Daniel Barker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
livinlavitaeloca) wrote2013-08-24 12:07 pm
livinlavitaeloca) wrote2013-08-24 12:07 pm
ENTRANCEWOMP
Name: CAZ
DW username:cazrolime
E-Mail: hobbitesque atte gmail dotte comme
IM: rianofski (AIM)
Plurk: hypnoplasmids
Other Characters: N/A NOPE NOBODY THOSE DAYS ARE OVER
Character Name: Daniel
Series: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Timeline: High-tailing his way across the English Channel to Europe, following receipt of a strange letter from one Baron Alexander.
Canon Resource Link: Daniel's page on the Amnesia wiki.
Character History:
This guy is quite the unfortunate soul. He gets chased by unholy shadows, he pees himself in the dark, and people on deviantart draw him as an anime catgirl. What follows is an account of his sorrows, and I hope that as a biographer I have been both fair and firm.
Daniel grew up in Canterbury, with a mortally ill sister and more than the usual number of beatings (even for a child in the 1820s). His hobbies around this time included caring for his sister, being a dork, and getting into trouble with the bullies at school. He lived in terror of one particular bully until the day Daniel bashed him in the face with a rock in a playground fight.
Fresh out of tomb raider college, Daniel started working for the British Museum, and in 1839 he sailed out on an archaeological expedition to North Africa. Working under his friend Professor Herbert, he pressed deep into Algeria to investigate a spoooooky ancient tomb with a suspiciously ancient burial chamber. So far so good!
Glory comes before safety concerns, and Daniel strode right on into the burial chamber, laughing at the superstition of the workers he'd hired. And then the great slab door fell down and trapped him. So far so... whoops?
Daniel freaked out, wrote a journal entry somehow, and then noticed that the inky blackness of the tomb was pierced by enchanting blue light. He followed the light to its source and put his hands around it, as you do when you're trapped in an ancient stone grave and happen to spot a disco ball. At once, his mind was assaulted with visions of Lovecraftian landscapes beyond description or even comprehension.
Next thing he knew, the stone door was being lifted; hands pulled him out to light and safety, and he was grasping the shattered pieces of a smooth stone orb.
He had been trapped in the tomb for an hour.
Worried for Daniel's health, Professor Herbert sent the dude home to London. Several weeks and a very long journey later, Daniel was back in Mayfair and puzzling over the shards of the orb. He couldn't fit them back together, so he began to observe them; and to his distress, confirmed that they were changing in shape and colour.
He began to ask around, trying to figure out what the christ was going on. Consulting Sir William Smith, a prominent geologist, he learned about the properties of rocks, and how the Victorians totally thought glass was a liquid because they were giant fucking dorks. Daniel tried to be reassured, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling like something else was going on. Something outside of naturalistic explanations.
Then news came from Algeria. Professor Herbert, along with his entire team, had been attacked by something unnamed and horrible. Only one man had survived, injured and delirious. Everybody else had vanished into the desert. Daniel had to pick up Herbert's effects from the customs-house: the only thing the search party had been able to recover.
Around this time, Daniel began suffering from hella nightmares. He was trapped in the tomb again; he could hear a voice from the abyss, calling to him. It got so bad that his doctor had to prescribe him laudanum just so he could get to sleep.
After one particularly sheet-drenching and exhausting dream, he woke up and just... knew how to put the orb back together, the knowledge coming to him as if whispered in his ear. He fitted the pieces together at once, and they merged by themselves with no need for an adhesive.
That's totally not normal or healthy or godly okay????
Daniel's level of freaked-outness was getting pretty high by now. He stole the late great Herbert's address book and shot out letters to anyone and everyone who might know about the nature of what they'd been digging up. While at the university, he spoke to a Professor Taylor about the history of orbs -- and learned that Sir William Smith had been killed.
Then Professor Taylor died. Then so did Daniel's doctor -- hell, Daniel was the one to find his body, torn into pieces, flayed, boiled.
Some terrible shit was going on, and it was quite definitely centred around Daniel, and around that orb.
Daniel started getting responses to the desperate letters he'd sent. Most people were mocking or skeptical. But one message simply read:
I know. I can protect you. Come to Brennenburg castle.
Alexander.
So Daniel went. And then MORE BACKSTORY HAPPENED but never mind that, he's in Wonderland now.
!-- OKAY SO NOTE: Daniel here hallucinates canonically, but the cause is left open to interpretation. Since it has greater implications to his character and history than we see in the game, I've internet detective'd up a possible cause which fits the canon facts. And so therefore headcanon alert, I repeat, headcanon alert --!
Daniel suffers from a neurological disorder called peduncular hallucinosis, caused by damage to his brainstem. This results in vivid, very realistic visual hallucinations, usually of people and things that he's encountered in real life. These typically occur in low-light conditions and last for several minutes at a time. They're benign enough before the game, but terror plus all the murderin' take their toll, and when he finally finds himself stranded in the castle with no memory of anything but his spooky-ass surroundings and flashbacks... yeah, it doesn't go so well.
Peduncular hallucinosis is usually comorbid with disturbed sleep and thinking that parasols look ridiculous.
When he hallucinates, I'll be reporting it in white font, because dreamwidth has that great off-white background that'll make it visible but very subtle. Yeah champion.
!-- end headcanon alert --!
Abilities/Special Powers: The ability to be a SUPER DORK.
Third-Person Sample: Daniel lets himself into Doctor Tate's house, or at least does the 19th century equivalent, which involves the servants knowing you're expected. No harm in it, right? It's hardly the first time he's been here in the past weeks.
The butler strides ahead to announce him. Daniel follows at a tireder pace.
There's a sense of foreboding about the house. The shadows are too long. Or maybe it's too quiet. To be fair, there's not much in Daniel's life lately that doesn't carry a sense of foreboding -- but now more than usual he can feel that dark something raising hairs at the back of his neck. The something that wakes him up at night, fearful and disoriented.
Silly superstition, of course.
He shivers, but he tries to throw it off. He's only thinking of that darkness now because of his being here for more sleeping medicine. Of course there's no such thing as a curse in one's waking hours! Ha! Ha. Ha.
The butler shouts in horror from the drawing room. Daniel jumps. Then he starts to run.
He bursts into the drawing-room and it's even worse than he feared -- he knew people were dying but there's skin, torn skin, there's the doctor's skin under his shoe. The candles are dead but he can see a limb, bloodless on the chaise longue, and another at the feet of the unlucky butler. His nightmares are spread across this room and his doctor's awful staring head is on the carpet not a few feet in front of him.
The floor hits his knees. Daniel hears himself make a noise as if he's been strangled.
It's real. It's real. It's all real.
First-Person Sample: [ Daniel wakes up in his hotel room in the village of Altstadt. He is definitely in Altstadt, and certainly not in a room in Wonderland which has styled itself to look exactly the same. And, it logically follows, this room is definitely not broadcasting a video of him without his knowledge or consent.
THAT ESTABLISHED,
Daniel springs out of a restless sleep and sits up on the edge of his bed, blinking in the morning light. It must be earlier than it looks, because nobody has come to knock him up, and he definitely asked to be knocked up at 7am promptly. He was very clear in asking to be knocked up.
They'd better not have forgotten. Might they have done? This is sort of a ghetto guest-house, if you want his honest opinion. There's not even a bell he can ring to call a servant.
Okay, Daniel doesn't have time to be annoyed by the inconveniences of rural life. His thoughts are too full of the last leg of his journey, which will be undertaken today, to the castle where he might finally find some safety -- so he stands up quickly, steps away from the bed. Lacking a clock, he just assumes he's late, and starts to undress hurriedly out of his woolen cap and night-shirt.
The network is still definitely not there, but if it were, it would probably now be broadcasting an early Victorian strip tease. ]
DW username:
cazrolimeE-Mail: hobbitesque atte gmail dotte comme
IM: rianofski (AIM)
Plurk: hypnoplasmids
Other Characters: N/A NOPE NOBODY THOSE DAYS ARE OVER
Character Name: Daniel
Series: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Timeline: High-tailing his way across the English Channel to Europe, following receipt of a strange letter from one Baron Alexander.
Canon Resource Link: Daniel's page on the Amnesia wiki.
Character History:
This guy is quite the unfortunate soul. He gets chased by unholy shadows, he pees himself in the dark, and people on deviantart draw him as an anime catgirl. What follows is an account of his sorrows, and I hope that as a biographer I have been both fair and firm.
Daniel grew up in Canterbury, with a mortally ill sister and more than the usual number of beatings (even for a child in the 1820s). His hobbies around this time included caring for his sister, being a dork, and getting into trouble with the bullies at school. He lived in terror of one particular bully until the day Daniel bashed him in the face with a rock in a playground fight.
Fresh out of tomb raider college, Daniel started working for the British Museum, and in 1839 he sailed out on an archaeological expedition to North Africa. Working under his friend Professor Herbert, he pressed deep into Algeria to investigate a spoooooky ancient tomb with a suspiciously ancient burial chamber. So far so good!
Glory comes before safety concerns, and Daniel strode right on into the burial chamber, laughing at the superstition of the workers he'd hired. And then the great slab door fell down and trapped him. So far so... whoops?
Daniel freaked out, wrote a journal entry somehow, and then noticed that the inky blackness of the tomb was pierced by enchanting blue light. He followed the light to its source and put his hands around it, as you do when you're trapped in an ancient stone grave and happen to spot a disco ball. At once, his mind was assaulted with visions of Lovecraftian landscapes beyond description or even comprehension.
Next thing he knew, the stone door was being lifted; hands pulled him out to light and safety, and he was grasping the shattered pieces of a smooth stone orb.
He had been trapped in the tomb for an hour.
Worried for Daniel's health, Professor Herbert sent the dude home to London. Several weeks and a very long journey later, Daniel was back in Mayfair and puzzling over the shards of the orb. He couldn't fit them back together, so he began to observe them; and to his distress, confirmed that they were changing in shape and colour.
He began to ask around, trying to figure out what the christ was going on. Consulting Sir William Smith, a prominent geologist, he learned about the properties of rocks, and how the Victorians totally thought glass was a liquid because they were giant fucking dorks. Daniel tried to be reassured, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling like something else was going on. Something outside of naturalistic explanations.
Then news came from Algeria. Professor Herbert, along with his entire team, had been attacked by something unnamed and horrible. Only one man had survived, injured and delirious. Everybody else had vanished into the desert. Daniel had to pick up Herbert's effects from the customs-house: the only thing the search party had been able to recover.
Around this time, Daniel began suffering from hella nightmares. He was trapped in the tomb again; he could hear a voice from the abyss, calling to him. It got so bad that his doctor had to prescribe him laudanum just so he could get to sleep.
After one particularly sheet-drenching and exhausting dream, he woke up and just... knew how to put the orb back together, the knowledge coming to him as if whispered in his ear. He fitted the pieces together at once, and they merged by themselves with no need for an adhesive.
That's totally not normal or healthy or godly okay????
Daniel's level of freaked-outness was getting pretty high by now. He stole the late great Herbert's address book and shot out letters to anyone and everyone who might know about the nature of what they'd been digging up. While at the university, he spoke to a Professor Taylor about the history of orbs -- and learned that Sir William Smith had been killed.
Then Professor Taylor died. Then so did Daniel's doctor -- hell, Daniel was the one to find his body, torn into pieces, flayed, boiled.
Some terrible shit was going on, and it was quite definitely centred around Daniel, and around that orb.
Daniel started getting responses to the desperate letters he'd sent. Most people were mocking or skeptical. But one message simply read:
I know. I can protect you. Come to Brennenburg castle.
Alexander.
So Daniel went. And then MORE BACKSTORY HAPPENED but never mind that, he's in Wonderland now.
!-- OKAY SO NOTE: Daniel here hallucinates canonically, but the cause is left open to interpretation. Since it has greater implications to his character and history than we see in the game, I've internet detective'd up a possible cause which fits the canon facts. And so therefore headcanon alert, I repeat, headcanon alert --!
Daniel suffers from a neurological disorder called peduncular hallucinosis, caused by damage to his brainstem. This results in vivid, very realistic visual hallucinations, usually of people and things that he's encountered in real life. These typically occur in low-light conditions and last for several minutes at a time. They're benign enough before the game, but terror plus all the murderin' take their toll, and when he finally finds himself stranded in the castle with no memory of anything but his spooky-ass surroundings and flashbacks... yeah, it doesn't go so well.
Peduncular hallucinosis is usually comorbid with disturbed sleep and thinking that parasols look ridiculous.
When he hallucinates, I'll be reporting it in white font, because dreamwidth has that great off-white background that'll make it visible but very subtle. Yeah champion.
!-- end headcanon alert --!
Abilities/Special Powers: The ability to be a SUPER DORK.
Third-Person Sample: Daniel lets himself into Doctor Tate's house, or at least does the 19th century equivalent, which involves the servants knowing you're expected. No harm in it, right? It's hardly the first time he's been here in the past weeks.
The butler strides ahead to announce him. Daniel follows at a tireder pace.
There's a sense of foreboding about the house. The shadows are too long. Or maybe it's too quiet. To be fair, there's not much in Daniel's life lately that doesn't carry a sense of foreboding -- but now more than usual he can feel that dark something raising hairs at the back of his neck. The something that wakes him up at night, fearful and disoriented.
Silly superstition, of course.
He shivers, but he tries to throw it off. He's only thinking of that darkness now because of his being here for more sleeping medicine. Of course there's no such thing as a curse in one's waking hours! Ha! Ha. Ha.
The butler shouts in horror from the drawing room. Daniel jumps. Then he starts to run.
He bursts into the drawing-room and it's even worse than he feared -- he knew people were dying but there's skin, torn skin, there's the doctor's skin under his shoe. The candles are dead but he can see a limb, bloodless on the chaise longue, and another at the feet of the unlucky butler. His nightmares are spread across this room and his doctor's awful staring head is on the carpet not a few feet in front of him.
The floor hits his knees. Daniel hears himself make a noise as if he's been strangled.
It's real. It's real. It's all real.
First-Person Sample: [ Daniel wakes up in his hotel room in the village of Altstadt. He is definitely in Altstadt, and certainly not in a room in Wonderland which has styled itself to look exactly the same. And, it logically follows, this room is definitely not broadcasting a video of him without his knowledge or consent.
THAT ESTABLISHED,
Daniel springs out of a restless sleep and sits up on the edge of his bed, blinking in the morning light. It must be earlier than it looks, because nobody has come to knock him up, and he definitely asked to be knocked up at 7am promptly. He was very clear in asking to be knocked up.
They'd better not have forgotten. Might they have done? This is sort of a ghetto guest-house, if you want his honest opinion. There's not even a bell he can ring to call a servant.
Okay, Daniel doesn't have time to be annoyed by the inconveniences of rural life. His thoughts are too full of the last leg of his journey, which will be undertaken today, to the castle where he might finally find some safety -- so he stands up quickly, steps away from the bed. Lacking a clock, he just assumes he's late, and starts to undress hurriedly out of his woolen cap and night-shirt.
The network is still definitely not there, but if it were, it would probably now be broadcasting an early Victorian strip tease. ]