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Starter Pokémon! A compiled list of the starter Pokémon to choose from offered in Victory Road!
Player Name: Wolfy E-mail: wolfyttwisted@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Plurk- wolfyttwisted Discord- Quesadilla Wizard #7332 Timezone:central (rpobably???) Current Characters in Victory Road: none
Character Name: Henry Townshend Series: Silent Hill 4: The Room Timeline: The end of the game, having earned the Escape ending Canon Resource Links:http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/Henry_Townshend
Personality:
If you were to walk past Henry, it would probably take you one or two more passes to actually notice him. He’s a dusty wallflower who’d sooner be part of the furniture than participate in conversation. Mr. Townshend comes in two volumes: a near undecipherable murmur and a startling howl. The poor boy’s not 100% sure how to interact verbally and has problems judging where his inside and outside voice would best fit. His conversations rarely have ‘uhms’ or ‘ah’s’ in them. He’s to-the-point and would probably come off as rude if he didn’t mumble and break eye-contact so much. He prefers to simply stand back and take everything in and let others state what’s going on. Henry quietly expresses himself through his photographs and scrapbook projects. He journals as well.
He is an artist—a photographer. That photo of some random bicycle leaning against a wall? You probably wouldn’t understand it, but he found something pretty special about it and wanted to remember it. There’s a lot going on in that shaggy head of his, but you probably wouldn’t know it. With his eye for detail, he appears to space out, his mouth forming a grim, emotionless line. On the rare occasion he does decide to participate in conversation, his words often become non sequiturs. They made perfect sense a minute ago, he swears! Urf. Never mind. He’ll just be over here…way over here. He’s not slow, just distracted.
Henry is a sensitive soul. He cares about the well-being of others and is quite protective of them. He doesn’t seem to have any problems shoving himself between a lady he’s only until just recently seen in passing and a strange black globby head protruding from his ceiling. This also extends to random prostitutes in subways. He feels great sorrow when witnessing death, but does not recoil from it. It’s not hard to get along with Henry. Even if he believes something totally different than you, he’ll smile his awkward, vacant smile and go along with it. Sadly, his quite nature tends to paint him as that creeper guy over there going 8I.
Over the course of the game, he is encouraged to become more outgoing. It’s amazing what a shut-in will do once he’s no longer given the option of leaving his own apartment via freaky mysteriously appearing chains. He even makes a friend along the way—the woman next door who ends up being pulled into the same monster and murder filled misadventure.! Everybody go awwwwwww. When he’s not sight seeing and taking pictures, Henry likes reading old books he’s collected over the years, watching television, and having a good smoke. He likes those artsy films where nobody speaks any English or dubbed films. He doesn’t have a problem with the voices and mouths not matching up because what’s most important is the story. What he smokes is anybody’s guess. Jesus, that stare of his…
He dresses simply and comfortably. The man owns a washing machine and uses it, but probably not as much as he should. He seems to do a pretty good job of keeping himself clean at least. Henry’s a little too lazy to shave though with his perpetual 5-o-clock shadow and all.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Honedge Password: Atomic Fireball
This was most definitely not room 302. There were too many people here. There were too many creatures here. There were too many colors here. As he sat on the edge of the Miltank Smoothie Shop’s porch with his knees around his ears, he wondered if this was what Dorothy felt like when the door to that weird Technicolor world swung open. Only instead of escaping a tornado, it had been a grey and brown hellworld full of monkey men, mosquito dogs, and that horrible laughing man.
He almost wished it had been a tornado.
Henry cupped his hand around his mouth and coughed. This was all so crazy. It was almost silly! As bad as he wanted to stretch his legs out and laugh at the absurdity of it all, he couldn’t do anything but huddle there and suck on his Koffing brand cigarette and try not to look at that weird clam thing he’d been given. It was supposed to be his friend. Henry already had a friend--he hoped. He hoped wherever Eileen was, it was somewhere delightfully weird and colorful and not floating belly-up in that flooded prison or strapped to a cross. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for another friend just yet.
No matter how long he watched the passing people or the clouds overhead, he could feel the Shellder’s beady little eyes boring into him. The thing didn’t even have any legs. He had to carry it wherever he went and hadn’t exactly figured out how Poke’balls worked. An hour oozed by. Henry couln’t take it anymore. Slowly he turned his head and squinted over his shoulder at the little bivalve pokemon.
SNAP! The creature’s shell clapped shut.
Henry sighed out a tiny almost purplish cloud and ran his fingers through his hair. What was he supposed to do? No matter how many times he said, “Eileen?” into his ‘Gear, she never said anything back. He didn’t see her among the throng of equally confused people. He’d been prompted on something about badges and given a backpack.
He snuffed his cigarette out though it was only half-spent and put it back into the pack. CONSERVE, CONSERVE, CONSERVE howled his survival instincts. As he stuffed the carton back into his new bag, he caught the Shellder peeking at him again. As soon as they made eye-contact, the thing’s shell snapped shut.
“Now that’s not fair.” he murmured. A tiny frown tugged at the corners of his mouth as he shouldered the backpack and reached down to pick up his new ball and chain. “You still have your own room.”
Player Name: Faye E-mail: red.headed.rapunzel@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Plurk - crossthesky Timezone: Arizona Current Characters in Victory Road: Lust, Korra, Handsome Jack
Character Name: Rose Quartz Series: Steven Universe Timeline: Steven's birth Canon Resource Links:Wiki Link
Personality: Rose Quartz is an emotional, empathatic woman with depths that rarely show on her surface. Presenting a whimsical and carefree face to the world, it's easy to dismiss Rose as an overgrown flower child with naive ideals. She constantly extolls the beauty and value of every living thing and teaches respect for all life - even those of her enemies. That seemingly pacifist nature was born out of something very different. As a Gem, and an elite ruling class Gem originally, Rose was born into a society where class meant everything. A gem's life - their purpose, their status, their role in society - is entirely defined by what gem they are. There are no deviations. Her life was simple and pampered and without obligation or worry. Something Rose was content with...until she saw more of life than that led by a Diamond.
On Earth, exposed to the lives of worker Gems and the reality of what Gem expansion was doing to planets, Rose found something in her changing. She showed empathy for the native creatures of Earth, the fact that what her people was doing to them would destroy them caused her distress and emotional pain. Her luxurious life, the society that she oversaw and maintained, existed at the expense of whole other planets. Her distress was so great she went as far as to rebel against her own people in her effort to help Earth, eventually faking her own death and sacrificing her life on Homeworld to protect the planet that had resonated so deeply with her.
Her passion and devotion to life and willingness to sacrifice for it is repeated again, when Rose gives up her own self to give birth to her half-human son. Even knowing full well she couldn't exist beyond Steven's birth, his life, his chance to exist, was more important to her.
Even with this depth of emotion...Rose isn't human, and lived on Earth in varying degrees apart from humans for thousands of years. While she knew humans, many of them, every implication is that her relationships were fleeting and shallow. What we see of her human relationships, from just within the last decades, she has little grasp of how humans function or think or feel. She can come off as distant or dismissive of serious human subjects or feelings, or downright stupid, simply out of a lack of understanding. She often fails to understand basic human priorities, having little grasp of human biology and psychology or human daily life. But she WANTS to understand. She is unfailingly curious, possessing a childlike sense of wonder. Few things bring her more joy than learning or observing something entirely new. Her first venture beyond the life of a Diamond awakened a deep desire for experience within her, and she is always TRYING to understand those things beyond her grasp. Even when she can't figure those things out...she finds a joy in the journey of trying anyhow.
Despite all of this...Rose is not so pure and through-and-through wholesome as she appears. She has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and a rigid devotion to those ideals that allows her to justify a variety of actions. She will lie, manipulate the truth, hide things, and use others when she deems it for the greater good. She believes she's able to make those decisions, that she knows best, and her judgement is the best judgement. The Bismuth incident is a perfect example of this - she trapped a fellow Crystal Gem over essentially a difference of ideals, and lied to everyone about it, feeling only her judgement was needed.
She can be very capricious, warming and cooling to people and things rapidly. As energetic as she is, driven by a desire to learn and live life, she easily grows bored and restless. Her need for new experiences and new discoveries can lead to her moving on too quickly, hurting others, and not thinking of the greater consequences of her actions. That last point is a very large failing of Rose's. Between focusing on the immediate good - as she perceives it - to the exclusion of other factors and her own habit of getting very caught up in what she wants, she can end up just not thinking about other people. It can lead to a carelessness with other people and their feelings - including the people she loves.
Even so, Rose's heart is always in the right place. It just sometimes takes very odd routes to get there.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer! Starter: Minior Password: Atomic Fireball
[That sure is a very large, very pink woman filling the gear screen. Entirely filling, she's holding it rather close to her face as she beams into it with an expression of pure wonder. Say hello to your newest trainer: Rose Quartz.]
This is all so strange! I wasn't expecting this at all!
[Rose isn't entirely sure what she had been expecting. It wasn't the sort of thing a mind, even one like hers, could really conceive of. Mostly she'd had a general idea of...warm pink nothingness. A swirling emptiness, which didn't make any sense, because emptiness and nothingess weren't things that could actually be experienced.]
[Waking up in a cute little human house with a cute little human woman named Mom - what a funny name for a human! - was about as difficult to conceive. But here she was. And beyond the strangeness of finding herself here, still existing and entirely herself...she's entirely human! Her body feels so different, so solid! She can feel the weight of herself! And all parts of her! There's so much inside now, all sorts of things that are her filling her organic shell! How could it be? How can any of this be?]
[It's wonderful!]
[Finally pulling the gear back some, Rose smiles brightly. A red trainer's cap is perched atop her mountain of pink hair. While there's a great deal she doesn't know, she does know that this little communication device will let her talk to the people who live here. Wherever 'here' is.]
Er... [She squints at the open manual in her other hand.] Hello, Pokemon and Trainers! It's so wonderful to meet you all! I'm Rose Quartz. What is this place? I don't even understand how I got to this place, but I'm so happy to be here.
Player Name: Tai E-mail: hellotaifoot@gmail.com Preferred Contact: PM to sunspotted or plurk to cocksandtaiwan Timezone: PST Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Character Name: Marco Bott Series: Attack on Titan Timeline: After leading Titans away from Jean Canon Resource Links:Marco on the AOT wikia.
Personality: From the first moment we’re introduced to Marco, it’s clear that he’s an optimistic person. Somewhat sheltered from the horror of the Titans, his desire, when asked by Pixis why he joined the trainees, is to serve the King in the Military Police division. It’s a position that’s hard to reach - only the top ten trainees in any class can join that division, so he has both lofty goals and what he insists is an honest reason - to protect the King and others behind Wall Sina. It’s an optimism that his instructor can’t quite shake from him, not even when told the King doesn’t want “his lousy life and limbs”.
This optimism is quite a defining trait for him. He’s never really shown losing it, with exception to when it seemed like he and others were going to end up dead because of a Titan attack they could not escape from. He’s also shown as being kindly honest - not that he can’t lie, but that he simply chooses not to, finding it helps him and others to tell the truth.
His optimism also makes him somewhat idealistic at first - not desiring to join the Military Police out of a desire to be safe, like a few others state, but out of a desire to protect the King. He’s never shown really being shaken of this idealism, believing that there’s a good side to everyone, a skill or contribution that they have to offer.
He’s also strongly supportive - a friendly individual labeled with natural leadership talents. He’s often shown keeping the peace amongst the other trainees - whether it’s keeping his best friend Jean on a more level-headed keel, or trying to keep the other trainees from bothering Eren when they find out that he’d seen a Titan previously. He’s shown giving advice to Jean when Jean doubts his own potential as a leader, and undoubtedly gave similar advice to others during training. He’s also shown aiding others in doing chores, though they all shared in this duty equally.
He’s also a very good observer - this talent lets him watch others to learn from them, and also to observe things about the trainees that the others miss. This ability ultimately costs him his life, due to hearing and listening in to Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt, three undercover Titan shifters in his class, during the attack on Trost.
While he’s never shown as having any especially stand-out skill areas, his ability to keep the peace and his kind but honest nature, while keeping good scores and skills above the general average trainee, lands him in the seventh spot of the sought-after top ten, and also gets him command of trainee squad nineteen. His level-headed nature meant that a lot of his classmates looked towards him for leadership, and Marco realizes that he is not a bad leader - but also that he has many other classmates that are better suited for the position of leadership. It’s this level-headed nature that lets him realize where his weak spots are, and to account for them.
In his own way, he’s also protective of the other trainees because of his supportive nature - their deaths obviously shake him up during the Titan attack on Trost, to the point where he seems to lose hope until Mikasa Ackerman and Jean Kirschtein rally them. He also protects his friends by staying calm - especially those who play ‘bait’ to the Titans during the trap the trainees set. He also sets his life on the line to save his friend, Jean, from being eaten by Titans when Jean’s 3DMG malfunctions.
It’s obvious that Marco is sheltered from the true horror of the Titans - he comes from a town called Jinae on the southern side of Wall Rose, well away from both Titan attacks, and his goal during training, to protect the people and the King, is also indicative of this. He’s teased about his goal, since many people either want to protect their homes, destroy Titans, or live a safe life.
Despite all his leadership ability and skills, he’s shown hesitating many times during the attack on Trost - often times not moving until someone else has taken the initiative. This is one of his cited weaknesses, and he’s well aware of it - even though he still ends up freezing up. His level-headed nature means that he can keep his cool once he calms himself down, but he’s still, as they say, internally freaking out - he even faints after coming face-to-muzzle with a Titan, but only after the danger has passed.
He also doesn’t go out of his way to be everyone’s best friend - while he’s undoubtedly polite to most people, he’s closer to those he gets along with, like Jean, or Armin (whom he did gear maintenance with). He also knows his limits in those ways - to not stretch himself thin trying to be everyone’s counselor.
In general, Marco is a level-headed and kind person, with the ability to lead others - but this isn’t necessarily where he’s suited best. His lack of initiative for it often means that he’s better suited in a support position - a second in command. His ability to keep calm and his bits of bravery, along with his protective nature make him a good soldier.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Alolan Vulpix with a Timid nature - Viola. Password: Atomic Fireball
Personality: From his first appearance, a few things are verifiably true about Noel. One, he seems to have a thing about falling or diving from great heights. Two, he doesn't totally get what's going on, but he is Here To Help, and thus is going to do what he can. Three, he is desperate to change the future.
Throughout XIII-2, we come to know Noel as a diligent and determined youth who has a confident, cocky streak. He has a cheerful side brought out by his traveling companions, Serah and Mog, and he has had a very lonely life. I'm going to try to explain his personality without going too deep into the story (as you already have a background link!), but the two are really linked beyond separation. Noel grew up at the edge of time and at the end of the world. He was, in his time, the last human left alive on the planet. This means from a young age, he was used to losing people. He was used to watching people go out and never come back. For that reason, he develops quick, strong attachments to people. While he doesn't know Serah for as long as a lot of the other characters in the XIII series, he comes to rely on her companionship, not just for their quest, but because she becomes someone he cares deeply about. The same can be said of Mog, of Hope, and even of Snow. Their relationship might be intensely complicated, but Noel still considers him a friend, in the loosest of terms.
Being raised in this time period, Noel has strong beliefs and convictions about the nature of life, friendship, and survival. In his first meeting with Serah, he tells her: "don't ever lay down and wait to die!" Where he comes from, trying to survive is never a question. He strongly values the ability to defend himself, and fostering the will to live in others. Where Caius wants to free Yeul from torment by eliminating the complication of time, Noel specifically wants to "be with her in the future." Having that, having "a future," is at the very core of everything he wants. He wants a world in which there is a future -- a world that doesn't end with him. He wants this to the point of being unafraid of changing the timeline, and states that even if he ceases to exist, creating a better future will have been worth it, because his world is too lonely. As a Guardian (in training), he's driven by this intense desire to make things better. To protect people. And indeed, he becomes very protective of his friends. In terms of living in a post-apocalypse, it's a survival mechanism: if he protects his friends, they will live -- and they'll also be people he can rely on.
Among other things, Noel can be described as being extremely straightforward. He doesn't beat around the bush, probably because of his lack of socialization (and, maybe, because in his time, there's really no time for subtlety). If he dislikes you, he'll tell you to your face, and he will tell you in no uncertain terms why. That being said, there are layers to that straightforward tendency, and he'll keep quite a bit of emotional response to himself (often under the guise of "personal stuff" or changing the subject). Speaking of emotional, while he can normally remain calm and collected, he does have a bit of an emotional side, too. Hard not to, when you become so attached to everyone you know. Noel takes things very personally, specifically his ability (or lack thereof) to protect the people he cares about. He blames himself for Yeul's death, and for Serah's at the end of XIII-2. This will become very, very important in just a moment.
Things change quite a bit between XIII-2 and Lightning Returns -- which makes sense, because 500 years have passed and a ton of Just Crazy Shit hath gone down. To bring story back into things for a second, Noel has inadvertently caused the end of the world as it was (although technically, it was all Caius's fault, he just forced Noel's hand, literally, but no one ever acknowledges this in canon because Noel's guilt complex is the size of a small galaxy) by way of destroying the goddess in charge of life, death, and the flow of time. People are no longer born, and people no longer die naturally. They also no longer age, which creates some incredibly creepy 500-year-old kids (and babies!). Anyway, because he killed Caius, who was blessed with the heart of the goddess, Noel logic pretty much follows as such: "I had my hand on the knife that killed Caius, therefore I killed the goddess, therefore I caused all of this and every death that's happened since it started is my fault." Yeah. Remember that guilt thing I was talking about? He cranks the volume up to 11 on that.
Surprisingly, it turns out that having 500 years to stew in your own guilt is not exactly healthy, and Noel has become much more broody and aggressive as a result. He still values life as a major principle (and becomes very hostile to some folks who are killing random people in his name; he has his own cult following, it's a long story) but when you combine valuing life and feeling like every death is your responsibility, there's only so much you can take. He's become kind of numb to it, basically: his guilt meter has filled to the top, and there's no room to add any more. So he turns to aggression and desperation. Normally, he's not usually the kind of guy who puts a lot of faith in prophecies and gods (or he wasn't, in XIII-2), but in LR, he's manipulated into it by being shown a prophecy he desperately, desperately wants to be true. It drives him to kill -- specifically, to try to kill Lightning, as is foretold in the prophecy. In the end, he's unable to go through with it, which is good because it was all fake (thanks Lumina, very cool of you). Lightning helps him let go of both his desperate want for the prophecy (of reuniting with his cherished Yeul), and his guilt. After their fight, he resolves to atone for his part in the world's ending by helping the people who are still alive, and becomes sort of a vigilante crime fighter (no capes).
By the final day, the time point I'm grabbing him from, he's become a vast, complicated combination of who he was in LR and in XIII-2. His heart is a little lighter than it was at the start of LR, but also heavier than in XIII-2. His relationships, especially with Snow and Hope (they had sort of an alliance during the 500 years between games, but it ended, uh, poorly), and Lightning of course, have become a lot more complicated. He's more aggressive than he used to be, but he no longer feels like he has to cling to his guilt. Lightning helped him restore his faith, not just in humanity, but in himself, and while he doesn't let go of all of his guilt, it no longer stands in the way of him moving forward or growing as a person.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer! Starter: Poochyena Password: atomic fireball
Player Name: Mala E-mail: when.all.your.dreams.come.true, gmail Preferred Contact:Malathyne | discord: Malathyne#3688 Timezone: CST Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Original Character Background: Link is the quintessential silent protagonist, and on top of that, there are variations on canon (such as the manga vs the games). In addition, while there are some traits that are core for every iteration of Link, there's plenty of room for differing interpretations of his personality. For my portrayal of Link, I draw almost entirely from the games (including his appearance in Twilight Princess), and here are the reasons for the approach I take to him:
The major theme I play with Link in games is centered on a feeling of not belonging anywhere. In TP, the Hero's Shade lingers on as a spirit instead of passing on due to regrets of not passing on his skills... and that he was never remembered as a hero. While this is past the canon point I'm pulling Link from, it's relevant to my interpretation. Personally, I don't think it's the fame or glory the Hero's Shade is missing, or even just plain old recognition — It's what that means for him when placed in the context of the rest of his experiences.
From childhood, Link never felt like he belonged — Among the Kokiri, he was the only one without a fairy, and picked on for that fact. Then, when his body was aged to an adult, his friends didn't recognize him, and he learned he was actually a Hylian, further proving that he didn't belong in the forest. But where he grew up isolated him from other Hylians, as he didn't know their culture and stood out with his Kokiri clothing and fairy.
Then you add in the fact that, because he was sent back to the Child Timeline at the end of OoT, no one knew of what he had done — and, more importantly, what he had gone through. The people he had made friends with had no memory of the things that happened in the other timeline, so those friendships didn't exist for them. These things would all be isolating enough, but then in Termina, similar issues crop up as Link has to reset the same three days again and again, with only Tatl remembering everything that transpired with him.
For the Hero's Shade, this means that by not being remembered as a hero, he shouldered the burden of his experiences alone, leading to him keeping to himself, initially just emotionally, but then eventually in relation to his skills, as well. It's not about his accomplishments being lost to history, because let's be honest, the story of the Hero of Time echoes throughout the rest of the series. It's about his suffering being lost to those around him when he was alive, and the effect that had on him as a person.
So let's take these issues all the way back to when he's still young, in the earliest stages of these problems — aka, my canon point. He doesn't yet have a grasp on how much these feelings will stay with him for the rest of his life. Right now, because of everything he's been through, he's a kid who had to grow up way too fast, and has forgotten by and large how to be a kid. Since the different iterations of Link are often spiritually similar simply by nature of their connection, as well as the thematic parallels between them, I take inspiration from Breath of the Wild's take on his silent protagonist role. All of that pressure, all of that isolation, and a lack of the opportunity to socialize and grow up in a non-traumatic way result in Link having a difficulty in expressing how he feels, adding to the impression that he's odd for his age. In my portrayal, his experiences have made him very mature and serious for being so young, and while he still has a very childish outlook on many things (such as a black and white view on morality, since his adventures did little to encourage a deeper understanding of such a complex subject), and is still capable of acting like a kid, these behaviors look out of place compared to his usual demeanor.
I do borrow one trait from the Majora's Mask manga, which is shown towards the beginning — Link dislikes being treated as a kid and looked down upon by adults. Given how the Kokiri react to adults (based on how they react to adult Link, who they don't recognize as their old friend), and given everything he's been through and the skills he developed through those adventures, I believe that's an entirely justified reaction for him to have, so I adopt it into my canon. Link's experiences put him in a situation where he isn't exactly a kid any more, but he isn't an adult, either... and he also doesn't really fit the "teenager" mold — He has a unique relationship with his age, and it's just one more thing that showcases (and exacerbates) his feeling of other-ness among other people.
Personality: The first thing that people notice about Link is how incredibly quiet he is. He'll speak when spoken to and answer questions, but he just doesn't talk much. He's the kind of person who only talks when he has something important to say, and then, when he does, he speaks concisely. Often times, part of the first impression that Link leaves with people is just how serious and mature he is for a kid his age. While he does have his carefree side, this usually manifests in a go-with-the-flow kind of attitude, happy to engage in friendly competition and go exploring, but just as happy to laze around (and take naps). The kind of abundant energy that people normally associate with ten-year-olds seems to almost be muted with him.
This is because Link is not as truly young as he looks, and he's endured a lot of hardship. Due to being an outcast among his peers growing up, he was picked on; all of the Kokiri had fairies, and he didn't, and so it was claimed that he wasn't really one of them. This planted a seed of loneliness in him, and the feeling that he has to work to earn kindness and friendship — to prove himself worthy. This also means he highly values the friends he does make, and rewards their friendship with unwavering loyalty. He deeply treasures his friends, showing this in his steadfastness and willingness to come running to help them whenever they need it. All he needs is that kindness and companionship; for that, he's willing to do anything.
But the difficulties in his life didn't end when he left the forest. At the age of ten, the weight of the world fell on his shoulders. Not only this, but he was locked in a stasis until he was physically seventeen so he could wield the Master Sword, and he was expected to behave as an adult. In that time, the kingdom had been covered in darkness, as the only person who could wield the sword that would stop it — Link — wasn't there. Hyrule's people suffered under the prevailing evil, and it was because he wasn't there to end it sooner, and it's up to him to save them all. As if that wasn't enough pressure on such a young mind, the adventures he struggled through to set things right forced him to grow up in a big hurry. He had to mature and leave his childhood behind far, far too early.
But his success in saving Hyrule didn't resolve his personal struggles. While he was returned to the happy, bright timeline of his youth in an attempt to grant him the rest of his childhood, it quickly became evident it wasn't that easy to give him a happy ending. In reality, this deepened his feelings of isolation, as, of course, no one in that timeline knew what happened. This meant he remembered hardships no one else did... and friendships, too. While he wouldn't wish for the friends he made to suffer like they did in the darker timeline, it meant that, for them, those friendships never existed. When his guardian fairy left, too, he truly had no one who understood what he'd been through. And, of course, these feelings persisted through his adventures in Termina, where he had to repeatedly travel back in time to save this new land and these new friends, putting him in the same situation again and again. He was a hero, but he was still an outcast everywhere he turned.
The effect all of this has on Link's personality is apparent not only in his maturity, but in the difficulty he has with expressing himself. When he has troubling thoughts, or even thoughtful insights, he struggles in sharing them with other people; he just hasn't had the experience in doing so, or even much opportunity to. He keeps a lot of things on the inside not because he's secretive, but simply because he doesn't know how to let them out.
Most of the time, when Link speaks up, it's to ask questions. He wants to understand what's around him — people, events, history, ideals, you name it. Despite everything he's gone through, there's a lot he doesn't know about life and the world around him — even the intricities of good and evil. His understanding of morality is very black and white, betraying his youth despite how serious he is. But even though he's had to grow up fast, his curiousity has never been stifled. This desire to learn helps connect him to his surroundings and those in it in a way that's much easier for him to grasp. Knowing things means he'll be better suited for whatever problems come up, which means he'll do a better job helping people.
And helping people is one of his key motivations. Link just genuinely wants to help, no matter the cost to himself — It's the root of his good nature. It's why he never turns down someone who is in need, even when he's tired to the bone, even when it's going to put him through more hardship. This is what wins over everyone, from the Kokiri he grew up with, to the people whose pots he breaks, to the people who are scared and distrustful because of how the world had treated them. He goes out of his way to help people, and, being naturally empathetic, he always makes sure to listen to them. He follows through, and he almost never asks for anything in return. Perhaps most importantly, it's all done sincerely. He doesn't know any other way to live. When he looks around and sees someone suffering... If there is the chance that he can bring them happiness and alleviate their pain, how can he say no?
But this isn't just one of his greatest strengths. Link is most often a doormat in social situations. He doesn't speak up when something hurts or troubles him, so he gets steamrolled, even by well-intentioned people. This means he doesn't stand up for himself when someone speaks badly about him, too, even if it happens to his face. He'd much rather avoid that conflict, feeling as though it wouldn't do any good, based on his experiences with his childhood bully. He prefers to put his head down and do the work that prove himself, even if the people hurting him never see or acknowledge his efforts.
This reaction showcases Link's reliable nature, though. He is a very hard worker, and not one known for giving up, even when facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Over the course of his adventures, he has learned that if he cannot do something, he simply needs to step back, re-evaluate, perhaps leave and learn some new tricks, and come back again. Adaptability and planning are both things he has come to be adept at handling. He's good at looking at a problem, weighing his options, what he can and can't do, and figuring out ways to work around what he lacks. He is always keenly aware of what's riding on him, and what's going to happen if he doesn't follow through. Given the stakes, failure has never been an option for him. His work ethic often serves as a coping mechanism for this pressure. He has to believe that there's a way forward, even if it's hard, even if it takes time. And he's always willing to put in that effort and put himself on the line. This is such a deep, lasting trait in him that he lingers on after his death as a spirit, unwilling to give up in fulfilling what he feels needs to be done: passing on his knowledge, so that his suffering continues to have meaning after he's gone.
Which brings us down to what Link is best known for, which is, of course, his bravery. It's his trademark, as showcased by the Triforce of Courage. Link is not the type of hero who makes flashy displays, and his type of courage follows suit. He is courageous in the quiet way that he continues to try, again and again, even if it means he's going to suffer, even if it means he'll receive nothing in return. It must be done, or else everyone else will suffer, too — and Link would do anything to protect those who can't protect themselves.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Honedge (female) Password: Atomic Fireball
[The blonde boy recording this video starts it apropos of nothing, no introduction, just a wide blue eyes set in a serious young face and solemn words.]
The ones the goddesses are singing.
Does anyone know their names?
[No one ever said that when the goddesses spoke to the Hylians that it would be with words. And it's true that not everyone here is a Hylian — That's obvious. But that doesn't mean they're not still chosen ones. They are, because they were all brought here, to this land full of strange new creatures. Link thinks that's why they can all hear the music, too. It has to mean something, right? Songs always do. That's why Link has been trying to learn how to play them. He's even been writing them down as he goes. But... He doesn't know their names. He doesn't know how to refer to them individually. But maybe the other chosen ones know.]
Player Name: Allen E-mail: radioactivearachnid@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Plurk, AIM, personal journal, PM, etc. Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Squirrel Girl/Doreen Green Series: Marvel 616 Timeline: Just after Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 36 Canon Resource Links:Here Subsequently, she fought Dormammu in a teamup with Loki and then teamed up with Loki and Drax to rescue Nancy from being space-kidnapped. She then helped the Silver Surfer clear his name after con-artists pretended to be him and convinced multiple alien species who had previously all hated each other to put aside their differences. Later, she and Nancy were stuck in hypertime, living out most of a lifetime in a matter of a weekend. While they were able to return to normal time and regain their youth, the fix caused them to lose their memories of the weekend.
Yet another teamup with Kraven occurred, after Doreen invited him to go along with her and her friends to an Escape Room that turned out to be run by Mojo II. After Mojo II was defeated, Kraven was arrested because of all the crimes he had committed up to that point. Doreen and her friends, who had been spenfing a lot of time trying to reform Kraven, was arrested as well for attempting to assist him. While most of them were later acquitted, Kraven himself was not, and he escaped custody. Spider-Man caught him, but was convinced by Brain Drain to let him go
She teamed up with Ms. Marvel, Inferno, and America Chavez in order to fight an Inhuman being manipulated by Arcade, and then fought Arcade himself to rescue the Inhuman. In an unrelated adventure, she encountered a ghost with the power to silence the entire city. Once she convinced her to return everything to the status quo, she got the ghost a job as a night librarian.
Original Character Background: N/A
Personality: She's incredibly determined. This is one of the major factors to her unbeatability. She does not give up until she wins. Which isn't the same thing as stubborn. She can be stubborn at times, but not giving up doesn't mean not being willing to switch tactics. If punching isn't working, try talking.. If talking isn't working, try punching. If she needs help, she will absolutely go get help. What's key is that she won't stop until she's solved whatever problem she's been presented with.
Speaking of talking, unlike many superheroes, Doreen doesn't consider violence a solution to every problem. She will definitely use it when necessary, but in many cases she feels calm, reasonable discussion works just as well in stopping crimes as knocking someone out does. Many times, even better, as someone who is just knocked out might just go and commit more crimes once they regain consciousness, but someone she's talked to and helped see another path won't.
Doreen can be impulsive. She often charges into battle without thinking, and despite the fact that she likes to talk problems out it's not always her first impulse. She's charged into battle against several cosmic entities that she had no chance of physically beating, most notably Galactus, without any real plan besides "beat him up." Not only that, but when a problem occurs she's not always likely to remember that doors exist, and has broken down several windows and walls while going after crime.
When she actually bothers, however, she's actually fairly good at planning ahead and coming up with a way to deal with an enemy. She keeps a series of trading cards on her that give a rough idea of what a villain is going to be like, keeps her head, and figures out where to go from there. She's also very good at planning on the fly, which, given her tendency to leap before looking is a necessary skill. She's also not above bouncing ideas off of people.
She can occasionally be a bit naive. She has a small issue grasping that just because she's given someone a second chance, doesn't mean everyone else will. Additionally, she occasionally needs to be reminded that talking doesn't always work and that some people just want to watch the world burn.
Lack of some sort of stimulation, like internet access or crimefighting tends to drive Doreen nuts. She craves things to do, or at least vicariously living through people doing things when she can't, and as such is a little at loose ends when she's not allowed to do either. Basically, the girl has no chill whatsoever.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Pachirisu Password: Atomic Fireball
Personality: Ray is like if a giant puppy managed to get a PhD and got really into the idea of researching ghosts. Dubbed “The Heart of the Ghostbusters”, he is incredibly childlike, finding joy in seemingly everything. Despite being an adult, he’s known for loving very childish things, like toys, cartoons, and comic books. It’s to the point where he is seen as a living charm against negative energies given off by powerful ghosts, as pointed out in the comic series Ghostbusters Crossing Over.
Ray is absolutely fascinated by the strange and paranormal. When other people are screaming in terror at a horrifying ghost or demon, Ray is acting like a child on christmas morning. He’s one of the first people to befriend Slimer and is the one that’s openly close to him. His excitement of the supernatural, however, does come at a price. He struggles to take serious situations seriously, instead of being excited when in life threatening situations with ghosts.
However he’s isn’t stupid, and behind Egon is easily the smartest member of the ghostbusters by far with a PhD in parapsychology and an MS in Mechanical Engineering. Mainly he specializes in the engineering side of the business. He created all of the ghostbusting equipment with the help of Egon, and he is the one who single handedly fixed up a new proton pack and trapper in one night with limited resources (it exploded after one use but it still worked!).
Ray is incredibly supportive of all the people he cares about, and is generally the ghostbusters the others like the most. He has his own ways of bonding with each of them, whether it’s having special shows they watch together, work on experiments with each other, or just telling jokes. Ray just loves bonding with people in however way he can.
Despite that he isn’t soft to the point of being a pushover. If something irks him he will freely voice it, whether because he sees something unjust or if he’s just annoyed by someone. He openly teases people who are mean to him (including Venkman) and makes snide comments to rude people who take advantage of others. He sometimes teams up with Venkman to tell off other people like threatening to send ghosts to a guy’s house or telling Venkman to blast Slimer after annoying him one too many times.
Also he canonically called Walter Peck “dickless” in this universe. I don’t care if The Real Ghostbusters and the movie canonically take place in different universes he still said that.
Also, while this is a point that’s just barely touched upon in the cartoon, Ray is not against performing illegal activities. The proton packs are quite basically unlicensed nuclear weapons that could literally kill people if they weren’t careful. He seems to have zero objections to building and his only ever concern of it is in the first movie when he’s worried that it might blow up upon their first usage.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Pumpkaboo Password: Atomic Fireball
[The feed opens with Ray, looking incredibly sheepish. It’s dark, wherever he is, but if you look hard enough he seems to be in the sewers.]
Uh hey everyone! Good news and bad news.
Bad news first, I guess: So I guess it’s really illegal to make proton packs in this universe.
I tried to explain to the police what was going on! Even how I’ve made them plenty times before and that the odds of it exploding was incredibly low! But she wasn’t hearing any of that and put the handcuffs on me before I could even tell her that I was only ever going to use them to blast ghosts.
It was almost kinda impressive how fast she got here, actually. I barely even got started on building the thing.
[He’s silent for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, before perking up.]
Oh right, good news! I learned today that Jackie is really good at defending me from attackers! [He deflated slightly.] She… was trying to attack that dino-kangaroo the police woman had with her… but if she’s willing to protect me from the police, I bet she’s willing to protect me from most other things! Not that I want her to fight all my battles for me, but since I won’t have any of my equipment now I have to get creative.
She’s a pretty skilled fighter too! Even without my proton pack I think I’ll be pretty safe around her.
[Distantly, someone calls his name.]
Anyway, my point of this post is that you guys probably won’t see much of me next week. See everyone later!
Player Name: Nick E-mail: glitchbirds@gmail.com Preferred Contact:glitchbirds Timezone: CST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name:Dr. Peter Venkman Series: The Real Ghostbusters Timeline: The show doesn't 100% follow a linear format but I'm saying he's somewhere from season 2. this is a Garfield-voice Peter Venkman through and through Canon Resource Links:bap
Dr. Venkman is best described as an asshole, usually while shouting and throwing something at him.
... You want more description than that? Sure, ok.
So just about everyone has seen the original Ghostbusters movie at some point. A trio of idiot scientists(and their friend/co-worker who doesn't have a PhD but has way more common sense than the three of them combined) manage to save the world from some weird dogs, demons, and a giant marshmallow man. Venkman is our protagonist/"hero"/bastard idiot man who says some one-liners, flirts with women constantly(including his own students and clients), gets slimed, and is portrayed by Bill Murray. That's Venkman in the movies.
In an episode of The Real Ghostbusters("Take Two"), Venkman watched that very movie, based off of his real experiences, and said "He doesn't look a thing like me." And he's goddamned right. Looks aren't the only difference, either. Real Ghostbusters' Venkman is more mellowed out; his insults have less bite to them and it's a lot easier to find the loyal heart under his prickly exterior. He's still full to the brim with one-liners and faux-suaveness, still lazier than the rest of the team, and still an absolute idiot half the time, but he also has the voice of Garfield now. Which is the most important change, clearly.
While this Venkman is still more than willing to flirt with a beautiful woman(or a man, tbh), he's usually more respectful and knows when to back off; unlike Prime Venkman, who doesn't know when to take no for an answer unless the woman is literally possessed by a demon, apparently. (Which, sidebar, it's my party and I can say what part of the Ghostbusters film was based on true events in-universe, and as far as I'm concerned, in-universe the whole romantic subplot with Dana was added in by meddling executives and scriptwriters who thought it'd raise too many eyebrows for these four men to be living together with no romantic relationships.
This is supported by the fact that Dana makes literally NO appearance whatsoever in the cartoon. Ever. Not even referenced, despite the fact that multiple other characters from the movies are referenced or even appear, like Walter "Dickless" Peck. Anyway /end tangent)
An important aspect of Venkman, touched upon in the films but amplified in the cartoon, is the fact that he's a conman, and a damned good one at times. His father has never made an honest dime in his god forsaken life, and while Venkman's not a huge fan of his dad, it definitely rubbed off on him. Venkman knows how to talk himself out of a bad situation, and he uses that skill liberally. Is it infallible? Hell no. But can it buy him and his partners some time to set up the ghost traps or ready the proton beams? Yep! He's also not afraid to twist some arms or blackmail someone for "the greater good", IE "keeping him and his partners out of debt and/or jail."
On a related note, he's more than willing to charge an arm and a leg for his team's ghostbusting services, even if it wildly inconveniences the clients. He's the business-minded one of the team, through and through. That said, there are times when he's willing to cut some slack- in the Boogeyman episode, when two children hire the Ghostbusters and offer all the money in their piggybank, he accepts it without complaint. Which, you know, is basic human decency, but such a thing is worth noting with a character like Venkman.
Overall, Venkman is a slacker, a bastard, an idiot, and a fool. But he's still a Ghostbuster, he can still kick some ass, he's still got two PhDs and some cleverness in him, and he's still a valuable member of the team. In his own way.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder! Starter: Wimpod! Password: Atomic Fireball!
[A live feed pops up on the network at around 3 in the morning. The camera takes a few moments to focus in on... what appears to be a lump of green slime?
The lump looks up at the camera with a dopey grin and waves, drooling yellow gunk onto the floor.
After a moment, the camera turns to face a very unimpressed, VERY slime-covered Venkman. Throughout this whole video, he tries to keep his voice down- faint snoring from Ray can be heard in the background.]
Alright. I'm not mad. Really, I'm not, I am absolutely... chill. But who's the wiseass who thought trading Ray one of these things was a good idea? Because it's not!
[He growls, frustrated, and whips the camera back over to the Alolan Grimer, which has started gnawing on his shoes. Or, well, slippers. Venkman's still clearly in pajamas. He yanks his foot away and pans the camera over to his bed, which is just... a fucking cesspool of green and yellow slime.]
You know, when I started getting adjusted here, I thought, maybe this won't be so bad! Sure, we've lost everything we've ever known, and we still don't have Winston and Janine, but there's more Slimer! No more getting slimed every morning of every day of every week of every month of every year-
[He turns the camera back to himself as he begins pacing back and forth, occasionally wincing when he steps in a pool of sludge.]
But no, now it's worse! Because this little puddle of toxic waste decided he likes me, and now he won't leave me alone! He keeps breaking out of the Pokeball Ray has, too! I can't get away from the little bastard! And Ray thinks he's so cute, too, and I can't tell him to trade it away again because then Ray'll be all depressed and look at me with those puppy-dog eyes and-
[Venkman stops himself and rubs at his face with his free hand.]
Look, just. If any of you have any tips, or tricks, or whatever to get this thing to leave me alone, please let me know. I just want to get some sleep, man.
Personality: Dr. Egon Spengler is considered the brains of the Ghostbusters, and for a good reason. He holds a PhD in parapsychology as well as numerous other doctorates. Upon first glance, Egon seems like a stiff, serious scientist, and his general social ineptitude and quiet nature doesn’t help with that image. However, upon further interaction, one will find that Egon has an incredibly dry sense of humor and uses this image to his advantage, cracking deadpan jokes and making subtle digs against other people. He also has a tendency to take his research too far, subjecting either himself or other people to dangerous and/or stressful situations for the sake of pursuing more knowledge.
Highly intelligent and curious about the unnatural world, Egon was the one who helped engineer the equipment for the Ghostbusters, such as their proton packs and the ghost containment unit. Egon also takes his research particularly seriously, and he takes every opportunity to study the strange and the unknown, even if some of his leads are actually fabricated and not the result of actual paranormal activity. However, his constant pursuit of more knowledge can sometimes mean that he...doesn’t put that many restraints on what he won’t do for the sake of further research. Of course, he doesn’t do anything immoral--no experimenting on children in a way that puts them through undue stress, no harming or killing animals--but he would’ve drilled a hole through his own head if Venkman hadn’t stopped him that one time. Also, to test the effects of human emotions on the environment around them, he once put a couple in a room under the impression that they were there for marriage counseling and watched as they argued for hours while he gradually raised the temperature of the waiting room.
Let's not even get into the slime experiments right now.
As a result of his dedication to science, Egon tends to come off as rather serious and reserved. Heck, we’re talking about a guy who said he collects spores, molds, and fungus as a hobby. But this is merely because he has some difficulty navigating everyday conversations as well as articulating his emotions concisely. When he talks about a subject he’s interested in, such as ghosts or quantum physics, usually only Ray can understand what he’s saying without any need for translation. He speaks in a very dry and straightforward manner and often offers his opinions quite bluntly, no matter what the other person may think. This doesn’t mean that Egon is entirely emotionless--in fact, it is shown that Egon has a dry sense of humor that only people who have spent a lot of time with him tend to pick up. These incidents are rare and scattered, and he tends to joke more around people he’s comfortable with talking to. Additionally, Egon is not immune to anger, having lashed out against Walter Pack after repeatedly warning him about the dangers of turning off the containment unit grid and Peck still going through with it.
He also really, really likes snacking. He’s seen frequently throughout the films munching on Twinkies, Cheez-Its, Crunch bars, so on and so forth. It’s probably necessary to give him the energy to do all his research, given that he once implied that he only sleeps for 14 minutes a day. Get this boy a snack.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder Starter: Phantump Password: Atomic fireball
Victory Road Sample: [The video feed adjusts and focused on a stoic, bespectacled individual with tall hair. In the background, one can see a small Phantump chewing on a bag of Dodritos. Not the chips--the actual bag. The man appears to be in a cave of some sort, and the feed keeps getting distorted occasionally.]
Testing, one, two, three. [The man clears his throat, adjusting his glasses.] This is Dr. Egon Spengler, Field Log A-113. I have just entered the Ruins of Alph with the ghost Pokémon I have named Faraday.
[The Phantump looks up and chirps at the sound of its name. Egon continues, turning the camera to a nearby wall with a cluster of Unown, their eyes staring unblinkingly towards the man before them.]
These Pokémon seem to resemble rudimentary letters of the alphabet for most western European languages, including English. If these Unown have existed long before humans emerged in this world, this may point to more evidence of Pokémon heavily influencing the development of human civilization. However, given the existence of “artificial” Pokémon, or Pokémon created by humans, there is also the slim possibility that early humankind somehow created these Pokémon after a pre-existing writing system and--
[The Unown suddenly begin to shift on the wall, rearranging themselves rapidly. Egon flinches back before creeping closer to the Pokémon.]
I believe they are trying to communicate with me, hold on--
[The Unown stop moving, and it’s clear that they spell out the word “BUTTS”. Egon pauses, staring at them. He says in an incredibly dry tone--]
They seem to have also developed an immature sense of humor.
Player Name: Ellie E-mail: a.lovely.decline [at] gmail [dot] com Preferred Contact:starpaths Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: none
Character Name: Romelle Series: Voltron: Legendary Defender Timeline: the end of season 7 Canon Resource Links:wiki
Personality:
Romelle comes from a colony of a few thousand, hidden from the rest of the universe for almost 10,000 years. She and the other Alteans were raised with the constant fear of being discovered by the Galra Empire, which had destroyed their home planet and killed most of the Altean people. The survivors were found and relocated to this hidden colony by Lotor, the half-Altean prince of the Galra Empire. Grateful, the rescued Alteans and their descendants have faithfully followed Lotor’s instructions, to the point where he is the de facto ruler of the colony. At some point, Lotor convinced them that another colony was necessary to ensure the future of the Altean people. Every so often, people would be chosen for this new colony and it was considered a great honor.
Despite being raised in this environment, Romelle was always skeptical and is the only one that ever questioned the truth of the other colony. She had no real evidence, only a strong feeling of wrongness. In spite of this, she didn’t waver from her conviction. As it turns out, her gut was right-- Lotor had been sending her people to a laboratory and draining them of their life-force. Knowing this, she was driven to save her people, even if they didn’t believe her. When Keith and Krolia found the colony and gave her a chance to discover the location of the “second colony,” Romelle took their offer without hesitation. She joined up with two complete strangers to leave the only home she ever knew in order to find the truth behind Lotor’s “second colony” and hopefully find a way to save her people. She’s brave, stubborn, and willing to take risks if it’s for something important to her. What’s even more interesting is that Krolia is a Galra, the sworn enemy of the Altean people, but Romelle never seemed unsettled or suspicious. Romelle is willing to let people prove themselves rather than judging them from the get-go.
Of course, there's a flip side to all of this. Even though she's brave, Romelle doesn't like taking any dangerous risks and distinctly hates the "adventures" that the Paladins go on, since they usually involve a few brushes with death. Her honesty can easily turn into being a little too blunt. Romelle tends to be that person who says what everyone is thinking. Romelle is also extremely curious. She hasn't interacted with anyone other than her fellow colonists until she meets Keith, and so she's intensely curious about everything. (There is an entire scene where she plays 'what's this button do' with the Red Lion. RIP, Lance.) It's still occasionally obvious that she grew up in an isolated settlement-- she won't understand certain idioms or will misunderstand someone's actions because she's never encountered anything similar before. Romelle has a lot to learn, but she's open to learning whatever she can.
At her core, Romelle is kind, curious, and loyal. She's willing to lend a hand to strangers, curious about the worlds (and peoples) outside of her colony, and loyal to her friends to the point of putting herself at risk for their sake.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Growlithe ♂ Password: Atomic Fireball
Player Name: Jax E-mail: smuoers@gmail.com Preferred Contact:jaxisms, PartyAmbulance#2789 on discord Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: None!
Character Name: Gary Galavant (though he just goes by 'Galavant') Series: Galavant Timeline: Start of s2 Canon Resource Links:Here. It only covers S1, but he's coming from the very first episode of S2, so not much else has happened. He and Richard have been on the ship with the pirates for several weeks in an attempt to make it back to Richard's kingdom, and upon arriving they crash the ship and are forced to walk on foot to get there. The beginning of this trek is where Gal's canonpoint is.
Personality: Galavant is, in simple terms, a jackass. He's self-serving, narcissistic, cocky, and generally just a jerk. If you ask him, he's got it all-- good looks, bravery, chiseled abs... he's the perfect hero, just as he was raised to be. All those years of looking after number one paid off perfectly.
Or, at least, that's been the case for most of his life.
Much of Gal's attitude stems from the fact that he was genuinely raised not to particularly care about anyone (other than himself, of course). Sure, he'll save people, but it's mostly for the sense of heroism he gains from doing so. And yeah, he appreciates the fact that he's loved by his entire village, but that's only because of the attention. His only company is that of his squire, Sid, and he treats him as nothing more than a manservant if he bothers to pay attention to him at all. The love of his life, Madalena, is someone he values only because of her beauty. He's never even truly discovered what her actual personality is like. All of that, coupled with the fact that he'd never really faced a hardship he couldn't overcome, meant he was very ill-prepared to deal with having things not work out in his favor for once.
Once Madalena left him, Galavant spiraled into depression. At the first sign of rejection and defeat, he gave up entirely, refusing to take care of himself or listen to others. He wouldn't even help others anymore-- he no longer cared for popularity or heroism now that he'd lost the approval of the person he valued the most (even if he did value her for petty reasons). It took time, and meeting Isabela, for Gal to really get over this. Due to his time spent with her, he's learned to listen to the expertise of others, even when they might drive him mad. He's learned that there's more value to people than what he initially judges them by, and most importantly he's become stubborn again. Gal doesn't give up easily, even when it's a hopeless situation and he's getting nothing done. He's not very cunning, but he's willing to come up with multiple plans to get out of situation (and, occasionally, even listen to others, something else he's learned from Isabela). He's not above manipulating people into helping him, though he's figuring out that genuinely appealing to them can be even more helpful than tricking them or bribing them. Most importantly, he'll literally go as far as he has to to accomplish sometime he really sets his mind to. Despite his massive ego, Gal still considers himself a hero, and that means saving people (and, you know, winning fights). He's determined, and quick to rush into danger at times because he acts too rashly.
Regardless of all he's learned, he still has a long way to go. Gal can't go very long at all without arguing with people, and he judges them very harshly, holding onto grudges for quite a while. He still values his opinion above all others, and it shows in the fact that he's not a very good listener, that and the fact that he tends to shoot down other people's ideas far too quickly. He's still self-absorbed, and incredibly abrasive and rude at times. Really, his patience for other people wears thin very quickly. He can come across as cynical because of this-- he's a realist, too, which doesn't help much. But despite it all, he's slowly becoming capable of admitting that he has flaws-- that he jumps to conclusions, that he's wrong sometimes, and that he misjudges situations and people. He still has a tendency to push people away (his general rudeness hasn't changed), but he's coming to value those who have stuck with him. Gradually, he's even becoming more aware and considerate of their feelings, and he's beginning to accept that he's a person who loves very deeply once he actually gets over himself enough to form a genuine attachment to someone. His emotions, though he tries not to show them, lie closer to the surface than he thinks-- which is part of why he's got such a short fuse and holds grudges for so long. He wounds easily, underneath all of that bravado. At his core, though, he'll always be somewhat of a stereotypical hero.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Bidoof Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: [The feed turns on to Gal squinting into the camera for a couple of seconds until he finally seems to realize that it's actually on. His eyes widen.]
Oh, good. This thing actually works. Hm. [He frowns at it, turns it over in his hands a couple of times, and then decides that the 'how's of the situation aren't so important right now.]
Right. Never mind. If anyone's listening, I have a serious problem on my hands at the moment and I need to be directed to the nearest priest immediately.
[Very slowly, he turns the feed to face... a Honedge, just nearby, kind of just chilling. Then, frantically, he turns it back to his gravely serious face.]
My sword. Has been. Possessed. Probably by a demon, maybe a ghost, I'm not going to jump to conclusions but it is definitely one of the two and I need an exorcism done as quickly as possible. I mean, have you ever heard of a hero doing hero duties without his sword? Hm? No. No, you haven't. Because they all died.
...I'm far too important to die, in case that wasn't clear already. So. [He clasps his hands together.] Nearest monastery, or cathedral, or something...? I'm flexible, really. I'd even take a freelance exorcist at this point. We're burning daylight.
Player Name: Jefferson E-mail: oampora@gmail.com Preferred Contact: plurk jeffurson Timezone: GMT Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: Gaige Series: Borderlands Timeline: Borderlands 2 post-game, after listening to Athena’s recount of the events of the Pre-sequel. Canon Resource Links:Character + General canon
Personality: Gaige, first and foremost is hardcore. She’s a self proclaimed woman of science and ass-kickery (and not of children’s beverages) that built her very own badass anti-bullying defense robot: D374-TP, or DT, or Deathtrap. Aesthetics and badassery are important to her; demonstrated most clearly in the stumbling block in building DT of putting together a digistruct spawning rod. She complained it was “inelegant, and ugly” (and too clunky and heavy to carry around) and her solution was to cut off her own arm and replace it with a mechanical one that could summon him instead. This was a decision that brought nothing but benefits for her; she gleefully spoke about how metal it was. Gaige really goes to the most lengths for her scientific passions, doing this all for a science fair project (and for showing up Marcie).
Part of her hardcore sensibilities includes being an anarchist. She’s anti-bourgeois, anti-cop, anti-capitalist, and is all about smashing the system. This isn’t entirely for aesthetics; she has a genuine interest in political dynamics and their overlaps with scientific advancements, critical of the Hyperion occupation of Pandora. The anger felt from her rival Marcie Holloway stealing her Deathtrap design was only doubled when she found out she stole it to sell to the police force as a “fascist security bot” and renamed it the “crime buster bot”, which she also hates because it’s incredibly uncreative - innovation and originality and creativity and style are just as important as politics when it comes to invention. Gaige has her heart in the right place...mostly. She objects to corruption, cheating, and Jack’s actions. Deathtrap was initially designed as an anti-bullying bot, showing she does care about the downtrodden and persecuted...it’s just that she thinks the best way to take down bullies is with claws and lasers.
Her experiences over the course of canon have only served to toughen her up and make her far more chaotic. From being freaked out at accidentally murdering Marcie at the science fair and being upset at the prospect of saying goodbye to her family, she quickly adjusted to the idea of becoming a vault hunter (forcing herself, at least for her ECHOcast, to look on the bright side of the situation) and was gleefully electrocuting, immolating, and slaughtering bandits with Deathtrap in no time, eventually boasting about her escapades (to the corpse of an assassin sent to kill her). However, as hardcore as she is, she’s still not that hardcore, ending her big victory rant against the Holloway’s assassin with an apology for killing their daughter, and apologizing to a loader robot for stealing their wig that will cause their untimely self-destruction.
Robots are super important to Gaige, Deathtrap being at the absolute top of the pyramid in her heart. She’s incredibly proud of him (he is SO MUCH more than third-place prize quality, thank you very much), chatting to him and piling on the praise whenever he gets a kill. She puts a lot of effort into his upgrades and making him as badass as possible, and treats him more as a companion than a tool or weapon. This is emphasised when, in listening to a story about an A.I. having to be forcibly erased, Gaige states she would never ever never do that to Deathtrap; his robot personality is very real and she cares about him maintaining his identity and individuality. Also, in this very same story she was listening to, as soon as robots were brought up Gaige was hooked, excitedly barging in with questions and, like the high-energy teen she is, demanding Athena get back to talking about the robot bits. Gaige is, on a wider scale, deeply interested in science and technology and especially advances in such; she thinks that she’s living in the most awesome of time periods right now with the discovery of Eridium and the Vaults and all the things to discover from that.
As far as her mannerisms go, Gaige can tend to be a little boastful, not shying away from showing off her own strengths, which lends to her developing quite the ego. (An example in one of her voicelines: “It's cool everybody. I'm here…”) However, bigger egos are easily bruised, and with her rivalry with Marcie and how she still brings it up and stings about it even after she’s dead, it’s clear that it takes a while for her to get over that kind of hurt. She is quite competitive when it comes to proving herself and her capabilities, becoming increasingly more intense in proving to the judges that her project is better than Marcie’s rip-off. Her inflated ego, at times, is also a little performative. She tries to look cool; telling her dad not to interrupt her ECHOcasts and pretending to be too mature for hot chocolate, but underneath it all she does love her dad and also that hot chocolate.
In spite of everything, in spite of being on Pandora, Gaige is still a kid after all. She gets excitable, goes off on long verbal tangents, and goofs off (cracking jokes on the battlefield, plans to build an arm for Deathtrap just for high-fives). She also takes things personally easily and is prone to hyperbole (calling Marcie laughing at and shoving her a “traumatic” experience), as well as reacting quite loudly in anger and frustration, breaking things and yelling and just having a tantrum with that reckless teen impulsiveness. And, as much as she acts like she’s too cool for them, she does care a lot about her parents in the end. Too bad their kid ended up having to flee the planet. At least she found companionship with the other vault hunters. Stopping a world takeover really brings people together.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Turtonator Password: Atomic Fireball
[The video flickers to life, and there's a young redhead leaning up against a bright red shell, throwing up a peace sign with a metal hand and the practiced familiarity of someone used to taking selfies.]
Hey guys, what's up. It's Gaige coming to you live from - [She looks around.] - Route...one? It's really just one? Ugh, I feel like we've been walking for hours! What kind of place doesn't have fast travel?
[She looks up to Turtonator, face cut off from the screen, who gives a non-committal grunt in response.]
Right, a place that's not a post-capitalist wasteland and full of people trying to kill you everywhere.
[She sighs, and shifts herself to a more comfortable position.]
I guess this planet has, like, a BIG cultural past-time of animal fighting. So far I’ve only seen guys with little worm dudes and rats but I have this big, bad-ass flamespewing Turtonator, and that’s his scientific name! It’s friggin’ TURTONATOR! AND HE BREATHES FIRE!
[The camera catches just a glimpse of the wild look in her eyes as she holds the gear up to catch the Pokemon’s face.]
Isn’t that the COOLEST. FREAKING. THING. EVER?! [She brings the camera back down to her eye level, face now set in confident determination.] Let this be a heads-up. I’m gonna assemble a team of only the most hardcore, bad-ass, metal - sometimes literally - Pokemon on this planet, and then I’m coming for all of y’all!
[She points at the screen, and fires off a finger-gun.]
Player Name: Beck E-mail: memelandiar@gmail.com Preferred Contact: Plurk @ engineblade, Discord @ krabs is a twink#6969 Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: N/A
Character Name: King Richard Series: Galavant Timeline: His canonpoint is the end of season 1 when they're getting on the boat to go with the pirates. Canon Resource Links:hewwo
Personality: Richard comes off as an extremely selfish and childish individual who hates not having his way. He's used to having nearly everything done for him, including having a servant feed him at times... which is kind of embarrassing, but you know. This isn't a total surprise considering he grew up spoiled and in a position of power, but it makes him come off as if he's not capable of much outside of sitting on a throne and telling people what to do. Honestly, he's not exactly used to or prepared for working for things in his former "perfect" little life. This guy literally has no fucking impulse control at all, considering he once straight up traded the group's most valuable possession for a bearded dragon.
He's also oblivious at times and things will just fly over his head if he's not told what's happening directly. Not that this is a huge issue, though, as the trait comes in handy sometimes if someone doesn't really want to deal with him. Though, usually later on things will click for him when he's had time to think them over. If he's in an argument of some sort and the other person begins to get more aggressive, he'll most likely back down out of fear. However, there are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between, and he usually needs a push to really get into the groove.
Rich is also extremely clingy and talkative once he opens up to people. He can come off as obnoxious and annoying, though he doesn't mean to, he just really cares way too much. He also clings to people because he knows that they'll be able to do the things he isn't able to do too. He's definitely also prone to oversharing, telling them his whole life story and more if he's in a mood. Richard also sometimes feels like he's mediocre and worthless, which that stems from the fact that as a child, he was considered everyone's second choice since, originally, Richard's brother Kingsley was supposed to be put in charge, but ultimately he was the one who got stuck with it. ....Actually, the whole "second choice" thing has bled into his adult life too, with Madalena choosing both Galavant and his own freaking brother over him. Hell, even his old kingdom fucked off and abandoned him. (For good reason, but still.)
In the end, he's just a guy who really wants to fit in but doesn't know how to fit in or what he's supposed to do, and it sucks for him.
Victory Road Sample: [The feed cuts on, revealing a man who is far too close to the camera. All you can see are his eyes.]
Oh? Is this thing finally working now? Wonderful!
[He pulls the device away, showing his full face. There's also a Druddigon in the background in the corner, beating up a tree. It's just going absolutely ham, it's fine. He turns his head for a second, pumping his fist in the air in support of his large lizard son. ]
YOU GO TAD COOPER! TEACH THAT THING A LESSON!
[Aaaand he turns back to face the camera, grin on his face.]
OH- So, this random lady who claims to be my mother and may or may not be an eldritch being gave me a really sick dragon! Like, not actually sick sick. It's the cool kind of sick, you know? Anyway, I absolutely adore it.
I named him Tad Cooper. The fiercest name for the fiercest dragon! Truly fitting indeed!
[There's a loud CRASH!!! behind him as the Druddigon finally knocks over the tree. He looks away again, hand on his cheek as he stares lovingly at his dear new dragon.]
Player Name: Katie E-mail: themadmaiden@gmail.com Preferred Contact:themadmaiden Timezone: AST Current Characters in Victory Road: Newt, Harry Mason, Dipper Pines, Alex
Character Name: Maya Series: Borderlands 2 Timeline: Post Borderlands 2 Canon Resource Links:Maya | Borderlands 2
Personality:
One of a group of vault hunters in the game, Maya is more then often the straight/serious man to the others more extreme or strange personalities. This doesn't mean she doesn't get excited or take enjoyment from things. She really enjoys using her powers when fighting. But she's more serious then most of the others. She can come off as dry and straight forward, as well as calmer and a bit sarcastic. A lot of her voice lines are generally polite at times too. Unless she gets excited or manages to get an impressive kill in, then she can get more animated. So she varies from excited murder to polite or almost clinical interest, when fighting. And despite her powers she is probably the most stable of the group. Considering the vault hunters in Borderlands 2, that might not say much.
Maya values knowledge a great deal. When asked what she's going to spend her prize money on in a dlc, she answers 'lots and lots of books' ...and also guns. She likes books, to the point where her class mods in the game take the form of books she wears on her side. In fact knowledge is the reason she's even on Pandora in the first place. She's there to find out information on sirens, because that's what she is. She knows almost nothing about them, just that they're linked to Pandora and possibly vaults. So she shows up to find out whatever she can. This ends up going as well as you would expect with Handsome Jack wanting to control/kill all sirens. Because of that, it's why she has one of the highest bounties of the party despite everyone else having worse/actual crimes. Hers is just listed as 'siren'.
Maya does not like being used by anyone. She was raised by a monastic order that said it was training her to protect people and to fight evil. And they turned out to be scaring the locals into paying them, and using her and her powers as the threat. She killed the brother in charge when she realized what was going on, they tried to get her to kill someone who clearly didn't deserve it and was terrified of her, and left. Leaving for Pandora was something she'd wanted to do for a while but was also something she'd been prevented from doing due to her loyalty to them up till that point. On the subject of betrayal, Maya is also, really not a fan, having been on Pandora for two days and deciding it's already better then the abbey because at least the bad people stab you in the front here.
She also believes that revenge is a good thing, once quoting "Someone once said, he who sets out on revenge should first dig two graves. That's a stupid-ass quote, revenge is awesome". She can also be rather sadistic when it comes to that, as when she finds the assassin sent to kill her in a dlc is dead from poison she says they're lucky because she wouldn't have made the death quick. Despite that though, it's made clear that she didn't kill everyone in the brotherhood that raised her. She just killed the ones in charge. So generally she's a goo-....let's say, not totally evil person. She just happened to travel to Pandora. World of everything/one is trying to kill you, with the added bonus of Handsome Jack's reign of terror..
Maya's powers are incredibly important to her. Which is why she's going to react oh so well to them being stripped away. They're what defined her entire life, from her birth to her present. After all it's the reason she got sent to live with the brotherhood. That doesn't mean she likes everything about them. For one thing she hates being seen as a goddess due to them. And she also hates people trying to experiment on her because of them. But she still loves her powers, she can use them to heal or to hurt people and she does both. They're awesome. They're also, as stated above a large unknown and the big mystery in her life she wants to solve. Unfortunately Pandora had more questions then answers, even if she met two other sirens, and found an element that apparently boosts their powers. (It is unknown at this time if it would affect Maya as she has never canonically used it.). So still looking for answers.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Espurr Password: Atomic Fireball
[The gear flickers on and there's a pissed off woman with blue hair glaring at the screen. She gets straight to the point.]
I'm looking for any vault hunters. If you don't know what that is, directions to a place that sells guns would be the next best thing. Whatever these creatures are here, they don't seem hostile yet, but I'm not taking my chances.
[There's a small cat like creature to her side. An Espurr that seems to be jumping up and down.]
Oh, and I'm not sure what this thing is. But I'm starting to think it ate some Eridium at some point so I'm keeping it with me just in case.
[She glances over at the Espurr and shakes her head before looking back at the camera. Her tone seems to grow darker.]
Oh and the off chance there's someone out there who knows what exactly happened to my powers and might have even been responsible? Keep this in mind. I don't need them to kill you.
Player Name: Tai E-mail: hellotaifoot@gmail.com Preferred Contact: PM to sunspotted or plurk to cocksandtaiwan Timezone: PST Current Characters in Victory Road: Marco Bott
Character Name: Jack Morrison / Soldier: 76 Series: Overwatch Timeline: After leaving Egypt with Ana Canon Resource Links:Gamepedia link
Personality: Jack Morrison was widely considered a determined and brave individual. His work ethic and courage were what got him into the Soldier Enhancement Program, America's super soldier program of the early 2000's. His quick thinking and charisma got him to lead an eclectic team of soldiers from all over the world, and was the reason he was chosen to be the head of Overwatch after the Omnic Crisis was over.
Jack before the incident was a caring, if firm, individual. He viewed it as his mission to protect the innocents of the world from the horror of war. He was protective of his friends and his team mates, which included what he knew were not entirely legal actions by his best friend, Gabriel Reyes, as head of Blackwatch, Overwatch's covert division.
At some point, public opinion turned on Overwatch, while Jack and Gabriel grew apart - especially after the supposed death of their friend Ana Amari. Meanwhile, a criminal organization named Talon put itself into public positions of power - there were even rumours they put agents in Overwatch. Jack and Gabriel came to blows in Overwatch's HQ the year before it was shut down, and during this incident the building was bombed, and both of them were considered dead.
Enter Soldier: 76.
Jack after the bombing became a vigilante going by his old SEP number, 76. He armed himself by robbing a security corporation, and begin what he deemed a clean up of criminals, as part of a vendetta against those he believes have betrayed him - mainly those in the former Blackwatch division. His view of the world is pessimistic, believing that there's no place for "heroes" or divisions like Overwatch. He's sullen, taken to drinking, but keeps photos of his old friends to reminisce over.
On top of that, while claiming there's no place for heroes anymore, he's shown to place helping civilians over pressing an attack on criminals. He also views it as his responsibility to deal with what Overwatch left in its wake, mainly Talon. However, he uses this argument of responsibility as a justification for his vendetta against them, and he's been called out for it before.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Rockruff - Bandit Password: Atomic Fireball
Personality: Dandy is not a role model, despite what his ego might try to tell him. Described as a "dandy guy in space", that somehow translates to "a big oaf who spends the majority of his time lusting after women". That's it, the biggest key factor to Dandy's personality is that he loves women, or rather he loves their bodies and has absolutely no shame in that. Constantly spouting nonsense about breasts and rears, it's almost as if he goes out of his way to show off how obnoxious he is. We never get a reason for where this love stems from, in fact we never get any sort of backstory on Dandy at all.
To no one's surprise, Dandy is therefore a huge fan of the Hooters-like space restaurant, "BooBies". He made it his goal to visit every location the chain has to offer and dreams of buying out the franchise one day. In fact, it seems like the only reason why he has a job to begin with is so he can afford to visit as much as he wants. Outright stating that he'd rather die than miss out on BooBies, Dandy has declared that no one can keep him from the restaurant against his will. In fact, it seems to be his best driving factor. If any situation can end with "you get to go to BooBies after this", then Dandy will do anything in his power to get the job done. So of course it only makes sense to send him into a game where the chain doesn't exist.
Somewhat of a free spirit, Dandy likes to live his life by going with the flow and not sweating the small stuff. It's pretty simple-minded how he views life, where he can do anything he wants because he's an adult with money, and that he's a super cool guy because he travels SPACE and hunts for super rare ALIENS. Thankfully most people don't agree with this, but that doesn't seem to deflate his self image. He doesn't care what other people think of him provided their opinions aren't harming him physically. You'd be surprised how many empires you're unaware of that want you dead for reasons unknown to you. Due to some kind of blessing, Dandy at least follows the law to a somewhat-decent degree, so his "my way or the highway" lifestyle is seen only as a big annoyance than anything harmful. He has outright stated in canon that if he wants to do something, he's going to do it. If he doesn't want to do something? He's not going to do it. That's the Dandy way of life.
The Dandy way of life also likes to throw out the "go with the flow" rule out the window once someone bruises his pride. Once someone or something threatens Dandy's ego, whether by actually being successful or gaining more attention from women, Dandy loses his cool, holds extreme grudges, and declares said someone or something his rival. He will then do everything in his power to prove himself the better person, because what else are you supposed to do? The best example of this is with a famous racer named Prince, who shows up at BooBies, grabs all the waitresses' attention, and effectively causes them to completely ignore Dandy. Without much thought, Dandy then declares himself a racer (In fact, he claims to have been one all along!) and enters the Galactic Grand Prix to one up a complete stranger. Due to his...unusual tactics, Dandy was actually able to give Prince a run for his money. Of course, this is Space Dandy so the race didn't end in any normal fashion, but if you were to ask him, Dandy would definitely say he won in the end. And then probably "baby."
Friendship is definitely something Dandy seems to struggle with, it's like he can't make friends unless you're willing to put up with his antics. And that's not even considering if he likes you in return, you could offer him your kindness in the nicest way possible and he'd still act like a complete asshole if there's something he doesn't like about you. Dandy's only "friends" appear to be his "crew", his vacuum cleaner robot named QT and a cat-like alien he calls Meow. Meow isn't even his real name, Dandy just couldn't be assed to learn how to pronounce it, thus giving him a nickname. That really goes to show you just how much Dandy cares about other people, especially the ones who he has to deal with on a daily basis. Dandy doesn't seem to like Meow much at all, constantly stating that he's lazy, a mooch, and a useless member of the team. He finds joy in purposely upsetting him, an example being visiting his family against his wishes. If anything, that just pushed Dandy into doing it even more. The more extreme example would be his lack of interest in saving Meow's life when he was eaten by a giant monster. QT explained that Meow could still very well be alive, but Dandy continued to fly off in his ship already "mourning" Meow's loss. It was only until QT reminded Dandy that Meow was also the one holding his BooBies point card that Dandy flew back to do battle with the monster.
Compared to Meow, Dandy treats QT much better, and in fact QT could very well be Dandy's only true friend. Although it seems like QT gets just as annoyed with Dandy's antics as anyone else, constantly pointing out his contradictions and poor ideas, he still stays with him regardless. This could possibly be because QT's a robot and Dandy owns him in some way, whether through purchase or other means, it's never stated. There is some sense of kindness in their relationship, though, as QT has stated that he's terribly outdated and yet Dandy still keeps him anyway. Getting another, better model doesn't even look like an option, hinting at some sort of sentimental value. On the other end of the spectrum, this is still Dandy and thus he doesn't treat QT with as much respect one normally would a friend. For example, during a zombie invasion, Dandy used QT as a shield, claiming that robots couldn't "catch zombie" and therefore it was completely okay. Never mind QT's objections or anything. ...It also turned out that Dandy was wrong.
As the series progresses, we later find out that Dandy actually cares for his two friends a lot more than he lets on. In one episode, Dandy discovers the two have been petrified and immediately becomes enraged over this, stating he wouldn't be able to smile ever again with his friends like that. This is the first time we ever hear Dandy actually call them his friends and it's interesting that it's happening during a time where Meow and QT can't hear him. He then proceeds to go out of his way to try and change them back, which involved surfing on time itself and it was all very strange, but nonetheless showed his devotion to his pals.
The more vocal of his nicer traits is his love for animals. Or animals that aren't going to eat him, anyway. He adores dogs to the point of tears, all it takes is looking into their big ol' eyes. He honestly can't understand how anyone could hate a dog, just the idea can infuriate him. He will pet and love on for hours on end and play with them like he's ten years old. On the sadder side of things, if a dog dies, he will take it pretty hard and mourn to extreme levels. Extreme, as in, he will build them a rocket out of scrap and give them a proper space funeral. Besides dogs, Dandy has expressed that he "loves birds" and has been seen absentmindedly petting Meow until he remembers he hates him again.
With other people in general, it's a little different. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how fast Dandy can get to care about someone, but so far he seems to be a sucker for sob stories. The fastest he's ever shown compassion was when he met an older alien trapped in another dimension, which he affectionately referred to as "Pops", and invited him aboard his ship after hearing his tale of loss. Pops declines in the end, but it's still somewhat of a big deal as Dandy very rarely offers people a place on his ship. Where as Adélie, a young human-like alien child Dandy was set on bringing to the registration center for big money, slowly grew on him over time. Their relationship starts off rocky, Dandy even outright stating that he hates kids and that Adélie was no exception. As time went on, Dandy learns how the little girl was on her own since her mother passed away and slowly finds himself getting attached, even taking the time to stop at carnivals and such for her. He then spends an entire night searching for her grandfather and then helps protect her from other, less friendly alien hunters. Eventually, once everything is settled, he lets her go with her grandfather without having to stop by the registration center despite all the money he'd be losing. Considering Dandy's love of money as it's his ticket into BooBies and how difficult it is to score big bucks when it comes to alien hunting, this is a huge deal for him and shows just how much he's willing to care. Just...don't expect it often.
When it comes to actually showing affection towards people, Dandy is much more subtle about it than he is with animals. He will never actually state out loud that he cares about someone, instead he rather show it through his actions. Anything from buying presents to taking them out, all the way to risking his neck out for someone, just don't expect Dandy to spell it out for you. In fact, he might still try to make you believe that he doesn't care while proving the exact opposite through his actions. Why Dandy chooses to hide this softer side is never given.
Dandy also has a number of hobbies and interests that factor into his personality. The most obvious one is his love for Hawaii, seen in the way he names his ships, decorates his interior, and his strong passion for surfing. He's also a giant child and has a toys scattered throughout his ship and get excited over things like carnivals and video games. He's been noted to be into popular "geeky" fandoms such as Star Wars and Chuck Norris movies (the cartoon comes up specifically). A little less embarrassing, he's very talented vocally and has had huge musical numbers at least twice in the series, including releasing a one hit wonder.
The biggest surprise ends up being just how smart Dandy really is. You really wouldn't think someone like him would understand something as big as physics, but Dandy has a very deep understanding of how the universe works. Or rather, he understands how warping works, which involves interdimensional travel. Of course, he's still Dandy, so if he ever does have to explain anything, he might use stuffed animals in his examples.
All in all, Dandy is a complex person who's very hard on the outside, but soft on the inside. He wants to come off as cool, mean and aggressive, but can't always hide his need to pet something soft or help someone who really needs it.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Deino Reasoning: I'm looking to parallel Dandy's whole "most powerful being in the universe" thing. Dandy's body is composed of a powerful particle called pyonium, which allows him to do things as extraordinary as destroy and rebuild universes. The thing is, Dandy himself is normally unaware/doesn't care/simply forgets about this, and it often goes ignored until outside forces trigger it. In relation to his pokemon, the idea is that even though he's starting with one that can evolve into something with devastating power (Hydreigon especially in this case, since it's always noted to destroy everything in its Pokedex entries), Dandy being himself has no plans of evolving his little critter. Mostly for stupid Dandy-style reasons like how chicks dig cute animals, more mouths means spending more money on food, etc. The joke is he has this pokemon that COULD become a pseudo-legendary, but he would rather goof off and play with it and style its hair instead. Password: Atomic Fireball
[The feed snaps on to show Dandy sitting outside, behind him his little pokemon playing in the grass. As cute as it is, it's not important, at least as far as Dandy's concerned. That's probably why he moves the feed a little so it cuts her out of the picture completely.]
...I keep hearing about these "legendary" monsters, and by the sound of things, they gotta be pretty rare. [His eyes are closed and he's stroking his chin at this point. The overconfident smirk on his face is evidence enough that he hasn't noticed he let the angle slip a little, showing that his pokemon has started sneaking over...] I don't mean to brag, but I've tangled with all sorts of rare alie-- stuff, so it only makes sense that it's gonna be Dandy who wrangles 'em in.
Try not to be too heartbroken, these things have been around for...what? Ever? It's about time someone actually steps up and--
[Before he can continue, his own pokemon has decided to "step up" and end the madness, the screen suddenly shaking as it's now in the unrelenting jaws of a very playful deino. Dandy's efforts to retrieve his device can be heard over the shaking, the sound of the wind intensifying as she starts running faster.]
Son of a-- HEY!! Drop it!! DROP IT!!
[His cries are in vain, it almost sounds like his partner is snickering. Forget legendaries, somebody play with her already!!]
Player Name: Nick E-mail: bosche.louis(at)g-mail Preferred Contact:creatorofathousanduniverses Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: None
Character Name: Britt Reid Series: The Green Hornet (Film) Timeline: His canonpoint is at the end of the movie. Canon Resource Links:Movie Info
Britt Reid is the son of the owner of a newspaper. Recently, that man died, leaving Britt in charge of the newspaper, something he doesn’t want to do, but he gives it a try anyway...not very effectively, because he’s not used to having to work. One night, he and his family’s mechanic ruin a man’s attempt to rob, and the excitement they felt while doing that leads to them turning into vigilantes – and because it’s not like they have anything better to do. He chooses the name ‘the Green Hornet’ and makes himself look like another criminal.
During the film, he gets himself into trouble with the city’s criminal kingpin, since he fought many of his underlings. He survives all the fights and problems, mostly because of his sidekick’s many talents. When his actions lead to seven innocent people getting killed simply because they were wearing green, Britt starts taking vigilantism more seriously, and starts improving as a person.
Near the end, he finds closure about his strained relationship with his father, seeing the better traits that man had, and kills the person responsible for his father’s death. His sidekick and him continue their activities, end credits.
Personality: Britt Reid is not a good person. Sure, he’s on the side of, uh, good, but he’s not a good person. The main motivation for him to be a vigilante is because of the excitement he felt at first, coupled with the feeling he is bored. During the movie such motivation doesn’t change much.
Britt is rather selfish, seems to look down on everyone, and doesn’t care much about other people’s feelings. He’s not willing to share credit – at first – and refuses to take responsibility for his own acts. He’s even aware he can drive people away with his actions, but he doesn’t care too much about that, even if it’s a person he needs to rely on, like his sidekick. Britt's selfishness is displayed mostly because with his actions and words he shows to be rather self-centered. He mistakenly believes the world revolves around him, so to say, and when something doesn't go the way he wants, he's willing to discard it as if it never happened. He hired an assistant with the only purpose to give him ideas on what to do as the Green Hornet, but during his disagreement with Kato he fires said assistant despite everything she had done for him -- unwittingly, since she didn't know his vigilante role. He also pushes most of the work in the newspaper onto his subordinates, partly because he has absolutely no idea what to do, and partly because he doesn't even want to know what to do.
Another prominent moment shows quite well how useless Britt can be when he isn't taking things as seriously as he should. After the narrowly averted deaths they almost suffered at the hands of Chudnovsky's mob, Britt and his sidekick Kato return to Britt's mansion. Britt blames Kato for the failure of the meeting, even though Kato had warned him it was better not to go. He kept accusing Kato of trying to overshadow him, that he was doing nothing useful, when Kato was the one who had done most of the work because Britt was useless and his only suggestion had been to put ejector seats in their car. This led to Britt and Kato having a rather intense fight around the house, hitting each other with everything they could reach and both resisting a lot of punishment.
He’s not entirely stupid, though. He can have a few sparks of brilliance, such as when he decided to make the Green Hornet be known as a villain instead of a superhero, so he doesn’t get targeted by criminals. He can manipulate people into doing what he wants them to do. Given some time, he even can do deductions and get to accurate conclusions, even though...it’d take him a while.
His morality is...uh, not very good. As a vigilante who aims to fight criminals, he and his sidekick are aware hurting and even killing criminals can happen, and they’re not particularly concerned about the legality of such act – although they only do that when they’re attacked, so it’s more like self-defense. He’s personally responsible for the death of at least one person. He doesn’t want to get caught by the police, but at the same time he wants a bit of recognition for what he does.
All in all, Britt Reid is a very flawed person, yet ultimately he’s on the side of, uh, the law? Even though he breaks said law a lot.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Weedle Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: [Britt Reid isn't the brightest guy ever, but even he can see there's something off about his newly evolved Pokemon. Or perhaps that's not the right word? It's more of a petty complaint, all things considered.
He's standing outside a Pokemart and, when someone he thinks would give him some of their time approaches, he gets their attention, waving his hands around]
You, come here for a sec and take a good look at him.
[He points with a finger at the Beedrill flying in circles around. He evolved not too long ago and is getting used to the wings, and seeing how his trainer was busy freaking out about minor details...he planned to be up there for a while]
What bug is this?
[No matter what answer he receives, it's unlikely he'll be satisfied. With a huff, Britt points again at his Beedrill, sounding rather exasperated]
That's not a bee! What kind of bee has these...drill thingies? Besides, it doesn't look like a bee at all. He's more like a wasp.
[Someone sensible would point out it's supposed to be called Beedrill]
That's bullshit. Whoever named those had never seen a bee ever before. This should be, I dunno, Hornetdrill. Or Waspdrill. Anything that isn't a bee. This is stupid.
[Indeed, Britt, it's stupid, but not for the reasons you're thinking]
At least it’s badass. Nobody in their right mind would dare attack a wasp larger than their heads, and if anyone tries we’re gonna kick their ass. You wanna battle? I want to see what he can do now. Come on, just one fight. I’ll even pay you if you win.
[It’s defeatist, but he knows he’s not invincible. There’s a chance they’re going to lose, even though his Pokemon is much stronger now. The point is to see Beedrill’s new skills, he’s willing to accept a loss if he needs to]
Player Name: Danny E-mail: n/a Preferred Contact: behelit @ plurk Timezone: CST Current Characters in Victory Road: Bertolt Hoover
Character Name: Demyx Series: Kingdom Hearts Timeline: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Day #153 Canon Resource Links:Demyx & Kingdom Hearts IIKHDays
Personality: At first glance, Demyx looks and behaves just like any ordinary person. He can laugh, whine, get angry, and of course cry and whine for someone to do the simplest of tasks for him. Just his appearance alone screams SLACKER, from his mullet that should've been left in the 80s down to how he slouches in chairs or on couches with his sitar. He's the guy who'd sooner face every illness in history than go do actual work (even if the chances of that ploy succeeding are none to slim) and if that failed, push said work on another Organization member ("Investigating suspicious spots is the first lesson in Recon 101! (Getting somebody else to do it for you is lesson number two.") or go play hooky. Hell, sometimes he'll even hide in a closet until he thinks it's safe to go back out! Really, he ought to care about his lack of a work ethic but the chances of that happening... Eugh, let's not think about that. Don't even think about sticking him with a job that requires physical work too, because he'll nope out of that before you can blink. He'll just be over there catching some Z's or huddle up in a corner with a few comic books.
His work ethic aside, he's a pretty decent guy at heart, even a little clueless at times. In the events when he befriends someone, it's pretty hard to tell if it's a genuine friendship or if it's for his own personal gain for one very important reason;
Being a decent guy at heart? That's mostly a lie. Why? Because he doesn't have one.
...Er, he has a physical one, but he lacks the ability to feel emotions no matter how hard he tries and no matter how often he pretends thanks to having it stolen who-knows-how-long-ago. In a sense he does have them, but they only exist as memories from his life as a human which at this point is shrouded in darkness. Because he (like other Nobodies) can fake how he feels, it's hard to get a bead on what kind of a person he really is, but he's rarely seen acting like a heartless person. No matter how many times his fellow Nobodies in the Organization tell him to stop clinging to his human memories and acting like he actually cares, he'll either laugh it off and claim that they really do have hearts, or he'll flat out ignore them. It isn't until Sora confronts him about it that he drops his "We do too have hearts" spiel and we see how cold he really is. Another instance is when it's revealed that the members who were sent to Castle Oblivion had been wiped out, he seems happy that Larxene was gone and again when it's revealed that Xion was a replica; "All this time, I've been talking to a puppet... Intense."
When it comes down to it, he only looks out for himself when the going gets tough. (What's that, buddy? You got in trouble with the cops? I'll be sure to visit you in jail!) To him, his existence matters more than anything else - if he ceased to exist, how would he ever get his heart, the one thing every Nobody longs for back? An instance of this is when Roxas was at Olympus Coliseum and he approached Roxas after he was done messing around in the Games. When Roxas asked why he didn't help out? "I was, uh...cheering you on! Couldn't you hear me?" Yeah, sure. If he's given the option of fight or flight, you can bet your bottom that he'll always choose flight. (Really, just get rid of the fight option all together. It'll always be Flight or Flight). However if he's forced to fight, it's best to not take him lightly. Hell, it's generally a good idea to not piss off the guy like Demyx to begin with - not only does he hide his true intentions, but when he controls water itself, well... It won't be pretty. As far as he's concerned it's always better to act weak and stupid rather than let on that he's got a pretty strong backbone and brains, otherwise he might have to do actual work.
At the same time, the whole... 'no hearts' thing has been revealed to be in the gray area in a sense; while Nobodies are lacking hearts, it's been confirmed that it's possibly for a Nobody to actually 'regrow' their hearts as time went on - something Xemnas had kept his mouth shut about. That just brings into question how many of Demyx's emotions and reactions are faked, which ones were actually real, and how far along he was in regaining his heart.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Lotad Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample: This sample must take place in Victory Road's setting and can be EITHER a written post OR another thread if you would prefer not to write a post. The minimum is 300 words for a prose sample, eight sentences for a network post/actionspam sample, or ten comments total (five from you) in an RP sample. What we are looking for here is how the character responds to the Pokéworld's setting. You can also use a Victory Road test drive thread for this sample, but you cannot use the same thread for the first sample above.
[The Pokegear's video feed starts off with a bit of static, but then a few seconds later the beady eyes of a Lotad come into view. It stares into the camera for a long minute, and then it gives a curious burp. Is this a food? It's a food, isn't it? The Lotad continues to stare for a bit longer, gives the camera a lick, grimaces, and toddles away to show a figure in a black coat rooting around in his backpack with most of its contents strewn about.]
C'mon, where is it...
[The Lotad makes another burping-slash-chirp noise to get his attention - over here, doofus!]
Huh? Oh!
[JUST... give him a second to crawl over and grab that Pokegear and dust the screen off. Is it scratched? Nah, it's good! Phew!]
There it is! Thanks, dude. Now, let's see... [His brows furrow a bit, and after a few moments of thought he reaches up to knock his hood back so he can get a better, proper look at the pokegear.] That's that... This is... Ah! Wait, is this recording!? [Another chirping sound - yes, it is! It's been recording this whole time, dummy!] Okay! Uh... Hey, is there anyone out there? I dunno who's phone or whatever this is, but I got a few questions and I'll give it back, I swear.
[He stands up and ends up wobbling off balance for a second, causing the camera to flip around once or twice until he regains his balance. That almost ended badly!]
Whoa, okay-- Uh, anyway, first things first; where am I, and how do I go back? And what's with the walking lilypad? Don't get me wrong he's cute, but I dddddon't think I can have pets back at the castle. At least not without X-Face chewing me out...
Player Name: Kiyuu E-mail: kiyuuchan@gmail.com Preferred Contact:Kiyuukins Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Character Name: Lena de Spell Series: Ducktales (2017) Timeline: post-"The Shadow War!" Canon Resource Links:Lena @ Wiki
Personality: In the words of her best friend Webby, Lena can best be described as "a noble teen ne'er do well that can break into anything - including your heart". She's kind of a punk, kind of a trouble maker, has a lot of secrets... but when it all comes down to it, Lena is a good girl who just wants her freedom, friends, and to keep those friends safe.
When first met, Lena comes off as nothing more than the previously noted troublemaker. She writes distress notes and throws them into the ocean in bottles for fun, convinces Webby to crash a junkyard party (without telling her it's a party for Ma Beagle, one of Scrooge's enemies), and mocks the triplets the moment she meets them. She's very blunt, a bit rude in her interactions with others, and very quickly gets labeled a bad influence by Mrs Beakley. Lena doesn't care, though; she seems to enjoy getting into trouble, and will happily drag Webby into it with her, just to get the other duckling to loosen up a bit.
... Except actually, she kind of does care, and she's more than some little punk on the inside.
To say Lena is "troubled" is an incredible understatement. Living under the thumb of her highly abusive (emotionally and physically), highly evil "aunt" Magica De Spell has left Lena kind of a mess. Lena is terrified of her aunt, to the point where she starts crying when Magica pulls her in close - for what turns out to be a hug, but even then Lena is stiff and unresponsive to such gestures. She tells Webby in one episode that she's "not a hugger", and while the comment is brushed off as part of Lena's tough loner attitude, it's clear that the comment has some level of seriousness to it; Lena's not used to much positive physical contact, having only known Magica's harsh treatment all her life. Unsurprisingly, this has led Lena to have some... complicated views when it comes to family. At first, she just thinks family is just bad news, and not really something she cares about. After all, who would care about family when they have the (literal) shadow of someone like Magica de Spell hanging over them?
But Lena puts up with the abuse, because Magica bribes her with what she wants most in the world: freedom. Lena craves freedom, she does bad things despite hating it purely because she wants to be away from Magica. Even as Magica's power grows, and she's able to control and possess Lena, she still fights, showing that, for all the terrible things she's been put through, Lena is remarkably strong-willed. She may fall in line for a time, but that doesn't usually last long. This attitude also bleeds into a bit of a stubborn streak; she can stark with the best of them, whether it's with the triplets or Mrs Beakley or Magica herself. Much of her aloof teenage attitude may be a bit forced, but this at least is real.
If there's one thing that Lena values as much as - if not more than - her freedom, it's her friendship with Webby. Webby is her best friend, probably her first real friend, and it's thanks to this friendship that Lena was able to break free of her aunt. Spending time with Webby gave Lena a reprieve from the duty forced upon her, it made her see what real family was like, made her see that while family can fight they can still love each other and come together... so great is her care for Webby that Lena dies to protect Webby from Magica. And not even that was enough to keep her down; she continues to live on in Webby's shadow, because their friendship is that strong that not even death can separate her from her best friend.
Despite the strong will, despite the snark and her surprisingly soft center and her desire to do good instead of bad... Lena doesn't really have much self-worth, or even seem to like herself. In one episode, when trapped in her own worst nightmare, Lena imagines Webby (granted, a Webby being controlled by Magica) calling her a coward, a traitor, a monster no better than her aunt. Lena doesn't even argue these accusations - the closer she becomes to the Duck-McDuck clan, the more conflicted she feels, and the more she clearly thinks of herself as someone pretty awful, undeserving of the attention and offer of family given to her.
All in all, Lena takes "troubled youth" to a new level, but it's only really the scars left by Magica holding her in that dark, broody attitude. With enough time and healing, she'll certainly be able to find her place among the other plucky trouble-magnets that bring adventure and danger to Duckburg.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Gastly Password: Atomic Fireball
so hey, what's with the weird alien stuff i mean i figured any kind of weird shadow world would be pretty wonky but this is a whole other story with the lack of feathers and beak and the weird feet and all that and it's a lot more colorful than i thought it'd be?? crazy
[She's going to stick to "shadow world" instead of "afterlife", because... mmm. That's not something she's willing to unpack just yet. She's still trying to deal with the fact that Magica sucked her back into her shadow; the whole hit point black with a murder-spell later is something she's just. Going to repress for now.
It's good, it's fine, she's used to trying to repress the horrific stuff that happens to her.]
is waking up in a weird place and then being booted to the curb and told to go on an adventure, like a thing here because it's a pretty weird thing and trust me, i know a lot about weird things
[Action]
[You know the great thing about texting like that?? You can pretend to be totally cool when you're really not actually. As soon as she sends that out, as soon as she can find a nice quiet place behind a nearby building, away from the sun or light or anything that can cast a shadow, Lena collapses against the closest wall, sliding down until she's seated and hands pressed to her mouth.
breathe, breathe, you have to breathe, you're not a shadow anymore--
It's not just the changes that are freaking her out. It's not losing her beak, her feathers, having nothing but the mop of pink-streaked white-blonde hair and pale skin without anything covering it. She... she died, twice over, trying to fight back against her aunt and trying to protect these people who care about her for some reason and who she doesn't deserve. She was gone, she was nothing, so why... how...?
Lena never really thought she'd be out from under Magica's control. It was something she always hoped for, the thing she did countless horrible deeds for... but a part of her knew that she'd never really be free. But now here she is, away from Magica and Duckburg and everything and everyone she's ever known, and she doesn't know what to do.
She'd gotten her wish, in the most unconventional way possible... but it doesn't feel as good as it should.]
Player Name: Dante E-mail: TheIrradiated@gmail.com Preferred Contact:teenysanguini Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: n/a
Character Name: Webby Vanderquack Series: Ducktales Timeline: Immediately after The Shadow War! Canon Resource Links:Here!
Personality:
Webby Vanderquack is the granddaughter of Scrooge's housekeeper, Mrs. Beakley. She's very adventurous, energetic, and knowledgeable of other cultures and ancient civilizations, including knowing several languages. She's always eager to learn and experience new cultures and traditions whenever she encounters them. Her grandmother also has Webby trained in a variety of skills, from survival to espionage, such as knowing how to untie herself when captured or using night vision googles. Unfortunately, Webby has spent most of her life coped up in the McDuck mansion. It isn't until Huey, Dewey, and Louie revive Scrooge's taste for treasure hunting that Webby gets to experience adventuring for herself, and put that training and knowledge to use. This leads to Webby's constant craving for a good adventure.*
Webby makes it clear from the very beginning that her hobby is researching the McDuck family, especially Scrooge himself. This research is not only what she's been doing her whole life, but she seems to be an obsessed fan of Scrooge. She's memorized how his tea is made, and tries drinking a whole pot of tea in front of him to impress Scrooge, despite not liking tea herself. Every bit of information she collects about the McDuck family, no matter how small, she keeps on a bulletin board. To Webby, information on the McDuck family is as valuable to her as money is to Scrooge. She's delighted when she confirms his favorite smell, and even secretly tries to collect Scrooge's drool samples. When they visit Scrooge's parents, all the new information she could learn about the McDuck family is so overwhelming that it sends Webby into a happiness "coma", leaving her unable to do any new research on the McDuck clan. Webby's obsession with learning all the secrets of the McDuck family could be considered her biggest weakness. If there's new information to gain about Scrooge's family, she will go to any lengths for it. When Scrooge leaves his number one dime in a bin filled with dangerous artifacts, Lena manages to convince Webby that they should go looking for it, despite Webby knowing that the "other bin" is off-limits to anyone other than Scrooge. Despite this, she agrees to take Lena to go looking for it, unable to resist seeing the dime up close.*
However, while Webby is incredibly skilled at researching, she has very little people skills due to never being allowed outside the McDuck mansion until recently. She can be overbearing with her sheer excitement, assume things too quickly about people, and just not respect other people's personal space. Even simple kid games Webby can take too far, such as using night vision googles and her hookshot for a game of foam dart guns. Her intensity during games sometimes makes the triplets afraid of her.*
Also because Webby's life experiences are limited to the crazy adventures of Scrooge McDuck, she sometimes thinks certain situations are weirder than they actually are, and doesn't bother asking questions first. She accuses Dewey of being from an alternate dimension when he pretends to not know Louie and Huey. She also refuses to believe that the Terrafirmians that live beneath Duckburg may just be a myth and dismisses any scientific explanation that Huey tries to gives her.*
Webby also usually tries to assume the best in people, unless there's obvious evidence they might be evil or untrustworthy. That leads her to getting fooled a lot. She never suspects that Lena has anything to do with Magica, despite Lena's attempts to get Scrooge's prized dime. And while her and Louie are trying to figure out if Glomgold had amnesia or is faking it, Louie lists off the number of times Glomgold disguised himself and Webby fell for it. Even after Scrooge and his family have a huge fight, where Scrooge tells Webby she's not family, Webby still tries to stick up for Scrooge and tries to help reunite the family.*
Webby gets excited for normal, mundane experiences simply because she's never experienced them before, and that gets her into trouble. While she's thrilled about her first bus ride, she and the boys end up getting kicked off because Webby swings around on the hanging straps, licks a pole, and bothers the other passengers. At Funso's Fun Zone, it gets even worse. Louie tries to get her to lie for a free drink, and she messes it up by strongly hinting that she wants fruit punch instead of a free water. She uses her hookshot to escape a ball pit, and ends up hitting the Funso's mascot when he gets too close to her.
Despite how socially awkward she is, she really does want to fit in with the boys. She tries her best to "act normal" for them, and feels awful when she messes it up. Even after she and the boys get captured by the Beagle Boys, she tries to tie herself back up after escaping because she thinks the boys will judge her for being too weird. Webby cares a lot about what the boys think of her. Until they came along, Webby didn't have much - if any - interactions with other children. She tries include herself in Huey, Dewey, and Louie's family dynamic. clearly wanting the relationship they have with each other. While the triplets make in-jokes about a previous boating trip, Webby adopts their story and tells it to Lena, before admitting she didn't understand it. And when the triplets have an "only child day", Webby panics and thinks that they're breaking up. She chases Dewey around in a robot, trying to teach him a lesson about how he needs his siblings, because some people (Webby) would do anything to have siblings of their own. Most of all, it really seems that Webby wants a friend of her own that she can relate to and have a special bond with, just like how the triplets have each other.
While Webby does grow closer to the boys, it's Lena that fills the role of Webby's best friend. From their first meeting, Webby is completely enamored with Lena, rambling on nervously while she talks to her. And while off on their own little adventure while escaping the Beagle Boys, Lena and Webby form a pretty close bond with each other. Over time, Webby becomes closer and more affectionate with Lena. Webby even uses the power of their friendship to stop a rampaging magical money shark, just because she treasures it so much. Which is why it genuinely hurts Webby when she later finds out that her friend was secretly working for Magica the entire time. This revelation comes after Scrooge lashes out and tells her that she wasn't family. The heartbreak is enough to throw Webby into a rage when she confronts Magica, who reveals that her friend wasn't even real. It isn't until Lena sacrifices herself that Webby both realizes that she didn't need to doubt Lena, and that she may have lost her friend for good this time.
Overall, Webby has grown a lot in the short time the boys, Donald, and Scrooge have been together. She's lost a lot, but has also gained a place in their family as well. No matter how bad things get, Webby is always a dependable ally.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Ponyta Password: Atomic Fireball
Player Name: Daniel E-mail: Please PM if you need it! Preferred Contact:halcyonesselion Timezone: EST (UTC-5; UTC-4 when observing Daylight Saving Time during the summer) Current Characters in Victory Road: none!
Character Name: Harald Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Timeline: As his d-wheel’s engine explodes from the stress of creating the Bifröst Bridge Canon Resource Links:Here’s Harald’s wiki page! The wiki uses dub names, so for the sake of reference, Halldor and Brodor refer to Harald and Brave (the latter of which I mention cause I bring him up later). There are minor spoilers for the end of 5Ds on Harald’s wiki page, which is to be expected, but it felt worth mentioning nonetheless!
Personality:
Harald’s ability to remain calm in stressful situations is his most frequently demonstrated trait throughout his screen time in 5Ds, and it serves him well as the leader of a Duellist team devoted to preventing the end of the world. He frequently discusses details of the world’s demise with both a dire urgency and a level tone, and the foreboding reality of his predestined fate never outwardly shakes his nerves. He’s capable of acting on a whim in a calculated manner when faced with a life-threatening situation; an example of this would be when, during his time as a pilot in the Swedish Air Force, he fired his rockets to clear his partner’s flight path of an obstacle that appeared due to temporal meddling by Yliaster. His level-headedness also plays into his strategic capabilities, allowing him to reform his card combos in the heat of a Duel while hardly breaking a sweat. No matter how many times he and Yuusei break down each other’s strategies in their Duel, both of them constantly adjust their next movements in order to defend against their opponent while preparing for the final blow. Harald is constantly aware of every option he has, and his card effects aid him in knowing his opponent’s every option as well, allowing him to form near-perfect counters to everything he might come across (even if he still loses in the end). One might not describe Harald as being “level-headed” in a Duel in the most traditional sense, however: though Harald doesn’t panic or lose his cool, in Duels very specifically he seems to be filled with an energy that outright betrays his Shonen-typical stoicism. He’s most expressive in this particular atmosphere, but this eccentricity of his does not cloud his judgement.
Harald’s aforementioned Duel with Yuusei demonstrates another of his strongest qualities: his determination to succeed never falters until failure crushes him. No matter what is asked of him, Harald will take steps to follow through with it in order to meet his goals. He travels the world to find the exact two people he needs to form Team Ragnarok and save the world; and even before that he goes on what 5Ds references as a “Duel Pilgrimage” where he lives among the most destitute and experiences their struggles, all to prove himself to Odin so that he may bear the god’s power. Sometimes, however, this hardiness rears its head as a force of dangerous tenacity. Harald’s greatest flaws manifest in various forms of stubbornness borne from a strict adherence to his own standards. The aforementioned examples of his determination can be interpreted as excessive, for instance; Harald does exactly what he believes is right and refuses to stray from that set path. His incredible ability to strategise and fight until the very last card is also in part due to his insistence that the fate of the world must fall in the hands of his team, and he’ll do anything to prove that.
Resources of any kind mean little to him in the face of his own sense of right and wrong so long as the outcome benefits his cause. After the incident with the rockets, Harald is scolded by his superior for firing without permission, and in that very moment Harald decides that military might cannot save this world and leaves the military on the spot. His search for Dragan and Brave can also be cited as an example of his “no spared expense” attitude. At his canon point, especially, he and his team use the energy of their gods combined with reverse-rotation Momentum - the latter of which previously split Domino City in half and unleashed gods from the underworld - to form the Bifröst Bridge for Team 5Ds to ride up to the Arc Cradle, and while Team Ragnarok is later shown to be fine and safe, they had to endure what appeared to be electric shocks the entire time that they form this bridge. It doesn’t matter what methods are necessary and what the potential consequences might be; as long as there is a sliver of a chance that it could work to the benefit of their final mission, Harald will grasp at it.
All of this is in his previously-stated insistence that his beliefs are absolute and that the words of god and destiny are law. Everything he does is in the name of his fate to prevent the end of the world, no matter what hardships he must face in the meantime. The words of Odin always come first, even to his own detriment; this is why Team Ragnarok refuses the help of and even looks down upon Team 5Ds at first: because the gods do not trust them to be reliable allies. It isn’t until Harald is bested in a Duel that he must acknowledge that Team 5Ds is on an equal level of skill as himself, for the proof is right there in his - and Odin’s - face. He isn’t so arrogant as to deny his moments of weakness, but only the most blatant evidence will dissuade him from that which his god has told him.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Breeder! Starter: Goomy || Nidhögg (Hogs) Password: Atomic Fireball
Victory Road Sample:Harald’s toplevel on the Feb-Mar VR TDM! Despite this being a link to a comment, I’d like for these prompts to be treated as prose/actionspam samples instead of a thread sample, as I don’t have enough comments for the latter!
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
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.
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.
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indigo_league) wrote2016-05-03 09:48 pm
APPLICATIONS! 
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