wrentham • ghost

wrentham,

As for Wrentham’s personality... it’s a peculiar one, to say the very least. From an average outsider’s perspective, the man would likely come off as simple, straightforward, optimistic, and somewhat naive. Many things seem to go right over his head or roll right off his shoulders, which renders most sarcasm and insults ineffective against the man whose density seems comparable to a brick’s. “On the bright side,” though, he has a knack for pointing out “silver linings” and can somehow make even the heaviest of atmospheres dissipate because of his lightheartedness... Or maybe it’s only because he never seems to take the gravity of situations all that seriously.

However, most of this behavior is merely a facade, consciously used either as a defense mechanism or to manipulate others. In reality, Wrentham’s personality is far different than what he shows at face value. His simplicity and straightforwardness are used to lure others into trusting him... And sometimes, if he’s lucky enough, such blunt behavior is enough to catch people off-guard or even fluster them — which is pretty beneficial, considering the emotions that he believes he's required to feed on...

The optimistic attitude he shows off tends to comfort those around him, but it contrasts greatly with his inner self, which is extremely cynical and emotionally guarded in nature. In fact, if asked to, Wrentham wouldn't even be able to name one person he genuinely trusted — without lying, that is... Since just about everyone knows that the best option in such a scenario would be to name the person asking, if they knew them well enough for the lie to be passable.

Coupled with the rest of the traits that his mask embodies, the added naivety helps to lower people’s guards; it’s far easier to wrap people around your finger when they grossly underestimate you, after all. With such a demeanor, it would seem as if Wrentham would be one of the last people to have ulterior motives of any kind; his calculated compliments — which are purposefully worded bluntly, as if they're factual and not opinionated in nature — end up going a lot farther... allowing the distance between him and the ulterior motives (that he hides so skillfully) to become that much shorter.

All that being said, not every positive attribute Wrentham shows off is a lie. His densely optimistic facade greatly resembles how he used to be — and who he wants to eventually become, once again. As someone that truly loves being alive — or as “alive” as he can be — the man's hidden callousness developed only after dying, when he came to realize that he could only continue to exist by forcing people to feel the same way he unintentionally made others feel while he was still alive. Unfortunately, even after all this time, he's unaware of what specific emotions he feeds on (his best guess would likely be embarrassment or anxiety, but even he knows that that's not exactly right); what he does know (and is well-versed in), though, is how to act to have a chance at bringing about a situation where he can feed freely. Being aware of such situations, it's only natural that his personality developed in a way that benefitted himself.

Having been the ray of sunshine that he used to be, Wrentham’s personality didn’t shift to such a jaded one overnight — but the process was expedited due to a loss of his memories. Working on mere instincts and the potent desire to stay alive, he slowly managed to learn how to manipulate and feed off the emotions of others far more efficiently... That is, once his powers of observation and perception had become practiced enough to overcome his previously dense nature.

If Wrentham’s usual appearance had to be summed up into a single word, it would have to be “warm.” From his soft features — like his brown hair and bright, smiling green eyes — to his brotherly aura, just laying eyes on him is enough for some people to feel slightly comforted — maybe in the same way one would by looking at a pet dog. Of course, there are the moments where this sort of aura he emirates can dissipate at the drop of a hat, but those instances are few and far between.

Specifically, though, Wrentham has two bodies: his spiritual body and what he likes to call his “physical body,” which is merely a simplified version of the android body he used when alive as a hosted human. The appearance of the two bodies differs only slightly. His physical body has the appearance of a broad-shouldered, fairly lanky, six-foot-tall human in his mid to late twenties; however, his spiritual body’s appearance looks to be younger and paler than its physical counterpart. The biggest difference between the two bodies, though, is without a doubt the height of each. While his physical body stands at six feet, his spiritual body is a full six inches shorter at a measly five-foot-six.

If we were to relate the two bodies to the “warm” or “brotherly” auras they gave off, the physical body’s would be like that of an older brother’s while the spiritual body would be more akin to a younger brother’s... So, despite Wrentham’s tendency to act the same in both bodies, the way his actions are received by others can sometimes depend on the body he’s using at the time.



To be honest, Wrentham wouldn't be able to give less of a damn about what he wears, so long as it's something comfortable. He's generally in some simple t-shirt and pants — which range from sweatpants or jeans to chinos depending on the formality of the occasion. It wouldn't be likely that he'd be spotted at black tie events all too often; he'd likely only go if someone he valued to a certain extent was attending... and if there was someone that could pick out something for him to wear. He's far from being "fashion forward," so he has no qualms with other people deciding his attire... Hell, he'd even encourage it.

Two things that he wears that seem to be "extra" in comparison to the rest of his usual wardrobe are two accessories. The first are the two bobby pins that he sometimes wears in his hair to keep his bangs out of his face out of convenience; the second are his feather earrings, which hold some sort of special significance to him... even though he can't exactly remember why...

Parents
Mother: ? ? ?
Father: ? ? ?

Siblings
Brother/Sister: ? ? ?

Extended Family
Benefactor: ? ? ?


Wrentham wasn’t exactly the most fortunate child in the world. In fact, around the age of five years old, he was diagnosed with an unknown illness that was slowly starting to spread throughout his body. Doctors were under the assumption that the man would eventually die around his late twenties... and that was the best case scenario. By the age of ten, Wrentham’s family gave up their custody of him to a benefactor that was well-known in the art of android customization.

The benefactor, whose name Wrentham never actually learned, constantly holed himself in his laboratory in order to create a body for the sickly child. Initially, it was the benefactor’s goal to transfer the child’s brain into the android body in his early twenties, but with already bad luck turning worse, Wrentham’s condition seemed to accelerate by the time he hit the age of twelve.

Nervous about unpredictable outcomes, the benefactor chose to initiate the transfer of the brain early. At the tender age of thirteen, Wrentham was put into an android whose body appeared as if it were in its late twenties — that’s the age he had been predicted to live until, after all.

Of course, being a child in the body of a fully grown adult had its downsides, to say the least. There were certain “ethical concerns” that had weighed on his benefactor’s mind; hell, he didn’t even know if doing what he had done was even legal. Considering how Wrentham couldn’t actually outright declare that he was only thirteen years old, he did his best to “blend in.” It’s not like his benefactor helped that much, either; Wrentham saw even less of him than he had before the operation.

Despite the early transfer — something that had been done to avoid Wrentham’s disease from infecting his brain — it had all been for naught. The unknown illness had affected his brain before it had even been removed from his organic body. Because of this infection, it only took another year before a cancerous tumor began to grow inside his temporal lobe.

With his benefactor MIA, Wrentham’s health slowly declined. By the time he was fifteen years old, his long-term memories were severely affected. At this point, he couldn’t recall the names or faces of any of his family or friends... not even his benefactor was excluded from this (not that he ever knew the man's name to begin with). He’d often experience blackouts, and would sometimes even find himself in situations that someone “his age” shouldn’t have ever been in.

If there was some silver lining to all of this, though, Wrentham’s illness progressed to the point where he couldn’t even sense his symptoms, anymore. Maybe it was because of this that he became a rather optimistic being, always living in the moment. Completely unaware of his own issues, it wasn’t uncommon for people to actually admire how he held himself — even if they didn’t know the first thing about him or what he was “going through.”

Although he didn’t remember them, there were a handful of people that Wrentham became close to before finally dying at the age of eighteen. So hellbent on hanging onto life, he became a ghost. He was by himself at the time of death, in an apartment that he didn’t recognize. Upon losing his life, he lost all of the memories he had of being alive. Fortunately, though, his ability to create and retain new memories came back to him, since the illness no longer affected him after death.

Being so in love with the idea of life and interacting with people, Wrentham didn’t leave his corpse like most ghosts would. Instead, he found ways to possess small objects around him, using them to alter the android body — essentially “cleaning it out” so it would be more doll-like and lightweight in nature — so he could continue to use it. He even went so far as to discard his own brain... But then again, he didn’t even know that it was his own.

Wrentham learned quickly that he craved something strange; he needed to feed. At the beginning, it was incredibly hard for him to find what he wanted; he even thought that he was going to die of starvation the majority of nights. In order to find sustenance, he’d usually just hover around crowded places and wait until he could “sense” what he wanted.

It wasn’t until Wrentham began using his physical body — otherwise known as the android doll body — to interact with people that he realized that he could actually feed more easily. What emotion it was that he was feeding on, exactly, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t until at least ten years later that his perception skills were strong enough to realize that each time he fed, the person he was feeding on had an increased heart rate and dilated pupils...

Aura: Similar to a Zero Magi's Empathy abilities, you can project a certain emotion onto one other living being. The emotions obviously vary from a sense of dread to sadness to anger.

Dream Vision: This ability allows a person to peer into the dreams of a living mortal while they sleep. Similar to watching a movie. This is triggered by physical contact. You may speak to the mortal in this state, but you will not be visible, or be able to manipulate anything within the dream.

Possession I: You are capable of temporarily inhabiting an item. In lore the most popular choice for a Soul to possess is a doll.





Dream Travel: (upgrade of Dream Vision) This ability enables the user to now not simply watch the dream but to be apart of it. A more practiced traveler will even be able to shift their forms in the dream as well as interact with all the figures.

Poltergeist I: The ability to move a single item within a limited and humble proportion, such as a piece of chalk, a paper, a small paperback book, a shoe, etc.


- n/a

[b]tales of zestiria, sorey[/b] as [i]wrentham[/i]