follyartist | Labyrinthum application!

OOC INFORMATION
Player Name: Hen
Pronoun Preferences: he/him
Contact:

benthic; benthiczone @ Discord
Are you over the age of 18?: yes
Invitation Link: here!
Current Characters: n/a
Link to Permissions: Permissions.

IC INFORMATION
Character Name: "Small Mike"/Green Pippins
Species: Pippins
Canon: Deltarune
Canon Point: Chapter 4
Character Age: unknown, but adult; human equivalent of early 30s-ish
CRAU: no
Character Appearance: As himself and as Mike (top one)
Powers and Abilities: Pippins are an enemy type in Deltarune! As such, they have a bullet pattern-type battle ability that involves throwing dice, which then explode into projectiles based on which number comes up. Outside of battle, they have superhuman strength in a kind of vague, cartoony way (they can lift a car, but y'know, a cartoon car on a TV set) and the ability to cheat at games, dice games in particular, in assorted ways—like making the dice roll impossible numbers. As Mike, this Pippins gets additional bullet patterns that work similar to Flappy Bird style gameplay. None of this is game-breaking, and little of it translates well into RP anyway; I'd be interested in regaining the strength, dice projectiles, and maybe game-cheating skills, but this would still put him very low on the scale of superhuman powers, and I'm only interested in game-cheating for humor purposes (with consent from any players involved and without it working 100% of the time).
What Did Your Character Wish For? To be the "Real Mike"
What Potion Did They Receive? Blue
Did They Drink It? Yes

Character Questions:
1. Who is the person your character is most bonded with from their canon, or who is someone they miss the most and why?
His life as it is right now pretty much revolves around Tenna, though the nature of that "bond" is complicated: Pippins lives a double life as "Mike," who is Tenna's second-in-command and closest companion. Their bond is based on the lie that he is in fact Mike, but that doesn't change how utterly intertwined their lives are now; most of his waking hours are consumed by supporting Tenna in one way or another. Whether or not this would translate to "missing" Tenna is no less complicated. It's in his nature to mask his feelings even from himself (maybe especially from himself), leading to him frequently contradicting himself on his own views within a few sentences. Would he consciously believe he misses Tenna? Unlikely. But would he actually miss Tenna? Absolutely.

2. What are they most afraid of and why?
The thought of his double life being exposed, making the whole ruse come crashing down, is kind of both his greatest fear and greatest desire at the same time. Again, contradicting himself within a few sentences! "Mike" is willing to kill the game's protagonists to keep his secret, or sell out his best friends for the same purpose; at the same time, he insists he never has and still does not now actually want to be Mike at all. The truth is, he has a tendency to commit himself fully to a path of action while turning a blind eye to his own motivations for doing so. Losing the role of Mike would be a relief in a lot of ways, but deep down, he also knows it would leave him feeling aimless and unfulfilled, and so he reacts to the possibility with a deep, instinctive fear.

3. What are their emotional, mental, and physical weaknesses and why?
Physically, Pippinses have superhuman strength, but not much else in terms of ability. They have a relatively humanoid physique and aren't difficult to take down as far as mob enemies go in Deltarune; there's no reason to think this specific Pippins is any different from the others in that sense.

Mentally, the Green Pippins is intelligent enough, but that's pretty strongly counterbalanced by his overconfidence and tendency to overthink everything. He has a drive to investigate things and find answers that leads him to assume that his own information is more complete and correct than anyone else's, making him overly critical of other points of view. His inclination to obsess over things and get caught in mental spirals only adds to this; being the Best at something he's gotten himself caught up in is important to him.

Emotionally, he has a gigantic gaping blind spot when it comes to perceiving himself whatsoever. It ties into his mentality that he is forming his theories and taking actions based on logic and research: if he's acting rationally, then his logic must be consistent and based firmly in reality, right? This thought process prevents him from noticing that the truth is the exact opposite, and his real natural tendency is to make his decisions based on his own feelings in the moment, only justifying them logically to himself after the fact.

4. What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
In line with the above—Pippins believes strongly that everything he does, no matter how ridiculous or off the wall, happens because it's the most reasonable course of action. He often starts with a concept that does seem rational on the surface, and then escalates the situation far beyond the point where it makes sense anymore. His own perception begins and ends with the logical roots of things, while other people get to see the end result, which may become more and more removed from those roots over time.

In a way, this means that the "Pippins" other people get to know is a much more accurate vision of him than his own inner vision of himself is.

This is to say nothing of the fully conscious difference between his real self and "Mike," which mostly applies to his relationship with Tenna anyway: Mike is Tenna's best friend and greatest supporter, acting in his interests in ways that go far beyond what's professionally acceptable, while the Pippins inside the Mike costume is just a guy trying to keep his boss in line, and the whole thing is purely an act—or so he would say.

5. What would make them happiest and why?
He got himself into the whole Mike Double Life Situation by trying to make his life and everyone else's easier, but he stays there because it makes him feel special and important. He makes a big deal out of Mike being Tenna's "favorite," who gets the "benefit" of performing various overly intimate and demanding tasks, and seems to genuinely believe that others would envy his position if they knew about it—even as he complains, at the same time, that he doesn't want to be the one doing it. It isn't the work itself that "Mike" is sticking with, but the sense of being an essential, secret part of something, in a way that makes him unique and superior to others.

It's that kind of state of affairs that makes him happiest, though it'd be better if he didn't have to fake being a whole other person to maintain it, and maybe if the workload weren't quite so demanding. The ideal situation would be that he could handle his entire job himself and also directly reap the rewards of it, rather than having to do so through an invented third party and with secret assistance.

6. What characteristics does someone need to have to be your character's ideal significant other?
This is not a thing he thinks about at all, not because he isn't interested, but because that would involve some of that pesky perception of his own emotions that he hates doing so much. But honestly, he would need someone who matches his freak. He is an obsessive, impulsive, egotistical, controlling, risk-taking, emotional idiot who has no idea how to have a relationship that isn't at least kind of weird in its dynamics. At his core, what he wants is attention and excitement; he has a clear attraction to things that cause him some degree of irritation as long as he's getting mental stimulation out of them. Basically, you'd better be throwing up at least a few red flags to both get his attention and handle him as a partner.

7. Would your character make a sacrifice to save someone else and why or why not?
Yes, but—

This is essentially how the Mike thing started, after all: he decided to begin acting as Mike in an attempt to improve the conditions for everyone on the set of TV Time. That said, "everyone" did also include himself, and his own situation was the primary motivator in it, rather than a truly generous effort to help out his friends. And now the situation has escalated to the point where it is a genuine sacrifice he's making: he deals with ridiculous demands from Tenna at all hours of the day, which have hugely impacted his life and have also spared his fellow workers from feeling that impact.

. . . In a literal sense, yes, he's sacrificed quite a bit for the sake of others. But at the heart of the matter, he gets plenty out of it himself, enough to make him obsessed with maintaining the status quo. Not only that, but he's incapable of seeing the escalation of the situation objectively. It's entirely possible to talk him into making major sacrifices by just tricking him into thinking it was his own idea, or an inevitable outcome, and that has nothing to do with any altruism on his part.

If you asked him outright if he'd take a bullet for someone? Hell no.

8. What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance, or if your character is young, what is one thing they would want their older self to remember?
He absolutely does not have the self-awareness required to do something like this meaningfully. His wise words would involve endless contradictions interwoven with useless, hyperspecific bullshit. Listen, you don't know what this means yet, but don't ever become Mike!! Oh, but also, remember that Tenna likes three sugars and one cream in his coffee, and to brew it at exactly 204 degrees F. He needs his first cup at 4:30 AM after his therapy session, and his second at 6 AM, so make sure to pass that on to whomever becomes Mike who isn't you! Weeeeeell it might be easier if you do just become Mike, so forget what I said, and you should also do it as soon as possible!

9. When in dire circumstances does your character fight, flee, freeze or fawn and how does that look?
"Mike" was born out of the instinct to fawn: the goal was to appease his shitty, unstable boss by taking on a yes-man persona that could pacify him. But aside from that instance, the core Pippins instinct is to fight. He is an idiot in a lot of ways, but he can be very practical-minded, so when fighting truly isn't an option—as with Tenna—he's capable of pivoting to one of the others. But fighting is always what he really wants to do to deal with a problem, especially if he can intimidate the other party into backing down before a real fight becomes necessary. Even when it comes to minor verbal disagreements, he spars with his words, always coming off brusque and critical even when it's fully unnecessary.

10. Why did your character make the wish they did?
Doesn't he wish he knew! He considers it to have been a slip of the tongue in a confused moment, or maybe even some outside influence, because he can't consciously deal with the fact that he wants to be the one and only "true" Mike . . . even though he's outright said as much before. Whenever he admits to this, he tends to catch himself immediately and deny it in the next breath, insisting it's not what he really wants. But the fact that it slips out so easily when he's off his guard implies that it actually is his true desire: again, he wants to be unique and special, recognized for being part of something exciting and important. He wants the situation he already has, but without the uncertainty and impostor syndrome that have come along with it, and he wants a version of it that he actually gets personal praise and acknowledgment for.

Samples:
Log sample
Network sample