00 application
.the mundane;
» Name: I... am... BATMAN
» Journal: romania
» Contact: stay darling on AIM
» How did you find us?: I inserted a tracking device under your skin while you were sleeping.
.the myth;
» God(dess): Cycnus
» Reference: here
» Family: {mother & father} Apollo and Thyria
» Played By: Christian Cooke
» Human Alias: Ashton Carr
» Human Age: 16
» God of...: Not a god~
» Flair: Cycnus can communicate with swans. It's not like human speech exactly, but don't expect to see him standing on the side of some lake making honking noises. It's more of a residual understanding than anything else. He knows what they mean when they ruffle their feathers or angle their heads in certain directions, and somehow he manages to respond. Don't call him out on it, though; it really pisses him off.
» Flair Type: continuous
» Fitting in: High school student! Junior, to be exact.
» History: Cycnus plays a very small role in recorded myth. The son of Apollo and also a Prince, he was incredibly handsome, but also extremely arrogant. Men throughout the countryside were charmed by his appearance, and came in the hopes of winning his affection. However, in his imperiousness, Cycnus refused each one, until out of exasperation, all but one deserted him. Only a youth named Phyllius was intent on persevering in the boys affections. Cycnus, still disdainful, set upon him a set of labors. The first was to kill a lion that had been harassing the village, only using no weapon of any kind. This Phyllius achieved, by unconventionally drugging it with wine, and then suffocating the beast. He presented the carcass before Cycnus, who, instead of being pleased, ordered Phyllius to bring him a pair of vultures that had been terrorizing the community. This time, they were to be alive. Although the situation seemed dire, this too Phyllius achieved.
When presented with the birds Cycnus made his last demand. Phyllius was to go to the pasture and carry a bull away from his flock using only his two hands, and leave him in sacrifice at the altar of Zeus. Given the difficulty of such a task, Phyllius prayed to the hero Heracles to guide him in his labors. Heracles gifted him with two bulls, distractedly vying over the attention of a cow. Phyllius seized one by the leg and dragged it off to the altar. However, Heracles requested that Phyllius pay no more attention to the youth, and this he did.
Feeling unexpectedly abandoned, Cycnus fell into a deep depression, and threw himself off the edge of a cliff into the lake Konope. Having Apollo for a father has some advantages- before he could be drowned in the lake, the god changed his son into a beautiful swan. His mother, however, was unaware that the father had intervened, and threw herself into the same lake in grief. She, too, was transformed into a swan.
Afterward, the name of the lake was changed and became Swan Lake in reflection of the events that had passed. Ironically, Phyllius must have regretted his decision; it's said that he guarded the swans that appeared in the lake during ploughing time, and even had his tomb erected nearby.
(It's also worth noting that his maternal grandfather, Amphinomus, was one of the suitors of Penelope, and was apparently considered the best behaved. He stayed against Odysseus' orders, however, and was killed by their son Telemachus' spear.)
For the purposes of this game, we'll assume that Cycnus has been taken by Cronus after his transformation into a swan, but not so long that he'd come to accept his fate. A year, I think, sounds fair.
» Weakness: In truth, there's hardly anything redeeming about Cycnus' personality at all. His main flaws of character stem from his unabashed sense of pride, which, in turn, is mostly the fault of his divine lineage. Having Apollo, one of the most multifaceted and widely worshiped gods, as a father must have lent him some sense of imprudent distinction. It's no wonder, then, that he rejected every suitor who had come for him; no mortal is quite good enough for a demigod.
Pride walks hand in hand with arrogance, which leads to uncultured and rude behavior of those around. To say that this entire attitude was a mask for some deeply seeded abandonment issue would be a grave overstatement, but the idea does have some merit to it. One can assume that Cycnus has never met his father, despite the stock he puts in being his son. It is not so far fetched to assume, then, that even subconsciously Cycnus pushes away the ones who seek his affections as a form of a preliminary test. Those who persevere - this being only Phyllius in myth - pass, those who don't merely confirm his fears. It is due these resulting insecurities, not merely arrogance, that Cycnus requires Phyllius to complete his tasks. The intention is to produce a lover that is not only qualified, but willing to do anything to prove this qualification, and is unconditionally dedicated enough not to leave him. It's a romanticized ideal, of course, born of youth, but taken to heart nonetheless. When the only remaining lover is deemed ultimately unworthy, and the ideal is proved to be entirely fictional, the depression that follows the realization of all flaws is immediate, and most likely the cause of his suicide.
However, arrogance and abandonment aside, Cycnus is also hasty and stubborn, and most prominently, sullen. Taken to fits of sulking and pouting when he doesn't get what he wants, he is quite prone to depressive slumps that dehabilitate his mental state. Consider him the epitome of teenage angst. He is also quick to anger when crossed, though taken to ridiculous and ill-founded arguments that make him seem only more childish in the long run.
» Personality: Apollo's choice to turn Cycnus into a swan wasn't completely an exercise in ancient Greek irony. While his attitude may be far from graceful, his physical exterior certainly lives up. In his youth he was incredibly dedicated to the art of hunting, sometimes spending days at a time tracking through forests and fields in an attempt to obtain his quarry. This has lent him something of an athletic disposition in the modern world, although his form is built for stamina and agility rather than for brute strength. He is capable of appearing entirely refined when it suits him, which is probably why, coupled with his looks, so many men were originally attracted to him. It's unfortunate, then, that the entire illusion is shattered the moment he opens his mouth.
His skills in the area of hunting also lead him to develop a fine sense of focus, and one that carries over into other elements of his life. Once decided in something, whether it is an merely an opinion or a declaration of action, he will persevere in it to a point of recklessness. It should be noted, too, that when his attention is fixated on one thing so fully, the rest of the world ceases to exist. This negligence extends to school work, whatever friendships he might have managed, and even the ability to perform certain and necessary tasks like, say, eating. His vanity, however, is not often included in this. Cycnus' arrogance and pride can be attributed directly to the effect his appearance has on his peers; this is not something he's willing to take lightly. It's because of his tendency to over groom that he has such a hard time managing money; he has a taste for finer quality clothes and hair cuts that aren't exactly in the budget of his complex provided allowance. Call him a snob, but he won't accept any less than the best.
Cycnus is truly a romantic at heart, although this may not be entirely apparent even long into his acquaintance. Raised on the stories and the triumphs of his father and the other gods, not to mention tales of the somewhat recently completed Trojan War, he believes that he himself is destined for a greater tale than that of a regular mortal. This too plays a role in his refusal of the ordinary- it also explains his fondness for dramatic notions, such as throwing himself from great heights, or demanding tasks of labors, as if he were King Augeas in the story of Heracles. As mentioned above, however, he does believe in the idea of love at the heart of it, and strives for it, though his fears of abandonment and his general personality are nothing if not counterproductive.
As a side note, Cycnus much prefers the outdoors to being cooped up in modern dwellings for long periods of time. He has a bad tenancy to skip classes when the press of people around him becomes unbearable, or the girls that crowd him (you know highschool girls these days love the unobtainable jerk-face. SEE; EDWARD CULLEN.) get a little over-obnoxious. You can often find him wandering around the lake at central park, feeding the swans that tend to flock to him. To them he is incredibly civil, not quite forgetting the way it felt to have the air soaring underneath pure white wings.
» Sample Journal:
Whoever thought it would be funny to slip the “Swan Princess” movie underneath my door this morning?
It wasn't, you insensitive ass.
I'm not even blondfjjslgdfgfgdgh-
I demand a proper apology and an act of retribution immediately.
Covering yourself in syrup and feathers for a day might do it. That'd teach you to mock me .
[ooc: I'm betting it was Tyche.]
» Sample Roleplay: The cliff he'd chosen was remarkably high.
He stood just beside the edge with his toes buried in in the loose dirt, feeling the wind go rushing through him and over the side. That same gale fluttered low over the water below, creating gentle ripples that spread throughout the surface. There were hundreds of feet to the bottom, he had concluded, where the lake now sparkled and glistened in the force of the midday sun. It was impossible not to wonder whether Apollo looked down upon him with it, if he frowned upon his son's choices or his son's behavior. Probably not. Being a god meant adventures and duties, after all. Apollo probably had many children not sung about in epic tales. How could he possibly spare a moment for one of those? One of the many failures. One of the disappointments. Cycnus frowned deepened as he took a step closer to the edge.
It was undeniably beautiful up at the top. In the distance Cycnus could see the colors of the countryside rolling out, farmers leading oxen through their fields while children rushed about. Even further he could see the forests stretching around them, and the shape of his own dwelling rising in the distance. They were most likely still coddling Phyllius there, smoothing over the insults with wine and meat and kind words. But it would do no good; Phyllius had said he was done, and Cycnus would not stoop so low as to beg him, nor would he apologize for the things he'd commanded. If Phyllius thought he wasn't worth the labor, well then, he wasn't worth the boys time. But with every one of his other admirers gone, and his mothers reproach following him out among the trees to the hunt, there was nothing left. There was no point to living if everyone detested him, was there? Where was the fame in that? The glory? He'd offered Phyllius the chance to be a hero on a golden platter. If he'd succeeded, his deeds would be talked about far and wide. What he was willing to do, for the love of the son of Apollo. They'd be sung of in legends.
But he'd refused and Cycnus was alone. Without a lover, without a father. It was impossible.
... So he jumped.
*
On the shore a local fisherman watched as the boy stepped closer to the edge. It wasn't hard to imagine what his purpose was- he'd seen enough suicides in his life, long as he'd lived. It wasn't a pretty thing, no, but one you couldn't exactly look away from, either. So the fisherman stared as the boy took one more step, teetering on the edge before gravity took hold and forced him down towards his death.
What happened next, the man is always uncertain when asked. Just as the youth fell, a cloud that had been partially blocking the sun moved, sending the full light of the thing onto the lake and, in turn, into his old eyes, leaving him momentarily blinded. When a new cloud took it's place and he could see again, there was no sign of the boy. There were no ripples in the water where he would've landed either. From a height like that, the splash would be loud, and the waves that followed visible.
But there was nothing, just a big, white bird stretching it's wings in distress as it touched down upon the water.
Peculiar, indeed.
» Name: I... am... BATMAN
» Journal: romania
» Contact: stay darling on AIM
» How did you find us?: I inserted a tracking device under your skin while you were sleeping.
.the myth;
» God(dess): Cycnus
» Reference: here
» Family: {mother & father} Apollo and Thyria
» Played By: Christian Cooke
» Human Alias: Ashton Carr
» Human Age: 16
» God of...: Not a god~
» Flair: Cycnus can communicate with swans. It's not like human speech exactly, but don't expect to see him standing on the side of some lake making honking noises. It's more of a residual understanding than anything else. He knows what they mean when they ruffle their feathers or angle their heads in certain directions, and somehow he manages to respond. Don't call him out on it, though; it really pisses him off.
» Flair Type: continuous
» Fitting in: High school student! Junior, to be exact.
» History: Cycnus plays a very small role in recorded myth. The son of Apollo and also a Prince, he was incredibly handsome, but also extremely arrogant. Men throughout the countryside were charmed by his appearance, and came in the hopes of winning his affection. However, in his imperiousness, Cycnus refused each one, until out of exasperation, all but one deserted him. Only a youth named Phyllius was intent on persevering in the boys affections. Cycnus, still disdainful, set upon him a set of labors. The first was to kill a lion that had been harassing the village, only using no weapon of any kind. This Phyllius achieved, by unconventionally drugging it with wine, and then suffocating the beast. He presented the carcass before Cycnus, who, instead of being pleased, ordered Phyllius to bring him a pair of vultures that had been terrorizing the community. This time, they were to be alive. Although the situation seemed dire, this too Phyllius achieved.
When presented with the birds Cycnus made his last demand. Phyllius was to go to the pasture and carry a bull away from his flock using only his two hands, and leave him in sacrifice at the altar of Zeus. Given the difficulty of such a task, Phyllius prayed to the hero Heracles to guide him in his labors. Heracles gifted him with two bulls, distractedly vying over the attention of a cow. Phyllius seized one by the leg and dragged it off to the altar. However, Heracles requested that Phyllius pay no more attention to the youth, and this he did.
Feeling unexpectedly abandoned, Cycnus fell into a deep depression, and threw himself off the edge of a cliff into the lake Konope. Having Apollo for a father has some advantages- before he could be drowned in the lake, the god changed his son into a beautiful swan. His mother, however, was unaware that the father had intervened, and threw herself into the same lake in grief. She, too, was transformed into a swan.
Afterward, the name of the lake was changed and became Swan Lake in reflection of the events that had passed. Ironically, Phyllius must have regretted his decision; it's said that he guarded the swans that appeared in the lake during ploughing time, and even had his tomb erected nearby.
(It's also worth noting that his maternal grandfather, Amphinomus, was one of the suitors of Penelope, and was apparently considered the best behaved. He stayed against Odysseus' orders, however, and was killed by their son Telemachus' spear.)
For the purposes of this game, we'll assume that Cycnus has been taken by Cronus after his transformation into a swan, but not so long that he'd come to accept his fate. A year, I think, sounds fair.
» Weakness: In truth, there's hardly anything redeeming about Cycnus' personality at all. His main flaws of character stem from his unabashed sense of pride, which, in turn, is mostly the fault of his divine lineage. Having Apollo, one of the most multifaceted and widely worshiped gods, as a father must have lent him some sense of imprudent distinction. It's no wonder, then, that he rejected every suitor who had come for him; no mortal is quite good enough for a demigod.
Pride walks hand in hand with arrogance, which leads to uncultured and rude behavior of those around. To say that this entire attitude was a mask for some deeply seeded abandonment issue would be a grave overstatement, but the idea does have some merit to it. One can assume that Cycnus has never met his father, despite the stock he puts in being his son. It is not so far fetched to assume, then, that even subconsciously Cycnus pushes away the ones who seek his affections as a form of a preliminary test. Those who persevere - this being only Phyllius in myth - pass, those who don't merely confirm his fears. It is due these resulting insecurities, not merely arrogance, that Cycnus requires Phyllius to complete his tasks. The intention is to produce a lover that is not only qualified, but willing to do anything to prove this qualification, and is unconditionally dedicated enough not to leave him. It's a romanticized ideal, of course, born of youth, but taken to heart nonetheless. When the only remaining lover is deemed ultimately unworthy, and the ideal is proved to be entirely fictional, the depression that follows the realization of all flaws is immediate, and most likely the cause of his suicide.
However, arrogance and abandonment aside, Cycnus is also hasty and stubborn, and most prominently, sullen. Taken to fits of sulking and pouting when he doesn't get what he wants, he is quite prone to depressive slumps that dehabilitate his mental state. Consider him the epitome of teenage angst. He is also quick to anger when crossed, though taken to ridiculous and ill-founded arguments that make him seem only more childish in the long run.
» Personality: Apollo's choice to turn Cycnus into a swan wasn't completely an exercise in ancient Greek irony. While his attitude may be far from graceful, his physical exterior certainly lives up. In his youth he was incredibly dedicated to the art of hunting, sometimes spending days at a time tracking through forests and fields in an attempt to obtain his quarry. This has lent him something of an athletic disposition in the modern world, although his form is built for stamina and agility rather than for brute strength. He is capable of appearing entirely refined when it suits him, which is probably why, coupled with his looks, so many men were originally attracted to him. It's unfortunate, then, that the entire illusion is shattered the moment he opens his mouth.
His skills in the area of hunting also lead him to develop a fine sense of focus, and one that carries over into other elements of his life. Once decided in something, whether it is an merely an opinion or a declaration of action, he will persevere in it to a point of recklessness. It should be noted, too, that when his attention is fixated on one thing so fully, the rest of the world ceases to exist. This negligence extends to school work, whatever friendships he might have managed, and even the ability to perform certain and necessary tasks like, say, eating. His vanity, however, is not often included in this. Cycnus' arrogance and pride can be attributed directly to the effect his appearance has on his peers; this is not something he's willing to take lightly. It's because of his tendency to over groom that he has such a hard time managing money; he has a taste for finer quality clothes and hair cuts that aren't exactly in the budget of his complex provided allowance. Call him a snob, but he won't accept any less than the best.
Cycnus is truly a romantic at heart, although this may not be entirely apparent even long into his acquaintance. Raised on the stories and the triumphs of his father and the other gods, not to mention tales of the somewhat recently completed Trojan War, he believes that he himself is destined for a greater tale than that of a regular mortal. This too plays a role in his refusal of the ordinary- it also explains his fondness for dramatic notions, such as throwing himself from great heights, or demanding tasks of labors, as if he were King Augeas in the story of Heracles. As mentioned above, however, he does believe in the idea of love at the heart of it, and strives for it, though his fears of abandonment and his general personality are nothing if not counterproductive.
As a side note, Cycnus much prefers the outdoors to being cooped up in modern dwellings for long periods of time. He has a bad tenancy to skip classes when the press of people around him becomes unbearable, or the girls that crowd him (you know highschool girls these days love the unobtainable jerk-face. SEE; EDWARD CULLEN.) get a little over-obnoxious. You can often find him wandering around the lake at central park, feeding the swans that tend to flock to him. To them he is incredibly civil, not quite forgetting the way it felt to have the air soaring underneath pure white wings.
» Sample Journal:
Whoever thought it would be funny to slip the “Swan Princess” movie underneath my door this morning?
It wasn't, you insensitive ass.
I'm not even blondfjjslgdfgfgdgh-
I demand a proper apology and an act of retribution immediately.
Covering yourself in syrup and feathers for a day might do it. That'd teach you to mock me .
[ooc: I'm betting it was Tyche.]
» Sample Roleplay: The cliff he'd chosen was remarkably high.
He stood just beside the edge with his toes buried in in the loose dirt, feeling the wind go rushing through him and over the side. That same gale fluttered low over the water below, creating gentle ripples that spread throughout the surface. There were hundreds of feet to the bottom, he had concluded, where the lake now sparkled and glistened in the force of the midday sun. It was impossible not to wonder whether Apollo looked down upon him with it, if he frowned upon his son's choices or his son's behavior. Probably not. Being a god meant adventures and duties, after all. Apollo probably had many children not sung about in epic tales. How could he possibly spare a moment for one of those? One of the many failures. One of the disappointments. Cycnus frowned deepened as he took a step closer to the edge.
It was undeniably beautiful up at the top. In the distance Cycnus could see the colors of the countryside rolling out, farmers leading oxen through their fields while children rushed about. Even further he could see the forests stretching around them, and the shape of his own dwelling rising in the distance. They were most likely still coddling Phyllius there, smoothing over the insults with wine and meat and kind words. But it would do no good; Phyllius had said he was done, and Cycnus would not stoop so low as to beg him, nor would he apologize for the things he'd commanded. If Phyllius thought he wasn't worth the labor, well then, he wasn't worth the boys time. But with every one of his other admirers gone, and his mothers reproach following him out among the trees to the hunt, there was nothing left. There was no point to living if everyone detested him, was there? Where was the fame in that? The glory? He'd offered Phyllius the chance to be a hero on a golden platter. If he'd succeeded, his deeds would be talked about far and wide. What he was willing to do, for the love of the son of Apollo. They'd be sung of in legends.
But he'd refused and Cycnus was alone. Without a lover, without a father. It was impossible.
... So he jumped.
*
On the shore a local fisherman watched as the boy stepped closer to the edge. It wasn't hard to imagine what his purpose was- he'd seen enough suicides in his life, long as he'd lived. It wasn't a pretty thing, no, but one you couldn't exactly look away from, either. So the fisherman stared as the boy took one more step, teetering on the edge before gravity took hold and forced him down towards his death.
What happened next, the man is always uncertain when asked. Just as the youth fell, a cloud that had been partially blocking the sun moved, sending the full light of the thing onto the lake and, in turn, into his old eyes, leaving him momentarily blinded. When a new cloud took it's place and he could see again, there was no sign of the boy. There were no ripples in the water where he would've landed either. From a height like that, the splash would be loud, and the waves that followed visible.
But there was nothing, just a big, white bird stretching it's wings in distress as it touched down upon the water.
Peculiar, indeed.