app for the village

[conning]

PLAYER INFO

Name: Jae
Age: 33
Contact: PM

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Neal Caffrey (+ like ten billion aliases)
Canon: White Collar
Canon Point: Mid-season 3
Appearance: Portrayed by Matt Bomer. 5'10", very blue eyes, very handsome face, very chic suits (when he's not stuck in the middle of the woods in a weird haunted town anyway).
Age: 34

Character snapshot: Neal is a con man, thief, forger, and good-hearted person who doesn't think much about the consequences of his actions. He takes on illegal activity less because of the payout than because of the challenge. It takes a lot for him to trust someone--and even when he does finally let them in, he still keeps 90% of his associates at arm's length. In one early episode he says that there's only one person in his life that he trusts, and it's the FBI agent who caught him. A romantic and a dreamer, Neal loves art, history, philosophy, and pretty much anything that stretches the mind and encourages out-of-the-box thinking. In spite of being a dead shot and capable of using both hand guns and rifles with proficiency, he hates violence, often calling it "uncreative." He's settled into a life of helping the FBI stop thieves, and he's good at it.

World description: Our world, circa 2012. While Neal has been all over the world, his heart lies in New York City, and he always comes back to it. He inhabits a world of expensive clothes, expensive art, and expensive taste in wines, and works with the FBI's white collar division in Manhattan to bring down criminals who share his tastes. There's not much to separate it from reality, except the occasional pulp-fiction pursuit of buried Nazi plunder and bit of thievery that involved hang gliding down from a high rise after stealing a six million dollar painting. Basically, Neal's world is ours with the shenanigans turned up to eleven.

History: Neal grew up in witness protection. He was always a hustler, breaking in to his school during second grade to try and set the clocks so class would start later. By age 11 he was playing pool at a local bar in St. Louis and cleaning marks out of their money, and had already started forging city bus passes so he could move around independently. His mother told him that his father, a cop, went down in a haze of bullets saving someone's life. At age 18 he found out the apparent truth--his father was a crooked cop and killed a fellow officer. Unable to handle the revelation, Neal ran away from home and started pulling minor cons across the country, making his way to NYC and falling in love, both with the city and one of the women in it.

He got on to the FBI's radar by cracking a bearer bond that was supposedly impossible to forge, and Peter Burke spent the next three years chasing Neal around the world. When he finally caught Neal, the only crime he could prove was the bond forgery. Rather than leaving Neal in prison, Burke took him on as a confidential informant for the FBI, where Neal has helped the white collar unit close 94% of their cases. By season three, he has the opportunity to run and disappear anywhere he wants in the world, with a stolen treasure that could set him up for life. He decides to stay in New York, happy with the life he's made and not wanting to lose it.

What are your character’s mental/emotional strengths?
Empathy - Neal is incredibly capable of reading people, and he uses it to manipulate, but he also is a willing ear when someone needs to talk and does his best to be a comfort to his friends when they struggle. He's done everything from comfort robbery victims to spotting when one of the agents at the FBI was about to break and taking them aside to talk. He cares about people, and he's not afraid to show it.

Intelligence - As mentioned in his history, Neal is a world-class thief and con man. He's orchestrated robberies deemed impossible and helped catch criminals thought untouchable. He's well read, a skilled chess player, and capable of calling up an amazing variety of information relevant to his interests off the top of his head. According to his FBI file, he speaks eight languages that the bureau knows about, including Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, and conversational Swahili.

Drive - Once Neal sets his mind to something, he's willing to pull out all the stops to make it happen. He's tenacious, pursuing criminals even in his off hours if they've caught his attention or interest. The first season focuses on the theft of a music box that Neal has been pursuing for upwards of seven years. It also follows Neal's search for the woman he's in love with, which takes him behind the FBI's back tracking clues left behind by her and her kidnapper. He almost loses everything in the pursuit, but he doesn't give it up until he's gotten what he wants.

What are your character’s mental/emotional weaknesses?
Pride - Neal is occasionally prone to overestimating himself, biting off more than chew and then denying that he needs help. It's gotten him into trouble both on the street and with the FBI, leading at various times to a nearly-botched sting, his own kidnapping, and the death of the woman he pursued throughout the first season. He's gotten better about it, but he knows he's often the smartest one in the room, and he flaunts that knowledge when it suits him.

Distrust - He doesn't let people in. Even when he should. Even when he cares about them, and the consequences of not telling the whole story mean burned bridges. He nearly got himself sent back to prison on more than one occasion, and has tanked every significant romantic relationship he's had by keeping the truth back from the people he cares about.

Impulsiveness/Shortsightedness - He doesn't want to hurt people, but he often draws them into the line of fire due to his own recklessness. If he sees a solution to something, he goes after it his own way regardless of whether or not there might be a safer one. He has no qualms about bending the law to his own purposes when it means bringing down a bigger criminal, even though he's nearly gotten caught at it more than once. Nearly caught isn't actually caught, and a crime is only a crime if they can prosecute, as far as he's concerned. He doesn't think about the reputations he can and has ruined thanks to his actions, both as a criminal and a confidential informant.


What events or circumstances in your character’s past have impacted them the most?
Growing up in WITSEC with an absent mother - Neal learned early on that he needed to be self reliant. His mother shut down after they were put in witness protection, leaving Neal to largely raise himself. He loved her, but considers his father's former detective partner more family than his mother. His mother's neglect also drove him to commit the minor crimes and swindles that helped him live the life he wanted outside of her influence.

Working for Vincent Adler - Adler was Neal's mentor early on in his time in NYC. Showing him the finer things in life, shaping Neal into a protege that would do almost anything for him. When Neal tried to con Adler, Adler turned the con back on Neal and disappeared with over a billion dollars. Adler later returned, and was responsible for the death of Neal's lover Kate and the near-death of Neal's best friend.

Kate Mereau's death - Kate was Neal's obsession for a long time. In many ways, he considered her his muse, and some of the heists he pulled off were meant to impress her or get her attention to send messages. After his release into FBI custody, Neal went back to looking for her, and was nearly able to start a new life at her side in spite of the fact that Kate admitted to Peter Burke that she never really loved Neal the way he loved her. She was killed in an explosion that nearly killed Neal too, leaving him with PTSD and a desperation to bring her killers to justice.

Neal's arrest - After a three years pursuit, Agent Peter Burke collared Neal and set him up for a four-year prison sentence. When Neal broke out of the supermax where he was being held, Burke offered him an opportunity--come work for the FBI in closing high-profile white collar crimes or spend another four years behind bars. Neal took the deal, which led him to the life he has now. One he loves and is unwilling to leave behind.

What impressions do others tend to have of your character and how do those impressions differ from who your character truly is?
Neal is suave, handsome, charming, and he knows it. He can be anything to anyone, and adapts to situations with alarming speed, constructing the most useful persona for the moment without hesitation. He smiles when he's upset, lies as fluidly as he tells the truth, and comes across as an open book - a fiction which very quickly falls apart if you try to ask him about his life. He says it's to keep up an air of mystery, but it has a lot more to do with running from past hurts and not being able to deal with some of the things he's been through. His biggest lie is honesty, and he's capable of drawing people in with just enough of the truth to get what he wants and leave them with nothing. He seems like someone you can trust, and trusting him is a very, very big risk.

What motivates your character?
Curiosity, passion, and justice. He wants to know everything, and knows perfectly well that there's more than he'll ever learn, but he applies himself to become as expert as he can in as many areas as he can. He loves to know things, and he's driven to explore the world as broadly as he can for the pure love of learning. Even if that learning is how to break into the most secure safes in the world, or how to forge an "impossible" pink diamond. He cracks his first case with the FBI by learning all he can about warrants and arrests, manipulating that knowledge to lead the FBI to their criminal.

He's a passionate romantic, with a true love of art and the sublime. He loves what humanity is capable of, and considers himself only a minor part of the world as a whole. He has no illusions about whether or not he'll be remembered in a hundred years, but he intends to live to the fullest in the time he has. His passion both helps and hurts him very frequently. Sometimes it drives him to excellence, and sometimes it makes him incredibly shortsighted. He's learning though. Slowly.

He also has a strong sense of write and wrong, ironic as that sounds. Violence is never an option to him. He's the first to duck away from physical conflict, in spite of his ability as a boxer and his proficiency with guns. His sense of right and wrong primarily circles around the people closest to him, the innocent victims of crimes, and the people his people care about. One of the things he's learned from Peter during their time working together is that justice and vengeance are not the same thing, and it's that lesson--and Neal's belief in its truth--that keeps him from killing one of the men involved in Kate's death.

How does your character handle crisis or adversity?
Depends on the type of crisis/adversity. When it comes to things he's not emotionally involved in, he's shrewd, calculating, and precise. When he's emotionally involved, he reckless, easily angered, and driven to great lengths to get what he wants and damn the consequences. He's incredibly good at adapting to his circumstances, whether it's escaping a gunman during a sting gone wrong or stealing high-tech surveillance equipment with nothing but a floor layout and an unexpected twenty seconds to do it. He's an adrenaline junky, which informs a lot of his choices, but he's not a fighter. He's far more likely to run from violence than engage with it unless someone else is at risk.

Skills, abilities, and physical weaknesses:
World class thief, forger, and con man. He's able to look at a forged painting and not only tell that it's a fake, but also the kind of light it was painted in and how long it took to do based on the shading that changed with the movement of the sun. Basically, he's Sherlock Holmes if Sherlock Holmes was obsessed with art and history.

Inventory:
Tailored suit, fedora, silk tie, tie pin, pro lock pick set, and nonfunctional ankle monitor.

HORROR INFO

What aspects of your character are you most interested in exploring in a horror setting?
His trust issues, for one. I want to force his reliance on others through things he has no idea how to deal with on his own, and I want to put him through trauma that will wear on his psyche, specifically things that will trigger his PTSD or force him to confront his family history. Basically, I love psychological horror, but I also would absolutely love to have him face monsters, ghosts, etc, and be helpless to protect himself or fight them. Get his princess ass saved.

What is your character’s mental state upon entering the game? Thoroughness is appreciated here.
Probably the most well-adjusted he is through the entirety of the series. He's just helped put away his most dangerous rival, freed himself of a secret that ended one relationship and nearly landed him back in prison, and is starting to move on from the death of his lover Kate, his former mentor Vincent Adler, and his life as a criminal in general. He's put down roots, has a girlfriend he's incredibly serious about, is doing exemplary work at the FBI, and has just been informed that his prison sentence--and thus his custody by the FBI--might be commuted thanks to his work in returning priceless art stolen by the Nazis in WWII. During his interview with the commutation committee, he tells them that he doesn't actually care whether or not they remove the tracking anklet he's been wearing as a ward of the US government. He's happy where he is, and he doesn't plan on leaving.

What unsettles and frightens your character? What sort of encounters would chip away at your character’s psychological stability?
Memories of his past, or manipulation of those memories. He values his mind and if he thought it was being messed with, it would get to him, badly. The thought that he's being used by the people around him. The violent death of people in front of him, or his inability to save them. Physical conflicts in which he would be pretty much useless, except to hide behind others more capable of fighting. Being taunted by secrets that he can't quite crack, and patterns he can't quite pin down.

What horrifying events or genre elements would you like to see utilized in the game?
I'm a fan of mental fuckery, as well as body horror/torture (to a degree), and monsters. ...Also I like killing my characters, because I'm a bad person.

SAMPLES

Test Drive: HERE
Log Sample: HERE
Log Sample: HERE