Dave Strider (AU)

Dave Strider is a mutated human from modern-day Earth. He arrived in-game on 4/15 sans a decent pair of pants and will never live that down. Ever. He currently lives at ye olde Striderhaus with the rest of the ironic douchey hooligans.

age: 13

origins: Homestuck (AU)

app link: aquí

hmd: aquí

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played by: Zaechel

contact: AIM: flyingmahkite

Setting
Homestuck's universe isn't that far-removed from the one we live in. At least, not initially. Both the original canon and this alteration take place on modern-day Earth. While the canon 'verse eventually spans multiple player-created planets, a secondary alien world, and pockets of existence that exist outside the laws of space and time, this alteration never goes beyond planet Earth. In fact, it never even goes beyond 21st century America.

WORLD MECHANICS

In the original 'verse, all humans have something called a Sylladex, which functions as a hammerspace inventory. Sylladex owners can captchalogue all items of reasonable size, which effectively stores them on a card. There are many different Sylladex types, referred to as Fetch Modii, and that's just a fancy way of saying 'how you get your crap back out when you need it', since each Modus has a different set of rules for how to retrieve items.

In the same vein, we have Strife Specibi. It's a system of weapon allocation, as the Homestuck verse is rather picky about hows its characters engage in combat. Specibi come in many flavors, like bladekind, riflekind, needlekind, and hammerkind, to name a familiar few. Characters with multiple Specibi need to store them in a Strife Portfolio. So long story short, residents of the original 'verse aren't allowed to pick up any old object and swing it at an enemy. That's crazy talk.

However, in the alternate verse, it IS as simple as that. No sylladice, no strife specibi, no problem. That means the residents can't carry large amounts of STUFF around with them, but it also means they can pick up a chair and bring on the pain without having to fuss with anything beforehand.

The alternate Earth also has some pretty snazzy technology, like advanced prosthetics and robotics, advanced cloning techniques, and numerous devices meant to give humans an edge over the increasing mutant threat. More on that later.

CATACLYSMIC EVENT

Sburb/Sgrub: This game is the very foundation Homestuck is built on. It's billed as an immersive simulation, and it allows a Server Player to directly manipulate a Client Player's home environment. Chain together several players and you've got yourself a Session! So what's the point of all this? To create a shiny new Universe, of course. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of the players' home universe, obliterating their planet with meteors. S___b is essentially a one-way ticket out of the apocalypse. It creates a specialized playing field with individual planets (always the Land of ___ and ___ ) set up for each member of the session. They're also bestowed titles meant to challenge them in some way. This playing field is the Incipisphere, and it's where a great deal of the action in Homestuck takes place.

The session created by four human kids is of particular interest.

John Egbert, the Heir of Breath, is transported to the Land of Wind and Shade. Jade Harley, the Witch of Space, is transported to the Land of Frost and Frogs. Dave Strider, the Knight of Time, is transported to the Land of Heat and Clockwork. Rose Lalonde, the Seer of Light, is transported to the Land of Light and Rain.

After prototyping (chucking an item into) these weird spirit guide things called Kernelsprites and entering the game world, players must pass through the Gates present on their special planets, then cycle through each others' planets on a quest to reach the source of creative potential located at the center of the Incipisphere. This is Skaia. The Battlefield is located here, and that is where the armies of light and darkness wage a war over Skaia's fate. Prospit, the planet that orbits Skaia, attempts to protect it, while Derse, the planet located on the fringes of the Incipisphere, seeks to destroy it. These planets also host the players' dreamselves. These function as a 1-Up, allowing the player to come back to life by assuming control of the dreamself. If a player happens to die on a specific sort of sacrificial altar known as a Quest Bed, they can rocket up to the God Tiers. Think ultra-hax special abilities and a kickass new wardrobe. John and Jade dream on Prospit while Dave and Rose dream on Derse.

In every session, Derse wins the war and causes the Reckoning. This summons the meteors from the Veil and pelts them at Skaia, which defends itself by opening portals that transport the meteors to the players' original planet. It's a big ol' time loop, and that's important to understand when taking ectobiology into account. All players (and their guardians) are created via ectobiology, which, in short, involves mixing paradox clone goo together and zapping up a bunch of weird clone babies. The babies are sent back in time on the meteors to grow up and fulfill their Guardian/Player duties.

Anyway, Skaia's defensive portals can't transport the largest of these meteors though, and if they make it to Skaia, well. Game Over. Players must build up to Skaia and defeat the end boss before this happens, which nets them the shiny new universe, provided they did all that was necessary beforehand and nothing swoops in at the last second to screw everything up. The four kids involved in the session we care about most inadvertently doomed it, which screwed another session over in an entirely different universe.

Which is all well and good for the original 'verse, but in the alternate one? There's no Sburb. Earth is safe from planet-destroying meteors, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a picnic for humankind. Something entirely different is set to wipe out all life on Earth, and that something is the Ray Virus. The alternate 'verse is one where genetic mutations are starting to show up in the population of the United States. It was harmless stuff at first -- a few people were being born with unnaturally colored irises. No big deal. But then came the kids with horns, and that's when everything took a turn for the worse. As they got older, these strange, horned individuals turned on people, lashing out with lethal force. Those studying this phenomenon came to the conclusion that these horned mutants, dubbed Invimanus, are meant to usher in the end of humanity. Their goal seems to involve replacing humans as the dominant species on the planet. They achieve this by spreading the virus with their rays (telekinetic extra arms. Any human male that comes into contact with rays is guaranteed to have mutant children.

This is just a little bit problematic. All Invimanus born from this process are sterile. What's more, they age twice as fast as regular humans. If this generation of mutants replaced humanity, the species would die out very quickly. However, another variant of Invimanus exists. In the days before the wave of Invimanus births, before hospitals were being screened for pink-haired, horned babies, before the crisis was exploding in the Southern United States, a handful of Invimanus were born naturally from human parents. The last of the first-gens? A kid named Dave Strider.

Personality
A lot of Dave's personality stems from his weird, weird upbringing. Because as we all know Bro is a strange fucker no matter what universe he hails from. Growing up, Dave's personality remained largely the same as in canon; one cool motherfucker, the master of deadpan snark, and one of the few people on Earth capable of giving negative shits. As a little kid he was self-conscious about his horns and bubblegum hair, but Bro drilled that Strider mantra into his deformed skull early on. Dave withstood a lot of teasing with his technicolor head held high. Wearing pink was ironic enough; pink hair put him on par with the fucking irony gods. Eventually, he was able to turn the mocking around, effectively counter-trolling his tormentors. Unfortunately, the bullies didn't appreciate his quasi-anti-whatever-hipster ways, and nor did they appreciate their insults and jokes bouncing right off their mutant target.

Verbal bullying turned physical, and Dave was less equipped to handle that.

For awhile, at least. Bro eventually taught him how to defend himself, which worked pretty damn well, even against the older kids that were picking on him. This gave him more confidence; he learned fast, he was a quick little shit, and he could take on kids twice his size. Who wouldn't get a little full of himself? Once his rays developed, he only got cockier, even though Bro still could kick his ass. Goddamn ninja.

Around the age of seven is where things started getting a little wonkier.

Ever since his first physical spat with the neighborhood assholes, he'd been hearing a voice. And he sure as shit never told anyone about that -- who wants to look absolutely batfuck insane? Weak whispers at first, and at night, in his dreams, it only got louder. Everyone is the product of nurture and nature interacting, and Invimanus are born with a different set natural instincts. Lashing out at humans is the norm, though it's hard to say if this is all instinctive or part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. In any case, there's at least some natural inclination towards murder, and this is what was manifesting at the edges of Dave's subconsciousness. As the bullying escalated in severity, the voice, the urge to lash out -- that followed suit. It's a second personality of sorts, something he always actively tried to repress. He managed to keep it under wraps, though during his final spat with the bullies it finally convinced him to take action. It was just a little less lethal than the voice had been urging.

However, witnessing Bro's death triggered a takeover of Dave's second personality, marking the first time he completely caved to it.. Constant experimentation at the Institute didn't help suppress the murderous thoughts, and a long, LONG time spent in isolation left him alone to stew in them. Dave's current personality is the result of a merge -- a merge between his coolkid persona and the Invimanus instincts. At the point I'm taking him from, he hasn't had time to learn that not all humans want to fuck him over. He's even convinced his online buddies would've rejected him, had he ever shown them what he looked like. (Sing!Note: They didn't. This helped A LOT.)

So Dave is bitter around the edges, but it's not especially overt. It's more of a simmering, ever-present hostility that waxes and wanes depending on the situation. Like Canon!Dave, he hides emotion beneath the surface, which can make it especially jarring when he lops someone's head off without ever losing his cool. While the two personalities usually stay balanced, there are times where he really tries to be all Dave, the Dave his brother raised and would be proud of, and during those moments it's hard to believe he's a killer. He jokes, he's playfully sarcastic, and he revels in irony. But then there are also times when he's all Invimanus, which means no mercy for anyone. It's a constant internal war -- Dave vs. Dave.

Abilities & Weaknesses
ABILITIES

All Invimanus have invisible telekinetic 'arms'. They're known as rays, and while they vary from mutant to mutant in amount, strength, speed, and length, they all carry extremely destructive potential. This potential depends on what frequency the wielder is vibrating them at.

Low to Medium: They act most like arms in these states, except for the part where they can go through things/people, reaching inside and fucking shit up from within. It's exactly as nasty as it sounds.

High: Now they can rip through pretty much anything. This includes people. People are generally the primary target.

Ultra-high: Explosive on contact. This state is mucher rarer than the other three.

Dave has 4, and currently, they can only reach 1.3 meters. They can and likely will lengthen, as he is a young first-gen. Later generations come equipped with more/longer arms, but they sacrifice speed/strength/explosive potential and don't develop further. Dave's first-gen speciality is speed. Of course.

WEAKNESSES

Dave has the stamina of a thirteen-year-old boy. So it doesn't actually take much to knock him over. The only trick is getting close enough. While he can deflect normal gunfire with his rays, he's unable to deflect ammunition from higher-caliber weaponry. Heavy objects at high speeds are the key to breaching his defenses, and one hit can do the trick. Headshots are particularly effective, and breaking a horn is pretty devastating to his health. Not only will this disable his rays for a set time, it'll send him into a lethargic state. Knock both off and it's vegetable time.

Also, the more he pushes himself, the more taxing it is for his body. A fully-developed Invimanus can actually destroy an Earth-sized planet. This level of destruction comes with a heavy price tag; it'll kill the wielder, melting their body from the inside out. Dave's too young to get to this point in Singularity. However, he can still overwork his powers, and if that happens he'll start vomiting blood and render himself basically useless.

''SingNote! Normally, people from Dave's world cannot see rays. But Singularity is full of gifted people/creatures/what-have-yous, so feel free to say your character can see them. It's a good way to remove their edge in combat. ''

Character Relationships
Singularity now uses character profiles to replace the previously-mandatory CR charts! Use this section to list your character's relationships and interactions with other characters. You can format however you want. Try to keep this section as up-to-date as possible.

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