gaige the mechromancer | borderlands | asgard app

[machinamentum]

OOC INFO;
Player Name: Lily
Contact Info: aeneia @ plurk

IC INFO;
Character Name: Gaige the Mechromancer
Canon: Borderlands
Canon Information:

"So you want to hear a story, huh? One about... treasure hunters. Have I got a story for you. Pandora. This is our home, but make no mistake, this is not a planet of peace and love. They say it's a wasteland, that it's dangerous, that only a fool would search for something of value here. Then perhaps, I am a fool. But do not be fooled by what Pandora appears to be..."

Borderlands is set in the far-flung future where humans left the earth a hell of a long time ago and started settling on other planets, and after something called the corporate wars, governments don't exist so much instead huge mega-corporations who have extraterritorial rights effectively, fight over resources and consumer base. They're all looking to one-up each other to achieve galactic dominance, and the one way that is sure-fire to do that is the vaults. Vaults are huge treasure troves left by an ancient alien race called the Eridians. The first vault found hurtled a company called Atlas to the forefront of technology after it was found on a planet called Promethea. Since then, everyone has been looking for another one, which is what leads eventually everyone who was either power-hungry or desperate or just plain stupid, one way or another to Pandora.

This is a universe where no one is a good guy, just different people finding different ways to survive. Even your more civilized, suburban planets are at a baseline, massively corrupt because of the corporations. Pandora, however, is nothing like them, given its unforgiving fauna and flora, where the most common way to survive is to go crazy because it's easier than thinking about what surviving there actually means. It consumes everyone who comes to it, thousands of people have been abandoned on it by their corporations that decided they just weren't worth it. Life is cheap, death is cheaper, and the ability to kill each other is helped by the ridiculously advanced technology. Where, as long as you can pay, being digistructed back to life is common, guns can shoot balls of fire, and robots replace a lot of manual labour. Guns and violence are as much currency as money is, mercenary work is the most commonly available. Every animal is a predator and almost every plant being poisonous or liable to explode into acid, most people turn to horrible acts of cannibalism just to eat.

Bandit clans rule around little pockets of civilisation, and after overexposure to eridium, have become mutated and gone further insane to when they like to just peel off other people's faces and wear them, incest and self-mutilation is common as well, and will often eat their own children. In the small parts of relative sanity, most people profess a desperate want to leave or are just waiting to die because there's no hope of ever getting out or life getting better for them. Those that do thrive there are barely above the bandits, the vault hunters are only able to do what they do by being able to deal out mass slaughter on a daily basis. Corporations are no better. Whilst there is less outright violence ( and more finger gun games ), there is more backstabbing and thievery and are completely uncaring to how their desperate need to control planets like Pandora causes the death of the people there or greater chaos in the universe. Their "peace" often comes hand in hand with acts of genocide.

It's also deeply, deeply ridiculous, and at one point there's the main boss that accidentally kills himself by fall down the stairs, so... you know.

"It's cute ya'll think you're the heroes of this little adventure but... you're not. Welcome to Pandora, Kiddos."

Canon Point: Borderlands: Pre-Sequel, Underdome DLC
Age: 19
God Houses:

• Honir - Gaige is also a Vault Hunter, a treasure hunter across the galaxy, who is driven by the pursuit of riches, but also to explore, to find new things, and the fact she can't go back to her home ever again but whose travels found her a new one. She isn't afraid to go somewhere different, even if it's dangerous, and this single truth has driven her to fame and infamy as one of the biggest badasses in the galaxy. After all, when on the run from intergalactic forces, she picked the hellscape planet to go too.
  
  
• Skadi - Gaige is a mad engineer, she has a vision, hates people who mess with it, and she doesn't think about the consequences of her actions when pursuing it. After all, she cut off her own arm just so she could make her dream robot come true and be with her always.

Personality:

Gaige is loud, impulsive, horrifyingly smart and a punk child who is a complete daddy's girl. In a universe of screwed up people, Gaige has that special spark of driven insanity to survive a planet like Pandora. She can see how things could be built and simply does it, no hold's barred. At times, she can be mature, she can debate about politics, the state of the galaxy at large, deriding her classmates for not being more away about the dangerous politics of the world they live in and likes to put herself in the heart of those discussions. But at other times? She screams about punk rock, anarchy and makes rash, insane choices. Gaige is someone who feels everything, all at once, as loudly as possible, not caring if it makes her look and feel deranged. She is living every minute at the top of her lungs. Even when people kind of wish she would quit screaming.

Though Pandora itself has had its impact on her and taken some of those worse traits and brought them to the surface: she's a gun-toting murderer by any sane definitions, a thug for hire on her good days, and a terrifying mercenary on others. She's become unhinged in her own special, blood-soaked way, as likely to scream about enjoying the blood and the guts and the glory as the best of them. As Pandora does to most of them, true, but it had a strong building block of her teenage impulsiveness and single-minded focus. She's often self-centred, given that even though her robot was the one that killed her teenage bully, Gaige still insists that somehow, she is worse off than the girl that had just been exploded into bits. Still holds a grudge against the family that to her mind, ruined her life. Refusing to back down, and will not see the wrong in her friends, or her creations, at times hypocritically so. She's arrogant and judgemental, whether it is looking down at people not as 'aware' as she is, the bloody pride over killing Handsome Jack or trying to act tougher than she is.

Though that arrogance does hide the insecurities. Because she is still a 19-year-old who loves her friends, is a total daddy's girl, and would throw herself into the fight for them in a heartbeat. She can be corrected and will listen to change her opinion if someone talks to her and gives her time to recalibrate. Her lines might be so grey about violence, theft & murder they should be black, but she holds true to those values she does have. Even with her bravado of pride and arrogance, she wants to be seen tougher than she is, though with time she's become less insecure of it. But she got teased for being too nerdy, still tears up about her father looking out for her, and even if she feels she has to hide it, she still treasures those little things of being a teenager at times. She gets defensive on behalf of the other Vault Hunters on principal, especially with Axton who has become a surrogate father to her. There are moments of clarity that she is self-aware enough to realise she might be a little bit unhinged.

Though the one place where all of this comes full circle is her robot Death-Trap, or DT, who is her pride and joy creation, he's everything to her, and she excuses everything he does. She cares about her friends and family, but her robot? He's now been through everything with her, he's her best friend, and without him, she's lost. In a world where people often discredit robots as feeling pain or having true sentience worth considerings, Gaige pours her heart and soul into him and he gives it right back. To that, he can do no wrong and she never accepts any blame for his actions. Her relationship with him shows all her good and bad in spades, both in her ability to see and create and build, to protect those around her, see what others do not, push herself, and all of her arrogance, pride and flippancy.

Granted, she is true to all Vault Hunters. Offer her $$$ and she'll do whatever you ask, murder included. Eeesh. Yeah, no one likes Vault Hunters but other Vault Hunters for a reason. They're an insane lot.

Writing Sample: here!