#lieden

@chaoticevilfantrolls

Oh geez louis. He’s got a really strong theme! I can already tell that I won’t have to do much bolstering work on his story/theme, haha!

Planet:Alternian. Sometimes in an AU where he’s a SBURB player, sometimes in an AU where the age of being shipped off planet is 10 sweeps.

Name:Vapula Lieden - Vapula comes from the Goetic Demon Vapula, who was a teacher of handicrafts and philosophy. In modern culture (especially in the tabletop gaming and JRPG scenes), Vapula has become a sort of ‘demon prince of techonology’ which I feel connects to his hacking skills and general jackassery.

- Lieden comes from the Leidenfrost Effect, which is the hovering of a drop of liquid over a hot surface due to the pressure of the vapor escaping below it. Abstractly connects to his repulsive personality, but more directly connects to his heavy thematic elements of vapor or vapor pressure.

Really clever name all around! Vapula also at least tangentially sounds similar to vape, so it carries the theme through strongly.

Age:Typically between 8-12 sweeps, depending on the setting and the rp I’m using him in. I usually hover around the 10-12 sweep range, running with him already having a proper Imperial job, without necessarily being old or experienced enough to have an actual title or even the typical ancestor-styled uniform. 

Given that he’s written to be a cocky script-kiddie prodigy, I tend to write him as a younger adult, in the settings where adults are actively involved such as rebellion rps or non-Alternia stories. He works as an Imperial Systems Security Murderator (or ISSM), which means he spends a lot of time doing rote systematic work typical of his caste.

Where does the murderation come in? Is part of his job responsibility supposed to be ending the lives of hackers? Because that’d be pretty funny. Either way, him working in information technology in a sort of bureaucratic position makes sense for his caste. You mention that you involved him in rebellions in some rps, though? I wonder how that works. Does he leave backdoors for other people to get in? 

Or does he do his opportunist thing and extort money out of people who he catches trying to hack? Or take bribes to turn a blind eye/give people data? 

Strife Specibus:raygunKind - Vapula’s main specibus is raygunKind. This specibus allows him to use weapons ranging from small holdout blasters to military-grade particle rifles. His typical weapons are a standard issue ISSM rifle which he has (illegally and most irreverently) overclocked and modified with black market parts, and a holdout blaster with the dial stuck on stun.  

I love the idea of this jackass just going ahead and plopping blackmarket parts on his standard issue gun. How much trouble would he get in if that got found out? I do love it, but I have to wonder if you could give him like a… a Vapor gun? Just to fit his vapor theme? Like he modded his gun to shoot blistering rings of steam instead of plasma? You could even make it look like it has a vape pen at the end of it for that vapememe fun. 

Fetch Modus:Pinboard - Vapula’s fetch modus functions by creating a metaphysical cork board in which pictures of items are stored. There is always one item that acts as the core, to which items must be conceptually connected to be captchaloged. This leads to some tricky games of association ala Illuminati Confirmed memes when he needs to captchalog an item with little connection to any of the ones he can connect it to. 

Once an item is captchaloged successfully, it can then be used as a place to connect other items. However, if removing an item breaks the chain to the core item, all items on that branch are deployed from the modus. It’s easier to manage when there are only a few items in the modus at a time, but Vapula is not much one for meticulous organization, so sometimes the threads get crossed up.

I really love the idea of this and the thought put into this, and I can kind of see the connection to his paranoia with the usage of the pinboard. But I think if you want to make it a cohesive part of his theme, you should make him have a broader interest/paranoia about conspiracy theories. Maybe you could have him post on conspiracy theory boards online behind one of his sneaky usernames. 

Blood color:Teal - His blood is indeed the standard #008282. However, he types in #008080. This is because 8080 is the name of an IBM processor produced in the 70’s, which connects to his computer themes as well as his aesthetic associations to the 70’s and 80’s.

Ohhh, that’s GOOD.

Symbol and meaning:The MacOS Command Key - There’s not much of an abstract meaning to this symbol, besides the fact that the symbol is probably the most ‘trollish’ of any computer key, and references control/command. This does connect to his hacking prodigy status. 

I’m gonna keep this and adjust it to the Teal symbol language when we get down to the design stuff, but just for fun if he was to be given an EZ sign I’d give him either Lipia The Networker or Libittarius The Hidden. 

But we’ll talk more about that later.

Trolltag:Vapula actually has two, which he flipflops between.

gossamerCorporeality:  - Gossamer: Something exceedingly light or insubstantial, delicate, ephemeral - Corporeality: The state of something being physical or real

vaporousVerisimilitude: - Vaporous: Something made of vapor or mist. - Verisimilitude: The appearance of being real or true.

Both of these trolltags essentially mean ‘something that seems real but it’s state of reality is tenuous at best’. In-character he uses different trolltags to hide his identity. He often gets caught by people who recognize the similarities between the two trolltags, much to his chagrin. 

I think these are good references to his vapor theme. His existence itself is halituous… Haha here’s another possible one if you want it, halituousSoma. 

Quirk:He types in almost exclusively lowercase, with the exception of H and G, which he capitalizes. He also replaces b with 8 and o with 0.

Both of these elements connect to the element Mercury, which is used to measure vapor pressure (units mmHg). Not only that, but Mercury is a poisonous metal, with poisoning symptoms similar to Vapula’s typical personality (lethargy, listlessness, and irritability are all symptoms).

He has some smaller conditions to his quirk, such as inverting his typing pattern when yelling, and making any incidence of HG into Hg instead (no matter how rarely it appears).

He obsessively uses chatspeak, and tends to pepper his text with just enough technological jargon to be utterly insufferable. He doesn’t use much punctuation, unless it is to emphasize a point or to (rarely) make something he said clearer.

“GC: spHinx 0f 8lack quartz judGe my v0w” “GC: SPhINX oF bLACK QUARTZ JUDgE MY VoW”

This is a really fitting quirk and I like the little references in it. Readable, fitting, all around good!

Special Abilities:Vapula isn’t exactly psionic, and he doesn’t manifest any legitimate powers, but he does have psionic tendencies. He often gets terrible migraines, and can sometimes end up frying unprotected computers with mild magnetokinetic flux. He doesn’t even realize he has these tendencies beyond sometimes having to take a nap (or some sopor cubes) to get his head to stop pounding. 

Now this… made me waver just a little bit? Teals are among the castes that are just out of optimal range for psychic abilities. I understand your logic behind it, but it just doesn’t seem all that likely. Though Anything Is Possible, so I guess I can’t nix it entirely. So I’m going to give you a little fun. If he wasn’t created by Ectobiology, maybe one of the trolls who contributed to his genetic makeup was a gold and because biology is funky and doesn’t always do things perfectly, he got just an unfortunate touch of the psionic genes. It explains some of his more gold tendencies, too- because I have to tell you, I’ve been flipping back and forth between teal and gold reading this whole character sheet. 

Lusus: Clouded Leopard, affectionately known as Gilbert.

Vapula’s lusus is a clouded leopard who is about the size of a lion, with a long tail and soft, shaggy fur. His lusus has the ability to breathe out minty, soothing clouds, and is pretty constantly cold to the touch. (No wonder he’s named after the inventor of the E-Cigarette.)

Personality: Vapula Lieden is, by all means, a total jackass, and he owns up to it. He’s loud and brash and aggressive and cocky, readily vying for anything that could give him power over another person through blackmail or sheer frustration. He doubles down on others feelings of disgust and hatred, pushing back until they slip up.

However, Vapula has SOME tenderness in his heart, and by all means he’s a laid-back and fundamentally good troll. By human standards he may be a morally bankrupt asshole, but as a troll he’s almost a shining paragon of not being a total douche-wad. He acknowledges when he’s gone too far, he helps people without expecting TOO much payment in return, and his utter neutrality on matters of caste relations can sometimes be very refreshing. 

He is a prodigy in hacking and programming, fast-tracked to a cushy desk-job to keep him on the Empire’s leash and his ambitions in check. Even being so young, he’s given a modicum of privilege, which he uses and abuses with reckless abandon. 

Although he isn’t necessarily repulsed by sexuality or romance, he doesn’t have much interest in them, beyond the fact that pitch or red flirting with other trolls tends to throw them a bit off-balance socially. He uses flirting as a tool to establish a power imbalance in his favor, or just to outright infuriate someone (such as flirting red with someone showing pitch affections to him, or vice-versa). He’s not above using the equivalent of troll craigslist personals when it comes to pailing time.

He has a tendency towards broad, heavy mood swings which readily get in the way of him forming healthy, meaningful relationships with others. Even if he felt he could form these relationships without pushing them away for his moodiness, he often fears letting people know anything about him beyond the most superficial details. He rarely goes by his real name (instead using the nickname Vee or V), and often flips between trolltags so that people don’t recognize him. He seems legitimately paranoid as well, harboring fears that it isn’t JUST the Empire that’s spying on him with cameras and microphones in his hive. 

I like his character a lot. Very solid all around in his characterization. I like this idea that he’s someone who sort of isolates himself, but who is a good talker. I think you should definitely Increase That a little bit. Make it a more obvious part of his character. You expressed this idea that you’re worried about integrating his vapor theme into his character more, so put it here- 

Make him have a public facade. Some vapid bureaucrat identity that he puts up in person even if he continues to be a snarky jackass, just something that subtly separates his usual daily interactions from his actual self. It makes him a lot more smoke and mirrors and ties back to his trolltags nicely, making him someone who appears to be real but really isn’t. The flirting is already a great step towards this! 

I do like that you have him have a sort of balance in his doucheness and decency; that’s important for a teal. But you need to draw it in a little more strongly. Make sure you build a moral code for him. A sort of What’s Wrong and What’s Right and have him adhere STRICTLY to that moral code, to the point where having to break his own rules is very, very stressful for him. 

It’s not really my business to decide what the moral code might be. But it seems like he greatly values privacy and people staying out of his business, so there’s a good center to start from. 

Interests: Vapula’s main interest, which has carried him through most of wiggler-hood, has been his nigh hyperfixation on computers and programming. He prides himself in being fluent in at least six languages, often flaunting his talent by sending messages encoded in Malbodge or Panfuck just to annoy people. He’s managed to cobble together a decent AI, bits of code stolen from archived Empire databases, whom he’s taken to calling Dvorak. 

He collects specifically obsolete or low-grade tech, much of it found through dumpster diving excursions or pawned off of lowbloods who just happen to need the Cees. He devotes a decent amount of time to fixing them, using them as burner devices or destroying them for novelty, when he’s feeling up to doing some legally grey activities or up to causing some reckless chaos by testing a virus of his own design. 

You should definitely have him try to create a vapor-driven computer of some kind. If Apiculture Networking can exist on Alternia, I see no reason he couldn’t figure out how to use vapor/vapor pressure to make some neat tech.

Outside of computers, programming and dumpster diving, Vapula also enjoys skateboarding. This does not mean that he is good at it, by any means. He often longboards to get across town in any kind of timely manner, and he attempts tricks in his rumpusblock. He’s pretty proud of the fact that he did a kickflip and only broke one arm. 

Vapula fancies himself as a bit of a recreational sopor user, and he does admit that sipping on a faygo tends to help him get in the zone while coding, ala The Ballmer Peak (of xcdk fame). He tends to keep a small container of sopor cubes with him as well, in case he happens to develop a migraine while he’s out and about. He’s definitely in denial of the fact that his self-medication only contributes to his insufferable moodiness and isolation from others.

Instead of sopor cubes, make him vape that funky sopor. Have him creator an E-Sopor Liquid. You could even make him do that himself. It’s just as portable as your sopor cubes, but links back to your vape memes.

Finally, Vapula actually has a pet betta fish, whom he’s named Qwerty. Qwerty was given to Vapula by one of his (very few) friends as a kind of cruel joke, which Vapula took in stride. He dotes over him, specifically building systems designed to keep Qwerty comfortable and fed. He often talks to Qwerty, internally or out-loud, in place of talking about what’s bothering him to anyone else. Good Fish, Best Friend, indeed. 

I See Your Reference. And I Like It.

Title: Bard of Light

Honestly, Vapula could be just about any aspect of Bard with small tweaks to his personality, interest, or in-game powers. The main reason I choose Light for him is because of the quest I’ve made for his land, and a lot of minor powers based upon ghosting Void and finding loopholes/secrets while digging around in encrypted game files.

Also, in game, he often plays to the destroyer of luck and fortune thing very well, messing up the in-game economy for others by gaming the grist exchange, letting important quest markers be destroyed out of negligence, and even forgetting to do important tasks like buying his fraymotifs. 

Now we’re here at the class discussion. I am, genuinely, on the great divide here. I can’t decide between Bard of Light and Bard of Void. 

On the light side, there’s the fact that he’s willing to find loopholes to get his way, that he seems like the datamining type for sure, and the conspiracy theory thing definitely helps me see how he’s a good analyst, great at connecting information in ways people wouldn’t think of… But he’s also secretive, a friend of the unknown, wants to be secretive… And he likes building new things out of old tech… 

Okay, after rambling to myself for a minute I think you’re fine staying with Bard of Light. He invites destruction of light, or through light. So he’s passively able to break things down through knowledge, or is able to passively encourage the destruction of knowledge and information. Meaning that if he knows something, he can take that information and use it to harm others. Or he can get others to shred the information if he so pleases. 

His inverse would be Maid of Void, which means he actively creates subterfuge and mystery… 

This is a fitting title, but you’ll have to play some creative games if you want it to challenge him. 

Land:Land of Mercury and Vapor Pressure

Vapula’s land is initially a barren desert, populated by small villages of Pythons (a reference to the Python coding language). There are pyramidal temples scattered throughout the land, which happen to house the valves that control the geysers. The temples were taken over by the underlings, blocked off so that the precious mercury within would remain within the lair of Lucifer, the land’s slumbering denizen. 

As Vapula continues on through his quest, he is supposed to open the valves, releasing the mercury vapor into the atmosphere and re-establishing the cycle of mercury. The planet slowly returns to life, with thick rainforests growing, streams of mercury flowing through the land while the pythons return to claim their homes in the trees where they belong. 

(Endgame LOMAVP, theoretically.)

Make sure he has to break some shit via ancient knowledge in order to access the valves if you want it to be really fitting for his title. 

Dream Planet:Prospit, typically. He puts a lot of trust in his instincts, even if he seems like he leans too heavily on an intellectual nature, and he definitely leans towards solving problems in unorthodox, if ultimately self-serving ways. I have played him as a Derse dreamer before, though.

Now here’s another place where I hit that Great Divide. But all things considered, I think I’m going to have to lean towards Derse on this boy- especially because of his tendency to hide himself and to rely on flirtation and stuff in conversation. Dersites are the ones who actively seek to hide themselves, who tuck it away and have difficulty with trust. Your symbol references control and command, things important to his personality and his aspect. And those are important parts of the dersite personality, too. 

A derse player can still have unorthodox solutions to problems even if they play it a little smarter (Rose’s solutions to problems include ‘throw the bathtub,’ ‘collapse into the embrace of the outer ring’s horrors out of despair,’ and ‘go to the sun’). Playing it logical doesn’t mean playing it anywhere close to normal. He vibes a lot more with Derse, to me. 

That also puts him closer to the horroterrors who might be able to do some fun grimdark stuff with him, considering he’s a light player who could experience void inversion! 

All things considered, I’m interested on input, especially surrounding ways to tie in his vaporwave/vapor themes better in ways other than just in his personality and interests. It kinda feels a little too distinct from his interest in computers, in areas where it manifests? But that might just be my over-familiarity with my own character.

I offered a few suggestions to tie things in better, but I think overall you have a really amazing, really solid theme! Which means it’s time to get on to the design:

I really didn’t have much to edit, lol. 

Horns: I couldn’t really decided, so I’ve got three pals chilling here. The original horns, a shorter pair, and then a triple pair as a reference to that goldblood suggestion I made earlier. 

Glasses: I got rid of the cracks. It doesn’t make much sense for a dude in the military’s IT department to be running around with cracked glasses. I did keep them as shades, though. 

Beard: I didn’t edit it or anything I just wanted to address it. Because we’ve never seen a troll with facial hair. But they can grow hair on their heads so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible… But I just want you to know… I’m squinting at it. It’s still there because I think it fits his vape bro aesthetic but I’m squinting. 

Torso: I edited the colors of his jacket to have like a teal tint? Because the grey just felt too sterile on his design, somehow. I also adjusted his suspenders into a teal vest and gave him Another shirt under his black shirt. I did all of this because something I’ve noticed about vape bros at my college is that they wear so many layers. Why are they wearing so many layers. I also put a vape pen in his pocket in the last one, for fun. 

Symbol: I wanted to keep the kind of arch that you frequently see in the teal symbol designs- I then edited the frame a little to create two internal circles that replicate some of the interconnected designs we see in the teal caste. So that’s fun. 

Legs: I edited the colors to teal-tinted here as well and fixed up the outline/relation to the pants a lil bit. 

Very good character and very solid design! Thank you for sharing him!

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