App for tushanshu

[stagethreeclinger]

Player Information:
Name: Jen
Age: 24
Contact: Wuzzafuzzle on AIM and Plurk
Game Cast: Iorveth | The Witcher

Character Information:
Name: Roy William Harper, Jr. (Arsenal)
Canon: DC Universe, new 52 (Red Hood and the Outlaws, specifically)
Canon Point: Issue 17, before Jason puts the hood back on
Age: Not stated canonically, but he looks like early twenties - I'll go with like 21?
Reference: Wiki for RHatO | DC Database | Wikia for Prime Earth Roy Harper

FYI: Headcanon notes will be in red.

Setting:

The Earth within the DC Universe (or the new 52 dimension of Earth) is largely, mostly unchanged from the Earth we know at modern day 2013, aside from some very important differences. The countries we know are all the same, in the same place, however DC will say something like Qurac for what would probably be Iraq so they don’t get sued. :Db Political climates remain mostly the same, presidents, leaders and prime ministers remain the same, the world economy and economy on the national level is likewise unchanged, and the stage of technological advancement is perhaps higher than now, but protagonists are usually really rich or really well funded, so that could just be the fact they protags have neater gadgets that the passing office worker would.

So on to those very important differences - DCU is not only a multiverse - an infinite number of parallel dimensions and universes available - but it also encompasses the entire universe, meaning storylines can expanded on an intergalactic level if the writers so choose it to. There are distant alien empires more advanced than Earth or less advanced than Earth or anywhere within the scale - there’s really no limit to the spectrum. Whatever new thing the artists and writers of the comics dream up, there’s a place for it in the universe of the new 52 reboot or in any place in the multiverse. Pretty damn convenient, that. Not only that, but the Earth is also host to any number of superpowered humans or aliens or beings otherwise, and it’s really not too surprising to see one as Superheroes, as a whole, are a largely accepted concept - scattered across many cities in many nations, and of course, the various Green (and whatever other color) Lanterns that are universal protectors... and villains sometimes... and neither sometimes. There’s a lot of room for grey area as having an ability doesn’t come with a Lawful Good moral compass equipped. So you’ll see Superman, Wonderwoman, Aquaman and the normal human superheroes like Batman and the Green Arrow that are simply humans with incredibly honed and practiced skills. There can be any number of explanation for the powers that individuals have, maybe they’re an alien race born with it, maybe they were an accidental science project, maybe they tripped and fell into a magic superhero pond, maybe it’s just magic, maybe they’re a cyborg. There aren’t many rules to how these things can and cannot come around.

And then we have the Justice League of America - basically the Avengers but DC flavored. It’s a league of all the greatest of superheroes (or at least the ones that get along the best (sort of)) that come together when there are threats to humanity that span beyond their individual cities, or require more power than just a single hero can handle. So, alien invasion? Justice League. Evil Villain spawned plague spreading across Europe? Justice League. Giant marshmellow man stopping out cities? Justice League. And then your have the Teen Titans (formerly Young Justice), which is... Justice League, Pint Sized? They’re heroes, both powered and unpowered, still in training.

But Roy Harper is human with no superpowers outside of having beautiful, L’Oreal hair, has only been off his planet once, and only outside of his dimension once, (that we know of) so we’ll try to keep the scope down to what actually applies to him.

It’s... sort of really confusing what you can really call a solid, initial home for Roy because, within the preboot of Green Arrow, Queen Industries is based in Star City, a metropolis in California, but in the reboot, Oliver Queen - the Green Arrow - is operating out of Q-Core, a branch of Queen Industries, that has been set up in Seattle. It’s not really stated at what point Q-Core is set up in the timeline as far as Roy is concerned, but when Roy talks about working with Oliver, he always says ‘Q-Core’, so you’d have to assume it’s Seattle. It’s difficult really to say what the state of Seattle would have been that’s different from modern day Seattle, consider there isn’t any mention of it when Roy was there before and the reboot Green Arrow comics pick up after Roy is gone, but what happens in the first few issues is that some old enemies from Star City move onto Seattle to follow him. Other than that, it’s fairly easy to transfer over Roy’s experience to it considering his origin (if you flesh it out with what happened preboot (as most of it SEEMS to be the same or similar)) can be easily transposed anywhere. It’s not canonically stated specifically in RHatO what Roy’s actual origin is, but taking from the preboot history, it would probably make sense to assume that he follows the major points of the same history, given that there are hints dropped here and there about it being close to the same. Preboot Roy was raised by his father, a forest ranger who died saving a Navajo reservation from a massive fire. Roy was then taken in by the Navajo residents on the reservation and raised by them until Oliver Queen found him. Roy in reboot canon does speak a word of Navajo and there’s a man in a flashback that seems implied to be Brave Bow, the shaman of the reservation that cared for him. There’s also a mention that, at some point before becoming a sidekick to Green Arrow, Roy gets in trouble for hacking into Q-core’s R&D hub, so that... fits in there somewhere too. Idk. He hasn’t gone back to Seattle in any of the RHatO comics or his appearances in the reboot thus far, so it’s really only relevant to his past at the moment.

After being brought into Q-Core by Oliver Queen, it’s unclear if Oliver vanishes the way he does in preboot canon, but at some point, Roy develops a crippling alcoholic habit and drug addiction (drugs are implied but not so explicitly stated as alcohol is, but I'm going to go ahead and use preboot canon and say narcotics were probably involved? At least until it's stated otherwise in canon). When this is discovered, Oliver fires him from Q-Core. Roy goes into a spiraling depression reaching the point of suicidal by the time he’s picking a fight with Killer Croc to try to get himself killed. Fortunately enough, Killer Croc sees through the attempt and refuses to help him kill himself, and in a rare kind of Good Guy moment for an infamous villain, tell Roy he needs to pull himself together and go to AA (assuming NA as well). He goes so far as to give Roy a place to stay in a dead former villain’s head out and is apparently badgered into being Roy’s sponsor for AA.

At some point after that, Roy is contacted by Jason Todd (Red Hood) and offered a mercenary job with him in a country in the middle east called Qurac (lololol). It goes terribly awry and while Jason makes it safely away, Roy isn’t as fortunate. He’s taken prisoner in a terrorist jail with hideous conditions, has the crap kicked out of him apparently, and gets a chance to flash a camera a peace sign when he’s shown off as the American to be executed. But all is well! Jason Todd, Master of Disguise, to the rescue! Jason manages to sneak in disguised as a priest to prison break Roy out, and they manage to make it past the 38 tanks there to safety. From there on, Jason has set his fate of being stuck with Roy and Kori clinging to him for their crazy adventures and shenanigans.

Another city of importance to Roy, and more importantly, to the present story arcs in the reboot, is Gotham City. Gotham is a DCU specific city in New Jersey that’s most prominent figure as far as the superhero community goes is Batman and all his associated Batfam (Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin, everyone ever with Bat or some kind of bird in their name). There’s a good deal or others scattered here and there but it’s mainly famed to be Batman’s stopping ground, and given that Jason Todd, Roy’s new BFF, is closely tied in with the Batfam, the trio of outlaws end up there for several story arcs. Gotham is... like the worst city ever. I seriously cannot tell you why people would want to live there. There are a gross amount of villains, it always seems dark and foreboding and dirty, and there’s a great deal of corruption running rampant. You will not find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy and neo-Gothic gables and gargoyles, for reals. Granted, Batman does do a lot to clean up the city and give hope to the population, but there’s a lot to work with in Gotham. The Outlaws make it through Gotham twice - once when they initially go there to stop a hostage situation Suzie Su (a mob enemy Jason picked up in his whole hostile take over of the crime scene), but they end up being wrangled into helping the Batfam with the Night of the Owls, defending one of Batman’s old villains, Mr. Freeze, from an undead assassin. The second time due to Jason’s kidnap by the Joker and the madness let loose on the city after for the arc A Death in the Family. Roy had also worked in Gotham with Kori and Nightwing (Dick Grayson) previously, but there aren’t details other than the fact that it happened.

The third location really important to The Outlaws would be their small, remote island paradise that Kori landed her ship on. It’s much like you’d expect an island paradise to be - tropical with sandy beaches and crystal clear water, palm trees, jumbles, cliffs to jump off of into the water (or land a space ship on), and lots of sun. Though it isn’t entirely uninhabited aside from the Outlaws. There is at least one little boy and a guy manning a tiki bar there, so one would assume there’s at least a small village there otherwise. But it’s apparently remote and rural enough that it’s difficult to find internationally wanted criminals. Jason owns a small villa there, close to the beach, that apparently has room enough for the three of them, and Kori has her entire ship parked (or crash landed?) on the rockier area of the island. There isn’t actually a map for it, otherwise. This is basically their little hideaway kiddie fort for the Outlaws to call home sweet home.

Personality:

❝Roy Harper, a self-professed ‘recovering super-hero’ taking it one day at a time.❞

The main theme of RHatO, set up from the very beginning where Jason braves prisons and tanks and whatever else in a priest costume and a humvee to bust Roy out of jail, is that the whole crew of outlaws are all reckless shits with a no fucks given kind of anti-hero air. You see them cracking jokes in combat, and Roy’s send off to Jason before going into a fight is “see you in hell”. They really don’t have much in the way of serious fear or great concern when shit gets real, and are more prone to doing ridiculous and extreme things to win a fight. Most people regard them as Those Nutcases. Roy, while being tortured by some gross aliens, shouts YAARRGH, and his subsequent inner monologue says "I've been waiting my whole life for a reason to shout 'YAARRGH’.” It’s more a thing that he’s had the shit beat out of him before, he’s been on the edge of death before and he’s been at the kind of rock bottom where he doesn’t really care if he lives through it or not - hopes that he does. It’s put things in perspective for him. Roy’s fear is more held in another kind of realm than what will physically end him, and I’ll touch on that a little later.

❝His name is Roy Harper. He’s an idiot. Nice guy. But an idiot.❞

The second things that’s set up - about Roy in specific - is that he fits very well into comic relief, granted it becomes apparent that it’s a group effort between the three of the outlaws that ends up being comic relief, but Roy is the one more pinned as being the goofy dork of the group. He rambles a lot, enough that Jason says “Roy Harper, speechless? You just made this whole trip worth it.” He’ll give dumb nicknames to people, like "Jaybird" for Jason ("Choose between 'Jaybird' and your trachea. You can't have both."), or ‘Speedy’ to Kid Flash before commenting that ‘Kid Flash’ is too uncreative. Even his word choice is on the dorky side, given that he actually says internet acronyms like "brb" and will say stuff like “son of a bee”. He’ll still be a wiseass with fatality right in his face, making cracks about plastic surgery when there’s a gun a few inches from his face, or waving a peace sign at the camera when he’s being broadcast surrounded by assault rifles in a middle eastern prison. Along with his tendency to want to be wanted and to cling to people, that’ll be talked about later on, he’s kind of a ho, or at least flirtatious enough that hitting on people is a fairly regular thing, but it’s not regarded as a kind of conquesting thing or GETTIN SOOOME, because Roy will still call casual sex ‘making love’. He’s a precious little dork.

❝I don’t even feel bad that no one from the Justice League returns my calls. Or emails. Or texts.❞

Jason Todd would introduce Roy as “Roy Harper. State three clinger.” and he’d be pretty right about it. Roy needs people, can’t exist well in a vacuum and doesn’t do solitude well. There’s a solid fear in him of being abandoned by the people he cares about, and in issue 19 it’s shown how one of his worst fears is that none of the people he cares about want him around or even like him around - Jason, Kori and Oliver Queen being the ones that sting the most. Though this trait doesn’t really come out as blatant as that and Roy more tries to look like he’s just very friendly and carefree, following Jason around when he wants to go somewhere alone, chatting at people, he’s a master of aggressive friending. He’s physically affectionate with people, often hanging off a shoulder, putting an arm around them, poking them with an elbow, or whatever else and Jason and Kori seem like they just sort of accept that about him. But in that effort of seeming more carefree that needing for companionship is that he’ll often use a self-deprecating kind of humor to make light of things he actually sees himself as. Granted, he realizes they’re all a little fucked up and he takes it more lightly, accepting that that’s the way they are, but he’ll often call himself a burnout and say things like “I’ll take whatever compliment I can get” and is pretty surprised when he gets respect from people.

❝My name is Roy Harper. When it comes right down to it - I’m a burnout with a bow and arrow.❞

Roy has issues with being a drug addict and alcoholic, something he so loathed about himself (or perhaps a result of feeling useless and unwanted) that he tried to have Killer Croc kill him. Luckily enough, it was a transparent attempt and through a weird course of events, he ended up bothering Killer Croc into being his sponsor for AA and reached regular sobriety. Even recovering as he is, and so far having stayed clean since he quit, he still regards himself as someone not great at kicking off vices or falling back into bad habits. He still thinks of himself as a burnout. There’s a lot of issues Roy has and the addiction is really only a symptom of the larger things. It’s not clear if reboot!Roy has the same kind of history that preboot!Roy does as far as Oliver vanishing for a period and prompting his first use of drugs, but there is definite evidence that Roy has issues with being abandoned, being alone, and being unwanted - made very clear by issue 19. His tendency to aggressively friend people is also a symptom of that fear of being needed. Between the three of the outlaws, Roy thinks of himself as the weak link between them - believes that he’s lesser because Jason and Kori both had traumatizing, tragic things happen to them, and all that Roy believes gives makes him damaged are things he brought on himself. It’s not something he’ll ever really bring up, because he doesn’t want to be That Burden and he doesn’t think he has a right to complain considering all Kori and Jason of pushed themselves through. But really, he’s a good kid at heart, wants to save people, wants to care for his friends, doesn’t want to be alone, and needs people. Out of the three, Roy’s the more most inclined to want to do Super Hero-y things. Though he has no issue with Kori setting a bunch of mobsters threatening to kill children on fire, and will say they deserved it, he still has a want to be as heroic as the guys in the Justice League. But his moral code no longer really fits into that as well.

❝That's the thing about Roy. What he says usually sounds like a joke -- but what he doesn't say almost always cuts to the heart of the matter.❞

Okay, so let’s get this straight - no one in this group is good at having real feelings, but Roy is the least bad at it. While they all have their moments of being emotionally constipated (especially Jason), Roy can have moments of great insight when speaking to the others or about the others. He seems to have a real solid kind of understanding of both Jason and Kori, understands when Jason just needs a moment alone in the city he worked so hard for when he asks for some time alone in Gotham. He understands why he does the things he does. And with Kori, when she’s having trouble deciding what to do about her home planet in contrast for her feelings of the population, he knows what she really needs to hear about it and sort of is like “No Jason, you go, you are not good at this.”.

❝Sometimes Roy plays the clown so well -- i forget how brilliant he is at making weapons.❞

As dorky and lame as he acts, he’s actually pretty damn intelligent. He isn’t a superhero just for the fact that he has perfect aim, and most of his attacks outside of simply shooting arrows and hand to hand combat require a definite level of strategic, pragmatic thinking and cleverness. He’s the main tech guy of the group, handles maintaining the ship, and inventing programs and gadgets to help them up. He also thinks up useless things sometimes. Like foaming arrows :|

❝What the heck do I think I’m doing here?! As anyone who has ever met me knows-- I am not the leader type! Not even on my best day! Yeah, I’m really good at aiming and shooting, but what would these kids think if they knew what a mess I was... not all that long ago?❞

Roy isn’t a leader, and if given the choice, would prefer to be more of a follower. He doesn’t like taking command, (tbh probably too lazy for it, and probably a good deal uncertain of himself). But if it’s necessary, like when he and Kori run into the Teen Titans in Gotham and he needs to help them out of just brute forcing the Joker-zombies away, he’s capable of handing out strategy. Though, as seen there, he’s not that great at gaining respect enough to be a leader. And he doesn’t really have the confidence for it. Ducra remarks in issue 19: “I don’t think this boy believes he’s capable of doing anything right.” But when he does manage some leadership, he’ll be pretty damn proud of himself after the fact, and sort of a little disbelieving of ‘8D omigod I actually did good’.

As far as showing up on Tu Vishan goes, the DC universe is pretty bizarre in that there’s massive room for traveling to other planets as well as dimensions, on occasion, so it won’t be too terrible surprising that he’s in some strange new place - he’ll mainly be distressed that Jason and Kori are not there. As stated, he doesn’t like being on his own, but Roy underestimates his own ability to be social and gain friends, so he’ll likely stabilize once he acquires some people to care about and feel cared for. Though Jason and Kori are like family to Roy now and he’ll still miss them incredibly. But as far as the whole world of Tu Shanshu goes, it will be strange, certainly, but given that he’d been portaled away across space to another planet to fight some crazy ass zombies and hang out with some weird looking aliens, and also flew through a portal to a sort of in-between realm that the All Caste exists in, the concept won’t be all that startling to him. He’ll probably find it funny, actually. :’|

Appearance: Bam.

Abilities:

↠ Archery :: His aim is near on perfect, having been trained by the Navajo and picked up by Oliver Queen for his apparent talented, then trained by him as well. He’s been seen firing up to three arrows at a time with accuracy.

↠ Advanced Hand to Hand Combat :: The DC Database wiki lists Roy's level of hand to hand skill at the same as Jason's, and while I think Jason could probably kick his ass pretty easy, that does say something for him. He was a sidekick to Green Arrow and has worked with Nightwing and Kori once before. So he can probably kick a bit of ass. Also, he wrestles Damian Wayne :|b

↠ Tech Head :: Not only is Roy familiar with a lot of advanced technology due to having spent a lot of time around devices from Q-Core, but he’s talented with computer hacking as well (apparently was in jail once for hacking Queen Industries main R&D hub??)

↠ Pilot/Mechanic :: Roy is like the team driver. Anytime there’s a ship involved, Roy is piloting, and he’s even given really valid, helpful advice for managing systems on a starship he’s not the least bit familiar with. He’s also installed computer programs to the ship they took from Crux and has been seen doing maintenance to the ship. He also creates all of his own trick arrows and knick-knacks, so that’s a good indication of how handy he is.

↠ Navajo :: He says a Navajo word in RHatO and in his dream in issue 19 who would likely be Brave Bow appears, so I’m going to go ahead and assume he has the same early life background that preboot Roy Harper did with being raised by the Navajo after his father passed. So he’d be capable of speaking Navajo and have the knowledge of the culture and customs. :|b

Inventory:

☒ Bow that can be compacted to fit inside of, say, a bible. :|
☒ Two Quivers of Trick Arrows. He doesn’t have all of these, obviously, but the one’s he’s had in canon have been exploding, thermal, grappling hook, foaming, blood analysis (mostly useless because he doesn't have the ship computer to do the analysis), etc. One quiver is attached to his back and the other to his hip.
☒ Costume
☒ Baseball cap
☒ Cell phone, probably.
☒ Tablet as seen here, and probably charger? idek
☒ Watch
☒ Keys to a space ship :’3

Suite: I'm going to say Metal sector because Roy is used to advanced technology and modernity and will cry if he doesn't have knick-knacks and things.

In-Character Samples:
Third Person:

There's a solar flare, bright, hot and intense, that rips through the air to Roy's right side the deafening blamblamblam of Jason's guns erupts in the empty space somewhere to the left. Draw an arrow, notch, aim, fire - shoot witty quip to one friend or the other as if death will never catch up with any of you. As if it doesn't matter if it does. Rinse and repeat.

They live too fast, too loud, too wild and it's the only way any of them would have it. "We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us." Roy doesn't remember where he heard it, but he thinks it should be their anthem. Each of them, who've stared death in the face, wished for it to escape what their lives had become - each of them who've banded together and come out with more of a life force than most of the people Roy's ever met before. He's probably over romanticizing it, sure. Jason would give him A Look and Kori would just pat his head like he was some kind of precious toddler if he talked about it, but these two have become family to him. And after having had and lost three others that made up entirely what 'family' should be to him, maybe part of his desperate want to keep them together is his own want to not be alone again. But something about his time with them, and their own little hideaway island like some kind of criminal Neverland (Jason as Peter Pan, ha. ha ha. h a .), seems to just fit so much more.

Maybe they will spend their days being reckless shits, driving a roofless humvee at 38 tanks and thinking they'll be fine, fighting alien wars and laughing at death, but so help Roy, should it ever touch any of them, he'll go to the ends of the Earth to get them back. He'd rather lose himself again that lose these friends that have done so much for him and never really realized it.

Network:

[ So, Roy hasn't been around that long, but he's gotten to know Keeliai, the natives, heard about the Emperor and definitely picked up on the tension between foreigners and the Kedan, but just out right asking about What The Hell Is Wrong With This Place seems a little too obvious. And lame.

And this way is much more fun. ]

Okay so is there a part of living on the back of a giant magic turtle that isn't supposed to be completely awesome? Because a lot of you seem to be really bummed about it, and I'm starting to think it's more than just a strong case of Stick Up The Ass going around.

[ And frankly, Roy likes looking like the idiot. He raises up a hand holding some kind of Kedanian smoothie in the cafe he's seated in, and gives an 'okay, humor me' kind of gesture. ]

Let's pretend for two seconds that the majority of people here aren't giant manchildren trying to hide it by brooding (looking at you, Justice League (seriously, you go around in capes and tights)), you're getting what's practically a free vacation. A beautiful city on a tropical island that's really more like a cruise, and even a space you can go sit near Yurtle's massive head and zen your neurotic brains out. The closest we have to that at home is legalizing pot.

I know I'm inviting a sea of sarcastic quips to kill my buzz about the whole badass Suessical adventure, so let's try to be organized and civil about this - there's only so much scathing sardonicism I can handle at once. Please fill out the attached form and get back to me:

Your Name: Self explanatory.
Your Age: It'd probably explain some things, I'm jussayin.
Level of Suck of Your Homeworld: On a scale of Fantasia to Bambi. Just trying to keep some perspective.
Your Complaints About Our Magical Turtle Adventure: Let it all out, brothers and sisters. Testify.
Notes: Whatever. How's my hair?

Thank you for your participation! Here is a wavier for your free snow cone! Not really. Sorry.

IN GAME INTRO POST HERE.