Straw Man

The Straw Man (Scenesys ID: 9637)
Quote
"If you could make yourself into three parts: one part body, one mind, and another soul, which do you think would be your house of straw, what of sticks, and what would be the brick house? The one that stands the storm. Does someone live in that house? Who are they? What are they like?"
Profile
Full Name:	None
Gender:	None
Species:	N/A
Theme:	Original (OC)
Occupation:	That nagging dark thought.
Citizenship:	Nations are but straw huts.
Residence:	The dark of the heart.
Education:	What a quaint concept.
Status:	Approved
Groups:
Other Information
Apparent Age:	{{{PAge}}}	Actual Age:
Date of Birth	Unknown	Actor:
Height:	N/A	Weight:	N/A
Hair Color:	N/A	Eye Color:	N/A
Theme Song:	"Choose Your Blade" by House of Heroes

Profile

The Straw Man was there. He is the fleeting moments of a dream that go unremembered, yet shake the soul. A wind that howls down the chimney like the big bad breath of another planet. All things blow aside in his path, yet then it was never there. Like it never happened. He was never there.

Yes, let's stick with that. Never there. Ignorance is far more comfortable than knowledge.

Sheet

Description

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Description:

An old friend. An old enemy. A stranger with some familiar trait. The Straw Man is many things to many people. But whatever appears, remember, it's probably just you talking to yourself.

History

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History:

To know when The Straw Man began, the first question must be asked. What is a beginning? Is it when a person first comes into existence? Or when that existence is first revealed to another? The spark of creation, or when a stranger first introduces himself to you? Time is of very little use to this particular tormentor. You see, time is nothing more than a measurement. How would you catch an inch and put it in your pocket? Or point and say "That is 75 degrees." Maybe he was always here. Maybe he's shaped every life from the beginning of two thoughts, when first one person reasoned to themself.

Or maybe you just made him up. Maybe he doesn't even exist at all.

Personality

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Personality:

Personalities are for people. The Straw Man, whatever he/she/it is, has not such a burden. A force more than an individual, no respecter of person, takes many guises, depending on the context. It may be the voice of reason which plays to adversity, or the arrogant that taunts the self. A sense of injustice, or a hope for a brighter tomorrow.

The constant is that while there's no personal motivation, the push for ruin is the one thing that can never be denied. The ruin may not be personal, or then again it might be, but The Straw Man is always looking to make something fall, whether it be villain or hero, man, woman, or child, the aim is for someone's self-assured house of bricks to fall.

Abilities

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Ambiguous Presence:
Where The Straw Man exists cannot be so simply defined. He speaks to the soul, and can speak to several at once, but each is their own conversation, he does not have the ability to have a normal conversation with multiple people together. He can only have conversations in isolation from one another. Defining him as a 'being' is even hard, because his existence is so subterfugal that location is not a concept that seems to apply to him.

Intangible:
The Straw Man has no physical form. The Straw man has no mental presence. Neither physical nor mental attacks have any effect upon him, regardless of how powerful the wielder of those traits may be. He is only soul. He exists in the world of soul to soul. He has no concept of how a door, or the wall of a house is meant to keep him from getting to his target. He has no understanding of why distance should save someone from him. These are things of the physical world, and he is not.

He can interact with the physical world only through others. His influence upon them is his only means of effecting history. As he is no demon, he does not possess, and he has no mind that he might exert mind control over another. He is a nudge. A nagging thought. His conversations with people happen in their soul. He can project himself to appear to someone. Their mind can comprehend him, and their eyes sometimes can see him, but he's not there.

Knowing the Heart:
The Straw Man knows a person's darkest desires and fears. Sometimes they are less hidden from him than they are from the person themselves. He may not always pursue to know these things. For reasons known only to him, he will also casually refrain (read: anytime a PC doesn't want this for their character, he just won't go that route). He has no timeline, no concern about meeting a deadline or an objective. It's all for his own personal amusement. One of his benefits that he brings to those are of pure heart, he will help them find what little vestiges of darkness still need to be purged. Perhaps he's not a villain. Perhaps a hero in that regard.

It may seem incredibly unstoppable to think he knows the darkest parts of a heart, but don't worry, he's not a gossip. He'll never tell another soul. It's just between you and him. He may use them to drive a person to reveal them to others, but it's always their decision. Under no circumstances will he reveal any individual's thoughts or actions to any other individual, not because he's unwilling. He's simply unable to do it. It's not some code that he lives by, such information simply cannot be transferred through him directly, and the only spell that can overcome it is a person's own free will decision to tell their own secrets. So while he may seem to have the most powerful knowledge to affect the course of history, he has no ability to do anything with that knowledge. Only the person who held the knowledge in the first place can actually do something with it.

Prop Power:

The Straw Man can manifest things upon a whim when he desires, but they are all a deception. In a dream, he might give a vision of an entire sequence of fictitious events taking place. When they awake it will be clear that it was just a bad dream, even if they may incite the person to action, it won't be because they thought the dream really happened when they have awakened.

While they are awake the illusions are much more minor, and may take the form of a mask, or a bottle of scotch, or other harmless prestidigitations that amount only for show in his point making. For instance, if he gives someone a drink and they accept it, they may find afterward that they are holding the bottle, it was really them that took the bottle from their own shelf on their own power, not him. He might toss someone a ball which they believe they have caught, only to find that it does not exist at the end of the conversation.

He can, when he chooses, appear before someone, as if they are really there. Dependent on the person, they may or may not initially recognize that they are the only one who can see the him (read: whatever is more dramatically appropriate). Likewise his appearance can change. He can look like virtually anything, but that said, because he is speaking to the soul, there's never a mystery to the person he interacts with. He could bear an exact likeness of a person's child, but they will be granted instinctively the knowledge it's not their child, but this tormentor in the soul mocking them with the form, regardless of how smart or foolish they might be. The only identity the Straw Man might deceive a person with is their own. But then, perhaps the question is...is this really all a conversation with themselves?

Skills

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Master Manipulator:

It's really the only thing the Straw Man does, and is the only thing he has done for history ad eternum. He knows how to get under the skin. He knows what buttons to push, and his words are placed with incredible precision.

Resources

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Want Not:

The Straw man needs for and wants for nothing. There are no possessions, there is no wealth which he requires, nor has any motivation to achieve them. The only thing he has is whatever people give him, and it isn't their resources that he wants. It's them.

Weaknesses

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Drugs and Alcohol:
It may not be the wisest way to fend off the voice of the Straw Man, but it's a temporary relief. The Straw Man can't easily be present when mind altering drugs, alcohol, or other cognitive suppressant might be in play. He can only interact with those who are lucid. As someone becomes intoxicated or affected, he loses the ability to speak with them until they are of sound mind once again.

Only What Is Given:
The Straw Man truly has absolutely no power. He cannot force anyone to do anything. He cannot mind control, he cannot make a physical obstacle, or possess an enemy. The only power he has over any person is what they allow him to have. They are at all times in complete control of their decisions. In reality, he has no power at all.

Religion:
Many people have devout faiths. That faith can give them better focus, and steel them against such internal assault. Which religion? Well, that depends on the person. A Catholic might pray the rosary. I protestant might spend time meditating on Scripture. A Bhuddist might try to enter transcendental meditation. Of course, the Straw Man will most certainly press back to try to prevent this, but it is the most effective logistic manner to ward him off.

In addition, since he is only spirit, holy places provide a relief from his attacks, only as far as they apply to a person's own spirit. A Christian might enter a church, and that spiritual empowerment would stop the Straw Man from having access to that believer. It wouldn't mean a thing, however, if a Hindu entered that same church. For the Hindu, one of their temples would be their effective sanctuary. A spirit needs fuel relevant to itself. The place isn't of importance to the Straw Man, the key comes in the importance to the person he's targeted. It is not so much that the Straw Man is effected by these places, it's how affected the target is by the location they are at.

Selflessness:
The Straw Man operates fully in the realm of the self. Regardless of a person's strength or resolve, the more that they are inwardly focused, the more presence he can have. It doesn't matter if they are proud, ashamed, arrogant, greedy, or just very self-reflective. The more they dwell on themselves, the more he can use.

On the contrary, a person who is outwardly focused, dwelling on the good they can do to others, the less power he has. Those who earnestly rely on others, whether in a good way or bad way, will also find that The Straw Man has little foothold to begin his manipulations.

Spiritual Magic:

Many forms of magic are rather ineffective against someone with no corporeal, and arguably no incorporeal presence. His realm is the real mf souls. It isn't he that needs to be warded or trapped, it's the strength of his target. While magical traps or wards may not be effective against him, magical boosts to the strength of a person can be highly effective.

If his target is spiritually strengthened by a spell they can shut him out and his voice can be muted as long as they are strengthened.

Likewise, those who have a particularly strong spirit may not need that assistance from the start.

Logs

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To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.

Title	Date	Scene Summary
One good shot is all you need	September 16th, 2020	The way of the archer, not the way of the father
Scott learns a fairy tale lesson	August 21st, 2020	Scott meets The Straw Man and gets under that thick skin of his. Cracks of doubt are forming below the surface.
The Girl and the Wolf	July 28th, 2020	Andrea meets Mason...wait, that's not Mason.
Oh Mercy Me!	July 10th, 2020	Mercy gets a visit from her past who asks questions about her future.

Cutscenes

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To Refresh Character's Log List Click Here. Then hit the resulting button to dump the old cached list.

Title	Date	Scene Summary
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Gallery

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