World: Alternia Name: Agleas Platar Age: 7.5 Sweeps
Theme/Story: Agleas used to be an ordinary troll, until some dickbrain violetblood beat her into a pulp for sport, breaking her bones and horns and covering her whole body with scars. She was found by a rustblood, who became her moirail and began nursing her back to health. Only Agleas, her moirail, and the violetblood know her blood color. (I’d like to make her olive but then people would scream Polypa clone at me) Before the incident, Agleas was an avid sports player, competent in many different arenas. Now, she can only watch sports on her morail’s tv. Her favourite to watch is wrestling, so she can see someone else get beaten up for once. To avoid being culled, she has to stay inside, not that she could just get up and walk outside anyway.
I have to warn you right off the bat that you’re falling into some ableist stereotypes here. A disabled/scarred/disfigured troll isn’t an ‘unordinary’ troll, first of all. And the whole ‘character becomes disabled and is now meek and feels guilty about being dependent’ thing is a stereotype, too. Alternia actually seems, for the mostpart, to be rather disability-friendly. A disabled person could thrive there more than on earth, even, probably! There are disabled sports- those are something she could pursue or look into after her recovery to continue pursuing her passions. You can create a character who both is realistically limited by her abilities and experiences realistic levels of burnout from dealing with chronic conditions while also not having to rely on infantilizing and stripping independence from that disabled character.
You say at the end of this review “I know bandages isn’t really a personality”, and I have to agree. This story definitely has potential, but is barebones and, as the children say colloquially, the character is “woobified.” I have a few avenues to look at in this review that will help you craft something more interesting, so here’s where we play our Choose Your Own Adventure Game.
RUST: The EZ says that Rusts are hard to kill and I think she could benefit from that here. Maybe she could have been an up and coming athlete and high bloods were threatened by her presence in the sportosphere. She was beaten within an inch of death and just barely survived, because she’s always struggled to win despite the difficulties, she IS a survivor. Under this blood, she would still be ready to take on the world after everything. Her moirail would have to fight to keep her from trying to get back into sports right away, to take her time and rest.
OLIVE: The EZ states that olives are lucky, and luck could just be what saved her from death. The EZ states olives never fall too far into hopelessness, but also that they keep a grudge like nothing else. Under this blood, she could be somewhat revenge motivated. She could really benefit from having a story that ISN’T just ‘she’s disabled and sad about it’. Disabled people are people beyond their disabilities. Tracking down the guy who tried to gank her and kicking their ass could be great fun.
HIGHBLOOD: Somewhere in the cerulean-purple range, though I’m leaning Cerulean. Here you could craft a story about a rival highblood fucking her up. Maybe she was famous and she’s embarrassed about her fall from her previous position and that’s why she wants to keep her blood and identity a mystery from most everyone else? Her narrative could center around her learning that typical-ability isn’t the end-all be-all of worth and that she is perfectly talented without having to strive to change herself or push past her disability.
Now that we’ve discussed the paths we can take, I’ll jump into the rest of the review! Goals: Everything Strife Specibus: Not anymore. Fetch Modus: Her morail, *dadum crash*
Not a great joke. A disabled person can still use a fetch modus! Even a recovering one. They’re a metaphysical thing that doesn’t require the use of your hands to utilize. You could do an archery modus or a chess modus or a basketball modus or a Heartrate Monitor Modus (has to get her heart to a certain rate to unlock particular items, like a Fitbit but it controls her inventory), or you could pick something simpler and less involved. Blood Color: See that little section in Theme/Story Symbol and Meaning: See Blood Color Handle: Undecided
I’m thinking of something goofy like interminableJockstrap Quirk: quie+ly, as +o no+ move +oo much. uses + signs +o symbolize +he bandages.
We return once again to Bandages Aren’t A Personality. Her WHOLE identity doesn’t change just because she’s injured. If she’s dealing with chronic pain, maybe you could represent this with her making more typos. I know when my wrists are acting up, I am much less likely to go back and edit my mistakes. Special Abilities: None Lusus/Guardian: Her lusus is dead, so her morail’s badger lusus helps take care of her. Interests: Sports like arena stickball, wrestling, and whatever troll hockey is called. Also has an interest in medicine, ironically.
An interest in medicine isn’t ironic, it’s just a neat additional idea. If she was interested in physical therapy for sports injuries, it’s something she could take into her new situation and try to adapt to help herself recover!
Personality: Agleas is often jaded and unfriendly, pushing anyone away who tries to help. She isn’t very happy about having to ask her morail for everything, viewing it as her being weak. A little bit of her thinks being so badly injured was her fault, so she has to make up for it.
How did her and her moirail get together if Agleas is jaded and unfriendly? You have to understand that it’s a mutual relationship. It’s a kind of romance. If she pushes people away, how did they end up pale dating? And what does Agleas bring to the relationship? Disabled people put into relationships, too, they don’t only take. How does she feel about her moirail? What does she do for them? Are they healthy or unhealthy as a pair? Does her moirail make her feel like it’s an inconvenience to need help?
Like I said up above though, you’ve got a couple different blood routes you could take that’ll help you set your personality course in stone a little more. Lunar Sway: Derse probably. Title: Dunno.
I’d probably call her a Maid of Life, sticking in the life range makes the most sense because of the potential to grow and change, that directive energy that you could give her.
Land: I’m absolutely AWFUL at lands.
Land of Turf and Tournaments, maybe?
Okay, so yeah, “bandages” isn’t really a personality, but I tried my best. Any sort of ideas would be great. Sorry for submitting so many trolls lol.
Design time:
This is something of a major overhaul, but she needed the help. The way you word things implies that there’s been enough time since the injury that she was able to forge a new relationship with someone. And if this is the case, she’s probably not going to be absolutely covered in bandages. The only recovery process I can think of that would involve that would be from burn scars, not broken bones. I kept her leg casted up just as a nod to it, though.
Otherwise, I gave her an active wheelchair (crutches are NOT comfortable to use for any extended period of time) and put her in some real blank basics, allowing her to hide her blood color!
I hope this all helps!