![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[application] what made it special made it dangerous
Name Simon Kenwood
Age 18 (born 16th September 1986)
Nationality British—very, very English
Occupation Magical boy / schoolboy
Sexuality Gay (Kinsey 6)
Canon Fandom OC (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Plot summary Smart posh kid gains powers, fights evil, loses everything and dies horribly.
Appearance summary: Shortish, slightish, conservatively dressed. Very upper-class English accent. Polite, friendly, reserved except when he's not (and trust me, you'll know).
Mun![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
vashtijoy
MBTI INFJ (slightly introverted, no preference intuition/sensing, slight preference feeling, moderately judgy)
Hogwarts house Gryffindor
Alignment Neutral good. He's what TV Tropes describes as type 2 Neutral Good—"those who are actively good—for them, Goodness is an Ideal as well as (or less likely, instead of) an obligation. They devote themselves to a life of Goodness and doing Good is the most important thing in their lives, or one of at least. They believe in doing what is Right and may sacrifice personal happiness, perhaps even in advance, in pursuit of that." This is Simon. He's flawed, often unpleasant, and has some startling vices, but in the end he will always inconvenience himself to do what he believes on principle is right. This is what's got him into the mess he's in.
There aren't magical boys. Get out.
Simon has explained the anatomical differences to Kyubey on several occasions. Kyubey, quite insultingly by Simon's reckoning, insists that he has the mind and the heart of a teenage girl, and that's all that counts. Simon is by no means the only magical boy, but they are very rare; Simon is the only one that's ever been heard of in the rather crowded London area.
... is he trans, then?
No. He's just a very emotional, very pure-hearted, very gay boy, who's sheltered and young for his age.
Kyubey, really? Isn't he in Japan?
According to Gen Urobuchi, there are multiple Kyubeys, all working in tandem: "There are many bodies, but only one consciousness. Therefore, even if you kill the body, there isn't any sort of damage. Killing one is just like pulling out a single strand of hair.". So Simon's Kyubey, while physically separate, is the same one we see in the anime. As an English speaker, Simon thinks of it and spells it as "Cubay".
Does he differ visually from his PB?
Simon has black, curly hair, worn in a similar style, and brown eyes, and his clothes are not stuck in 1971 (they're more likely to be stuck in 1931). Other than that, we're a go.
As a magical boy, he wears a ring on the middle finger of his left hand—a gold band with a dark red five-pointed star inlaid in outline, with some simple oval loops engraved around it in opposing orbits, a bit like a Venn diagram with the star in the centre. He has an identical, larger star embossed on the nailbed of the corresponding finger, beneath the nail, clearly visible. The star on his fingernail points outwards, away from him; the one on the ring points inwards, towards him.
What's this Soul Gem thing he keeps fiddling with?
A Soul Gem is, ostensibly, the enchanted item that lets the magical girl transform. Simon's looks like a dark red cabochon ruby caged in gold, with a five-pointed star (Simon's emblem) at its apex. It's shaped like an egg, and in fact it is about the size of a small hen's egg; perhaps a bit smaller. It glows gently from within with a red light. When he activates it, it glows a lot, and almost seems alive in its own right.
This isn't surprising, because—typically without the knowledge of the magical girl—the Soul Gem is a prison for their soul, which has been extracted from their body and stored inside it. Allegedly, this is for their protection. If the Gem is more than about 100 metres from them, their body deactivates and they appear dead. If it's shattered or destroyed, they die. In a roleplay setting, this is a permanent death resulting in a drop.
Using magic causes the Gem to darken or tarnish. This tarnish can be removed, or cleansed, by using a Grief Seed to drain the contamination out of the Gem. This is an item left behind by a witch when they die. As the Soul Gem contains the magical girl's soul, the Grief Seed contains the witch's soul. Since all witches were once magical girls, the Seed is revealed when the Gem finally breaks open. There is a direct link between the magical girl's level of despair and the representation of tarnish on the Gem—essentially, no matter what the situation, if they believe it will crack it will crack; if they believe they'll die, they will die.
The Gem can track the energy trail left behind by witches.
Word of God states that a magical girl could have their body completely destroyed and remain alive in their Soul Gem, using magic to emulate their senses. But they would eventually fade and die. The possibility of borrowing or stealing a replacement body while trapped in the Gem also exists.
In a roleplay setting, use of magic will not cause Simon's gem to tarnish, as he's not in a universe where that mechanism operates. The usual plane he draws energy from is absent, and he's drawing energy from his current locale instead. The Gem will darken when Simon is in despair, though he won't become a witch no matter how bad he gets.
The Soul Gem has three forms:
The ring he wears on his left middle finger. This is the collapsed, concealed form.
The gem itself, which is brought out to check its colour and to track witches. It's also revealed when he transforms.
The transformation form, which is a large red star-shaped jewel worn at his belt.
What did he wish for?
Simon's mother died giving birth to him; she suffered a massive placental abruption during an induction. Usually in cases like this, the mother is saved at the child's expense. Simon's mother told them to save him first; he's never been told this. It's almost irrelevant anyway, as he was past full term and actually born by caesarean as part of the fight to save her, which failed. Nonetheless, he grew up rather outcast from his family, hated by his older sister (who lost her mother) and with a very distant father in perpetual mourning for his wife.
There was only one thing he could ever have wished for. He was suspicious of Kyubey before he ever agreed to the contract—but he believed the chance of a miracle was worth any price he might have to pay. And indeed, his mother is alive, and his family is happy. But Simon, who remembers the way things originally were, isn't the boy he would have been if he'd grown up with that family. He's still isolated from them and very detached. But he has what he wished for. He sacrificed himself to put things back the way they should have been all along, to assuage his own survivor's guilt. He tells himself he's content with that.
What will happen to him?
Like all magical girls, he will slowly sink into despair. One day he'll realise that he no longer believes it was worth giving his life to save his mother; that he wishes he could take it back. At that point, with all his hope gone, he'll become one of the witches he's been fighting all along. Presumably another magical girl will find him, cowering inside his barrier, and she will kill him.
What's he studying?
Simon's a prefect at Eton College. Yes, that one. He's very academic, and is due to sit five A-levels in the summer—if he lives that long. His marks are slipping; he was on track for Oxford, but is currently unlikely to meet the entry requirements. He accepted a place to do Classics at KCL as his insurance offer, thinking it was inconceivable that he'd ever need it. It would suit him very well—he already travels to London every night looking for witches. But he's unlikely to have the opportunity to accept either place.
His A-level subjects are English Literature, Latin, Government & Politics, Modern History and History of Art.
What are his life aspirations?
Simon was never sure what he wanted to do, though he chose his A-level subjects to leave his options open for an arts degree. Influenced by his father, he's applied to study law. But his life's now taken a different track, and he fully expects it to be cut off soon. In fact, he thinks it's already over; he's just marking time to his grave.
He's heir to an earldom and the family estate where he spends his school holidays, which is run on a shoestring with everything turned to profit that can be; the Kenwoods are one of those old aristocratic families that are rich in land and heirlooms but cash-poor, and Simon's father is desperate not to be the one who loses them everything.
Simon himself already had suspicions that hereditary privilege might not be all it's cracked up to be, but he isn't nurturing them any longer. Having met a number of magical girls, and heard the appalling, childish reasons some of them give for trading their lives away, Simon would like to use his inheritance to form a charity aimed at satisfying the meaningless heart's desires of young girls; he's also forming a theory, which is not necessarily correct (and which he himself gives the lie to, if you don't assume girls are by nature inferior), that offering young girls anything they want primarily targets poor girls.
He doesn't think he'll live long enough for any of this to matter, and he is correct.
Fine. If you're insisting on this magical boy thing, give us a rundown of his abilities.
According to the Puella Magi Wiki, common magical girl abilities are the following:
Simon's soul is stored in his Soul Gem. When he uses magic, the Gem becomes darker. It must be regularly cleansed by using Grief Seeds taken from dead witches. If he doesn't do this, he will transform into a witch and die. When he becomes a witch, the Gem will crack and reveal his own Grief Seed inside it.
He can track witches using the Gem.
Magical girls who survive become more powerful and proficient over time and develop new abilities as they do so.
Because his soul is out of his body, he has a high tolerance for pain; training allows him to shut off his sense of pain entirely—though this will make him slow and put him at further risk. He's already at this stage, though; he's been at this for months.
His general energy levels are high; unless he's fighting, he won't get tired. Presumably he eats and sleeps out of preference and habit—magical girls, after all, do appear to spend every night patrolling for witches.
He's designed for combat, so he gains superhuman strength, agility, speed and healing. He can jump to incredible heights. He can heal himself by an effort of will, and he is effectively indestructible as long as his Soul Gem is undamaged—note that Mami's Gem was in her hair. According to Kyubey, magical girls can lose every drop of blood in their body and keep fighting, so it seems that any damage short of the total destruction of the body will magically regenerate over time.
He can transform, changing his outfit (this is supposed to be protective, but we all know it just looks cool), and producing a weapon (a sword), and he can summon as many swords as he requires which act in unison.
He can use telepathy, with ordinary humans as well as with magical girls. He can't read minds, but he can send messages (anyone can receive; the power is with the sender), and if he pays attention he knows when people are present. This appears to be an ability that magical girls (Mami and Kyoko) can use without Kyubey present. Only Madoka and Sayaka, who aren't magical girls yet, need Kyubey to relay for them.
It seems like they eventually do learn to fly.
He can't use most of his magical abilities if he's out of his magical boy form. He can use telepathy and he can heal himself, his body still has unusual tolerances, and he can obviously operate his Soul Gem.
Because he wished to save his mother, to defend her, his special ability is conjuring energy shields. They appear as arcs of yellow light. His healing is also strong, and he can extend it to others—though in a massively reduced form.
What does he understand about himself?
Simon's current working theory is that his Soul Gem channels and amplifies his soul somehow. Good guess, Simon. Totally wrong of course.
He is convinced that Kyubey is a malevolent liar—and was pretty sure of it before he ever made his contract. He understands that Kyubey has to have some ulterior motive that he is not privy to, that he's assisting Kyubey in some way by fighting witches, but thinks that the witches are sent by Kyubey. (technically wrong).
What the hell is Kyubey actually doing?
He gives us only the vaguest idea. Emotional energy is drawn from a parallel universe, and the greatest source of this is adolescent girls. The whole business with the magical girls and the witches is to transfer energy from that universe to this one in greater quantities, and so hold off maximum entropy (the heat death of the universe).
A more exact (and RP-useful) summary might go something like this:
Magical girls and witches are a two-stage life cycle.
The magical girl is the processing stage. Her emotions cycle over and over from hope to despair. This process is amplified by the extreme situations the magical girl is placed in. When she is drained—when she uses magic, or when she despairs—her Soul Gem tarnishes. She must use a Grief Seed to rectify this.
The witch is the stage that is harvested. The witch is in a state of permanent despair. Their emotions have ceased to cycle, they have ceased to use magic, and they are of no further use. Their Grief Seed contains the energy they harvested in their lifetime. The energy in the Seed all appears to go to the magical girl; what Kyubey processes is the husk.
So, based on Kyubey's explanation, what we are doing is channeling additional energy from the source universe into our own. It doesn't necessarily need harvesting.
This makes no sense.
Anything else?
He signs his name with his initials, SWK, and terminates it with his five-pointed star emblem.
Age 18 (born 16th September 1986)
Nationality British—very, very English
Occupation Magical boy / schoolboy
Sexuality Gay (Kinsey 6)
Canon Fandom OC (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
Plot summary Smart posh kid gains powers, fights evil, loses everything and dies horribly.
Appearance summary: Shortish, slightish, conservatively dressed. Very upper-class English accent. Polite, friendly, reserved except when he's not (and trust me, you'll know).
Mun
MBTI INFJ (slightly introverted, no preference intuition/sensing, slight preference feeling, moderately judgy)
Hogwarts house Gryffindor
Alignment Neutral good. He's what TV Tropes describes as type 2 Neutral Good—"those who are actively good—for them, Goodness is an Ideal as well as (or less likely, instead of) an obligation. They devote themselves to a life of Goodness and doing Good is the most important thing in their lives, or one of at least. They believe in doing what is Right and may sacrifice personal happiness, perhaps even in advance, in pursuit of that." This is Simon. He's flawed, often unpleasant, and has some startling vices, but in the end he will always inconvenience himself to do what he believes on principle is right. This is what's got him into the mess he's in.
There aren't magical boys. Get out.
Simon has explained the anatomical differences to Kyubey on several occasions. Kyubey, quite insultingly by Simon's reckoning, insists that he has the mind and the heart of a teenage girl, and that's all that counts. Simon is by no means the only magical boy, but they are very rare; Simon is the only one that's ever been heard of in the rather crowded London area.
... is he trans, then?
No. He's just a very emotional, very pure-hearted, very gay boy, who's sheltered and young for his age.
Kyubey, really? Isn't he in Japan?
According to Gen Urobuchi, there are multiple Kyubeys, all working in tandem: "There are many bodies, but only one consciousness. Therefore, even if you kill the body, there isn't any sort of damage. Killing one is just like pulling out a single strand of hair.". So Simon's Kyubey, while physically separate, is the same one we see in the anime. As an English speaker, Simon thinks of it and spells it as "Cubay".
Does he differ visually from his PB?
Simon has black, curly hair, worn in a similar style, and brown eyes, and his clothes are not stuck in 1971 (they're more likely to be stuck in 1931). Other than that, we're a go.
As a magical boy, he wears a ring on the middle finger of his left hand—a gold band with a dark red five-pointed star inlaid in outline, with some simple oval loops engraved around it in opposing orbits, a bit like a Venn diagram with the star in the centre. He has an identical, larger star embossed on the nailbed of the corresponding finger, beneath the nail, clearly visible. The star on his fingernail points outwards, away from him; the one on the ring points inwards, towards him.
What's this Soul Gem thing he keeps fiddling with?
A Soul Gem is, ostensibly, the enchanted item that lets the magical girl transform. Simon's looks like a dark red cabochon ruby caged in gold, with a five-pointed star (Simon's emblem) at its apex. It's shaped like an egg, and in fact it is about the size of a small hen's egg; perhaps a bit smaller. It glows gently from within with a red light. When he activates it, it glows a lot, and almost seems alive in its own right.
This isn't surprising, because—typically without the knowledge of the magical girl—the Soul Gem is a prison for their soul, which has been extracted from their body and stored inside it. Allegedly, this is for their protection. If the Gem is more than about 100 metres from them, their body deactivates and they appear dead. If it's shattered or destroyed, they die. In a roleplay setting, this is a permanent death resulting in a drop.
Using magic causes the Gem to darken or tarnish. This tarnish can be removed, or cleansed, by using a Grief Seed to drain the contamination out of the Gem. This is an item left behind by a witch when they die. As the Soul Gem contains the magical girl's soul, the Grief Seed contains the witch's soul. Since all witches were once magical girls, the Seed is revealed when the Gem finally breaks open. There is a direct link between the magical girl's level of despair and the representation of tarnish on the Gem—essentially, no matter what the situation, if they believe it will crack it will crack; if they believe they'll die, they will die.
The Gem can track the energy trail left behind by witches.
Word of God states that a magical girl could have their body completely destroyed and remain alive in their Soul Gem, using magic to emulate their senses. But they would eventually fade and die. The possibility of borrowing or stealing a replacement body while trapped in the Gem also exists.
In a roleplay setting, use of magic will not cause Simon's gem to tarnish, as he's not in a universe where that mechanism operates. The usual plane he draws energy from is absent, and he's drawing energy from his current locale instead. The Gem will darken when Simon is in despair, though he won't become a witch no matter how bad he gets.
The Soul Gem has three forms:
What did he wish for?
Simon's mother died giving birth to him; she suffered a massive placental abruption during an induction. Usually in cases like this, the mother is saved at the child's expense. Simon's mother told them to save him first; he's never been told this. It's almost irrelevant anyway, as he was past full term and actually born by caesarean as part of the fight to save her, which failed. Nonetheless, he grew up rather outcast from his family, hated by his older sister (who lost her mother) and with a very distant father in perpetual mourning for his wife.
There was only one thing he could ever have wished for. He was suspicious of Kyubey before he ever agreed to the contract—but he believed the chance of a miracle was worth any price he might have to pay. And indeed, his mother is alive, and his family is happy. But Simon, who remembers the way things originally were, isn't the boy he would have been if he'd grown up with that family. He's still isolated from them and very detached. But he has what he wished for. He sacrificed himself to put things back the way they should have been all along, to assuage his own survivor's guilt. He tells himself he's content with that.
What will happen to him?
Like all magical girls, he will slowly sink into despair. One day he'll realise that he no longer believes it was worth giving his life to save his mother; that he wishes he could take it back. At that point, with all his hope gone, he'll become one of the witches he's been fighting all along. Presumably another magical girl will find him, cowering inside his barrier, and she will kill him.
What's he studying?
Simon's a prefect at Eton College. Yes, that one. He's very academic, and is due to sit five A-levels in the summer—if he lives that long. His marks are slipping; he was on track for Oxford, but is currently unlikely to meet the entry requirements. He accepted a place to do Classics at KCL as his insurance offer, thinking it was inconceivable that he'd ever need it. It would suit him very well—he already travels to London every night looking for witches. But he's unlikely to have the opportunity to accept either place.
His A-level subjects are English Literature, Latin, Government & Politics, Modern History and History of Art.
What are his life aspirations?
Simon was never sure what he wanted to do, though he chose his A-level subjects to leave his options open for an arts degree. Influenced by his father, he's applied to study law. But his life's now taken a different track, and he fully expects it to be cut off soon. In fact, he thinks it's already over; he's just marking time to his grave.
He's heir to an earldom and the family estate where he spends his school holidays, which is run on a shoestring with everything turned to profit that can be; the Kenwoods are one of those old aristocratic families that are rich in land and heirlooms but cash-poor, and Simon's father is desperate not to be the one who loses them everything.
Simon himself already had suspicions that hereditary privilege might not be all it's cracked up to be, but he isn't nurturing them any longer. Having met a number of magical girls, and heard the appalling, childish reasons some of them give for trading their lives away, Simon would like to use his inheritance to form a charity aimed at satisfying the meaningless heart's desires of young girls; he's also forming a theory, which is not necessarily correct (and which he himself gives the lie to, if you don't assume girls are by nature inferior), that offering young girls anything they want primarily targets poor girls.
He doesn't think he'll live long enough for any of this to matter, and he is correct.
Fine. If you're insisting on this magical boy thing, give us a rundown of his abilities.
According to the Puella Magi Wiki, common magical girl abilities are the following:
What does he understand about himself?
Simon's current working theory is that his Soul Gem channels and amplifies his soul somehow. Good guess, Simon. Totally wrong of course.
He is convinced that Kyubey is a malevolent liar—and was pretty sure of it before he ever made his contract. He understands that Kyubey has to have some ulterior motive that he is not privy to, that he's assisting Kyubey in some way by fighting witches, but thinks that the witches are sent by Kyubey. (technically wrong).
What the hell is Kyubey actually doing?
He gives us only the vaguest idea. Emotional energy is drawn from a parallel universe, and the greatest source of this is adolescent girls. The whole business with the magical girls and the witches is to transfer energy from that universe to this one in greater quantities, and so hold off maximum entropy (the heat death of the universe).
A more exact (and RP-useful) summary might go something like this:
Magical girls and witches are a two-stage life cycle.
Anything else?
He signs his name with his initials, SWK, and terminates it with his five-pointed star emblem.