PLAYER INFORMATION-
Name/Nickname: Krystal
AIM/E-mail/Contact: AIM: crystalclearcase / E-mail: stringrocksmystocks@yahoo.com
LJ: crystalcleared
CHARACTER INFORMATION-
Canon Character and Series: Optimus Prime, Generation 1 Transformers cartoon continuity
In-Game Name: Optimus Prime
Age: He’s not sure at this point, since he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. But he was operational for at least two thousand years before that.
Gender: None, technically, but identifies as male
Position & Ship: the boss-I mean Captain, the Convoy
Appearance: Standing at ten feet tall, Optimus is, well, a giant robot. Humanoid in structure, the lower half of Optimus’ face is covered by a mask of the same gray metal that makes up the rest of his face. His “eyes” are actually optic sensors and glow with a blue light. The helmet on his head is blue, with audials that look like antennas on either side of his helmet. His torso is red, aside from glass panels on his chest and a white grill on his stomach. His hips and upper legs are white, and his calves and feet are blue metal. His body is less smooth than it appears in the cartoon, thanks to being in a steampunk setting and rebuilt by scientists with a lower level of technology. The metal is held together by rivets, and occasionally a glimpse of wires and circuits can be caught in his joints.
When he is in disguise as a small automobile, Prime is a brightly painted Model-T style car: red, white and blue with a split glass windshield. It’s smaller than most, thanks to Prime’s reduced size, but it is functional, and while Prime can fight the controls at will, someone else could drive him. (There is a small license plate on the front that reads, “C0Y0T3” -- courtesy of Pip.)
He also transforms into a form that is neither car nor humanoid: it looks like a machine, cannot move around on its own power, and plugs into the helm of the Convoy. In this form and only this form can Prime fly the entire ship, controlling its engines.
Personality: Optimus Prime is the father everyone wishes they had. He has enough kindness for everyone he meets. He is patient, wise, honest, experienced, and full of empathy for his fellow creatures. Though he never asked to be a leader, he is a strong one with over a thousand years of experience under his belt. He inspires obedience from those under his command, not through fear or intimidation, but through treating everyone with respect. Those under him are very, very important to him. His loyalty to them is beyond question. He prefers to send himself in first into a dangerous situation, leading by example, shouldering the greatest burdens. This is his responsibility as a leader.
Prime feels responsibility very acutely. Leadership is a responsibility, so he feels responsible for those under his command, and a deep responsibility to be a good leader. Power is a responsibility, and since he is a giant robot and significantly tougher and more powerful than most ordinary humans, Prime considers it his responsibility not to harm a human who is unable to harm him. And as an individual who has seen firsthand the devastation war causes, Optimus feels that it is his responsibility to spare Reial from the same fate as Cybertron. There is too much life, too much beauty, for him to allow it to destroy itself. He will use force if he must, but applied judiciously: he has no set enemy this time, no opposing force wearing a faction brand, and knows that he must be careful here. However, Optimus fights and kills only to protect. The taking of a life, any life, is a serious matter, and must only be done when inaction would cause more harm, more death, more pain. He approaches it with respect and gravity…but will do it, so long as there is no alternative.
On the flipside, Optimus cannot resist helping someone in trouble. Even if he knows in his head that it would be wise to sacrifice one for the good of all, he is not capable of allowing that to happen, and will do anything in his power to save a life or prolong it long enough to find a way to save it. The only time he is capable of sacrifice is when the sacrifice is himself. That, Prime is willing to do for the good of all in a heartbeat, whether it’s piloting a plague-ridden ship into the sun or just using his body as a shield.
However, Optimus is not quite as close to his friends now as he was before he was handed leadership, a fact he sorely regrets. Though he does form strong bonds with others and cares for them from the bottom of his great big robot heart, his responsibility as leader forces him to think in a certain way. When it comes to it, their lives are in his hands, and the burden of making life-or-death decisions is on his shoulders. Though he can cut loose and have a bit of fun when he wants, he never quite loses his head: it is up to him to react first in case of trouble, and if anything happens, he snaps right back into leader mode.
Though he is understanding and more than willing to provide a listening ear to another’s problems, Optimus, though a confident leader, does have his doubts on occasion, just like anyone else. He is only a person, after all, figuratively “only human.” However, if Prime does second-guess himself for whatever reason, he knows that the doubts must be kept largely to himself. There are a trusted few who advise him, who he can run these thoughts past, who he feels he can confide in. He is not perfect, but all things considered, you couldn’t ask for a stronger, kinder, more caring and capable leader.
Abilities/Weapons: As a ten-foot-tall robot, Optimus Prime’s strength is rather greater than that of a normal human, as is his toughness. His body is made of metal, and while gunshots will dent it, unless they are particularly well-aimed at a joint or an eye, they’ll do little more than slow Prime down. His primary weapon is an energy rifle: it shoots blasts of superhot energy at a target. Though they don’t do that much more damage than an ordinary bullet, they will burn what they touch in addition to a ballistic injury, and will start a fire if it hits a flammable object. (It makes a “pew pew!” sound when fired, and is appropriately steampunk, with electric coils and magnets and a glowing, crackling chamber of energy.) Optimus’ aim is superb, able to shoot a seatbelt off a human at a hundred-foot distance without any harm to the human.
As a transforming ten-foot-tall robot, Optimus Prime can take three shapes: robot mode, where he has a humanoid body; vehicle mode, where he takes the appearance of a small automobile; and helm-mode, where he joins with the ship’s helm, gaining full manual control over the entirety of the Convoy, able to operate all of its controls and a built-in PA system, even fly it himself. Optimus’ sensors inside the ship are limited: he can feel about as much inside the ship as you can feel in your small intestine, namely pain if something is wrong and a general idea of where it is, but little else. The ship basically operates like his trailer in canon, though he has less remote control over the Convoy than the trailer. It is also worth noting that there is a small drone robot (which answers to Roller) that, while it has an AI program of its own, is closely connected to Prime. If Roller is somewhere, you can bet Prime knows what’s going on around it, able to see and hear and feel what Roller does. This extends to pain: damage to the ship, Roller, or Prime himself is felt by all three components.
As the leader of a race of transforming ten-foot-tall robots, Optimus bears an artifact known as the Matrix of Leadership. It contains a great deal of energy, along with the souls of its former bearers. It is a great source of collected wisdom, and though Prime cannot consult it at will, it will provide guidance on occasion through a vision trip reminiscent of the final sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Its power can also be harnessed in a more physical way, but only in the most dire of situations can it be unleashed. These conditions are very finicky: it cannot simply be a bad situation, it must be the worst possible scenario. In that case, a burst of white light and energy will come out of the Matrix and destroy Unicron - or whatever overpowered entity needs to be present in order to activate the Matrix. I do not believe it will ever be activated in-game, since there are not enough super-powered antagonists to trigger its activation.
How well can your character hack?: Medium. Optimus can interface directly with a journal device in order to use it, and in doing so, Prime is more used to operating computers and mechanical systems. He can attempt to take down a firewall with his own programming, but the technology is largely unfamiliar. And even if he could hack stronger posts, Optimus would not do it unless he had a very good reason to snoop.
Weaknesses: Optimus Prime refuses to bring harm to those weaker than himself. While he will fight strong demihumans and other robots, until he has proof that your strength matches his, he considers it a personal responsibility not to harm normal humans. He is also incredibly self-sacrificing. Though in his head he knows he is not as expendable as he feels, Optimus’ heart (spark, if you will) tells him to protect the lives of others at all costs. He will use his body to shield those weaker than him from a blast, and is always the first to volunteer to go into a dangerous situation if he feels he can’t risk another’s life. His emotions can override his common sense and logic at times, and while he is a wise leader in most respects, Prime is not looking out for betrayal from within. He cares deeply for his crew and friends, and an inside attack from someone he trusts would catch him completely by surprise.
Optimus also requires energy on a regular basis: a special kind of energy called “energon.” If he goes without it for too long, his body will slip into stasis to conserve power and become unresponsive until his energon level is high enough for stable operation. He shuts down and recharges at night in a berth built into the ship, but can also consume energon in its liquid form while awake. A machine that converts ordinary ship fuel to energon is part of the ship and is connected to the recharge berth.
As mentioned earlier, damage to all three parts of Optimus Prime -- the robot, the ship, and the small rolling drone - is felt by the robot. Roller is the weakest of the three components by far, and if the little bot was to be captured and tortured, it would be an effective way to handicap Prime.
He moves no faster than an ordinary human. He’s tough, but not fast. Also, his outer plating is not perfect. Though Prime’s body is made of strong metal, a well-aimed blade or bullet to a joint can damage important wiring.
History: A long, long time ago, before human memory, there existed an enormous, prosperous floating continent called Cybertron, populated by sentient machines. One of these machines was a dock worker by the name of Orion Pax. Working with his girlfriend, Ariel, and his best friend, Dion, he had no reason to suspect treachery when a robot named Megatron, leader of an impressive new group of robots capable of flight, approached him about using one of the warehouses by the docks. Impressed - no, dazzled by the super-advanced robot, Orion was caught completely by surprise when Megatron turned on him, stealing the energy stored in the warehouses and critically damaging Ariel and Orion.
Their bodies were brought to an old robot by the name of Alpha Trion, who rebuilt them completely. This is when Orion received the Matrix of Leadership: it saved his life, but changed him forever. Now, he was Optimus Prime, strong enough to combat Megatron and the Decepticons. It was a damn good thing, too, since an all-out war had begun, and the Autobots needed a strong leader to rally behind.
But despite his physical strength, Optimus was still young, and had a lot to learn about leading forces in a war. The only way to learn was through experience, and while Prime did make mistakes, he learned from them instead of letting himself get discouraged. Over a thousand years of war forged him into the wise leader he is today.
But this war had other effects. The endless battles drained Cybertron’s resources. As stronger and stronger weapons were created, the blasts shook the continent, threatening to blast it out of the sky. Eventually, during a particularly climactic battle, it shattered. Most of it sank below the cloud layer, but one piece, the battlefield, remained aloft. The robots on it were all damaged and dangerously low on energy to begin with. The blast knocked them all offline. Optimus was among them.
He does not know how long he slept, all but dead, in the ruins of Cybertron. It may have been a thousand years, or it may have been four million. It was long enough for another civilization to arise on another continent, a civilization of complex organic life. But one day, a team of explorers discovered the tiny floating island that was all that remained of the once proud nation. Delighted by this technology, so much more advanced than anything Reial had to offer, the scientists took the strongest-looking robot they could find - namely, Optimus - and set to work rebuilding him. They brought him back online, and though Optimus was initially grateful to his rescuers, that gratitude turned to contempt when he discovered that they intended to use him as a weapon of war. He had been rebuilt in a lab sponsored by the Philosophers, the shady organization behind Denouement, whose goal of profit-through-war was something Optimus could not accept. He escaped (along with the other mech they had “rescued” and rebuilt in the meantime, a small yellow mini-bot by the name of Bumblebee) and took his ship with him.
Optimus learned about the continent he found himself on. Though he’s still learning about cultural norms and many of the details of organic society, the tensions between the countries unsettled him. He did not want to see another war destroy this continent, as well. That remains his mission to this day: to prevent widespread conflict at any cost.
Slowly, he put together a crew. It was difficult, at first, since he was technically in hiding from the group that built him, but he found humans to fly and maintain his ship. One human in particular helped a great deal: a man named Pip Bernadette. Pip had initially been sent to bring him back to the lab, but it had been a set-up by an old enemy to take out Pip, as well. The mercenary’s employers had set up a lose-lose situation: if Optimus fought back and killed Pip, that was just fine. If not, and Pip actually succeeded in bringing the robot back, they would kill Pip afterward anyway. But Optimus, though the stronger of the two, did not kill him: talking with him instead, asking about who had ordered the hit.
While they were speaking, Pip’s crew of mercenaries, the Wild Geese, were ambushed and slaughtered. Pip was furious, and together, he and Prime fought back. Since Pip was now out of a job, he signed onto the Convoy, proving himself to be a very capable officer. He became the first mate of the Convoy.
Now, Prime sails the skies, taking odd jobs and helping those who need it.
SAMPLES-
Third Person (roleplay):
Optimus Prime stood on the bridge of the Convoy, deep in thought. Their current job seemed simple enough: transport a few dozen engines from Boston Market in the fall to a factory in Bellcius, where they would be put into fighter planes. But something told him it wouldn’t be as easy as that. The machines were state-of-the-art, the most powerful engines invented on Reial yet. Their designs were top secret: Pip had had to sign a legally binding agreement that the crew would not look inside the sealed crates that housed them, for fear of replicating the invention. Though he had been assured that there was no danger at all, Prime did not believe it for a second. The Convoy was strong, built to be a battleship, with top-notch weapons and armor. Why else would the manufacturers hire a ship like his to transport the engines, rather than an ordinary courier vessel?
Better safe than sorry. Optimus moved toward the helm, re-arranging his components as he did so, fitting snugly into the socket that allowed him to join with the ship and access the ship-wide public address system. The transformation was second nature to him, as was connecting to the ship. It had been strange at first, shortly after the reformatting. It didn’t feel like he was a part of the ship - it felt like he was the ship. The sheer size had astounded him at first, as had the feel of flight. He was groundless, weightless, chill wind rushing over him on all sides. Inside, he couldn’t feel much besides the hum of the engine and the general sense that there were living beings moving around his rooms and hallways. But he was used to all this.
He tapped into the intercom.
First Person (journal):
Attention. This is Optimus Prime. Our cargo is safe and secure in the hold, but I’ve got a feeling our friends in Bellcius aren’t the only ones who want these engines. Radio ops, monitor all frequencies. I want at least one helmsman on the lookout at all times for approaching ships. Gunners, stay near your stations, but do not fire unless I give the order. Understood? We don’t want a fight unless battle is brought to us.
If we’re lucky, these precautions will be unnecessary, and we will reach Bellcius without incident.
Stay alert. If a ship gets within firing range, I want to know immediately. Prime out.