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BASICS

Your name or nickname: Carolyn
Your year of birth: 1987
A reliable DW account the mods can PM to reach you: tesserwell
Link to your hold comment: Here
Referral: CA (plays Frank Castle and Constantine)

Character name: Alec Holland (The Swamp Thing)
Character type: Fandom Character
Fandom/Canon: DC
Character DW journal: houmaprotector
Does this character have previous CR?: That's a negative ghost rider.

HISTORY

New 52 History. (I'm only Human after All.

What is your canon exit point?: Alec arrives post his final initial new 52 volume written by Charles Soule. He's defeated the machine kingdom as well as Lady Weeds, his original instructor on how to be a Swamp Thing (and a sociopath). At some point post that, Alec and the other elemental gods were trapped in their realms, governing them but unable to interact with humanity. To end the war, he had to give up Abigail Arcane and return her to her uncle. Anton Arcane has been ruling the realm of death with Abigail forced into marriage with him. Alec leaves the green behind and attempts to destroy the Rot with his predecessor who also loved Abigail. He survived but at the cost of Abigail's life and the life of his predecessor.

He retreated to the green where he's kept himself apart from humanity until one day he awoke - disconnected from the green in a fountain.

PERSONALITY OVERVIEW

N/A

PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

What skills does your character bring to the situation?

Alec brings a number of useful skills to the game. He's a botanist and a chemist by trade who was good enough to be hired by the US government's agricultural department. He has/had an in-depth knowledge of plants, their medical and nourishment purposes, as well as their locations, how to forage and grow them, how to extract the best parts of their skill to help human beings. (This is shown in the first issue of Scott Snyder's New 52 Swamp Thing run where, as a human, he advises a man to wrap his sore knee in cabbage so that the glutamine in it's leaves which can act as an amino acid and an anti-inflammatory can help him with it.)

As the Swamp Thing his knowledge of plants had increased exponentially, but it's only affirmed what he knows about medicinal plants as well as a deep respect for the environment.

He's also an 7 1/2, 8 foot tall green thing composed of plant matter and sludge. While that may not be considered a skill, Alec has come to adopt the idea that he's the biggest, scariest thing out there. That coupled with the sheer amount of drama and trauma that DC has put him through (the least of which that he's died twice.) has made him willing to be a big sludgy shield for various people.

Why did you choose this specific character for 6I, and how do you picture them fitting into the game?

Alec is an easier character to play then another character like Eddie Brock (mostly because it'd be about playing two characters). Or Scott Lang (who doesn't bring many applicable skills unless the place turns into the hunger games and it turns into the hunger games and requires theft.) Alec belongs in a plant setting filled with lots of foliage and greenery for him to interact with.

He'd also have the biggest reaction to being cut away from his world's green. Thanks to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run (seriously, if you're looking for a good comic to read just in general, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run is the equivalent of...Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice.. It's an essential read for any comic book fan.) travelling to different planets was established via the green, a universal network of plant life that he represents on earth. I usually play him as "Alec travelling to different dimensions via the green." In this case this dimension has left him disconnected from the DC Universe's green.

This is a terrifying experience for Alec. Despite the drama that he's come to associate with it, this is a job for him and one he gave up everything to do. The only thing he has left is his humanity and he's in a conscious struggle with it constantly. The green, along with the other kingdoms, the red, the black, the mycos (the gray, or the fungus), bacteria, and the machines, are all motivated by survival. They don't operate logically when it comes to maintaining a balance. (as evidenced when Alec caused the algae in the ocean to overgrow the oceans to raise the oxygen level on earth and kill all life. This was brief and he's not proud of it.)

The longer that Alec's spent as the avatar the less humanity he's been able to apply to the situation which is something he's struggling with on arriving to the game. The goal is playing a character struggling with his humanity, with the disconnect from large chunks of his abilities and his home dimension, and forced to reconnect with human beings. He has a lot of opportunities that he can bring to the game. If the mods need a character who can do some damage, Alec's your guy. If characters need a brute(tm) character, he's your guy, and if people need a daily dose of angst, he's your guy.

The goal is to play Alec as post his new 52 run but prior to his run on Justice League Dark where he's embraced his reclusive nature and is hiding out from the world of humans. This is post the death(?) of his one true love that he caused (because he was trying to finally kill Anton Arcane and in doing so had to kill abby as well.)

How do you imagine your character will survive in 6I, and in what ways will they contribute to the settlement, if any?

How do you imagine your character will survive? Alec's faced far worse, but the notion is to strip him of his confidence. He's a good guy by nature, but he has a hard time remembering his humanity and with Abby gone, he needs a good reminder of how to be human. In short? He won't survive well initially. He'll be afraid for his life but then adapt himself and do his best to make himself an asset to the community. Having a botanist in a setting like this would be useful, having a botanist who's a plant would be unusual but he'd do his best to fit in.

What will they contribute to the settlement? Gosh! Apart from being the biggest meanest greenest sludgiest creature this side of the green, Alec is a world class Botanist and chemist. He holds two doctorates (or at least he did when he was alive). A figure who was good enough for government work with the DOA, he knows how to forage for plants, create shelter, and use plants for medicinal purposes. If people can get over their mistrust of a guy who is literally a monster chances are they'll make a friend for life who will help them collect all sorts of plants.

He also doesn't eat (technically). He's the perfect person to help the settlement, all the food he collects he wouldn't consume. All he needs is soil, water, and sunlight (and/or maybe a bag of miracle grow).

How will your character react to...

Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable?

Alec, in his canon point, has already lost the person he cares the most about after killing Abigail Arcane to try and finally stop her Uncle Anton. While it's not confirmed that either one of them are dead I'm operating from the idea that he's killed both of them to save Abigail (her uncle was doing some R rated things to her that make him a genuinely awful person since he's the reason both of them ended up in the situation they're in.)

Being cut off from the green and from his powers is far more affecting. Without his abilities he's essentially a walking talking pile of swamp matter that stands at 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The green however is what keeps him animated and gives him a sense of purpose (loathe as he is to admit it.) Connected to the forces of nature he's literally a God, and while Alec won't admit it he's grown accustomed to that level of power.

Covering that up for him however is the notion that without his powers he's extremely vulnerable. In his first solo outing in the New 52 run he runs across Constantine who's been possessed by a virulent magical whiskey (It's a long story). Constantine strips him of his abilities and while he soldiers through it it's because he knows the green will reconnect to him eventually.

Here, he's vulnerable and very far from his world's green. Painfully aware that putting a toe out of line will mean his death by fire and that he can't regrow his limbs (quite yet.) he's reduced to being a Frankenstein's monster and hiding out in the forest. Thankfully however he's making himself useful over the network. Still though, the constant threat of freaking people out is a big motivator fo him.

Their environment being manipulated, possibly in strange or extraordinary ways, and possibly in ways which restrain them?

Utterly nonplussed. If he had his powers he'd be annoyed by major environmental changes but for now it's just par for the course. It's worth noting that despite his desire to not die, or at least the terror he'd potentially feel, he'd still put his life on the line for anybody threatened by any of these changes reasoning that he's the biggest scariest creature and could therefore take on any monsters.

The things that would get him riled up the most are any sense of the black, the rot, or death. His wife (who he killed remember) became the avatar of death and death has been his constant enemy. Alec has an instinctive sense of cold and the rot and things that are enemies of plant life at this point. Those who bring it, those who serve it, all of them make him nervous and he's apt to attack back in less then human means.

Being physically and/or mentally manipulated, such as having hallucinations or suddenly possessing special abilities they did not have before?

To be the Avatar is to be reborn again and again in ways that even you do not expect.

Alec has come to live by this code, so new abilities or shifting shapes isn't particularly strange to him anymore. He'll take it in stride with the air of a monk. He's SEEN so much by this point (his own body reanimated as a zombie, his wife turning into a gargoyle, himself basically becoming the planet) physical mutations don't bother him.

Mental mutations don't either...to a point. Alec is very aware that he's basically become nature at this point and that nature - doesn't like human beings. Comic book stories like Swamp Thing, The Hulk, Ghost Rider - they're all werewolf stories with man facing off against his beast nature. (even if they're not werewolves). The green (as Alec would tell anyone) wants to survive just as much as the werewolves of the world which means that he can and will fall prey to them. That's an easy way to manipulate him mentally and coming out of it despite how much practice he's had with retaining his humanity, he'd feel bad. He's very aware that humanity is finite for him and sooner rather then later he'll go into nature forever and become a part of it, a slave to it's desires.

What's fascinating about Swamp Thing is how badly the green wants to survive and what it's willing to do to get there. You see this in regular nature too. There are plants that exist in our world that will drown prey (mostly small insects and mammals), eat prey, and the only thing that prevents them from going after humanity is their size. Alec is...bigger then them and has their same instincts. That makes him vulnerable to mental manipulation.

(in short, I wholeheartedly volunteer him for mental manipulation.)

POWERS & SPECIAL ABILITIES

[AHAHA Where to start? Len Wein's great green goober has had SO MANY DIFFERENT ABILITIES:

Regeneration- the ability to regrow his body and use that regrowth to travel anywhere on the planet/where there are plants.

Transformation- Human shapes and genders are meaningless to Swamp Thing and while Alec was born a male and thinks of himself in a male shape he'll shed it quickly and can turn into anything plant like, flower like, tree like, etc, etc.

Plant Control - He can control the green but within a balance. He can't make whole fields of wheat grow just for funsies or bring unnatural plants into a different environment. He talks to plants, they provide him with information. He's used to being their king in essence but that comes with certain abilities.

GROWING SPECIAL FRUIT - okay. So. Alan Moore (pauses for dramatic effect) once sat down and asked himself, "Self, how would a great big plant dude have sex." and low and behold he came up with an answer that was accepted by luminaries like Wes Craven. No really, Wes Craven. Alec can grow special fruits that can get people high, and share his consciousness with them. Let's say his fruit won't do that, but it will be one HECK of a trip?

Actually his sharing his consciousness with Abigail is one of the more beautiful scenes in comic books - the idea that sans sexual pleasure a human being can simply share their innermost thoughts with another to truly commune with them is a lovely subject, but it STILL doesn't mitigate one of the most HILARIOUS scenes in human movie history. Laugh with me kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NefuBEZPyk


Communion with the Green- The green is basically mother nature, only mother nature is a big web of life that he can go into, swim around in, and has unlimited control over. That's the big thing that nature promises it's Avatars after their death. They can make anything in the green that they want to (his predecessor and accidental...golem version of himself the original swamp thing made his own version of Houma Louisiana where Alec grew up.) Though Alec Holland is loathe to admit it the green has become a sort of security blanket and is the source of most of his abilities.

He is VULNERABLE despite all this, to a number of things. Pollution, Fire (especially sans powers, fire is a big concern of his), heavy water, etc. etc.]

WRITING SAMPLES

SAMPLE 1
Why did you choose this sample? Alec's sense of desperation at his transformation and desire to reconnect with the green will be a big part of his arc - as well as any relationship with Constantine. Swamp Thing saw the introduction of John Constantine to DC comics continuity, the two are colleagues and the closest thing to...allies? partners? that either really has had. This chronicles Alec versus John, and his horror at realizing John isn't his John.
Linked or pasted sample: ...Only you John Constantine would find a way to survive in a place like this.

SAMPLE 2
Why did you choose this sample? Alec interacting with the populace and demonstrating how afraid he would be to interact with them is going to be a large chunk of his CR for at least a month before he realizes people might not set him on fire.
Linked or pasted sample: In the woods.

SAMPLE 3
Why did you choose this sample? While this starts as text, it dives into what Alec could do for the settlement, teaching people about plants and other items relevant to nature.
linked or pasted sample:The green is calling.

I've read the opening paragraph entitled "Don't be a Dick" and I like your style.