WOOT I GOT IN here have an app :D
Series: Transformers: Animated
Series' Medium: Cartoon
Character you're applying for: Lugnut
Character's role in their canon: Loyal lackey to the primary antagonist.
Character's age: Really, REALLY unknown-- Transformers have long lifespans, and even the main characters aren't given concrete ages (beyond vague "young" or "old" descriptors). In my headcanon, he's somewhere between five and six million years old. As a patient, I'd put him at... hmm, 32 sounds about right.
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Hal Youngburg
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?: Four months or so.
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?: In general, here on Damned, in a few LJ-based dressing room RPs, and one-on-one with friends over AIM. I've played with Lugnut quite a lot in the latter, mostly with Drake (Fwiffo-mun).
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I've seen every aired episode at least two times, most of them three to five, and ones with this character as many as ten. XD;; I'M NOT OBSESSED, I SWEAR. On the other hand, I haven't been able to get my hands on the recently-started comic (yet)-- but I haven't seen any mention of him putting in anything more than a cursory appearance, which is consistent with his characterization in the show.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character:
The details of Lugnut's past are, by and large, unknown, and those few facts we know about his pre-series life are mostly contextless within the series canon, and from the somewhat dubious source of the back of his toy's box. Still, that won't stop me from making educated guesses and assumptions about his past-- just that, up until fifty years before the point I'm taking him from, it's mostly speculation, drawing inspiration from some other canons in the Transformers mythos and discussions I've had about the TFA universe.
Lugnut was built in Kaon, the largest Decepticon city on Cybertron, some six million years ago, and like many Decepticons-- the more war-like of the two primary factions on Cybertron-- he became a gladiator. It was in the Great Arena that he learned to fight, and learned to fight dirty-- and he fought dirty really well, as large and powerful as he was, not to mention his flashes of innovation that often turned fights in his favor. He earned something of a reputation and the nickname "Kaon Crusher" over his career.
Then, when he was about one and a half to two million years old, the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons began.
It's unclear what the cause was-- if there was a single injustice that triggered it, or a millennia of complaints, or if a simple lust for power and control drove the Decepticons to starting the war-- or even if it was the Decepticons that started it. The pro-Decepticon propaganda heard in the series (mostly from Lugnut himself) suggests that the Autobots were less than blameless, and that, on the Decepticon side of things, it was considered to be for the good of Cybertron, an attempt to rise up and overthrow the yoke of Autobot oppression.
Whatever the case may be, the Decepticons were led by the clever, powerful Megatron, and Lugnut-- proud of his programming, and buying into all the propaganda about the glories of revolution-- joined the ranks. The Decepticons were, indeed, glorious! And Megatron, as their leader, would most certainly lead them to a grand victory, claiming Cybertron for the Decepticon people!
His fanatical devotion to their cause and skills in battle caused Lugnut to rise quickly through the ranks, and near the end of the war, he took a posting on Megatron's own ship. Being in the presence of their awesome leader-- cycling the same air, walking the same halls-- just made him fanboy harder... erm, I mean, become all the more fanatical, and he did his very best to live up to his own high expectations for a Decepticon warrior. The Decepticons were mighty indeed, ruthless warriors who overwhelmed the more peaceful Autobots, whose bodies were weapons and who were willing to lay their lives on the line for Megatron and Cybertron!
But despite the Decepticon advantages, the war dragged on for two million violent years, and at the end, it was an Autobot victory; they had space bridge technology, which allowed troops to move across known space instantly, and they had Omega Supreme, an incredibly massive and heavily-armed Autobot... and they had the Allspark, mystical source of life-energy for all transformers and a powerful, powerful tool; though the exact circumstances of the final victory are unknown, the Decepticons were driven off-planet, Omega Supreme went offline, and the Allspark was tossed through a space bridge whose coordinates were unset-- it was too great a power to be left in mortal hands (even if these particular mortals live for millions upon millions of years), and without coordinates, the space bridge could have sent it literally anywhere.
The Decepticons didn't exactly flourish, but they endured, rebuilding Kaon on the edge of the galaxy and dubbing it New Kaon; Lugnut continued to serve Megatron, for (though the Autobots were entering a time of peace) the Decepticons weren't going to consider the war over until they ruled all of Cybertron. Or, at least, no Decepticon that Lugnut would consider worthy of the name; however, Megatron only retained a small crew. This crew consisted of Lugnut, the dangerously ambitious Starscream (Megatron's second-in-command throughout the war), Blitzwing (who's only insane about a third of the time; the rest of the time, one of his other two personalities is in control), and, a long while after the war, the caustic and bitter Blackarachnia (an Autobot unknowingly abandoned to a horrible and disfiguring fate, and who switched sides because of her fear of finding herself on an Autobot dissection table). They scoured the galaxy in search of the discarded Allspark for another two million years-- and then it fell into their lap.
Or, more accurately, it fell into the laps of the series' protagonists, a five-man team of Autobots with the glamourous duty of... janitors and technicians, cleaning debris from and maintaining space bridges. Megatron's ship was close enough to detect the Allspark's unique energy signature, and they pursued the Autobots in their ship-- a battle ship, easily five times larger than the Autobot's decently sized craft-- crippling the Autobots' attempted escape. Megatron left the 'Con ship to personally destroy the repairbots and claim the Allspark, and was seen off by Starscream, who wished him luck and gave him a pat on the back.
Said pat included planting a bomb on Megatron. Which went boom-y and injured Megatron badly.
Despite one arm being mangled and stripped down to the chassis and various other injuries, Megatron very nearly won, and probably would have if he was at full power. But his luck was bad luck, and the Autobot ship was flung through an unprogrammed space bridge, Allspark and Megatron still aboard, and pretty much crashes into a watery planet, Megatron being flung out through an airlock on the way down and going offline when he crashes, hard. The Autobots go into stasis, and a young man, Issac Sumdac, finds Megatron's head and studies its robotics.
Back on the Decepticon ship, Starscream was going to gloatingly inform his crewmates that their beloved Megatron had perished when... the space bridge began to overload. Lugnut, Blitzwing, and Blackarachnia fled the ship, leaving Starscream to get caught up in the explosion.
Time passed.
Megatron was assumed dead-- and, indeed, he was, for the moment-- and a funeral was held for him in New Kaon, which Lugnut interrupted, enraged at the very (heinous, heathen) thought that any could believe their glorious leader could be offlined by a mangy pack of Autobot janitors. For Lugnut knows, in his very spark!, that Megatron lives!
He got Blitzwing to come around to his side-- though Blitzwing believed that Megatron was dead, he was willing to accompany Lugnut on his self-appointed quest to find Megatron, and was more than willing to actively seek out the Autobots that were to blame for Megatron's absence-- after all, he had plenty of reason to want them punished for Megatron's death. Blitzwing hired the bounty hunter Lockdown to track down the Autobots.
Fifty years after Megatron's disappearance, the Autobots awoke from their nap at the bottom of Lake Erie to a near-future Detroit and quickly become local celebrities after some do-gooding and having to smack down Starscream, who had survived the explosion and went seeking the Allspark himself. Sometime in there, Sari, the daughter of now-Professor Issac Sumdac (who had built a commercial empire out of robots based on Cybertronian technology, and still had Megatron's head hidden away in his lab) found herself in possession of a key endowed with the power of the Allspark that could manipulate anything electronic or mechanical, including heal a Transformer-- even from sparkdeath. When she used it to open the locked door of her father's lab, intending to wake him up and make him eat breakfast, some of the energy found its way to Megatron's severed and damaged head, resurrecting him and allowing him to trick Professor Sumdac into searching for his lost body. Things happen, Lockdown finds the Autobots but fails to capture them, Megatron lays low and schemes to get a new body, as ell as inconvenience the Autobots in any way he can while bound to a laboratory.
Lockdown found the Autobots shortly after their awakening, but failed to capture any of them long enough to take them back to Blitzwing; however, his capture of Optimus Prime (leader of the repairbots) led Lugnut and Blitzwing to Earth, in search of Megatron and revenge, respectively. They found Starscream's ship crashed on the moon, descended to Earth, and landed in downtown Detroit, where Lugnut promptly began interrogating construction equipment.
The Autobots, of course, came to attack the two Decepticons, while hovering TV cameras fed the news live. During the ensuing battle, Lugnut demanded to know where Megatron was, and one of the Autobots replied with "Didn't he turn into a fireball over Cleveland?" Lugnut was understandably angered and attacked them with his explosive punch, taking them all out of commission (for the moment) and impressing Megatron, who decided to contact Lugnut alone-- after all, Blitzwing was (and will likely always be) unstable, but Lugnut is eternally loyal, unlike that traitorous Starscream (whom Megatron had seen footage of, boasting to the Autobots about causing Megatron's death).
So Lugnut started to hear Megatron's voice in his head.
Of course, since he'd known all along that Megatron was alive-- merely missing-- he took this with delight and without doubting that Megatron wasn't actually in contact with him-- which is more than can be said for Blitzwing, who took it as a sign that Lugnut had finally gone crazy (-er than usual) when he started talking about hearing their master's voice, and wasn't shy about letting that be known. Lugnut, for the most part, ignored him, following Megatron's orders to find the Autobot ship in its watery parking spot and claiming the Allspark, and Blitzwing (ignoring his own dubious feelings about Lugnut's sanity) tagged along. The mission went a bit wrong when Ratchet, the Autobots' mechanic/doctor, managed to get the ship's main cannon online and blasted the Decepticons out of the water... where Starscream came to them, offering repairs if they pledged themselves to him.
Three or four months passed; Megatron continued to scheme, the Autobots had adventures, and Sumdac... found Megatron's body. Presumably, Lugnut and Blitzwing spent those months bickering like an old married couple, wondering why they were allied with the overbearing and dislikable Starscream, and otherwise doing nothing notable enough to warrant a mention until Megatron decided to get back in contact with Lugnut, who had been in the middle of squabbling with Starscream. Starscream was confused, but pleased, when Lugnut fell to his knees and began begging forgiveness from his master; he was just confused when Lugnut started conversing with Megatron about taking Sari's Key to repair Megatron. Blitzwing explained that Lugnut was nuts; Lugnut explained that it was his liege, the noble Megatron; Starscream nearly let slip that he'd killed Megatron, then scanned Lugnut and discovered that, indeed, someone was communicating with Lugnut, but played it off as someone deceiving Lugnut. He told Blitzwing and Lugnut to go get the Key and went to track down the source of the signal.
The Autobots, taking note of the increased Decepticon activity and keeping in mind that their ship was nearly space-worthy again, decided to take the Key from Sari-- she didn't particularly like that-- and send Ratchet to finish repairs on the ship, intending to take the Allspark, the Key, and this conflict off-planet and away from innocents. However, Ratchet was accosted on his way to the ship by Blitzwing and Lugnut. He said they would have to pry the Key from his cold, offline servos; Blitzwing froze him, pried away the Key (and, indeed, the servo it was attached to), and made a quip about Ratchet not being OFFLINE, but...
In the meantime, Starscream had located the source of the signal and broken into Sumdac System's tower-- through the wall-- and found that Megatron was still alive, even if only as a talking head. Understandably surprised, but unaware that Megatron knew of his treacherous bomb-planting, Starscream made small talk, meaningful "why, just anyone could walk in and offline you" speeches, and... was interrupted by the weakest and brashest of the Autobots, Bumblebee, who was too busy going "Starscream!" to notice Megatron twenty feet away. Megatron, linked into the lab as he was, took the opportunity to fling Starscream and Bumblebee onto the top of the tower, just in time for the other Autobots to notice the fight. Lugnut and Blitzwing also arrived, repairing Megatron with the Key and revealing to Sumdac that this "Autobot" in his lab was really the leader of the Decepticons.
Megatron delivers a beatdown on the Autobots and Starscream, Ratchet gets the ship flying-- only to be attacked by the Decepticons and crash into an island, a battle ensues, and Lugnut is taken out early on in said battle. Megatron nearly succeeds in obtaining the Allspark anyway-- no, not even "nearly"; Megatron takes the Allspark and stick it in his chest, alongside his spark, granting him unimaginable power, only to be distracted by Professor Sumdac disrupting his equilibrium (Sumdac has spent the majority of his life studying and reverse-engineering Megatron, after all) long enough for Sari to toss Optimus Prime the Key (which Megatron had dropped at some point) and punch Megatron right in the spark chamber, grievously injuring Megatron and shattering the Allspark. Megatron still escapes, kidnapping Sumdac for his own nefarious purposes, and taking his loyal crew underground to recover from the failure.
Over the next season, Lugnut continued to serve Megatron loyally alongside Blitzwing. The scattered shards of Allspark energy began affecting things, including creating new transformer life; Lugnut befriended the not-too-bright and impressionable Wreck-Gar for a few moments, and lost the tail end of his jet mode for the trouble. The next newly-sparked mechs he meets, he nearly kills before Megatron calls him off, seeing a use for a pair of construction robots in his great over-arching plot of building his own space bridge, reverse-engineered by Sumdac from incomplete schematics stored on the Autobot ship. Not much else of note happens until the season finale, when the bridge is completed-- and fails to turn on. Megatron contacts his spy on Cybertron, Shockwave (who had managed infiltrate deep, becoming head of Autobot intelligence under the disguise of "Longarm"), and asks after the foremost Cybertronian space bridge expert, who turns out to not be on Cybertron at all-- but is, indeed, one of the Autobots on Earth, the good-natured (if somewhat provincial) Bulkhead.
Over the next two episodes, the space bridge is completed, Starscream launches his own attack-- aided by several clones, each representing a facet of his personality-- on Megatron, Ratchet uses some of the recovered Allspark fragments and Sari's key to complete a lot of repairs on the Autobot ship very quickly, and... the ship comes back from the dead, literally, revealing itself to be sentient, an Autobot that had died during the war. Ratchet soothes the ship, gets him out of the cliff he'd crashed into during the first season's finale, and loosens up his joints-- all Autobots are Transformers, after all, and the ship was Omega Supreme, the last (and very well-armed) line of defense in the face of Decepticon attack.
The handful of Decepticons on Earth were no match, especially since the battle around the space bridge had taken several of them out of the equation, and Lugnut was blasted badly by Omega. The last we see of him is him falling from the sky; it's unknown, at this point, if he survived.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Lugnut is loyal.
Repeat that in bright red flashing sparkly 72-point font, and you'll get an idea of how loyal Lugnut is to (WISE AND NOBLE) Megatron and the (GLORIOUS) Decepticon race. He shouts his loyalty to the stars, declares it to all and sundry, and wholesparkedly believes every word right down to his core processors! Not to say that he's a one-trick pony, but it is the most prominent aspect of his personality, constantly presented as his primary motive and most driving character trait, influencing several of his others. Part of his loyalty is his rigid world view: if someone happens to say something about Megatron or the Decepticons that disagrees with Lugnut's perspective, he'll quickly either start monologuing about why they're wrong (for minor, well-meaning transgressions) or become enraged and violent (for everything else). His tendency towards violence is programmed in deep, and it shows.
Still, his fanatic loyalty doesn't mean he's entirely without other interests, and he is by no means stupid (though it's not uncommon for other characters to call him that). When he's not caught up in blindly following orders or declaring things glorious, he had a good head on his shoulders for both battle and common sense, and isn't afraid to give suggestions-- not even to Megatron himself. He also shows considerable tolerance for Blitzwing, bickering with him frequently but never showing any dislike; he's obviously capable of being comfortable in a friendship, even a dysfunctional one like that. But his worldview is incredibly narrow and binary, and he tends to see things in an either-or light (one is either an Autobot or a Decepticon, a Decepticon can only be either loyal or treacherous, that sort of thing), or in an absolute light (Megatron lives, the Decepticons will rule Cybertron, Autobots and traitors must be eliminated). He also tends to apply this worldview to all those around him; of course Megatron lives! Why would he need to explain to Blitzwing that he's not crazy when he starts hearing Megatron's voice in his head? And even if a person doesn't wear any faction's crest and openly declares themselves unaffiliated with anything but money, they're obviously a Decepticon (if a disgrace to the name), because they're not an Autobot.
So, in short: He has some processing power, but he's programmed into a few very narrow avenues of thought, loyalty and violence being the primary ones. While he does show some ability to think outside those avenues, it's more common for him to assume others fall somewhere in his (rather inaccurate) view of the universe-- and Landel's Institute is the perfect place to shake that view up a bit.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: As a Transformer, Lugnut resembled nothing quite so much as a giant bipedal tortoise with a single round, glowing red eye. And guns. He's round-bodied, with shortish legs, a primarily purple and dull-green paintjob, and opposed blunt pinching-claws instead of fingers; his face is odd, with its centralized main optic and almost beakish mouth; while he's remarkably good at conveying his mood through body language, his face has extremely limited articulation, jaw moving when he speaks and an iris that can click over his eye. (He also has what looks like two more optics on either side of his head, but these are much smaller, and their function is unknown.) He also happens to TOWER over most of the rest of the cast; there is literally only one other character taller than him, and that's Omega Supreme. Who turns into a spaceship, and thus more on scale with mountains than man-made structures. Lugnut is at least as tall as a four or five story building, while the Autobots tend to be about two to three stories tall, and the other Decepticons tend to only come up to about his shoulder; humans are to him as a hamster is to a human.
As a human, he once again towers at 6'10"; he's the kind of guy who always looks like he's going to hit his head on the doorframe. Overall, he keeps the basic proportions of his Transformer body, but slightly humanized; his build is all thick and heavy, in a pro-wrestler kind of way, broad through the shoulders and chest and arms, and his hands are thick-fingered and large. While not actually ugly, it would also be a stretch to call him attractive, with heavy bone structures in his face-- his chin large and squared with a cleft, his mouth wide and narrow-lipped, eyes deep-set and sleepless-looking under dark brows and above prominent cheekbones. His hair is black, coarse, in a slightly grown-out buzzcut, and his skin is a sort of medium-sallow shade. Due to his lack of a humanoid face as a transformer, he doesn't quite understand how to express things with his human one, tending to stare blankly instead of emoting anything.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: From the end of the season two finale, when he gets blasted by Omega Supreme.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: Well, for one thing, he's a giant alien robot that turns into a bomber jet. For another, he can do this thingy with his fist where, when he punches the ground, STUFF BLOWS UP ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi6lLr3UgFw ), can launch all sorts of missiles from his back and shoulders, pull out a giant smashy battle mace... he has lots of ways to kill things dead!
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: Gone. Since they're rather dependent on him being a robot, and all. At most, he might be able to hit people particularly hard... and then get sedated... XD;;
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Even without his flight and punch-with-a-kick, Lugnut's immensely strong. He's also a robot, and one that flies, and is programmed for combat; he'd have to understand physics, at least to a point, as well as spacial relationships and some higher-level math; he'd also know how to take apart machinery, since he WAS machinery, until recently. He'd also still have a good grasp on how to kill things dead, even if killing organics that he's in scale with isn't something he's used to doing.
How about improbable appendages?: He's a GIANT ALIEN ROBOT. Who can turn into a plane. He IS an improbable appendage. XD However, this is irrelevant once he's turned human~
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Lugnut is probably going to try and smash all that oppose the GLORIOUS Decepticon cause! And since he's part of that cause, and Landel is most definitely opposing and oppressing him, that means he'll be actively seeking the destruction of the Institute, one he finds out what's going on. But I also want to explore his character and reactions under the stress of this place, so removed from everything else he's ever experienced, and see if I can get him to open up his worldview, at least a little.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: One thing that I really want to touch on is he effect of taking this huge, powerful, takes-on-five-Autobots-at-once-and-come-out-on-top character... and throwing him into this weak little human body. (Well, not weak and little compared to OTHER humans, but...) That, combined with the sudden lack of any of his most vital, innate functions even existing as a human (no transforming, no flight, no tangible life-energy sitting in his chest-- can you imagine what it would be like if your heart stopped beating?), would be the kind of faith-shaking and distressing influence on him that I think would be absolutely fascinating to explore. And, while I think his first reaction would be rage-- who would dare do this?! sort of thing-- following the repercussions and how they affect him (adversely or positively) would be extremely interesting, since he's a considerably less flexible character than most others that I've played.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: He is, first and foremost, a warrior for the glorious Decepticon cause. He's no stranger to violence or the horrors of a battlefield. He is also-- well, he's a bit of a nut, but he's also an incredibly stable one. Nothing we've seen has shaken his disbelief, only made it all the stronger, and (as mentioned above) I'm curious what a world-shaking experience like Landel's will have on him.
Third-Person Sample:
"London bridges falling down, falling down, falling-- hey!" Blitzwing toppled off the table and onto Lugnut with a heavy metallic crash, nearly knocking Lugnut from the seat. "What was that for, you rusting bolt-brained slagheap?" he snarled, brandishing his fist in Lugnut's face.
"You were tarnishing the name of the glorious Decepticons with your disgraceful wailing. Now sit down."
In a whir of gears, Blitzwing's face and mood changed, from irate to drunkenly petulant. "I would have stopped at the end of the song," he muttered, shooting Lugnut a dirty look and taking the untouched cube of high-grade energon sitting on Lugnut's side of the table. (There were several drained ones on what had been Blitzwing's side, before he had taken to singing on the table.)
Lugnut ignored Blitzwing's theft and the fact Blitzwing hadn't bothered finding a seat that wasn't him, instead scanning the crowd of transformers packed into the tiny energon bar. "Your person is late," he told Blitzwing, irritation obvious in his voice. "You are certain he can be trusted?"
"Of course he can. I already told you that." And from petulant to grinning madly; Blitzwing threw his arms around Lugnut's neck and crooned in dramatically fake hurt. "You trust me, after all, right?"
Behind them, someone made an amused noise. "Pardon me for interrupting, gentlebots," the rough and unfamiliar voice said, and Lugnut twisted on the bench to catch a glimpse of the stranger, "but I believe one of you wanted to talk with me?"
Crowing in delight, Blitzwing flung himself from Lugnut's lap and towards the newcomer. "Lockdown~! You're a few beats slow on this dance, you bad boy you!"
Lockdown smiled affably and launched into an explanation for his belated appearance, taking Blitzwing's moodswings in stride, while Lugnut watched. The iris over his optic was half-closed, narrowing, focusing his vision on the mech as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
It hit him just as Blitzwing began negotiations, and he growled, interrupting the triple-changer's "Speaking of bounties" with "You didn't say he was neutral."
Blitzwing turned and cast a dubious look at Lugnut. "Well, yes," he replied, "most bounty hunters are."
"We cannot use a neutral to search for our glorious leader!" Lugnut ignored Blitzwing's muttered "glorious and offline", rising from the bench and taking a step closer to Lockdown and Blitzwing. "Cowards that disgrace the Decepticons-- they may defy the Autobot oppression, but they do not bear the mark of true heroes, or any mark at all! They are too passive, too shameful to openly support our cause, to march alongside towards the future--"
"Shut it, slagheap! Do you want his help or not?"
The bar had gone quiet while Lugnut shouted, several neutrals giving him dirty looks, and Blitzwing's outburst had been followed by the distinct sound of his turret guns lowering over his shoulders, aiming at Lugnut.
There was another distinct sound from behind the bar, the sound of an electro-magnetic disruptor being armed by the pretty little barkeep. "No weapons in the bar," she said warningly. "Cool off or take it outside, boys."
"I can do cool!" Blitzwing chortled, but withdrew his guns; Lugnut turned away and sullenly plodded out of the bar.
Megatron was alive. Lugnut knew it. And if Megatron was to be found, it would be a loyal Decepticon, one true to the cause, that was going to find him.
First-Person Sample:
SHIP'S LOG, #975
Blitzwing said Megatron is dead again. 425th time since (treacherous) funeral. Shut up when I hit him. His loyalty in ?, but only one who will join me.
No sign of Megatron in this system, either. Will continue search; know he is waiting somewhere.
Series' Medium: Cartoon
Character you're applying for: Lugnut
Character's role in their canon: Loyal lackey to the primary antagonist.
Character's age: Really, REALLY unknown-- Transformers have long lifespans, and even the main characters aren't given concrete ages (beyond vague "young" or "old" descriptors). In my headcanon, he's somewhere between five and six million years old. As a patient, I'd put him at... hmm, 32 sounds about right.
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Hal Youngburg
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?: Four months or so.
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?: In general, here on Damned, in a few LJ-based dressing room RPs, and one-on-one with friends over AIM. I've played with Lugnut quite a lot in the latter, mostly with Drake (Fwiffo-mun).
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I've seen every aired episode at least two times, most of them three to five, and ones with this character as many as ten. XD;; I'M NOT OBSESSED, I SWEAR. On the other hand, I haven't been able to get my hands on the recently-started comic (yet)-- but I haven't seen any mention of him putting in anything more than a cursory appearance, which is consistent with his characterization in the show.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character:
The details of Lugnut's past are, by and large, unknown, and those few facts we know about his pre-series life are mostly contextless within the series canon, and from the somewhat dubious source of the back of his toy's box. Still, that won't stop me from making educated guesses and assumptions about his past-- just that, up until fifty years before the point I'm taking him from, it's mostly speculation, drawing inspiration from some other canons in the Transformers mythos and discussions I've had about the TFA universe.
Lugnut was built in Kaon, the largest Decepticon city on Cybertron, some six million years ago, and like many Decepticons-- the more war-like of the two primary factions on Cybertron-- he became a gladiator. It was in the Great Arena that he learned to fight, and learned to fight dirty-- and he fought dirty really well, as large and powerful as he was, not to mention his flashes of innovation that often turned fights in his favor. He earned something of a reputation and the nickname "Kaon Crusher" over his career.
Then, when he was about one and a half to two million years old, the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons began.
It's unclear what the cause was-- if there was a single injustice that triggered it, or a millennia of complaints, or if a simple lust for power and control drove the Decepticons to starting the war-- or even if it was the Decepticons that started it. The pro-Decepticon propaganda heard in the series (mostly from Lugnut himself) suggests that the Autobots were less than blameless, and that, on the Decepticon side of things, it was considered to be for the good of Cybertron, an attempt to rise up and overthrow the yoke of Autobot oppression.
Whatever the case may be, the Decepticons were led by the clever, powerful Megatron, and Lugnut-- proud of his programming, and buying into all the propaganda about the glories of revolution-- joined the ranks. The Decepticons were, indeed, glorious! And Megatron, as their leader, would most certainly lead them to a grand victory, claiming Cybertron for the Decepticon people!
His fanatical devotion to their cause and skills in battle caused Lugnut to rise quickly through the ranks, and near the end of the war, he took a posting on Megatron's own ship. Being in the presence of their awesome leader-- cycling the same air, walking the same halls-- just made him fanboy harder... erm, I mean, become all the more fanatical, and he did his very best to live up to his own high expectations for a Decepticon warrior. The Decepticons were mighty indeed, ruthless warriors who overwhelmed the more peaceful Autobots, whose bodies were weapons and who were willing to lay their lives on the line for Megatron and Cybertron!
But despite the Decepticon advantages, the war dragged on for two million violent years, and at the end, it was an Autobot victory; they had space bridge technology, which allowed troops to move across known space instantly, and they had Omega Supreme, an incredibly massive and heavily-armed Autobot... and they had the Allspark, mystical source of life-energy for all transformers and a powerful, powerful tool; though the exact circumstances of the final victory are unknown, the Decepticons were driven off-planet, Omega Supreme went offline, and the Allspark was tossed through a space bridge whose coordinates were unset-- it was too great a power to be left in mortal hands (even if these particular mortals live for millions upon millions of years), and without coordinates, the space bridge could have sent it literally anywhere.
The Decepticons didn't exactly flourish, but they endured, rebuilding Kaon on the edge of the galaxy and dubbing it New Kaon; Lugnut continued to serve Megatron, for (though the Autobots were entering a time of peace) the Decepticons weren't going to consider the war over until they ruled all of Cybertron. Or, at least, no Decepticon that Lugnut would consider worthy of the name; however, Megatron only retained a small crew. This crew consisted of Lugnut, the dangerously ambitious Starscream (Megatron's second-in-command throughout the war), Blitzwing (who's only insane about a third of the time; the rest of the time, one of his other two personalities is in control), and, a long while after the war, the caustic and bitter Blackarachnia (an Autobot unknowingly abandoned to a horrible and disfiguring fate, and who switched sides because of her fear of finding herself on an Autobot dissection table). They scoured the galaxy in search of the discarded Allspark for another two million years-- and then it fell into their lap.
Or, more accurately, it fell into the laps of the series' protagonists, a five-man team of Autobots with the glamourous duty of... janitors and technicians, cleaning debris from and maintaining space bridges. Megatron's ship was close enough to detect the Allspark's unique energy signature, and they pursued the Autobots in their ship-- a battle ship, easily five times larger than the Autobot's decently sized craft-- crippling the Autobots' attempted escape. Megatron left the 'Con ship to personally destroy the repairbots and claim the Allspark, and was seen off by Starscream, who wished him luck and gave him a pat on the back.
Said pat included planting a bomb on Megatron. Which went boom-y and injured Megatron badly.
Despite one arm being mangled and stripped down to the chassis and various other injuries, Megatron very nearly won, and probably would have if he was at full power. But his luck was bad luck, and the Autobot ship was flung through an unprogrammed space bridge, Allspark and Megatron still aboard, and pretty much crashes into a watery planet, Megatron being flung out through an airlock on the way down and going offline when he crashes, hard. The Autobots go into stasis, and a young man, Issac Sumdac, finds Megatron's head and studies its robotics.
Back on the Decepticon ship, Starscream was going to gloatingly inform his crewmates that their beloved Megatron had perished when... the space bridge began to overload. Lugnut, Blitzwing, and Blackarachnia fled the ship, leaving Starscream to get caught up in the explosion.
Time passed.
Megatron was assumed dead-- and, indeed, he was, for the moment-- and a funeral was held for him in New Kaon, which Lugnut interrupted, enraged at the very (heinous, heathen) thought that any could believe their glorious leader could be offlined by a mangy pack of Autobot janitors. For Lugnut knows, in his very spark!, that Megatron lives!
He got Blitzwing to come around to his side-- though Blitzwing believed that Megatron was dead, he was willing to accompany Lugnut on his self-appointed quest to find Megatron, and was more than willing to actively seek out the Autobots that were to blame for Megatron's absence-- after all, he had plenty of reason to want them punished for Megatron's death. Blitzwing hired the bounty hunter Lockdown to track down the Autobots.
Fifty years after Megatron's disappearance, the Autobots awoke from their nap at the bottom of Lake Erie to a near-future Detroit and quickly become local celebrities after some do-gooding and having to smack down Starscream, who had survived the explosion and went seeking the Allspark himself. Sometime in there, Sari, the daughter of now-Professor Issac Sumdac (who had built a commercial empire out of robots based on Cybertronian technology, and still had Megatron's head hidden away in his lab) found herself in possession of a key endowed with the power of the Allspark that could manipulate anything electronic or mechanical, including heal a Transformer-- even from sparkdeath. When she used it to open the locked door of her father's lab, intending to wake him up and make him eat breakfast, some of the energy found its way to Megatron's severed and damaged head, resurrecting him and allowing him to trick Professor Sumdac into searching for his lost body. Things happen, Lockdown finds the Autobots but fails to capture them, Megatron lays low and schemes to get a new body, as ell as inconvenience the Autobots in any way he can while bound to a laboratory.
Lockdown found the Autobots shortly after their awakening, but failed to capture any of them long enough to take them back to Blitzwing; however, his capture of Optimus Prime (leader of the repairbots) led Lugnut and Blitzwing to Earth, in search of Megatron and revenge, respectively. They found Starscream's ship crashed on the moon, descended to Earth, and landed in downtown Detroit, where Lugnut promptly began interrogating construction equipment.
The Autobots, of course, came to attack the two Decepticons, while hovering TV cameras fed the news live. During the ensuing battle, Lugnut demanded to know where Megatron was, and one of the Autobots replied with "Didn't he turn into a fireball over Cleveland?" Lugnut was understandably angered and attacked them with his explosive punch, taking them all out of commission (for the moment) and impressing Megatron, who decided to contact Lugnut alone-- after all, Blitzwing was (and will likely always be) unstable, but Lugnut is eternally loyal, unlike that traitorous Starscream (whom Megatron had seen footage of, boasting to the Autobots about causing Megatron's death).
So Lugnut started to hear Megatron's voice in his head.
Of course, since he'd known all along that Megatron was alive-- merely missing-- he took this with delight and without doubting that Megatron wasn't actually in contact with him-- which is more than can be said for Blitzwing, who took it as a sign that Lugnut had finally gone crazy (-er than usual) when he started talking about hearing their master's voice, and wasn't shy about letting that be known. Lugnut, for the most part, ignored him, following Megatron's orders to find the Autobot ship in its watery parking spot and claiming the Allspark, and Blitzwing (ignoring his own dubious feelings about Lugnut's sanity) tagged along. The mission went a bit wrong when Ratchet, the Autobots' mechanic/doctor, managed to get the ship's main cannon online and blasted the Decepticons out of the water... where Starscream came to them, offering repairs if they pledged themselves to him.
Three or four months passed; Megatron continued to scheme, the Autobots had adventures, and Sumdac... found Megatron's body. Presumably, Lugnut and Blitzwing spent those months bickering like an old married couple, wondering why they were allied with the overbearing and dislikable Starscream, and otherwise doing nothing notable enough to warrant a mention until Megatron decided to get back in contact with Lugnut, who had been in the middle of squabbling with Starscream. Starscream was confused, but pleased, when Lugnut fell to his knees and began begging forgiveness from his master; he was just confused when Lugnut started conversing with Megatron about taking Sari's Key to repair Megatron. Blitzwing explained that Lugnut was nuts; Lugnut explained that it was his liege, the noble Megatron; Starscream nearly let slip that he'd killed Megatron, then scanned Lugnut and discovered that, indeed, someone was communicating with Lugnut, but played it off as someone deceiving Lugnut. He told Blitzwing and Lugnut to go get the Key and went to track down the source of the signal.
The Autobots, taking note of the increased Decepticon activity and keeping in mind that their ship was nearly space-worthy again, decided to take the Key from Sari-- she didn't particularly like that-- and send Ratchet to finish repairs on the ship, intending to take the Allspark, the Key, and this conflict off-planet and away from innocents. However, Ratchet was accosted on his way to the ship by Blitzwing and Lugnut. He said they would have to pry the Key from his cold, offline servos; Blitzwing froze him, pried away the Key (and, indeed, the servo it was attached to), and made a quip about Ratchet not being OFFLINE, but...
In the meantime, Starscream had located the source of the signal and broken into Sumdac System's tower-- through the wall-- and found that Megatron was still alive, even if only as a talking head. Understandably surprised, but unaware that Megatron knew of his treacherous bomb-planting, Starscream made small talk, meaningful "why, just anyone could walk in and offline you" speeches, and... was interrupted by the weakest and brashest of the Autobots, Bumblebee, who was too busy going "Starscream!" to notice Megatron twenty feet away. Megatron, linked into the lab as he was, took the opportunity to fling Starscream and Bumblebee onto the top of the tower, just in time for the other Autobots to notice the fight. Lugnut and Blitzwing also arrived, repairing Megatron with the Key and revealing to Sumdac that this "Autobot" in his lab was really the leader of the Decepticons.
Megatron delivers a beatdown on the Autobots and Starscream, Ratchet gets the ship flying-- only to be attacked by the Decepticons and crash into an island, a battle ensues, and Lugnut is taken out early on in said battle. Megatron nearly succeeds in obtaining the Allspark anyway-- no, not even "nearly"; Megatron takes the Allspark and stick it in his chest, alongside his spark, granting him unimaginable power, only to be distracted by Professor Sumdac disrupting his equilibrium (Sumdac has spent the majority of his life studying and reverse-engineering Megatron, after all) long enough for Sari to toss Optimus Prime the Key (which Megatron had dropped at some point) and punch Megatron right in the spark chamber, grievously injuring Megatron and shattering the Allspark. Megatron still escapes, kidnapping Sumdac for his own nefarious purposes, and taking his loyal crew underground to recover from the failure.
Over the next season, Lugnut continued to serve Megatron loyally alongside Blitzwing. The scattered shards of Allspark energy began affecting things, including creating new transformer life; Lugnut befriended the not-too-bright and impressionable Wreck-Gar for a few moments, and lost the tail end of his jet mode for the trouble. The next newly-sparked mechs he meets, he nearly kills before Megatron calls him off, seeing a use for a pair of construction robots in his great over-arching plot of building his own space bridge, reverse-engineered by Sumdac from incomplete schematics stored on the Autobot ship. Not much else of note happens until the season finale, when the bridge is completed-- and fails to turn on. Megatron contacts his spy on Cybertron, Shockwave (who had managed infiltrate deep, becoming head of Autobot intelligence under the disguise of "Longarm"), and asks after the foremost Cybertronian space bridge expert, who turns out to not be on Cybertron at all-- but is, indeed, one of the Autobots on Earth, the good-natured (if somewhat provincial) Bulkhead.
Over the next two episodes, the space bridge is completed, Starscream launches his own attack-- aided by several clones, each representing a facet of his personality-- on Megatron, Ratchet uses some of the recovered Allspark fragments and Sari's key to complete a lot of repairs on the Autobot ship very quickly, and... the ship comes back from the dead, literally, revealing itself to be sentient, an Autobot that had died during the war. Ratchet soothes the ship, gets him out of the cliff he'd crashed into during the first season's finale, and loosens up his joints-- all Autobots are Transformers, after all, and the ship was Omega Supreme, the last (and very well-armed) line of defense in the face of Decepticon attack.
The handful of Decepticons on Earth were no match, especially since the battle around the space bridge had taken several of them out of the equation, and Lugnut was blasted badly by Omega. The last we see of him is him falling from the sky; it's unknown, at this point, if he survived.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Lugnut is loyal.
Repeat that in bright red flashing sparkly 72-point font, and you'll get an idea of how loyal Lugnut is to (WISE AND NOBLE) Megatron and the (GLORIOUS) Decepticon race. He shouts his loyalty to the stars, declares it to all and sundry, and wholesparkedly believes every word right down to his core processors! Not to say that he's a one-trick pony, but it is the most prominent aspect of his personality, constantly presented as his primary motive and most driving character trait, influencing several of his others. Part of his loyalty is his rigid world view: if someone happens to say something about Megatron or the Decepticons that disagrees with Lugnut's perspective, he'll quickly either start monologuing about why they're wrong (for minor, well-meaning transgressions) or become enraged and violent (for everything else). His tendency towards violence is programmed in deep, and it shows.
Still, his fanatic loyalty doesn't mean he's entirely without other interests, and he is by no means stupid (though it's not uncommon for other characters to call him that). When he's not caught up in blindly following orders or declaring things glorious, he had a good head on his shoulders for both battle and common sense, and isn't afraid to give suggestions-- not even to Megatron himself. He also shows considerable tolerance for Blitzwing, bickering with him frequently but never showing any dislike; he's obviously capable of being comfortable in a friendship, even a dysfunctional one like that. But his worldview is incredibly narrow and binary, and he tends to see things in an either-or light (one is either an Autobot or a Decepticon, a Decepticon can only be either loyal or treacherous, that sort of thing), or in an absolute light (Megatron lives, the Decepticons will rule Cybertron, Autobots and traitors must be eliminated). He also tends to apply this worldview to all those around him; of course Megatron lives! Why would he need to explain to Blitzwing that he's not crazy when he starts hearing Megatron's voice in his head? And even if a person doesn't wear any faction's crest and openly declares themselves unaffiliated with anything but money, they're obviously a Decepticon (if a disgrace to the name), because they're not an Autobot.
So, in short: He has some processing power, but he's programmed into a few very narrow avenues of thought, loyalty and violence being the primary ones. While he does show some ability to think outside those avenues, it's more common for him to assume others fall somewhere in his (rather inaccurate) view of the universe-- and Landel's Institute is the perfect place to shake that view up a bit.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: As a Transformer, Lugnut resembled nothing quite so much as a giant bipedal tortoise with a single round, glowing red eye. And guns. He's round-bodied, with shortish legs, a primarily purple and dull-green paintjob, and opposed blunt pinching-claws instead of fingers; his face is odd, with its centralized main optic and almost beakish mouth; while he's remarkably good at conveying his mood through body language, his face has extremely limited articulation, jaw moving when he speaks and an iris that can click over his eye. (He also has what looks like two more optics on either side of his head, but these are much smaller, and their function is unknown.) He also happens to TOWER over most of the rest of the cast; there is literally only one other character taller than him, and that's Omega Supreme. Who turns into a spaceship, and thus more on scale with mountains than man-made structures. Lugnut is at least as tall as a four or five story building, while the Autobots tend to be about two to three stories tall, and the other Decepticons tend to only come up to about his shoulder; humans are to him as a hamster is to a human.
As a human, he once again towers at 6'10"; he's the kind of guy who always looks like he's going to hit his head on the doorframe. Overall, he keeps the basic proportions of his Transformer body, but slightly humanized; his build is all thick and heavy, in a pro-wrestler kind of way, broad through the shoulders and chest and arms, and his hands are thick-fingered and large. While not actually ugly, it would also be a stretch to call him attractive, with heavy bone structures in his face-- his chin large and squared with a cleft, his mouth wide and narrow-lipped, eyes deep-set and sleepless-looking under dark brows and above prominent cheekbones. His hair is black, coarse, in a slightly grown-out buzzcut, and his skin is a sort of medium-sallow shade. Due to his lack of a humanoid face as a transformer, he doesn't quite understand how to express things with his human one, tending to stare blankly instead of emoting anything.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: From the end of the season two finale, when he gets blasted by Omega Supreme.
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: Well, for one thing, he's a giant alien robot that turns into a bomber jet. For another, he can do this thingy with his fist where, when he punches the ground, STUFF BLOWS UP ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi6lLr3UgFw ), can launch all sorts of missiles from his back and shoulders, pull out a giant smashy battle mace... he has lots of ways to kill things dead!
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: Gone. Since they're rather dependent on him being a robot, and all. At most, he might be able to hit people particularly hard... and then get sedated... XD;;
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Even without his flight and punch-with-a-kick, Lugnut's immensely strong. He's also a robot, and one that flies, and is programmed for combat; he'd have to understand physics, at least to a point, as well as spacial relationships and some higher-level math; he'd also know how to take apart machinery, since he WAS machinery, until recently. He'd also still have a good grasp on how to kill things dead, even if killing organics that he's in scale with isn't something he's used to doing.
How about improbable appendages?: He's a GIANT ALIEN ROBOT. Who can turn into a plane. He IS an improbable appendage. XD However, this is irrelevant once he's turned human~
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Lugnut is probably going to try and smash all that oppose the GLORIOUS Decepticon cause! And since he's part of that cause, and Landel is most definitely opposing and oppressing him, that means he'll be actively seeking the destruction of the Institute, one he finds out what's going on. But I also want to explore his character and reactions under the stress of this place, so removed from everything else he's ever experienced, and see if I can get him to open up his worldview, at least a little.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: One thing that I really want to touch on is he effect of taking this huge, powerful, takes-on-five-Autobots-at-once-and-come-out-on-top character... and throwing him into this weak little human body. (Well, not weak and little compared to OTHER humans, but...) That, combined with the sudden lack of any of his most vital, innate functions even existing as a human (no transforming, no flight, no tangible life-energy sitting in his chest-- can you imagine what it would be like if your heart stopped beating?), would be the kind of faith-shaking and distressing influence on him that I think would be absolutely fascinating to explore. And, while I think his first reaction would be rage-- who would dare do this?! sort of thing-- following the repercussions and how they affect him (adversely or positively) would be extremely interesting, since he's a considerably less flexible character than most others that I've played.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: He is, first and foremost, a warrior for the glorious Decepticon cause. He's no stranger to violence or the horrors of a battlefield. He is also-- well, he's a bit of a nut, but he's also an incredibly stable one. Nothing we've seen has shaken his disbelief, only made it all the stronger, and (as mentioned above) I'm curious what a world-shaking experience like Landel's will have on him.
Third-Person Sample:
"London bridges falling down, falling down, falling-- hey!" Blitzwing toppled off the table and onto Lugnut with a heavy metallic crash, nearly knocking Lugnut from the seat. "What was that for, you rusting bolt-brained slagheap?" he snarled, brandishing his fist in Lugnut's face.
"You were tarnishing the name of the glorious Decepticons with your disgraceful wailing. Now sit down."
In a whir of gears, Blitzwing's face and mood changed, from irate to drunkenly petulant. "I would have stopped at the end of the song," he muttered, shooting Lugnut a dirty look and taking the untouched cube of high-grade energon sitting on Lugnut's side of the table. (There were several drained ones on what had been Blitzwing's side, before he had taken to singing on the table.)
Lugnut ignored Blitzwing's theft and the fact Blitzwing hadn't bothered finding a seat that wasn't him, instead scanning the crowd of transformers packed into the tiny energon bar. "Your person is late," he told Blitzwing, irritation obvious in his voice. "You are certain he can be trusted?"
"Of course he can. I already told you that." And from petulant to grinning madly; Blitzwing threw his arms around Lugnut's neck and crooned in dramatically fake hurt. "You trust me, after all, right?"
Behind them, someone made an amused noise. "Pardon me for interrupting, gentlebots," the rough and unfamiliar voice said, and Lugnut twisted on the bench to catch a glimpse of the stranger, "but I believe one of you wanted to talk with me?"
Crowing in delight, Blitzwing flung himself from Lugnut's lap and towards the newcomer. "Lockdown~! You're a few beats slow on this dance, you bad boy you!"
Lockdown smiled affably and launched into an explanation for his belated appearance, taking Blitzwing's moodswings in stride, while Lugnut watched. The iris over his optic was half-closed, narrowing, focusing his vision on the mech as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
It hit him just as Blitzwing began negotiations, and he growled, interrupting the triple-changer's "Speaking of bounties" with "You didn't say he was neutral."
Blitzwing turned and cast a dubious look at Lugnut. "Well, yes," he replied, "most bounty hunters are."
"We cannot use a neutral to search for our glorious leader!" Lugnut ignored Blitzwing's muttered "glorious and offline", rising from the bench and taking a step closer to Lockdown and Blitzwing. "Cowards that disgrace the Decepticons-- they may defy the Autobot oppression, but they do not bear the mark of true heroes, or any mark at all! They are too passive, too shameful to openly support our cause, to march alongside towards the future--"
"Shut it, slagheap! Do you want his help or not?"
The bar had gone quiet while Lugnut shouted, several neutrals giving him dirty looks, and Blitzwing's outburst had been followed by the distinct sound of his turret guns lowering over his shoulders, aiming at Lugnut.
There was another distinct sound from behind the bar, the sound of an electro-magnetic disruptor being armed by the pretty little barkeep. "No weapons in the bar," she said warningly. "Cool off or take it outside, boys."
"I can do cool!" Blitzwing chortled, but withdrew his guns; Lugnut turned away and sullenly plodded out of the bar.
Megatron was alive. Lugnut knew it. And if Megatron was to be found, it would be a loyal Decepticon, one true to the cause, that was going to find him.
First-Person Sample:
SHIP'S LOG, #975
Blitzwing said Megatron is dead again. 425th time since (treacherous) funeral. Shut up when I hit him. His loyalty in ?, but only one who will join me.
No sign of Megatron in this system, either. Will continue search; know he is waiting somewhere.