Silent Spring application

[spaghettimonster]

OOC
Player Name: Swirl
Pronouns: they/them
Player Age: mid-30s
Player Timezone: EST (but off-shift job)
Anything you MUST have warnings for? Only things on the "will not feature" list. I would prefer warnings for events/prompts that involve caretaking for alcoholism/addiction, but drug use itself is fine.
Other Characters in Game: n/a
Plurk (if you have one): swirlingflight
Other Contacts: PM to this account or swirlingflight. If there's a game discord, I'll join it. Immediate responses are unlikely via any contact method.
Invite source: Invite request granted by mod

IC
Character Full Name, Western Order: Papyrus, no last name given. I'm open to using the surname of any assigned family member, a variation on 'skeleton' or 'great', or otherwise coordinating with players of family members for something else to use.
Character Chronological Age: Specific number not given, but he holds a job, can be elected ruler of the underground, and is not one of the teenagers of Snowdin. I assume he's in his low-to-mid 20s.
Character Visible Age, if different: Same.
Character Gender: Male ("cool dude")

Canon: Undertale
Canonpoint: Ruler Papyrus ending, genocide run derailed by sparing Papyrus

ONE paragraph synopsis of character and canon premise:
Papyrus is one of the backbones of Undertale, an indie videogame that questions the lethal violence common in such games via the story of a human - capable of time travel - walking through a mountain cave system full of monsters. The Great Papyrus is the character with the most spoken lines, a skeleton monster that serves as the boss of the second region and the first major character that the player needs to befriend in order to get the happier endings of the game. He's introduced as a loud "human-hunting fanatic," giving puzzles and monologues of dramatic threats, in between bantering and bickering with his jokester brother. And this is largely a persona, one he partly drops in favor of seeking his real goals - relevance, friendship, and encouraging people to be the best them they can be. I'm taking him from an ending in which he convinced the murderous human to spare him, but not to stop killing overall - such that all the other regional bosses were killed. In the end, the surviving and grieving monsters looked to him as a local leader who made a difference, and elected him as the new ruler of the underground. As ruler, he's prioritized the morale issues with encouragements and food and entertainment, while his brother significantly assisted on the logistics and paperwork side of rulership, and the loneliness and stress of it have been a strain on Papyrus for a while. A vacation to a pleasant town like this is surely just the ticket.

Character Personality:

- Ambitious / Likes to challenge himself
"papyrus... finds difficulty in interesting places." - Sans
With the self-given title of The Great Papyrus and the use of the ore-sama pronoun in the JP translation, Papyrus is a skeleton prone to loudly declaring his own excellence. This extends from everything from his repeatedly insisting he'll join the Royal Guard any time now, to his method of attempting to join the guard in the first place (knocking on the captain's door and asking directly, rather than going through any official channels), to odd little things like the height of his sink. Specifically, Papyrus creates difficulty in various aspects of his life, from refusing to use the teleport magic the brothers seem to share, redesigning the kitchen sink to be taller than he is and then keeping on top of the housework anyway. It helps to give him a sense of always striving to improve himself - and even if he doesn't improve, the struggle against difficulties gives an explanation for his lack of advancement that at least partially satisfies his pride.

- Encouraging / Positive
"JUST DO WHAT I WOULD DO... BELIEVE IN YOU!!!" - Papyrus
Again starting with his self-given title, Papyrus is very big on framing things positively and hoping for the best. He's quick to talk himself up with boasts, but he's also quick to talk others up too. He's refused to accept Sans's descent into depression and lethargy, continuing to harass his brother with advice how to live a better life, complaining when he refuses but continuing to check in with him regularly through the day. No matter what the human's been doing before walking into Snowdin, he's willing to extend an offer of friendship and help, with many reassurances that they're great and can always do better. In some endings, he agrees to help another character with their self confidence, pushing them to join him in jogging and "hooting about how great we are!!!" In other endings where his life dreams are shattered and he's caring for another friend who's dangerously depressed and grieving, he still frames his life as "working hard, even if it's on nothing at all!"

- Creative
* (It's a photo of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror.)
* (He is wearing sunglasses.)
* (Giant muscular biceps are pasted onto his arms.)
* (The biceps are also wearing sunglasses.)
Whatever the cause, Papyrus has a unique perspective on reality, and this shows up in part as creativity. From a snow skeleton with a narrow spine and yet muscular arms, to a narrow rock formation repainted to look like a bridge, to arranging his magical attacks to spell out words and make shapes, he dabbles in artistic expression. One of his outfits has a 00 jersey as its base, with extra lettering added to change it to C00L DuDE, a change that summarizes a lot about him. Quite a few of the least grammatical sentences in the game are courtesy of Papyrus, tangling words and syllables for effect. And despite fandom portrayal, he's by far the character who makes the most puns through the game, though his are usually related to the topic on-hand and snuck into his comments.

- Passive-aggressive
"HMM.... YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK." - Papyrus
For all of his high-volume enthusiasm for magical fights and his willingness to complain about many things, Papyrus is fairly conflict-avoidant when it comes to openly disagreeing with people. He leaves his brother sticky notes about incomplete chores, a back and forth chain of notes on a sock left in the living room an unspecified length of time. He'll make faces and complain about the human when they don't play along with his shenanigans quickly or thoroughly enough, especially in this run. If offered insult, he pretends the speaker was insulting themselves, and doubles down on encouraging them not to think such things. When hearing a wildly different opinion on food he hates or reminded of the presence of a celebrity in an area he hates, suddenly he expresses love for it instead. Sometimes he goes silent, letting conversations go on around him while he lets them hold whatever views without realizing his. Several times when he's unhappy about a character's death, he goes silent and sad rather than say anything frustrated about it.

- Rigid
"I'VE BEEN WORKING ON A FEW THINGS. A FEW SENTENCES TO STAND AROUND AND REPEAT." - Papyrus
For all that Papyrus has the most spoken lines in the game, there's a practiced sense to many of the lines, and he admits a few times to practicing monologues and preparing speeches. Going off-script presents difficulties for him, as he trails off, stammers when nervous or unhappy, or sputters indignantly when interrupted. Whether the human has been extremely murderous or not, he introduces several of the puzzles with the same opening lines, and if a less murderous goes to fight him and be captured repeatedly, he'll give the same in-battle speech - despite a different opening speech each time. He's meticulous about some of his routines, regularly meeting with Undyne, showing up like clockwork to the local bar to pull Sans back to work, and standing in place for hours if need be.

- Eccentric
"He's weird, he's naive, he's self-absorbed... but Papyrus has NEVER missed a meeting." - Undyne
Let's be honest: for all his brother calls him a star, and his absence from Snowdin would bring the mood of the whole place down, the real first impression of Papyrus is that he's weird. He capslocks constantly, in what many players - quite reasonably - interpret as a Skeletor-like screeching, speaking and writing in the font he's seemingly named for. At the start of the game he's been wearing the same costume every day for weeks. His 'sentry station' isn't a practical thing that helps him towards his ambitions, it's a cardboard box held together with pasta screws, for the sake of an easily missed pun. In runs where he fights the human, Papyrus coordinates with his brother to prank the human he's supposed to be capturing; Sans pretends to give helpful advice about Papyrus' "blue attack" (a barrage of blue bones that won't hurt if the human holds still), only for Papyrus to use that described attack as a fakeout to follow it up with his other blue attack - a trick where the human's suddenly more subject to gravity, and has to jump quickly to avoid a rapid final bone. He's seen a naive or childish by many of the cast and the fandom alike, not helped by the children's books on his bookshelf - right alongside complicated technical guides for puzzle construction. And his personal background is a mystery even greater than his brothers - while Sans hints at a science background and a secret friendship with royal scientist Alphys, and all the other main characters have family or friends who tell at least one anecdote each about them from years prior, there's nothing for Papyrus. The most recent anecdotes are months, maybe a couple years prior.


Character History: Let me say upfront: nearly everything we know of Papyrus's history takes place after the skeleton brothers "appeared" in Snowdin Town, where they settled into a house on the edge of the village and promptly became known for their noisy antics. This took place a while before the game, but likely not more than a few years. Some easter eggs imply one or both brothers may be from another world, or that their personal histories may have been retconned out of memory - they joke and deflect away from almost any hints there. I plan to keep up that evasiveness, and to let other players know he won't actually talk about it unless they're okay with headcanon. That said...

We know that Papyrus is the younger of the brothers, without mention of a previous career, and more difficulties in things like making casual friends. Whatever connection or fulfillment is missing from his personal history, it's given him strong motivation to make new dreams and work intensely towards them. On moving to Snowdin he shortly sought jobs as sentries for both of them, beginning to maintain and customize the various puzzle obstacles along the road in Snowdin Forest, and working with his brother to prepare jokes and banter to offer any humans that might come their way. He later sought further advancement and renown by going directly to the Captain of the Royal Guard to join up - in the middle of the night. She pegged him as unwilling to kill anyone, and instead offered him him "training" in the form of (bad) cooking lessons in hopes he'd seek a different career. Over time they became friends, with him reporting to Undyne daily about concerns in Snowdin, meeting up to spar or cook "spaghetti", and her visiting Snowdin to hang out from time to time.

In this game route, he and Sans met a human on the road whose clothing was spattered with dust - given that monsters dissolve into dust upon dying, it was like seeing someone covered in red stains would be for a human. He nevertheless attempted to show off and entertain them all by presenting some of the puzzle obstacles, quickly growing discouraged when the human repeatedly silently walked past them. By the final puzzle, he began questioning the point of the effort with this - until Sans expressed surprise, at which point Papyrus doubled down on sentiments about appreciating one's friends. After that, he waited to stand between the human and the rest of the underground, where all the evacuatees had fled, in his usual battle location - to confront them not with his usual boss battle, but instead a lecture about their bad life choices and his willingness to believe in them. They didn't take the offered first strike, but instead spared him back, hanging out with him in Snowdin for a bit... and then continued a significantly murderous rampage against any other monsters who didn't show them mercy upfront. In the end, he was the only local leader left alive, and the surviving populace elected him to be the new ruler. He worked hard to address the flagging morale, while Sans took care of paperwork and most of the logistical responsibilities, and they both became even worse about lying to each other's faces about what was wrong - they pretended all the dead monsters were on "vacation," and Papyrus stopped confiding his real worries to Sans or anyone around at all.

Physical Details: Height/build: about 6' tall, and lanky rather than outright muscular. Humanized design looks somewhat Italian-American, with dark eyes, paler skin, and curly dark hair that he'll slick back with hair products. Even as a skeleton he used various skin and hair products, which now will go along with cologne and not necessarily mix harmoniously. No indoor voice, speaks loudly and somewhat hoarsely as a result. Prone to short sentences, pausing dramatically in the middle of longer ones, with whimsical grammatical deviations, and his own share of sneaking puns into his comments. Possibly short-sighted, given a couple comments in the game.

Does this character use any disability aids? What are they and what is their purpose? None shown in canon.

Is the character bringing a pet? Describe them. Alas, no.

Inventory upon arrival:
1. worn skull-and-crossbones flag
2. bone-shaped squeaky toy
3. golden crown (over-sized)

Suitability

What elements of the game are you most interested in engaging with? The friction with enforced rigid roles, the stress of being watched and meddled with, the lies and brainwashing, and the loss of control. I enjoy the use of domestic elements to contrast with and highlight the horror elements, rather than SOL for the sake of SOL.
How will your character integrate into the setting? How do you see them dealing with life in Sweetwater? What are your plans for them in this game? Starting out, Papyrus will try integrating into the setting as best as he can, determined smiles and all. Undertale's a cute game but one with unhappy elements, given the cast's captivity and near helplessness in the face of a hostile human. Papyrus, like the majority of the cast, generally tries (and sometimes fail) to look on the bright side of any given situation. He specifically tries to conform and be relevant to people in positions of power in the various endings of the game, but he's also very earnestly himself in ways that make him stand out awkwardly. I hope to find opportunities to have him visibly failing at the standards, and inviting the consequences for that.
Why did you choose this character specifically for this game? Papyrus is familiar with confinement and fear for his life, and generally still intentionally believes in himself and others, encouraging them to not give up. Even compared to his castmates, his demeanor often comes across as naive and optimistic. Compared to others applying to this game, he will likely seem cartoonish - but this should make for an interesting contrast with other more openly cynical or fearful characters. Additionally, a common theme in his actions of the various endings of Undertale is of conforming to the expectations of whoever's in charge, seeking popularity through association with power - he may be one of the characters most willing to try to conform to the mandated roles. I previously played Papyrus in We're Still Here, where he was unfortunately willing to play along with the gelatin culinary arts.
What are your favorite elements of horror?
I enjoy stories where the characters have reasons to doubt their memories or perceptions of reality, especially when effects of the medium are used to give the audience some taste of it. Games like In Stars And Time, Slay the Princess, Doki Doki Literature Club, and in some delightful ways Eternal Darkness, all play with establishing expectations for gameplay mechanics, and then breaking or subverting them. A few of these games and stories like Bioshock portray manipulation or mind control by offering the player extremely limited actions at certain points of the stories. Some of the longterm story arcs in Welcome to Nightvale and the Locked Tomb involve memory loss, repression, and outright reprogramming to filter the perceptions of the characters, with early confident statements later questioned or outright contradicted, leaving the story's history and worldbuilding difficult to pin down.
Do you understand that Silent Spring's purpose is horror, not domesticity/found family, and that the following themes (nuclear panic, the Red Scare, conformism, sexism and restrictive gender roles, heteronormativity/gender binarism, surveillance, gaslighting, brainwashing/propaganda, disinformation, pollution/contamination, poisoning, loss of control, smoking, alcohol culture, and uncanny valley) cannot be opted out of? Yes! I am looking forward to many of these elements, and am okay with the others.
Do you agree to accept the potential IC consequences (social shunning/ostracism, potential exclusion from neighborhood social events, up to brainwashing, sleep deprivation torture, and nonconsensual haloperidol injection) in full for your character's actions in game? Yes, I am looking forward to several of these consequences.

Housing Preferences

What is your usual tagging speed? Tagging patterns? I aim to reply to tags within 48 hours, and enjoy tagging back and forth when schedules line up. I mostly tag during an hour or two block around 1am and/or 1pm EST, especially on weekdays - weekends vary between unavailable and available all day.
What activity level is ideal to you in a partner? I'm fine with backtagging and slow threads, but very slow or dropped plotlines can make building CR and character development in games more difficult. It's better if a partner is able to talk ooc to coordinate a rough idea of how a given plot resolves, whether we do or don't finish a given thread.
What is your timezone? How important is it that the other players in the household be in a similar timezone? Similar timezones are not not necessary, as I work an off-shift job that interferes with EST evenings, but ideally we would have some overlapping tag times, or at least time in which to plot and handwave the household dynamics.
Would you like a household with a child, without, or do you have no preference? No preference!
Are you okay with being placed with a character/character(s) that would impact your character's reputation? By all means, give Papyrus the extra stress! He could use it.