Application
player ►
Name: Amy
Journal: notcrazy_honest
IM/E-Mail: Townshend302 / Eliada@gmail.com
Current Characters: None!
character ►
Name: Walter Sparrow
Fandom: The Number 23
History: MAJOR SPOILERS follow for the movie, just a warning. If you'd like me to try a less spoiler-heavy history, just let me know.
Walter almost has two histories. The first begins with his childhood. On his eighth birthday, he discovered his mother's corpse. The officials decided she had killed herself. Shortly after that, his father, an accountant, killed himself as well. As Walter says it, his father didn’t leave a suicide note- “just a number.” Walter went through the foster system, through various schools, and eventually managed to get into a decent university.
There he met Laura Tollins. She was a masochist who got involved with Walter for a brief time. For her, it was a few dates- but Walter was new to this, and it was love for him. Eventually, she grew tired of his number obsession and slept around. She sent him a goodbye note, and in his messed-up state of mind, he added up the numbers the letters represented and ‘knew’ what it meant. His father's number was coming around to kill again. He went over to protect her, and possibly to confront her about the note, but she pulled a knife. It was something they’d played with during sex, but he’d never use it against him. She insulted him heavily, cut his arm, and then they fought with it. He stabbed her several times with that knife, then hid her body.
Unable to handle what he'd done, he took a room in a hotel and composed a book. It actually started as a confession and suicide note, but it turned into a mystery novel featuring one Detective Fingerling. Once Walter finished Chapter 22, he wrote the 23rd chapter on the walls of the hotel, which detailed how the whole thing was true and the names had been changed. Then he jumped out the window and felt two stories into the asphalt alley below.
He was severely hurt, but he didn't die. He was rehabilitated in Nathaniel's Institute, with complete amnesia of the previous six months. That’s when his second story begins. After he was able to walk and talk again, he left the Institute and outside of the gate ran into a woman carrying a cake. That woman was Agatha Pink, and the two hit it off immediately. He loved her a great deal. They got together, got married, and had a son named Robin. They built a life together. Walter became an animal control officer, Agatha owned a cake shop. They were all happy, blissfully ignorant of what had come before.
Starting Abilities: He didn't have any.
Personality: Walter is a genuinely nice guy who is genuinely mentally ill. He is a good, caring father and a considerate husband. He’s great with kids, which might be helpful at Whispering Rock. He’s not as good with adults- in the movie, it’s outright stated that he doesn’t have friends, and that he doesn’t make them easily. It’s easy to see why. When he was talking with the mandated psychiatrist that Animal Control had him go see, it’s clear that his mind doesn’t work the same way as most people’s minds. He frequently blurts out exactly what he’s thinking and makes inappropriate jokes, and that tends to make for awkward situations. He daydreams frequently and that tends to alienate any people he would meet by happenstance. Most people avoid him or only deal with him on a professional basis. In addition to this (or perhaps because of it), Walter is extremely introverted and doesn’t tend to seek out friends. Agatha and Robin are the only ones who see through his awkwardness and enjoy his company, and they’re all he really feels he needs.
In the movie, it's the discovery of his 'book' that causes him to start spiraling into paranoia. It starts with the revealing of the number, and he quickly starts to see the number everywhere. He manages some very complex manipulations of basic arithmetic in order to find it in colors, street names, dogs, etc. He won’t have the book to mess him up this time, but he will be away from his wife and son, the two stabilizing forces in his life. Having kids to help look after will help him, but the psitanium will definitely not help. Walter is a paranoid schizophrenic with obsessive tendencies, so either he’ll find something entirely different to focus on or the number will present itself to him somehow. He’s likely to keep pretty quiet on these issues unless he finds someone he feels he can initially trust. Unfortunately, as he’s being thrown into a completely new situation, he’s unlikely to trust easily. And of course, signs of his paranoia are likely to come out in other ways, either in writing on his arm or extreme jumpiness.
There are a few things that will really push him over the edge, and if pressed on these things, he could possibly be dangerous. Such things generally have to do with challenging his denial, telling him he’s unlovable, or telling him he’ll be alone forever. He wouldn’t hurt a child, but that might be hard to tell if he starts acting particularly paranoid. If he starts writing on everything, it may be a good time to leave him alone- doubly so if he’s writing numbers. If he starts uncovering anything about his past, he’s likely to spiral into such heavy denial that he’ll use any sort of rationalization to dismiss it.
The thing about Walter, though, is that he doesn’t want to be paranoid or obsessive. He doesn’t want to be dangerous. He wants to be a good person, and unfortunately that may not work in his favor. Deep down, past the denial, he thinks what he’s done makes him a monster and that he deserves to die to pay for it. While he doesn’t want The Number to win, he thinks he might not have a chance against it- and maybe he shouldn’t.
But however insane he might seem, he will listen to reason, as long as one can pull his attention away from his obsession long enough.
Mental Realm: Much like Walter's life, his mental realm appears very reasonable at first, even happy. There are a great many more mental cobwebs hanging around than most people would have, but he’ll outright tell people that he has permanent amnesia of his time in college, after a fall messed him up. So what most people would see, at the beginning, is a bright, shiny house, inside a nice little northeast American town, a place with a cake shop and lots of fields (but no access to any basements or attics or hotels or musical instrument shops). There are people there who will chat with visitors, mostly talking about how great Agatha and Robin Sparrow are (even thought they don’t appear in this mental realm themselves). The place is very nice, but it has a bit of a ‘plastic’ feel to it.
One may be approached by a person or two that doesn’t fit the ‘nice town and nice people’ description. They tend to look homeless and crazed, and they’ll tell anyone they talk to that there’s a reason why so much of the place is off limits. They’ll suggest there’s something greater going on, even talk about a conspiracy. They’ll point people toward the mental cobwebs and whisper about magic numbers. If one is able to clean up those mental cobwebs and get past the restricted areas, suddenly things aren’t so grand. Instead of shiny, sunny environments, everything is dark and grungy. There’s scribbling on the walls, under broken wallpaper and paint. Sometimes the scribbles move or change, but the gist of all of them is the same. If someone takes the time to read them, it all comes together. His entire book is written on the back corners of his mind, and of course it all has to do with the number 23.
There are tunnels that connect all the darker spots- in fact, you can get to almost anywhere from anywhere in his mind. It becomes like a web- the cellar connects to an apartment covered with blank white paper, which connects to a looming psychiatrist’s office. Sometimes, the tunnels open up into vast caverns, where there is no color- only black, white and gray. Occasionally a bright red object will strike across the landscape, but it appears to be the only one allowed. These places will highlight Fingerling’s story (the book that Walter wrote), and occasionally he actually comes out to talk. This part of his mental landscape is twisty and winding, moving in ways that don't make much sense- somewhat similar to the way Boyd's mind is structured.
This part of his mental realm seems rather amazingly empty, minus the cobwebs and the emotional baggage that’s hiding out in dark places. Fingerling is the only figure here, and depending on how people enter the dark sections, he could seem menacing or friendly. Either way, he’s a cool customer, basically a film noir detective version of Walter himself. After some well-placed questions, it’s possible to find out he’s guarding Walter. He certainly isn’t protecting Walter- he’ll claim that Walter is the ‘Real Monster’ and that it would destroy everything to let him out.
It should be mentioned that once someone has been into the back corners of Walter’s mind, they’ll notice things about the sunny exterior. For example, patches of flowers, little hills made out of rocks, the number of houses on a street- they all number 23. Anything that’s less than that is likely to be in numbers of six or eight. Most featured colors are red or pink. And if one peels the wallpaper of the houses back, they’ll find the writing. There’s no escaping it, in Walter’s head. All one can do is try to hide it, for a time.
writing samples ►
First Person: Okay, so I know a lot of us are rather displaced, but since we are at camp- I thought maybe we’d have a marshmallow roast. I haven’t done that in ages, and I thought it might be fun, make me a little less nervous about being in a really weird place completely alien land. So if anyone would like to join me, I’ll be doing that at 6pm on Thursday. Campers are free to join, too. If we can get the chocolate bars and graham crackers, it’d be perfect.
And no pyrokinesis, please. I’m still getting used to this whole psychic powers thing.
Apologies to the counselors if this isn’t okay, if I’m ruining appetites or anything. Just tell me and I’ll take it down.
Third Person: Walter sat and stared out at the lake, feeling more lonely than he ever remembered being. His wife wasn’t here, his son wasn’t here- they were the joy in his life. They were his reason to get up in the morning. His birthday was coming up, and he wouldn’t be anywhere near them to share it. Everything else he could acclimate to, the lake monster and the psychic powers and the really strange people. In fact, he almost felt more at home here than he ever did back home. It was all interesting and new, like it was out of a science fiction magazine. But none of it mattered, because he was missing the two people that mattered most to him.
He wondered what Robin was up to right now, if he still needed algebra help. Although to be fair, Robin probably could’ve done much better with someone else teaching him.
Robin probably would’ve done much better here, as well- talking to people, making friends, getting into the courses… Walter knew he should probably go back, talk to Coach Oleander about another try at the Basic Training. The campers there all kept getting farther than him, and it was a bit embarrassing. He never had any problems when he was training to be an animal control officer, and that occasionally meant putting himself in real danger, not just the possibility of being pushed out of someone’s mind. But that course was scary, the figments distracting, and the explosions…well, there were explosions. He kept getting caught in them.
He’d get it eventually, though. He just had to focus on that. It was one of the only things that distracted him from how long they might take in getting him back home to his family.
Walter hugged his knees and waited for Linda to show up. Talking to her helped, too.
Name: Amy
Journal: notcrazy_honest
IM/E-Mail: Townshend302 / Eliada@gmail.com
Current Characters: None!
character ►
Name: Walter Sparrow
Fandom: The Number 23
History: MAJOR SPOILERS follow for the movie, just a warning. If you'd like me to try a less spoiler-heavy history, just let me know.
Walter almost has two histories. The first begins with his childhood. On his eighth birthday, he discovered his mother's corpse. The officials decided she had killed herself. Shortly after that, his father, an accountant, killed himself as well. As Walter says it, his father didn’t leave a suicide note- “just a number.” Walter went through the foster system, through various schools, and eventually managed to get into a decent university.
There he met Laura Tollins. She was a masochist who got involved with Walter for a brief time. For her, it was a few dates- but Walter was new to this, and it was love for him. Eventually, she grew tired of his number obsession and slept around. She sent him a goodbye note, and in his messed-up state of mind, he added up the numbers the letters represented and ‘knew’ what it meant. His father's number was coming around to kill again. He went over to protect her, and possibly to confront her about the note, but she pulled a knife. It was something they’d played with during sex, but he’d never use it against him. She insulted him heavily, cut his arm, and then they fought with it. He stabbed her several times with that knife, then hid her body.
Unable to handle what he'd done, he took a room in a hotel and composed a book. It actually started as a confession and suicide note, but it turned into a mystery novel featuring one Detective Fingerling. Once Walter finished Chapter 22, he wrote the 23rd chapter on the walls of the hotel, which detailed how the whole thing was true and the names had been changed. Then he jumped out the window and felt two stories into the asphalt alley below.
He was severely hurt, but he didn't die. He was rehabilitated in Nathaniel's Institute, with complete amnesia of the previous six months. That’s when his second story begins. After he was able to walk and talk again, he left the Institute and outside of the gate ran into a woman carrying a cake. That woman was Agatha Pink, and the two hit it off immediately. He loved her a great deal. They got together, got married, and had a son named Robin. They built a life together. Walter became an animal control officer, Agatha owned a cake shop. They were all happy, blissfully ignorant of what had come before.
Starting Abilities: He didn't have any.
Personality: Walter is a genuinely nice guy who is genuinely mentally ill. He is a good, caring father and a considerate husband. He’s great with kids, which might be helpful at Whispering Rock. He’s not as good with adults- in the movie, it’s outright stated that he doesn’t have friends, and that he doesn’t make them easily. It’s easy to see why. When he was talking with the mandated psychiatrist that Animal Control had him go see, it’s clear that his mind doesn’t work the same way as most people’s minds. He frequently blurts out exactly what he’s thinking and makes inappropriate jokes, and that tends to make for awkward situations. He daydreams frequently and that tends to alienate any people he would meet by happenstance. Most people avoid him or only deal with him on a professional basis. In addition to this (or perhaps because of it), Walter is extremely introverted and doesn’t tend to seek out friends. Agatha and Robin are the only ones who see through his awkwardness and enjoy his company, and they’re all he really feels he needs.
In the movie, it's the discovery of his 'book' that causes him to start spiraling into paranoia. It starts with the revealing of the number, and he quickly starts to see the number everywhere. He manages some very complex manipulations of basic arithmetic in order to find it in colors, street names, dogs, etc. He won’t have the book to mess him up this time, but he will be away from his wife and son, the two stabilizing forces in his life. Having kids to help look after will help him, but the psitanium will definitely not help. Walter is a paranoid schizophrenic with obsessive tendencies, so either he’ll find something entirely different to focus on or the number will present itself to him somehow. He’s likely to keep pretty quiet on these issues unless he finds someone he feels he can initially trust. Unfortunately, as he’s being thrown into a completely new situation, he’s unlikely to trust easily. And of course, signs of his paranoia are likely to come out in other ways, either in writing on his arm or extreme jumpiness.
There are a few things that will really push him over the edge, and if pressed on these things, he could possibly be dangerous. Such things generally have to do with challenging his denial, telling him he’s unlovable, or telling him he’ll be alone forever. He wouldn’t hurt a child, but that might be hard to tell if he starts acting particularly paranoid. If he starts writing on everything, it may be a good time to leave him alone- doubly so if he’s writing numbers. If he starts uncovering anything about his past, he’s likely to spiral into such heavy denial that he’ll use any sort of rationalization to dismiss it.
The thing about Walter, though, is that he doesn’t want to be paranoid or obsessive. He doesn’t want to be dangerous. He wants to be a good person, and unfortunately that may not work in his favor. Deep down, past the denial, he thinks what he’s done makes him a monster and that he deserves to die to pay for it. While he doesn’t want The Number to win, he thinks he might not have a chance against it- and maybe he shouldn’t.
But however insane he might seem, he will listen to reason, as long as one can pull his attention away from his obsession long enough.
Mental Realm: Much like Walter's life, his mental realm appears very reasonable at first, even happy. There are a great many more mental cobwebs hanging around than most people would have, but he’ll outright tell people that he has permanent amnesia of his time in college, after a fall messed him up. So what most people would see, at the beginning, is a bright, shiny house, inside a nice little northeast American town, a place with a cake shop and lots of fields (but no access to any basements or attics or hotels or musical instrument shops). There are people there who will chat with visitors, mostly talking about how great Agatha and Robin Sparrow are (even thought they don’t appear in this mental realm themselves). The place is very nice, but it has a bit of a ‘plastic’ feel to it.
One may be approached by a person or two that doesn’t fit the ‘nice town and nice people’ description. They tend to look homeless and crazed, and they’ll tell anyone they talk to that there’s a reason why so much of the place is off limits. They’ll suggest there’s something greater going on, even talk about a conspiracy. They’ll point people toward the mental cobwebs and whisper about magic numbers. If one is able to clean up those mental cobwebs and get past the restricted areas, suddenly things aren’t so grand. Instead of shiny, sunny environments, everything is dark and grungy. There’s scribbling on the walls, under broken wallpaper and paint. Sometimes the scribbles move or change, but the gist of all of them is the same. If someone takes the time to read them, it all comes together. His entire book is written on the back corners of his mind, and of course it all has to do with the number 23.
There are tunnels that connect all the darker spots- in fact, you can get to almost anywhere from anywhere in his mind. It becomes like a web- the cellar connects to an apartment covered with blank white paper, which connects to a looming psychiatrist’s office. Sometimes, the tunnels open up into vast caverns, where there is no color- only black, white and gray. Occasionally a bright red object will strike across the landscape, but it appears to be the only one allowed. These places will highlight Fingerling’s story (the book that Walter wrote), and occasionally he actually comes out to talk. This part of his mental landscape is twisty and winding, moving in ways that don't make much sense- somewhat similar to the way Boyd's mind is structured.
This part of his mental realm seems rather amazingly empty, minus the cobwebs and the emotional baggage that’s hiding out in dark places. Fingerling is the only figure here, and depending on how people enter the dark sections, he could seem menacing or friendly. Either way, he’s a cool customer, basically a film noir detective version of Walter himself. After some well-placed questions, it’s possible to find out he’s guarding Walter. He certainly isn’t protecting Walter- he’ll claim that Walter is the ‘Real Monster’ and that it would destroy everything to let him out.
It should be mentioned that once someone has been into the back corners of Walter’s mind, they’ll notice things about the sunny exterior. For example, patches of flowers, little hills made out of rocks, the number of houses on a street- they all number 23. Anything that’s less than that is likely to be in numbers of six or eight. Most featured colors are red or pink. And if one peels the wallpaper of the houses back, they’ll find the writing. There’s no escaping it, in Walter’s head. All one can do is try to hide it, for a time.
writing samples ►
First Person: Okay, so I know a lot of us are rather displaced, but since we are at camp- I thought maybe we’d have a marshmallow roast. I haven’t done that in ages, and I thought it might be fun, make me a little less nervous about being in a really weird place completely alien land. So if anyone would like to join me, I’ll be doing that at 6pm on Thursday. Campers are free to join, too. If we can get the chocolate bars and graham crackers, it’d be perfect.
And no pyrokinesis, please. I’m still getting used to this whole psychic powers thing.
Apologies to the counselors if this isn’t okay, if I’m ruining appetites or anything. Just tell me and I’ll take it down.
Third Person: Walter sat and stared out at the lake, feeling more lonely than he ever remembered being. His wife wasn’t here, his son wasn’t here- they were the joy in his life. They were his reason to get up in the morning. His birthday was coming up, and he wouldn’t be anywhere near them to share it. Everything else he could acclimate to, the lake monster and the psychic powers and the really strange people. In fact, he almost felt more at home here than he ever did back home. It was all interesting and new, like it was out of a science fiction magazine. But none of it mattered, because he was missing the two people that mattered most to him.
He wondered what Robin was up to right now, if he still needed algebra help. Although to be fair, Robin probably could’ve done much better with someone else teaching him.
Robin probably would’ve done much better here, as well- talking to people, making friends, getting into the courses… Walter knew he should probably go back, talk to Coach Oleander about another try at the Basic Training. The campers there all kept getting farther than him, and it was a bit embarrassing. He never had any problems when he was training to be an animal control officer, and that occasionally meant putting himself in real danger, not just the possibility of being pushed out of someone’s mind. But that course was scary, the figments distracting, and the explosions…well, there were explosions. He kept getting caught in them.
He’d get it eventually, though. He just had to focus on that. It was one of the only things that distracted him from how long they might take in getting him back home to his family.
Walter hugged his knees and waited for Linda to show up. Talking to her helped, too.