App for Deerington

[justoscar]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Oscar Pine
Canon: RWBY
Canon Point: V7 episode 9, 'As Above, So Below.'

In-Game Tattoo Placement: This on the back of his left hand.
Current Health/Status: Alive and healthy, though psychologically unsteady due to the fact that his personality and memories have started to merge with Ozpin's.
Age: 14
Species: Human

History: Wiki Link

CRAU History and Impact: N/A
Personality: At the start of his journey from the farm toward Haven in order to find the answers to the questions that sprung forth from awakening one morning to the bizarre circumstance of finding the soul of another, much older man residing within his mind, Oscar was a quiet and seemingly placid individual who was beset with great anxieties and a deep shyness in regard to interacting with strangers. When he wasn't studying or working on his aunt's farm, he was often reading and dreaming of a life that was far beyond what the fields he helped maintain could offer. Deeply curious, and unsettled by the revelations that the being-- calling himself Headmaster Ozpin-- had brought forward during their short time together, Oscar set off in the night seeking out answers for himself. Attached as he was to his quiet life, and prone to worries, Oscar often replied to the disembodied voice with grumpy, snarky remarks and a dry sense of humor. 'Does this adventure come with unlimited cash?' he had quipped when he was faced with the task of procuring a train ticket without any money to his name.

Such reparte was also heard with him in the few conversations we saw him have with his Aunt. Sarcasm is an excellent source of humor and a coping mechanism for the young man.

Unfortunately, however, sarcasm is not a replacement for coping with his actual fears. A country boy at heart, venturing into the city was itself a crazy thing for Oscar. Venturing forth to set out on an adventure he knew nothing about was crazier, but somewhere in his soul he was taking the right course for reasons he couldn't yet fathom.

This trust in himself and others becomes pivotal as it steadily becomes apparent that Ozpin, the mover and director of the earliest stages of the plot, is withholding a good deal of information from the others. Although he is significantly weaker than his newfound comrades and especially the other being with whom he shares his headspace, Oscar wrested control of his body back from Ozpin in a show of reckless, impulsive determination. There were key details being withhheld, and Oscar knew how to force their reveal.

Such reckless determination is one step among many decisions that Oscar undertook from the very outset of his journey. On some level Oscar always knew that this was about something much larger than himself. While he had started to accept that he was forever going to live in Ozpin's considerable shadow as the story progressed, he knew that ultimately it was never going to be about him personally.

He was but a humble farmhand, after all. No grand stories are told of farmhands.

In the aftermath of the revelation of Ozpin's considerable secrets and subsequent hiding of himself deep within their shared headspace, Oscar was forced to reckon with his uncertainties on his own. As it was quickly apparent that the others could not help him with any further details, Oscar kept quiet and bore the brunt of the multiple emotional outlashings that were directed specifically toward Ozpin. As the latest vessel in the reincarnation cycle and being at the forefront of the deceit himself, Oscar found that he couldn't blame the likes of Qrow, of Jaune, for taking their frustrations out on him personally.

He dealt quietly, stole away from the group to process on his own, and coped with the aftermath by busying his hands with the very simple and mundane affair of making a hearty dinner for everyone.

It is only after voicing his fears about how he felt convinced that he was going to eventually lose himself among the centuries of memories of experiences that were locked within him, but how he would help the overall cause regardless of the personal cost to him, that Oscar truly started to bloom as a character. His anxieties were still present, but they did nothing to mitigate the acts of bravery that he presented even with his minimal experience. An overarching refrain, both in action and word, from this point on are variations of the question 'how can I help?' Whether that be in helping the others with the mundane aspects of their training, relaying messages to hired huntsman in the middle of a battle, guarding the Relic that catalyzed the entire change in dynamic for Oscar and his interactions with the others, or analyzing the specifics of a difficult battle to help the others by acting as an emergency tactician, Oscar rose up to the call of duty and beyond. His anxious nature never left him; he simply learned not to use those anxieties as the only basis for his decision making process.

Once the team arrives in Atlas and starts training there under the direction of the Ace Ops and General Ironwood, the depths of the very personality merger that Oscar feared started to become apparent. Oscar's thought process and unconscious movements became more directed and self assured, and he started be able to think his way through the very difficult adult problems and responsibilities he had found placed upon his shoulders as a young teenager of only fourteen. Most tellingly is when General Ironwood seems acknowledge him-- a young man who was a mere fraction of the General's own age-- as someone akin to a peer and asks Oscar for his impressions on the sort of advice Ozpin would give for a difficult situation.

In a tone that was oddly calm and collected, Oscar in short said that Ozpin's advice was going to be wrong, and that Ironwood should stick to his decisions and follow through with the plan that he had already made.

Ultimately, the advice was not taken in rather dramatic fashion, in part due to a slip of the tongue that Oscar himself hadn't even expected, but that itself changes nothing about the full picture of the scenario.

Even with the evidence of a merger already starting, Oscar was starting to move beyond his existential crisis. No matter what happened, or in whose shadow he stood, he still remained in that world as Just Himself.

Fears: Oscar's overarching fear throughout his entire journey so far is tied to his belief that he is going to one day lose his individuality to the conglomeration of lives and memories that are a part of the ancient spirit, Ozma. Initially this amounts to an existential crisis for Oscar in Volume 6, where the first question he asks after Ozpin seals himself away within their shared headspace is whether or not he is going to be anything more than just another life in this endless cycle. Convinced that this was an inevitability, Oscar quietly processed his way through this on his own and eventually found the determination to do everything he was able to in order to help the overall cause and make up for Ozpin's mistakes in the time he has left.

Come the latter part of Volume 7, some of this fear is validated. Although by that point Ozpin hadn't spoken to him overtly in weeks, there is starting to become a distinct merger in their personalities. Some of Ozpin's quiet confidence and strength is bleeding into Oscar's demeanor, body language, and mannerisms-- and words that only Ozpin would say are starting to slip from his own tongue.

Strengths: Oscar's greatest strength is his open mind, his curiosity, and his kind heart. Even while battling with himself and his own fears, Oscar still shows up time and again for the people around him to the best of his abilities. For better or for worse, he is also starting to show a degree of emotional compartmentalization, wherein he moves beyond his panic to a place of radical acceptance for the situation at hand and can accomplish feats that he had otherwise thought impossible. Additionally, Oscar is shown to place a great deal of trust and faith in people he had just met. Whether this is due to Ozpin's association with the people in question or his own nature is unclear, but this faith in others is what bolsters him through his journey beside Ruby and her companions until the extent of the web of half truths is revealed in Volume 6.

As he commented in the climactic battle at the end of Volume 5, he made a choice to place others before himself. That proves to be his greatest strength of all.

Weaknesses: Ultimately, Oscar's greatest weakness is his habit of acting out of nervousness and fear. While his initial responces to Ozpin could only be described as grumbling and sarcastic, that is ultimately due to his reticence about the situation he is in. All of the times that Oscar has lashed out at someone in frustration and anger, like when he confronted Ruby in Volume 5 wanting to know how she even coped with such impossible circumstances, those outbursts are due to his inherent anxieties and the way his mind immediately starts piecing together exactly how badly a situation could go wrong before he even gives himself a chance to think it over. This is slowly getting better as time progresses and more of Ozpin's being influences his personality, but the lingering doubts and skepticism remains.

Beyond this, Oscar is lacking in social graces due to his shyness and tends to be self effacing at the worst of times. Due to the complexity of his situation and previous reactions to his existential questions, he has taken to internalizing his problems and handling them on his own. Unfortunately, this ends up combined with his anxieties and a need to move, and as such he has at times wandered off on his own to think without telling anyone exactly what he is doing before hand-- leaving his new friends and travelling companions convinced that he has gotten lost or abducted.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: Oscar is in many ways a young man who is defined by who he is not... and who he is not is the late headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin. Although Oscar is the most recent vessel in that immortal soul's continual cycle of reincarnation, he does not possess the same skill level as the former headmaster in any regard. While it is true that Ozpin was previously able to take control of Oscar's body for limited periods, events in Volume 6 led to Ozpin burying his conscious aspect deep within their shared mind and not even communicating internally with the young man whose body he has co-opted.

And, in context within Deerington, this possibility is fully eliminated as Ozpin is himself an appable character.

Oscar by and large does not have the level of training that his comrades have. While he is able to defend himself and the farm he was living on from small Grimm, it's taken him weeks if not months of intensive training to even come close to being able to fend for himself in actual combat. Thanks to that training, and the times when Ozpin would take the reigns and fight with Oscar's body, Oscar has picked up a good deal more strength and stamina than he used to have-- but he does not yet fully have the muscle memory to fight as effectively as his friends. While his base combat style resembles Ozpin's in it's reliance on the telescopic cane he carries and quick switches between offensive and defensive movements, Oscar still tires quickly and can only maintain such standards for short durations.

As he is much smaller than many of his friends, he is also not nearly as fast as them and has repeatedly lost pace when in tense situations, both becoming lost and putting himself in danger.

Beyond combat skills, Oscar has a keen eye for analytical insight despite his youth and relative lack of training. He is able to identify threats and help guide a fairly sizeable team of individuals toward victory in combat. Additionally, despite his tendency toward anxiety Oscar has the fantastic ability to press forth regardless of his fears and worries. He was able to land a crashing airplane safely because of this ability to emotionally compartmentalize.

Due to his prior experience as a farmhand, Oscar additionally has the agricultural skills required of such a lifestyle. Not only is he able to manage gardening and cooking, he has general handyman skills that were useful when the trailer the team was going to use for transport needed a tire changed.

Regarding the baseline skills and abilities from the canon, they are as follows:

Aura: All natives to Remnant have an Aura, which is a manifestation of an individual's soul and can be used to manifest a barrier in times of duress or allow for a greater range of offensive skills by being channelled into a weapon. As Oscar is still untrained, his capabilities with this are already limited. All we truly know about his capabilities with this is that it is effective enough to block a physical blow or two before the defenses shatter, and that his color seems to be green. There is minimal need to warp this skill, as his level of control is so unsteady.

Semblance: A person's Semblance is an extension of their person that is, in effect, a super power on it's own. Typically these abilities are treated as no different from a muscle that needs to be exercised and trained before reaching full capacity, and are described as being a manifestation of a person's character. As Oscar is so young and untrained, he has yet to discover what his Semblance actually will manifest as. As such, there is no need to warp this skill at this time.

Magic: This is a rarity in the world of Remnant. As being the latest vessel in the spirit Ozma's reincarnation cycle, Oscar potentially has access to magical capabilities from millennia ago that the world has forgotten. However, as his association with this status is so recent and the last incarnation in this cycle, Ozpin, stopped speaking to him, there is minimal chance that Oscar will be able to access this on his own. The word 'minimal' is used due to the fact that at the end of Volume 7, Oscar was able to access it during a climactic moment to shield himself and break a would be fatal fall not once but twice. As Oscar's canonpoint is a few episodes before this incident, he is currently unaware of this even being a possibility. Oscar has no inkling that he can access this ability, nor would he be able to outside of times of extreme duress that would prove fatal otherwise.

For other skills that may prove relevant, we must look to Ozpin's multitude of secrets. Although the late headmaster has not been forthcoming with many details about himself, we do have evidence that Ozpin was able to give two individuals-- Qrow and Raven Branwen--the ability to shapeshift into birds. Although Oscar has no idea how to manifest this skill at this juncture, it would be interesting if times of stress have him accidentally turning those around him into birds, with shapeshifting that cannot be controlled and remaining in this state for random periods of time. Obviously this is something that would be discussed with other players too, but it would also add an interesting psychological element to an already stressful situation.

There is a high probability that there are other possibilities not yet disclosed in canon. As such, ideas will be discussed with the mods and would obviously be beyond Oscar"s conscious control at this canon point

As a last note, whatever secrets are contained within the construction of his weaponized cane, the Long Memory, will be locked and nerfed. We do not yet know what the full function of the cane is beyond it's telescopic feature, but this will ensure that the cane remains what it is: a very elaborately decorated, perfectly weighted, collapsible cane that is sturdy enough to sustain melee combat.


Inventory:
- The clothes he's wearing, described as 'combat gear' by Ruby
- Ozpin's cane, The Long Memory
- His Farmhand clothes
- A currently useless Scroll
- A crowbar
- A box of cocoa mix

Writing Samples:
TDM

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Basil
Player Age: 32
Player Contact: woodrift

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Oscar Pine: Basil
Permissions for Character: Here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: The psychological aspects as they apply to either the self or elements of the setting
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: violence, gore, abuse-- especially child abuse, and non-consensual acts.