Apocalypse How Application

[themuseabandonsyou]

→ PLAYER INFO

Name: QV
Age: 26
Contact: questionableveracity or quodVide#2951 at Discord
Character(s) in game: None
Permissions: here

→ CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Orpheus
Age: 21
Canon: Hadestown
Canon point: Post-canon
History: Wikipedia
Personality:

• Optimism - Orpheus is repeatedly described in canon as being able to "see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is," which is touted as one of his greatest virtues and something that attracts people to him in addition to his musical talent. As a dreamer by nature, he sees the best in people, trusting Persephone to provide for the world despite her long absences and moving through life with a bright-eyed sort of confidence that everything will work out if people just work together and show each other kindness. While on a surface level this may seem to be at odds with the crucial end of his escape from Hades, the great tragedy of his story comes in the form of a single moment of weakness brought on in part by distrust in Hades's letting them go but mostly by intense guilt for having left Eurydice to fall into the Underworld to begin with and doubt in his worthiness as her partner. Ultimately it's more his insecurity in himself rather than the world around him that leads him to turn back and doom Eurydice back to Hadestown than shaken faith in the world around him. As he comes from post-canon, this failure on his part has done a number on his self esteem and given him a severe guilt complex, but not necessarily his faith in other people.
• Empathy - As mentioned earlier, Orpheus tries to see the best in people wherever he can, but where he can't he still makes an attempt to understand the other person's point of view. While it would be easy for him to simply hate and fear Hades for the suffering to which the latter has put his subjects in the Underworld, Orpheus is able to reach out to him and ultimately unharden his heart some by appealing to their common fear of losing their wives to a world where they can't follow. While it takes him until the third iteration of Epic to truly understand, he cottons on to Hades's intense loneliness and attempts to fill the void with his various projects as early as seeing him arrive to take Persephone back early in Way Down Hadestown, and similarly expresses concern over Persephone's growing reliance on revelry and alcohol to distract from the misery that her marriage now brings her. On a more positive note, he also is able to glean from Eurydice's demeanor her intense loneliness as covered in Any Way The Wind Blows, and a large part of his motivation in approaching her aside from his own instant infatuation is wanting to help solve that in whatever ways he can.
• Naivete - Returning to Orpheus's optimism for a moment, his easy confidence in the goodwill of others and the inherent fairness of things easily turns to an almost simplistic misunderstanding of how things really work. Case in point, his certainty that spring's return will immediately fix all of his and Eurydice's and the world's problems, which leads him to fixate on trying to solve that to the exception of all other concerns. Arguably this comes in part from his somewhat sheltered upbringing, with his knowledge of the wider world largely coming from epic stories where solutions are straightforward and heroic rather than his own personal experience.
• Obliviousness - Orpheus is also somewhat oblivious to things like social cues and the world outside whatever his current focus is, as briefly touched on before. He has a tendency to say whatever's on his mind regardless of whether it's inappropriate or weird - asking a girl he's never met to marry him after being explicitly warned not to come on too strong, and later missing Hermes's disapproval and attempts to hint at her fate after he neglects her in order to work on his song. He means well, but certain things just go over his head. Again, it's hinted that this has to do with his having a somewhat sheltered upbringing, being raised on stories of the Gods and mythic heroes but not much deep social interaction.
• Devotion - On top of all of this, Orpheus is also an intensely devoted individual. This is most obvious in his journey into the Underworld, all done for the sake of Eurydice home, but it's also apparent in his actions before then. Pouring all of his efforts into writing his song may not have been a good idea, ultimately, but his intention was to make a world where she'd feel safe and secure in a way she hadn't before. He loves Eurydice deeply and will do virtually anything for her, being quick to cast aside any doubts about their relationship even when it's revealed that she left for Hadestown of her own volition. His dismay over her having signed a contract with Hades is not being upset with her, but with the situation that lead her into it and the difficulty it poses in bringing her home, as well as with himself for allowing it to get so bad.

Suitability: Orpheus bears a deep sense of guilt over his famous moment of weakness, and in all likelihood is going to view his being transported to another world and asked to stop the apocalypse as some kind of divine punishment/repentance for his failure and for his hubris in going to the Underworld in the first place. He'll all but leap at the chance to do some good for people because of this, not to mention already being demonstrably willing to shoulder the weight of the world's problems in the form of trying to single-handedly bring back spring in canon. In a way he's just gone from trying to avert one apocalypse to trying to avert several.

Powers/Abilities: Orpheus's abilities in canon as the son of a Muse are a little ambiguous, but the stuff we know he can do for sure is summon flowers in the dead of winter and cause stones to weep and move aside with his voice. He's also able pluck the song Hades wrote for Persephone out of the aether some thousands of years later, saying it "came to him, as if [he'd] known it all along", implying a degree of supernatural insight. In the myths, Orpheus's singing also attracts and soothes wild animals. He has very limited conscious control over the use of these powers, stating that he doesn't know how he summoned the flower in Come Home With Me, with the implication that they're more triggered by his emotions than any intentional effort on his part.

Entity Affinity: The Lonely. Orpheus's greatest fear is that of being abandoned by his loved ones due to being found wanting or unworthy of their time and attention, and his fear that he's already ruined his relationship with Eurydice by failing to deliver on his promises to her and that she'd prefer the security of Hadestown to the uncertainty of being with him is what drives him to look back at the end of Doubt Comes In.

Inventory:

• Clothes (Shirt, pants, underwear, suspenders, socks, boots, bandana)
• Acoustic guitar (everyone in the play calls it a lyre but it's actually a guitar)

Samples: Thread from a previous game