Eudio: Application

[maliceaforethought]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin
CANON: Gotham
AGE: 31
CANON POINT: episode 2.14; just after discovering his stepfamily murdered his father.

BACKGROUND: Oswald at the Gotham Wiki.

INCENTIVE: Oswald Cobblepot is a broken man who has lost everything.

When the show started he was a nobody, a weak underling who was only good for carrying an underboss' umbrella and rubbing her feet. Over the course of a year he vanquished all his competition, stepped over or removed anyone who was in his way, and made it all the way to the top of Gotham's underworld. He was the mob boss everyone feared and obeyed. He was well off, powerful, influential.

When the Galavans began their quest to dominate Gotham they forced Oswald into being their instrument. They kidnapped his mother as leverage and forced him to assassinate the city's other contenders for the mayor's office, which made the Penguin Public Enemy Number One with the GCPD. The police began hitting his businesses and holdings. Everyone turned on him. He lost his place as the most powerful person in Gotham and saw everything he had fought so hard to win lost again.

The Galavan siblings betrayed Oswald and murdered his mother. Oswald would eventually get revenge on Theo Galavan, helping to kill him. Shortly thereafter he was captured and sent off to Arkham, where Dr. Hugo Strange experimented on him and turned him into a meek, kindhearted, law-abiding citizen. Oswald met his long-lost father, and after having just enough time to get to know and love him, also had this parent murdered.

All of this might have been enough of an incentive to get him to consider coming to Eudio, if a bit self-serving. But Oswald hasn't just lost his money, his place, his influence. Oswald's own sanity is in peril, as his father's death broke Dr. Strange's conditioning.

But it is, above all, losing his parents that would motivate him to cut a deal. His mother was the only person in the world who ever loved and supported him without question, who ever showed him any tenderness, who ever believed in him. He genuinely loved her, and her loss is unbearable. For the brief time his father was in his life, Oswald looked up to him, loved him and was loved by him, and realized that he was the kind of gentleman his mother had raised him to be. No price would be too small to pay for the chance to have them back.

In return for his stay in Eudio, he would ask that his parents be brought back to life and kept safe upon his return to Gotham so that he can set about fighting to get what's his back. He feels he can do anything with them returned, but without their presence in his life none of his other losses matter. Oswald has been able to achieve so much on his own, but bringing back the dead is beyond his reach. Eudio can do this for him, and he is willing to participate for his end of the bargain.

He would also be willing to agree to any conditions the city administration would place on him while he is a guest in the city--for example, regular check-ins with his case manager/a mental health professional/other designated party, or a ban on owning weapons, or the like--if it would make inviting a criminal known to be ruthless and violent into the city.

FIT: The one thing he most wants is the most powerful motivation to fit in. He is absolutely devastated at losing his parents. He is adrift, unsure of how to carry on, in fear that he will never again feel any support or tenderness. Nothing means more to him than having his parents back; he would set aside anything else and do whatever was required of him to have that happen.

Being able to feel some tenderness and affection from others, given the chance to get to know each other, might also soothe his grief and be a welcome experience, since it's not something he's had a lot of in his life.

He is a little reserved about sex, stemming from both his old-school upbringing and his own keen awareness that he is not exactly your standard fantasy material in the looks department. But he has had sex with men and women, isn't averse to the idea, and has no particular hangups about it. He'd be likely to want to court a person a bit before getting physically intimate. Emotional intimacy and friendships are easier for him and he would be an eager, indulgent, helpful friend if he felt like his friendship and affections were being returned.

CONSENT: A manipulative and unrepentant gangster with a propensity for solving challenges or expressing his anger through violence probably seems like the wrong kind of person for Eudio. The Penguin isn't your standard mob boss, and some of his history, personality, and values, when combined with his recent situation, would make him capable of respecting consent.

Mobsters have a strict sense of honor and certain codes of conduct. As ruthless and scheming as he is, doing business, it's just that--business. Eliminating a mob rival or shaking a business down for cash is vastly different from asking someone on a date or or building a friendship. If he's not a mob boss in Eudio, if he's stepped away from that life, a lot of his reasons for being violent or taking advantage of people and situations is removed.

Oswald also sees himself as a gentleman, a man of decorum and dignity. His mother raised him with impeccable manners and drilled the sense of being proper and chivalrous into him; when he got to know his father he saw those ideals in action, and deeply respected his father for them. It would be unseemly to force his desires onto someone he was interested in or to disrespect their wishes or boundaries. That's not how a gentleman behaves.

He is also capable of genuine affection and loyalty to people he likes or cares about. He was utterly devoted to his mother, he doted on her and indulged her whims to the best of his ability. He hero-worshipped his father, delighted in his affection and support, and felt the comfort of a family for the first time in his life. Until recently he considered Jim Gordon a true friend, and he went out of his way on a number of occasions to help Gordon, to try to build a social relationship with him, and to protect or advise him. If he really likes and respects someone, he will bend over backwards to make them happy and comfortable.

Oswald was bullied most of his life, so he knows what it's like to have people try to take away your dignity or make you feel like your needs or being weren't important. He wouldn't want to do that to someone he wanted to be friends with. Rejection has also been a pretty frequent occurrence in his life; he doesn't like it but he's learned to manage it, especially in interpersonal, non-business relationships. Being in Arkham and having his mental health manipulated through Dr. Strange's questionable therapies also gave him a strong sense of not wanting to have his personal boundaries ignored; it gives him more insight into what it is to take advantage of someone less strong than you.

He's a shrewd judge of character and motivations. He can read people and situations with ease, and when coupled with his sense of honor and being a gentleman, if he were to sense that someone was not open to advances or attention, he would stop. That sharp mind would also serve him in being mindful of the city's guidelines: he knows if he doesn't respect other people's consent, privacy, boundaries, and wishes, he's out and he won't get the one thing he most wants--his parents restored to him. He will abide by whatever conditions the city places on him, and above all respect consent and the safety of others, to have them back.

SAMPLES: an old tdm thread and an old Cuddlr thread.

ANYTHING ELSE? 1. I did play him briefly in Eudio before. Since I never really got off the ground with him, I would be putting him in the game as if newly arrived, with no memory of having been here before. When he was allowed into the city previously, the conditions for his stay included regular check-ins with a mental health professional and a total ban on ownership of any weapons. I would be happy to accept those conditions again if they work for the mod team/city administration, or to discuss other conditions.

2. A visual guide to Oswald's stay in Eudio:

Back home in Gotham he was like:


But as part of being allowed into this fine city he has agreed to be like:


And perhaps, perhaps, given time and the opportunity to get to know people and to learn to relax a little and for people to maybe get comfortable with him? He might someday be like:


ASSUMING OF COURSE THAT THOSE IN HIS IMMEDIATE VICINITY ARE OKAY WITH AND FULLY CONSENT TO HIS PANTSLESSNESS