herwings

So, one of Death's abilities, or... whatever you would call it, is that she knows everybody from her universe, or at least their names, on sight.

Which, although there aren't any other Sandman characters in Facility currently, does mean something here, despite all the people who ar

OOC Information:
Name: Scott
Age: 19
AIM: scott_mechler@yahoo.com
MSN: none
Y!M: none
E-MAIL: scott_mechler@yahoo.com

IC Information:

Name: Death, occasionally also known as Didi

Fandom: Sandman

Timeline: After the events of Sandman: The Wake

Age: physically around 18 or 19, actually Endless.

Appearance: Though Death is only slightly younger than life itself, physically she appears very young, in her late teens. She has pale, nearly white skin, and wide, almond-shaped eyes. She's fairly slender, and one of the most noticeable features about her is her hair, which, like most superficial things about her appearance, changes wildly but is generally some sort of extreme or another. Her clothing also varies, but follows a general theme of black, and she often wears a simple chain pendant with a silver ankh on the end, sometimes with matching earrings. She wears makeup, usually black lipstick and thick eyeliner around her eyes, as well as painted nails which she usually grows very long.

Abilities: This is actually fairly tricky. In canon, Death performs her function, essentially popping up whenever someone is dying or recently dead and having a little chat with them before they go. She helps them move on, though the comic never actually shows the actual process happening, usually she pulls the person into a hug or seems to be about to kiss them, and occasionally a "sound of wings" is mentioned. She says at one point that she is everywhere at once, appearing to everybody personally, and she seems to know at least a little bit about every person that she goes to collect, presumably everyone in her own universe (it's worth noting that Sandman technically takes place in the DC comics universe, so in Facility, Death will know anyone from that particular universe at least by name). Her ability to "teleport" doesn't seem limited to where she needs to be, either, she often pops up to have a talk with one of her siblings, usually her brother Dream, another endless and the protagonist of Sandman.

In terms of her appearance, Death's clothing, hair and minor accessories also appear to change at her will. She's able to bring small things like a top hat, cane, pot of tea or umbrella into existence at will. She's also capable of walking among mortals without them noticing her, except those close to death. it's made clear in the books that only very specific things can harm or affect Endless, and that all supernatural beings such as Endless or gods or angels are stronger when in their home realms or performing their given purpose. (For instance, the entirety of the Norse pantheon could not harm Dream in his realm, though he was captured by a mortal while traveling through Earth. Dream was later killed by the Three Furies of Greek myth in his own realm, because they were performing their given duty to slay those who harm their family members.)

Death is never actually involved in any "combat" in any of the books, though she probably would be powerful if challenged. In the books, a two-hundred year old witch named Thessaily notes that Death is the most powerful of the Endless, since she is "bound by no rules". She generally doesn't get involved in that sort of thing, however, so it's unlikely that anything like that would happen at all, except in self defense.
Personality: In her own words, Death is "neither merciful nor cruel", she just is. She's a person with a job to do, which she does because she loves all mortal life.

She gets along well with nearly everyone, though she gets irritated by defeatist or depressing people rather easily. She's extremely bubbly and perky, and she does show a lot of kindness, willing to help people through their problems or help them. She often gets involved with the people she collects, though she never "saves" anyone's life, she has convinced someone not to kill themselves and live out the rest of their life. On the other side of the spectrum, however, she has helped someone to die who couldn't, a superheroine made unwillingly by the god Ra, who was nearly indestructible and immortal, and couldn't bear to make more friends and watch them die.

She is often very flirty and romantic with the people she collects as well, and it's fairly clear that the love she feels for everyone goes beyond just platonic affection and kindness. She loves mortal things, like clothes, little toys, movies, and the laws of physics, and often plays around with them for fun, because she finds them amusing. She's a particularly big fan of the disney film Mary Poppins, and quotes it and sings the songs often.


History: Time began. In that same instant, in a universe newly created, the spine of Destiny's book crackled as it was turned to the first page, and he began to write, the first and eldest Endless. When the first life was created, along with it came Dream, the second-born eldest, and the instant after, when that first life ended, Death came into being. Those three were the elders, and the others didn't come for quite a long while, not until the little bundles of cells became large, crawling masses, thinking, wanting bundles of life that sought after food, or sex, or continuation of the species. It was then that Desire came into being. And when those species began to collapse, and when the creatures on all the worlds they watched over began to realize that their lives were finite, began to fear Death and know its inevitability, then dark Despair was born, feeding off that power and growing it. To offset Despair, joyous Delight appeared.

Later, though, when the living things came to know the wrath of nature, chaotic Destruction raged across their psyches, and caused a rift among the Endless. He was unwilling to stay and perform his duties with them, he disliked the damage he caused the worlds and the creatures living on them, and as the age of man began and their weapons and tools began to shape the world even more than his nature, he departed from the Endless, hiding away from them for what he hoped would be eternity. Delight, unable to face the loss of her favorite sibling, descended into Delirium, and as the minds of living things began to grow more complex, she offered another escape from Despair, one that those she held dominion over would claim was even better than before.

It wasn't until the age of man that things got truly interesting for Death and the Endless, however. Before, Death had collected only living things, but from the minds and beliefs of mankind were spawned innumerable deities, creatures of legend and myth, created and kept alive by stories and rituals, and killed by forgetful, fickle minds. Death collected them all, in their time.

It's not known when Death first began to interact with the people she collected. She loved them, like she loved all life, but their beliefs shaped even her, to an extent. She took a human form more and more often, thought and felt like a human being might, and began to love mortal life so much that to truly appreciate the life she took, she would become mortal once a century, a mortal fated to die that same day.
She began to get more involved in the lives she was tasked with taking. Once, in the fourteenth century, her and her brother Dream overheard a man saying that he had decided not to die. The pair decided that was an amusing idea, and Death granted him eternal life, while Dream offered to meet the man in the same spot once every hundred years, to check up on him. The pair of them eventually became as close to "friends" as one of the Endless can have, though Death never spoke to him.

Several times, mortals have attempted to gain immortality by ransoming Death, either when she's mortal for a day or in her Endless form. Using a magic ritual, the leader of a powerful cult at the turn of the twentieth century tries to capture Death but fails, ensnaring Dream for nearly seventy years. After his release, Death found him, depressed that taking revenge on his captor didn't bring him any satisfaction, and she scolded and consoled him, getting him back up off his feet and taking him along with her as she collected souls. Seeing her take so much joy in what she did made Dream aware of his purpose again, and it cheered him up.

Much of Death's life throughout Sandman is a constant compared to that of Dream. She does occasionally appear to cheer him up, or offer advice, and she appears to several of the mortal characters in the story, but mostly she plays the part of the stable, consoling younger sister to her brooding older brother. In The Kindly Ones, she offers to help her brother escape the furies, tells him to come and hide in her realm, but he refuses, and later on she has to collect him, when he dies. They have a short conversation, she asks for his hand, and at the same instant that incarnation of Dream is destroyed, another is created, from a mortal child named Daniel, whom Death is also friendly and nurturing towards.

Roleplay Sample - Log: Death waited.

She sat on the bed, her eyes (green, today, she was in a spring mood) flicking to every available object.

Walls: White.

Bed: white.

Closet, white, desk, white, floor, white...

"This is utterly the most boring place I've ever seen. There's not even anyone dying, why am I even here?"

Death hopped up, impatient, and simply vanished, reappearing with her face pressed up against the dome of the biodome.

"The hell is this?"

She backed up, a little bit, putting one hand out experimentally, shoving it forward as if she expected it to pass right through. It didn't, and one of her elegant nails cracked, bleeding a little.

"OW.

Ow?"

She looked at her hand, now a little concerned.

"Shouldn't be another forty-seven years until the next time I'm..."

Images flashed through her head. The ancient ritual, the circle her brother had been trapped in for so long, his items of power stolen from him, his realm collapsing.... with Dream, the world had plunged into ordinary chaos, widespread but largely unnoticed by the waking world except in the form of world wars, unrest, change, absence of the respite of true dreaming.

If Death was truly imprisoned, though.... it wouldn't be long before everything fell apart.

Pleasantries could happen later. Looking around, it was clear there were others trapped here, prisoners... or guards, either way she'd find what she needed to know. Her face set in an unusually hard expression, she marched up to the nearest person, seizing them by the front of their shirt.

"Where have I been taken, and who holds me prisoner outside my realm?"

Roleplay Sample - Journal: (Written in first person, IC, as though it were a journal entry.)

Since coming here, my dreams have been a blank slate, brother. You truly cannot reach me here, and I can't even access my own realm.

But seeing as this body needs sleep annoyingly often, I've decided to write on the slate.

They've made me human, brother, and it's a strange sensation. I've been mortal, but only one day at a time, never long enough to feel real... hunger, or thirst. The chemicals rushing around inside you make it a whole new experience... it's fascinating as much as it is strange.

The people here are different, as well, some of them as strange as creatures created in your realm, Dream. The likes of which I've never collected. All this novelty is quite a shock.

There's another Death here, as well. The misconception, grim and skeletal. I am displeased with him, he's failed to take up my duties in my absence and did not even recognize me. Disturbing, to say the least.

The humans, though... you know my predisposition towards mortals. It's unchanged here, and with this body, that love takes on a new dimension, one I'm not sure I'm quite ready for. I'll have to consider this long and hard.

Until next we meet, Dream. I'll have this ready for you, in case you manage to break through in my body's sleep.

I stand in my gallery and hold your sigil, Dream. Speak to me, please.

This game includes horrible mental and physical torture of your character. After reading the rules/faq for clarification, how do you expect your character to handle this and continue to function? Death has been here before, and has had problems with the experiments. She has never had the experience of having anything forced on her, or having to kneel to anyone. The single time that anyone might have had a chance to snare and possibly hold her against her will (see history) they caught her brother instead. She had trouble dealing before, but she managed to forge closer relationships with the mortals and tried to be a comfort to them. She put on a facade of taking things in stride, though it rattled her severely to not be in control and to be forced to live and feel on other peoples' terms. She's experienced pain and death before, in the mortal bodies she's borrowed through the centuries, so the physical aspect isn't an issue, but the assault on her dignity will be difficult to swallow, and for the first time she may have to rely on mortals rather than her siblings for support. She's used to mothering, it'll be interesting to see how she deals with being comforted herself.


Questions? Comments? Crazed and creative statements? Those go here. Ok. So I guess the trickiest thing with Death is exactly how you nerf her. With my previous character who required it, it was fairly easy to "nerf all abilities 50 percent" while he was wearing the collar, because he had a concrete set of abilities that already cost him a certain amount of effort.

Death's abilities are never fully covered. It's hinted that she's extremely powerful, but she never seems to use those abilities often, she doesn't interfere or fight or save people or damn them, she just is. My proposed nerf for her, F1, would be simply to give her a physical body, vulnerable to harm. This way, she's not an invincible endless, she's susceptible to pain and experiments and the predations of her other rats, and she can only be in one place at once. The only problem I'd have with a percentage nerf is how to actually implement that with her more minor abilities. Obviously she'd be unable to break out of the facility by force, but IC I doubt she'd even try. Death is patient, after all.

Feel free to ignore this if you want, I just thought I'd put it out there as a possibility.