OOC: Profile (History and Personality)
By the end of the twentieth century, Philip J. Fry was a twenty five year old loser. He dropped out of college a long, long time ago, worked as a delivery boy at Penucci's pizza, and had a girlfriend that constantly cheated on him. That's just the tip of the iceberg with him, as his father converted the basement to a fall out shelter and his mother was a sports fanatic who didn't notice much else. But, occasionally, life was pretty good. When he was a little kid he found a seven leaf clover, which unsurprisingly brought him quite a few years of good lucky and earning him even more envy from his older brother Yancy. Later, he wound up splitting an undelivered pizza with a dog in an alley, and wound up practically adopting him, dubbing him Seymour Asses. Both of them loved him more than they showed, and both of them remembered him long after he vanished, Yancy even naming his son after Philip. As for what happened to Seymour? Look up the wikipedia article on Hachiko. The principle's the same.
Still, those are minor notes compared to the strange turn his life took on New Year's Eve, 1999. Due to a crank call, he got sent to a cryogenic freezing company with a pizza for I.C. Weiner. But, as the New Year dawned, he overbalanced on his chair and fell backwards into a suspiciously open cryogenic freezing tube, which quickly slammed shut on him. When he woke up, a thousand years had passed. Now, for a long time, this sequence of events looked like an accident, especially to Fry. But, it turns out there was a massive conspiracy behind his freezing. Due to another incident involving time travel, Fry wound up his own grandfather. A whole lot of weird genetics went in here, but the long and short of it is that he was born without a Delta Brainwave, a wave that all other animals, robots, and even some plants send out. This tends to not mean much of anything, given Fry's usual level of smarts, but it makes him immune to an evil race of gigantic brains, known as the brainspawn. An equally old race known as the Nibblonians found out about this immunity, and went to work freezing him way back in 1999 so he'd be able to save the universe in the year 3000.
When Fry did his duty, but messed it up and got sucked into the same non-existence as the big brains, they revealed the conspiracy and, with not much convincing, sent this Fry back in time to the night Fry got frozen. While there, he confronted Nibbler about it, saying that while it wasn't much of a life, it was his, and he wanted it back. He was seriously, honestly tempted to screw destiny and stop himself from getting frozen, were it not for someone he loved. No, not the Nibblonians. A mutant with one eye named Leela. He loved her since almost as soon as they met, but he couldn't even say so until some highly intelligent worms provided some prodding and betterment. However, when he kicked the worms out to find out if Leela loved him for him or what the worms did to him, he discovered that for now, it was the latter.
In an uncharacteristic display of determination, this wasn't as much the end as the beginning of at least a dozen romantic gestures to try and convince Leela that not only did he love her for serious, but to also go out with him. At this particular junction, however, Leela wasn't sounding so keen on him. Still, when offered the chance to either stay in the past or to have a chance with Leela in the future, he chose the latter, and actually ended up helping freeze himself this time. And, after a lot more time travel related weirdness, he got back to when he started from, Fry had a little more help in saving the universe, and escaped this stable time loop. Oh, and Nibbler promised to help him out with Leela, and after wiping his mind of the entire affair, he gave him a flower to give to her. By an astonishing coincidence, she ditched her jackass of a date earlier in the evening, and when Fry gave her the flowers, she kissed him.
But this wasn't the end of his attempts to win Leela's heart. Oh, yes, the kiss meant a lot, but for quite a few weeks, she still refused to actually go out with him. That took a little help from the devil, by which we meant the literal robot Devil. Fry was determined to learn how to play an instrument for Leela, and had to trade his stubby fingers for better ones. The Robot Devil made a deal with him, planning to have Fry trade hands with his robot best friend, Bender. However, the wheel of irony backfired, and Fry wound up with the devil's hand, and he quickly set about writing an Opera for Leela. The Devil, of course, wanted his hand back, and after a series of deals, ended up with a very choice one for Fry: Keep the hands and let the devil marry Leela, or give them up and fail the Opera entirely. After a song's length in thought, Fry chose the latter, and, true to his originally stubby fingers, promptly played a sucky Opera.
That didn't seem to matter to Leela, though, who wanted to see how it ends.
To say Fry is as dumb as a post is an insult to posts. He's nowhere close to being the sharpest tool in the shed, nor the brightest crayon in the box. He sometimes forgets how to talk, in the sense that what he says often makes no sense to anyone but him. Couple that with a very hot impulsive streak, and it's almost a wonder he lived long enough to get frozen. Fry never, ever seems to think anything he does through, and he never seems to learn from his mistakes except in very narrow categories. He also has horrible judgment, both in common sense reactions and who he chooses as friends. When it comes to work, he's lazy and shiftless, and when it comes to a great many other things, he can be very childish and immature.
Fry has devoted countless hours to the intense study of video games and television. Indeed, while he absolutely doesn't know kung fu, he's quite skilled at Mortal Kombat. He's surprisingly genre savvy, and while he rarely breaks the fourth wall, he's well versed in the way television works. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek, which probably won't ever come in handy, but it's worth noting. This may come as absolutely no surprise, but his video game skills leave a lot to be desired. While he's very good at shoot-em-ups and the like, he can't get the last ship in space invaders and seems to be fairly bad at standard arcade games. The point of the matter is that he's wasted most of his life on these two things, and occasionally it comes in handy. Incidentally, he has gotten increasingly more competent at piloting the Planet Express Ship, but it's still not his area of expertise.
The problem seems to be that he lacks the proper motivation. When he actually does have something (or someone) to inspire him, he's not entirely hopeless. He's saved the universe at least once, even though he doesn't remember it, and he can be surprisingly heroic and even occasionally willing to sacrifice himself. While mind control and other such things don't work on him, he can be very much tempted to by his past. While it wasn't a particularly epic life, it was his, and there's a part of him that still misses what he had then. He can be very melancholy if left to think about this too long, and if it weren't for the people that currently tie him to the, well, future, he'd have most certainly gone back at least once. The most important of these people to him is Leela. He seems absolutely crazy about her, and he's done nearly impossible things to try and get her to feel the same way. Indeed, when it comes to her, as well as his other friends and family, he can be a real sweetheart, and if they're involved somehow, expect the unexpected. While he's still immature about it, he's still very much willing and occasionally able to do remarkable things for them.
Fry can be very brave, if very stupid, and the line between those two things is often extremely narrow for him.
Additional Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Fry
Important note: Fry's got an immunity to all psionic attacks, due to his special brain. At the very least, it means no psychics wandering around reading his mind (because he doesn't have one to read), but any psychic powers are null and void on him.
Still, those are minor notes compared to the strange turn his life took on New Year's Eve, 1999. Due to a crank call, he got sent to a cryogenic freezing company with a pizza for I.C. Weiner. But, as the New Year dawned, he overbalanced on his chair and fell backwards into a suspiciously open cryogenic freezing tube, which quickly slammed shut on him. When he woke up, a thousand years had passed. Now, for a long time, this sequence of events looked like an accident, especially to Fry. But, it turns out there was a massive conspiracy behind his freezing. Due to another incident involving time travel, Fry wound up his own grandfather. A whole lot of weird genetics went in here, but the long and short of it is that he was born without a Delta Brainwave, a wave that all other animals, robots, and even some plants send out. This tends to not mean much of anything, given Fry's usual level of smarts, but it makes him immune to an evil race of gigantic brains, known as the brainspawn. An equally old race known as the Nibblonians found out about this immunity, and went to work freezing him way back in 1999 so he'd be able to save the universe in the year 3000.
When Fry did his duty, but messed it up and got sucked into the same non-existence as the big brains, they revealed the conspiracy and, with not much convincing, sent this Fry back in time to the night Fry got frozen. While there, he confronted Nibbler about it, saying that while it wasn't much of a life, it was his, and he wanted it back. He was seriously, honestly tempted to screw destiny and stop himself from getting frozen, were it not for someone he loved. No, not the Nibblonians. A mutant with one eye named Leela. He loved her since almost as soon as they met, but he couldn't even say so until some highly intelligent worms provided some prodding and betterment. However, when he kicked the worms out to find out if Leela loved him for him or what the worms did to him, he discovered that for now, it was the latter.
In an uncharacteristic display of determination, this wasn't as much the end as the beginning of at least a dozen romantic gestures to try and convince Leela that not only did he love her for serious, but to also go out with him. At this particular junction, however, Leela wasn't sounding so keen on him. Still, when offered the chance to either stay in the past or to have a chance with Leela in the future, he chose the latter, and actually ended up helping freeze himself this time. And, after a lot more time travel related weirdness, he got back to when he started from, Fry had a little more help in saving the universe, and escaped this stable time loop. Oh, and Nibbler promised to help him out with Leela, and after wiping his mind of the entire affair, he gave him a flower to give to her. By an astonishing coincidence, she ditched her jackass of a date earlier in the evening, and when Fry gave her the flowers, she kissed him.
But this wasn't the end of his attempts to win Leela's heart. Oh, yes, the kiss meant a lot, but for quite a few weeks, she still refused to actually go out with him. That took a little help from the devil, by which we meant the literal robot Devil. Fry was determined to learn how to play an instrument for Leela, and had to trade his stubby fingers for better ones. The Robot Devil made a deal with him, planning to have Fry trade hands with his robot best friend, Bender. However, the wheel of irony backfired, and Fry wound up with the devil's hand, and he quickly set about writing an Opera for Leela. The Devil, of course, wanted his hand back, and after a series of deals, ended up with a very choice one for Fry: Keep the hands and let the devil marry Leela, or give them up and fail the Opera entirely. After a song's length in thought, Fry chose the latter, and, true to his originally stubby fingers, promptly played a sucky Opera.
That didn't seem to matter to Leela, though, who wanted to see how it ends.
To say Fry is as dumb as a post is an insult to posts. He's nowhere close to being the sharpest tool in the shed, nor the brightest crayon in the box. He sometimes forgets how to talk, in the sense that what he says often makes no sense to anyone but him. Couple that with a very hot impulsive streak, and it's almost a wonder he lived long enough to get frozen. Fry never, ever seems to think anything he does through, and he never seems to learn from his mistakes except in very narrow categories. He also has horrible judgment, both in common sense reactions and who he chooses as friends. When it comes to work, he's lazy and shiftless, and when it comes to a great many other things, he can be very childish and immature.
Fry has devoted countless hours to the intense study of video games and television. Indeed, while he absolutely doesn't know kung fu, he's quite skilled at Mortal Kombat. He's surprisingly genre savvy, and while he rarely breaks the fourth wall, he's well versed in the way television works. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek, which probably won't ever come in handy, but it's worth noting. This may come as absolutely no surprise, but his video game skills leave a lot to be desired. While he's very good at shoot-em-ups and the like, he can't get the last ship in space invaders and seems to be fairly bad at standard arcade games. The point of the matter is that he's wasted most of his life on these two things, and occasionally it comes in handy. Incidentally, he has gotten increasingly more competent at piloting the Planet Express Ship, but it's still not his area of expertise.
The problem seems to be that he lacks the proper motivation. When he actually does have something (or someone) to inspire him, he's not entirely hopeless. He's saved the universe at least once, even though he doesn't remember it, and he can be surprisingly heroic and even occasionally willing to sacrifice himself. While mind control and other such things don't work on him, he can be very much tempted to by his past. While it wasn't a particularly epic life, it was his, and there's a part of him that still misses what he had then. He can be very melancholy if left to think about this too long, and if it weren't for the people that currently tie him to the, well, future, he'd have most certainly gone back at least once. The most important of these people to him is Leela. He seems absolutely crazy about her, and he's done nearly impossible things to try and get her to feel the same way. Indeed, when it comes to her, as well as his other friends and family, he can be a real sweetheart, and if they're involved somehow, expect the unexpected. While he's still immature about it, he's still very much willing and occasionally able to do remarkable things for them.
Fry can be very brave, if very stupid, and the line between those two things is often extremely narrow for him.
Additional Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Fry
Important note: Fry's got an immunity to all psionic attacks, due to his special brain. At the very least, it means no psychics wandering around reading his mind (because he doesn't have one to read), but any psychic powers are null and void on him.