App for clockbox

[peinture]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Tim

AGED 18+? You betcha

RESERVED? NO I RESERVED MATT MURDOCK BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED INSTEAD

IN-GAME CHARACTERS: Jack Frost @ nippingatnoses

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Dorian Gray

CANON: Penny Dreadful

CANON POINT: Post season 2

ARRIVAL TYPE: Accidental

IC USERNAME: dorian

HISTORY: here is a wiki link though it's set up kind of poorly so you have to click each episode for the total history. Dorian sort of exists in Penny Dreadful as shock value in an already shocking world. He also sleeps with like half the cast, totally unscrupulously. (The PD writers have a hard time following any plot they start with Dorian through to a real end, besides the plot with Angelique, which ends with murder instead of real resolution.) Also, I will add that Dorian's background hasn't been revealed. I can supplement with info from the book if I need to, but I'm trying to avoid that since I'm hoping season 3 will actually give us more on him.

PERSONALITY:
Dorian is a disgustingly rich aristocrat who is known for throwing outlandish parties and inviting people who are well outside the norm, just because he can. He goes for the shock factor in much of what he does, enjoying being the center of attention, enjoying rocking any and every boat, and enjoying getting a rise out of people. He has very little regard for the consequences of his actions, and this is often very easy to discern about him. Being used to high society, he plays the gentleman very well; he has good manners almost all of the time, he can make useless small talk with ease, and he can give either flattery or condescension when expected without batting an eye.

In some ways, Dorian is very much a product of his time. He has a high level of appreciation for theatre and fine arts, for music, for wine, for expensive fashion and food, for the beautiful, the decadent, and the grotesque. He is the very portrait of a Victorian gentleman. (I refuse to apologize for that pun.)

Much of that, of course, is farcical. Dorian's truest nature is forever hidden from the world - hidden in a portrait that bears the marks of all of the sins he has committed. While Penny Dreadful hasn't expounded on all of those sins yet, quite a few can be implied. Dorian has sex with a hooker with consumption just to see what it would be like to have sex with someone that is dying. He kills a woman that he professes to care about because she discovers his portrait in its hidden chamber. He doesn't have any regrets about anything that he's done. Most of what he does he does simply to see what happens. He is immortal, thanks to the magic of the painting, and being immortal has made him incredibly bored with the mundane world. He throws money at experiences, having absolutely no care what will happen to himself or anyone around him. If someone dies, that might be exciting!

Though he has basically no scruples, Dorian doesn't like to get his hands dirty unless he has to; when he kills someone for discovering his secret, he does it with poison rather than physically attacking her. He's not entirely above it, but it goes against his high sense of aesthetic and the public persona he's cultivated for himself. In other words, it would be distasteful to his aristocratic ideals.

Dorian is definitely a masochist on some level. He goads Ethan Chandler into attacking him and then having sex with him. He lets Vanessa Ives cut him with a knife (and encourages her to keep going). When Lily Frankenstein bites off his ear, he obviously feels it and may not even be entirely into it, but he doesn't fight her off or really do anything to stop her. Some of that can be chalked up to fascination, or to the way Dorian changes based on who he's interacting with, but a lot of it has to be masochism. He doesn't have to fear death or dying, so he can enjoy pain instead of worry about pain being a warning.

If Dorian has any fears, they are deeply buried and he wouldn't even recognize that they exist. He must have once had a fear of mortality (otherwise, why seek immortality?) but he no longer feels he needs to. He can do whatever he wants without worry, so he never bothers to worry. This is not entirely without consequence, of course. He has a societal position to maintain, and a reputation to uphold, and he does his best to make sure those stay exactly the way they are.

Dorian is good at drawing people to him, whether by playing coy and aloof, or by telling people exactly what they want (or need?) to hear. He's gotten good at reading people. Much of Dorian's interactions are reflections of the people he's interacting with. If he can discern what someone wants him to be, he will be that for awhile, as long as it amuses him to do so. He has a hard time focusing on any one person or experience for too long, however. He is easily bored, easily distracted, and always looking for a new adventure or some new intrigue. Dorian is unused to rejection, and as such, doesn't know how to handle it. He's not really the tantrum throwing kind, but he will manipulate whoever and whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants. It is very rare that he doesn't succeed.

Once Dorian grows tired of someone, he has absolutely no trouble hurting them emotionally. He is aware that other people have emotions, but he just doesn't really care. He pretends to, if it suits him or any passing ambition he has. He may even actually care about a few people, at least superficially. But Dorian's only real love - only real priority - is himself, and no one has been able to change that yet.

Dorian is fascinated with the new technology of photographs, though he finds them to be second to paintings. He collects paintings to the point of obsession, lining the extravagantly large hall in his home with countless paintings. (The most important one, of course, he keeps hidden.)

He's also extremely vain, doesn't like to be caught in any compromising positions (unless he's already planned to be), doesn't like to be out of fashion, and doesn't like to be out of the loop. He is intelligent, conniving, and cunning, though his lack of ability to really care about consequences sometimes means that he doesn't bother to plan things out in a long-term fashion.

Dorian considers most other people to be below him. He doesn't always let on that this is so, but it is. He has no trouble letting them know that when it suits him (he openly mocks Victor Frankenstein when Lily is there, though this really has less to do with Victor and more to do with complying with what Lily wants). Because he is immortal and unchanging, and they are not, and because he's a stuck up aristocrat, he doesn't think most people can ever really be on his level.

INVENTORY: Wallet, pocket handkerchief, clothes including scarf/hat/gloves

CHANGES: None should be required. Dorian is effectively immortal, though he has to be in the presence of his enchanted portrait in order to heal wounds. (I imagine he would ask the Clock to provide said portrait, though whether the Clock will oblige or not, I don't know! I'd prefer if it did, though if it doesn't at first that's totally fine with me.)

SAMPLES

ONE: Test drive (the rest of that is here, but got put in the wrong place)
*NOTE: there are some really dumb typos in here, I apologize for those, but can't edit them now.
TWO: TFLN with Brian Kinney and Rachel Conway
THREE: This is a fanfic, warning for blood, it's not NC-17 but it's nsfw