Midnight

Midnight is the self-insertion character of his creator Midnight Man. However, as far as fan fiction goes and if spontaneous round robins don't count, he has currently appeared just as frequently in RangerReady's Acorn Cafe Adventures.

This article, by the way, is an extended and slightly modified version of A Mouse In Words, a character description which Midnight Man has posted at the Acorn Cafe.

Appearance

Midnight is a mouse of tall and slim appearance; to give a comparison, he is about half a head taller than Gadget. The color of his fur is a very light brown, somewhere between beige and tan, while the hair on top and back of his head shows a dark gray-brown tone and a short and tidy hairdo which remotely reminds of the late 80s. One of his most striking attributes is his pair of glasses: The thin black metal frame is open at the bottom, and the modern narrow polymer lenses quickly turn to dark gray when exposed to sunlight. This feature has little to do with coolness, it's because his eyes are rather sensitive towards bright sunlight. Without his glasses, he is not really helpless, but he has to concentrate a bit more to have his mind "interlace" some of what he can only see blurred.

As for his clothing, his standard outfit consists of a black long-sleeved shirt and a matching pair of black jeans. He's far from being gothic, he just thinks that black is beautiful, it kind of matches his nick, and he can't stand wearing too many and bright colors, because "that's just not him". When he is outside and it is not too warm, he dons a light brown trench coat, another trademark of his (that's why he sometimes wears it inside the Cafe), and useful on rainy days. However, when the situation is appropriate or even demands it, he replaces the jeans with a more elegant pair of black pants which he combines either with a silver-gray jacket or, to even top that, with a white dinner jacket plus a matching white tie. The black shirt always stays the same, he has several identical ones.

Personality

Though he is not rotund, Midnight does in no way consider himself sportive at all. He lacks physical strength in a way he himself describes as being unable to win an arm-wrestling match against Queenie; this may be exaggerated, but it shows the tendency. And as he lacks martial arts skills and is not used to handling weapons of whatever kind, he is so little of a fighter that he keeps away from actual or even possible combat situations as well as he can. But at least he does so smartly, elegantly, and without losing his dignity by appearing as a coward.

Talking about smartness, Midnight's mind quite fairly makes up what he is missing physically. His IQ may not be "mind-bashingly high", but it is still above average; he thinks much, maybe even too much, and he thinks fast. He doesn't mind things getting complicated; in fact, when he comes up with a plan, it is not always the most simple solution, it sometimes would even hardly be understandable for anyone but him, mostly when it is conceived for himself only as he constantly refuses leading positions unless they are for a very limited time. Despite these efforts, he keeps having multiple backup plans which may most likely be just as sophisticated (as in hard to follow). Nevertheless, he preserved some spontaneity for quick, unexpected decisions, but he prefers having everything under control. Among some other things his brain hosts are trilinguality (he speaks German, English, and French), a good spatial sense which is combined with an even better sense of orientation, and a vast knowledge of countless things which is not necessarily of any use.

Midnight's two main fields of interest are music and everything technical. He knows quite a bit about popular music from the past few decades and in a much lesser extent about today's music. Furthermore, he is a musician himself. He has a few synthesizers in a backstage room at the Acorn Cafe where he works on his electronic repertoire from time to time, but live performances are extremely rare as he mostly plays for no-one but himself. His choice of instruments matches his technical side in a certain way. He may not be an inventor or able to always keep up with Gadget, but in most cases, techy issues are no major problem for him, and he regards coping with unknown technical devices as a mostly easy challenge.

However, even his intelligence has its downsides. Sometimes, when he thinks it is appropriate and possible to do, Midnight is led by perfectionism. When he considers something achievable, no matter how high that goal may be, he tries his best to achieve it. It used to be worse when he was younger, but it has not at all been displaced by indifference and sloppyness. Another point is that intelligence makes independent, but in Midnight's case, it helped him become a loner. He is not exactly shy, but when he doesn't need anyone around, and when there is no reason for him to have someone around, he hasn't. Closely linked with his brains and his attitude is his lack of self-confidence which sometimes shines through. Rather than sticking to what he is, he sometimes only sees how much better he could be or he thinks he should be. This gives him yet another reason for staying alone. Before he left Germany, it went so far that he had only very few buddies he rarely saw and nobody he'd call a friend. That made emigrating even easier, because all he left behind was his parents, and things got remarkably better since he got to know the Acorn Cafe and its patrons, and even more since he went to the States permanently.

With these facts in mind, it's needless to say that Midnight has been a single for all his life. It's not that he has never been the slightest bit in love, it's just that he has never made any movement towards the object of desire. His certainty not to be successful, together with the lack of approaches by females seemingly confirming this certainty (at least he didn't recognize any), always kept him from doing the first step. Besides, he was so used to being alone that he didn't see any necessity in at least trying to find a girl. However, there seem to be good chances that one of the reasons for his change of address which is described further below may put an end to this.

Something else that may strike about him are emotional expressions—because he hardly ever shows any. It seems as if his mind doesn't control his emotions and holds them back until they are needed, but as if it rather emulates emotions when he thinks they are needed. That is of course not true, but he gives that impression. For example, he smiles rarely. He does laugh or grin when he has a reason, but he'd need a very good reason for smiling. And it is extremely improbable to ever see him cry. He doesn't know mourning, and in his opinion, there is nothing else that is worth crying about. He can hide any affections towards members of the opposite gender masterly (which may be another reason for him being a lifetime single). And even when he is angry, he only shows it directly when he decides he has to. He sees it as an advantage when nobody expects any actions driven by his anger. In the past, he sometimes used to go so mad that his adrenaline-driven brutality and destructiveness towards whoever made him angry went far beyond any reason, but once he had calmed down, he fell into depressions when he realized what he could have done in his rage if he only was stronger and a better fighter. One can be glad that he refrains from going that wild today—and that he was no warrior back in those days.

As he can't be disturbed by any emotions, and as long as he is not disturbed by anything else, his behavior and manners are just fine, especially considering how few social interactions he used to have. He is polite, he is helpful when he can help, and he is far from being egotistic. He is even a gentleman who tries his best to treat females the way they deserve being treated, which in most cases means respectful. Nevertheless, the dancing lessons he attended years ago rarely pay off, if ever.

Role

Midnight got his nickname remotely similarly to Midnight Man himself. He stepped into the Acorn Cafe for the first time on March 1, 2006, at midnight precisely. However, it is hard to tell whether he chose the name matching the time or vice versa, i.e. he found a fine nickname for himself immediately before he entered the Cafe at the time of his choice.

Originally, he comes from Northern Germany. Somehow, he learned the Rangerphile community at the Acorn Cafe where he lived, and since he had already heard of the Rescue Rangers themselves, he chose to hitch-hike on a commercial airplane to cross the Atlantic and meet the Rangerphiles every few days.

In spring 06, he decided to move to New York City (where the Cafe is located in Midnight Man's Rangerverse) permanently, having his real name (which is yet unknown to his fellows) undergo some changes, and leaving not much more behind than a dull life without any friends. This allowed him to visit the Acorn Cafe more frequently. His interest in the history of both the Rangers and their fandom gained him a notable knowledge which he uses as one of the archivers at the Cafe.

One of his goals as a Rangerphile is to get Chip and Gadget together. He knows what they don't know, namely what they feel for each other, and he has promised Chip to do so. However, when they met for the first time (which can be read in Midnight At The Café), Gadget fell in love with him, too, due to certain circumstances. This doesn't exactly make his task easier (neither do his feelings for her), but it makes it even more important; he has to help them join before Gadget decides in his favor. Besides, he has chosen not to act too directly or too obviously which limits his possibilities to almost nothing.

There is a mouse girl he is interested in to a degree that she is one of the reasons for him to move to the States. He has met Dawn for the first time a few days before he left his old homeland forever. But hardly anything has developed between the two of them so far; Midnight isn't even sure if he can consider her a friend. He is of course still single.

Midnight is the owner of a vintage airplane named The Storm which was given to him in A Hero That's None. It hasn't been seen flying in any fan fiction so far.

Appeared In

Midnight At The Café by Midnight Man

A Hero That's None by Midnight Man

Legends - An Acorn Cafe Adventure by RangerReady23

Of Canines And Catastrophes - An Acorn Cafe Adventure by RangerReady23

Several round robins at the Acorn Cafe

Trivia

In A Hero That's None, the real name which Midnight has been using since his change of address is revealed.