APP: Tavros Nitram // Cirque

player
NAME: Cassie
LJ USERNAME: tokyocentricity
AIM/MSN/E-MAIL: tokyocentricity (AIM) || tokyocentricity@gmail.com (email)
CURRENT CHARACTERS: None!

character
NAME: Tavros Nitram
STAGE NAME: Toreador
TATTOO LOCATION: Above his right eyebrow, slightly off-center. See here.
AGE: ~13.
SERIES: Homestuck.
CANON-POINT: Some vague amount of time after Vriska's death on her questbed, but before the post-Hivebent arc begins. He's basically frolicking in Prospit. (Yes, the Horsaroni is coming with him.)

HISTORY: Wiki!

PERSONALITY: In a society where harshness and mockery are the very pivot of social interaction, Tavros is a catastrophic failure.

To begin with, he's very sensitive. While he tries his best to run with the big dogs, he often winds up being the victim in a situation where he set out to victimize someone else. He's also sympathetic enough that when he does succeed in hurting someone's feelings, he ultimately feels bad for it, and can easily be manipulated into apologizing, if he doesn't do it on his own. He really isn't cut out for being mean, which makes him a total loser in troll society, but does make it a bit easier for him to befriend the humans. (Not that he's supposed to do that, but I expect it might come in handy at Cirque, where the humans will outnumber the trolls.)

Despite (or possibly because of) all of this, he tries to get a grip on some self-confidence. On advice from a friend, he even goes so far as to personify his self-esteem, naming him 'Rufio,' and endeavours not to let anything hurt Rufio's feelings, which means showing himself more respect, and not allowing himself to be walked all over. This doesn't always work, but he continues to make the effort. Having Rufio around has, if nothing else, begun to help him understand what self-esteem means, though he doesn't realize that yet.

His confidence sometimes remains intact through sheer ignorance. He has a very simplistic, childlike view of the world, and as such, when it's Tavros being tormented (which is often enough the case), subtle jabs and sarcasm tend to go right over his head. When he does find himself being teased, he rarely, if ever, gets angry about it. It takes a lot to work him up to anger, and even more to get him to hold a grudge. Even when forced to leap off of a cliff, leading to his paralysis and confinement to a wheelchair, Tavros didn't show any overt signs of resentment or hatred toward the one who put him there, only understandable wariness.

That incident took place some time ago, while he was participating in an extreme form of live roleplay known as FLARPing. It's an unlikely hobby for him, taking his personality into account, as it involved live battles with actual dangerous enemies. He seemed to genuinely enjoy it, though; he played the game for fun, where most trolls played it with a lust for battle and/or treasure. His adventures in FLARPing were put to an end by the 'accident' caused by his supposed friend.

The breadth of his compassion, forgiveness, and just how pathetic he really is is shown in canon when the same troll who put him in a wheelchair now lay dying and in pain, and demanded that he kill her. Not only could he not bring himself to do it, but he fled the scene sobbing, because he left her to bleed to death slowly. He then spent the remainder of his time asleep, to escape the memories of the incident (as well as his depressing paralysis) in the dream world, where he could fly and walk and run to his heart's content.

This same 'friend' will someday become the target of markedly uncharacteristic rage when he discovers that she is (nearly-singlehandedly) responsible for many of the terrible things that have happened to Tavros and his friends. Under all of his legitimate sweetness, he's capable of considerable recklessness and anger, when the stressor is serious enough. Despite the immense gap in power, he will seek her out and attack her, leading immediately to his death.

However, he prefers to avoid conflict and unhappiness when possible, as shown by his aforementioned retreat to the dream world. Most of his time before the main story begins is spent playing silly games with his animal compadres and his lusus; his room is littered with cards, marbles, and posters of fairies. He has a notable attachment to fairies as a concept, which dates back prior to his paralysis. Even his roleplaying character was based off of 'Pupa Pan,' the troll version of 'Peter Pan.'

To Tavros, Cirque will be an acceptable second-best to the dream world: a chance to hang with his friends, play games and have fun, with no pressure or expectations that he can't handle. (Now if only he could fly....)

POWERS/ABILITIES: Tavros has the ability to commune with and command a wide range of animals, including very powerful ones, and even humanoid creatures such as imps and ogres. It seems like the limitation to his powers must be sentience (that is, he's unable to control a sentient mind), hence his inability to command humans.

ACT SUGGESTIONS: Given the above, I was thinking Tav could work with the beasts, possibly both behind the scenes, caring for them, and commanding them through an act in the ring.


samples
The following samples should take place in the Circus's setting. They can be from any point of time in the character's stay, but they must take place in the "concept" of the Circus.


FIRST-PERSON: [ How exactly he wound up here is still all but a mystery. He remembers Vriska approaching him, and he remembers a conversation they had, during which he became extremely confused as to what it was she wanted, and why it might be bad.

Now he's parked (please be parked please be parked) on the high-wire platform with one of his lances in his hands, and he's not exactly sure how he's supposed to balance with it, because it's not very balanced. Also, he's in a four-wheel device (that's two wheels on each side!), and there's only one wire.

On the bright side, he already can't walk, so as long as he doesn't break his neck, he should be fine, right? ]

... Vriska... ? [ She's watching him, and he knows it. ] Vriska, I can't, um... I can't cross this. Vriska!

[ He can't even turn around on this platform to consider trying to go back down the ladder.

But hey... maybe one of his elephant friends might help him out.

Tavros grins a little and reaches out for a pachyderm pal. ]

Vriska, this isn't very nice. [ He totally sucks at bluffing. If she's any kind of smart, she'll recognize the change in his tone, from desperate to mischievous. Tavros doesn't even notice it, himself. ] You should get me down from here.

[ She's just sticking her head in the ring, expression suspicious, when the big, grey trunk wraps around her middle. ]


THIRD-PERSON: Despite his resolve to remain cool, Tavros flailed his arms. He'd liked to have flailed his legs, too, but he wasn't sure it would have helped. The clowns were pretty strong, bizarrely enough. He actually wasn't sure who was under that makeup, but he really hoped one of them wasn't Equius.

Dutifully, the two clowns lifted him high out of his chair and placed him with the utmost care into a cannon oh sweet jegus. Tavros made a sound that was basically the exact opposite of cool, and pretty much the same thing as wailing.

"H-hey! Look, I — I didn't — I won't do it again!" He didn't do it in the first place. In fact, he didn't even know what 'it' was, but he sure as hell wouldn't do it (at all, or again), if they'd just put him down. "I — oh my god — please don't do this! Help!"

They let go of his arms only when he was armpit-deep in the barrel. He scrabbled to get his hands on the outside of the cannon, for the moment propping himself up out of it. "I — I really, uh, don't think that I'll be a very good cannonball." He's not sure if that sounded as convincing as he wanted it to, but he's leaning toward 'highly unlikely."

They folded his hands against his chest, with Tavros fighting them every step of the way. Even as strong as his arms were, though, the clowns were inscrutably stronger. His elbows were tucked into his sides, eliminating his last holdout against becoming the world's first troll cannonball. They pushed the top of his head down —

Clunk.

The clowns murmured, and Tavros' body sagged with a sudden wave of relief.

He fucking loved his horns.


ANY QUESTIONS?: None! ♥