(no subject)
* Your name: Zai
* Your personal LJ: eudaimon
* Who do you currently play at Tabula Rasa?: Eostre, Ian Murray, Lily Strombeck, Charlie Andrews, Jerry Bines, Augustus Knickel and Clay Busby.
* Please list the dates of your participation requirement threads or posts for each pup for the previous calendar month:
Eostre: 1st April
Ian: 19th, 21st, 22nd April
Lily: 19th April
Charlie: 2nd April
Jerry: 21st April
Gus: 19th April
Clay: 6th April
* Have you dropped any pup since your last application? No.
* If so, why did you feel the need to drop them? (Please note: This section of the application will have no bearing on whether it is accepted. It is intended only as a device to encourage muns to evaluate who they are applying for.) N/A
* What month and year is this application for?: May, 2007
* Your character's name: Ned Coates
* Your character's canon: "Nightwatch"
* What type of canon is it (Book series, film, etc.): novel, by Terry Pratchett
* Your character's LJ: pokerplayereyes
* Is your character living or dead at their time of entry?: he's dead.
* Does your character have any pre-existing disabilities of a medical, physical, or psychiatric nature?: (paralyzed or missing limbs, AIDS, barren, schizophrenia, etc.) Aside from being a little longsighted and an old crack in his ankle that sometimes give him trouble, not really.
* Your character's personality: The best word to describe Ned Coates is "stoic"; he doesn't give a lot away. Vimes says that real revolutionaries have "poker player eyes" and that Ned himself has the steady gaze of a true liar. Ned is a difficult man to pin down...He's too used to moving in not quite public circles. Above all things, Ned has always been a Good Copper; if not entirely HONOURABLE then at least he usually tries to do what's best for the greater good. Ned knows that Vimes isn't the real John Keel (the real John Keel is dead) from virtually the first time that he meets him...Ned doesn't give him away because he's waiting to see what Vimes does next, and he isn't dissapointed. The fact that Ned later changes sides in the Revolution is telling; he isn't idealistic...he actually WANTS to see change, to see a better world, and he'll back whoever it is who looks most likely of bringing that about. The fact that Vimes is the only thing that we see visibly get a rise out of Ned is interesting, because Ned isn't usually quick to anger and almost always has an iron grip on his emotions. Ned never wanted to be a hero, never wanted to be a part of any "Glorious" 25th...what he was was a BELIEVER, who wanted to see a change in the world, and wanted it desperately. Like Gandhi said, Ned is definitely the change that he wants to see. He cares, he really, truly does, but he does it quietly, in a world of passwords and hidden faces. Depth is Ned's defining characteristic, still waters over not sand but CHASMS. And stoic. Definitely stoic.
* Why do you want to play this character?: In my opinion, “Night Watch” is the best of Terry Pratchett's books; it's funny, but it's also dark, and it's characters are complex. Ned is one of those complex characters, who only has a few substantial scenes in the book, but is one of it's more notable individuals. He's a revolutionary. He's a Watchman. He can handle himself. I'm interested, mostly, in the scope for development of his character; he's very much a product of his situation in the novel, or, rather, we only SEE him in that situation, so I'm fascinated to see what he'll turn into on the island. I'm bringing him in from the point of his death, which is more than that; it's also the point at which he realises that his CAUSE is gone too. So, yes, that'll be fascinating to see what happens to the revolutionary without the revolution. I also think that it'll be interesting to see him interact with Samuel Vimes who he has, of course, met before (in rather inauspicious circumstances). The way that I'm writing him, Ned was always defined by what he DID: revolutionary, copper, the boy who left home. It'll be fascinating, in terms of character development, to see what he's like in an entirely new situation, and what he ends up becoming as a result. Also, he won't be able to keep himself away from the IPD. And he was ALWAYS a good Copper.
* Tell us about your character's background: Ned may or may not have had a bad childhood in Pseudopolis. He probably wouldn't ever tell you for certain. What he WOULD tell you is that he always wanted to be a Watchman and that the best place to do that, then as now, was in Ankh Morpork. Ned left home at seventeen, training first under John Keel in Pseudopolis and then moving to Ankh Morpork where he quickly became lost in the shambles that was the Night Watch, right up until he was promoted to Lance Corporal by John Keel. It's worth noting that, by that time, he'd been involved with the revolutionaries in Morphic Street for nearly a year. The Glorious Revolution was, like most of these things, money driven: the rich have it, the poor need it and it's almost never in the right hands. Taxes were rising under Lord Winder, the city was starving and tensions had to boil over. The Republic started bloodily when Lord Snapcase was quietly installed and the city rioted, attacking watch-houses, the watch having been a tool of Winder's increasingly tyrannical regime. Where does a Good Copper fit into all this? On the right side, is where, even if that means changing sides halfway through. Ned was one of the brave young man, the Watchmen, who led the Republic against an attack led by Carcer and the City at large. What happened to Ned (and the other heroes of the Glorious 25th) is not a matter of public record or banner headline, but mattered, never-the-less. At the moment of his death, which was neither cruel nor particularly unusual, Ned heard the sound of dice, and opened his eyes somewhere else entirely. Ned departs canon on May 25th, with lilac in the band of his helmet.
* Your character's initial personal inventory:
1 brown cotton shirt.
1 pair coarse brown breeches.
1 pair appropriate underclothes.
1 pair brown stockings
1 pair brown leather boots (second hand, with cardboard soles)
1 chain mail vest.
1 brown leather belt.
1 shield shaped badge (AMCW 322)
1 custom made truncheon.
1 sword (sharp and in good repair)
1 scabbard.
1 knife, shoved into his boot.
1 iron breastplate
1 helmet, slightly battered.
1 spring of lilac blossom (worn in the band of his helmet).
1 shilling, drilled with a hole, worn on
Carried in his pockets:
1 full pouch of tobacco.
3 opened packets of black rolling papers.
1 pair of wire rimmed spectacles, in case.
1 notebook.
1 pencil stub.
1 unopened letter (return address, a Glorious Coates, Pseudopolis).
* Your character's entrance post:
From how far back was his one question and Ned stood by it, it wasn't a bad question, not at all, not with Keel-who-wasn't-Keel looking at him like some creature from the Dark Days and all hell about to break loose in front of them. Didn't get answer though, so Ned just nodded and pulled his helmet down more firmly.
"Now let's show Snapcase where the line's drawn, shall we? Let's finish it-"
They charged. Ned lost sight of Keel almost immediately but he tried to keep sight of the others, tried to keep his head above water. It wasn't a battle or a war or even a skirmish...what it was was a rout and a bloody shame, and Ned couldn't help but remember what he'd said to Keel-who-wasn't-Keel about the men who shouldn't have been there, who SHOULD NOT have been there, but they were, they all were, and the purple was in the corners of his eyes like sparks.
And he lost sight.
When a Watchman ran at him, Ned didn't see any purple and he cut him down without stopping. He felt blood hot and foul on his face and saw the look on Carcer's face when he'd asked if Ned was just along for the ride? No, he wasn't. This wasn't like any ride that he'd ever been on, not now. What this was was a run-away, and they were all going to die in a pile of splinter and spark. It only occurred to him after the man had gone down how easy it would be for a small thing, a sprig of lilac, say, to slip in the crush and get lost under all of the boots, running and be gone, just like that. It occured to him, and then Ned put that entirely from his mind because you couldn't think like that. Ned Coates was dangerous because he could be that rational. Ned Coates was dangerous because he believed.
Something made him look up, tall enough to see above the heads to where Keel had Carcer by the throat. The world vibrated like it had before and a body fell but it wasn't the body and, anyway, it was only one, and Ned had this brief, fleeting glimpse of a much older Ankh Morpork, the river cleaner but the city darker and everything, but everything, was drenched in blood.
He felt the pain but couldn't see it. It was almost funny...Ned Coates was a young man and, up until that moment, he hadn't really expected to die. It all went dark very quickly after that.
And everything was drenched in blood.
NED COATES? LANCE CORPORAL, WOULD YOU COME THI-...WHAT? OH. OH, I SEE. VERY WELL.
And Ned could have sworn that he heard the sound of dice, and somebody kissed him.
He opened his eyes.
He was on his feet. A good watchman could sleep on his feet (it'd kill him by the third night, but he COULD), and Ned Coates had always been a good Copper. He was on his feet and what he saw was not Treacle Mine Road. What he saw was water, miles of water, more water than could be believed and the sun in the sky. His sword was still in his numb hand and his head hurt like bloody murder and there was blood sticky on his neck but no wound. Ned turned around in a half circle and realised.
Death was another country, the poets said. Apparently, they weren't wrong.
Bugger.
Ned sat down heavily in the sand, dragging his helmet off of his head, the lilac fluttering free. He picked it up, meaning to crush it, but, in the end, he lay back with it still curled in his fingers, his hand on his chest. Eyes closed, he started to sing to himself.
"How do they rise up, rise up, rise up? How do they rise up, rise up high?"
What was a good Copper to do?