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savetheearth
OOC Information:
Name: Shikki
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: mermares @ aim
IC Information:
Name: Tavros Nitram (Precarnate) Travis Martin (reincarnated)
Canon: Homestuck
Age: 13 (at time of death, chronologically unknown as time appears to pass differently for dead characters), 17 in-game.
Preincarnation Species: Troll.
Preincarnation Appearance: Socks with sandals.
Any differences: Lots. He's your average Filipino-American boy. He's got sprinklings of acne, has a septum piercing, and has braces.
He is a paraplegic and requires the use of a wheelchair. He values his upper body strength and so he's in really good shape.
Preincarnated History: Best summed up here!
Alternia is a planet built upon the motto "only the strong will survive." Love and hate are held in equal standing. The the dying, sick and crippled are often killed outright to avoid sullying the gene pool. Violence and murder are not only condoned, it's encouraged, and the class system imbues a sense of worthlessness or undue feelings of superiority depending on where you fall on it. The warmer the color of your blood, the farther down you fall. Adults are not permitted on the planet, the young are raised to be conquerors, and also raised by wild animals known as lusii. Tavros' was a tiny, gentle winged bull named Tinkerbull.
As one can imagine, Tavros was pretty far from the ideal troll. Meek, mild, and not one to take risks, the brownblood would do well were it only that he could escape notice. Unfortunately, being friends with some of the most influential and highest blooded trolls has its downsides and oh boy does he ever know them.
Tavros' friendship with Vriska Sekret was an ideal example of this. Where one might be content to let him do as he pleased and develop as he should, Vriska was very intent on pushing him and molding him into her ideal troll. This... did not pan out and instead had the opposite effect. Where she wanted Tavros to be strong and confident, he slipped farther and farther into self-doubt and abysmal self-esteem. There were few things Tavros thought he did well and even fewer by the time she was done with him. Formerly a member of the extreme live action roleplaying group Team Charge, he was forced to quit when a brief altercation with Vriska(who had fostered an interest in a kismesistude with him) ended with him leaping off a high cliff. Against his will. This started a cycle of revenge that lead to the blinding of one friend and the death of another, as well as the loss of Tavros' ability to walk.
Tavros spends the time between the beginning of the game and his accident training himself to compensate for his injury. This is more than just a hobby, it's an attempt to prove himself worthy to live - literally. On Alternia, the weak and injured are culled to keep the bloodlines strong. Or any reason they feel like, really. When he wasn't jousting dummies in his yard, he was playing Fiduspawn or talking to his friends. During this time it would seem he attempted to break away from Vriska Serket repeatedly, unfortunately his meek personality didn't allow for it and stuck they stayed.
This will be important later.
When the game happened, he was trapped under Vriska's control and cruelty. Literally. She was his Host, which meant she could control everything around him. This meant lots of staircases, brief flashes of Tavros' self-esteem and refusal to do her dirty work, and a lot of being shaken around. Up until he completed the task of entering the medium, that is. After doing a little questing and attempting to complete the game his way (think The Completionist, only befriending all the monsters instead of killing them), he and Vriska met up. Where she sort of confessed feelings that he was most certainly too terrified to return. In the end, though, they made up and got along as friends better for it. And then they adventured! And it was handwaved, therefore not terribly important.
At this point, the friend who had died during the cycle of revenge came back to life as a blue-blooded robot. A very angry, vengeful blue-blooded robot. That proceeded to beat Vriska to death before his eyes. By the time she was done and had moved on, Vriska was still alive. She instructed Tavros not to use the life-saving game mechanic (a kiss) and instead had him carry her to her quest cocoon. Her final request to him was to kill her and make her death quick, rather than leaving her to bleed slowly to death.
He didn't. Instead he fled, traumatized, and left her to die slowly.
Instead of continuing to be productive and useful, Tavros spends the rest of the game sleeping and living vicariously through the whimsy of his dreamself, living his dream of flying and doing little to nothing else. The others completed most of the game and at the end, when it was time for them to all claim their reward and enter the new universe, a terrifying demon known as Bec Noir came into their world and annihilated their victory and would have killed them all (as he did in other timelines) were it not for Robo-Aradia's intervention. They were shuffled to the safety of a meteor - knowing that Bec Noir was just behind them, and would gladly kill them as soon as he caught up. The troll's leader comes up with a plan to find the universe that Bec originated from and harass the people responsible for his being until they... well, it was a really bad plan and no one really understands what he wanted to do with it, but they tried. Tavros attempted to best Dave Strider, which backfired on him and had him blocking Dave.
Tavros continues his napping habit on the meteor, up until some helpful friends decided to saw him in half and give him robotic limbs. Very nice of them, but very messy and awkward. After regaining his ability to walk, Tavros also starts to regain his "confidence".
This is a bad thing.
The new confident Tavros attempts to confess his feelings to Jade Harley, one of the humans from the other session. He does this in the worst possible way, his confession includes a reference to murdering her grandfather (accidentally, as he did think that he was a threat) and a lot of passive-aggressive threats and showboating. Everyone saw this, by the way. Including Vriska, who was none too happy with him abandoning her to die. After witnessing that trainwreck of a confession she started to harass him, during which harassment he discovered that she was behind a good number of terrible things that had been going on.
Tavros knows that there is no way he can win this battle, but he has little left to lose and knows that he has to make a stand. In his anger he challenges her to a battle and goes down to fight her, once and for all. Whether or not he intends to kill her is up in the air, but he stubbornly makes his way to the duel. It ends about how one would expect, he charges at her, she stabs him with his own lance. To make sure he's extra dead, she throws him off of the platform their on.
He's about as dead as dead can get by then.
When people die in Homestuck, they go into something called dreambubbles. Dreambubbles are essentially little pocket dimensions where the dead's memories shape the landscape. Tavros ends up plunked down with a dead Dave from an offshoot timeline and that's the last we see of him for a while.
When we finally do get around to seeing Tavros again, it's in pieces. And then as a horrible merged abomination. Gamzee bring Tavros and Vriska back to life as a creature known as Tavrisprite, whose personality and... everything cannot function as it is and results in it's self-destruction. Back in the dreambubbles, Tavros is utterly content with his death and his afterlife. Vriska is not. Though he holds no hard feelings against her and holds himself responsible for what happened, she still insists on apologizing. Once they make up, he's dragged along on her adventure.
Their adventure is not at all fun and Tavros' happy-go-luckiness starts to ebb out of him, instead replaced with the sass that used to be only presented passive-aggressively. It all comes to a head and he decides to leave and head for greener pastures, presumably heading off to get killed by the giant green skull monster as this character is the joke of the series.
Reincarnated History: Tavros Nitram did not have a lucky bone in his body. As it turns out, Travis Martin was came into this world similarly lacking.
He was born to a rather young couple under poor circumstances. Both from poor families, both dabbling in some less than savory habits, and both young and looking for the fastest route to success and wealth. Unfortunately, what they found was nothing but messy fighting and heavy debt. Before he was even born, his mother realized that the path they were headed down wasn't one she wanted to be a part of and split. Despite the struggles that single motherhood brought, his mother did her best to be nurturing and supportive for all that he did. If he drew on the walls? She'd praise it and buy him erasable wall crayons. Every night had a story-time and (almost) every morning had a smile. She'd watch his cartoons with him and tell him fairy-tales, often of her own making.
Travis was most certainly a momma's boy. He relied on her for everything - to fight his battles, to pack his lunch, to patch up his booboos. In return he did his best to be a good boy and cause her as little trouble as he could. He was a good, happy child - even if he was heavily bullied due to his preference for more childish games and daydreamy nature, he was always safe in the knowledge that at home nothing at all could bother him. He was one of the last people in his class to get a computer, and even when he did it was such a colossal waste of space he was hardly on it. He could play pretend and entertain himself.
Unfortunately, that wasn't to last. A month before he turned 12, Travis and his mother were on his way back from a movie. The driver was young and intoxicated, there was no way to move and no time to react. It was a miracle he survived, one that came at a price. Travis left the hospital trying to cope with his new status as a paraplegic as well as the news that he was going to be uprooted from the life he'd known to live with a father he didn't. His mother had never told him the full story of who his father was - he'd heard everything from war hero to fairy king. The man in question was the man who spent his life living large and dangerous, not really suited to caring for a kid but living well enough to allow for one in his life.
Bounced from Chicago to Locke City wasn't exactly an easy, or enjoyable change. But he coped. "Coping" constituted playing more and more video games and avoiding his father, going to school but not engaging, and being as quiet and unobtrusive as he could with everything.
The present he got for his 13th birthday was a more spruced up computer. It was there that he discovered online RPing, a wider range of video games, and the wonder that is instantly downloaded movies. Online, he was able to be whoever he wanted to be... and that person was actually kind of a curt know-it-all asshole. Building a small army of online friends did wonders for his self-confidence, which eventually had him trying to get out and better himself.
Travis started to work out to gain more independence. The more upper body strength he gained, the less he had to quietly and unobtrusively attempt to get other people's attention to help him. The less he had to rely on others, the more he came into his own. Around 15, Travis was running multiple online RPs, playing in tabletop games offline, and working at the local animal shelter. His goals now center around becoming a veterinarian and opening his own no-kill shelter.
First Echo: The worst kind of fight is a Youtube Comment fight. Being a member of a large and obnoxious fandom centered around a television show aimed at little girls, Travis is used to the haters. Scouring the depths of Youtube for some excellent new PMV has lead him to more than one angry discussion!
But this one was a little different.
It was incredibly heated, very rude, lots of potshots - emotions ran high! But one single line stood out for him. STOP WATCHING SHOWS FOR LITTLE GIRLS.
Something about that line resonated with him. Suddenly he could remember pain, incredible pain, a vague urgency for help and a single line of grey text.
CG: HEY ASSHOLE, STOP PLAYING GAMES FOR GIRLS.
Going forward this let down feeling will make him more tentative about requesting for help and allowing himself the chance to be let down.
Preincarnation Personality: Out of all of the characters in Homestuck, Tavros may arguably be the most straight forward and easy to explain. While there are certainly flaws, issues, and shortcomings - many of these were not created by a major flaw in his personality, but rather, the overpowering influence of someone else.
He does not have a hidden agenda. He does not sneak around, forge and break alliances on a whim, and play games with people's heads for his own selfish desires. He does not hate intensely, nor does he get particularly passionate about much. All in all, he remains one of the most - if not *the* most - stable of all of the sGrub players due to his even nature and temperament. This simple, gentle personality makes it rather easy for him to get along with many of the people he comes across, often ending with their platonic pity toward his situation and circumstances and aiding in whatever way they can.
All in all, Tavros is just bad at being a troll. Even by the internet definition he falls short, ultimately blocking his target when made uncomfortable by his adept counter-trolling measures, then fleeing to said target's good friend to get some advice on how to handle the situation. Not to mention the fact that even in casual conversation, he's often apologizing for things that are not his fault, or preemptively apologizing for things he hasn't even done.
The boy is a stuttering, faltering mess in social situations, often unbearably awkward even in the most relaxed of conversations. Again, troll society tells him that due to his gentle personality and paralysis, he's not worth a whole lot. With a certain person's constant bullying and the offhanded remarks from his other friends, it's not surprising that he prefers to keep his head down and tries to make everyone happy. When not tripping over himself with apologies, Tavros alternates between being painfully straightforward and beating around the bush. He fumbles for a simple explanation, backpedals, dances around and even trips over the point he's trying to make in a vain attempt to keep the other party from becoming angry with him When "confident" he says what's on his mind and trusts that the other person will simply accept it, because in his mind confidence is the key to winning people over.
This is largely because he is simply not a confident person. In fact, he's quite cowardly. Even if he has good reason, he hides behind stronger people and tries to avoid conflict and confrontation because he is afraid. Decisions for him are not something that should be made on a whim, but should be consulted and spoken with so he can have a backup plan and maybe someone to save him should things go sour. He also does not handle trauma very well! He resorts to sleeping to play around on Prospit rather than to busy himself with leveling up and assisting his fellow players after a traumatic experience scarred him in canon. And, also of note, he is a true pacifist. He made it through the entire sGRUB session without killing a single enemy, instead befriending them all to turn them to his side.
He only knows what he knows about confidence by having watched the more confident of the trolls, who have a lot more going for them than just their own self-assurance. To Tavros, being loud and in-your-face is about as close as he can get. We see this spectacular failure at self-confidence for the first time after he consults Rose for advice on what to do with Dave, rejecting her offer to help with a boast of his own abilities. In the end, after accidentally blocking the human, he reverts temporarily back to his usual self to apologize for the mistake. Then he goes on to destroy Dave with his "sick fires", oblivious to the face that he has hardly done any damage to the human with his fumbling, pathetic attempts at freestyle. And again, later, after the attachment of his robot legs and subsequent, incredibly forward, conversations with Jade, we see just how hard he's trying to pump himself up and seem like a somebody she could like.
We can't talk about Tavros' self confidence without inevitably moving back to the complication that is his relationship with Vriska.
Vriska is his bully. His worst nightmare. His greatest enemy, and a friend he has fun with. It's summed up best as "it's complicated" and filled with rampant quadrant flipping, ultimately ending in the destruction of whatever friendship remained between them. Vriska expected too much from him. She prodded, she pulled, she pushed and did whatever she could to make him into a stronger person the only way she knew how. While her intentions may have been pure, the result was certainly not as desired. She is a large part of the reason for his submissive, doormat personality. Yet, despite it all, it isn't until after promising Kanaya that he wouldn't speak to her anymore that he attempts to close off communications. Yet, she makes him nervous. Impossibly, impossibly nervous - when speaking to her it's clear he finds a hard time getting a word in edge-wise. His 'uHS' increase, often the only thing he manages to say in the midst of her ranting as he waits for her to stop. Sometimes, he talks back, only sometimes, and it's not usually something that goes well for him. He makes no real effort to defend himself. When she snipes at his faults, he simply acknowledges that she is "probably right" and leaves it at that. All in all, he is absolutely terrified of her, yet still cares for her enough to try to save her life.
He even takes the time to end their conversations with a polite "bYE".
Tavros' lack of hatred means that no matter what she does, he still somehow considers her a friend. Trolls do have the same word for friend and enemy, after all... but it would be wrong to say that he doesn't have his limit.
There are things he cannot and will not do. Even when Vriska is bullying him and breathing down his neck.
Such as apologizing for being paralyzed. Even when she's shaking him and demanding that he apologies for being unable to climb the stairs, he holds his ground and refuses to give in. Another would be his refusal to kill her - though not something that he is proud of, he keeps his resolve and escapes from the situation as quickly as possible. And later, when it is revealed that she is responsible for the state that they are in now, Tavros steels himself and sets off with a determination for a battle he's probably sure he cannot win.
Still, responsibilities and the "right thing" are not things that Tavros seems too invested in if it means serious effort. He has his moral compass but the idea of trying and failing keeps him away from intervening unless it's under them most dire of circumstances, and added responsibilities mean growing up in ways that he doesn't want to. He's content to do things for the fun and pleasure of it, not because he has to or has any desire at all to fulfil an obligation.
On the positive side, Tavros is an atrocious rapper! He doesn't know that he's bad, nor would he particularly care to find out, but he is indeed a rapper and it's probably one of his greatest joys in life. Slam poetry is his dream, he'd probably love to ascend to the ranks of Troll Eminem or Troll Formerly Known as Snoop Formerly known as Snoop Dog Now Currently Known as Snoop Lion.
He is also surprisingly sassy. Though he's not nearly brave enough to come out and say what's on his mind (at least when he perceives the other person to be either better than him or a threat) he's rather passive-aggressive and sarcastic when the mood strikes him.
Finally, he's thorough. Aradia praises his flarping abilities because he genuinely loves it and goes in to find out everything within the story. He builds himself up slowly, going through campaigns not for treasure or to level up, but because he wants to play every quest line and believes that the eventual payoff is worth the hours and hours poured into gameplay.
As I mentioned before, after his death Tavros isn't quite as happy-go-lucky as he was before. Though, the traits he displayed were not traits already present. Tavros is a passive-aggressive asshole underneath his quiet exterior, and spending so much time with Vriska cut away much of the passive and laid on the aggression thickly.
Any differences: It goes without saying that his upbringing is very different from his canonical one, but unlike the other trolls Tavros never had any real difficulties growing up. He only had Vriska, who did cause him a lot of damage but there was no emotional scarring due to a murderous parent monster.
ONE: Where Tavros tended to rely on others heavily for support, Travis prefers to at least attempt to handle his problems on his own. He loathes being pushed around (literally) and will do all that he can to keep himself independent and active. If there is a conflict he will do his very best to handle it as quietly and without incident as he can, and saves the complaining and needing support for after it's dealt with. He's very aggressive with the fact that he can do things and no one has any business telling him that he can't. Attempting to do so will only lead him to try harder to prove you wrong.
Adding onto that, he's a passive-aggressive asshole when he wants to be, rude, and a little overly superior online. The kid has a lot of pent up rage that sometimes just needs to be let out.
TWO: Because of the above reason, his self-confidence is actually a real thing as opposed to a figment of his imagination. It can reach extreme points when bragging, but doesn't fluctuate between heavy self-deprecation and destructive overconfidence. He's a pretty well adjusted guy for all he's been through. He's also not a murderous alien, which didn't actually help him with being aggressive or confident to begin with.
THREE: Travis is pretty unabashed with all he loves and will tell you his interests and, usually, not apologize for it. He will paint for you a beautiful picture of how wonderful his roleplay character is and if he is losing at Magic: The Gathering he will call forth upon the mighty warrior within and become RUFIO (much the way a certain anime protagonist calls upon his inner pharoh king, only without any of the cool effects or ability boost. and on that note, anyone who says the heart of the cards works is very much a liar) - jokingly, of course. It's incredibly embarrassing to watch. A lifetime of worshipping Steven Spielberg's Hook (and always being mildly annoyed at a certain scene near the end) has also given him a life-long love for modern retellings of fairy-tales, as well as an avid-hero worship of Dante Basco and a special place in his heart for the tri-hawked leader of the Lost Boys.
He's also prone to fandom-bashing, character bashing, and taunting other players if they do poorly. If it's something he's good at he's far from a good sport when he wins.
FOUR: Since troll romance isn't a thing, he doesn't worry nearly as much about it. He also just doesn't really think about it. Romance exists in this whole other world from him. He doesn't know when someone is flirting with him. He doesn't know how to flirt or ask anyone out, he just awkwardly hovers in the "friend-zone" and quietly laments to other people about all his unrequited feelings.
There is the added factor of his paralysis and what intimacy means to him because of it. It's complicated and he has to trust the other party involved a lot to open up to them.
FIVE: Where Tavros' rebellious habits in canon stem from being pushed too far and usually result in removing himself from the situation, Travis doesn't mind getting a few pot-shots in. They're usually not terribly wise, clever, and add nothing to the situation but it makes him feel good and that's sometimes all a body needs.
SIX: Tavros's quirk is all about being meek and submissive, inverted caps and long rambling sentences. Travis types with perfect syntax, punctuation, and is very concise. This doesn't extend to when he's actually speaking out loud, but as humans don't type exactly how they speak and he's never touched the dark side of the internet known as 4chan, he prides himself in typing in what he considers to be superior to all others.
SEVEN: As he doesn't have to worry about dying due to his disability, his concerns are about living with it. He has a lot of concerns about how it impacts his life and his ability to do things. Even if he's determined to overcome any difficulties life throws at him. As a person living with a T5 injury he has normal use of his arms, weakened muscles in the trunk (abdominal and back muscles) and little to no use in his legs. He can stand in a standing frame, but finds walking with braces difficult and so doesn't do it often. There are also the more embarrassing issues, such as weak bowel and bladder control, but he manages that on his own.
In summary, Travis has a lot of the inner jerk that Tavros couldn't let out, tempered with mild self-confidence and self-assurance and a whole lot of human insecurities about being differently-abled.
Abilities: As a lower blooded troll, Tavros isn't going to be winning any strength contests. He's still much more durable than a human, but is possibly the physically weakest of all the trolls (probably due to the fact that he doesn't fight at all if he can help it.) He was cut in half in canon with a chainsaw and then had robotic legs attached and was walking with them within an hour.
However, the lower castes are more inclined to psychic abilities! Tavros' was the ability to commune with animals! This is an ability that could have made him a serious threat, were it not for the fact that he was a pacifistic soul. His abilities allowed him to control multiple creatures at once, and even allowed him to reach across time and space to another universe to control a creature with god-like abilities.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person:
"Are you, kidding me? You have to be joking right now. There is no way that this is a serious sentence coming out of your mouth. Unless you're a complete idiot, which if you're serious, you must be. That's so dumb, I don't even know how you can say that, and be serious."
It's half past 3 in the morning and he should go to bed. He's got exams tomorrow, big exams, and those are important to do well on so he doesn't end up with an additional year of exams - Travis can't find it in him to break away from the trainwreck unfolding before him. It wasn't uncommon to see haters trying to rain on a legitimate discussion about characterization in My Petite Rabbit! It was pretty par for the course, actually. But this? This was just gold. Some moron had jumped in to assert just how stupid the show and pointless the show was.
He hadn't gotten involved (yet, let the lessers handle this catastrophe and if they couldn't then he would certainly come in and end it with his wit and undeniable rightness) and yet he couldn't look away. With no parental figure to meddle in his bedtime, he'd been watching this unfold for the past three hours, furiously f5ing and muttering commentary to himself.
If only the real world were like Dream Warren.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. The next comment comes and Travis merely sighs and prepares to unleash the blasting of a century upon this poor dumb jerk.
This show can be enjoyed by anyone. And if you don't agree with it, maybe you should stop looking up videos.
He sits back, confident and certain that his comment would be the one that ended it all.
The email notif pops up in the corner of the screen. A reply! Well, shit. That was fast. He clicks on it and prepares himself mentally for congratulations. Most of the time, they didn't comment back - his fellow brobbits did instead. This time? It seems he didn't have the intended affect. He glances at the email on his phone with a frown.
hey asshole how about u stop watching shows for little girls.
But suddenly, he's not seeing the standard black text of a youtube comment. He's not even looking at youtube.
CG: HEY ASSHOLE, STOP PLAYING GAMES FOR GIRLS.
Oh.
Oh, what the hell. He has to rub his eyes, shaking his head until whatever it is fades from his thoughts. Instead of fury, there's just - confusion, being a little upset? Like someone had slammed a door in his face.
This hater could be handled by someone else, he was going to bed. Shutting his phone and laptop down, he settles on his side and tries to sleep.
An hour later he's pulling the computer back over to him and turning it on, mindlessly typing a string of numbers into the address bar without a word.
Roleplay Sample - Network: Asgard Intro.
Any Questions? None!
Name: Shikki
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact: mermares @ aim
IC Information:
Name: Tavros Nitram (Precarnate) Travis Martin (reincarnated)
Canon: Homestuck
Age: 13 (at time of death, chronologically unknown as time appears to pass differently for dead characters), 17 in-game.
Preincarnation Species: Troll.
Preincarnation Appearance: Socks with sandals.
Any differences: Lots. He's your average Filipino-American boy. He's got sprinklings of acne, has a septum piercing, and has braces.
He is a paraplegic and requires the use of a wheelchair. He values his upper body strength and so he's in really good shape.
Preincarnated History: Best summed up here!
Alternia is a planet built upon the motto "only the strong will survive." Love and hate are held in equal standing. The the dying, sick and crippled are often killed outright to avoid sullying the gene pool. Violence and murder are not only condoned, it's encouraged, and the class system imbues a sense of worthlessness or undue feelings of superiority depending on where you fall on it. The warmer the color of your blood, the farther down you fall. Adults are not permitted on the planet, the young are raised to be conquerors, and also raised by wild animals known as lusii. Tavros' was a tiny, gentle winged bull named Tinkerbull.
As one can imagine, Tavros was pretty far from the ideal troll. Meek, mild, and not one to take risks, the brownblood would do well were it only that he could escape notice. Unfortunately, being friends with some of the most influential and highest blooded trolls has its downsides and oh boy does he ever know them.
Tavros' friendship with Vriska Sekret was an ideal example of this. Where one might be content to let him do as he pleased and develop as he should, Vriska was very intent on pushing him and molding him into her ideal troll. This... did not pan out and instead had the opposite effect. Where she wanted Tavros to be strong and confident, he slipped farther and farther into self-doubt and abysmal self-esteem. There were few things Tavros thought he did well and even fewer by the time she was done with him. Formerly a member of the extreme live action roleplaying group Team Charge, he was forced to quit when a brief altercation with Vriska(who had fostered an interest in a kismesistude with him) ended with him leaping off a high cliff. Against his will. This started a cycle of revenge that lead to the blinding of one friend and the death of another, as well as the loss of Tavros' ability to walk.
Tavros spends the time between the beginning of the game and his accident training himself to compensate for his injury. This is more than just a hobby, it's an attempt to prove himself worthy to live - literally. On Alternia, the weak and injured are culled to keep the bloodlines strong. Or any reason they feel like, really. When he wasn't jousting dummies in his yard, he was playing Fiduspawn or talking to his friends. During this time it would seem he attempted to break away from Vriska Serket repeatedly, unfortunately his meek personality didn't allow for it and stuck they stayed.
This will be important later.
When the game happened, he was trapped under Vriska's control and cruelty. Literally. She was his Host, which meant she could control everything around him. This meant lots of staircases, brief flashes of Tavros' self-esteem and refusal to do her dirty work, and a lot of being shaken around. Up until he completed the task of entering the medium, that is. After doing a little questing and attempting to complete the game his way (think The Completionist, only befriending all the monsters instead of killing them), he and Vriska met up. Where she sort of confessed feelings that he was most certainly too terrified to return. In the end, though, they made up and got along as friends better for it. And then they adventured! And it was handwaved, therefore not terribly important.
At this point, the friend who had died during the cycle of revenge came back to life as a blue-blooded robot. A very angry, vengeful blue-blooded robot. That proceeded to beat Vriska to death before his eyes. By the time she was done and had moved on, Vriska was still alive. She instructed Tavros not to use the life-saving game mechanic (a kiss) and instead had him carry her to her quest cocoon. Her final request to him was to kill her and make her death quick, rather than leaving her to bleed slowly to death.
He didn't. Instead he fled, traumatized, and left her to die slowly.
Instead of continuing to be productive and useful, Tavros spends the rest of the game sleeping and living vicariously through the whimsy of his dreamself, living his dream of flying and doing little to nothing else. The others completed most of the game and at the end, when it was time for them to all claim their reward and enter the new universe, a terrifying demon known as Bec Noir came into their world and annihilated their victory and would have killed them all (as he did in other timelines) were it not for Robo-Aradia's intervention. They were shuffled to the safety of a meteor - knowing that Bec Noir was just behind them, and would gladly kill them as soon as he caught up. The troll's leader comes up with a plan to find the universe that Bec originated from and harass the people responsible for his being until they... well, it was a really bad plan and no one really understands what he wanted to do with it, but they tried. Tavros attempted to best Dave Strider, which backfired on him and had him blocking Dave.
Tavros continues his napping habit on the meteor, up until some helpful friends decided to saw him in half and give him robotic limbs. Very nice of them, but very messy and awkward. After regaining his ability to walk, Tavros also starts to regain his "confidence".
This is a bad thing.
The new confident Tavros attempts to confess his feelings to Jade Harley, one of the humans from the other session. He does this in the worst possible way, his confession includes a reference to murdering her grandfather (accidentally, as he did think that he was a threat) and a lot of passive-aggressive threats and showboating. Everyone saw this, by the way. Including Vriska, who was none too happy with him abandoning her to die. After witnessing that trainwreck of a confession she started to harass him, during which harassment he discovered that she was behind a good number of terrible things that had been going on.
Tavros knows that there is no way he can win this battle, but he has little left to lose and knows that he has to make a stand. In his anger he challenges her to a battle and goes down to fight her, once and for all. Whether or not he intends to kill her is up in the air, but he stubbornly makes his way to the duel. It ends about how one would expect, he charges at her, she stabs him with his own lance. To make sure he's extra dead, she throws him off of the platform their on.
He's about as dead as dead can get by then.
When people die in Homestuck, they go into something called dreambubbles. Dreambubbles are essentially little pocket dimensions where the dead's memories shape the landscape. Tavros ends up plunked down with a dead Dave from an offshoot timeline and that's the last we see of him for a while.
When we finally do get around to seeing Tavros again, it's in pieces. And then as a horrible merged abomination. Gamzee bring Tavros and Vriska back to life as a creature known as Tavrisprite, whose personality and... everything cannot function as it is and results in it's self-destruction. Back in the dreambubbles, Tavros is utterly content with his death and his afterlife. Vriska is not. Though he holds no hard feelings against her and holds himself responsible for what happened, she still insists on apologizing. Once they make up, he's dragged along on her adventure.
Their adventure is not at all fun and Tavros' happy-go-luckiness starts to ebb out of him, instead replaced with the sass that used to be only presented passive-aggressively. It all comes to a head and he decides to leave and head for greener pastures, presumably heading off to get killed by the giant green skull monster as this character is the joke of the series.
Reincarnated History: Tavros Nitram did not have a lucky bone in his body. As it turns out, Travis Martin was came into this world similarly lacking.
He was born to a rather young couple under poor circumstances. Both from poor families, both dabbling in some less than savory habits, and both young and looking for the fastest route to success and wealth. Unfortunately, what they found was nothing but messy fighting and heavy debt. Before he was even born, his mother realized that the path they were headed down wasn't one she wanted to be a part of and split. Despite the struggles that single motherhood brought, his mother did her best to be nurturing and supportive for all that he did. If he drew on the walls? She'd praise it and buy him erasable wall crayons. Every night had a story-time and (almost) every morning had a smile. She'd watch his cartoons with him and tell him fairy-tales, often of her own making.
Travis was most certainly a momma's boy. He relied on her for everything - to fight his battles, to pack his lunch, to patch up his booboos. In return he did his best to be a good boy and cause her as little trouble as he could. He was a good, happy child - even if he was heavily bullied due to his preference for more childish games and daydreamy nature, he was always safe in the knowledge that at home nothing at all could bother him. He was one of the last people in his class to get a computer, and even when he did it was such a colossal waste of space he was hardly on it. He could play pretend and entertain himself.
Unfortunately, that wasn't to last. A month before he turned 12, Travis and his mother were on his way back from a movie. The driver was young and intoxicated, there was no way to move and no time to react. It was a miracle he survived, one that came at a price. Travis left the hospital trying to cope with his new status as a paraplegic as well as the news that he was going to be uprooted from the life he'd known to live with a father he didn't. His mother had never told him the full story of who his father was - he'd heard everything from war hero to fairy king. The man in question was the man who spent his life living large and dangerous, not really suited to caring for a kid but living well enough to allow for one in his life.
Bounced from Chicago to Locke City wasn't exactly an easy, or enjoyable change. But he coped. "Coping" constituted playing more and more video games and avoiding his father, going to school but not engaging, and being as quiet and unobtrusive as he could with everything.
The present he got for his 13th birthday was a more spruced up computer. It was there that he discovered online RPing, a wider range of video games, and the wonder that is instantly downloaded movies. Online, he was able to be whoever he wanted to be... and that person was actually kind of a curt know-it-all asshole. Building a small army of online friends did wonders for his self-confidence, which eventually had him trying to get out and better himself.
Travis started to work out to gain more independence. The more upper body strength he gained, the less he had to quietly and unobtrusively attempt to get other people's attention to help him. The less he had to rely on others, the more he came into his own. Around 15, Travis was running multiple online RPs, playing in tabletop games offline, and working at the local animal shelter. His goals now center around becoming a veterinarian and opening his own no-kill shelter.
First Echo: The worst kind of fight is a Youtube Comment fight. Being a member of a large and obnoxious fandom centered around a television show aimed at little girls, Travis is used to the haters. Scouring the depths of Youtube for some excellent new PMV has lead him to more than one angry discussion!
But this one was a little different.
It was incredibly heated, very rude, lots of potshots - emotions ran high! But one single line stood out for him. STOP WATCHING SHOWS FOR LITTLE GIRLS.
Something about that line resonated with him. Suddenly he could remember pain, incredible pain, a vague urgency for help and a single line of grey text.
CG: HEY ASSHOLE, STOP PLAYING GAMES FOR GIRLS.
Going forward this let down feeling will make him more tentative about requesting for help and allowing himself the chance to be let down.
Preincarnation Personality: Out of all of the characters in Homestuck, Tavros may arguably be the most straight forward and easy to explain. While there are certainly flaws, issues, and shortcomings - many of these were not created by a major flaw in his personality, but rather, the overpowering influence of someone else.
He does not have a hidden agenda. He does not sneak around, forge and break alliances on a whim, and play games with people's heads for his own selfish desires. He does not hate intensely, nor does he get particularly passionate about much. All in all, he remains one of the most - if not *the* most - stable of all of the sGrub players due to his even nature and temperament. This simple, gentle personality makes it rather easy for him to get along with many of the people he comes across, often ending with their platonic pity toward his situation and circumstances and aiding in whatever way they can.
All in all, Tavros is just bad at being a troll. Even by the internet definition he falls short, ultimately blocking his target when made uncomfortable by his adept counter-trolling measures, then fleeing to said target's good friend to get some advice on how to handle the situation. Not to mention the fact that even in casual conversation, he's often apologizing for things that are not his fault, or preemptively apologizing for things he hasn't even done.
The boy is a stuttering, faltering mess in social situations, often unbearably awkward even in the most relaxed of conversations. Again, troll society tells him that due to his gentle personality and paralysis, he's not worth a whole lot. With a certain person's constant bullying and the offhanded remarks from his other friends, it's not surprising that he prefers to keep his head down and tries to make everyone happy. When not tripping over himself with apologies, Tavros alternates between being painfully straightforward and beating around the bush. He fumbles for a simple explanation, backpedals, dances around and even trips over the point he's trying to make in a vain attempt to keep the other party from becoming angry with him When "confident" he says what's on his mind and trusts that the other person will simply accept it, because in his mind confidence is the key to winning people over.
This is largely because he is simply not a confident person. In fact, he's quite cowardly. Even if he has good reason, he hides behind stronger people and tries to avoid conflict and confrontation because he is afraid. Decisions for him are not something that should be made on a whim, but should be consulted and spoken with so he can have a backup plan and maybe someone to save him should things go sour. He also does not handle trauma very well! He resorts to sleeping to play around on Prospit rather than to busy himself with leveling up and assisting his fellow players after a traumatic experience scarred him in canon. And, also of note, he is a true pacifist. He made it through the entire sGRUB session without killing a single enemy, instead befriending them all to turn them to his side.
He only knows what he knows about confidence by having watched the more confident of the trolls, who have a lot more going for them than just their own self-assurance. To Tavros, being loud and in-your-face is about as close as he can get. We see this spectacular failure at self-confidence for the first time after he consults Rose for advice on what to do with Dave, rejecting her offer to help with a boast of his own abilities. In the end, after accidentally blocking the human, he reverts temporarily back to his usual self to apologize for the mistake. Then he goes on to destroy Dave with his "sick fires", oblivious to the face that he has hardly done any damage to the human with his fumbling, pathetic attempts at freestyle. And again, later, after the attachment of his robot legs and subsequent, incredibly forward, conversations with Jade, we see just how hard he's trying to pump himself up and seem like a somebody she could like.
We can't talk about Tavros' self confidence without inevitably moving back to the complication that is his relationship with Vriska.
Vriska is his bully. His worst nightmare. His greatest enemy, and a friend he has fun with. It's summed up best as "it's complicated" and filled with rampant quadrant flipping, ultimately ending in the destruction of whatever friendship remained between them. Vriska expected too much from him. She prodded, she pulled, she pushed and did whatever she could to make him into a stronger person the only way she knew how. While her intentions may have been pure, the result was certainly not as desired. She is a large part of the reason for his submissive, doormat personality. Yet, despite it all, it isn't until after promising Kanaya that he wouldn't speak to her anymore that he attempts to close off communications. Yet, she makes him nervous. Impossibly, impossibly nervous - when speaking to her it's clear he finds a hard time getting a word in edge-wise. His 'uHS' increase, often the only thing he manages to say in the midst of her ranting as he waits for her to stop. Sometimes, he talks back, only sometimes, and it's not usually something that goes well for him. He makes no real effort to defend himself. When she snipes at his faults, he simply acknowledges that she is "probably right" and leaves it at that. All in all, he is absolutely terrified of her, yet still cares for her enough to try to save her life.
He even takes the time to end their conversations with a polite "bYE".
Tavros' lack of hatred means that no matter what she does, he still somehow considers her a friend. Trolls do have the same word for friend and enemy, after all... but it would be wrong to say that he doesn't have his limit.
There are things he cannot and will not do. Even when Vriska is bullying him and breathing down his neck.
Such as apologizing for being paralyzed. Even when she's shaking him and demanding that he apologies for being unable to climb the stairs, he holds his ground and refuses to give in. Another would be his refusal to kill her - though not something that he is proud of, he keeps his resolve and escapes from the situation as quickly as possible. And later, when it is revealed that she is responsible for the state that they are in now, Tavros steels himself and sets off with a determination for a battle he's probably sure he cannot win.
Still, responsibilities and the "right thing" are not things that Tavros seems too invested in if it means serious effort. He has his moral compass but the idea of trying and failing keeps him away from intervening unless it's under them most dire of circumstances, and added responsibilities mean growing up in ways that he doesn't want to. He's content to do things for the fun and pleasure of it, not because he has to or has any desire at all to fulfil an obligation.
On the positive side, Tavros is an atrocious rapper! He doesn't know that he's bad, nor would he particularly care to find out, but he is indeed a rapper and it's probably one of his greatest joys in life. Slam poetry is his dream, he'd probably love to ascend to the ranks of Troll Eminem or Troll Formerly Known as Snoop Formerly known as Snoop Dog Now Currently Known as Snoop Lion.
He is also surprisingly sassy. Though he's not nearly brave enough to come out and say what's on his mind (at least when he perceives the other person to be either better than him or a threat) he's rather passive-aggressive and sarcastic when the mood strikes him.
Finally, he's thorough. Aradia praises his flarping abilities because he genuinely loves it and goes in to find out everything within the story. He builds himself up slowly, going through campaigns not for treasure or to level up, but because he wants to play every quest line and believes that the eventual payoff is worth the hours and hours poured into gameplay.
As I mentioned before, after his death Tavros isn't quite as happy-go-lucky as he was before. Though, the traits he displayed were not traits already present. Tavros is a passive-aggressive asshole underneath his quiet exterior, and spending so much time with Vriska cut away much of the passive and laid on the aggression thickly.
Any differences: It goes without saying that his upbringing is very different from his canonical one, but unlike the other trolls Tavros never had any real difficulties growing up. He only had Vriska, who did cause him a lot of damage but there was no emotional scarring due to a murderous parent monster.
ONE: Where Tavros tended to rely on others heavily for support, Travis prefers to at least attempt to handle his problems on his own. He loathes being pushed around (literally) and will do all that he can to keep himself independent and active. If there is a conflict he will do his very best to handle it as quietly and without incident as he can, and saves the complaining and needing support for after it's dealt with. He's very aggressive with the fact that he can do things and no one has any business telling him that he can't. Attempting to do so will only lead him to try harder to prove you wrong.
Adding onto that, he's a passive-aggressive asshole when he wants to be, rude, and a little overly superior online. The kid has a lot of pent up rage that sometimes just needs to be let out.
TWO: Because of the above reason, his self-confidence is actually a real thing as opposed to a figment of his imagination. It can reach extreme points when bragging, but doesn't fluctuate between heavy self-deprecation and destructive overconfidence. He's a pretty well adjusted guy for all he's been through. He's also not a murderous alien, which didn't actually help him with being aggressive or confident to begin with.
THREE: Travis is pretty unabashed with all he loves and will tell you his interests and, usually, not apologize for it. He will paint for you a beautiful picture of how wonderful his roleplay character is and if he is losing at Magic: The Gathering he will call forth upon the mighty warrior within and become RUFIO (much the way a certain anime protagonist calls upon his inner pharoh king, only without any of the cool effects or ability boost. and on that note, anyone who says the heart of the cards works is very much a liar) - jokingly, of course. It's incredibly embarrassing to watch. A lifetime of worshipping Steven Spielberg's Hook (and always being mildly annoyed at a certain scene near the end) has also given him a life-long love for modern retellings of fairy-tales, as well as an avid-hero worship of Dante Basco and a special place in his heart for the tri-hawked leader of the Lost Boys.
He's also prone to fandom-bashing, character bashing, and taunting other players if they do poorly. If it's something he's good at he's far from a good sport when he wins.
FOUR: Since troll romance isn't a thing, he doesn't worry nearly as much about it. He also just doesn't really think about it. Romance exists in this whole other world from him. He doesn't know when someone is flirting with him. He doesn't know how to flirt or ask anyone out, he just awkwardly hovers in the "friend-zone" and quietly laments to other people about all his unrequited feelings.
There is the added factor of his paralysis and what intimacy means to him because of it. It's complicated and he has to trust the other party involved a lot to open up to them.
FIVE: Where Tavros' rebellious habits in canon stem from being pushed too far and usually result in removing himself from the situation, Travis doesn't mind getting a few pot-shots in. They're usually not terribly wise, clever, and add nothing to the situation but it makes him feel good and that's sometimes all a body needs.
SIX: Tavros's quirk is all about being meek and submissive, inverted caps and long rambling sentences. Travis types with perfect syntax, punctuation, and is very concise. This doesn't extend to when he's actually speaking out loud, but as humans don't type exactly how they speak and he's never touched the dark side of the internet known as 4chan, he prides himself in typing in what he considers to be superior to all others.
SEVEN: As he doesn't have to worry about dying due to his disability, his concerns are about living with it. He has a lot of concerns about how it impacts his life and his ability to do things. Even if he's determined to overcome any difficulties life throws at him. As a person living with a T5 injury he has normal use of his arms, weakened muscles in the trunk (abdominal and back muscles) and little to no use in his legs. He can stand in a standing frame, but finds walking with braces difficult and so doesn't do it often. There are also the more embarrassing issues, such as weak bowel and bladder control, but he manages that on his own.
In summary, Travis has a lot of the inner jerk that Tavros couldn't let out, tempered with mild self-confidence and self-assurance and a whole lot of human insecurities about being differently-abled.
Abilities: As a lower blooded troll, Tavros isn't going to be winning any strength contests. He's still much more durable than a human, but is possibly the physically weakest of all the trolls (probably due to the fact that he doesn't fight at all if he can help it.) He was cut in half in canon with a chainsaw and then had robotic legs attached and was walking with them within an hour.
However, the lower castes are more inclined to psychic abilities! Tavros' was the ability to commune with animals! This is an ability that could have made him a serious threat, were it not for the fact that he was a pacifistic soul. His abilities allowed him to control multiple creatures at once, and even allowed him to reach across time and space to another universe to control a creature with god-like abilities.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person:
"Are you, kidding me? You have to be joking right now. There is no way that this is a serious sentence coming out of your mouth. Unless you're a complete idiot, which if you're serious, you must be. That's so dumb, I don't even know how you can say that, and be serious."
It's half past 3 in the morning and he should go to bed. He's got exams tomorrow, big exams, and those are important to do well on so he doesn't end up with an additional year of exams - Travis can't find it in him to break away from the trainwreck unfolding before him. It wasn't uncommon to see haters trying to rain on a legitimate discussion about characterization in My Petite Rabbit! It was pretty par for the course, actually. But this? This was just gold. Some moron had jumped in to assert just how stupid the show and pointless the show was.
He hadn't gotten involved (yet, let the lessers handle this catastrophe and if they couldn't then he would certainly come in and end it with his wit and undeniable rightness) and yet he couldn't look away. With no parental figure to meddle in his bedtime, he'd been watching this unfold for the past three hours, furiously f5ing and muttering commentary to himself.
If only the real world were like Dream Warren.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. The next comment comes and Travis merely sighs and prepares to unleash the blasting of a century upon this poor dumb jerk.
This show can be enjoyed by anyone. And if you don't agree with it, maybe you should stop looking up videos.
He sits back, confident and certain that his comment would be the one that ended it all.
The email notif pops up in the corner of the screen. A reply! Well, shit. That was fast. He clicks on it and prepares himself mentally for congratulations. Most of the time, they didn't comment back - his fellow brobbits did instead. This time? It seems he didn't have the intended affect. He glances at the email on his phone with a frown.
hey asshole how about u stop watching shows for little girls.
But suddenly, he's not seeing the standard black text of a youtube comment. He's not even looking at youtube.
CG: HEY ASSHOLE, STOP PLAYING GAMES FOR GIRLS.
Oh.
Oh, what the hell. He has to rub his eyes, shaking his head until whatever it is fades from his thoughts. Instead of fury, there's just - confusion, being a little upset? Like someone had slammed a door in his face.
This hater could be handled by someone else, he was going to bed. Shutting his phone and laptop down, he settles on his side and tries to sleep.
An hour later he's pulling the computer back over to him and turning it on, mindlessly typing a string of numbers into the address bar without a word.
Roleplay Sample - Network: Asgard Intro.
Any Questions? None!