Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden

CURRENT POINTS BALANCE: 45

FEBRUARY 2015 TOTAL: 45
MARCH 2015 TOTAL: ???

LAST PUNISHMENT DATE: N/A
VACATION ALLOTMENT START: February 20th, 2015

PLAYER INFORMATION
NAME: Ken | mugennoken
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER?: Yes.
CONTACT: mugennoken
CURRENT CHARACTERS: None; Rikka Hishikawa is applied for, however.

CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden
CANON: The Dresden Files
CANON POINT: Between "Turn Coat" and "Changes."
CHARACTER AGE: Approximately 36 to 37 years old.
HISTORY: Dresden Files Wikia.
PERSONALITY: When you get right down to it, Harry Dresden is just a guy. Just your average, middle American male with a grinding job who'd just like to go home, kick his feet up at the end of the day, and relax. He enjoys fast food, knocking back the occasional beer at his favorite bar, and his best friend a lot of times is his dog. (And cat.) Were it not for his considerable stature, he could probably just blend into about any crowd and no one would be any the wiser that he's anything other than some normal Joe Schmoe. However, most Joes aren't the only guy in the Yellow Pages listed under "Wizard."

Harry's job is anything but normal - he's privy to a side of the world most don't realize even exists. The magic and monsters and danger that the common man or woman turns a blind eye to, Harry only wishes he could. He's a man that's been given a lot of power, and as someone once wisely wrote, that comes with a hell of a lot of responsibility. At least in his book - because Harry can do these things, because Harry knows these things, he sees it as his responsibility to help anyone and everyone he can when the grander powers that be try to mess with his world, and his city. His moral code might not seem strict by a lot of people's definitions. It bends a lot, and breaks, but there's a certain ideal he tries to hold himself to. To be better than his enemies, better than people who would vindictively hurt others, better than the monsters who would use the mortal world as their plaything, or the criminals who think they can use the spooky side of the street to their advantage.

This backfires on him. A lot. He'll tell you it's not about the money, but he sure wishes it paid more. He's been beaten and broken within inches of his life more times than he can possibly even recount now, and often times left without a cent for his troubles, but also with doctor bills and property damage to his name. Yet still, he persists. At the end of the day, one of Harry's greatest virtues is often one of his biggest vices - he cares. He cares almost too much, unable to sit idly by when there's trouble afoot and he gets the damned fool idea in his head he might, may be able to do something about it. It creates a certain sort of arrogance after awhile, something he isn't really even acutely aware of. Constantly shouldering everyone else's burdens along with his own weighs upon a person after awhile, it begins to skew their outlook on the world. When all of these things circulate around your actions, when you literally start to change the world itself, and when that world then appears to be at stake the more you learn... It can make it feel like it all revolves around him, in a way.

Not that he even fully understands that, himself - he's just trying to do what's right, or so he says. In some cases, he's forced to do what's wrong, but always looking for an opening to turn the tide in another direction. He'll play by the rules of the Nevernever or whatever he's dealing with when he has to, but as soon as he sees an opening he'll generally take it with little hesitation.

Though reliant on brute strength more often than not, Harry is pretty damned smart. He's world weary because he's seen a lot of it, but that also makes him rather savvy. He's well enough to go face-to-face with the toughest mobsters in Chicago or the biggest demons in the underworld, up to and including straight up fallen angels. He has a knack for intuition and reading people and situations. He picks up on the little details, even if they don't seem important until later on. He knows what makes people tick right down to their core, and this assists him a great deal in actually pursuing and succeeding in his cases most of the time.

For all his good points though, Harry is not always immediately likable. If you rub him the wrong way, he'll let you know it. He can seem like a bit of a slob at times, as well as pig headed. His sarcasm is forever present, which is either endearing or a pain in the ass (or both), depending on your perspective. He views himself as chivalrous and a gentleman, but is constantly being reminded by the women he works with that this is the 21st century and he'd be dead dozens of times over if not for those ladies. Women are actually a particular, and distracting weakness on his end - more than once the presence of the opposite sex has lulled him down the wrong course, and much as he may not want to admit it, he's not always 100% of the time thinking with his head.

Speaking of the people he works with, that comes to another subject: his friends. Like his city, if one crosses people close to him, puts them in danger, or brings some harm down upon them... Harry will bring that down tenfold upon the perpetrator. While one wouldn't exactly call him "possessive," he is very protective of the people who have seen fit to put their trust in him. Any less action than that on his part would feel like a betrayal, and in example of shouldering too much himself again, he will blame himself more often than not even if it wasn't his fault.

Which brings us to Harry's anger management issues. An angry, vengeful Harry Dresden is not to be trifled with by any stretch of the imagination. If he wants to turn someone into a fine red paste, if he has to strike something down... One way or another, be it through brute strength, skill, luck, or sheer ingenuity and a combination of all the above, Harry will find a way to take them down or die trying. Incite Dresden's wrath, and you basically sign your own death certificate. Or his, but so far he's managed to keep that score relatively in his favor. Mostly.

Still. He's just a guy. Just one who can light a building on fire without even trying. (He doesn't try normally, that just seems to happen sometimes.)


ABILITIES: At a base level, Harry is generally a very fit, decently strong guy. He's pretty scrappy in a fight, skilled at just what to do when someone or something is trying to kill him. He exercises regularly. He's an excellent runner, because he's spent an awful lot of time learning how to run away from things in general.

Those things he runs from brings us to the bulk of this, however:

Harry Dresden is a wizard.

He is a vast and mighty store of magical power the likes of which are incredible even by his own world's standards. Though magic is hardly an infinite resource, and indeed he can expend only so much of it and in only so much strength before he becomes fatigued, he has a lot to spare. He's also very young by wizarding standards, which means he's only going to get stronger and stronger - and has, as his series has gone on. His magic is focused largely through his willpower, and the ability to summon it up. As well, he often uses foreign words as sort of "anchoring points" to focus in on his spells. They're not wholly necessary, and by and large exist mostly as a means of making sure he's concentrating on one thing and just that thing.

What does all of this great and mighty magical power mean, though? Well... lots of things, actually.

Harry's primary employment of his skills are in utilizing his magic towards combat. Mainly, he is in tune (sort of) with the elements around him. He can summon flame and wind to do his bidding. He can create pushes of invisible, kinetic force. He has even been shown to show minor effects to the Earth's gravitational and magnetic properties, such as... swiping someone's keys. He's even learned to control ice, but... that won't quite reflect on his canon point here very much.

The problem inherent in his combat magic is that Harry isn't really one to know much finesse. He has all the subtlety of a battering ram. Although he's gotten better where he's coming from - he can, if he tries, use his fire magic with much more precision than he could in the past, for instance, and he's even used his force manipulation to stealthily break into a door - he's far more likely to punch you through the wall and take the wall with you than not. He can do better if he tries, and has had to do as such in mentoring a younger wizard, but in the heat of battle that isn't always an option.

Another important factor in battle is his shielding ability, which has improved a great deal since he first started out, as he can very well manage to block bullets and even tank some rather massive explosions through summoning shields of power around him. It has its limits - high caliber weapons like machine guns can still put him at his knees and in a difficult position, and it only does so well against certain elements. He once nearly lost his hand, shielding from an endless stream of fire.

After that, there comes a whole grab bag of magical tricks: Tracking spells, the ability to call forth magical creatures both small and powerful when he knows what to call for and how, minor parlor tricks such as lighting candles or summoning light into his pentacle necklace, and so forth. Things like that. He even dabbled in necromancy. Once. But that's okay, because it was a Tyrannosaurus Rex and let's face it, that's pretty badass.

However, Harry's lack of finesse is not something he's overlooked over the years. On the contrary, he's spent a good deal of time crafting tools to account for his shortcomings. He carries a wooden staff, runes carved into it, in order to focus his magic. He also typically will have a "blasting rod" specifically for the act of casting fire spells - something he can do on his own, but it's much less focused then. Fire is not something one wants going all over the place, so the blasting rod allows him to focus the area of effect. His pentacle necklace, from his mother, is his constant companion and has been used as both a symbol of faith to stave off vampires, and a means for focusing other spells. His leather coat is enchanted with defensive spells making it basically armor, capable of stopping bullets and knife attacks, but not so great against blunt instruments. He wears rings that gather kinetic energy every time he moves his fingers, storing power for days to months at a time allowing him to unleash massive blasts of force in emergency situations. His Shield Bracelet magnifies his defensive shielding spells, and lastly he owns a sword-in-a-cane imbued with earth magic.

Without these, his magic is still usable - but it takes a lot more focus, and can actually be even more dangerous without these things as controlling and focusing mechanisms.

A unique element of a wizard is their Sight. Through their Sight, they can see anything and everything the way it actually is - no matter how horrible, or how wonderful, no matter how hidden it may be behind magic or other powers itself. This has ranged from seeing friends as holy, glowing figures of utmost beauty and strength, to seeing creatures of the dark as the most horrifying, traumatic things you can imagine. Whatever Harry sees with his Sight stays with him forever, as if he had just seen it - it is permanently burned into his mind, and some of the things a wizard can see like this are enough to drive mortals insane. For this reason, he refrains from using it unless absolutely necessary. [His Sight will never be used without the permission of another player - Harry's own apprehension over it is enough to keep it at bay in most circumstances, though I am fully willing to utilize it towards helping others move along plots or solve problems if it seems convenient for them.]

Similarly, if Harry looks directly into someone's eyes, he initiates a Soulgaze. A Soulgaze is a shared experience, as both participants see into the deepest reaches of the other's soul, they can see what makes the other tick, or things about them they may keep hidden under the surface. Either way, both participants will typically have a very intricate understanding of one another after a Soulgaze. For this reason, Harry most often avoids looking anyone directly in the eye. Like his Sight, it can be dangerous to over use, and he'd kind of consider it an invasion of others privacy to go around using it willy nilly. Plus, he doesn't exactly want everyone seeing into HIS soul, either. (Not that he knows what they see.) [Like his Sight, this will only be used upon player permission.]

Harry's magic has a bad effect on modern technology. Basically - it breaks it, badly. There's a degree that he can control this, hold it back, but even that has middling effects at best. Computers blow up around him. He can't have a modern fridge, and even hot water heaters are in question. He can't own a TV, and he has to use older phones and a beat up old machine of justice trash heap as a vehicle. While modern technology malfunctions around him, he can thus also focus his magic with a hex to make it straight up break apart if he wants. It's a useful skill when being chased by someone on a modern jet ski, for instance. [As per the mods, this will be reduced in effect slightly by the nature of the technology in Eros - it all comes across as very "old" to his modern perspective, and that has an effect on him actually being able to use it. Sometimes, it will still short out - but it will allow him to do things like access the Network. Most of the time.]

Lastly, at his current canon point, Harry has been gifted with a power called "Soulfire" from angels themselves. Soulfire is in effect the opposite of Hellfire - literal fire and brimstone - and can greatly increase Harry's magical capacity. However, it takes chunks of his soul in doing so. This is something which supposedly regenerates, but too much use will kill him outright, since if there's no soul there's... no person. As such, it's only something he uses when backed into a corner.

SINS & VIRTUES: Harry is a rough tie between several key sins, honestly - Pride/Humility, Wrath/Patience, Lust/Chastity, (he has been tempted often on lust, but beyond actual relationships is able to keeps it at bay an awful lot) Envy/Kindness, and Sloth/Diligence are notable. He doesn't show Greed much if ever, but has a lot of Generosity. Between the lack there and not ever showing much Gluttony/Temperance, he comes just short of falling under Eva's faction. Lucky him.

SAMPLES
Thread with Miriel @ MS TDM [This particular thread assumes his canon point is further along than what I ultimately decided on. There are a few references to his abilities and mindset after he adopts the mantle of the Winter Knight, but as of yet I'm not drawing that into the game, hence its absence elsewhere in the application - if another sample is required, something can be drummed up.]

Thread with Ran @ MS TDM