THE CITY APP.

[fossick]

OOC INFORMATION.

NAME: Jen (she/her)

CONTACT: aurajen or PM this journal.

AGE: Over 30

OTHER CHARACTERS: I am also apping Henry Creel (vecna) this round!

IC INFORMATION.

BASICS

CHARACTER NAME: Weir Dredger

CANON: Original Character

CANON POINT: A month or so after the world's been remade with the power of a god's heart.

AGE: 33

BACKGROUND

HISTORY: A link to his history here!

PERSONALITY:

What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?

Weir is a man who appears standoffish at first glance, often holding himself at a proverbial arms-length with strangers. However, this is not to be conflated with bashfulness; despite his introverted nature, it doesn’t take much to get him to say what he’s thinking without the effort of parsing words. He doesn’t appear to care who he offends right out of the gate, also implying that he doesn’t particularly care what others might think of him, either. He’s blunt and to the point and puts no effort into being charismatic, preferring to be pragmatic. He’s the sort of person who holds his cards close to his chest until he feels it’s necessary to do otherwise, exuding caution and wariness in situations that are new or unusual to him.

None of these traits from a glancing first impression are untrue, though peel back the layers, and there’s a little more beneath. Weir’s caution is born from his upbringing, a default nature that slowly eases into vague comfortability when given enough time to become familiar with a person or thing. Eventually, his dry, somewhat cynical humor can be unearthed, often on the heels of exasperation. And despite a pragmatism that crosses straight into self-centeredness, Weir still feels empathy for those he can see himself in: individuals who had no agency over their situation or found themselves in over their heads amid dangerous situations. There’s a thoughtfulness bordering on rumination to Weir that very few people get a chance to see, simply because he rarely becomes close enough to anyone for them to see it.

How does your character handle stress? What do they do in an emergency?

Weir is cool-headed under pressure and stressful situations. Being a Dredger, falling into a state of panic while in the Pit could mean making a mistake that quickly costs yourself or someone else their life, making it unsuited work to those who crumbled easily under stress. Thus, Weir’s experience has smoothed over any instinctual, knee-jerk reactions to immediate danger as a result, leaving him level-headed enough to treat each situation logically, as calmly as the circumstances will allow, and efficiently. If nothing else, his problem-solving happens even quicker under duress.

In times of dire emergency, take all these traits and amplify them tenfold. The only difference being that—if it makes sense to do so—Weir is more likely to accept or seek out outside assistance to better quell the situation in a timely manner, where he might have saved this as a secondary recourse otherwise. However, when it comes to offering anything like emotional support to others, he’s utterly lacking in that department — someone else would definitely have to pick up the slack there.

What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?

Make no mistake that Weir’s goals all center around himself, his selfish personality bolstered by his pessimistic outlook on life, believing that everyone is only out for themselves — and if they’re not, then they should be, because life is short and unfair, the strongest take advantage of their strength in both society and nature, and the only experience that matters is one’s own personal existence. His ambitions are not grand and world-sweeping, despite being a man who changed it utterly; in the end, he sought only to make his own life easier at the expense of everyone else, to live as he never had a chance to, having grown up scavenging in the Ceaseless Pit and fighting tooth and nail, often for the benefit of people he would never meet in a city miles and miles away from where he lived.

The thing is, he can’t even bring himself to be truly upset at those who might’ve had a hand in crafting his unfortunate lot in life. Would he have done the same if he were in their positions, taking advantage of the hand he was dealt? Absolutely. It’s with this same detachment that he could press the figurative restart button on his world without any second thoughts; it’s with this logic that he could connect himself to an eldritch entity in the depths of his world for a chance at some useful abilities and only find the arrangement mildly annoying more than highly worrisome.

Most importantly, in some capacity, Weir believes that reaching a plateau of “I’ve only looked out for myself” where hardship no longer exists (for him) will fulfill some degree of contentedness he could never find in his old life, constantly reaching for something he’s never had — in short, this is a man that conflates his own happiness with selfishness, and sees absolutely nothing wrong with that!

POWERS

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

BASIC LIGHT AND FIRE CANTRIPS - When I say basic, I mean very basic. This is very low-level magic that Weir uses mostly to light his way in dark spaces. He can summon small flames, usually in the palm of his hand, to light other objects. He can also summon bright orbs of luminescence to hover nearby, affording a decent radius of visibility in the dark.

POISON IMMUNITY AND BLOOD TOXICITY - Thanks to what was basically a life-saving blood transfusion courtesy of the Polymath, Weir's own blood is highly toxic if digested (or otherwise finds a way into someone's bloodstream). The effects are not unlike a bad case of Hemlock poisoning, so not very fun. In turn, he's also gained immunity to all poisons himself; they have zero effect on him.

TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION WITH THE POLYMATH - Weir can communicate telepathically with the Polymath, and this connection remains strong anywhere in his world; though in the one case of being a whole dimension away, it became a less-than-reliable way of communicating, so it does have interdimensional limits, at least. His eyes glow a faint green when this connection is active.

THOUGHT MANIPULATION - A gifted ability from the Polymath. With ample focus, he has the ability to crowd out all thoughts in another person's head, filling it with [eldritch static noises], and leaving only room for Weir's suggestion and imposed will. Think of it as a very unfriendly Jedi mind trick. Those with defenses against mental manipulation can resist these attempts, though they'll have to fight hard, and probably be left with a terrible migraine after. (Obviously I would only use this with OOC permission from the other player, in-game.)

LIFE ENERGY MANIPULATION - Another gifted skill from the Polymath. Weir can sense the life energy of any living creature within close range. He can take these energies and manipulate them, which equates to controlling their physical actions. It's jarring and generally unpleasant for the person or creature being manipulated. The closest comparison would be like pulling a puppet's strings, if those strings were the internal flow of energy within a physical vessel. (This ability would also only be used with OOC permission.)

He can also sense Vibes this way; for instance, if a person is magical or otherwise supernatural, they'll read differently from a normie human being. He isn't privy to the specifics, however — only the broad strokes or general "feeling" someone gives off.

NECROMANCY - Speaking of life energy manipulation, Weir can transfer these energies into any vessel that had once been alive, imbuing it with life again. However, there are a few caveats: this energy has to come from somewhere, which means something will probably have to die in order to give a corpse life. And it has to make logistical sense; no transferring the essence of a blade of grass into a monster, for instance, because that's hardly enough to "power" a larger creature.

Weir has full control over these undead beings, whatever they may be; they can move and operate on their own, but they lack any real self-awareness or sentience in this state. They're tools to be used at this point until he releases his influence over them, and they become corpses yet again.

UNLOCKING OLD WORLD RELICS - Again, an ability granted by the Polymath. Weir can utilize any relic found in the Pit to its full potential, where it might take extensive research and/or magic for someone else to do the same. He hasn't found many he's kept for himself, but most notable is a dagger he carries on his person that can drain the life energy of any it cuts and store it in its blade. He won't have this item with him in The City, but it's worth noting, as he carried it with him everywhere.

HUNTING/GATHERING/TRAVERSAL - Not a supernatural or magical ability, but Weir is a skilled hunter and gatherer. His time spent scavenging in underground caverns and across steep cliff faces means that his climbing skills are on-point, too. He was one of the more successful Dredgers, so his proficiencies in all of the above are even more impressive! No vertigo for this guy.



NERFING:

There are a couple of abilities that simply won’t be available to Weir any longer by way of being in another game setting — communication with the Polymath and the ability to unlock Old World Relics. Besides this, his already middling talent with magic will be even less impressive, only able to summon very, very tiny flame and an itty bitty ball of light. His immunity to poisons now becomes a higher-than-average resistance. If indigested, his blood will still give someone a very bad time, but I'll leave it up to player preference to decide how sick a character will feel. His ability to manipulate thoughts will be far less effective, now nerfed down to a very niggling sense of bothersome noise in a person's head; not enough to dislodge anyone's focus, but definitely enough to distract. Weir can implant a thought, but no one will be compelled unnaturally to follow it. His life energy manipulation can now only move a limb or two around at most, and with great focus, and his ability to sense a general aura will be unreliable. Finally, no more necromancy for him! Until he regains more control over the prior ability, this one is off the table, since it falls under the same realm.

WEAKNESSES: Remove all of his above abilities, and he's just a guy who can hunt and climb good. He can be injured just as easily as any normie.

SAMPLES.

TDM THREAD #1
TDM THREAD #2
MEME THREAD