App for Apocalypse How

[easilyamused]

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Name: PG
Age: 39
Contact: quantumvelvet
Character(s) in game: Yelena Belova (musicdied
Permissions: Here

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Methos
Age: Somewhere north of 6000. (Canon cites 5000, but also states he was born prior to 4000 BC. Canon has some math problems.)
Canon: Highlander: the Series
Canon point: End of the canonical episodes of The Methos Chronicles, after Djer's escape
History: Here
Personality:
Survivor - Methos is concerned with survival above most things. He values his life highly, and considers his experience and knowledge worth preserving. While he's not completely unprincipled, he will not put principle over survival, and will play both sides of a conflict without flinching if that's what it takes to get out intact. He has no problem with retreating in the face of an enemy he can't beat, or with using underhanded methods if he's backed into a corner. He is, for example, happy to let a man who's decided to assume his identity die in his place because, as he notes, there are plenty of people who want the head of the oldest Immortal, and unlike most Immortals - even those much younger than he is - he uses modern weaponry to gain advantage in a fight. He is unusual for an Immortal in that he doesn't particularly believe in the Game - though he's contemptuous of those who believe they can simply opt out of the cycle of violence that marks an Immortal's life rather than being cautions and keeping their heads down - and believes that the Prize, a mortal existence and the ability to have children, is not worth winning. Give him an eternity to live and learn over mortality any day.

Ruthless - Methos has a definite vicious streak. While this is most clearly showcased in his Bronze Age past as part of a quartet of Immortal warlords who were brutal enough that they're implied to be the inspiration for the Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, it is something that comes to the fore when he is unable to avoid a fight, when the people he cares about are threatened, or - as implied by the dark AU in the series finale - when he's pushed too far without any positive influences to give him reason to reject his darker impulses. In most cases, this manifests as efficient murder of threats to himself and his friends, but it can take an even darker tone in situations that are truly personal. He has, for example, entombed several enemies alive when he couldn't beat them in a fair fight, which is a particularly horrible fate for someone with resurrective immortality, and while it's past his canon point, his way of getting around his promise not to kill the man who poisoned his late wife was to burn out the man's mind (with, to be fair a device the man had created to store massive amounts of spiritual energy derived from suffering) and leave him in permanent agony as an Immortal.

Curious - Methos is an innately curious man. He has a deep love of learning, and has amassed a great store of knowledge over the course of his very long life. While some of this is because knowledge is, as they say, power - the fact that he does keep up with modern technology definitely gives him some advantages over Immortals who fail to adapt - a lot of it is a desire for knowledge for knowledge's sake. He's sought out a number of scholars and philosophers over the centuries to study with them, has happily embedded himself in academia over the course of several lifetimes, and has not only studied medicine despite being an immortal who can heal from any wound nigh-instantaneously and who is completely immune to disease, but has updated his knowledge and credentials every few decades since at least the 19th century. As noted above, he genuinely likes his immortality because it gives him lifetimes to spend learning.

People-oriented - Methos may have the soul of a scholar, but he is absolutely not the retiring or reserved type. He genuinely enjoys companionship with people from all walks of life, and tends to form strong relationships with people who pique his interest. He has notably been married 68 times over the course of his life, all to mortals, and from what's shown of his relationships with his love interests over the course of the series, he genuinely loved each of them and was faithful until the end of their lives. His love for those he holds most dear is one of the few things that can overcome his survival instinct - he has and will put himself at serious risk to help his friends and loved ones. In general, he is at his best when he has strong social ties, and at his worst when he's lost most of his connections, as evidenced by the dark timeline where, having only his old warlord friend Kronos after the betrayal and/or death of everyone else he held dear, he backslid into the worst version of himself.

Trickster - Methos fits the trickster archetype very well. He greatly prefers using guile over the direct approach to a threat, and is skilled at trickery and deception. He embeds himself in the Watchers, an organization dedicated to studying and tracking Immortals, and gets himself assigned to his own file when he's already little more than a myth - there haven't been any confirmed sitings of him for centuries - in order to even better cover his tracks and keep tabs on other Immortals in order to avoid them. When his fellow Horseman, Kronos, returns, he rejoins him in order to save his own skin, helping reforge their band and further Kronos's vision of plunging the world back into the Dark Ages via plague, while leaving clues for his friends and allies that allow them to stop the plan. He will, if given half a chance, find a way to turn even the worst situation to his advantage. He has a tendency to use cutting wit to point out people's mistakes, and genuinely enjoys messing with people, particularly the people he likes. If he catches you planning to betray him, and instead of a confrontation or preempting the betrayal, lays it on thick about how close you are until you can't take it and confess, you know he considers you a friend.

Suitability: While Methos wouldn't stick with ADI out of anything like altruism or loyalty, his thirst for knowledge and his sense of self-preservation will keep him around. ADI are the people who know what's going on, so they're his best source of information, and staying near the centre of things is his best bet at 1) keeping eyes off of himself and 2) keeping apprised of threats. While he's likely to be very wary of risking exposure or harm by engaging in physical confrontation with various threats, he'll be happy to play support as a researcher and a medic.

Powers/Abilities:
Mundane abilities - none of these should require feeding an entity to fuel.
Martial abilities: swordsmanship, hand-to-hand fighting, knife fighting, strategy, tactics. While he prefers not to fight, he has a few millennia of experience.

Marksmanship: He's pretty handy with a gun, which would fit with the above category, but doesn't have quite the same depth of experience behind it. Personal firearms have only been a thing for a couple of centuries, after all.

Medical training: Methos has studied medicine, and updates his skills and licensing every few decades.

Research: He's been a scholar for a few thousand years, and is skilled at finding and contextualizing information. He has a particular affinity for history, having lived through so much of it.

Computer Savvy: Ish. He's shown proficiency with computers, coding, and sabotage. His skills are also current to turn of the millennium, so he definitely has some upgrading to do.

Spycraft: Methos is a skilled liar, able to craft and maintain a cover for years at a time. He's skilled at escape and evasion, and is able to pick locks and bypass security, though the latter is a skill he holds at a more moderate level in comparison to his ability to vanish into an identity or into thin air. He's also very good at reading people, and difficult to lie to effectively. He has some skill with torture, though his techniques are a little out of date.

Linguistics: Methos has picked up a lot of languages over the centuries. Some of them, he's put down again, but he's been specifically shown or noted to retain the following: English, French, German, Latin, Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Lithuanian, Arabic, Farsi, Coptic, Japanese, and Swahili. Because fantasy show, that's why.

Supernatural Abilities - all of these would require feeding an Entity to fuel

The Buzz: Methos is able to sense the presence of other Immortals of his own kind, whether or not they've had their first death and awakened to their immortality. It doesn't let him immediately pinpoint the other Immortal, unless it's one he recognizes, but it does give some directionality. Will not work unless he's been feeding his patron, and even then only if there's another Immortal from his canon apped in.

The Quickening: This is also mostly relevant only if another Immortal from his canon is apped in. Methos is able to absorb the spiritual power and some of the skill of an Immortal who is beheaded in his immediate vicinity, in what's called a Quickening. It involves a lot of mist and lightning. It should be noted that he doesn't have to actually be the one to kill the other Immortal - if he's the only Immortal around, it will hit him anyway.

In terms of game relevance, if Methos is beheaded while his patron is well-fed, it will cause a huge lightning storm and probably some nasty blackouts if there isn't another Immortal close by to absorb his power.

Regeneration: If he's been feeding his patron, Methos recovers incredibly rapidly from any non-lethal injury - lacerations heal in a matter of seconds, broken bones and bullet wounds in minutes. It would presumably take a lot of his stored fear power to heal from serious injury, so if he's been beaten badly, whether by person, car, or mutant bear, he'd need to stockpile again before he can shrug off another beating.

Immunity: If he's been feeding his patron, Methos is completely immune to all non-supernatural diseases - bacterial, fungal, viral, parasitic - and very resistant to chemical agents. His regenerative capacity would probably insulate him somewhat from the effects of supernatural disease or poison, though may not make him fully immune or incapable of being a carrier.

Resurrective Immortality: If Methos is killed in any way other than beheading, he will return to life in very short order. Beheading will cause the above lightning storms. Mods, if this would be game breaking, I'm completely fine with moving it from the "if he's a horrible dick who feeds his Entity" category to the "if he's a horrible dick who becomes an avatar" category!

Entity Affinity: While there are a few Entities that could fit Methos very well, the best fit is probably the Spiral, particularly in terms of making people doubt what they know, what's being kept from them, and spreading deception. This is a man who lies like he breathes, who joins clandestine organizations in order to manipulate their records, who already advocates for cynicism and doubt, and who has gaslit people in the past. While he's not all that likely to lean into the madness aspect of the Spiral, the manipulation and deceit is right there.

Inventory: Clothing, wallet with his Adam Pierson ID documents and a few hundred dollars in cash, a small pocket notebook and pencil, keys to an apartment that doesn't exist in this reality, a longsword, a 9 mil handgun, and a knife.

Samples: Internal thoughts with some dialog across a couple subthreads, Mostly dialog