the village app

PLAYER INFO

Name: Shannon
Age: 34
Contact: plurk @ bandakar / Bandakar#9753

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Anthony "Tony" Stark
Canon: Marvel Live Action
Canon Point: Iron Man 3 (Before leaving Rose Hill)
Appearance: 5'9", physically fit. brown eyes, dark brown/black hair, beard. appearance at canon point
Age: 42

Character snapshot: genius. billionaire. playboy. philanthropist. hero. avenger. iron man. runs on batteries. gets along better with machines than people. tony stark is brash and sarcastic. he speaks his mind, often to the detriment of those around him. he's a narcissist. he has self-destructive tendencies, though they often lead to productive outcomes. going hand in hand with the self-destructive tendencies, tony can sometimes fixate on things almost to the point of obsession. despite the laundry list of character defects, tony is a good person. when it comes to the people he cares about, he cares deeply. he will do anything for them. he doesn't just want to help his loved ones though. he wants to save the entire world. tony survived (and continues to survive) when he should have died. he won't waste his second chance.

World description: the world that tony comes from is not entirely dissimilar from our own, circa 2012-2013. there are, however, some glaring differences. tony's world is one of superheroes, as well as the types of threats superheroes face. there are enhanced humans, men who fly around in suits of armour that are nothing short of technological marvels. norse gods are very real and from another planet. there's a man who turns into a huge, green, practically unstoppable beast when he becomes angry. there's a company that's able to genetically manipulate people's brains to stimulate rapid healing, including the regrowth of limbs (though the subjects run extremely hot. to the point of tony being able to break out of handcuffs using the heat from a woman's neck. and if these people are unable to regulate their temperature? they explode) there are cosmic stones that predate the universe. one can control the hearts and minds of anyone it's used against, while the other governs space, itself. this stone has the ability to, among other things, open wormholes in space which, at one point, allowed an alien army to come to earth.

the world is not dissimilar to ours, but it is also very different.

History: since he was just a child, tony stark lead an interesting life. born in new york to genius industrialist billionaire howard stark and his wife maria, tony inherited his father's brilliant mind. he designed his first circuit board at age 4 and built his first combustion engine at age 6. he hacked into the pentagon on a dare in highschool, and won the 4th annual mit robot design award at 16. when he was 21, his parents met their end in a car accident leaving him alone, and just a few months later, in charge of his father's company, stark industries.

for the next almost two decades, the company flourished and tony reaped all the benefits. he had pretty much whoever and whatever he wanted, and he did as he pleased, up to and including attending a demonstration in afghanistan of his company's newest weapon, the jericho missile.

while there, tony was almost killed by his own weapons (ending up with a chest full of shrapnel that required an electro magnet be embedded in his chest to keep from killing him) and was kidnapped by a terrorist group. they wanted him to recreate the jericho. he created a way out. tony created his first mechanized suit of armour that would come to be knows as 'iron man'.

in the years that follow, tony shuts down the weapon's division of his company. he's betrayed by his late father's business partner. he almost dies due to the electro magnet in his chest. its cores were corroding and poisoning him. he discovered a new element to fix. the avengers were formed and along with them, tony fought off an alien invasion, which almost ended for him with flying a missile through a wormhole where he saw the full scope of the alien forces.

he ends up developing pretty severe ptsd and panic attacks because of the invasion.

tony threatens a terrorist, and gets attacked for his trouble. his home? destroyed. his loved ones? in danger. tony? stranded in tennesee with an inoperable suit because of the attack.

What are your character’s mental/emotional strengths?

CONFIDENT- tony knows well his own capabilities. he knows what he can do and how well he can do it. he rarely has to question any idea that he has, about whether or not he can see it through to the end. unfortunately, sometimes tony's confidence is indistinguishable from arrogance, but he knows his own talents. and he's okay with making sure others know, as well.

MERCIFUL- or at least he tries to be. whether he wants to label them as such or not, tony's armours are weapons. they are capable of killing. and while sometimes that is the only option when facing down an opponent, he opts to keep them alive whenever he can. simply killing would be the easy option (well, the quick option. "easy" is debatable). instead he tries to disable, even choosing sometimes to just let people go once they no longer pose a threat.

SELFLESS- tony used to be a completely selfish person, only in it for himself. but since his time in the cave, a lot has changed for him. he still has his bouts of selfishness because at the end of the day, he is still who he is, but he puts others before himself when it counts. when there is trouble, he is willing to step out in front of it, putting the safety of others above his own. in new york, he flies a nuke through a wormhole without question, without being entirely sure that he'd make it out alive. when a terrorist organization attacked his home, he sent his armour to pepper instead of calling it to himself.

What are your character’s mental/emotional weaknesses?

ALONE- the man who has everything, but has nothing. tony is a person who spent most of his life surrounded by people yet utterly alone. for a very long time, james rhodes was the only friend tony had that he didn't pay, build or program. his mother loved him and he didn't even know if his father liked him, but then they both died so it didn't exactly matter anymore. though things have changed, and there are more people in his life that are there for him instead of simply what he can do for them, it's hard to just erase decades of such a deep seated feeling. it makes him more desperate to hold onto the few real relationships that he has managed to cultivate.

INTOLERANT- tony has an awful habit of mocking, belittling or just straight up ignoring people who he sees as intellectually inferior to himself (which is how he happens to see most people). he's easily frustrated by these people and can often lose his temper, especially if their "inferiority" is standing between him and the solution to the current problem. and once he gets started, it doesn't stop, even if he's threatened. even if someone actually makes a move against him. and it hardly matters if this person is a friend or enemy. his mockery of people knows no sides.

REACTIONARY- tony has an issue with reacting before he thinks something through. he can be very 'shoot first, ask questions later'. depending on the situation, his emotions can really get the best of him. it's especially true when his friends and loved ones are in trouble. he reacts without considering the consequences, without thinking that he's putting his people in just as much danger, if not more, than the danger brought on them by those tony opposes. they get targetted and they get hurt because he's quick to react.

What events or circumstances in your character’s past have impacted them the most?

AFGHANISTAN- arguably the most pivotal point in his life. tony could no longer distance himself from the weapons he had spent years inventing and manufacturing once he came face to face with them. he saw his weapons in the hands of the enemy. he was nearly killed by one of those weapons. he has a chest full of shrapnel that's always threatening to kill him because of those weapons. he was taken captive for 3 months in a cave because of weapons. but he also made a real human connection with someone not in his employ. tony had to have an electro magnet inserted into his chest cavity, powered by a car battery, to keep the shrapnel from killing him, but it pushed him to create a miniature arc reactor, which would go on to power the mechanized armour he built in the cave instead of the weapon his captors wanted him to make. the mechanized armour that would be the ticket to his freedom. and the beginning of iron man.

IRON MAN- tony is iron man. iron man is tony. he was given a second chance at life in afghanistan and he had no intention of wasting it. iron man became the biggest thing he had in his life. he even signed over his entire company to his personal assistant / girlfriend. it simply didn't matter as much as saving the world. and at least this way, his attention wouldn't be divided and stark industries wouldn't suffer for his absence. being iron man made him a better person. being iron man made him a more selfless person. things weren't just about him anymore. it made him willing to "make the sacrifice play" (as steve rogers one said). using his armour even though it was putting strain on his arc reactor and quickly corroding its cores, thus poisoning him slowly. or personally escorting a nuke through a wormhole in the sky.

THE WORMHOLE- going through the wormhole showed tony that the alien forces in new york were just a taste of what's to come. there's a lot out there in the universe coming for earth and that knowledge informs his decisions for years to come, be they good or very bad. it also happens to be the event that worsened his mental health enough for him to acknowledge it since it, at times, became downright debilitating.

What impressions do others tend to have of your character and how do those impressions differ from who your character truly is? tony tends to come off as an egotistical, abrasive, narcissistic asshole. he comes off as aloof and as though he doesn't take matters seriously, especially important matters. and honestly, all of that isn't particularly far from the truth. he's egotistical. he's abrasive and a little narcissistic. but he does care. he cares quite deeply, even if he doesn't always necessarily show it in the best way. jokes and snide comments are hardly a good way to measure how invested he is in a given situation. he's a good person who tries to do the right thing, despite the 'acquired taste' that is his personality.

What motivates your character? having a bit of a savior complex is a strong motivator. mostly, tony is motivated by his want to save the world, and his need to protect those he cares about.

How does your character handle crisis or adversity? rise up against it. try to meet it head-on. sometimes even taunt it and invite it to him. over the years, he's become the man who doesn't shy away from a crisis but rather gets between it and others. his go-to is usually to build something to protect those around him. it's where much of his talent lies. it's what he's good at. it's his best bet in a crisis situation.

tony also stays relatively coolheaded in tough situations. most of them. more recently, depending on the situation, there is risk of tony losing his cool and fleeing the situation. so he's very fight or flight, with flight being a much more recent addition.

Skills, abilities, and physical weaknesses:

SKILLS- genius (mechanical engineering, mathematician, science and computers), trained in unarmed combat (thanks to happy hogan and phil coulson), multilingual (french, spanish, italian and dari), very resourceful. he's tactically minded, though a little less effective than he normally could be since he doesn't have the help of jarvis.

ABILITIES- tony stark is just a regular man and without his armour, he has no abilities to speak of.

PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES- while tony is capable of holding his own without his armour, he's not infallible. at the end of the day, he is just a man with perfectly normal capabilities. he can be taken down by mundane means. there's also the glaring, glowing weakness in the middle of his chest. the arc reactor embedded in his chest is an energy source, powering an electro magnet that's keeping shrapnel from his heart. if it sustains enough damage to become inoperable, if it's drained of its energy and not somehow recharged to acceptable levels quickly enough or if it's removed for too long, he will go into cardiac arrest.

Inventory: clothes that include a few extras like a vest, scarf and baseball cap. limited edition dora the explorer digital watch. miniaturized arc reactor embedded in his chest.

HORROR INFO

What aspects of your character are you most interested in exploring in a horror setting? tony's safe space is inside of his armour or among machines. his coping mechanism whenever anything goes wrong is to build something. his answer to anything bad happening is to build something. it's what he's good at so it's his go-to. and it's worked well for him so far. it'll be interesting to see how this situation plays with the fact that he has none of that, and how can chip away at his already fragile mental state. also the potential for losing people (possibly again and again). he takes death hard, and personally. and seeing the way that any psychological elements could highlight his flaws and insecurities.

What is your character’s mental state upon entering the game? coming into the game, tony is suffering from ptsd and unchecked anxiety. those closest to him feel the ptsd has been ongoing since he was held captive for months in afghanistan and that the major, drastic changes in his life have been a direct result of that. from his shutting down the weapon manufacturing division of his company to deciding that becoming iron man was his purpose. a fear response to the trauma he'd suffered. a sense of control after a situation where he had little. as something that he didn't feel he was suffering from though, the ptsd went undiagnosed and therefore, untreated.

time and circumstance exacerbated the condition. after the battle of new york, after almost dying in space because tony intercepted a nuke meant for the city and its alien invaders, through the wormhole over the city, after seeing what kind of alien forces were really waiting for them out there, tony's ptsd worsened exponentially. he started to have awful nightmares so he stopped sleeping. instead, he spent time in his workshop, working on new suits to an almost obsessive degree. talk of new york or the aliens involved easily caused him to have severe panic attacks, as well as any sort of reminder that he might be without his armour for whatever threat comes next.

What unsettles and frightens your character? What sort of encounters would chip away at your character’s psychological stability? loss of control. the odds being stacked against him and seemingly (or actually) insurmountable. feeling helpless and vulnerable. feeling useless. being captive/trapped. losing people. people getting hurt or dying as a consequence of something he said or did. his own ideas (whether just an idea or an idea that he was able to make into something a little more tangible) being used against him and those around him.

What horrifying events or genre elements would you like to see utilized in the game? i absolutely adore psychological horror. visual and auditory hallucinations. things that make people doubt themselves and question everything around them. being faced with moral and ethical dilemmas. no win scenarios. forced truths. loss of control over themselves / being controlled by forces unseen.

SAMPLES

Test Drive: TDM Thread
Log Sample: (post civil war)
Tony never really made a habit of spending too much time alone. It was something easy enough to accomplish. He was almost always surrounded by people for one reason or another. Not usually anything particularly noble, but that didn't matter much to him, because he wasn't the noble kind. But then when that wasn't something quite as prevalent in his life anymore, the Avengers came along. A team fighting to protect the world. They were a little rough around the edges, sure, but they were a team. Better yet, they were there. They could be counted on for that.

Better still, Pepper and JARVIS were always there. When no one else was, they prevented him from being alone.

Now, though, he doesn't have any of that. The general populous he can take or leave. They're not real people to him. They never really were. They're distractions. The Avengers? They don't exist anymore. The Accords saw to that. The Accords and Tony, himself. Whatever hope there had been left for the team to be a team again after the Accords came up was just demolished when Tony found out what really happened to his parents (he spent so long blaming his father for his mother's death, so long putting it all on Howard's shoulders that he just doesn't know how to feel anymore. He spent so long blaming Howard that it just started to feel like a part of Tony, himself. Now that he knows the truth, it feels like something's missing. Something that was such a big part of him for so long is just gone).

Of course, then he drove Pepper away and effectively killed his own AI. If not for the creation of Ultron, JARVIS would never have been recreated as Vision.

Tony prefers JARVIS, honestly.

So now he's alone. Completely and utterly alone. And it's quiet. No loud music. No whirring of machines. It's like some part of Tony wants the reminder that he's alone, that every relationship that he managed to form over the years is over.

Log Sample: (post civil war again. it was originally gonna be my canon point)
It was no secret how Tony felt about his father. It wasn't even worth trying to hide it. Howard didn't, so why should he, right? He and his father simply didn't get along and Tony had made peace with that, as much as anyone can make peace with being so thoroughly disliked by their father. And on top of that, as much as Tony "makes peace" with anything, really. But that didn't mean it was easy hearing about his death. The death of his mother, however, was devastating. She loved him like a parent should love their child, the way that Tony had wanted to be loved by his father but realized quickly enough that he never would.

But when it came to their deaths, Tony had, well... not so much gotten past it or made peace with it so much as he had pushed it to the darkest recesses of his mind where it only reared its ugly head when he was alone.

Maybe that's part of the reason why he's never really alone. Who knows, really.

He still can't get the footage out of his head. He sees it every time he closes his eyes, hears the voice of his mother every time there's a quiet moment. All of those feelings that he'd buried, all of those feelings about their accident, he can't seem to push them down anymore, the walls he'd built around them are irreparable piles of rubble.

It's probably a good thing (not a good think, but) that Tony hasn't been allowing himself much sleep or quiet moments, lately. There was little time for anything else, between his seeing to Rhodey's physical therapy and throwing himself wholeheartedly into building new, better suits. The old one simply wasn't worth repairing. He still has it though in its state of utter disrepair. Of course he does. A reminder of misplaced trust and that true friends really are as hard to come by as he always used to think.

Tony stands alone in the Avenger's facility (Avengers. Sort of seems like a joke now), the intricate innards of one of his suits laid out before him. Or what will eventually be the inner workings of a suit, at least. But Tony already sees it for what it is, what it will eventually be, because there's at least one thing he can still put his trust in.