kafkas | application at trahere

ISAAC DIAN | Baccano!

( player )
Player Name: erie
Characters in Game: n/a

( character )
Character Name: Isaac Dian
Canon/OC: Canon
Age: probably around his 20s
AU/Previous Game History/Etc?: N/A
Appearance: IMAGE
History: CHARACTER WRITE-UP & ISAAC & MIRIA WRITE-UP
Personality:

Larger than life*, Isaac Dian is one half of the series' resident idiotic thief duo with his partner-in-crime and lover, Miria Harvent. Intending to spread happiness (but mostly spreading mayhem and the frequent desire to "WH-WHAAAAT?" at their antics), the two act as Prohibition Era Robin Hoods, doing questionable things for the right reasons, often stealing from criminals and the Mafia to er. Atone for their own crimes. His heists often have bizarre targets and equally bizarre methods. The duo have stolen time (by stealing watches), a museum door while dressed as mummies (the intention was to nab the entire museum which proved too difficult so they settled for taking the door... to keep people out) and sadness (the Genoard family fortune... because they were fighting over it). They got away with things largely by dint of people not knowing what the hell they're actually doing because no sane person would be doing it. That and an effective use of costumes.

As you can see, "reason", "logic", "sanity" and other related words can only be very loosely applied to Isaac. While he does possess a surprising level of erudition (such as his familiarity with foreign literature and languages), any facts he does manage to spout off winds up jumbled with a typically Isaac kind of confusion (he thinks Billy the Kid played a part in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms). And while Miria is slightly more in touch with reality, Isaac and reality have probably only been occasionally introduced. After all, this is a man who became immortal in 1930 and only realizes he hasn't aged at all in 2001.

It is perhaps this obliviousness that allows him to be what he is, a man to whom anything and everything can happen without it bringing down his spirited enjoyment of life. While he can be quite gullible, believing fully in the tale of the Rail Tracer and later on rather quick to believe (and misinterpret) things he reads in the papers, it's this ease in believing that helps him take even the most ridiculous and traumatic things in stride. Well, relatively in stride. He's got a flair for the dramatic and he's given to melodramatic outbursts and is very open with his feelings, an emotionally (if not mentally) straightforward man. No hiding his tears or fears for Isaac.

It cannot be forgotten that Isaac is a criminal and a career in it would normally make a person suspicious. But he isn't. He's quick to befriend people and he's generous with his time, effort, money (well he stole it anyway) and good will. Isaac is naturally inclined to think well of the people he meets and he's not hesitant to express it. He and Miria raise Jacuzzi's flagging spirits while the young man doubts his own abilities to face down their enemies on board the Flying Pussyfoot. He and Miria forge a quick connection with the homunculus Ennis, stating their belief that she's a good person against her own guilt. They risk their own lives** to protect the immortal Czeslaw Meyer, even using their own bodies to shield him from the impact of falling off a speeding train and from what they think is the Rail Tracer.

Isaac may be a thief but it's clear that his actions are very rarely motivated by a desire to acquire material wealth. While he wants a nice mansion as much as the next guy, he's more likely to steal because he thinks it'll help someone or bring them happiness in some way. When it comes down to it, what is really important to him are his friends and his girl. Who could ask for anything more?

* with apologies for any accidental associations with old Backstreet Boys songs
** at this point, they're actually immortal too. they don't know it though so the point still stands!

Abilities/Skills: ɪᴍᴍᴏʀᴛᴀʟɪᴛʏ
This link explains the history of immortals in Baccano! quite thoroughly but in brief, Isaac is able to heal from everything, from small wounds to burns to getting riddled with bullets to getting his head blown off. In canon, he's only received a slice on his ear and wounded his hand while attempting to rescue Czeslaw Meyer. Other characters have better tested the extent of the healing (namely Czeslaw himself since he was used a guinea pig to see what he'd be able to recover from). The healing itself is animated by showing the actual destroyed body parts/blood/flesh returning to the original Immortal's body rather than simply healing over/regrowing new parts. Other benefits/limitations of note:
☝ Immortals are able to transmit information to other immortals or homunculi by placing their left hand on the recipient's head and thinking of the information to be transferred.
☝ The more often an immortal receives and recovers from a kind of wound/injury, the faster they are able to recover from that type of injury in the future.
☟ An immortal can only be killed by another immortal (by one immortal placing their right hand on the other immortal's head and thinking "I want to eat". The immortal who "devours" the other also receives all the knowledge and memories possessed by the dead immortal.
☟ Immortals cannot use false identities for too long and they are forced to use their real names when they are in the presence of another immortal.

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ sᴛʀᴇɴɢᴛʜs & ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇssᴇs
☝ Once you get past the bizarre logic behind the targets he chooses, Isaac is actually a competent thief going by his success rate. 87 jobs all across the country from San Francisco to Chicago to New York with relatively clean getaways.
☟ Relatively because there are pictures of himself and Miria making those getaways. They even posed for some of them.
☝ Clean because the people who took those pictures didn't realize they were criminals or thieves until long after the fact.
☝ This is due to Isaac and Miria's penchant for using costumes during their heists. They appear to collect a set varied enough to include samurai helmet armor and cowboy get-ups. Their props are pretty thorough too.
☝ Speaking of thorough, they're quite dedicated to getting 'in-character' once they don those costumes.
☟ Of course what they think of 'in-character' may not actually resemble the character they're being.
☟ Among other words they appear to not know the correct meaning of? Act normal.
☟ ...you did read the part where it says that he thinks he's stolen time by stealing watches right?
☟ Not exactly the sort to acquit himself well in combat. Although Dallas and his goons did gang up on him that one time.
☝ It's a good thing he's immortal.
☝ Especially since he's quite willing to risk life and limb to protect people he's known for like. Hours.
☝ That's just the kind of guy he is, he'll chat up and befriend anyone.
☟ Even homicidal lunatics. And guys homicidal lunatics are afraid of.
☝ It's a really good thing he's immortal.

Belongings: cowboy hat and clothes

( samples )
3rd Person Prose Sample:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a good security system.

It is also a truth universally acknowledged, if that universe was a very small one inhabited by one Isaac Dian, that a single man having thus taken possession of a goodly amount of fortune must be in want of a partner to share the load especially when that fortune is actually several caskets of wine liberated from a certain bar in Chicago.

It was times like this that Isaac dearly missed his most beloved Miria, the light of his life, the fire of his loincloths*, the second pair of arms that would normally be helping him carry the wine out. Instead he had to make do with makeshift straps he'd made from the alarmingly large guards' belts and his own not really that considerably strength. But Miria was playing a far more important role, that of the distraction (which explained the loincloths) that should have drawn most of the big hulking men with the big guns except for the two that had waylaid him. Or had he waylaid them? Well, in the interest of fairness (and Isaac was always interested in being fair, except for when he was interested in being unfair to wallets) they mutually waylaid each other although the waylaying had gotten rapidly less mutual and more one-sided. In that some deft movements by Isaac had led one side to get in each others' way and now both guards were laid out unconscious at his feet. Miria's cries, the agreed upon signal, cut through the night like the dulcet tones of a dying bird and it meant he had to move and move fast. He tipped his pharoah's scepter at the prone bodies and hefted the caskets back up and staggered past them. No need to step all over them even if they had been astonishingly rude with their bullets. Well, some things couldn't be helped. Not everyone could be expected to understand why they were doing what they were doing or even what they were doing... even after Isaac had tried to explain it to them.

But really what was so difficult to understand about stealing the wine to steal the Prohibition?

* his actual loincloths from his set of Grecian / Roman / Japanese costumes (very multicultural and multipurpose things, loincloths). they needed a distraction so he with manly magnanimity sacrificed them.

Example Thread: sample post from Zodion