{Deerington Application}

[fusrodaaaah]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Melius Senyan
Canon: The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Canon Point: Pre-Sovengarde, post Odahviing's capture

In-Game Tattoo Placement: The Falkreath Stag on his throat.
Current Health/Status: A Constant State of Anxiety - physically healthy
Age: 20
Species: Argonian

Content Warnings: fantasy racism, referenced NPC suicide, mushrooms...?

History:
Before becoming a prisoner, Melius was a perfectly normal Argonian kid. Albeit one who was born and raised in Cyrodiil. He never came into contact with the ancestral Hist of his people, never had an Argonian name, or any ties to his kind whatsoever. Fortunately, he was raised by a very kind pair of Imperials in the town of Leyawiin. They happened to be alchemists, and it was Melius' fondest wish to take after his parents. They never told him where they'd gotten his egg from, but with the number of Argonians who went missing thanks to the local Countess, it's likely his birth parents were one of the woman's victims. It doesn't bother him much - he had a very happy childhood with his adoptive family. But was very much aware of his tenuous citizenship - displeasing the Count or Countess could mean he disappeared, too.

And then he got the bright idea to go out to learn more about alchemy on his own. More tricks, more recipes. Things that would impress and help his parents, make him invaluable to the community, and therefore less likely to vanish. Unfortunately this involved a few too many mushrooms... the likes of which even his Argonian constitution couldn't totally handle. He got turned around, ended up in the frozen northern region.

Skyrim.

Only to walk right into the middle of a civil war he knew nothing about. People were yelling about spies and Stormcloaks and Ulfric and Torryg and honestly Melius had no goddamn clue what any of that meant. Sure, he was educated, but his education was reading, writing, and alchemy. Not Imperial politics. He was taken prisoner by the Imperial troops, incorrectly identifying him as a Stormcloak sympathizer, despite the fact said Stormcloaks hated everyone and everything who wasn't a Nord. And sent to the village of Helgen to be executed for treason.

Then the fire nation World Eater attacked. Completely destroying the village, and inadvertently allowing Melius to run for his scaly life.

His adventures are summed up here for the most part, with the notable exception Melius refused to slay Paarthurnax. Stating, if the dragon was truly as evil as he once had been, Paarthurnax had plenty of opportunity to kill Melius any time he wanted. Especially during their first meeting. If Paarthurnax had killed him, there would have been nothing left to oppose the World Eater Alduin.

And thus he is no longer on speaking terms with the Blades. A terrifying prospect considering he now has to go and fight Alduin in Sovengarde, with only the aid of another dragon, who many consider to be a questionable partnership, at best. He feels as if he's more or less on his own in this final battle - which doesn't help the anxiety. Prior to his awakening in Deerington, he was pretty much camping in the wilderness, trying to psyche himself up. By talking out loud to the dragon who just betrayed its master Alduin to carry Melius into battle.

He doesn't have the best ideas, but thankfully for him, Odahviing honors the bargain they made.

In addition to the main questline, he experienced the following misadventures throughout his travels to try and keep a dragon from ending the world.

- Waking Nightmare: saved a village from being sucked into a literal nightmare realm by the Daedric Prince of Nightmares.
- Laid To Rest: investigated and uncovered a vampiric plot to take over the entire town of Morthal.
- Frostflow Lighthouse: Avenged a family of lighthouse keepers by disposing of their killers. Summary Link: cw referenced suicide
- Various random small quests to retrieve items from haunted tombs, or escort people from one town to another. They aren't incredibly plot relevant and most of them are exactly what they say on the tin.



Personality:
There are two sides to Melius these days. Not in that he has two separate personalities, or anything like that. But that he's more or less had to develop a certain focus in dire situations in order to survive. Before Skyrim, he would much rather run from fights, probably yelling. As he started undertaking his journey, he learned he definitely couldn't do that anymore if he wanted to live. In combat, the nervous, twitchy Argonian becomes incredibly focused. Seemingly calm, in control.

Outside combat, though? He is incredibly skittish. A nervous wreck on the best of days who tends to stammer through conversations. From an early age, Melius was a people pleaser - going out of his way to try and make everyone around him happy. Doing exactly what was asked of him, whether or not he wanted to. He believed, as a child, making himself useful and helpful was the perfect way to make sure he didn't end up going missing. It wasn't in his cards, necessarily, as his family were Imperials themselves, but it never stopped the uncertainty, or the talk from other Argonians in town. This led to him doing a lot of favors in Skyrim. If someone was in trouble, he usually volunteered to do something about it, less because he thought it was the right thing to do, and more to show how helpful he was.

He drew the line at killing people though - don't ask him to do that. That just feels all kinds of wrong. And it still does, to him, even after the legions of fights he's been through. All he can do is tell himself he was trying to survive, but still, for someone who only wanted to be an alchemist, it's nightmare-inducing.

Speaking of nightmares - Melius tends to be afraid of ... everything. Spiders, heights, the dark, enclosed spaces... You name it. He always has been. Even being named Dragonborn and having a whole host of fun screaming powers didn't do anything to change that. If anything, a few fears have been made worse by his time in Skyrim, namely his fear of the dark, and his fear of enclosed spaces. Both were heavily influenced by his stumbling on the Frostflow Lighthouse - a place where the underground race known as the falmer emerged from the basement, and brutally slaughtered the family living there. He'd been trying to get out of a snowstorm, and accidentally fell into a horror story. The falmer live in deep, dark and narrow caves, and he quickly was lost among the twists and turns full of angry, pale monsters and their pet giant, poisonous insects. The family's murder affected him deeply, and addition to his fear, falmer are the one creature in Skyrim to actually earn Melius' ire. Not even the dragons make him that angry and upset.

Part of him hates being the Dragonborn. It's a responsibility he never asked for, never wanted. And there's nothing he can do to about it. He could run, but his sense of people-pleasing gets in the way. Besides, the fact Alduin exists and wants to literally devour the entire world is kind of a downer. Literally no one else can fight the World-Eating Dragon, so it's not just Skyrim and the Nords that would suffer. His family and the few people he got close to would also be obliterated. Unfortunately, this involves people looking to him for decisions - major ones - on things he has no idea how to navigate. Sometimes, he'd go to the ancient dragon Paarthurnax for advice, but the old guy is so far removed from the world and mortal doings, there's nothing for him there. He's terrified of making a mistake. One that could get more people killed. Being asked to decide how to divide up the cities to settle things between the Stormcloaks and the Empire was his worst day ever - and he still harbors a bit of resentment to the Greybeards for not helping more.

Melius is extremely proud of his alchemy skill. It's probably the only thing about him he would ever boast about, or speak without hesitation about. He was very good at it back in Cyrodiil, under his parents' instruction, and that's only gotten better in the quiet moments he has in Skyrim. It's a way for him to calm down and focus, a lot of the time, sitting and mixing potions, experimenting with new ones. His alchemy is entirely focused on potion and poison making - no lead into gold, no grand magical transformations. Just fantasy chemistry.

Along that same line - the people he tends to get along with best are fellow alchemists and even mages. They're easier to find common ground with. Less likely to immediately dismiss him for being green and scaly, so long as he can brew a magicka restoration potion. He has difficulty connecting with people, usually too nervous to really do more than yelp a few words or answer questions before retreating. But immediately having common ground relaxes him - until the conversation leaves the topic of alchemy. Then he flounders into "I should go".

... Ironically, the dragons he knows are also easier to talk to. Even if half the time they're teaching him Dragon Speech more than having real conversations.

People always expect The Dragonborn to be incredibly skilled in combat - but uh. Melius is not. It's kind of embarrassing. Very embarrassing, actually. He doesn't like to be seen when he's in a fight, because while he's gotten capable of defending himself, there is no finesse. It's just an armored lizard whacking something has hard as he can with a mace and then hiding behind a shield. It works, but it's not pretty and he knows it.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
Melius learned to fight first by hiding behind a shield. And then hitting things really hard with a rock. Along the way, he picked up a mace, and found it worked a lot better than a rock. Here and there in his travels, actual warriors were able to help him learn how to better handle himself with both shield and mace - making him a fairly capable fighter in that regard.

But he still likes to hide behind the shield. Occasionally hitting people with it as a strategy.

As an Argonian, Melius has a strong resistance to normal poisons. Normal poisons, being anything found in the natural, waking world. That resistance won't help him against Deerington created things.

He can also breathe underwater for as long as he remains submerged. How Argonians do this, we just don't know. Only that they can.

He speaks very limited Dragon Speech - mostly from trying to translate Shouts and talking to Paarthurnax.

Other than that, he's a basic, squishy living thing... but with one special ability of the Dragonborn.

Shouts:

• Basically magic in the form of yelling. Only the Dragonborn, or an actual dragon, can use multiple shouts with ease. They're made of three words in Dragonspeak, and when yelled, have a variety of fun effects. Such as creating a strong kinetic force, giving the user fire breath, impossible speed, or summoning an entire storm. The full list is located here, but due to his canonpoint, Melius only knows those available in the main quest - any marked with DB or DG aren't shouts he's learned.

In Game Warping:

• Combat Shouts (fire breath, unrelenting force, etc) will not be effective on other Sleepers
• Shouts that calm (Kyne's Peace) will be marginally effective, last a very short while and may only give slight relaxation
• Area affecting shouts (Storm Call) will not work at all
• Call Dragon will summon a newt
• Using ANY SHOUT gives him laryngitis for 12 hours if it's a non-combat shout, 24 hours if it's a combative one. Newt summoning is just embarrassing.

Inventory:
- His armor + shield, lacking the helmet
- clothes
- couple healing potions
- His trusty mace
- random assortment of alchemy ingredients (mushrooms, dragonflies, bonemeal, dried flowers and herbs)

Writing Samples:
- TDM thread
- Accidental hand holding

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Red
Player Age: 33
Player Contact: redfirelight @ plurk

Other Characters In Game: Shiro Shirogane
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Melius Senyan : Red
Permissions for Character: Here!
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: I BETTER BE BY NOW
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Monsters/cryptids, ghosts. I’m sure there’s more but those are the ones I like the best.

Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Parasite type body-horror (things IN a person, or an infection taking them over), but general like “oh no you have horns now” is fine. If that makes sense. Viral-type zombie monsters. Child death/injury. Suicide + drug use.

Additional Information: