Character Development Corner!

Okay so I just thought it would be super neat to put a couple questions in here that people could answer from the position of their character. Short answers, long answers, go nuts. I think it's interesting to see what people think of their own characters, not to mention the cross play from other roleplayers who can comment on it and go "I didn't think that about so-and-so." or "I actually thought they were more like this!" We can even have a couple spotlight sessions where someone's character is specifically put up and people can guess at certain things or answer questions. Depending on if this is taken well, or if it is left in the dust (we're all soldiers now).

So let's kick it off with a relatively simple question for your "main" character. If you can't choose, pick two, or maybe three. Don't go any higher than this. If I see you making a post for 14 dragons in one go, you will be shamed.

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What is your character's greatest flaw?
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My main character changed a while back from Stanley to Amily but I actually wanna cover that first question for both of them so I'm gonna do that

Stanley: He talks too much. He's led a very sheltered life and he hasn't had to advocate for himself very much; his reputation as his father's son precedes him, and whenever he's had to negotiate terms or make deals, his godfather or one of his associates has handled it for him. So despite being a rich tech mogul, he's not that great at communication. When he gets nervous, he rambles, and he likes to be overly thorough when he speaks as to not be misunderstood (a trait he borrows from me). But a lot of the time he comes off as clueless or an ass because he just does not know how to communicate very well.

Amily: She's stubborn, headstrong, and doesn't always think things through. She's very good at adapting to situations on the fly - she'd be dead a dozen times over by now if she wasn't - so she's never felt as though she's had to plan ahead. This constantly bites her in the ass, though. She's a very loud and proud person. She doesn't back down easily and will rush into anything if she feels like she should. She also has a bad habit of not keeping her remarks about others to herself, so she can easily offend people. But she doesn't like to pretend - she's too proud to pretend.

Zags is a pretty self-centered person. His choices are usually driven by what he thinks is cool or looks cool. On a positive spin, others' opinions of him don't really faze him. But being a hero is quite literally fantasy fulfillment and not actually driven by any true desire to save people. If a situation he didn't feel he could get out of easily and/or flashily popped up, he'd probably steer clear. It's just he's pretty confident in being able to get out of just about anything with his powers so that doesn't happen often.

As for Python, well...

It's a bit relative, isn't it? Some people might consider it a flaw that he doesn't adhere to a strict no-kill policy, using his own subjective judgment to decide when lethal force is required. Other people might find it extremely annoying that he insists on settling things in fair one-on-one bouts whenever possible. It's certainly been a complication before, and it certainly will be in the future.

Both of those things are really just symptoms, though. Trees in the larger forest. It might be said that Python's greatest failing is simply that he's selfish. He lives according to either his own whims, or his own set of principles. He's aware of this much; he doesn't really like being called a hero because he feels he could never quite live up to the ideal. He dislikes the suffering of others, but when he saves people, it tends to be more incidental than anything else. He is not overly concerned with societal injustices; he simply helps those that are within his reach. Often in the very physical sense of the word. He's a pragmatist, though I don't consider that, alone, a flaw. He strives to improve....himself. And at the end of the day, he seeks satisfaction in whatever endeavor he undertakes. He respects people like Allen, both for their drive and for the content of their heart, but it is difficult for Python to exhibit quite the same level of altruism. Yes...perhaps as a result of how extemporaneous his creation was back in the day, he is not my picture-perfect ideal of a hero. (And he's awfully self-insert-y...do you consider that a flaw, I wonder? Relative~) So much so that when I looked back and created more characters, I birthed characters closer to the paragon. But this isn't about them.

When he first arrived on Earth, he did whatever he could to avoid bending a knee to the terrestrial authorities. Not because he wanted to subjugate others, but simply because he did not want to be subjugated. And when he was looking for a way to discreetly increase his manpower, he played God and arranged for the creation of clones to assist him. He gave life itself because he felt it would be convenient to him. Well, he regrets that much, certainly. When he was a younger, his devil-may-care attitude manifested as a shallow personality that could occasionally do, or say, callous things without giving it all much thought or reflection. Well, he's grown now, but his desire for freedom persists. Freedom from being tied down to others (with exceptions: his adventures are changing him, after all...albeit in some unexpected ways), or from being harnessed to some supreme responsibility....maybe that, too, is his selfishness. And it leads to one other issue...

Well, perhaps that is best saved for a different time. (Because I think there are better hypothetical questions that it could be categorized under)

Arrogance.
Between ten lifetimes of experience, access to a wealth of knowledge from dozens of worlds, and incredible powers with a nigh indestructible body, though Allen is incredibly friendly and understanding, it stems from a core of arrogance, where he believes that he can handle any and every problem that arises, even if those problems are not his own. He always approaches a situation looking down from on high, able to approach any situation head on without thinking and take on challenges as his own because he never believes he will actually come to harm or that he won't be able to handle it, only taking it seriously when others other than him can come to harm, and even then, simply deciding to resolve the situation with force and extreme prejudice rather than ever feeling threatened.

This is only balanced out by his awareness that it isn't his place to make others problems his own, and his own existence as a machine who was designed to serve others, stressing the importance of free will, identity and being able to make your own decisions to him, and leading to philosophies such as allowing Earth to solve their own problems without his interference but taking on threats (mostly alien) that they themselves cannot handle. But the underlying arrogance behind much of his casual behavior stems from the nature of his existence itself, as a highly powerful shapeshifter, and leads to him having an often dominating presence in many situations due to his assumption that he already has the answer.

Oii Kevin. I feel called out. It feels so good too.

I sincerely hope that this topic, and perhaps others like it, continue to thrive. I'm glad for this opportunity and so excited to see what everyone shares with the group. The spotlight question sessions sounds fun too, since all sorts of questions might turn up.

So far I have no comments as everyone pretty much matches my impressions of them, although I still want to see more of Stanley and Amily in RPs to see how those traits manifest... also, what about you Kevin? I have a guess for Magnus but I'd rather just hear your take on him.

As for me... for this particular question I'll do Bookman, Leo and Migotliv.


Book: As years passed I realized that he has a number of flaws, but the one that caused the most trouble and the worst damage remains his naivety.

Spoiler:

Leo: In one word, arrogance. I love the way Allen explained it, as that belief that one can handle any problem that arises and take on every challenge.

Spoiler:

Migotliv: He's kind of the opposite and dark reflection of Bookman in that he expects the worst from everyone by default.

Spoiler:

Well this is a lot of honesty. I almost expected some interview flaws. "I work too hard." Hahah

And I'm glad you asked, Booky. I'll put mine in just now. As for my comments on everyone else...

Stanley has an interesting set of flaws, because normally with a large intelligence you can get a bit of a complex... but his intelligence is actually something that causes him to feel self conscious. I mean that isn't too surprising but for someone who gets in the thick of things, you'd expect a bit more gumption.

I feel that flaw does actually sum up Zags quite a bit, but I'm hard pressed to believe that if he caught wind of some people being hurt somewhere and he could stop it, he wouldn't be one to turn away. But I could see him definitely thinking of the more theatrical components of it.

With Python's dissemination (and philosophical observation) of the definition of flaw, it is indeed relative. Hahah However I would almost categorize what you mentioned as flaws? Might not in the worst sense of the word. It also surprises me that you stated all things that I know about him, but with a different perspective. I actually considered Python to be very on the heroic side but looking at what you said and the things he does (one on one fights, no killing) which I had accredited to heroism, you're saying it's pretty much such a set of rules to improve his own power. That's eye opening. Hahah

Allen's flaw does not surprise me, only because I've probably been exposed to him the most out of everyone. While he has gone through so many changes over the years, the main aspect of him has always been the same. "I can do it."

It amuses me a lot to see that Bookman, being the supposed scholar and genius of many topics is still so naive. It's usually the case when you possess more knowledge, you're pretty much like "oh yeah, humans have been assholes for so long. Not surprised" But for some reason he still believes in the best of people, and tries to be the voice of reason. I think that's one thing Magnus never understood about him. How does this man stay so trusting of the human spirit?

Migotliv also does not surprise me considering he suffers from memory loss and had his entire kind wiped out. I expected him to only really trust dragons, and even then, sparingly.


As for good ol' MAGNUS...

His key flaw in my opinion, would be his PAST.

Magnus is a long time survivor, being an immortal human who has been around for roughly 7000 years-ish. In that time he has had his hand in a lot over the course of history, world events and the lifetimes of peasants and kings alike. Despite his abilities, he is... basically human. He can break his arm from a fall, or get cut from a piece of paper. He doesn't have hyper intelligence (although through rugged training he has elevated his reflexes to respond faster to practiced motions and threats) or enhanced senses. He is fairly... simple. As a result, he has had a bit of a learning curve and made a lot of mistakes over his very very long lifetime. Humans weren't meant to last that long and had something put in place to protect his brain from the onslaught of memories he has garnered over the years. However it also means he remembers everything. This comes back to haunt him in the form of things he did way back when, which led to calamities later on. Or making enemies that targeted family and friends. Or even just losing people due to the passage of time, while he has kept trudging on with no real end in sight.

The main part of his being, is definitely the betrayal of his father from childhood which resulted in him losing his bonded partner, his mother, and having his brother as a lifelong enemy. That past event, which keeps cropping up and reminding him of his past and everything that he once was, which is under what he has crafted for himself today. Not a lot of his past ever really comes up in RPs because he doesn't bring it up and no one else does either, and that generally keeps him together.

Thanks for the comments Kevin. ^_^ It's interesting how you described Migotliv, as he was that way some time ago, or a while ago in IC time.

Spoiler:

As for Book, the reason he doesn't learn is actually really simple - he's naive AND stubborn. XD

Spoiler:

With that said, I wanted to comment on Magnus as well. When you bring up his past as his greatest flaw, I can totally agree, but my take on it is slightly different. Basically...

Spoiler:

Yeah I wouldn't call a character's past a flaw under any circumstances personally. Sure they could've been more flawed in that past, or made some grave mistakes, but the past itself cannot be a flaw. How you handle it though, that certainly can be, and I agree with Book's take on that one.

I don't have all the info on you guys' characters since I arrived pretty late to the RP scene, but from what I've seen of Magnus, he strikes me as the type who would rather run from or ignore his past than actually deal with it. He doesn't want to put himself or what he has at risk, because what he has right now works for him. It's comfortable. And he has some demons he'd rather just not have to face.

But you can only run from your past for so long. It doesn't define you, but it is what made you who you are. Eventually, everything you're running from is bound to catch up with you, and honestly, you'd be better off dealing with it sooner than later. That's a lesson Magnus is gonna have to learn the hard way, I feel like.

Well I say Past, but it's really a huge umbrella statement as I can't nail it down to one simple thing. Otherwise I'd be listing a lot of things. Mistakes. Regrets. Facing reality. But all of it stems from that one thing, which is his past. That's pretty much the starting point I was going for. Everyone put out some strong points about my boy though... hahah

Okay, next question is going to be a bit of a two fold one. First part is...

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What would an enemy of yours, a rival or an individual you put away in jail/institution/space jail say about you? What do you think are your most iconic traits, from the viewpoint of someone trying to take you down?
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I'm just gonna keep going with Stanley and Amily both with these for the foreseeable future. I don't consider Stanley my main anymore, but he is my lead in the Architect RPs and you're all more familiar with him as a result. But now you get to learn about my new lead, too.

Stanley: "He talked a lot, and he seemed to have a tool for every situation." Stanley is nothing if not prepared. Paranoid, some would say. It's a dangerous world we live in and he knows it, so he has an invention or a contingency for almost any sort of supernatural phenomenon. His enemies would likely comment the most on his preparedness, his resources, and how much he talks.

Amily: "No matter what I did to her, she just wouldn't quit. She isn't human." Amily gets by on pride and sheer willpower. She is a force of pure, unadulterated determination in battle, and she doesn't let anything stop her. She will weather any blow, tolerate any pain, shoulder any burden to save the day. You could break both her arms and legs and she would still be crawling after you, confident she can take you down. It's reckless, and honestly, kind of terrifying. She would very much pull an All Might vs. All For One and leave her foe similarly scared.

"Self-righteous prick."
"He's a fucking freak!"
"Some kinda... karate bugman."

Allen's most iconic feature in battle, is without a doubt, his mechanical adaptability, taking advantage of his mechanical brain and his fluid, shapeshifting body to take on a variety of countless forms to adapt to the situation, with a penchant for a biomechanical fusions based off animal and insectoid forms, taking their inherent abilities to new extremes. This part of him also allows him to be reckless, because unless certain vital points of his body are destroyed or he's exposed to extreme conditions that could permanently destroy parts of his body, he can regenerate from nigh any injury, even if not instantly. This allows him to be incredibly reckless and eat assaults from his foes head on just so he can close the distance and land a decisive blow. He's also very aware of his durability, and often uses this to his advantage, allowing him to intentionally take a serious looking injury just to lure his opponent into a vulnerable position.

But before he even gets into the fighting, he will, unless he already is bearing a cross, always attempt to talk his foes down and attempt to get them to walk away before any real harm is done. No harm, no foul, he won't even attempt to arrest them. As long as they leave there and then and rethink their lives, he has no reason to hurt them. Life is precious, and he knows people can change, so he wants to give everyone a chance. Even if you have done harm or hurt someone or done damage, he'll try to find out your reasons and try to reason out a solution before things get worse, even if he can't just let you off the hook: But at the very least, he'll encourage you to try to atone for your actions.

But he is also vindictive. If those he attempts to reason with, if their reasons are selfish or unsound or pointless or needlessly destructive, if they hurt people for no reason and revel in it for no reason, he will have no issue with crushing them with extreme prejudice, or even resulting to homicide if they pose a threat to innocent lives.

I mean the first thing I thought of was a copypasta but that's almost a little too on brand.

If we're going by what Zags would want people to think it'd probably be along the lines of "He made it look so easy". BUT if it's what they actually think, it's probably more like "That smug face and cocky attitude of his really pissed me off...".

Ooooh. This is fun.

Zieg Crimson

Greatest Flaw: I'd say his greatest flaw is his complete disregard for his own safety coupled with his compulsion to live life to the fullest (excess) as a means of compensating for his immense survivor's guilt. As much as he is an adventurer and "professional" treasure hunter (he just wings it most of the time), he often accepts dangerous life threatening tasks because he thinks it is the least he can do. He believes his life doesn't deserve peace, which is why he is all too happy to fling himself headlong into danger. He also can be very stubborn, very insistent, and can come off as very disagreeable even when it seems like a petty reason. He can also be seen as hypocritical when he scolds people for getting into needless danger, despite the fact he does it himself. His advantage is that he is so long lived that he has experience on his side, so he knows people like Magnus or Allen can handle themselves.

Tabrias Chaos

Flaw: His position as an avatar of ORIGIN gives Tabrias many advantages. Intelligence. Vast information resources. Awareness of the fourth wall. As a result, he carries an objective world view... which leads him to being absolutely blunt, having a lack of empathy, purposefully obsessive and annoying behaviors to trigger people, and has a hard time relating to anybody on an emotional level. He also has a level of arrogance that is unintentional but is still there as he views his superiority as quantifiable.

It's hard for me to predict exactly what will escape the lips of the salty, but from a pure "reviewing the game footage" standpoint, you know, a pure tactical eye...

"He just wouldn't fall! It took me so long to draw that first blood! So irritatingly long!"

I won't spare you the shonen hero/maximum animu willpower stuff, but I will frontload it here. As expected of someone in his...err...position (in the story), he has a very high willpower score. He's extremely tenacious, and crafty enough (in terms of plain good ol' battle sense) to exploit that tenacity to give him the most chances possible.

Anyways, onto more interesting topics. If you look at the way his toolkit is assembled, it lets him prioritize his defense. At, say....at least 90% of the time, he has some kind of out for the situation. A way to either avoid damage or muffle it. Fighting Python is very much an exercise in working around his three different ranges. For your sanity, we'll keep the descriptions brief...-ish.

The first obstacle to trying to hit Python is his Soul Energy. It represents his first, most flexible line of simultaneous attack and defense. As long as he has some left, you can bet that it'll be getting in your way. In a very reflexive sense, he's very quick to bring it out. And even a small amount, when used correctly, can turn what would be a fatal hit into a critical hit, or downgrade a critical hit even further...well, you get the idea.

If you manage to find an opening in his Soul Energy, then likely comes the second line of simultaneous attack and defense. His iaido! That's a range unto itself, of course. It's real chanbara kinda stuff, but at least that saves me the trouble of explaining it. Point is, watch out for his sword. It's incredibly durable, if not impossible to permanently destroy thanks to select enchantments, and he's very good with it. He may block your attack...or cut you down before you even get a chance to use it.

And the last obstacle is that trained body of his. Comparatively, this may be the easiest of the three obstacles to deal with, since Python isn't trained in the martial arts, so he doesn't quite have the sense of technique that other people have. That said, he still has bonkers physical stats. And if we're assuming that you're finally getting to land that hit, then there's a very good chance that it'll take several more (at least!) to put Python down. His alien body is quite dense. It was before he trained it. Besides, his speed isn't really anything to underestimate either, even if it isn't the first thing that people associate with him. And, just for good measure, his stronger punches can even violently push the air forward. So his physical range contains certain...deceptions. Come to think of it, the pure force of his blade can travel pretty well too...

Why does Python need so many defensive measures? Maybe the fact that he's so....mortal (when compared with certain other characters) necessitates it. His moveset used to be even more cluttered (to the point where we could be talking about, like...I dunno, a total of five or six different techniques/abilities/items with defensive applications), and evidence of this sits buried in select older RPs. But yeah, it was seriously ridiculous. I had to step in!

...

Also, Python might say something smarmy for a one-liner as he wins or something. Oh, and if you have a fighting style that he thinks is dishonorable, he can totally get self-righteous about it too! He's well over six feet tall, but he's a lil' shit sometimes.

I’m enjoying reading everyone’s character insights, since I don’t usually get to see and experience it in other ways. Arrogance seems to be a common trait around here (to a degree) but I guess that is to be expected when you have, uh, super powers. That being said;

> What would an enemy of yours, a rival or an individual you put away in jail/institution/space jail say about you? What do you think are your most iconic traits, from the viewpoint of someone trying to take you down?



I don’t RP so to spice things up if I respond to these I will draw something equally dumb

“She didn’t care. She looked at me the way you would a fly on the wall— not as a threat, or a foe. That I was a pest and nothing more.”
Cold, unempathetic, with machine like precision when it comes to her job. That’s Niki in a nutshell. Her reputation as Ice Queen is straightforward enough. While most don’t often get to live to tell the tale, those who do are usually scared stiff by her demeanor, or are greatly pissed off by it. Rarely does Niki show enough interest in anything or anyone to even humor with a response, and if she does respond it’s usually a cold remark that would give anyone the impression she has some kind of superiority complex, looking down on everyone else. (In reality she just can’t be bothered to care, as work is work and not personal.) Guns do better talking than words.

((but sometimes being a stone cold bitch attracts weirdos))

I know how to draw guns shut up

Welcome to the topic, OC and Emmy. ^_^

That's an interesting pair of questions. The first one gives me a certain idea that I see Zags also addressed, namely that I don't think enemies or rivals would want to advertise my characters. With that in mind, I'll try to keep these replies focused on what counts as their flaws, weaknesses, or both.

Same three as last time, so Bookman, Leo and Migotliv.


Book:

comments:

traits:

Leo:

comments:

traits:

Migotliv:

comments:

traits:

This was a fun question, Kevin. ^_^ I sort of intuitively knew most of these facts about my characters, but having to answer the questions made me put them into words and add some details I didn't consider before.

After writing out the bit about how Allen would look from another's perspective, I can probably expand on his flaws a bit by noting that he is Highly Emotional. Despite being a machine, his life experiences have led to him wearing his heart on his sleeve and being moved by his emotions, reacting strongly to things, either positive, or negative, and not even trying to hide it unless he absolutely has to. And even then, if he's pushed enough he won't be able to keep a cap on it for very long. In a way he is a puppet to his own emotions, being moved by them before his own thoughts, and he'd rather be that way rather than calculate every move on a mechanical level.

This directly contributes to one of the darker parts of his nature, which is that he can be extremely vindictive, and if he considers a transgression strong enough, he will take on a negative view of someone and stick with it, only moving on it when given sufficient (in his eyes) reason to. He will think the best of people, even with their flaws, until they give him reason not to, at which point he will write them off entirely.

Another extension of this is his stubborn nature; One with two sides, the tenacity that allows him to never give up and never give in no matter what he faces, and the stubbornness that doesn't allow him to back off or let go, even when he should, determined to force his way one way or another.



On the topic of Questions;
What is something that would make your character change for the worse? What would break them, or otherwise send them on a negative trajectory/spiral?

Now that's an interesting one.

Stanley: A total one-sided defeat. Or, encountering something he cannot even begin to fathom or understand, something which operates either without logic or with a logic so alien to this world's that he couldn't wrap his mind around it. Stanley likes to feel in-control of things, and he manages this with his intellect. But if all his strategies and inventions fail, if the loss is overwhelming, if he can't understand something, that is going to very quickly send him into a downward spiral. He'll start getting desperate, sloppy, paranoid. He'd start going to extremes more quickly. If he can't at least hold his own against something, if his sense of control is too badly threatened, it'll send Stanley down a dark path.

Amily: Kidnapping, hurting, or killing her girlfriend, Riley. Amily considers herself a hero through and through - she has a strong sense of justice and a desire to help other people, and she loves just about everyone. She respects even her enemies. But if you threaten her girlfriend to try and get to her, you will witness violence and fury like you've never seen. The people Amily loves are off-limits, all of them - her mom, her guardian, her girlfriend, her friends, if you try to leverage or kill any of them to hurt her, she will make you beg for death. Amily is at her core a person of extremes: all of her emotions are on full blast, all the time. When she's happy, she's the happiest person you'll ever meet. When she's angry, you'll never see anything else like her. When she's sad, it's a low on par with clinical depression. This can very easily become a negative and send her spiraling in the wrong direction under extreme circumstances.

Python taking a downward path...well, there's two flavors. One is based in his pragmatism, and the other is based in his somewhat standoff-ish existence. Both of these traits were previously mentioned, or at least, implied.

Behind door #1, the...well, I call it "pragmatism", because that's probably how he'd see it, but...anyways, we actually came kind of close to seeing this, and we may very well edge alongside it again. Do you recall? It was the battle against the Angels. During the course of this conflict, Python quickly became one of the more staunch "war hawks" on the side of the heroes. He sensed the immense threat that the Angels posed, as well as the speed with which they furthered their plans, and felt that he could no longer entertain the idea of a peaceful resolution. It was a very "us vs them" moment. So much so, that, at the endgame, he would not have hesitated to eradicate every form of life in their grasp to ensure that they were stamped out. (For the sake of argument, we're assuming such a thing is possible.) For him, there was no anime hero "Well, then I'll save both worlds!" declaration (you know the one). The point is, he would have killed almost anyone he needed to in order to secure that W. He sees himself as someone who already has blood on his hands, as a consequence of the kind of life he leads. So maybe it's easier for him to coat them in a few billion more gallons of the stuff, if it's to protect that which is close to him. You know, Python prefers the term "warrior" to "hero", at least, if given the choice. You know, it's a title with more moral flexibility. But it does have the word "war" in it, so, you know...

He likes to think that it would have simply been the most logical choice to make, but, if we're being honest, there was a very real sense of fear involved. And, should the fate of the universe hang in the balance again...

I mean, to be fair, it's not like he has plot armor!

Anyhoodles, the second path is the bad end you get by killing all or most of his friends. It's that sort of "I couldn't protect them" kind of thing that we've seen before, so I'll admit it isn't the most exotic fall from grace. It's worth mentioning that, due to his somewhat crazy background, he finds it difficult to relate to most people and their problems. Frankly, I'd lump this in with his somewhat selfish world-view, one of those flaws we went over. He always felt that most people wouldn't be able to keep up with his odd lifestyle. His liberated sense of adventure, self-improvement, and life-or-death battle that may take him across the stars or between universes. He has difficulty making that meaningful connection, and it may be something worth examining in greater detail.

But, certainly, killing everyone in his social circle wouldn't help that at all! He'd likely become a straight-up, complete hermit. Between the vast expanse of the cosmos and the boundless multiverse, there's no dearth of places to be alone. But, since he wouldn't yet forfeit his journey of physical self-improvement, he would likely become someone that is only seen by another person if he has come to fight them, or to kill them. Or to fight them and then kill them.

Allen wearing his heart on his sleeve like that suits him, I think. It works great as his greatest strength and even weakness, plus it makes for a great contrast between him and characters that try to contain or control their emotions.

And that's an interesting new question. I'm guessing that a few answers will be common here, most everybody would suffer some trauma if they lost their loved ones or their life fell apart, though everyone has their own preferences too.

So without further ado, once again, Bookman, Leo and Migotliv.


Book: Book would snap after losing a dear friend or family member. Maybe he'd recover with the support from the rest of his family, since they need him to live on and protect them, but he'd mourn and probably go paranoid about losing them next. Without that kind of support he'd either vow to avenge them or throw himself into some crazy project meant to prevent whatever killed them from claiming more lives ever again, until he succeeded or died trying.

Besides that, Book would change if he lost the will to be a hero, as I hinted in my previous reply. That can happen for any number of reasons, though I feel experiencing the full scope of human stupidity and self-destructive tendencies would be appropriate. After all, why should he spend time and effort saving people that don't want or don't deserve to be saved? And if those people somehow hurt his family, you get both reasons combined into one, that would crush Book's spirit entirely.


Leo: Leo would snap and turn dangerous if he became public enemy number one, particularly for a crime he didn't commit, or because someone in power decided to hunt him down. As an arrogant character he doesn't always respect authority or follow orders, especially if he thinks they're stupid, and he certainly wouldn't let himself get arrested and taken to some court he doesn't know or care about. The more that hunt escalates, the more likely he is to use lethal force against his pursuers; the more pressure is put on him, the less he cares that folks are merely carrying out orders and doing their job. He will still make it his priority to reach whoever declared him a public enemy and kill him in the most painful, sadistic way possible, but on the other hand, Leo won't show mercy to grunts standing in his way either, to demonstrate that they shouldn't mess with him and ought to run for their lives instead.

Leo also doesn't tolerate folks that are self-righteous and speak of others as being far beneath them. This is doubly irritating when it's all in their head, but even when the opponent was indeed blessed or chosen for some important task, Leo doesn't let that affect his judgment of who they are as a warrior or as a person. This is a deeply ingrained prejudice that originated from his dealings with angels carrying out (their) God's will, but it can apply just as easily to villains that think they have a right to slaughter people just because they have the power to do so. Anyone can test this when fighting Leo by adopting the 'right' attitude and taunting him repeatedly, until his patience and witty comebacks run out, leaving only raw, primal wrath.


Migotliv: Because Migotliv spent so much time and effort learning to make new friends and trust others, if one of his precious allies betrayed him he would certainly snap. The betrayal would remind him of what he'd suffered and all the reasons against trusting in others, undoing his character growth and setting him down a path towards a jaded, ruthless wanderer, someone obsessed with gaining power for himself and not caring about others since they can't be trusted, anyway. A similar result can be obtained with a false memory of betrayal, or by taking away his memories that lead him to making friends, although this is easier said than done, since he can monitor and protect his memories from manipulation, a fundamental ability for any psychic that doesn't want their mind shattered.

Another, more exotic reason for Migotliv to go down a dark path would be encountering himself from another timeline. Although he lost his time powers, he may encounter his alters or even himself coming from the past or an alternate future, leading to a confrontation. Not only can the Migotlivs recognize each others' origins and authenticity at a glance, they also trust each other unconditionally, so if the time traveling Migotliv requested his help, he would agree without questioning anything, even turning against his current allies in a heartbeat. After all, he may have made new friends, but when forced to choose between them and himself, how could he reject himself? There's just no way... this scenario never turned up in RPs, at least not yet, but having thought of it for the sake of this answer, I am keeping it in mind.

Migotliv should probably watch himself around Hibiki during the Architect saga, lest Hibiki set him down that path for shits and giggles. He's only a tentative ally right now, so if he could get Migotliv to distrust or turn on his allies somehow, that would be better for him in the long run.

Even though Hibiki can't know this information in-character, he's still a very manipulative person by nature. He uses everybody around him every chance he can get. So it would not be out of character for him to get close to Migotliv or somebody and then turn on them when he thinks it'd be fun.

Since everyone seems to have given their answers, I can list Allen's:

Broken Faith. As mentioned above, Allen is a deeply emotional and stubborn person, who tries to see the best in people, but when his faith is broken he becomes extremely vindictive and critical of them. This can apply on larger scales, including even to the concept of humanity. Allen is one of humanity as a whole's greatest proponents and supporters, despite the evils of which they are capable. But he also has not truly seen the worst they were capable of, and in the event of something like a grand genocide, a world war, or something worse perpetrated by humans, his faith would be tested and pushed, and if it broke...

UB Allen was meant to represent the path that Allen could potentially go down if he ever lost faith in humanity. He still deeply loves humanity, but he has completely lost faith in their ability to manage themselves. Knowing how stubborn they are, he is incapable of forcing them to bow to him and rule them on the surface. So he instead has shaped himself into the 'Shadow Hand' that moves human history, using his knowledge, experience, and the extremely advanced technology at his disposal to effectively control humanity and course correct them from behind the scenes, to create what he believes humanity's 'ideal' form is, that they are incapable of reaching themselves.

And that is only one potential path. He could end up becoming the enemy of mankind itself, depending on what it does. And again, this applies to many aspects of his life. If those he trusts the most failed to meet his expectations, broke his faith, did something inexcusable, he would likely fight with it internally for a time- but ultimately, it's very likely his inner cynicism would take over, and he would become a much harsher, much more distant, much crueler person.

Here's a question not for your leads heroes, but your lead villains.

What, if anything, could sway your antagonist's mind and get them to join the heroes' side, either temporarily or permanently?

I'll go first, with my two most used-villains so far.

Hibiki: Honestly? Not much. Hibiki is just looking for a good time, and he likes to fuck with people and pull the rug out from under them. He is his boss' fixer and gets a kick out of manipulating people, all this is just a big game to him. But, if you could find a way to channel that nature of his for good, he'd be a great ally to have. He's powerful, versatile, sharp - he's good at figuring out what makes people tick. But he's very self-centered. He does what he does for his own benefit. You'd have to play to this to get him to side with you, like in the Architect saga where it's either work with the heroes or face extinction. But it's not impossible to get him on the side of the angels temporarily. It's getting him to stay there that's the hard part. I think it could be done if you manage to manipulate him, but I can't off the top of my head come up with anything.

D'aagor: He's already the hero in his own mind, he just really, really hates humans and human hybrids. He's all about magic, mystical beings, and dragons especially. If you can frame things in such a way that siding with the humans would be beneficial to his species, he'd be game. Temporary alliances are not impossible. Getting him to stay truly good though, that's difficult. You'd have to cut through all his bigotry and make him see the error of his ways and the value of human lives. As it stands, he sees us all as a disease and the worst thing to happen to our planet. If you can somehow convince him he's wrong, he may set out on the path of becoming a true hero for all species.

What are villains?

LUL