application

[goryteller]

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Nigh
Contact: dendrite
Age: 34
Other Characters: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Katurian K. Katurian
Age: 23 (never stated in the play)
Canon: The Pillowman
Canon Point: Post-death.

Character Information:
cw: discussion of suicide, child murder, child abuse, sexual abuse, torture, police brutality

Here is the wiki. (Here is the history section I used for him the last time I apped, because I am incapable of deleting anything completely. It's probably not necessary.)

Personality:

Katurian is a nervous wreck of a man with pale skin and thin arms and sunken eyes. He is cringing and cowardly. He is small in stature. He's aware of his weaknesses and therefore tends to be "lily-livered and subservient on one hand, yet vaguely sarcastic and provocative on the other," preferring to argue with subtle, passive-aggressive jabs that could easily be revoked should the other person prove too strong. When he speaks, it's with a trembling voice. When he tells stories, that voice finds melody, a confidence exploding from his words and gestures that seems almost foreign. He is a man that does better in ideas than reality, a man who would rather drape himself in art than face the horrendous truths of the world around him.

KATURIAN. I wasn't trying to be provocative.
TUPOLSKI: Were you trying to be subservient?
KATURIAN. No.
TUPOLSKI: Then you were trying to be provocative. And now Ariel is going to hit you again...
KATURIAN. Listen, I don't understand what I'm doing here. I don't know what you want me to say. I don't have anything against anybody. Any Jews or you or anybody. I just write stories. That's all I do. That's my life. I stay in and I write stories.

With his brother, he is gentle. He expresses his affection through touching and soft words and stories. He knows how to lull him to sleep, how to calm him when he panics, and how to comfort him when he's sad. Around strangers, he's considerably more socially awkward, finding it difficult to connect. Katurian sees the negatives in life more than the positives; he relishes being unable to find the answers to life’s questions, craves dark irony, and expects unhappy endings. Many times, the detectives remark that he's 'weird' or 'strange' because of this. It is easy to understand how he could be mistaken as a child murderer -- he is a morbid loner who works in a slaughterhouse, and the only time he smiles is when talking about death.

KATURIAN. Please, Tupolski. Your story was really good.
TUPOLSKI. My story was better than all of your stories.
KATURIAN. Your story was better than all of my stories.
TUPOLSKI. And it was clear that the old man wanted to save the little deaf boy.
KATURIAN. It was completely clear.
TUPOLSKI. (Pause.) You only don't like it because the little deaf boy didn't die at the fucking end!

That being said, Katurian does have a capacity for violence and cruelty, a dangerous volatility that can erupt from him with little warning in spite of his meek demeanor. The systematic abuse in his childhood lit a fire inside of him and filled his mind with gruesome nightmares. Upon learning that his parents were torturing his brother, he doesn't run away or call the police -- he smothers them to death with a pillow. (Not only that, but he deliberately wakes up his mother so that she can learn what's happening before she dies. Yikes.) When Michal confesses to murdering children, Katurian smacks his head into the floor, calls him names, and taunts him with his childhood trauma. Ultimately, he murders him as well -- and while this murder was to "protect" him (the police execution would've been less painful), it's still a violent, misaligned way to behave, indicative of a twisted sense of right and wrong. He's broken but still standing; a dangerous combination.

KATURIAN. If they came to me right now and said, "We're going to burn two out of the three of you — you, your brother, or your stories," I'd have them burn you first, I'd have them burn me second, and I'd have it be the stories they saved.

As a man of ideas, Katurian would gladly give up the physical to protect the conceptual. This belief borders on the fanatical, resulting in a tendency towards self-destruction, particularly regarding his writing. He is obsessive and will write to the detriment of everything else: sleep, social life, and physical health all come as a distinct second. He believes that suffering is essential for art, and so he's determined to suffer. This is largely a trauma response; he has a tremendous survivor's guilt from escaping his parents' tortures and subtly sabotages himself to make up for it. In addition, he's afraid that his and Michal's suffering will be meaningless if he doesn't make art from it. Writing isn't just his life; it's the only thing keeping him alive.

KATURIAN. I was a good writer. (Pause.) It was all I ever wanted to be. (Pause.) And I was. And I was.

5-10 Key Character Traits:
- cowardly
- passive-aggressive
- gentle
- socially awkward
- morbid
- volatile
- self-destructive
- obsessive

Note: Previous trait list was anxious, obsessive, morbid, gentle, volatile, loner, self-righteous, self-destructive, depressed, and artistic. This trait list has been changed to fit the new guidelines and a slightly updated app.

Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? I'd prefer a monster that fits, please. c:

Opt-Outs:

♦ Merperson
♦ Nymph
♦ Faerie
♦ Harpy
♦ Troll

Katurian has been previously assigned Shade.

Roleplay Sample:
Test Drive Meme