Character Capital is the twenty-fifth installment of the main-series Character Development Thread.
Set in a large metropolis with connections to many realities, this thread is meant to focus on different forms of interaction between characters, and it is recommended that characters come with a specific goal in mind.
The thread can be found here
. In started in February of 2015 and came to a stop at the end of the year.
Character Capital contains examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted, but barely. When Godsgift gains sentience, his first action is to go berserk and try to kill Whistler, and he almost succeeds. As it turns out, the only reason he went haywire was because the programmers who created him screwed up, and he fixed himself to prevent another episode.
- Badass Longcoat: Ulrich and Ulf both quip about the density, and Echo saddles Kommissar with "Trenchcoat" as a nickname until she warms up to him.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Samantha dishes one of these out to Kiyumi during their duel, though Kiyumi manages to land a good enough hit on her that makes her decide to just end the fight there.
- Everybody Smokes: Well, maybe not everybody, but still quite a few - Kevin (cigars), Sylvia (a really sinister cigar), Ulf, Gwion, a random angry man at a bus stop, Sito, all six of the group from Terra Nova and others - and not just outdoors. In Zan's diner and on buses, too.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": As far as it's known, the Captain is simply called the Captain. His name is revealed later: Lieutenant Joshua Snow.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Downplayed in Godsgift; supposedly, he's no longer unstable and/or crazy, but he is apparently a big fan of Black Comedy, to the point where some characters wonder how many of his jokes are actually jokes.
- Hub City: The Capital is a hub for travel, diplomacy, and other activities across multiple dimensions.
- Irony: Nero and Roderick unknowingly attempt to hire Echo to help them catch an anti-government terrorist. Which is exactly what Echo herself was before the Equalist movement dissolved and she became a vigilante. The difference being that Nero and Roderick's case is currently ambiguous, while Echo's group was less so.
- The Klutz: Ulf's impulsiveness often gets him in trouble.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Seon realizes he's being hunted by someone with the power to know where he is at all times, he immediately decides to call off his mission and flees the city through the interdimensional portal. His superiors seem perfectly fine with this.
- Marry Them All: Downplayed with Qrlil, who decides to not decide between her attraction to both Garkin and Angua after it turns out they're both okay with polyamory and/or open relationships. Qrlil herself isn't entirely comfortable with the decision, but is seeing how things go for the moment.
- Multiple Narrative Modes: While all other characters use one form or another of third-person point of view as is more standard for the Character Development Threads, The Captain's posts are all in second-person point of view.
- Omnicidal Neutral: Echo, deciding between Nero and Roderick or Lydia, decides to try and just capture the three of them, intending to interrogate them herself and play judge, jury, and executioner after hearing each side. It doesn't quite work out.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: On the Earth Gwion comes from, "Lycanthropes" do not physically transform. The "change" is internal - psychological or spiritual or merely psychosis, Berserker Rage and adrenaline, depending on who you're talking to. His assumption is that Ulf is like this - so he's probably in for a bit of a shock.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Many a character finds themselves here, sometimes revealing unexpected complexities.
- Echo is a Wrong Genre Savvy Anti-Villain in her hometown, but the West Side actually does fit her worldview enough to give her a temporary push over to the Anti-Hero side.
- Felix is from a sci-fi/action world where the answer is usually More Dakka. Solving things through actually sitting down and talking to people is a little on the new side for him.
- Papa Wolf: Felix and Gwion are both like this when it comes to threats against their chosen "young".
- Platonic Life-Partners: Although the deepest nature of their relationship is unknown, Rani and Foster are this, having known each other since childhood.
- Playing with Fire: Three—count them—three characters posses fire-related powers. Lampshaded by Felix by saying, "That's three people I know with fire."
- Post-Cyberpunk:
- Powerful technology, but life goes on, and goes on reasonably well.
- Also the version of Earth that Gwion comes from, so he finds this place very "home-like".
- Repetitive Audio Glitch: After Whistler's shipboard AI Godsgift goes haywire and starts to repair itself, it has frequent verbal glitches, the most common of which is the rapid repetition of a syllable. It claims that this should clear up once it finishes fixing itself in a few days."Please excu-cu-cuse any irregularit-t-t-ties in my speech. I am reload-oad-oad-oading from an onboard backup, but at my current rate of progress, it will ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-take several days before I am fully operational."
- Samus Is a Girl: Echo is a woman, but the addition of some armor to her outfit and the acoustics of her mask leave her assumed male.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Ulf's eyes turn yellow when his beast is close to the surface.
- Two Girls to a Team: The "Group from Terra Nova" consists of four men, two women, and Robot.
- White Mask of Doom: The Commonwealth Office of Special Inquest agents all wear white porcelain masks, which add to their sinister presence. Angua is initially extremely unnerved by Kommissar because his mask reminds her of one.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Felix apparently thinks he's in a Space Western.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: At least three characters - Echo, Lydia, and Seon - are part of morally ambiguous anti-government organizations, and the latter two are referred to by pursuing authorities from their homeworlds as "terrorists". Echo pretty clearly falls under The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized, while Seon and Lydia's cases are more unclear.
