marco (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tradecraftdude) wrote2013-02-16 06:41 pm
tradecraftdude) wrote2013-02-16 06:41 pm
[outsiders] application + revisions
Player Info
Name: Charlie
OOC Journal:drawzel
Over 18? Certainly.
Email/IM/Plurk:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
drawzel
Current characters: n/a
Character Info
Name: Marco
Canon: Animorphs
Age: 13
Canon/AU/CR AU: Canon AU
Reference: Marco and Canon AU
Canon Point: Immediately post-death, Megamorphs #4
World Information: In the mid 90s, Earth is the current stage for an intergalactic war, but the majority of the human race remains oblivious. The aggressors are the Yeerks, a parasitic species whose physical forms are blind, deaf slugs with the ability to enter a sentient creature’s ear and take over its brain. Though content to live in a symbiotic relationship with the Gedds, a crude bipedal species from their home world, they were given access to space-travel technology by an Andalite named Seerow. They started to roam the galaxy, dominating planets by infesting their inhabitants and either destroying or re-forming the planet in the likeness of their own. They have one main weak spot: they must leave their host body at least once every three days to feed from a pool fed by rays from Kandrona, the sun of their homeworld, or a substitute Kandrona source.
The Andalites are a technologically advanced race, appearing like a blue centaur with a bladed tail and multiple eyes. Their most well-known technology is morphing, a process of transforming one’s body into another creature through DNA manipulation. They are highly arrogant and self-centered due to their technological prowess and position as galactic police, but also maintain deep adherence to codes of honor and responsibility. After presenting the Yeerks with their vehicle for malicious galactic domination, the Andalites shouldered the burden of fighting against the Yeerks and formed the Law of Seerow’s Kindness, forbidding any sharing of Andalite technology with another race.
Prior to reaching Earth, the Yeerks made allies of Taxxons, a cannibalistic race of giant worm-like creatures, and fully enslaved the Hork-Bajir, a genetically engineered dull-witted race of peaceful tree-harvesters that proved to have excellent combat potential with their strong, heavily-bladed bodies. The infestation of Earth began two years before the start of the series, overseen by Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller in existence. No uninfested humans are aware of the invasion; recruitment and infestation take place through the Sharing, a front organization that offers nice, wholesome family bonding and improvement of everyone’s unhappy modern lives. Despite being weak and crude in comparison to other races, humans appealed to Yeerks due to the vast number of viable hosts available.
In the original canon timeline, a fated gathering of five loosely-connected teenagers put them in contact with the mortally wounded Andalite warrior-prince Elfangor, who chose to break Seerow's Kindness in order to grant morphing powers to what he saw as humanity's last chance to defend itself from the Yeerks. The five kids included Marco, his best friend Jake, Jake's cousin Rachel, Rachel's best friend Cassie, and Tobias, a loner who happened to tag along. Marco nicknamed the group Animorphs, as in animal morphers, and they proceeded to wage a long guerilla war against the Yeerk invasion.
Personality: At first glance, Marco is an annoying jokester who never misses an opportunity to make fun of or complain about anything in his environment, including himself. However, his outward persona is almost entirely a coping mechanism for dealing with fear, grief, and the irrationalities of life. He has a fast and analytic mind, giving him a strong ability to see the most direct path from point A to point B. His actions and strategies often seem cold and lacking in basic morality on the surface, as he tends to make critical decisions by completely detaching his emotions from the equation, but his primary motivations are to stick to the bigger picture, rather than sweat over the finer details of each piece. As a result, his tactics are incredibly pragmatic, with a subtle elegance that only he seems to appreciate.
Most of Marco’s behavior come from a high sense of self-preservation, backed by obsessive caution and paranoia. He is usually the most reluctant to plunge forward into a situation before a thorough calculation of risks, preferring to have all options considered and sorted out into neat little piles rather than rely on emotional or instinctive whims. He's also enthusiastically willing to voice his concerns; while the other Animorphs will make decisions based on ethics, heroics, or pure adrenaline, he feels obliged to stick to practicality. This manifests in whining about petty discomforts, pretending to drag his feet, or offering to share his excess fear with Rachel. In the earlier stages of the war, he frequently reminded the others that he felt there was more at stake for his life than anyone else, since losing his mother a couple of years prior meant he was all his father had left. Others see his reluctance as childish, despite the fact that they're all obviously too young to handle such a burden, while he believes his fears are born out of encountering tragedy they haven't experienced.
He's not a coward, though, and has proven dedication and focus to anything he cares about, including unflagging loyalty to his friends and family. He was the first to point out that Jake's brother Tom had been infested, forcing Jake to deal with it even though the accusation put a momentary strain on their friendship. It was the promise of helping Jake rescue Tom that got Marco to stick by the Animorphs in the beginning, even after arguing vehemently against any involvement with the Yeerks. He only continues in the war upon discovering that his mother never died, but was instead infested by Visser One, the first Yeerk to begin the invasion of earth; his dedication to fighting the Yeerks was fueled almost solely by his conviction that he would eventually rescue her.
Once Marco has decided to do something, he doesn't let his emotions crowd the line from A to B. On that note, good luck getting him to spend any time or energy on something he doesn't care about. His tendency to speak his mind without much filter earns him a reputation as an annoying idiot, and his ruthlessness when it comes to getting the job done sometimes alienates him from the rest of the group. Despite that, it's clear that his intentions are generally for good, and any trouble he causes is mostly harmless fun.
When he's not in such a serious situation, Marco has no problems running his mouth, talking huge shit about himself, reminding people how awesome he is, projecting a slightly inappropriate amount of self-confidence, and acting a lot bigger and more important than being a scrawny little half-pubescent boy. Without impetus to do something greater in life, he's perfectly happy playing video games and vegging out in front of the television indefinitely, and is well-accustomed to the soft, domestic, mall-crawling suburban life. The mysterious disappearance and presumed death of his mother, followed by his father's emotional breakdown, taught him that there's nothing in the world he can depend on more than himself, and he willfully interprets life as a comedy to avoid seeing it as a tragedy. He only holds grudges a little bit, and there isn't much he can't bounce back from.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitations:
Marco is a completely mundane adolescent male human. He has no superhuman abilities, though he is a highly skilled bullshitter, can crush basically anyone in video games, and has the makings of a talented tactician. He's good with computers for his age and time period, which isn't really saying a lot, but he knows how the internet works and has shown promise as a hacker.
His avid consumption of superhero comics and spy novels makes him think he knows everything there is about both, and, astoundingly, the sheer volume of otherwise useless facts he has packed into his head has actually come in handy sometimes.
He is terrible at spelling, driving, and asking out girls, though he doesn't seem to be aware of those faults. He also doesn't know how to swim.
Inventory:
Clothing and pocket lint.
Appearance:
A short, scrawny 13 year old half-Hispanic boy with long dark hair and an irresistibly cute face. His PB is Joseph Gordon-Levitt during his early 3rd Rock from the Sun role.
Alternate Universe Info
If AU, how is your version different from canon, and how will that come across?
Megamorphs #4 presents an alternate universe in which the initial event that created the Animorphs never happened; instead of becoming animal-morphing teenagers who find themselves burdened with saving the planet from alien infestation, the main characters remain, at first, oblivious to the invasion. However, the formation of the alternate universe was inherently unstable, and its corrupt nature causes the altered timeline to continue trying to snap back into the original one. Strange things happen that eventually tip off the not-Animorphs to the invasion, and because they were fated to be the Yeerk resistance regardless of circumstance, they still end up fighting against the Yeerks.
Though the majority of this application applies to Marco's development over the series as a whole, there's plenty of evidence that the critical moment of gaining morphing powers didn't greatly influence his core character. When he suddenly encounters his supposedly dead mother, he abandons everything to chase after her, and maintains a focused plan of pursuit with Rachel despite experiencing obvious emotional turmoil. After suspecting that Jake's brother is involved in sketchy business, Marco maintains a level-headed caution when helping Jake search for clues, accurately guessing at hidden traps left around to detect whether or not anyone's been snooping.
At this point, Marco knows that there are aliens invading the planet, many of whom have and are still trying to kill him. Without much time to fully process the implications, he's adjusted immediately to the situation and is ready to move forward. Unfortunately, since his morphing abilities were the only thing keeping him alive in the original timeline, he is quickly killed in the alternate.
Samples
Log Sample: Saturday was already half over, but Marco had sweated away most of the morning trying to fix a flat tire on his bicycle that refused to inflate. He could have just sucked it up and taken the bus to the mall, but all of the quarters he had carefully collected over the week were dedicated to a very specific set of tasks: beating the snot out of Jake, iteratively, with a particular sequence of characters they pre-determined upon examination of the new Mortal Kombat 3 machine that just arrived at the food court.
"Are you seriously kidding me??" he yelled at the sky in frustration; just as the bead had set on the stupid gimp tire, one of the rusty old brake cables snapped under pressure. "Next Christmas: new bicycle prioritized over new video games."
Who was he kidding? He'd never think about bicycles by the time Christmas rolled around. Was it time to screw the bike and hop on the bus? Precious moments were being lost, all time that Jake might have been spending on totally unfair practice in his tardiness.
He shuffled through his pockets to count his change again. Taking the bus would cost him half of what he had, but would save him four times as much time as it would take for him to walk to the mall. But then he wouldn't have any money to get back home, unless he saved a quarter to call his dad for a ride.
Or declare that the loser of their match had to bike the winner home on his handlebars.
Yes, that was it! He'd take the bus to keep Jake from getting any more of a lead than he already must have had, beat the snot out of him as planned, then win himself a nice, easy ride home. Nothing was wrong with this plan.
Network Sample:[ sorry, network, you're going to get assaulted with some horrible chatspeak today. ]
hahaha ur kiddnig me rite? 1 sec im runnin away from aliens n then im kidnapped in2 space? cool free computer tho
no ratelimiting? no txt lmit?
hey check this out
.
.
.
.
.
yep totally no ratelimiting space is gr8
so i totally thought the aliens were trying 2 kill me but they haven't yet? r they just gonna fatten me up n eat me now?
neway im totally 2 young n 2 cute 2 work so some1 plz lemme no the standard get rich quik protocols
Name: Charlie
OOC Journal:
drawzelOver 18? Certainly.
Email/IM/Plurk:
Current characters: n/a
Character Info
Name: Marco
Canon: Animorphs
Age: 13
Canon/AU/CR AU: Canon AU
Reference: Marco and Canon AU
Canon Point: Immediately post-death, Megamorphs #4
World Information: In the mid 90s, Earth is the current stage for an intergalactic war, but the majority of the human race remains oblivious. The aggressors are the Yeerks, a parasitic species whose physical forms are blind, deaf slugs with the ability to enter a sentient creature’s ear and take over its brain. Though content to live in a symbiotic relationship with the Gedds, a crude bipedal species from their home world, they were given access to space-travel technology by an Andalite named Seerow. They started to roam the galaxy, dominating planets by infesting their inhabitants and either destroying or re-forming the planet in the likeness of their own. They have one main weak spot: they must leave their host body at least once every three days to feed from a pool fed by rays from Kandrona, the sun of their homeworld, or a substitute Kandrona source.
The Andalites are a technologically advanced race, appearing like a blue centaur with a bladed tail and multiple eyes. Their most well-known technology is morphing, a process of transforming one’s body into another creature through DNA manipulation. They are highly arrogant and self-centered due to their technological prowess and position as galactic police, but also maintain deep adherence to codes of honor and responsibility. After presenting the Yeerks with their vehicle for malicious galactic domination, the Andalites shouldered the burden of fighting against the Yeerks and formed the Law of Seerow’s Kindness, forbidding any sharing of Andalite technology with another race.
Prior to reaching Earth, the Yeerks made allies of Taxxons, a cannibalistic race of giant worm-like creatures, and fully enslaved the Hork-Bajir, a genetically engineered dull-witted race of peaceful tree-harvesters that proved to have excellent combat potential with their strong, heavily-bladed bodies. The infestation of Earth began two years before the start of the series, overseen by Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller in existence. No uninfested humans are aware of the invasion; recruitment and infestation take place through the Sharing, a front organization that offers nice, wholesome family bonding and improvement of everyone’s unhappy modern lives. Despite being weak and crude in comparison to other races, humans appealed to Yeerks due to the vast number of viable hosts available.
In the original canon timeline, a fated gathering of five loosely-connected teenagers put them in contact with the mortally wounded Andalite warrior-prince Elfangor, who chose to break Seerow's Kindness in order to grant morphing powers to what he saw as humanity's last chance to defend itself from the Yeerks. The five kids included Marco, his best friend Jake, Jake's cousin Rachel, Rachel's best friend Cassie, and Tobias, a loner who happened to tag along. Marco nicknamed the group Animorphs, as in animal morphers, and they proceeded to wage a long guerilla war against the Yeerk invasion.
Personality: At first glance, Marco is an annoying jokester who never misses an opportunity to make fun of or complain about anything in his environment, including himself. However, his outward persona is almost entirely a coping mechanism for dealing with fear, grief, and the irrationalities of life. He has a fast and analytic mind, giving him a strong ability to see the most direct path from point A to point B. His actions and strategies often seem cold and lacking in basic morality on the surface, as he tends to make critical decisions by completely detaching his emotions from the equation, but his primary motivations are to stick to the bigger picture, rather than sweat over the finer details of each piece. As a result, his tactics are incredibly pragmatic, with a subtle elegance that only he seems to appreciate.
Most of Marco’s behavior come from a high sense of self-preservation, backed by obsessive caution and paranoia. He is usually the most reluctant to plunge forward into a situation before a thorough calculation of risks, preferring to have all options considered and sorted out into neat little piles rather than rely on emotional or instinctive whims. He's also enthusiastically willing to voice his concerns; while the other Animorphs will make decisions based on ethics, heroics, or pure adrenaline, he feels obliged to stick to practicality. This manifests in whining about petty discomforts, pretending to drag his feet, or offering to share his excess fear with Rachel. In the earlier stages of the war, he frequently reminded the others that he felt there was more at stake for his life than anyone else, since losing his mother a couple of years prior meant he was all his father had left. Others see his reluctance as childish, despite the fact that they're all obviously too young to handle such a burden, while he believes his fears are born out of encountering tragedy they haven't experienced.
He's not a coward, though, and has proven dedication and focus to anything he cares about, including unflagging loyalty to his friends and family. He was the first to point out that Jake's brother Tom had been infested, forcing Jake to deal with it even though the accusation put a momentary strain on their friendship. It was the promise of helping Jake rescue Tom that got Marco to stick by the Animorphs in the beginning, even after arguing vehemently against any involvement with the Yeerks. He only continues in the war upon discovering that his mother never died, but was instead infested by Visser One, the first Yeerk to begin the invasion of earth; his dedication to fighting the Yeerks was fueled almost solely by his conviction that he would eventually rescue her.
Once Marco has decided to do something, he doesn't let his emotions crowd the line from A to B. On that note, good luck getting him to spend any time or energy on something he doesn't care about. His tendency to speak his mind without much filter earns him a reputation as an annoying idiot, and his ruthlessness when it comes to getting the job done sometimes alienates him from the rest of the group. Despite that, it's clear that his intentions are generally for good, and any trouble he causes is mostly harmless fun.
When he's not in such a serious situation, Marco has no problems running his mouth, talking huge shit about himself, reminding people how awesome he is, projecting a slightly inappropriate amount of self-confidence, and acting a lot bigger and more important than being a scrawny little half-pubescent boy. Without impetus to do something greater in life, he's perfectly happy playing video games and vegging out in front of the television indefinitely, and is well-accustomed to the soft, domestic, mall-crawling suburban life. The mysterious disappearance and presumed death of his mother, followed by his father's emotional breakdown, taught him that there's nothing in the world he can depend on more than himself, and he willfully interprets life as a comedy to avoid seeing it as a tragedy. He only holds grudges a little bit, and there isn't much he can't bounce back from.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitations:
Marco is a completely mundane adolescent male human. He has no superhuman abilities, though he is a highly skilled bullshitter, can crush basically anyone in video games, and has the makings of a talented tactician. He's good with computers for his age and time period, which isn't really saying a lot, but he knows how the internet works and has shown promise as a hacker.
His avid consumption of superhero comics and spy novels makes him think he knows everything there is about both, and, astoundingly, the sheer volume of otherwise useless facts he has packed into his head has actually come in handy sometimes.
He is terrible at spelling, driving, and asking out girls, though he doesn't seem to be aware of those faults. He also doesn't know how to swim.
Inventory:
Clothing and pocket lint.
Appearance:
A short, scrawny 13 year old half-Hispanic boy with long dark hair and an irresistibly cute face. His PB is Joseph Gordon-Levitt during his early 3rd Rock from the Sun role.
Alternate Universe Info
If AU, how is your version different from canon, and how will that come across?
Megamorphs #4 presents an alternate universe in which the initial event that created the Animorphs never happened; instead of becoming animal-morphing teenagers who find themselves burdened with saving the planet from alien infestation, the main characters remain, at first, oblivious to the invasion. However, the formation of the alternate universe was inherently unstable, and its corrupt nature causes the altered timeline to continue trying to snap back into the original one. Strange things happen that eventually tip off the not-Animorphs to the invasion, and because they were fated to be the Yeerk resistance regardless of circumstance, they still end up fighting against the Yeerks.
Though the majority of this application applies to Marco's development over the series as a whole, there's plenty of evidence that the critical moment of gaining morphing powers didn't greatly influence his core character. When he suddenly encounters his supposedly dead mother, he abandons everything to chase after her, and maintains a focused plan of pursuit with Rachel despite experiencing obvious emotional turmoil. After suspecting that Jake's brother is involved in sketchy business, Marco maintains a level-headed caution when helping Jake search for clues, accurately guessing at hidden traps left around to detect whether or not anyone's been snooping.
At this point, Marco knows that there are aliens invading the planet, many of whom have and are still trying to kill him. Without much time to fully process the implications, he's adjusted immediately to the situation and is ready to move forward. Unfortunately, since his morphing abilities were the only thing keeping him alive in the original timeline, he is quickly killed in the alternate.
Samples
Log Sample: Saturday was already half over, but Marco had sweated away most of the morning trying to fix a flat tire on his bicycle that refused to inflate. He could have just sucked it up and taken the bus to the mall, but all of the quarters he had carefully collected over the week were dedicated to a very specific set of tasks: beating the snot out of Jake, iteratively, with a particular sequence of characters they pre-determined upon examination of the new Mortal Kombat 3 machine that just arrived at the food court.
"Are you seriously kidding me??" he yelled at the sky in frustration; just as the bead had set on the stupid gimp tire, one of the rusty old brake cables snapped under pressure. "Next Christmas: new bicycle prioritized over new video games."
Who was he kidding? He'd never think about bicycles by the time Christmas rolled around. Was it time to screw the bike and hop on the bus? Precious moments were being lost, all time that Jake might have been spending on totally unfair practice in his tardiness.
He shuffled through his pockets to count his change again. Taking the bus would cost him half of what he had, but would save him four times as much time as it would take for him to walk to the mall. But then he wouldn't have any money to get back home, unless he saved a quarter to call his dad for a ride.
Or declare that the loser of their match had to bike the winner home on his handlebars.
Yes, that was it! He'd take the bus to keep Jake from getting any more of a lead than he already must have had, beat the snot out of him as planned, then win himself a nice, easy ride home. Nothing was wrong with this plan.
Network Sample:[ sorry, network, you're going to get assaulted with some horrible chatspeak today. ]
hahaha ur kiddnig me rite? 1 sec im runnin away from aliens n then im kidnapped in2 space? cool free computer tho
no ratelimiting? no txt lmit?
hey check this out
.
.
.
.
.
yep totally no ratelimiting space is gr8
so i totally thought the aliens were trying 2 kill me but they haven't yet? r they just gonna fatten me up n eat me now?
neway im totally 2 young n 2 cute 2 work so some1 plz lemme no the standard get rich quik protocols