Stuff I Remember
Stuff I keep in mind when playing my characters, stolen from Wolfwood and done for the same reasons as him.
FIRST OF ALL for all my characters I have certain moments in their canon that I keep filed away for the purposes of character voice, and I call up on them whenever I feel like I might be losing my footing.
For Lina this means basically just remembering the first ten or so pages of the book, which do a SUPERB job of summarizing the character that Lina remains as for the rest of the novels. The book starts with her side stepping the issue of WHY bandits are chasing her, she eventually admits to it but it takes her like, three pages of rambling to get there. She casually mentions offing the bandit boss (on accident, kind of, as in she didn't CARE if he survived that fireball or not), progresses to her pokingly negotiating with one of the bandits after her, shows her being aware of hidden enemies (the bandit claims to have guys in tree with arrows pointed at her and she's like, lol no there aren't bitch), shows her being perfectly confident in her ability to take on a dozen armed men single handedly, has her bitch mentally about the bandits HORRIBLE dialog... infact when Gourry shows up she actually grades his lines vs the bandits (Gourry wins, albeit only barely). It shows Lina having absolutely no problem with a tall handsome knight 'saving' her, she even goes so far as to play up the damsel act by squealing for help, and later shows Lina being a bit disappointed (and hurt, and miffed) when Gourry calls her 'just a little girl' BUT despite that also shows Lina being grateful for Gourry's completely unnecessary help, so much that she puts up with his insulting misconceptions and lets him escort her to town.
And that is BASICALLY everything Lina is in a nutshell. Tough, intelligent, witty, snarky, but confident in her strengths more than her physical appearance. Stuff like Gourry 'saving' her does nothing to her ego, but being thought of a kid does. And despite this she's still got the common courtesy to understand the intents behind the actions, that Gourry might be an idiot but is still a good guy at heart who wants to make sure she's safe even if she isn't a hot babe, so she puts up with it and doesn't set him on fire. She also never feels compelled to 'show off'. Which she does LOVE doing, but not for the sake of making people stop thinking that she's weak, cause really, she doesn't care that much. She knows her natural awesomeness with shine through in time. No need to rush it.
Hm, I don't actually have many such situations for Ed. Ed's personality is ingrained into my head so thoroughly I don't have to think about it much anymore. And I've read his canon so much I CAN mentally sum up any given situation if necessary. I do this most often with things like dealing with Greed or Izumi.
Riku, while I was playing him, was always based off the moment when he appears toward the end of the game, when he's back to being himself and is full of confident, snarky remarks to everyone.
Killua is harder. I've read his canon a lot but he doesn't have a lot of distinctive moments. There isn't much that's 'purely Killua' I can call upon for him, except in situations where he's topping people (withstanding someone's electrical attack and saying "I've been swimming in this since I was little" or casually ripping out someone's heart) or else moments like fighting with Gon
"Killua killua let's see who can jump higher!"
*they jump, Killua jumps about ten feet higher*
"Argh! Let's do it again Killua, one more time!"
"No way, I'll win again and you'll keep saying 'one more time'"
"I won't, Killua, just one more time!"
"No!"
"Killua!"
"Argh, fine! *jumps, wins again*"
"One more time!"
Vash is another hard one, not cause he doesn't have distinctive moments but because he has them ALL THE TIME and it's hard as hell to tell which of his seventy personas he will draw from for any given conversation. I tend to remember moments like when a gang of bountry hunters came after him and unloaded dozens of rounds each into the shop. Vash pretended to be dead, then got up and hung all over one of them, and everyone was like "lol now you'll really die" and Vash just stood there while they all pulled their triggers. When no bullets hit him Vash pointed his finger at the guy he was draped over and went "The only guy with any bullets left is him" "How did you know?" "I counted". But there are also moments like the genocide song (which is what I based my app around) when Vash runs around shooting his gun and yelling his name and that "ALL OF A SUDDEN, BECAUSE I SAID SO, IT'S TIME FOR A MASSACRE" all to get people to RUN AWAY. But then there are ALSO moments like Vash calling Wolfwood a coward for killing Rai Dei the Blade, or Vash threatening to grope Domenic the Cyclops, or Vash being all weirded out over a transvestite or Vash being REALLY FUCKING EMO over July, or Vash apologizing to a bully and having a bunch of little kids call him a coward and Vash telling them no, you have to avoid trouble =\ or Vash MOPING LOUDLY over how he never really does manage to avoid trouble.
Vash does... a lot. And while he's almost always SILLY he can be about fifty two different kinds of silly. I tend to wing it.
HOWEVER here are some other characteristics I keep in mind, for all my characters.
Ed-
-Ed is nice. He is respectful, usually polite, and never deliberately hurts someone emotionally. And by 'never' I mean only in very rare circumstances and only to people he doesn't like.
-Ed is determined and he doesn't really care if you don't agree with what he is determined about. This is why despite Caesar's hints, Ed is never going to apologize for attacking Roy or admit it was stupid. He doesn't care. Ed stands beside the choices he makes unless HE'S the one to decide it was a bad idea, someone else telling him usually doesn't go over well.
-Ed is oblivious. V. V. oblivious. This extends mostly to anything sexual but covers just about anything emotional. He MIGHT be able to tell if someone is in a bad mood, particularly if it's obvious, but he usually won't have any clue WHY.
-Ed is a genius, only not really. Ed is OFTEN the character that gets expositioned at in the manga. This is because while he's brilliant, it's... limited. Being smart doesn't mean Ed thinks things out all the time, it just means that when he DOES choose to think things out he has a lot of knowledge and critical thinking skills to draw on. However given the choice between 'go for it' or 'think about it' Ed will almost always choose the former, even if it's CLEARLY STUPID AND HOPELESS. When Ed fought Greed the first Greed literally beat the shit out of Ed because Greed had made Ed MAD and Greed had made Ed WORRIED and Greed had taken someone that belonged to HIM and despite the fact that it became PERFECTLY OBVIOUS that Ed couldn't do any serious damage to Greed Ed persisted in attacking him relentlessly to the point where Greed probably could have killed him if he wanted. It wasn't until Ed had nearly been knocked unconscious that he calmed down enough to think "Oh wait, I can alchemize his armor away". And this is the main reason Ed almost never uses fancy alchemy fights. It doesn't occur to him.
-Ed doesn't THINK he is a genius. Despite not actually being humble, Ed isn't arrogant or competitive about his alchemy, his intelligence or his fighting skills except maybe when it comes to Roy and, to a lesser extent, Alphonse (and with Al it's more cause it crushes his ego that his brother is as good/better than him at EVERYTHING). But thing's like "oh I'm stronger/faster/smarter than you" don't phase him in the least. This is why his only reaction to Hugo being a general at fifteen (when Ed is sixteen) is wtf is the matter with your military.
-Ed ISN'T humble. There's a difference between not being arrogant and being humble. Ed has no trouble soaking up praise for just about anything, unless it's something emo. If you compliment him on being zomg awesome with his alchemy, he will happily show off for you even MORE.
-Things Ed never talks about, in order of avoidance: his emo, other people's emo, himself. He WILL talk about someone's own emo if they want to, but he won't ask about it. And he will talk about himself if asked directly, he just doesn't volunteer stuff much.
-Ed almost never takes anything personally, unless your name is Roy, then he takes EVERYTHING personally.
-Ed is more likely to care if you're a girl, and more likely to hit you if you're a boy, but will tell the flat out, shit happens then you die FACTS regardless of gender.
-And ultimately, Ed is detached. There are very few people in camp that can upset Ed without needing to hit one of his major trauma buttons.
-And while I'm at it, his trauma buttons are: His mother's death, his father in general, the... mentality behind what caused him to try to bring a human back to life. For example, Tucker says that he and Ed are like each other because they both know there's nothing wrong with experimenting with human life, Ed did it too. That makes Ed trauma face. Death, in his immediate vicinity. Anyone who has hurt anyone he cares about directly.
Lina-
-Lina doesn't say most of what she's thinking. This is my biggest problem with RPing her, because I have to be careful about how much of what she thinks she says. Lina is actually pretty polite, blunt but not unnecessarily rude, her dialog tends to be short and to the point. But she's a lot more FUN if you say what she's thinking.
-Lina has no need to prove herself, though she doesn't mind if that happens.
-Lina usually only cares when it's something big. Like good people about to die. While she might EXPRESS sympathies over your horrible emo life, it's more that generic "I'm sorry for your loss" kinda thing. She isn't going to emo about it herself and she probably won't empathize with you.
-Lina takes friendship very casually, and the only way to tell how she thinks of a friend from a complete stranger is A) how much she'll rely on them and B) how often she'll talk to them.
-Lina calls people based on what rings best to her, unless their relationship is strictly business, in which case she'll always attach a Mr. or Miss to their name when speaking outloud, but leave that formality off when thinking in her head. Otherwise she can call anyone what the hell ever and have it not matter (to her). I.E. if Lina and Roy ever graduate to first names, she'll probably call him Mr. Roy instead of Mr. Mustang, just because.
-Lina feels no need whatsoever to justify her slaughter of bandits, this is because she honestly doesn't think there could possibly be anything wrong with it.
-Lina is a merchant to the bone, and never passes up the chance to cut a deal.
-Lina doesn't show off her magic for the simple sake of showing off. That she took Roy flying when she arrived was specifically for the intent of impressing him so he'd be more likely to teach her alchemy. No one else can expect to get flights from her Just Because.
-Lina is HAPPY. She doesn't emo. She has no trauma buttons. She DOES have emotion but it takes a lot to make her cry. She can get down, but that takes a built up series of events and she'll probably get over it if you give her pie.
Killua-
-Killua doesn't care. This is number one. He might get annoyed on general principle but he doesn't CARE and you can't possibly do anything to make him lose any sleep unless you are Gon or it somehow involves Gon.
-Killua can kill you. He honestly generally assumes this. It's in his nature to size people up and there are very, very few people in camp that Killua wouldn't look at and mentally calculate how many tenths of a second it would take him to kill you. FORNUNATELY he doesn't act on these impulses, but it's still bred into him.
-Killua has a mischievous sense of humor where he enjoys poking at people, prodding them and generally being a brat. He does this to people whether or not he respects them, but if he LIKES you he'll be more blatant about it (calling Biscuit a hag) but if he doesn't care about you he'll just kinda brush around the issue and see if you do anything interesting.
-Killua is actually nice. A little bit. Somewhere deep down inside. He will sigh and bitch but about 80% of the time he WILL help if he's had any positive contact with you at all. If you are a complete stranger he probably won't help, but he might not be outright cruel. He likes poking at people, not grinding them into the dirt.
-Killua has no trauma. At all. His life sucked. A lot. He has no issues with this. His parents tortured him? Okay. His punishments involve chain and whips and burns and electricity and sensory deprivation? Okay. He's killed probably hundreds of people? Okay. His brother programmed him to run away in the event of encountering a fight where he was not 100% guaranteed to run away? Merely annoying. It's not that Killua represses, he honestly doesn't care which brings me to...
-Killua is kind of nuts. He's well adjusted for a twelve year old sociopath. He knows the difference between right and wrong, he's capable of making friends, he isn't needlessly cruel (most of the time), he has a sense of humor and unlike Hisoka he doesn't have any weird fetishes. BUT none of this changes the fact that he's still detached from reality in a way that makes it impossible to say he isn't a little bit nuts. Killua is also aware that he might be a little crazy, but in his opinion, it's only in areas that don't matter. Afterall, he doesn't WANT to emo over having killed hundreds of people. What a pain.
-Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon and also? Gon.
Vash-
-Vash is an actor. This is probably the number one thing, and the main reason Vash always has so many possible responses to nearly any situation. It's cause unlike my other characters he doesn't have a default personality that we see often. He chooses everything he says and does, no matter how silly he's being. Probably the only time we see raw, unfiltered Vash is when he's super fucking emo.
-Because of Vash being an actor, he lets other people lead. Vash will happily tease or laugh at anyone, but only if they handle it. He won't yell and bitch at people who will break down and seriously cry over it, and he won't show his soft loving side to someone who's going to get all awkward over it. All in all, Vash only goes against the grain of what a person can handle in order to teach them something or leave an impression on them, and he only does THAT when something or someone is in danger. Otherwise he prefers to breeze through people's lives as something pleasant but inconsequential.
-Vash doesn't use people's names very often. This is a subtle thing in the manga, but I'm fairly sure he does it to keep himself from mattering to them. This falls into the 'prefers to breeze through people's lives' categories. He doesn't care if people use HIS name, but he will usually give someone a dubbed name unless he realizes they are somehow irrevocably involved with him. It is NOT a huge thing and I'm pretty sure he does it subconsciously by now. The only time he'll put actual thought into it is if someone is getting too attached to him, then he'll keep distancing them ANYWAY (I.E. Even once Meryl is getting really involved in events with Vash, he rarely uses her name) Wolfwood is different because he... gets it, I suppose. Or maybe because Wolfwood does all the work by insisting on never using vash's name.
-Vash is emo. Vash is easily my most emo character ever. He doesn't show it but Vash? Is just. Sad. A lot. And tired. A lot. He thinks he's worthless. A lot. He really really really wants to not be worthless though.
-What little Vash knows about Earth is from stories and pictures. While he isn't TOTALLY FLOORED BY EVERY SINGLE TREE EVER ZOMG that kind of thing does give him just a general, warm glowly happiness. He's especially fond of red flowers and god save the church if Vash ever gets a geranium. He WILL cultivate it.
-That Vash thinks he's worthless is a him only thing that doesn't apply to other PLANTS. However, Vash is willing to sacrifice PLANTs for human lives in a way that he won't do with humans. This leads to the fact that Vash doesn't consider himself human on more than one level.
-Vash is NOT super secretive. He will tell people about nearly anything if they ask him directly. But he will avoid questions. Either by changing the subject or suggesting that it doesn’t matter. Vash never once in canon comes out and explains what he is, but he never refuses to either. He just... side steps the issue.
-Vash is something of an empath. I draw on this mostly to know ahead of time if the person he's talking to is the type of person he can joke around with or not.
-Vash doesn't love like humans do. This is another subtle thing but very... much... there. Vash loves everyone, and this is honesty. His empathy with everyone makes it so that he cares about everyone, loves them all, will die and protect them all, will cry for them and mean it, won't forget them, their deaths will always hurt him, even a hundred years later. BUT. Because he can't love exclusively, he also can't love as passionately. Human love stories are always about passion and loving one more than everyone else, often to the exclusion of everyone else, making it so they can choose between lovers and brothers and family and friends. Vash cannot and will not do that. It doesn't matter how much they've been through together or how long they've known each other or how much they understand each other. Vash would not kill a complete stranger who is a child rapist and a murderer to save Wolfwood's life, or visa versa. He'll find another way, he just will, or one of them will die and Vash will hate himself but he won't choose because he can't love one person more than another.
-Except Rem.
FIRST OF ALL for all my characters I have certain moments in their canon that I keep filed away for the purposes of character voice, and I call up on them whenever I feel like I might be losing my footing.
For Lina this means basically just remembering the first ten or so pages of the book, which do a SUPERB job of summarizing the character that Lina remains as for the rest of the novels. The book starts with her side stepping the issue of WHY bandits are chasing her, she eventually admits to it but it takes her like, three pages of rambling to get there. She casually mentions offing the bandit boss (on accident, kind of, as in she didn't CARE if he survived that fireball or not), progresses to her pokingly negotiating with one of the bandits after her, shows her being aware of hidden enemies (the bandit claims to have guys in tree with arrows pointed at her and she's like, lol no there aren't bitch), shows her being perfectly confident in her ability to take on a dozen armed men single handedly, has her bitch mentally about the bandits HORRIBLE dialog... infact when Gourry shows up she actually grades his lines vs the bandits (Gourry wins, albeit only barely). It shows Lina having absolutely no problem with a tall handsome knight 'saving' her, she even goes so far as to play up the damsel act by squealing for help, and later shows Lina being a bit disappointed (and hurt, and miffed) when Gourry calls her 'just a little girl' BUT despite that also shows Lina being grateful for Gourry's completely unnecessary help, so much that she puts up with his insulting misconceptions and lets him escort her to town.
And that is BASICALLY everything Lina is in a nutshell. Tough, intelligent, witty, snarky, but confident in her strengths more than her physical appearance. Stuff like Gourry 'saving' her does nothing to her ego, but being thought of a kid does. And despite this she's still got the common courtesy to understand the intents behind the actions, that Gourry might be an idiot but is still a good guy at heart who wants to make sure she's safe even if she isn't a hot babe, so she puts up with it and doesn't set him on fire. She also never feels compelled to 'show off'. Which she does LOVE doing, but not for the sake of making people stop thinking that she's weak, cause really, she doesn't care that much. She knows her natural awesomeness with shine through in time. No need to rush it.
Hm, I don't actually have many such situations for Ed. Ed's personality is ingrained into my head so thoroughly I don't have to think about it much anymore. And I've read his canon so much I CAN mentally sum up any given situation if necessary. I do this most often with things like dealing with Greed or Izumi.
Riku, while I was playing him, was always based off the moment when he appears toward the end of the game, when he's back to being himself and is full of confident, snarky remarks to everyone.
Killua is harder. I've read his canon a lot but he doesn't have a lot of distinctive moments. There isn't much that's 'purely Killua' I can call upon for him, except in situations where he's topping people (withstanding someone's electrical attack and saying "I've been swimming in this since I was little" or casually ripping out someone's heart) or else moments like fighting with Gon
"Killua killua let's see who can jump higher!"
*they jump, Killua jumps about ten feet higher*
"Argh! Let's do it again Killua, one more time!"
"No way, I'll win again and you'll keep saying 'one more time'"
"I won't, Killua, just one more time!"
"No!"
"Killua!"
"Argh, fine! *jumps, wins again*"
"One more time!"
Vash is another hard one, not cause he doesn't have distinctive moments but because he has them ALL THE TIME and it's hard as hell to tell which of his seventy personas he will draw from for any given conversation. I tend to remember moments like when a gang of bountry hunters came after him and unloaded dozens of rounds each into the shop. Vash pretended to be dead, then got up and hung all over one of them, and everyone was like "lol now you'll really die" and Vash just stood there while they all pulled their triggers. When no bullets hit him Vash pointed his finger at the guy he was draped over and went "The only guy with any bullets left is him" "How did you know?" "I counted". But there are also moments like the genocide song (which is what I based my app around) when Vash runs around shooting his gun and yelling his name and that "ALL OF A SUDDEN, BECAUSE I SAID SO, IT'S TIME FOR A MASSACRE" all to get people to RUN AWAY. But then there are ALSO moments like Vash calling Wolfwood a coward for killing Rai Dei the Blade, or Vash threatening to grope Domenic the Cyclops, or Vash being all weirded out over a transvestite or Vash being REALLY FUCKING EMO over July, or Vash apologizing to a bully and having a bunch of little kids call him a coward and Vash telling them no, you have to avoid trouble =\ or Vash MOPING LOUDLY over how he never really does manage to avoid trouble.
Vash does... a lot. And while he's almost always SILLY he can be about fifty two different kinds of silly. I tend to wing it.
HOWEVER here are some other characteristics I keep in mind, for all my characters.
Ed-
-Ed is nice. He is respectful, usually polite, and never deliberately hurts someone emotionally. And by 'never' I mean only in very rare circumstances and only to people he doesn't like.
-Ed is determined and he doesn't really care if you don't agree with what he is determined about. This is why despite Caesar's hints, Ed is never going to apologize for attacking Roy or admit it was stupid. He doesn't care. Ed stands beside the choices he makes unless HE'S the one to decide it was a bad idea, someone else telling him usually doesn't go over well.
-Ed is oblivious. V. V. oblivious. This extends mostly to anything sexual but covers just about anything emotional. He MIGHT be able to tell if someone is in a bad mood, particularly if it's obvious, but he usually won't have any clue WHY.
-Ed is a genius, only not really. Ed is OFTEN the character that gets expositioned at in the manga. This is because while he's brilliant, it's... limited. Being smart doesn't mean Ed thinks things out all the time, it just means that when he DOES choose to think things out he has a lot of knowledge and critical thinking skills to draw on. However given the choice between 'go for it' or 'think about it' Ed will almost always choose the former, even if it's CLEARLY STUPID AND HOPELESS. When Ed fought Greed the first Greed literally beat the shit out of Ed because Greed had made Ed MAD and Greed had made Ed WORRIED and Greed had taken someone that belonged to HIM and despite the fact that it became PERFECTLY OBVIOUS that Ed couldn't do any serious damage to Greed Ed persisted in attacking him relentlessly to the point where Greed probably could have killed him if he wanted. It wasn't until Ed had nearly been knocked unconscious that he calmed down enough to think "Oh wait, I can alchemize his armor away". And this is the main reason Ed almost never uses fancy alchemy fights. It doesn't occur to him.
-Ed doesn't THINK he is a genius. Despite not actually being humble, Ed isn't arrogant or competitive about his alchemy, his intelligence or his fighting skills except maybe when it comes to Roy and, to a lesser extent, Alphonse (and with Al it's more cause it crushes his ego that his brother is as good/better than him at EVERYTHING). But thing's like "oh I'm stronger/faster/smarter than you" don't phase him in the least. This is why his only reaction to Hugo being a general at fifteen (when Ed is sixteen) is wtf is the matter with your military.
-Ed ISN'T humble. There's a difference between not being arrogant and being humble. Ed has no trouble soaking up praise for just about anything, unless it's something emo. If you compliment him on being zomg awesome with his alchemy, he will happily show off for you even MORE.
-Things Ed never talks about, in order of avoidance: his emo, other people's emo, himself. He WILL talk about someone's own emo if they want to, but he won't ask about it. And he will talk about himself if asked directly, he just doesn't volunteer stuff much.
-Ed almost never takes anything personally, unless your name is Roy, then he takes EVERYTHING personally.
-Ed is more likely to care if you're a girl, and more likely to hit you if you're a boy, but will tell the flat out, shit happens then you die FACTS regardless of gender.
-And ultimately, Ed is detached. There are very few people in camp that can upset Ed without needing to hit one of his major trauma buttons.
-And while I'm at it, his trauma buttons are: His mother's death, his father in general, the... mentality behind what caused him to try to bring a human back to life. For example, Tucker says that he and Ed are like each other because they both know there's nothing wrong with experimenting with human life, Ed did it too. That makes Ed trauma face. Death, in his immediate vicinity. Anyone who has hurt anyone he cares about directly.
Lina-
-Lina doesn't say most of what she's thinking. This is my biggest problem with RPing her, because I have to be careful about how much of what she thinks she says. Lina is actually pretty polite, blunt but not unnecessarily rude, her dialog tends to be short and to the point. But she's a lot more FUN if you say what she's thinking.
-Lina has no need to prove herself, though she doesn't mind if that happens.
-Lina usually only cares when it's something big. Like good people about to die. While she might EXPRESS sympathies over your horrible emo life, it's more that generic "I'm sorry for your loss" kinda thing. She isn't going to emo about it herself and she probably won't empathize with you.
-Lina takes friendship very casually, and the only way to tell how she thinks of a friend from a complete stranger is A) how much she'll rely on them and B) how often she'll talk to them.
-Lina calls people based on what rings best to her, unless their relationship is strictly business, in which case she'll always attach a Mr. or Miss to their name when speaking outloud, but leave that formality off when thinking in her head. Otherwise she can call anyone what the hell ever and have it not matter (to her). I.E. if Lina and Roy ever graduate to first names, she'll probably call him Mr. Roy instead of Mr. Mustang, just because.
-Lina feels no need whatsoever to justify her slaughter of bandits, this is because she honestly doesn't think there could possibly be anything wrong with it.
-Lina is a merchant to the bone, and never passes up the chance to cut a deal.
-Lina doesn't show off her magic for the simple sake of showing off. That she took Roy flying when she arrived was specifically for the intent of impressing him so he'd be more likely to teach her alchemy. No one else can expect to get flights from her Just Because.
-Lina is HAPPY. She doesn't emo. She has no trauma buttons. She DOES have emotion but it takes a lot to make her cry. She can get down, but that takes a built up series of events and she'll probably get over it if you give her pie.
Killua-
-Killua doesn't care. This is number one. He might get annoyed on general principle but he doesn't CARE and you can't possibly do anything to make him lose any sleep unless you are Gon or it somehow involves Gon.
-Killua can kill you. He honestly generally assumes this. It's in his nature to size people up and there are very, very few people in camp that Killua wouldn't look at and mentally calculate how many tenths of a second it would take him to kill you. FORNUNATELY he doesn't act on these impulses, but it's still bred into him.
-Killua has a mischievous sense of humor where he enjoys poking at people, prodding them and generally being a brat. He does this to people whether or not he respects them, but if he LIKES you he'll be more blatant about it (calling Biscuit a hag) but if he doesn't care about you he'll just kinda brush around the issue and see if you do anything interesting.
-Killua is actually nice. A little bit. Somewhere deep down inside. He will sigh and bitch but about 80% of the time he WILL help if he's had any positive contact with you at all. If you are a complete stranger he probably won't help, but he might not be outright cruel. He likes poking at people, not grinding them into the dirt.
-Killua has no trauma. At all. His life sucked. A lot. He has no issues with this. His parents tortured him? Okay. His punishments involve chain and whips and burns and electricity and sensory deprivation? Okay. He's killed probably hundreds of people? Okay. His brother programmed him to run away in the event of encountering a fight where he was not 100% guaranteed to run away? Merely annoying. It's not that Killua represses, he honestly doesn't care which brings me to...
-Killua is kind of nuts. He's well adjusted for a twelve year old sociopath. He knows the difference between right and wrong, he's capable of making friends, he isn't needlessly cruel (most of the time), he has a sense of humor and unlike Hisoka he doesn't have any weird fetishes. BUT none of this changes the fact that he's still detached from reality in a way that makes it impossible to say he isn't a little bit nuts. Killua is also aware that he might be a little crazy, but in his opinion, it's only in areas that don't matter. Afterall, he doesn't WANT to emo over having killed hundreds of people. What a pain.
-Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon and also? Gon.
Vash-
-Vash is an actor. This is probably the number one thing, and the main reason Vash always has so many possible responses to nearly any situation. It's cause unlike my other characters he doesn't have a default personality that we see often. He chooses everything he says and does, no matter how silly he's being. Probably the only time we see raw, unfiltered Vash is when he's super fucking emo.
-Because of Vash being an actor, he lets other people lead. Vash will happily tease or laugh at anyone, but only if they handle it. He won't yell and bitch at people who will break down and seriously cry over it, and he won't show his soft loving side to someone who's going to get all awkward over it. All in all, Vash only goes against the grain of what a person can handle in order to teach them something or leave an impression on them, and he only does THAT when something or someone is in danger. Otherwise he prefers to breeze through people's lives as something pleasant but inconsequential.
-Vash doesn't use people's names very often. This is a subtle thing in the manga, but I'm fairly sure he does it to keep himself from mattering to them. This falls into the 'prefers to breeze through people's lives' categories. He doesn't care if people use HIS name, but he will usually give someone a dubbed name unless he realizes they are somehow irrevocably involved with him. It is NOT a huge thing and I'm pretty sure he does it subconsciously by now. The only time he'll put actual thought into it is if someone is getting too attached to him, then he'll keep distancing them ANYWAY (I.E. Even once Meryl is getting really involved in events with Vash, he rarely uses her name) Wolfwood is different because he... gets it, I suppose. Or maybe because Wolfwood does all the work by insisting on never using vash's name.
-Vash is emo. Vash is easily my most emo character ever. He doesn't show it but Vash? Is just. Sad. A lot. And tired. A lot. He thinks he's worthless. A lot. He really really really wants to not be worthless though.
-What little Vash knows about Earth is from stories and pictures. While he isn't TOTALLY FLOORED BY EVERY SINGLE TREE EVER ZOMG that kind of thing does give him just a general, warm glowly happiness. He's especially fond of red flowers and god save the church if Vash ever gets a geranium. He WILL cultivate it.
-That Vash thinks he's worthless is a him only thing that doesn't apply to other PLANTS. However, Vash is willing to sacrifice PLANTs for human lives in a way that he won't do with humans. This leads to the fact that Vash doesn't consider himself human on more than one level.
-Vash is NOT super secretive. He will tell people about nearly anything if they ask him directly. But he will avoid questions. Either by changing the subject or suggesting that it doesn’t matter. Vash never once in canon comes out and explains what he is, but he never refuses to either. He just... side steps the issue.
-Vash is something of an empath. I draw on this mostly to know ahead of time if the person he's talking to is the type of person he can joke around with or not.
-Vash doesn't love like humans do. This is another subtle thing but very... much... there. Vash loves everyone, and this is honesty. His empathy with everyone makes it so that he cares about everyone, loves them all, will die and protect them all, will cry for them and mean it, won't forget them, their deaths will always hurt him, even a hundred years later. BUT. Because he can't love exclusively, he also can't love as passionately. Human love stories are always about passion and loving one more than everyone else, often to the exclusion of everyone else, making it so they can choose between lovers and brothers and family and friends. Vash cannot and will not do that. It doesn't matter how much they've been through together or how long they've known each other or how much they understand each other. Vash would not kill a complete stranger who is a child rapist and a murderer to save Wolfwood's life, or visa versa. He'll find another way, he just will, or one of them will die and Vash will hate himself but he won't choose because he can't love one person more than another.
-Except Rem.