Application for singularity_rpg RE-REVISED // Dave Strider (AU)
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Zaechel
OOC Journal: zaenautica
Under 18? Nope
Email/IM: email; garciarm@uwec.edu AIM: flyingmahkite
Characters Played at Singularity: N/A
Character Information ;
Name: Dave Strider
Name of Canon: Homestuck
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: AU
Reference: http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Dave_Strider for the original Dave
http://elfen-lied.wikia.com/wiki/Diclonius for the portions inspired by Elfen Lied
Canon Point: After a year of living in the Institute; just pre-rampage.
Setting: Homestuck's universe isn't that far-removed from the one we live in. At least, not initially. Both the original canon and this alteration take place on modern-day Earth. While the canon 'verse eventually spans multiple player-created planets, a secondary alien world, and pockets of existence that exist outside the laws of space and time, this alteration never goes beyond planet Earth. In fact, it never even goes beyond 21st century America.
WORLD MECHANICS
In the original 'verse, all humans have something called a Sylladex, which functions as a hammerspace inventory. Sylladex owners can captchalogue all items of reasonable size, which effectively stores them on a card. There are many different Sylladex types, referred to as Fetch Modii, and that's just a fancy way of saying 'how you get your crap back out when you need it', since each Modus has a different set of rules for how to retrieve items.
In the same vein, we have Strife Specibi. It's a system of weapon allocation, as the Homestuck verse is rather picky about hows its characters engage in combat. Specibi come in many flavors, like bladekind, riflekind, needlekind, and hammerkind, to name a familiar few. Characters with multiple Specibi need to store them in a Strife Portfolio. So long story short, residents of the original 'verse aren't allowed to pick up any old object and swing it at an enemy. That's crazy talk.
However, in the alternate verse, it IS as simple as that. No sylladice, no strife specibi, no problem. That means the residents can't carry large amounts of STUFF around with them, but it also means they can pick up a chair and bring on the pain without having to fuss with anything beforehand.
The alternate Earth also has some pretty snazzy technology, like advanced prosthetics and robotics, advanced cloning techniques, and numerous devices meant to give humans an edge over the increasing mutant threat. More on that later.
CATACLYSMIC EVENT
Sburb/Sgrub: This game is the very foundation Homestuck is built on. It's billed as an immersive simulation, and it allows a Server Player to directly manipulate a Client Player's home environment. Chain together several players and you've got yourself a Session! So what's the point of all this? To create a shiny new Universe, of course. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of the players' home universe, obliterating their planet with meteors. S___b is essentially a one-way ticket out of the apocalypse. It creates a specialized playing field with individual planets (always the Land of ___ and ___ ) set up for each member of the session. They're also bestowed titles meant to challenge them in some way. This playing field is the Incipisphere, and it's where a great deal of the action in Homestuck takes place.
The session created by four human kids is of particular interest.
John Egbert, the Heir of Breath, is transported to the Land of Wind and Shade.
Jade Harley, the Witch of Space, is transported to the Land of Frost and Frogs.
Dave Strider, the Knight of Time, is transported to the Land of Heat and Clockwork.
Rose Lalonde, the Seer of Light, is transported to the Land of Light and Rain.
After prototyping (chucking an item into) these weird spirit guide things called Kernelsprites and entering the game world, players must pass through the Gates present on their special planets, then cycle through each others' planets on a quest to reach the source of creative potential located at the center of the Incipisphere. This is Skaia. The Battlefield is located here, and that is where the armies of light and darkness wage a war over Skaia's fate. Prospit, the planet that orbits Skaia, attempts to protect it, while Derse, the planet located on the fringes of the Incipisphere, seeks to destroy it. These planets also host the players' dreamselves. These function as a 1-Up, allowing the player to come back to life by assuming control of the dreamself. If a player happens to die on a specific sort of sacrificial altar known as a Quest Bed, they can rocket up to the God Tiers. Think ultra-hax special abilities and a kickass new wardrobe. John and Jade dream on Prospit while Dave and Rose dream on Derse.
In every session, Derse wins the war and causes the Reckoning. This summons the meteors from the Veil and pelts them at Skaia, which defends itself by opening portals that transport the meteors to the players' original planet. It's a big ol' time loop, and that's important to understand when taking ectobiology into account. All players (and their guardians) are created via ectobiology, which, in short, involves mixing paradox clone goo together and zapping up a bunch of weird clone babies. The babies are sent back in time on the meteors to grow up and fulfill their Guardian/Player duties.
Anyway, Skaia's defensive portals can't transport the largest of these meteors though, and if they make it to Skaia, well. Game Over. Players must build up to Skaia and defeat the end boss before this happens, which nets them the shiny new universe, provided they did all that was necessary beforehand and nothing swoops in at the last second to screw everything up. The four kids involved in the session we care about most inadvertently doomed it, which screwed another session over in an entirely different universe.
Which is all well and good for the original 'verse, but in the alternate one? There's no Sburb. Earth is safe from planet-destroying meteors, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a picnic for humankind. Something entirely different is set to wipe out all life on Earth, and that something is the Ray Virus. The alternate 'verse is one where genetic mutations are starting to show up in the population of United States. It was harmless stuff at first; a few people were being born with unnaturally colored irises. No big deal. But then came the kids with horns, and that's when everything took a turn for the worse. As they get older, these strange, horned individuals turn on people, lashing out with lethal force. Those studying this phenomenon have come to the conclusion that these horned mutants, dubbed Invimanus, are meant to usher in the end of humanity. Their goal seems to involve replacing humans as the dominant species on the planet. They achieve this by spreading the virus with their rays (telekinetic extra arms), ensuring the children born from any male they touch have horns too.
This is just a little bit problematic, though, because all Invimanus born from this process are sterile. What's more; they age twice as fast as regular humans. If this generation of mutants replaced humanity, the species would die out very quickly. However, another variant of Invimanus exists. In the days before the wave of Invimanus births, before hospitals were being screened for pink-haired, horned babies, before the crisis was exploding in the Southern United States, a handful of natural Invimanus were born from human parents. The last of the first-gens? A kid named Dave Strider.
Personality: A lot of Dave's personality stems from his weird, weird upbringing. Because as we all know Bro is a strange fucker no matter what universe he hails from. Growing up, Dave's personality remained largely the same as in canon; one cool motherfucker, the master of deadpan snark, and one of the few people on Earth capable of giving negative shits. As a little kid he was self-conscious about his horns and bubblegum hair, but Bro drilled that Strider mantra into his deformed skull early on. Dave withstood a lot of teasing with his technicolor head held high. Wearing pink was ironic enough; pink hair put him on par with the fucking irony gods. Eventually, he was able to turn the mocking around, effectively counter-trolling his tormentors. Unfortunately, the bullies didn't appreciate his quasi-anti-whatever-hipster ways, and nor did they appreciate their insults and jokes bouncing right off their mutant target.
Verbal bullying turned physical, and Dave was less equipped to handle that.
For awhile, at least. Bro eventually taught him how to defend himself, which worked pretty damn well, even against the older kids that were picking on him. This gave him more confidence; he learned fast, he was a quick little shit, and he could take on kids twice his size. Who wouldn't get a little full of himself? Once his rays developed, he only got cockier, even though Bro still could kick his ass. Goddamn ninja.
Around the age of 7 is where things started getting a little wonkier.
Ever since his first physical spat with the neighborhood assholes, he'd been hearing a voice. And he sure as shit never told anyone about that -- who wants to look absolutely batfuck insane? Weak whispers at first, and at night, in his dreams, it only got louder. Everyone is the product of nurture and nature interacting, and Invimanus are born with a different set natural instincts. Lashing out at humans is the norm, though it's hard to say if this is all instinctive or part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In any case, there's at least some natural inclination towards murder, and this is what was manifesting at the edges of Dave's subconsciousness. As the bullying escalated in severity, the voice, the urge to lash out -- that followed suit. It's a second personality of sorts, something he always actively tried to repress. He managed to keep it under wraps, though during his final spat with the bullies it finally convinced him to take action. It was just a little less lethal than the voice had been urging.
However, witnessing Bro's death triggered a takeover of Dave's second personality, marking the first time he completely caved to it.. Constant experimentation at the Institute didn't help suppress the murderous thoughts, and a long, LONG time spent in isolation left him alone to stew in them. Dave's current personality is the result of a merge -- a merge between his coolkid persona and the Invimanus instincts. At the point I'm taking him from, he hasn't had time to learn that not all humans want to fuck him over. He's even convinced his online buddies would've rejected him, had he ever shown them what he looked like.
So Dave is bitter around the edges, but it's not especially overt. It's more of a simmering, ever-present hostility that waxes and wanes depending on the situation. Like Canon!Dave, he hides emotion beneath the surface, which can make it especially jarring when he lops someone's head off without ever losing his cool. While the two personalities usually stay balanced, there are times where he really tries to be all Dave, the Dave his brother raised and would be proud of, and during those moments it's hard to believe he's a killer. He jokes, he's playfully sarcastic, and he revels in irony. But then there are also times when he's all Invimanus, which means no mercy for anyone. It's a constant internal war -- Dave vs. Dave.
Abilities and Weaknesses: All Invimanus have invisible telekinetic 'arms'. They're known as rays, and while they vary from mutant to mutant in amount, strength, speed, and length, they all carry extremely destructive potential. Rays can grab objects and go through them without harming them. This is useful for picking stuff up and hurling it at opponents. Almost anything can become a deadly projectile. They can also reach inside a human being and fuck with their organs, which tends to end in a mild case of death.
At higher frequencies, rays become even more dangerous. They can cut through just about anything unless it's a special Invimanus containment unit. This lets Invimanus rip through waves of people effortlessly. Twisting heads off, severing limbs, bisecting people right down the middle... the possibilities are endless. And nasty.
If focused, rays can vibrate at a super-high frequency and become visible to anyone. At this stage their power is explosive. Like, blow-up-buildings explosive.
Dave, specifically, has 4 rays with a range of 1.3 meters. They're incredibly fast, but short. He's still young, and a naturally-born Invimanus at that, so there's still potential to develop more rays and longer range. The more he pushes himself, the more taxing it is for his body. A fully-developed Invimanus can actually destroy all life on Earth. This level of destruction comes with a heavy price tag; it'll kill the wielder, melting their body from the inside out. Dave's too young to get to this point in Singularity. However, he can still overwork his powers, and if that happens he'll start vomiting blood and render himself basically useless.
Despite all this destructive capability, Invimanus themselves are susceptible to harm. It doesn't actually take much to knock Dave over. The only trick is getting close enough. While he can deflect normal gunfire with his rays, he's unable to deflect ammunition from higher-caliber weaponry. Heavy objects at high speeds are the key to breaching his defenses, and one hit can do the trick. Headshots are particularly effective, and breaking a horn is pretty devastating to his health. Not only will this disable his rays for a set time, it'll send him into a lethargic state. Knock both off and it's vegetable time.
Notes On Power Limitations: Obviously, rays fall under that annoying 'unavoidable attack' category. They're invisible to most, fast, and able to instantly kill most mortal creatures. While this might be cool in the original AU, it's not appropriate for panfandom RP. So I have a pretty effective idea.
Make rays visible to everyone, or let anyone opt into that: In the AU, most homo sapiens cannot see rays However, one trains himself to dodge them because he is just that badass, and one could see 'em straight off the bat (hi Bro). Since Singularity has a high population of non-humans and humans gifted with special powers, there's already gonna be a lot of people who can see 'em. If that's not enough, we could just do away with the invisibility thing entirely. This destroys a lot of their edge.
Inventory:
(1) Helmet made from anti-Invimanus tech
(1) Tattered full-body straitjacket
That's all, folks. He literally has nothing but the shit he was wearing.
Appearance: This alternate Dave has a few obvious physical differences from his canon counterpart. Invimanus have unnaturally colored hair, and Dave's no exception; his is bright fricken' pink. He also has pinkish-red eyes and white, bony horns. They're a little nubby, which is normal for a first-gen. Due to a year of experimentation and a largely liquid diet, he's slightly emiciated and sporting several ugly scars. Since he spent much of the last year strapped to a table in a Invimanus-proof cage, his muscles are a little atrophied. In short, he's an awkward, stumbly mess, but he should bounce back (somewhat) with a little TLC.
Age: 13
AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? This is a player-created AU with a lot of deviance from the Homestuck plot so it's gonna need a lot of justification/explanation. While the setting remains largely the same, one of the biggest differences is that in this universe, Sburb never existed. That means no game worlds, no Alternia, and no crazy title-driven powers outside of rays. It also means Dave hasn't had a chance too meet John, Jade, and Rose in person -- yet. No, the cataclysmic event that's gonna destroy all of mankind is the ray virus, or Invimanism. The last of the original set of mutants showing all symptoms is Dave Strider, the same boy from Texas we know and love. His main alteration lies in his genetics, which produced the physical differences seen in his features. All that, in turn, led to an overdose of bullying. It's fairly easy to hide mutant red eyes behind shades, but school's 'no-hat' policy made it hard to shield the horns and hair from view. Despite all the crap he went through outside his home, this universe still had a Bro, and Bro provided enough (weird) support to keep his genetic drive at bay. This is why Alt!Dave's basic personality is intact.
The events surrounding Dave's capture and institutionalization hit him the hardest. This was the decisive year. Unlike Canon!Bro, Alt!Bro pretty much died right in front of him, from something that was entirely preventable and meant for Dave. That's why he stopped holding the genetic drive back, and that's when he killed people for the first time. Dave's primary personality is universally averse to killing people, so his freak-out haunted him during his first couple months of imprisonment. But as he was repeatedly mistreated in the research facility, the second personality gained more and more sway over him. The full year of mental and physical strain led to the merge between his two personalities.
RE: Dave; he's every bit as sarcastic and almost as ironic as his canon self. When he's lucid,or 100% 'Dave', he's even disgusted by how easily he's killed people, and definitely won't do it unless explicitly provoked. He's still angry, and he doesn't exactly trust humans, but if he's integrated into a setting that doesn't repeatedly punch him in the face? He'll be all right, if a little snippy at times. Ultimately he doesn't like being a slave to his biology, even if the drive is hard to ignore. It's just Provoked!Dave you have to worry about. That's when the Invimanus side of his personality rears its ugly horned head.
RE: AU as a whole; All major players are still present. They've just been reassigned to fulfill different roles, leaving their original personalities largely untouched. Dave may not have been created via ectobiological shenanigans, but he was still adopted by the same guy, and their relationship ended up being the same. Bro was a little less... intense than usual, since there was no Sburb to prep his kid for. But he did teach the kid how to defend himself, lest he eat bullypunches for breakfast everyday. The two were hyper-competitive, and even with his powers Dave couldn't beat his Bro in a one-on-one tussle. This may've changed post-Institute, but since Bro died, this was impossible to gauge.
Dave met the other three kids online, considering them his best (and only, really) friends, but he wasn't trolled because as stated before, there is no Alternia in this AU. Most of the trolls ended up reassigned to miscellaneous second generation Invimaii in the institute. Karkat Vantas is actually a regular human, one of John's friends with an obvious crush and extreme tsundere tendencies. He is every bit as ragey as his canon counterpart, though growing up in a different society means it's for slightly different reasons. He also still admires Jack Noir for some reason. Yeah, Jack is definitely still around, along with a motley crew who serve as antagonists. ...okay, maybe just Jack and DD do, HB bites it early on in the escape and CD is the world's only pacifist Invimanus. Their role increases post-escape. Jack is dead-set on killing Dave because Dave eventually removes his arm and eye. Payback for what happened to Bro. In the end, they're just pawns of a greater organization, dead-set on eliminating Invimanus and anyone who happens to know too much about them.
Samples ;
Log Sample:
It was the silence that bothered Dave the most.
Well, that and the restraints. And the experiments. And the smarmy bastards running this twisted hellbox. But above all else, the dead silence in his isolation cell grated at him day-in, day-out. The hum of the machines in the testing rooms wasn't much better, but it gave him something to focus on. A beeping metronome to count out the seconds, the minutes, hours, days, and months that were slipping on by. A whirring beat to keep him from getting too lost in his own head. That shit was way freakier than most anything they threw at him.
Including these goddamn iron balls. It was bright in that particular experimental chamber, all lights on him, Dave Strider, star of the fucking show. Every week they gathered behind the glass wall to see how strong he was getting. They had to wait 'til the sedative wore off, and by then Dave's shackled arms were always asleep. But those weren't the arms they were interested in. The machine mounted before him hummed as they readied the next shot. Many of the subjects looked away, or cried, or begged for it to end, but Dave always stared right down the barrel of the metallic cannon. He was fucking ready, and the cockwipes clutching their little clipboards in anticipation weren't gonna see him fold.
Finally, a voice over the intercom. Just announcing the force of the next shot. It wasn't really for his benefit, just procedure. After another moment of heavy silence, the cannon fired, the iron shot speeding straight towards Dave's face. He reacted instantly, batting it aside with all four rays as soon as it came into range. It slammed into the wall he was tethered to, just a hair shy of his left ear. It was silent again, but Dave could imagine the furious scribbling going on behind the glass. He hadn't been able to deflect shots that strong last week. He wondered if the rapid improvement worried them. Man, this shit was gonna bite them in the ass when -- not if, WHEN he escaped. They were practically training him.
As the machine spat out the next shot, a shot he knew he wouldn't be able to deflect, he just reminded himself that he only had to deal with it a little while longer. Fuckers weren't gonna know what hit 'em.
Network Sample:
k so
did you guys swap the sugar water for fucking pcp or what
i mean im not complaining here
makes about as much sense as all the other shit you do
aka fuck all
and shit
gives me something to look at
me and the wall are getting awfully tired of bein all up in each others grill 24/7
anyway
lets pretend this isnt some kind of elaborate hallucination slash fever dream slash complete descent into crazytown
lets say i took a tumble down some fancy spacial rabbit hole
let me get the most important question outta the way
where the fuck can a dude snag a pair of pantalones round here
the lumpy sack of potato look went outta style years ago sry2say
Your Nickname: Zaechel
OOC Journal: zaenautica
Under 18? Nope
Email/IM: email; garciarm@uwec.edu AIM: flyingmahkite
Characters Played at Singularity: N/A
Character Information ;
Name: Dave Strider
Name of Canon: Homestuck
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: AU
Reference: http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Dave_Strider for the original Dave
http://elfen-lied.wikia.com/wiki/Diclonius for the portions inspired by Elfen Lied
Canon Point: After a year of living in the Institute; just pre-rampage.
Setting: Homestuck's universe isn't that far-removed from the one we live in. At least, not initially. Both the original canon and this alteration take place on modern-day Earth. While the canon 'verse eventually spans multiple player-created planets, a secondary alien world, and pockets of existence that exist outside the laws of space and time, this alteration never goes beyond planet Earth. In fact, it never even goes beyond 21st century America.
WORLD MECHANICS
In the original 'verse, all humans have something called a Sylladex, which functions as a hammerspace inventory. Sylladex owners can captchalogue all items of reasonable size, which effectively stores them on a card. There are many different Sylladex types, referred to as Fetch Modii, and that's just a fancy way of saying 'how you get your crap back out when you need it', since each Modus has a different set of rules for how to retrieve items.
In the same vein, we have Strife Specibi. It's a system of weapon allocation, as the Homestuck verse is rather picky about hows its characters engage in combat. Specibi come in many flavors, like bladekind, riflekind, needlekind, and hammerkind, to name a familiar few. Characters with multiple Specibi need to store them in a Strife Portfolio. So long story short, residents of the original 'verse aren't allowed to pick up any old object and swing it at an enemy. That's crazy talk.
However, in the alternate verse, it IS as simple as that. No sylladice, no strife specibi, no problem. That means the residents can't carry large amounts of STUFF around with them, but it also means they can pick up a chair and bring on the pain without having to fuss with anything beforehand.
The alternate Earth also has some pretty snazzy technology, like advanced prosthetics and robotics, advanced cloning techniques, and numerous devices meant to give humans an edge over the increasing mutant threat. More on that later.
CATACLYSMIC EVENT
Sburb/Sgrub: This game is the very foundation Homestuck is built on. It's billed as an immersive simulation, and it allows a Server Player to directly manipulate a Client Player's home environment. Chain together several players and you've got yourself a Session! So what's the point of all this? To create a shiny new Universe, of course. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of the players' home universe, obliterating their planet with meteors. S___b is essentially a one-way ticket out of the apocalypse. It creates a specialized playing field with individual planets (always the Land of ___ and ___ ) set up for each member of the session. They're also bestowed titles meant to challenge them in some way. This playing field is the Incipisphere, and it's where a great deal of the action in Homestuck takes place.
The session created by four human kids is of particular interest.
John Egbert, the Heir of Breath, is transported to the Land of Wind and Shade.
Jade Harley, the Witch of Space, is transported to the Land of Frost and Frogs.
Dave Strider, the Knight of Time, is transported to the Land of Heat and Clockwork.
Rose Lalonde, the Seer of Light, is transported to the Land of Light and Rain.
After prototyping (chucking an item into) these weird spirit guide things called Kernelsprites and entering the game world, players must pass through the Gates present on their special planets, then cycle through each others' planets on a quest to reach the source of creative potential located at the center of the Incipisphere. This is Skaia. The Battlefield is located here, and that is where the armies of light and darkness wage a war over Skaia's fate. Prospit, the planet that orbits Skaia, attempts to protect it, while Derse, the planet located on the fringes of the Incipisphere, seeks to destroy it. These planets also host the players' dreamselves. These function as a 1-Up, allowing the player to come back to life by assuming control of the dreamself. If a player happens to die on a specific sort of sacrificial altar known as a Quest Bed, they can rocket up to the God Tiers. Think ultra-hax special abilities and a kickass new wardrobe. John and Jade dream on Prospit while Dave and Rose dream on Derse.
In every session, Derse wins the war and causes the Reckoning. This summons the meteors from the Veil and pelts them at Skaia, which defends itself by opening portals that transport the meteors to the players' original planet. It's a big ol' time loop, and that's important to understand when taking ectobiology into account. All players (and their guardians) are created via ectobiology, which, in short, involves mixing paradox clone goo together and zapping up a bunch of weird clone babies. The babies are sent back in time on the meteors to grow up and fulfill their Guardian/Player duties.
Anyway, Skaia's defensive portals can't transport the largest of these meteors though, and if they make it to Skaia, well. Game Over. Players must build up to Skaia and defeat the end boss before this happens, which nets them the shiny new universe, provided they did all that was necessary beforehand and nothing swoops in at the last second to screw everything up. The four kids involved in the session we care about most inadvertently doomed it, which screwed another session over in an entirely different universe.
Which is all well and good for the original 'verse, but in the alternate one? There's no Sburb. Earth is safe from planet-destroying meteors, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a picnic for humankind. Something entirely different is set to wipe out all life on Earth, and that something is the Ray Virus. The alternate 'verse is one where genetic mutations are starting to show up in the population of United States. It was harmless stuff at first; a few people were being born with unnaturally colored irises. No big deal. But then came the kids with horns, and that's when everything took a turn for the worse. As they get older, these strange, horned individuals turn on people, lashing out with lethal force. Those studying this phenomenon have come to the conclusion that these horned mutants, dubbed Invimanus, are meant to usher in the end of humanity. Their goal seems to involve replacing humans as the dominant species on the planet. They achieve this by spreading the virus with their rays (telekinetic extra arms), ensuring the children born from any male they touch have horns too.
This is just a little bit problematic, though, because all Invimanus born from this process are sterile. What's more; they age twice as fast as regular humans. If this generation of mutants replaced humanity, the species would die out very quickly. However, another variant of Invimanus exists. In the days before the wave of Invimanus births, before hospitals were being screened for pink-haired, horned babies, before the crisis was exploding in the Southern United States, a handful of natural Invimanus were born from human parents. The last of the first-gens? A kid named Dave Strider.
Personality: A lot of Dave's personality stems from his weird, weird upbringing. Because as we all know Bro is a strange fucker no matter what universe he hails from. Growing up, Dave's personality remained largely the same as in canon; one cool motherfucker, the master of deadpan snark, and one of the few people on Earth capable of giving negative shits. As a little kid he was self-conscious about his horns and bubblegum hair, but Bro drilled that Strider mantra into his deformed skull early on. Dave withstood a lot of teasing with his technicolor head held high. Wearing pink was ironic enough; pink hair put him on par with the fucking irony gods. Eventually, he was able to turn the mocking around, effectively counter-trolling his tormentors. Unfortunately, the bullies didn't appreciate his quasi-anti-whatever-hipster ways, and nor did they appreciate their insults and jokes bouncing right off their mutant target.
Verbal bullying turned physical, and Dave was less equipped to handle that.
For awhile, at least. Bro eventually taught him how to defend himself, which worked pretty damn well, even against the older kids that were picking on him. This gave him more confidence; he learned fast, he was a quick little shit, and he could take on kids twice his size. Who wouldn't get a little full of himself? Once his rays developed, he only got cockier, even though Bro still could kick his ass. Goddamn ninja.
Around the age of 7 is where things started getting a little wonkier.
Ever since his first physical spat with the neighborhood assholes, he'd been hearing a voice. And he sure as shit never told anyone about that -- who wants to look absolutely batfuck insane? Weak whispers at first, and at night, in his dreams, it only got louder. Everyone is the product of nurture and nature interacting, and Invimanus are born with a different set natural instincts. Lashing out at humans is the norm, though it's hard to say if this is all instinctive or part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In any case, there's at least some natural inclination towards murder, and this is what was manifesting at the edges of Dave's subconsciousness. As the bullying escalated in severity, the voice, the urge to lash out -- that followed suit. It's a second personality of sorts, something he always actively tried to repress. He managed to keep it under wraps, though during his final spat with the bullies it finally convinced him to take action. It was just a little less lethal than the voice had been urging.
However, witnessing Bro's death triggered a takeover of Dave's second personality, marking the first time he completely caved to it.. Constant experimentation at the Institute didn't help suppress the murderous thoughts, and a long, LONG time spent in isolation left him alone to stew in them. Dave's current personality is the result of a merge -- a merge between his coolkid persona and the Invimanus instincts. At the point I'm taking him from, he hasn't had time to learn that not all humans want to fuck him over. He's even convinced his online buddies would've rejected him, had he ever shown them what he looked like.
So Dave is bitter around the edges, but it's not especially overt. It's more of a simmering, ever-present hostility that waxes and wanes depending on the situation. Like Canon!Dave, he hides emotion beneath the surface, which can make it especially jarring when he lops someone's head off without ever losing his cool. While the two personalities usually stay balanced, there are times where he really tries to be all Dave, the Dave his brother raised and would be proud of, and during those moments it's hard to believe he's a killer. He jokes, he's playfully sarcastic, and he revels in irony. But then there are also times when he's all Invimanus, which means no mercy for anyone. It's a constant internal war -- Dave vs. Dave.
Abilities and Weaknesses: All Invimanus have invisible telekinetic 'arms'. They're known as rays, and while they vary from mutant to mutant in amount, strength, speed, and length, they all carry extremely destructive potential. Rays can grab objects and go through them without harming them. This is useful for picking stuff up and hurling it at opponents. Almost anything can become a deadly projectile. They can also reach inside a human being and fuck with their organs, which tends to end in a mild case of death.
At higher frequencies, rays become even more dangerous. They can cut through just about anything unless it's a special Invimanus containment unit. This lets Invimanus rip through waves of people effortlessly. Twisting heads off, severing limbs, bisecting people right down the middle... the possibilities are endless. And nasty.
If focused, rays can vibrate at a super-high frequency and become visible to anyone. At this stage their power is explosive. Like, blow-up-buildings explosive.
Dave, specifically, has 4 rays with a range of 1.3 meters. They're incredibly fast, but short. He's still young, and a naturally-born Invimanus at that, so there's still potential to develop more rays and longer range. The more he pushes himself, the more taxing it is for his body. A fully-developed Invimanus can actually destroy all life on Earth. This level of destruction comes with a heavy price tag; it'll kill the wielder, melting their body from the inside out. Dave's too young to get to this point in Singularity. However, he can still overwork his powers, and if that happens he'll start vomiting blood and render himself basically useless.
Despite all this destructive capability, Invimanus themselves are susceptible to harm. It doesn't actually take much to knock Dave over. The only trick is getting close enough. While he can deflect normal gunfire with his rays, he's unable to deflect ammunition from higher-caliber weaponry. Heavy objects at high speeds are the key to breaching his defenses, and one hit can do the trick. Headshots are particularly effective, and breaking a horn is pretty devastating to his health. Not only will this disable his rays for a set time, it'll send him into a lethargic state. Knock both off and it's vegetable time.
Notes On Power Limitations: Obviously, rays fall under that annoying 'unavoidable attack' category. They're invisible to most, fast, and able to instantly kill most mortal creatures. While this might be cool in the original AU, it's not appropriate for panfandom RP. So I have a pretty effective idea.
Make rays visible to everyone, or let anyone opt into that: In the AU, most homo sapiens cannot see rays However, one trains himself to dodge them because he is just that badass, and one could see 'em straight off the bat (hi Bro). Since Singularity has a high population of non-humans and humans gifted with special powers, there's already gonna be a lot of people who can see 'em. If that's not enough, we could just do away with the invisibility thing entirely. This destroys a lot of their edge.
Inventory:
(1) Helmet made from anti-Invimanus tech
(1) Tattered full-body straitjacket
That's all, folks. He literally has nothing but the shit he was wearing.
Appearance: This alternate Dave has a few obvious physical differences from his canon counterpart. Invimanus have unnaturally colored hair, and Dave's no exception; his is bright fricken' pink. He also has pinkish-red eyes and white, bony horns. They're a little nubby, which is normal for a first-gen. Due to a year of experimentation and a largely liquid diet, he's slightly emiciated and sporting several ugly scars. Since he spent much of the last year strapped to a table in a Invimanus-proof cage, his muscles are a little atrophied. In short, he's an awkward, stumbly mess, but he should bounce back (somewhat) with a little TLC.
Age: 13
AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? This is a player-created AU with a lot of deviance from the Homestuck plot so it's gonna need a lot of justification/explanation. While the setting remains largely the same, one of the biggest differences is that in this universe, Sburb never existed. That means no game worlds, no Alternia, and no crazy title-driven powers outside of rays. It also means Dave hasn't had a chance too meet John, Jade, and Rose in person -- yet. No, the cataclysmic event that's gonna destroy all of mankind is the ray virus, or Invimanism. The last of the original set of mutants showing all symptoms is Dave Strider, the same boy from Texas we know and love. His main alteration lies in his genetics, which produced the physical differences seen in his features. All that, in turn, led to an overdose of bullying. It's fairly easy to hide mutant red eyes behind shades, but school's 'no-hat' policy made it hard to shield the horns and hair from view. Despite all the crap he went through outside his home, this universe still had a Bro, and Bro provided enough (weird) support to keep his genetic drive at bay. This is why Alt!Dave's basic personality is intact.
The events surrounding Dave's capture and institutionalization hit him the hardest. This was the decisive year. Unlike Canon!Bro, Alt!Bro pretty much died right in front of him, from something that was entirely preventable and meant for Dave. That's why he stopped holding the genetic drive back, and that's when he killed people for the first time. Dave's primary personality is universally averse to killing people, so his freak-out haunted him during his first couple months of imprisonment. But as he was repeatedly mistreated in the research facility, the second personality gained more and more sway over him. The full year of mental and physical strain led to the merge between his two personalities.
RE: Dave; he's every bit as sarcastic and almost as ironic as his canon self. When he's lucid,or 100% 'Dave', he's even disgusted by how easily he's killed people, and definitely won't do it unless explicitly provoked. He's still angry, and he doesn't exactly trust humans, but if he's integrated into a setting that doesn't repeatedly punch him in the face? He'll be all right, if a little snippy at times. Ultimately he doesn't like being a slave to his biology, even if the drive is hard to ignore. It's just Provoked!Dave you have to worry about. That's when the Invimanus side of his personality rears its ugly horned head.
RE: AU as a whole; All major players are still present. They've just been reassigned to fulfill different roles, leaving their original personalities largely untouched. Dave may not have been created via ectobiological shenanigans, but he was still adopted by the same guy, and their relationship ended up being the same. Bro was a little less... intense than usual, since there was no Sburb to prep his kid for. But he did teach the kid how to defend himself, lest he eat bullypunches for breakfast everyday. The two were hyper-competitive, and even with his powers Dave couldn't beat his Bro in a one-on-one tussle. This may've changed post-Institute, but since Bro died, this was impossible to gauge.
Dave met the other three kids online, considering them his best (and only, really) friends, but he wasn't trolled because as stated before, there is no Alternia in this AU. Most of the trolls ended up reassigned to miscellaneous second generation Invimaii in the institute. Karkat Vantas is actually a regular human, one of John's friends with an obvious crush and extreme tsundere tendencies. He is every bit as ragey as his canon counterpart, though growing up in a different society means it's for slightly different reasons. He also still admires Jack Noir for some reason. Yeah, Jack is definitely still around, along with a motley crew who serve as antagonists. ...okay, maybe just Jack and DD do, HB bites it early on in the escape and CD is the world's only pacifist Invimanus. Their role increases post-escape. Jack is dead-set on killing Dave because Dave eventually removes his arm and eye. Payback for what happened to Bro. In the end, they're just pawns of a greater organization, dead-set on eliminating Invimanus and anyone who happens to know too much about them.
Samples ;
Log Sample:
It was the silence that bothered Dave the most.
Well, that and the restraints. And the experiments. And the smarmy bastards running this twisted hellbox. But above all else, the dead silence in his isolation cell grated at him day-in, day-out. The hum of the machines in the testing rooms wasn't much better, but it gave him something to focus on. A beeping metronome to count out the seconds, the minutes, hours, days, and months that were slipping on by. A whirring beat to keep him from getting too lost in his own head. That shit was way freakier than most anything they threw at him.
Including these goddamn iron balls. It was bright in that particular experimental chamber, all lights on him, Dave Strider, star of the fucking show. Every week they gathered behind the glass wall to see how strong he was getting. They had to wait 'til the sedative wore off, and by then Dave's shackled arms were always asleep. But those weren't the arms they were interested in. The machine mounted before him hummed as they readied the next shot. Many of the subjects looked away, or cried, or begged for it to end, but Dave always stared right down the barrel of the metallic cannon. He was fucking ready, and the cockwipes clutching their little clipboards in anticipation weren't gonna see him fold.
Finally, a voice over the intercom. Just announcing the force of the next shot. It wasn't really for his benefit, just procedure. After another moment of heavy silence, the cannon fired, the iron shot speeding straight towards Dave's face. He reacted instantly, batting it aside with all four rays as soon as it came into range. It slammed into the wall he was tethered to, just a hair shy of his left ear. It was silent again, but Dave could imagine the furious scribbling going on behind the glass. He hadn't been able to deflect shots that strong last week. He wondered if the rapid improvement worried them. Man, this shit was gonna bite them in the ass when -- not if, WHEN he escaped. They were practically training him.
As the machine spat out the next shot, a shot he knew he wouldn't be able to deflect, he just reminded himself that he only had to deal with it a little while longer. Fuckers weren't gonna know what hit 'em.
Network Sample:
k so
did you guys swap the sugar water for fucking pcp or what
i mean im not complaining here
makes about as much sense as all the other shit you do
aka fuck all
and shit
gives me something to look at
me and the wall are getting awfully tired of bein all up in each others grill 24/7
anyway
lets pretend this isnt some kind of elaborate hallucination slash fever dream slash complete descent into crazytown
lets say i took a tumble down some fancy spacial rabbit hole
let me get the most important question outta the way
where the fuck can a dude snag a pair of pantalones round here
the lumpy sack of potato look went outta style years ago sry2say