♪ [exsilium] application

[discontented]

» PLAYER INFORMATION

Player NAME: Sophia
Current AGE:
Personal JOURNAL: oceanwrath
IM & SERVICE: aim: shallowbays
Player PLURK: oceanwrath
Current CHARACTERS: Bariyan (stonefaith), Nikolai (thleepy), Satero (strangle)

» CHARACTER INFORMATION

Character NAME: Mukhari Sharak
Character PULL-POINT: End of character history section. More specifically: about five months after Mukhari finds Bariyan and reunites him with Catsovi.
Character AGE: ~800, looks early 20s
Character ABILITIES:

Mukhari is immortal, though that only means that he does not age; he can still die by any normal means. His immortality was the result of him contracting with a spirit-creature known as the heartless. It lives inside of him, but is usually silent and inactive. Mukhari barely even remembers that it's there.

the heartless grants Mukhari the ability to summon monsters made of solidified shadow, of indefinite and irregular shape, all claws and sharp teeth. They have the unpleasant habit of burrowing through enemies' chests to rip their hearts out. Mukhari isn't able to exert any real control over the creatures -- the best he can do is tell them what to attack, and what not to attack.

Mukhari is not very fond of his ability. He is also not very fond of killing people in general.

When it wants to, the heartless is also able to possess Mukhari's body, and speak through him. However, in the 800 years that Mukhari's been alive, he can still count the number of times that this has actually happened on just one hand.

Character HISTORY:

Mukhari had a very rocky start to life. Just three days after birth, he and his twin brother Kherat Sharak were forcibly seized by the ruling mages of his city for magical experimentation. While the details of what happened to them were never revealed, the twins were eventually returned to their family sans all heart and soul. They had been transformed from normal, healthy babies to empty, hollow shells: things that neither laughed nor cried, that saw and heard nothing, that were all but dead.

Their older brother was mightily displeased by this turn of events. So Korost Sharak, at the time only a child himself, contracted with an otherworlder known as the seventh (or Shatter), and the two of them set about hunting down the mages responsible for the demise of his brothers. However, before Korost could actually kill any of them, one of the mages involved claimed that she could restore his brothers back to normal.

Korost took her up on that offer. After about a week's worth of work, she managed to mostly restore the twins. The best she could do was to give them timeshare on the same soul. The end result was that their early development was abnormally slow, and that only one of the two could be active at a time. If they were both awake, then one or the other would become lethargic to the point of uselessness, and eventually fall asleep. So a pattern established itself. Mukhari was active during the daytime; but when he went to sleep, his brother Kherat would awake to deal in the night.

Korost was altogether dissatisfied with this arrangement, but knew that it was the best that they could do. He left the mages alone after that to focus on his family instead. He grew close to both of his brothers, and became an enormous part of their lives, especially after their father vanished into the desert when the twins were five.

Shortly after their father's disappearance, Mukhari wandered out into the town by himself in search. By then, both of the twins were already disliked and mistrusted by many. Neither had learned to speak yet, both were eerily quiet, and their very existences caused uneasiness in others. So when the young son of the Sharaks' neighbors turned up dead in the street, with Mukhari nowhere to be found, suspicion immediately turned upon him. Suspicion escalated -- a mob formed -- mother Khalil Sharak took Kherat and locked themselves into their house -- while Korost Sharak ran off in search of Mukhari -- and five-year-old Mukhari eventually wandered back home, alone and unsuspecting. He was attacked by the mob. Korost, only a block away, heard the uproar and rushed back, but not before someone had taken out Mukhari's right eye with a knife. Upon seeing the damage suffered by his brother, Korost Sharak went berserk on the crowd. He allowed Shatter to take control of his body, and had ripped six men to pieces before the mages arrived to subdue the situation.

After that, Mukhari was treated for his injuries, the mages sealed Shatter within Korost, and the Sharaks were shunned as a whole. Korost became even more withdrawn and broody, spending almost all of his time with his brothers. Mukhari, in turn, became scared and jumpy, refusing to leave Korost's side, trusting no one else.

A year after the mob, the Sharaks were still mistrusted and ostracized because of Korost's violent response to the mob. So Korost decided that it would be best for his entire family if he left home for good. He discussed his decision with the Morninglord, the mages whom had sealed him, and his mother, to make his intentions clear -- he was not fleeing criminal charges. He simply did not want to be a threat to the city, or to the well-being of his family.

Mukhari was still too young to fully understand what was happening, but not young enough to miss the fact that the most important person in his world was leaving. So he chased after the caravan that took his brother away from him and, held back at the edge of the city as he watched the wagons roll out, spoke his first word -- screamed it, his brother's name -- to no avail. Korost left Kharta at the age of 15, and that was the last time Mukhari saw him.

However, Mukhari grew up just fine without his older brother's presence. Without his older brother to hide behind, Mukhari was forced to seek peace with the rest of the world. Despite all hardships, he managed to integrate well into society, and slowly transformed from a strange, unsettling child into a bright, cheerful, and outgoing young man, popular and well-liked everywhere that he went. He was not close to his twin brother, simply because the two of them could not be active at the same time, but neither of them were particularly bothered by the absence of the other. That was simply the way things had always been, for as long as either of them could remember.

Under the influence and tutelage of his best friend, Blackened, Mukhari became a doctor (though not a particularly good one). One day he was visited by a company of foreign mercenaries from the neighboring country Sachra, captained by an immortal named Corosa e Ankhar. Other members of the company included Satero e Ankhar, Bariyan e Kodhi, Catsovi e Viciro. Mukhari immediately befriended them, and most of the company took a great liking to him as well. Over time, Mukhari became especially close to Satero e Ankhar.

So when strife suddenly split the original company apart, Mukhari sided with Satero without paying great attention to the circumstances.

Conflict between Satero and Corosa quickly worsened, and Satero's sanity worsened with it. Mukhari remained loyal to Satero first out of friendship, and then -- as Satero started to hunt down and kill his former friends and companions -- out of fear. The conflict between Satero and Corosa eventually escalated to involve the entire city, and ended in the fall of Kharta. And when Satero finally chased Corosa down and cast him into the sea, Mukhari was at Satero's side, watching in silence.

By the end, most of the original company was dead or missing, leaving only Satero, Mukhari, and a mute mage named Stone. They fled the continent and went adventuring together. It did not take them long to draw up immortality contracts with otherworlders: Stone contracted with testaments, while Mukhari was contacted by the heartless, who had come out of curiosity, wanting to meet the younger brother of Shatter's host. (One of Mukhari's first courses of action was to inquire into the whereabouts of his still-missing brother -- but the heartless either did not know, or simply refused to answer.)

During this time, Satero found that he could not make a contract, as he had previously gained immortality through some other means that he himself was not even aware of. The source of his immortality was never discovered, not by himself, nor by any others.

Satero, Mukhari, and Stone continued to travel together for a long period of time, their course of action mostly dictated by Satero's increasingly unpredictable whims. Stone, frustrated and horrified by Satero's warped personality, broke away first. Contact with Stone became scarce from there on out. He eventually committed suicide, but Satero refused to believe that and actively denied Stone's death. Satero's conviction infected Mukhari as well. The end result was that the two of them collectively hallucinated that Stone remained alive and well, and continued to do so for centuries, up to and including the present.

In the meanwhile, Mukhari and Satero usually stuck close together in a rather toxic relationship. Satero's sanity continued to deteriorate over the years, and Mukhari continued to stay by him out of equal parts friendship, concern, and outright fear. Mukhari became the only person whom Satero trusted, the only person who could even hope to handle or calm Satero down in his rages, and the only person who would put up with Satero.

When he was not busy trying to keep Satero sane, Mukhari's own travels took him far and wide, all across the world. Along the way, he developed a great love for music, and joined or started countless bands, taking on different names, disguises, and personas in order to hide his immortality.

This eventually brought him to a city near the coastline, where a talented drummer friend of his lived. It was also a place where he'd heard rumors (from his hallucinated version of Stone) of supernatural unrest. During his investigation of the city, Mukhari discovered that the rumors were true, and were the doing of another immortal -- his former friend Blackened, whom had been one of many casualties during the Fall of Kharta, whom Mukhari and Stone had buried alive all those years ago. In the process of making this discovery, Mukhari accidentally awoke Black from his centuries-long sleep.

Black immediately attempted to kill Mukhari. Mukhari called Satero, and Satero arrived within the day, but the two of them just barely managed to escape with their lives. Black's awakening caused Satero's paranoia to skyrocket, and his personality became more violent and unpleasant than over. That caused Mukhari to flee and seek a more stable source of protection. One that would also protect him from Satero himself.

Mukhari found Bariyan e Kodhi, of Corosa's old company, alive and immortalized and keen on staying out of the other immortals' way so that he could live alone in peace, as he had been doing ever since the fall of Kharta. However, Mukhari managed to win Bariyan over by helping Bariyan reunite with Catsovi e Viciro -- likewise immortalized, and likewise keen on staying far from the other immortals.

Grateful for this (and slightly sympathetic towards Mukhari himself), Bariyan agreed to help Mukhari out where he could. Mukhari has not demanded much out of him (yet) -- so far all he's needed is housing, and occasionally money.

Satero remains alive and at large, insane and alone. Mukhari still checks in on him every so often. Mukhari remains the closest thing that Satero has to a friend.

Character PERSONALITY:

Mukhari is an enormous extrovert. He loves people and he loves friends and he loves socializing. He also enjoys being famous and adored and he lives for the limelight. Unfortunately, being famous and being immortal are two things that should not publicly coincide in his world, so Mukhari has gotten very good at faking his own death and vanishing from the scene. Mukhari has gotten very good at lying.

In general, Mukhari is silly and talkative and relatively friendly. He's a little irresponsible, a little reckless, a lot obnoxious and mischievous -- but certainly not malicious or spiteful. However, none of the above guarantees that he is always nice. Mukhari has gotten into his fair share of arguments and fights, and Mukhari holds his petty grudges just like anyone else. However, he does not hate. He'll yell at you and call you an idiot and bitch about you to anyone who'll listen. He might not invite you along on his bar-hopping adventures, and he might avoid you at parties. In fact, he might not like you very much at all. But he doesn't hate you. Mukhari hates no one.

His refusal to hate is almost to the point of over-compensation -- which it is, in a way. Though now faint in his memory, Mukhari still vaguely recalls the beginnings of his life. He remembers the mob that took out his eye, he remembers his brother's fury, and he remembers the fear and disgust of his neighbors. Back then, Mukhari had been desperate to win over those whom hated him so. To fit in and be normal and have friends like everyone else. So he learned to become friendly and likable, and he learned how to shrug hatred off -- leading to the person he is today.

But somewhere down inside, Mukhari is rather cold and heartless. Before all, before everything else, Mukhari has only one goal: self-preservation. Everything that he does, every action he takes, all of it is colored by his concern for himself and himself only.

So Mukhari's relationships tend to be shaky. In truth, most of them mean very little to him. He engages in a lot of one-night stands, leaves a lot of lovers and friends after he grows tired and bored of them. He loves, but not deeply. Not enough to devote himself to anyone, not enough to sacrifice himself for anyone, not enough to put anything else before his own well-being. Not enough to stop him from using people to achieve his best interests. Mukhari certainly does not intend to be so remorseless. But that is hardly a comforting thought. It only means that Mukhari's brand of thoughtless cruelty is born out of apathy and selfishness.

Mukhari Sharak is also the biggest coward there ever was. In the face of danger, he can be counted on to flee immediately. Again with his self-preservation.

In short, Mukhari only ever does what is convenient for himself, unless terrified into doing otherwise -- aka, presented with an alternative that is even more inconvenient than the original course of action.

However, Mukhari has become slightly more aware of his own failings over the years. He occasionally feels guilty for it. Guilty enough to try and better himself, to try and be a better person, and a better friend. It's slow going, though.

And at the core of it all: Mukhari is terrified of death. This is the reason why Mukhari puts his own well-being above all else, why he is a coward, why he is non-confrontational, and why he is the way he is. The finality of death scares him and makes him sick to the stomach. The fact that he does not know if an afterlife exists, that there is no turning back, that death might just be the end of the line for all of eternity -- these are things that Mukhari Sharak does not like thinking about. But he knows that so long as he is never in danger of dying, he won't have to think about them.

Put another way: Mukhari loves life. He loves being alive. Even after 800 years, Mukhari has yet to grow sick of living and intends to continue existing for thousands of years more. And he will do whatever it takes to do just that.

[ the heartless ]

The creature that possesses him has a personality of its own, though even Mukhari is unsure of what exactly that personality is. From the very few appearances that the heartless has made in Mukhari's life, the heartless can be said to be taciturn, distant, secretive, and highly observant. It also, despite its title, appears to be quite sympathetic towards humanity as a whole, and extremely bewildered by the same.

However, on the few occasions that the heartless has appeared, it was usually to converse with other creatures of its kind. As a result, it is unlikely to make an appearance in Exsilium.

» EXSILIUM INFORMATION

Chosen WEAPON: Mukhari chooses his crazy toothy shadow monsters (aka, the power granted to him by the heartless). But he's probably going to severely regret that decision because that's not actually an ability he really wants to use...
Chosen SKILLSET: Mukhari can fight. Or rather, he can summon his shadow beasties and look on unhappily as they eat everything around him. He doesn't like doing that. He really does not.

However, he used to practice medicine. He kept those skills, refined them down the ages, and gained better medical knowledge along the way too. So now he's sort of an okay medic. Those are the only really useful skills Mukhari would willingly offer up.

Basically, given the choice, Mukhari would much rather stay back from missions and limit himself to just patching the fighters up.

» SAMPLES

First PERSON:
[ text. ]

motherFUCKER! WHAT'S A GUY GOTTA DO TO BE LEFT ALONE AROUND HERE, HUH? just yesterday i was walking to the park and some crazy man's like hey, kid, buy me a hamburger, and i'm a big old bleeding heart of course and he looks like he's STARVING so i say okay, sure, there's a place right around the corner. so i get there, right? i get there and i buy him a burger and believe me it's the most fucking delicious looking thing to have ever graced this life OR the next one and i'm practically drooling but wait, this shit ain't for me. but this guy, he's like, fuck you, prick! i don't like tomatoes! and then he takes the burger and he throws it away

I WAS HUNGRY! I WANTED THAT BURGER TOO! ALSO, IT WAS LIKE FIVE BUCKS! FUCK YOU, HOMELESS GUY!

but the point is, the point, all i'm saying is, WHY CAN'T YALL JUST LEAVE ME ALONE? i don't want to have to buy no homeless people burgers anymore OR get dragged into strange homeless people universes to fight your strange homeless people wars NEITHER. you're not homeless people you say? I DON'T CARE. YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE HOMELESS PEOPLE TO ME. I MEAN, MAYBE YOU ARE. I DON'T KNOW. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU PEOPLE ARE. WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE. NO, REALLY, WHO. talk to me folks uncle mukhari's got nothin better to do he's a-drunk and a-listenin

[ a little while later ]

also i got nothin against homeless people myself just sayin just in case you got the wrong impression or somethin

i mean i was homeless myself for a really long time so i know what it's like

homeless people are cool too sometimes

it's a hard life being homeless i understand i got you

Third PERSON:
Mukhari breaks into their house months after the fact. He doesn't have a plan, and he doesn't have a reason. It is just something that he has to do.

He remembers the place. Before the whole thing went to pieces. He remembers vines crawling up the walls and plants taking over almost every square inch of the interior, dogs barking and scrabbling in the kitchen, curtains thrown wide open for the sunlight to drift through, slower than molasses, lazy like Saturday mornings. And, for a while, they'd been content.

The plants are long dead and the dogs gone and the sunlight beats fists against windowpanes and curtains heavy with dust. Mukhari walks through the hallways and runs his hands carelessly over the walls, the banisters, the cupboards, anything he can reach, seeking out that warmth and kindness that had been offered to him here in kinder days. But it's gone. All of it. Not a bit left. Not even memories, because what Mukhari has are memories of memories. Memories that feel more like dreams, with the intrinsic property that they are quickly forgotten. He likes it better that way. Pretend that none of it happened and that things have always been as broken as they are today, pretend that the better days are ahead of him. Not behind.

He won't admit sadness because admitting sadness would be admitting that it had all been real, the plants and the dogs and the sunlight, having to ring the doorbell ten times before anyone answered, sleeping on the couch and on the carpet and on the stairs, taking the dogs out on five AM runs and tracking mud all over the freshly-scrubbed floors, drinking all the beer and throwing up in the bathtub and talking to Bariyan about Satero and crying like he hadn't since Soothe died and he can't think about it anymore because the more he remembers the more he forgets, and he has precious little to give up these days.

He'd been happy here. He'd been safe.

Now Bariyan's gone and Catsovi's changed and Mukhari is on the run again. And he ran back here, straight into locked doors and dark rooms and the hostile emptiness of neglect and decay, like he'd been hoping that there'd be someone here, anyone.

But of course not. Not even ghosts.

After a while, Mukhari breaks back out of the house to leave the way he came.

» ADDITIONAL NOTES

• I requested and received permission from Haley to app a 4th character! (Though he'll probably become my 3rd character soon, I'm planning to drop one of the other ones)

• (On interaction with the other OCs I play:) as before with Satero JUST GONNA continue saying that Mukhari and Bariyan manage to miss each other on the network and in-person so that I don't have to self-thread. And I'm pretty certain that I'm going to drop Satero soon, so Mukhari and Satero should never meet in Exsilium!

• ALSO, if possible, can Mukhari bring his guitar with him? He holds on to that thing for dear life.