Entry tags:
Application for MOM
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Kerry
AGE: 28
JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
halfbloodly
IM / EMAIL: AIM: mysterytourist
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
halfbloodly
RETURNING: New applicant!
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Grey | n/a
CHARACTER AGE: 18 (approx)
SERIES: Snowpiercer (film)
CHRONOLOGY: I would like to bring him in from the point of his death.
CLASS: Hero - though not always a proactive one.
HOUSING: Could he be housed alone? It would be more of a challenge for him.
BACKGROUND:
The setting, general plot and events of Snowpiercer are summarised here.
Grey's role within this setting is as a member of the team of tail passengers that Curtis leads forward, in an attempt to wrest control of the train's engine from its owner, Wilford. The team is motivated by a desire to improve conditions for the rest of the tail, which exists as the lowest class of passengers aboard the train. People there live in very cramped, shared conditions, with no showers, no food aside from the dubiously titled 'protein blocks', and under the strict authority of the train's armed enforcers. Rebellion among the tail passengers is quashed relentlessly and any possible defiance is punished with brutal force. One of the early scenes shows a tail passenger, Andrew, having his arm held outside the train while it moves through mountains, causing the arm to be entirely frozen and then smashed. This is a punishment for resisting the removal of most of the tail's smallest children to places unknown. Curtis' rebellion is not a direct result of what happened to the children, since he had made plans with the tail's de facto leader Gilliam to take control of the engine anyway. However, finding the children becomes one of their objectives, and prompts one of the tail's few women - Tanya - to join the party in an attempt to find her son Timmy.
Grey is not one of those who rises to take part, in the first instance. He is much more focused on Gilliam, who along with being the one that most of the tail passengers seem to look to as leader, is a person of great specific importance to Grey. Gilliam is an older man, with a kind of thoughtful intelligence. He has also been badly crippled by his experiences on the train - he is missing both an arm and a leg, and for this reason is usually restricted to a wheelchair. Grey appears first as his carer - supporting him when he walks with his crutches, or pushing his chair when he stays in it. He is shown to care deeply for Gilliam, to go to his side even when he has not been called or asked to make sure that he's all right and has everything he needs. Because Grey is mute, he communicates with Gilliam mainly through touch and expressions, which Gilliam seems to understand well. The pair are also affectionate, with Grey hovering close to him and holding on to him, and Gilliam touching his face and hair. Grey also has Gilliam's name tattooed over his heart, indicating that the relationship between them is intimate and romantic - in spite of the difference between their ages.
Given this connection, it is not surprising that Grey's first meaningful effort in Curtis' rebellion only comes after Gilliam sends him into the fray. Seeing Curtis' team being overwhelmed by a particularly large enforcer, Gilliam tells Grey to go and immediately he does - pulling off his coat, running directly into the fight, and leaping athletically around the carriage before killing the enforcer with his knife. He is able to retrieve for Curtis the keys for the train's next carriage - the jail carriage, where criminals are imprisoned. The group retrieve from this section the man who built the train's security system, Namgoong Minsu, and his daughter Yona. They pay the pair with pieces of industrial waste, the fumes of which are used as an hallucinogenic drug called Kronole. Both Namgoong and Yona are addicted. This enables the group to proceed, and they continue to find success.
Having previously never left the train's slum-like tail section, Grey first sees working class carriages. One of these is the area where the tail passengers' solitary source of food, the 'protein blocks' are made from crushed insects. This is a source of general disgust, since the tail passengers had not known what they were eating. Initially they are able to move forward without interruption. They find a carriage with a window which, on opening, gives Grey his first view of the world outside. Although this is only one window, it makes Grey wince and close his eyes, since even that small amount of light is unfamiliar to him. The world he sees is a place that is frozen and dead, and although he stares at it, he doesn't find it hard to pull away and follow Curtis on. For the train's passengers, the train is their world, even if conditions on board are not what they would want.
The windows then become a source of danger when the next section of the train opens to reveal armed men lying in wait. They seal the shutters, plunging the carriage into total darkness. The enforcers, whose equipment includes night vision goggles, are able to see perfectly and proceed to pick off Curtis' men in the dark. A call is sent backwards through the open sections to the tail where a torch is lit, and various characters start a relay to move the fire up to Curtis. Grey, the fastest of all of them, runs back to intercept the torch and runs back to the fight, where he's able to spread the fire to other torches and give the tail passengers the advantage again. He attempts to stop the fight by grabbing a henchman in a headlock, and using his tattoos to display the words 'Surrender!' and 'Die!', giving the man a choice. When Wilford's Minister Mason refuses to call off her men, Grey obligingly slits the henchman's throat and keeps fighting. Eventually Curtis wins the day by capturing Mason herself, forcing her to help them get through the next carriages to save her own life. The tail passengers prevail and in the next section they find showers, which Gilliam tells them to use. Grey leads the way, taking the first shower of his life. Afterwards, in recognition that the way forward will only get more dangerous, it is agreed that Curtis will lead a smaller group forward alone. Gilliam is no longer able to move with them, and will return to the tail - but before he leaves, he instructs Grey to leave with them. Grey is reluctant, but Gilliam reassures him that he'll be fine without him, and insists that he needs to go with Curtis now. Grey obeys, and joins the smaller party.
With Mason guiding them, their movements are initially easier. They come across an enormous aquarium built into the walls and ceilings of one of the train, and afterwards eat sushi - the first real food any of them have seen during the lifetime of the train. That moment of peace is short-lived. The group moves into a section used as a school for the train's wealthier passengers. Compared to the well-fed, healthy, clean children, Grey and his companions seem thin, hardened and dirty, and they look at the school as though it's entirely foreign. It's here that their fortunes change. Having initially made their move because they believed the train's enforcers had run out of bullets, it is revealed that fully loaded guns are waiting for them. On the school's television screens, an image of Wilford's henchman, Franco the Elder, is shown alongside Gilliam. As punishment for the group's actions, Franco lifts his gun to Gilliam's head to execute him. Grey is too horrified to watch, and turns quickly away to bury his head in his hands while the man he had loved is shot. The apparently wholesome school teacher pulls out a sub-machine gun and starts firing. Many of the party are gunned down here, but at a nod from Curtis, Grey stands up and throws his knife, sinking it into the teacher's neck and killing her with one blow.
After killing Mason in revenge for Gilliam, Curtis moves forward. Tanya and Grey are the only remaining members of his group from the tail section, and have watched their friends die around them. They move on, continuing in their mission to get to the train's engine, since to turn back would make their friends' sacrifices meaningless. They move through increasingly upper class sections of the train, showing that they are close to their aim. When they reach a sauna, intended for the pampering of the train's elite, they are ambushed by Franco the Elder, who kills Tanya. Grey leaps at him, trying to kill him, but for the first time, his skills are not enough to save him. Franco manages to knock him out, and then turns to fight Curtis and try to kill him too. He is almost successful, and is about to drive a knife into Curtis' had when Grey wakes up, and thrusts out his hand to catch the knife instead. As the blade pierces his hand he lets out a short, sharp cry - the first vocal sound he has made in the film. It corresponds with the first time he involves himself in a fight of his own free will. No one had time to order him to protect Curtis but he does it anyway, and tries to kill Franco for a second time. For a second time, Franco overpowers him, and turns his knife around to force it into Grey's chest. Grey, of course, dies quietly, with a hiss of air and the slightest of whimpers the only sounds he makes. He dies with his eyes on Franco. Curtis wakes up too late to save Grey, but in time to knock Franco out and continue on to his final destination.
Grey does not live to see the resolution. He never discovers that Gilliam had secretly worked with Wilford all along, and doesn't see the destruction of the train when it is derailed by an explosive made from Namgoong's kronole. He dies believing that he is saving Curtis for something better, never knowing that the world he had known so intimately was about to come to an end.
PERSONALITY:
Grey is portrayed, initially, as a caring and compassionate character, someone who is devoted to another person - particularly, to Gilliam, who is of critical importance to Grey's character. His concern for Gilliam is a constant thing. He moves to his side as soon as he sees him in case he needs help, he is deeply attentive to him, and he spends the majority of his early scenes focused entirely on Gilliam. He instinctively moves to shield, support and help Gilliam, while looking to him with a very clear, trusting kind of devotion. There is an innocence to Grey as he is seen with Gilliam, made evident by his willingness to obey even the commands that send him away from the man. His attachment is such that at first, he is only seen alongside Gilliam, and he only moves away from him when Gilliam himself orders it. His innocence is shown again when he is unable to watch Gilliam being shot. He turns away and buries his face in his hands, appearing almost childlike in his moment of grief.
This childlike devotion is then juxtaposed with the person Grey becomes when he is in battle. While he seems compassionate and loving with Gilliam, against his enemies he is lethal. He kills them quickly, efficiently and without hesitation, indicating a certain degree of familiarity with death and fighting in spite of the fact that he has spent so many years in the tail section alone. He has clearly trained how to fight, and he is merciless in his approach. When Grey fights, the part of him that seems childlike disappears. He no longer displays the gentleness or sweetness that is in evidence when he is around Gilliam, but is a silent and efficient fighter. Additionally, his fighting is rarely shown to be the result of an emotional response - he simply acts, displaying aggression and intent, but not hatred. His passion is for the people around him, for the other tail passengers who he trusts and fights alongside, and for Gilliam in particular - but he does not fight because he has lost his temper or because he's unruly or unpredictable. In fact, the opposite of this is true. He is almost always calm, which makes his activities all the more deadly. His silent mouth and dark eyes are intense and dangerous rather than innocent. His whole body becomes a powerful, agile weapon. It is in this state that he is most useful to characters outside of Gilliam.
However, whether he is behaving as the carer or the weapon, Grey is intent on making himself useful either way. His focus is always outward, and it is natural for him to look to other people for direction and leadership. He seems to want to be helpful, and he has a strong protective instinct for those that he cares about. It is clear, at the outset, that Grey's attachment to Gilliam is the key motivator in sending him to join Curtis' band. He lives in conditions that are just as difficult and deprived as the other tail passengers. He is just as hungry, just as cramped, an lacking in the same amenties as them. But it is not resentment at his way of life that pushes Grey to act; rather, he acts because Gilliam tells him to, and it doesn't occur to him to refuse. After Gilliam essentially puts him under Curtis' command, he looks to him in the same way - waiting for his nod before he kills the teacher who is shooting at them both, and never moving ahead of him. When Gilliam is no longer there to command him, Grey naturally looks to Curtis instead. To follow Curtis is the last order that Gilliam is every able to give to Grey, and he takes it to heart.
He is a character for whom obedience comes naturally - in spite of the fact that he spends the majority of his time fighting against the train's actual authorities. Grey's obedience does not extend to the armed enforcers who impose Wilford's authority. Instead, he sees Gilliam (and, by extension, Curtis) as his leader. He has chosen to be loyal to a person, rather than to the system, and he then follows that person without question. This is a character trait which is stylistically reinforced by Grey's mutism - he is the silent soldier, the killer who speaks through the grace of his actions and power of his body rather than through words. This idea is made all the more obvious by Grey's tattoos, which consist of words and numbers inscribed on his skin in a style that looks like handwriting. His body very literally does the talking for him, and he uses it as others direct. He is both Gilliam's walking stick and the blade in Curtis' hand. He is what they need him to be. In every movement and gesture, he is shown not only to be content with this role, but to seek it out.
It is because of this trait that the moment when Grey does act on his own - the moment when he protects Curtis from Franco's knife - is particularly notable. It is notable also as the only moment in the film when Grey makes a sound, even though it is no more than a very short, inarticulate cry. His final fight is also the one in which he seems most emotionally motivated - he is no longer calm, and instead seems upset, fearful, and in pain because of how badly he has been injured. Everything about Grey's demeanour changes as he starts to lose - though, in part, that is because he has already lost a great deal. His companions (aside from Curtis, who is unconscious, and Namgoong and Yona, who are not fellow tail passengers) have all been killed, and Gilliam who meant so much to him was killed when Grey was not there to protect him. It is perhaps not surprising that Grey's own attitude is different here. In that brief moment, he has a voice - and he also has a choice. He gives his own life to save Curtis, even though there is no one left to give that order. With no one left to guide him, Grey continues on the path they had set him on, protecting Curtis - and thus following through to its end the very last order Gilliam had ever given to him. His instinct to protect those to whom he is loyal leads to his sacrifice. Until that moment, Grey had shown an aptitude for fighting and survival unmatched by any of his companions, but it is clear that he values those that he has chosen to follow above himself. He will be their first and last line of defence, until he has nothing more to give.
Grey is a study in dependency. He is clearly highly reliant on others to lead him - doing things alone, without prompting from whoever he sees as 'in charge' is a foreign concept to him. Yet despite this, he is a natural carer. He tries to help people, tries to be useful to them, and falls naturally into the role of a protector, bodyguard, and nurse. He looks to others for instruction, yet is entirely comfortable with people depending on and relying on him. It is in fact natural for Grey to combine this cycle of dependency in one relationship - he would be caring, helpful and attentive to the same person that he'd be looking to for leadership. Additionally, he will tend to look for people who are personally trustworthy to him, and not necessarily those who have a position of official authority - in fact, his experiences on the train would lead him to be less trusting of the official military and government in general.
POWER:
Canon Skills
Grey is an ordinary human, meaning that he has no superhuman powers of any kind. However, the environment that he has grown up in has led to him developing exceptional fighting skills. He is remarkably agile, with excellent balance and the ability to use his environment to his advantage. For example, he is shown running across a long tube made from barrels, leaping up to bounce off a wall, grabbing a ceiling fitting and swinging around to land on a much larger enemy's shoulders to kill him. For a boy who has spent most of his life underfed and kept in a very restricted space, he is energetic and quite lethal. He is also very much the product of his environment - he is used to making the most of the space that's available to him, so he has learned to climb, learned to balance, learned to crouch and move quickly and defend himself from any of those positions.
He also has remarkable aim - he is shown throwing an object at a shooter's head and killing her instantly, with one blow. He has not grown up using guns, as these were the property of the train's security and used to keep the tail passengers in their place. However, he has a knife that he keeps tied to a rope around his waist, and he fights naturally with it. He kills without hesitation and without mercy, with the proviso that he generally only acts when he is instructed to. He is also very able to fight without his knife, using his own strength an agility to overpower the majority of enemies. In canon, the only enemy that he is not able to defeat is the one that eventually kills him - at the end of a fight where has already had injuries to his arm, a knife through his right hand, and has been knocked out once already. This is a testament both to Grey's resilience, and to the level of damage that needs to be done to him before he'll go down.
It is notable that his skill as a fighter seems to be at a higher level than that of his fellow tail passengers. The group that Curtis takes forward frequently looks to him to get them out of a situation when no one else can. Compared even to others who share his environment, he is particularly fast, agile and skilled, indicating that he has specifically trained to fight in this way.
City Powers
Psychic Ink: In canon, Grey is mute. He communicates with others in part through body language - through gestures, facial expressions, nods and head shakes. However, he also communicates through another form of body language - through the myriad of tattoos written along his arms, chest and back. In general, the words on his arms are communicative (such as 'die!', 'surrender!' and 'please'), and those on his chest are more personal (such as the name of his mentor and lover, Gilliam, which is written over his heart). Communicating through the tattoos is Grey's habit rather than a skill, and I would like his MOM power to extend this. I would like to give him the ability to create new tattoos with his mind.
At first I would intend for him to struggle with this power and not know how to use it properly, resulting in a confusion of symbols or singular words appearing over his skin when he has an emotional reaction to something - for example, if he's frightened, the word 'Stop!' might travel over his face. The colour of the tattoo will also depend on his mood - black for neutral, green for happy, red for angry, and so on. The ability will be tied to his emotions, and he will have to learn how to focus his mind on what he wants to say so that the 'ink' behaves the way he wants it to. As he starts to understand the ability and begins to take control of it, he'll be able to use it to make new words appear whenever he wants and in whatever colour he chooses. Eventually, when he's proficient with this, he'll be able to make complete sentences appear and disappear anywhere on his body. He will also be able to make the words he creates permanent, if he wants to.
The size of tattoo he will be able to create will be limited by his own body - it will need to fit on his skin, and there will need to be space for it among the tattoos he already has. Additionally, he will not be able to erase any of his normal tattoos - he will only be able to change those which he has created psychically. He will additionally only be able to create tattoos on his own body, not on anyone else's.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
Test drive thread.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
He had struggled with them at first. There had been a woman in the room where he'd landed, and then the soldiers had come, and he'd tried to fight them off. They pinned him back, restrained him, and then debriefed him. There was a strange tattoo on his wrist, one that only showed itself in the darkness, and there was a file in his hands. They had taken him into what they said was a city - a Cape? - and left him in front of a building where they said he had to go, because it was his home now.
Grey had left immediately.
He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know anywhere to go, but he rejected the very notion that the building was his home because his home was the train. Everything he knew was there. This place was too big and too bright and too open, open in a way that made his gut roil with anxiety, and eventually it had just been too much. Too much that was new and too much that he didn't understand. He'd come back to the building and gone inside, and that had been better. A little better.
Except that it was so quiet. Grey didn't realise that was the problem at first. He was, personally, always quiet. Even his footfalls didn't make a lot of noise, because he was used to moving so carefully. But despite that, the train had never been quiet. The tail section had been full of the living noise of all its occupants. There had always been someone talking or snoring or coughing or something. And if there hadn't been that, then the train itself would have filled in the gaps. It had always been moving, and there had always been sound associated with that. Even now, one of the strangest things to him was the lack of movement underfoot. He didn't have to be aware of his balance here, didn't have to avoid other people's movement. This whole place was just for him. Grey moved between the rooms, wondering how he would ever use all this space.
Gilliam would have liked it here. Grey couldn't believe how clean it was. There was a smell stinging his nose. He didn't know that it meant fresh yet. There was a shower with water, and more water in the kitchen unit. The kitchen was full of technology that he didn't know how to define much less use. He ran his hand along a countertop.
It was too empty. He tolerated it for an hour and then left again, when he felt the beginnings of that anxiety bubbling back up in his chest. He had left his file, from the soldiers, in the apartment, but no amount of rubbing with water had been enough to take the tattoo off. Now he was back outside in the hot, humid light that still made his eyes squint, and he was wandering. Strangers looked at him, ran their eyes over his too-worn clothes and grubby skin, and he saw a judgment on their faces that made him feel more aware of himself than he'd ever been in his life. He wished Gilliam was here. He wished anyone was here, anyone that he knew. But then he touched his fingers to the scar on his chest, where the knife had gone in, and he remembered that all of them were gone. All, every one. He would never see them again. His eyes stung, and he blinked that away.
He felt so lost. How could this ever feel like home?
He reached the end of a street, turned, and that was when he saw the coast.
Grey stopped in his tracks, his eyes on the expanse of water that started and then just seemed to keep on going, and going, and going. His eyes widened, and he felt his heart start to race. Is this what his world had been like before the snow came? He'd seen pictures, old pictures, on the train's screens, from time to time. Gilliam and the others had talked about the ocean. They had spoken of it with the kind of nostalgia that made it sound like a beautiful place, but for Grey it had always been something far away, untouchable. No more real than a fairytale, and certainly nothing he would ever see. He didn't know what to do with it. He moved backwards, until he felt a building behind him, and then he crouched with it at his back. He couldn't take his eyes off the water. Gilliam would like this even more than the apartment, and Grey felt a sudden, terrible ache at the loss of him. He shouldn't be looking at this on his own. He shouldn't be here on his own. Why had they brought him, and not one of the others? It didn't seem fair.
He felt wet and confusing tears on his cheeks, and he swiped them away with the back of one hand. He could look at that ocean all day, he thought. He couldn't get his head around this city yet, and the thought of his lonely apartment was oppressive. Maybe he could just sit here a while, and watch, and no one would notice. Maybe he could make himself small enough, and he could be among the Cape's crowd and look at its ocean and not feel so alone.
Maybe.
He would try. Until he had a better solution, he would try, and let his eyes get used to the light.
FINAL NOTES: The cause of Grey's mutism is not discussed in canon - it is portrayed as an accepted fact, unquestioned by the other characters who in any case have no problems with understanding him. He has no visible scarring or injury that indicates it is a result of physical damage, though it is possible that the cause is psychological. The small sound that he makes when his hand is stabbed indicates that he does have functional vocal chords. However he cuts that sound off very quickly, and makes a sound at no other time, even when he's fighting or hurt. Both his apparent comfort with his silence and his companions' ready acceptance of it make me believe he has been mute for a long time - possibly all his life. This is how he would be played in game.
NAME: Kerry
AGE: 28
JOURNAL:
halfbloodlyIM / EMAIL: AIM: mysterytourist
PLURK:
RETURNING: New applicant!
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Grey | n/a
CHARACTER AGE: 18 (approx)
SERIES: Snowpiercer (film)
CHRONOLOGY: I would like to bring him in from the point of his death.
CLASS: Hero - though not always a proactive one.
HOUSING: Could he be housed alone? It would be more of a challenge for him.
BACKGROUND:
The setting, general plot and events of Snowpiercer are summarised here.
Grey's role within this setting is as a member of the team of tail passengers that Curtis leads forward, in an attempt to wrest control of the train's engine from its owner, Wilford. The team is motivated by a desire to improve conditions for the rest of the tail, which exists as the lowest class of passengers aboard the train. People there live in very cramped, shared conditions, with no showers, no food aside from the dubiously titled 'protein blocks', and under the strict authority of the train's armed enforcers. Rebellion among the tail passengers is quashed relentlessly and any possible defiance is punished with brutal force. One of the early scenes shows a tail passenger, Andrew, having his arm held outside the train while it moves through mountains, causing the arm to be entirely frozen and then smashed. This is a punishment for resisting the removal of most of the tail's smallest children to places unknown. Curtis' rebellion is not a direct result of what happened to the children, since he had made plans with the tail's de facto leader Gilliam to take control of the engine anyway. However, finding the children becomes one of their objectives, and prompts one of the tail's few women - Tanya - to join the party in an attempt to find her son Timmy.
Grey is not one of those who rises to take part, in the first instance. He is much more focused on Gilliam, who along with being the one that most of the tail passengers seem to look to as leader, is a person of great specific importance to Grey. Gilliam is an older man, with a kind of thoughtful intelligence. He has also been badly crippled by his experiences on the train - he is missing both an arm and a leg, and for this reason is usually restricted to a wheelchair. Grey appears first as his carer - supporting him when he walks with his crutches, or pushing his chair when he stays in it. He is shown to care deeply for Gilliam, to go to his side even when he has not been called or asked to make sure that he's all right and has everything he needs. Because Grey is mute, he communicates with Gilliam mainly through touch and expressions, which Gilliam seems to understand well. The pair are also affectionate, with Grey hovering close to him and holding on to him, and Gilliam touching his face and hair. Grey also has Gilliam's name tattooed over his heart, indicating that the relationship between them is intimate and romantic - in spite of the difference between their ages.
Given this connection, it is not surprising that Grey's first meaningful effort in Curtis' rebellion only comes after Gilliam sends him into the fray. Seeing Curtis' team being overwhelmed by a particularly large enforcer, Gilliam tells Grey to go and immediately he does - pulling off his coat, running directly into the fight, and leaping athletically around the carriage before killing the enforcer with his knife. He is able to retrieve for Curtis the keys for the train's next carriage - the jail carriage, where criminals are imprisoned. The group retrieve from this section the man who built the train's security system, Namgoong Minsu, and his daughter Yona. They pay the pair with pieces of industrial waste, the fumes of which are used as an hallucinogenic drug called Kronole. Both Namgoong and Yona are addicted. This enables the group to proceed, and they continue to find success.
Having previously never left the train's slum-like tail section, Grey first sees working class carriages. One of these is the area where the tail passengers' solitary source of food, the 'protein blocks' are made from crushed insects. This is a source of general disgust, since the tail passengers had not known what they were eating. Initially they are able to move forward without interruption. They find a carriage with a window which, on opening, gives Grey his first view of the world outside. Although this is only one window, it makes Grey wince and close his eyes, since even that small amount of light is unfamiliar to him. The world he sees is a place that is frozen and dead, and although he stares at it, he doesn't find it hard to pull away and follow Curtis on. For the train's passengers, the train is their world, even if conditions on board are not what they would want.
The windows then become a source of danger when the next section of the train opens to reveal armed men lying in wait. They seal the shutters, plunging the carriage into total darkness. The enforcers, whose equipment includes night vision goggles, are able to see perfectly and proceed to pick off Curtis' men in the dark. A call is sent backwards through the open sections to the tail where a torch is lit, and various characters start a relay to move the fire up to Curtis. Grey, the fastest of all of them, runs back to intercept the torch and runs back to the fight, where he's able to spread the fire to other torches and give the tail passengers the advantage again. He attempts to stop the fight by grabbing a henchman in a headlock, and using his tattoos to display the words 'Surrender!' and 'Die!', giving the man a choice. When Wilford's Minister Mason refuses to call off her men, Grey obligingly slits the henchman's throat and keeps fighting. Eventually Curtis wins the day by capturing Mason herself, forcing her to help them get through the next carriages to save her own life. The tail passengers prevail and in the next section they find showers, which Gilliam tells them to use. Grey leads the way, taking the first shower of his life. Afterwards, in recognition that the way forward will only get more dangerous, it is agreed that Curtis will lead a smaller group forward alone. Gilliam is no longer able to move with them, and will return to the tail - but before he leaves, he instructs Grey to leave with them. Grey is reluctant, but Gilliam reassures him that he'll be fine without him, and insists that he needs to go with Curtis now. Grey obeys, and joins the smaller party.
With Mason guiding them, their movements are initially easier. They come across an enormous aquarium built into the walls and ceilings of one of the train, and afterwards eat sushi - the first real food any of them have seen during the lifetime of the train. That moment of peace is short-lived. The group moves into a section used as a school for the train's wealthier passengers. Compared to the well-fed, healthy, clean children, Grey and his companions seem thin, hardened and dirty, and they look at the school as though it's entirely foreign. It's here that their fortunes change. Having initially made their move because they believed the train's enforcers had run out of bullets, it is revealed that fully loaded guns are waiting for them. On the school's television screens, an image of Wilford's henchman, Franco the Elder, is shown alongside Gilliam. As punishment for the group's actions, Franco lifts his gun to Gilliam's head to execute him. Grey is too horrified to watch, and turns quickly away to bury his head in his hands while the man he had loved is shot. The apparently wholesome school teacher pulls out a sub-machine gun and starts firing. Many of the party are gunned down here, but at a nod from Curtis, Grey stands up and throws his knife, sinking it into the teacher's neck and killing her with one blow.
After killing Mason in revenge for Gilliam, Curtis moves forward. Tanya and Grey are the only remaining members of his group from the tail section, and have watched their friends die around them. They move on, continuing in their mission to get to the train's engine, since to turn back would make their friends' sacrifices meaningless. They move through increasingly upper class sections of the train, showing that they are close to their aim. When they reach a sauna, intended for the pampering of the train's elite, they are ambushed by Franco the Elder, who kills Tanya. Grey leaps at him, trying to kill him, but for the first time, his skills are not enough to save him. Franco manages to knock him out, and then turns to fight Curtis and try to kill him too. He is almost successful, and is about to drive a knife into Curtis' had when Grey wakes up, and thrusts out his hand to catch the knife instead. As the blade pierces his hand he lets out a short, sharp cry - the first vocal sound he has made in the film. It corresponds with the first time he involves himself in a fight of his own free will. No one had time to order him to protect Curtis but he does it anyway, and tries to kill Franco for a second time. For a second time, Franco overpowers him, and turns his knife around to force it into Grey's chest. Grey, of course, dies quietly, with a hiss of air and the slightest of whimpers the only sounds he makes. He dies with his eyes on Franco. Curtis wakes up too late to save Grey, but in time to knock Franco out and continue on to his final destination.
Grey does not live to see the resolution. He never discovers that Gilliam had secretly worked with Wilford all along, and doesn't see the destruction of the train when it is derailed by an explosive made from Namgoong's kronole. He dies believing that he is saving Curtis for something better, never knowing that the world he had known so intimately was about to come to an end.
PERSONALITY:
Grey is portrayed, initially, as a caring and compassionate character, someone who is devoted to another person - particularly, to Gilliam, who is of critical importance to Grey's character. His concern for Gilliam is a constant thing. He moves to his side as soon as he sees him in case he needs help, he is deeply attentive to him, and he spends the majority of his early scenes focused entirely on Gilliam. He instinctively moves to shield, support and help Gilliam, while looking to him with a very clear, trusting kind of devotion. There is an innocence to Grey as he is seen with Gilliam, made evident by his willingness to obey even the commands that send him away from the man. His attachment is such that at first, he is only seen alongside Gilliam, and he only moves away from him when Gilliam himself orders it. His innocence is shown again when he is unable to watch Gilliam being shot. He turns away and buries his face in his hands, appearing almost childlike in his moment of grief.
This childlike devotion is then juxtaposed with the person Grey becomes when he is in battle. While he seems compassionate and loving with Gilliam, against his enemies he is lethal. He kills them quickly, efficiently and without hesitation, indicating a certain degree of familiarity with death and fighting in spite of the fact that he has spent so many years in the tail section alone. He has clearly trained how to fight, and he is merciless in his approach. When Grey fights, the part of him that seems childlike disappears. He no longer displays the gentleness or sweetness that is in evidence when he is around Gilliam, but is a silent and efficient fighter. Additionally, his fighting is rarely shown to be the result of an emotional response - he simply acts, displaying aggression and intent, but not hatred. His passion is for the people around him, for the other tail passengers who he trusts and fights alongside, and for Gilliam in particular - but he does not fight because he has lost his temper or because he's unruly or unpredictable. In fact, the opposite of this is true. He is almost always calm, which makes his activities all the more deadly. His silent mouth and dark eyes are intense and dangerous rather than innocent. His whole body becomes a powerful, agile weapon. It is in this state that he is most useful to characters outside of Gilliam.
However, whether he is behaving as the carer or the weapon, Grey is intent on making himself useful either way. His focus is always outward, and it is natural for him to look to other people for direction and leadership. He seems to want to be helpful, and he has a strong protective instinct for those that he cares about. It is clear, at the outset, that Grey's attachment to Gilliam is the key motivator in sending him to join Curtis' band. He lives in conditions that are just as difficult and deprived as the other tail passengers. He is just as hungry, just as cramped, an lacking in the same amenties as them. But it is not resentment at his way of life that pushes Grey to act; rather, he acts because Gilliam tells him to, and it doesn't occur to him to refuse. After Gilliam essentially puts him under Curtis' command, he looks to him in the same way - waiting for his nod before he kills the teacher who is shooting at them both, and never moving ahead of him. When Gilliam is no longer there to command him, Grey naturally looks to Curtis instead. To follow Curtis is the last order that Gilliam is every able to give to Grey, and he takes it to heart.
He is a character for whom obedience comes naturally - in spite of the fact that he spends the majority of his time fighting against the train's actual authorities. Grey's obedience does not extend to the armed enforcers who impose Wilford's authority. Instead, he sees Gilliam (and, by extension, Curtis) as his leader. He has chosen to be loyal to a person, rather than to the system, and he then follows that person without question. This is a character trait which is stylistically reinforced by Grey's mutism - he is the silent soldier, the killer who speaks through the grace of his actions and power of his body rather than through words. This idea is made all the more obvious by Grey's tattoos, which consist of words and numbers inscribed on his skin in a style that looks like handwriting. His body very literally does the talking for him, and he uses it as others direct. He is both Gilliam's walking stick and the blade in Curtis' hand. He is what they need him to be. In every movement and gesture, he is shown not only to be content with this role, but to seek it out.
It is because of this trait that the moment when Grey does act on his own - the moment when he protects Curtis from Franco's knife - is particularly notable. It is notable also as the only moment in the film when Grey makes a sound, even though it is no more than a very short, inarticulate cry. His final fight is also the one in which he seems most emotionally motivated - he is no longer calm, and instead seems upset, fearful, and in pain because of how badly he has been injured. Everything about Grey's demeanour changes as he starts to lose - though, in part, that is because he has already lost a great deal. His companions (aside from Curtis, who is unconscious, and Namgoong and Yona, who are not fellow tail passengers) have all been killed, and Gilliam who meant so much to him was killed when Grey was not there to protect him. It is perhaps not surprising that Grey's own attitude is different here. In that brief moment, he has a voice - and he also has a choice. He gives his own life to save Curtis, even though there is no one left to give that order. With no one left to guide him, Grey continues on the path they had set him on, protecting Curtis - and thus following through to its end the very last order Gilliam had ever given to him. His instinct to protect those to whom he is loyal leads to his sacrifice. Until that moment, Grey had shown an aptitude for fighting and survival unmatched by any of his companions, but it is clear that he values those that he has chosen to follow above himself. He will be their first and last line of defence, until he has nothing more to give.
Grey is a study in dependency. He is clearly highly reliant on others to lead him - doing things alone, without prompting from whoever he sees as 'in charge' is a foreign concept to him. Yet despite this, he is a natural carer. He tries to help people, tries to be useful to them, and falls naturally into the role of a protector, bodyguard, and nurse. He looks to others for instruction, yet is entirely comfortable with people depending on and relying on him. It is in fact natural for Grey to combine this cycle of dependency in one relationship - he would be caring, helpful and attentive to the same person that he'd be looking to for leadership. Additionally, he will tend to look for people who are personally trustworthy to him, and not necessarily those who have a position of official authority - in fact, his experiences on the train would lead him to be less trusting of the official military and government in general.
POWER:
Canon Skills
Grey is an ordinary human, meaning that he has no superhuman powers of any kind. However, the environment that he has grown up in has led to him developing exceptional fighting skills. He is remarkably agile, with excellent balance and the ability to use his environment to his advantage. For example, he is shown running across a long tube made from barrels, leaping up to bounce off a wall, grabbing a ceiling fitting and swinging around to land on a much larger enemy's shoulders to kill him. For a boy who has spent most of his life underfed and kept in a very restricted space, he is energetic and quite lethal. He is also very much the product of his environment - he is used to making the most of the space that's available to him, so he has learned to climb, learned to balance, learned to crouch and move quickly and defend himself from any of those positions.
He also has remarkable aim - he is shown throwing an object at a shooter's head and killing her instantly, with one blow. He has not grown up using guns, as these were the property of the train's security and used to keep the tail passengers in their place. However, he has a knife that he keeps tied to a rope around his waist, and he fights naturally with it. He kills without hesitation and without mercy, with the proviso that he generally only acts when he is instructed to. He is also very able to fight without his knife, using his own strength an agility to overpower the majority of enemies. In canon, the only enemy that he is not able to defeat is the one that eventually kills him - at the end of a fight where has already had injuries to his arm, a knife through his right hand, and has been knocked out once already. This is a testament both to Grey's resilience, and to the level of damage that needs to be done to him before he'll go down.
It is notable that his skill as a fighter seems to be at a higher level than that of his fellow tail passengers. The group that Curtis takes forward frequently looks to him to get them out of a situation when no one else can. Compared even to others who share his environment, he is particularly fast, agile and skilled, indicating that he has specifically trained to fight in this way.
City Powers
Psychic Ink: In canon, Grey is mute. He communicates with others in part through body language - through gestures, facial expressions, nods and head shakes. However, he also communicates through another form of body language - through the myriad of tattoos written along his arms, chest and back. In general, the words on his arms are communicative (such as 'die!', 'surrender!' and 'please'), and those on his chest are more personal (such as the name of his mentor and lover, Gilliam, which is written over his heart). Communicating through the tattoos is Grey's habit rather than a skill, and I would like his MOM power to extend this. I would like to give him the ability to create new tattoos with his mind.
At first I would intend for him to struggle with this power and not know how to use it properly, resulting in a confusion of symbols or singular words appearing over his skin when he has an emotional reaction to something - for example, if he's frightened, the word 'Stop!' might travel over his face. The colour of the tattoo will also depend on his mood - black for neutral, green for happy, red for angry, and so on. The ability will be tied to his emotions, and he will have to learn how to focus his mind on what he wants to say so that the 'ink' behaves the way he wants it to. As he starts to understand the ability and begins to take control of it, he'll be able to use it to make new words appear whenever he wants and in whatever colour he chooses. Eventually, when he's proficient with this, he'll be able to make complete sentences appear and disappear anywhere on his body. He will also be able to make the words he creates permanent, if he wants to.
The size of tattoo he will be able to create will be limited by his own body - it will need to fit on his skin, and there will need to be space for it among the tattoos he already has. Additionally, he will not be able to erase any of his normal tattoos - he will only be able to change those which he has created psychically. He will additionally only be able to create tattoos on his own body, not on anyone else's.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
Test drive thread.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
He had struggled with them at first. There had been a woman in the room where he'd landed, and then the soldiers had come, and he'd tried to fight them off. They pinned him back, restrained him, and then debriefed him. There was a strange tattoo on his wrist, one that only showed itself in the darkness, and there was a file in his hands. They had taken him into what they said was a city - a Cape? - and left him in front of a building where they said he had to go, because it was his home now.
Grey had left immediately.
He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know anywhere to go, but he rejected the very notion that the building was his home because his home was the train. Everything he knew was there. This place was too big and too bright and too open, open in a way that made his gut roil with anxiety, and eventually it had just been too much. Too much that was new and too much that he didn't understand. He'd come back to the building and gone inside, and that had been better. A little better.
Except that it was so quiet. Grey didn't realise that was the problem at first. He was, personally, always quiet. Even his footfalls didn't make a lot of noise, because he was used to moving so carefully. But despite that, the train had never been quiet. The tail section had been full of the living noise of all its occupants. There had always been someone talking or snoring or coughing or something. And if there hadn't been that, then the train itself would have filled in the gaps. It had always been moving, and there had always been sound associated with that. Even now, one of the strangest things to him was the lack of movement underfoot. He didn't have to be aware of his balance here, didn't have to avoid other people's movement. This whole place was just for him. Grey moved between the rooms, wondering how he would ever use all this space.
Gilliam would have liked it here. Grey couldn't believe how clean it was. There was a smell stinging his nose. He didn't know that it meant fresh yet. There was a shower with water, and more water in the kitchen unit. The kitchen was full of technology that he didn't know how to define much less use. He ran his hand along a countertop.
It was too empty. He tolerated it for an hour and then left again, when he felt the beginnings of that anxiety bubbling back up in his chest. He had left his file, from the soldiers, in the apartment, but no amount of rubbing with water had been enough to take the tattoo off. Now he was back outside in the hot, humid light that still made his eyes squint, and he was wandering. Strangers looked at him, ran their eyes over his too-worn clothes and grubby skin, and he saw a judgment on their faces that made him feel more aware of himself than he'd ever been in his life. He wished Gilliam was here. He wished anyone was here, anyone that he knew. But then he touched his fingers to the scar on his chest, where the knife had gone in, and he remembered that all of them were gone. All, every one. He would never see them again. His eyes stung, and he blinked that away.
He felt so lost. How could this ever feel like home?
He reached the end of a street, turned, and that was when he saw the coast.
Grey stopped in his tracks, his eyes on the expanse of water that started and then just seemed to keep on going, and going, and going. His eyes widened, and he felt his heart start to race. Is this what his world had been like before the snow came? He'd seen pictures, old pictures, on the train's screens, from time to time. Gilliam and the others had talked about the ocean. They had spoken of it with the kind of nostalgia that made it sound like a beautiful place, but for Grey it had always been something far away, untouchable. No more real than a fairytale, and certainly nothing he would ever see. He didn't know what to do with it. He moved backwards, until he felt a building behind him, and then he crouched with it at his back. He couldn't take his eyes off the water. Gilliam would like this even more than the apartment, and Grey felt a sudden, terrible ache at the loss of him. He shouldn't be looking at this on his own. He shouldn't be here on his own. Why had they brought him, and not one of the others? It didn't seem fair.
He felt wet and confusing tears on his cheeks, and he swiped them away with the back of one hand. He could look at that ocean all day, he thought. He couldn't get his head around this city yet, and the thought of his lonely apartment was oppressive. Maybe he could just sit here a while, and watch, and no one would notice. Maybe he could make himself small enough, and he could be among the Cape's crowd and look at its ocean and not feel so alone.
Maybe.
He would try. Until he had a better solution, he would try, and let his eyes get used to the light.
FINAL NOTES: The cause of Grey's mutism is not discussed in canon - it is portrayed as an accepted fact, unquestioned by the other characters who in any case have no problems with understanding him. He has no visible scarring or injury that indicates it is a result of physical damage, though it is possible that the cause is psychological. The small sound that he makes when his hand is stabbed indicates that he does have functional vocal chords. However he cuts that sound off very quickly, and makes a sound at no other time, even when he's fighting or hurt. Both his apparent comfort with his silence and his companions' ready acceptance of it make me believe he has been mute for a long time - possibly all his life. This is how he would be played in game.
Power Update
Character: Grey
Series: Snowpiercer
Type of adjustment: Power update. Grey currently has two free power slots. I would like to add an additional power, if possible.
Current canon point: The moment of his death - this will be unchanged.
Current powerset: (Copied directly from my app)
Psychic Ink: In canon, Grey is mute. He communicates with others in part through body language - through gestures, facial expressions, nods and head shakes. However, he also communicates through another form of body language - through the myriad of tattoos written along his arms, chest and back. In general, the words on his arms are communicative (such as 'die!', 'surrender!' and 'please'), and those on his chest are more personal (such as the name of his mentor and lover, Gilliam, which is written over his heart). Communicating through the tattoos is Grey's habit rather than a skill, and I would like his MOM power to extend this. I would like to give him the ability to create new tattoos with his mind.
At first I would intend for him to struggle with this power and not know how to use it properly, resulting in a confusion of symbols or singular words appearing over his skin when he has an emotional reaction to something - for example, if he's frightened, the word 'Stop!' might travel over his face. The colour of the tattoo will also depend on his mood - black for neutral, green for happy, red for angry, and so on. The ability will be tied to his emotions, and he will have to learn how to focus his mind on what he wants to say so that the 'ink' behaves the way he wants it to. As he starts to understand the ability and begins to take control of it, he'll be able to use it to make new words appear whenever he wants and in whatever colour he chooses. Eventually, when he's proficient with this, he'll be able to make complete sentences appear and disappear anywhere on his body. He will also be able to make the words he creates permanent, if he wants to.
The size of tattoo he will be able to create will be limited by his own body - it will need to fit on his skin, and there will need to be space for it among the tattoos he already has. Additionally, he will not be able to erase any of his normal tattoos - he will only be able to change those which he has created psychically. He will additionally only be able to create tattoos on his own body, not on anyone else's.
Specifics: I would like to use one of Grey's two free power slots to give him an active 'fighting' superpower. Although he has considerable training and experience with hand to hand combat in canon, he tends to be at a significant disadvantage here when fighting characters with offensive powers. I would like to level the playing field to an extent, since he is beginning to be more active in the combat side of things here. For this reason, I would like to give him the following additional power:
Shadow Mimicry: Grey would be able to take on a 'shadow' or 'shade' form. His body would essentially change into shadows, and through this, he would be able to merge with and hide in the shadows around him. He would also have a limited degree of control over the shadows around him. This power would have the following properties and limitations:
✖ Grey's physical body would transform into a shadow form. Through this, he could melt into and become part of the shadows around him, appearing indistinguishable from them. This will allow him to hide within them.
✖ Through force of will, he could gather his shade form together so that it appeared to be relatively person-shaped.
✖ This form would be intangible - it could not be physically touched, struck or injured. However, anyone who attempted to touch him would feel a chill, as his shadow form would lack heat.
✖ Because his mind will control his shadow form, he will remain vulnerable to telepathy.
✖ He will be able to move through the shadows, providing that they form a continuous path between the two points he wants to reach. He will not be able to 'teleport' from one shadow to another.
✖ This form will be vulnerable to light - direct light will be painful, and will force him to exit his shadow form and take on his physical body again.
✖ In both his shadow and his physical form, he will have a limited ability to manipulate the shadows around him. He will be able to darken them, strengthen them, and command their shape and size according to his will.
✖ Shadows will also respond to his emotions; more negative emotions will make them lengthen, so that as his mood 'darkens', so will the room he is in. The temperature will also drop as he does this, since cold is associated with darkness in the same way that heat is associated with light - this change will be incidental, as Grey has no direct control over temperature.
✖ Shadows will remain '2d' - he will not be able to make physical constructs from them.
This power would take up Grey's second power slot. He would retain his Psychic Ink, and would be left with one remaining free power slot. I am happy to revise, if necessary!