APPLICATION - MASK OR MENACE
Aug. 1st, 2016 05:03 pm〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Simon Illyan
CHARACTER AGE: mid-thirties
CANON ORIGIN: The Vorkosigan Saga
CHRONOLOGY: a couple years after the book Barrayar i. e after the conclusion of Vordarian pretendership
CLASS: Spy working for Heroes.
HOUSING: He is gonna move in with his independently-housed canon mates pretty much ASAP
BACKGROUND: A wiki. Roughly a century ago the feudal, practically medieval planet of Barrayar was thrust rudely onto the galactic scene by the sudden invasion of a vastly technologically superior people called the Cetagandans. The Cetagandans occupied Barrayar for twenty years before they were driven off by Barrayaran guerilla forces. Liberated, Barrayar then reverse-engineered their technology and hopped over to invade and conquer their galactic neighbor, the planet Komarr, who had originally sold Barrayar out to the Cetagandans.
This is really all you need to understand Barrayar as a whole: a military-mad planet that’s managed to survive on absolutely insane feats of loyalty and disturbing acts of brutality. Social organization takes place around a military caste which functions as nobility, the Vor. The Vor act as governors of their various inherited districts, receiving taxes and loyalty in exchange for protection and governance. The Vor in turn are answerable to the Emperor (another Vor), whom they swear oaths to. The whole system is held together by loyalty, without a doubt the most driving social force in Barrayaran culture. In part, it is loyalty which allows some of Barrayar’s more disturbing human rights violations. Current-day Barrayar struggles toward social reform but tends to be knee-capped by an adherence to tradition—a tradition which tends to efface individual rights for the greater good.
Simon Illyan is an interesting liminal figure, a relic of the old regime of Emperor Ezar, a time fraught with brutal exigencies: assassinations, enormous sacrifice of human life, and violent political restructurings. As a twenty-seven year-old Imperial Security agent (spy), with no political protection, Emperor Ezar and the then-current Chief of Imperial Security, Simon’s boss Capt. Negri, shipped Simon off to have an experimental eidetic memory chip shoved into his head, an operation that killed 90% of its patients. Simon survived and became something like Ezar’s personal recorder. Later, in his early thirties, Ezar assigned Simon to spy on Aral Vorkosigan to ensure the success of a military operation (actually a cover to assassinate the emperor’s mad, tyrannical son). In the process of shadowing Aral Simon became loyal to him, compromising himself in order to help Vorkosigan rescue the prisoner Cordelia Naismith, who would later become Aral’s wife. After the operation, the elderly, dying Ezar compelled Aral to accept the position of regent of Barrayar and watch over the child crown prince.
He also gifted Simon to Aral to run his personal security detail. Which Simon did, failing only once, when Cordelia and Aral were exposed to soltoxin gas, rendering their then-unborn child disabled. This attempted assassination heralded an attempted coup which was stopped, and in the aftermath Simon was promoted to head of all Imperial Security, a position he held for the next 30 or so years.
I’m pulling Simon fairly early in his reign as Chief of ImpSec, roughly two and a half years after the end of the book Barrayar, where he was promoted. The events in that book, the attempted coup, were followed shortly by a foreign invasion and a civil war which will still be going from Simon’s point of view.
PERSONALITY: Like most Barrayarans, a lot in Simon’s life is tied up with loyalty. The story of his character development is just as much about, and indeed dependent on, his evolving loyalties.
Before meeting Aral, it’s indicated that Simon had a fairly straightforward relationship with his duty to the Barrayar Imperium, despite the fact that his boss Negri and his Emperor shipped him off to a 9 in 10 chance of dying to get the eidetic chip installed for kicks. He applies his unswerving commitment to all his duties for the Imperium, avoiding letting private emotions affect his actions as best he can. It doesn’t make him the most moral person at times: at one point he chooses sticking to his duty over helping a torture victim, though it makes him uneasy—he’s not a stone for all that he might give that impression. At another point he congratulates Aral on (supposedly) drugging the woman he loved in order to extract tactical information. It is, however, Simon’s loyalty to the Barrayaran Imperium that sets his priorities rather than him just being a shitty person. He has emotional reactions to what he’s doing and what’s occurring around him, sympathy and horror and fear (though he may not have them in typical quantities), he just doesn’t let those emotions sway his decisions. Much.
But Simon develops a more personal loyalty for Aral Vorkosigan that seems to engage him on a deeper level, past his well-trained professional blandness. Personal investment seems to put a whole different spin on Simon’s relationship to his duty/loyalty, evaporating his well-cultivated chill. In the context of a relationship of trust Simon is less guarded by sheer dint of the fact he cares enough to actually be afraid for his charges. He shows a propensity for biting sarcasm and the other feelings he generally keeps on the down low. Like panic, and irritation at those he is loyal to when they do stupid, risky things, ethical things. But for all his complaining, it’s clear that the danger that trails in Aral’s wake is part of the attraction for Simon—His years of doing galactic covert ops has given him a taste for adrenaline that he usually keeps fairly well controlled, but he’s thrilled at the first opportunity dust off his old covert ops training and he takes plenty of stupid risks himself for Aral’s sake.
For people Simon doesn’t trust (and frankly, even for people he does trust.) Simon is a difficult person to get to know. Years of doing covert espionage has ensured that the only personality trait Simon generally displays to other people is Blandess, a facade enforced by his unprepossessing features. He’s not ambitious for power, money, love, or family; he’s absolutely stunned when he’s promoted to the prestigious position of Chief of Security and views it more as a grave responsibility than an illustrious post. It’s indicated that it’s not even a job he likes despite his skill at it. So his own personal desires are obscure; he appears to be motivated by nothing besides his loyalty to Aral and Cordelia. But loyalty to them is also loyalty to their principles and their vision of pulling Barrayar out of its brutal ways. Simon’s aware of his place as a less-than-moral figure working to change Barrayar into a more merciful place that does not use up and discard its people. Yet he does not seem to consciously view himself as having been wronged by the Imperium. His devotion is selfless, giving everything and asking nothing in return.
The other reason Simon maintains such a lackluster life and personality has to do with the chip planted in his head. It’s indicated that having two sets of memories at once is quit a mental balancing act, accounting for Simon’s tendency to be fairly reserved in his comportment. Practice distancing himself from two streams of memories at once also gives him a lot of practice in distancing himself emotionally his life. With the chip in, he’s never really off duty and his devotion is such that, compounded by the guilt of his failure to protect Cordelia from the soltoxin grenade, he’s terrified of failing again. Then there’s the practical consequences—when you can remember in detail every stupid thing you ever said and every mistake you ever made, it makes you a very, very careful person.
As for his daily, normal behavior (TL; DR:), Simon’s blandly friendly with a latent tendency toward being acerb which becomes significantly less latent the more comfortable he is with someone. He tends to view people as belonging to two categories: those he is loyal to and Everyone Else, where Everyone Else can be further subdivided into potential threats, potential advantages, and potential sources of amusement if he’s feeling particularly bored. Everyone Else likewise has a lot less moral sway on Simon. He’d do something to some rando like, say, test his hypnosis powers without consent, that he wouldn’t in a million years do to someone in his circle. He avoids harming others out of basic human decency and a professional preference for tidier, more reliable methods but he will absolutely do it if he finds it necessary and only lose a little sleep over it.
By necessity, he has a highly analytical mind and will watch people closely even when he doesn’t strictly need any information from them—All data is good data. Paranoia structures a lot of his insights and interactions. He will be guarded about giving away any information about himself and manipulative about getting it from other people. Everyone is a potential threat until proven otherwise.
TL;DR #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwq6Z6bffhE
POWER:
Eidetic Memory Chip (canon): A bioelectronic chip that simulates an eidetic memory. It records audio/visual only. Simon can ‘search’ it and play memories back at will, though only for himself.
Animal transformation (non-canon): Can turn into a peregrine falcon! All or nothing, no half-form.
HYPNOSIS (non-canon): Simon will able to put someone in a trance-like state through a combination of tone of voice and eye contact. While the subject is under hypnosis, Simon has 3 options, all more or less interrelated:
Plant a suggestion: Basically, a command. It can be immediate, while the subject is still in a trance, like asking them to sign a piece of paper. It can also be long-term, for after the subject has awoken, like “When I snap my fingers, you will wake up and want to pet a duck.” In both cases the compulsion is not overwhelming or iron-clad. The subject CAN resist, regardless of how strongly Simon leans on them. The more complicated the suggestion or the more against the subject’s personality/desires the suggestion is, the more likely it is to be resisted.
Compel truth: In the hypnotic state, the subject will feel inclined to answer questions truthfully. This can also be resisted with silence or lies, to a point.
Alter memories: Simon will be able to manipulate memories though mental compulsion. He can command that the subject forget a particular time period (such as “the last hour” “yesterday” etc), a particular person or item (your mom, a magical sword), or he can plant a false memory. Like so: “When I snap my fingers you will think that we spent the last ten minutes talking about bananas.” In each case, the success of the alternation will be dependent on the mental disposition of the subject and the strength/volume of the memory Simon is trying to alter. Hours will be forgotten more easily than days; an emotionally charged memory will be more difficult to cover up, etc. The memories themselves will not disappear, simply recede from consciousness, so they can be tripped or re-remembered given sufficient stimulus or passage of time.
CHARACTER NAME: Simon Illyan
CHARACTER AGE: mid-thirties
CANON ORIGIN: The Vorkosigan Saga
CHRONOLOGY: a couple years after the book Barrayar i. e after the conclusion of Vordarian pretendership
CLASS: Spy working for Heroes.
HOUSING: He is gonna move in with his independently-housed canon mates pretty much ASAP
BACKGROUND: A wiki. Roughly a century ago the feudal, practically medieval planet of Barrayar was thrust rudely onto the galactic scene by the sudden invasion of a vastly technologically superior people called the Cetagandans. The Cetagandans occupied Barrayar for twenty years before they were driven off by Barrayaran guerilla forces. Liberated, Barrayar then reverse-engineered their technology and hopped over to invade and conquer their galactic neighbor, the planet Komarr, who had originally sold Barrayar out to the Cetagandans.
This is really all you need to understand Barrayar as a whole: a military-mad planet that’s managed to survive on absolutely insane feats of loyalty and disturbing acts of brutality. Social organization takes place around a military caste which functions as nobility, the Vor. The Vor act as governors of their various inherited districts, receiving taxes and loyalty in exchange for protection and governance. The Vor in turn are answerable to the Emperor (another Vor), whom they swear oaths to. The whole system is held together by loyalty, without a doubt the most driving social force in Barrayaran culture. In part, it is loyalty which allows some of Barrayar’s more disturbing human rights violations. Current-day Barrayar struggles toward social reform but tends to be knee-capped by an adherence to tradition—a tradition which tends to efface individual rights for the greater good.
Simon Illyan is an interesting liminal figure, a relic of the old regime of Emperor Ezar, a time fraught with brutal exigencies: assassinations, enormous sacrifice of human life, and violent political restructurings. As a twenty-seven year-old Imperial Security agent (spy), with no political protection, Emperor Ezar and the then-current Chief of Imperial Security, Simon’s boss Capt. Negri, shipped Simon off to have an experimental eidetic memory chip shoved into his head, an operation that killed 90% of its patients. Simon survived and became something like Ezar’s personal recorder. Later, in his early thirties, Ezar assigned Simon to spy on Aral Vorkosigan to ensure the success of a military operation (actually a cover to assassinate the emperor’s mad, tyrannical son). In the process of shadowing Aral Simon became loyal to him, compromising himself in order to help Vorkosigan rescue the prisoner Cordelia Naismith, who would later become Aral’s wife. After the operation, the elderly, dying Ezar compelled Aral to accept the position of regent of Barrayar and watch over the child crown prince.
He also gifted Simon to Aral to run his personal security detail. Which Simon did, failing only once, when Cordelia and Aral were exposed to soltoxin gas, rendering their then-unborn child disabled. This attempted assassination heralded an attempted coup which was stopped, and in the aftermath Simon was promoted to head of all Imperial Security, a position he held for the next 30 or so years.
I’m pulling Simon fairly early in his reign as Chief of ImpSec, roughly two and a half years after the end of the book Barrayar, where he was promoted. The events in that book, the attempted coup, were followed shortly by a foreign invasion and a civil war which will still be going from Simon’s point of view.
PERSONALITY: Like most Barrayarans, a lot in Simon’s life is tied up with loyalty. The story of his character development is just as much about, and indeed dependent on, his evolving loyalties.
Before meeting Aral, it’s indicated that Simon had a fairly straightforward relationship with his duty to the Barrayar Imperium, despite the fact that his boss Negri and his Emperor shipped him off to a 9 in 10 chance of dying to get the eidetic chip installed for kicks. He applies his unswerving commitment to all his duties for the Imperium, avoiding letting private emotions affect his actions as best he can. It doesn’t make him the most moral person at times: at one point he chooses sticking to his duty over helping a torture victim, though it makes him uneasy—he’s not a stone for all that he might give that impression. At another point he congratulates Aral on (supposedly) drugging the woman he loved in order to extract tactical information. It is, however, Simon’s loyalty to the Barrayaran Imperium that sets his priorities rather than him just being a shitty person. He has emotional reactions to what he’s doing and what’s occurring around him, sympathy and horror and fear (though he may not have them in typical quantities), he just doesn’t let those emotions sway his decisions. Much.
But Simon develops a more personal loyalty for Aral Vorkosigan that seems to engage him on a deeper level, past his well-trained professional blandness. Personal investment seems to put a whole different spin on Simon’s relationship to his duty/loyalty, evaporating his well-cultivated chill. In the context of a relationship of trust Simon is less guarded by sheer dint of the fact he cares enough to actually be afraid for his charges. He shows a propensity for biting sarcasm and the other feelings he generally keeps on the down low. Like panic, and irritation at those he is loyal to when they do stupid, risky things, ethical things. But for all his complaining, it’s clear that the danger that trails in Aral’s wake is part of the attraction for Simon—His years of doing galactic covert ops has given him a taste for adrenaline that he usually keeps fairly well controlled, but he’s thrilled at the first opportunity dust off his old covert ops training and he takes plenty of stupid risks himself for Aral’s sake.
For people Simon doesn’t trust (and frankly, even for people he does trust.) Simon is a difficult person to get to know. Years of doing covert espionage has ensured that the only personality trait Simon generally displays to other people is Blandess, a facade enforced by his unprepossessing features. He’s not ambitious for power, money, love, or family; he’s absolutely stunned when he’s promoted to the prestigious position of Chief of Security and views it more as a grave responsibility than an illustrious post. It’s indicated that it’s not even a job he likes despite his skill at it. So his own personal desires are obscure; he appears to be motivated by nothing besides his loyalty to Aral and Cordelia. But loyalty to them is also loyalty to their principles and their vision of pulling Barrayar out of its brutal ways. Simon’s aware of his place as a less-than-moral figure working to change Barrayar into a more merciful place that does not use up and discard its people. Yet he does not seem to consciously view himself as having been wronged by the Imperium. His devotion is selfless, giving everything and asking nothing in return.
The other reason Simon maintains such a lackluster life and personality has to do with the chip planted in his head. It’s indicated that having two sets of memories at once is quit a mental balancing act, accounting for Simon’s tendency to be fairly reserved in his comportment. Practice distancing himself from two streams of memories at once also gives him a lot of practice in distancing himself emotionally his life. With the chip in, he’s never really off duty and his devotion is such that, compounded by the guilt of his failure to protect Cordelia from the soltoxin grenade, he’s terrified of failing again. Then there’s the practical consequences—when you can remember in detail every stupid thing you ever said and every mistake you ever made, it makes you a very, very careful person.
As for his daily, normal behavior (TL; DR:), Simon’s blandly friendly with a latent tendency toward being acerb which becomes significantly less latent the more comfortable he is with someone. He tends to view people as belonging to two categories: those he is loyal to and Everyone Else, where Everyone Else can be further subdivided into potential threats, potential advantages, and potential sources of amusement if he’s feeling particularly bored. Everyone Else likewise has a lot less moral sway on Simon. He’d do something to some rando like, say, test his hypnosis powers without consent, that he wouldn’t in a million years do to someone in his circle. He avoids harming others out of basic human decency and a professional preference for tidier, more reliable methods but he will absolutely do it if he finds it necessary and only lose a little sleep over it.
By necessity, he has a highly analytical mind and will watch people closely even when he doesn’t strictly need any information from them—All data is good data. Paranoia structures a lot of his insights and interactions. He will be guarded about giving away any information about himself and manipulative about getting it from other people. Everyone is a potential threat until proven otherwise.
TL;DR #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwq6Z6bffhE
POWER:
Eidetic Memory Chip (canon): A bioelectronic chip that simulates an eidetic memory. It records audio/visual only. Simon can ‘search’ it and play memories back at will, though only for himself.
Animal transformation (non-canon): Can turn into a peregrine falcon! All or nothing, no half-form.
HYPNOSIS (non-canon): Simon will able to put someone in a trance-like state through a combination of tone of voice and eye contact. While the subject is under hypnosis, Simon has 3 options, all more or less interrelated:
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