heartware_err0r

PLAYER INFO:
Name: Aki
Preferred pronoun: Feminine
Preferred means of contact: aim: kuramal0ver
Any other characters currently in-game? Ψiioniic

CHARACTER INFO
Name: Aradia Megido
Gender: Female
Source: Homestuck (AU)
Canon point: She’s taken from right after her and Sollux move in together on level 4.
Age: 18
Colour: #a10000
Chumhandle: ashesArisen

History: Canon history is here. The rest of this section will be her AU history.

Aradia was born in a futuristic cyberpunk themed city-state set in a post apocalyptic earth named New Babylon. She was born to a loving lower class family living in the neighborhood referred to as "Level 3" with a pretty obvious mutation, the spiral ram horns growing out from the top of her head. Naturally her parents were upset, and even a little afraid. Everyone knew how dangerous mutants could (supposedly) be, but they decided to raise her to the best of their abilities anyway, despite the hardship it would cause. Because of this Aradia always felt indebted to her parent's, who always did their best to support and protect her in the dangerous environment where they lived.

With their love Aradia grew into a strong, rather cheerful, and independent person with a fiery temper. She worked hard to help do her part to support her family, while at the same time becoming a fierce mutant rights supporter. She became heavily involved in the social justice blog scene and also on several mutant help sites, earning a name for herself on a board for mutants with special powers. It was on one of these sites that she first met her friend Sollux, a mutant with Telekinesis and a gifted hacker.

Sollux's family wasn't nearly as supportive or as caring as Aradia's was and she quickly found herself stepping in to offer whatever support she could in their stead. The two quickly became good friends, talking to each other nearly every day, until one day Sollux just disappeared. She wished she could have been surprised to find him on her doorstep one day looking bruised and battered and in need of a place to stay, but really she would have been more surprised if he hadn't. She was just glad he was alive. His parents had sold him to a corporation for some extra cash and he needed someplace to hide. Aradia's family was more than welcoming, happy to give him a place to stay if he needed. They lived together pretty peacefully for a while before trouble struck.

The company that had bought Sollux found him, and they wanted their property back. They attacked the house and killed Aradia's parents in the process with Sollux and Aradia only just managing to escape. They were runaways after that, living on the streets moving from place to place in the hopes of staying safe, but it wasn't long before they were found again, and this time they weren't nearly as lucky. It was only due to a mistake on the parts of one of the corporation's henchman that the abandoned building turned illegal drug lab they were hiding in caught fire with Aradia and Sollux trapped inside. The corporation left them for dead, and they would have been at least partially right if Aradia hadn't gotten help for the severe burns and injuries covering her entire body.

They managed to escape the fire thanks to some help from Sollux's telekinesis, but Aradia was badly injured and wasn't going to survive for long. She needed medical help and she needed it now, but with no money and no place to call home the two of them had no choice but to go to through less than legal avenues for help. Aradia was able to get the cybernetic implants she needed to stay alive, but in doing so forced her friend into the very thing he'd been running from his entire life. A job that amounted to basically indentured servitude. They were in the mob's debt, and there really was no easy way out.

In addition Aradia's body was now almost completely metal except for parts of her horns and torso. There was almost no way for anyone to tell that she had once been made of flesh and blood. Her new body was the cheapest they could get at the time. She didn't need to eat, she couldn't really feel, there was a lot to adjust to. It was especially difficult for her to adjust to since she had always been against extensive and extravagant cybernetic implants. She hated it, and she hated the society that had done this to her and destroyed her family. Sollux was the only one she had left and she swore to herself she would protect him. She owed him that much.

To that ends she upgraded her body several times to include any kind of weapon or enhancement she could afford. She grew colder to strangers, more calculating, and extremely cautious. She became more cynical as well, fighting even harder to change society on the political blog scene, though doing so through more anonymous and careful means. She's learned more about hacking as well, in order to keep her identity safe, as well as to help Sollux with his projects, finishing some of the less demanding tasks when he falls into his less productive states.

Eventually, thanks to Sollux's rather lucrative talents the two of them were able to get an apartment together on Level 4. The goal now is a new life. New identities she and her friend can use to start over again on another higher level, somewhere the mob can't touch them. Maybe even somewhere she can afford to buy her biological body back. She helps Sollux with his jobs for the whoever hires him and has several small independent business projects she runs on the side in an attempt to gain her money through more legal and morally upstanding means.

Personality: As I stated briefly before in her history section Aradia is a cheerful, fiery, and independent girl. She knows what is right and what is wrong, often viewing things in very black and white terms and judging people based on their actions accordingly. She's the kind of person who believes that doing what's right is worth fighting and dying for, even if it means sacrificing your livelihood. As such, it is sometimes difficult for her to reconcile her and Sollux's life together working for the mafia. She believes what they are doing is wrong, and doesn't want to be involved with it, but at the same time Sollux gave up his independence for her sake. She feels really conflicted about the whole thing and would prefer to make her money through more morally upstanding means. She doesn't let the fact that she has done jobs for the mob stop her from yelling at others to get their acts together and scorn them for their own wrong doings.

Of course since she's had most of her body replaced by cyberware she has had some large personality defects from dealing with the trauma of the experience. She is usually still cheerful around people she knows but can be caustic and cruel to strangers. She's always had a bit of a temper, but recently it's become even easier to set her off, though she doesn't like to show it and so will often respond with a cold cruelty. Still, she's eager to help others in need and rather caring despite her new calmer cold outer demeanor since her accident, her cheer and kindness showing through mainly around people she considers to be her friends.

This may seem like a bit of a contradiction. Cheerful and cold, friendly and cautious, there's no doubt that these personality aspects are often on opposite ends of the same spectrum. However it isn't as though Aradia has some kind of split personality or anything like that, rather that there is a certain mask and cold facade she wears around people she doesn't know as well until she is able to ascertain their own motives and personalities. It is not so unusual to act one way around strangers and another around friends, and that is what Aradia does. She's her more and cheery self around those she considers friends and distances herself from people she's just met. Whatever problems have presented themselves to her over the course of her life so far she is still at her heart a kind person, and will always fight for what she thinks is right.

Abilities & physical limitations: Thanks to her mutation Aradia has a kind of psychometry, that allows her to experience the memories of the deceased when holding certain objects of theirs, is near their person or in certain places of great importance to them, such as the place they may have died. Aradia herself doesn't really understand her ability and interprets it to be something a bit more spiritual than it is, going as far as to claim she can communicate with the dead. She also has an almost extremely canny sense of intuition because of this heightened perception that simply manifests as her having a really bad feeling about certain places or people, where bad things have or sometimes even will happen.

Appearance:here!

Notable AU differences from canon, if applicable: The most noticeable difference of course, would be that she is a human, but it isn’t all as simple as that. Aradia comes from a futuristic world where robotic implants are common, everyone is outfitted with a augmented reality implant, and the world is run greedy corporations, with the rich leading fine lives at literally the topmost levels of society and the poor delegated to the barely livable conditions at the bottom. There aren’t any countries, there’s no way to move, there’s no way to do anything really, not without money or help from less than legal sources.

In addition this Aradia functions as a sort of fusion of her canon selves personality. In canon when Aradia is alive she is cheerful and upbeat (and at least a little bit morbid), when she is dead she is cold and cruel, brutally beating both Equius and Vriska to a pulp without a second though (and being extremely and overtly morbid as well as fatalistic). In this AU Aradia’s world is acruel and corrupt place, there isn’t any hope for the poor, and especially little hope for mutants, of which she is both. This mirrors her poor situation of being a lowblood in canon. Despite her poor starting point however, Aradia is cheerful and happy, in both her canon and in this AU. In canon it is when she faces her own death that her spirit and demeanor change, and in this AU, it is her parent’s deaths and the unwilling changes forced on her own body that do the same.

This Aradia is an older more mature Aradia, who still retains parts of her core personality having not experienced death like in her original canon, and never having been influenced by sgrub. However, despite this she is still aware of the real cruelty and darkness that exist in her world and knows how much it can hurt, not only her, but also the people she loves in devastating ways. She is an Aradia that’s had her eyes opened to the true cold ways of the world, but in a matter a little less shattering than facing her own death, so this makes her not only stronger in some aspects, but also weaker.

It’s not an obvious difference, especially in comparison to how different her environment is from canon, and given that she is a mutant human instead of a troll, but it is easily the most significant difference in her characterization and how she will be perceived by others.

Strife Specibus: armrifleKind
Prototyping: Her Tarot Deck
Title: Sower of Place
In-game abilities: Aradia’s abilities function much like her own innate psychometry by giving her a sense of things that have taken place in the past. She can see the past of a place and at higher levels even see the place where things come from, the roots of a cause so to speak. As sower of place eventually she eventually even be able to recreate these places, in her own minds, and possibly even in the minds of those around her. This ability will be key in helping her land’s consorts and in confronting her guardian. They will also challenge her to confront her own painful past, a task which is often quite difficult to bear.

Planet: Aradia’s planet is known as the Land of Ruins and Sand (LORAS) and is a desert planet filled with half buried ruins which function like dungeons. Think Indiana Jones and you’ve got the right idea. Her consorts are iguanas who often complain about their old beautiful jungle home which has been lost to them by unknown means. The iguanas are of course quick to blame a serpentine fire breathing lizard, the planets denizen. The denizen’s name is unknown and his appearance and even existence are little more than rumor. Still the consorts speak coldly of the evil creature who took their home from them.

RP Sample:Sample thread here.

|| PLAYER INFORMATION ||

| PLAYER NAME: Aki
| AGE: 21
| PLAYER'S JOURNAL: akibara
| EMAIL ADDRESS: whyshehadto@gmail.com
| OTHER CONTACT INFORMATION (AIM/plurk): kuramal0ver/akibara
| PLAYED CHARACTER(S): none currently

|| CHARACTER INFORMATION (NEW BABYLON NATIVE AU) ||

| CANON: Homestuck
| NAME: Aradia Megido
| AGE: 22
| APPEARANCE: here
| CANON HISTORY (OPTIONAL): here!
| AU CONCEPT & HISTORY: Aradia, a New Babylon native, was born to a loving family on Level 3. She was born with a pretty obvious mutation, the spiral ram horns growing out from the top of her head. Naturally her parents were upset, and a little afraid. Everyone knew how dangerous mutants could (supposedly) be, but they decided to raise her to the best of their abilities despite the hardship it would cause. Because of this Aradia always felt indebted to her parent's, who always did their best to support and protect her in the dangerous environment of Level 3.

With their love Aradia grew into a strong, rather cheerful, and independent person with a fiery temper. She worked hard to help do her part to support her family, while at the same time becoming a fierce mutant rights supporter. She became heavily involved in the social justice blog scene and also on several mutant helps and advice sites, earning a name for herself on a board for mutants with special powers. It was on one of these sites that she first met her friend Sollux, a mutant with Telekinesis and a gifted hacker.

Sollux's family wasn't nearly as supportive or as caring as Aradia's was and she quickly found herself stepping in to offer whatever support she could. The two quickly became good friends, talking to each other nearly every day, until one day Sollux just disappeared. She wished she could have been surprised to find him on her doorstep one day looking bruised and battered and in need of a place to stay. His parents had sold him to a corporation for some extra cash and he needed someplace to hide. Aradia's family was more than welcoming, happy to give him a place to stay if he needed. They lived together pretty peacefully for a while before trouble struck.

The company that had bought Sollux found him, and they wanted their property back. They attacked the house and killed Aradia's parents in the process with Sollux and Aradia only just managing to escape. They were runaways after that, living on the streets moving from place to place in the hopes of staying safe, but it wasn't long before they were found again, and this time they weren't nearly as lucky. It was only due to a mistake on the parts of one of the corporation's henchman that the abandoned building turned illegal drug lab they were hiding in caught fire with Aradia and Sollux trapped inside. The corporation left them for dead, and they would have been at least partially right if Aradia hadn't gotten help for the severe burns and injuries covering her entire body.

They managed to escape the fire thanks to some help from Sollux's telekinesis, but Aradia was badly injured and wasn't going to survive for long. She needed medical help and she needed it now, but with no money and no place to call home the two of them had no choice but to go to through less than legal avenues for help. Aradia was able to get the cybernetic implants she needed to stay alive, but in doing so forced her friend into the very thing he'd been running from his entire life. A job that amounted to basically indentured servitude. They were in the mob's debt, and there really was no easy way out.

In addition Aradia's body was now almost completely metal except for parts of her horns and torso. There was almost no way for anyone to tell that she had once been made of flesh and blood. Her new body was the cheapest they could get at the time. She didn't need to eat, she couldn't really feel, there was a lot to adjust to. It was especially difficult for her to adjust to as someone who had always been against extensive and extravagant cybernetic implants. She hated it, and she hated the society that had done this to her and destroyed her family. Sollux was the only one she had left and she swore to herself she would protect him. She owed him that much.

To that ends she's upgraded her body several time to include any kind of weapon or enhancement she could afford. She grew colder to strangers, more calculating, and extremely cautious. She became more cynical as well, fighting even harder to change society on the political blog scene, though doing so through more anonymous means and careful means. She's learned more about hacking as well, in order to keep her identity safe, as well as to help Sollux with his projects, finishing some of the less demanding tasks when he falls into his less productive states.

Eventually, thanks to Sollux's rather lucrative talents the two of them were able to get an apartment together on L4. The goal now is a new life. New identities she and her friend can use to start over again on another higher level, somewhere the mob can't touch them. Maybe even somewhere she can afford to buy her biological body back. She helps Sollux with his jobs for the whoever hires him and has several small independent business projects she runs on the side in an attempt to gain her money through more legal and morally upstanding means.

| PERSONALITY: As I stated briefly before in her history section Aradia is a cheerful, fiery, and independent girl. She knows what is right and what is wrong, often viewing things in very black and white terms and judging people based on their actions accordingly. She's the kind of person who believes that doing what's right is worth fighting and dying for, even if it means sacrificing your livelihood. As such, it is sometimes difficult for her to reconcile her and Sollux's life together working for the mafia. She believes what they are doing is wrong, and doesn't want to be involved with it, but at the same time Sollux gave up his independence for her sake. She feels really conflicted about the whole thing and would prefer to make her money through more morally upstanding means. She doesn't let the fact that she has done jobs for the mob stop her from yelling at others to get their acts together and scorn them for their own wrong doings.

Of course since she's had most of her body replaced by cyberware she has had some large personality defects from dealing with the trauma of the experience. She is usually still cheerful around people she knows but can be caustic and cruel to strangers. She's always had a bit of a temper, but recently it's become even easier to set her off, though she doesn't like to show it and so will often respond with a cold cruelty. Still, she's eager to help others in need and rather caring despite her new calmer cold outer demeanor since her accident, her cheer and kindness showing through mainly around people she considers to be her friends.

This may seem like a bit of a contradiction. Cheerful and cold, friendly and cautious, there's no doubt that these personality aspects are often on opposite ends of the same spectrum. However it isn't as though Aradia has some kind of split personality or anything like that, rather that there is a certain mask and cold facade she wears around people she doesn't know as well until she is able to ascertain their own motives and personalities. It is not so unusual to act one way around strangers and another around friends, and that is what Aradia does. She's her more and cheery self around those she considers friends and distances herself from people she's just met. Whatever problems have presented themselves to her over the course of her life so far she is still at her heart a kind person, and will always fight for what she thinks is right.

| POWERS & ABILITIES: Thanks to her mutation Aradia has a kind of psychometry, that allows her to experience the memories of the deceased when holding certain objects of theirs, is near their person or in certain places of great importance to them, such as the place they may have died. Aradia herself doesn't really understand her ability and interprets it to be something a bit more spiritual than it is, going as far as to claim she can communicate with the dead. She also has an almost extremely canny sense of intuition because of this heightened perception that simply manifests as her having a really bad feeling about certain places or people, where bad things have or sometimes even will happen.

| ECONOMIC STANDING, EQUIPMENT & PETS: Aradia lives a fairly comfortable life with Sollux on L4 where he has built, customized, or modified most of their computer equipment in some ways going so far as even building a new operating system for it all (including their neural jack) to run on. Unfortunately thanks to poor spending habits, financial planning, a rather sizable debt, and a butt load of legal issues no one will be moving up a level anytime soon.

As far as weaponry goes Aradia has gotten a number of various attachments to her cyberware. Most of limbs have sharp blade like edges hidden in them somewhere and one of her arms can even double as a rifle. She has enhanced vision and hearing and parts of her body can even function as a makeshift computer (that is for emergency situations only!), she doesn't like fighting or killing, but she will do what she has to in order to survive.

| COMPANY AFFILIATION: None. Aradia is trying to find a job that doesn't involve "selling out." It's proving (not) surprisingly difficult to do that in a city-state run completely by "the man."
| ANYTHING ELSE?: Not that I can think of!
| WRITING/VOICE SAMPLE: sample thread