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Save Our Earth W.I.P.
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Roach
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
skitteringroach
Current characters in the game: N/A
IC INFORMATION
PREINCARNATION
Name: Ickis
Canon: AaahhReal!!! Monsters
Age: Unknown (The timeline of this show is all over the place, while popular theory is that he's possibly about 90, I theorize he's probably closer to 30-40. Either way, he's considered an adolescent monster, as they can live up to several hundred years.)
Species: Monster (Loomer)
Appearance: [x] Ickis was very obviously not human and more often mistaken for some kind of mutated bipedal rabbit. He's small (about 2 feet tall or so, not counting his ears) has long "rabbit ears", short fuzzy magenta fur, lavender lips and inner ears, retractable fangs and claws, glowing yellow eyes with no sclera, a cone-shaped body, and feet shaped like elf shoes.
History: Show Wiki [x] Ickis Wiki [x]
Coming from a long line of well-known Loomers and a particularly famous father, Ickis was shown to initially act like a spoiled egotistical brat who assumed he could coast through life on his families coattails. After he got into school it quickly became apparent that not only was he not a prodigy like he had been claiming to be, but that the school was not just going to let him squeak by on his name alone.
It wasn't long after making his first real friends in Oblina and Krumm, that his true colors finally began to show. And it was revealed that under all his initial bluster he's actually a nervous insecure little wreck, who believes he has no chance of living up to his families legacy.
Over the course of the show, he goes from being the shy necrotic worrywart of the bunch to being the one unintentionally causing most of the problems the main group or the school faced. Usually because of unrestrained curiosity (particularly when it came to humans and their culture/media/technology), an occasional lack of impulse control, his overblown ego or massive insecurity sending him into a downward spiral, a sudden burst of hero complex or just his near constant stream of terrible luck.
Not to say that he's always a pest (though he certainly had his moments), or that there wasn't occasionally good intentions behind the trouble he dragged around with him or even that he was the only one in his friend group to cause problems (honestly Oblina and to a lesser extent Krumm, aren't that much better, and as often as they might be trying to play the part of angel on Ickis's shoulder, they're just as often the ones goading him into doing something stupid/dangerous despite knowing he's prone to bouncing between pleading to not have to do the thing and losing all impulse control or ability to say no to doing the thing), just that for one reason or another he seemed to be at the center of trouble more often than not.
REINCARNATION
Name: Ikshu Khargosh
Age: 16
Appearance: Reincarnation has humanized him, and he now looks like this [x] [x]. He's short for his age, 152.4cm (5'1"), scrawny, with short messy black hair dyed dark magenta.
History: Though originally from Mossgate, Ikshu's spent most of his life split between New York and California. His father, Sani Khargosh, was a fairly well-known actor who mostly starred in campy B-Horror movies, as well as an even campyer sci-fi comedy on the BBC that only lasted about two seasons.
First Echo: When he was four, just a little before his family initially left Mossgate, there was an incident between him and an older kid that ended in a tussle. When the other kid pinned him down (a situation that had unfortunately happened to him quite often in his previous life) he took a sharp turn from pleading to be left alone, to furious. While his eyes didn't turn red like they would have in his previous life, his irises did turn yellow (signifying the start of them changing) and he was able to bite the kid's arm and squirm away when they started crying.
His eyes remained yellow throughout the rest of his families time in Mossgate, which had initially caused a bit of worry for his parents, despite neither an ophthalmologist or the family doctor being able to find anything technically wrong with him. But upon moving to America they changed back to their natural brown, and the incident was mostly forgotten.
Swiftly after moving back, they've once again worryingly shifted to yellow.
PERSONALITY
Pre-Incarnation Personality:
Ickis has a personality that often seems at odds with itself. A necrotic over-thinker with near cripplingly anxiety who's still mischievous and constantly pushing at the boundaries of what he can get away with. Painfully shy yet just a little too blunt and often starved for attention and validation. Incredibly self-deprecating and seemingly thinks very little of himself, yet can turn in to an obnoxious egotist at the drop of a hat. The embodiment of ambitious but lazy. Easily scared and quick to buckle under pressure, yet at times still heroic and willing to put himself in danger not just for his friends, but people who've made his life miserable and proven that they wouldn't return the favor. Soft-spoken one moment, whining panicky shriek factory the next.
This may be due to him often trying to act differently around others than he does his closest friends. He's generally much more honest around his friends unless he's feeling particularly vulnerable, and backslides into hiding his insecurity under whining, egotism or bitterness. But around others, he still occasionally seems to be trying to hold up the image that he's tougher than he generally comes off and is more talented than his grades would suggest.
The closer he is to someone the sweeter and more soft-spoken he becomes, and he's shown to even be a bit of a mother hen toward his two closest friends in the show. And while still mischievous, excitable, overly curious and impulsive, he's also much more open about his anxiety, quick to fall into hysterics when under too much pressure and is a bit prone to stuttering when he's flustered, nervous or excited. And while he can definitely still be a boisterous troublemaker around his friends too, he's more likely to do be like that in front of strangers or secondary friends he's not as close with and is trying to impress.
While he likes to joke with or rib his closer friends and can be particularly argumentative with Oblina (who's just as opinionated as he is, twice as stubborn and the least likely to enable his bad habits or put up with his whining), it's clear he thinks the world of them and would do just about anything for them. Even if he does occasionally need a push, or a bit of guilt tripping to get him going in instances where the situation has gotten more dangerous.
Unfortunately, it's usually just as obvious that he thinks little of himself. He loathes that he's often considered cute, and with the constant pressure of trying to live up to the legacy of his father that's literally looming over him, he considers himself a failure for not being a natural at scarring or his studies, even though his father has tried to assure him that he wasn't a natural either. There has been time's he's openly admitted to feeling like an embarrassment to his family or a burden to his friends (though not necessarily to their faces), and has even run away from school at some of his lowest points, despite the fact that he's well aware of how hard it would be to survive for long outside of the underground.
Even more, unfortunately, he seems to try to compensate for his lack of self-confidence by occasionally still acting like he's actually God's gift to the monster world. While sometimes it's obvious he's just joking, trying to pump himself up or make himself feel better, there are other times where he seems to fall for his own hype and flies off on an ego trip. Sometimes going so far as to act like he's somehow immune to the repercussions of the world. These times are when he's at his most thoughtless and impulsive, and he's been known to make a pretty big ass of himself. Which in the end only makes him feel more self-conscious when reality comes crashing down around his ears and he realizes what a mistake he's made.
Can also be irritable and a bit temperamental, especially toward those he's not as close to. Though he's mostly bark with only the occasional and sometimes very literal bite. Generally, he doesn't go beyond a snippy or sarcastic attitude, usually coupled with whining, when he's feeling particularly anxious. He only ever seems to actually act on it when he's pushed to a breaking point of some kind, particularly when it comes to seeing someone else getting pushed around.
For all his faults though, his saving grace is his empathy and loyalty. Even if that does lead him to being a little too trusting or forgiving at times, it's also lead to him making some rather unusual friends. Including an outcast from the monster world who gave up on living with other monsters after he was shunned for looking too human, and a rebellious young monster who thought all the other's attending the academy were nothing but elitist snobs. In both cases, he's shown to relate to them in ways others either couldn't or wouldn't and at points where they asked him to give up on them, he refused. For one, he convinced him that there were reasons to return back to the monster world, and for the other, he saved him after the kid almost got himself killed, as well as unintentionally inspiring him to give joining school a chance.
He's also become friends with humans, which in the monster world is considered forbidden or at the very best, extremely taboo. The majority of monsters consider humans to be sort of below them, seeing them as distasteful, pitiable or just something to be used. Ickis is shown to be one of the few monsters in the show that is not only curious about them, or enjoys some of their culture, but is actually willing to engage with them like they're equals. He's befriended both a boy who he'd initially scared, and a blind homeless jazz musician who took him in for a time after mistaking Ickis for a runaway. Again, in both circumstances, he was able to connect with them in ways others didn't and even defended both of them. Scaring off a bear for the kid and saving the old man from being crushed by a demolition crew tearing down the building they had been squatting in.
And this even extended past people he likes. More than once he's shown going to extream lengths to help people he's either terrified of or who have done nothing but make his life miserable, he's even shown occasionally connecting with them on some level (even if no substantial change to their dynamic comes from it). That's not to say that he's always done this willingly. There are times he's had to guilt trip himself into helping someone he didn't like but knew needed help, or had to be convinced to do it by someone else.
Any differences?:
While he still grew up in his father's shadow in this universe, and his relationship with him is much the same, with him wishing he were around more often and struggling with feelings of inadequacy when compared to him. There's now the added complication of feeling responsible for situations like his parents splitting up and his father giving up his carrier for nearly a decade. While neither is actually his fault and even he knows his father would tell him that if he were open about this, he can't help feeling that way anyway.
It's made him even more insecure than he was in his previous life. Which has made him less likely to have the kinds of egotrip moments he had in his last life, but has also made things more strained between him and his father. Which is why, despite going through what might be dubbed a 'rebellious phase', or exhibiting 'attention seeking behavior', he frets over his father finding out about him skipping school or acting out. Hating the idea of him having a reason to be disappointed, or worse force him to think he needs to quit working again.
He's also a lot less trusting in this life. Having experienced people trying to befriend him just so they could meet his father or take advantage of him in some way, he's quick to question the motives of anyone seemingly trying to get close to him for no reason. Extra points of suspicion given to those that open with how great his dad is. Due to this, he's also become a lot less interested in impressing people (unless it's someone he's already friends with or someone he wants to be friends with), pleasing everyone or being popular. In fact, he can be quite standoffish and sardonic toward new people, particularly toward anyone he sees as cloying or who brings up his dad. Unfortunately, his judge of character is still just as terrible as it was in his old life and he's been prone to falling in with some pretty awful or sketchy people anyway.
He's also dealing with generalized anxiety disorder and depression. And while he's taking medication and seeking help for both, the symptoms are still there and he'll have good days/weeks and bad ones. He's been dealing with the anxiety since he was about eleven or so, while the depression was more recently diagnosed.
Abilities:
Monster anatomy - Monsters are quite a bit more durable than your average human. Their bodies have a kind of elasticity that allows them to both squeeze through tight spots (he's been shown being able to fit through a sink faucet), and handle damage better, particularly from falls or being compressed (he's been put in a trash compactor multiple times and he came out of it just fine). They can still get hurt and healing still seems to take about the same amount of time it would take a human to heal from a similar injury, hurting them just takes a little bit more doing.
Monsters also have the weird ability to be fused into one another and turned into a single being; though with all personality's still intact. They don't become a completely separate person just a multi-headed/multi-limbed abomination that can barely coordinate well enough to move.
And this anatomy comes with its downsides. For instance, monsters seemed to have evolved specifically to best survive in whatever environment they happen to inhabit (though the canon is iffy on this and sometimes flipflops to saying all monsters are like this despite it not making much sense, huzza for extremely loose cannon), so while some are born to thrive out in nature, Ickis is a city monster. Meaning he's specifically equipped to survive and stay hidden in that environment, traveling through sewers, living underground and in the dump, while living off human refuse. With the exception of insects he mostly eats inorganic materials or things that are rotting or spoiled (this can also include some metals meaning he has one heck of a bite). "Human food" can make him seriously ill or at the very least cause odd side effects, and vegetation like seeds and plants that are still capable of growing can start growing inside of him.
His body also requires him to breathe in what would be considered noxious/toxic air. While he can survive without it for a few days by filling up an "air sack" beforehand, he can eventually end up suffocating without it.
Things that were unique about his physiology compared to other monsters were his 'rabbit ears' which he claimed were unfortunately sensitive enough to pick up radio if he wasn't careful, as well as his retractable fangs and claws, and glowing eyes that can fill with blood when he's angry or when he looms. And his fangs are a bit like sharks in that if he looses them/breaks them, new teeth just grow in their place.
Night vision - Something that is more heavily alluded to than outright stated. They're in the dark of sewers and pipes and the unlit underground of the dump most of the time and get around perfectly fine. Still, tend to prefer having some amount of light to see by when in their rooms or to read with but they don't seem to necessarily need it.
Looming - As a Loomer Ickis is capable of growing up to several stories tall for short bursts of time (usually between 10 to 30 seconds, though he's gotten stuck in a loom before so that's apparently also possible). When he does this his eyes fill up with blood turning them red, his fangs drop and his body inflates. Usually, he can only loom up to 7 or 8 feet tall, and the few times we see him get up to several stories it was always under extreme duress, at one point only being capable of doing it in order to save someone. It takes effort, and how much effort depends on how large he's looming, how long he's holding it and how many times he's already done it. Doing it too many times in a row or pulling a loom larger than his average 7 or 8 feet can leave him exhausted.
It's also something he needs to work at regularly in order to keep doing it well. The longer he goes without exercising this ability the harder it will be for him to pull it off the next time he needs it.
Nightmares - By sticking his finger/s into the ear of a sleeping human he can give them nightmares. When done right he can implant suggestions into their mind that will turn their dreams into nightmares he has some control over, when done wrong it might just make their dreams better. When done really wrong he can end up getting sucked into their head and controlling their mind/body (which sounds cool until you factor in how hard it is to get back out again).
ROLEPLAY SAMPLES
- 3rd person/action: Ikshu -
Ever since he'd first given in to the temptation to write down that persistent sequence of numbers, Ikshu had been trying to ignore it and pretend it didn't just tap into what looked like some secret supernatural social media outlet. Because that couldn't be real. Somehow he must of well and truly snapped, that was all he could figure. The fact that there were seemingly people on there he recognized didn't help abate that theory, it just convinced him that this small mental break down was an unimaginative one.
He'd done his best to avoid acknowledging it, despite occasionally finding himself absently writing the number down. He didn't speak to anyone about it, tried to avoid the temptation to look over it when he did activate it, and refused to interact with it. It was one thing to have a hallucination, it was something else entirely to actually entertain the thought that it might be real. And he didn't need this. He really didn't need one more problem added to what was already feeling like a litany of them.
While he figured he would have to speak up about it eventually, for the time being, he just wanted to pretend that it might go away on its own. It was dumb. Supremely dumb. But maybe he just needed a little time. Time to think of how to explain this in a way that wouldn't worry his Dad anymore that he had to, or to see if it would stop on it's own, or just time to pretend it wasn't really a thing, maybe research what might be causing it. Just a week, or a month, or however long he could convince himself it was small and manageable.
When he accidentally caught the announcement about animals breaking out of the Menagerie, he'd staunchly ignored it, quickly erasing the number and letting it fade back out of existence. Like hell he was going down there.
- 1st person/network: Ickis -
There's nothing to worry about, I know what I'm doing, Miss Bossy.
[ ]
Ickis dear, even if I believed you, I find it just a bit alarming that you don't understand how knowing what you are doing with that thing is more worrying than the alternative.
[ ]
How so?
[ ]
Knowing how it works insinuates that you've either been playing with these things before or that you've been people watching again, and paid attention to how they used it. Which I would HOPE isn't the case. Hasn't this little obsession of your's giving us enough problems?
It's not an obsession!
You are playing with a picture box that was thrown up by a bonsty! If that doesn't denote obsession I simply don't know what does.
Hey! It's not like I went looking for it! Like you said, Bomble brought it in here not me, I'm just-...
[ ]
Taking advantage of the situation?
Exactly!...Wait...NO I just...I-I-I don't know, it's HERE and...Okay, fine, I'm taking advantage. But would you just look at this thing?
Would you please tell him what a bad idea this is?
I don't know [The other voice responds not sounding all that comfortable with being put in the middle of this] it's not really hurting anything.
Oh for the love of-...FINE do as you like.
I will!
Honestly. It's the television all over again.
[ ]
Nag, nag nag. [ ] It is not the television all over again. That was completely different. She's doesn't know what she's talking about. It's not like it's even still working.
Huh, that's weird, what's-?
[ ]
It's working...
What do you mean it's working?
I MEAN the little red light's on a-and it's, the little flappy THING, it's- it's got me on it! It's recording me!
[ ]
Are you sure that part's not a mirror?
NO it's not a-...it's'a, a-...hmmm
[ He goes quiet as he seems to actually consider that, looking over the thing with a bit more scrutiny before turning the camera back to looking at the room in front of him and eventually letting out a panicked squeak. ]
No, it's not a mirror!
Oh, this is just lovely. What happened to 'Don't worry Oblina. I know what I'm doing Oblina'?
I DO know what I'm doing! Just a-a little too well?
[The girl can be heard scoffing from one side of him as a shuffling sound comes from his other side, presumably coming from the other person in the room walking up next to him.]
It's all right I got this one.
[ ]
ANYTHING ELSE? If you need to clear up any lingering questions or concerns, here's the place to do it.>
Name: Roach
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:
Current characters in the game: N/A
IC INFORMATION
PREINCARNATION
Name: Ickis
Canon: AaahhReal!!! Monsters
Age: Unknown (The timeline of this show is all over the place, while popular theory is that he's possibly about 90, I theorize he's probably closer to 30-40. Either way, he's considered an adolescent monster, as they can live up to several hundred years.)
Species: Monster (Loomer)
Appearance: [x] Ickis was very obviously not human and more often mistaken for some kind of mutated bipedal rabbit. He's small (about 2 feet tall or so, not counting his ears) has long "rabbit ears", short fuzzy magenta fur, lavender lips and inner ears, retractable fangs and claws, glowing yellow eyes with no sclera, a cone-shaped body, and feet shaped like elf shoes.
History: Show Wiki [x] Ickis Wiki [x]
Coming from a long line of well-known Loomers and a particularly famous father, Ickis was shown to initially act like a spoiled egotistical brat who assumed he could coast through life on his families coattails. After he got into school it quickly became apparent that not only was he not a prodigy like he had been claiming to be, but that the school was not just going to let him squeak by on his name alone.
It wasn't long after making his first real friends in Oblina and Krumm, that his true colors finally began to show. And it was revealed that under all his initial bluster he's actually a nervous insecure little wreck, who believes he has no chance of living up to his families legacy.
Over the course of the show, he goes from being the shy necrotic worrywart of the bunch to being the one unintentionally causing most of the problems the main group or the school faced. Usually because of unrestrained curiosity (particularly when it came to humans and their culture/media/technology), an occasional lack of impulse control, his overblown ego or massive insecurity sending him into a downward spiral, a sudden burst of hero complex or just his near constant stream of terrible luck.
Not to say that he's always a pest (though he certainly had his moments), or that there wasn't occasionally good intentions behind the trouble he dragged around with him or even that he was the only one in his friend group to cause problems (honestly Oblina and to a lesser extent Krumm, aren't that much better, and as often as they might be trying to play the part of angel on Ickis's shoulder, they're just as often the ones goading him into doing something stupid/dangerous despite knowing he's prone to bouncing between pleading to not have to do the thing and losing all impulse control or ability to say no to doing the thing), just that for one reason or another he seemed to be at the center of trouble more often than not.
REINCARNATION
Name: Ikshu Khargosh
Age: 16
Appearance: Reincarnation has humanized him, and he now looks like this [x] [x]. He's short for his age, 152.4cm (5'1"), scrawny, with short messy black hair dyed dark magenta.
History: Though originally from Mossgate, Ikshu's spent most of his life split between New York and California. His father, Sani Khargosh, was a fairly well-known actor who mostly starred in campy B-Horror movies, as well as an even campyer sci-fi comedy on the BBC that only lasted about two seasons.
First Echo: When he was four, just a little before his family initially left Mossgate, there was an incident between him and an older kid that ended in a tussle. When the other kid pinned him down (a situation that had unfortunately happened to him quite often in his previous life) he took a sharp turn from pleading to be left alone, to furious. While his eyes didn't turn red like they would have in his previous life, his irises did turn yellow (signifying the start of them changing) and he was able to bite the kid's arm and squirm away when they started crying.
His eyes remained yellow throughout the rest of his families time in Mossgate, which had initially caused a bit of worry for his parents, despite neither an ophthalmologist or the family doctor being able to find anything technically wrong with him. But upon moving to America they changed back to their natural brown, and the incident was mostly forgotten.
Swiftly after moving back, they've once again worryingly shifted to yellow.
PERSONALITY
Pre-Incarnation Personality:
Ickis has a personality that often seems at odds with itself. A necrotic over-thinker with near cripplingly anxiety who's still mischievous and constantly pushing at the boundaries of what he can get away with. Painfully shy yet just a little too blunt and often starved for attention and validation. Incredibly self-deprecating and seemingly thinks very little of himself, yet can turn in to an obnoxious egotist at the drop of a hat. The embodiment of ambitious but lazy. Easily scared and quick to buckle under pressure, yet at times still heroic and willing to put himself in danger not just for his friends, but people who've made his life miserable and proven that they wouldn't return the favor. Soft-spoken one moment, whining panicky shriek factory the next.
This may be due to him often trying to act differently around others than he does his closest friends. He's generally much more honest around his friends unless he's feeling particularly vulnerable, and backslides into hiding his insecurity under whining, egotism or bitterness. But around others, he still occasionally seems to be trying to hold up the image that he's tougher than he generally comes off and is more talented than his grades would suggest.
The closer he is to someone the sweeter and more soft-spoken he becomes, and he's shown to even be a bit of a mother hen toward his two closest friends in the show. And while still mischievous, excitable, overly curious and impulsive, he's also much more open about his anxiety, quick to fall into hysterics when under too much pressure and is a bit prone to stuttering when he's flustered, nervous or excited. And while he can definitely still be a boisterous troublemaker around his friends too, he's more likely to do be like that in front of strangers or secondary friends he's not as close with and is trying to impress.
While he likes to joke with or rib his closer friends and can be particularly argumentative with Oblina (who's just as opinionated as he is, twice as stubborn and the least likely to enable his bad habits or put up with his whining), it's clear he thinks the world of them and would do just about anything for them. Even if he does occasionally need a push, or a bit of guilt tripping to get him going in instances where the situation has gotten more dangerous.
Unfortunately, it's usually just as obvious that he thinks little of himself. He loathes that he's often considered cute, and with the constant pressure of trying to live up to the legacy of his father that's literally looming over him, he considers himself a failure for not being a natural at scarring or his studies, even though his father has tried to assure him that he wasn't a natural either. There has been time's he's openly admitted to feeling like an embarrassment to his family or a burden to his friends (though not necessarily to their faces), and has even run away from school at some of his lowest points, despite the fact that he's well aware of how hard it would be to survive for long outside of the underground.
Even more, unfortunately, he seems to try to compensate for his lack of self-confidence by occasionally still acting like he's actually God's gift to the monster world. While sometimes it's obvious he's just joking, trying to pump himself up or make himself feel better, there are other times where he seems to fall for his own hype and flies off on an ego trip. Sometimes going so far as to act like he's somehow immune to the repercussions of the world. These times are when he's at his most thoughtless and impulsive, and he's been known to make a pretty big ass of himself. Which in the end only makes him feel more self-conscious when reality comes crashing down around his ears and he realizes what a mistake he's made.
Can also be irritable and a bit temperamental, especially toward those he's not as close to. Though he's mostly bark with only the occasional and sometimes very literal bite. Generally, he doesn't go beyond a snippy or sarcastic attitude, usually coupled with whining, when he's feeling particularly anxious. He only ever seems to actually act on it when he's pushed to a breaking point of some kind, particularly when it comes to seeing someone else getting pushed around.
For all his faults though, his saving grace is his empathy and loyalty. Even if that does lead him to being a little too trusting or forgiving at times, it's also lead to him making some rather unusual friends. Including an outcast from the monster world who gave up on living with other monsters after he was shunned for looking too human, and a rebellious young monster who thought all the other's attending the academy were nothing but elitist snobs. In both cases, he's shown to relate to them in ways others either couldn't or wouldn't and at points where they asked him to give up on them, he refused. For one, he convinced him that there were reasons to return back to the monster world, and for the other, he saved him after the kid almost got himself killed, as well as unintentionally inspiring him to give joining school a chance.
He's also become friends with humans, which in the monster world is considered forbidden or at the very best, extremely taboo. The majority of monsters consider humans to be sort of below them, seeing them as distasteful, pitiable or just something to be used. Ickis is shown to be one of the few monsters in the show that is not only curious about them, or enjoys some of their culture, but is actually willing to engage with them like they're equals. He's befriended both a boy who he'd initially scared, and a blind homeless jazz musician who took him in for a time after mistaking Ickis for a runaway. Again, in both circumstances, he was able to connect with them in ways others didn't and even defended both of them. Scaring off a bear for the kid and saving the old man from being crushed by a demolition crew tearing down the building they had been squatting in.
And this even extended past people he likes. More than once he's shown going to extream lengths to help people he's either terrified of or who have done nothing but make his life miserable, he's even shown occasionally connecting with them on some level (even if no substantial change to their dynamic comes from it). That's not to say that he's always done this willingly. There are times he's had to guilt trip himself into helping someone he didn't like but knew needed help, or had to be convinced to do it by someone else.
While he still grew up in his father's shadow in this universe, and his relationship with him is much the same, with him wishing he were around more often and struggling with feelings of inadequacy when compared to him. There's now the added complication of feeling responsible for situations like his parents splitting up and his father giving up his carrier for nearly a decade. While neither is actually his fault and even he knows his father would tell him that if he were open about this, he can't help feeling that way anyway.
It's made him even more insecure than he was in his previous life. Which has made him less likely to have the kinds of egotrip moments he had in his last life, but has also made things more strained between him and his father. Which is why, despite going through what might be dubbed a 'rebellious phase', or exhibiting 'attention seeking behavior', he frets over his father finding out about him skipping school or acting out. Hating the idea of him having a reason to be disappointed, or worse force him to think he needs to quit working again.
He's also a lot less trusting in this life. Having experienced people trying to befriend him just so they could meet his father or take advantage of him in some way, he's quick to question the motives of anyone seemingly trying to get close to him for no reason. Extra points of suspicion given to those that open with how great his dad is. Due to this, he's also become a lot less interested in impressing people (unless it's someone he's already friends with or someone he wants to be friends with), pleasing everyone or being popular. In fact, he can be quite standoffish and sardonic toward new people, particularly toward anyone he sees as cloying or who brings up his dad. Unfortunately, his judge of character is still just as terrible as it was in his old life and he's been prone to falling in with some pretty awful or sketchy people anyway.
He's also dealing with generalized anxiety disorder and depression. And while he's taking medication and seeking help for both, the symptoms are still there and he'll have good days/weeks and bad ones. He's been dealing with the anxiety since he was about eleven or so, while the depression was more recently diagnosed.
Abilities:
Monster anatomy - Monsters are quite a bit more durable than your average human. Their bodies have a kind of elasticity that allows them to both squeeze through tight spots (he's been shown being able to fit through a sink faucet), and handle damage better, particularly from falls or being compressed (he's been put in a trash compactor multiple times and he came out of it just fine). They can still get hurt and healing still seems to take about the same amount of time it would take a human to heal from a similar injury, hurting them just takes a little bit more doing.
Monsters also have the weird ability to be fused into one another and turned into a single being; though with all personality's still intact. They don't become a completely separate person just a multi-headed/multi-limbed abomination that can barely coordinate well enough to move.
And this anatomy comes with its downsides. For instance, monsters seemed to have evolved specifically to best survive in whatever environment they happen to inhabit (though the canon is iffy on this and sometimes flipflops to saying all monsters are like this despite it not making much sense, huzza for extremely loose cannon), so while some are born to thrive out in nature, Ickis is a city monster. Meaning he's specifically equipped to survive and stay hidden in that environment, traveling through sewers, living underground and in the dump, while living off human refuse. With the exception of insects he mostly eats inorganic materials or things that are rotting or spoiled (this can also include some metals meaning he has one heck of a bite). "Human food" can make him seriously ill or at the very least cause odd side effects, and vegetation like seeds and plants that are still capable of growing can start growing inside of him.
His body also requires him to breathe in what would be considered noxious/toxic air. While he can survive without it for a few days by filling up an "air sack" beforehand, he can eventually end up suffocating without it.
Things that were unique about his physiology compared to other monsters were his 'rabbit ears' which he claimed were unfortunately sensitive enough to pick up radio if he wasn't careful, as well as his retractable fangs and claws, and glowing eyes that can fill with blood when he's angry or when he looms. And his fangs are a bit like sharks in that if he looses them/breaks them, new teeth just grow in their place.
Night vision - Something that is more heavily alluded to than outright stated. They're in the dark of sewers and pipes and the unlit underground of the dump most of the time and get around perfectly fine. Still, tend to prefer having some amount of light to see by when in their rooms or to read with but they don't seem to necessarily need it.
Looming - As a Loomer Ickis is capable of growing up to several stories tall for short bursts of time (usually between 10 to 30 seconds, though he's gotten stuck in a loom before so that's apparently also possible). When he does this his eyes fill up with blood turning them red, his fangs drop and his body inflates. Usually, he can only loom up to 7 or 8 feet tall, and the few times we see him get up to several stories it was always under extreme duress, at one point only being capable of doing it in order to save someone. It takes effort, and how much effort depends on how large he's looming, how long he's holding it and how many times he's already done it. Doing it too many times in a row or pulling a loom larger than his average 7 or 8 feet can leave him exhausted.
It's also something he needs to work at regularly in order to keep doing it well. The longer he goes without exercising this ability the harder it will be for him to pull it off the next time he needs it.
Nightmares - By sticking his finger/s into the ear of a sleeping human he can give them nightmares. When done right he can implant suggestions into their mind that will turn their dreams into nightmares he has some control over, when done wrong it might just make their dreams better. When done really wrong he can end up getting sucked into their head and controlling their mind/body (which sounds cool until you factor in how hard it is to get back out again).
ROLEPLAY SAMPLES
- 3rd person/action: Ikshu -
Ever since he'd first given in to the temptation to write down that persistent sequence of numbers, Ikshu had been trying to ignore it and pretend it didn't just tap into what looked like some secret supernatural social media outlet. Because that couldn't be real. Somehow he must of well and truly snapped, that was all he could figure. The fact that there were seemingly people on there he recognized didn't help abate that theory, it just convinced him that this small mental break down was an unimaginative one.
He'd done his best to avoid acknowledging it, despite occasionally finding himself absently writing the number down. He didn't speak to anyone about it, tried to avoid the temptation to look over it when he did activate it, and refused to interact with it. It was one thing to have a hallucination, it was something else entirely to actually entertain the thought that it might be real. And he didn't need this. He really didn't need one more problem added to what was already feeling like a litany of them.
While he figured he would have to speak up about it eventually, for the time being, he just wanted to pretend that it might go away on its own. It was dumb. Supremely dumb. But maybe he just needed a little time. Time to think of how to explain this in a way that wouldn't worry his Dad anymore that he had to, or to see if it would stop on it's own, or just time to pretend it wasn't really a thing, maybe research what might be causing it. Just a week, or a month, or however long he could convince himself it was small and manageable.
When he accidentally caught the announcement about animals breaking out of the Menagerie, he'd staunchly ignored it, quickly erasing the number and letting it fade back out of existence. Like hell he was going down there.
- 1st person/network: Ickis -
There's nothing to worry about, I know what I'm doing, Miss Bossy.
[ ]
Ickis dear, even if I believed you, I find it just a bit alarming that you don't understand how knowing what you are doing with that thing is more worrying than the alternative.
[ ]
How so?
[ ]
Knowing how it works insinuates that you've either been playing with these things before or that you've been people watching again, and paid attention to how they used it. Which I would HOPE isn't the case. Hasn't this little obsession of your's giving us enough problems?
It's not an obsession!
You are playing with a picture box that was thrown up by a bonsty! If that doesn't denote obsession I simply don't know what does.
Hey! It's not like I went looking for it! Like you said, Bomble brought it in here not me, I'm just-...
[ ]
Taking advantage of the situation?
Exactly!...Wait...NO I just...I-I-I don't know, it's HERE and...Okay, fine, I'm taking advantage. But would you just look at this thing?
Would you please tell him what a bad idea this is?
I don't know [The other voice responds not sounding all that comfortable with being put in the middle of this] it's not really hurting anything.
Oh for the love of-...FINE do as you like.
I will!
Honestly. It's the television all over again.
[ ]
Nag, nag nag. [ ] It is not the television all over again. That was completely different. She's doesn't know what she's talking about. It's not like it's even still working.
Huh, that's weird, what's-?
[ ]
It's working...
What do you mean it's working?
I MEAN the little red light's on a-and it's, the little flappy THING, it's- it's got me on it! It's recording me!
[ ]
Are you sure that part's not a mirror?
NO it's not a-...it's'a, a-...hmmm
[ He goes quiet as he seems to actually consider that, looking over the thing with a bit more scrutiny before turning the camera back to looking at the room in front of him and eventually letting out a panicked squeak. ]
No, it's not a mirror!
Oh, this is just lovely. What happened to 'Don't worry Oblina. I know what I'm doing Oblina'?
I DO know what I'm doing! Just a-a little too well?
[The girl can be heard scoffing from one side of him as a shuffling sound comes from his other side, presumably coming from the other person in the room walking up next to him.]
It's all right I got this one.
[ ]
ANYTHING ELSE? If you need to clear up any lingering questions or concerns, here's the place to do it.>