Application @ exitvoid

[hellolisteners]

player.
NAME/HANDLE: AnNika
PERSONAL JOURNAL: bread
ARE YOU 16 OR OVER?: yyyyy
CONTACT: (AIM) Maypie Lord, yeastofeden
OTHER CHARACTERS: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad permissible


character.
CHARACTER NAME: Cecil
SERIES: Welcome to Night Vale, All podcasts here, and Character specific
CANON POINT: After First Date
AGE: Unstated; I'd say around 30
APPEARANCE: In the words of Kevin from Desert Bluffs, Cecil is "not tall or short, not thin or fat, he has eyes like mine and a nose like mine, and hair like mine!" So at least we know he has a nose, hair, and eyes!!! --Cecil is never described physically in canon, so a lot of the time it falls to headcanoned appearances. I personally will be running under the assumption that Cecil is light skinned and light haired (as is the most popular head canon), wears glasses, and is tattooed along the arms; I won't be including the popular 'third eye' many are fond of, as I feel it makes the most sense for Cecil to look seemingly very normal.

PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY:N/A

PERSONALITY:
"Rabbits are not what they seem to be," Cecil mutters dramatically into the microphone. This, my friends, is a perfect way to introduce what sort of character we are dealing with: dramatic, occasionally funny, and oftentimes odd. Cecil, the announcer for Night Vale's local radio news station, is *very* odd. He doesn't believe in mountains, he doesn't find it odd that a male floating cat can give birth, and he finds a little flesh-eating germ, with sun hat and library book, using a screaming semi-skeletal human victim as a beach chair to be very adorable. But please, don't let his oddities get in the way of what a swell guy Cecil can be.

As I mentioned, Cecil is a broadcaster, and he absolutely loves his job. During the entire series, actually, he is inside of his studio reading prompts. Cecil is far from a boring news reporter, and not just because the news in Night Vale is so peculiar. Cecil just has a knack for storytelling, often giving each account in great detail. In The Whispering Forest, as Cecil tells the story of Larry Leroy's peculiar visit to the forest, he dramatically changes to a high-pitched, almost childlike voice as he delivers the forest's lines. In A Story About You, Cecil takes the time to, in great detail, bring to life the adventures of an unknown man living in Night Vale, and his detailed description of events in Night Vale are numerous, frequently telling his stories with deeper, darker details that can bring chills: "The complete freedom, the lack of consequence: it terrifies you," said as he explains, illustrating that the man had given up everything, and it had not yet come back to haunt him.

Cecil is nearly always determined to ensure that the news gets out. In Station Management, as station management is ACTUALLY hunting him down, an intern does not return upon investigating what is happening. Cecil, while hiding under his desk in fear for his life, shakily reports the intern's probable death, and also his condolences, BUT NOT WITHOUT REPORTING on the upcoming dead citizen's impersonation contest, and its date and time. Look at him go, reporting the news even when his life is at stake. There is one instance when Cecil fails to report the news like he should, as a whirling black vortex appears in the studio. He acknowledges that he still has a job to do, but is compelled to investigate.

Broadcasts are not always odd. Sometimes, they can be completely terrifying. That is to say, the things Cecil talks about are things that any person might think in an average day. In The Shape in Grove Park, Cecil wonders if he may very well be the only person in this universe, and in one of Target's sponsor ads, he carefully describes the heat passing from a man's hand as he dies before his loved ones. In Memories of Europe, Cecil describes the parting of ways between two lovers: "where this thing between you that seemed so possible now already and forever never was." And boy, he does not leave a single thing left unshaken.

Night Vale, being very strange that it is, is where Cecil grew up, so the strange things that happen frequently in Night Vale are hardly considered abnormal to him, and he seems unbothered by things that would normally terrify someone. In the Shape in Grove Park, while announcing said shape's most recent activity, the intern working there is vaporized before his very eyes. Cecil barely flinches, reporting it almost as it happens before him, and with equally unchanging attitude, expresses mourning for the loss of a good intern--I should note this happens a lot… A lot of interns go missing, and more often than not, Cecil can only sadly announce their disappearance, and his regret. Also, I mentioned the cat, didn't I? Khoshekh, the male cat in the men's bathroom, meows like the cthulu. Yet despite this fact, Cecil still finds him very cute.

Having lived in Night Vale for most of his life, Cecil appears to have an extremely warped view of the world as well. Previously mentioned, Cecil does not believe in mountains; he is a mountain "skeptic." He has seen one mountain, and is still not if they exist, or if mountain sympathisers simply built a mountain to assuage the defiant rebellion the Night Vale studios. Other things that Cecil does not believe in, or has mistakenly acknowledged when he was not supposed to: the shape in Grove Park; clouds and how they work; the history of Night Vale; the strange communication habits of station management; the moon; and other things that you, for your own safety, should probably never read about or be exposed to

Cecil is not always a dark and mysterious reporter, by no means!! In fact, Cecil can be quite friendly at times. His voice can go from the monotone news-to-be-told droning, to a quick and peppy sort of attitude. He's polite to his interns, and seems to get along with them as can be inferred from his happy receiving of Dana's messages from planes-unknown. Just as the whispering forest complimented Larry Leroy's well-kept beard, Cecil too joined in on the compliments, remarking kindly that it had "a full, even blanket of soft-looking peppery wisdom, comforting his wise, noble face." Cecil might say weird things, but all in all he's a reasonably good guy.

Cecil is not so twisted, either. During The Sandstorm Dana, an intern, is killed by another Dana (it is unknown to us which is the duplicate), and Cecil is confused, borderline terrified by the occurrence. Later, Cecil finds himself inside another radio station that is covered in various bodily horrors that need not be repeated. Cecil is absolutely appalled. The fear drips from his voice as he describes the intense and disgusted feeling within him, asking himself if the low hum he is hearing is his own heart pounding. And, at facing his own possible death in Station Management, Cecil's voice shakes like a leaf.

He also lives and abides by the rules of the town, meaning that he believes his strange and twisted government are only there for the benefit of society. Never mind that apparently the government in Night Vale created AIDS, food allergies, and a few other diseases to root out "unsavoury" population. He knows this full well, and trusts their decisions. He also only reads government approved books, and when the city council announces that they are leaving on a "long since planned" vacation in Street Cleaning Day, barely flinches in retort, merely accepting that simply no one had remembered hearing about it. Cecil supports his government, and when Steve Carlsberg attempts to send a fax to the station in regards to a freak sandstorm, Cecil openly criticizes him for "government bashing." The only instance of Cecil not supporting the government is saying that he believed a certain five-headed dragon had every right to run for Mayor. He does, however, voice his support for Mayor Pamela Winchell as well, even if citizens do not always agree with her policies. Cecil isn't one to intentionally break the law, so one could infer that Cecil is a relatively "good person," aside from all the strangeness that encompasses his personality.

One very drastic difference from his standard personality is when Cecil is excited about things. His pitch rises and he becomes uncontrollably giddy, talking with a 'like oh my gosh you HAVE to send me those videos' tone, which, in this case, was when he was watching an adorable video of a cat jumping into boxes. Cecil also does this frequently when referring to Carlos the Scientist, his love interest throughout the series, which means he does sometimes turn into a gabbing, love-struck, teenage girl. In fact, Cecil can come off as somewhat obsessive when he gets on about Carlos.

All in all, Cecil isn't too too strange, for all his misguided beliefs and his easy acceptance of the abnormal. He is friendly and well spoken, with a voice like honeysuckle. He absolutely loves reporting the news, putting his whole heart into his job, and dreamily discussing his love life. Never mind that he grew up in a much stranger town than what's normal.


ABILITIES: None!! Maybe… As far as we know, Cecil has no abnormal powers. If he does, it's his amazing ability to report real-time news as it happens without error. A Story About You being the best example,

POSSESSIONS:
Anything you might normally have on your person when going out of the house: clothes, wristwatch, wallet, glasses. Standard stuff. Also a microphone and head sets.


samples.
JOURNAL ENTRY SAMPLE:
Hello, Night Vale? Well, this is Cecil coming to you live from I-don't-know-where. I can only assume this is another one of Station Management's intensive training exercises, given I still have some of my equipment. There are, unfortunately, no prompts in my possession, so I can only assume my job today is to report the news as it is happening in front of me right now.

There is a gathering. Men and women all are standing, facing one direction as they watch a train coast by. Their faces are confused, befuddled, clearly none of them expected to be taking the train today. They all look in union, some to their left, some to their right. They are alone, truly alone, surrounded by nothing by unfamiliar faces, and each of them realizes all at once that something is not right. This is not where they need to be. The vacancy of the platform is proof enough, and the only chance they ever had to escape is now rolling away, steam bellowing out of its smoke stack. It seems unlikely we will never see that train again. Fear settles in like a black smoke, the bitter cold finally biting at our ears and noses. Some of us cry out, others do not. Some of us have friends here, but does having friends here make us any less alone? The journey we are about to embark on is a path we cannot always walk together, after all.

Overhead, a monotone announcer, not unlike my own, speaks to the new arrivals. "Welcome," it says, "to Zeilen."


Additionally, covering his more colloquial speech, there was a thread on the test drive

THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE:
Cecil came to work feeling absolutely exhausted. While he had a good date, and his bowels jittered with excitement to tell his radio audience about the wonderful evening, sleep was not an easy thing to come by in Night Vale. Two things kept him up. One, which he was certain was the main cause of it, was the giddy and exuberated feeling in his chest. 'A kiss!' he'd sighed to himself, barely able to contain his girlish sighs. The other reason, of course, was the low, deafening hum coming from outside his house that refused to disperse, and would often grow impossibly loud. The front door had shaken and banged against the lock, rattling fiercely as whatever it was outside desperately tried to get in. The windows shook as shadowy figures clattered against his window. Cecil had jumped once the first time it happened, and from then on was anxious about his door bursting open and a black void stepping in to consume him as well. They had, after all, almost swallowed him up on the drive home at least once--probably more.

But, yes, he was sure the welling and uncontrollable anxiety he felt all through the night was just an addition of romantic nervousness atop the usual nightly fears. The eminent danger was gone by morning, and things seemed normal once more.

He moved around the office, first stopping in to greet the new intern as he prepared his coffee. New faces were always a nice thing to have around the office, he thought, and didn't like the days without the interns nearly as much as with. He then very daintily knocked on the front door of Station Management. "Hello!!" He shouted, "I'm here!!" He was greeted with nothing, and presumed that meant they were glad he finally arrived. He recalled being late once, a grave and terrible mistake he swore he would never, ever make again. He shuttered a moment as he recalled.

With coffee in hand and stooped patiently over, he read over his lines. There wasn't much today, and he was glad for that. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to cover most of it. And then: Carlos. Though after daydreaming a moment, something struck him as odd, as he had read nothing on it in the prompts. Cecil sat up and called to the intern.

"Do you remember anything about dark shadowy figures yesterday?" The intern declined. Cecil frowned thoughtfully, but thought nothing of it. Random memory loss is, as he reasoned, not uncommon in Night Vale. He shrugs, "Nevermind, then. I'm sure it doesn't matter."