Noctium Application

[powersexelephants]

« PLAYER INFORMATION »

Name: Katsu
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: katsudonburi
Other characters, if any: Lord Shaxx | thecrucible


« CHARACTER INFORMATION »

Character: Simon Illyan
Canon: Vorkosigan Saga
Canon point: Midway through Memory, when his chip is about to be removed.
OU or AU?: OU
Age: 61
Species: Human



« RECORD »


Disposition:


• Simon is perhaps the most feared person in the Imperial government, outside of Aral Vorkosigan. He's been the Chief of Imperial Security for nearly 30 years, which means he's the emperor's spymaster and in charge of operations the likes of which never see the light of day. Sometimes this means foiling domestic terrorist plots or fiddling with interstellar politics to ensure that his Emperor comes out on top. Other times, it means making people disappear. Though to Simon's credit, when he took over Imperial Security, he had all of the torture chambers decommission (no, really) and the holding cells modernized. He's not in the business of hurting people unnecessarily, and he's also smart enough to understand that torture doesn't actually work. He might be chief of the secret police, functionally, but he's got some very basic ethics from which he will not budge.
  
• For all that he's a terrifying figure when he's known as the Chief of Impsec, Simon is actually an incredibly unremarkable person. He habitually fades into the background in any situation and is much more comfortable as an observer than a participant. Part of this is because he's a commoner in an extremely high position relative to a lot of Vor (nobility) and he's long since learned the value of discretion. It's easier to be a spy when everyone ignores you. However, rather than be a bitter commoner, he's come to enjoy the pageantry of the Vor and see their politics as something that he cultivates and acts as a steward over (and recognizes for how ridiculous they can be at time), preferring to remain entirely outside their social games.
  
• Illyan was abruptly made the Chief of Imperial Security at the age of 30 when his predecessor, Captain Negri, was murdered during a palace coup. Illyan's first job was to figure out how to help Count Vorkosigan defeat the coup and ensure Gregor (then a child) would inherit the throne. He had no choice but to hit the ground running, and after some initial absolute terror, he proved himself to be intensely competent and never stopped being preternaturally good at his job. He also has never on paper taken a promotion above Captain, which was the rank at which Negri was killed… but it's worth noting that he definitely draws a vice-admiral's salary. It's joked in Memory that anything done twice on Barrayar becomes a tradition, and thus he basically created the tradition of the Chief of Impsec only being a Captain--and starting his job by investigating the murder of his predecessor.
  
• Not long after he received his commission after joining Imperial Security, Simon was chosen by Emperor Ezar to have an Illyrican memory chip implanted. This was a procedure that came with an extremely high chance of devolving schizophrenia, and one Simon had no choice about since his Emperor demanded it. Worse, Ezar didn't end up needing the chip for anything; he was mostly amused by having someone available to him with that kind of eidetic memory. Simon adjusted to the chip and its perfect recall (and double sets of memories) by devoting himself entirely to his work and avoiding experiences that involved a lot of sensory input. Miles later theorizes that this is how he maintained his sanity--that there's a connection as well to how plain of a lifestyle Illyan lives. In that sense, the way he fades into the background may serve two purposes.
  
• As a leader, Simon is deeply interested in the motivations of people and what makes them tick, as one would expect of a spymaster. He's intensely loyal to those who are loyal to him, though never to the point of betraying his own principles—the best example of this is when he discharges Miles from Imperial Service for lying on a report, despite their long professional and familial relationship. When angry, he doesn't tend to shout; he's more the master of the exceptionally cutting remark, and when he had his memory chip, he would repeat conversations back to people just to shame them.
  
• Simon is also just... tired. He's been doing a stressful, thankless job with the responsibility of protecting and managing an Emperor and his Empire, and he's been at it for three decades. While being intimidating and feared can be fun, he's not the personality type to truly enjoy being unable to form close relationships, and he's certainly not a sadist who ever wanted to conduct a reign of terror. He was grooming Miles to take over as Chief of ImpSec, and part of his frustration with him--aside from Miles torpedoing a promising career--is that he had no one else he thought was ready for it.


Suitability: Simon has lived the last 35 years of his life as a slave to the chip in his brain, unable to live outside of a professional environment to any kind of full realization because it would put him at risk of falling into insanity. He's going to come into Noctium bemusedly certain that this is a dying hallucination, and then later probably conclude that even if he's not hallucinating this, he's still dead on Barrayar. He'll see this as an opportunity to try out all of the experiences he never had a chance to have in his previous twice-twenty-years of service. He's never been able to indulge his taste in music or try new foods or take a vacation, let alone maintain a romantic or sexual relationship. This will be the first real vacation he's had since he was a raw recruit, and he's going to revel in it. Even better, without the memory chip in his head, he'll no longer remember most of the top secret information that was once at his fingertips--which will be an immense relief to him.

Condition upon arrival: Completely incoherent and mentally splintering infinitely due to his malfunctioning eidetic memory chip. Once it's removed (which should be well within the realm of technological possibility) he'll have short- and long-term memory problems mostly caused by the fact that he's gone thirty-five years without having to rely on his own memory for something. He'll need some occupational therapy, but he'll be all right eventually.

Abilities:


• Illyan has been Imperial Service for 45 years (according to him in Memory, which means he's been in since he was 15) and he has all the skills one would expect an officer who is active in the military to have. He's as physically fit as someone at his age can be (though he's taken a hit due to his memory chip malfunction), can shoot decently with a stunner or plasma arc, knows hand-to-hand combat, and can run combat operations as needed.
  
• In fact, he apparently fights exceptionally dirty if he's doing hand-to-hand combat and can overpower multiple people much larger and younger than him.
  
• As a spymaster, he's adept at leading and coordinating intelligence operations, and synthesizing massive amounts of information to tease out patterns and plots.
  
• As a leader, he's normally good at picking the right people for the job and letting them do their thing. His role has often been running interference in the Imperial government while his underlings do the work, rather than micromanaging field operations. Per Miles, Illyan has always been very good at picking weasels and keeping them under control and running in the right direction.
  
• He's politically astute enough that he's managed to keep his job for 30 years, despite several power-grabbing efforts to oust him early in Gregor's reign.
  
• Illyan is a keen observer of people and an analytical thinker about what motivates him.
  He knows how to conduct investigations from multiple directions. One of his most philosophical discussions is about the place to focus on a question. ("When you know who, you'll know why" versus "when you know why, you'll know who...")


Inventory: Nothing but a hospital gown.

Gembond: Sapphire
Gem Location: Right temple


« MISCELLANEOUS »

Sample: TDM thread

Notes: Wiki entry