Caleb Teague

Tags:	application, redtape
Subject:	redtape application
Time:	11:14 pm

OOC INFO

NAME: Colleen
AGE: 20
E-MAIL: triple7lies@gmail.com
AIM: illogicallyyours
TIME ZONE: EST
CHARACTER JOURNAL:

resentful_aid

IC INFO

NAME: Caleb Maxwell Teague. Caleb is the primary personality (I'll explain later), Max (definately not Maxwell, unless you're looking to be maimed) is the secondary, violent personality.
AGE: 32
FAMILY: Pulindaka, Monish's familiar
OCCUPATION: None. I suppose 'psychological patient' or 'vagabond' would work well enough. After the contract, he'll likely be Monish's gopher, of sorts.
ORIGIN: Ardara, Ireland
LOCATION: Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Psychiatric Ward

PB: Jude Law
APPEARANCE: One, Two, Three. At just barely 6' (5'10" if he's honest), and 80kg (~180 lbs) Caleb is far from physically imposing. He looks more likely to try and bribe his way out of a violent situation, than to try and fight- probably an accurate assumption, given his lifetime of being the bean-pole of the schoolyard. He dresses relatively fashionably, for those in the apathetic British Underground crowd- band t-shirts, blazers, and jeans are a typical fare. He owns suits, he's pretty sure, he just couldn't tell you where they were. He has a tattoo of the Teague coat of arms on his right forearm. As of the start of the game, he'll have fresh bruises and cuts from a barfight which landed him in the psych ward in the first place, but nothing drastic enough to scar or cause real alarm.

PERSONALITY: The topic of Caleb's personality is a difficult one. Mostly because not all of it is his, in the strictest sense. Caleb suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, a psycological condition that causes him to experience the world as two distinct people.

Caleb is his primary personality, that has existed before the break. He has full memory of his personal history, a relatively tempered perspective of the world. He is, above all else, the average man- average intelligence, average strength... a bit of an indulgence problem, specifically with alcohol, but nothing severe. The only real outstanding trait is his sometimes paranoid view of the world. He has a definite aversion to crowds, some trust issues, and an overall antisocial tilt to him. That doesn't necessarily mean he's not polite, or even pleasant to be around. But he doesn't often choose to be in the presence of others.

When forced to interact on a social level, especially around people Caleb doesn't know or feel comfortable around, the 'Max' personality surfaces. Max isn't some sort of opposite of Caleb; in reality, he's more like Caleb, magnified. His antisocial nature pushes him to the point of cynicism, and while he is confident enough not to shut down in public as Caleb is prone to do, it is at the cost of his pleasant nature. He can be abrasive, downright crass if provoked, where Caleb is timid and gentlemanly. Around women, Max can be a womanizer, much more likely to whistle and leer than smile and greet.

Both personalities suffer from a mild form of mania, moods changing drastically at the drop of a hat. In Caleb, this is most often brought out by anxiety, and a trigger for Max to take over. For Max, they're often some form of rage, and can cause violent outbursts as a last resort to protect himself, and by extension Caleb.

It should be metioned, through years of therapy, the two personalities are vaguely aware of each other. Caleb reguards Max as some sort of demon that lives in him, a presence that plagues him that he can't get rid of. Max thinks of Nathaniel as a pushover, his 'sniveling inner child', and considers him an expression of weakness, which he'll do anything to subdue. In certain circumstances (therapy, extreme duress, and in Max's case, any time it could get him sympathy or exculpate him from something) the personalities will talk about each other, although they never seem to adress one another; that would be crazy, right?

As the game opens, Caleb will be in the Royal Edinburg Hospital Psychiatric Ward, by recommendation of the police who picked him up from a barfight. In the hospital, he only expresses himself as Max, at least until he finds a comfort zone- IE, with Monish.

PERSONAL HISTORY: Like most children of the seventies, Caleb was raised in the spirit of free love, new-age mysticism, and... a lot of drugs. His mother was a near-stereotypical hippie, convinced her backyard was filled with fairies and ley lines, and that she could forsee the future and cure almost any illness with angel feathers and fairy dust. His father, a cooper for a local brewery, was a typical drunk, who worked long hours, then spent most of his nights at the pub with his friends, betting on horse-races and wasting away. Despite the drastic differences in his parents, and the frequency of opportunities for Caleb to make bad choices and screw up his life, somehow he managed not to, and made it through childhood (mostly) unscathed.

No, this isn't a story of an abusive relative or sudden death in the family that triggered some sort of emotional lapse. As a matter of fact, outside of the occasional taunting match over Caleb's somewhat fantastical view of the world (thanks to his mother, and her belief in magics and crystals), he had a pretty average childhood. In fact, once again 'average' just about summed it up; he was a C student, on the football (read: English football) team, drank with his buddies, lost his virginity with his high school girlfriend. Nothing out of the ordinary. The doctors (his third- the first two refused to take him on as a patient after the psychological evaluations turned violent, thanks to Max) deduced it was simply the stress of his first year of university, living on his own, that caused Caleb's dissociation. He was simply predisposed to the likelihood of a schizophrenic break, and was one of the unlucky few who turned that Hell into a reality.

The first year or so after Max's first appearance are something of a blur- Caleb was tried on a slew of anti-psychotics, while in and out of various psychiatric hospitals. Add to that the depression caused by his diagnosis, and the subsequent alcohol abuse, and there's a period of about nine months that Caleb can't honestly account for. Thankfully, he managed to continue his medication, and his Doctor's appointments (apparently), and while he didn't see much improvement, at least it was somewhat stable.

His first episode actually faded out, by the time he reached 25. He was able to go back to university, get his degree (electrical engineering), and get a job with a local electrical company. His life went back to its startling sense of normalcy. Granted, he didn't associate with much of anyone he had known while Max was around- most of his old friends, doctors, and even his parents, had been too startled and afraid of Caleb's drastic change in personality over the years, to keep in touch. It had hurt him deeply at first, but he chose to rise above, seeing it as the chance for a truly new start. He was in control of his own life, now. And rather than dwell on the past, he wanted to look to the future.

Up until September (2008), he was actually back on track- a decent-paying job, a place of his own, the occasional friend or girlfriend, although they became fewer and farther between, thanks to the fear of rejection that still plagued him from his life change. But then, just as summer was starting to look bright for Caleb, an accident at work- minor electric shock, barely enough to be treated for burns- left a nagging feeling of something at the back of Caleb's mind, and all at once, his world fell apart again. While in the hospital being treated for the burns, something must have triggered him, and the next thing he knew, he was in a bar, feeling very obviously drunk, with some stranger giving him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Confused, he shoved the man away, demanding an explanation, only to have the other throw a punch. That was much less upsetting, than the fact that he referred to Caleb as 'Max'. He insists the fight was out of fear, refusal to believe the other was telling the truth; it was all some cruel joke, Max was gone, he had been for years. Thanks to Caleb's documented history of schizophrenia, he was forcibly admitted to the Royal Edinburg Hospital, pending a psychiatric evaluation. After his admission of losing a good deal of time, he was made a patient, under the assumption that his schizophrenia was relapsing. It was then that he met Monish, and started his therapy.

At first, the sessions were tenative, Max being the only one to speak, making snide remarks about the man's accent, his looks, defensive insults. But after a while, he began to realize the only way he was going to get out, was to go along with things, and Caleb started to make appearances. He is currently on good standing with the doctor, who is one of the very few people (and the only doctor) in the hospital who actually reaches Caleb consistently. It is because of this that Caleb will be likey to accept Monish's offer of becoming a familiar, and once again starting his life over with the one person who seems to understand.

IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR A FAMILIAR, WHICH MAGE ARE YOU LINKED TO AND WHAT WAS THE CONTRACT? WHAT ANIMAL DO YOU TURN INTO? Monish Pulindaka, Head of the Mind Sphere. Caleb turns into a tiger, a physical expression of his Maxwell personality. The contract itself, the power relinquished and extent of servitude will be played out in-game, but if you'd like, I can float the specifics by you before putting the thing into effect.

RP SAMPLE: Here, in-progress backstory log with Monish.

comments: Leave a comment

October 13th, 2008