ABOUT YOU

Name: TealDeer
Are you 18 or over?: Yes
Other characters played: Ienzo

CHARACTER

Name: Dr. Albert Wily
Canon: The Protomen; a cyberpunk rock opera slash orwellian dystopia AU of Megaman.
Age: Unknown, but probably around 31
History: Albert Wily was a brilliant scientist living in The City (which is never named). At some point, he and Thomas Light began to work together on a series of advanced robots, the first of which was called the Geological Unmanned Terraforming System, or GUTS. Thomas' plan was to make the work of mining easier, so as to lower the fatality rate among miners, but Albert had other plans; namely, to replace the entire workforce with machines. Thomas expressed reservations about some of Albert's plans: what would replacing the whole workforce do to the economy? And why on earth was Albert pushing for arming these machines with guns, what purpose did that serve?

Albert pushed back, retorting that the people of this city were looking for leisure, were looking for a way out and for someone to do the work for them, that they were nothing more than weak and ignorant and that he and Tom deserved recognition for their work. For most of their adult lives they'd both been seeking for a way to serve these people, they'd been making their lives better and for what? For almost no reward. Here, at last, was a chance to take that reward, to gain the recognition they deserved.

But Thomas turned away from Albert, still uncertain. They'd worked so hard, but this... this seemed dangerous. Weapons? And what would happen to the people of this town when they had no jobs? Albert watched his best and only friend walk away with the intention of undoing all the work they'd done over the past ten years.

He would not stand for this. Could not stand for this. His goals, his plans, they would come to fruition regardless of Thomas' hesitations. And so as Thomas walked to his apartment, Albert sped past him in his car, heading to the same place. Before he left, he ordered one of his new machines—a sniper model—to follow him. He did this with some hesitation: he did not want to have to resort to violence, but it was best to keep one's options open.

Albert rifled through Thomas' notes, his heart filling with rage. How dare Tom tell him that he was wrong, how dare he take his vision away? So perhaps a few people might have died if Albert's plans had been set into motion, so what? All for the greater good. So the economy would have been ruined and everyone out of work, it wouldn't have mattered because they'd all be so well taken care of by his perfect machine that they wouldn't even know they'd been caged, and what's the difference there? So what?

He was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Emily Stanton, Light's beloved. Initially, he offered to take her away, to help her leave this dead end of a city and to live with him in peace and comfort, but she refused, saying that she believed in Tom's take on the matter, that what Albert was doing was wrong. Seeing that she, too, rejected his vision (and by extension, himself) he silently signaled his robot companion to kill her. He made his escape through the window, leaving Light to come in after and discover Emily's corpse... just as the police arrived to investigate the disturbance.

Just as planned.

There was no turning back now: he had set himself on a particular path and he had to see it through to its end. He could see it unfolding before him, every last part of what he would now have to do.

The next day, Albert stood at a press conference he'd had scheduled for months: the unveiling of an invention of his very own, something that had been, until this moment, completely overshadowed by Tom's work in robotics. A city-wide network of giant telescreens and speakers, primed to broadcast information to entire metropolitan area at all hours, free to the public.

Free to the public, and controlled entirely by his company, of course.

Much to his consternation, all the reporters would ask him about was the disappearance of Thomas and the dead woman found in Tom's apartment. Their curiosity was useful to him, but not the damn point. It didn't matter, of course.

He addressed the reporters, expressing regret over the situation, reinforcing their assumption that Light was the perpetrator (it had been Light's robot, after all; Light's creation, in Light's apartment, who else could it be?), and then promising them all that the murderer would pay for his crimes. He, Albert Wily, would ensure it. Eventually he left the clamoring reporters behind, entering his private broadcast studio, and for the first time turned on his broadcast system.

“People of the city,” he said, smiling down at them like a benevolent god (which he was. Which he would be). “A terrible crime was committed last night. Rest assured, the man behind it will be brought to justice. Your city will be safe again.”

Days later, Light was captured. Wily ensured that the trial became a media frenzy, that Light's face was plastered across every screen in the city, that he was denounced as a monster and a murderer, that the public was riled up and convinced. He continued to promise them that this man would be brought to justice, that they would be served.

Seeds to be planted.

During the trial, the judges reviewed the evidence. They could not find who had done the deed, but their forensic experts determined that Light had clearly entered the apartment after Emily had died. It seemed that one of Light's machines was indeed the perpetrator, but if that was the case it was easily attributed to a malfunction. The good doctor was innocent. This ruling, of course, played right into Wily's hands (indeed, it's even possible he took pains to ensure that this was the verdict).

The people of the city would not accept this. Could not accept this. Wily appeared again on the screens.

“People of this city, a second tragedy has occurred on this day. We know—all of us—that the man named Thomas Light is a monster and a criminal. Yet today he has gone free. Your justice system has failed you. Your government has failed you! Now is the time to take matters into your own hands!”

Light was escorted by the police out of the city, and Wily shouted from the screens, singing of injustice, singing of the failure of elected government. As Light vanished, the people turned to Wily, begging him for justice.

He would give it to them. And he would give them wonders. It did not take long before Wily was elected to office, and it did not take long before he had dismantled the government, leaving himself the sole ruler of this dominion.

And he did work wonders.

The city was transformed into something sleek and silver, something bright and shining and sterile. The homeless, criminals, those that did not conform simply vanished, and no one questioned where they had gone or how. Why would they? The men and women who once toiled in the sweat and grime of the mines found themselves now without work but with rich severance packages that they could spend on the city's new wonders, they now found themselves comfortable and taken care of. Why question providence? Wily was doing as he'd promised.

But there was an unspoken fear. After all, sometimes undesirables still surfaced. And sometimes they vanished. And sometimes it was people you knew. Perhaps your neighbor expressed a complaint, a whisper of dissidence, and then he vanished. Sometimes, people thought they saw the culprit: a creature with a single glowing red eye, with a body of steel. Most felt this was an acceptable sacrifice. Don't speak. Don't stand out. Wily takes care of us. Wily protects us. Everything is fine. The machines protect us, don't speak a word against them, speaking against them could bring back the darkness, could bring back work and toil, could undo everything that's been done. It's good that the dissident are removed. They could undo everything. It is good. Everything is fine.

This is the point in Wily's canon history when the window opens.
Point in canon: During the middle to end part of the song "How the World Fell Under Darkness," about five years before "Breaking Out."
Window Location: Down a seldom-used alleyway somewhere in the City
Universe: Okay, take the first three MegaMan games. Put them in a blender with Robocop, Blade Runner, Styx, and Queen. Set to "frappe." ~Enjoy~

But okay seriously. The City is just that, The City, it's never called anything else. Originally the City was a bustling boom town that grew up around an iron mine, it expanded into an industrial hub of activity, with a steel mill and a manufacturing plant.

After Light's trial and exile, Wily turned the city from a prosperous industrial town into a gleaming futuristic metropolis, a place straight out of something like Logan's Run, all gleaming steel towers and perfectly clean streets.

See this artwork for an example! The left is the city in the time of Light's father, the right is the City after Wily's done with it

To the untrained eye, the City seems like a perfect paradise. All food and water is provided by perfectly automated farms run by robots; all electricity is provided by a combination of green solar, wind, and water energy with coal-firing power plants. The manufacturing of the city is done entirely by robots, so there's no danger to the human workers of the city. There is no crime, and there is no poverty. Everything is calibrated so perfectly that not a single citizen of the city has to work.

But a truly keen eyed observer might notice the truth. Everyone in the City wears the same exact clothes, sharply cut buttonless uniforms, all genderless, all the same. There is no art anywhere in the city, public or private, no graffiti. There are no libraries, no bookstores, no video stores, no gaming stores. Every store contains fairly uniform and identical merchandise, all provided courtesy of the state; there is no money, people just take what they need, so long as they have proof of citizenship. There are a few restaurants, all identical sterile cantinas, and a few bars, also all identical and sterile. The only entertainment are the giant vidscreens which seem to be everywhere you look, which 24/7 broadcast state-sanctioned television programs... most of which seem to be various kinds of propaganda saying how great and wonderful City life is, how fantastic it is that Wily has eliminated all crime, that citizens should respect curfew and to be mindful of the security drones which keep the City safe. Every day at noon, Wily himself addresses a public broadcast to the entire city, telling them all how wonderful they are and how much he loves them.

We have control. We keep you safe. We are your hope.

Over and over and over and over and over...

And then there's the face in the shadows. Visitors might notice that there's no security anywhere; one can just walk into stores and take things, doors are seldom locked, and so on. That's because people who break the rules of Wily's city simply vanish. There are whispers, rumors of a single glowing red eye that looms out of the shadows, a demon who kidnaps the guilty and destroys them. Keep quiet. Don't dissent. Enjoy what you have, else you'll vanish too...

Overall, the time period is about the late 1980s, but the technology level is far beyond that. Most everyday conveniences are around the same as what we might have here in the year 2012, and then there are the superpowerful robots that run everything and the maglev monorail public transit system. Thus, fashion and style? Very 1980s cyberpunk. Actual tech level? ... Well, 1980s cyberpunk.

Abilities: Wily is a perfectly normal human with no superpowers to speak of.

He is, however, a genius electrical engineer and roboticist, well capable of feats of ingenuity most can barely dream of. He was instrumental in helping Dr. Light create the foundation for all the machines that now control the city, and it's unlikely Light would have been able to do it without him. He created the public broadcast system for the city entirely on his own. His weakness in this area is computer programming: try as he might, he can't quite create true artificial intelligence like Light is eventually able to. Instead, he can only simulate it.

In addition, Wily is a powerful public speaker, extremely persuasive and charismatic. It's very easy to believe everything he says, and very easy to trust him, regardless of his intentions.

He is also an excellent singer and pretty damn boss on the guitar and ukelele. Insult his ukelele at your own peril (this is mostly headcanon drawing from the fact that the man who does his voice also plays the guitar and ukelele. Because ukelele :| )
Possessions: Several very nice tailored suits, several very nice hats, an absolutely gorgeous Gibson Les Paul, and a ukelele.

Back home, he basically owns the entire city and everything in it, but most notably huge automated factories that produce large numbers of robots, and the mines to provide the metal for said factories.
Personality: On the surface, Wily is charming, clever, witty, and trustworthy. He will tell you exactly what you want to hear and always seem to have your best interests at heart. You feel like you can really listen to him, like he really cares about your problems and your feelings.
Completely charming. Like most sociopaths are. And Wily is a sociopath. Humans are, to him, little more than pawns in a vast game, tools to be used, stupid as sheep and as easily herded to slaughter. Indeed, he has little use for them beyond the feeling of power and control he gets from manipulating them.

And that's what Wily is about: power and control. He hates not being in control more than anything else, and cases in which he has a loss of control (see: Tom turning his back on their project, Emily rejecting him) he tends to react violently (if in a calculated manner). When not in control, he does everything he can to re-establish that control. His charm? Just another means to that end; after all, one can kill with kindness as easily with cruelty.

Wily is also extremely calculating and almost never caught unprepared. Even when he is, he's a master at improvising and turning situations to his advantage. It is almost impossible to fluster him or to catch him unprepared. Throw him a curveball and he'll build a better robot to hit it. By the same token, Wily knows better than to broadcast his true intentions to anyone, regardless of circumstances.

Note that there was, perhaps, a time when Wily wasn't quite this far gone; though he's always had difficulty relating to others and more ambition than is probably healthy, there was a time once when he might have turned back and reconsidered. But that time is passed and been forgotten; these are the paths that we must take...

Thread Sample: Intro post from Ataraxion
And a log sample just to give some internal monologue
Prose Sample: How perfect everything was.

He still allowed himself the indulgence of windows. The populace of the city was docile enough that he felt he could still have them without worry. Someday, he knew, that wouldn't be the case. Someday, either Light would return or someone would wake up and fight back, and then he'd reveal his masterstroke, show this city that in the end, they were his, and his forever.

It was noon, and the programs on all the screens flickered and changed. He couldn't hear it from here. He didn't care. The program that produced that was completely automated now, cycling through a perfect blend of prerecorded videos and phrases such that it seemed different every day, but always said essentially the same thing.

Greetings, loyal citizens of the city! The weather's lovely today, isn't it? This is just a reminder that curfew is, as always, at 8 pm sharp...

He left the windows and walked through the cavernous halls of his tower. What would he do today? Tinker with Thomas' designs a little longer, no doubt. They weren't yet ready for deployment. No, that'd be later, once someone had the spine to stand up. A spine for him to crush. Perhaps he'd work on that... other project. So much to do, and all the time in the world to do it in.

It would almost be boring, if it wasn't all so perfect. He wanted for nothing, and he enjoyed it that way.

He was about to head to the lab, but then he paused, and changed direction. He descended a long spiral staircase to a small hallway. No windows, of course. At the end was a door, and beyond the door...

Guitars.

Dozens of them, all beautiful and rare, all perfect. He sighed, picking out one which seemed just right for that day, sat down, and began to play.

Plans: Provide only the finest war robots to the Observatory and improve their technology, by which I mean ensure they're reliant upon him before he turns on them, takes over, and decides that maybe the universe isn't too big for him to control it all. But one thing at a time, hmm?
Notes:

DÆMON

Name: Acieria
Sex: Female
Form: Azure-winged magpie
Additional notes: Acier is french for steel. Whee.
Why this form: Magpies are extraordinarily clever tool-using birds, industrious and clever. They are also beautiful creatures, charming to look at. And, finally, they're absolutely terrible greedy pests that can cause huge problems for people despite their beauty. Furthermore, they're mostly parasitic: while they can use tools and build some things, they're well known for stealing shiny objects and, like most corvids, scavenging. Similarly, while Wily helped create the robots, Light did a lot (read: most) of the heavy lifting in their design. Wily just had the money and resources to manufacture bazillions of them. Magpies also tend to attack songbirds to keep them out of their territory: Wily killed Emily and drove out Light.

I considered choosing a spider, but I felt that would be too obvious; Wily is a very deceptive creature, and it would scream villain to have a spider daemon, however appropriate a web building creature would be. After all, many of the villains in His Dark Materials don't seem to have "villainous" daemons; Ms. Coutler, after all, has a golden monkey, which seems innocent at first.

Speaking of monkeys, I chose a magpie over a monkey as magpies are territorial and solitary birds, whilst monkeys are quite social. Wily is, in the end, an extremely solitary creature: he lives entirely alone in his tower, completely separate from the population of his city.

Finally, magpies have quite a lot of dark mythology related to them. They are commonly associated with death, bad luck, and the Devil's work. According to one myth, the magpie is the one bird who didn't weep at Jesus' death, so they are forever cursed. And then, of course, there's the rhyme:

One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven's the Devil his own self

So, all in all, a rather dark omen of a bird, and appropriate for a clever and wily villain.

As for why an Azure magpie rather than the standard European? That's a pretty simple and, I'll admit, silly reason -- the grey feathers and black head match Wily's grey suit and black fedora.