Crit post?
Mar. 12th, 2009 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
will_be_godLet me know how I'm doing. Cyrus is a very tricky character to play, so feedback is much appreciated.
Also know I'm playing mostly Diamond/Pearl version with some DPA! personality weasling in (had to use that as an icon source because it's hard to use the game sprites for much). Bear in mind that in gameverse he *claims* to be emotionless but it's pretty damn obvious that he still has them, so that's not a contradiction on my part.
His SBG application!
Name: Cyrus
Game/Series: Pokémon, specifically Diamond/Pearl
Age & Teaching Position: 27, Ethics
Living Arrangements: dorm, private room if possible (if not that's cool)
Personality: Cyrus claims to have rid himself of his emotions, although expresses them far more than he would ever acknowledge. He has a penchant for grandiosity and an insistence that people should look at the big picture (of course, for him, "big picture" means the entire universe). He has delusions of grandeur and plans to make those delusions reality. Those around him describe him as being very logical, and he speaks to the player character openly about his plans. He's contradictory--despite claiming that compassion is weakness, one of his pokémon only evolves through bonding with its trainer (so either he's lying flat out, he considers it an exception, or he induced evolution through artificial means). He's a very dangerous man insofar as his ultimate goal, however he has a strange love for the world and acts out of wanting to save it from itself, thinking the only way to do so would be to restart the universe.
He may apologize for things (emphasis on "may"--it's still not likely), but for him to admit he was ever wrong about anything? Almost impossible. Given that he's been smarter than everyone around him for as long as he can remember back, he was hardly ever wrong, so why should he believe others when they tell him he suddenly is?
He believes in attaining what is (or what he deems to be) necessary through any means that it takes. Although this presents violence as a possibility, he's also at heart a pacifist and won't attack unless he deems it necessary to do so--but once he does, it's at full force. Of course, his pokémon technically do the work, but that's the way they roll in that world.
Backstory: Aah, life in Sunyshore! The sand! The surf! The sun! Unless of course you're cooped up in the house all the livelong day studying your butt off. You're the smartest kid in the entire city, maybe even in all of Sinnoh! You'd better keep it that way!
Cyrus's parents recognized his intelligence at quite a young age, and never let up in their encouragement. Of course, that meant none of those silly extracurricular activities, no becoming a trainer--they ditch school at ten, dontcha know--and if you get below a 95 on anything you bring shame to us all.
While he could keep his grades up, mentally he was starting to fall apart. The world was a painful place, and his studies were what kept him going. In studying he learned facts, things that made sense. Like machines--a machine does what it's programmed to do. It can't do anything else. It's logical. It's rational. But the world around him, he came to realize, was neither of those things.
Another problem stood in his way: his emotions. He enjoyed being the smartest, but some part of him wanted to be like the other kids. The other kids could play in the sun. The other kids could have pokémon. The other kids didn't cry every time they watched the news because the world was so painful to think about. He had to focus himself more than anyone else.
He started dealing with machines more and more, building them in any spare time he had. If they broke down, they could simply be rebuilt and reprogrammed.
When he was fifteen, he recieved his first failing grade and suffered a nervous breakdown. Of course, he didn't tell his parents for fear of being taken out of school. But that night he realized that he had to do something. He couldn't let himself be a failure. And his emotions were causing it. So he started to supress them.
But why stop there, he realized. The world was a failure, overrun by war and ignorance. They were ruled by their emotions and it led to such things.
Clearly the world needed a leader. But it didn't take Cyrus long to realize there were holes in his plan. The world would resist a takeover by force, and certainly a normal human lifespan wouldn't afford him the chance to do it through subterfuge. Besides, there would still be millions of years of history he'd have to convince people to ignore, and that would be downright impossible. Humans weren't machines. They could't be reprogrammed like a machine could. It seemed as though he would never find the answer he was looking for.
But there it was in front of him the whole time! All the universe is made of is spacetime, after all. And two of the most revered legendaries in all Sinnoh just so happened to control the dual aspects of very thing!
By the time he graduated university, he knew what he had to do. Screw becoming a region's leader, or a country's. The only way to fix the universe was to delete it and recreate it from the very beginning. He had to become a god.
Brilliant.
Of course, he couldn't become a god on his own. He would need followers as a mortal to further his goals and create paradise. And of course most of them would have to be expendable. And so we come to Team Galactic, the ragtag gang of bowlcutted spacemen that started to pop up throughout Sinnoh. His reasoning for their strange look was carefully calculated--if they looked inept and comical, no one would take them seriously (Well...he says that's his reasoning anyway).
Petty theivery? Who cares? They look so cool! Like something out of a B-movie or a 1980s music video!
Meanwhile, all this was a mask for Team Galactic's true intentions. Through his agents, Cyrus discovered the way to open the dimensions and shackle the gods. Through gathering together the three spirits of the lakes and extracting their gems, an artifact called the Red Chain could be forged, and only then could the gods be controlled without diminishing their powers. Because only idiots use pokeballs, you know; those things lessen the full power of what pokemon are capable of.
So after being beaten several times by a ten year old, Team Galactic finally goes up the sacred Mt Coronet with the Red Chain. Only instead of finding the ancient ruins and gods they sought, they found...the whole thing starting to tilt. And because Cyrus was the first out of the cave, he was separated from his followers. Perhaps the people in that school will know more...no? Damnation! (note--this has been redacted since I was unclear on how "stages" worked in the game and figured they would be what they were in Smash Bros itself. Simply put, he just came to the school until such time as things cool off in Sinnoh)
But Cyrus has always been one to make the best of a bad situation. Having a far different definition of "best" will do that to a person. So until he can locate his followers, he'll just have to settle for recruiting more...I mean teaching. Yes, teaching. Certainly a man like him must learn to be a productive member of society eventually, right?
Just don't pay him any mind if he someday starts insisting that the school uniform include aquamarine bowl cuts.
Anything Else?: -As stated, I play him DP-verse. This means that Platinum-verse's talk of "spirit" is severely lessened (he mentions it a single time in DP), and that if he knows about the Distortion World at ALL it'll be only as a legend. Also he's not lying to his followers...much anyway.
-Some things are based on the impression I got from the games, such as his natural emotional state--the way I play him is such that his unsupressed emotions are stronger than those of most people and that he tried to get rid of them because it was the only way he could control them. I can back this up with canon if needed, and it appears in multiple canons (I think the Special manga is the only one where it hasn't). I don't believe for a moment that he's a true sociopath (although he has some personality traits in common, such as using people) insofar as his emotions aren't naturally dulled.
-That's also why he has a Crobat. Happiness evolution what.
-I do pull some things from Platinum, but they're things that weren't contradicting anything, such as what his grandfather tells you or his age or the implication that he's known Cynthia for a while.
-Icons are from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! which is the greatest manga in the history of forever and you all need to read it immediately. Come on, Cyrus has like three pieces of gameverse art and that's not conducive to icon making. If only Game Freak would grasp the concept of expressive sprites (not that his would be very expressive but I can't imagine he'd be stonefaced CONSTANTLY considering his freakouts in the game)...
-Since the wiki asks for it, the birthday I came up with for him is January 1st.
More details about the sources
-He genuinely wants to save the world from itself (DP-verse)
-He's motivated by his conviction that life is inherently violent and hateful (DP, DPA!, and anime), and that he's the only one who could possibly know what needs to be done (pretty much any). Also partially by his fear in knowing that someday everything will end and any advances he makes will be ultimately meaningless, and in thinking that the gods themselves are unworthy of possessing their powers because they don't use them to perfect their creation (those points I made up)
-He's 27 and has been pushed to be the best his entire life (hoshit is that Platinum sneaking in?)
-He has three commanders but Charon is a Galactic researcher (DP/Pt compromise)
-The reason he tries to squelch his emotions is because it's the only way he can control them (semi-made up but supported by DP, Pt, DPA!, and the anime)
-He faced both Dialga *and* Palkia on the Spear Pillar. This is because he's Diamond *and* Pearl-verse rather than *or* and it really doesn't make sense to only have him go up against one.
-He knows about Giratina (as "the Renegade", as the dex calls it) and that it rules a parallel dimension. The reference to it in his![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
timecircuits_rp intro post figures that he saw it in the dimensional gash on the Spear Pillar, but it didn't target him. It's unimportant to him other than those.
-He knows of Arceus (as "the Original One" as the in-game legends call it), but because it plays no role in the plot of the games, for the purposes of this, he's theorized that after creation, it became powerless.
Also know I'm playing mostly Diamond/Pearl version with some DPA! personality weasling in (had to use that as an icon source because it's hard to use the game sprites for much). Bear in mind that in gameverse he *claims* to be emotionless but it's pretty damn obvious that he still has them, so that's not a contradiction on my part.
His SBG application!
Name: Cyrus
Game/Series: Pokémon, specifically Diamond/Pearl
Age & Teaching Position: 27, Ethics
Living Arrangements: dorm, private room if possible (if not that's cool)
Personality: Cyrus claims to have rid himself of his emotions, although expresses them far more than he would ever acknowledge. He has a penchant for grandiosity and an insistence that people should look at the big picture (of course, for him, "big picture" means the entire universe). He has delusions of grandeur and plans to make those delusions reality. Those around him describe him as being very logical, and he speaks to the player character openly about his plans. He's contradictory--despite claiming that compassion is weakness, one of his pokémon only evolves through bonding with its trainer (so either he's lying flat out, he considers it an exception, or he induced evolution through artificial means). He's a very dangerous man insofar as his ultimate goal, however he has a strange love for the world and acts out of wanting to save it from itself, thinking the only way to do so would be to restart the universe.
He may apologize for things (emphasis on "may"--it's still not likely), but for him to admit he was ever wrong about anything? Almost impossible. Given that he's been smarter than everyone around him for as long as he can remember back, he was hardly ever wrong, so why should he believe others when they tell him he suddenly is?
He believes in attaining what is (or what he deems to be) necessary through any means that it takes. Although this presents violence as a possibility, he's also at heart a pacifist and won't attack unless he deems it necessary to do so--but once he does, it's at full force. Of course, his pokémon technically do the work, but that's the way they roll in that world.
Backstory: Aah, life in Sunyshore! The sand! The surf! The sun! Unless of course you're cooped up in the house all the livelong day studying your butt off. You're the smartest kid in the entire city, maybe even in all of Sinnoh! You'd better keep it that way!
Cyrus's parents recognized his intelligence at quite a young age, and never let up in their encouragement. Of course, that meant none of those silly extracurricular activities, no becoming a trainer--they ditch school at ten, dontcha know--and if you get below a 95 on anything you bring shame to us all.
While he could keep his grades up, mentally he was starting to fall apart. The world was a painful place, and his studies were what kept him going. In studying he learned facts, things that made sense. Like machines--a machine does what it's programmed to do. It can't do anything else. It's logical. It's rational. But the world around him, he came to realize, was neither of those things.
Another problem stood in his way: his emotions. He enjoyed being the smartest, but some part of him wanted to be like the other kids. The other kids could play in the sun. The other kids could have pokémon. The other kids didn't cry every time they watched the news because the world was so painful to think about. He had to focus himself more than anyone else.
He started dealing with machines more and more, building them in any spare time he had. If they broke down, they could simply be rebuilt and reprogrammed.
When he was fifteen, he recieved his first failing grade and suffered a nervous breakdown. Of course, he didn't tell his parents for fear of being taken out of school. But that night he realized that he had to do something. He couldn't let himself be a failure. And his emotions were causing it. So he started to supress them.
But why stop there, he realized. The world was a failure, overrun by war and ignorance. They were ruled by their emotions and it led to such things.
Clearly the world needed a leader. But it didn't take Cyrus long to realize there were holes in his plan. The world would resist a takeover by force, and certainly a normal human lifespan wouldn't afford him the chance to do it through subterfuge. Besides, there would still be millions of years of history he'd have to convince people to ignore, and that would be downright impossible. Humans weren't machines. They could't be reprogrammed like a machine could. It seemed as though he would never find the answer he was looking for.
But there it was in front of him the whole time! All the universe is made of is spacetime, after all. And two of the most revered legendaries in all Sinnoh just so happened to control the dual aspects of very thing!
By the time he graduated university, he knew what he had to do. Screw becoming a region's leader, or a country's. The only way to fix the universe was to delete it and recreate it from the very beginning. He had to become a god.
Brilliant.
Of course, he couldn't become a god on his own. He would need followers as a mortal to further his goals and create paradise. And of course most of them would have to be expendable. And so we come to Team Galactic, the ragtag gang of bowlcutted spacemen that started to pop up throughout Sinnoh. His reasoning for their strange look was carefully calculated--if they looked inept and comical, no one would take them seriously (Well...he says that's his reasoning anyway).
Petty theivery? Who cares? They look so cool! Like something out of a B-movie or a 1980s music video!
Meanwhile, all this was a mask for Team Galactic's true intentions. Through his agents, Cyrus discovered the way to open the dimensions and shackle the gods. Through gathering together the three spirits of the lakes and extracting their gems, an artifact called the Red Chain could be forged, and only then could the gods be controlled without diminishing their powers. Because only idiots use pokeballs, you know; those things lessen the full power of what pokemon are capable of.
So after being beaten several times by a ten year old, Team Galactic finally goes up the sacred Mt Coronet with the Red Chain. Only instead of finding the ancient ruins and gods they sought, they found...the whole thing starting to tilt. And because Cyrus was the first out of the cave, he was separated from his followers. Perhaps the people in that school will know more...no? Damnation! (note--this has been redacted since I was unclear on how "stages" worked in the game and figured they would be what they were in Smash Bros itself. Simply put, he just came to the school until such time as things cool off in Sinnoh)
But Cyrus has always been one to make the best of a bad situation. Having a far different definition of "best" will do that to a person. So until he can locate his followers, he'll just have to settle for recruiting more...I mean teaching. Yes, teaching. Certainly a man like him must learn to be a productive member of society eventually, right?
Just don't pay him any mind if he someday starts insisting that the school uniform include aquamarine bowl cuts.
Anything Else?: -As stated, I play him DP-verse. This means that Platinum-verse's talk of "spirit" is severely lessened (he mentions it a single time in DP), and that if he knows about the Distortion World at ALL it'll be only as a legend. Also he's not lying to his followers...much anyway.
-Some things are based on the impression I got from the games, such as his natural emotional state--the way I play him is such that his unsupressed emotions are stronger than those of most people and that he tried to get rid of them because it was the only way he could control them. I can back this up with canon if needed, and it appears in multiple canons (I think the Special manga is the only one where it hasn't). I don't believe for a moment that he's a true sociopath (although he has some personality traits in common, such as using people) insofar as his emotions aren't naturally dulled.
-That's also why he has a Crobat. Happiness evolution what.
-I do pull some things from Platinum, but they're things that weren't contradicting anything, such as what his grandfather tells you or his age or the implication that he's known Cynthia for a while.
-Icons are from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! which is the greatest manga in the history of forever and you all need to read it immediately. Come on, Cyrus has like three pieces of gameverse art and that's not conducive to icon making. If only Game Freak would grasp the concept of expressive sprites (not that his would be very expressive but I can't imagine he'd be stonefaced CONSTANTLY considering his freakouts in the game)...
-Since the wiki asks for it, the birthday I came up with for him is January 1st.
More details about the sources
-He genuinely wants to save the world from itself (DP-verse)
-He's motivated by his conviction that life is inherently violent and hateful (DP, DPA!, and anime), and that he's the only one who could possibly know what needs to be done (pretty much any). Also partially by his fear in knowing that someday everything will end and any advances he makes will be ultimately meaningless, and in thinking that the gods themselves are unworthy of possessing their powers because they don't use them to perfect their creation (those points I made up)
-He's 27 and has been pushed to be the best his entire life (hoshit is that Platinum sneaking in?)
-He has three commanders but Charon is a Galactic researcher (DP/Pt compromise)
-The reason he tries to squelch his emotions is because it's the only way he can control them (semi-made up but supported by DP, Pt, DPA!, and the anime)
-He faced both Dialga *and* Palkia on the Spear Pillar. This is because he's Diamond *and* Pearl-verse rather than *or* and it really doesn't make sense to only have him go up against one.
-He knows about Giratina (as "the Renegade", as the dex calls it) and that it rules a parallel dimension. The reference to it in his
timecircuits_rp intro post figures that he saw it in the dimensional gash on the Spear Pillar, but it didn't target him. It's unimportant to him other than those.-He knows of Arceus (as "the Original One" as the in-game legends call it), but because it plays no role in the plot of the games, for the purposes of this, he's theorized that after creation, it became powerless.
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Date: 2009-06-22 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 11:35 pm (UTC)I think we talked on my