James Cornoa
From Changeling Venue
| Seeming | Wizened Chirurgeon |
|---|---|
| Court | Autumn Court •••• |
| Freehold | formerly House of Cards, Orlando, FL (self-orphaned) |
| Player | David Agster |
Contents |
Overview
Alias(es): James Cornoa, Snout, The Doctor, Doctor Snout, The Apprentice
Real Name: Jamieson Krandall, the Pigface Killer
Date of Birth: August 7, 1976 Queens, New York
Abducted: October 31, 2003 Orlando, Florida
Keeper: Master Cornoa
Returned: January 20, 2004 Orlando, Florida
Apparent Age: 63
Seeming: Wizened
Kith: Chirurgeon
Court: Autumn Court
Virtue: Justice "I do this unpleasant thing for the error of their ways must be taught to them. If not me, no one will. I know it."
Vice: Envy (almost Pride) "Their heights are their downfall. I'll teach them their lesson... and stand upon the mountain of their fractured minds."
Concept: A creepy, sociopathic ex-doctor turned serial "killer" who crafts ingenious torture devices.
Relevant Mechanics:
- New Identity 2
- Mantle (Autumn) 3
- Court Goodwill (Winter) 3
- Clarity 4
Character Livejournal: Diagnosis: Lost (coming soon)
Character Information
Physical Description
Mask
James Cornoa stands before you a tall and uncommonly thin 6'2" high and 137 pounds. His pale complexion sets off his dazzling ice blue eyes and shock of brilliant silvery-grey hair quite well, although his disconcerting personality greatly overwhelms any kind of physical attractiveness. He is never seen without some sort of mask on. Even when he must venture out into public, he will wear a surgical mask and opaque goggles at the very least, rattling off several impressive sounding disorders as his excuse. He also normally wears latex gloves and his trademark hooded labcoat, and carries a doctor's kit of surgical tools and mundane household items.
Mein
The revelation of his mein is shocking indeed, as his body withers further down to a scant 97 pounds of skin and bones. His taut, thin, sinewy muscles are stretched under his skin onto the frame of his bones like thin rubber bands on a twig. Careful observation will reveal that his wrists have been charred to a permanent ashen grey color, and his pupils have turned into small black X's. No one alive has seen exactly what his face looks like, but it is quite understood that it is hideous. Hence the masks.
Mantle
A cool, dark wind follows him wherever he goes, swelling and ebbing sporadically, bringing with him the fresh scent of a cool autumn night charged with that unmistakable magical anticipation of the harvest- of the thinning of the veil between this world and the next. Any dead leaves in his path are picked up by the wind and dance their chaotic sword dance around him until they drop from exhaustion and shrivel into ash.
History
Pre-Arcadia
Born Jamieson Harvey Krandall on August 7, 1976 in Queens, New York. He was isolated and diagnosed early on with Dissocial Personality Disorder - what most people mundanely refer to as Sociopathy; however, his quick wit and gifted intelligence made it easy to forget. He graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in the Spring of 1994 and was immediately accepted into the pre-med program at UCF. In Fall 2002, much to the astonishment of his classmates, he finished medical school early at the relatively young age of 26, and was lauded by his professors as a quick learner who made no room for unnecessary trifles. By late 2003, he was already considered a local wunderkind as a surgeon for his steady hand and dispassionate ability to handle difficult cases.
At this time, however, he took on the case of a notorious local serial killer who had finally been brought in because he was stabbed by one of his victims during a failed kidnapping attempt. Even though Dr. Krandall patched up the trauma perfectly, he took a curiosity to the ensuing case, and watched as the killer was set free by a hung-jury. Enraged by the blatant fraud of the criminal justice system, and appalled that the killer was set free, he tracked the killer down and tortured him for weeks on end, eventually leaving him to bleed to death with the exact same injury he had originally had.
He quit working as a doctor and became in his own eyes a vigilante. His vigilantism quickly changed to a much more twisted purpose, though. Dubbed "The Pigface Killer" by the local news, his resourcefulness and skill with his hands helped him evade the police for nearly a year as he tortured those he considered too full of their own hubris to maintain a close enough relationship to their own fragile mortality, in fact, the police never captured him.
His downfall was on Halloween night 2003, when he abducted the wrong person...
Arcadia
(The following is an early excerpt from Snout's logbook)
~ I. Halloween ~
The screen flickered on to display the picture I used at the time to introduce myself to my subjects. The severed head of a pig with an apple in its mouth. It didn't really matter anyway, so few had survived the trial to recall their accounts to the authorities. At that time I really thought there was no hope for my human constituents, and I still don't.
The subject was an elderly looking gentleman who was dressed in an extravagantly detailed custom tailored suit, all muted greys and tasteful ruffles. I normally would have passed this off as nothing more than another Halloween costume for the nights festivities, but I had seen him on several other occasions in like attire. He was a healthy sort of elderly as well, perfectly manicured and trimmed. Fresh spotless ivory skin, with the slightest dignified touch of age and unclouded grey eyes betrayed him for his decadence. This was a man who was too worried with taking care of his own body, rather than using his resources for more noble purposes.
I had the subject placed in a particularly masterful device, composed of part rack, part water wheel. a downspout from outside was channeled to the water wheel, and as the wheel turned, the subject's limbs were slowly stretched, dislocated, and ultimately separated from the body. The particularly masterful part was that all the working parts were either wood or stone. No metal was used in it at all.
I went through my usual introduction and opened the floodgate. This was a particularly rainy night and the wheel was turning quite quickly. I almost regretted that it was so fast, this was not going to be as good a lesson. That's was when I noticed something was out of place. The subject did not scream like the others had. He merely continued to stare placidly at the monitor.
I came out and surveyed the apparatus, and found that the wheel was turning and the connections were fine, but the cords was not stretching his limbs, which I found perplexing and unsettling. However, before I could really analyze this information, his ankles and wrists appeared to melt from out of the restraints and he stood up before me. He then said, "At last. You're the one I've been looking for." and touched my forehead. I momentarily lost consciousness.
~ II. Choices ~
When I came to, I was lying down spread eagle. My pig-faced mask and my robe were still on. I had been restrained in my own machine, but the location was different. It was a small, round room of pure white which had an unfamiliar yet unmistakable smell of sterility. In all, everything seemed slightly off. Visual, auditory, and olfactory faculties seemed muted, but shifting ever so slightly. Standing over me was the subject, but his physical features had altered in the most improbable ways. He was thinner, and showed many more lines of age, but still seemed to exude the air of health and physical prowess. His eyes had changed as well, such that each eye was pure white except for a small black X for a pupil.
He snapped his fingers and two small imps came into the room. "Give him a little," he said, to which they went to the wheel and pulled on it until my arms were stretched taught and my body came up from the slab. The pain was wonderful reverie, precisely as I had imagined it felt for all of my subjects. The imps held it fast at this light tension as I regained my grip on my senses and looked to him.
"Two choices." he said in his strong, demanding voice. "I'll explain simply so you'd better answer quickly in response. You are now my slave. There is no escape because you aren't even in your pathetic little ant-hill of a world anymore. Either you work endlessly and unquestioningly for me, or..." and at this he pointed to his two imp cohorts standing on each side of the wheel, greed and bloodlust painted on their faces, "they get to have their fun with you." The choice was easy enough.
The tension was slackened and I was freed from the restraints by the two little imps. The subject came over to me and said, "even as things stand, there is a lesson you must be taught and penance you must give." he touched my mask and I felt it melt and fuse to my face. "You will wear this for a year and a day, reflecting on your own hubris and laying yourself low to me. In the meantime, get to work." The imps grabbed me by my arms and moved me down white corridors and a set of stairs down into another small round white room which contained a bed, a desk with a set of schematics and a pile of raw materials and shut me inside, locking the door behind me. It was here I stayed for the remainder of my time in Arcadia.
~ III. Penance ~
The first schematic was ingenious. A simple, yet maliciously effective way to torture. The proportions were strange, but I didn't question and made it within three days. I went to sleep that night after finishing it, and woke up in the middle of the night from the screams wafting down from upper rooms. The apparatus had disappeared from my room and a new schematic and more raw parts awaited me. I ignored them for now and went to the door to try it. It was, indeed, sealed shut, but the screams of agony were much clearer, and they were a magnificent haunting music; fearful and otherworldly. Days and nights passed, lights turned on and off on a timed schedule, and for that year I lived in such a... peaceful manner.
The night before my penance was done was another of these nights. I had just finished yet another more elaborate device, and the screams began once again. This time it was in disgusting gurgles and hisses. I went to my usual place by the door to listen and noticed a small crack of light bleeding through the edge of it. I tested the door and it gave to my push, opening noiselessly into the corridor beyond. I followed the screams up the stairs, past hallways filled with clean, white rooms until I came to the one from which the screams came.
The room was empty except for the creature, strapped into the same water wheel I had used so long ago. The creature was a vaguely humanoid figure with the head and tail of a lizard. It had hideous three-clawed hands and was covered all over with green and reddish-brown scales. It looked at me with its reptilian eyes filled with shock and hate and gurgled in a blood-filled hiss at me, saying, "You! You are the one who has brought this curse upon the Gentry! I care not now whether I live or die, as long as you are fated to a painful death as well. A curse upon you and all your house!"
I couldn't stop myself from smiling. As hideous as the monster looked, it didn't come near to how pathetic it looked, strapped into my beautiful machine. I stepped over to the wheel and put a little weight on it, causing the creature to erupt once again into a new set of howls and screams, tears somehow streaming down it's scaled cheek. That's when my Keeper walked in, once again escorted by the imps, who were now each holding a giant scimitar twice their size. The look on his face matched mine, if you could imagine what mine would have been without the mask on. "You have passed my final test, whelp. Your penance is done." and the mask fell off me with a sick wet thud.
~ IV. Apprentice ~
The creature looked upon me with a peculiar look of horror, as if he had seen a monster or possibly had come to some horrific realization, whatever it was quickly gave way to a renewed fury from the pain, hissing and cursing at me, my Master, and anything else he could curse in his hideous tongue. The Master's face rippled with fury at it's insolence, and he seemed to instantly form a solid ball of water in his hands which he threw at the creature with such force that two scales split from off of his face, unearthly green blood oozing from the wound. I picked the scales up, giving one to the Master and keeping one for myself. The Master smiled a little to me and said, "This is a token of your first lesson: always know your place or you might suffer unforseen consequences." He snapped his fingers and water came gushing from seemingly nowhere onto the wheel, spinning it faster than I had dreamed it ever could. The lizard's arms tore completely out of their sockets, taking ribs, guts, and gristle with them, causing the lizard to howl a primal, vicious, rattling, gurgling howl unlike any I had ever heard. The imps readied their scimitars, and with one simultaneous slash, the howl went still as it's head rolled to a stop in front of me, hate-filled eyes still fixed on me in its final curse.
Over the next thirty-two long years I worked as an apprentice to the Master, learning the ins and outs of the vile creatures that inhabited this land. I learned their anatomy, their habits, and their nuances. I learned what made them tick, what made them bleed, and what made them scream. I saw them for the disgusting creatures of false aristocracy and unearned hubris that they are. Yet there I still remained, among the worst of them feigning a sickening sycophantism. And all the while he fed into my ear the worst lines of how we were kindred spirits and one day I would carry his agenda on for him in the real world. He was only partially right.
~ V. Two ~
The last few weeks of my stay with him did not seem too peculiar at the time, but now that I think back on it, I realize there were many signs it was close to the end. The Master began to act more erratic until one day, two days before the end he took me aside into a closed room, away from all his servants, and sat me down. "I can't say much. There is treachery afoot. Look to the number two. Continue my legacy." to which he silently handed me two small green balls of compacted powder, "for defense," and two small eggplant-shaped fruits, "for sustenance."
Two nights passed and I woke again in the early morning. Screams came from outside, but they were not the usual screams of agony, they were screams of triumph. I looked to the door and it was engulfed in black flames, unlike anything I had ever seen or been shown before. The two imps burst through the door, a look of sheer terror on their face, their wings burnt so nothing was left but smoking nubs. Their hands still red hot from shielding their faces from the flames, they grabbed me by the wrists and quickly conducted me up to the third floor, a level I had never been to.
It was the private bedchamber of my Master, another circular room of pure white. All around the walls sat each and every one of the devices I had ever made for him, and in the center of this jungle of torture lay him in his bed. His face was sallow and blotched, his eyes sunken and rheumy. I immediately knew he had been poisoned. With the last bit of strength, he held up his hand, weakly forming the number two. That's when it all dawned on me. I turned around and saw the imps there, brandishing their scimitars with that same greedy look on their face, their wings whole and not a scratch on their body.
~ VI. Snout ~
Out of gut instinct I dug into my pocket and brought out the two powder balls, which I threw at them. They flinch reacted and sliced them, causing the balls to burst into clouds of green powder. They breathed it in, which immediately changed their personality towards me. They dropped their swords, and paying no attention to me, strived to breathe in every last mote of the dust, greedily inhaling. As they were so occupied, I held my breath and ran around them and the cloud, back down the stairs.
This was my chance to escape, but I knew I couldn't just go out the front door like this. The Master was not popular in his town, this I knew, and I was certain stories of his apprentice had spread. I was nothing more than cattle to their kind anyway. I had to come up with a plan. I ran back downstairs and put on my old labcoat, ripping it and covering it with some unknown subject's blood, I held the seam of it into the fire and it singed and frayed the edges like a normal fire would. I put my old pig mask back on, pressing the features as closely to my face as I could, and drew the hood over my head. I raced back up the stairs, steeled myself and barreled at the flaming door, bursting through and tumbling, end-over-end, endlessly until I came to a stop at the foot of the crowd.
The cheering stopped. Rough hands drug me up and the gruff voice of a goblin demanded my name. "S-Snout, sir." He demanded who I was and how I got there. "I-it was terrible! I was terrified! I was kidnapped, and put on this- this rack turned by a wheel. They got nervous and ran out of the room. Then there was fire everywhere, and it burned the ropes off of me." Here I pointed to my wrists where the imps' hands had charred me. "...and I ran and I ran and... and..." and I broke down racked by sobs. The goblin looked to another smaller one and nodded, who bolted into the door. Minutes passed and the little goblin was back out. "He checks out, boss."
And the Oscar nomination goes to...
~ VI. Escape ~
I was thrown into a cage in a cave a short way away. All manner of other creatures were there, but they weren't the Gentry I was used to experimenting on, they were humans like me, but not. They had all sorts of mutations and changes to them. One had feathers growing instead of hair, one had long pointed ears, one had catlike paws and whiskers, and one was enormous and looked like the old storybook ogres. It was easily large enough and strong enough to rip the cage apart, but was badly injured and lightly sleeping.
I hissed at it to get its attention, and waved one of the juicy eggplant-shaped fruits at it when it woke up. It immediately responded by licking its lips hungrily. It ripped the bars off of its flimsy cage and ran towards mine. The goblin guards noticed and reached us about the time it ripped my cage door off, and I hurled the fruit over its shoulder and past the guards, to which it chased, trampling the guards to death in the process. I fished the keys off of one and unlocked the cages, but more guards entered the cave spears brandishing. I threw the second one past them and the ogre trampled them to get to it as well.
In the ensuing rush and confusion, I took my chance and ran. I ran to the nearest covering, a thick matted jungle of brambles and vines; running, pawing, clawing in desperation to get to the other side, thorns ripping into my face, until after what seemed like an eternity, I came out of the Hedge.
I was back.
(end of entry)
Post-Arcadia
- Returned January 20, 2004 in Orlando, Florida. Since then, he has quickly built vital new connections, accruing assets and investing carefully. All the while staying out of the mortal eye, preferring others to do mundane tasks for him. He has, however, been a fairly visible figure in the Freehold, holding the position of Ace of Clubs (Autumn Court's representative) for 2004 and 2005. He quickly learned from the others of Lost society what a fetch was, and how to establish a new identity. It won't be long before he gets his fetch - one way or another....
- In a public announcement in the guise of the Storytelling Contest at the one-year anniversary of The Wonderland Wine Bar on October 27, 2007, James Cornoa publicly severed all ties to the Freehold, House of Cards. Disgusted by the way the recently deceased Autumn Queen's remains were handled, and goaded on by the sorrow that he was going to propose to her that very night, he left.
- Snout still lives in the city working as a back-alley surgeon, but has completely cut himself off from Changeling society and refuses to answer the calls of the Court.
IC Connections
Motley: Brambles Alchemy
Owners and employees of The Wonderland Wine Bar and the Dreamwood Retreat® vineyard.
- Cage Adams - Mr. Armand introduced me to him during his reign as Winter King, and we now work together quite well. I provide health care for him, and stay out of the way when he's running.
- Jakob Jaeger - Our pathfinder, forging through the darkness of the hedge to find its gifts for us.
- Lily Carters - Our happy home maker. Our paradigms may be polar opposites, but I won't lay a finger on her. I need a place to stay, after all.
- Ryver - Every bar needs entertainment. Sometimes he's just as entertaining off the clock. Mostly from when he makes Lily cry.
- Sellena Dallon - A keen eye and good decision-making skills are what make this Hunterheart truly excel. She's one of the best in her field, in my opinion.
- Victor Smith - The stereotypical psychotic jealous boyfriend. I guess that's what makes him such a good bouncer.
Other Ties
(loosely chronological)
- Adra - Met in Arcadia. Contracted by her Keeper to provide cleanup services after Master Cornoa was finished with his test subjects.
- Valeria Thorne - Shared the same Keeper. Met later when she recognized the name he took.
- Trystan Hunter - Contacted in 2004 by Cage Adams to help supply Snout with a new identity.
- Doctor Faust - Research constituent and regular correspondent.
- Mistress Toi Breaker - A mutual student and associate to Snout. The two of them seem able to understand each other on a very different level than everyone else. Very different.
Character Inspirations
- The Jigsaw Killer of the Saw film series.
- The pig mask in the Nine Inch Nails music video for Closer.
- Doctor Anton Phibes in the movies The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again.
- The movie Abre los Ojos and its remake, Vanilla Sky.
- The the twisted features of Epialthes in the movie 300.
- and my own love of masks.
Soundtrack
- Antonio Vivaldi - Autumn (2nd Mvmt. - Adagio Molto)
- Tomaso Albinoni - Adagio in G minor
Quotes from Snout
- "Admiration is the furthest thing from understanding."
-personal maxim
- "Oh my! Your brain must have been constructed unbelievably wrong. Let's find out."
-stated to an unknown Gentry
- "No one starts on the top of the world. Not you. Not me. Not even gods. But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the heavens remains. I intend to keep it that way, belonging to no one. Especially not to your kind."
-stated to an unknown Gentry
- "I know I'm nothing pretty. I have at times been called monster, even before the Hedge scarred me. Even so, I know the value of the true beauty in my season, the Autumn evenings when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. When a simple scream can rip that veil to shreds. I see the true beauty in the sweating palms, the dilated pupils, and the palpitating hearts of the weak mortals of this world, left behind because they were too locked in their own pitiful routine to try to seek the Hedge out themselves. If only they knew what true horrors lay beyond this one... but I digress.
-letter of introduction to the Freehold shortly after returning.
Quotes about Snout - Feel free to add your own
- "Creepy, yes. Deranged, yes. Something odd even for a lost, yes. Effective, definitely. There is no one better. Don't know how many times that man has put me back together, but he works and he works well."
- "Sometimes it's better not to know, but in his case I always make an exception."
-Trystan Hunter regarding his business dealings with Cornoa.
- "That guy? The one with the pig mask? Yea I know him. No no, the mask is the prettier of the two faces. Trust me. I still have random nightmares just from the STORIES I heard about his true face. What? You want to see him without the mask? Alright, but let me go get my flute in case the rumors about the sight of it and death are true..."
-Ryver to someone asking about Cornoa
- "Um... he's creepy and... he... can we talk about something else? Please..."
- *brightly* "Dr. Snout? I like him. He's not mean to me... and he tells stories... and he doesn't yell..." *voice trails off* "Um. I forgot what I was saying. Um... would you like some wine?" *twitchy, nervous smile*
- "Keep an eye on this one Jack, we just might have a new recruit"
- "Ah, Snout...I kind of wonder why he bothers with the mask. I know, I know, blah, blah, blah, twisted, horrible appearance, yadda, yadda, yadda...I'll bet you five bucks I've woken up next to scarier things after a night of hard drinking. If people can't deal with it after all we've been through, then fuck 'em. Still, I can kind of understand...by wearing that ugly future football on his face, he knows that whatever you THINK might be under there is scarier to you than the truth."
- "I do not know if we are friends or enemies. For all the kindness in the words between us, for all the loyalty of service, our hands both stitch and heal but our hearts are so different at times that i think they might break rather than coincide."
- "Raph want porkchops when he around for some reason and not know why....and apple sauce...mmmm apple sauce"
Rumors - Feel free to add your own
- His Fetch is currently on death row in a maximum-security prison.
- His Fetch died in prison.
- His Fetch died resisting arrest.
- The Scarecrow Ministry is starting to show interest in him. He is a walking urban legend, after all.
- If you look at his face directly, you will die from the shock.
- Snout is actually of the Beast, and not the Wizened he says he is. I mean, it only makes sense. Everyone assumes he's a Beast as is.
- Snout really did have feelings for the recently deceased Queen Cassandra. It was proven at the one-year anniversary party of The Wonderland Wine Bar, when he stated that that was supposed to be the night he proposed to her, and produced an engagement ring.
- Snout has been known to let slip his true Spring mantle before! Just ask Holly or Sophie!
OOC Information
Player: David Agster
Location: FL-035-D (Dark Embrace) Orlando, Florida
E-mail: David Agster
Other Characters:
- Awakening
- Dr. Richard Long "Solon" - Mastigos Mysterium
- Dr. Richard Long "Solon" - Mastigos Mysterium
- Forsaken
- Dr. Joseph Moore "The Doc" – Ithaeur Iron Master of the Lost
- Dr. Joseph Moore "The Doc" – Ithaeur Iron Master of the Lost
- Requiem
- Jachin Crúz "Jake" – Mekhet of the Dying Light
- Jachin Crúz "Jake" – Mekhet of the Dying Light
