teleios } { application

[fullofdynamite]

Player Info

Name: Emily
Age: 24
Contact: AIM - iluvroadrunner6
Characters Already in Teleios: N/A
Reserve: A link will go here.

Character Basics:

Character Name: Cyrus Marks
Journal: fullofdynamite
Age: 72
Universe: Teleios
Canon Point: Fifty years after his initial arrival in Teleios.
Debt:

Class A: 0 years
Class B: 4 months
Class C: 0 months
GRAND TOTAL: 0 years, 4 months

Original Character Section:

Setting:

Cyrus Marks was born into a world of propaganda and smoke and mirrors. He is an American, living in an American-motivated world where America controls the narrative and a lot of the commerce. They run the world with an iron fist, and most of the world buys into this control because the government controls that narrative. The people believe that they still have all the initial freedoms when the country was founded over a thousand years ago. They live in the greatest nation in the world. What do they have to worry about?

The military holds a lot of control over the government, and while it’s not quite martial law, it has a very heavy influence. Most men and women join the military right after they finish high school, and Cyrus is no exception. Most people carry military rank, and they’re used often in everyday conversation. Technology is more advanced, as they are nine-hundred years ahead of us, but not completely futuristic.

They are also currently in the middle of a war. It’s more like the Cold War than official combat, where America and China have been in a push and pull for decades now, with no end in sight. Certain supplies are rationed, there are drills run in the event of an attack, and every military member (which, in a sense, is everyone in the country) is always on high alert at all times. It’s basically a two men pointing rockets at each other, with each waiting for the other to light the match.

Then, Cyrus was brought to Teleios. Teleios is a world run by the gods, where each takes a shift in seasons. A year in Teleios exists as one long continuous day. The winter is eternal night, with low temperatures and a thick layer of snow. Spring is like early dawn. The snow melts, the sun rises just slightly, and the ground thaws. Summer is high noon with nearly unsufferable heat. Fall is dusk, with the sun sitting just above the western horizon, and the weather turning a little bit cooler. They inhabitants of the city are meant to run the city on their own, using their work within the city to work of debt accumulated from their lives outside of Utopia. Once that debt is repaid, they move on to Utopia, and what is assumed to be perfect happiness.

History:

Cyrus Marks was born on December 7, 2919. His father was a colonel in the American High Command, and he was raised with the military in his blood. He also wasn’t really one to question the rules, either. His childhood was fairly simple and predictable. School with average grades and adequate participation within the setting, and college was West Point at eighteen, just like his father. In fact, if Cyrus remained on the track he was on, odds were that he would eventually become a member of the American High Command, just like his father.

He graduated from the academy at twenty one, and just after, when he had just received his post in the Philippines, everything went haywire. The decades old stalemate between the Chinese and the Americans came to a head when what was said to be a Chinese bomb blew up an American school in San Francisco. Two hundred children were killed and the country went to war. Cyrus and his unit, the Gamma unit, bounced around southeast Asian waters, when on December 7, 2941, Cyrus’s twenty-second birthday, their unit came under fire at the hand of the Chinese, and the last thing he remembers of home is a blindingly bright white light.

Then, he awakens in Teleios.

Teleios is a city unlike anything he’s ever known, but he still falls into the same habits. He follows orders from the agents without question, he does the jobs he’s assigned to do, and he follows the rules. However, he also knows the penalty of abandoning his posts, so he sends out regular transmissions back to Gamma unit, or the American High Command, hoping that they will receive his signal and realize that he was trying to get back to them. The High Command never comes, and Cyrus continues to work off his debt.

And then he meets Mariah. Mariah Wallace was a beautiful girl, who he’s in love with from pretty much the moment he meets her. It’s because of her that the transmissions become less and less frequent, until they’re only once every six months, and then barely at all. He still follows the lead of the agents, because Mariah does the same, and sooner or later he thinks less and less of home. About a year after they meet they are married. He builds a life in Teleios, and even takes in some of the other inhabitants of the city, including a brother and sister named Max and Sally.

Mariah’s debt, however, is less than Cyrus’s, and eventually hers comes to an end. While she offers to refuse, to stay behind with him and wait to complete his debt, but he insisted she move on without him. Cyrus had started out in Utopia with fifty years of debt, and he didn’t want to hold her back while he only got older. She moved on, and he went back to work in paying off his debt. He never remarried, nor was with anyone else.

Years continued to pass, and the people started to suspect that something was off. It’s unclear to this day whether it was the agents or the people themselves, but it started to become clear that Utopia was more of a formality than anything else and they were on their own. Cyrus kept his head down, and continued to do his part, but he resumed recording everything he was seeing, storing them in his home.

Cyrus was seventy-two years old when he died in the temple, and the rest of the city was destroyed. To this day, no one is entirely sure why.

Personality:

Cyrus is, if nothing else, a soldier. He’s been raised with the mentalities of a soldier since he was a young child, and he understands the necessity of war, and the need to defend his country against the outside actions of others. Given the propaganda-filled nature of the world he lived in, he’s been raised to believe that soldiers are heroes, and he takes great pride in the job he performs. His time at West Point as well as his brief time in the service has taught him that they were providing a valuable service for their country. That was an idea that he never truly lost, even after all his years in Teleios.

What Cyrus never learned the value of, however, is revolution. The idea of turning on his mother country never crossed his mind. Even though he was born and raised in America, history never looked on revolution favorably, or asked you to examine both sides of the argument. The fact that America was founded because of a revolution is nearly ancient history, given the fact that the country itself has been surviving and thriving for nearly a thousand years. Add to that that the South’s “revolution” in the 1860s was blown out of proportion on top of that, and the idea to rise up against the oppression of not just his government, but also the agents in play within the city would have never crossed his mind until it was too late. He is always loyal to his home and to the people around him, and that is what matters to him more than anything.

On the other hand, Cyrus is also a kind man. He has a lot of heart for a soldier, and cares for people often times better than he cares for himself. After spending some time in the city he became known for taking some of the younger inhabitants under his wing and keeping them out of trouble. He was essentially the Teleios branch of the Big Brother, Big Sister program. He became especially close with the Walitzer siblings, Max and Sally, and they were like children to him. Cyrus has instincts about people, and can manage to pick out a good or bad seed from the crowd based on his gut, but he does his best to try and help them realize what the city has to offer them. He, for lack of a better word, has drunk the Kool-Aid, but even if he hadn’t, he would still see the merits. He understands, after forty-nine years and eight months, exactly what the city is trying to do for them, for better or for worse, and he wants to make sure that everyone around him achieves it, even if he doesn’t ever see Utopia himself.

He has a strong work ethic, even for a man of his age. When he’s given a job, he completes it without complaint. He does his work well, and takes pride in any task he’s doing, even if it’s as simple as being Odin’s attendant, or fighting his way to victory in Ares’ arena.

The most important person in Cyrus’s life isn’t even truly in his life anymore. His wife, Mariah, has moved on to Utopia, and he misses her terribly every day. It’s because of that fact that he needs to have so much faith in the system as it is. He wants to be sure that he will be able to see her again one day, and given that he’s so close to finally achieving what he set out to do all those years ago, he only hopes that she will remember him when she finally does see him.

Cyrus probably won’t take well to being back in Teleios again, but so long as he only has to complete the remaining four months of his debt, he will fall in line like he always does. He will be extremely careful not to add any more time to his debt, but beyond that, he will go to work and home that sooner or later, he will see Utopia, and his wife, for himself.

Powers/Abilties: None. Cyrus is completely human, and has no special powers.

Appearance: Cyrus isn’t overly tall—just under six feet—and is a bit hobbled from both his time underground and due to his age. He walks with a slight hunch. He has salt and pepper gray hair that’s leaning more towards white these days, and is of a slim build, though it’s obvious from the wear in his clothes he used to be a larger man.

He dresses in simple clothing, neutral colors and that’s more purposeful than fashionable. He also looks with a slight squint from so many years underground.

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

[The transmission itself is recorded, and nearly fifty years old. It was buried on a channel somewhere within the network bracelet, where he hopes that someone who’s tech savvy enough will be smart enough to find it. It was recorded on a broad filter, but meant to be released on a certain trigger.]

My name is Private Cyrus Marks, ID number six-oh-six-niner-delta-bravo-five. I am twenty-two years of age and currently supposed to be assigned to the Gamma unit bound for Japan. I seem to have found myself in a strange land that the man in charge here calls—Teleios. It’s a city of some kind, fairly rudimentary for our standards, though they seem to have these … transmission bracelets that are unlike any technology I’ve ever seen. Still tinkering with it, but hoping to have some kind of analysis soon for when I report back to my station aboard the USS Eisenhower.

[there’s a pause as and for a moment he’s unsure.]

The people in charge of things here seem to believe themselves to be “gods.” The man currently in charge of things claims to be Odin, whom, if I remember my studies correctly, was the leader of the Norse gods from early mythologies. They don’t seem to be understand that most religions seem to have been eradicated, and proven to be non-existent. In fact, some seem to be very offended.

[a breath]

They seem to believe I have allocated a vast amount of debt to which I am to account for through—what seems to be manual labor and work around the city. There are rumors that those who complete their debt are sent to a place called Utopia. I was quick to inform them that such a place isn’t possible, but there are those who claim to have seen it.

[another pause, and Cyrus clears his throat impatiently.]

Well. Until I reach you, Commander, I hope that you will accept these recordings in exchange for my absence. Marks, out.

Prose Sample:

Cyrus Marks’ life ended in a stone room with an empty altar.

It begins again the same way, but he doesn’t remember the ending.

He wakes up in the dead of winter, the world dark and cold. The temple isn’t lit like it used to be, with torches and grandeur. All that’s left behind is the darkness of an empty world, and the cold of winter permeating through the door.

He pushes up to his feet, wrapping his cloak even more tightly around himself as he calls out into the empty antechamber. “Hello?” His voice is dry and rusty, almost like sandpaper. He tries clearing his throat, hacking out the dust and debris before trying again. “Hello? All-Father?”

Winter is his realm after all. It only makes sense that that is who he should ask for.

“He’s not here yet, Cyrus.”

A soft, feminine voice comes from behind him, and he turns in confusion. Behind him is a tall, black woman, with large wings stretching out from her shoulder blades. They are pure white, and seem to gleam, even though there’s no light for them to bounce off of.

“But I am.”

It takes him a moment to find the name. She didn’t look like this the last time he saw her. “Michael?” She nods, a small smile crossing her face. Her smile always had a way of putting him at ease, no matter what the situation. “You—you changed.”

“It has been a long time. I required a new … appearance.”

“I’m sorry.” Not that he was ever really all that attached to her first form, but he presumes that she must have sustained quite a bit of damage in order to lose it.

“No matter. It’s not why we’re here.” She takes a step closer, placing one hand on his shoulder. “We want to try again, Cyrus. And we want you to be a part of it.”

“Try—try the experiment again?” He doesn’t understand. He was part of the first one. He knows how terribly things ended with the first one. He doesn’t know if he can trust that this is too good too be true.

“I know how things went last time, but we’ve made some changes. We think we can do better. We know we can do better.”

Cyrus is quiet for a long moment, thoughts spinning through his head faster than he could truly process them, and in the end, all that comes out is this. “Four months.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I had four months. Four months left on my debt.” He pauses, letting the words sink in, before his voice changes to something softer, more broken. “I wish to see my wife, Michael.”

She hesitates for a moment. “Your debt will be reinstated as it was before. You will have four months left before you earn your right to Utopia.”

That seems to appease the man, if nothing else. “Thank you.” He pauses again, before nodding slowly. “Thank you.”

She flashes him a small smile, before gesturing to the rest of the temple. “Quick. There is much to do before the rest of our guests arrive. I will make sure Odin finds you when he is ready.”

Cyrus nods, his chest swelling with something he hasn’t had in so long.

For the first time in nearly twenty years, he has hope.