#INVICTUS TASK 001:
CHARACTER INTRO
000. Application
{ danielle brooks. cis-female, she/her. } hey, did you see the video of [ slapstick ] [ breaking through a wall like the Kool-Aid man ]? apparently their real name is [ sarah smith ] and they’re [ signed with valerian universal ]. people in the comments are calling them [ the flame ] , and saying their permutation is probably [ cartoon physics ] — that would mean they scored an [ C ] on the f.b.a.i. assessment rank, right? i mean, i guess it sort of looks like them, if you squint. i'm not sure though, the person on the video doesn’t look like a [ 32 ] year old who would list [ pockets full of snacks to an impossible degree, drones following you during patrol filming you as you defy the laws of physics with a giggle, filling in an adult coloring book as old cartoons play on the TV, books piled in your bedside as you page through the newspaper to get to the Sunday strip, rubber ducks looking at you from the windowsill ] as their interests on alterego. what? don't look at me like that — i got curious! besides, if that even is them in the video, it’s probably a pr thing for realhero tv, Physical 1000, and Dancing with the SuperStars. — ( slipped by ori. 26. she/her. est. none. )
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001. General.
name: Sarah Smith nickname/hero alias if applicable: Slapstick, Bugs faceclaim: Danielle Brooks age/date of birth: 32 || November 1st, 1990 gender & pronouns: Cis-Female & She/Her orientation/marital status: Bisexual/Biromantic distinguishing features: A blinding smile with dimples, laughter lines near her eyes, due to her permutation her emotions sometimes manifest as symbols around her (hearts when swooning, thunderclouds when angry), hair that is in a different yet elaborate hairstyle every other week occupation: Streamer & Steward at Valerian Universal power: Cartoon Physics height: 5’0” place of birth: Queens, NKC, USA family: Miriam Jones (mother), John Smith (father) current residence: Newpoint Vistas, Brooklyn, NKC
002. Iconography.
character inspirations: Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes), Roger Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), Sokka (Avatar), Squirrel Girl (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl), character tropes: Funster, Jester (Archetype), Lady of Adventure, Snarky McSnarkerson, Underdog, Lovable Sidekick, Plucky Comic Relief, Deadpan Snarker, Underestimating Intelligence, zodiac sign: Scorpio mbti: ESTP positive traits: creative, sarcastic, friendly, brave negative traits: impulsive, insecure, disorganized, jaded likes: baking, reading, drawing, art, history, comics, videogames, cartoons, rubber ducks, snacks of all types, cooking, streaming, chatting with people dislikes: the way valerian is setting her up as the plucky comic relief to their A and B Rank Heroes, being underestimated, being dismissed fears: that no one will ever see beyond the image valerian is crafting for her, losing her loved ones, failing on her job, people dying because of something she could have prevented habits: chewing her lower lip, describing her actions out loud while she patrols for the little drone that follows her around with her viewers, tripping over air, snaking as she walks hobbies: streaming (although it’s also technically her job), playing videogames, reading, watching cartoons (with a preference for looney tunes sort of shows), trying different art styles (with a preference for cartoons and still lifes). pets: A big, bossy grey American Fuzzy Lop bunny named Daffy Duck (called Daffy) and a shy orange Maine Coon named Tweety Bird (called Birdie)
003. Extras.
bio:
(tw: implied fatphobia)
Were it not her permutation, Sarah would have likely lived a regular upper-middle class life in Queens, NKC. With a mother working as an Art History Professor at X University and a father working as an English Professor, Sarah grew up loving art and storytelling. Her parents had met on their university’s newspaper, working as the paper’s cartoonists and had fallen in love through countless hours spent together drafting the adventures of Sara Sutherland, a precocious duck that ventured all over their university’s campus. Sarah is named after the character, and part of her has always wondered if this was a chicken and the egg sort of situation. Was she always meant to have the permutation that she does, or did being named after a cartoon character her parents created (like they created her) have any weight on the matter?
She doesn’t know, but it is a fun question to pose to people to fuck with them.
At the end of the day, Sarah grew up beloved, and she knew it. This helped her face the world with confidence, even when the world was not always kind about her appearance. It’s that confidence, and a childhood fascination with superhero cartoons and comics, that prompted her to become a part-time steward while in her second year in college when BYOH launched. At the beginning, she wasn’t very well known, because she was only a C-Rank and BYOH had just been born, but that didn’t matter. Sarah found that she liked bringing smiles to people’s faces, as well as making them laugh, and with her ability it was easy to do as much as a steward.
In her final year in college, she began streaming her work in BYOH whenever she could get permission from her clients, testing the hypothesis that an audience through stream would give her a boost to her powers. Her hypothesis proved true: the more people were watching her through her stream, the easier it was for her to defy the laws of physics and do a little comedic routine. Slowly, but surely, her channel gained popularity, because who wouldn’t want to see a cartoon character brought to life? By the time she turned twenty-six, she was popular enough as a streamer that she could quit her job and stream her BYOH work full-time.
That was around the time Valerian Universal came knocking.
Needless to say, Sarah was shocked. She knew she was popular enough as both a streamer and a steward, but she hadn’t realized that it would have been enough to get the attention from Thee Valerian Universal. She signed up without hesitation, as soon as she was made an offer (after running the contract through her parents and their professors’ union rep to make sure there weren’t any unfair clauses)(there were some, which she asked to be taken out, and others that she couldn’t like Valerian claiming a percentage of the money she would make through her streams from now on), thinking the world was opening before her eyes.
Reality soon sunk in, though, and Valerian lost most of its shine. They had wanted her, yes, but not to make her an A-Rank Steward. They had wanted her as the comedy relief, and for all that Sarah enjoyed bringing laughter to others, to be told that she would never amount to anything more than that? It dealt a heavy blow to her confidence. The fact that her stream’s popularity shot up as soon as she signed with Valerian helped, for a while, but with the new popularity came a new wave of hate comments. By then, her already weakened confidence went out the window, and for three years, she only went through the motions, jaded by the realization that Valerian had no expectations on her.
Then, she turned thirty-one. Then the Level 8 threat happened. She remembered why she had wanted to be a steward, to protect people’s smiles. She remembered that while maybe Valerian didn’t have expectations on her, she could.
It’s like she had her eyes closed for years, and had finally opened them.
She decided, then, that she wanted to prove Valerian, and everyone else who only saw her as a comedic sidekick, wrong. She would become a respected steward (whether it was as an A rank or B rank, she didn’t care), and she would show them all that she could do that while still bringing smiles to people’s faces.
wanted connections:
The Blue Blood: I will do several, likely illegal, things for whoever brings them in. I am dead serious. I want the ✨drama ✨. Three bonus points if The Blue Blood is also part of the Power Couple subplot for the angst and emotions.
The PR Cases: Slapstick’s image has been designed by Valerian to be the Plucky Comic Relief, the Forever Sidekick, etc etc. This means, whenever an A or B Rank steward is doing particularly bad in the online polls/general media, Valerian’s PR team throws them to Slapstick and all but chains them together for a few months or so, since being around her generally leads to funny shenanigans that have around a 87% of becoming an internet meme, thus turning around the steward’s public opinion. Slapstick has been at Valerian for five years, so let’s say she has done this at least 3 times. The actual dynamics between the stewards it’s up for plotting. (0/3)
The Forever Fan: A muse that has been following Sarah ever since she was working in BYOH, back when she went by her streamer handle @sarahtoon, and followed her endeavors into Valerian.
Former Collab Partners: While she is not incredibly famous, she is a well-established streamer with a good range of fans considering she streams while doing her patrols to boost her abilities. As such, it is viable that muses from Kardinal might have appeared on her streams at some point… Before the Beef™ was planned of course.
Childhood Friends: She grew up in Queens, and has lived her entire life in NKC, so she could make for a good childhood friend.
Exes: I imagine Sarah has more than one ex, but all things considered, she could have had one to two relationships with permuted through the years. The dynamic is up to interpretation, but I just think its a neat dynamic to explore.
Friends: What says in the tin, as simple as that.
Rivals: Another C-Rank that is racing to up their rank like Sarah.
One day, I will Get You: One of the more popular stewards (A to B Rank) that openly dismisses Sarah because of her permutation, since well. It is kind of silly, isn’t it?
memes:
More here