damned character info
Series: Homestuck (MS Paint Adventures)
Series' Medium: web... story... thing. (I don't know if I'd classify it as a comic.)
Character: Gamzee Makara
Age: 13 (in human terms, 6 in troll solar sweeps)
Sex/Gender: male
Canon Role: one of the twelve main trolls, antagonists/secondary protagonists?
"Real" Name: Billy Grimaldi
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?:
I've messed around with him some in museboxes and with an IC epicmafia (heavily Homestuck) group for... a couple weeks or more?
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?:
http://community.livejournal.com/habernaki/18137.html
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Yes, I've read through the whole thing. Though I admit, there was so much info given sometimes that my brain blurred it all together and I had to do a fair amount of wikiing.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
I'm going to have to give some general world background first. I'll try to do my best to include all the important bits here. If you want to know more, I recommend the wiki. (http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/)
Trolls live on Alternia and, at least at the stage of their life the young ones shown here are in, appear basically like grey-skinned, black-haired humans with horns. Homestuck has twelve main troll characters, each following one of the zodiac signs and each having their own chat quirk. Trolls also have something of a caste system determined by their blood color. Aside from Karkat, who's embarrassed by his blood and thus types in anonymous gray, they all type in a color matching theirs. The main trolls are as follows:
Karkat Vantas (handle: carcinoGeneticist) - Knight of Blood
Aradia Megido (handle: apocalypseArisen) - Maid of Time
Tavros Nitram (handle: adiosToreador) - Page of Breath
Sollux Captor (handle: twinArmageddons) - Mage of Doom
Nepeta Leijon (handle: arsenicCatnip) - Rogue of Heart
Kanaya Maryam (handle: grimAuxiliatrix) - Sylph of Space
Terezi Pyrope (handle: gallowsCalibrator) - Seer of Mind
Vriska Serket (handle: arachnidsGrip) - Thief of Life
Equius Zahhak (handle: centaursTesticle) - Heir of Void
Gamzee Makara (handle: terminallyCapricious) - Bard of Rage
Eridan Ampora (handle: caligulasAquarium) - Prince of Hope
Feferi Peixes (handle: cuttlefishCuller) - Witch of Life
The first and last names of each troll contain exactly six letters. Combined with the four human players I'll bring up soon, their usernames form the sixteen possible two-letter combinations of A, C, G, and T, the four nucleotides in DNA.
Young trolls are all born as grubs, later spinning cocoons from which they hatch into their more humanoid form. Relationships are strange and involve quadrants that just happen to match the four playing card suits. They don't have official parents, as all the genetic material from mating is dumped into one big mess used by the mother grub. Instead they're raised by creatures called Lusus (if they survive long enough to be chosen by one). Apparently the adult trolls are off conquering the galaxy somewhere, so the society on their planet is formed mostly of the youth. Their homes are referred to as hives and they sleep in cocoons filled with Sopor Slime.
We aren't introduced to the trolls first, however. We're introduced to the four humans, with John Egbert being the main character. These are as follows:
John Egbert (handle: ectoBiologist, originally ghostyTrickster) - Heir of Breath
Rose Lalonde (handle: tentacleTherapist) - Seer of Light
Dave Strider (handle: turntechGodhead) - Knight of Time
Jade Harley (handle: gardenGnostic) - Witch of Space
The four of them become involved in a game called SBURB, which literally puts the player inside of the game. With one person acting as the player and the other the server, the person on the server end can actually move things around in the player's house from their computer. (Someone in the player position can also become the server user for someone else.) Through various strange devices they can buy for their house, they're able to create new unique items or duplicate already existing ones. There are also Kernelsprites which are prototyped with items or creatures to become a sort of helper to the player, taking on the appearance of whatever is used. If prototyped with something or someone once living, the dead being can live on through the kernelsprite. John's, for example, was prototyped with a jester doll, then doused with the ashes of his dead grandmother, causing his kernelsprite to look like his grandmother in a jester's outfit. Anything added to any of the sprites within a game has an effect on the monsters that appear, as well as the final boss - building and building upon their design. Killing the monsters earns the players the currency they need to buy more equipment for their homes.
As it turns out, SBURB is a game that destroys the world. Creating the Kernelsprite reveals a countdown to when their home will be hit by a meteor, while others are falling all around the world. The only way to escape is by making it into the player-specific medium, a land unique to each player, by creating a special item through the use of a couple of the other odd machines. These mediums become planets that, along with the two moons of Prospit (good) and Derse (bad), orbit the world of Skaia. Skaia is like a giant chessboard, eventually becoming a planet, that is expanded as players enter the game. There are many other factors involved, but the main idea is that the Black King needs to be defeated before the Reckoning can occur. Once they do this, they can receive their reward - entrance into a new universe created by the sacrifice of their one world.
Thing have gone a bit awry in the Kid's version of the game, with one of the black underlings (Jack) having overthrown the Black King. Due to a rift, or "scratch" in time, Jack is sent across the worlds to the troll's session. They were just about to complete it, opening the door into the world they'd created - our (the kids') world - when this caused everything to come undone.
The trolls take refuge in the Veil, an asteroid belt on the outer reaches of the medium that's considered neutral ground. From there, they begin contacting the kids through a chat program that allows them to talk across time. As you can imagine, this gets confusing. Some prefer to troll linearly, while Karkat ends up moving backwards in time with each attempt. He eventually goes back to doing things in order. This also leads to some trolls (Karkat, mostly) arguing with their own past and future selves over memos.
Everyone in the game has both a real self and a dream self, with the dream self residing on one of the moons and acting as a sort of second life should the player die. At this point in the story, however, all the trolls' dream selves have been destroyed.
The kids' chat client is called Pesterchum. The trolls' is Trollian.
The titles they're all given (Heir of Breath, Bard of Rage, etc.) have to do with their abilities, though some believed at first (especially in Gamzee's case) that they really fit the opposite of the character's actual personality. This isn't actually the case, as you see. They're all fitting.
Having covered all this, we can now move on to Gamzee.
Gamzee is introduced soon after Karkat. He calls Karkat his best friend, although there may be some disagreement on the other end of that. His hive is located near the ocean, which may or may not have something to do with his blood type. (He's the third highest on the list with royal purple blood, the highest two both being ocean dwellers.) His Lusus is a large sea-goat creature that spends most of its time out in the water rather than taking care of him. As a result, Gamzee wasn't brought up the best and was never taught that eating the sopor slime a troll sleeps in isn't good for him. (It does bad things to the mind.) He makes pies out of it on a regular basis, and this keeps him constantly stoned.
For SGRUB, the trolls have been divided up into two teams, Red and Blue. (Sollux, who's helping to run this thing, is really into those two colors.) These teams don't actually matter in the end, as it turns out they're in one session instead of two, but Gamzee is on the red team under Karkat. He is the server player for Terezi, while Tavros is in charge of running the server for him.
Of note, the trolls and humans in Homestuck use "sylladexes" to hold their items. Each character has a different modus for theirs, allowing for different methods of organization and retrieval of items. They're generally silly, and often result n the character messing up and sending one of their other items flying out of it. John's allows him to put things in, but only holds so many before putting in a new one knocks out an old one. It's also linear and items can't be taken from the middle of the row, just one of the ends. In Gamzee's case, his is just a mess of the holding cards and colors. The modus type is called "Miracle" and he has no idea how it works at all, nor does he want to know. Sometimes he just brings it out to stare at the flashing colors. He attempts to retrieve his computer through prayer and special stardust once, but this only sends a bottle of Faygo flying out. In the end, he actually just does what very few think to do - reach out and take it off the card.
Each character also has a certain type of preferred weapon. This is stored in a "strife modus". Gamzee's is considered "clubkind", meaning he can use various different clubs, his specialty being juggling pins. (This is later changed to "jokerkind" which is far more versatile and dangerous.)
Karkat considers it a curse for running a program he shouldn't have, but whatever the reason their Lusus start being killed off one by one. Gamzee's is found with a harpoon run through it (possibly shot by Eridan). All of them are later used to prototype their kernelsprites, making their Black King exceedingly dangerous.
Gamzee himself isn't seen for a lot of the story. His role up until a certain point is a particularly small one. He's around, certainly. He runs his sessions with Terezi and Tavros and offers advice to Eridan at one point. While none of the characters seem to dislike him much, he doesn't appear to be all that close with any of them either, aside from perhaps Tavros. He and the latter have (terrible) rap-off sessions together. Given Tavros's overall gentler personality, it's no surprise that he and Gamzee are able to get along so easily. Equius, who holds the caste system in high regard, finds Gamzee's actions and lifestyle to be in poor taste, but still treats him with respect given his higher ranking on the blood scale. It's obvious that he wishes the "highb100d" would act in a manner more befitting of his status. Terezi teases him as much as she does anyone else, sometimes getting a little annoyed when he doesn't get irritated at her for it. Most of the trolls don't seem to care about him either way. By this I mean they'll easily talk to him but not try to befriend him in any way. Eridan, for example, only spoke with him because he couldn't get a hold of Karkat. When all of them are hanging around in the void he offers naps on his pile of clown horns for 420 boondollars. He also has a tendency to post to future memos weeks before they're actually made, due to their weird time program. So his past self will pop up in a conversation and he'll have no idea what's going on since it hasn't happened for him yet.
As far as any of the trolls go, he's closest to Karkat. Or at least he'd like to believe this. Karkat, for his part, claims to hate him and calls him a terrible best friend. Gamzee just takes this in stride without getting upset over it.
At some point during this, Gamzee messages Dave, expecting to troll him something fierce. Dave surprises Gamzee by saying he was "the good troll" and that they'd had a great rap session some time before. Gamzee doesn't remember this, claiming he hasn't been thinking all that clearly lately since he hasn't had any pie in a long time. Dave then sends him a YouTube link to the song Miracles by the Insane Clown Posse. Despite all the connections made to him and this group before this point, the troll finds this song absolutely blasphemous. Some believe this may have attributed to his breakdown later, and he does refer to the dark carnival out of juggalo "lore".
Soon enough, however, the shit starts hitting the fan. Several things happen at once. Vriska reaches God Tier, and in thanks for Tavros's help she runs him through with his own weapon. Eridan goes nuts (for a different reason) and kills Feferi and Kanaya, also attempting to kill Sollux, though the last gets away with only losing his eyesight. And Gamzee, who had apparently been missing for some time, sends Karkat a message that scares the shit out of him, and rightfully so (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005258).
Gamzee has lost it at this point. Having sobered up, most likely cold turkey, he believes himself to be the messiah of the clown religion he's been following. Or rather messiahs, plural, as he seems to have developed dual personalities that alternate speaking - one talking quietly and one yelling. He's recalled his lineage, as he's descended from the Grand Highblood and the "subjuggulators". Suddenly the color of blood has meaning, whereas before he didn't care. He kills Equius, choking him with the string of his own bow, and seems to have killed Nepeta as well, since she witnessed the murder and leaps at him afterward. Her actual death isn't shown.
Given something Dave said in a chat log, it's possible that the video Dave sent was what started leading to Gamzee's breakdown and it's *possible* that they will chat again later. He might even be in a better state of mind at the time but none of that is known. Dave says:
TG: it was months ago for me
TG: you did your bizarrely oblivious juggalo thing
TG: then bitched and moaned at me for ruining your religion or some horseshit
TG: like i guess a weird crisis in faith i dunno
TG: and then
TG: you kinda got over that i guess
TG: and we both proceeded to have one of the best rap-offs in the history of paradox space
Given how the trolls tend to message people all out of order through time, this may be something yet to come.
It is important to note at this point that all the trolls are descended from powerful and respected ancestors that all appear to be grown-up versions of the current youth. The ancestors are apparently actually paradox clones originally created in a lab (probably accidentally) by Karkat. A similar thing happens with John, and really all of the main trolls and humans are paradox clones of a sort but this is a confusing issue and it's really not necessary to go into it for this history.
He comes across a duel between Eridan and Vriska, but before they can fight they're interrupted by an undead, vampiric Kanaya. She delivers a swift kick to the groin which sends him flying off a nearby ledge. As we know from a glimpse of the future that he'll appear again, it's clear that he hasn't died at this point.
I'll be taking him from before he goes crazy, but these events were important to mention.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
I will be taking him from just before he messages Dave and receives that video link in return. He'll have started to sober up at this point, but see my notes further down on how I want to handle this.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Gamzee is, at first anyway, your typical stoner character with a clown twist. He loves clowns, and even paints his face up like one. And the posters on his walls aren't just of clowns, but of particularly evil looking clowns. He follows his own religion based around the coming of "mirthful messiahs" and believes heavily in miracles to the extent that he doesn't like having the way things work explained to him in detail. He keeps bicycle horns around everywhere, occasionally scaring himself by stepping on them. Someday he wants to learn how to ride a unicycle properly, but right now his legs are too short for the one he owns. He also enjoys Faygo, a fruit flavored soda that's another reference to the Insane Clown Posse. (It's not their soda, but they mention it in songs.)
He's generally very laid back and friendly, believing that one needs to follow what their heart tells them is right. He likes rapping with Tavros and apparently once had a session with Dave, who enjoys the same pasttime. He can be forgetful due to his tendency to space out and lose track of what he was doing, but he still manages to set up his SGRUB sessions with the other players and he seems to know what he's doing when fighting in the medium. Though at one point he does tell Equius that he and some imps had just sat around chilling and eating pie. By now, the others are used to his behavior.
When his Lusus dies, he appears genuinely saddened despite the fact that it was hardly around. (He'd been seen waiting for it to return while sitting on the beach earlier.) He cares for the feelings of his fellow trolls more than most of them care for each other. When Equius gets onto him for his love of slime pies and Faygo, Gamzee easily agrees to give up both since his friends obviously know what's best for him. The other troll takes the request back, though, since this throws him off and he doesn't think Gamzee should take orders from someone of a lower caste.
He seems to be taken for granted by a lot of the other trolls. Aside from a couple, they aren't exactly all that friendly toward him - even Karkat, who he considers his best friend (though the latter is obviously concerned when he disappears for a while). There's a lot we don't know about the time he was missing and what exactly happened to him or was going on in his mind. Some of this may be revealed later, but until then it's unknown whether or not there was any further outside influence. I think, personally, that the fact that no one went out to look for him or help him when he was sobering up contributed to the change, but that's merely a guess. It is mentioned that before all this, during the final boss fight, Gamzee pulled out some crazy moves and did more damage than all of them, though Vriska was the one to finish it off. Afterward, he just went back to being his old self.
When he goes crazy, his personality does a complete 180. He's a psychopath, for all intents and purposes, and he speaks as if there's two personalities in his head - both the mirthful messiahs of his religion. It's unknown if any of his original personality remains.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
As a troll, Gamzee would have gray skin, black hair, dark eyes with yellow sclera (many people like to draw the irises the color of their blood), and horns the color of candy corn. All of the trolls are like this. His hair is longish and unkempt, and he doesn't always have the best posture. Most trolls have sharp teeth, some more prominent than others. Gamzee in particular has an overbite full of large, sharp incisors.
As a human, the gray skin and horns would obviously be gone. I'd like to make his eyes purple like his blood color, if possible. He also wouldn't have such dangerous looking teeth, though they might look a little sharper than usual.
What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:
We don't really get to see all of Gamzee's abilities, so it's not certain what they really are. He's not psychic like some of the characters, but he does seem to have a great deal of physical strength.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
He simply... won't have them. He'll be strong, but it won't be anything inhuman. Problem solved.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
He appears to be somewhat acrobatic. Nothing super, but he's agile and can do a few flips when need be. He can also use a bow with great accuracy - possibly other projectile weapons as well.