application - tushanshu

[tangentdarko]

Player Information:
Name: Ange
Age: 24
Contact: thedarkfields
Game Cast: none

Character Information:
Name: Donnie Darko
Canon: Donnie Darko
Canon Point: Just prior to his death at the end of the film, which takes place after Donnie experiences the Tangent Universe, then realizes he has to close it and almost dies by the jet engine (aka, he experienced the whole movie, then went back in time and almost died; canon).
Age: 16
Reference: Wiki

Setting:
Virginia in the 1980s. Donnie Darko takes place in a real world version of Earth, with the only difference being the existence of time travel in an extremely controlled environment only by those who can recognize it (he, Roberta Sparrow, and Frank are the only ones who know about it and Roberta isn’t able to access it).

Noteable persons in his tiny corner of the universe include Sparkle Motion (his little sister’s dance team), Jim Cunningham (inspirational speaker slash child pornography addict), and Grandma Death (Roberta Sparrow, an old woman who lives in an old house and seems crazy; she wrote the book that helped Donnie discover time travel for himself).

Details of time travel:
Everyone exists within the Primary Universe. When, in a rare instance, a hole is ripped in the Fourth Dimension (Time), a Tangent Universe is created. This universe is enormously unstable and will correct itself in a very limited period of time (just over 28 days in canon).

A Vessel is needed to travel from the Primary Universe to the Tangent Universe. A piece of the Vessel (in canon, an airplane) is often the first sign of the creation of a Tangent Universe; this metal object of some kind (the jet engine) is called an Artifact and arrives in the now Tangent Universe without logical explanation outside of time travel.

The Living Receiver (Donnie) is the person in the Tangent Universe tasked with trying to restore the Universe back to the Primary Universe. Those around him, the Manipulated, are prone to irrationality and violence and will do everything in their power to hurt and kill the Receiver in order to avoid their own demise. From Roberta Sparrow's book, The Philosophy of Time Travel:

The Living Receiver is often blessed with a Fourth Dimensional Powers. These include increased strength, telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water.

The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams, visions and auditory hallucinations during his time within the Tangent Universe.

If a person dies within the Tangent Universe, s/he is known as the Manipulated Dead (Frank) and is given supernatural powers in order to help the Receiver guide the Artifact back to the Primary Universe. They are able to break the Fourth Dimension in order to, as mentioned, destroy the Tangent Universe.

The Fourth Dimension is rarely seen. When it is, it is demonstrated by water and generally appears as “spears” of sorts coming out of a person's chest to show their course of action/future. Time is not malleable or easily influenced. Frank has no power over time itself other than to arrive and depart in order to communicate with Donnie; that is, he cannot change the chronological order of the Tangent Universe. Neither can Donnie, Gretchen, or anyone else.

When the Primary Universe is restored, most of the Manipulated will not remember the Tangent Universe; some do. Many of the strongest Manipulated will feel some sense of guilt or connection despite having no conscious memories of the events (ie Gretchen waving to Mrs Darko).

Personality:
Donnie is a very self-involved individual. He cares more about his own interests and the fantasy world he's created than his family, image/reputation, or academics and other long-term successes. He prefers his own company in general, but tries to keep a couple friends at the advice of his therapist and because sometimes he likes someone to listen to and distract himself from his own thoughts. The boy hates being alone, but has difficulty connecting with most other people his age because of his intelligence and his psychological issues, which create a general disconnect between him and a basic understanding of societal workings. He's an idealist in that he often has fantasies of the way things should be and has very little stock in reality; this is perhaps why he is so disinterested in academics and in setting goals.

He suffers from some symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. That is, delusions and hallucinations (sometimes paranoid) without the affect and such. He was never diagnosed (especially being 16), but displays some hints and saw a therapist about it. Because of this, he can sometimes have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality and may have trouble being genuinely social or open. He suffers from insomnia on occasion and often sleepwalks. This only adds to his feeling of shame and the occasional embarrassment he feels about being different. His only real shame in being different, in the end, is his deep fear of being and dying alone. He doesn't care to be like everyone else because he doesn't see what he could be missing, but solely because he wants someone to share his life with. His inadequacy empathizing with people combined with a fear of failing creates a generally ambivalent and temperamental mood that makes it difficult to balance his desire to have friends with his penchant for being antisocial.

Donnie has a tendency to lie when it suits his needs, helping to cover for how different he is in his manners of thinking. These differences are only compounded by his lack of remorse, particularly in lying. He'll lie primarily to fit in, but also because he realized at a young age that he faced less consequences if he lied about certain things and tried to act normal (operant conditioning is a powerful tool). Simultaneously, if he believes a person to be trustworthy (or extraordinary in select ways), he will trust them fairly easily. He has yet to experience any severe betrayal of his trust that would change that willingness to trust people and thus may be manipulated with relative ease.

Because he has difficulty understanding the feelings of others, he can be harsh, blunt, or tactless. His manner of speaking is that of a child strung together with eloquent vocabulary and intellectual ideas. Donnie's mind is advanced such that he simultaneously works at a more basic level. Because he does not understand the in between, Donnie tends to react to emotions immaturely and is perhaps less subtle about things like anger and sexual desire than he probably should be. That is, he understands complex topics and his brain problem solves at an advanced level, but his social skills and emotional development have stalled as a result.

Critical of the faults of others, he holds himself to the same standards and may get upset if he can't meet them, even though they are inconsistent. Sometimes he will convince himself of the difficulties or a situation to have an excuse not to participate in it or may instead exaggerate a circumstance to garner additional attention (only to specific people, however). Overall, he's a relatively lazy boy and often has difficulty focusing on specific things. Despite his intelligence, he doesn't particularly excel in school because he just doesn't care. So long as he has someone he feels he can talk to and is otherwise left alone, Donnie doesn't much care about interacting with anyone and prefers to keep to himself rather than risk the scorn of the average teenager (he has a history of being bullied).

He is opinionated and rebellious, sometimes getting in trouble for having his own (admittedly adamant and outspoken) opinions. While he is often apathetic, the times he has opinions, he has them strongly and that is why he is more inclined to argue for them. He's otherwise lethargic, though not entirely out of shape, and enjoys just lounging around or hanging out with friends rather than specifically doing any one thing or hobby (reading and drawing are what he prefers to do on his own most often). Because he is a genius in some ways, he can get extremely impatient with people when they're talking about stupid things or not understanding what he considers to be obvious (related to science, math, and even random topics such as smurfs, not himself).

Donnie is more introspective and inverted than observant, extroverted, or outgoing. That said, he may randomly converse with strangers when in a particular state of mind. He's rarely firm in his beliefs and, even when “devoted” to a cause, he can be distracted or swayed from it unless there is repetitive exposure/reminder. That is, he will be outspoken about a firm belief when he has one, but may be swayed from that and be outspoken again; the boy doesn't fear being hypocritical.

Donnie is used to something between reality and fantasy, so the world he arrives in will not be too remarkably disorienting to him. He will likely believe it to be a necessary result of his ending the Tangent Universe, given his role in the whole process, and will approach it with the same confused ambivalence that he approaches most of the situations in his life with. Still, given his fear of being alone, he'll be quick to try to attach himself to others and to cling to those who show any liking or interest of him. Donnie doesn't do well with the idea of death, especially after witnessing Gretchen die, and will show a general reticence and fear to being so close to what could be the end.

That is, he will be alright with the strangeness of the world in general, but will be completely uncomfortable with and afraid of being around such death and isolation.

Appearance:
A young Jake Gyllenhaal.

Abilities:
Generally none. Donnie has certain powers as part of his nature of being the one to exist in the Tangent Universe, arguably granted by Frank, such as increased strength (allowing him to drive the axe into the bronze bulldog’s head), but he’s not consciously aware of any of them and can’t use them outside of the Tangent Universe. He can also see the channels through which Time exists and travels through time using a specific method of transportation following a specific channel, but that, again, probably won’t be relevant here. He may have hallucinations/delusions of such things, but they will not likely be accurate.

Inventory: His pajamas.

Suite: Water Section somewhere..

In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
It was a nice day, again, in Middlesex and Donnie found himself, again, with his friends on the hill, killing time after class. ‘Killing time.’ The words made him think about what Ms Pomeroy would have to say on the matter and ‘cellar door’ and Frank and Gretchen Ross and nearly being killed in the bathroom and all the rest of it. Could one actually kill time? It seemed like the kind of thing that Frank could do, if anyone could. Like something Frank would do. ‘28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.’

Ron and Sean’s worthless banter about Smurfette returned his wandering mind to the matter at hand. Donnie lifted the rifle without effort, taking aim at the coke and bourbon bottles that sat atop the old car wreckage not far from them. He fired off the one shot, feeling the kick back into his shoulder with affectionate familiarity. The sound of glass breaking hit his ears before he slid open the chamber and tilted it to drop out the empty shell, pushing in one more.

“Smurfette doesn’t fuck,” he mumbled to his friends, without really paying attention.

Then the kid readied the rifle to fire again, taking aim. He couldn’t help but sharpen his focus and begin actually listening to what his friends were talking about: Smurf gangbangs and Vanity’s sexual orientation. His second shot was a miss and his frustration began to wax eternal at their banter.

Readying another shot, he tried to ignore his two well-meaning chums, but the incredulity of their random speculations got the better of him. He dropped the tip of the rifle and spun around to face them, lifting a hand to stop their dialogue.

“First of all,” he began, withdrawing a bottle of bourbon from his back pocket. “Papa Smurf didn’t create Smurfette. Gargamel did. She was sent in as Gargamel’s evil spy!” Obviously. “With the intention of destroying the Smurf Village. But the overwhelming goodness of the Smurf way of life transformed her.” He unscrewed the lid and moved as if to take a sip, but stopped halfway.

“And as for the whole gangbang scenario!” Donnie gave an exasperated scoff. “It just couldn’t happen. Smurfs are asexual. They don’t even have--” he gestured vaguely at his own crotch “--reproductive organs under those little white pants.”

He finally sipped the alcohol, but again stopped abruptly as a new thought emerged. “That’s what’s so illogical, you know, about being a Smurf. What’s the point of living, if you don’t have a dick?”

Network:
This isn't how I pictured Hell. I was afraid of what it would be like and of what would happen after I died. Frank said it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. It was just the end of that parallel.. of the Tangent Universe. Grandma Death knew what would happen then, but I don't think she would have pictured this.

I don't want to live through October again.

I hope wherever this is is better than the shithole I lived in before.. I don't know if I can go back to 'cellar door' and Sparkle Motion.