danzan: This equation is easily solvable. (Let's review the facts.)
Jimmy ([personal profile] danzan) wrote2018-09-03 09:17 pm

app; [community profile] deerington

IN CHARACTER


Character Name: James "Logan" Howlett
Canon: X-Men Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: Late Days of Future Past; Logan's consciousness has been transferred to his revised timeline body, but he doesn't wake up

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Two tiny antlers on his left cheek, just under his eye. Suspiciously shaped like a heart.
Current Health/Status: Physically healthy, mentally held together with a rubberband. Logan's been pulled into Deerington whilst dreaming in bed.
Age: 191 years old, appears to be in his early to mid-forties
Species: Mutant (Homo sapien superior)

History: HERE, taking the original timeline's history + revised timeline's 1973 DOFP events. Excludes all other revised timeline events.

Personality:
It's easy to dismiss Logan as your regular, violent thug: he's big in the body, hairy in the flesh, has a permanently disgruntled expression, and wears a leather jacket to every occasion. His code name "Wolverine" even suggests that he's a clawed animal with a taste for blood, and while that's true, he's also a man co-existing with the monster-- a man who, despite first impressions, actually chose that code name in honour of someone he loved. With the inherent duality of his self, a common element in Logan's narrative is the search for who he is. He's received answers from many over the years: that he's a weapon, an animal, even a good man. Logan, meanwhile, simply thinks himself a survivor. These are all true in their own right, but they're also not all there is.

That he's a weapon and animal, cruel as they might sound, have been true since the manifestation of his mutation at age thirteen, when Logan's primary psychological conflict became the battle of chaos and control within himself. Having murdered his father that day, and after that been told in plain words that "he'd meant to do it", even as a child Logan was horrifically aware of his killing nature and, in turn, afraid of it. Throughout the years he'd learned to embrace part of it to survive, both in the forest he grew up in and in the wars he enlisted into at his brother's behest, but unlike his brother he never truly wanted it. Logan didn't want the anger in his blood or the violence to feed the animal inside, and he certainly didn't want the duty of following orders to kill people who didn't deserve it. Despite all that, he stuck by Victor's side anyway, and did this for over a century until destroying a small village in Lagos led to the breaking point of his morality.

The reason he put himself through all that hell is because Logan loved Victor, and cared about him as one of the few positive influences in his life growing up. That being said, any positive influence at all tends to be someone Logan becomes sorely attached to, and in turn won't hesitate to do drastic things for. A soldier at a Nagasaki camp Logan was imprisoned in was kind to him, so Logan let himself get caught in an atomic bomb to save him. A girl Logan met as a cage fighter treated him like a human being, so Logan became a costumed superhero to save her. Because of his own desperation to connect with someone, anyone, this pattern of sacrificing himself for those who were kind to him has prevailed multiple times in his life. In this light he differs from most traditional heroes because at his core, he fights for people instead of "justice" or "what's right for the world"; he becomes a hero not out of his own choice, but because he's forced to to keep his loved ones safe.

But no matter the reason for it, being a hero comes with its own set of challenges. Since joining up with Charles Xavier and his band of X-Men, Logan has been introduced to a new way of life: living outside yourself, and more for the sake of the world around you. Naturally, he's not the greatest at following this philosophy, but it's hard to adhere to it when he sees the world as a trial to survive. After fighting in four major wars (and a fifth by the time of Days of Future Past), Logan's witnessed humanity at its worst, and then even worse than that. He's even seen it up close and personal, having been lied to and betrayed and manipulated many times over the years. Add in the fact that "saving the world" also forced him to kill Jean Grey, one of the loves of his life, and the thought of sacrificing himself for such a place becomes a sketchy topic at best. It's not that he doesn't want to do better and prove himself a good man more than a mindless animal, but sometimes he isn't even sure it makes a difference.

So when Mariko Yashida, heir to a world-changing corporation, shared that as a child her grandfather told her the Wolverine was a monster that protected them from evil, Logan realised two things: that 1) the monster in him that he loathed could be a monster that provided safety to others; and 2) because he saved her grandfather ages ago in Nagasaki, that man was able to create the legacy Mariko inherited. Logan is not altruistic enough to live completely outside himself, not for a world that'd continue to hurt him while he remained immortal, but he can definitely be altruistic for certain people, especially those who truly give themselves to society to change it for the better. It just so happens that Charles Xavier, his X-Men, and the children at the Xavier's School learning their philosophies all fall under this category.

Meanwhile, ask Logan if he can impact society and he'll say he knows he can't. For one thing, he doesn't know how to be part of or how to connect with it. Much as he tries, he's a gruff man who'll never fully adapt to normal life or understand the people around him, especially because both are guaranteed to change throughout the years. Though he's capable of being gentle and kind, and as of late has even learned to share his own experiences, in the end there's always going to be a part of him that's been too wounded to really let himself go and live freely. After centuries of loss and suffering, Logan's heart has been through too much to ever be whole again, and he'll always worry that something bad is going to happen, as it has every time he let his guard down before.

But letting his guard down just a little bit, he's learned, isn't so bad. It's obvious in his relationship with Charles Xavier, but in general Logan has found that allowing himself to be vulnerable has changed his life for the better. There's sacrificing yourself for kind people, and then there's sacrificing yourself for people who would do the same thing for you. More than that, there's existing in peace with these people you're willing to die for, and having them love and care for you despite-- and even because of-- your flaws. For all his world-weariness, the X-Men's faith in him has taught him to believe in others as well, and thus turned him into someone more than capable of mentoring not just children, but also wayward psychics in the 70's.

In a way, it's true that Logan's a thug. It's true that he's an animal and a weapon. But these days he only kills to protect those who've earned his loyalty or need it, and that makes him inherently good. Logan's a wounded man with a healing factor that keeps people from seeing his scars, but he's reclaimed a sense of purpose he thought he lost-- a purpose that tells him to do what's right for his friends and those who can't fight for themselves. What's right for people might not always seem right by the books, but Logan's been through enough to know that books and codes aren't everything. The world can be bottom of the barrel shitty, but people aren't always, and if he can't connect with them by opening his heart, he can at least do it by being whatever they might need of him, whether as a man or as the Wolverine.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
Mutant Powers
  • Regeneration - Logan heals instantly from all natural diseases, poisons, and injuries. This is the reason for his halted ageing, his ability to adapt to extreme weather conditions (he can be naked in a blizzard, basically), a higher stamina (but not immunity to pain), a stronger resistance to telepathic attacks, and crystal clear, vivid memories that do not dull with the passage of time. Logan's healing factor is powerful enough that he can come back to life after death, but depending on the severity of the injury, the time it takes to resuscitate himself varies. Artificially created poisons that directly target his X-Gene and lock his mutation can give him a normal human's vulnerabilities, but barring that, decapitation and being shot point-blank with an adamantium bullet are the only ways he can permanently die.

    Warping: Minor injuries like small cuts, bruises, etc., will require Logan to actively think about healing himself, but will also transfer those injuries to other people around him. More serious injuries like twisted ankles, broken arms, larger cuts, or non-fatal bullet wounds will not be transferred, but still require conscious effort to heal and also cause him excruciating nausea (often to the point of vomiting). Major, life-threatening injuries will heal subconsciously and not transfer, but Logan loses some of his memories in turn. How much is lost depends on the severity of the injury, but often he'll just have the faces of those close to him wiped out whilst retaining the event itself. Being brought back to life, however, will remove an entire experience from him.
  • Retractable claws - He has a set of three 12-inch bones on either hand that he can push out between his knuckles and bring back into his body at will. Since being experimented on by William Stryker, Logan's entire skeletal system has had the rare and indestructible metal adamantium grafted to it, which means a) his bones cannot be broken; and b) his metal claws can cut through anything.

    Warping: Logan can extend his claws normally, but using them for more than an hour leads his mind to slowly turn feral. Full feral transformation requires four more hours after that initial one. Retracting his claws into his body will start the slow-ticking clock that returns him to a state of sound mind (usually taking half the time he was feral), but the act of retraction is now excruciatingly painful. Additionally, Logan will feel considerably dizzied for about a quarter of the length of time his claws were out.
  • Animal empathy - Logan can sense animals' emotional states and perform basic communication with them to promote peaceful cohabitation.
  • Enhanced strength, speed, agility, senses - It's a miracle he can move at all with his adamantium skeleton, but he has a beyond peak physical condition, especially thanks to his regeneration. Also, he has very keen senses of smell, hearing, and taste especially. His line of sight extends a little further than normal, but he's incapable of seeing in the dark.

Other Abilities
  • Survival skills - Having lived in the forest for a long while growing up and garnering experience in the wars, Logan's very good at living in the wild. This includes setting up shelter, making fires, finding food, tracking, making traps, catching fish, etc.
  • Hand-to-hand expertise - Logan's exposure to war, cage fighting, and other forms of battle have given him mastery of different hand-to-hand styles. He's efficient with his movements and methodical, but tends to default to using his claws in more difficult scenarios.
  • Stealth - Like a true predator, he's good at keeping quiet and sneaking around unnoticed. The enhanced senses help a lot, too.
  • Weapons proficiency - Especially with firearms, as he's shown to have wielded quite a number of them in the wars that he participated in. As far as melee weapons go, though, Logan's best with his claws.
  • Mechanical skill - Logan likes motorcycles and automobiles. He knows how to build and fix things.
  • Electrical/plumbing skill - Building and fixing also extends to household utility stuff. He's just a handyman, honestly.
  • Carpentry skill - Including the lumberjack skills necessary to start any work of carpentry.

Inventory:
  • One (1) Xavier's hoodie with a Nokia 3310 in its pocket
  • One (1) adamantium bullet
  • One (1) wallet containing $24.75, a line of photobooth pictures (it's Logan smushed in with Rogue D'Ancanto, Bobby Drake, Kitty Pryde, and Piotr Rasputin), other small and/or cut pictures of the X-Men and Logan with his students, and a folded letter from Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Ororo Munroe sent to him for his 190th birthday in 2022.
  • One (1) notepad with a ballpoint pen stuck through its spiral spine
  • One (1) box of gas station cigars, containing six (6) cheap-ass sticks
  • One (1) extremely weathered copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Writing Samples: Action + Introspect


OUT OF CHARACTER


Player Name: lance
Player Age: 18+
Player Contact: pm or [plurk.com profile] subatomic

Other Characters In Game: n/a
In-Game Tag If Accepted: james howlett: lance
Permissions for Character: here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling? fans of the x-men franchise (the comics especially) are welcome to know him and call him out, since the x-men comics do exist in logan's canon and have covered some of his real life experiences as an x-man, but i'd prefer it if no player characters explicitly told logan that he was fictional. game plots and npcs making him question his "realness" is fine in all aspects, though
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most? gore, body horror, monsters, monster transformations, being stripped of humanity to survive, disturbing/sickening imagery, physical torture/trauma to the extreme, etc. if it fucks a character up bad then i'm all for it
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for? nah
Additional Information: this sums logan up a million times better than i ever could