cast of characters: adrian zhan

Adrian Zhan

age

late 20s

type

blank

height

6'0"

weight

210 lbs

handedness

ambisinestrous

disposition

phlegmatic

signature color

blank white

screen name

The ambitious yet indifferent Adrian Zhan he/him moved to North Mural to begin an abrupt career as a journalist. His unassuming disposition and calculated life seem at odds with the showiness of his conspicuous cheek tattoos, which - much like his former military experience - he refuses to talk about. Default's sudden presence in his life rouses his connection to the half-diety, FM, as well as a world that some might know as "the Fade" - but what greater plans did it interrupt?

personality

steady, systematic, incalculable

occupation

journalist

skills

memorization, athleticism, keeping his cool

hobbies

maxing out stats in video games

weapon of choice

rifle

home

modern condominium

fav. food

protein bar

fav. drink

protein drink

music

post-rock, avant-garde

likes

90° angles, 60°F showers, most stones

dislikes

car sounds, unexpected ingredients in meals

fun fact

knows the latin names for 4,201 animals

sexuality

likes a range of body and personality types

feelings towards others

I don't get why Default is so hung up on this guy...

We've only met once or twice.

I'm helping him out for a little while. I'm not going to let him get hurt.

why does she seem so familiar?

I feel like I can trust him.

She's annoying.

sleep setup

memory-foam valefornia king mattress on a minimalist white bedframe

class background

upper-middle class

income level

enough to not worry about accidentally running out

preferred underwear

navy blue or grey boxer-briefs

physical insecurity

unsatisfying beard

fav. animal

Wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans)

animal they'd be

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

fav. movie

Stalker (1979)

fav. school subject

gym, yearbook committee

dream job

being in charge of museum inventory

phone

the interface is all in simplified Chinese, but it's pretty boring otherwise

strains encountered

As a blank, Adrian does not encounter strangers.

He's back. (Was he gone? It feels like he's been somewhere else for a long time.)

Mission Achieved – "We Did It"

With all overseas attempts at liberation now declared "totally accomplished" ...

Either way, he's here now. And, as for how he gets involved in this whole world... even though it's not like he knows the rest of them all that well, he's always been around, just at the edges. Being a blank still isn't standard, after all. And he's not, like, a bad guy or anything.

Because a blank's thoughtform is larger than what is normally thought of as the typical space of a person's, and a stranger cannot intersect a thoughtform, he cannot get close to strangers; they either destabilize, become highly intangible,^ꓯ or dissipate in his presence. Due to this influence on the area around him, Adrian has little in common with the sensitives, but is not an unknown or unfamiliar figure within the larger non-standard social scene.

ꓯ As in, even a sensitive can't see them, you know?

description: abstract image denoting the collision event.

The Collision

At the moment of the bomb's explosion, the outer dimension of the Fade draws nearer to the structure of Space Madness. The collision between the two worlds exiles the gosdragon, FM, into city of North Mural. Lacking a physical body, the demigod's nurenform tethers itself to the thoughtform of Adrian Zhan, a blank.

It's not that he's lost.

But, that time feels like it belonged to another world. Like it wasn't him.

And it's not that he doesn't know who he is, or where he came from. It's more like this is all a dream... or, like he's been waiting, but didn't know it.

photography... it's great, but it's not the "real thing".

there's something you can't ever capture.

whoa, are you working out? like that??? okay IF...

you might get better results if you do it... letter-by-letter! that's how the greeks did it, or genghis khan, impressive to you is this secret, working out muscle by muscle, from the abductor digiti minimi to the zygomaticus!!!

You're that blank guy, right?

Yeah. And you're a psychic.

He's not sure why he does it.

So, you can come back with me.

(After a long pause, a hopeful smile.)

Yeah- alright. I'd like that.

the Psychic and the Blank

During the course of their relationship, Adrian and Default experience a number of hyper-real, dreamlike events.^Ϛ These incidents hinge upon their natures as a blank and a psychic, respectively. Because a psychic has a "split" thoughtform, and a blank has a halo-shaped thoughtform, they can act almost like a "tuning rod" for certain dimensional phenomena. One half of Default's thoughtform can be on either side of Adrian's, giving them a kind of polarity that is magnetic to each other, and either magnetic, or repelling in force.

You're together.

There's something shifting. The sky is tearing, when you look up.

There really are too many to count.

When your eyes scan the edges of the swirling rim, the clouds look like saw-teeth hungry for each other; you can feel the weight of the steady scrape, the silent grind so far away, and getting closer.

This very active and reactive resonance is responsible for the phenomena that they encounter during their part of the story; 'echoes' and 'rips' that only they can see.

Though, it's not easy for him to adjust to another person.

there's a way to make it better

so, there's someone new in your apartment.

and he's got a body, a human body with its own problems.

pet bed for human, put person in other room, now today $$$ SAVE

can't decide on a movie? you want to watch the story... and your partner's always...!

so horny but!!!? long movies with minimal story, three hour music videos, russian or other foreign, no dialogue, no scandinavian subtitles, concentrate and still multitask ¿½ »

wait, we weren't finished

do you want to make your weekend perfect?

this is no distraction, it's here to help

a million years... a million years is a long time.

do you think it'll finish... in a million years? YOUR DOWNLOAD. YOUR DOWNLOAD IS TAKING A MILLION YEARS.

working out your hallucis muscles much?

working out the Adductor Hallucis? or the Flexor Hallucis Brevis? what about your... hallucination muscles? are you seeing hallucinations that are impacting your ability to connect with your loved ones, or your CORE MUSCLE GROUPS?

But, the flash of the lighthouse is the glow of the bomb from the other side. FM is pulled out of the Fade, and exiled backwards in time to the start of Space Madness, where his nurenform entangles with the thoughtform of the blank, Adrian Zhan.