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Tasks

The tasks to go through are found in the second post of The Character Workshop. Please follow them. ^^


Edited Characters

Here's a list of characters and their players that are done being edited in this thread. I will update it when I can so please be forgiving. sweatdrop If you do not wish to have your name/characters here, please PM and I'll remove it ASAP.

List-
None as of now.

Okay. I definately like the changes but I do have one comment/suggestion- feel free to refuse it lol. The attitude you want to give Alma (that devil-may-care-world-is-boring-none-of-this-matters attitude) is really interesting but- it would not realistically appear in someone at age 15, that just seems a little young to already have that mindset. Maybe make her 17? (I know thats a lot older and I believe its older than you, but never have I met a 15 year old with that attitude. I have met plenty of 17/18's with it.)

I know you like your age, but honestly, a 15 year old with that attitude tends to be a really obnoxious faker, and Alma is deeper than that. But its not a huge deal, just something I noticed and my opinion is only my opinion. So feel free lol

I don't really have a lot of comments on the history but thats not necessarily a bad thing. It was a good bio, I liked it cause it wasn't tragic. Tragic characters are over done. (if it wasn't necessary to Tehra's Guardian stuff, I would make hers less tragic). I actually like that bio a lot. And its not too long, so its a good read. Your changes are coming along Alma smile

I really like this. You're setting a great example with your thread, and I think I will use this for Austin. His biography is virtually the same as it was in 2006 when I first joined LoSI. Also, I want to update his powers and comment on the plans I had with MU. Every time Austin's wings came out, a new spirit seemed to overcome him. I liked how that plot was going, but since MU's not around to continue it, it will be very inconvenient.

Also, I'm very interested in Alma's father. You probably don't intend to mention him much, but I feel like he and Oual would get along nicely down the road...

I appreciate that you've made her interesting to the rest of the guild, more realistic, unique, and with powers and weaknesses to match them.

I'm going to ''sticky" this thread to call more attention to it. Hopefully people will see how useful it is in going into the new LoSI... and down the road, when people make bios and the characters don't come out as expected, they can come back here and make their foundation match whatever they built on top of it!

Task 1: Ideas

My goal here is to edit Austin Aires, my main character. I feel like his profile is extremely vague, since it hasn’t changed much in over 3 years. By now, I understand him better as a character. So far in the RP, he’s learned the basics of his powers, and with the priest, Father Blood, he has begun training. However, Austin is overcome by some unknown spirit every time he sprouts his wings. I really liked where the plot was going, but since MU, who played Father Blood, is on an extended hiatus, it would be terribly inconvenient for his situation to stay the same. So, my focus is to edit Austin so that he has full control over his abilities when his wings are out. I also want to make him more fully trained in the use of his staff as well as a new addition: the bow and arrow.

Task 2: Basics

These will stay the same. Austin Aires. Male. 6’2”. 17. Junior. Alias: Eagle Eye. He was named WAY before the movie came out, by the way.

Task 3: Biography

Contrary to Alma, my character’s biography was too short and not very helpful. I want to detail mostly what has happened to him so far, because it has completely changed his goals. So, let’s see how it goes:

Biography: Austin Aires was born and placed in the arms of an extremely satisfied, prepared mother. She cradled him, whispered his name, and devoted the rest of her life to raising him to be good and happy. His father, on the other hand, couldn’t make it. He was working. Austin’s father figure was always his maternal Uncle Oual, who has been working as the Chief Detective in the Delmor Police Department for the better part of Austin’s life. Oual taught Austin about cool ‘man’ things. Oual sparked Austin’s interest in sports and crime fighting and superheroes as a little boy. At the same time, though, between Oual and his mother, Austin learned morals. He knew that, as cool as TV bad guys were, it was not cool to be like them.

The shock came when Austin was ten years old and his mother passed away unexpectedly in a robbery on her way home from work. At that point in his life, Austin showed signs of becoming his own man. His two role models had given him everything he needed. But now, in his final stage of dependency, half of himself was unjustly ripped away. And Oual couldn’t even figure out who had killed her, either. When he recovered from his original hysteria – which took a year of counseling, Austin began a steady decline. He remained close to Oual, but pushed even further away from his distant father. Oual moved in to care for Austin even though Lucas, the father, disproved and accused the man of stealing his son.

The troubles at home shook Austin, and he began to value a social life at the age of 13. Before long, Austin had been whipped into shape by friends. Everyone liked him, and he played basketball. A lot of it. However, Austin acted differently for every person he encountered, and tried to mirror them so that they would continue to like him.

By his freshman year in high school – and at the height of his popularity, Austin had developed quite a drinking problem, but remained fundamentally honest and kind. Teachers were okay with him, social crowds loved him. He was seemed to be a leader, sticking to the beliefs of others, not getting on anyone’s bad side, being a star athlete. Plus, he was clearly sleeping with the hottest girl his age, his long-time (three whole months!) girlfriend, Terra Sanders.

Half way through the year, Dante Daniels grew in importance to his life. Dante was always an acquaintance that Austin got along with, but he finally realized just how much he respected the guy – and how ridiculous it was that he kept avoiding him in front of his much cooler friends. Within the month, Austin shifted his priorities. Before long, he’d stopped his pretending and stepped into his own shoes. Now, he was respected as a person – not as a basketball player – within a smaller, but still liked group in school. In finding himself, he left a lot of his hobbies behind. No longer did he put on a public façade. He became Austin. No longer did he hide from people he respected just to please people who didn’t really care for who he really was. No longer was he drinking. No longer was he in a relationship with Terra Sanders. She left him, and he was shocked at how easy it was to put her out of his life. He even stopped playing basketball. He knew his potential. But he also knew that he didn’t really love the game in the first place.

Now, in his junior year, Austin’s reputation is simply ‘good guy.’ He’s happier than ever, his few good friends really appreciate him. Except, his academics have stayed average, he does not think about much, and he has re-developed an impulsive attraction to hot girls that won’t really don’t do much good for his character. He even attended prom with the well known slut, Rowena Lasairona.

Months before prom, the most unique part of Austin’s life began. Oual brought home a drink – it could best be called a potion – of unknown origin. In a rush, he asked Austin to guard it. Overcome by his curiosity and a secret longing to be a part of something meaningful (he’d never admit to it), Austin drank the potion. Oual hasn’t mentioned it since. In short, Austin grew wings, developed strange abilities that he hasn’t quite figured out, been overcome by a Biblical spirit, trained in archery, the staff, endurance, and pledged himself to military service in the private army of secretive Episcopalian priest, Father Robert Covington Blood against a flock of Catholic nuns. He’s still not very religious.

Whoa.

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Haha. Writing that biography was a lot of fun, but I don't know if it's all needed. Any ideas on how to shorten it?

Thanks! I'll see what I can do.

Here's 3.5 - 4.

Task 3.5: Powers

I want to get rid of Austin’s vision thing (thinking of a persona and getting to see what they’re doing for a few seconds). I love the power, but it can lead to unintentional godmodding. Austin is pretty unique and capable of holding his own in a fight, but I wish I had an idea for one really unique ability. Maybe one day I’ll have him develop, but here are my ideas so far:

Primary Power: Flight from wings

Secondary Powers: Heightened sense of hearing. Heightened sense of vision. The ability to navigate his way to any location that he’s seen (even in photographs). On his own, he’s trained to develop heightened stamina, the ability to fight, and impressive hand-eye coordination. He wields a quarterstaff (along with two shorter staffs which he uses when he must have one weapon in each hand). On top of these, he’s also very well trained with the longbow – but he almost never uses it, since he has no intention of killing anyone. (He would have much preferred a compound bow, but he discovered that his archery skills had developed while the spirit was controlling him). Which brings us to the last power - of sorts. There seems to be a dormant Biblical spirit within him that has not come out in some time. Nobody quite understands what it means or what its purpose is, but it seems to have given Austin control of his wings and mind for now, even though it used to take control over the teenager at random times. Austin can’t remember what he did while it overpowered him.

Weakness: Normal. Plus, the dormant, unknown, Biblical spirit poses a constant threat. It could choose to return whenever it pleases, and who knows what Austin would be capable of then?

Task 4: Personality, Goals, Vices

I like the general idea of Austin’s personality, but it could use some tweaking to include his curiosity and his endless search to belong to something… oh, and the void that growing between him and his social group. Again.

Personality: Adults think he’s pretty nice. The popular kids used to love him and don’t understand what happened to him. His friends think he has a ton of potential to be awesome. Girls think he’s easy to manipulate.

Austin has always been plagued with this sense that he doesn’t belong to anything, although he wouldn’t admit it. This leads to a natural curiosity to try new things out. Maybe it’ll lead somewhere, he figures.

Interestingly enough, Austin’s exposure to the many levels of the social spectrum has left him more understanding and open to the plights of others. At the same time, it’s left him somewhat nostalgic of the days when he was at the top of the ladder. Slowly, his increasing decency and intellect has curved back downwards. Parts of his old self are returning – the guy who chased hot, stupid, girls – the guy who never thought on a deeper level – the ‘typical teenager.’ Now, Austin suffers because he can’t go back to the top, and his friends are distancing themselves from him. Austin doesn’t recognize it, but he’s creating a void for himself between good people and the person he used to be – the one he despises, but everyone else honored.

Goals: Driven by the concepts of belonging, leading, and being liked, Austin has shifted all of his focus onto the mastery of his abilities. A social life isn’t working out. Maybe Father Blood’s plan is worth his time? At this point, he is willing to take a risk and chance that he can make something out of himself with these powers.

Vices: Austin is not in touch with his desires at all. He works for all of his goals, but he’s not aware that he’s doing it. He can’t figure out why things don’t work for him in school because he can’t figure out who he really is. For example, the aforementioned void in his social life – he’s seen the changes it’s brought to his relationships, but he can’t recognize it for what it is, or his own part in it.