application

[supermonster]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Ellie
Contact: summerdive at plurk
Age: 25
Current Characters: N/A.


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Ickis
Age: Not specified/inconsistent. The show is unclear on how monsters age exactly, and there are conflicting details about which decades Ickis has lived through; he could be anywhere from a young teenager to even 70+ years old. Regardless of the exact number of years, Ickis is still an adolescent monster, attending university. His disposition is that of a teenager or a college student in their early 20s.
Canon: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters!
Canon Point: Season 4, episode 13 (final episode), just after making up with Oblina and Krumm and escaping the trash compactor.

Background: Ickis is a monster, plain and simple. He exists to scare humans; he goes to school to learn how to scare humans better; and he also likes to scare humans for fun. That’s just what he does. In fact, it’s crucial that he does it. For thousands of years, monsters have been scaring humans, ensuring their belief, somewhere deep down, that monsters are real. Monsters were born of the visceral fear in the collective human psyche, all those thousands of years ago. The essence of monster existence thrives on fear; human fear is the driving life energy of the monster world, the backbone of their culture. If monsters stopped scaring, humans would stop believing in monsters, and monsters would quite literally disappear. It’s integral to their very existence to scare humans. And whether or not Ickis is especially good at it, that’s what he’s got to do.

Unfortunately, he’s a pretty poor student at the Monster Scaring Academy, and something of a coward himself. He struggles with his studies, despite some obvious latent talent, and still hasn’t quite gotten a grip on how to scare safely and effectively. Half the time, he’s a total flop. A little poodle has even scared him!

He’s lazy but hard on himself, insecure with his scaring ability and potential. Ickis’s father Slickis is an iconic scarer, famous for many meaningful scares throughout history. Slickis once scared a group of libertines on a ship in Boston, causing them to throw boxes of tea overboard in fright, sparking the Boston Tea Party; he also scared George Washington while crossing the Delaware River, driving the president screaming back to the boat, eager to sail away; Slickis scared the group of patriots carrying the Liberty Bell, causing them to drop and break it as they ran away in fear; Slickis singlehandedly created the myth behind the Bermuda Triangle, scaring an entire geographical location forever in one go; and Slickis became most famous for his scaring career during the 1940s in the “Era of Disbelief,” when humans’ belief in monsters was dwindling (they must have had other fears on their minds, I imagine)… With such a timeless reputation, Slickis’s celebrity was very difficult for Ickis to cope with, growing up. The bar is set extra high for Ickis in his father’s shadow, but Ickis struggles to reach the expectations held for him. He flies by the seat of his pants in school, and is often scolded by his hard-ass professor, the Gromble, who tries to nurture Ickis’s talent with serious tough-love — maybe even cruel-love…

The Academy is located in a dump alongside the Hudson River, just on the border between New Jersey and New York City. Monsters use the sewer systems for transportation throughout the city, entering and exiting human homes sneakily through toilets and drains. Ickis lives more-or-less happily in the dump amongst the garbage, which is the mainstay of his diet. Monsters love to eat trash, bugs, sludge, etc. — but human food will make them quite ill. They typically avoid any contact with humans beyond scaring them. There is a general scorn and distrust for humans within the monster world. Humans are dangerous, and could hunt monsters down if they are not careful when scaring. There are rules so as not to risk exposing the monster world (such as never scaring the same human twice in a row, so that they are always unsure of what they saw). The entrance to the Academy is disguised as an old washing machine, with the school hidden beneath the dump, protected from human detection. Human culture is baffling and monsters are well-advised to avoid it. Using human technology, like television, movies, and music, is strongly frowned upon, even punishable. Friendship between monsters and humans is strictly forbidden. And certainly asking humans for help is out of the question; in fact, the Monster Manual — the guidebook for every major pillar of monster life — clearly states a monster should never, ever, ever, ever, ever ask a human for help, or else it would result in the doom of all monsters.

But that wasn’t the case, whenever Ickis has asked his human friends for help, despite having read the warning. Nothing bad happened. There is a general wariness and bias against humans in the monster world, regarding them as gross or wildly vicious, but a lot of it is simply age-old prejudice (although for good reason). Despite this, Ickis is fascinated by humans. He has several human friends, loves old Western movies and rock’n’roll music videos, loves to dance and sing and play the blues on the harmonica, and he’s stunned and entranced by things like magicians, TV and lava lamps. For someone who is afraid of so many things, constantly worried about getting in trouble, Ickis still often shirks the rules, as his daring and curiosity get the better of him.

He is seldom alone in his adventures, though — his best friends Oblina and Krumm are always by his side. The three of them are roommates at the Academy, and participate in nearly every scaring assignment together. He’s not always the best at teamwork, since he’s sometimes too hungry for the spotlight, but Ickis would be nothing without his two best friends to support him. They’re a terrific trio, with Krumm’s relaxed, happy-go-lucky nature balancing out Ickis’s perpetual gripping anxiety, and Oblina’s book smarts and pragmatism balancing out the boys’ carelessness. They have stuck together for ages, ever since first coming to the Academy; nothing could tear their friendships apart — except, perhaps, some mysterious otherworldly force sweeping one of them away to a distant planet…


Personality: Ickis is a mess. He’s a neurotic slacker with bad grades and a rebellious streak — but his mischief is mostly kept in check by regular school detentions and chronic panic attacks. Thankfully, he has two loyal best friends to look out for him, or else this unhinged little monster would have been expelled a long time ago…

Ickis is both the schlemiel and schlimazel — he’s the hapless idiot who spills the soup, and also the unlucky fool who gets the soup spilt on him. He’s careless, klutzy and constantly making mistakes, but also generally runs into bad luck, is always on edge and ready to complain, and attracts an unusual amount of trouble. Most of the time, he’s paying the consequences for his own mishaps and fixing problems he caused himself. He breaks rules often, but still frets terribly over doing so. When in trouble, he frequently finds himself with no other solution than to break the rules, out of desperation. He’s even nearly exposed the monster world on several occasions — but thankfully, a stroke of sudden luck always saves him in the end.

Even though he’s not especially tactful, he is resourceful. When Ickis puts his mind to something, he problem-solves well, despite many hiccups in his plans… He’s had to learn how to save his own hide. He seldom applies himself where he needs to, though. His grades are often lowest in the class; he rarely has his homework prepared, or if he does, he messed it up somehow; he’s chronically late, forgetful, disorganized, and goofs off in class. But when a difficult project has caught his interest, Ickis is almost manic in executing it — such as building a working television from scratch in his dorm room, after becoming obsessed with watching music videos on a real TV in a human store. He’s easily swept away by fancy and fantasy; Ickis is fond of escapism, and still likes to play pretend (even creating his own super hero alter ego), and looks to the outside world for new ideas. He’s somewhat obsessive in his interests — whether that’s comic books, collecting trading cards (or hairballs), competitive sports like sewer surfing, or maybe more unconventional interests…

The most unusual of these is Ickis’s strange fascination with humans and their culture. He doesn’t feel the fear or disgust that most monsters feel toward humans. He goes against the rules about human safety all the time, unable to resist his curious and open-minded instinct. He’s befriended a human child named Bradley after scaring him, and secretly partnered up with him for Ickis’s homework assignment, in order to scare kids that were bullying Bradley. Ickis hooked up a film projector with a box of old Western movies in his dorm room against the rules, and pretended to be a cowboy with his friends for days on end. Ickis loves to sing and dance to human music, which most monsters find appalling, and seems to enjoy noisy rock’n’roll the most. He did have a rather touching stint with the blues, thanks to a musician who was probably his closest human friend, a blind old homeless man named Mr. Robinson. Ickis had run away from home, feeling unwanted and despondent, and decided to squat in the same dilapidated apartment building as the blind old man. Mr. Robinson couldn’t see that Ickis was a monster, so it wasn’t worth it to try and scare him. They formed an unusual friendship living together for a spell, and Mr. Robinson taught Ickis how to play the harmonica and express his feelings through song. It was a validating bonding experience with a human, but would definitely shock any monster if he ever told someone about it.

His baseline compassion may be what opens him up most to those unlike himself. Ickis tends toward the sensitive side, and has a soft spot for human babies and animals. He once lovingly adopted a puppy dog into his dorm room in secret, despite dogs (or as monsters say, “bark-and-bites”) being considered very dangerous. He went to great trouble to rescue a group of lobsters from a seafood restaurant, mistaking them for trapped monsters and vowing to save their lives. And as the strongest testament to his empathetic, untraditional open-mindedness, he also once fell head over heels in love with a hand puppet he saw in a puppeteer booth at a fair… He had no idea what she was exactly, but he loved her anyway.

He’s a kind and gentle monster, even if he gets up to a lot of trouble. He may be emotionally reactive, but he doesn’t act maliciously toward people or ever intend to cause harm. When the situation calls for it, Ickis can sometimes be pretty heroic, even if it doesn’t always end well. In a surfing competition, Ickis sparked a rivalry with his best friend Krumm, who had an accident just near the finish line while running neck-and-neck with Ickis to win; Ickis would have won the competition, but he turned around to save his best friend, and was awarded for his sportsmanship. He once rescued even the school bully, whose literal job was to torture students — and seeing as Ickis is in detention so often, they were well acquainted… But Ickis can’t go against his conscience when it kicks in, and generally treats others with empathy. He openly shows affection and reaffirms his friends often. He’s the friend to pat you on the back when you’re feeling low, the shoulder to cry on, ready to cheer up his buddies with gifts and fun activities when he sees they’re upset. He’s a little self-centered and hotheaded, though, so at times it takes him a moment to notice if others are upset, especially if he’s upset too… He feels everything deeply and complexly, but sometimes fails to detect feelings well in other people. His scope of perception isn’t very broad.

Ickis can be a bit of a brat. He’s pouty, petty and petulant. He isn’t especially good at apologizing, but is still willing to compromise and resolve problems, even if he’s passive aggressive and snide. He is prone to arguing and bickering, especially with his know-it-all best friend Oblina. He vies for control and attention, craving recognition and applause, but as such isn’t very good at coordinated teamwork. A lot of Ickis’s need for attention stems from a lack of support from his famous father, Slickis. Slickis was not present enough in Ickis’s life, always being drawn away by the calls of fame, never having time for just the two of them. Ickis deeply admires his father, who seems to be good at everything he does (even slime-bowling) — whereas Ickis is an insecure, lazy, under-achieving nebbish. He feels like he has to overcompensate for his shortcomings and for the precedent his father’s success set for him. Either he crumbles under the pressure, or he acts out, feigns confidence, and gloats over his smaller achievements. He often exaggerates his accomplishments and overly congratulates himself, and is rather competitive against his peers. There’s a certain duality in Ickis between self-doubt and cockiness, fear and bravery. He’s either a nervous wreck or a headstrong braggart — there’s really no in-between.

Ickis is very insecure about his scariness and worries he’s too cute, embarrassed that many people mistake him for a bunny rabbit. He’s often teased and made fun of, especially for his small stature and big, floppy ears — he jokes they pick up radio signals if he’s not careful. He’s a tad melodramatic, moody, and likes to feel sorry for himself. More than anything, Ickis is deeply anxious. He panics by default, always projecting the worst outcome, and is prone to hysterics. For a monster, Ickis is ironically very jumpy and easily frightened. The humans he’s assigned to scare often end up scaring him instead. Pretty humiliating, actually.

He has a desperate, innate need to be liked by everyone. He easily folds under peer pressure, and tends to go along with the herd to play it safe. He’s naïve and gullible and good-hearted, so he’s easily taken advantage of by people even more charismatic than himself. He is a poor judge of character, and often falls for tricks and schemes. He’s hooked up with hooligans, released dastardly criminals by accident after they schmoozed him, is often loped into babysitting terrifying children by the Gromble against his will, taken magic drugs (essentially) from shady strangers to help him put off his homework, and always falls for any kind of get-rich-quick scheme.

He falls into those traps, though, because he is very lazy, and always looking for the easy route. He shirks responsibility, and would do almost anything that enables him to get out of work. He puts forth the minimum amount of effort required, and would prefer to do no work at all and just have fun, if he could. He takes drastic risks to make things easier for himself, even lying, stealing, and cheating — his moral compass doesn’t trump his over-indulgence. When he has to confront the consequences of his laziness, he makes pathetic excuses and tries to kiss ass to his professor, but to no avail. Whether it’s getting rich quick, falling for phony ads, or procrastinating homework, Ickis is always on the lookout for shortcuts.

At the end of the day, Ickis is just a young Jersey boy tryna get by in school and have fun with his friends on the side. When he’s not crippled by anxiety, he likes playing sports, fishing for trash, teasing his schoolmates, pulling pranks, and just generally acting silly, like anyone his age. He’s the class clown, the charmer, the bad boy. He’s daring against his better judgment, sometimes just to show off, and would probably get bored if he didn’t get up to some mischief every once in a while. He needs to run out all that hyper energy somehow, whether that’s through a panicky hysterical adrenaline rush, or through leaping and dancing and shouting to celebrate a great scare he made. Ickis is overall a fun-loving, good-humored monster with a mild, controlled thirst for thrills. At his core he would be pretty laidback, that is, if he weren’t so exceedingly nervous, like, all the time.

He’s a snarky, sarcastic wise-ass, with a weak filter. He always has a tongue-in-cheek remark waiting for just the wrong moment. His smarmy wit and dry sense of humor often gets him in trouble with the Gromble, who has no patience for Ickis’s “above it” kind of attitude. The Gromble is tougher on Ickis than on any of the other students. This psyches Ickis out more often than not, but despite Ickis’s poor marks in class overall, the Gromble’s high standard for Ickis sometimes drives him to truly excel — if only out of fear of failing. When Ickis succeeds, he nails it. He once scared an entire professional hockey team at once, all while figure skating alongside them on the rink. He’s scared NFL players, fearless adventurers, and entire doctors’ offices full of people, literally blowing the roof off the place. He has an innate talent that shines through when he applies himself, but his motivation is so inconsistent that his laziness and insecurity blinds him to his true potential. The Gromble can tell Ickis could be destined for great things, and tries to push him harder and harder, in hopes Ickis will finally get the wake-up call. He’s still making steady progress with his scaring skills, all his shortcomings and pitfalls aside. He’s doing what he does, whether he’s good at it or not. Half the time he bombs it, and half the time he blows it out of the water… So that means he just about breaks even, right? Not too shabby!

…He’s still pretty much a mess, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Abilities: Ickis’s major abilities are his scaring techniques. Ickis is a “loomer,” as is his father, and his father’s father, and his father’s father’s father… You get it. Looming relies on the element of surprise, rather than, say, dread or disgust. As a loomer, Ickis can enlarge his body by many times its natural size, sometimes even grow as large as a building (if he’s really feeling it). He sprouts large, gruesome fangs and long, sharp claws, as his eyeballs fill up with blood. He snarls and roars as he exponentially engorges his body, his suddenly fearsome presence filling the room. Ickis catches people quite by surprise this way — even scaring other monsters — because his normal appearance is so petite, cute and unassuming. No one expects this weird little bunny boy to suddenly become the gigantic, terrifying monster he actually is. Looming takes practice and focus, and it’s taken Ickis a long time to get the hang of it. When he first came to school, he pompously bragged about how great his dad was to distract from the fact that he himself was absolutely awful at looming — whenever he tried to engorge himself in front of the class, he actually shrank to a tiny, tiny size. Very embarrassing. It takes mental calm to be able to transform himself. If Ickis panics while looming, he gets stuck and can’t change his size as easily. He can manipulate his size one way or the other, growing larger and smaller as he sees fit. He still has a couple hang-ups now and again, but for the most part, Ickis has got looming down-pat, and has gotten pretty good at it, too. But only with a lot of painstaking effort and many failed attempts.

He’s also able to induce nightmares. He’s not particularly adept at it, and when he’s tried to do it it’s gone horribly wrong — but in theory he can induce nightmares in sleeping humans. He inserts a claw or two (there’s some debate about the best technique) inside the ear, reaching in deep to probe at parts in the brain. It involves manipulating his physical size again, in order to reach in deep enough, so there is some risk of shrinking too much and being swallowed into the human’s ear by accident. When this happened, he was able to control the human from inside the brain, driving the body around like a vehicle. It was kinda disastrous and haphazard, though, so it’s more of a peculiarly fun mistake than an actual skill… He’s better off sticking to looming and jumping out from under the bed.

Apart from scaring, Ickis hasn’t really developed many other useful skills. He’s a talented athlete, and plays pitcher on the Academy’s sewer ball team (something like baseball, but more slimy and disgusting). He’s pretty quick on his feet, agile and fast, and has enough balance to be able to surf well. He’s a smooth dancer, often pulling a lot of erratic rock’n’roll moves, doing splits, death drops, great leaps, and dizzying spins all in the span of the same moment. He’s also considered a good singer by his peers, but by human standards that may be debatable…


Alignment: Thras. Without a doubt. Ickis essentially only knows two modes: fear and bravery. He oscillates between the neurotic mess of a monster he is inside, and a defiant daredevil who laughs in the face of danger — but mostly just in order to compensate for how much of a wimp he normally is.


Other: Monsters cannot survive long in clean air; they need noxious fumes from garbage and disgusting stenches to be able to breathe, and could suffocate if they spend too much time in oxygen-rich air. Monsters do have internal air sac organs they can extract and fill with toxic air, and swallow again, which allows them to stay above ground for at least two days, but even up to a week if they engorge themselves first before filling the air sac. As long as there are trash cans around, Ickis can freely refill his air sac when he needs it, just by inhaling a deep breath of nasty garbage air. If there is a city dump he can permanently live in, that would obviously be ideal.

Ickis will still need to scare people even while spirited away here! He will lurk in the dark and the alleys, and (with player permission only) hide in the bathrooms, closets and bedsides of unsuspecting characters. He may not be all that gung-ho or effective without the pressures of schoolwork, the Gromble, or his best friends to motivate him. He’ll probably end up making friends out of many of his scares. And in a place like this, it’s guaranteed he’ll run into some shady figures who would scare him far more than he could ever scare them… So the emotional scales will balance out easily. But Ickis will still need to put himself out there and do his best to menace the town every night. It can never hurt to try!



⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample + Emotion Sample: I’ve combined the two samples in a longer prose piece.

I have also posted a test drive thread (but I did it rather late, so I went ahead and wrote a narrative piece for thorough characterization, to be sure).


Questions: Is there a city dump Ickis can live in? What is the best way to go about contacting other players for permission to scare their characters? Do the mods see any potential problems in the game with such an unusual and emotionally impactful character as Ickis, given his natural need to scare? And less important, do the Punkie monsters from September still live in Verens, lol...?