I have many questions about the Flammable Lizard, but in relation to the ask meme-
Which canon character annoys your OC?
Who would your OC say is their best friend?
Did your OC bear witness to anyone’s full character arc?
Meet Sally!
(Yes, Sally the Salamander. I let my players name her in the RPG and the Leonardo player got to her before the Michelangelo player, so. Our Leo was a little basic, so the name's a little basic, but Sally doesn't mind.)
Sally was a bio-engineered mutant who started life as an animal. In addition to being bigger and brighter than the average salamander—about 3 foot long and about as smart as a search and rescue dog—Sally also produces a viscous layer of highly flammable ooze. Intended as an untraceable weapon of sabotage, Sally's Evil Handlers™ trained her to squeeze into walls, vents, duct work, gaps, crawlspaces, etc and smear her pyro-goo on as many surfaces as possible. After she infiltrated a place, the Evil Handlers™ could touch open flame to the slime trail and take out an entire complex. Sally herself is fireproof, cannot speak, eats meats and chemicals (any), and has a compressible cartilaginous skeleton that allows her to fit down any pipe 3 inches (7.5 cm) or bigger. Her mucus-y layer of arson-snot takes about 24 hours to regenerate. If she gets into any chemicals (like lighter fluid, cleaning products, charcoal briquettes, or fossil fuels,) she may re-ooze faster. Like a goopy, squishy, flaming golden retriever, she's eager to please and infinitely bribe-able with treats. (She loves mothballs.) In game, the TMNT needed to figure out why a pattern of laboratories, manufacturing sites, and science firms were all getting burned down in bizarre arson attacks. They did not manage to find Sally's Evil Handlers™, but they did find Sally. Specifically, Leo found Sally in a burned out building. And Sally was friendly. And not gloppy because she'd just had all her fire-smear burned off. And she was hungry and cold and… Yeah. He took her home. (Of course she got loose in Don's lab. Of course there was a fire scare. Of course Master Splinter isn't crazy about her. But she's just so darn cute! Kinda. In a bug-eyed, fleshy, loogie kinda way.)
YOUR QUESTIONS!!
Which canon character annoys your OC?
Sally is very frustrated by Donatello. He smells delicious, but won't let her nibble his hands. He has a whole room of delicious chemical treats, but he won't share. He's all the time scraping her for samples, but he never wants to play. He says discouraging things like, "No, Sally! Don't eat that! Leave that alone! You can't come in! Stop it! Where did you get that?! Are you oozing in here?!?!" All in all, he's a buzzkill.
Who would your OC say is their best friend?
Sally loves her whole new family. Way better than the Evil Handers™. Raphael gives her his used engine oil. (R: It's environmentally responsible! Need an oil change? Jus' give the old stuff to the lizard! D: That's not—no. Raph. Also, she's a salamander. Those are amphibi— R: Look, you want I should pour it down the drain? That's bad for the harbor! An' look'it her. She likes it.) Michelangelo also sneaks her all kinds of treats. (M: One pepperoni for me. One pepperoni for the pizza. One pepperoni for Sally. OH! I got a whole can full of cooking grease! You want the grease, baby girl? Do ya? Do ya? Spl: Michelangelo, oils may be unwise. M: She can handle it! Can't you girl? She just makes goo with it! Spl: We have yet to see what other waste she makes—giving an animal like Sally a laxative would be madness.) Even Donatello can be a good companion. He was the first to give her mothballs! She loves mothballs! (L: Is that safe? D: She's a self-ambulatory, compressible, industrial sabotage weapon. There's nothing safe about her. The mothballs keep her out of my chemical cabinet. L: I'll go get the fire extinguisher just in case.) But her best buddy, her ride-or-die, her new Not-Evil Handler™ is Leonardo. He gives clear instructions. He stays calm. He got her a giant glass aquarium to sleep in. He lets her into his room (unlike the other three who are scared she'll eat/ignite/slime some precious collectible or reading material.) He gives nice neck rubs. He does all her 'controlled burns.' And most fun of all, he gives her games! Challenging stuff like "find the bottle cap" or "obstacle course" or "hide and seek tag." Sally's not a human-level intelligence mutant, but she's not a sleepy house pet either. She deeply appreciates Leonardo's interest in her enrichment.
Did your OC bear witness to anyone’s full character arc?
The RPG that included Sally did not go on long enough to call it a 'full' character arc. And Sally herself, being 'clever-dog' levels of smart wouldn't have really grokked what she was seeing anyways. But the Leonardo at the beginning of game was pretty stressed and troubled. Over the span of having Sally in sessions, Leonardo did relax more, play more, and tease more casually. He was responding very well to having a pet and Sally was in love with having a Not-Evil Handler™. So yeah, I'd say there was character development.
Thank you so much for sending me questions, @the-starry-seas! I had a lot of fun with this. Happy New Year! <3
