app for rakuen

[timelike]

PLAYER INFORMATION

Name: Kelsey
Journal: shotacon
Contact information: [AIM] lilyrose sparrow [plurk] kerfuffle
Other characters: none
Do you want a buddy? no thank you!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Dave Strider
Age: 13
Canon: CANON
Canon point: On the meteor with Rose and the remaining trolls, after receiving the message from John, Jade, and Davesprite.

Personality:

Dave has two personalities: one that he presents to the outside world, and the other his true inner self. They are not entirely different--rather, his outer persona is a shift to the side... a less vulnerable version of his real personality.
First, the facade. Dave is a cool guy. He's a really cool guy. He speaks almost exclusively in deadpan ironic statements. His poker face is utterly impenetrable. Any teasing is met with cool deflection or ironic, elaborate agreement with whatever embarrassing thing he is accused of--especially if it's actually true. He pokes constant fun at everyone he speaks with or about, and is strongly attracted to other people with the same tendency. His closest friends all share the aforementioned personality trait. Dave carefully maintains the appearance of being passionately interested in nothing; even most of the things he openly likes, he likes "ironically".

Dave's intelligence is obvious to the shrewd observer, though shrouded by a casual speech pattern that's peppered with obscenities, "dude"s, and "bro"s, as well as a general disregard for capitalization and punctuation. He's fond of stretching metaphors to their furthest possible limit, which is perhaps the clearest indication of how eloquent he really is. His impromptu, and often inappropriately timed, raps are another indication. He is highly observant and perceptive.

He authors an "ironically" terrible webcomic titled "Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff", which consists of badly drawn .jpg artifacts and asinine, nonsensical jokes. It has a devoted following. Dave holds his earnest fans in contempt, even as he is inwardly delighted by their love for his work. The webcomic holds a dual purpose for Dave: first, to mock the "bro"s he holds in contempt by creating something of poor quality that he can then mock them for enjoying; second, to seek approval from a large group of people without actually admitting to himself that he's doing so. He's Dave fucking Strider, dude. He doesn't need the attention of a bunch of idiots on the internet. (Except yes, he does need it, more than anything.)

The loose idea for the webcomic was inspired by his elder brother (in reality, his biological father, though he does not discover this for certain until the age of 13), whom he refers to exclusively as "Bro". Bro is the quintessential "cool guy". He impressed upon Dave the importance of being cool and the idea of making ironic statements by proclaiming love for things that are markedly uncool. Bro has also trained Dave extensively in physical combat, specifically the effective wielding of swords. Their relationship appears to be somewhat distant on an emotional level. Dave is often left to his own devices, despite his extreme youth. In truth, Bro was too young when Dave was born, and not remotely ready to be a parent.

Bro earns his living as the inventor and seller of "smuppets"--pornographic ventriloquist puppets. The Strider apartment is positively filled with puppets of all shapes and sizes. Dave, who hero-worships Bro, proclaims that puppets are "awesome", for ironic reasons, of course. It is clear, however, that Dave's opinion is informed by his brother's, somewhat belying his "cool" image; in reality he's just a little boy who admires and strives to emulate his big brother.

Then, the real Dave... He is a highly intelligent, highly emotionally sensitive young man whose loyalty is unsurpassed. His brother is something of an absentee parent, and he gets lonely, but he covers this up well. Showing his immense vulnerability to others--even to his very closest friends--is his worst fear. If they know, he won't be cool anymore. If he's not cool, no one will like him. His Bro won't be proud of him. His life will hold no meaning or significance. The facade is everything.

It is a particularly cruel joke for a boy who fears the finality of death to be thrust into a world where death is cheap and could come at any moment, with no warning. Dave puts on a brave face, but inside he is terrified by the life-and-death "game" he and his friends are forced into playing. Even more than his own death, it is the death of his dear friends that frightens him to his very core. His friends are his strength, his support. His love for them gives his life true meaning, a meaning far beyond the hollow shell of a life that is his cool kid persona. Losing them permanently would be so, so much worse than losing his own life... which, to be honest, he really doesn't value all that much. It would be a stretch to say that Dave hates himself, but no one who hides that much of his real identity can exactly be called self-loving. His love for his friends, though... that is absolute and unquestioning.

Dave's feelings for his best friend, John, are unsurpassed (and perhaps a little ambiguous...), despite the fact that he and John verbally abuse each other on a constant basis. Their mutual teasing is comfortable and affectionate--the most natural form of communication with each other. John is the most important relationship in Dave's life, and this makes it both easier and more difficult to be open and real with him. On the one hand, Dave knows that John likes and cares about him a lot, and he's fairly secure in that. On the other hand, losing John would be absolutely devastating, and he'll do anything to prevent that, up to and including hiding the parts of himself that he feels are undesirable.

The sunglasses Dave wears--a part of his cool guy facade--were a gift from John, genuine movie memorabilia from Starsky and Hutch. He claims that he wears them every day as an ironic statement, but in reality they are just as much a reminder of how important John is to him, and vice versa. Theirs is a lifetime bond, solid and unbreakable, and it shapes Dave's motivations and actions to a huge degree. It makes him stronger even as it weakens his "cool kid" illusion.

With Rose, his close friend and biological sister, Dave is perhaps the most comfortable, even more so than with John; after all, with Rose, Dave has no confusing feelings to hide, or hide from. Even before they discover their blood ties, they act very much like brother and sister. Their personalities are extremely similar, although their modes of communication, at least on the surface, could not be more different. Rose types with perfect grammar, syntax, and capitalization, and utilizes a vast vocabulary. The properness of her speech highlights Dave's informality. Upon closer inspection, though, it's clear that Dave is every bit as eloquent as his more verbose sister. Their conversations are battles of sarcasm and one-upmanship; rarely is a sincere word spoken. It is to Rose that Dave makes his sole explicit statement of love for John. He trusts her, possibly more than anyone, not to judge him. Despite their constant trading of insults, they respect and understand each other.

When speaking with silly, excitable Jade, Dave takes on something of a big brother role. As with John and Rose, the two of them mess around and tease each other constantly, but it's gentler play with Jade. She's not entirely teasing when she says he's "sooooo coooool", and he likes that about her. With Jade, Dave gets to feel that his tough, cool-guy exterior is realer than the scared little boy underneath.

Dave has interactions with several of the trolls, but Terezi Pyrope is likely the only one he would name a friend. They're on the same wavelength... mostly. Terezi, being an alien from an alternate dimension, has a perspective on life that's somewhat skewed, from Dave's point of view. She "trolls" him by sending him pictures of "cool kids" that she has painted sunglasses on, and proclaiming that she has found a picture of him. Dave is genuinely amused by these efforts, and makes no attempt to hide it. Terezi also flirts with Dave constantly. He's a little unnerved by that, but hides it well. Under other circumstances, he might be interested in her romantically, but as it is... well, Dave doesn't like to think about why he's not really interested in her that way.

In the simplest terms, Dave is a kind person with a strong moral center, and a near-flawless poker face to hide the scared little kid inside.

Weapon:

Name: Irony's Edge

Form: sword

Upgrades:

• Agility
  
• Fire Element
  
• Blind
  
• Blackout
  
• Flight

Lost memories:

• What rapping is
  
• The color of his own eyes
  
• Who Terezi is and what she did to John in an alternate timeline
  
• How to do any kind of cooking at all (including using a microwave and similarly simple things)
  
• What the Scratch is and how it happened
  
• The movie Con Air (what it is, what it's about, that it's John's favorite movie, etc.)
  
• Where his home is
  
• What peanuts taste like
  
• That Bro is his biological father
  
• Lil Cal's name

Sample: here