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Jarjammed app
Sep. 30th, 2012 08:33 pmPLAYER INFO:
Name: Moxie
Preferred pronoun: she/her
Preferred means of contact: AIM: stormqueenofeuropa
Any other characters currently in-game? no!
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Tarvek Sturmvoraus
Gender: male
Source: Girl Genius
Canon point: During the battle of Mechanicsburg, just post-kiss with Agatha when he left her to work on the castle
Age: 22 (ish)
Colour: 9a0003
Chumhandle: mechanicalMuse
History: I profusely apologize for how complicated Tarvek's backstory is. I couldn't possibly hope to explain it all properly and clearly by myself so I shall guide you through some wiki pages with commentary. Tarvek is the heir of Sturmvoraus House, the Prince Aaronev being the man he calls father. His actual relationship to the prince is unclear, owing to the obvious signs of Tarvek being an experiment in lab-based eugenics. He claims he is The Storm King (rightful ruler of all Europa, descendant of the last king who brought true peace and caretaker of Van Rijn's famous Muses) on his mother's side, but the legend tells of no born heir to Andronicus Valois, so it's pretty suspect.
He was taken away at a young age by the current tyrant ruler of Europa, Klaus Wulfenbach, to be raised with many of the other young minds on his flying airship. It was partially diplomacy, partially kidnapping and partially grooming/brainwashing, but Tarvek was glad to be away from all the conspiracy(but wait there's more) at home. He befriended the 'orphan' Gilgamesh Holzfaller, who turned out to be Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, the son and heir of Baron Klaus. While trying to discover the truth behind Gil's identity, each of the boys thought the other had betrayed him and both were left lonely and bitter. Back at Sturmhalten, Tarvek lived in more of the same, being controlled and watched and friendless. When he came to university age, he traveled to Paris for education. There, he encountered Gil again, but this time they developed a rivalry. A very outspoken and over-the-top rivalry that involves a lot of insulting the other for their sexual habits.
Tarvek left Paris when news of his sister came to him. After building her the clank body, he stayed at home to watch her and to keep an eye on his father. All of the conspiring and plotting and insanity come to a head when Agatha Heterodyne shows up in disguise in a travelling circus. She ends up possessed by her mother, who is revealed to be Europa's greatest enemy The Other, Lucrezia Mongfish. Tarvek at first sees her as his chance to fix the Muses and with help, but as thing descend into chaos he finds himself seeing her as The True Hope for Europa, and his greatest hope for controlling his own crown. He also finds himself in love.
So he helps Agatha escape and deal with Lucrezia (or does his best), while also protecting his own hide from Lucrezia's priestesses and various minions. He's severely injured and while the comic is busy not paying attention, he is placed in the hospital under the care of his cousin and bodyguard. With her help (and the help of her special Smoke Knight drugs) he's on his feet and getting into Castle Heterodyne himself to help her. Where he proceeds to get very very sick, and almost die quite a few times (and actually die only once), along with the rest of them. The Castle gets fixed, though its energy resources are depleted, and a full-out battle begins to take place at Mechanicsburg, which only seems to get worse and worse. After a particularly close shave in a flaming airship with a wasp queen, he finally confesses his feelings to Agatha and both decides and states his intention to win her heart, despite Gil's previous similar intentions. It is around this time, when Tarvek is hard at work trying to bring a powerless Castle back to life, that Tarvek finds himself in an unexpected world.
Personality: Tarvek would have you believe that he is a highly confident, all-for-show, well spoken but not necessarily dangerous princeling of Sturmhalten. Just good enough at everything he's meant to do, but never good enough to surpass those who would seek to control him. And he would have you led astray. Though Tarvek is, indeed, confident in most things, that confidence is more of an armor then anything else. He's humble when it comes to his true talents and he believes himself unworthy at times when it comes to positive interpersonal treatment.
Many years spend in a family of individuals of increasing levels of abusive treatment has left it's mark on him. As has being betrayed thoroughly by not only his best friend, but the only friend Tarvek had ever allowed himself to have (the only person who had ever bothered to try, repeatedly, to be his friend.) He keeps his true motivations hidden, even from those he claims to trust and who he obviously has the best intentions for. He finds holding onto expectations even when they're false and damaging to be more comfortable then acting truthfully and facing his own feelings and mistakes. And he is driven by feelings, no matter how much he tries to hide it.
Even after years of mutually carrying the grudge forged by that failed childhood friendship, Tarvek would drop everything without hesitation to save Gilgamesh's life. He would even lay down his whole life to make sure that Gil and Agatha would be safe, and clearly still trusts Gil enough to trust him to Agatha, a girl he has shown us he cares about more then everyone else he's ever loved combined. Of course he didn't bother to tell her that. And neither he nor Gil stopped for more then a moment to discuss where they stood after Tarvek offers his life in exchange for theirs. I did mention he's the worst at talking about his feelings, right?
Tarvek's problem when it comes to emotions is that he also doesn't trust pretty much anyone (another lovely side effect of his childhood treatment and his abandonment complex), so that when he does find himself properly caring about someone, he cares about them too much. To the extend where he is often casual about his own well-being if it means giving to those he cares about. He puts everything he is and he has into the people he's let himself love, and he's completely rubbish at telling them that, or even at times showing it to them. He'd rather improve their lives from the shadows or some other safe position of removal then allow himself any of the thanks for it. All that is starting to change, however, thanks to one golden-haired madgirl with her own hero complex.
Abilities & physical limitations: Tarvek, just like his cousins who have served his family as body guards for generations, has been trained in the art of Smoke Knights. Put simply he's a fucking ninja. He's learned stealth combat techniques and the highest grade of slight of hand. He knows about all sorts of poisons, can hide in all sorts of interesting places (like the rafters) and he can high kick so well it would put a can-can dancer to shame. He tones it down because he believes his greatest weapon is to be underestimated but he is a brilliant hand-to-hand fighter and is more skilled then he lets on with knives. He's also a Spark, which means he's incredibly intelligent and can essentially lose his mind over fascinating technology. He's a specialized Mad Scientist and his specialization is AI automatons. He also has a bit of a Spark for fashion (though his taste in colors and fabric can be questionable).
He's terrified of flying and incapable of driving any sort of vehicle. He also wears glasses, in the form of pince-nez, and evidence seems to point more to farsightedness then nearsightedness. He wore them as a kid while reading, can see perfectly fine with only the tiny pince-nez on in general, and can read the whole sweep of a war table better then most from a distance, but has to squint through the glass while working on a project.
Appearance: Oh look some pictures of Tarvek
Notable AU differences from canon, if applicable: no AUs here.
Strife Specibus:bootkind/fistkind
Prototyping: Weaselsprite
After escaping the burning blimp, a few of the little wasp-sniffing weasels stayed in his pockets, and one of them ended up in the kernel sprite. Weaselsprite "skreeee"s quite a lot, especially when excited.
Title: Sheik of Smoke
In-game abilities: Sheik is an active class, and a Sheik player has control or manipulation over their aspect. Smoke is an aspect of obstruction and blindness. It is the aspect of disappearance and sneakiness. Smoke burns your eyes and darkens everything, bending the light so that everything appears off from where it really is, if it can in fact be seen at all.
A Sheik of Smoke is a master of disguise. He controls that refraction and blindness and can, at his best, make himself or a close chosen object completely invisible. At God Tier he can even pull a whole radius into obscurity. At the lower levels, the Sheik of Smoke is lucky if he can cover up the whole of his own person, and not just seem to be missing a body part. Sometimes the attempt to hide can glitch or backfire and the player will end up only distorted as though seen through smoke. They'll appear unclear and fuzzy, as though refracted poorly. Then the hero of Smoke looks silly, and not invisible at all.
Planet: The Land of Myth and Lightning
The planet is covered with a permanent cloud cover and fog, grey lighting and wet air, but never has it properly rained. There are legends about the way things are meant to be, of quaking thunderstorms that are meant to cover the whole planet, fill the moors, and hail the health of the Ruler of the land. As it is now, the sky is grey and distant thunder can be heard, but never do the storms come, no matter how much it feels like it will rain. The lucky inhabitant has seen a flicker of distant lightning, but even those have become the stuff of stories. The land itself is covered in moors marshes with towering rune-covered stone henges and crumbling castles. Somewhere in the wilds of the planet the hedges and dried streams start making a pattern, threading into concentric circles around a central object: a huge circular stone table.
The inhabitants are small pachyderm-like critters called mimmoths. Like the extinct earth mammals their name resembles, they are furry, long-nosed, and tusked. Unlike the wooly mammoth, however, they are much smaller. Mimmoths range in size from house rats to meduim sized dogs. They're very pet-like and quite friendly. They like their furry trunks petted and will follow each other in a line like baby elephants, holding the tails of the one in front. They are true lovers of stories, the more mythologized and grandiose the better. Stories of the court and grand adventures with an obvious Good Guy and Bad Guy are their favorites. If these consorts ever grow unruly or upset themselves into a panic (sometimes they stampede in little furry mass), the most effective way to pacify them is to offer to tell them a story and make it good.They themselves like to create new 'myths' for their land, formed in patchwork from other legends they've heard and sensationalized stories they've been told.
The Denizen of LOMAL is a serpent king, usurper of the land and greedy theft of prosperity. Legend says he used evil powers to trap the lightning into a crown that he wears on his head, keeping the beauty and power of the land all for himself. When the true King of the Land returns, and slays the false king, the crown of lightning will release its energy back into the land through its true king, who in his own way is the land.
It is Tarvek's land quest to vanquish the false king and take the throne as the true king of the lightning crown, so that the storms may return. He must complete a series of quests to prepare himself for the final battle and for his 'role' as king. These quests are mostly born in legend in their symbolism and sometimes in their application, and those familiar with the history of the "once and future king" trope will find they recognize them. The point of these quests and of their relationship to legend is to force Tarvek to learn to stop living in the grey areas and allow himself to become a pure hero and accept that he is a good person and not let his heavy heart prevent that or haunt him. He will be challenged to use his aspect toward that goal and not let his given powers define or control him as a shadow or an anti-hero.
RP Sample:
That One Time Test Drive Meme Happened
Name: Moxie
Preferred pronoun: she/her
Preferred means of contact: AIM: stormqueenofeuropa
Any other characters currently in-game? no!
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Tarvek Sturmvoraus
Gender: male
Source: Girl Genius
Canon point: During the battle of Mechanicsburg, just post-kiss with Agatha when he left her to work on the castle
Age: 22 (ish)
Colour: 9a0003
Chumhandle: mechanicalMuse
History: I profusely apologize for how complicated Tarvek's backstory is. I couldn't possibly hope to explain it all properly and clearly by myself so I shall guide you through some wiki pages with commentary. Tarvek is the heir of Sturmvoraus House, the Prince Aaronev being the man he calls father. His actual relationship to the prince is unclear, owing to the obvious signs of Tarvek being an experiment in lab-based eugenics. He claims he is The Storm King (rightful ruler of all Europa, descendant of the last king who brought true peace and caretaker of Van Rijn's famous Muses) on his mother's side, but the legend tells of no born heir to Andronicus Valois, so it's pretty suspect.
He was taken away at a young age by the current tyrant ruler of Europa, Klaus Wulfenbach, to be raised with many of the other young minds on his flying airship. It was partially diplomacy, partially kidnapping and partially grooming/brainwashing, but Tarvek was glad to be away from all the conspiracy(but wait there's more) at home. He befriended the 'orphan' Gilgamesh Holzfaller, who turned out to be Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, the son and heir of Baron Klaus. While trying to discover the truth behind Gil's identity, each of the boys thought the other had betrayed him and both were left lonely and bitter. Back at Sturmhalten, Tarvek lived in more of the same, being controlled and watched and friendless. When he came to university age, he traveled to Paris for education. There, he encountered Gil again, but this time they developed a rivalry. A very outspoken and over-the-top rivalry that involves a lot of insulting the other for their sexual habits.
Tarvek left Paris when news of his sister came to him. After building her the clank body, he stayed at home to watch her and to keep an eye on his father. All of the conspiring and plotting and insanity come to a head when Agatha Heterodyne shows up in disguise in a travelling circus. She ends up possessed by her mother, who is revealed to be Europa's greatest enemy The Other, Lucrezia Mongfish. Tarvek at first sees her as his chance to fix the Muses and with help, but as thing descend into chaos he finds himself seeing her as The True Hope for Europa, and his greatest hope for controlling his own crown. He also finds himself in love.
So he helps Agatha escape and deal with Lucrezia (or does his best), while also protecting his own hide from Lucrezia's priestesses and various minions. He's severely injured and while the comic is busy not paying attention, he is placed in the hospital under the care of his cousin and bodyguard. With her help (and the help of her special Smoke Knight drugs) he's on his feet and getting into Castle Heterodyne himself to help her. Where he proceeds to get very very sick, and almost die quite a few times (and actually die only once), along with the rest of them. The Castle gets fixed, though its energy resources are depleted, and a full-out battle begins to take place at Mechanicsburg, which only seems to get worse and worse. After a particularly close shave in a flaming airship with a wasp queen, he finally confesses his feelings to Agatha and both decides and states his intention to win her heart, despite Gil's previous similar intentions. It is around this time, when Tarvek is hard at work trying to bring a powerless Castle back to life, that Tarvek finds himself in an unexpected world.
Personality: Tarvek would have you believe that he is a highly confident, all-for-show, well spoken but not necessarily dangerous princeling of Sturmhalten. Just good enough at everything he's meant to do, but never good enough to surpass those who would seek to control him. And he would have you led astray. Though Tarvek is, indeed, confident in most things, that confidence is more of an armor then anything else. He's humble when it comes to his true talents and he believes himself unworthy at times when it comes to positive interpersonal treatment.
Many years spend in a family of individuals of increasing levels of abusive treatment has left it's mark on him. As has being betrayed thoroughly by not only his best friend, but the only friend Tarvek had ever allowed himself to have (the only person who had ever bothered to try, repeatedly, to be his friend.) He keeps his true motivations hidden, even from those he claims to trust and who he obviously has the best intentions for. He finds holding onto expectations even when they're false and damaging to be more comfortable then acting truthfully and facing his own feelings and mistakes. And he is driven by feelings, no matter how much he tries to hide it.
Even after years of mutually carrying the grudge forged by that failed childhood friendship, Tarvek would drop everything without hesitation to save Gilgamesh's life. He would even lay down his whole life to make sure that Gil and Agatha would be safe, and clearly still trusts Gil enough to trust him to Agatha, a girl he has shown us he cares about more then everyone else he's ever loved combined. Of course he didn't bother to tell her that. And neither he nor Gil stopped for more then a moment to discuss where they stood after Tarvek offers his life in exchange for theirs. I did mention he's the worst at talking about his feelings, right?
Tarvek's problem when it comes to emotions is that he also doesn't trust pretty much anyone (another lovely side effect of his childhood treatment and his abandonment complex), so that when he does find himself properly caring about someone, he cares about them too much. To the extend where he is often casual about his own well-being if it means giving to those he cares about. He puts everything he is and he has into the people he's let himself love, and he's completely rubbish at telling them that, or even at times showing it to them. He'd rather improve their lives from the shadows or some other safe position of removal then allow himself any of the thanks for it. All that is starting to change, however, thanks to one golden-haired madgirl with her own hero complex.
Abilities & physical limitations: Tarvek, just like his cousins who have served his family as body guards for generations, has been trained in the art of Smoke Knights. Put simply he's a fucking ninja. He's learned stealth combat techniques and the highest grade of slight of hand. He knows about all sorts of poisons, can hide in all sorts of interesting places (like the rafters) and he can high kick so well it would put a can-can dancer to shame. He tones it down because he believes his greatest weapon is to be underestimated but he is a brilliant hand-to-hand fighter and is more skilled then he lets on with knives. He's also a Spark, which means he's incredibly intelligent and can essentially lose his mind over fascinating technology. He's a specialized Mad Scientist and his specialization is AI automatons. He also has a bit of a Spark for fashion (though his taste in colors and fabric can be questionable).
He's terrified of flying and incapable of driving any sort of vehicle. He also wears glasses, in the form of pince-nez, and evidence seems to point more to farsightedness then nearsightedness. He wore them as a kid while reading, can see perfectly fine with only the tiny pince-nez on in general, and can read the whole sweep of a war table better then most from a distance, but has to squint through the glass while working on a project.
Appearance: Oh look some pictures of Tarvek
Notable AU differences from canon, if applicable: no AUs here.
Strife Specibus:bootkind/fistkind
Prototyping: Weaselsprite
After escaping the burning blimp, a few of the little wasp-sniffing weasels stayed in his pockets, and one of them ended up in the kernel sprite. Weaselsprite "skreeee"s quite a lot, especially when excited.
Title: Sheik of Smoke
In-game abilities: Sheik is an active class, and a Sheik player has control or manipulation over their aspect. Smoke is an aspect of obstruction and blindness. It is the aspect of disappearance and sneakiness. Smoke burns your eyes and darkens everything, bending the light so that everything appears off from where it really is, if it can in fact be seen at all.
A Sheik of Smoke is a master of disguise. He controls that refraction and blindness and can, at his best, make himself or a close chosen object completely invisible. At God Tier he can even pull a whole radius into obscurity. At the lower levels, the Sheik of Smoke is lucky if he can cover up the whole of his own person, and not just seem to be missing a body part. Sometimes the attempt to hide can glitch or backfire and the player will end up only distorted as though seen through smoke. They'll appear unclear and fuzzy, as though refracted poorly. Then the hero of Smoke looks silly, and not invisible at all.
Planet: The Land of Myth and Lightning
The planet is covered with a permanent cloud cover and fog, grey lighting and wet air, but never has it properly rained. There are legends about the way things are meant to be, of quaking thunderstorms that are meant to cover the whole planet, fill the moors, and hail the health of the Ruler of the land. As it is now, the sky is grey and distant thunder can be heard, but never do the storms come, no matter how much it feels like it will rain. The lucky inhabitant has seen a flicker of distant lightning, but even those have become the stuff of stories. The land itself is covered in moors marshes with towering rune-covered stone henges and crumbling castles. Somewhere in the wilds of the planet the hedges and dried streams start making a pattern, threading into concentric circles around a central object: a huge circular stone table.
The inhabitants are small pachyderm-like critters called mimmoths. Like the extinct earth mammals their name resembles, they are furry, long-nosed, and tusked. Unlike the wooly mammoth, however, they are much smaller. Mimmoths range in size from house rats to meduim sized dogs. They're very pet-like and quite friendly. They like their furry trunks petted and will follow each other in a line like baby elephants, holding the tails of the one in front. They are true lovers of stories, the more mythologized and grandiose the better. Stories of the court and grand adventures with an obvious Good Guy and Bad Guy are their favorites. If these consorts ever grow unruly or upset themselves into a panic (sometimes they stampede in little furry mass), the most effective way to pacify them is to offer to tell them a story and make it good.They themselves like to create new 'myths' for their land, formed in patchwork from other legends they've heard and sensationalized stories they've been told.
The Denizen of LOMAL is a serpent king, usurper of the land and greedy theft of prosperity. Legend says he used evil powers to trap the lightning into a crown that he wears on his head, keeping the beauty and power of the land all for himself. When the true King of the Land returns, and slays the false king, the crown of lightning will release its energy back into the land through its true king, who in his own way is the land.
It is Tarvek's land quest to vanquish the false king and take the throne as the true king of the lightning crown, so that the storms may return. He must complete a series of quests to prepare himself for the final battle and for his 'role' as king. These quests are mostly born in legend in their symbolism and sometimes in their application, and those familiar with the history of the "once and future king" trope will find they recognize them. The point of these quests and of their relationship to legend is to force Tarvek to learn to stop living in the grey areas and allow himself to become a pure hero and accept that he is a good person and not let his heavy heart prevent that or haunt him. He will be challenged to use his aspect toward that goal and not let his given powers define or control him as a shadow or an anti-hero.
RP Sample:
That One Time Test Drive Meme Happened
