#pdochal

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How old are you IRL? 21

What character are you applying for? Hal Strider

Why are you interested in this character? Because he’s tied for my favorite character in the comic, and I think he has a lot to be explored in a setting like this. Humanizing Hal into a college setting feels like it’s a really fun opportunity.

What is your personal interpretation of this character? How would you describe their personality? At the tender age of two years old, Hal watched his teen parents split up. He hardly remembers his father, let alone the fight between his parents, but he still bears resentment towards his mother. Had she waited, been a little older, a little more mature, maybe the split wouldn’t have occurred, and maybe he would still have a father, a family. It’s something he argues with his mother about often, but now that he’s eighteen years old and about to move out for college, it’s starting to feel like a moot point.

He was home schooled throughout his educational career. He started in kindergarten simply being home schooled by his mother, but she soon moved him to a cyber charter school instead, worried that she would take a wrong turn in Hal’s education. Most of his time was spent around his mother throughout his school-aged years, and since he didn’t have many real life friends who he could spend time with, his mother took to buying them for him.

Hal developed a massive collection of dolls and puppets, though once his preference towards puppets was made clear, his mother bought him far more puppets than dolls. Among his favorites are a prince and princess, a noble white steed and a jester-like puppet, although his collection expands far beyond the fantasy realm. Throughout his childhood he enjoyed putting on puppet shows, with his mother being the sole audience member. Once he started getting a little older, his shows began to lean towards the passive aggressive side of things, and he would use his puppets to express his resentment towards his mother. Aside from the passive aggressive puppet shows, his ‘toys’ served another purpose entirely; he would talk to them, far out of his mother’s ear shot, as though they were the friends he didn’t have. He would tell them about his day, about school work, the friends he had online — anything and everything.

His online friends were really his only interaction outside his mother and his puppets. He’s been exploring the internet ever since he understood how, playing games, reading the news, and eventually finding out that he could meet people via this magical portal. He became a member of several forums and chat rooms, and eventually he found himself frequenting a chat room centered around roleplay. There he met his all of his online friends, including one girl with whom he roleplays particularly NSFW things.

Since all of his social experience revolves around his mother, his puppets and his online adventures, he isn’t exactly a master with words in person like he is online. Going off on his own to college taught him this at length. He has a way with words and comes off as very smooth and cool via text message, IM and the like, but when he tried to work his skills in person, he realized that there is no backspace IRL. With less time to formulate responses and no way to undo what had already come out, he fumbles over his words and becomes easily frustrated with real life interactions. His ego, which started out rather large, took a hit at this realization, in light of the fact that he can’t charm people with his words as well as if he were texting them or sending them an IM.

What would be your character’s major or occupation? Hal is a statistics major, with a minor in theater.

Give a physical description of your character. Despite not having a lot of contact with people his age, Hal has used the internet to decide on his own personal fashion, and enjoys dressing and looking the part. He’s 5’11”, just one inch shy of a perfect six feet, but he’s learned to deal with that. He’s slender at about 145 pounds, too proud not to keep his weight in check. He’s a fan of j- and k-pop, gleaning much of his fashion sense from those cultures. His hair is naturally dirty blonde, but he bleaches it much lighter to the point of platinum blonde, and spikes it up the back, leaving his short bangs and strands that frame his face to hang free. He also has several piercings, in exactly the same places as one of his favorite j-rock artists: Miyavi. He has his right eyebrow pierced with a hoop, the left nostril has another hoop, and the right side of his lower lip has yet another hoop. He also has his tongue and both ears pierced, three holes in each with the middle hole gauged slightly, in which he wears various earrings. Due to eighteen years of sitting inside in front of a computer, he wears glasses; black, with thick plastic rims and transition lenses. His eyes are naturally hazel but he wears contacts of varying colors, most commonly orange, to make them stand out in his beloved selfies. He doesn’t go out much, so he’s pale, and the few times he attempted to tan, he simply ended up with terrible sunburn that lasted for days. Give an example post of your character in this AU.

It was six in the morning, and Hal had woken up at four to get ready. It was the first day of classes today, and while he hadn’t been nervous upon his arrival at the HU dorms, but now that classes were upon him, he certainly was. Over the five days since he’d moved in, many of his hopes and dreams had been crushed. It didn’t take him long to realize that his charm and way with words didn’t translate well from texting and IM to real life. He lamented the fact that there was no backspace button IRL.

And so, on his first day of classes, he had gotten up four hours earlier than he needed to in order to take a long shower, eat a good breakfast and get ready. By his logic, if he was confident in his appearance, his words might come out a little more confidently and a little less jumbled. He rechecked himself in the mirror, adjusting his bright orange non-prescription contacts, carefully working around his light layer of black eyeliner, before putting on his prescription glasses. He fiddled with his lip piercing for a moment and finally decided that at least from the neck up, he looked fine. He was wearing white sneakers with black shoelaces, faded black jeans that were tight in most of the right places, a white t-shirt with a grey and black graphic on it, and a black pinstriped vest, hanging open over his shirt. He supposed his attire was fine.

He gave a sigh, plopping onto his bed (in a sitting position, and careful not to mess up his hair). He looked over at the puppets sitting on his pillows (he had insisted on bringing at least 75% of his collection), a frown on his lips. “Today is the first day of classes,” he said simply. There was silence for a moment, then, “I know. I’ll take Prince and Princess with me, I’m sure I’ll be fine. I mean, obviously I look great, I just need to work on the speaking thing.” Another pause. “I know I can speak well to you guys, and usually mom, but when I’m trying to meet someone new there’s a 96.54% chance I’m going to mess it up and fall all over myself.” Another pause, longer this time. “You’re right. I know it’s only six-thirty, but we may as well get going. Explore the campus a bit. See what’s what.”