piglatins | boop

PLAYER.
Name: Chris
Pronouns: they/them
Age: 27
Contact: sharknado @ plurk / sharnado#3914 @ discord
Invite: bella pls it's ur old aussie pal let me in

CHARACTER.
Name: Robin Buckley
Canon: Stranger Things
Canon point: During the Starcourt Mall Battle
Age: 17
Current Health: Little bit drugged, little bit beaten up but other than that physically well
Species: Human
Is your character younger than 16? If yes, please advise why they are appropriate for a horror setting. n/a

Content warnings: child endangerment, russian torture/interrogation methods, horrific nightmare monsters, adjacent mentions of 80s attitudes on sexuality (not so much in the app as for the character generally)
Canon world: Earth in the 80s, only there's a grimdark opposite dimension called "The Upside Down" where all sorts of hellish creatures reside. Various powers that be want to investigate the Upside Down for various reasons, mostly to do with harnessing its' power. Shenanigans ensue.

History: Robin has a nice normal life in (mostly) normal Hawkins, Indiana. She's been in school bands for twelve years. She plays soccer. She has a tragic crush on a classmate that doesn't even know she exists. Normal.

She gets a summer job. Her (also teenage) coworker has pseudo-adopted a gaggle of children that can't help sticking their nose into all sorts of shenanigans. She thinks she's helping them solve a Russian riddle (she totally solves it) and they get kidnapped by the Russians in response.

(The kids escape. They don't.)

The Russians torture them for information, thinking they've been made by U.S. intelligence and not teenagers working in an ice cream parlour. She gets drugged. She sort of accidentally confesses that she's gay to her coworker turned best buddy. They don't get to enjoy the moment, because there's Russians to escape from.

They reunite with the kids – they've brought all their kid friends along. Turns out one of them has super powers. Turns out they're actually fighting a terrifying and massive monster and Robin is not at all equipped for this. She throws a firework, maybe. It doesn't do much.

There's also a possessed guy, she knows almost nothing about him but she gets into a car with her ride or die coworker who runs the guy over to save some other that she also doesn't know.

It's been a rough couple of days for Robin.

(Later on her workplace will be blown up along with the whole mall though, so that's good at least?)

CRAU: n/a

Personality:

As a self-professed "loser", Robin projects a certain air of awkwardness. She makes it difficult for people to engage with her, sometimes deliberately but at other times just due to struggling to interact 'correctly'. She confesses a desire to be liked and appreciated, or normal, and in what she thinks might be her final moments even admits to worrying that she's wasted her life up until this point. Robin herself says that she is bored — her biggest strength is her intelligence, she claims fluency in four languages, is able to translate a Russian message into English well enough to get a code out of the recording, and is the one who figures out what the code actually means. She is instrumental in the plans stage of the Russian bunker plot line, and able to come up with ideas fairly quickly even under some pressure.

Robin's habit of deflecting to jokes and sarcasm is a classic method of putting a wall up -- whether between her and other people, or her and a situation. It keeps people at arms length, like in the teasing she uses with Steve while they work together, but she also uses it to try and cope with stressful situations, still mocking the Russian interrogators even as they're threatening torture.

She's also surprisingly impulsive, quickly throwing almost all of her efforts into the Russian puzzle despite it quickly becoming evident that it would be dangerous. This also results in her spitting in the face of one of her torturers/interrogators, which ends about as well as would be expected. She's prone to making knee jerk decisions when panicking, which is where her logic and intelligence can easily fail her. It's much easier to make smart, rational moves when she's given time to think them through -- on her feet, Robin fails about as often as she succeeds.

There are only a few moments where we see Robin being vulnerable, though it's clear that once she decides to connect with someone she becomes fiercely loyal. Robin stays behind to make sure the younger children have a chance to escape the bunker once they are caught, she puts herself in more danger and tries to draw attention away from Steve when he's being threatened more intensely, and though she's clearly apprehensive she quickly throws herself into further danger to stay and fight against the Mind Flayer. It's not so simple as just bravery, because while she definitely has those moments they largely seem tied to protecting the people she feels connected to -- and by proxy, the group of people around them too.

Subconscious themes & fears:
» regrets — despite being a teenager Robin is already worried she has wasted her life and seems lost with her place in the world
» rejection — very tied in with being closeted and the general era attitude towards her sexuality, feels unseen and worries about being left behind
» walled off — uses classic defence mechanisms to try and hold people at bay, admits to struggling to interact and open up with people "correctly". it's at odds with the fear of rejection but she still worries deeply about being "too seen".
» actual monsters — she's very scared of monsters now, which is probably to be expected

Powers: n/a

Wish List: » a box of fireworks — a small box. an individual firework. i'm not greedy
» a walkie talkie – functionality optional
» pen & notepad – for investigating obviously
» a soccer ball — for no reason other than i think it would be funny

Samples:
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Do you have permissions set up for this character? um sort of