(Father) Vincent Smith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
monsterstoyou) wrote2022-06-25 09:23 pm
monsterstoyou) wrote2022-06-25 09:23 pm
TLV Application
User Name/Nick: Danii
User DW: yarnzipan @ dw
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: yarnzipan @ plurk / gamenotifications @ gmail
Other Characters Currently In-Game: John Doe, Jamie, Florian Leickenbloom, Saga Anderson
Character Name: (Father) Vincent Smith
Series: Silent Hill (Silent Hill 3)
Age: late 20s to early 30s
From When?: Vincent is coming from the moment during the climax of Silent Hill 3 where he is stabbed to death by Claudia Wolf.
Inmate Justification: Vincent is a part of the Order, aka the bad guys from the Silent Hill series. Not even just a member, he's actually part of both church leadership and one half of the revival of the church (cuuuuult) after the death of Dahlia Gillespie et. all during the events of Silent Hill. Essentially, he's the financial/practical/recruitment side of the church who has done a lot of the groundwork to reestablish the church's power in the town. This has definitely involved drug dealing, murder, blackmail, child abuse, indoctrination, torture, brainwashing- the list goes on. And he does this with a very real understanding of how much suffering he’s putting people through; he's not an unknowing sheep or a cloudy-eyed believer who believes he's doing it for the betterment of mankind, to bring Paradise to the world: he is a leader in the church so he can appropriate church funds for his own use and because he considers it being on the winning side as the power of the god of his Order is demonstrable and has been a part of his life as he was growing up. He does NOT want to bring the god to the world, even calls it 'inconvenient' and 'unpredictable' but he's perfectly happy to benefit from the terrible things the Order does both to it's followers, it's potential followers, and to those outside of the fold in order to maintain their power. He is a believer, but he also hates anyone who claims to know what his God wants or acts to make them an active force. He sees it as blasphemy.
...he's also just kind of a manipulative dick.
Arrival: 100% agreed. He did NOT want to die and he's aggravated that he did, because he died due to a miscalculation. As you might expect from a practical and ruthless cultist who's out for himself? He believes he can figure out a way to work with the Admiral to get what he wants and take care of himself.
Abilities/Powers: Vincent is, theoretically, a normal human being. He even says to Heather that he doesn't have any power like she and Claudia do.
...he is also (regularly) full of shit.
We see him move through the town full of monsters without getting a scratch on him or even getting his outfit bloody. We see him challenge Claudia, to her face, about her choices and point out that she is shaping reality in the town while also being very clearly Not Afraid of Her. And, of course, there's his famous line (also part of his username) about what the 'monsters' of Silent Hill look like to him. I think he has the power to see through (and to some degree walk untouched) through reality warping events or powers, essentially having true sight. I'm going to say his secondary ability (ignore reality warping stuff) is nerfed for the game, but he's got a certain amount of true sight going on to see through illusions, perception alteration, and reality warping to know what's really there.
Given his tendency to avoid real dangers and the fact that he has no problem with people's pain and suffering but never actually inflicts any, I'm pretty sure that's it. Dude's taken out with a normal knife to the back. So it's more of a neutralization of weird shit power than any kind of defense or invulnerability.
Inmate Information: Vincent is the product of indoctrination, spiritual abuse, horrific supernatural manipulation, and living in a place that quite literally fucks with everything you know and care about and meddles with your perceptions and the nature of reality regularly. The entire town that he comes from, Silent Hill, has been home to a cult that took over the area well before he was ever born. And despite his cynicism and mockery and being 'sane', still clearly believes in most of the things that that church preaches, even if he doesn't agree with the 'lunatic' actions of people like Dahlia Gillespie and Claudia Wolf (his former friend) when it comes to the more surreal, reality-warping aspects of his faith (like, oh, birthing their God into the world, though not in the sense of 'it can't be done' but instead in the sense of 'that would be inconvenient and unpredictable'). He wasn't raised to believe in right and wrong; instead, he was taught about Chaos and Order. While there are parts of his belief system that seem very much like Christianity, it is a heavily warped and strangely shifted version that does seem to have some power and access to entities and planes of reality. He was taught that all other faiths are children's stories and nonsense, the realm of gullible fools, and it's clear enough that he thinks he's the smartest person in the room, the only one in on the joke with the knowledge to be laughing. All of that is important backstory and backdrop to one very important piece: he sees himself as a sane man in an insane world, as the reasonable one and the one who sees truth. And even more importantly, he looks out for himself and himself alone, having no qualms or shame in throwing a teenage girl to the wolves or sending her out to murder people he doesn't like or who have things he needs. He doesn't have any 'faith' in what might come in a next life or after death: he looks for happiness and pleasure in the now, likes the world as it is, and while he's certainly fine with rocking the boat, it's only in pursuit of his own betterment. He's mocking and cruel and he always thinks he has people figured out... which is actually how he died, much to his frustration. He's the kind of person who needs to 'win' a conversation, and while he never enacts any violence (despite the waving arms and raised voice) he can get fucking vicious when he thinks he's losing. It's very clear that he's regularized abuse and abusive structures, abusive interactions, and he's ruthlessly found what he feels is a moral high ground in his 'clean' hands approach to the terrible shit he's involved in. He doesn't have any issues of pride around who he works with or his approach and he'll happily tell people to fuck off for judging him, but he's very defensive of anyone who attacks his own personal feelings about his actions/choices.
Path to Redemption: Vincent does all the right things for all the wrong reasons and all the wrong ways. He'll need to learn just how wrong it was to use the framework and the power structures of the Order to gain power and money for himself. He'll need to come to understand how to have functional, friendly relationships that aren't based off of using people for what he can get from them. He'll need to actually let someone in and care about someone in a meaningful way, and he'll need to learn that sometimes, you have to get your own hands dirty to do what needs to be done and possibly even risk something. His manipulation of others needs to end... basically, he's going to have to get a huge overhaul and actually come to understand what 'right' and 'wrong' are. He's going to have to deconstruct his 'only looking out for himself' attitude and learn some kindness and compassion and consideration for other people instead of seeing them as suckers that he can use. On a deeper note, he's going to have to learn that he hasn't stayed 'sane' so much as adapted to the horrific abuse he's been surrounded with and spiritually abused by his entire life and that people are not just violent, hateful, joyless sacks of despair awaiting the release of death as a default.
He's going to take to the barge (seemingly) well, because he's a nerd at heart and he does actually find this stuff pretty fascinating. It'll challenge his faith, but in a way that makes him believe he's found new information he can integrate as opposed to feeling like his faith has been proved 'wrong' because so much of the faith in his world is VERY SOLID REALITY WARPING SHIT so the barge is going to be both very normal and very not. Especially with how pleasant some of the breaches and floods are: honestly, he'll handle the fucked up shit a lot better than the 'normal' or 'nice'.
He's not going to take well to being wardened, just because he likes being a know it all and he'll reject things forcefully and quickly that don't match his life experience and world view. He's clever and a VERY good debater so expect him to be ruthless in his discussions any time his viewpoints are attacked. He'll need someone who can meet him argument for argument or entirely step around his justifications and bullshit to start steering him straight and moral relativism is his bread and butter so expect to find him difficult. While he'll definitely manipulate someone who's too permissive, kindness and niceness is not going to be greeted with anything but suspicion and misunderstanding; he was taught very early on that humanity is evil and full of hatred and terrible and that is their nature. This is a pretty good run down of their beliefs.
He's going to be fascinated by how the Barge plays into his beliefs and that's definitely a good 'in' to make him start considering other ideas.
History: https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Vincent_Smith#Biography
Sample Network Entry: And to think: all I had to do to be personally picked by God was die.
It's almost funny. Really, I should have told Claudia to try it. Stupid bitch might have actually done all the work herself, saved me a lot of trouble and any number of conversations with that useless little twit and her self-righteous yammering. Alas that hindsight is always 20/20.
Then again, the fact that she isn't here is one of the few things that make this place tolerable. Better, perhaps, that she finishes with whatever plan she has. Let it blow up now that I am, apparently, well clear of the blast. She can enjoy picking up her own mess for once.
Sample RP: Newer TDM || TDM!
Special Notes: None!
Religious Stuff
A Prayer
The Central Myths
Warden Comment