Sollux Captor

PLAYER INFO

Name: Brantron
Contact Information: fullofbees
Time Zone: EST
Characters Played: Jinxie Tenma, Squid Girl


CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Sollux Captor
Character Canon: Homestuck

History: woop

AU History: Sollux's history in Union is rather similar to his history in Homestuck, with the exception that any interaction that would have happened over computers or the Internet either happened in real life or with the use of the Warp Band. He lives in an apartment building in whatever passes for a middle class area in Union, and instead of being a genius with computers and programming, he spends most of his time tinkering around with technology hauled up from the Old City and whatever he can manage to get from the salvage shop. He has a particular interest in upgrading the functions of the Warp Bands as far as communication is involved, but considering he isn't a Delver himself, he has to make do with what he can get. His parents aren't in the picture, having left on an expedition with the Rangers when he was young and never returning, but he manages to pay his own rent through doing odd salvage and tinkering jobs.

As far as personal history is concerned, he was acquainted in years past with some other kids from around the same area of the city that were involved in a rather extensive game of pretend that involved going out into the wilds surrounding the city and seeing how much danger they could get themselves into while still surviving. Sollux himself didn't take part in these games, but his best friend was the leader of one of the two teams that commonly played together. The leader of the other team was another highly powerful Psychic type Enlightened who would do anything to get ahead in the game, and after a few increasingly dangerous rounds of oneupsmanship that left one of the other players gravely injured, Sollux was psychically manipulated and brought into the game in an accident that led to the death of his best friend.

While under the control of the other psychic, he was tricked into eating Beedrill honey - to which he has a severe allergy that interferes with the control of his own psychic abilities. Still under the effects of the mind control, he was then sent to the home of his friend, where his loss of control resulted in her death. This was several years ago at this point, and while Sollux was eventually acquitted of the crime considering the circumstances, he still carries the memory of that day with him, and has largely cut off social ties with the other people involved in the incident.

Canon Personality: Sollux's personality, as his associated sign indicates, is very much a study in duality. He has what is probably a mild form of bipolar disorder, suffering from wildly shifting mood swings in which he is relatively friendly in one moment and then quickly becoming irritable and withdrawn, or vice versa. He applies this behavior both to himself as well as others, alternately taking pride in his technological savvy and beating himself up over not being even better with computers than he already is. He is largely introverted, but clearly feels lonely sometimes when he seeks others out for conversation - even if it often results in Sollux insulting the other party once they actually get talking.

His attitude can also be rather fatalistic at times, no doubt due to his ability to hear the voices of those who will die soon. Rather than looking at his visions of the future as an opportunity to change things, he accepts them as an inevitability. As a result, he barely even puts forth effort into playing SGRUB, as he believes the trolls' failure is a foregone conclusion. While this way of looking at things obviously doesn't do his friends any favors, it does perfectly suit his role in the session as a Mage of Doom - one who intimately understands his aspect but is also affected negatively by it. In Sollux's case, since he can only predict unfortunate or disastrous events, this ability has colored his entire outlook on life appropriately.

The only thing Sollux really gets much of an ego about is his facility with computers. He is, after all, apeshit bananas at them. In keeping with his duality theme, and most likely influenced by his attitude toward who is asking, he will either actively mock a lack of facility with technology or offer to help someone less skilled to understand it. He also likes to play high-tech pranks on people, like enabling a chat window without turning on the video function, or (in a particularly dramatic case) programming a virus designed for the sole purposes of blowing up the computer it's run on.

After Sollux is blinded by Eridan and stops hearing the voices in his head, his personality takes a dramatic shift as he abandons his duality theme and becomes much more chill in general. Dying for a second time after overexerting his powers to psychically pilot the trolls' meteor away from Jack Noir, he reunites with Aradia as a half-ghost and stays behind with her as the others continue forward. By this point, Sollux is pretty much okay with everything in his life, as he's lost the constant drone of soon-to-be-dead disembodied voices, his annoying lisp due to his teeth being knocked out as well when he was blinded, and he's regained his best friend in the process. For the first time in a while, he starts to live his life for himself, the way he wants to, and is certainly much happier with his newfound freedom than he ever was while he was helping the others.

AU Deviation: There are three major differences in Sollux's AU history that affect his personality the most deeply: 1) he's a human Enlightened here instead of a troll, 2) he had much less contact with other Enlightened in Union following the death of his friend than he did with the trolls in his original canon after the analogous event, and 3) in this AU, he does not possess the vision twofold and cannot hear the voices of the dead or see the future.

Going down point by point, the first difference means that he was born and raised in human society rather than in troll society, and has different social mores as a result. He also does not use troll terms for common items - for example, he'd just say toilet instead of load gaper. He also doesn't have the ridiculously complicated concept of multi-quadrant troll romances, instead following what are normal human feelings and relationships.

Point the second: considering he has had less overall interaction with other Enlightened and people living Union than he did with the trolls due to Warp Bands being less advanced than the Internet, he's grown up somewhat more sheltered. Considering he's already an introvert, this Sollux is therefore even less likely to seek out social interaction, and almost never in person. He tends to prefer working alone on his projects at home.

Third: as he does not have voices in his head and does not receive apocalyptic visions, he is generally less severely depressive than he is in his original canon. While he is still sarcastic and kind of a jerk, he doesn't actively brood over an impending disaster, since that's sort of already happened anyway in this game. So when he's talking to other people, he's somewhat easier to deal with (if a little standoffish), and will likely only start mud-slinging if the other party starts something first.

Canon Abilities: Sollux is a powerful psychic, capable of producing a variety of different effects, such as telekinesis, psionic blasts, visions of the future, hearing the voices of the imminently deceased, and putting bees to sleep through a hypnosis like effect.

Enlightened Abilities: Sollux will have the Psychic type, and possess the Analyst Enlightened ability. For ease of icons, his Enlightened status will physically manifest in the form of the grey skin, horns, and fangs of the troll race in Homestuck, as well as the red and blue colored eyes. These traits will start out somewhat subtle and become more pronounced as he reaches his second and third evolutions.

Sollux will start with psychic abilities to mimic the moves Telekinesis, Hypnosis, Psywave, and Confusion. He will start with grey skin and short fangs and horns.

After the first evolution, Psywave and Confusion will be upgraded to the equivalents of Psybeam and Psyshock. His fangs and horns will become more pronounced at this level, looking like they do in Homestuck.

After the second evolution, these moves will be further upgraded to the equivalents of Psychic and a more restricted version of Psycho Boost that also deals recoil damage back to Sollux in addition to lowering his Special Attack. At this point, his eyes themselves will change color to solid red and blue to match his glasses.

Starter Pokémon: Klink from the starter list, Weedle from the ultra common list

Notes/Special Considerations: As a nod to the whole apiculture networking thing from the original canon, which involves Sollux using giant honeycombs as computers with a literal hive mind of bees controlling individual data processing commands, I was wondering if it would be possible for him to be cultivating or otherwise tending a Beedrill colony somewhere in the Verdant Forest and playing around with using them as a long-range messaging system. It would likely involve the use of pheromones and possibly some apocryphal technology he got his hands on from the Old City, and it won't be anywhere near as advanced as what he's capable of in Homestuck, but maybe it could be something he's working on. A long-term project still quite literally in its larval state, as it were.

SAMPLES
QUESTIONS AHOY:

-What would you say the role of Pokémon is in your life? If you talk to yourself, people call you crazy. And if you talk to other people, half the time you're talking to assholes. So they make pretty good conversation partners. At least if the Pokémon talk back, I can't understand them anyway. You know what, let's just say they're better company than most people and leave it at that.

-To what lengths would you go to rescue your allies if they were lost in the wilderness? Assuming I had allies in the first place? They're on their own. Look at how that went with my last group of friends, and I wasn't even in their dumb-ass game.

-What do you think your Pokémon respect most about you? Hell if I know. There's not much about me to respect in the first place. It's not like I do anything important.

-You plunge into the depths of the Old City. What is it that you seek from the past? Treasure, technology, wisdom? Tech. Who knows what kinds of crazy shit's still down there that we can use.

-What do you do to ensure we never again awaken the wrath of the gods upon humanity? Not being fucking stupid would be a good start, but that's asking more than most people can manage.

-What strengths make you most qualified for your role within Union? Because I am Primeapeshit bananas at old tech. That's like a whole new level of apeshit bananas previously unknown to mortal man.

-No Enlightened chooses their abilities - and not all are Enlightened. What type abilities would you most desire to manifest and why? I could do without any more Enlightened abilities. The ones I already have are enough of a pain in the ass. You ever have psychic migraines? No? You're lucky. Imagine your whole head is full of Beedrills that never shut the hell up. That's what it's like up there. All day every day. But that's just one tiny little part of the daily carnival that is my life.

-In your eyes, what is absolutely unforgivable. Killing people. Making slaves out of them. Pokémon too. Nobody deserves that.

-The gods of old have returned. How would you be judged if you were chosen as a representative of humanity? Wow. Yeah. Let's not. Humanity is screwed if the gods choose me to represent it.

-A human has attacked a wild Pokémon who retaliates in defense. How do you respond and whom do you defend? I stay out of it. It's got nothing to do with me. If someone wants to go around pissing off Pokémon, that's their own choice.