Martin Blackwood

CODE BY TESSISAMESS





Fancy bullshit TBA

The building Martin feels compelled to make, in the end, is singular: a long, flat building with only a ground floor, with the almost stereotypical classical architecture of a university. Inside is warm, and comforting; not just because it's literally a pleasant few degrees warmer inside than out, invoking memories of stepping in from the brisk winter wind, but the wooden floor and wall panels are a homey brown, the upper walls and ceiling lined with a creamy-gold wallpaper that's peeling in spots, but somehow charmingly so. There are people here, too, kind of - literally faceless mannequins in modern, casual fashion, that only change position when not being observed, but they don't mind anyone passing through as they explore.

There's a few different rooms, most of them classrooms, but there's a pair of offices next to each other, one labelled Prof. Blackwood, the other blank - but the wood grain had made a perfect eye shape where the matching bronze plaque would have gone. The largest room, though, taking up most of the entire side of the building is a library, filled with piles upon piles of books, the majority of them on poetry but a few random ones on other, non-fiction subjects.

OOC INFORMATION

Player Name: Maniette
Are you over 18?: Yep!
Contact: Maniette or PM this journal.
Other Characters in Game: Coraline Finch

IC INFORMATION

Character Name: Martin K. Blackwood
Canon: The Magnus Archives
Canon Point: Immediately post-episode 80

Background: Martin's life is what can be safely called underwhelming. Born around 1987, his father left when he was around eight or nine, leaving him and his chronically ill mother (though the disease is never expanded upon, descriptions may place it as something like MS). This was a strained relationship, as Martin knew his mother hated him, but at the time he couldn't understand why. When he was seventeen she took a turn for the worse, and Martin dropped out of high school to try and support her. There's no indication he was able to keep a steady job between 2004 and finding a job at the Magnus Institute circa 2009 (if not earlier), but he was lying on his resumes with increasing audacity; when he was finally hired by Elias Bouchard as a librarian , at the very minimum he was lying about his age, most of his employment details and especially his education levels - he claimed to have a masters in parapsychology. At some point between being hired and the present, his mother requested to be moved to a nursing home to be taken care of by professional nurses, leaving Martin to live alone in their apartment in Stockwell.

In 2015 he was transferred to the Archives section to work as an assistant archivist under the new head archivist, Jonathan Sims, alongside other assistants Timothy Stoker and Sasha James. Martin first met Jon when he let a dog into the archives on Jon's first day and left a first impression in Jon's mind very strongly as a useless waste of space; most of his research skills learned while working in the library were unable to be fully useful on the weird statements Jon recorded on tape, due to an overwhelming lack of substantial evidence, which further cemented his position as the team load.

Right up until, during the course of investigating one of said weird statements, Jon caught the attention of the entity that was once Jane Prentiss, a 'living' hive of flesh-eating worms that tried to attack Martin. While he escaped that initial surprise attack unscathed, Prentiss quickly relocated him and trapped him in his apartment for thirteen days in early March 2016. He managed to plug up every space a worm could fit through and rationed his food when he realised it hadn't stopped after several days, and got very little sleep from fear something might get in without him knowing. Jon didn't realise he was missing, as Martin had dropped his phone in the initial confrontation and Prentiss had taken it to tell Jon that Martin was sick with a stomach bug to prevent people from wondering where he'd gone. Ultimately, disregarding his new PTSD and a healthy fear of worms, Martin escaped unscathed, and Jon allowed him to sleep in the Archives (this act of kindness also causes Martin to develop a crush on his boss) until Prentiss was dealt with.

This would turn out to be late July 2016, in the form of a full-scale attack on the Magnus Institute's archival section. Martin escaped, again, wholly unscathed thanks to preparations he'd been making for the last four months, including creating secret caches of CO2 canisters and keeping a corkscrew on him, both preventative measures against Prentiss' worms. However, during the mess of events he became separated from his coworkers in the secret tunnels beneath the Archives, and stumbled upon the body of the previous head archivist, Gertrude Robinson. While this inspired Jon's paranoid tendencies for the following few months, Martin is (again, traumatised, but physically) unharmed, and moves back to his apartment after getting the ashes of Prentiss for the archival team's mental wellbeing. His general competence is noted to increase from this point (or perhaps Jon simply appreciates the competence he already has for what it's worth), and he also shows increased concern for Jon - especially when the team begin to realise that their boss is stalking them after hours, which culminates in an intervention for Jon where Martin is the only sympathetic party.

Life continues in this stressed vein until it comes to a head in February 2017, when Jon tries to dismiss Tim and Martin early. Tim convinces Martin to come back and investigate, citing that the dismissal was horribly shady, and the two encounter Sasha's monstrous clone tearing through the Archives. Martin takes chase, following it into the tunnels, though he and Tim lose it immediately - but are startled by Michael, an entity of chaos and confusion that causes them to be trapped in its Spiral maze for an unknown period of time - it's acknowledged by them as being days, or possibly even weeks - though when they escape it's only been a matter of hours in the real world. The pair head immediately to Jon's office, and discover the freshly killed corpse of an old man sitting at Jon's desk, beaten to a bloody pulp.

It's from this moment that Martin gets taken into Abraxas.

Suitability: Martin is a smart lad who, despite actively knowing better, will absolutely investigate weird shit of his own accord, without further prompting. While he might retroactively justify it, calling it 'due diligence' or concern for another person (both of which were actually true), Martin is a deeply curious person and would want to know more about what's going on. And as one of Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist's own archival assistants, he was constantly involved in all sorts of spooky horror bullshit and has survived a great deal of events. He also actively enjoys research to some extent, and managed to keep his job as a librarian despite being grossly underqualified for the better part of a decade, so he's willing and able to research things of his own accord.

Powers:

General researching and archival duties with NONE of the required university experience.

Really good cups of tea.

Ruthlessly pragmatic. Overthinks things to disturbingly logical conclusions.

Lying, generally speaking.

Unpredictability. No one expects him to bite.

Minor affiliation with the eldritch entity known as The Beholding, or more simply the Eye. He doesn't have any actual powers as of yet, but neglecting to perform research (preferably relating to the supernatural, but more important is the act itself) will start to cause him to weaken and sicken over time, though this won't kill him. Symptoms of this neglect will be more like lethargy and exhaustion.

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

Describe an important event in your character's life and how it impacted them.
Martin's father leaving him at such a young age that Martin doesn't even remember what the man looks like is explicitly explained by another character to have profoundly affected the rest of Martin's life. His mother was so heartbroken by her husband leaving her when her illness began to flare up that she destroyed every photo of him in the house, and began to openly resent Martin for being the spitting image of his father. Martin had no real knowledge of this portion of events: he knows his mother was upset, ill and suddenly withdrawn and resentful towards him, despite him giving his all to try and help keep her well-cared for, to the point that he dropped out of school at age seventeen to care for her. It's not implied she was outright abusive, and Martin certainly does his best to love her, but the emotional distance has greatly damaged Martin, and instilled an instinctive need in him to Be There for other people no matter the personal cost to himself; he only seems to find value in himself when he's of service to someone else. And since his mother refuses to let him visit, he's projecting this onto his coworkers instead, desperately seeking their approval.

Does your character have a moral code, or other set of standards they try to live by?
Most of Martin's moral core can simply be summarised as "do better". He does his best to be a beacon of compassion and kindness, and always wants to help people to make sure they feel safe and comfortable in his presence. This isn't to say this makes him weak; the way he goes off at Tim during their time spent exploring the tunnels shows this is a conscious decision that he makes, that while his wanting to help people is ingrained in him, his optimism and enduring kindness are very much active choices he constantly makes despite his sometimes overwhelming levels of frustration and inherent pettiness. He could be a massive bitch all the time, and indeed as the series goes on we see that hidden irritation in him surfacing more and more frequently, but he's shown to try and demonstrate patience with people who are going through difficult times, even to the point of being on the receiving end of abuse or neglect for it. He very clearly doesn't include his own wellbeing in his moral stance of "everyone needs to be cared for, all the time", and while he doesn't make a point to actively neglect himself he very much doesn't seem to care.

What quality or qualities do they admire most?
Confidence and composure. Martin doesn't seem to think particularly highly of himself, as pointed out by Tim who tells him "nobody’s gonna notice you if you don’t notice yourself first", and it's known amongst his coworkers (and even his bosses) that he's for the most part utterly unnoticeable and easily neglected by both himself and others. While he can be brave, this largely comes across as a matter of pragmatism and not confidence. He's not a naturally confident person, and he's very clearly intimidated by people who can maintain a cool and composed front, and spends large parts of the show being cowed and confused by Jon's stoic exterior despite his crush. While he doesn't seem to indicate either which way whether his own confidence is something he'd like to or would change, as coming across as too confident undermines his carefully curated modest appearances, he comes across as the kind of person who very much admires it in other people. Though the larger issue the traits he admire ties into is simply the notion of being taken seriously, something that, again, his coworkers and bosses don't see in him. It's not like he makes this easy for them, after all, with his nervous affections and tendency towards terrible first impressions; but it's a quality he's fully aware of and thoroughly dislikes (though this doesn't come to a head until a later canonpoint).

Do they have a part of themselves they dislike?
Martin actually strongly dislikes the overall negative impression people have of him. He hates the parts of himself that come across as unimpressive, or cause him to be underestimated by his peers in areas where he didn't actively cultivate it himself. He doesn't like how little control he has over his reactions to things, either in fear or panic; how he stammers when he gets flustered or his voice cracks when he gets indignant, and he gets quietly resentful when people dismiss him out of hand. He's not an actually incompetent person, and in fact does extremely well with routine and the tedium of repetitive tasks, but he has a tendency to try and make himself seem more impressive than he is to make up for the constant underlying insecurity that he's not, in fact, all that impressive or special. He's shown to be extremely short-tempered and quick to lash out verbally when under stress, and lies as a first response so frequently that he makes it sound perfectly normal. He also becomes particularly irate when accused of immaturity or childishness, as he was actually forced to grow up very quickly in order to be able to support his mother, both physically and financially, and feels to some extent that he has a right to feel and express negative emotions, but can't due to the fact it will cost him a great deal of face.

What is their sign, and why? Empress. Martin has spent quite literally most of his life attempting to care for his mother, despite her hatred of him and eventual outright denial of his help, and is nearly constantly trying to help his coworkers get along. As several characters point out, he always tends to be by someone's elbow with a cup of tea and kind words, ready to support them while ignoring his own needs.

SAMPLES & ARRIVAL

Samples: Samples from TDM #2!

Arrival Scenario: Prisoner!