Characters / Codex Equus Codex Equus Project

Here is a list of characters working on the Codex Equus project within the Codexverse.

To return to the main character index, click here.

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Codex Equus Project

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General

• Bad Boss: Generally Subverted. There were a few bad apples early in the project, such as one which bullied Mirthful Stone (until he literally blew up on her and led to her being fired), but generally the project's heads are are of the Benevolent Boss and Reasonable Authority Figure kind.
• Fictional Document: Codex Equus is presented In-Universe as its own encyclopedia series aimed at providing information on just about everything under the Sun (and even beyond it).
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: Many researchers such as Mirthful Stone got into the Codex Equus project early on despite relatively low qualifications due to this, and stuck to it even after they got over their initial hurdles due to getting the hang of it and proving their merit on the job.
• Organization with Unlimited Funding: A realistic version, with expenses in their research being practically non-existant issue after they managed to acquire Equestrian royal backing and international support. This was subverted in earlier days when they were still starting out and struggling with their finances, forcing them to have among other things Lowered Recruiting Standards.
  • The Researcher Trio got a temporary, miniature version of this for their Codex Quest(s) research trips, with all their expenses being covered by the royal crown of Equestria. Some of them milked it for all its worth.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: They let Mirthful Stone stay on the project even after he blew up on one of his supervisors who was bullying him on account of the fact he told them about his past experiences with bad bosses as well as clear evidence of workplace abuse from said supervisor. They also let the Researcher Trio take the rest of the day off after they got through an assassination attempt by Autorist hitmanes and approved of their proposal to go off researching in foreign countries until the heat dies down.
• Show Within a Show: In-Universe, Codex Equus is also the name of a rapidly expanding encyclopedia project whose goal is to record possibly every single event, person, location, etc. for the purpose of preserving and spreading knowledge.

Interviewers

General

• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: One Minotaur researcher tried determining Moon Ray Vaughoof's true age following the latter's re-Ascension, only to end up so confused that he gave up and left.
  Minotaur researcher: You know what, buck this, I'm out.

The Researcher Trio

General

• Author Avatar: They're mostly based on the real-life writers of Codex Equus, give or take a few differences.
• Action Survivor: ALL of them qualify, having constantly survived and prevailed in many life-threatening situations and crises over their careers and adventures through a combination of determination, skill, boons and luck despite not being trained adventurers or experienced heroes.
• Curbstomp Battle: The Researcher Trio while touring Angel's Throne in Angel Vale ended up inflicting one on a street gang which tried to rob them, driving them away with fear before their leader even finished his sentence (said leader got fireballed, his second-in-command skunked and their biggest member whalloped by a warhammer). Having faced sea monsters and terrorists just days ago, they were barely fazed or threatened by a group of criminals.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In a Flash Forward Drabble, the Researcher Trio would through a combination of teamwork, determination and luck (helped by the fact their opponent was already severely weakened and them having temporary enchantments to hurt them) managed to defeat a Physical God. While even they were astounded at what they pulled off, many who heard of it consider this to be one of their finest hours.
• Experienced Protagonist: While struggling a bit at first against even normal foes due to being civilian researchers, as time passes and they gathered experience, knowledge and equipment from their adventures they become much more prepared and able to deal with various threats. In a sense the Codex Quest(s) story chronicles their development into this over their research trips.
• Fight Magnet: Throughout the Codex Quest(s) series, the Researcher Trio frequently found themselves running into situations where they had to fight against those trying to harm them or others in their presence, yet nevertheless gave out a surprisingly good accounting of themselves. So far they had fought off Autorist/Tribalist assassins, a mob of anti-Ashfall dragons, a small horde of hostile sea-life, a small army of dragon terrorists, a gang of Ashfall hatchling-nappers, a Corrupt Corporate Executive's corporate goons, a two-bit con and her surprisingly powerful summoned card-constructs, among others.
• Freudian Trio: The Research Trio consists of three members whose personalities fit each aspects of the trope:
  • Mirthful Stone is the "Id", bearing a mostly cynical perspective on things, yet is both passionate about his interests and hot-tempered, being prone to both vindictiveness and fits of explosive rage. Fittingly, his abilities are geared towards physical combat (Ironically, his martial arts skills are basic/rubbish), offensive power (mostly through his racial fire magic and Niliq side), and his growing stockpile of weaponry.
  • Sherlock is the "Superego"; while kinder and more empathetic compared to most examples, he contrasts Mirthful Stone by being patient, cautious, and analytic, being the one to provide strategic insights during emergency situations. He's also a Badass Pacifist, preferring to support his teammates with scent magic and potions. Ironically, in a subversion of sorts, he suffers from anxiety disorder, which makes him very neurotic and prone to lashing out at times when under severe stress.
  • Jade Shell is the "Ego"; while more altruistic, subdued, and cautious than Mirthful Stone, she's more impulsive and emotional than Sherlock, and her middling personality is what allows her to balance out her two coworkers. Fittingly, as a Great Tortoise, she's the Mighty Glacier of the trio, using her water magic to both protect against attacks and dish out overwhelming force, while relying on her racial clairvoyance to guide Mirthful Stone and Sherlock (and others) through various crises.
• Handicapped Badass: All three researchers suffer from various disorders and neuroses, like autism, anxiety disorder, and anger problems. Despite this, they're capable of fighting entities more powerful than them and working together as a trio.
• Magic Wand: Both Jade Shell and Mirthful Stone got themselves these after they were widely reintroduced in the Fourth Age for both research and self-defense purposes. Meanwhile, Sherlock got a Magic Staff instead.
• Pals with Jesus: All three researchers are good friends, or at least well-acquainted with various benevolent deities. Jade Shell is friends with musically-inclined deities like Moon Ray and Blue Suede, while Sherlock knows several members of the Great Skunk Pantheon and in fact worships one of them, Aldhika Moufette.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Researcher Trio consists of a cynical Qilin with vengeful tendencies and anger problems (Mirthful Stone); a Skunk Pony hybrid who suffers from anxiety disorder (Sherlock); and a mildly autistic Great Tortoise who is often plagued by shyness and insecurities (Jade Shell). Despite this, they're pretty close friends and coworkers who often collaborate on entries together.
• RPG Elements: Invoked thanks to Heroic Island, the Father of Modern Gaming via his 'RPG Boon', which he gave to the Trio to help them better survive the various dangerous situations they had increasingly found themselves in during their adventures, each customised to their taste.
• Spanner in the Works: The Researcher Trio often serves as this due to not only being from different races that most aren't familiar with, but also possessing their own unique set of powers and skillsets that most don't really expect. Notably, their arrival in Angel Vale as part of an Equestrian Crown-sponsered vacation not only disrupts the protests held by anti-Ashfallers, but also completely derails an attempt by Neo-NRF terrorists to kickstart a revolution that would destroy all of Angel Vale's progress and accomplishments in favor of reverting civilization back to the Stone Age.
• True Companions: Despite being part of different races and having their own dysfunctions, they're all pretty close and protective of each other. When Neo-NRF terrorists besiege the Cherub Cove Technology Museum, both Mirthful Stone and Sherlock outright panic when they are separated from Jade Shell and shortly see her being trapped in another room with the Neo-NRF terrorist leader, Herrlich, with Sherlock falling into a panic attack over it. Fortunately, they are relieved when they learn she is saved (along with a few others) thanks to Meadowbrook and Mistmane's quick thinking.
• Two Guys and a Girl: A platonic version; the Researcher Trio consists of a male Qilin, a male Skunk Pony, and a female Great Tortoise who are close friends and frequently work (and fight) together.

Jade Shell

Character: Heroic

Alignment: Lawful Good/Neutral Good

Type: Great Tortoise, Researcher, Water Mage, Seer, "Mighty Glacier"

Faction: Principalities of Equestria, Codex Equus Research Groups (Equestrian Branch), Researcher Trio

Jade Shell (her entry here) is a female Great Tortoise who works as a researcher/interviewer/writer for the Codex Equus project. She is featured prominently in "Codex Quest(s)" which depicts him, Jade Shell and Sherlock's adventures and Slice of Life experiences.

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• Afraid of Needles: Like Sherlock, Jade Shell is afraid of needles as a result of a bad experience when she was young with an incompetent doctor trying to extract a blood sample back in her old home of Palua Tropika.
• Author Avatar: She's based on Randomfan11, one of the real-life Codex Equus project's writers and a frequent editor of TV Tropes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While introverted, shy, and reserved, she's quite introspective and empathetic, sympathizing with others’ suffering and often thinking about what drives people to act the way they do. This led to her seeing deities as ultimately ordinary people with the same moralities and tribulations as mortals, just with more powers. However, of the Researcher Trio, she is a physical and magical powerhouse, and has downed enemies who are often stronger and/or more experienced than her. She's also noted to have anger issues and other neuroses, which, thankfully, are being regulated and lessened by proper therapy.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Due to factors like her autism, past experiences with bullying, and being a natural introvert, she is fairly quiet, shy, and reserved. However, as many foes learned the hard way, she is a powerful Mighty Glacier who is capable of going toe-to-toe with creatures who are often bigger and stronger than herself, such as Red Dragons and Krakens. She is also a Seer, which is part of her racial abilities as a Great Tortoise, and her foresight helped throw a spanner into many a villain's plans.
• Big Eater: Justified; as a Great Tortoise, her growth process functions similarly to Dragons — the larger she gets, the more she has to eat according to her size. Among her race, this is quite normal, but to those unfamiliar to the Great Tortoises' eating habits, she inexplicably appears to be quite gluttonous. One incident had her eat a tremendous amount of food at a buffet restaurant while dining with Mirthful Stone and Sherlock, leaving the latter two quite flabbergasted.
  Jade Shell: What? I was hungry!
• Endearingly Dorky: While normally introverted and reserved, she's actually quite dorky and holds a variety of interests, mostly in literature and art. She can talk about them for hours if the people she's talking to share similar interests or are those she trusts well.
• Honorary Aunt: She's an honorary auntie figure to the Four Terrors' youngest children, and often gets swarmed and tackled whenever she visits them.
• Magic Wand: For research and self-defence, she got herself one during "Codex Quest(s)" which allows her to focus and channel her race's inherent water magic, allowing her to go around Making a Splash blasting people with water.
• Making a Splash: As a Great Tortoise, she has water-based magic. Due to her being a Mighty Glacier by nature, she often uses it in conjunction with her Magic Wand to manifest a war hammer and a shield, though she will resort to just blasting people with water should the situation require it.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: Manages to Whack-a-Monster which jumped up from the sea to attack with a giant seawater-based warhammer construct during the Researcher Trio's visit to Mousiko, knocking it out and back into the waters. If Mirthful's words are any accurate, the sea creature would be 'feeling it for a week'.
• Not What I Signed Up For: Played for laughs; when she first joined the Codex Equus project, she genuinely didn't know that part of being a researcher requires interviewing people for information. As a natural introvert who struggles with social interactions, she understandably freaks out when she learns this.
  Jade Shell: This is not what I signed up for!
• Oh, Crap!: Jade Shell's line of work, as well as her clairvoyance (which always shows her bad things happening if people don't intervene), often causes her to understandably freak out when she encounters, meets or sees terrible beings or imminent events.
  • She spends most of her interview with Temnobog being in complete terror — not only because she's interacting with the one god the Erobreseg Deer Herds fear, but also because she was specifically interviewing Temnobog for what he had done to the condemned Erobreseg Deer kingdom of "Omelas", which he considered to be a very sore spot for him due to his abusive childhood. Thankfully, she was able to power through it and get some vital information that she would later publish as a Codex entry.
  • She utterly freaks out when she saw a new Draconic Generator being showcased in the Cherub Cove tech fair and had a vision of the Cherub Cove Technology Museum getting obliterated by Neo-NRF terrorists rigging it to explode.
• The Perfectionist: One of her flaws is that she has perfectionist tendencies, which means as a researcher and writer, she sometimes struggles with writing entries because she isn't satisfied with them. Ironically, she has a bad habit of procrastinating on her work, especially if they contain subjects she finds disturbing.
• Post-Victory Collapse: After dealing with the stress of fighting anti-Ashfall protesters at Brecher's restaurant and being mind-raped by one of them, she ends up passing out after the police led by Chief Tere arrived to break up the restuarant brawl and arrest the protestors. To her group's relief, it turns out she just fainted from exhaustion.
• Professional Slacker: Ironically, despite her perfectionist tendencies, she has an equally bad habit of slacking off, especially if she's writing about subjects she finds disturbing.
• Seers: As a Great Tortoise, she has a natural clairvoyance which allows her to get flashes of possible futures to a limited degree. This gives her hints of what could happen within the near future and act accordingly.
• Shrinking Violet: While capable of socializing, she's pretty reserved otherwise, and often plagued with shyness, insecurities, and self-doubt. A huge reason for it is due to her being born with mild autism; while she grew up in Pulau Tropika, a place that was generally tolerant and accepting of flaws, she still faced discrimination from those who either looked down on her for her condition, or expected her to do more than she's willing to handle just because she "looked normal". She even privately admits to Stygian that while she found acceptance among her coworkers in the Codex Equus project, she still sees herself as a burden who should repay her coworkers' kindness by acting normal. Fortunately, having understanding friends and being put into situations that require to act outside her comfort zone help her come out of her shell.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: While not to Mirthful Stone's extent, she can be prone to cursing herself, especially when she's stressed out. Unlike Mirthful, however, she's more aware of this and often apologizes for it afterward. This is justified as it's later revealed that she got her habit from Mirthful. During the Cherub Cove Hotel party, at Chieftain Brüllen's advice, she resolves to control herself more and clamp down on her swearing.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Her clairvoyance, a racial trait of the Great Tortoises, proves extremely invaluable in not only getting herself, her friends, and others out of hairy situations, but also providing incentive for others to act in order to prevent a potential bad outcome. Notably, a huge reason why the Neo-NRF terrorists' plans don't work as intended is because she foresaw what'll happen if they succeeded, clueing people in on their intentions in a timely manner.
  • Her insightful observations on the sheer hypocrisy in the Neo-NRF terrorists' goals of wanting to revert Angel Vale back to the Stone Age would go on to inspire Chief Tere to hold a debate with the Neo-NRF terrorist leader, Herrlich, whom he utterly demolishes by poking holes in his reactionary, bigoted beliefs.
• Stone Wall: Her race's natural defensive magic with their shell makes her this among the 'Researcher Trio', and can be ramped up tenfold briefly with a durability potion to the point that her shell can tank bullets and even dragonfire.
• Stout Strength: While she looks chubby (with the likely explanation being her Big Eater habits), she's actually quite muscled due to her frequent adventures and getting into dangerous situations she didn't intend to be in. Great Tortoises are also incredibly strong by default, and she is no exception.
• Sturdy and Steady Turtles: She's a Great Tortoise, a racial cousin to the more aquatic Great Turtles, but she had the strength and durability of a tortoise of her size to match, especially when hopped up on Strength and Durability Potions. She also has her race's water manipulation and clairvoyant powers.
• Super-Strength: As a Great Tortoise, she is incredibly strong. This, coupled with her natural toughness and durable shell, makes her the Mighty Glacier of the Researcher Trio. It's noted that due to sharing similar biological processes with Dragons, she only grows stronger the older she gets.
• Super-Toughness: As a Great Tortoise, she is incredibly durable, with her shell being able to tank most attacks. This, coupled with her natural strength, makes her the Mighty Glacier of the Researcher Trio. It's noted that due to sharing similar biological processes with Dragons, she only grows tougher the older she gets.
• Whack-a-Monster: Manages to do this to a sea monster while they were in Mousiko, hammering it in the head with a large seawater hammer construct as it jumped up at the ship they were on, knocking it out and back into the sea.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jade Shell hates mosquitos due to being constantly bitten by them back in her old home of Palua Tropika. She also feels anxious around swarming insects like ants.
• Youngerthan They Look: Due to Great Tortoises being biologically immortal like Dragons, she looks like an adult but is quite young by her people's standards.

Sherlock

Character: Heroic

Alignment: Neutral Good

Type: Skunk Pony, Hybrid, Researcher, Scent Mage, Knowledge domain Cleric

Faction: Principalities of Equestria, Codex Equus Project (Equestrian Branch), Researcher Trio

Sherlock (his entry here) is a male Skunk Pony who works as a researcher/interviewer/writer for the Codex Equus project. He is one of three main protagonists of the Codex Quests, which depicts the various adventures and Slice of Life experiences he and his friends get into.

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• Abusive Parents: His birth parents were neglectiful and abusive, to the point of not getting his surgery needed to repair a cleft palate so they could keep getting the disability checks and ultimately abandoning him with a random nurse. Understandably, it left him with many issues, and he now wants nothing to do with them.
• Actual Pacifist: Sherlock is a pacifist and when forced into a conflict, largely uses his skunk spray or nonlethal magics to defend himself without hurting anyone. He will, however, attack nonsapient constructs, as they're not actually alive.
• Afraid of Needles: Like Jade Shell, Sherlock is afraid of needles due to the number of surgeries he had to go through to fix his cleft palate when he was young.
• Author Avatar: He's based off Godzillawolf/Kendell2, one of the writers of Codex Equus as a whole.
• Badass Pacifist: While detesting violence by nature and principle, he is more than capable of defending himself and others when there is no choice with his wand and his noxious Skunk Pony spray, which is potent enough to incapacitate Dragons under the right circumstances.
• Bad Powers, Good People: His olfactory magics include a lot of spells Smellba invented to torture people. He only uses them in self-defense and is generally a good person.
• Bottomless Magazines: Downplayed: unlike a real skunk, which can only spray about five to six times before needing time to 'recharge,' Great Skunks and their hybrids like Sherlock don't need to do this and can spray as often as needed. This is because of their racial magic causing it to recover far quicker. Downplayed, however, in that he still needs to consume a lot of sulfur for his body to convert into musk.
• Celibate Hero: Sherlock is aromantic and asexual, and thus has no interest in romance or sex. It is noted that he does masturbate, but to him it has nothing to do with sexual attraction and is more just a form or relaxation and stress relief.
• Character Tic: He often messes with his mane as a form of stimming due to his autism.
• Combat Pragmatist: Not to Mirthful's degree, but being a pacifist who doesn't directly fight requires Sherlock not to play fair. As he's a skunk pony, his default method of defense before becoming a Cleric is taking enemies off guard and spraying them with his noxious musk. This included spraying directly up Seherin's nose while she's a giant. If he's not using buff spells, he tends to use his spells to distract enemies for allies to take advantage of.
• Emergency Multifaith Prayer: During the 'Cherub Cove Tech-Terror' Incident in Angel Vale, as Mirthful was knocked down by a Neo-NRF terrorist's shot and Stygian's struggling to hold off the dragon terrorist's Elemental Caster's barrage, Sherlock made a prayer to any god who would listen for aid. It works, as the apparition of the Angel briefly appeared before the shocked terrorist, distracting him long enough for Gerald to attack him in the back and for Sherlock to input the bypass codes needed to unseal a museum section where Chief Tere and the others were trapped in.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Played for Drama. Sherlock does not like his neglectful and abusive parents, and now wants nothing to do with them after he is Happily Adopted by his grandparents on his mother's side. It's noted he doesn't even want to search for answers as to how they managed to accidentally conceive a hybrid between two species that need magical aid to reproduce together while drunk.
• Everyone Has Standards: Sherlock is devoutly religious, but he can't stand most televangelists, as in his eyes they're mostly con artists at best and cult leaders at worst, making money exploiting the faith of others.
• Eye Scream: Downplayed; due to defects resulting from his cleft palate, his eyes, nose, and mouth are all structured strange. This can result in not only liquid coming out of his nose as per usual, but his eyes (something Godzillawolf also has). This can be very unpleasant if it's something like a lemon-lime flavored drink.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: When he's furious, sometimes he'll go on a tirade in his native Mephitidian (which is implied to be French). It's eventually revealed it's not his native language (he was actually born in Equestria), but he learned it and speaks it well.
• Happily Adopted: Sherlock's grandmother on his mother's side, tired of his parents' neglect/abuse of Sherlock, adopted Sherlock from his mother, even threatening her with legal action if she doesn't hoof him over. While by no means perfect, Sherlock's adoptive parents proved to be much more loving and caring than his birth parents.
• The Idealist: Sherlock is an optimist at heart, believing things and people can always turn out for the better. This contrasts him with his colleague Mirthful Stone's more 'Realist' outlook on life.
• Instant Expert: His Channel Divinity as a Knowledge Cleric grants him the ability to become knowledgable of one skill or ability for ten minutes at a time.
• Jedi Mind Trick: After becoming a Knowledge Domain Cleric, he gains access to the Suggestion spell, which let's him magically influence someone so long as he words the request reasonably and they'd weak willed enough. He once use it to convince a drug dealer to not sell him witch weed and go home to rethink their life.
• Nervous Wreck:
  • Played for Drama. Sherlock like his RL author has Anxiety Disorder (Social and General), where his fight or flight reflex is kicked into overdrive and can manifest as either debilitating panic attacks or sudden anger born of fear. He also has autism, and the two do not mix well. He had accidentally sprayed people on reflex during these episodes.
  Insensitive Person: You've got nothing to be worried about.
  Sherlock: That's the problem!
  • This is seen during a 'Conversations With Angels' story where he has to excuse himself from an interview and has a complete panic attack in the bathroom. He even accidentally sprays Rongoa when he checks on him, resulting in him frantically apologizing and fearing Rongoa will hate him.
• No True Scotsman: Due to being an aro/ace creature who masturbates, Sherlock often found himself harassed by people who don't see him as a "true ace". This led to an incident where Moon Ray Vaughoof, a fellow ace, found Sherlock being bullied by Jerkass coworkers from the Codex Equus project and drove them away with his maddening future visions.
• Raised by Grandparents: Sherlock's loving grandparents adopted him after they had enough of Sherlock's own parents' abuse and neglect of their grandchild.
• Sensory Overload: Due to having autism and Social Anxiety Disorder, large, noisy crowds can cause him to experience sensory overload and possibly trigger panic attacks. The R3 and company are forced to go to the League of Powers' VIP room during the Angel's Throne Wind Surfing Competition because of this.
• A Shared Suffering: Part of what caused him to have a close bond with Rongoa was Rongoa finding him in the middle of a panic attack and, after staying with him until he calms down, understanding how it feels to fear being ostracized for a mental problem (though Rongoa's depression wasn't a chronic type, unlike Sherlock's Anxiety Disorders). While not having autism himself, Rongoa also was understanding due to having a daughter with it.
• Sherlock Scan: His special talent is having a keen eye for detail and ability to piece things together quickly.
• Smelly Skunk: He's a Skunk Pony hybrid, and thus can spray horrid musk from the base of his tail. It's for this reason he's the one who does many entries on the Great Skunk Pantheon (other than them being his inspiration's favorite animal): they're the Pantheon he worships. After becoming Aldhika's Cleric, his spray becomes much more potent to the point of being able to knock enemies unconscious.
• True Companions: In addition to the Researcher Trio, Sherlock is extremely close with Rongoa. This started after Rongoa found him in the middle of a panic attack and stayed with him until he calmed down before sympathizing with and helping him. It's to the point that during Codex Quests, Sherlock eventually admits Rongoa is like an older brother to him.
• Vancian Magic: His Cleric Magic runs on D&D 5e rules, meaning he only has so many uses of his 'leveled' spells per day before he's out, though still has 'cantrips' he can cast at will. This only applies to his Cleric spells, not his spells he can use with his magic staff.
• Weaponized Stench: As a Skunk Pony, he can spray a noxious musk from the base of his tail. Once he gets a magic staff, he can use olfactory magics. Becoming Aldhika's Cleric actually makes it far more potent due to her being a skunk deity.
• White Mage: Sherlock had expressed interest in becoming a cleric of Lady Aldhika, specifically in her Knowledge domain. He eventually does.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sherlock has a phobia for swarming insects like ants, to the point that being near large numbers of them can trigger panic attacks. He also developed a fear of darkness after a bad experience in his youth when his neglectful parents left him alone in a dark restaurant for hours.
• You're Not My Father: He all but disowns his birth parents for their neglect and abuse after being Happily Adopted by his grandparents, wanting nothing to do with them.

Mirthful Stone

Character: Heroic/Antiheroic

Alignment: Neutral Good

Type: Qilin, Researcher, Battlemage, Rogue, Artificer

Faction: Equestria, Grittish Isles, Codex Equus Project (Equestrian Branch), Researcher Trio

"Sometimes, when one cannot find meaning to one’s life and actions, it is necessary to create one for yourself. And really, who’s going to say otherwise?"

Mirthful Stone (His entry here) is a male Qilin with Griffish citizenship who works as a researcher/interviewer/writer for the Codex Equus project. Featured prominently in "Codex Quest(s)" which depicts him, Jade Shell and Sherlock's adventures and Slice of Life experiences.

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• Alternate Self: Has one in the form of Planeswalker Mirthful Stone, an alternate universe version of him who diverged from mainline Mirthful in a near-death experience caused by gastrointestinal bleeding which both of them experienced, but in his Planeswalker counterpart's case awakened his 'Planeswalker Spark' and sent him careening across time and space. It took him aeons (from his perspective) to finally find his way back home (where only roughly the same number of years had passed as it did for mainline Mirthful) with the help of benevolent planeswalkers and alt-verse scions/servants of Namatar the Fate Primeval, having had many adventures, learnt/acquired many things as well as seen and experienced countless wonders and horrors along the way.
• Appeal to Force: Once he amassed a large arsenal of weapons, he began to frequently invoke the use of his accumulated firepower and arms to solve problems or intimidate his opponents. One example is when he and his companions found themselves confronting a bullish pack of dragons trying to take their spot on the beach, when he responded to their mockery and intimidation was to very purposefully take out and load a rocketpipe with clear intent to use it.
  Mirthful Stone: You wanna see what we would do about it?
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Played realistically, as like his author Mirthful Stone had ADD, but it's less noticeable as he is taking medication to help him concentrate. There are still hints of it every now and then, and it's implied to have caused him more issues in the past.
• Author Avatar: He is based on BrutalityInc, one of the real-life Codex Equus writers and its main editor, being the one who started it to begin with.
• Badass on Paper: Mirthful's accomplishments and acquired powers over the course of Codex Quest(s) are impressive and formidable, but in reality (and Mirthful himself believes) much of it could potentially be chalked down to both luck and his accumulated tools, weapons and powers rather than genuine skill or ability, and Mirthful is fairly convinced he'll be quite ineffective without them.
• Barrier-Busting Blow: Played With at least in one scene, where he merely pretended to burst through a wall to attack someone as a distraction. It's noted he is very much the type to do such a thing if he could afford to.
• Batter Up!: In addition to a Wand which he and his colleagues bought, he also after previous incidents with those harrassing the Codex Equus project got himself an aluminium sports bat for self-defence purposes. After he lost his Equestrian bat in the 'Fiendish Uprising' conflict at Angel's Throne, he replaced it with several Angel Vale bats, one of which he upgraded using his RPG Boon's crafting system into an electrified 'Thunderbat' which shocks his enemies as well as batter them.
• Berserk Button: Being a Qilin with anger issues, many things are this to him.
  • Bananas. Do NOT ask him whether or not he likes Bananas.
  • Trying or actually managing to hurt innocent people like kids in his presence. He immediately grabbed a fire axe with intended to kill those responsible when it happened during the restaurant brawl in the Angel Vale arc of "Codex Quest(s)".
  • Bad Bosses is another one for him, due to bad experiences with a mean and abusive supervisor from his first job. He once blew up on another one early in his job as a member of the Codex Equus project, accidentally burning down her office with his Niliq flames in the process. He outright declared he want to kill Ornatum when he heard the crooked drake indirectly murdered Limette on top of tormenting Aerri.
  • Bullies and flankholes picking on or deriding those who don't deserve it. During a tour of a Wild Ones village, his response to a heckling Leymit personality making fun of a child's medical emergency was to slowly reach for a rock with intend to get violent on him, and approved of him getting knocked out cold when he was beaten to it by Tinder's haymaker to his face.
• The Berserker: As a Qilin and the 'Id' of the Freudian Trio between him, Sherlock and Jade Shell, he's prone to literally fiery anger when provoked or enraged, and is firmly the most aggressive member of the Researcher Trio even to his potential detriment.
  • Shows signs of becoming this when he gets too consumed by rage fighting in his Niliq form.
  Mirthful Stone: [Dual-wielding ax and wand] Come on then, you fuckers! WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!
  • Skiá gives him a boon that makes his Niliq form both more powerful, and more easy for him to control.
  • During the raid on the Cherub Cove Hatcheries, it's heavily implied he was ready to kill Cold Snap with a spear through the chest, only changing his aim to his foe's wing at the last second.
• BFG: Mirthful manages to build one at Mousiko with the crafting system of his RPG Boon in the form of the 'Quad-Power Cannon' or the QPC, which exploits the Yin-Yang Bomb phenomena for maximum damage by building it around four magic staves attuned to contradictory elemental magicks (such as Fire, Ice, Light and Darkness) which when combined and launched together results in a devastating blast, limited only by high energy use and overheating. Beyond this, he also acquired multiple Rocketpipes and Detonation Launchers in Angel Vale that allows him to blow up his enemies or obstacles.
• Burning with Anger: Like Kirins with their Nirik forms, as a Qilin Mirthful Stone can transform into a burning Niliq form if sufficiently enraged.
• The Chosen One: Mirthful was left stupefied and shakened when he realised the Liger Zero Panzer he adopted may had chosen him to be her pilot instead of the other way around. He didn't know what he exactly he has or did to make him qualify, although it's hinted Liger chose him because he more or less treated her as a person rather than a weapon or even a pet.
• Classical Antihero: Has many traits of this, having glaring or subtle character flaws, willing to use unheroic solutions to resolve problems, often doubts himself and fears going too far or the wrong way, is often frightened out of his wits or pissed off beyond reason, but nevertheless ultimately still tries to do good and help save the day.
• Combat Pragmatist: Being an unskilled combatant with anger issues, Mirthful Stone would use any means and any tricks he could reach or think of to win a fight if his wand isn't available, from hitting someone on the head with an improvised weapon while their back's turn to rule-lawyering an honour duel to cheat egregiously and get away with it. This went up as he found a Armlet of Illusions, allowing him to ambush foes while they can't see his invisible form and distracted by his illusions when he can't afford to fight fair. Once he got himself Elemental Casters and Rocketpipes, he solved or attempted to resolve a lot of problems simply by shooting them or blowing them up ASAP.
  • While during the Fiendish Uprising he was ambushed by a sword-wielding mook and didn't have a chance to at first, the moment they broke off their melee and he had an opening, Mirthful Stone unceremoniously quickdraw an electric-breath loaded Elemental Caster and shot the mook, knocking her out cold.
• Cool Sword: One of the weapons he got at Mousiko is a Third Age Bahrian Curved Sword, which he would wield like a sabre and an arming sword with his shields.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Invoked upon a Gaelist fireteam during the Dragontown Attack, luring them into a basement filled up with fuel which he proceeded to lit up, burning them all alive. Considering he found them having massacred every dragon (down to hatchlings) that didn't evacuate the apartment building they were in though, they had it coming.
• The Cynic: Downplayed in that he's more a 'realist' (Hope for the best but expects the worst) than a cynic or pessimist, but he's the least optimistic of the 'Researcher Trio' compare to Sherlock and Jade Shell, often being the first to point out where things are most likely to go wrong and more on guard about worst case scenarios.
• Death Ray: Built one using the staves of Tambelonian Ram Necromancers which he picked up at one point in the R3's adventures. It is VERY literal as it essentially fires a super-charged beam of necromantic energy capable of causing damage and necrosis to living tissue. Later on Mirthful manages to mix it with a Disintegration spell to blast through armour and covers, and a scaled-up one that can be installed and used on Liger. It's dangerous enough that Mirthful reserves it only for the most desperate situations or if the enemy really had it coming.
• Deus Ax Machina: At the climax of the restaurant brawl between pro- and anti-Ashfall dragons in the Angel Vale arc of "Codex Quest(s)", an angry Niliq-form Mirthful Stone bust out a conveniently-placed fire axe from its glass casing to fight the reactionary bigots trying to harm him, Stygian and a bunch of Ashfall kids and Angel Vale hatchlings after hitting his Rage Breaking Point.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In a Flash Forward Drabble, Mirthful manages to defeat a Malregnarian Archdevil in an honour duel through a combination of taunting, cunning, rule-lawyering and luck, and forced him to vow in the name of his patron Prince Excelsius to not come after him or his friends and families in revenge. Even the Prince of Pride was impressed.
• Does Not Like Spam: Mirthful Stone like his author in Real Life absolutely HATES bananas, although this is exaggerated to the point of it being a Berserk Button for him. He flew into a revolted rage and transformed into his Nirik/Niliq form just from Celestia cracking a joke-question about it, much to her surprise.
• Emotional Powers: Mirthful Stone's racial fire magic is tied to his emotional state, namely his anger. He and the narration frequently refers to his fires as 'rage-flames'.
• Energy Weapon: During the incident in the Cherub Cove Technology Museum Mirthful Stone looted and used Elemental Chargers wielded by the dragon terrorists (which were also showcased in the tech fair) which channels his rage-flames (though any draconic breath weapon would do) into a coherent fiery beam which allows him to hit at ranges further than his fireballs and flames normally could. He would use it primarily for medium to long-range combat.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Downplayed in that he isn't exactly an all-loving hero, but he REALLY don't like racists nor reactionaries as a matter of principle.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Being the most aggressive member of the 'Researcher Trio', he is prone to this when hopped up on durability and strength potions and pissed off as heck.
  • After managing to disarm a pegasi Autorist assassin of her crossbow and knife with Sherlock's help, Mirthful Stone wasted no time letting her have it with a baseball bat he kept around for self-defence until she is battered insensate. Justified in that he was both terrified and enraged at the same time, gone into full Niliq mode and cannot be sure the mare isn't just pretending to be knocked out and come back at them when they least expect it.
  • During the restaurant brawl in the Angel Vale arc of "Codex Quest(s)" he saved Stygian by tackling the Deino-Dracosaur trying to backstab him with a steak knife, then pounding the snot out of him with his own hooves. Bonus point in that he was partly on fire at the time, allowing him to burn and as well as beat up the Dracosaur.
  Mirthful Stone: Pick on! Someone! Your own size! You bastard!
  • When dragon terrorists took over the Cherub Cove Technology Museum they were in and he, Sherlock and Stygian went out to help fight against them, he took out the first terrorist he encountered by pouncing on him and then beating him in the face with the butt of the terrorist's discarded Elemental Charger weapon until said terrorist stopped moving.
  • Lacom's lawyer tried to shoot him with a pocket elemental caster during the brawl in Ma's Grill against Corrupt Corporate Executive Lacom's corporate goons. Dodging the shot, Mirthful responded by punching him in the face with enough force to knock out a teeth and send him sprawling onto the ground, followed by him grabbing his head and slamming it repeatedly into the restaurant floor until he's bleeding, unconscious mess.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Mirthful is more comfortable with weapons and violence then his colleagues, even he was horrified when his 'Planar Fission Device' concept not only works, but does so with nuclear weapons-level results. He immediately stopped pursuing the concept any further.
• Fantasy Character Classes: Invoked in-universe. The international adventurers classification system(s) classifies him as a combination of a Battlemage (due to using both weapons and magic in battle, leaning towards the latter), a Rogue (due to using the Armlet of Illusions for stealth as well as being a Combat Pragmatist) and an Artificer (extensive use of his RPG Boon's crafting system to create improvised magi-tech weapons and tools).
• Fireballs: Mirthful Stone's current go-to fire attack on his opponents when using his wand. Capable of setting his enemies alight, but have lackluster range and no homing abilities.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Downplayed in the 'Genius' part as he has no formal training/education in engineering, but Mirthful is evolving in this direction thanks to the crafting system of his RPG Boon allowing him to create improvised weapons out of every possible scrap and materials he could get his hands on.
• Gatling Good: Improvised one with Magic Wands at Mousiko called the 'Rotorwand', which proves useful against large groups of enemies in open space, but is limited by size, overheating and ammo issues. If nothing else, Mirthful revels in having More Dakka, much to his colleagues' worries.
• Gone Horribly Right: His 'Planar Fission Device' concept works... with nuclear-grade destructive effects. He refuses to pursue the concept further as a result.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Created one as a budding RPG Boon-assisted Artificer called the 'Teletether' which uses telekinesis extensively to cling onto surfaces and pulling the user up to where they want to go or pulling things towards them (and using the same fields to protect them from most of the problems grappling hooks have). That being said, mastering his own invention was tricky for Mirthful at first, leading to many hilarious instances of him accidentally slamming into buildings or flying off cliffs (fortunately being rescued) before he got the hang of it.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: He's a Qilin who was born in a Legation City in the Qilin Empire, and thus knows Qilinese (which in the Codexverse is based on Cantonese) as well as Equestrian, dropping a few words occasionally to remind everyone of his foreign ancestry. Amusingly most of it shown or noted so far are swear words.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Downplayed but it's evident he has a bigger anger issue than his RL author, due to being a Qilin who can go into a fiery 'Niliq' state where his rage burns out of control. Skiá provides him with a boon that helps him control his Niliq form better.
• Heroic BSoD: He came back in this state to his friends after he was forced to kill an entire platoon of Gaelist troops inside an apartment block he was trapped in with them during the Dragontown Attack, battered, covered in blood, and teetering on a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, he would recover.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Despite being a believer in 'The Ends Justifies the Means', Mirthful Stone constantly worries that he might easily slip down the slippery slope and become just as bad as those he's fighting, rationalising everything he does no matter how evil as for some greater good when it's ultimately just him descending into fanaticism and hatred. Having researched and read about many Well-Intentioned Extremist and Fallen Hero figures throughout history he knows EXACTLY how easy it is to slip into this trope.
• Hidden Depths: His entry and the "Codex Quest(s)" story revealed that he has ADD as well as mild anxiety, had worked as a bio lab technician, and also studied a law degree. He also has self-esteem and confidence issues over whether he is truly good at anything and was a bit of a 'Socially-awkward eccentric' who alienated others and are afraid of social interactions when he was younger.
• Hot Blade: The 'Heat Axe' Mirthful would create from his borrowed Fire Axe in his RPG Boon-assisted MacGyvering was inspired by the Heat Hawks used by the Principality of Zeon's Zakus in the One Year War of the Second Age, using a compact Draconic Generator strapped to it to sheath its axe head in thermal energy with a distinctive orange glow. Like Heat Hawks, the Heat Axe can cut through layers of metal like hot knife through butter, making it particularly effective for close-combat against armoured opponents and automatons.
• Hot-Blooded: Firmly the most aggressive of the 'Researcher Trio' and more so than his author in RL. While not one willing to get into scraps himself, he is more than willing to beat his foes into submission if he has no choice or are sufficiently pissed off, especially in his Niliq mode when he loses himself to state of fiery fury.
• It's All My Fault: After the incident at the magic shop, he blamed himself for putting his colleagues and bystanders in harms way as it was his idea to go there to check out the merchandise and then to lose the Autorist assassins who were following them, leaving themselves cornered and forced into a life-threatening fight. His colleagues reassured him that he wouldn't had known and his idea was still better than letting the assassins catch them in the open, which could had left even more innocent people caught in the crossfire and without them being able to get the wands needed to defend themselves.
• Improvised Weapon: Besides his magic wand, Mirthful Stone would use anything he could reach in a fight to even the odds due to his lack of combat training, from a baseball bat he bought for self-defence, glass bottles and silverware in a restaurant, to busting out a conveniently-placed fire-axe.
• Invisibility Cloak: It's mentioned Mirthful found an Amulet of Illusion which allows him to not only cast illusions, but also turn himself invisible, even muffling sound and disguising his arcane signature at max power.
• Just Shoot Him: Invoked a lot by Mirthful, ever the Combat Pragmatist, especially after he got a Wand, Autobows, Elemental Casters and Rocketpipes. How effective it actually is depends on whether the opponent could tank them or whether the shots hit or miss.
  • During the 'Fiendish Uprising', Mirthful got locked into a spear/sword fight with a female mook who teased him about him apparently flirting with her (mishearing him either accidentally or deliberately). While he did pretty well, he was still outmatched by her in skills due to being a novice. When both broke off from one round of fighting and the female mook asked if he was ready for a second round, he unceremoniously unholstered an electric-breath elemental caster and shot her, knocking her out.
  Mirthful Stone: And for the record? You're not my type either! ^note [Grumbling] You are kinda hot, though...
• Kirin: Or rather, Qilin, their Qilinese counterpart from the Qilin Empire. Main difference is mostly having a pair of Kirin horns instead of just one.
• Kitchen Sink Included: His combat style, in his own words, includes hitting the enemy with everything he has or could find until something works, even if he tries to be smart about it. At some point he even managed to get a literal kitchen sink as part of his growing arsenal, although he has no idea where it came from.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: In a fashion, as the cat Mirthful adopted isn't so much a normal feline as being a leonine-shaped giant walking heavily-armed military mecha with more-than-animalistic intelligence from the Second Age. Despite this, Mirthful more or less immediately started treating her kindly once he realised her artificial sentience, to the point of addressing her as more a person and genuine friend.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Mirthful has a tendency to behave like an RPG hero taking every equipment and weapon he could get away with from his opponents when not buying them, enabled by possessing many a Bag of Holding. This goes to the point that by the end of the Trio's first foreign research trip he was already a Walking Armory, but in his defence he ended up finding himself using nearly all of them at one point of another in the Trio's adventurers. Taking to potentially disturbing levels when he revealed following the Abyssal Attack on Angel's Coast he had taken Siren Gems from dead Oceanaiads, which unnerved the others as those gems are literally part of their bodies, implying Mirthful have no issues with not just robbing but even mutilating body-parts of the enemy dead if they are somehow useful/valuable.
• Loners Are Freaks: He was apparently a 'Socially-awkward eccentric' in his youth and considers his younger self a bit of a freak who barely even knows himself. He had largely grown out of it, but it still causes some issues.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: As a gift from the Cherub Cove Police Department for his help the tech museum/fair terrorist incident, he would be given a circular unmarked riot shield his size which he would use in conjunction with his wand and other weapons. Later on he got himself the legendary Shield of Tarian Amddiffynnol at the Grittish Isles.
• MacGyvering: After Mirthful received an RPG Boon from Heroic Island which includes a Crafting System as part of the package, Mirthful had been using it to craft increasingly creative (and often quite destructive) tools and weapons of all sorts from just about everything he could get his clawed hooves on. These include a 'Sledge Saw', an electrified 'Thunderbat, an acid-toxin spraying 'Corroder', an 'Octopack' of backpack cobbled robotic arms, just to name a few.
• Magic Knight: Mirthful Stone is seemingly evolving in this direction, as he is not shy with physical close- and ranged-combat on top of his rage-fueled pyromancies. In-universe he is classified as a 'Battlemage' since due to his unfit physique and mediocre fighting skills he relies much more on magic than weapons than 'Spellswords' (who are vice-versa) and 'Magic Knights' (Who balances both)
• Magic Staff: The Magitek 'Smart Staff' Mirthful improvised using his custom RPG Boon's crafting system which combines a more normal Glintstone Staff modified with Ixomane Sphere parts, Oriachulum circuitry and a compact Draconic Generator, giving it the jury-rigged advanced processors, memory capacity and power supply needed to use spells far more advanced than he knows.
• Make Some Noise: His Siren Blaster is an Improvised Weapon which is built around pilfered Siren Gems, allowing him to use the same offensive abilities as Oceanaiads, such as launch sonic waves to stun, disorienate or hypnotise opponents at low intensities or fire intense glowing sonic energy beams at higher intensities.
• Man on Fire: Can light up and had invoked this on others.
  • Mirthful was set alight by burning grease during the fight against krakens in Qumado's Cherub Cove seafood restaurant, complete with flailing and screaming. Fortunately, he quickly revealed he was just joking as Qilin are mostly fire-proof.
  • Mirthful invoked this upon a fireteam of Gaelist soldiers during the Dragontown Attack, using a porta-leymit to lure them into a basement, which he filled up with fuel from a fuel line he busted open, then igniting the fuel with a fireball at the basement entrance just as they realised they were caught in a trap, burning them all alive.
• Master of Illusion: He found among other Third Age artifacts an Amulet of Illusion which allows him to cast illusions. He uses this to great effect with a Helm of Invisibility to hide from and distract his opponents, leaving them open to be ambushed by Mirthful.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Mirthful does this extensively with many of his opponents once he crafted the Holomorpher and the Octopack, which allows him to pick up and smash even his larger enemies into every hard surface available.
• Mecha-Mook: Built many of them out of scrap using the crafting system of his RPG Boon which he called 'Scraptons' (Short for 'Scrap-Automatons'), which while crude and improvised is still reasonably good enough to help him and his allies in many situations.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Both Researcher Mirthful and his Planeswalking counterpart almost manages to be this when they test out a 'Planar Fission Device' which turned out to rival nuclear weapons in potential power. This gets worse when both were informed by an older Planeswalker that had they done the calculations a bit differently, they could even had blown up ALL OF REALITY by accident.
  Mirthful Stone: ... Ouch.
• Muggles Do It Better: Mirthful and his allies were confronted with a full-grown dragon goon during the Diner Brawl in Ma's Grill. Mirthful sneered and quickly beat him with a rocket to his face, courtesy of one of the Rocketpipes he borrowed/looted from the Mueseum/terrorists during the Tech-Terror incident. The ONLY reason the dragon was still alive was because Mirthful didn't know that particular Rocketpipe was loaded with a practice dud.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Artificial version via his RPG Boon-assisted MacGyvering. The 'Octopack' he created gives him four extra cobbled robotic arms extending from a backpack which he could wear, giving him extra limbs to manipulate the environment or fight in battle with. He cited inspiration from both Second Age Web Warrior supervillain Sir Cephlapod and Spider-Mane comic supervillain Doctor Octopus as his direct inspirations.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Despite his expedient character, he does know there are limits to pragmatism and still possess moral standards which leaves him constantly worried and wondering when he cross the line, expressing this trope if he felt he has.
  • The Corroder weapon he improvised using his RPG Boon's crafting system during the 'Fiendish Uprising' conflict made him wonder if he had gone too far given how deadly and destructive it potentially is, being a pressure sprayer he converted into an acid-toxin throwing weapon which could melt through many armour and normal flesh like cardboard and poison on even the smallest contact. He would subsequent reserve it only in the most extreme situations or when his enemies really had it coming to them.
  Mirthful Stone: I think I overdid it this time.
  • At the end of the trip in Angel Vale, Mirthful heard from an Angel Vale police officer that a Neo-NRF terrorist he fought during the Tech-Terror incident had died in hospital. While there's ambiguity over whether it was anything to do with Mirthful or due to complications he developed subsequently in the ward, Mirthful is nevertheless still left shakened by the possibility that he might have actually killed someone.
  • He was left quite traumatised after being forced to kill a dozen Gaelist soldiers in self-defence/revenge when he found himself trapped inside an apartment block which they had just finished massacring the inhabitants of during the 'Attack on Dragontown'. While no one faulted him for killing them in desperation and rage, it still haunted him for quite some time. He even repeated the trope's line verbatim after he returned in a state of shell-shock.
  Mirthful Stone: What have I done... What have I done...?
  • Mirthful was horrified upon realising his 'Planar Fission Device' concept - weaponising Planeshift spell for devastating effect by planeshifting a target in such a way that they would be torn apart between planes of existence - has the potential of being a Weapon of Mass Destruction when it turns out the effect he was expecting rips apart matter on an atomic level, resulting in nuclear explosions. He immediately terminated further research on the concept. This gets even worse when he and his Planeswalker counterpart were both informed by an older Planeswalker that had they done it a little bit wrong, it could had been a whole lot worse.
• Nay-Theist: He's ambivalent about religions and mortals' relationships with the divine. His official stance on the issue aligns with the Terran Empire's.
• Nervous Wreck: Noted to have Anxiety Disorder like Sherlock, though his condition is less serious.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Owing to his Combat Pragmatist nature, Mirthful firmly subverts most examples of the Hero Ball when facing enemies and will do whatever it takes to take them down ASAP.
  • When the Researcher Trio and company encountered Maud Pie's rival Buried Treasure in Mousiko, Mirthful's first instinct was to draw out and blast her with an Elemental Caster, both to take her out ASAP before she can threaten them (and out of sheer frustration of having to deal with yet another villain on their already eventful research trip). True to his expectations, Buried Treasure would cause them trouble after she managed to dodge his shots and escape them.
• No True Scotsman: Many actual Artificers vociferously protests Mirthful receiving an 'Artificer' classification as he relies on his RPG Boon crafting system to create weapons and tools rather than actual knowledge or skill, and many of his improvised designs are cobbled catastrophes which should not had worked. Mirthful for his part simply doesn't care, as his designs work and he's more interested in using (and profiting from) them then being qualified for an Artificer.
• Panacea: In a rare instance when he isn't improvising a weapon, he manages to create something close to one with his Planeswalker counterpart, the 'Selective Pathogenic Neutraliser' device, which projects a field combining Princess Cadence's 'Magic Health Bubble' spell with a 'Phase' spell and biomancy magic to clease all pathogenic organisms and substances from a body, effectively allowing for the purgation of most if not all diseases.
• Pineapple Surprise: Invoked upon a group of Gaelists during the Dragontown Attack, when a hiding Mirthful exploited his ability to manipulate objects at a distance to pull the pins of a Gaelist fireteam's grenades while they are still in their bandoliers, blowing them all up before they even realised what happened.
• Playing with Fire: Being a Qilin, Mirthful Stone has natural fire generation and manipulation abilities in the form of his 'Rage-Fire', especially in his Nirik form or with the help of a magic wand that can allow him to focus his flames and cast pyromantic spells. So far he can throw fireballs and unleash torrents of flames at his enemies, as well as light himself up in flames to deter or damage his opponents. Being technically part-dragon, his rage-fire is classified as a form of dragonfire and thus can actually hurt the normally fire-proof dragons themselves, which proved convenient during the diner brawl at Angel Vale in "Codex Quest(s)".
• Powers Do the Fighting: Because he is physically unfit and his martial skills are largely rubbish, Mirthful actually relies much on his magic, tools and weapons to fight, netting him a designation of 'Battlemage' (adventurers who use both magic and weapons but leans on the former more).
  • Extends to Mirthful's dubious 'Artificer' status - he actually knows little to nothing about mechanical engineering and magical enchantment, relying heavily on his 'RPG Boon''s crafting system for his MacGyvering, creating improvised tools and weapons which would otherwise not work or requires time-consuming effort to be realised. This led to many actual Artificers protesting his classification as one.
  • Mirthful has no sneaking or stealth skills. Instead he relies on a Third Age artifact call the Armlet of Illusions which allows him to cloak himself with invisibility and distract others with illusions. This together with being a Combat Pragmatist nets him a 'Rogue' designation in the international adventurers classification system.
• Power Source: His Qilin/Niliq flames are fueled by his anger, while many of his looted/borrowed and improvised weapons are powered by compact Draconic Generators.
• Powered Armor: Mirthful would cobble at least a few via his RPG Boon's crafting system from various scrap and junk, including one inspired by War Machine's walking arsenal powered armour from Marvel Comics.
• Rage Breaking Point: Already angry at the reactionary xenophobic protestors starting a restaurant brawl in the Angel Vale arc of "Codex Quest(s)", he went full Niliq and went after his assailants with an fire axe after realising a psychic attack by a bigoted Gem Dragoness traumatised a group of kids he and Stygian had been helping to protect, fully intending to split their skulls open.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Mirthful Stone is classified as 'Neutral Good' in moral alignment. He will do what is right and/or necessary, no matter what it takes, so rules and principles for him are at best guidelines to follow, at worst inconveniences to sidestep at first chance.
  • When his friend/colleague Shock Minion got involved in a Grail War with a Servant, Mirthful attempted to help him by bringing his Liger Zero Panzer warzoid companion to take out an enemy Master/Servant duo they were facing in a battle, giving absolutely zero damns about whatever inscrutible rules govern the Grail Wars due to his friend's life being on the life and too much being at stake with the Grail falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, a Ruler-class Servant prevented them from interfering as their method of doing so is so egregious it gives Shock Minion and his Servant too much of an unfair advantage.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Although Mirthful have plundering tendencies, when he and his Planeswalker counterpart managed to create a device that could cure most diseases in one fell swoop with their 'Selective Pathogenic Neutraliser', rather than monopolising/capitalising on their invention for massive profit, he and Planeswalker Mirthful instead created a cooperative (a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise in contrast to a company) to make sure they can make the invention as cheap and accessible to as many people as possible. At the end of the day, saving lives and helping people are more important than any profit they can get out of it, even if it's still going to be a lot.
• Suppressed Rage: He could barely keep himself from exploding in pure rage upon first hearing about what Sweet Words did to his own daughter Rosy Dreams. He settles for wishing Sweet Words would get a horrific Fate Worse than Death in the afterlife for his atrocities.
  Mirthful Stone: I hope he rots in hell. Then die somehow and rot in some 'super-hell' after that hell. Then have that repeat ad infinitum.
• Sword and Gun: He got himself a Curved Sword in Mousiko, but also uses Elemental Chargers/Casters at longer ranges.
• Tele-Frag: His 'Planar Fission Device' concept weaponises this by planeshifting a target in such a way that they would be torn apart between several planes of existence. Unfortunately, it worked too well, as the effect he was expecting rips apart matter on an atomic level, resulting in nuclear explosions.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Mirthful was shocked and annoyed like the rest of their colleagues when his friend Shock Minion somehow got himself a Moon Cell-created Servant and got involved in a Fourth Age Grail War. Having done research on them he knows exactly how much of a mess Shock Minion had got himself into.
• Threat Backfire: Played for Laughs in a drabble, when a female Mook he's fighting mistakes his threats to beat her up for flirting:
  Mirthful: "I'm gonna leave you unable to walk, skank!"
  Enemy: "...Really? Right in front of everyone?"
  Mirthful: "Wha...NOT like that! Now shut up and let's get down, lady!"
  Enemy: "I'm flattered, but you're not my type."
  Mirthful: "Quit it! I'm gonna lay you out!"
  Enemy: "Ooooh! Maybe I AM interested, bad boy!"
  Mirthful: "STOP that, you bint!"
• Unskilled, but Strong: Downplayed, as his Qilin/Kirin fire abilities are no more or less than that of the average Qilin/Kirin, but he noted that most Qilin/Kirin actually only know enough to keep their rage flames under control and get by with them, and thus there remains a distinction between muggle Qilin/Kirin and actual trained/professional pyromancers - the difference between a casual cyclist and a professional sports cyclist. That aside, there's also the issue of the danger presented by their Niliq states. This is changing as he got himself a wand.
• Sir Swearsalot: Of the 'Researcher Trio' Mirthful Stone is remarkably more foul-mouthed than the more subdued Jade Shell and the very polite Sherlock, especially when experiencing extreme anger or stress like when fighting back against a bunch of Autorist including some Tyrannos Pantheon cultists assassins trying to kill them, dropping the Cluster F-Bomb more than once. He's trying to clam it down now that he's becoming a more public figure to set a better example for others, but he still relapses every now and then.
  Mirthful Stone: [Beating up an assassin with a bat] Fuck you! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING FUCKS - !!!
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed. While he avoided killing like his friends if possible, his vindictive and expedient character meant he has no actual aversion to killing, and often skirt quite close to breaking the rule in various fights. Subverted hard during the Dragontown Attack when he was forced to kill Gaelists to survive, managing to wipe out an entire platoon of them in an apartment block he was trapped in with them, although the whole experience left him a bit traumatised.
• Typecasting: Non-Acting example. He has noted that he had been 'pigeonholed' into researching and writing rather specific types of entries, such as those covering warfare, ideologies, devourers, giants, etc. He doesn't mind it that much however partly because his degrees and fields of knowledge made him very suitable for covering some of those subjects, and partly because he is genuinely interested in many of them both publically (and 'privately'...) which his superior noticed and decided to take advantage of.
• Walking Arsenal: He had amassed and continues to amass an enormous collection of weapons over the course of the Researcher Trio's trips and adventures as they kept finding themselves in various combat situations where they needed them and he could loot them. Among other things, he had got a Magic Wand, a metal sport bat, a fire axe, a Bahrian Curved Sword, improvised Fire Bottles, dozens of Angel Vale military/police-grade Flashbangs and Grenades, several Angel Vale Elemental Caster, Angel Vale Detonation Launcher (their own version of a Grenade Launcher), anti-vehicle Rocketpipes plus rockets... and that's just right after the Researcher Trio's first globe-trotting research trip. Later on he even got himself a literal kitchen sink, literalising the metaphor 'everything and the kitchen sink'.
• Warhawk: Having seen and experienced Gaelist atrocities first hoof during the 'Attack on Dragontown' - even killing Gaelists in self-defence and avenging their victims - Mirthful developed an undying hatred for the Gaelists and became one of the most fervent supporters of the subsequent Talon Bais War against the Gaelist state. As far as he's concerned, the only good Gaelist is a dead one.
  Mirthful Stone: They butchered whole dragon families in that apartment building I cleared out, so fuck them all to hell.
• Walking Wasteland: Downplayed and Played for Laughs. He and his family doesn't have much luck at gardening, and even the orchids they have some success in growing eventually dies off. The yard of his family's house often either becomes barren or so overgrown with weeds that they had to burn it down just to clear it. He celebrates finally managing to make something grow like he won the biggest lottery prize in history.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • After an assassination attempt in Equestria and the restaurant brawl in the Angel Vale arc of "Codex Quest(s)", he kept a metal sports bat he bought and a restaurant fire axe he broke out as his main close-quarters weapon when his wand proved insufficient. He later adds a Wild Ones Tribal Spear courtesy of Chief Brullen in Angel Vale which was based on the Assegai spears of Zebrica, a machete from a Ashfall raider he defeated, and in Mousiko a Cool Sword in the form of a Bahrian Curved Sword for additional close-quarters combat options.
  • For ranged combat, he 'borrowed' and looted many Angel Vale Elemental Casters from exhibits and terrorists, as well as not a few Rocketpipes with explosive and armour-piercing warheads for bigger and tougher targets. He also managed to loot Autobows and bolts from Ashfall raiders.
• The Worf Effect: On the receiving end of this from a Moon Cell/Grail-created Ruler-class Servant when he attempted to interfere with his Ultimate X-variant Warzoid mecha Liger in a Grail War battle to help his friend Shock Minion and his Servant against an enemy Master and Servant, which the Ruler judged would give Shock Minion too much of an unfair advantage. The Ruler was powerful enough to outright terrify Mirthful and caused enough damage to Liger to force them both into retreat.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: In contrast to his Actual Pacifist colleague Sherlock, Mirthful is the most willing to resort to force and violence to solve problems if it is the most expedient and is the offensive-oriented member of the Researcher Trio in abilities, equipment and temperament. Ironically he's by his own admission actually not that good a physical fighter and relied more on tacitcal cunning, powerful magic, sheer aggression and good fortune to win battles.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: A drabble reveals he is terrified of Spookies - little ghosts that are the In-Universe equal to Boos - much to his colleague's stupefied incomprehension. Even he has no idea where that fear came from.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Being the Combat Pragmatist he is Mirthful often just shoot at his foes with his Wand or looted Elemental Casters at first opportunity. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.
• Wipe the Floor with You: Beat up Lacom's Amoral Attorney Schmutz by punching him into the ground and then smashing his head and face into the floor of Ma's Grill during the Diner Brawl there, after Schmutz tried distract him with legal jargon long enough to shoot him with a pocket Elemental Caster.
  Mirthful Stone: [Smashing Schmutz's face] YOU'RE A! BUCKING! DISGRACE! TO! LAWYERS! EVERYWHERE - !!!
• Words Can Break My Bones: Are of this opinion, especially if said words are written in a convenient medium which could be weaponised, like that stone tablet full of writing he once bashed an enemy in the head with.
• Would Hit a Girl: In his defense, the pegasi mare he ended up beating to an insensate pulp in "Codex Quest(s)" with a baseball bat was an Autorist assassin trying to kill him and his colleagues with a crossbow and a knife. Has this as standard policy due to being a Combat Pragmatist - gender is irrelevant so long as the enemy is a threat which must be neutralised.

Allies of the Researcher Trio

Liger

Liger (her entry here) is Liger Zero Panzer pattern Warzoid from the Commonwealth Era of the Second Age which was found, activated and adopted by Mirthful Stone during one of the Researcher Trio's adventures, and became not only a loyal if ferocious friend of the Researcher Trio but also one of their greatest trump cards.

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• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Liger's claws, especially when energised, is sharp enough to instant-kill almost anything they cut through and is the basis of their Signature Move.
• Alpha Strike: Capable of launching one with its 'Full Burst' attack (also called the 'Burning Big Bang' attack by Cloudy Banks), where it fires its entire missile complement and fires its back-mounted Hybrid Cannons at enemies, its firepower capable of wiping out entire formations of enemies in a single cataclysmic salvo. Mirthful and Liger used one such barrage to great effect during the First Vega War against a invasion fleet of Vega Alliance descending upon the Equestrian city he and his colleagues live and work in, taking out nearly half the invading forces in one stroke as well as taking out their command and control.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Despite Mirthful being a mediocre pilot compared to her predecessors (he has to plug in game controllers just to even be able to pilot her), it's implied Liger chose Mirthful as her new pilot because he treated her not just as a war machine or a pet, but an actual person and friend the instant he realised she's sentient.
• Expy: Of the Zoids, more specifically Liger Zero Panzer from Zoids: New Century.
• Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: There are many moments where the 145-ton heavily-armed Warzoid act like an oversized robotic cat, much to Mirthful and his friends' frustration.
  Mirthful Stone: No, Liger! Put down that carriage! It's not a toy!
  Jade Shell: I'm not gonna help you if you get harassed by government officials for illegal weapons possession, Stone! ^note (She did it anyway)
• Humongous Mecha: Liger is a 10 meters tall, 23.3 meters long and 145 ton Warzoid armoured and armed the teeth with missiles, beam cannons and railguns.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Communicates mostly in metallic leonine/feline growls, roars and purs, yet somehow Mirthful and others can understand her, and no one has any idea why or how they could either.
• It Can Think: Warzoids possesses animalistic intelligences, but being a Ultimate X variant Warzoid, Liger is smart enough to qualify as sentient. She's intelligent to the point of being able to (somehow) have conversations with her pilot and others despite mostly communicating in metallic leonine/feline growls, roars and purs.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Whereas most Warzoids from the Second Age are mass-produced mechas controlled normally by most pilots, Ultimate X variants like Liger Zero Panzers are advanced, intelligent and powerful enough to decide who gets to control them, like Cloudy Banks back in the day and Mirthful Stone at present.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Liger being a heavily-armed LZP-variant is packed to the teeth with missiles among other weapons and can unleash them all in a 'Full Burst' attack which could annihilate entire forces of vehicles, troops and mechas in a single salvo, especially when complementing her devastating Hybrid Cannons.
• Only the Chosen May Pilot: Being an Ultimate X Warzoid, only those Liger allows to pilot her can pilot Liger. As Autumn/Winter Court Changeling rebel 'Black Forest' noted, it raises disturbing implications as to who is really in control.
  Black Forest: She don't need a master?! Or does she choose her own master? Do we control them, or do they control us, Mirthful Stone?
• Ragnarök Proofing: While she had a little help with the vault she was found in, Liger Panzer Zero still made it to the Fourth Age from the Second Age virtually unscathed, implying a level of durability and quality even by implied Warzoid standards.
• Shrouded in Myth: Little is known about Liger's past. Fragmentary snippets from the accessible parts of her memory banks hinted that she had been through a LOT of wars and contests under different pilots well before she was found by Cloudy Banks. And virtually nothing is known between then and her eventual rediscovery at Mousiko in the Fourth Age.
• Signature Move: The one and only 'STRIKE LASER CLAW!'.
• The Worf Effect: On the receiving end of this from a Moon Cell/Grail-created Ruler-class Servant when Mirthful attempted to interfere with Liger in a Grail War battle to help Mirthful's friend Shock Minion and his Servant against an enemy Master and Servant, which the Ruler judged would give Shock Minion too much of an unfair advantage. The Ruler was powerful enough to cause enough damage to Liger to force them both into retreat, which is impressive considering Liger as a Liger Zero Panzer possesses enough firepower to wipe out half an alien fleet capable of invading a city in a single shot.

Planeswalker Mirthful Stone

First mentioned in a Drabble, Planeswalker Mirthful Stone is an Alternate Universe version of Mirthful Stone who became a Planeswalker, and had become friends with Mirthful after accidentally jumping into mainline Equus while trying to find his way home.

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• The Ageless: Among other things, becoming a Planeswalker made Mirthful Stone ageless. While he could in theory still be killed, he cannot die of old age and would remain in his prime for as long as he exists. This is how PW Mirthful Stone can live through subjective aeons travelling the multiverse during the time he was lost and still appear no different from his non-planeswalker mainline self when he arrived in mainline Equus.
• Alternate Self: Of Mirthful Stone, diverging from him by becoming a Planeswalker following a traumatic experience which ignited his Planeswalker's Spark.
• Arch-Enemy: Subverted. Quite simply, PW Mirthful Stone doesn't have one. Due to being a Combat Pragmatist and No-Nonsense Nemesis with a preference for There Is No Kill Like Overkill, no enemy whom he can't talk down or appeal to reason survive past the adventures PW Mirthful met them in. He eventually got one in Regnum Malum, the Great Nemesis, a constructive evil planeswalking God of Evil scion of Sceleratus, the Queen of Villains who became one for many Equusian planeswalkers, including Mirthful, precisely to ensure he would get one.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: He tried to kill the then-recently released Fallen Griffon deity Aeolus (The equivalent of Morning Star among Griffonkind), who was powerful enough to give even Planeswalkers like him trouble, with a ploy involving luring Aeolus to an ice-planetoid at the edge of the Solar Syste, and hitting him with a relativistic superweapon with enough power to blow a hole in the Oort Cloud. Unfortunately, he failed due to Aeolus being a bit cautious and only sending an avatar which got blown up, leading to the real Aeolus angrily hunting him down to thrash him and force PW Mirthful into retreat.
• The Dreaded: While it's implied to have developed this reputation himself among the homelines, Planeswalker Queen Majesty is this for him, and even normal Queen Majesty for that matter scares him shitless owing to her record. He was absolutely terrified when she actually shows up looking for him over something bad he might have done, only calming down after he explained everything and she softens up.
• Doomsday Device: Some weapons Planeswalker Mirthful possessed or built are this, capable of destruction of truly cosmic scale. One weapon system, the Variable Cosmic Obliterator, is capable of blowing up an entire universe at maximum yield. He later mentioned to his original worldline's Princess Amicitia that designing/building weapons of mass destruction are one of his specialties as a Planeswalker, up to and including theoretical arsenals that could destroy the entire multiverse.
• Expy: He's one among several for the Planeswalkers of MagicTheGathering, having acquire the power to jump from universe to universe unaided which was awakened in a traumatic experience.
• Hero of Another Story: It's mentioned that over the course of his journey home - which took subjective aeons - he has got himself into all sorts of adventures, learnt and picked up many knowledge, skills, powers, tools and weapons, experienced countless wonders and horrors, and did many other things.
• The Homeward Journey: Much of his time spent across the multiverse was to find his way home again. His reaction upon finding out he arrived at the wrong Equus in the Drabble was to have an epic breakdown, implying he was THAT desperate to finally get there and see his family again.
• How Do I Shot Web?: It's mentioned that his 'Planeswalker's Spark' awakening caused him to careen uncontrollably across the multiverse as he had no idea how to control his jaunting ability or other powers he has as a Planeswalker initially. This causes him a lot of grief as it left him stranded across the multiverse by the time he learnt how to control his universe-jumping and other powers.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Implied. Among other things, the casual mention that he has built weapons easily capable of killing stars at full power (and that even those were not 'top tier' stuff he has by a long shot) heavily suggests that Planeswalker Mirthful is much more powerful, knowledgeable and capable than he has shown himself to be so far thanks to aeons of adventuring, learning and practicing across the Multiverse, but does not do so either because he doesn't need to or he wasn't allowed to.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Subscribes to this even more than mainline Mirthful, who is already pretty pragmatic. Having witnessed and fought (or help fight) countless unspeakable evils and unimaginable horrors across the Multiverse, he had seen far too much death, destruction and despair on literally cosmic scales to care about principles, rules and morality anymore - if there's a threat to all that is innocent and good, it's going down, whatever it takes, and anything that gets in the way of that is not even worthy of consideration.
  Planeswalker Mirthful Stone: Stand among the ashes of a million dead universes and ask them if honour matters. Their silence is your answer.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite having gone through so much, when he finally returns home, he immediately resumes work as a researcher, even while continuing to jaunt across the multiverse and embarking upon his own projects and battles.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Almost unwittingly became one with Researcher Mirthful when they discovered their 'Planar Fission Device' is not only a potential Weapon of Mass Destruction, but was also informed by an older Planeswalker that had they done the calculations a bit differently, they could even had blown up ALL OF REALITY by accident.
  Mirthful Stone: ... Ouch.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Like Researcher Mirthful, PW Mirthful do not fool around with opponents and hits them with whatever could (potentially) take them down ASAP. His attempt to take out the Fallen Griffon deity Aeolus (who was powerful enough to give even fellow Planeswalkers like him trouble) was to trick him to go to the edge of the solar system and hitting him with a shot from a relativistic superweapon capable of blowing up suns at higher power.
• Noodle Incident: Having been travelling and adventuring across the multiverse for aeons, PW Mirthful's resume prior to returning to his home reality is full of these.
  • He once had to deal with a world full of 'annoying and/or murderous living plushie dolls', which left him with an understandably suspicious and paranoid view of even normal, harmless plusie dolls like Starflower's plushie parrot Orchid.
  • A Drabble where he attempted kill Aeolus, Griffonkind's equivalent of Morning Star, mentions that he had blown up entire suns in past conflicts and adventures.
  • He once encountered 'Tucker's Kobolds' in worlds where they existed, and developed a healthy fear and respect of them to the point he doesn't engage them with anything less than massive overkill.
• Oh, Crap!: He goes pale in terror when he realises Planeswalker Queen Majesty was about to show up, moments before she does so with style. Considering how mainline Queen Majesty is like and how much greater her Planeswalker counterpart likely is scaling from her, this is perfectly understandable.
• Older and Wiser: Despite still appearing to be his old self, PW Mirthful Stone clearly showed himself to be significantly more matured, more experienced, more skilled and more confident than his counterpart and most mortals for that matter (give or take a few moments). He is constantly described as having the 'weight of ages' in his eyes and on his shoulders.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Subverted. Both Planeswalker Mirthful and Researcher Mirthful became friends, with the former becoming an ally and a valuable source of information regarding the Multiverse.
• Parental Substitute: HEAVILY implied to have one in Planeswalker Queen Majesty, who like her mainline self possessed a motherly personality. One interaction has her comforting and encouraging him when he expressed doubt over his own integrity, morality and sanity.
• Point of Divergence: The lives of both Planeswalker Mirthful and Researcher Mirthful were roughly the same until the time they had a near-death experience caused by gastrointestinal bleeding several years before the present. While both recovered from it, unlike Researcher Mirthful, the near-death experience triggered the awakening of Planeswalker Mirthful's 'Planeswalker's Spark', which caused him to careen uncontrollably across the multiverse before he managed to get any control over it.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Both he and Researcher Mirthful refused to monopolise their Selective Pathogenic Neutraliser for profit, instead choosing to make it as affordable and widespread as possible so anyone who need it can afford it. For both of them, saving countless lives is more important than any massive quantities of money they could had earned from it, even if they would still earn a lot from it. Planeswalker Mirthful even chewed out a bunch of 'Big Pharma' businessmanes for monopolising and price-gorging their own products for profit over helping patients in need.
• A Shared Suffering: He bonded with Starflower, the Last Flutterpony over their respective traumatic experiences lost among other worlds desperately trying to find their way home.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's implied the desperate fight for survival he had to endure early on and many other conflicts and horrible experiences he experienced had left him quite traumatised by the time he got back home. He had an epic breakdown in front of Researcher Mirthful just from realising he arrived at the wrong universe rather than the one he came from, implying his emotional/psychological stability leaves something to be desired.
• Star Killing: A Drabble mentions PW Mirthful had in his aeons of adventures across the multiverse blown up entire star systems and had found/built weapons capable of doing so.
• Superweapon Surprise: PW Mirthful had over his aeons of travel, adventures and work across the multiverse acquired or constructed many superweapons which he could pull out to deal with problems he felt warrants them.
  • One example is the Infinite Mass Projectile Accelerator (Also called 'IMPA'), a magitech coilgun the length of the distance between planet Equus and the Moon powered by Dark Energy reactors which could fire a projectile travelling AND vibrating at relativistic speeds, giving them via relativitic effects near-infinite mass and force when it hits its target. IMPA's firepower is such that it is capable of blasting apart planetoids at low power and blow up suns at high power.
  • The 'Variable Cosmic Oblierator' are one of his go-to arsenals for dealing with cosmic-level threats. Their yields can be dialed, and their destructive effects ranges from blowing up star systems to entire universes.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When a group of 'Big Pharma' businessmanes complained/threatened them over the commercialisation of their Selective Pathogenic Neutraliser, Planeswalker Mirthful reminded them the story of how insulin's discoverer sold his invention for only 1 Bit out of the belief that such a medication should be affordable to any diabetic patient who need it, pointing out that they could had easily made it just as affordable but instead chose to jack-up the price to hundreds of Bits per injection purely for profit. He proceeded to chew them out for being greedy fat-cats who only see desperate patients as little better than 'drug addicts' whom they could exploit, declared them as little better than drug pushers for it, made it clear to them that YES both he and Researcher Mirthful are despite their accusations genuinely out to save lives, noted whimsically they don't have ANYTHING which could compete, before telling them to their faces that if they do anything dirty or diabolical to avert their inevitable extinction he's more than happy to speed things up with overwhelming force, before telling them to get out of their sights.
• Tears of Joy: He wept with relief and joy when he not only made it back to his homeline after aeons spent travelling the multiverse, but discovered that his colleagues never gave up hope he would come back one day.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: PW Mirthful has this as part of his modus operandi owing to Mirthful's Combat Pragmatist and No-Nonsense Nemesis traits being taken up to eleven. As he made it very clear, he's willing to blow up entire universes (usually empty ones he throw his enemies into) if that's what it takes to make sure his opponent is COMPLETELY and ABSOLUTELY dead.
  • Tucker's Kobolds are a group of D&D Kobold enemies infamous for their collective sheer competence and ruthless effectiveness, to the point even Planeswalkers who encounter them in worlds where they exist are wary of engaging them. His solution to a group he found in a dungeon? NERVE GAS, one teaspoon of which could kill an entire town. This earned him the status of The Dreaded (and the nickname 'The Void's Breath') among Kobolds in that world.
• Time Abyss: While only a few years had passed since he disappeared in his homeline, Planeswalker Mirthful had spent subjective aeons travelling and adventuring across the Multiverse as he tried to get home, having been rendered immortal to some degree by his transformation and time passing differently across different worldlines.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Like Reseacher Mirthful, he's also afraid of Spookies, which stupefies Mirthful's colleagues even more. PW Mirthful is also paranoid about plushie dolls on top of that due to a bad experience with living versions of them.
• Worthy Opponent: Like many Planeswalkers and adventurers, he takes all 'Tucker's Kobolds' he encountered in worlds where they exist completely seriously, knowing from personal experience how infamously competent and deadly they are to even seasoned warriors and powerful champions who took on demon lords and gods. He particularly praised their ruthless cunning and devious tactics, believing this is how most opponents should fight.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: On a multiversal scale. As a result of time passing differently across the Multiverse, Planeswalker Mirthful Stone had spent subjective aeons adventuring across the Multiverse in the brief few years between his near-death and his return back in his and Researcher Mirthful Stone's timeline.

Other Researchers

Shock Minion

First mentioned in a Drabble and formally introduced here, Shock Minion is one member of the Codex Equus project, known for among other things having a strange mix of good AND bad luck.

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• Achievement In Ignorance: Somehow, he found himself becoming a participant in a Holy Grail War with his own Servant.
• Action Survivor: More 'Survivor' than 'Action', but Shock Minion can hold his own when he needs to and is known for his borderline-preternatural ability to get out of any sticky situation
• Beneath Notice: Shock Minion is the best Stealth Expert of the Equestrian branch researchers, simply by virtue of the fact he is so 'boring' and inconspicuous that he could practically disappear in plain sight. He uses that to great effect sneaking into highly-secured areas, evading eagle-eyed mooks/agents and snag information or things they need without anyone noticing.
  Jade Shell: Shock, how did you managed to do that?
  Shock Minion: I REALLY don't like being the centre of attention.
• Beware the Silly Ones: While seemingly an ordinary, unassuming and skittish Unicorn who would rather not want to get into trouble, he is by far the best survivalist among his Equestrian-branch colleagues, possessing an almost preternatural 'nose' for danger and in dodging and evading any attacks his way. His 'boring', inconspicuous nature makes him a natural stealth expert surpassing even Mirthful Stonel, who had to rely on his Armlet of Illusions, while Shock Minion could sneak by unaided just by being himself, allowing him to skirt notice and slyly operate in many situations. He also possesses an unusual mix of good AND bad luck of unknown origin, where an embarrassing or harmful incident may spring up that ends up getting him out of worse trouble, which he had taken advantage of. Last but not least by sheer happenstance he got himself a powerful (if ironically hotblooded) Servant when he unwittingly stumbled and become a participant in a Fourth Age Holy Grail War.
• Born Lucky: Known for possessing a strange mix of both good AND bad luck. What seemed like disasters initially often turned out to be either no big deal in the end or even help him out in the long run.
  • He was hit by a Cancer Wand by a Griffon Autorist (much to said Autorist's own disgust), and booked out to claim his remaining vacation days on account of his imminent demise. Fortunately it turned out to be a generally harmless easily-treatable form of skin tumour which he was quickly cured of within months.
  • He threw a Cucco egg he bought for cooking dinner at the enemies surrounding the Codex researchers during the Fourth Age Grail War they got roped into, triggering a 'Cucco Revenge Swarm' out for blood to attack their enemies as they interpret them reflexively breaking the thrown egg as the aggressive action (rather than Shock Minion throwing the egg to begin with).
• Born Unlucky: Known for possessing a strange mix of both good AND bad luck. What seemed like good fortune initially often either turned out to be not as benefitial as thought or even cause complications in the long run.
• Invisible Introvert: It's noted he doesn't like attention, and is so inconspicuous that he is considered the best stealth expert among his colleagues.
• Irony: Despite by his own description being a Lovable Coward, he ended up getting a VERY hotblooded and powerful Servant when he unwittingly became a participant of a Fourth Age Holy Grail War.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Having a borderline-preternatural sense for danger and being the best survivalist among his Equestrian colleagues, he knows when it's time to book it rather than fight a senseless and futile confrontation.
  • He was once confronted by a tribe of cannibalistic Pony-eating Griffons. Outnumbered and surrounded, he did what was the best option under the circumstances: Namely, getting the heck out of dodge and leaving his would-be devourers in the dust.
• Lovable Coward: By his own description and officially classified by Cultura as one. He would help any way he can, but he would rather avoid attention or danger if he could help it.
• Mundane Utility: Much to his colleagues' annoyance, his status as the Equestrian branch's resident Stealth Expert help made him the consecutive winner of their 'Hide and Seek' contests in annual office parties.
• Stealth Expert: Shock Minion is this among his Equestrian colleagues, due to his ability to sneak around and avoid notice by comprehensive security systems and eagle-eyed guards simply by being his inconspicuous and boring self together with his preternatural ability to sense and avoid danger (Mirthful Stone needed an artifact to be actually stealthy, making Shock Minion his superior by far). He once snuck through a villain's lair to grab something he and his colleagues needed without being noticed by anyone.

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Azure Glacier

Character: Heroic

Alignment: Neutral Good

Type: Researcher, Dracomorph, Canequine, World Web/Leymit Personality, Fae, Entertainer

Faction: Federal Republic of Ponyland, Forge-Wrathfire Clan, Principalities of Equestria, Codex Equus Project

First mentioned in a Drabble, Azure Glacier (His entry here) is an ancient Dracomorph and streamer who has become part of the Codex project.

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• Beast Man: He is born a Diamond Dog/Pony Hybrid, but the awakening of his Draconic-Fae heritage turned him into a Wolf/Draconic Dracomorph.
• Good Fortune from God: His family's ancestors were given a boon from Dragon Queen Tiamat ages back, leading to him becoming a Dracomorph when his formerly dormant trait was awakened.
• Heinz Hybrid: Formerly a Diamond Dog/Pony Hybrid, after his Draconic-Fae heritage manifested his Pony half was overwritten by his new Draconic half.
• Magikarp Power: It's noted due to lack of magic, he was extremely weak back in the Second Age. By modern day, due both to increase in magic and age, he's as strong as a dragon his age would be expected to be.
• Mundane Utility: Being rather weak back then and having no real interest at superheroism in general, rather than becoming a superhero with his newfound form and powers, he stuck to using them to help his elderly parents and as a gimmick for his World Web channel.
• Noodle Incident: At some point he got himself involved in a Grail War in the Second Age, giving him valuable experience and knowledge of how they work which he would share with his Codex Equus researcher colleagues in the Fourth Age when they got roped into one themselves.
• Time Abyss: He had been around since the Great Wars Era of the Second Age, making him tens of thousands of years old.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's an ancient Dracomorph in modern day, and thus rather powerful, but he's no fighter and only have novice karate skills.
• Weredragon: He's a dracomorph, and thus can freely transform between his default Pony/Diamond Dog hybrid form and a wolf-like dragon form.

Chitin

First mentioned in the "Codex Quest(s)" story, Chitin is a Changeling member of the Codex Equus project.

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Nebes

First mentioned in the "Codex Quest(s)" story, Nebes is an actual bonafide angel of Belyolen who work in the Codex Equus project, serving as Pekel's counterbalance and Good Counterpart, and gets along with him as well as she does with their other colleagues.

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• Armor-Piercing Question: On the receiving end of one by Mirthful Stone while they were both discussing the intricacies of afterlives and virtue, when the Qilin pointed out if the intent behind doing good deeds or being repentent is as if not more important than the acts themselves, he wondered if this means those like a sincerely repentant mass murderer who could never make up for the many they killed still has a better chance of entering heaven than a jerkass who nevertheless never commit anything worse than being a litterer. Nebes somewhat hesitantly admit that would likely be the case.
• Barred from the Afterlife: Is of this opinion to those who only did good or repented to get into heaven or never had the chance to commit sin and are deep down still self-aggrandizing jackasses, noting that sincere motive/intent is as if not more important than the acts themselves, even if it means by implication a repentant mass murderer has a better chance of entering heaven than a jerkass who stayed out of trouble.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Has this dynamic with Pekel, being the good angel in the equation. Best seen when she appealed to Mirthful's conscience and reason to stop him from chasing down and strangling to death a racist pony youth who struck and called him racist epithets.

Pekel

First mentioned in the "Codex Quest(s)" story, Pekel is an actual bonafide demon of Temnobog who work in the Codex Equus project, and a surprisingly nice chap when not half-seriously trying to tempt his colleagues into sin and depravity.

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• Affably Evil: Is noted to be a 'surprisingly nice chap' and genuine friends with his colleagues, even his angelic counterpart Nebes. He's still a demon of Temnobog though with all that implies, gleefully seeking to tempt and damn the truly wicked.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Implied and Played for Laughs. Apparently Pekel (like everyone else) found "Omega Sanction: Wipe Out The Paragons" objectionable enough he organised a 'game-burning' session where anyone with a copy could join in to have the game burnt en-masse in a hellish bonfire (with Nebes purifying the remains for good measure).
• Freak Out: Played for Laughs. Pekel went into hysterics and nearly had a seizure when he found out his sister, a demonic succubus named Shakky, had joined a holy order of paladins blessed by Princess Cadence dedicated to protecting affectionate love.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Has this dynamic with Nebes, being the 'bad angel' in question. Best seen when he encouraged Mirthful to break the neck of a racist pony youth who hit Mirthful and called him racist epithets after Mirthful chased him down and strangled him, stoking Mirthful's rage and pointing out the punk is bound to grow up into an Autorist anyway.
• Kill It with Fire: While everyone found "Omega Sanction: Wipe Out The Paragons" to be objectionable and awful, Pekel went further by organising a 'game-burning' session where everyone who have bought or were given the game can join in to throw their copy into a hellish bonfire for burning, with its remains purified by Nebes.
• Noble Demon: Is a friendly colleague and 'surprisingly nice chap' when not tempting and damning mortals of questionable character.
• Noodle Incident: Rongoa of Angel Vale accidentally blasted him in the face with an ice breath during one of his visits and interviews in Equestria, being surprised by Pekel's presence. Pekel's still smarting over it.

Athervara

Athervara (Her entry here) is a sapient Chimera whose three heads/siblings had joined the Codex project together as a researcher, each sister specializing in a specific aspect of the job.

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• Bad Powers, Good People: Minerva is the friendliest and nicest of the trio, but she also possesses extremely toxic venom capable of killing a pony in fifteen minutes. She hates using it and tries not to let it kill if she can help it.
• Classical Chimera: Athervara is a sapient Chimera, being an amalgramation of three different creatures with three heads from each one.
• Deadpan Snarker: Athena is noted as being much snarkier and deadpan than her sisters.
• Freudian Trio: Saraswati is the Ego of the trio, while Athena is Id and Minerva is Superego.
• Godzilla Threshold: Minerva hates using her extremely toxic venom and only does so if she has no other choice.
• It Amused Me: Minerva intentionally plays up her Sssssnake Talk for her own amusement.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Athervara loathes 'Three in one' jokes made at their expense, since they had heard of it too many times already.
• Meaningful Name: All three heads/sisters - Athena, Minerva and Saraswati - are named after renowned goddesses of wisdom, which befits their role as academics working in a massive research project. Their full name is a combination of the three names.
• Multiple Head Case: As a Chimera, Athervara possesses three heads, each belonging to a different creature with its own mind and personality. It's noted the individual heads can regenerate so long as the Chimera as a whole remains alive, but it's incredibly traumatic and thus they avoid doing so if possible.
• Poisonous Person: Minerva, being the cobra head of Athervara, could produce a venom so potent it could kill an untreated person bitten by her within fifteen minutes. She hates using it and after using it on a Tribalist terrorists, begs him to give up so he can be taken the the ER before he dies.
• Same-Sex Triplets: Athervara is the collective amalgramated name of the three heads shares the same body, named Athena, Minerva, and Saraswati. They consider each other sisters and act accordingly.
• Save the Villain: After Minerva was forced to bite a Tribalist terrorist, she begged him to give up so he could be taken to a hospital before her toxic vemon could kill him, something her sisters likewise didn't want. He surrendered and they got him to the ER in time to save him.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Subverted: due to Fantastic Racism, Chimera are seen as dangerous monsters. However, Minerva is a sweetheart despite being the cobra tail of one and having horrifically toxic venom. In fact she's the nicest of the trio and the one that is most adverse to causing harm.
• Sssssnake Talk: Minerva is a cobra and had the expected verbal tic. Invoked, as she intentionally plays it up for her own amusement.
• The Stoic: Saraswati is stoic and keeps her emotions close to her chest.

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