehow.
As he struck a match, David looked out the window to see Luke turn into the drive. He smiled, glad to see his oldest and closest friend, and opened the window to call out to him.
"The door's open atop the stairs," he said, pointing to the fire escape turned external staircase that served his and Astrid's rooms. It's not as though Luke didn't know the way in; he'd been round a million times before, but it had become a sort of tradition for David to point out the stairs ever since they'd moved into the house, which had no creepers for Luke to climb up to David's window.
Luke gave a little salute of a wave and disappeared out of sight towards the stairs. Half a minute later he swung through the doorway and made himself comfortable on David's bed. "All packed up and ready to go, I see."
"We leave tomorrow, remember?" David frowned. "You're still coming, right?"
"Of course I am," Luke answered. "Last year? Wouldn't miss it."
"Good," said David. He knew Luke didn't have to go to school with him, being an ages old Norse deity and all, but the fact that he wanted to just to spend time with David made David feel special, warm inside. He never really had friends in school, or out of it, until Luke had come along. Plus he made Comparative Religions class loads more interesting.
"So," Luke said, "last day of holidays. What do you want to do?"
David didn't need to look out at the cloudy autumn sky to know he wanted to stay indoors. He settled in next to Luke on the bed. "How about some doodles?" he said.
"Sure," answered Luke, and they both turned their attention to the darkest corner of the room, which lit up with David's favorite of Luke's fire pictures.
They sat like that all afternoon. At one point David suggested they make popcorn, which Luke summarily burnt. They both laughed and ate it anyway.
Revisions
□ First Person Sample:
[The video opens onto a bare first level flat.]
So this is how it works, you just think and it broadcasts. Brilliant. [A pause.] Oh, right!
[The image shifts as David goes to the bathroom mirror.]
Now you lot can all see me. Hello, I'm David, [A sheepish wave, an afterthought,] and I'm looking for someone. He goes by the name Luke mostly, and he looks, erm, well he usually looks about my age, with ginger hair and loads of freckles, and eyes that look like fire. I don't know if he's here, because he didn't answer when I called him the usual way, but I do hope nothing's keeping him. If anyone can hear me and knows where he is, I would appreciate you letting me know. Thank you.
[For a moment, he just stares at the mirror, like he's trying to work something out in his brain. Then, he seems to figure it out and the feed ends.]
□ Third Person Sample:
The first thing David does after he's released from processing, before he finds his flat, is to find a nice, quiet bench to sit at. He has a lot to think about, a lot to process in his mind, and he'd rather not have to do it alone. He pulls his box of matches out from his pocket and lights one, looking around for the familiar ginger with his enigmatic smile. Surely Luke will have heard of this place, and know what to make of it.
"Ouch!" he cries, startled by a hot pain in his fingers. The match has burned all the way to the end and yet no sign of Luke. "Hm. Curious," David mutters, and lights another one.
A few minutes later, David sits with more burns on his fingers and a growing pile of blackened matches at his feet. He knows he's littering, but he doesn't particularly care. He's more concerned with the fact that Luke still hasn't come, which can only mean that he can't come (David refuses to believe he would choose not to). Either something about this place is keeping Luke out, or he's tied up somewhere with his relations being nasty toward him, and David isn't there to help. Neither option is comforting. Plus, this means David has to deal with his new situation all on his own. He hasn't been all on his own in years, really, so he's not sure how to proceed. He knows if Luke can't get in, he can't exactly phone Astrid either.
First, he thinks, I have to figure out what it means to be David Without Luke. For a minute he sits there with nothing. His frustration grows. I have to have been somebody before Luke! but all he can remember of himself is an angry, sad, lonely child. He remembers being unhappy with his relatives, having very few friends at school, and being shipped from camp to camp during the holidays. He doesn't recall anything about himself. But finally, he thinks, I'm clever. I figured out Wedding's riddles mostly without help, didn't I? And a minute later, I'm good at cricket. And I won't let anyone make me do something if it isn't what I want for myself. That's good. I can work with that.
Proud of his progress, he picks up the burned matches and goes to find a bin. Halfway there he realizes that he still wants to find a way to Luke. Because no matter what David Without Luke is, David Without Luke is a puzzle with a piece missing. David Without Luke isn't David. Not anymore. So he decides he'll go along with the plans this odd city has for him, but he'll work on his own plans to find Luke (and maybe a way home).
□ Name: Chris
□ Age: 24
□ Contact:
□ Journal:
milennialfalcon□ Do you play anyone in Ariel?: no
→ IC
□ Name: David Allard
□ Journal:
fiveagainstradley□ Series: Eight Days of Luke
□ Canon point: Approximately three years post-book
□ History: Wiki link. David is an average boy with an average life, save for the fact that he's an orphan. He was made to live with his Aunt Dot, Uncle Bernard, Cousin Ronald, and Ronald's wife Astrid, who all treat him horribly and expect him to always be grateful. One evening, after his relatives were particularly awful, David storms out to the backyard where he begins cursing them, making up words as he goes along, not really expecting anything to happen. Instead, his made-up curse sets free a mysterious young man named Luke, who turns out to be Loki, Norse god of mischief and fire. Over the next week, Luke and David become fast friends, and David finds himself wound up in a mystery treasure hunt involving all sorts of Norse deities he never thought could be real. In the end, his awful relatives are driven out of town, except Astrid who turned out not to be too bad after all, and Luke is free from his prison forever.
□ Personality: David is a bright boy, although it usually takes someone else pointing something out to him before he realizes it. Still, he's clever and able to come up with plans and schemes at the drop of a hat. Perhaps more importantly, he's able to come up with plans B and C when his first plan fails.
He's had a bit of a sad life, with his parents dying and leaving him to be raised by relatives who didn't care about David at all. His parents left him enough money to put him through public (which in England means private and posh) school, and his relations pilfered his money for themselves to boot. The only ally he has in the house is Astrid, who during the first week with Luke is shown to feel almost as much of an outsider as David. Astrid actually picks up on Luke's identity a hair before David puts it all together, further showing how David can be smart and yet slightly oblivious at the same time.
David can be, as most teenagers are, a little self-centered. He's no egotist by a long shot, and even amuses himself by making imaginary contests out of the pity parties his relatives throw trying to get sympathy from each other, but at the same time his world view is very David-centric. At one point Astrid makes mention of David not caring if she gets an awful head[ache], to which David responds that he would care. What he doesn't say is that the only reason he'd care is because when Astrid gets a headache, she's a pain to be around.
David's relatives try so hard to make him feel guilty that he's almost completely managed to ignore the feeling whenever he can. When Luke sets a building on fire just because David said he was bored, David starts to feel a little guilty but pushes the feeling aside fairly well, until he sees two girls trapped on the roof. When his guilt affects other people, he can't ignore it any longer. It's times like this that David feels particularly responsible for Luke, who, as David puts it, "did not operate by the same rules as other people." Because Luke is this ancient thing of chaos and mischief, David takes it upon himself to watch out for him, to make sure no one gets hurt by what he does, and Luke listens to David, so it works out pretty well.
In addition to guilt, David is used to people trying to tell him what to do or trying to threaten him, and he can ignore that as well. The better way to get David to do what you want is to be nice to him rather than try to scare or intimidate him, because that just won't work.
Before Luke, David doesn't really have any other friends to speak of. This is evident when he meets another boy, Alan, and describes him as having "the makings of a real ally." Note that David doesn't think to call Alan a friend, but an ally. He's so unused to having friends that he's stopped looking for them and instead just classifies peers as whether they'll make his life easier or more difficult. Luke is the great exception, because he is so grateful to David for freeing him that he does everything in his considerable power to make David happy, and he succeeds.
□ Age: 17
□ Gender: Male
□ Appearance: Rather tall (approx. 6'), with light brown hair and blue eyes. Dresses like a typical British teenager from the seventies, in denim and earth-tone rugby shirts.
□ Abilities/Powers: N/A. David is your average, ordinary teenager, except that he's a bit clever and perhaps more willing than most to suspend disbelief.
□ Personal Items: The clothes on his back, a box of matches, and a cricket bat and ball.
□ First Person Sample:
"How does this--? You just think and it broadcasts?" Soon enough, David blinks and the video comes on, the interior of his flat coming into view. Except he doesn't realize it's come on. "How'm I supposed to know?" The view pans around the flat almost nauseatingly until David settles on a mirror, leaning in close and pulling at his eyelid. "Hello? Can anybody hear me?" He knocks at his head, thinking maybe it's like a wireless with a poor antenna connection. Eventually he decides to give it up as a bad job and raid the kitchenette for some food. The video cuts out halfway through making a sandwich.
□ Third Person Sample:
David stood and surveyed the room. The walls were bare, his trunk packed and his bed made. There wasn't much to pack but it had still taken him the better part of the morning to do it. With Alan's school already started and Astrid working all day at a shop in town, it had been just him, Alan's mum, and Alan's sisters around the house for days. And Luke.
Standing here on the last day of summer holidays before his last year at school made David wonder. It made him think about university, and inevitably, about life after university. What did he want to do with his life? He had no clue, except that he wanted to stay best friends with Luke, and maybe have a job involving cricket somehow. He wasn't good enough to play professionally, but maybe he could be an announcer, or work for a team in administration or something. He's not too bad at maths, he thinks. Maybe he could keep score.
He stood thinking for a while, until he reached in his pocket without thinking and his hand hit his trusty box of matches. He could hear from the rattling around that it was getting light. He'd have to pick up a new one soon. Or he could get a lighter, though he always preferred matches. They felt better in his hand, more traditional somehow.
As he struck a match, David looked out the window to see Luke turn into the drive. He smiled, glad to see his oldest and closest friend, and opened the window to call out to him.
"The door's open atop the stairs," he said, pointing to the fire escape turned external staircase that served his and Astrid's rooms. It's not as though Luke didn't know the way in; he'd been round a million times before, but it had become a sort of tradition for David to point out the stairs ever since they'd moved into the house, which had no creepers for Luke to climb up to David's window.
Luke gave a little salute of a wave and disappeared out of sight towards the stairs. Half a minute later he swung through the doorway and made himself comfortable on David's bed. "All packed up and ready to go, I see."
"We leave tomorrow, remember?" David frowned. "You're still coming, right?"
"Of course I am," Luke answered. "Last year? Wouldn't miss it."
"Good," said David. He knew Luke didn't have to go to school with him, being an ages old Norse deity and all, but the fact that he wanted to just to spend time with David made David feel special, warm inside. He never really had friends in school, or out of it, until Luke had come along. Plus he made Comparative Religions class loads more interesting.
"So," Luke said, "last day of holidays. What do you want to do?"
David didn't need to look out at the cloudy autumn sky to know he wanted to stay indoors. He settled in next to Luke on the bed. "How about some doodles?" he said.
"Sure," answered Luke, and they both turned their attention to the darkest corner of the room, which lit up with David's favorite of Luke's fire pictures.
They sat like that all afternoon. At one point David suggested they make popcorn, which Luke summarily burnt. They both laughed and ate it anyway.
Revisions
□ First Person Sample:
[The video opens onto a bare first level flat.]
So this is how it works, you just think and it broadcasts. Brilliant. [A pause.] Oh, right!
[The image shifts as David goes to the bathroom mirror.]
Now you lot can all see me. Hello, I'm David, [A sheepish wave, an afterthought,] and I'm looking for someone. He goes by the name Luke mostly, and he looks, erm, well he usually looks about my age, with ginger hair and loads of freckles, and eyes that look like fire. I don't know if he's here, because he didn't answer when I called him the usual way, but I do hope nothing's keeping him. If anyone can hear me and knows where he is, I would appreciate you letting me know. Thank you.
[For a moment, he just stares at the mirror, like he's trying to work something out in his brain. Then, he seems to figure it out and the feed ends.]
□ Third Person Sample:
The first thing David does after he's released from processing, before he finds his flat, is to find a nice, quiet bench to sit at. He has a lot to think about, a lot to process in his mind, and he'd rather not have to do it alone. He pulls his box of matches out from his pocket and lights one, looking around for the familiar ginger with his enigmatic smile. Surely Luke will have heard of this place, and know what to make of it.
"Ouch!" he cries, startled by a hot pain in his fingers. The match has burned all the way to the end and yet no sign of Luke. "Hm. Curious," David mutters, and lights another one.
A few minutes later, David sits with more burns on his fingers and a growing pile of blackened matches at his feet. He knows he's littering, but he doesn't particularly care. He's more concerned with the fact that Luke still hasn't come, which can only mean that he can't come (David refuses to believe he would choose not to). Either something about this place is keeping Luke out, or he's tied up somewhere with his relations being nasty toward him, and David isn't there to help. Neither option is comforting. Plus, this means David has to deal with his new situation all on his own. He hasn't been all on his own in years, really, so he's not sure how to proceed. He knows if Luke can't get in, he can't exactly phone Astrid either.
First, he thinks, I have to figure out what it means to be David Without Luke. For a minute he sits there with nothing. His frustration grows. I have to have been somebody before Luke! but all he can remember of himself is an angry, sad, lonely child. He remembers being unhappy with his relatives, having very few friends at school, and being shipped from camp to camp during the holidays. He doesn't recall anything about himself. But finally, he thinks, I'm clever. I figured out Wedding's riddles mostly without help, didn't I? And a minute later, I'm good at cricket. And I won't let anyone make me do something if it isn't what I want for myself. That's good. I can work with that.
Proud of his progress, he picks up the burned matches and goes to find a bin. Halfway there he realizes that he still wants to find a way to Luke. Because no matter what David Without Luke is, David Without Luke is a puzzle with a piece missing. David Without Luke isn't David. Not anymore. So he decides he'll go along with the plans this odd city has for him, but he'll work on his own plans to find Luke (and maybe a way home).