OOC Information:
Name: James
Age: 24
AIM: nathander2007
e-mail: jhr061000@utdallas.edu
IC Information:
Name: Gamzee Makara
Fandom: MS Paint Adventures/Homestuck
Timeline: Shortly before proceeding to troll Dave in the Veil
Age: 6 troll solar cycles/approximately 13 years old in human age
Appearance:
Gamzee has a grayish-toned skin, as is common for his race, and possesses long, wavy hair that defies gravity in how it spikes upwards at points. He has orange-yellow toned horns as well, another trait of his species. Otherwise, he’s physically humanoid.
On top of his grayish skin, Gamzee tends to wear white face paint in order to provide himself a clown like appearance in honor of one of his favorite bands (essentially the Insane Clown Posse). He has a perpetually glazed look on his face, as if at some mid-point between being asleep and just being stoned off his ass. He wears a black t-shirt with his symbol, the Capricorn, imprinted in dark purple and black and polka-dotted pants.
Abilities:
Being a wildcard, Gamzee has two (well, technically three) separate, distinct personalities, with each one sharing their own powers and abilities.
For his general, kind (and usually stoned) personality, Gamzee isn’t particularly exceptional. He’s shown to be capable of some athletic feats while traversing his own planet while playing Sgurb, and theoretically is fairly skilled with his clubs. However, Gamzee doesn’t seem to possess any abnormal skills or abilities of note while this personality is in command.
His other (two) personalities, however, are another story. Once he’s been off his sopor slime long enough, a different side to Gamzee emerges. This would be the Bard of Rage. And whereas normal Gamzee is kind, supportive, and generally fairly wise while otherwise being somewhat dull mentally, the Bard is cruel, ruthless, sociopathic, and exceedingly cunning. In the same way, whereas normal!Gamzee doesn’t possess any abilities out of the ordinary, the Bard possesses several.
In many ways, the Bard of Rage is an odd, evil version of Bro Strider, as reflected in some of his abilities and attitude (though that’ll go under personality later). Like Bro Strider, BoR!Gamzee possesses the ability to flash-step, or move at high speeds. Whether or not he can match Bro is unknown, but he’s demonstrated being fairly proficient at it. What he does beat Bro Strider at is, supposedly, strength. BoR!Gamzee was strong enough that he dealt enough damage in one blow to the final boss of the troll’s session that he caused the boss itself to freak out at what had just occurred (though we never see this event, or even exactly what Gamzee did). Some of Gamzee’s actual examples of strength and endurance that we have seen, while not as impressive, are still notable. After killing Equius, one of the other trolls, Equius’ moirail (a kind of best friend) Nepeta leap attacked Gamzee. Gamzee managed to catch Nepeta’s wrist in mid-air, still holding Nepeta in mid-air, crush her wrist in his hand, and then drag her claw against his own face (because why not). BoR!Gamzee also later gets kicked in the crotch off a cliff by newly rainbow-drinker(vampire)-ized Kanaya, and apparently takes little to no real damage from either being kicked in the balls by a super-powered teenage girl or by falling off a tall ass cliff.
Along with abilities, BoR!Gamzee appears to be skilled at wielding several different types of weapons, unlike his normal persona, who’s only skilled with the juggling pin, yet again reflecting his role as a wild card. Canonically, BoR!Gamzee has been shown with Karkat’s sickle, Tavros’ jousting lance, Aradia’s whip, and his own pair of juggling clubs in his strifedeck (where the trolls and kids of Homestuck store weapons). He’s also shown to have had one of Equius’ (unbroken) bows, and seems to be an expert marksman with it. As his strifedeck has 26 cards in it from what can be observed, it would be reasonable to assume Gamzee has a set of at least one version of each of the trolls weapons, and then some. On top of this, Gamzee also has one very, very high-end weapon: the Warhammer of Zillyhoo. While the hammer itself may not have any special abilities (that we know of), it’s implied to be one of the most powerful weapons in the game.
Personality:
Much like his powers, Gamzee’s personality is very two-sided. His initial personality is one of an aloof, affable stoner. This Gamzee indulges in a substance known as sopor-slime, a part of trolls recuperacoons (or beds) that allow for more peaceful dreams then trolls usually have. As Gamzee’s lusus (or guardian, essentially a parent) was away at sea most of the time, Gamzee didn’t have anyone to really teach him what was or was not acceptable in troll society. This lead to things like Gamzee eating part of what was essentially his bed, and producing a very powerful high in him. While in this personality, Gamzee displays several of the traits of a classic stoner. He’s aloof, tends to be easily distracted by anything shiny or attention grabbing on top of having a short attention span, remains in an incredibly calm and mellow mood, and tends to swear like a battleship of sailors on shore leave. Gamzee also appears to be relatively dumb as a rock in this state, as well. He constantly labels most things that occur, including exceedingly mundane things, as being miracles, and adamantly opposes any attempted explanation of them, not wanting people to “steal his miracles away like a motherfucking thief.”
Gamzee is also exceedingly friendly and kind while he’s on slime, as well. He clearly cares about his friends and many of the statements he makes seems to imply that he’d be willing to do anything for them if he could. He often attempts to give advice to his friends as a means of trying to help them with their problems. Unfortunately, his suggestion is usually for them to wait for a miracle, which often doesn’t go over too well. Still, despite not being particularly good at giving advice, Gamzee is a bastion of good will and friendship towards the people he cares about.
That is, until he runs out of slime. Once this occurs, and his mind becomes clear, something terrible happens: Gamzee’s Bard of Rage persona kicks in. Whether or not this is the original persona Gamzee was meant to have and was suppressed by the sopor slime, or a result of having eaten the sopor slime and destroying his brain in the first place, or even of something else (such as Dave trolling Gamzee with a video by Insane Clown Posse, due to Gamzee essentially being a juggalo) is unknown, though the main theory is the first idea of it having been in his blood. Whereas Gamzee is kind, sweet, aloof, and charming with little care about the castes that make up the trolls hierarchy system, the Bard of Rage is cruel, maliciously playful, violent, swears even more than regular Gamzee (somehow), and is a strict believer in the idea of highblood superiority. The Bard of Rage personality is also split into two separate personalities that alternate in speaking. The first is a much calmer, slightly less obscene although more ruthless tone, and the other is a constantly screaming, swearing monster. Both, however, essentially possess the mentality of a serial killer, toying with and frightening those they intend to hunt down and kill. Being highblood superiorists and having descended from the Grand Highblood (the purest-blooded land-dwelling troll), the Bard of Rage personalities believe it is their responsibility to cull all the lesser blooded trolls. Unlike Gamzee, who is humble, the Bard of Rage personalities are extraordinarily proud, demanding to be viewed for the wonders they believe themselves to be. Despite being evil as all hell, however, the Bard personality also displays parts of Gamzee's desire to chill with people, especially with it's incredibly poor reception to Tavros' death and the fact that the Bard personalities proceeded to have a rap-off with past Dave after threatening him and revealing he was responsible for the tumor Karkat had caused in their universe going terminal.
Of course, as long as Gamzee isn’t separated from sopor slime for too long, he’ll be right as rain. Most of the time.
History:
Gamzee was raised somewhat abnormally compared to the rest of his race. Trolls begin life as larvae spawned by the great and feared Mother Grub, the queen of the entire race. Once the larvae has reached an old enough age to resemble a troll, the troll must go through a dangerous test by passing through a cavern to retrieve a special creature known as a lusus naturae, or a custodian. These creatures, which take the form of creatures associated with the zodiac signs relating to their respective trolls. The relationship with these creatures is two-fold: the custodian works as a bodyguard, caretaker, and mentor for the troll, while the young troll works as a zookeeper and trainer for the custodian. Together, the two are meant to begin furthering the plans of the mother grub.
Gamzee’s lusus was a giant, goat-like looking creature, corresponding with Gamzee’s zodiac sign of Capricorn. Seeing as how the lusus was ocean based, Gamzee was raised in a light house, where he could remain close to his lusus. However, because his lusus had to spend so much time at sea, Gamzee was unable to be taught several of the important lessons necessary for him to function appropriately in troll society (such as the fact that he isn’t intended to eat the Sopor Slime in his Recuperacoon). This is especially unfortunate due to the fact that Gamzee possesses dark purple blood, which is one of the purest strains a troll can have. The fact that he tends to be incredibly lax, laid back, and friendly towards nearly everyone, including lower castes, tends to grate on the nerves of many of those in the higher castes, such as his friend Equius, and has made him somewhat of an outcast among his higher bred peers, a matter he doesn’t particularly seem to care about.
Like all the trolls in his group of friends, Gamzee was destined to participate in a game of Sburb, a game which results in the destruction of the player’s home world (though this was unknown to the trolls when they first started playing it). Gamzee would manage to get through most of his planet with the bear minimum equipment, primarily due to the fact that he managed to subdue most the monsters in his session by having pie with them instead of attacking them. Still, Gamzee would get to show off during the final boss fight of the Session against the Black King, where his Bard of Rage persona would apparently take brief control and deal an incredible strike against the King, dealing damage only possibly matched by Vriska Sekret, who had managed to obtain Godtier (a special rank obtained after gaining all her character levels in the game). This is somewhat alarming, considering Gamzee was incredibly low-level due to bumbling through the game, and most of the other troll kids considered it some kind of bizarre mistake or joke power.
Either way, the trolls would go on to try and claim their prize for finishing the game, but be cut short by the appearance of Jack Noir, who the trolls at the time thought was a “demon”, that proceeded to wreak havoc on their session. The trolls managed to escape to a place known as the Veil, inaccessible to Jack but also making the troll kids unable to communicate with the outside world or get to the dimension they had created in their game through any method other than their computers and chat clients. During this time, Gamzee mainly goofed off, dancing around to entertain himself and offering the other trolls the chance to sleep on his hornpile in the main room for 420 boondollars. At some point, Gamzee decided he would give trolling the earth kids a try, and decided to pick Dave Strider as a target.
Which is when all hell broke loose. Dave, being Dave, decided to show Gamzee a video by the Insane Clown Posse, specifically Miracles. Gamzee did not take well to the experience. In fact, viewing what appeared to be just an utter disgrace, indeed an act of blasphemy against his religion caused Gamzee to go into a rage. Whether it was this sole moment that kicked the Bard of Rage personalities into revealing themselves, or this coupled with the discovery of Tavros' corpse, is unknown, but it was certainly in part responsible for Gamzee's downfall into giving in to rage.
Roleplay Sample - Log:
He had woke up that morning as he did every morning, which is to say, he had managed to somehow roll out of his Recuperacoon (an especially impressive feat, since it was meant to keep him locked in snug) and fallen on several of his horns, the blaring sound of which scared the shit out of him as he woke up. Not that he wasn’t used to it by now, but every day was full or new magic and wonder for him.
Gamzee let out a small sigh as he looked around his room, still awesome as ever. His posters were still on his walls, and his shit was altogether, and that meant things were just going as well as could be. He took one of the several pie pans he had laying around his room and filled it with the Sopor Slime from his Recuperacoon. He was always surprised when everyone else not only told him they didn’t eat it, but that they weren’t supposed to eat it. That didn’t make any sense to him; shit was delicious. But he guessed that everyone had their own opinions, so as long as they weren’t trying to be too harsh in his grill, that was just cool.
He thought about what he usually did while he ate his pie: juggling, his friends, practicing on his unicycle, his friends, making some more motherfucking pie for his bad self, his friends, all the magic and mysteries going around in his life like when the door to his room would open and close and he didn’t understand why, his best friend Karkat. Just all the good things in his life. And he thought that even if he didn’t have those in his life, while it’d suck, he’d still get by. Because that was just one of those miracles of life, learning to deal and doing what you can. Blew his mind sometimes when he thought about it.
Life was a miracle, in and of its bad fucking self.
Roleplay Sample - Journal:
Yo, MoThErFuCkErS. dUdEs. ChEcK ThIs sHiT OuT.
LiKe, I KnOw iT KiNdA FuCkInG SuCkS AnD ShIt tHaT We’rE AlL StUcK In sOmE BiGaSs wEiRd pLaCe wItH No fUcKiNg cLuE HoW We gOt hErE, aNd wE’Re mAdE To dO AlL KiNdS Of wEiRd fUcKiNg sHiT, bUt yOu kNoW SoMeThInG? iT’S AlL GoOd. YoU KnOw wHy? I’Ll mOtHeRfUcKiN’ tElL YoU WhY? cAuSe wE GoT EaCh oThEr aNd sHiT. lIkE, iF We fUcKiNg wOrK ToGeThEr, MoThErFuCkErS, wE CaN GeT OuT Of tHiS ShIt nO PrObLeM. fUcKiN’ gUaRaNtEe yOu tHaT.
So lEt’s dO ThIs bItChEs. LeT’S MaKe tHiS ShIt hApPeN.
Questions? Comments? Crazed or Creative Statements? Those Go Here.: Considering Gamzee is a returning character, I’d like to bring him back with the memories and development he had received before dropping the first time. This would include the slight alteration of the Bard of Rage personality appearing not simply because of lacking sopor slime, but as a result of the torture Gamzee had gone through, an alteration that had previously been okayed by Ningi. Thank you very much.