(no subject)
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Shannon
OOC Journal:
Under 18? No
Email/IM: PM please!
Characters Played at Singularity: Dan McNinja x]
Character Information ;
Name: RED Spy [real name Anthony D'Evreux]
Name of Canon: Team Fortress 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Other game CR from amatomnes
Reference: http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Spy
Canon Point: None | N/A ?
Setting:
The world of Team Fortress 2 is run by two companies, RED and BLU [Australia being the notable exception]. As everything is evenly divided and the companies have no other way of resolving disputes, each side has several teams of mercenaries in various locations that compete in various types of games to determine which company's policies go into practice. Luckily, there's technology that allows the mercenaries in question to respawn repeatedly after dying, so while the death and dying and killing is all very real, it's not very permanent at all.
The world is, however, set in something like real life--in the sense that there is a definite historical time period, the late 1960s, and that much of Earth's history has stayed intact. Past wars, for example, are definitely referenced, as well as things like the Nazis in characters like Soldier's backstory. And while the companies own everything and therefore have a lot of say in each government's politics, separate countries still do exist--like America, Germany, France, and others. It's fairly realistic and accurate to time period except for the specific parts where it's not--i.e. the companies, Mann Co., Australia, and so on--and it's clear death and aging and such goes on as usual outside of the areas where respawn is activated, and that the rest of the world in the 1960s does exist outside designated war zones.
Spy is one of those mercenaries for the RED team at 2Fort. Or was, until he was picked up and transported to the island called Atia for the game amatomnes, a place ruled over by a goddess of sex where everyone had to either have sex at least every two weeks or be choked to death by magical collars. Aside from that, however, and the fact that he was forced to be somewhat of a civilian--which he partially avoided by joining the police force there--it wasn't much different. He adapted fairly quickly to it--survival was never a problem--and was there almost a full year.
Of course, the technology in Atia was mostly from the 1950s, so it was either current or outdated to him; the only things he discovered were things like books and bands from the "future." Once he sees the technology in Singularity, he is going to be amazed and want to take everything apart, just to see how it works and just because he can. He is definitely going to blow himself up at least a few times. :]b
Personality:
This is going to be incredibly long and complex and also partially cover the AU things, so bear with me. :[
Maybe it should start off with the reason why it's so incredibly long and complex: the fact that Spy himself, if asked "who are you, really"--even if he were inclined to tell you the truth--would honestly not how to answer. He's made up of a lot of different personas but isn't "truly" any of them, and even sitting around at perfect ease and being whoever he wants to be, he'll consciously draw on certain aspects of one of those personas for one thing, another one of those personas for another. It's not any form of dissociative identity disorder or anything along those lines, but more... like a patchwork. Having gone so long being whoever he has to be, whenever he has to be, doing whatever he has to do, whatever "core identity" he had to begin with got lost somewhere along the way due to disuse. He can be loud and arrogant--all he has to think is, what would Scout do? He can be stuffy and stern--all he has to think is, what would Medic do? He can be calm and friendly--like an Engineer. He can be dramatic and ridiculously foreign--like a Spy.
What will he be? He doesn't know. What does the situation need him to be?
If we start from the outside-in, there's the "Spy"--obnoxiously French and stuck-up and prideful, full of himself and too serious and dramatic about everything for his own good. The arrogant, better-than-thou professional complete with annoying hypocritical flaws--is the way he presents himself to his teammates, the opposing team, and everyone else who he doesn't quite trust. And it's a good shield, really. It makes sense: the irritating, trollish parts of "Spy" who mocks them and has no respect for their privacy stops them from wanting to get to know him; the cold, ruthless, vicious side of him and the way he doesn't seem to care about anything he does stops them from being sympathetic to him; being the "obvious foreigner with the ridiculous accent" often makes people think he's a lot stupider than he is. There's a standard there, for "Spies," for being "just another freakin' Spy"--which he consciously tries to fit into, to use to his advantage.
Does that mean all of the above is only an act? Yes--no--it's hard to say. After having lived in that persona for such a long time--it's been over 10 years now, counting Atia--naturally some of those habits and ways of thinking that he purposely put on as Spy have become normal to him. And the person he used to be, the man who wasn't "Spy" yet, has become just as foreign to him as "Spy" has become normal to him. After all, who's to say what is real and what isn't? If a man acts, thinks, and feels normally like a persona acts, thinks and feels when he's faking it--isn't it the same thing anyway? And if nothing else but his word is separating the two, it might as well be real, no?
Naturally, some parts are somewhat fake--or as fake as something can get while also being real. If he's honest, he hates a lot of the things that make up what other people see as "the Spy." The pompousness, the drama, the airs and theatrics and feel of "upper-class" and "better than you"--he's become the type of person he's always hated... but he still is that person, half the time, and acts like one--and aren't actions real? When not acting up his Spy-character, Spy as a person is mostly calm and unassuming, quite self-deprecating in a dry, amused way, completely non-materialistic [at least in a conventional sense], and practical in a military, bare-bones way that makes it obvious he's used to being lower-class, of having had to work for everything he has or has learned to do. But pretending to be something he's not--isn't that a Spy type of thing to do in the first place? There doesn't seem to be any escaping that.
And a lot of it is real. The paranoia, the distrust of strangers, the way he fears getting close to people for fear of starting to care about them and having them weigh him down--and doesn't like it for practical, security reasons as well. The ruthlessness of it, too--a man who can kill and torture is still a man who can do those things, persona or not. Even his accent isn't entirely fake, though he does play it up when he's in public. And most tellingly, the way Spy thinks has become the way he thinks, and when pretending to be other people, it's the other people he has to consciously remember to think like--and remind himself not to "think like ____, not like a Spy."
Or maybe it's Spy that thinks like him? Is he the way he is because he's a Spy, or a Spy because of the way he is? What does it matter? He is Spy anyway, isn't he? He thinks of himself in his head as "Spy," even if "Spy" wasn't real to begin with...
Every time he thinks about it, it gives him a massive headache and he never finds answers.
( Going possibly too far in-depth regarding his motives, mindset, worldviews, and psychology and how it has been explored in Atia; other personas that Spy has created and roleplayed IC over the year at Atia; cut to spare tl;dr and skippable!)
Of course, he doesn't have to be that kind of person all the time--and he'd rather not have to be, when the situation doesn't demand it. Make no mistake, he is actually quite the giant troll--whenever he can be, or whenever he can find the time or ability to be! He just does it differently than say, a Scout. He's much more subtle about it and very careful to make sure that he can't be directly blamed for any of the things he does--he is a very good Spy, after all! He wouldn't do things like direct blackmail without something to make sure the person doesn't tell anyone it's him, or openly goading people in public. But things that don't directly hurt people--or at least not enough to make him have to suffer consequences for it--like messing with people's heads, disrupting their sense of social norms, doing things like forcing Scouts into suits [or dresses! with the excuse of teaching Shirogane how to be more feminine by means of a counter-example] and bringing them to formal restaurants in order to ruin all those fancy high-class rich people's pretentious dinners? Laughing at all of them on the inside while looking completely apologetic and innocent on the outside? Then making Sniper go stumble over himself apologizing for it later? He's done it and would do it again! Just give him the chance!
So...
- Spy is an asshole. Spy isn't really an asshole. Spy is pretending to be an asshole when he isn't really, because he's an asshole.
- Spy is stuck-up and pretentious. Spy hates stuck-up and pretentious people. Spy isn't really pretentious or stuck-up at all, except when he is.
- Spy doesn't want people to trust him or want to get to know him, because if they did, he would probably not find himself capable of ignoring them completely--but Spy is a ruthless, vicious killer who would have no problems torturing and killing those same people if he had to, and who would turn around and say, completely honestly, that he did what had to be done because he wanted to do it.
- Spy is a mysterious, tall, dark foreigner with a dark past who wants nothing to do with you. Spy is a friendly, if cynical, ex-military man who is always willing to listen to your problems. Spy is an overgrown all-American frat boy.
- Spy is willing to backstab, betray, use, and manipulate anyone else for his own goals, but once his loyalty is won, a better and more trustworthy ally can't be found--though his working for their sake might not be something the person wants, considering how far he's willing to go, what he's willing to do, and who he's willing to kill for their benefit.
- Spy is a professional killer for hire and has no problem admitting he enjoys his job, but Spy is a person who would probably be content being an auto-mechanic in some peaceful small town.
- Spy is mature and serious business to a painful degree; Spy is immature and does things like blackmail man-hating femnazis into evening gowns and high heels and bring them with him as his date to ruin other people's formal dinners. Spy is refined and classy, always professional, wears suits and looks down his nose at people less classy than he, and Spy likes cheeseburgers and t-shirts with rock bands on them, would probably laugh at poop jokes, and walks around his house in boxers while drinking beer. He will attend concerts of classical music and opera and talk to people pretentiously enough to make everyone's teeth ache, chide the rest of the team for having no taste if they don't enjoy themselves, then go home and doodle the 2Fort team as superheroes, capes and masks and spandex and all. Complete with silly 50's sound effect bubbles. The BLU team gets silly villainous mustaches. The BLU Sniper gets a double mustache for being Australian.
- He is Spy and he is Tony but Spy isn't Tony, except he is.
And all of that is true, at the same time.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Most of Spy's abilities have to do directly with his intelligence--and while he isn't quite a genius, he is very, very smart and willing to put in the time and effort to actually learn things. He can speak half a dozen languages and is extremely skilled at imitations--he can mimic other people's speech patterns and tones of voice back to them after hearing them once or twice, although a full-on impersonation would take some weeks of study. He's quite good at reading people and predicting them, as well as using that knowledge to manipulate others, and his mind is quick in all aspects--perceiving, understanding, calculating the best course of action.
But the mental is the only area in which Spy really excels. In the physical field, he's all around average--for someone who spends his time soldiering, that is. He's not overly tall or overly heavy, and he runs and reacts about as fast as--again, the average physically-fit person. And there's no way he's capable of taking as much physical punishment as people like Soldier or Heavy or even Pyro. In the emotional field, it's flat failures all around; he has no real morals, only a situational conscience, and no idea how to deal with intense feelings, especially when they're other people's feelings and he's supposed to be sympathetic--that is, he has no idea how to deal with them in an emotional as opposed to logical sense. He does have a working knowledge of what the socially acceptable or generally recommended course of action would be, but unfortunately, logic often has little to do with emotions.
He's also very paranoid--and in a more-than-merely-socially-annoying way. He's distant to everyone and afraid of starting to care about people, much less open to trusting them, leaving him with few actual allies--ever. Being watched or followed or asked questions about himself by people who aren't well-acquainted with him--and there are only two or three people who are--results in fairly obvious strain and the rising need to escape. He hates when people are standing behind him or anywhere near his back, and has slight OCD tendencies about making sure everything is in order and that he knows where everything is--just in case. And he can't relax completely unless he knows that he's behind secure, locked doors--with readily available weapons in there with him--and that nobody from outside is watching. An entire year on Atia and he's come to actually trust just one person--one person. An entire year.
And he has a real addiction to cigarettes. A bit better since Atia, but still bad!
Inventory:
In terms of clothing, a dark red three-piece suit, a white dress shirt, a dark red tie, and a dark red balaclava. A pair of black gloves and a pair of black shoes and socks. Probably a handkerchief or two.
In terms of objects: a wristwatch that doubles as a cloaking device, a cigarette case that doubles as a disguise kit, three butterfly knives, a revolver with BLU Scout's mother on it and some extra ammo for it just in case, a small mirror, some lockpicks, some keys, a pen, and an extra pack of cigarettes.
He carries all this around on a daily basis and literally goes armed to the teeth--secretly, that is--to the supermarket because he is that ridiculously paranoid about being prepared for anything.
Appearance:
RED Spy can be found in a neatly pressed dark red suit with various weapons and gadgets hidden inside [including a pistol, a knife, a cloaking device, several electro-sappers and a disguise kit disguised as a cigarette case]. A dark red balaclava covers his head and keeps his true identity safe from everyone else. He looks as if he could be anywhere in his thirties or forties but is most likely somewhere in the middle of that from what can be told from the visible portions of his face, his voice, and his general demeanor, which to most outside or neutral parties is usually painstakingly professional. What is known about his true identity is he is tall, dark, most probably European [his accent most resembles that of the French], and mysteriously mysterious.
Out of the team "uniform," he's entirely different--though of course, out of uniform, he's pretending to be another person entirely anyway. He has fairly dark skin for one, which makes him seem more Italian than French--or would, if his entire appearance didn't scream "America," making Italian-American tend to be the general consensus. When not dressed in suits, he prefers t-shirts [usually with classic rock band names on them from the (his) future that he's discovered on Atia :|b ] and jeans, and his hair is cut short and refuses to bend to the will of any hair gel in existence, which only adds to the general "casual and messy" air. He couldn't possibly get any further from looking like a Spy... which was and is the point! The fact that he looks this way "naturally" or "normally" and doesn't have to try to separate the two in terms of appearance is just a perk.
Either way, he covers up, and for good reasons. Lots of scars and things--but don't worry, they're not points of angst. Just practical paranoia about distinguishing marks and recognition and things like that!
Age: 38; he'll probably be 39 by the time he's in the game.
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
Aside from what was described in the personality section above, most of it is in the CR with other people: notably RED Sniper, RED and BLU Scouts, and Naoto Shirogane, though the rest of the cast had an impact as well.
RED Sniper is the one that has had by far and away the most influence on Spy, being the single person in the world that he trusts completely. This was not intentional at all and somewhat forced on Spy to begin with, beginning with Sniper once forcibly tearing off his mask during an argument--but things ironed out eventually and Sniper has never given Spy a reason to think the trust is undeserved, even if he hadn't been originally willing to give it. They've been through a lot of things: bad, good, and sometimes--a lot of times--awful, and Spy can say he's honestly as comfortable with having Sniper around as he is while alone. And would in fact rather have him there.
And knowing that at least one person--even if it is only one person--does trust him completely in return has done a lot of good for Spy. In a way, Sniper forces Spy to acknowledge that while he may not be a good person, he's not entirely bad--and forces him to not only academically acknowledge that he's human, which he had done before, but to actually act like one some of the time as opposed to always feeling like he has to be professional and distant. If it weren't for Sniper, Spy would be as closed off as he had been a year ago; instead, he's slowly branching out. Finding actual hobbies, actually thinking about the question of self-identity, genuinely doing things just for fun, starting to wonder if he has any dreams... a bit like a robot learning to be properly human.
He still hasn't quite made it.
Naoto Shirogane was another big impact on Spy, being his partner on the police force of Atia--and also very young to be a detective and female some of the time on top of that, which made Spy a bit more open to him than he would have been otherwise. Theirs was a mentor-student type of relationship, which was a first for Spy--he'd never thought of himself as a teacher type before, and certainly not a parental-guardian type. And yet he ended up becoming something similar to both of those anyway, though definitely not in a conventional way--which proved to him that he could do those things, something he hadn't considered before. And that he actually had something besides killing, spying, and unwanted critique to give to the world. Even when he was being Spy--people could actually consider him a friend?
The Scouts, he knew mostly as Tony, and ended up becoming somewhat of a parental figure to them as well. A bit ironic, as it was the BLU Scout's mother that he'd had a relationship with, and had been watching over her son for--as he was more a "cool uncle" to the BLU Scout than a "replacement father figure" like he was to RED Scout. But he couldn't help but start caring back for both of them, a little bit, for their obvious attachment to him. It was a very, very strange feeling at first, almost like having a fake family--after all, neither Scout knew, or knows, that he's Spy in reality--but he got used to it in time. While he would never think of either Scout as his own kid, they're certainly at least--something like the neighbors' kids. Who never had a father and could use someone like that around...
Of course, this didn't mean they were immune to trolling. Not in the least. The total opposite.
The rest of the REDs--that is, Soldier, Engineer, and Pyro, with Medics, Heavies, and Demos not being present for long enough on Atia for it to have an effect on them--were his team. Less emphasis on the team, more on the his. At first, he only stood around the edges of the proverbial campfire, tossing them back into the circle of logic and the law if he caught any of them wandering outside--because he was all too aware that whatever crazy actions the rest of the team took, it would reflect back on him, as they were people necessarily connected by circumstance in the eyes of the rest of Atia's society. But over the year, he began taking a less resentful and more truly neutral stance toward the rest of them, even considering it a particular failure of his in not paying enough attention to people like Soldier and allowing them to die. Not a friend--never truly a friend--but someone who would offer advice or help, if needed and asked--albeit in a brutally honest, practical fashion.
As persons, he's very neutral toward all of them. As mentioned above, he feels that he's let Soldier down in a sense, and that the man is surprisingly capable of adapting and learning and accepting limitations once he has his feet under him--like the Scouts, who ended up surprisingly being the people Spy least had to worry about. While Spy knows he never really will be "one of the team," and that the RED Engineer is going about recruiting him in the entirely wrong way, he understands Engineer's concern stems from his being a genuinely warm, sympathetic kind of person. He still remembers Pyro calling him family, simply because he was a RED--something Spy still can't wrap his mind around, but certainly not a negative thing...
As for the BLUs, he's a slightly more negative type of "neutral" toward them--the kind from "not caring very much" as opposed to "not resenting." Aside from their Scout, he has little connection to any of them, although no connection is certainly not automatically a negative thing. They're classed in his head as not anyone notable aside from thinking things like the BLU's Sniper still needs to shower more often and their BLU Spy is exactly what RED Spy pretends to be only for real, and that all of them are generally a little fail--but again, this isn't Spy's problem. Unless they make it his problem, and then he has nothing against dealing with them in the most effective way possible.
He's met a lot of other panfandom characters in passing, notably T-800 for Singularity, but none who have had a big impact on his character--those would only be cases of passive recognition.
Samples ;
Log Sample:
He'd been sitting in a chair at his desk at the police station, so when Spy lands in Sacrosanct, he does so literally--falling in an ungainly and completely embarrassing manner onto his back on the ground, a pen still in his hand from where he'd been filling out paperwork. He sits there for a second, dazed and wondering if he's fallen asleep at his desk, then blinks and pulls himself together, curling up into a seat and looking around. The place isn't anywhere he recognizes, on the island or off of it... perhaps he's died somehow and ended up in the death god's realm again? No, that's not quite it either--
So. Somewhere new, then. Instantly tense, he jumps to his feet, reaching for his knife and looking around again for a different reason this time--this time, searching for anything that looks threatening. Or alive. Or that looks like it belongs to the goddess Atia--all three are somewhat interchangeable at the moment. It must be her doing, whatever this is--perhaps some new curse. Displacement or hallucination, and forcing whoever's affected to have sex with whoever else is there with them in order to get free--he's heard of these things happening before.
Unless he's somewhere else. Home, perhaps, a thousand years later than when he left. Somewhere that isn't Atia. But that would mean leaving all of Atia and everyone on it behind--he doesn't want to think about that right now. If nothing else, he can still feel the collar around his neck, which is for the first time actually something of a comfort...
Then there's a sound off to the side, that of a bat hitting a human body--something Spy has become quite familiar with over his years with RED--and then the human body that had apparently been hit, the human body had not been there half a second ago when Spy had checked, falling over onto him and knocking him in an ungainly and completely embarrassing manner onto his back on the ground for the second time in two minutes, and Spy is fighting his way out from beneath whoever it is, cursing in French and ready to stab everybody involved right in the face and then start running. That is, right up until he recognizes a familiar red shirt and familiar RED face and--
Is that Sniper?
And Scout?
...two people? Hopefully not at once. Good God, he doesn't even want to imagine--
Spy lowers his knife and gives both of them a slightly overdramatic groan.
"Tell me zis is not another curse."
Network Sample:
[Spy is another type to look over the network carefully before posting anything of note. He's looked around--found humans, an abundance of AI, several alien forms he's never seen before. But more importantly, he's seen at least one other person mention collars and Atia. And seen other REDs. And other BLUs. A RED Soldier, too, only this one seems to have removed his collar from Atia somehow. Perhaps with the more advanced technology here...
The bracelet is set to video--because the REDs and BLUs would recognize his voice anyway. Or at least recognize that he's one of them, if what he's found out about other Spies from other bases being flagrantly French--or perhaps only playing it up, like he is--is true. He could risk speaking in his Scout-voice or Medic-voice or something of the sort, but better not to start creating new identities this early on, and asking in text about either company certainly screams "Spy" as well. He might as well get on with it.
So here he is, looking entirely serious with his ridiculous balaclava and overdone Frenchness.]
RED. BLU. 'ow do ze circumstances stand, 'ere? I am assuming ze war is off for ze moment--n'est-ce pas? Correct me if I am wrong.
[He's entirely prepared to go right back to killing the BLUs if they're a threat.]
Your Nickname: Shannon
OOC Journal:
Under 18? No
Email/IM: PM please!
Characters Played at Singularity: Dan McNinja x]
Character Information ;
Name: RED Spy [real name Anthony D'Evreux]
Name of Canon: Team Fortress 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Other game CR from amatomnes
Reference: http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Spy
Canon Point: None | N/A ?
Setting:
The world of Team Fortress 2 is run by two companies, RED and BLU [Australia being the notable exception]. As everything is evenly divided and the companies have no other way of resolving disputes, each side has several teams of mercenaries in various locations that compete in various types of games to determine which company's policies go into practice. Luckily, there's technology that allows the mercenaries in question to respawn repeatedly after dying, so while the death and dying and killing is all very real, it's not very permanent at all.
The world is, however, set in something like real life--in the sense that there is a definite historical time period, the late 1960s, and that much of Earth's history has stayed intact. Past wars, for example, are definitely referenced, as well as things like the Nazis in characters like Soldier's backstory. And while the companies own everything and therefore have a lot of say in each government's politics, separate countries still do exist--like America, Germany, France, and others. It's fairly realistic and accurate to time period except for the specific parts where it's not--i.e. the companies, Mann Co., Australia, and so on--and it's clear death and aging and such goes on as usual outside of the areas where respawn is activated, and that the rest of the world in the 1960s does exist outside designated war zones.
Spy is one of those mercenaries for the RED team at 2Fort. Or was, until he was picked up and transported to the island called Atia for the game amatomnes, a place ruled over by a goddess of sex where everyone had to either have sex at least every two weeks or be choked to death by magical collars. Aside from that, however, and the fact that he was forced to be somewhat of a civilian--which he partially avoided by joining the police force there--it wasn't much different. He adapted fairly quickly to it--survival was never a problem--and was there almost a full year.
Of course, the technology in Atia was mostly from the 1950s, so it was either current or outdated to him; the only things he discovered were things like books and bands from the "future." Once he sees the technology in Singularity, he is going to be amazed and want to take everything apart, just to see how it works and just because he can. He is definitely going to blow himself up at least a few times. :]b
Personality:
This is going to be incredibly long and complex and also partially cover the AU things, so bear with me. :[
Maybe it should start off with the reason why it's so incredibly long and complex: the fact that Spy himself, if asked "who are you, really"--even if he were inclined to tell you the truth--would honestly not how to answer. He's made up of a lot of different personas but isn't "truly" any of them, and even sitting around at perfect ease and being whoever he wants to be, he'll consciously draw on certain aspects of one of those personas for one thing, another one of those personas for another. It's not any form of dissociative identity disorder or anything along those lines, but more... like a patchwork. Having gone so long being whoever he has to be, whenever he has to be, doing whatever he has to do, whatever "core identity" he had to begin with got lost somewhere along the way due to disuse. He can be loud and arrogant--all he has to think is, what would Scout do? He can be stuffy and stern--all he has to think is, what would Medic do? He can be calm and friendly--like an Engineer. He can be dramatic and ridiculously foreign--like a Spy.
What will he be? He doesn't know. What does the situation need him to be?
If we start from the outside-in, there's the "Spy"--obnoxiously French and stuck-up and prideful, full of himself and too serious and dramatic about everything for his own good. The arrogant, better-than-thou professional complete with annoying hypocritical flaws--is the way he presents himself to his teammates, the opposing team, and everyone else who he doesn't quite trust. And it's a good shield, really. It makes sense: the irritating, trollish parts of "Spy" who mocks them and has no respect for their privacy stops them from wanting to get to know him; the cold, ruthless, vicious side of him and the way he doesn't seem to care about anything he does stops them from being sympathetic to him; being the "obvious foreigner with the ridiculous accent" often makes people think he's a lot stupider than he is. There's a standard there, for "Spies," for being "just another freakin' Spy"--which he consciously tries to fit into, to use to his advantage.
Does that mean all of the above is only an act? Yes--no--it's hard to say. After having lived in that persona for such a long time--it's been over 10 years now, counting Atia--naturally some of those habits and ways of thinking that he purposely put on as Spy have become normal to him. And the person he used to be, the man who wasn't "Spy" yet, has become just as foreign to him as "Spy" has become normal to him. After all, who's to say what is real and what isn't? If a man acts, thinks, and feels normally like a persona acts, thinks and feels when he's faking it--isn't it the same thing anyway? And if nothing else but his word is separating the two, it might as well be real, no?
Naturally, some parts are somewhat fake--or as fake as something can get while also being real. If he's honest, he hates a lot of the things that make up what other people see as "the Spy." The pompousness, the drama, the airs and theatrics and feel of "upper-class" and "better than you"--he's become the type of person he's always hated... but he still is that person, half the time, and acts like one--and aren't actions real? When not acting up his Spy-character, Spy as a person is mostly calm and unassuming, quite self-deprecating in a dry, amused way, completely non-materialistic [at least in a conventional sense], and practical in a military, bare-bones way that makes it obvious he's used to being lower-class, of having had to work for everything he has or has learned to do. But pretending to be something he's not--isn't that a Spy type of thing to do in the first place? There doesn't seem to be any escaping that.
And a lot of it is real. The paranoia, the distrust of strangers, the way he fears getting close to people for fear of starting to care about them and having them weigh him down--and doesn't like it for practical, security reasons as well. The ruthlessness of it, too--a man who can kill and torture is still a man who can do those things, persona or not. Even his accent isn't entirely fake, though he does play it up when he's in public. And most tellingly, the way Spy thinks has become the way he thinks, and when pretending to be other people, it's the other people he has to consciously remember to think like--and remind himself not to "think like ____, not like a Spy."
Or maybe it's Spy that thinks like him? Is he the way he is because he's a Spy, or a Spy because of the way he is? What does it matter? He is Spy anyway, isn't he? He thinks of himself in his head as "Spy," even if "Spy" wasn't real to begin with...
Every time he thinks about it, it gives him a massive headache and he never finds answers.
( Going possibly too far in-depth regarding his motives, mindset, worldviews, and psychology and how it has been explored in Atia; other personas that Spy has created and roleplayed IC over the year at Atia; cut to spare tl;dr and skippable!)
Of course, he doesn't have to be that kind of person all the time--and he'd rather not have to be, when the situation doesn't demand it. Make no mistake, he is actually quite the giant troll--whenever he can be, or whenever he can find the time or ability to be! He just does it differently than say, a Scout. He's much more subtle about it and very careful to make sure that he can't be directly blamed for any of the things he does--he is a very good Spy, after all! He wouldn't do things like direct blackmail without something to make sure the person doesn't tell anyone it's him, or openly goading people in public. But things that don't directly hurt people--or at least not enough to make him have to suffer consequences for it--like messing with people's heads, disrupting their sense of social norms, doing things like forcing Scouts into suits [or dresses! with the excuse of teaching Shirogane how to be more feminine by means of a counter-example] and bringing them to formal restaurants in order to ruin all those fancy high-class rich people's pretentious dinners? Laughing at all of them on the inside while looking completely apologetic and innocent on the outside? Then making Sniper go stumble over himself apologizing for it later? He's done it and would do it again! Just give him the chance!
So...
- Spy is an asshole. Spy isn't really an asshole. Spy is pretending to be an asshole when he isn't really, because he's an asshole.
- Spy is stuck-up and pretentious. Spy hates stuck-up and pretentious people. Spy isn't really pretentious or stuck-up at all, except when he is.
- Spy doesn't want people to trust him or want to get to know him, because if they did, he would probably not find himself capable of ignoring them completely--but Spy is a ruthless, vicious killer who would have no problems torturing and killing those same people if he had to, and who would turn around and say, completely honestly, that he did what had to be done because he wanted to do it.
- Spy is a mysterious, tall, dark foreigner with a dark past who wants nothing to do with you. Spy is a friendly, if cynical, ex-military man who is always willing to listen to your problems. Spy is an overgrown all-American frat boy.
- Spy is willing to backstab, betray, use, and manipulate anyone else for his own goals, but once his loyalty is won, a better and more trustworthy ally can't be found--though his working for their sake might not be something the person wants, considering how far he's willing to go, what he's willing to do, and who he's willing to kill for their benefit.
- Spy is a professional killer for hire and has no problem admitting he enjoys his job, but Spy is a person who would probably be content being an auto-mechanic in some peaceful small town.
- Spy is mature and serious business to a painful degree; Spy is immature and does things like blackmail man-hating femnazis into evening gowns and high heels and bring them with him as his date to ruin other people's formal dinners. Spy is refined and classy, always professional, wears suits and looks down his nose at people less classy than he, and Spy likes cheeseburgers and t-shirts with rock bands on them, would probably laugh at poop jokes, and walks around his house in boxers while drinking beer. He will attend concerts of classical music and opera and talk to people pretentiously enough to make everyone's teeth ache, chide the rest of the team for having no taste if they don't enjoy themselves, then go home and doodle the 2Fort team as superheroes, capes and masks and spandex and all. Complete with silly 50's sound effect bubbles. The BLU team gets silly villainous mustaches. The BLU Sniper gets a double mustache for being Australian.
- He is Spy and he is Tony but Spy isn't Tony, except he is.
And all of that is true, at the same time.
Abilities and Weaknesses:
Most of Spy's abilities have to do directly with his intelligence--and while he isn't quite a genius, he is very, very smart and willing to put in the time and effort to actually learn things. He can speak half a dozen languages and is extremely skilled at imitations--he can mimic other people's speech patterns and tones of voice back to them after hearing them once or twice, although a full-on impersonation would take some weeks of study. He's quite good at reading people and predicting them, as well as using that knowledge to manipulate others, and his mind is quick in all aspects--perceiving, understanding, calculating the best course of action.
But the mental is the only area in which Spy really excels. In the physical field, he's all around average--for someone who spends his time soldiering, that is. He's not overly tall or overly heavy, and he runs and reacts about as fast as--again, the average physically-fit person. And there's no way he's capable of taking as much physical punishment as people like Soldier or Heavy or even Pyro. In the emotional field, it's flat failures all around; he has no real morals, only a situational conscience, and no idea how to deal with intense feelings, especially when they're other people's feelings and he's supposed to be sympathetic--that is, he has no idea how to deal with them in an emotional as opposed to logical sense. He does have a working knowledge of what the socially acceptable or generally recommended course of action would be, but unfortunately, logic often has little to do with emotions.
He's also very paranoid--and in a more-than-merely-socially-annoying way. He's distant to everyone and afraid of starting to care about people, much less open to trusting them, leaving him with few actual allies--ever. Being watched or followed or asked questions about himself by people who aren't well-acquainted with him--and there are only two or three people who are--results in fairly obvious strain and the rising need to escape. He hates when people are standing behind him or anywhere near his back, and has slight OCD tendencies about making sure everything is in order and that he knows where everything is--just in case. And he can't relax completely unless he knows that he's behind secure, locked doors--with readily available weapons in there with him--and that nobody from outside is watching. An entire year on Atia and he's come to actually trust just one person--one person. An entire year.
And he has a real addiction to cigarettes. A bit better since Atia, but still bad!
Inventory:
In terms of clothing, a dark red three-piece suit, a white dress shirt, a dark red tie, and a dark red balaclava. A pair of black gloves and a pair of black shoes and socks. Probably a handkerchief or two.
In terms of objects: a wristwatch that doubles as a cloaking device, a cigarette case that doubles as a disguise kit, three butterfly knives, a revolver with BLU Scout's mother on it and some extra ammo for it just in case, a small mirror, some lockpicks, some keys, a pen, and an extra pack of cigarettes.
He carries all this around on a daily basis and literally goes armed to the teeth--secretly, that is--to the supermarket because he is that ridiculously paranoid about being prepared for anything.
Appearance:
RED Spy can be found in a neatly pressed dark red suit with various weapons and gadgets hidden inside [including a pistol, a knife, a cloaking device, several electro-sappers and a disguise kit disguised as a cigarette case]. A dark red balaclava covers his head and keeps his true identity safe from everyone else. He looks as if he could be anywhere in his thirties or forties but is most likely somewhere in the middle of that from what can be told from the visible portions of his face, his voice, and his general demeanor, which to most outside or neutral parties is usually painstakingly professional. What is known about his true identity is he is tall, dark, most probably European [his accent most resembles that of the French], and mysteriously mysterious.
Out of the team "uniform," he's entirely different--though of course, out of uniform, he's pretending to be another person entirely anyway. He has fairly dark skin for one, which makes him seem more Italian than French--or would, if his entire appearance didn't scream "America," making Italian-American tend to be the general consensus. When not dressed in suits, he prefers t-shirts [usually with classic rock band names on them from the (his) future that he's discovered on Atia :|b ] and jeans, and his hair is cut short and refuses to bend to the will of any hair gel in existence, which only adds to the general "casual and messy" air. He couldn't possibly get any further from looking like a Spy... which was and is the point! The fact that he looks this way "naturally" or "normally" and doesn't have to try to separate the two in terms of appearance is just a perk.
Either way, he covers up, and for good reasons. Lots of scars and things--but don't worry, they're not points of angst. Just practical paranoia about distinguishing marks and recognition and things like that!
Age: 38; he'll probably be 39 by the time he's in the game.
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
Aside from what was described in the personality section above, most of it is in the CR with other people: notably RED Sniper, RED and BLU Scouts, and Naoto Shirogane, though the rest of the cast had an impact as well.
RED Sniper is the one that has had by far and away the most influence on Spy, being the single person in the world that he trusts completely. This was not intentional at all and somewhat forced on Spy to begin with, beginning with Sniper once forcibly tearing off his mask during an argument--but things ironed out eventually and Sniper has never given Spy a reason to think the trust is undeserved, even if he hadn't been originally willing to give it. They've been through a lot of things: bad, good, and sometimes--a lot of times--awful, and Spy can say he's honestly as comfortable with having Sniper around as he is while alone. And would in fact rather have him there.
And knowing that at least one person--even if it is only one person--does trust him completely in return has done a lot of good for Spy. In a way, Sniper forces Spy to acknowledge that while he may not be a good person, he's not entirely bad--and forces him to not only academically acknowledge that he's human, which he had done before, but to actually act like one some of the time as opposed to always feeling like he has to be professional and distant. If it weren't for Sniper, Spy would be as closed off as he had been a year ago; instead, he's slowly branching out. Finding actual hobbies, actually thinking about the question of self-identity, genuinely doing things just for fun, starting to wonder if he has any dreams... a bit like a robot learning to be properly human.
He still hasn't quite made it.
Naoto Shirogane was another big impact on Spy, being his partner on the police force of Atia--and also very young to be a detective and female some of the time on top of that, which made Spy a bit more open to him than he would have been otherwise. Theirs was a mentor-student type of relationship, which was a first for Spy--he'd never thought of himself as a teacher type before, and certainly not a parental-guardian type. And yet he ended up becoming something similar to both of those anyway, though definitely not in a conventional way--which proved to him that he could do those things, something he hadn't considered before. And that he actually had something besides killing, spying, and unwanted critique to give to the world. Even when he was being Spy--people could actually consider him a friend?
The Scouts, he knew mostly as Tony, and ended up becoming somewhat of a parental figure to them as well. A bit ironic, as it was the BLU Scout's mother that he'd had a relationship with, and had been watching over her son for--as he was more a "cool uncle" to the BLU Scout than a "replacement father figure" like he was to RED Scout. But he couldn't help but start caring back for both of them, a little bit, for their obvious attachment to him. It was a very, very strange feeling at first, almost like having a fake family--after all, neither Scout knew, or knows, that he's Spy in reality--but he got used to it in time. While he would never think of either Scout as his own kid, they're certainly at least--something like the neighbors' kids. Who never had a father and could use someone like that around...
Of course, this didn't mean they were immune to trolling. Not in the least. The total opposite.
The rest of the REDs--that is, Soldier, Engineer, and Pyro, with Medics, Heavies, and Demos not being present for long enough on Atia for it to have an effect on them--were his team. Less emphasis on the team, more on the his. At first, he only stood around the edges of the proverbial campfire, tossing them back into the circle of logic and the law if he caught any of them wandering outside--because he was all too aware that whatever crazy actions the rest of the team took, it would reflect back on him, as they were people necessarily connected by circumstance in the eyes of the rest of Atia's society. But over the year, he began taking a less resentful and more truly neutral stance toward the rest of them, even considering it a particular failure of his in not paying enough attention to people like Soldier and allowing them to die. Not a friend--never truly a friend--but someone who would offer advice or help, if needed and asked--albeit in a brutally honest, practical fashion.
As persons, he's very neutral toward all of them. As mentioned above, he feels that he's let Soldier down in a sense, and that the man is surprisingly capable of adapting and learning and accepting limitations once he has his feet under him--like the Scouts, who ended up surprisingly being the people Spy least had to worry about. While Spy knows he never really will be "one of the team," and that the RED Engineer is going about recruiting him in the entirely wrong way, he understands Engineer's concern stems from his being a genuinely warm, sympathetic kind of person. He still remembers Pyro calling him family, simply because he was a RED--something Spy still can't wrap his mind around, but certainly not a negative thing...
As for the BLUs, he's a slightly more negative type of "neutral" toward them--the kind from "not caring very much" as opposed to "not resenting." Aside from their Scout, he has little connection to any of them, although no connection is certainly not automatically a negative thing. They're classed in his head as not anyone notable aside from thinking things like the BLU's Sniper still needs to shower more often and their BLU Spy is exactly what RED Spy pretends to be only for real, and that all of them are generally a little fail--but again, this isn't Spy's problem. Unless they make it his problem, and then he has nothing against dealing with them in the most effective way possible.
He's met a lot of other panfandom characters in passing, notably T-800 for Singularity, but none who have had a big impact on his character--those would only be cases of passive recognition.
Samples ;
Log Sample:
He'd been sitting in a chair at his desk at the police station, so when Spy lands in Sacrosanct, he does so literally--falling in an ungainly and completely embarrassing manner onto his back on the ground, a pen still in his hand from where he'd been filling out paperwork. He sits there for a second, dazed and wondering if he's fallen asleep at his desk, then blinks and pulls himself together, curling up into a seat and looking around. The place isn't anywhere he recognizes, on the island or off of it... perhaps he's died somehow and ended up in the death god's realm again? No, that's not quite it either--
So. Somewhere new, then. Instantly tense, he jumps to his feet, reaching for his knife and looking around again for a different reason this time--this time, searching for anything that looks threatening. Or alive. Or that looks like it belongs to the goddess Atia--all three are somewhat interchangeable at the moment. It must be her doing, whatever this is--perhaps some new curse. Displacement or hallucination, and forcing whoever's affected to have sex with whoever else is there with them in order to get free--he's heard of these things happening before.
Unless he's somewhere else. Home, perhaps, a thousand years later than when he left. Somewhere that isn't Atia. But that would mean leaving all of Atia and everyone on it behind--he doesn't want to think about that right now. If nothing else, he can still feel the collar around his neck, which is for the first time actually something of a comfort...
Then there's a sound off to the side, that of a bat hitting a human body--something Spy has become quite familiar with over his years with RED--and then the human body that had apparently been hit, the human body had not been there half a second ago when Spy had checked, falling over onto him and knocking him in an ungainly and completely embarrassing manner onto his back on the ground for the second time in two minutes, and Spy is fighting his way out from beneath whoever it is, cursing in French and ready to stab everybody involved right in the face and then start running. That is, right up until he recognizes a familiar red shirt and familiar RED face and--
Is that Sniper?
And Scout?
...two people? Hopefully not at once. Good God, he doesn't even want to imagine--
Spy lowers his knife and gives both of them a slightly overdramatic groan.
"Tell me zis is not another curse."
Network Sample:
[Spy is another type to look over the network carefully before posting anything of note. He's looked around--found humans, an abundance of AI, several alien forms he's never seen before. But more importantly, he's seen at least one other person mention collars and Atia. And seen other REDs. And other BLUs. A RED Soldier, too, only this one seems to have removed his collar from Atia somehow. Perhaps with the more advanced technology here...
The bracelet is set to video--because the REDs and BLUs would recognize his voice anyway. Or at least recognize that he's one of them, if what he's found out about other Spies from other bases being flagrantly French--or perhaps only playing it up, like he is--is true. He could risk speaking in his Scout-voice or Medic-voice or something of the sort, but better not to start creating new identities this early on, and asking in text about either company certainly screams "Spy" as well. He might as well get on with it.
So here he is, looking entirely serious with his ridiculous balaclava and overdone Frenchness.]
RED. BLU. 'ow do ze circumstances stand, 'ere? I am assuming ze war is off for ze moment--n'est-ce pas? Correct me if I am wrong.
[He's entirely prepared to go right back to killing the BLUs if they're a threat.]