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Oct. 28th, 2011 03:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2x2xwieldingPLAYER
NAME/NICKNAME: Inkwell
AGE: 18
PERSONAL LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mister_inkwell
TIMEZONE: US Eastern
EMAIL ADDRESS: misterporcelain @ gmail dot com
IM SCREENNAME AND SERVICE: misterporcelain on AIM (this is a LOT more reliable than email, which is don't often check)
CHARACTER
NAME: Boris Vasily Konstantin Andrei Myshkin Dolokhov
AGE: We aren't given his exact age; I'd say late thirties/early forties.
FANDOM/MEDIUM: Girl Genius; Print and Web comic.
CANON PULL-POINT: Right here exactly. The country is going to hell and the hospital, containing the leader of said country that Boris serves under, has just been bombed.
ABILITIES:
Boris was, as his history states, born with an eidetic memory. This is an ability that is all-natural and won't be damped down, but I felt it necessary to mention. He is also, as a result of the physical modifications done to him by his previous master, possessed of more physical prowess than your usual human. He has excellent balance and reflexes, and is ambidextrous in both sets of arms (he is shown to be able to weild four swords at once). He doesn't like to show off his abilities, however, and won't really use them for anything but mundane things like catching himself or his belongings before they hit the ground and break.
CHARACTER BACKGROUND:
Here! It's from a background book written by the authors themselves, and is the most extensive info we have on Boris thus far.
It should also be noted that in current canon, he took over administrating the country for a short time while the Baron was incapacitated due to being crushed by a mechanical chicken and, as of his pull point, was one day away from handing it back over again. He was also present for and helped with the takeover of Beetleburg, a critical canon turning point in that it basically set off the entire story and provided the 'call to adventure' for the main character.
CHARACTER PERSONALITY:
Boris is... well... he's a fussy, prissy goody-goody, really. He values organization, normalcy and routine above pretty much everything else, which makes him perfect for administrative and secretarial work. If he sees something out of order, he won't rest until it's corrected to his satisfaction, and furthermore until he finds whoever put it out of order in the first place and has given them a stern talking-to. While Boris never abuses his position of being second-in-command to the most powerful man in Europa, he understands the weight it carries and believes it affords him at least some respect.
Boris is actually a little obsessive about being respected. Having spent years as a court jester, a job he despised because of how uncomfortable and undignified it made him feel, Boris places a very high value on how others think of him. He tries to maintain his dignity at all times, which makes him appear even colder and more humorless than he actually is. He has actually never smiled in recorded canon as far as I could see when I reviewed.
Of course, this isn't just Boris making himself serious for the sake of saving face. As the Foglios say, he has little imagination and almost no sense of humor. Boris runs on pure logic. He will understand jokes made in his presence only because he has the mind and the vast knowledge base to work his way through them. This knowledge base thanks to his eidetic memory is actually very helpful: he practically has an entire reference library in his head, meaning that he's likely to be able to handle himself well in almost any given situation. He doesn't like to show off, however, and usually keeps his knowledge to himself unless it is absolutely vital.
This is a big part of Boris's personality: though he has amazing physical and mental abilities, he refuses to use them unless he absolutely has to. While he will use his arms for mundane things like holding a book while making tea at the same time, the only time he's ever done anything 'extraordinary' with them was when he was wielding four swords at once against a very dangerous enemy in order to protect the Baron and, by extension, the country.
All of this humorlessness and reservation makes it very difficult for Boris to make friends. In fact, the only person who could really be called his 'friend' is Baron Wulfenbach, who he is insanely loyal to because the Baron, in his eyes, saved him from a fate worse than death. And really, those two aren't friends so much as exceptionally loyal business partners. This dearth of true friendship makes Boris a very lonely person. As stated by the Foglios, this is why he dislikes the Jaegermonsters so much: he greatly envies their big technicolor family, with its off-color jokes and its hundreds of years of history and its unspoken rules of brotherhood and belonging. He has no-one: no family, no lovers, barely even half a friend. And his reaction to this is to draw himself up, adjust his glasses, and say 'I don't need that, anyway.' Friendship and emotions are messy, and Boris has no time to deal with mess.
WORLD:
The short version is that this world, while very similar to own own superficially, is also inhabited by people called Sparks. These are people who have access to a part of their mind generally dormant in the common population and referred to as the Madness Place. A Spark is generally marked by increased skill in the sciences, quick thinking, and the ability to make a fully-functioning AI out of a few balls of twine and a pair of rusty pliers. They are Mad Scientists who can bend physics at the cost of temporary raving insanity while doing so.
Sparks are also naturally charismatic and domineering people; they have to be to attract the minions and followers that they do. Of course, this means they fight like wet cats. Before Boris was born there was a Great War, a war in which all the Sparks of the world fought, decimating each other and the landscape around them. Half of England was sunk beneath the sea. Whole mountain ranges were destroyed. Then, some time later, the Other War took place -- this war was waged against a single faceless entity which was apparently bent on conducting mass Spark genocide and who was eventually vanquished, leaving devastation behind.
About twenty years prior to current canon and right after the end of the Other War, Klaus Wulfenbach, a very powerful Spark and a Baron, came back from a four year hiatus and took back his barony. Slowly he expanded outwards by virtue of other, more 'ranked' nobles trying to take over his lands and being easily trounced by his quickly-growing fighting force and formidable weapons. Soon he controlled most of Europe (his portion is known as Europa Wulfenbach or merely Europa). He enacted a peace agreement that basically consisted of 'don't make me come over there' which has been in effect up to the present day.
As for common world occurrences: things like Boris (constructs) are fairly common, so much so that there are different classifications of them depending on specifics of how they were made or modified. People with robotic enhancements, stray experiments, and things of that nature are also commonplace. Basically, imagine a steampunk world and take out the punk. Add in common household pests called mimmoths (six inch long mammoths), flying squid, and buttload of political unrest. You have the world of Girl Genius!
OCCUPATION: Journalist.
SAMPLES
THIRD PERSON:
Boris, for exactly the seventeenth time that day, let out a long-suffering sigh and adjusted his glasses. He didn't know how or why, but he'd somehow wound up assigned to the same wagon as a bunch of barely-pubescent girls, and it was driving him up the wall. He was doing his best to ignore their bubbly antics, sitting with his back against the wagon wall and trying to write with one set of hands while the other resolutely covered his ears, but it was no use. Their girlish shrieks of laughter were impossible to drown out. With another sigh (number eighteen!) he closed his journal. He'd get out and walk for a bit. It would get dust all over his carefully cleaned trousers, but it was better than this.
Tucking the journal into his coat, he made his way over to the open back of the wagon and nimbly jumped out to walk alongside it instead. He could still hear them, but at least now it was muffled by thick canvas and a wall of supply boxes at least one layer thick. Thank goodness for small blessings -- not only had their shrieking made it difficult for him to concentrate, but it had driven home exactly how alone he still was even in the midst of such a large group of people. There was no one here from his home. No one knew what he was talking about when he compared the prairie dogs to mimmoths or mentioned constructs and clanks. His vast library of knowledge was about a world that no one else here understood, rendering it nearly, if not entirely, useless. Even if he had wanted to ask the girls what they were so excited about, he doubted he would have been able to contribute anything interesting to their conversation simply because anything he said would be unintelligible to them.
For not the first time, he looked up at the cloudless sky and wished dearly for a familiar airship to suddenly loom into view. He may not have had many friends on Castle Wulfenbach either, but at least there, he'd had a home, a comfortable routine, some sort of grounding. Here, all he had was the travel journal he'd been keeping religiously and the vague assurance that he was, and likely would continue to be, very much alone.
FIRST PERSON:
[The video feed clicks on to show a very tired and frazzled looking Boris Dolokhov. His hair is rumpled, his face is dirty, and his expression is a lot less composed than normal.]
You know, when I agreed to take over hunting duties for this week, I was not informed that this area had such a high bear population!
[The camera shifts to show his legs, one of which is mangled and bloody. It's now apparent that he's sitting propped up against a rock somewhere. There's a large brown lump in the distance.]
I managed to subdue the beast that attacked me, but have used up all of my bullets in doing so and, unfortunately, lost the use of my leg in the process. I am exactly fifteen minutes' walk east of the wagon circle and I would appreciate a doctor being sent.
[He pauses, sniffing huffily.]
And an apology.
NOTES: Nothing, really! I'm not quite sure if I should tone down his abilities or not, but if you think it prudent, my plans are to make him right-dominant in both sets of arms rather than ambidextrous, and to have him occasionally lose all sense of coordination -- that is, his balance and reflexes will come and go (this is for the maximum possible comedic efficiency).
NAME/NICKNAME: Inkwell
AGE: 18
PERSONAL LJ:
mister_inkwellTIMEZONE: US Eastern
EMAIL ADDRESS: misterporcelain @ gmail dot com
IM SCREENNAME AND SERVICE: misterporcelain on AIM (this is a LOT more reliable than email, which is don't often check)
CHARACTER
NAME: Boris Vasily Konstantin Andrei Myshkin Dolokhov
AGE: We aren't given his exact age; I'd say late thirties/early forties.
FANDOM/MEDIUM: Girl Genius; Print and Web comic.
CANON PULL-POINT: Right here exactly. The country is going to hell and the hospital, containing the leader of said country that Boris serves under, has just been bombed.
ABILITIES:
Boris was, as his history states, born with an eidetic memory. This is an ability that is all-natural and won't be damped down, but I felt it necessary to mention. He is also, as a result of the physical modifications done to him by his previous master, possessed of more physical prowess than your usual human. He has excellent balance and reflexes, and is ambidextrous in both sets of arms (he is shown to be able to weild four swords at once). He doesn't like to show off his abilities, however, and won't really use them for anything but mundane things like catching himself or his belongings before they hit the ground and break.
CHARACTER BACKGROUND:
Here! It's from a background book written by the authors themselves, and is the most extensive info we have on Boris thus far.
It should also be noted that in current canon, he took over administrating the country for a short time while the Baron was incapacitated due to being crushed by a mechanical chicken and, as of his pull point, was one day away from handing it back over again. He was also present for and helped with the takeover of Beetleburg, a critical canon turning point in that it basically set off the entire story and provided the 'call to adventure' for the main character.
CHARACTER PERSONALITY:
Boris is... well... he's a fussy, prissy goody-goody, really. He values organization, normalcy and routine above pretty much everything else, which makes him perfect for administrative and secretarial work. If he sees something out of order, he won't rest until it's corrected to his satisfaction, and furthermore until he finds whoever put it out of order in the first place and has given them a stern talking-to. While Boris never abuses his position of being second-in-command to the most powerful man in Europa, he understands the weight it carries and believes it affords him at least some respect.
Boris is actually a little obsessive about being respected. Having spent years as a court jester, a job he despised because of how uncomfortable and undignified it made him feel, Boris places a very high value on how others think of him. He tries to maintain his dignity at all times, which makes him appear even colder and more humorless than he actually is. He has actually never smiled in recorded canon as far as I could see when I reviewed.
Of course, this isn't just Boris making himself serious for the sake of saving face. As the Foglios say, he has little imagination and almost no sense of humor. Boris runs on pure logic. He will understand jokes made in his presence only because he has the mind and the vast knowledge base to work his way through them. This knowledge base thanks to his eidetic memory is actually very helpful: he practically has an entire reference library in his head, meaning that he's likely to be able to handle himself well in almost any given situation. He doesn't like to show off, however, and usually keeps his knowledge to himself unless it is absolutely vital.
This is a big part of Boris's personality: though he has amazing physical and mental abilities, he refuses to use them unless he absolutely has to. While he will use his arms for mundane things like holding a book while making tea at the same time, the only time he's ever done anything 'extraordinary' with them was when he was wielding four swords at once against a very dangerous enemy in order to protect the Baron and, by extension, the country.
All of this humorlessness and reservation makes it very difficult for Boris to make friends. In fact, the only person who could really be called his 'friend' is Baron Wulfenbach, who he is insanely loyal to because the Baron, in his eyes, saved him from a fate worse than death. And really, those two aren't friends so much as exceptionally loyal business partners. This dearth of true friendship makes Boris a very lonely person. As stated by the Foglios, this is why he dislikes the Jaegermonsters so much: he greatly envies their big technicolor family, with its off-color jokes and its hundreds of years of history and its unspoken rules of brotherhood and belonging. He has no-one: no family, no lovers, barely even half a friend. And his reaction to this is to draw himself up, adjust his glasses, and say 'I don't need that, anyway.' Friendship and emotions are messy, and Boris has no time to deal with mess.
WORLD:
The short version is that this world, while very similar to own own superficially, is also inhabited by people called Sparks. These are people who have access to a part of their mind generally dormant in the common population and referred to as the Madness Place. A Spark is generally marked by increased skill in the sciences, quick thinking, and the ability to make a fully-functioning AI out of a few balls of twine and a pair of rusty pliers. They are Mad Scientists who can bend physics at the cost of temporary raving insanity while doing so.
Sparks are also naturally charismatic and domineering people; they have to be to attract the minions and followers that they do. Of course, this means they fight like wet cats. Before Boris was born there was a Great War, a war in which all the Sparks of the world fought, decimating each other and the landscape around them. Half of England was sunk beneath the sea. Whole mountain ranges were destroyed. Then, some time later, the Other War took place -- this war was waged against a single faceless entity which was apparently bent on conducting mass Spark genocide and who was eventually vanquished, leaving devastation behind.
About twenty years prior to current canon and right after the end of the Other War, Klaus Wulfenbach, a very powerful Spark and a Baron, came back from a four year hiatus and took back his barony. Slowly he expanded outwards by virtue of other, more 'ranked' nobles trying to take over his lands and being easily trounced by his quickly-growing fighting force and formidable weapons. Soon he controlled most of Europe (his portion is known as Europa Wulfenbach or merely Europa). He enacted a peace agreement that basically consisted of 'don't make me come over there' which has been in effect up to the present day.
As for common world occurrences: things like Boris (constructs) are fairly common, so much so that there are different classifications of them depending on specifics of how they were made or modified. People with robotic enhancements, stray experiments, and things of that nature are also commonplace. Basically, imagine a steampunk world and take out the punk. Add in common household pests called mimmoths (six inch long mammoths), flying squid, and buttload of political unrest. You have the world of Girl Genius!
OCCUPATION: Journalist.
SAMPLES
THIRD PERSON:
Boris, for exactly the seventeenth time that day, let out a long-suffering sigh and adjusted his glasses. He didn't know how or why, but he'd somehow wound up assigned to the same wagon as a bunch of barely-pubescent girls, and it was driving him up the wall. He was doing his best to ignore their bubbly antics, sitting with his back against the wagon wall and trying to write with one set of hands while the other resolutely covered his ears, but it was no use. Their girlish shrieks of laughter were impossible to drown out. With another sigh (number eighteen!) he closed his journal. He'd get out and walk for a bit. It would get dust all over his carefully cleaned trousers, but it was better than this.
Tucking the journal into his coat, he made his way over to the open back of the wagon and nimbly jumped out to walk alongside it instead. He could still hear them, but at least now it was muffled by thick canvas and a wall of supply boxes at least one layer thick. Thank goodness for small blessings -- not only had their shrieking made it difficult for him to concentrate, but it had driven home exactly how alone he still was even in the midst of such a large group of people. There was no one here from his home. No one knew what he was talking about when he compared the prairie dogs to mimmoths or mentioned constructs and clanks. His vast library of knowledge was about a world that no one else here understood, rendering it nearly, if not entirely, useless. Even if he had wanted to ask the girls what they were so excited about, he doubted he would have been able to contribute anything interesting to their conversation simply because anything he said would be unintelligible to them.
For not the first time, he looked up at the cloudless sky and wished dearly for a familiar airship to suddenly loom into view. He may not have had many friends on Castle Wulfenbach either, but at least there, he'd had a home, a comfortable routine, some sort of grounding. Here, all he had was the travel journal he'd been keeping religiously and the vague assurance that he was, and likely would continue to be, very much alone.
FIRST PERSON:
[The video feed clicks on to show a very tired and frazzled looking Boris Dolokhov. His hair is rumpled, his face is dirty, and his expression is a lot less composed than normal.]
You know, when I agreed to take over hunting duties for this week, I was not informed that this area had such a high bear population!
[The camera shifts to show his legs, one of which is mangled and bloody. It's now apparent that he's sitting propped up against a rock somewhere. There's a large brown lump in the distance.]
I managed to subdue the beast that attacked me, but have used up all of my bullets in doing so and, unfortunately, lost the use of my leg in the process. I am exactly fifteen minutes' walk east of the wagon circle and I would appreciate a doctor being sent.
[He pauses, sniffing huffily.]
And an apology.
NOTES: Nothing, really! I'm not quite sure if I should tone down his abilities or not, but if you think it prudent, my plans are to make him right-dominant in both sets of arms rather than ambidextrous, and to have him occasionally lose all sense of coordination -- that is, his balance and reflexes will come and go (this is for the maximum possible comedic efficiency).
