Mask or Menace Application
Jun. 28th, 2015 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shiniestmeatbicycle〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Lady Vincira
AGE: 26
JOURNAL:oldsoulai
IM / EMAIL: AIM @ StillAliveGlaDOS
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
LadyVincira
RETURNING: I'm a newbie!
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Krieg
CHARACTER AGE: 37
SERIES: Borderlands 2
CHRONOLOGY: End of Borderlands 2!
CLASS: ...Complicated! I'm gonna go with Anti-Hero overall though it could be argued that inner!Krieg is a hero while outer!Krieg is a mass-murdering psychopath.
HOUSING: I would love for Krieg to have roommates, if that's cool!
BACKGROUND: Wiki page here!
Krieg's introduction short film. Very informative.
The Main Game Storyline
Not a lot of information is given directly about Krieg's backstory - though it's apparent that it doesn't match up with the creation of the other Psychos. Where most of the Psychos were convicts and bandits who were corrupted by some weirdness in an Atlas mine, Krieg's situation appears to be...a great deal more personal. We really only have three key bits of information to work with.
One of these is that sometimes, when talking to himself, he makes comments about a 'she' that he is struggling to remember from back when he was sane. Another is that his wanted poster has a very high bounty...and he is listed as being "Property of Hyperion." A third is that, in one of the DLC episodes, it's insinuated that Dr. Samuels - a scientist being forced into doing dubious experiments for Handsome Jack - may have worked on him. This probably means that Krieg was the product of an experiment that went...in a direction that was unexpected.
Beyond all this, we don't know why he was chosen for the experiments or who he really was before them. What we DO know is that he is now wildly unstable, mutated into an absurd warrior, and was wandering the wastelands as a fugitive from Hyperion for a little time before meeting a Siren by chance. He saved her life, in one of the first heroic acts in his memory...and her acceptance of him lit a fire in him that had been out for far too long. After that point, he took up the role of Vault Hunter - not being an angel, exactly, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
In the game, he is one of the protagonists you can choose to play, and thus the plot of the game that goes for the rest of the characters plays out for him as well. He's considered a member of the 'team' so to speak - an unlikely ally - and one of the people who saves Pandora from the madness of Handsome Jack.
PERSONALITY:
Krieg technically has two distinct personalities to interact with.
Outer!Krieg is the Krieg that everyone is first familiar with. He's a Psycho - a man, crazed and engineered and mutated into something almost feral. You can most often find him screaming about things that make no sense whatsoever, waving his arms around, jumping up and down, and generally appearing very disconnected with life in general. His motivations are incredibly simple: bloodshed. His top priority is mowing down anything or anyone in his way, even at the cost of self-injury. He doesn't give a lot of thought to things like emotions, decorum, or even what is socially acceptable - mostly, he just gives thought to how to remove intestines from a human body.
In fact, his favorite thing is battle - gory, bloody killing - and he is GOOD at it. He can and will tear through throngs of gunmen with cheer and enthusiasm, revelling in the guts he steps in in the process. In the same token, he is nowhere near squeamish, with no real sense of cleanliness in the field. Were it not for his inner voice, he may never think to bathe...but hey, gotta scrub off the blood to see the new blood, right?
Outer!Krieg isn't afraid of anything, really. He's loud and brash all the time, and no amount of intimidation is going to bother him - nor any amount of embarrassment. He doesn't even know what embarrassment IS. If he gets sad, it's not really all that clear. He DOES have dislikes...but they're a little bit difficult to discern because they change depending on his whims. He definitely doesn't seem to care much for silence - that may be the only consistent thing that he doesn't enjoy.
He doesn't...precisely understand English. He doesn't speak a different language so much as the meanings of words don't match up like they should in his mind - the use of rough inflection and (violent) keywords can be used to encourage communication, but his understanding is slight and rare. For an ally, he will try to work out what is being said...but if you're an ally in the first place, you don't have to talk to him to get him to help you. Think of him as dog trained for dogfights and ONLY dogfights - he might not understand conventional commands a housepet might, but he's no less loyal to the ones who DO pat him on the head and feed him. You might even catch his gentle side if you squint and turn your head and try to ignore the bones crunching.
Inner!Krieg, on the other hand, may not be an angel but he is a great deal more thoughtful than his counterpoint. He's some semblance of the original personality that he had before Hyperion got to him...albeit a bit more beat down than he was beforehand. He has been described, accurately, as being like a man driving an out-of-control semi-truck with no brakes...he can steer it, but he can't stop it. His driving desire is basically just to keep himself from losing himself any further than he already has...and maybe, just maybe, getting back to sanity some day.
Morality falls to inner!Krieg much more than it falls to outer!Krieg. He's not a bad guy under it all - he's actually kind of poetic, with a kind enough heart to try and keep himself from hurting the undeserving. There's actually a deal he has struck with his other self, one that he states regularly: if he kills an innocent, he will kill himself. This is the uneasy balance that he strikes, and it's really all that he can muster. Trying to wrestle control of his body away from his other self is difficult and damn near impossible outside of little twitches - but if something matters enough to him, he can sometimes get himself to carry out a simple action. Otherwise? Best he can do is beg and bargain from the sidelines.
This Krieg, unlike the other one, DOES have disdain for things. He hates what he's become, and he wishes more than anything else that he could just go back to being SANE again. He thinks the grime and the yelling about poop are really, really gross, but there's nothing he can do about it. His emotions tend to run towards the apologetic and the resigned. He speaks from time to time as if he had someone before it all...maybe a family, maybe a lover? But whoever they were, their presence is remembered more than who they actually were.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't sad about it - about the monster he's turned into - but if any part of him is going to try and summon up any kind of hope, he knows it's going to have to be him.
Together, they make up two misaligned halves of a very weird whole...but if both of them like you, you've got a really solid pair of allies (to sic on your enemies).
POWER:
Telepathy - With a Catch: Inner!Krieg has spent a very long time being only able to 'talk' to himself - and his own self is a pretty piss poor listener - so imagine his surprise when he realizes that he can transmit his thoughts right into the heads of other people in this strange new world. The only hitch? Outer!Krieg has to be looking at the recipient of the transmission. This proves...difficult at times, given how easily distracted the Psycho is.
Badass Psycho Transformation: If Krieg gets amped up enough in the heat of battle, he can transform himself into a Badass Psycho. He doubles in size, his strength and adrenaline shoots through the roof; basically, imagine something like the Hulk, except not green and with one disproportionately tiny arm. The effect is temporary (reverts upon loss of consciousness or calming down) and detrimental to his sanity...but it can be a very effective way to get out of a sticky situation.
Hellborn: Back in his world, it's commonplace for the Psychos to light themselves on fire and use their bodies as weapons. Now Krieg doesn't have to deal with the aftermath of burns, though - his skills with fire and fire immunity are new a superpower. He can light himself on fire with a whim, and he will not burn himself to death doing it. Neat. The drawback to this one? He can't do it indefinitely, only in bursts of a minute or two at a time.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
TEXT:
LET THE ANCHORS DROP ON THE MEAT PAN SHOW ME ALL OF YOUR BONES YOUR BONES ALL OF THEM EACH AND EVERY ONE THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL SO BEAUTIFUL LIKE JEWELS IN A SEA OF BLOOD THROW THE DREAD PIRATES INTO THE SEA WITH THE JEWELS BUDDY I CANT FEEL YOUR FACE CANT FEEL IT ALL THE DEVILS ARE IN MY HEAD AND NONE OF THEM WANT TO DANCE WITH ME POUR THE MILK INTO THE HARPOONS AND ARM THEM IF THE SKY TURNS YELLOW ITS ALL GOING TO BE GONE DONT YOU ARGUE WITH ME JESSICA DONT YOU TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG LADY THE KIDNEYS ARE SPLITTING SINEW UNDER MY FINGERNAILS I CAN TASTE IT LIKE THE TREES WITH NO LEAVES LEFT ANYMORE ALL BURNT BY THE SUN AND THE MOON AND THE OTHER MOON AND THE OTHER SON IN SPIRALS IN CHUNKS IN SHREDS AND TINY INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED PACKAGES CALL NOW TO GET YOURS FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF ONE PALE SCRATCHY WHISK IN THE SAUCEPAN WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY ME WHY ME WHY ME MAKE HIM STOP TALKING KILL THE VOICE BEFORE THE SKAGS HAVE A DANCE PARTY ON MY BACK ARE YOU OKAY BUDDY I CAN SEE YOUR EYEBALLS SKIPPING AND CLICKING AND WHIRRING THEY ALL DO EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM CLICKS AND WHIRRS AND THEY ALL BLEED ANYWAY WERE LIKE ANTS UNDER A MAGNIFIER AND THEY LOOK DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN TO WHERE THE SEAMS SPLIT I SPLIT THEM I CRACK THEM OPEN AND LEAK THEM ONTO THE CARPET MOM IS GONNA BE SOOOOOO MAD AT ME GREETING CARDS ARE SO QUIET FACES SO QUIET WHY WONT THEY TALK TO MY SAW OR MY KNIFE OR MY ASK OR THE FIRE THE FIRE TALKS TO ME THE FIRE ALWAYS TALKS TO ME POP POP CRACK SIZZLE SCREAMING SCREAMING STOP STOP STOP I WANT YOU TO SHOW ME SHOW ME MAKE THE VOICE STOP MAKE THE VOICE STOP MAKE THE VOICE STOP BE QUIET BE QUIET BE QUIET BE QUIET
im sorry cant help it ignore stupid
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
It's a rare moment when Krieg quiets himself enough to try to sleep - but eventually, exhaustion always wins, even if it takes days of pleading and wearing himself down. He almost looks comical there on the bed; a hulking pile of sweaty muscle and metal and mask, curled up awkwardly to fit his head onto a pillow admittedly much too small for him. His sleep is comical to look at.
But it sure as hell isn't peaceful.
In the dead of the night, he wakes with a scream, twitching hands shooting upward to his mask, his harness, the panel over his blind eye - half-trying to tear it all away. It doesn't come off, of course. The harness is bolted into flesh and bone, the eye cannot see even without the mask...and the mask is a crutch. He can remove the mask, but he can't. He doesn't know what it means, but it means...something.
Nightmares. Again. You'd think we'd be used to this, right?
"Mnh...." The answer is little more than a grunt. It's not clear whether he is answering himself or just...reacting. It never is, though. "...MY SKULL CRACKED OPEN FOR THE SLICING."
Yeah. Slicing. Great. The nightmares were common ones. Buried memories of experimentation - of needles sliding into his veins, of being opened up with no anesthetic, of staring up at the terrified doctor holding the scalpel. Hyperion. He knew they did this to him, but the details went in and out of focus from moment to moment. They would fade away from clarity in a few minutes, becoming ghosts of what they were...but they would return again later on, the moment he laid down to rest. His muscles bulged with adrenaline, straining behind skin that was almost too tight and small in places for them - and when his gaze fell down to the grimy hands, the surgery scars, the bolts and marks that pocked his flesh, he felt a brief, very rare moment of horror.
...Y'know, the reality is almost worse than the dream, isn't it?
Krieg rolled off the mattress, landing heavy on his bare feet. The stomp felt good to him. It felt concrete to his body, to the half of his mind moving thick limbs to crack knuckles and joints and maybe some heads later on.
"THE SANDWICHES ARE WAITING! THE DARK IS ONLY THE WAFFLE IRON OF LIFE!"
If he could have sighed, he would have, but he was too busy sprinting directly out the door and into the (formerly) quiet night.
I don't know why I even bother.
FINAL NOTES: I am very sorry for Krieg.
Just so sorry.
Especially to his roommates.
Furthermore, the only items on his person upon arrival are his buzzsaw (a melee handheld weapon) and a wanted poster with him on it.
NAME: Lady Vincira
AGE: 26
JOURNAL:
oldsoulaiIM / EMAIL: AIM @ StillAliveGlaDOS
PLURK:
RETURNING: I'm a newbie!
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Krieg
CHARACTER AGE: 37
SERIES: Borderlands 2
CHRONOLOGY: End of Borderlands 2!
CLASS: ...Complicated! I'm gonna go with Anti-Hero overall though it could be argued that inner!Krieg is a hero while outer!Krieg is a mass-murdering psychopath.
HOUSING: I would love for Krieg to have roommates, if that's cool!
BACKGROUND: Wiki page here!
Krieg's introduction short film. Very informative.
The Main Game Storyline
Not a lot of information is given directly about Krieg's backstory - though it's apparent that it doesn't match up with the creation of the other Psychos. Where most of the Psychos were convicts and bandits who were corrupted by some weirdness in an Atlas mine, Krieg's situation appears to be...a great deal more personal. We really only have three key bits of information to work with.
One of these is that sometimes, when talking to himself, he makes comments about a 'she' that he is struggling to remember from back when he was sane. Another is that his wanted poster has a very high bounty...and he is listed as being "Property of Hyperion." A third is that, in one of the DLC episodes, it's insinuated that Dr. Samuels - a scientist being forced into doing dubious experiments for Handsome Jack - may have worked on him. This probably means that Krieg was the product of an experiment that went...in a direction that was unexpected.
Beyond all this, we don't know why he was chosen for the experiments or who he really was before them. What we DO know is that he is now wildly unstable, mutated into an absurd warrior, and was wandering the wastelands as a fugitive from Hyperion for a little time before meeting a Siren by chance. He saved her life, in one of the first heroic acts in his memory...and her acceptance of him lit a fire in him that had been out for far too long. After that point, he took up the role of Vault Hunter - not being an angel, exactly, but at least it was a step in the right direction.
In the game, he is one of the protagonists you can choose to play, and thus the plot of the game that goes for the rest of the characters plays out for him as well. He's considered a member of the 'team' so to speak - an unlikely ally - and one of the people who saves Pandora from the madness of Handsome Jack.
PERSONALITY:
Krieg technically has two distinct personalities to interact with.
Outer!Krieg is the Krieg that everyone is first familiar with. He's a Psycho - a man, crazed and engineered and mutated into something almost feral. You can most often find him screaming about things that make no sense whatsoever, waving his arms around, jumping up and down, and generally appearing very disconnected with life in general. His motivations are incredibly simple: bloodshed. His top priority is mowing down anything or anyone in his way, even at the cost of self-injury. He doesn't give a lot of thought to things like emotions, decorum, or even what is socially acceptable - mostly, he just gives thought to how to remove intestines from a human body.
In fact, his favorite thing is battle - gory, bloody killing - and he is GOOD at it. He can and will tear through throngs of gunmen with cheer and enthusiasm, revelling in the guts he steps in in the process. In the same token, he is nowhere near squeamish, with no real sense of cleanliness in the field. Were it not for his inner voice, he may never think to bathe...but hey, gotta scrub off the blood to see the new blood, right?
Outer!Krieg isn't afraid of anything, really. He's loud and brash all the time, and no amount of intimidation is going to bother him - nor any amount of embarrassment. He doesn't even know what embarrassment IS. If he gets sad, it's not really all that clear. He DOES have dislikes...but they're a little bit difficult to discern because they change depending on his whims. He definitely doesn't seem to care much for silence - that may be the only consistent thing that he doesn't enjoy.
He doesn't...precisely understand English. He doesn't speak a different language so much as the meanings of words don't match up like they should in his mind - the use of rough inflection and (violent) keywords can be used to encourage communication, but his understanding is slight and rare. For an ally, he will try to work out what is being said...but if you're an ally in the first place, you don't have to talk to him to get him to help you. Think of him as dog trained for dogfights and ONLY dogfights - he might not understand conventional commands a housepet might, but he's no less loyal to the ones who DO pat him on the head and feed him. You might even catch his gentle side if you squint and turn your head and try to ignore the bones crunching.
Inner!Krieg, on the other hand, may not be an angel but he is a great deal more thoughtful than his counterpoint. He's some semblance of the original personality that he had before Hyperion got to him...albeit a bit more beat down than he was beforehand. He has been described, accurately, as being like a man driving an out-of-control semi-truck with no brakes...he can steer it, but he can't stop it. His driving desire is basically just to keep himself from losing himself any further than he already has...and maybe, just maybe, getting back to sanity some day.
Morality falls to inner!Krieg much more than it falls to outer!Krieg. He's not a bad guy under it all - he's actually kind of poetic, with a kind enough heart to try and keep himself from hurting the undeserving. There's actually a deal he has struck with his other self, one that he states regularly: if he kills an innocent, he will kill himself. This is the uneasy balance that he strikes, and it's really all that he can muster. Trying to wrestle control of his body away from his other self is difficult and damn near impossible outside of little twitches - but if something matters enough to him, he can sometimes get himself to carry out a simple action. Otherwise? Best he can do is beg and bargain from the sidelines.
This Krieg, unlike the other one, DOES have disdain for things. He hates what he's become, and he wishes more than anything else that he could just go back to being SANE again. He thinks the grime and the yelling about poop are really, really gross, but there's nothing he can do about it. His emotions tend to run towards the apologetic and the resigned. He speaks from time to time as if he had someone before it all...maybe a family, maybe a lover? But whoever they were, their presence is remembered more than who they actually were.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't sad about it - about the monster he's turned into - but if any part of him is going to try and summon up any kind of hope, he knows it's going to have to be him.
Together, they make up two misaligned halves of a very weird whole...but if both of them like you, you've got a really solid pair of allies (to sic on your enemies).
POWER:
Telepathy - With a Catch: Inner!Krieg has spent a very long time being only able to 'talk' to himself - and his own self is a pretty piss poor listener - so imagine his surprise when he realizes that he can transmit his thoughts right into the heads of other people in this strange new world. The only hitch? Outer!Krieg has to be looking at the recipient of the transmission. This proves...difficult at times, given how easily distracted the Psycho is.
Badass Psycho Transformation: If Krieg gets amped up enough in the heat of battle, he can transform himself into a Badass Psycho. He doubles in size, his strength and adrenaline shoots through the roof; basically, imagine something like the Hulk, except not green and with one disproportionately tiny arm. The effect is temporary (reverts upon loss of consciousness or calming down) and detrimental to his sanity...but it can be a very effective way to get out of a sticky situation.
Hellborn: Back in his world, it's commonplace for the Psychos to light themselves on fire and use their bodies as weapons. Now Krieg doesn't have to deal with the aftermath of burns, though - his skills with fire and fire immunity are new a superpower. He can light himself on fire with a whim, and he will not burn himself to death doing it. Neat. The drawback to this one? He can't do it indefinitely, only in bursts of a minute or two at a time.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
TEXT:
LET THE ANCHORS DROP ON THE MEAT PAN SHOW ME ALL OF YOUR BONES YOUR BONES ALL OF THEM EACH AND EVERY ONE THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL SO BEAUTIFUL LIKE JEWELS IN A SEA OF BLOOD THROW THE DREAD PIRATES INTO THE SEA WITH THE JEWELS BUDDY I CANT FEEL YOUR FACE CANT FEEL IT ALL THE DEVILS ARE IN MY HEAD AND NONE OF THEM WANT TO DANCE WITH ME POUR THE MILK INTO THE HARPOONS AND ARM THEM IF THE SKY TURNS YELLOW ITS ALL GOING TO BE GONE DONT YOU ARGUE WITH ME JESSICA DONT YOU TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG LADY THE KIDNEYS ARE SPLITTING SINEW UNDER MY FINGERNAILS I CAN TASTE IT LIKE THE TREES WITH NO LEAVES LEFT ANYMORE ALL BURNT BY THE SUN AND THE MOON AND THE OTHER MOON AND THE OTHER SON IN SPIRALS IN CHUNKS IN SHREDS AND TINY INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED PACKAGES CALL NOW TO GET YOURS FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF ONE PALE SCRATCHY WHISK IN THE SAUCEPAN WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY ME WHY ME WHY ME MAKE HIM STOP TALKING KILL THE VOICE BEFORE THE SKAGS HAVE A DANCE PARTY ON MY BACK ARE YOU OKAY BUDDY I CAN SEE YOUR EYEBALLS SKIPPING AND CLICKING AND WHIRRING THEY ALL DO EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM CLICKS AND WHIRRS AND THEY ALL BLEED ANYWAY WERE LIKE ANTS UNDER A MAGNIFIER AND THEY LOOK DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN TO WHERE THE SEAMS SPLIT I SPLIT THEM I CRACK THEM OPEN AND LEAK THEM ONTO THE CARPET MOM IS GONNA BE SOOOOOO MAD AT ME GREETING CARDS ARE SO QUIET FACES SO QUIET WHY WONT THEY TALK TO MY SAW OR MY KNIFE OR MY ASK OR THE FIRE THE FIRE TALKS TO ME THE FIRE ALWAYS TALKS TO ME POP POP CRACK SIZZLE SCREAMING SCREAMING STOP STOP STOP I WANT YOU TO SHOW ME SHOW ME MAKE THE VOICE STOP MAKE THE VOICE STOP MAKE THE VOICE STOP BE QUIET BE QUIET BE QUIET BE QUIET
im sorry cant help it ignore stupid
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
It's a rare moment when Krieg quiets himself enough to try to sleep - but eventually, exhaustion always wins, even if it takes days of pleading and wearing himself down. He almost looks comical there on the bed; a hulking pile of sweaty muscle and metal and mask, curled up awkwardly to fit his head onto a pillow admittedly much too small for him. His sleep is comical to look at.
But it sure as hell isn't peaceful.
In the dead of the night, he wakes with a scream, twitching hands shooting upward to his mask, his harness, the panel over his blind eye - half-trying to tear it all away. It doesn't come off, of course. The harness is bolted into flesh and bone, the eye cannot see even without the mask...and the mask is a crutch. He can remove the mask, but he can't. He doesn't know what it means, but it means...something.
Nightmares. Again. You'd think we'd be used to this, right?
"Mnh...." The answer is little more than a grunt. It's not clear whether he is answering himself or just...reacting. It never is, though. "...MY SKULL CRACKED OPEN FOR THE SLICING."
Yeah. Slicing. Great. The nightmares were common ones. Buried memories of experimentation - of needles sliding into his veins, of being opened up with no anesthetic, of staring up at the terrified doctor holding the scalpel. Hyperion. He knew they did this to him, but the details went in and out of focus from moment to moment. They would fade away from clarity in a few minutes, becoming ghosts of what they were...but they would return again later on, the moment he laid down to rest. His muscles bulged with adrenaline, straining behind skin that was almost too tight and small in places for them - and when his gaze fell down to the grimy hands, the surgery scars, the bolts and marks that pocked his flesh, he felt a brief, very rare moment of horror.
...Y'know, the reality is almost worse than the dream, isn't it?
Krieg rolled off the mattress, landing heavy on his bare feet. The stomp felt good to him. It felt concrete to his body, to the half of his mind moving thick limbs to crack knuckles and joints and maybe some heads later on.
"THE SANDWICHES ARE WAITING! THE DARK IS ONLY THE WAFFLE IRON OF LIFE!"
If he could have sighed, he would have, but he was too busy sprinting directly out the door and into the (formerly) quiet night.
I don't know why I even bother.
FINAL NOTES: I am very sorry for Krieg.
Just so sorry.
Especially to his roommates.
Furthermore, the only items on his person upon arrival are his buzzsaw (a melee handheld weapon) and a wanted poster with him on it.
