Application | Thisavrou

[ruffboi]

OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Siz
Are you 16 or older: Y
Contact: sizlaria @ plurk
Current Characters: Nope
Tag: magnus burnsides

IN CHARACTER
Name: Magnus Burnsides
Canon: The Adventure Zone
Canon Point: The Suffering Game, ep. 1 (pre-Wonderland)
Age: 32

History: Here! Beware of big series wide spoilers that won’t really come into play with my canon point.

Quick mostly non-spoilery background -

Magnus became an adventurer after the small town he was from was destroyed and his family killed. He was a carpenter in Ravens Roost, working as an apprentice for a master carpenter and in a relationship with his daughter Julia. The town was controlled by a tyrant, Governor Kalen, and when the townspeople revolted against him, Magnus ended up leading the fight, and they were successful at driving him out of town. Magnus became something of a folk legend for this fight. After Kalen was driven off, Magnus married Julia and began working to get his master status. He had to travel away from town to do so, and while he was gone, Kalen and his forces attacked the town. Many people were killed, including Magnus’ family, and the rest were driven away. For the next five years, he worked as an adventurer, taking solo jobs and getting in fights, planning to get revenge against Kalen but apparently procrastinating that a lot.

Eventually, however, he took a job with Merle and Taako that led to their discovery of a powerful relic, as well as the fact that any attempts to talk about this relic would only produce a static sound. In the process of trying to recover the relic, a town was destroyed, but the three adventurers impressed the Bureau of Balance, a secret organization on a moon base dedicated to recovering these powerful artifacts and using a mysterious creature capable of erasing knowledge from earth to keep their existence secret. Magnus, Merle and Taako are inoculated, meaning they can understand the knowledge the Bureau of Balance erased from the world, and become reclaimers for the Bureau of Balance. As the only individuals seemingly able to resist the powerful thrall of the relics, they have to recover them before they hurt anyone else. They are also being followed by a red robe, a member of the apparently evil organization that created the relics in the first place, who warns them of the approach of something called the Hunger.

At this point, Magnus has been working with the Bureau of Balance and with Taako and Merle for about a year.

I don’t intend to talk in this app about events from later arcs like Stolen Century, except in passing, because it isn’t relevant to Magnus right now and I’d like to avoid spoiling some of the bigger plot twists in the series. I do reference a couple things but have tried to mark them clearly.

Personality: Magnus is theoretically a lawful good folk hero with a tragic past, determined to work alone and bent on revenge. Very little of this information is relevant when describing his actual personality. Whatever he is on paper (literally on paper in this case), Magnus is more of a lovable goofball with a sturdy yet flexible moral compass and an assorted handful of skills he’s desperate to make use of in unlikely circumstances. His main interests are acquiring cool weapons and animal companions, doing some sick shit in battle, collecting robot arms, and becoming closer with his friends in the process.

Magnus is enthusiastic, impulsive, emotional, and stubborn. He feels all his feelings very hard - when he’s happy or excited, he’s goofy and hyperactive, he cries easily, and although he isn’t an angry person, when he is angry, he finds it hard to resist giving into his urge to react. He makes decisions based on whatever feels right in the moment, but he’s easily swayed by appeals to friendship or emotion. He’s a nice guy, but if you challenge him he gets stubborn and may just punch you in the face.

One of Magnus’ most obvious character traits is what’s essentially his catchphrase, “Magnus rushes in.” He is a man of action, and doesn’t spend a whole lot of time debating a plan or worrying about danger. Anywhere you take him, he’s already rushing inside, throwing himself at a puzzle or starting a fight. Magnus has seldom met a problem he wouldn’t try to solve with a punch, a hug, or a leap out of a moving train. His hastiness is more excitability than anything else; Magnus thinks most things that happen to him are pretty cool, and he’s ready to get on with it already. He has very little patience for standing around and figuring things out, and is likely to get frustrated and try to punch his way out instead.

On the other hand, he is completely reckless, to the point where he sometimes seems totally indifferent as to whether he gets hurt or killed. Even though he’s always been a pretty reckless person, the loss of his hometown and family is part of this. Magnus isn’t particularly interested in living a long life; he’d rather dedicate himself to being an adventurer and living that life to the fullest, even if he dies in the process. But more than that, Magnus really can’t stand the idea of losing someone he cares about again.

Eventually, Magnus does some reflecting on this idea. He befriends a rogue fighter, Carey Fangbattle, and admires the way she can be dangerous but also keep herself safe in a fight. Carey trains him a little in stealth, leading him to adopt rogue as a secondary class. In the process, Carey warns him about always taking the ‘big hit,’ assuming he can handle it, and he admits to Carey he had begun to realize that if he wants to keep his friends safe, he needs to be able to keep himself safe, too. But at the same time, he expresses that he doesn’t want anything to happen to Taako or Merle either; he’ll avoid taking damage when he can help it, but it’s still very much his view that if someone has to take the big hit, it’s going to be him.

Magnus’ other most important character trait is his hatred of bullies. His most influential childhood memory was the time he saw a bunch of older children hurting a stray dog. He protected the dog and got his ass kicked for it, but felt he was doing the right thing by defending something that couldn’t defend itself. As he got older, and more able to hold his own in a fight, this shaped his world view. He can’t stand to see anyone pick on someone weaker than them, and is incapable of resisting the urge to step in and make things right.

Otherwise, Magnus is usually easy-going and overly chummy in his personal relationships. He gets attached quickly and is not shy when it comes to affection. Magnus has very little regard for personal boundaries and he will often act unintentionally inappropriate, though his intentions are always friendly and innocent. Magnus always loves hard, and if he cares about you he will take a fantasy bullet for you and will always support you and defend you. When it comes to his friends, he’s non-judgmental. Both Taako and Merle are far less obviously ‘good’ aligned than Magnus, but he doesn’t ever appeared to be bothered by that, and is willing to agree to disagree on things like betrayal and the desirability of murder.

But Magnus also treats ‘lawful good’ as more of a suggestion. It’s clear Magnus started out caring a lot about justice and doing the right thing, but is also very susceptible to peer pressure and maybe sometimes forgets that looting and stealing is against his moral code when his friends are doing it and it seems kind of fun. Although Magnus objects to murder slightly more than his friends do, he’s also the worst of the three at not murdering people. In addition to the casual body count of enemies racked up in the course of the campaign, Magnus has accidentally murdered a number of people he was technically trying to be non-lethal towards, and doesn’t see this as more serious than kind of an ‘oops’ moment. But if given the choice, he’d definitely probably prefer not-murder over murder.

Magnus also isn’t a pure idealist and has a surprising pragmatic streak. Although he always wants to do the right thing, he’s willing to do the wrong thing sometimes if it’s for the sake of a more important goal. For example, when the team is stuck in a time loop, he’s fairly unemotional about hurting people he cares about, because the damage will be reset and there’s a more important goal they have to focus on. There’s another, later and spoilery example where he was willing to destroy an entire world because they couldn’t save that world it would mean saving more lives later. And when scared or upset, Magnus is not only particularly rash, but can be dangerous and keeps secrets to avoid involving others. But Magnus is always susceptible to emotional lines of reasoning; if you appeal to his sense of right and wrong and try to get him to adopt a more idealistic position, he’ll follow you in that enthusiastically.

Magnus’ big dramatic dead wife backstory has obviously had a big influence on him, even if he doesn’t come off like a dramatic backstory type of person. Before he met his wife, Julia, he was a lot more of an arrogant hothead. Settling down and letting Julia and her father Steven become his family meant a lot to him; he learned that despite his passion for adventurin’, he’s happiest around people he loves, doing things he’s good at and making others happy, as long as he can still protect the vulnerable and do what's right. Unfortunately, when Ravens Roost was destroyed and Julia and Steven died, it became clear he couldn't have it both ways. Magnus cares a lot and he loves hard, and even though five or six years have passed, he’s never managed to get over his grief from that loss. Even though Magnus was never particularly tempted by any of the other powerful relics they’ve recovered, the opportunity to rewind time and reverse the loss of his family was nearly impossible for him to resist.

On the other hand, he hasn’t let any of what happened turn him into a cruel or angry person. Even though he technically vowed revenge against Governor Kalen, he seems to have procrastinated on his revenge quest for years, and he eventually willingly lets it go. Instead, the memory of the people he’s lost has only made him more determined to protect vulnerable people and the people he loves, and to enjoy his life while he has it, and to try and be the type of person he thinks Julia would have wanted him to be. But this stuff is definitely very raw and painful and he seems to have made an intentional decision not to let it heal, although the fact that he has other people he loves now has definitely been important in getting him to value his life more.

Less seriously, Magnus is very determined to use every single ability on his roster. He approaches any problem considering how an item or ability he has might be used to solve it. He likes coming up with creative solutions to problems, especially in combat, but his creative solutions are often either a stretch or don’t work the way he intended. He gets jealous of the magic users and wants to prove he can be cool too. He likes showing off in a braggy little kid way, and is also very competitive. Finally, his dream is for his animal handling proficiency to translate into a cool pet. He loves and values his magic goldfish Steven, but he is still always keeping an eye out for the possibility of a puppy or a tamable monster. Even in combat he never hurts an animal if he can help it. He has special love for dogs but the greatest respect for the mighty bear.

Setting: Magnus will fit in very well here! He’ll take to exploring a new plane of reality and brand new world almost like he’s somehow done it before.

Magnus is just generally a helpful character, and would easily pitch in. He likes to be helpful and contribute! He is really into exploration and adventure, but he’s also pretty good at figuring out what sort of things need to get done, be it building something useful or taking care of a threat to quality of life. Although he’s a showboater, he’s very much a team player and will do whatever he’s asked or whatever will help the people who have been here longer. His carpentry skills will be of a lot of use, and that's probably if not a job a useful side source of income for him as well, but given a new planet to explore it's likely he would focus more of his time on opportunities for exploration and adventurin'.

It’s worth noting that he will take the jamjar experience pretty in stride, because it’s not unusual for him to be shipped off somewhere weird and have to solve a bunch of NPC problems before they can figure out why. Magnus is not one to question game logic; if it looks like there's an objective he should fulfill, he'll do it. He will likely assume some sort of Bureau of Balance business or relic is involved in this situation, and there is some sort of task that must be completed before they can obtain it and leave.

Abilities/Skills: Level 10 fighter and Level 2 rogue. He’s the tank of the party, strong and good at fighting with either a weapon and shield or a two handed axe. Not very technically skilled in combat, just strong and able to take a lot of damage. Since getting his rogue training, he’s become better at stealth/evading attacks, and can also pick locks. He tends to be creative in combat, good at figuring out solutions other than blasting enemies with magic or an axe.

Other than that, very good at carpentry and woodworking; he can build furniture or repair it easily. Before he began his life of adventure he was set to attain his rank as a master carpenter. Has vehicle proficiency and animal proficiency, which in practice just means he can talk shop a bit about fantasy cars, knows how to drive, and likes animals a whole whole lot.

Voidfish Interference: Not sure where else to put this. The Bureau of Balance uses a creature called the voidfish to alter knowledge. When knowledge is fed to the voidfish, it disappears from memory of everyone but those who are inoculated by drinking the voidfish ichor.

It’s necessary that the voidfish interference continue to work, because Magnus and Taako are both missing memories that would make them difficult to play if recovered. While this could be handwaved, Taako’s player and I think it would be fun if the voidfish interference still applied. This would mean whenever they try to talk about their work for the Bureau of Balance and other lost topics, other characters would only hear static sounds.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths - A big strong boy. Master level skill at Carpentry/woodworking, very skilled at fighting with a shield and axe or two handed axe; vehicle proficiency, animal proficiency, ambidextrous, basic rogue/thieves skills such as lockpicking and stealth, asskicking one liners, action.

Weaknesses - Respecting personal space, remembering to be non-lethal, once cried at a sad dog movie so hard he threw up. He's not the smartest cookie but he does okay.

Items: Needless to say, all of these only work when he remembers he has them.

Railsplitter - Large battle axe; also enchanted to be able to cut down any tree with a single strike (once per day use).

Shield of Heroic Memories - Enchanted shield. It’s magically inscribed with pictures of his past victories, and helps in later battles with the same creatures. He can also lie to it about past victories.

Steven the Goldfish - A small enchanted glass bauble containing a goldfish. His name is Steven. He can poop in there because it’s magic and you don’t need to question it.

Chance Lance - A lance in the shape of the minute hand of a tower clock. Enchanted by a goddess; once thrown, Magnus can recall it with his voice and it rewinds time to return to him.

Phantom Fist - Glove he wears on his right hand; enchanted to add power to his punches and knock enemies back ten feet.

Fletcher’s Mitt - Glove he wears on his left hand; enchanted to let him catch arrows out of midair. (Theoretically; in practice it just gives him better resistance against ranged attacks).

Featherweight Curiass - Chest armor made out of a super light material; it’s as strong as metal armor, but doesn’t hinder movement.

Pocket Workshop - A little tent that fits in your pocket. Bigger on the inside; a small woodworking shop that can hold a maximum of two boys at once.

Lens of Straight Creepin' - A lens that lets him see footprints of anyone who has walked by recently.

Thieves Tools - A kit of basic tools for lockpicking, breaking and entering, and your other beginner rogue needs.

Loafers of Striding and Springing - They're just shoes that let him jump good.

Defender's Dial - Belt that once per day can provide 5 minutes of resistance to fire, ice or lightning.

Ring of the Giant Slayer - A ring that gives a small boost to attack and defense against anything bigger than him.

Glutton's Fork - It can turn any non-magical (in this game, read not particularly important) item edible; eating it restores a couple hit points.

Magnetic Charge - Small ball that once per day emits a magnetic field that repels all metal objects in the vicinity.

Adventurer’s Kit - Backpack with flint, water, rations, bedroll, rope

Cargo Shorts - Camo print, lots of pockets. Enchanted to keep sand from getting up in there.

Bureau of Balance Bracer - Silver bracer, permanently attached to his left arm. Technically, touching it can contact the Bureau of Balance for help, but it doesn’t get any signal here, so it’s just a useless hunk of metal.

SAMPLES

Network Sample: So, hang on a minute. Hang on. Wait. Hold on.

[Magnus is speaking into the camera, at a far too close angle so you can only see about half of his face.]

So you guys are telling me that we literally can't die? Or I mean, we can "die," but we just come back right away. I'm just saying, if you come back from "death," and you aren't a ghost or some kind of undead creature, it's not exactly "death," you know? The permanent part of it is pretty much the definition of what death is.

I mean, sure, maybe you get punished. Oh no, you might have to lose an arm and get a badass robot arm instead, what torture. But it's not dying. It's almost like concepts of the boundary between life and death are rendered meaningless here. We're all immortal beings, in a way, replacing pieces of ourselves with sweet robot parts.

Oh, sorry, got off track for a second. My point is, last week, you guys told me I could not jump from a spaceship right as it enters the atmosphere because I'd "get myself killed." What the hell. Uncool, guys. Uncool.

Prose/Action Sample: Action Log Here