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Player Name: Binky E-mail: macguffinrp at gmail Preferred Contact: PM Timezone: PST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Hank Anderson Series: Detroit: Become Human Timeline: Everyone Lives Ending Canon Resource Links:Wiki Entry Timeline for Hank
Personality: Hank Anderson is a tall, broad man who carries himself with a lazy swagger and wears a constant expression of exasperation with the state of the world. He dresses modestly, in a T-Shirt, jeans, a printed button-up shirt of some fashion, and a battered coat. He's blunt and rude and swears frequently, with highlights including telling people where they can shove things, calling a federal agent a 'cocksucker', and his dialog is littered with the occasional 'fuck' as well as old slang like 'Fuckin' A'. His voice is gruff and deep and earnest, or rumbling and angry (bellowing depending on how drunk he is).
He's not in great shape and has let himself go, though his photo from his file and photos kept on his desk show he was once in much better kept condition. He's 53 years old and in his state of depression has actively worked towards ill health and a slow, oncoming death. He smells like booze, often, and hasn't cut his hair in a long time. He keeps his beard trimmed and occasionally showers, but otherwise does little to take care of himself. He collects kitzchy little items, covers things in controversial stickers or labels of his favorite teams and prideful Detroit logos, and is picky with his choices in music (with a special fondness for metal and jazz, largely considered unpopular and overemotional genres of music).
Needless to say, he doesn't have many friends. From his interactions with Fowler, it seems like they were once on good terms. He also has a labeled photo on his desk including some of his previous fellow task force officers that have remarks indicating he was fond (or at least tolerant) of many of them. But in recent years he's pushed people away. Fowler comments on having a folder on his bad behavior thick as a novel, and when Hank pulls a gun on Gavin Reed to stop him from shooting Connor, Reed comments that, "He won't get away with it this time." A friendship with Hank requires insistence on talking with him and spending effort on him despite his protests.
It's very easy to get on his bad side. Gavin Reed makes comments that suggest that he's been wanting the opportunity to abuse suspects, which leads me to believe that Hank's stopped him by force before. Depending on actions within the game, Hank will attack a federal agent (Perkins), calling him names and swearing as he does. While the attack is a ruse, it's apparently not completely out of character, no officers go through an extraordinary effort to restrain him, and does seem in part prompted by the fact that Perkins talked down to him and Connor previously. If Connor responds to him in some parts with offensive levels of mechanical emptiness, he's capable of responding violently.
Aside from being physically and verbally aggressive, once you get on his good side he can open up emotionally, speak soothingly, and even be profoundly kind and supportive. If someone fails at something, he can assure them that they'll succeed later. If someone is confused and distraught, he can steer them on the right path. He has a weakness for gestures of love, as he shows noted approval if the player allows two android companions to escape, and wants to see empathy in others (he'll steeply disapprove if the player options to kill an unarmed, prone android for information only). He's kind towards animals (except for birds which creep him out) and children.
[CONTENT WARNING FOR SUICIDAL IDEATION] Hank has, for the most part, given up on life. Upon the good ending of the game, Connor will have renewed some of his faith in humanity and the influence of Markus's campaign can make him rethink the events of his past in a critical manner. However, throughout the game he's combatting his own grief. He comments that he's been killing himself slowly, a little at a time through drinking and bad decisions because he's too much of a coward to finish the job. Depending on the player's choices, he might actually go through with it. If he's forced to fight the player, he'll say he's been a coward and has been since losing his son. If he dies defending the player, then he'll say he's glad he gets to be with Cole again.
This is unique in itself, because if the player chooses the dialog option in a previous scene where Hank is holding a gun and he says that there's nothing after he dies, then Hank's hand shakes before lowering his gun, suggesting that he believes that might be the case for himself as well but hopes otherwise.
Hank is a good person wrapped in and well hidden by a bad person. He's an idealist that once combatted drugs with a task force that he loved. He was hard working and diligent and cares a lot about the victims in his cases (like in dialog commenting that he feels bad for a victim's family and wouldn't want to be the one to tell them the gruesome act he committed before dying). He's the type of guy to lend his friend fifty bucks because he needed it. He's the sort to be frustrated when he's ignored and is severely weak to pleading gazes. He's the type of man that will throw away his job to save someone's life, but also the type of man to pick fights, eat poorly, drink to excess, and play Russian Roulette. A broken-hearted man that values people that are better than him and compassionate, and despises people that don't feel anything.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Growlithe (Tubbs) Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Personality: Drifter doesn't stand up straight very often, as it's "easier to seem like people when you slouch." As a Risen1, he got in the practice of looking very casual in order to avoid humans suspecting he has a ghost. Back then they were afraid of anyone that came back to life. While the act of pretending to be your average everyday human was eventually dropped, the casual leans were not. When he fidgets he plays with jade coins, often multiple ones at once, and knows a number of complicated coin tricks and sleight of hand moves that act as disarming distractions.
Drifter talks with a southern drawl, but keeps very Tao aesthetics to go with his generally East Asian appearance (likely of Chinese-American descent). He alternates between choosing fake names for himself ranging from "Wu Ming" to "Germaine". His jade coins coins have red strings and are two entertwined snakes (snakes are a common theme in Taoist imagery and red strings are meant to show compassion and provide protection) and one of his game symbols resembles a ba gua with circles instead of the trigrams, making it resemble the chambers of a revolver. His chosen weapon is usually a revolver, too, adding to his "Drifter" persona. A mix of Western rogue and Eastern vendor stereotypes to hide behind.
Otherwise his clothing seems patchy when compared to the fine armor otherwise available to him. He wears shoulderpads covered in fur and spikes, an older warlock's robes, and a sloppy belt he keeps his "Trust" revolver tucked into. This gives him a little bit of the look of a gunslinger in a long coat and a bison fur cloak. The gear is made by a manufacturer in game called "Tex Mechanica", and much of the versions of it offered to players is adaptible to have ivory or pearl-handled 1800s style ornementation.
Some of this he's picked up off of other people over time and adopted them for himself. For one, he took his standard greeting, "How you livin'" from a friend of his that was murdered when a village he'd been hiding in was attacked by warlords. His use of a snake was primarily adopted from a tattoo a close friend had. He's several hundred years old and has had a lot of time to borrow some habits.
Drifter doesn't have many friends because he's too paranoid to trust people. He's commented before that he doesn't want to get to know more people and that it's memories that he doesn't need. After a neighbor girl died in his arms, her last words lingered in his mind for centuries (he wouldn't even tell them to his ghost for a very long time). He takes losing people hard and hides behind his ruthlessness. He doesn't want to find more people to care about and lose. He's mostly given up on humanity, save for player characters that side with him (he claims they're the first he's trusted in a long time, though this could be manipulation). When he got involved with the Shadows of Yor2, he knew better than to get close to anyone that he was associated with and refers to them as old 'friend' in the most generic context.
Drifter hit on a notorious Iron Lady3, Ifrideet, who promptly threw him when he tried to dance with her. He also has very fond but tragic thoughts about one woman in particular, whose Guardian name was Orin. He's called her a blue freak and a mannequin while talking to the player directly, but if heard speaking to himself he'll lament that she's haunting him and that she sold her figurative soul. He knew her before she was a guardian, then later got to know her under a different name when she was a Titan. He had a very close relationship with her until she discovered his real identity and that he'd been lying to her for much of their friendship. He was close to her and considered her his closest friend and he was legitimately upset when she left and gave up her free will.
One could consider him a coward for hiding as often as he does and for taking names like "Drifter" and abandoning his old Dredgen Hope title to keep himself out of trouble. When it comes to Shin Malphur, Drifter is very wary to make deals with him and use his talents to lure out the Shadows of Yor but does so to avoid conflict. He's afraid of Shin Malphur because of his reputation as a gunslinger. It's commented by another character that he "hates violence" and that "he hates it so much that he'll try to murder anyone who tries to inflict it on him." His methods are often indirect and roundabout. But somehow, often he's the lone survivor of gunfights, and if pressed can hold his own in a battle. He'd prefer just to hide or run if given the option. While he's wished for perma-death before while he was in agony, he's also too prideful to let anything kill him if he can avoid it.
Drifter doesn't like heroic hypocrites. He doesn't like people that use violence to inflict their will and decide how people should think, something he considers Shin Malphur guilty of. He doesn't like people that'll betray him. He can be forgiving of other generally cagey people, constantly keeping a wary eye open, possibly prone to his own treachery, but if he catches someone actually turning on him he'll absolutely call them a "snitch" and will often threaten retaliation to his coconspirators if he suspects they might be thinking of it.
His goals are rarely clear, but they can likely be simplified to 'stay safe' or 'gain power' or 'run'. He's actually extremely technically adept, able to build complicated teleporters and portals using spare parts and found items, and he designs armor specifically to be used in his games. He managed to access the Taken4. He wanted to find out about the "Nine" so he could grow stronger and find out more about the distant, unreachable areas of space.
He's also a businessman. He ran a bar at one point and used it as a front to lure in his old enemies that destroyed his town, later using it to convince the Iron Lords to act on his behalf. He enjoys gambling and playing cards, but he likes to run games where he'll act as a host and hype man. The game itself is part of a plot with multiple aspects; to lure out the Shadows of Yor and for him to better control 'exotic energies' that come from teams killing enemies. He promises players that they'll be paid well for helping him out, though his own living quarters are extremely modest. All his money goes towards whatever work he's doing.
He suffers from constant hunger. Part of this is because his ghost allowed him to starve to death repeatedly since a full reset was easy. The other reason is that the Shadows of Yor hear what's assumed to be the voices of Hive Gods. Drifter comments on the voices that he hears and has been recorded actively arguing with them. He's not sure what makes them. There's a Hive God called Ur, the Ever Hunger, and the combination of memories of starving to death and the possible influence of Ur could be getting to him.
Risen were what people originally called anyone that was dead that was resurrected by a Ghost, which acts as the respawn and macguffin infodump of the game.
Shadows of Yor are kind of like Sith Lords, trying to follow the path of the Dark. They take the name "Dredgen" because they all follow the teachings of a man who went by Dredgen Yor. Shin Malphur has made it a point to hunt them all down.
Iron Lords came before 'Guardians' and were the first Risen that tried to bring law back to the land because so many other Risen became warlords and were terrorizing survivors of society's collapse.
Oryx is the former leader of the Hive, an alien species in the game that represents undead masses. He learned to "Take" from his enemies, bringing over aliens from opposing sides to fight for him. This required sending them through a dark dimension that Drifter knows how to reach.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Seviper Password: Atomic Fireball
Notes: I'd like to ask if Drifter can keep some of his coins that change symbols on the back. They don't do anything more than that. He wouldn't hear the voices.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Thank you! See you in the Pokémon world!
In regard to Drifter's coins: he may keep some of the coins, but they should not keep any magical properties. If you would like to explain how they work/change if it is not magical, drop us a message on the mod contact!
IDK How he controls them honestly, as they've not established that bit. Just that he does mentally somehow. But he can just add some non-changing Pokemon symbols to the non-snake side.
Player Name: Kiwi E-mail: gundamkiwi at gmail Preferred Contact:gundamkiwi Timezone: PST (GMT-8) Current Characters in Victory Road: Krieg
Character Name: Marceline (the Vampire Queen) Series: Adventure Time Timeline: Mid season 7, after the events of "Marceline the Vampire Queen" Canon Resource Links:Marceline's wiki page
Personality:
"I'm not mean. I'm a thousand years old, and I just lost track of my moral code."
To strangers, Marceline comes off as the cool, goth vampire girl. She loves to troll and play pranks, but she's not really mean-spirited. While she did kick Finn and Jake out of their treehouse and then followed up with an attempt to kick them out of the replacement cave they'd found, in the end she backed off and let the brothers go back to their home. Later, she tricked Finn into becoming her henchman and trolled the heck out of him by making him do her bidding. She'd always set up what she wanted as something truly horrible that went completely against his hero's code, but was in reality always something pretty benign or even beneficial to the people it involved. Once Finn figured this out, she fired him as her henchman because she couldn't troll him anymore, but they stayed friends.
To friends Marceline is warm and reliable, tough and loyal. She will not stand by while someone she cares about is being bullied or is in danger. She was on board for some light-hearted pranking of Finn and Jake when some old ghost buddies came into town to visit, but as soon as her ghost pals started actively trying to kill the brothers, she was capital-D Done with their bullshit, and got Finn and Jake the heck out of there.
She has a vulnerable side that only comes out while she's singing. Marceline writes and performs music to express the feelings she can't normally otherwise. She wrote The Fry Song about her dad. She wants to have a good relationship with him, and she wants him to love her, but she's not sure he does. As a deathless demon lord, her father does not need to eat in order to live. At the time he thoughtlessly ate her fries, Marceline was still only half-mortal, half-demon, and she did need to eat to live. Because he took something from her that she literally needed to survive, she questioned whether he really actually cared for her, and concluded that he didn't.
When Princess Bubblegum felt that she had to choose between her responsibilities as the ruler of the Candy Kingdom and her friendship with Marceline, and chose her Kingdom, Marceline felt betrayed. It's not entirely clear what happened between the two, but it's likely PB was unable to reconcile her adult responsibilities with Marceline's juvenile and carefree personality, and broke things off with her friend in order to focus on being the ruler of the Candy Kingdom. In her song "I'm Just Your Problem", Marceline expresses both her hurt over Bubblegum's behavior and communicates that she doesn't even really know what she did to cause her friend to push her away. This hints at the level of perpetual immaturity that Marceline eventually wishes to eliminate. In order to do that and to finally "grow up", she believes she needs to be cured of her vampirism, which she contracted when she was about 17.
With Princess Bubblegum's help, Marceline is able to cure her vampirism and become half human, half demon again, but the runoff from the curing process unleashed a whole host of problems for the land of Ooo. Namely, all the vampire souls Marceline had consumed in her youth. At first she tried to push her friends away and clean up her mess by herself, but after being backed into a corner at one point early on in the round-up process, she relented and accepted the assistance of her friends. At the end of it all, when things looked their worst and it felt pointless to continue fighting, she had a heart-to-heart with Simon, aka the Ice King, and that gave her the push she needed to shake off despair and fight until the end.
The combined experience of being unable to fix a problem on her own and of needing to rely on her friends - even though she was worried about them and didn't want to see them get hurt - was what eventually helped her feel like she had grown up.
Marceline is sentimental, though, again, she doesn't express this much. Simon was her first and strongest friend - he took care of her and protected her when she was just a child after the end of the world. Even though he was driven mad by the magical crown he used to keep them both safe, Marceline never forgot him and never lost her desire to protect him. Simon was the reason she started hunting vampires in the first place. Even though he had left her and was gone, she still felt like she was protecting him when she protected other humans. Simon gave her Hambo, a plush toy, when they first met, and for this reason Hambo was immensely precious to her. She was beyond upset when a guy she dated briefly sold Hambo to the Sky Witch. She eventually had a great adventure with Bubblegum to get Hambo back, though she never found out how, exactly, PB managed to get Hambo for her.
After going through all that trouble, though, she was eventually asked to give Hambo up forever, in order to help Simon. When he temporarily regained his sanity due to the complete removal of magic from the crown, he needed Hambo as a catalyst to bridge the future and the past so that he could apologize to his ex-fiancee, Betty. Marceline didn't even have to think about it - helping Simon was more important to her than keeping her toy.
At the end of the day, though, Marceline is still just a radical dame that likes to play games. She's chill and personable when everyone is getting along well, but the kid gloves come off quickly when stuff starts to go down. She may stop and consider the consequences of her actions now more often than she did at the start of the series, but even that's not going to stop her from having a good time.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Noibat Password: Atomic Fireball
[There's a pale, black-haired young woman on the network today, inspecting her new 'Gear. She has a little Noibat chilling in her mass of hair like an adorable bat-shaped barrette. She studies the Pokegear seriously for a moment or two before noticing something else:]
Oh snap, and it broadcasts! Sweet!
Hey! Barkeep guy! You were right, that Mom lady was really weird! She gave me a lot of snacks, though, so that's cool.
But, uh, I kind of. Already ate them all? Look, I got carried away, okay? Does anyone know if there's anything else to eat on, what is it, Route 29? Besides the berries, I mean. My girl here - [she gestures to her new Noibat pal] - really digs them buuuuuut I still think they seem kinda suspect. For me to eat, that is. Thanks, peeps!
Player Name: Raile E-mail: railerat [at] gmail [dot] com Preferred Contact:railerat Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Character Name: Dirk Strider Series: Homestuck Timeline: Post-Epilogue (Route: Meat) Canon Resource Links:Homestuck wiki | Epilogues
The personality contains more pertinent links. Homestuck is a hard canon to work with.
Personality: [CW: Suicide and suicidal ideation, mind control] "I am my Ultimate Self." This is what Dirk claims, but what does that mean? In this essay I will--
Okay. Those are all Dirk. You'll need to know them, because Dirk "I am my Ultimate Self" Strider is all of them.
Yeah.
It's bad.
It's real bad.
There's also this asshole, who's part of Lord English. This is important, because it puts him in a very interesting position relative to the other narrator in the Epilogues. But that's for later.
Let's back up a little.
What does "I am my Ultimate Self" mean?
Dirk, as per the Homestuck epilogue, is in the throes of the merging of all splinters and versions of himself across all of Paradox Space and its timelines into his single consciousness. He is not the only character experiencing this: Rose, for example, is so debilitated by this experience (as a Seer, she is also absorbing every single vision experienced by every single version of herself, and as a Seer of Light, that is effectively all the knowledge of the universes: canon, outside canon, and non-canon) that it is killing her.
Dirk, in one of the two Epilogue routes, commits suicide as a last act of control in a timeline rapidly dissolving into non-canon status, and in the other unlocks what has been referred to as powers of "Ultimate Self" that allowed him to take over the story-telling of Homestuck itself in the Meat path of the Epilogue. Which is the path this Dirk occupies. Sort of. Because Dirk is not okay, in any path, and this Dirk in particular is comprised of a great many terrible people, existing simultaneously and in multiplicity with multiple less terrible people, but under the pressures and influences of significantly worse people (Caliborn) and in direct antagonism with a theoretically less terrible person who hypocritically stands only to gain from his gradual transformation into an increasingly evil anime villain motherfucker, and whose opposition to him only serves to shape him further into such.
But then, he stands to gain from that, too. It is, in fact, his entire stated goal.
A non-canon state is intolerable to him, and his purpose in seizing control of the narrative is to give the story direction and purpose, and in doing so enable as many of his fellow players to unlock their ultimate selves as well. In other words, he wants them to control the narrative so they can't fade out of canonical relevance. Controlling the narrative is a very literal act. Dirk is writing the third person narrative and inserting thoughts and feelings into others' minds and even dictating their dialogue--to a greater or lesser degree, as some are able to resist him, others outright aware of his influence. An alternate version of Calliope, the Muse, arrives from a different space and time and fights with him for control, leading to a lot of petty bickering and underhanded tactics as they fight to tell the story the way they want it.
And not everything Dirk does serves his goal, expressly. Some of it is much more selfish. What he did to Jake, for example. He spends a great deal of time and text dragging Jake through the mud, with extra emphasis on Jake's uselessness and idiocy. It becomes clear that at some point prior to the Epilogues, he and Jake fell out over romantic issues, and he uses the narrative to keep pushing Jake's thoughts to Dirk--how much he loves Dirk, how much he wants Dirk, how much he regrets hurting Dirk and so on--until Dirk finally arrives at Jake's place in person near the end of Meat. He's there to get a spaceship. While he's there, Jake begs Dirk to take him along, and this is the moment Dirk's been waiting for: Dirk rejects him utterly and just breaks Jake's brain completely. He just obliterates him totally as a person. Snapped like a twig. It's objectively awful. And despite the work he put into setting it up, it's not even the satisfying moment Dirk wanted it to be.
What's happening with Dirk in the Epilogues is three-parted. One, the many selves of Dirk Strider, the many splinters and variations on his original existence, are taking up a vast amount of mental real estate, pushing him to and past the point of losing any control of who he actually is. It's worth noting Dirk may not have actually achieved his true Ultimate Self. There is no indication that he has (for example) any knowledge of Brain Ghost Dirk. Unlike pretty much everyone else, though, he has a lot of splinters that were not meant to share one brain experience--he would only need to merge some splinters from a few main timeline to go off the rails.
Two, Dirk's reality and sense of self are and were, at best, tenuous and highly artificial--even before he became capable of understanding 'canon' as a state, let alone dictation of the narrative itself.
Three, Dirk's intense, compulsive need to be in control.
The result a heady mix of Dirk's worst qualities, enhanced and exacerbated by Caliborn's influence, but served as a concoction of his increasingly worse persons (Doc Scratch, Bro Strider, Lil Cal.) People are inherently self contradictory to begin with, but there's this immense ego, this elevated sense of self in Dirk that tends to clip through self loathing like Bethesda game model. Even when there's self hatred (and there is so MUCH self hatred in Dirk), there's an underlying assumption that he knows what's best/better and that was very highlighted in the scenes up to his suicide especially.
Others can be satisfied with their existence, perhaps. But not Dirk. Not as the light of canon was petering out. Unfortunately for everyone. Or fortunately, perhaps. After all, he is giving them the blessing of canon relevance.
They may not longer inhabit canon, but better outside canon than non-canon. Better tenuously relevant than not relevant at all.
Or, put another way.... better tenuously real than not real at all.
It's clear Dirk himself has a nebulous grip on the reality of his own existence. He grew up in extreme isolation, with very little variety in people. To fill that void, a powerless space he could not affect or control, he created an environment full of elements he did control. Artificial bodies and selves, an ever-expanding universe of Him. His obsession with robots mirrors Bro's obsession with puppets--both things that are human-shaped, but ultimately just constructs, to greater or lesser degree of control and autonomy. In the Epilogue, Dirk constantly frames himself and the world around him in mechanical terms. He describes himself as a mechanic, but also describes his own brain and body in mechanical terms. His treatment of the people around him is reflected in that manner--but his view of himself is just as affected. Many of his selves are artificially created, and this further undermines his restricted sense of his own existence. There is no 'realness' to the people around him.
And the further people drift from his own existence, the less 'real' they become in his narrative.
A narrative written by a man who hates himself, every version of himself, with such intensity and such consistency that it is one of the foundational aspects of his personality. A man who thinks not just of death but of suicide, of actively ending himself so frequently that tying himself a noose is swift, practised action. Who grew from a teen struggling with the degree to which one can and cannot control outcomes with regards to people (other and otherwise) and into a man for whom his friends are both the supposed beneficiaries of his choices and the pawns he moves in narrative fashion, no more real to him than he is. Beings whose realities depend wholly on his actions, and so whose manipulation is justified by the outcome he will achieve by doing so.
He's still the same person in some ways. Many ways, even. His brilliant, methodical and detail-oriented mind is still intact. He retains his extraordinary (perhaps excessive) fondness for puppetry and robotics, his unwavering passion for swords of a particular kind (katanas), his pedantic diction. His self-absorbed, big-picture perspective. His strange but definite sense of humour. His, uh. Often uncomfortable sexual frankness. And his priority treatment of his friends.
His motive is rooted partially in his own crisis, his own need to be, and to have an existence that matters, but it's also rooted in sincere concern for his friends, and his desire to protect them from oblivion.
It's just that as less magnanimous and more egotistical minds became part of his multifractal self, as less and less of 'himself' fell within the boundaries of his tenuous mental reality, as reality itself broke from canon and took with it any stability he was relying on... other things in him changed. The way he cared changed, and even though his initial actions may have been rooted in good intentions, by the end, he is fully aware of the fact that these actions are, by most subjective measure, 'bad.'
He accepts this, and then embraces it.
From an outside perspective, this is already pretty gnarly. But once you get into the interpersonal and internarrative application of these changes, it gets... a little gross. The easiest way to show the changes in Dirk as he is now is through his relationships with his ectosiblings. One of the first noticeable features of the epilogue (as narrated by Dirk) is that Dirk is almost never right about the people he thinks he has down. He mischaracterises his friends constantly, especially underestimating their ability to act autonomously and make good decisions. This is especially obvious when it comes to his ectofamily.
Take, for example, Rose. Rose, who he refers to as being his "equal," but in truth is seen more as an extension of himself, more part of him in the same way any other Dirk would be part of him save from her physical separation from his physical self... and of course her imperfection as a person--almost but not quite Dirk, and so lacking just a little bit. She gets by far the most glowing treatment in his narrative. In fact, he describes her every move in seductive terms. Which is creepy, no matter how homosexual he is. But she also calls him 'dad.' This makes more sense in the context of what she says other than that--all of Rose's dialogue exists to enhance, glorify, or support whatever dialogue he gives himself. It's very possibly the only way he can extol another person--via objectification. Very literally, later--his grand plan for Rose is to save the ascending Seer from her failing physical form and transfer her consciousness to a robot. And it works!
Dirk is so constantly, intensely lonely that he projects it over the narrative again and again, both in textual manner and in accidental clues. There is a couch in his workshop. A couch he placed there for visitors. Visitors he never received. Until he narrates Rose into his workshop and has occasion to clear that space of all its parts and tools and place her in it. Using his control over Rose to ensure her loyalty and presence, to guarantee her outcome (her survival and her place on and by his side) is questionable at best, but the end of the Epilogues has Rosebot ironing Dirk's pants for him.
This absolute control over Rose is contrasted starkly by his lack of control of Roxy, who (as a Rogue of Void) is unknowable and so beyond him as a person now that they have become inscrutable and untouchable in all ways.
Roxy, his childhood friend. Roxy, the family he literally grew up knowing. Roxy, a person so straightforward that they just outright say what they mean (incredible, for this Ectofamily.) Roxy, who is somehow so impossible for him to comprehend (control) without narrative powers that he is on more than occasion surprised by what comes out their mouth as he writes the narrative. They're totally out of his reach, totally unfathomable. In more than one scene, he is unable to even describe the look on their face. It's almost jarring once the depth of his incomprehension becomes clear. (Ha.)
There is a strangely human series of events related to them, though. Early in the Meat route, Roxy comes out as nonbinary, even masc-presenting and he's absolutely flummoxed by it. Not only did he not see it coming, he can not stop or affect it in any way.
He immediately makes a mess of it by misgendering them (by mistake), and is corrected, and gets so worked up about it all that he immediately projects that mistake and all of his insecurities onto Dave the very next chapter, by making a good chunk of that chapter about Dave repeatedly fucking up in a xenophobic way around Karkat and Kanaya. And he is not nice about it. It's just Dirk lashing out at his own mistakes by smacking Dave around.
If these Epilogues were just Dirk's work of fanfiction, that would not be a terrible way to cope. (Not ideal, either. Projecting on real people is bad, kids.) But by this point, Dirk has already been revealed to be the narrator, and the actual people around him are being moved and affected by his narrative.
Real, but not real. But very much real.
This is relationship Dirk now has with reality. With his friends, and his family. Everything has become about control, in part because he is, more than ever, spiralling out of control. He still WANTS connection, craves contact, but chronically fails to achieve it and so chronically lacks it. He needs that control more--that power over his existence and his outcomes that his entire existence has been marked by lacking. In a desolate oceanic postapocalypse. In a timeline he cannot affect and which offers him a view of further events he has no power over. As a person of action whose actions are perpetually ineffective if not outright meaningless. Dirk is always doing, always driven to occupation, unable to rest, unable to let go. Puppets. Mechanics. People. Himself.
Bro, raising a child that fails to live up to every expectation you have for him, falls short of every target you set for him to achieve. For a certainty of future that you have no power to win and no power to survive.
Doc Scratch, manipulating reality both objective and subjective toward the birth of an outcome that was itself predetermined. A birth that will literally destroy you, of course.
It's not even a little subtle.
Control and self loathing are the twin swords that he is endlessly impaling himself on, and pulling out of his own body to wield again and again against himself.
So then what of Dave? Dave is the most telling, in some ways, because Dave is by far the most complicated relationship he has. Dirk does have a strong affinity to Dave, but he wants a connection that isn't there, in part because he and Dave are both projecting their own brothers over each other. This goes back to formal canon. They DO talk it out eventually, but it results in, for example, Dirk apologising for "his" actions as Dave's Bro rather than either of them connecting in a lasting way as individuals. Instead, Dirk has weighed himself against Dave and found himself lacking, as he weighed himself against his own Dave and failed to measure up.
Dirk, while preserving Dave as the "other" (as opposed to the self), the person against whom his own existence and character is weighed, simultaneously holds Dave to a standard Dave doesn't fit, and keeps finding Dave's character or choices lacking. He is honestly borderline contemptuous of Dave for most of it--the egotistical and judgmental qualities of splinters like Doc Scratch are no doubt part of it, but it resembles strongest the opinions of the original Bro Strider himself, and the ever-present ghost of Caliborn in him. (Him here can be both Bro Strider and Dirk, frankly.)
In the Epilogue, the narration for Dave references a sense of Bro in Dirk so strong that it's practically identical. Dirk, or a version of him, instilled in Dave a way of living and thinking that would, for better or worse, persist far beyond the first thirteen years of his upbringing. And even on Earth C, it’d be kind of tough to say the dude’s general overbearing demeanor wasn’t sufficient to perpetuate the conditioning. So it’s rare he has to guess what Dirk would say he should do.
Of course, Dirk has been in and out of Dave's head the whole time, as narrator. But he is also so resonant with his older, other self that Dave freely interprets this as an organic part of Dirk himself. It's an ominous early clue, bolstered by what we see of Dirk's own opinion in the narrative text.
A lone exception to this frustrated treatment of his brother occurs when Dave finally acts on his more romantic/sexual feelings for Karkat (an event that Dirk attempted to push Dave towards, but nearly ruined in the process.) Then, and only then, does Dirk express sincere pride. Yet very early on, he openly states that he would and could never hurt Dave. Near the end of Meat, he states, let’s also have it on good authority that the next time Dave cuts off my head, it’ll be for good.
So Dave is the Other, the brother both judged by him and by which he will be judged.
And he's clearly looking forward to that outcome.
Fucking Yikes.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Klink Password: Atomic Fireball (YIKES... I remember when it used to be Sunflower Seeds lmfao)
Samples RP Sample:Fourth wall, aka "thank god he didn't figure out he can talk."
Victory Road Sample: Dirk wakes up feeling like someone kicked him through the head. Not in his head, but through his head--the boot busting through his cranium with brute force, breaking into a shower of messy debris like a graham cracker crust, like his skull were made of the same fleshy, breakaway material as a melon. That's just the outside part. His brain, the bastard organ, is just un-fucking-accounted for.
So, his head hurts, but not in a way he's used to.
There's something missing, and it's not long before he can tell: the narrative is gone. No, not gone. Invisible. The slippery motherfucker's just straight-up eluded him--like catching air in your fingers instead of a fly. Except at least the fly is there and you can see it, and the air is there and you can feel it.
His first moment is something like panic.
Then--
Well, he has a lot of reactions, it's a whole big thing, and he goes through all of them and when he's done he's still lying on his back, head nestled into a pillow, blankets tucked right up to his chin like a storybook.
He registers a ceiling, and a room. Also, music. Digitalised beeps and boops arranged in a prosaic semblance of melody. What?
That's definitely something. He doesn't like it, but it's something to go on. The room is small. Tidy. Unfamiliar, but familiar all the same. Variation on an ancient theme.
It's positively antique.
Colourful critters are pasted on the walls as posters, another on the table as a stuffed toy. Where the fuck is the narrative? Who's controlling this? Is it the Muse? How did she hide it from him? Where is he? How did she get him here, like her passive little paper doll in a twisted game of House?
He rolls labouriously out of bed and walks across to the doll.
(His clothes are unfamiliar, too. That's not weird.)
He picks it up.
It's not bad. Not hand-stitched, though. He can tell.
He puts down the doll.
He could keep doing this for a while. Indefinitely, maybe not. But for an hour or so, maybe. Walking around the room and individually inspect each individual artefact. Taking his time. Creating flavour text for each one. But he won't. He wants to. He's been pettier. And he'd argue it's absolutely called for here. But he won't.
He turns to look at the stairs, which have until now been looming ominously in the edges of his vision.
The stairs apparently lead to a floor below, and there's nothing else in the room. Oh, there's other stuff. A blocky, ancient computer like Jane's Dad owned. A television, also like Jane's Dad owned. A closet. A rug. A clock. 'Stuff.'
But it's all laid out too neatly. Backup dancers to the star of the show, the diva, the main event. The stairs. He's clearly meant to go down them.
Okay. Fine, Muse. He'll play your game. (Not like he has a choice.)
He approaches the stairs, and begins to descend.
Downstairs, he encounters 'Mom.'
The less said about that, the better.
It's a mess, an embarrassing mess, and it's seconds before the first word comes out of his mouth--
"Nope."
He (a full grown man!) books it back upstairs immediately. New effects in hand, he pries open the window and flips up onto the roof, turning back only to slam the window shut behind him. Then he stomps down with his heel, cracking the wooden frame to make it harder to reopen behind him and absconds across the rooftop.
Player Name: Usagi E-mail: PM for that please! Preferred Contact:usagisquared Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Carly Nagisa Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Timeline: '(Second) Death' - End Ep 59, after turning into Dust (Carly's Canon Point is technically a spoiler to those intending to watch 5D's. Please be aware of this before highlighting) Canon Resource Links:Here! If you're planning to ever watch Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, please note that this link (and the personality below) contain heavy spoilers for the first season of the show.
Personality: When it comes to describing Carly, her entire casual 'look' appears to give it away. From the thick layered glasses to the less than optimal fashion choices, everything screams 'Clutzy Ditz'- she stammers when she's nervous, fumbles and drops things constantly, and when the going gets tough in her business life? It just gets tougher, and Carly gets trampled. The girl just can't catch a break- but for all the traits of a 'failure', she has a surprising amount of hidden depth that comes forward not only in her brief period as a villain but also before it.
The thing that contributes the most to her failings after all, is her tendency to try too hard; Carly is carried away by her emotions with dramatic ease, ranging from wide grins and smug glares when she thinks she's in the lead on something, to frustrated sputtering shouts when she's threatened, all the way to literal waterfalls of tears when it seems she has no way out other than despair. These emotional displays aren't simply gags either- Carly's tears during her breakdown over becoming a Dark Signer can only be interpreted as heartbreaking, and there is no doubt that her emotions are genuine when on the screen.
It is easy however, to forget those genuine moments- as Carly is typically not a 'violent' person after all, her anger does not appear 'threatening' despite it being the emotion she is most prone to being caught up in. Not even when she herself feels no threat in the given moment- when those she feels superior to challenge her words, she flares up and snaps out protests without pause. Unfortunately, this means either turning accusations on the other, or snipping out hair-thin excuses of varying amounts of sense.
Carly is already open with her words as it is. If it isn't carelessly snapping at someone she doesn't like when she thinks she can get away with it, it's when she's apologizing to someone she couldn't get away with talking back to. For all that Carly shrinks down and apologizes profusely if she's crossed a line (or upset someone she cares for), she'll still be caught in the action of the moment, slipping in comments and protests while jumping ahead of herself- an easy example being her eager 'It's my turn!' while dueling alongside Jack Atlas, only for the man to counter that it's his turn- a quick 'sorry' being her nervous reply. It's an almost instinctive response when Carly feels the need to jerk away from a situation to apologize. Her head ducked down, and her voice shrilled.
Such defensive measures could easily be based in self preservation- in a rare moment of quiet introspection, she can be seen promising herself that she would never again be forced to live 'that way'- which is to say, on the streets. Her car itself shows proof that she has lived in it, and her actions as a reporter prove that she's familiar with less-than-honorable actions- not to mention, an unexpected degree of intelligence. She picks the perfect bribe for an informant while seeking access to a large organization building for investigation, and has at least enough skill in reading emotions to know what to say to learn what she needs. Carly can certainly act like and BE a fool- but it does not necessarily make her a complete one, and self-preservation is a 'smart' trait. With her behavior regarding her editor- panicked promises to have stories ready on time, no matter the cost- it wouldn't be surprising for her to focus on her own situation over others.
And Carly is absolutely selfish, even for more than just 'safety' reasons. From seeking out Jack Atlas for her story, and then seeking out 'Arcadia' and the 'Signers' simply for the excuse to see him again- and even the wish which allowed her to rise from the dead- Carly's pursuits are without a doubt 'selfish'.
But she also regrets those selfish attitudes after each and every incident, however late the thoughts may be. Carly is at her core a kind person, someone whose dream as a child was to simply witness and share the news of others doing their best. She empathizes incredibly with the struggles of others, and it is that empathy which allows her to realize the emotional pain Jack is in and therefore put her career aside to help him- even before she realizes she's fallen in love with him. She is the one who convinces him to become a 'King for the People', and more importantly the one who goes from seeing him as a source of information to someone who would nurse his injuries while hiding in her home.
It is a child-like level of kindness and selfishness, truly. She is quick to snap back and draw back, quick to grin over her achievements with over-exaggerated self-praise, and most notably quick to react emotively to a given situation, regardless of the intelligence she has. She has many, many wants- but her kindness trumps it all, and time and time again her heart caves to the situations of the Other. Her near innocence, displaying itself in quirks such as oddball remarks or attempts to fortune tell her way through the day with cards only adds to this.
And this attitude is only supported by her actions as a Dark Signer. For all that the Dark Signers were revived to face the Signers, Carly is notable in that she is at least partly possessed and manipulated through most of her actions. After she first unleashes vengeance upon her murderer, she comes to her senses with absolutely no memory of the incident- and under the influence of the Earthbound God who revived her, she is practically a 'dark mirror' of herself. Her charming habit of drawing cards to tell fortunes becomes an obsession with fate- becoming hellbent on defeating Jack to be 'eternally bound' to his side, and worse, relishing in his struggles and physical injury. It is a 'side' of her exaggerated from her worst points, that her best points band against to fight back. Carly is the only one of the Dark Signers so clearly 'possessed' by her god, who is able to counter the effects enough to change her 'fate'- to force her duel into a loss, sparing both the one she loves, and the world as a consequence.
She is determined, smart, and above all kind.
It just takes a bit to find those points behind the stammering and glasses.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: TEAM ROCKET Starter: Mimikyu for lvl 15, Salandit for lvl 5. Password: Atomic Fireball
[[OOC - Mild warning that Carly's introspection will involve the events leading to her death/including it. While not graphic, it bears reason for a heads up.]]
Before she even opened her eyes, she could hear music. It started quiet- almost muffled in fact (which was possibly in part because she had her ears surrounded by pillow- but then again very likely not).
It slowly grew louder however, enough that she couldn't help but stir into consciousness. With a groan, Carly sat up. Her head was pounding- and so was the rest of her actually. She wondered if she should really be surprised. Being knocked off a bike the way she had been, she'd have had bruises for weeks if she hadn't lost the-
"AH-! JACK-!" Carly exclaims, eyes shooting open to a blurred and hazy room. She blinks multiple times before realizing the vision won't clear, and fumbles around at her sides until she feels something hard. It's only instinct that has her searching- by the time her fingers wrap around the broken set of glasses she'd been wearing, she realizes she shouldn't have been wearing them to begin with.
She only wore those for a few seconds before she turned to dust in Jack's arms.
Glasses set upon her face, the events from her last memories come crashing down into her mind, ignorant to the beat of the music in her ears. What meets her eyes is almost painfully normal however, even compared to the room she had in Old Momentum with the Dark Signers. She's in a bed- simple, but certainly adequate enough for a comfortable sleep. There's a desk beside the bed even, with a letter and two desk ornaments that look a bit like stress balls. Or maybe they are stress balls?
They're some kind of ball.
Staring around the room for a few moments, she doesn't even know if she should move. She lost. She lost, she remembers that much, and yet instead of the irritated voice of Aslla Piscu punishing her for it, she can hear nothing but song. Peaceful, even comforting, and it doesn't make sense.
Unbidden, tears start welling in her eyes, and she wraps her arms around herself. She's supposed to be gone, isn't she? Slowly she looks down over her outfit- the same uniform of the Dark Signers- and then back around the room. This can't be the Netherworld. This can't be the realm where the Earthbound are, well, bound- the realm that she's supposed to be in, because it was either that or Jack never would have succeeded, and then the Signers would have lost, and the world would have...
"KHn...Mnh..." She chokes, covering her face for a moment while trying not to cry too hard. She can handle this, Carly tells herself as she shakily gets off the bed. She can! Something is obviously...different, about what's going on after all. And even though it hurts, even though she's gone she did that on purpose hadn't she?
She didn't want to be a Dark Signer in the first place, so it was for the best that she manage to turn against them long enough for Jack to land the final blow.
Her hands shaking, Carly reaches for the letter on the desk, only know noticing some sort of digital device near it- a backpack upon the chair. It's more of a note than a letter, she realizes with confusion. The music is still humming (really, what kind of place is this? It's like being in an elevator. ...Almost.)- it's not too loud, but it's hard to ignore as well, which she's beginning to find is for the best.
It's a good distraction from the shock.
"...'Welcome to Team Rocket'..?" she reads, blinking rapidly at the paper. She closes the eye behind her broken lens before adjusting her glasses again, re-reading the first few sentences again. It's certainly written casually enough. And....strangely enough for that matter (even she wasn't recruited this abruptly with the Dark Signers, right? ....Well, maybe she was if she thinks about it). And-
"Heh? That's what these balls are for?" Carly asks to no one, blinking at the orbs. And more alarmingly she realizes, reading the last two points (that fifth one is certainly more than she got out of any work place, she notes bitterly, and she wonders if it's actually an Honest Rule)...
"'We don't know why you're com-' H-Heh!? This music isn't their fault!?" she hisses, rapidly searching the walls with her eyes. She would have thought it was hidden speakers, or even normal speakers but it's actually in her head?!
Her hands still shaking, Carly tentatively takes the pokeballs from the desk- and proceeds to collapse back onto the bed to a seat, staring dumbly at them. She needs to think. And sort out her situation, she notes to herself. First point...she definitely died, didn't she? Wiping a few tears with her elbow and grimacing when she nearly scratches it on the broken lens, Carly nods. Right. That definitely happened. Aslla Piscu possessed her to try and make her win, and then she'd fought back so that Jack would be forced to win instead. They'd had their final words, while she laid against his arms and...
Alright, point two- she looks up from the pokeballs (it said 'pokemon', and these are balls, so they are Pokeballs now, she's decided). This is not the netherworld. That's supposed to be like...some sort of Evil God Prison or something. Something where demons go. She was supposed to go there.
She very obviously hasn't.
Point...Three. She's instead woken up in a new place, very alive- she rests the pokeballs on her lap for just a minute to check her pulse, and she sure isn't a zombie anymore, so that's exciting- yet she's in the clothes she had when she died...
There's instructions, a new 'team' to be part of (a cafeteria sounds nice at least, and being on the winning team is an ominous statement in itself but maybe her luck has come through this time?), and...
Music. There's music.
The pokeballs roll off her lap and crash to the ground, Carly yelping loudly as a 'puppet' with a stick tail, and some sort of little (large) salamander appears near the cracked open things.
She stares at them for about two seconds, and collapses back on the bed.
".....H...Haaaaaauuuh...I'm in an isekai..."
She'd best get that uniform on, and figure out what this 'new life' is going to be. At least it'll be better than the netherworld, she thinks.
Player Name: Knux E-mail: MagiMecha@aol.com Preferred Contact:AshBlaze Timezone: Eastern Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Sasami Masaki Jurai Series: Tenchi Muyo! Timeline: Post-OVA 3 Canon Resource Links:https://tenchi.fandom.com/wiki/Sasami (NOTE: Only the “Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki” section)
Personality: On the outside, Sasami's easily the little sister you want to have in your house and the picture perfect vision of the perfect housewife. Sweet, adorable and lovable to a fault, Sasami is always one to put a smile on anyone's faces. She's always shown to be helpful around the house, to the point where she's almost a workaholic - she hates the idea of getting sick because if she does, that means the house might end up falling apart without her. This is mostly due to the fact that she feels that she needs to pay back for the hospitality, no matter how much they say she doesn't need to.
Despite being a sweetheart, Sasami has shown a more stern side, willing to put her foot down when needed and defend. When her father, Emperor Azusa, came to take away Sasami and her sister Ayeka, she first told him no... then said that if he forced her, she'd hate him forever. And when a Galaxy Police officer attempted to capture Sasami, she easily fought back, defeating her with ease.
As well, Sasami is also somewhat of a prankster, though this rarely rears its face. When she first appeared to Tenchi, she pranked him into trying to get Ayeka's headpiece, knowing full well that he'd pull something boneheaded like taking the sword she swiped from him. If she thinks she can get a rise out of anyone, she'll be more than happy to do this, but she's pretty much tempered down from that sort of thing.
A major aspect of Sasami that may or may not come into effect here is her strange situation between her and the Goddess Tsunami, in that she considers herself nothing more than a vessel for the goddess and feels that the real Sasami is dead. While this subject has been laid to rest in canon in that her loved ones don't consider her any different and treat her as the real Sasami, especially since she truly is and only thinks this way because of her young mind processing it this way, it shouldn't be a problem here as she'll be disconnected from Tsunami and any traits from that, especially seeing the goddess' reflection in water, is removed.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Buneary Password: Atomic Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
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Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Personality: Olivia Octavius is driven solely by the pursuit of scientific advancement, apparently for its own sake. During the course of the movie’s events, she’s focused on getting her dimensional collider to run and deliberately pull specific people -parallel timeline doubles of Wilson Fisk’s family- from their own universe into hers. She has no actual interest in reuniting the Fisks specifically; anyone pulled into a different universe is doomed to eventually and painfully disintegrate as their cells break down. Olivia is well aware of this, even before getting the chance to study cellular material from an alternate Peter Parker. Her assurance to Fisk that he can have “as many families as [he] wants” indicates she’s pretty okay with this -token objections to destroying all of Manhattan aside- as long as she gets to keep working on and improving the collider. In a deleted scene, she makes a vague comment about “the power of the multiverse” before ollying-outtie into the collapsing dimensional portal, but this is the only time she expresses anything close to interest in an actual application of the technology for selfish reasons. As far as the rest of the movie and the final cut is concerned, she might as well be doing it just because it’s cool. (And honestly, aside from the whole “black hole under Manhattan” thing, can we blame her? It’s pretty cool.) She’s also entirely unburdened by the morality -or lack thereof- in her work, aside from the aforementioned objections about sinking Manhattan into a black hole (and honestly, there’s a good chance she lives there). Aside from having zero compunction about dooming possibly numerous instances of innocent people to painful cellular degeneration, Olivia is almost gleeful in her attempts to murder not only Peter but Miles - to her, a total stranger and teenaged boy- in her efforts to recover her research and cow memes. She also keeps the fact that his new inter-dimensional family will be doomed to painful death from Fisk, since he’s the one funding her fun new toys.
Despite her proclivity for violence and amoral pursuit of scientific advancement, Olivia puts forward a polite, congenial public persona that’s not entirely a facade. Entirely aside from being a PBS-style figure of public science education -her first appearance is in the form of a video explaining relativity, being shown to Miles’ class- she’s perfectly capable of being pleasant and affable immediately before and even during her attempts at mayhem and murder. It would be easy to dismiss this as lying, and she’s definitely capable of deception, but it’s worth noting that during her excited examination of Peter B that she didn’t notably set off either his or Miles’ spider sense; implying that until she outright started trying to kill Peter, her scientific curiosity was genuine enough to at least temporarily quell her hateboner. Or at least her grudge against Spider-man wasn’t more dangerous than just the possibility of being caught in the middle of one of Kingpin’s buildings. Likewise, she’s genuinely excited when Spider-Gwen shows herself is entirely genuine, despite another Spider-person representing a significant threat to her work. As she herself states later, it means the collider works, and that’s the important thing.
Her biggest flaw -aside from the utter lack of morality, if you consider that a flaw- is a tendency to get fixated on details to the detriment of the larger picture. As noted above regarding her reaction to Gwen’s appearance, not only is Liv absolutely delighted at this potential monkey-wrench, she seems to not realize she’s about to get her face kicked in until about a second before it happens. Similarly, when Peter B and Miles steal her desktop, she’s too intent on first examining and then murdering Peter to notice her computer bobbling away through the air until she catches Miles in a brief moment of visibility. This despite Peter’s constant and increasingly desperate denials that EVERYTHING IS FINE to thin air during their fight. This carries over into the final fight of the movie, in which she’s fixated enough on the Spider-people to not notice a large, interdimensional semi speeding straight at her through the air.
Also, just as a small aside note? She’s dramatic as all fuck. That coat drop during her villain reveal to Beter was dramatic enough on its own, as is the way she predator-stalks through the air despite her actual human limbs having zero to do with her fighting or locomotion. But probably the biggest piece of evidence for this is that when she’s tracking Miles and finds a tree he’s hidden behind, she doesn’t just cut through the trunk or toss it aside, she cuts through it vertically and rips it in two. There is no explanation for this besides a ridiculous thirst for drama.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Rocket Starter: Level 15: Inkay - Inkay is the most immediately squid/octopus-like Pokémon on the starters list, on a purely superficial level. It’s also part Psychic type, which is frequently associated with Scientist type trainers and NPCs in canon, and fits with Olivia’s notable intellect. Additionally, a major part of Olivia’s MO is presenting a very enthusiastic, innocent persona before and even while tearing someone’s face off, so a “cute” looking Pokémon also fits thematically. If this is not sufficient justification, her primary starter will be a Solosis, please. Level 5: Vulpix Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: Is anyone here familiar with the "Star Trek Problem"?
[Everyone ready for a science lesson? No? Too bad, Liv's got a blackboard set up.]
It's an interesting thought experiment and philosophical problem that springs from certain types of theoretical teleportation.
[She scoots to the side, gesturing at the blackboard; it currently shows two side-by-side figures, labeled 'A' and 'B', with a wavy arrow pointing between them.]
One of the most commonly postulated forms of fast-travel suggested involves the object- or person- being broken down into data, or some type of energy signal, by a device at Point A-
[Tapping the appropriately labelled figure.]
-and transmitted to a receiving device at Point B-
[Again, indicating the figures on the blackboard.]
-where the data is reassembled into the person or object being sent. The "problem" is this- the actual physical particles of the person being teleported aren't what's transmitted, just a sort of electronic pattern or data file, and a living being certainly couldn't survive molecular disassembly anyway.
[She deftly but pointedly erases figure A from the board.]
So, the question becomes- is the person that arrives at Point B really the same one that left Point A? Is the "you" that comes out the other side really you, or just a perfect clone with all your memories? And is there any real difference between the two?
[Liv sounds way too cheerful for someone discussing something this morbid.]
The good news is, this problem is a lot less theoretical in this universe than in others!
[She moves over again, to a small PokéPC setup and- deftly deposits a Pokéball into the system.]
The PC storage system in this world is VERY similar to the systems that were only theories back home. It presents a unique opportunity to study the phenomena in a real environment! Or just something potentially interesting to think about next time you swap around members of your Pokémon team.
[A cheery wave towards the camera, before the transmission ends.]
Personality: Susie starts as the school bully—the person nobody wants to be anywhere near. Even her teacher seems to be afraid of her. She’s cold and cruel, at least starting out. Her Thing is threatening to bite people’s faces off when they piss her off. It’s a mystery why nobody seems to want to be around her. After she gets stuck in the Dark World™ though, she’s forced to work together with two nerds as a hero, which goes. Poorly. She switches sides and befriends a young prince named Lancer. And while she still seems cruel, she seems to make fast friends with the prince. She’s the happiest she’s ever been concocting (really bad) evil plans with the little goofball. By the end of the game she seems to have warmed up a bit after learning the meaning of ️🌈 friendship! ️🌈 She’s still a force to be reckoned with, though.
Susie is always ready to throw down. Even after warming up and becoming a real hero, she’s still menacing and violence-prone. Her first instinct is usually to F I G H T, though she seems to be able to listen to reason when influenced by close friends. When she feels betrayed by Lancer in-game, she attacks and threatens to kill him unless he gets out of her way. It ultimately ends up turning out alright, but helps demonstrate her volatile nature—especially when hurt emotionally. She admits she didn’t really want to kill him, though she still attacked him relentlessly to get him to get out of her way (as opposed to, y’know. Talking to him). Additionally, by the end of the game she’s incredibly and aggressively protective of those she cares about, though that list is real small.
For a hero who is destined to save the world and fight evil, Susie’s far from a saint. She’s vicious and terrifying, yet scarily protective. She’s a brute who tends to fight her way through problems when left to her own devices. She’s not used to the whole “caring about people” deal, but she’s starting to learn. There’s a lot of potential for her to grow by the end of this first chapter of Deltarune, and it seems like her future is bright.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Gible! They’re both chompy reptile-esqe beings. There wasn’t a ton of initial reason other than that, and I gave Susie a Gible in the 4th wall event (since I could without needing to justify it). Normally I see Gible as kinda ferocious (as ferocious as they can really be at that size, anyway), but I set up a dynamic I kinda fell in love with. Her Gible is shy and meek, and isn’t great at defending itself. Susie had to save it from a flock of angry bird Pokemon, and has since started to train it to stand up for itself and be... Well, more ferocious. It’s started to bring out her protective and caring side. I love shy Gible, and I feel like it brings out the best in Susie. I’d love to carry him over from the 4th wall event! Password: Atomic & Fireball
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Pokemon! Congratulations, you have a fun and exciting adventure awaiting you.
Now that you've been accepted... [○] Respond to this with your character's journal. This is a must! [○] Comment in the Taken Characters post, alphabetized by series: Here. [○] Join the following communities: victory_road, the_plateau, and ohmyarceus. Only Team Rocket personnel should join silph_co, but we ask that all Victory Road members subscribe to it. Note! You will not be accepted to the main or logs community until you've commented in the aforementioned places. [○] If you're still on the reserved list, please let us know that they've been accepted. [○] Please make sure to check out the Calendar for the weather and upcoming plots and swarms! [○] You can also find our mod plurk at victoryroad; if you have a Plurk, we suggest you become a fan!
We'd also like to take this moment to inform you of the Eastern Kanto Ferry! For only P2000, you can take a three day, all-inclusive ferry ride from New Bark Town to Pallet Town and begin a new pokémon journey in the Kanto region! Otherwise, feel free to start in Johto!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indigo_league) wrote2016-05-03 09:48 pm
APPLICATIONS! ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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