[ INFO. ]

[carcinoma]

Applicant Info ◎ Name: Miru ◎ Journal: databomb ◎ Contact: databomb ◎ Current Character(s): None Character Info ◎ Character's Name: Lop Underbrush. ◎ Character's Canon: Original. ◎ Character's Age: 28. ◎ Character's PB: First impressions would pin Lop as 'sickly.' Standing at a gangly 6'0", he's pale and skinny and always holds himself a little nervously. Most noticeable about him are the tumors that span across his face, bulging out of the flesh around his left eye, spanning across his cheek and encroaching on the bridge of his nose; his left eye itself is permanently discolored and blind. Large, hard tumors jut out of his skull, just behind where a human's ears would be, protruding like small antlers. Smaller tumors trail further down his neck, brushing down the left side of his torso and ending at the shoulder, where his arm was amputated at the shoulder. Lop usually keeps his left sleeve tied into a knot to prevent it from flapping around. But if one can ignore his more gruesome features, Lop isn't an absolutely awful sight to look at. His features are usually arranged into a pleasant, if skittish, smile and his good eye is a bright, vibrant green. His hair's usually cut a little shaggy, with fluffy bangs framing his face; blending into his hair are a pair of velvety-soft rabbit ears, just long enough to drape over his shoulders. ◎ Canon Point: While heading home from work one afternoon. ◎ Background/History: WORLD | A parallel Earth in the near future, 2096. Human civilization has stepped forward in terms of technology, but remains otherwise fairly similar. Over the past decades, military experiments in combining the human genetic sequence with that of animals have yielded mixed results. Healthy specimens displaying traits from their animal predecessors have been produced -- but very few were deemed sustainable in the long term. As a result, the greater majority of these specimens were enlisted in the army like regular human soldiers, then 'set free' to live in their own colonies, with only one generation of such species ever created in a laboratory setting. Of the several different human-animal hybrids produced by the army, Rabbits have thrived the most. Perhaps due to the highly reproductive nature of rabbits, Rabbits have managed to multiply enough to set up several small cities -- mostly located in woodsy areas, distant away from human civilization that they're rarely bothered, but close enough to trade for any necessary supplies. They keep mostly to themselves, choosing to remain isolated, although there are rare individuals who choose to live among humans. The only big problem plaguing the Rabbit society is that of a virus -- the shope papilloma virus, a virus that originally targets rabbits but has unfortunately managed to latch onto their recombinant DNA, as well. (Even this mutated form of the virus, however, has no effect on humans.) The virus usually lies dormant for a gestation period before causing the subject to grow unnatural tumors on their body, most commonly around the face and head. Though it causes no direct damage to the body, these tumors may block the mouth and throat, causing an individual to starve or asphyxiate, or block arteries, causing flesh to lose its circulation and rot. These tumors almost always form a pair of 'horns' around the individual's head, causing people to call infected Rabbits 'Jackalopes.' Jackalopes are generally viewed with caution, and are almost always ostracized by society lest they infect others; they generally live in a secluded area reserved only for Jackalopes, only venturing to mingle among the general Rabbit population if they have business there. Lop comes from a town about sixty miles away from a human city -- Lapintown, a medium-sized Rabbit colony. It functions basically the same as a small city, complete with an internal system of government, hospital, transportation and such. The level of technology falls slightly behind that of human cities, but isn't particularly lacking. Of interest is the fact that Lapintown lies in close proximity to an illegal brawling ring where many human-animal recombinants will fight, feeding into a lucrative gambling industry that caters to both humans and non-humans. Otherwise, Lapintown is a fairly quiet, uneventful place. HISTORY | » Lop is born to a an older couple, both purebred "down" Rabbit (originally derived from lop-eared rabbits). His mother is a doctor at the town's medical center, while his father works as administrative personnel. Both are wonderful people and love him very much. » Lop's childhood friend is Jack, a hare-derived Rabbit two years younger than him. Jack lives only with his mother, who's often busy, and ends up spending a lot of time with Lop; the two grow very close over the years. One day, when Jack is still young and starry-eyed and a little romantic, he requests that they become "blood brothers" -- something he's seen in human movies. Jack and Lop prick their fingers, exchanging a little blood, and promise to always help each other. » Unknownst to both of them, Jack's father was a carrier of the shope papilloma virus, which has been lying dormant in Jack's blood since birth. Though the chances of it are almost infinitesimally small, the sharing of blood during the blood oath infects Lop. At that young age, Lop has no idea how tremendously unfortunate he is. » As Lop grows older and hits puberty, the virus begins showing symptoms. His family is alarmed, unsure of how Lop might have contracted the virus. As the virus can only be transmitted through blood, saliva, sexual intercourse or passed down through a parent, they are confused. Alarmed, they try to find a cure, insisting that there must be one. They hide Lop from authorities and try to keep him from being outcast. » When Lop is sixteen, the virus has progressed to the point where tumors have spread across his left arm and have blocked the flow of blood, causing the flesh there to necrotize. His parents have no choice but to amputate the arm. Lop, who thus far had been studying to become a doctor and follow in his parents' footsteps, is forced to rethink his life. » At the same time, Jack has begun to show symptoms and has come to realize he is the one who probably infected Lop. Plagued with guilt, he confesses to Lop and promises to take care of him no matter what happens. Lop holds no grudges. » Lop leaves home, afraid of getting his family in trouble if he stays hidden any longer, and joins the small community of ostracized Jackalopes who live at the outskirts of Lapintown. Unsure of what else to do with himself, Lop begins working at the small clinic for Jackalopes -- though he's never properly trained to be a doctor, he's learned much on his own since his youth and his parents taught him as much as they could while he was in hiding. It's hard work (especially with his missing arm), but Lop adapts to this new life and does the best that he possibly can. » Jack, who has also decided to leave home and make a living for himself as an arena fighter at the brawling ring, reaches out to Lop, saying they should help support each other. Lop agrees. Along with Jack's foster younger sister Cotton, a girl also infected with the virus, the three of them manage to scrape by. » Two years pass. Lop has somewhat acclimated to this lifestyle. » Enter Cerealia. ◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No hacking skills. He probably only has a sixth sense in the way that people think animals do -- he's very sensitive to the atmosphere and has good instincts, but has no true ability to sense the supernatural. ◎ Personality: Lop is -- sweet. First impressions would probably circle around that word, 'sweet.' Polite, mild-mannered and almost excessively pleasant, Lop is generally pretty nice to be around. He has no qualms about talking to strangers, and will often try his very best to make good first impressions. Making more friends is never a bad thing, right? No harm in trying to be likeable! Although he has the tendency to overplay his politeness at times, almost bordering on groveling sometimes, it's never deliberate -- it's just that he'd rather be as respectful as possible at all times, so he won't anger anyone. After all, he's a member of an ostracized population, and he'd much rather avoid being disliked for any additional reasons; he'd much rather just play things safe than avoid being disliked. In a way, ruthless likability is the game that Lop plays at. One would think that a person who's been through so much -- being rapidly demoted from a promising member of society to outcast and almost-leper, lacking a limb and almost blinded in one side -- would be more taciturn about life. But Lop has never been one to stew in self-pity. Ask him about his afflictions, and Lop will attempt to explain his situation plainly, without blaming anyone or begging for pity. And while he does occasionally become rather reluctant to discuss his disabilities in too much details, especially towards people who seem disgusted by him, it's more because he cares about the other person's feelings. After all, there's nothing very fun about hearing someone talk about their chronic, flesh-warping condition. He's sure people would rather that he focus on them, instead of himself. Since he was younger, Lop has always been fiercely dedicated to trying to help others. Having grown up with doctor parents, he absolutely hates seeing people hurting, and will do everything within his meager powers to lessen such pains. Not that he's blinded by idealism -- Lop knows quite well that to fix every situation would be impossible. But it can't hurt to try, right? It's the thoughts that count, at least. To put it bluntly Lop acts a lot like your stereotypical "nice guy next door." Always willing to lend an ear when people want to talk, always willing to help an old lady carry her groceries, always willing to play with the little ones when they're bored, always willing to help out around the house with whatever he can. He takes cares of his portion of household duties without complaint, spends most of his hours at the clinic, and will often work late into the night trying to make a sick patient comfortable no matter what it takes. Extremely protective of his little pseudo-family, and full of longing for his parents whom he can no longer contact easily. Always willing to give strangers the benefit of the doubt and always, always willing to get to know new people, no matter how awful a first impression was given. Lop can sometimes look like he's trying too hard to be a good guy, but it's all pretty sincere. Lop genuinely tries to be the nicest person possible. However, a keen eye might detect that beneath that veneer of tireless cheer and his sunny disposition is the sickly undertone of desperation and terror. The truth is, Lop has actually been very badly hurt by the things he's been through -- it's just that he does his best to hide it. It would be unnatural for anyone to go through such a drastic change in their life without being affected in any way, after all. Lop never fully recovered from abruptly losing his promising future and being chased out of polite society, and the prospect of losing anything more frightens him. Truly terrifies him. And as a result of this, the calm, mild-mannered, polite facade that he wears is actually just a carefully crafted way of covering up how anxious he is about his life. Though he doesn't talk about it much, Lop actually has a borderline fatalistic attitude towards his future. Not that he'll sit by and let any stream of events just happen without his lifting a finger, but in that he thinks that some things just can't be helped. He lost his arm and his family and any modicum of respect that most people he knew in town had of him -- and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. It's most of the reason why he holds nothing against Jack, the person who effectively brought all of this upon him. Surely, if something this awful happened, then it was just something that was meant to be. Nothing he could have done would have prevented it. The result is that he has a vaguely live-and-let-live attitude towards his lot in life. Bad things will happen, yes, and he'll make some attempt to prevent them. After all, it's best if those bad things don't happen. But if they do occur, then -- well. Maybe they were meant to be. It's a new situation, the only he can do is to 'accept.' Thinking about what happened in the past, dwelling on such things and coming up with regret after new regret would just cripple him with fear and anger, so he tries to avoid such territory altogether. It's not that he holds this attitude towards what happens to other people. He'll respond dutifully enough in an emergency situation, trying his best to help when Mr. So-and-so had a tree fall on him outside and needs some stitches and a cast. He'll do whatever he can to help out Ms. Whoever-It-May-Be when she needs something found and he thinks that it might be somewhere he can access. And he'll listen to other people talk and respond with a shy smile or a sympathetic pat to the shoulder when appropriate. But the moment that an immediate threat turns on him, he loses all ability to defend himself. Like a metaphorical deer in the headlights, Lop tends to freeze up and cease doing anything when he considers himself in peril -- he just can't process it right. He's already lost so much -- the right to live with his family, his arm, his future, his old friends -- that his brain immediately shuts down with terror at the prospect of being reduced to something even lesser. And maybe, just maybe, it's something that was always meant to happen anyway. Why bother? In a best-case scenario, the people he's befriended might come to his aid. But in a worst-case scenario, Lop's a doormat. Pitted against an obstacle that he has to face alone, he can only put up a cursory resistance before meekly accepting his fate. It's an aspect of his personality that hasn't had the chance to manifest that often, but when it does, it's a blatant and rather ugly testament to how much difficulty he's had in adapting to his condition and its repercussions. While his demeanor gives the impression that he's molded himself wonderfully around his new situation and flawlessly reconstructed his life, the truth is that Lop's pretty scared. He's put up a mental barrier between himself and all the ways that he could end up in an infinite loop of anger and spite, and because he's chosen to run away from these issues instead of confronting them, he's never fully grown past them. Most people will never know this aspect of him. In fact, even most of his coworkers, his patients, his friends think of Lop as nothing more than "that friendly guy who's had a tough life." And Lop would prefer to keep it that way -- best to keep that ugly, unclean, fractured side of him locked deep, deep away, right? But dig in the right spots, and it becomes clearly evident that Lop isn't as emotionally impervious as he makes himself to be. ◎ Powers/Abilities: As might be expected of a human-animal recombinant, Lop does have a few qualities that separate him from your average human being. Surprising absolutely nobody, his hearing is phenomenal -- he can hear faint noises from over two miles away, can easily pinpoint what direction different sounds are coming from, and can hear higher-pitched noises than humans can -- but comes with the caveat that he's easily disoriented or stunned by extremely loud noises. His other senses are also sharper than that of most humans, but not to the degree that his hearing is. Though his eyes are sharp and very sensitive to any movement, he does have a large blind area to his left side due to his blind eye. Physically, Lop is very much what one might expect from a herbivorous animal: incredibly good reflexes and the ability to run very fast, but no real fighting ability. He could probably outsprint even trained human athletes in short bursts, though he's easily tired out and doesn't fare well over long distances. Other than that, Lop is largely your regular civilian. He has a good deal of experience in basic medical care and can function as your average nurse or EMT, but can't handle anything that's too complex or requires a great deal of training (or two hands, obviously). ◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: » His clothes (jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, a worn cardigan, socks, and slip-on shoes) » A worn shoulder-bag containing:      » a first aid kit      » a bottle of water      » his wallet (contains a little money, his ID card) » A rechargeable stungun -- old technology for his time, but fairly average by current standards CEREALIA-Specific ◎ Element: Water. Lop's submissive tendencies and job working at a clinic fit in with water's association with passivity and healing. ◎ Sense: Sound. He's a rabbit, and his hearing is astoundingly good. ◎ Seven Character Traits:      + | caring, attentive, quick learner      - | defeatist, trusting, weak under pressure      o | highly empathetic Samples ◎ First-Person Sample: I did do a toplevel and one extra little thread on the test drive meme, but as it was right when I was busier than usual, I'm not sure if that's quite enough tags to work as a sample. If not, I'll be happy to write an extra sample! ◎ Third-Person Sample: He doesn't usually have much interest in animals, really. Their unpredictability scares him a bit, if he has to be absolutely honest. He's seen guard dogs deployed around the fighting arena for extra security, and he's seen the odd person walking their pet back home -- but he'd never really had much reason to approach an animal on his own, much less try and get close to one. But this is a little different. Because when he passes by a store with a gaudy display behind their huge window, advertising "the latest Cybuddies™, now yours to love and care for," he'd paused out of pure curiosity. The animals in the window display -- some sort of small dog, a docile frog and a big white rat -- had seemed like normal animals one might find anywhere, and no matter how hard he squinting at the fluffy creatures, they seemed ... normal. Of course, once the store employees caught him lurking there for upwards of ten minutes, still scrutinizing the CYbuddies, they were all too eager to drag him in to pitch him their sales schpiel, explaining their benefits, their cuddliness, their absolute harmlessness (what a weirdly specific selling point?), their heart-melting cuteness -- is he sure he doesn't want to take a look at the available models? It'd been hard saying no to that eagerness, and Lop's since settled for wandering around the store trying not to act too nervous whenever a CYbuddy turns his way. Butterflies, colorful birds, a small fox and -- a miniature dinosaur? They're all interesting, even if he's glad to have a pane of glass between himself and each one, and Lop boggles at the reptiles for a few moments before turning down a new aisle to find ... rabbits. "... ah." The surprised noise slips past his lips before he can catch himself, and Lop quickly clamps his mouth back shut as he trots forward to get a better look. There are a couple enclosures housing rabbits of a few different varities, and he gives each one a close look, smiling weakly. The lop-eared rabbits -- huddled in the corner asleep -- earn an especially faint laugh under his breath before Lop settles down to crouch before an enclosure housing a small, white rabbit. It's sitting in place, wiggling its nose, and when Lop gently places his hand on the glass it swivels its ears to listen to him. It's ... a reminder of home, in a strange way. Even if he and his Rabbit ilk aren't that closely related to real rabbits, they've still always retained an inherent fondness for the animals they were made to resemble. Seeing rabbits reminiscent of his cherished people back home is enough to make his chest feel a little tight. And while he doesn't exactly have the credits to spare to take care of an animal -- or rather, a CYbuddy -- just yet, it might be something nice to think of in the future. A white rabbit, to remind him of Cotton, and a larger brown one to remind him of Jack, if he could afford it. Maybe people might think it's a little morbid? But still ... for himself, personally, it might be a nice way to keep himself going. A goal. That's it. It'll be a short-term goal. Something to keep himself oriented and ward off the terror of being trapped alone in a world far away from home. He'll get himself acclimated to this place, earn enough to adopt two rabbit CYbuddies, and hopefully by then he'll be a little more used to this place? Surely by then he'll have a better idea of what to do. Yes. That sounds good. "Does it sound good to you, too?" It's said quietly enough that none of the store employees can overhear, whispered right up against the glass. When the white rabbit flicks an ear in response, Lop tries not to smile too wide. ◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? No.