notapsychopath

Name: Devin
DW username: N/A
E-Mail: devinmj2342@yahoo.com
IM: goingbacktowar (AIM)

Other Characters: N/A

Character Name: Tim

Series: Marble Hornets


Timeline: Season 3, post Entry #60
Canon Resource Link: http://www.youtube.com/marblehornets

Character Background:
Tim was an actor in Alex Kralie's student film, Marble Hornets. It wasn't an altogether unbearable job to begin with, wasn't the best money, definitely not the best script, but it was a job. And it's not like he and Alex were ever really friends to begin with, but over time there was a noticeable shift in his personality. Alex had always been a little annoying, kind of pretentious, easily flustered, but this was different. Alex became irrationally angry, he would snap at his cast for the smallest mistakes, and when he wasn't yelling at someone he would retreat into himself and seem to be completely resigned from the world for minutes at a time. Something was definitely off about him, but by the time Alex decided to quit filming, it wasn't exactly something Tim could be bothered to care about. The guy was an asshole, whatever he was dealing with wasn't Tim's problem. And when Alex left, Tim didn't really have a reason to miss him.

Still, he knew there was something strange about the way Alex had suddenly changed and then just as suddenly disappeared. And it wasn't just Alex; something else felt different too. He couldn't really pin down what it was, but it was uncomfortably reminiscent of...something. Something he'd already been through once. Something he thought of distantly, in fragments, the way he might remember a bad dream. He'd picked up this cough that he couldn't shake. Not a cold, and too sudden, too intense to be from smoking. His doctor had prescribed him some medication but it didn't stop the paranoia that crept up on him more and more often since filming started. It didn't stop the flashes of memory, the ones he wasn't even sure actually happened, of a man, tall, very tall, who watched him relentlessly, always watched him, but he was faceless and whether it was because Tim couldn't remember what he looked like or because he was actually without features, the memories began waking Tim up in a cold sweat.

But soon the nightmares changed from memories of his childhood to newer, more recent images. The same faceless figure, but now another as well, one in a mask. He saw the dreams through this other person's eyes, as if he were wearing it himself, but it didn't really worry him until he began waking up in places with no memory of how he got there. Increasingly large chunks of time went missing from his memory and it might have reached its absolute worst when Tim found himself with a broken leg and no explanation. All he knew for sure anymore was that whatever had haunted him throughout his childhood was back, somehow Alex was involved, and the only chance he had at removing himself from the situation was to stop trying to find answers.

It worked for a while. He began seeing a doctor again, more regularly this time, and found a job that paid his bills, barely supported his smoking habit. Time started to make sense again. And just when he thought he might have found the stability he was looking for, an old college acquaintance showed up. Jay. Jay with his questions, his pathetic lack of basic conversational skills, his stupid fucking camera. Jay tried to tell him he wanted to finish Alex's movie, as if that wasn't suspicious enough. Nobody with any amount of literacy would ever want to go anywhere near that script once Alex abandoned it. And it all came back. Like somebody flipped a switch, he started losing hours, days, and the dreams returned full force. He knew Jay was lying, but he didn't know the depth of it until he searched Alex's project on the Internet and found an entire YouTube channel full of videos about everything. Everything from Alex's footage to the footage he had lent Jay, right up to every conversation Tim could remember ever having with Jay.

So sure, he was angry to begin with. He refused to speak to Jay, avoided him, planned never to see him ever again, but it didn't take too long to realize that it wasn't going to be that easy. If he ever expected to leave this behind him once and for all, he was going to need to finish it himself. Where he is now, he's decided to cooperate with Jay, if only to get the closure he needs to start working towards some sort of normal life. If that's even possible anymore. Either way, he knows he has to try.

Abilities/Special Powers: The biggest thing would be the masked side of Tim's personality. It's not really completely separate from him, but he'll slip into it, do what he needs to do while remaining relatively aware of himself, and when he wakes up afterwards he can't really remember it. It's not a wholly bad side to his personality, but it's generally associated with the presence of the Operator and if one day it never showed up again, nobody would really be sorry.

Third-Person Sample:

This was the last thing he needed. Tim had spent months, maybe closer to years, trying to get his life back in order. He didn't really know why he ever thought that was possible, clearly something out there does not want him to be happy. After years of feeling this heavy, relentless darkness following him everywhere, he had just begun to feel the weight lift when Jay showed up. Tim had seen him a year or two prior to this, but he honestly wasn't even sure how Jay had found him after that. He'd deliberately tried to stay away from anything connecting him to his past, short of his doctor. But sure enough, there was Jay, waving a camera in his face just like someone else he used to know.

And he said he wants to finish Alex's movie. It's complete, utterly transparant bullshit. Jay is possibly--no, without question--the worst liar Tim has ever met. Maybe he tolerated it because he just didn't have the energy to care about Jay's actual reasons for showing up again, but there's only so much he can swallow. And Jay pushed way past his limit for that. Still...it's not the anger that's been getting to Tim. The anger is there, simmering somewhere in the back of his mind, but the predominant feeling since Jay's arrival has been fear. Fear that started small, unobtrusive, but tenacious. And it grew. It leaves Tim sleepless, exhausted, yet still with the nightmares. He supposes they never really went away, but when did they become so vivid? When did he start waking up to the smell of fresh dirt despite never leaving his bed?

So he's been trying to take time for himself, just a few minutes, maybe a couple hours every day to not worry about anything. It was the doctor's suggestion and it's surprisingly harder than it sounds, but hell if Tim doesn't need it. He leans back on the kitchen counter and lights a cigarette, inhaling deeply. When he breathes out, there's no Jay, no cameras, no nightmare figures without faces. It's just smoke. Everything is just smoke. It burns up the cigarette faster than he's ready to be done with it, so he lights another and tries to slow it down. So Jay lied, yeah. Tim tries to think about what he would have done differently, in Jay's position. A lot of things, probably. Jay wasn't exactly adhering to any sort of effective plan. But he's probably afraid too. Not like Tim is, it's not the same kind of fear, he thinks, but it's still fear. And it makes people irrational.


First-Person Sample:

[The video feed cuts on to show Tim waking up in a bed. Not his bed, a fact which he doesn't find particularly surprising anymore. It is a little different that he managed to wake up in a bed this time and not on the dirt-caked floor of some abandoned building. His head is surprisingly clear, another thing that's different. Normally when this sort of thing happens, he opens his eyes and feels like his skull is going to implode. Today it just feels like waking up from a good, long rest.

Doesn't change the fact that he has no idea where he is. Looking around the room, it's pretty plain. There's nothing of much character, nothing to give him any idea of who might live here. It's warm, clean, although doesn't feel altogether safe. Then again, nowhere really feels safe when you have no idea how you got there. It doesn't really matter, the important thing here is getting out so he can start to find his way home. If he's lucky, he's only missed one shift at work, maybe two. Tim pushes himself off of the bed and heads for the door, deciding to think up excuses to give his boss once he's gotten his bearings.

His room opens up to a long hallway lined with other doors. A hotel. Another not-surprise. The hall cameras watch Tim sigh as he fishes through his pockets for his pack of cigarettes and lighter, but finds nothing. He shakes his head and picks a direction at random, figuring there should be a set of stairs or an elevator somewhere.]