(no subject)
P L A Y E R
☓ Name: Athy
☓ Personal journal: awillowweeping
☓ Age: 30
☓ Other characters in The Devils See: --
☓ Email: beast.priest.general@gmail.com
☓ AIM/MSN/Yahoo! Messenger: wolfpackgeneral@aim
C H A R A C T E R
☓ Name: Equius Zahhak, the Heir of Void
☓ Series: Homestuck
☓ Reference: Equius@Homestuck!Wiki
☓ Canon point: post death
☓ Age: his exact age is never actually stated, but likely around 6 solar sweeps (so roughly 13 human years)
☓ Personality:
Your name is EQUIUS ZAHHAK.
You love being STRONG.
Boy does he ever. Equius's life seems to revolve around being strong. Strength of body, strength of character, anything that has to do with being strong he reveres almost as if it were part of his own personal religion. He collects nude musclebeast portraits, believing them to be the perfect physical idea. In fact he considers all animals to be beautiful, creatures that should be looked upon with adoration. He doesn't like the fact that Nepeta hunts animals for food. While he finds it an acceptable principle, he still thinks it unsavory.
Before the game, his dream was to become a member of the imperial forces as an Archeradicator, a rank he considered to be the most noble. Unfortunately, he was never able to fire an arrow from a bow because it would just shatter in his hands. Still, there is always a bow equipped to his Strife Portfolio, along with the broken halves of a recent attempt at archery. It's definitely one of the places where his strength holds him back, but he seems determined to keep trying. He considers archery to be one of the highest regarded crafts by the upper classes of society and has been for centuries.
Another major aspect about his personality is that he is very angry and violent person. Most of the time he seems to do all right in keeping himself in control, but when things don't go as expected he can fly off the handle very easily. It's the violence that actually gets him to calm down again, and it generally involves breaking things. Ironically, he's the only troll that doesn't curse, and makes it a point not to because he considers it low class. He'll say things like "Fiddlesti%" and "fudgesicles" instead, and if he does manage to curse he'll apologize for it.Yet he's not above lying and backstabbing to get his way. he isn't very trusting of people and expects them to betray him at any given moment, so he might as well make use of a situation if it could benefit him.
Equius is a strong believer in the Hemospectrum, or at least he tries to be. He has admitted to being confused by it on occasion. The Hemospectrum is the troll caste system, the color of one's blood denotes their place in society. He is a blue blood, which makes him a member of the aristocracy. It's something he's extremely proud of, giving him a rather entitled point of view. He outwardly and often loudly looks down upon the lower classes, red, orange, and yellow. Green is 'alright, but not great.' Only shades of purple are above him, and the thought of being subservient to a high blood is far more exciting for him than healthy. The only trolls of a higher class from him that he doesn't care for are the aquatic trolls, though he says its more tradition they be at odds, a dignified obligation. Though, he genuinely doesn't like Eridian all that much because apparently not even Equius is free from his desperate advances.
What did confuse him about it was the fact that Gamzee, someone of the highest blood color found on land, acted more like a filthy commoner while the red blooded Aradia could conduct herself with proper decorum of the upper classes. It angered and frustrated him like nothing else. While he had a very clear distaste for Gamzee, he secretly had developed affections for Aradia, but just couldn't get over the fact that her blood was red and would jump back and forth between complimenting and insulting her. Mostly insulting her. Aradia was his server player for Sgrub, and he misinterpreted it to mean that she was going to serve him. What it really meant was that she was hosting his session in the game, and in fact was in a position of power over him. At first he was extremely upset by this, but quickly discovered that he enjoyed the debauchery of being commanded around by someone of the lowest class, especially after she started throwing his bathtub around. He was actually willing to (secretly)give up his roll of leader of the blue team to her just so she could continue to be in control of him.
Vriska had suggested that he build the then ghostly Aradia a new body, and he took the suggestion to rather obsessive lengths. He made it perfect, focusing on every detail. He went so far as to give it a heart that pumped blue blood through it(who's blood it was originally is anyone's guess). Not only did he apparently make out with said robot, he programmed it's heart to return his feelings. Though when he finally gave it to her, things did not go as planned. Though after beating the snot out of him, she did return his affections but in a dark sort of way. Troll relationships are very complicated, and theirs even moreso due to the fact that they fluctuate between the red and black quadrants. While red relationships are the closest to human relationships, trolls don't rule out hate as a means for a relationship either. His feelings lean more towards the red, and when Ariadia!Bot exploded he was very upset by the fact that she didn't say goodbye to him.
Which was a good point in time for him to have a moirail. A moirail is part of the quadrant based relationship shenanigans that trolls have to deal with. The best translation for it is 'fated-friend'. While the relationship is still considered romantic, it's not sexual in nature. They're supposed to be drawn together by destiny, and are meant to keep each other protected and stable. Nepeta is important to him for this reason, though from the outside looking in, their relationship doesn't appear all that healthy.
Equius is extremely demanding, practically rules aspects of her life. If he wants her to do/not do something he expects her to listen. For the most part she does, even if it means not playing Sgrub on a team with her other friends. He hated the low bloods she associated with and insisted that they had 'loosened her morals.' He'll correct her if she uses foul language and berate her if she does something he considers beneath her. He sees her as naive, and thinks that she doesn't know any better, so he has to look out for her. Everyone else thinks he's a complete jerk for treating her this way.
What people don't see is how he opens up to her. She gets him to open up about how he feels and they spent a lot of time cuddled up in his pile of robot parts, talking and trying to work through his issues. Despite the fact that he thinks it's the most juvenile and foolish pastime, he actually conceded to try and roleplay with her. She's precious to him, someone he wants to keep safe. Equius was actually very touched when she gave him her kitty hat even though it was because he soaked it through with sweat.
He also considers himself a man of compassion. He says that 'no one is beyond redemption' in terms of class and behavior. While he can't seem to completely let go of the hemospectrum, he does seem to care about his comrades is his own way. He even went so far as to build Tavros robotic legs to cure him of his paralysis, and seemed to have a begrudging worry about him continuously falling down stairs.
After the events in Sgrub, there seemed to be a slight change in how he acted, primarily where it came to Karkat, who had ended up being viewed as the leader of the small, surviving band of trolls from their universe. While in the game, he refused to see Karkat as a leader of any sort and thought him a disgusting foulmouth along with the rest of the Red Team. Later on he appeared to have accepted Karkat's place as leader and even called him 'sir' while others were present. Unfortunately, the pleasure he got from Karkat's naturally forceful personality tended to gross the other troll out. Yet in some backwards sort of superiority complex having way, Equius commanded Karkat to continue giving him commands. He was even willing to 'embrace jocularly as if they were bros' and promised to be as gentle as possible.
Luckily, Equius has one of the least eye-melting text quirks, or at least text colors.
D --> Every line starts with his 'noble bow and arrow' and he never ends a sentence with puntuation
D --> He replaces 'x' sounds with a % and uses it in place of the word 'cross'. Words with the sounds "ool" or "loo" are replaced by 001 and 100
D --> Beware horse and cow puns
He keeps up with the puns even when speaking, and according to Nepeta he has a particular way of pronouncing the '001/100' parts of is words, which I interpret as something like a whinny (judging by his theme song anyway).
☓ Abilities:
He is STRONG. Freakishly STRONG. As in he can leap great heights and behead gargantuan sized monsters in a single punch sort of STRONG.
He can build and program highly advanced and powerful robots. He also can make replacement body parts that pump blood, such as Vriska's arm and the lower half of Tavros's body. In Aradia's case, he was able to replace her entire body with a robotic version.
He has a Sylladex like the others, though we don't know it's name or Fetch Modi. We do know that he keeps a BOWKIND, 1/2BOWKIND, and FISTKIND equipped to the fighting aspect of it. We only really see him use his fists to pound things into the ground, though he said that occasionally he bludgeons things with the 1/2BOWKIND pieces.
☓ Weaknesses:
He is STRONG. Freakishly STRONG. As in he can crush anything that is even remotely fragile in his hands because he can't exactly control the immense power of his mangrit sort of STRONG. He's also a detriment to others because of it. He was raised by one an incredibly strong lusus, though even when he was trying to be gentle he ended up instantly bruising him. He'd likely cause serious injury to a normal person if he's not careful.
Hemospectrum - Despite the fact that he showed some confusion over the blood color caste system, he still stuck to it resolutely, to the point where it cost him his life. He could have easily saved himself, but he was unable to lift his hand against someone of a higher blood rank than him. On his formspring, Andrew Hussie explained that all he needed to do was twitch and his strength would have saved him, but he was just that passive.
Rage: Nearly anything can make him do an acrobatic pirouette off the deep end, and once he gets to a certain point the only thing that can calm him down is GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE. Those robots he builds? He sets them to kill mode so he can beat them into useless chunks of metal. Which is how he broke his horn and teeth.
Hyperhidrosis: He has a perspiration problem. He sweats excessively when he starts even getting remotely worked up, and needs to keep towels handy.
Creeper-ness: Besides being a domineering asshole, Equius tends to come off as extremely creepy and disconcerting to those around him. His obsession with violence and adoration for nude musclebeast art is down right fetishistic(the poetry, THE POETRY), and his giant BDSM kink can on occasion slip out in conversation by suggesting -or even demanding- to be bossed around.
Roleplaying: He sucks at it.
☓ Strengths:
He is STRONG. Frea- Okay, you get the idea.
Nepeta: He considers her a strength anyway. The fact that he has a moirail has made him at least more level headed than he would be without.
Multicultural?: He actually makes attempts to understand other races before passing judgement, at least in terms of caste system.
Fearless!: He has enough pride in himself and his STRONGNESS that things don't scare him easily, he's faced huge, violent monsters before and didn't bat an eye.
☓ Intranet post sample:
centuarsTestical [CT] began trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]
D --> Nepeta
D --> Answer me
D --> You will answer me now
D --> You will answer and you will tell me that you're okay
centuarsTestical [CT] ceased trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]
centuarsTestical [CT] began trolling UNKNOWN NETWORK [UN]
D --> I demand answers
D --> It would behoof you to explain in an immediate and thorough fashion
D --> Where is this place and how did I come to be here
D --> At first I believed it to be an udderly deplorable, low b100d attempt at tomf001ery
D --> An e%pectation I have not completely disregarded, despite conflicting evidence
D --> Furthermare, I am injured and in need of assistance
D --> Someone respond
D --> I command it
centuarsTestical [CT] ceased trolling UNKNOWN NETWORK [UN]
centuarsTestical [CT] began trolling UNKNOWN NETWORK [UN]
D --> I could also use some fresh towels
☓ Log post sample:
[S] Equius: Wake Up.
He couldn't breathe.
Yet for once in his life he felt completely calm. Things were popping somewhere in the back of his head and the pounding of his blood was much akin to the thundering rush of a thousand hoof beats. There wasn't even time for him to properly register the pain in his leg where the arrow pierced completely through. He'd been in shock before it even happened. Karkat had warned him, but he had no idea the high blood had become so... exquisitely dominant.
How often did a troll get the chance to die smiling? Not often, he imagined.
Death was like floating. Hovering, suspended in a void of darkness after his vision had faded to nothing from the outsides in. Calm and quiet, he could feel his consciousness drifting away as if merely falling asleep.
Then pain hit him like a blistering slap across the face. He was still floating, the salt in the water searing at the raw skin circling his neck and upsetting the arrow that was still lodged in his leg. His stillness became a sudden thrashing movement, sending all new levels of pain shooting up his leg. Water? He was underwater? It was so dark, which way was up? All he could do was struggle and claw at the water in hopes of somehow finding his bearings. This time, his consciousness didn't fade peacefully. This time, he fought to the very last moment.
Again, awareness returned in a sudden jolt, this time accompanied by a harsh gasp for air. He blinked his eyes open, then shut them immediately. The sun wasn't something he was used to, so it burned his eyes. For a long moment he just remained where he was, running the last few memories he had over and over as he tried to make sense of this situation. A finger twitched, then he finally started to feel around for his sunglasses.
He didn't understand what was going on, and not understanding something made him furious. So he lashed out at the emptiness beside him, hissing through his teeth. The fact that there was nothing for him to beat on only made it worse, and it escalated until he managed to pull himself up to his feet and hobble through the sand until he could punch a tree hard enough to split it up the middle.
Good. That was good. He was already starting to feel better. Which meant the sharp pain in his leg became that much more apparent. "Dammit!"
Immediately he berated himself for the curse, even this situation was no reason to start acting like a peasant. He must be spending too much time in the presence of low bloods and their illicit behavior. So he halfheartedly punched at the tree again so the two halves went crashing to the ground. Funny, it should have practically exploded the first time he hit it.
==> Equius: Pull arrow out of own leg in a display of manly STRENGTH and vigor.