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Mar. 19th, 2023 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eviceratedOOC
Name: Possum
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
awkwardpossum
Other characters: Ryunosuke Naruhodo
IC
Name: Arctic
Canon: Wings of Fire
Canon point: Post-death in Legends: Darkstalker
Age: Specific age unknown (and hard to guess at bc of the way dragons age), but he's old enough to have two kids. He's probably in the dragon equivalent of his 30s or 40s.
History:
Wings of Fire is a novel series meant for 10 year olds and the quality of the fan wiki pretty much reflects that, so unfortunately this is one I should probably just write out. I'll try to be succinct. The article is here if you want to take a look at it anyway.
GENERAL CONTENT WARNING: Brief but numerous mentions of/allusions to: VERBAL/EMOTIONAL ABUSE; between mother and son, husband and wife, and father and son. (Like, they're dragons, but. Still.) Also cw for forced suicide.
Personality:
Positive:
NGL there's not much to crow about here, but I'll do my best.
Not as Big of a Jerk as He Could Have Been award: Given his life circumstances, selfish nature, and generally off-putting personality, you'd kind of expect this guy to be an out and out jerk incapable of showing concern for anyone else. While it's not even close to being his strong suit, there are hints of a caring person under all the ice and haughtiness... Echoes of someone who might have been more kind and magnanimous, if his social position and culture had allowed for such traits to grow. We see this primarily in the way he risks breaking his tribe's biggest rule for Foeslayer's comfort and safety, but even when he's at his worst and most miserable while living in the Night Kingdom, he doesn't act like the suffering of others just isn't his problem. At one point another character (and a NightWing, no less,) gets hurt in front of him, and he actually shows concern about it! Round of applause??
Responsible/Cautious/Disciplined. One thing you can at least say for Arctic is that he learned his lesson about his powers, and he took that lesson to heart. He was raised on legends of how dangerous Animus Magic could be, and when he was younger he would scoff those stories off, claiming that they probably weren't even real and were only designed to keep magic users under control. But after his flight from the Ice Kingdom, he saw first hand how even well intentioned spells can go horribly wrong. He learned to respect (or really fear) his own power then, and generally refused to use it. Ever. In addition to his thoughts on magic, he's also kind of a rule follower at heart; that might seem odd to say given that shirking all the rules is what got him into the whole exile predicament, but it's worth noting that there were forces actively working to provoke him into making moves that he might not ever have done otherwise.
Capable of great love. Despite behaving like a miserable piece of shit most of the time, Arctic never stopped caring for Foeslayer. Even Darkstalker was forced to acknowledge this, and being a mind-reader and having absolutely no love for Arctic, we can assume he's a pretty solid source on this being an objective fact. Years and years of miserable arguing and screaming matches, and he's still completely devastated when Foeslayer disappears. He vows to do whatever he can to save her, and departs at great risk to himself (and also at great cost of a whole bunch of other innocent people but. You know. Point still stands.)
Negative:
Self-Centered: Arctic is not really a big picture "how do my actions affect others" kind of guy. Growing up stifled and with a deficit of positive attention made him desperate to seize onto the first good thing that ever happened to him (Foeslayer), and he made a lot of boneheaded impulsive mistakes as a result. Hell, his whole escape attempt idea starts going sideways before it even gets started, because he... (Check notes.) Didn't consider that Foeslayer might not want to leave her fellow NightWings behind to take all the blame for their running off together?? Like, this genuinely surprises Arctic, and he gets kind of surly about it because he "hadn't imagined" his in-laws being there at their romantic hideaway. His entire life after that, he spends his days shrouded in dark thoughts about how miserable he is, and he seems to have little interest in devoting his attention to ANYTHING else. It takes years for Foeslayer to convince him to take up a job at the queen's court, because he's convinced the NightWing royals only want to use him for his magic. Basically, it's obvious that Arctic regrets leaving the Ice Kingdom as soon as it happens, and he's decided to make that the problem of anyone who ever talks to him.
Bitter/Resentful/Pessimistic: Yes he was manipulated into making some very stupid decisions, and yes his situation could be way better. But Arctic basically looked at where he wound up in life, and instead of trying to make things work, he decided, "this sucks, and I'm going to be the biggest bitch possible about it." He's a bitch to Foeslayer, he's a bitch to his kids, he's cold and unfriendly to every single NightWing around him and, from what Foeslayer says, he never even attempts to make connections within his new tribe. Hell, he won't even accept the NightWings as his new tribe, period, and gets extremely nasty whenever anyone suggests that they are. He lurks in the house just being miserable all the time and is singularly determined to be as unhappy as possible, oscillating wildly between blaming himself for everything, to blaming Foeslayer for everything, to blaming every NightWing in existence.
Arrogant: He's a royal. Honestly, I could just leave it at that and be done, but my point really is that he's a product of his environment as much as anyone else. The IceWings (or the nobles, at least) are basically creepy fascists, and every one of them is expected to be obedient and perfect or face the consequences. As much as Arctic chafed against all of this and was made miserable by it, he still buys into it as a system and often holds others to those same impossible standards, scoffing at them or thinking little of them based on how their behavior would stack up in the Ice Kingdom. His former privilege also makes him kind of stupidly out of touch; for example, when he figures out that his arranged fiance seems to dislike him as much as he dislikes her, he's just like. "Well, I'm not sure how to fix that. At least by marrying me she gets to potentially hatch some heirs? What else could she want???" As if he can't possibly conceive of anyone not wanting to be involved with the royal family.
Powers/Abilities:
BASIC DRAGON STUFF:
Flight; self explanatory, he's got big-ass wings and he knows how to use them. An adult dragon can cover a LOT of ground very quickly, though being shrunk down to fit on the station will probably limit this.
Strength; fully grown dragons are very big, and their strength is suitable to match. As large predators, they're capable of ripping pretty much anything that isn't another dragon to shreds.
Durability; dragon bones are said to be as hard as diamonds, and their scales easily deflect human-made blades and spears.
BASIC ICEWING STUFF:
Frostbreath; It's like fire breath! Except that it's ice. You get the idea. Instead of burning things, it causes near instant frostbite and freezes things solid. Can also be used like a fire extinguisher!
Immunity to cold; the Ice Kingdom is basically the equivalent Earth's polar regions, and IceWings are perfectly adapted to live within the subzero temperatures. Unlike most IRL arctic animals though, they don't have adaptations for keeping warm? Rather, it's like they've been forged directly from the cold themselves. The downside to this is that they don't do well in warm weather, and they quickly grow uncomfortable in temperatures that most other people/dragons would find normal.
Walking air conditioner; IceWing scales also give off an ambient chill that can actively lower the temperature of a room and freeze moisture/rain that touches them. Their scales are described by non IceWings as feeling like anything from cool running water to literal ice.
Extra nasty claws; IceWing claws are serrated so they can walk and climb more easily across ice, and getting slashed by an IceWing is said to feel like getting clawed three times in one go.
Hawk-like vision; IceWings are said to have excellent eyesight, even by dragon standards.
Resistance to bright light; kind of goes along with the vision thing, but being adapted to an environment where everything around them is bright white and reflecting the sun constantly means IceWings have developed an immunity to snow-blindness and other similar conditions.
ANIMUS MAGIC
Animus dragons possess an extremely rare magical ability that allows them to command, manipulate, and enchant objects to do their bidding. They cast spells by thinking or speaking the desired effect at an object directly.
Enchantments can range from very simple to extremely complicated. They can be temporary, or single-action based, or they can remain attached to a specific object and grant it a permanent ability. This last point is what's known as creating an 'animus touched' object.
The main limitation to the effectiveness of animus magic is really the cleverness and creativity of the dragon who's doing the casting, and... Arctic isn't particularly clever or devious. Because of the way he was raised, Arctic tends to think of animus magic as mainly being limited to enchanting objects to have certain effects... But as he eventually learned just before dying, it is indeed possible to enchant sapient creatures directly.
Supposedly, the only thing this magic can't do is bring someone back from the dead, but it's speculated that no one has ever actually tried. The main drawback of using it is that it supposedly eats away at the dragon's soul each time a spell is cast. Using your magic too often is said to make you go mad, or even murderous. This is something Arctic certainly believes, although the greater canon does eventually reveal (or at least strongly implies) that the soul damage isn't really quite so literal. It's more of a 'slippery slope' thing, where if you rely on it too much or use it too lightly you'll start behaving more and more immorally. Kind of an "absolute power corrupts" thing.
(This is a bullshit power that breaks everything, frankly I would be glad to have it nerfed.)
Regret:
Considering his canon point, the first thing he'll think of in reply is that he didn't rid the world of Darkstalker while he had the chance. He's going to be immediately horrified of this and will most likely endeavor to change it once he can think of a better deal :')
(if this isn't acceptable I have a few other equally IC possibilities I can sub for a regret.)
Suitability:
Reason he'd be an asset: He's a freaking dragon. He flies, he's super strong, he has some potentially VERY useful icy super powers, and even if he's humanized/nerfed he has court experience and old princely royal training that he can fall back on for more diplomatic missions. Personality/teamwork wise, while Arctic can be cantankerous and extremely rude, he actually has little inclination towards needless violence and isn't the sort of guy to go out of his way to harass or antagonize anyone. He also would be wildly dedicated to gathering orbs and to maintaining his position on the station, as he would give just about anything to have a chance at fixing things for him and Foeslayer.
Inventory:
A single diamond earring, unenchanted
Sample:
Multiple thread examples under the TL Here!
Name: Possum
Contact:
Other characters: Ryunosuke Naruhodo
IC
Name: Arctic
Canon: Wings of Fire
Canon point: Post-death in Legends: Darkstalker
Age: Specific age unknown (and hard to guess at bc of the way dragons age), but he's old enough to have two kids. He's probably in the dragon equivalent of his 30s or 40s.
History:
Wings of Fire is a novel series meant for 10 year olds and the quality of the fan wiki pretty much reflects that, so unfortunately this is one I should probably just write out. I'll try to be succinct. The article is here if you want to take a look at it anyway.
GENERAL CONTENT WARNING: Brief but numerous mentions of/allusions to: VERBAL/EMOTIONAL ABUSE; between mother and son, husband and wife, and father and son. (Like, they're dragons, but. Still.) Also cw for forced suicide.
Born over 2000 years before the story of the main Wings of Fire series, Arctic was a prince of the IceWing tribe and one of the sons of the reigning Queen, Queen Diamond. In his early life, he felt extremely stifled by the rules and hierarchy of IceWing society, which is notoriously rigid. In addition to all the normal crappy rules that IceWing nobles usually have to put up with, Arctic had the added pressure of being 1) a Prince and 2) an Animus. The latter was a particular point of pain for him. Animus Dragons are exceedingly rare, and most other tribes actually kill or banish dragons who exhibit the power, because they have a reputation of being extremely dangerous, especially if they use their powers too much. The IceWings are an exception to this; their Animus Dragons are highly valued and treated with respect, but this is only so because they have a rigid system in place to guarantee everyone’s safety: each Animus is only allowed to use their magic *once*, in order to create an animus touched “gift” that benefits the whole tribe. After that, they are forbidden from using their magic ever again.
So: here we have poor little rich boy Arctic: a Prince under immense pressure. He's not very good at following IceWing rules and social protocol, and his magic is the only thing special about him. He wants to use it to do something great that he'll be remembered by, but his queen mother controls every aspect of his life and has already decided FOR him what his gift is going to be. He’s stuck in an arranged marriage with a dragon whom he thinks is a bore, and he is absolutely miserable. One day, a peace delegation consisting of several NightWings arrives in the Ice Kingdom to discuss a potential alliance. Among the party of foreigners is a female NightWing named Foeslayer, who is Arctic’s age. She is beautiful, funny, outrageous, and yeah you can probably guess where this is going. Through secret meet-ups held near dawn, they fall DEEPLY IN LOVE after knowing each other for only a week. With inter-tribal marriages being extremely taboo, and Arctic being engaged to marry someone else anyway, they both know it can't really work... But they're so much happier together than either has ever been on their own, and for that reason they're having trouble accepting this a love that cannot possibly be. Meanwhile, in the shadows, Arctic's would-be fiance is having an evil lesbian affair with with his cousin/only current heir to the IceWing throne. Wanting Arctic out of the picture, they hatch a plot to take advantage of his love for Foeslayer. They decide to use his (frankly totally rational) fear that his mother will kill Foeslayer if she ever finds out about their relationship in order to manipulate him. They spread rumors to scare him into breaking a bunch of rules he wouldn't normally break, and provoke him into fleeing the kingdom along with the NightWings. By design of the evil plot that secretly precipitated it, the couple's escape from Ice Kingdom is messy, and Arctic is forced to use his magic several times in order to get Foeslayer and her fellow NightWings out safely. He accidentally kills a few members of his own tribe in the process. This haunts him for the rest of his life, and he begins to see his powers as more of a curse than anything else. The whole incident also creates a huge scandal that kicks off a violent and bloody war between IceWings and NightWings. Well done everyone! Foeslayer and Arctic find asylum in the Night Kingdom. Arctic is already miserable THERE too, and riddled with guilt over the betrayal of his tribe. Despite this, the two of them still get dragon married and hatch two dragonets: Whiteout and Darkstalker. The son, Darkstalker, is born with NightWing mind reading powers, and because of this he can sense how bitter and horrible his father is before he even hatches from his egg. He winds up hating his dad literally from the moment he gains a sense of consciousness. He is also born with Animus Magic, which is a surprise tool that will make Arctic's life miserable later. Time passes, everyone gets older, the war rages on. Foeslayer and Arctic are the Night Kingdom’s most notoriously miserable couple. Their shouting matches are well known throughout the neighborhood, and they argue literally every single day. Arctic continues to be a miserable piece of shit; he is stranded in a kingdom full of dragons who don’t look like him, have a completely different culture that clashes with his own, and all of them resent both him and Foeslayer for getting their tribe into this horrible bloody war. He has literally no one BUT Foeslayer, and things are, as mentioned, not always great between them. …And then one day Foeslayer disappears, falling victim to a malicious spell cast by Arctic’s mother. She HAD been protected by a magic earring that Arctic created for her, which was supposed to defend her from anything his mother might cast. But after a particularly vicious argument, Foeslayer took the earring off, threw it at him, and then I guess immediately got magic’d right into Diamond’s claws. This is devastating to the entire family, but especially to Darkstalker, who loved his mother more than anyone. He blames his dad for her disappearance and becomes obsessed with trying to prove that Arctic is a threat to all of the NightWings. In the wake of this tragedy, Arctic secretly makes a deal to return to the Ice Kingdom, planning to go and offer himself and his daughter Whiteout up for amnesty. He casts one final spell to make his daughter follow after him without arguing, and his plan is to sell out all of the NightWings and give up their secrets in exchange for Foeslayer’s life, because he still loves her more than anything else and he doesn’t give a damn about the Night Kingdom. Darkstalker, who has gone COMPLETELY off the deep end by this point, finds out about this! He hunts Arctic down, and uses his own Animus Magic to put Arctic under an enchantment that says he has to do literally everything that Darkstalker says. It's fucked up and all of Darkstalkers friends are like "bro you're turning into a super villain", but Darkstalker doesn't want to hear any of it. He orders Arctic to come back with him to the Night Kingdom so he can answer for his crimes. Once there, Darkstalker then drums up a crowd in the public square and does a whole evil dictator spiel about how terrible his dad is, ordering him to confess his whole plan to the entire tribe. When Arctic gets sassy, he makes him out his own tongue, and then he puts him to death by ordering him to rip out his own guts right there on stage. The end! As far as Arctic is concerned anyway.
Personality:
Positive:
NGL there's not much to crow about here, but I'll do my best.
Not as Big of a Jerk as He Could Have Been award: Given his life circumstances, selfish nature, and generally off-putting personality, you'd kind of expect this guy to be an out and out jerk incapable of showing concern for anyone else. While it's not even close to being his strong suit, there are hints of a caring person under all the ice and haughtiness... Echoes of someone who might have been more kind and magnanimous, if his social position and culture had allowed for such traits to grow. We see this primarily in the way he risks breaking his tribe's biggest rule for Foeslayer's comfort and safety, but even when he's at his worst and most miserable while living in the Night Kingdom, he doesn't act like the suffering of others just isn't his problem. At one point another character (and a NightWing, no less,) gets hurt in front of him, and he actually shows concern about it! Round of applause??
Responsible/Cautious/Disciplined. One thing you can at least say for Arctic is that he learned his lesson about his powers, and he took that lesson to heart. He was raised on legends of how dangerous Animus Magic could be, and when he was younger he would scoff those stories off, claiming that they probably weren't even real and were only designed to keep magic users under control. But after his flight from the Ice Kingdom, he saw first hand how even well intentioned spells can go horribly wrong. He learned to respect (or really fear) his own power then, and generally refused to use it. Ever. In addition to his thoughts on magic, he's also kind of a rule follower at heart; that might seem odd to say given that shirking all the rules is what got him into the whole exile predicament, but it's worth noting that there were forces actively working to provoke him into making moves that he might not ever have done otherwise.
Capable of great love. Despite behaving like a miserable piece of shit most of the time, Arctic never stopped caring for Foeslayer. Even Darkstalker was forced to acknowledge this, and being a mind-reader and having absolutely no love for Arctic, we can assume he's a pretty solid source on this being an objective fact. Years and years of miserable arguing and screaming matches, and he's still completely devastated when Foeslayer disappears. He vows to do whatever he can to save her, and departs at great risk to himself (and also at great cost of a whole bunch of other innocent people but. You know. Point still stands.)
Negative:
Self-Centered: Arctic is not really a big picture "how do my actions affect others" kind of guy. Growing up stifled and with a deficit of positive attention made him desperate to seize onto the first good thing that ever happened to him (Foeslayer), and he made a lot of boneheaded impulsive mistakes as a result. Hell, his whole escape attempt idea starts going sideways before it even gets started, because he... (Check notes.) Didn't consider that Foeslayer might not want to leave her fellow NightWings behind to take all the blame for their running off together?? Like, this genuinely surprises Arctic, and he gets kind of surly about it because he "hadn't imagined" his in-laws being there at their romantic hideaway. His entire life after that, he spends his days shrouded in dark thoughts about how miserable he is, and he seems to have little interest in devoting his attention to ANYTHING else. It takes years for Foeslayer to convince him to take up a job at the queen's court, because he's convinced the NightWing royals only want to use him for his magic. Basically, it's obvious that Arctic regrets leaving the Ice Kingdom as soon as it happens, and he's decided to make that the problem of anyone who ever talks to him.
Bitter/Resentful/Pessimistic: Yes he was manipulated into making some very stupid decisions, and yes his situation could be way better. But Arctic basically looked at where he wound up in life, and instead of trying to make things work, he decided, "this sucks, and I'm going to be the biggest bitch possible about it." He's a bitch to Foeslayer, he's a bitch to his kids, he's cold and unfriendly to every single NightWing around him and, from what Foeslayer says, he never even attempts to make connections within his new tribe. Hell, he won't even accept the NightWings as his new tribe, period, and gets extremely nasty whenever anyone suggests that they are. He lurks in the house just being miserable all the time and is singularly determined to be as unhappy as possible, oscillating wildly between blaming himself for everything, to blaming Foeslayer for everything, to blaming every NightWing in existence.
Arrogant: He's a royal. Honestly, I could just leave it at that and be done, but my point really is that he's a product of his environment as much as anyone else. The IceWings (or the nobles, at least) are basically creepy fascists, and every one of them is expected to be obedient and perfect or face the consequences. As much as Arctic chafed against all of this and was made miserable by it, he still buys into it as a system and often holds others to those same impossible standards, scoffing at them or thinking little of them based on how their behavior would stack up in the Ice Kingdom. His former privilege also makes him kind of stupidly out of touch; for example, when he figures out that his arranged fiance seems to dislike him as much as he dislikes her, he's just like. "Well, I'm not sure how to fix that. At least by marrying me she gets to potentially hatch some heirs? What else could she want???" As if he can't possibly conceive of anyone not wanting to be involved with the royal family.
Powers/Abilities:
BASIC DRAGON STUFF:
BASIC ICEWING STUFF:
ANIMUS MAGIC
Animus dragons possess an extremely rare magical ability that allows them to command, manipulate, and enchant objects to do their bidding. They cast spells by thinking or speaking the desired effect at an object directly.
Enchantments can range from very simple to extremely complicated. They can be temporary, or single-action based, or they can remain attached to a specific object and grant it a permanent ability. This last point is what's known as creating an 'animus touched' object.
The main limitation to the effectiveness of animus magic is really the cleverness and creativity of the dragon who's doing the casting, and... Arctic isn't particularly clever or devious. Because of the way he was raised, Arctic tends to think of animus magic as mainly being limited to enchanting objects to have certain effects... But as he eventually learned just before dying, it is indeed possible to enchant sapient creatures directly.
Supposedly, the only thing this magic can't do is bring someone back from the dead, but it's speculated that no one has ever actually tried. The main drawback of using it is that it supposedly eats away at the dragon's soul each time a spell is cast. Using your magic too often is said to make you go mad, or even murderous. This is something Arctic certainly believes, although the greater canon does eventually reveal (or at least strongly implies) that the soul damage isn't really quite so literal. It's more of a 'slippery slope' thing, where if you rely on it too much or use it too lightly you'll start behaving more and more immorally. Kind of an "absolute power corrupts" thing.
(This is a bullshit power that breaks everything, frankly I would be glad to have it nerfed.)
Regret:
Considering his canon point, the first thing he'll think of in reply is that he didn't rid the world of Darkstalker while he had the chance. He's going to be immediately horrified of this and will most likely endeavor to change it once he can think of a better deal :')
(if this isn't acceptable I have a few other equally IC possibilities I can sub for a regret.)
Suitability:
Reason he'd be an asset: He's a freaking dragon. He flies, he's super strong, he has some potentially VERY useful icy super powers, and even if he's humanized/nerfed he has court experience and old princely royal training that he can fall back on for more diplomatic missions. Personality/teamwork wise, while Arctic can be cantankerous and extremely rude, he actually has little inclination towards needless violence and isn't the sort of guy to go out of his way to harass or antagonize anyone. He also would be wildly dedicated to gathering orbs and to maintaining his position on the station, as he would give just about anything to have a chance at fixing things for him and Foeslayer.
Inventory:
A single diamond earring, unenchanted
Sample:
Multiple thread examples under the TL Here!
