thisavrou app

[pillz]

(cw narcotics, kidnapping, death, suicide, unsolicited genitalia photos, etc.)

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Chinatown
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact: pyg
Current Characters: None
Tag: joseph kavinsky

IN CHARACTER
Name: Joseph Kavinsky
Canon: The Raven Cycle
Canon Point: End of The Dream Thieves, Kavinsky's last appearance in the book during his highly public suicide
Age: 17

History: Wikia entry. It's extremely important to observe that Kavinsky does not have his own point-of-view chapters in the books. Note that the article does not cover a couple of events considered by some elements of fandom to be extremely crucial, some of which I delineate below:

• Rumors suggest that Kavinsky is responsible for the death of other children via overdose/manslaughter, as these people had participated in his parties and used drugs he gave them. For our purposes, I'd like to say these rumors are true. Furthermore, I would like to say that he was responsible for the death of his friend Prokopenko, who had also overdosed on drugs and was then replaced by a simple but functional dream being.
  
• He is also thought to have killed his own father. He even boasts about having done so and even implies that he conjured a replacement, but this seems like an exceptionally difficult task (sentient beings tend to come out simplified) and in Maggie's discussions of his claims note that he may have been lying about everything. For the purposes of Sav, I'd like to say Kavinsky did murder his father, and escaped law enforcement and other investigation. There was no dream replacement.
  
• When asked if he had tried to kill his father, Kavinsky answers that his father had tried to kill him. There is a peculiar "lascivious" tone to his answer, and he also seems defensive. However, in absence of other information, we assume Mr. Kavinsky attempted first-degree murder on his own child, who killed him instead.
  
• Rumors also suggest Mr. Kavinsky was a member of the mafia. We must assume this is true too, and Kavinsky grew up in a criminal household.
  
• When Kavinsky answers Gansey's texts from Ronan's cellphone, he includes a picture of a penis. Maggie Stiefvater has clarified that the penis is Kavinsky's own genitalia, and not Ronan's.
  
• When he abducts Matthew Lynch, Maggie has stated that he uses drugs to sedate him rather than a more straightforward form of violence.
  
• In their final confrontation, Ronan enters a dream space shared with Kavinsky and looks at a monster Kavinsky created. According to Ronan, the monster hates everyone and everything, including Kavinsky himself. Based on the writing, it's impossible to tell if this is Ronan's own biases speaking or if Kavinsky in some way hates himself, and how this intersects with his suicide.

Personality: As Kavinsky has no POV chapters, it's hard to say definitively exactly what drives his outrageous outward behavior. He is a rude, intelligent, abusive, impulsive adrenaline junkie and kidnapper who is not frightened by monsters and clearly thinks himself entitled to the attention and companionship of others. He makes horrible statements dismissing the importance of consent, and when Ronan does not give in to his pursuit, he kills himself. It's possible that he's depressed or an "angry borderline."

However, for our purposes, he is none of those things. Instead, he is a "psychopath" in the classic sense, incapable of empathy and almost if not entirely without conscience. He does not experience the full range and intensity of human emotion of sadness, joy, anger, or even fear, hence the way he's frequently described as having a blank expression or switching abruptly and superficially between laughing, screaming, and boredom. Toward their final conflict, Ronan expects Kavinsky to erupt and punch something, but he just pokes him in the head with a finger and makes poetic threats. He does not have the urge to forge intimate attachments or find essential values, which is why it's so easy for him to hurt other people one moment and then help them the next. This was most evident in his fractious relationship with Ronan. In the end, Ronan tells him there's more in life than sex, drugs, and fast cars, and Kavinsky denies it-- we may take this to mean he simply doesn't understand.

Instead, he struggles day-to-day against a form of pervasive boredom. Ronan observes him in such a bored mood at least once, when Kavinsky looks almost sleepy just before a race. That's what the drugs, the racing, the underage sex, the home-invasions, and the constant screaming fights with every other person are for.

And like the classic monster, he has a narcissistic streak that is also a crucial weakness. He clearly felt himself entitled to Ronan's attention, what with the constant pursuit. When Ronan left him and stopped answering his texts, he experienced a narcissistic injury that disrupted his over-inflated sense of self-importance. This sent him into a rage and then he followed through to the ultimate thrill-seek of all: creating an incredible monster to take his own life.

That isn't to say that he's outright murdery or totally incapable of connecting to people. Like many high-functioning psychopaths raised by criminals or abusers, Kavinsky learned that there are gratification and opportunities to be gained from the adulation and dependency of others. Throughout the first two Raven Cycle books, he trucks around with a group of similarly horrible boys who seem to like him. Many people find him charismatic and entertaining enough to go to his parties. As shown when Kavinsky saves Ronan's life, he is entirely capable of doing 'good' things, even if they're for the wrong reasons. He'll never truly feel guilty, but he can cooperate with society to the extent that it's useful.

For now, what's useful to him is food, drugs, shelter, and the spirit of new adventures. New codes, different obsessions, and revisiting old wounds are all possible for him.

Contracts: Kavinsky has decided he probably wants to live if he gets sent home, but either way, he's definitely resolved that the planet they lifted him off was too boring. He doesn't really believe the captains, as he is a cynic and pessimist. Instead, he believes in what he can see, a boatload of people venturing through space, which is kind of interesting. He'll take "kind of interesting" over the boredom of sitting any day. Kavinsky has the obscure, eventual plan that when he finds a planet of his liking, he'll step off there and make a move to rule the actual world, the seventeen-year-old king of a weird alien planet.

Abilities/Skills:

• Dream Thief: Kavinsky shares his most notable ability with Ronan, although he seems to be less intuitive or emotionally connected with it. He has the power to pull anything out of his dreams and into the material world. These 'things' do not necessarily have to be physically possible-- cars that don't have motors, pens that always write in cursive, immaculate forgeries of a diploma, dangerous, tranquilizing dreaming drugs, even other human beings, all such objects are possible.
  
  Typically, larger and more sophisticated objects are difficult to extract and have a higher chance of coming out wrong, requiring retries. People, in particular, seem to come out odd-- perhaps simpler in their personalities than they might otherwise be. Furthermore, if too many objects are pulled out in a short amount of time, the ambient ("leyline" in the novel) energy required becomes drained and Kavinsky has to wait approximately a day for recharge. Notably, he has very little difficulty with pulling objects out of his dreams accurately, and that seems to be related with his ability to keep his mind clear of distracting worries and thoughts and complexes of intuition. We can extrapolate and say that's because he's a psychopath!
  
• Driving/hand-eye coordination: In canon, Kavinsky is a decent drag-racer, even though he lacks the finesse and tender care required to make truly attuned to quirkier vehicles. In canon, we see him manipulate his vehicle along a stylish sideways slide. Overall, he has pretty good instincts and hand-eye coordination, even if he is problematically careless sometimes. It helps that he doesn't really get nerves the way most people do.
  
• Firearms: Kavinsky is a pretty good shot and knows how to clean, conceal, and maintain a firearm. He is most comfortable with pistols, which is what he's seen using to kill a furious, aggressive monster in The Dream Thieves as it's trying to intimidate him.
  
• Charisma: It's very hard to tell why people like Kavinsky, but it appears that the people who do tend to be misogynistic, crude, fratboy types themselves, including Prokopenko. Suffice to say, people of certain leanings find him entertaining and fun to be around, even to talk to. If you think sexism, racism, and homophobia are funny, or someone so vulgar as to be laughably ridiculous, he might provide a good companion. He does seem to know how to pander to a (terrible) crowd.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths:
• Kavinsky's main strength is that he's creative and reasonably intelligent. He doesn't really bother with ideas that will save the world, but he's decent at lateral thinking and works well under pressure. His achievements are proportional to his motivation to do anything, which is unfortunately generally pretty slim.
  
• He is also cool under pressure! He kills monsters without blinking an eye, maintains calm even when being actively punched, shaken, or screamed at, and is apparently gifted at kidnapping 15-year-old boys. Despite being about as cautious as most common criminals would be (radar-deflective paint on his car for example), he experiences little anxiety about consequences.
  Weaknesses:
• Addictions-- Kavinsky is addicted to cocaine and seemingly also to alcohol. He's at moderate risk of overdose with regard to the stimulants, and will experience the lethargy and rage that comes with withdrawal if he cuts back or stops using it entirely. He occasionally suffers from blackouts if drinking enough, though his tolerance is very high. One may also surmise that he is to some extent also addicted to adrenaline and endorphins generally.
  
• Even setting aside his addictions, Kavinsky has very poor impulse control. Had he been a little less easily carried away, a little less intense, he would have survived his book and lived to tell a different tale. Probably still not a happy one, but what can you do! Maybe he could have found himself a mentor like Dexter from Dexter and higher purpose and code.
  
• Lack of empathy is one of Kavinsky's biggest weaknesses. The text shows him to be remarkably intuitive in some ways-- he divines much about Ronan that other characters don't seem to know, including his sexual orientation. However, he also tends to miss the boat dramatically on subtler, more nuanced matters of the heart, such as the fact that Ronan is in fact in love with Adam Parrish and not Richard Gansey III.

Items:

• 2 changes of clothes (jeans, wifebeater, neck chain, earring stud, big ol' white sunglasses, shoes, socks)
  
• Semi-automatic pistol, no inscription
  
• 2 boxes of ammunition
  
• 3 huge bags of Twizzlers

SAMPLES
Network Sample:

[the problem with having a dream thief on-board, apart from the prospective out-of-control powers and all the mayhem that may ensue, is that sometimes that dream thief happens to be an asshole.]

dear mariah & citizens

i dunno which one of you snl nerds/fucks/gallant space adventrurers ran into a land shark like ever but mayb next time don't have loud fucking conversations about it near sleepign quarters when some of us r trying 2 have our noon nap. i know u old motherfuckers have > responsibilities or like > sleep at night or some shit. thats cool. not knockin ur technique. other people like peein sitting down, i dont give a fuck. you do u

im just saying: shut the fuck up :(

ps. we got a landshark on board. 12 ft long and i think it can go up walls.
later

Prose/Action Sample:

[kavinsky isn't the most introspective boy you'll ever meet, but now and then he's capable of observing himself as something other than god's contagious gift to mankind. now and then, he'll actually see the subtleties and changes and appreciate them for what they are.

today, they're under attack. they're probably going to die, and kavinsky can't remember wanting to live so badly before.]

Suck it, ass bandit.

[he drops under the swinging laser-sword, slips in somebody else's blood and winds up sprawled on the floor. but he rolls on the curve of his own spine, kicks as fast as he can. rams his foot into the pirate's knee, reversing the angle of the joint with a wet crunch of impact. he doesn't stop, twisting to get his feet under himself, springing up into a scurry. he ignores the pair of duelists off to the side, racing again for his room. his pistols.

in the days before, he'd been wondering why he put up with this shit. shitty laws and bad company and weird food and lynch's stupid face hanging every corner he walked around, alternating between excruciating boredom and cocaine and the kind of novelty he had never appreciated before. he'd toyed with the idea of saying fuck it, of ending it again in style. he'd thought of ending everything.

but now he crashes into his room and rips the tape off the mattress. his closes his fingers around the grip of his pistol, and for the first time he can remember, gratitude floods his veins, a feeling akin to relief. he hears the sound of running feet outside, and smiles.]