Application for savetheearth

[italktofish]

OOC Information:

Name: Airdra

Are you over 15? Yep!

Contact: Airdra, KamenFirestorm @ AIM

IC Information:

Name: Arthur Curry, also known as Aquaman in his preincarnation, just plain old Arthur Curry here.

Canon: Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Age: His age in the show is never specified. Here, he's 37.

Preincarnation Appearance: Here's a picture!

Any differences: He no longer runs around wearing bright orange and green and instead dresses like a normal human being...even if he's got a fondness for obnoxiously large and shiny belt buckles. He also isn't in as quite as good shape. He's still a big guy, but he's got more of the appearance of a big, muscular guy starting to go to seed. He also no longer smells like fish...which is actually a point that gets brought up at one point in-canon because his canon is goofy like that.

Preincarnated History: Aquaman's origins are never touched on in great detail, but in the episode Evil Under the Sea, enough of Aquaman's early days are referenced to suggest that this version of Aquaman strongly parallels the Silver Age Aquaman in this regard. Aquaman was the son of Atlanna, the Queen of Atlantis, and a lighthouse keeper named Tom Curry. His earliest memories were of playing around the lighthouse, and his powers became evident from an early age.

Soon, young Arthur was taken to Atlantis, where he was raised as one of the two princes and heirs to the throne. He had an older brother, Orm, and it was assumed that Orm would be next in line to the throne--until their mother decided to make Arthur king. Judging from Orm and Arthur's conversations, their mother strongly favored Arthur, to the point that Arthur seems to let his guilt over that govern his interactions with Orm to some extent when they're adults.

This favoritism built to a head when she made Arthur king, favoring the younger son over the elder and expected heir to the throne. She did this because she knew Orm would not have been able to handle the power, and that the big-hearted Arthur would make a better king. Orm did not take this well, and for years, he and his brother were estranged after Orm rather violently tried to take the throne back. He left Atlantis, refusing any contact with his brother.

Over the years, Arthur grew into a noble and just king, and he worked diligently to protect his kingdom, which made up the entirety of Earth's oceans. He took up the name Aquaman, and he started working as a superhero. This soon brought him into contact with all manner of other superheroes, most of them surface-dwellers. He joined the Justice League of America, and he loved working with other heroes to stop evildoers. It made for more adventure! More excitement! In particular, he liked working with Batman, who managed to be awesome and hypercompetent despite having no powers of his own.

In this time, he also started a family of his own. He met a woman named Mera, who became the love of his life. They had a son, Arthur Jr., who grew into a surly preteen...who still managed to get excited every time his dad saved the world. Aquaman also had a young ward and sidekick, Garth, who went by the name of Aqualad. They made up the core of his family, and he loved them more than anything.

When Orm resurfaced years later and seemed willing to work things out, Aquaman was thrilled. Batman didn't seem to share Aquaman's conviction that Orm had reformed, and as it turns out, he was right--Orm teamed up with Aquaman's archnemesis, Black Manta, and tried to kill him and usurp the throne. Black Manta turned on Orm, and he tried to take Atlantis for himself. Aquaman and Batman were able to stop him, and Orm was placed in Atlantean prison. Aquaman still didn't want to give up on Orm, however, if only because they were family, and family mattered to him greatly. He visited his brother every day, each time regaling him with tales of his heroic exploits in an attempt to give Orm a better example. Not that this helped; Orm was more annoyed than anything.

Aquaman clearly loved his job, but the one thing he loved even more was his family. When Mera decided that they should take a surface-dweller-style road trip across America, he reluctantly agreed, although it became clear that he was bored out of his mind and just looking for wrongs he could right. His desire to fight crime accidentally led to him putting his family in danger...which worked out in the end, because they weren't a normal sort of family, anyway. Turns out, they were happiest when they were all having adventures together, and Mera and Arthur Jr. were both able to hold their own in a fight.

Saving the world was Aquaman's stock in trade, and he excelled at it, labeling each of his adventures with an overblown title and occasionally writing up and selling memoirs of his exploits. He was a participant in fighting off the invasions of both Starro the Conqueror and Darkseid, and he defended Earth against countless other threats. He was all too happy to team up with other heroes if they needed a hand, even if it brought him to far-off places like the planet Rann to assist Batman and Adam Strange. Sometimes, he even visited other time periods, like when he and Fire, another hero, were sent to ancient Rome in order to protect one of Batman's ancestors from assassins.

Aquaman worked to help the Justice League International, widely seen as a collection of losers, to get on its feet, and he still serves with that team. Unlike some of the others, he didn't live aboard the satellite, instead choosing to remain with his family and his kingdom in Atlantis. He liked working with the JLI; they did things differently and were a mess of conflicting personalities. He was one of the team's most experienced members, and he was always happy to mentor newer heroes.

When the fourth-wall-breaking, 5th dimensional imp known as Bat-Mite got bored with The Brave and the Bold and decided to get the show canceled, which, in his mind, meant forcing a bunch of terrible changes so people would quit watching. Among these changes was changing Aquaman's voice actor from John DiMaggio to Ted McGinley, which caused him to act oddly. Things are only fixed when Ambush Bug, another fourth-wall-aware character, annoyed Ted into breaking character, get fed up, and leave. This leaves Aquaman thoroughly confused, although returned to normal. Despite Ambush Bug's efforts, the show is unable to be saved from cancellation and is wrapped up with a big cast reunion. In non fourth-wall-breaking terms, it can be safely assumed that Aquaman simply remembers a random adventure with Batman and Ambush Bug that affected his voice and is still off happily fighting evil somewhere.

Reincarnated History Arthur Curry was born in Houston, Texas, to an offshore oil worker and a waitress. He had an older brother, and there was an age gap of six years between them. Thanks to his father's offshore job and his mother's hectic schedule, he often found himself left alone sans a great deal of parental supervision, in childcare, or in his brother's less-than-stellar care. Their mother clearly favored Arthur over his brother, which led to a bit of sibling rivalry. It didn't help that in school, Arthur's accomplishments far outshone his brother's.

From a young age, Arthur realized that he loved telling stories. He often took to telling the other kids the wildest stories imaginable, and while some would scoff and call him a liar, others simply seemed to enjoy the stories. Either way, storytelling got young Arthur a great deal of attention, and over time, his skills as a storyteller became rather polished. In high school, he played on the school football team (though he never did score that homecoming game-winning touchdown the way he would claim years later), and he was also rather involved in the drama club and the debate team.

Arthur's grades and extracurricular activities were able to get him into a half-decent university on a half-decent scholarship, and he lasted all of two years there before partying too much and studying too little took their toll, leaving him with a terrible GPA and no scholarships. Since his family didn't have much in the way of money (save for his successful jerk of an older brother, who saw no point in coddling his spoiled baby brother further), Arthur found himself out in the real world. This didn't bother him too much, as he saw it as an opportunity to see and do new things.

He always loved performing for and showing off for people, and his first few jobs reflected upon this. He spent two years in Hollywood as a stuntman, and from there, he spent five years aboard a cruise ship working as an entertainer, both as a singer and a stage magician. That was his longest-lasting job, and he could never really find anything that stuck. He kept moving from job to job and place to place, feeling restless and unsatisfied.

After that, he worked as a truck driver for three years, spent all of two months as a used car salesman, a week and a half at a McDonald's (he does not speak of this), a year and a half at a document storage warehouse, three months at a veterinarian's office as an assistant...the list goes on and on. Arthur continued to drift around, picking up odd job after odd job but finding nothing that really stuck. His personal life went in much the same way; he picked up girlfriend after girlfriend, but none of them lasted for long. Most of the time, it was his inability to commit to anything that did the relationship in.

He's spent so long bouncing from job to job that he's decided to go back to school to finish his degree, thinking that might open a few doors to something more interesting. He's getting a degree in General Studies, and he's attending the university in Locke City. He's only a part-time student, and he also works as a school bus driver. His route usually covers the middle school, but he's been known to substitute for the high school as well.

First Echo: The first Echo he gets is the return of his ability to communicate with sea life, albeit in a weakened fashion distance-wise. Even an aimless windbag has to unwind sometime, and Arthur scored a pair of free tickets to the local marine park after winning a contest on the radio. (Nothing like being the ninth caller and knowing that the shark puppet used in Jaws was nicknamed Bruce.) Through a long and twisted series of events that in no way involved Arthur's complete and total lack of caution around warning signs (those are for guys that aren't him, right?), he managed to fall into a dolphin tank. It was at that moment that the Echo kicked in, and he realized that the dolphins were talking to him--and he could talk back, using only his mind.

He then got himself banned from the park, since between falling into the tank and rambling on about dolphins talking to him, they figured he was on drugs.

Preincarnation Personality: When Aquaman speaks, it is easy to imagine him using RANDOM CAPITALIZATION in order to EMPHASIZE HIS MOST HEROIC POINTS. He's quite loud, and he's quite boisterous, and it's not at all uncommon for him to start assigning titles to all of his adventures--and everyone else's.

Aquaman's not the smartest guy ever, but he makes up for it by having a lot of heart. He loves being around people and wants to make sure they're happy. When he's at a mixer between the Justice Society and the Justice League International and the party starts failing hard, he tries his hardest to salvage things...which unfortunately means he starts singing an old "Atlantian revival song," which sounds very much like he's trying to sing in whale. He is oblivious to his audience's confusion and failure to enjoy his performance.

Sometimes, he can be as dense as a brick. Telling him "no" doesn't always get through to him if he's determined that his way will work better, and he doesn't always realize that he's making other people get exasperated with him. In that vein, he doesn't always listen well. When he is miniaturized inside Batman's body with the Atom, he is pretty much incapable of listening to the Atom's caution and advice. Who cares about that science talk when there is ADVENTURE to be had? He keeps rushing forward into danger without thinking at all of the possible consequences. He names a lymphocyte Platelet even after repeatedly being told it's a lymphocyte, and he insists it's trying to hug him even after he's been told it thinks he's a foreign body and is trying to destroy him.

He loves having adventures and being a hero, almost to the point it seems as though that's all he lives for. Batman seems to be his favorite adventuring buddy, although he loves meeting new heroes and makes friends easily...even if his new friends aren't always ready to call him that. He's determined to be a hero no matter what, and he's quite cheerful about it. Angst is not a thing that he does well. When Captain Atom becomes disheartened and believes he's a failure without his powers, Aquaman's response is to bring the other hero out of it--with a ROUSING SONG OF HEROISM. Seriously--he sings, and he's over there encouraging Captain Atom after Batman's tried to show the Captain how to fight without superpowers. Captain Atom is not quite sure what to make of that and is thoroughly confused. When the Atom wants to retire, Aquaman just won't let him. Being a superhero is the BEST THING EVER, and he can't let anyone else give that up, especially if they're good at it.

"Taking a savage beating is part of being a hero!" It's hard to get Aquaman down. That isn't to say Aquaman is incapable of getting sad or feeling sorry for himself--because he's quite capable of that! He once failed to save a Beluga whale from whalers, and for a while, he was beating himself up over that, sulking on a mission to Rann. He snapped out of it quickly enough, and since then, he's not shown any signs of moping over failures.

Aquaman is a devoted family man. He's also very much invested in the welfare of his people, the people of Atlantis--he's the King, after all! Mera and Arthur Jr. are the most important people in his life, and putting them in danger is a sure way to ensure that you're going to have the Sea King beating you in the face. Loyalty to family is a big deal with him. Even after his brother, Orm, tries to kill him and usurp the throne, Aquaman refuses to give up on him simply because they are family.

He's a touchy-feely kind of guy. He thinks nothing of sweeping someone up into a manly hug of companionship or grabbing them by the shoulders to show them something. Getting a hug from Aquaman is often a painful experience, as he is both very strong and very enthusiastic.There's nothing quite like dealing with a big man who smells vaguely of fish suddenly pulling you into a bear hug, after all.

Any differences: The biggest difference in Arthur's life is that he is no longer quite the devoted family man he once was. He's had a long string of failures in the dating world, and he's all alone in Locke City. He lives far away from his parents, and he doesn't get along well with his brother, who doesn't seem to like him much anyway. (As though he could control who their mother liked best.) He has no children of his own. He's also drifted around too much to form many lasting relationships with people. He'll make great friends with people on the surface, but he moves in and out of relationships quickly. If people want to drift away, he'll just let them go, whereas before, he never would have let that happen.

He's a little bit more reserved, but not by a whole lot. If he gets excited--or, Heaven help you, drunk--he'll be just as loud as he ever was. Arthur is still a boisterous, friendly individual, but now he's a little bit of a better judge of the proper time and proper place for such things. While he once enjoyed telling others of his real, actual adventures, now he just tells a bunch of tall tales. He's the guy that sits in a corner of a bar loudly telling others about things like the time he single-handedly fought off a bear in the woods using only a plastic spork he found on the ground, which allowed him to save a burning school bus full of kids. He doesn't actually believe these stories, but he enjoys telling them to an appreciative audience. It's all about entertaining others and making sure they have a good time, plus it's an easy way for him to slip into a group.

Though he may once have been a great hero, now, he's just plain irresponsible. Although he's a great storyteller and a good guy at heart, ask him to carry out any of the amazing, heroic behaviors in his stories and then suddenly old football injuries will start flaring up, or he'll suddenly have to go visit his ever-ailing Aunt Hortense, who doesn't exist outside of being a figure he can trot out whenever he needs an excuse to weasel out of anything. He will help people, true, but only as long as he can stay inside his comfort zone. Too much extra work or too much potential risk, and he's suddenly got somewhere else to be. He's prone to laziness, and he gets bored easily with things. He's never satisfied, which constantly leads him to seek out new experiences.

In this incarnation, he's from Texas, and he has acquired the relevant speaking patterns, bits of slang, and accent. He's still kind of a cornball, and exclamations like "GREAT SCOTT!" still have their place in his vocabulary. (Yes, he still calls people things like "chum.") He has, however, stopped using exclamations like "GREAT ATLANTIS!" or anything that would be related to being the King of the Sea.

Abilities: The ability Aquaman is most famous for is his ability to speak with sea life. He can telepathically command all manner of aquatic creatures to do his bidding. Generally, this isn't mind control--the creatures of the sea simply respect their King, and he's not enough of a jerk to try to force his will onto something else. However, if the creature in question is more along the mindless rampaging monster side of things, he can force it to submit to his will. This also keeping in mind the relative intelligence of what he's trying to command--a goldfish generally isn't intelligent enough to object to his commands, but a dolphin or octopus might. An exact range for this ability is never discussed, but the ocean is a very large place, and he can reach down to its deepest areas. In one instance, he's stuck in a death trap inside a factory, and he's able to summon crabs from the docks outside to come help him. The ability also works when he is at microscopic size and inside Batman's body; he's able to summon a lymphocyte to come to his aid and serve as his trusty steed. He's also shown to be able to control silverfish in the Amazon jungle, saying "a fish is a fish, even if it's a bug."

Aquaman can breathe underwater, which is another of his more notable skills. Whether or not it's saltwater or freshwater makes no difference to him; he can breathe just as well in either type of water. It is highly likely he prefers saltwater, given that he spends most of his time out in the ocean. He is also an amazing swimmer, and he moves around just as well in the water as a normal person might on the land, if not better. He can swim at superhuman speeds, and taking him on in the water is generally seen as a Very Bad Idea.

Since Aquaman has spent so much time underwater subjected to the pressures of the deep sea, he is very strong. His skin is tough enough to give him some measure of invulnerability, and he's also got some super-strength as well. Again, exact limits are never specified, but it's safe to say he's not going to be bothered by normal guns and can toss a car around. He's not Superman-level, but getting hit by him is still going to hurt. He is also shown to be completely immune to the poison of a poison dart frog and the poison of a sea urchin. Since he's adapted to spending long amounts of time underwater at great depths, his low-light vision is also very good. (This is never shown in the show, but it's shown up in mainline DC Comics before, and nothing in the show contradicts it.)

Aquaman is hydrokinetic. He can manipulate and control water itself. His most common use of this ability is to summon a sword and shield made of water, although he can use this power to do things like create waves, create columns of water, or hurl blasts of water at people. He's not terribly creative with this power, and he mostly uses it as simply as possible.

Aquaman's powers do come with a drawback--he's got to be in contact with water of some sort every couple of hours, otherwise, he'll become severely dehydrated. Prolonged removal from the water will make him feel weak, and if it keeps up too long, he'll die.

He is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, and he is proficient in use of several types of swords and shields. He also possesses a large trident he likes carrying into battle--it's also a sign of Atlantean royalty.

Roleplay Sample – Third Person:

Generally, a Petco is a pretty tame place. Sure, you might get someone bringing in an overexcitable dog that starts barking its head off at anything and everything, or you might have someone bring an unusual animal in that causes a stir, or maybe a tarantula might escape from its enclosure--but that's still relatively tame. Still nothing that wouldn't be too surprising. Nothing at all like a very large man causing a scene out by the aquarium supplies.

Arthur was examining the saltwater aquarium supplies, and he had questions. There was only one thing to do with questions--ask a helpful salesperson! Only the salesperson he was talking to didn't show any inclination of actually being helpful. "I don't see what's so hard to understand! All I need is enough of this stuff to turn my bathtub into a saltwater aquarium!" A man should be allowed to turn a bathtub into an aquarium in the privacy of his own home! There was nothing wrong with this!

"But, sir," said the salesman with an ever-increasing level of exasperation tinged with alarm, "that's not how it works! We sell aquarium supplies, not bath salts!"

"But what if I want to keep the fish in my bathtub?" It was an innocent enough question, Arthur thought. Not that he was actually going to keep fish in his bathtub, but if that would help this guy help him with getting a saltwater bath set up, he'd go with it. He had to adapt to these odd changes that kept rolling down the pipe, after all. That was just another way life stayed interesting!

"Bathtubs are not the proper place for fish! You need an aquarium!"

This was getting exasperating. It's not like Arthur could really tell this guy why he wanted the bathtub set up so that he could sleep in there. That would be just a little weird. He decided to go for a second opinion...not that he thought out his second opinion very carefully. There, that clownfish in the tank nearby should do it. "Hey, buddy, you wouldn't mind swimming around in my bathtub, would you?" He paused for a moment as though he were listening. "OUTSTANDING! I'll take this little fellow home too!"

"Sir! I cannot allow you to purchase any fish unless I know they're going to be properly taken care of!" The poor Petco employee looked as though he were about to have a coronary.

"Aw, come on, you spoilsport, he's okay with it! Just look at the look of EXCITEMENT on his little face! We'd have such ADVENTURES together!"

"...sir. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave..."

Roleplay Sample - Network:

[The video feed opens to show a large, bearded man peering down into the camera of an iPad.]

OUTRAGEOUS! Would you look at this?

[The camera swings around to show off a large trident propped against the wall.]

This thing just showed up in my garage! Look at the SIZE of it!

[The camera pans back to Arthur. He looks super proud of the trident.]

By golly, I don't know WHAT this thing is or where it came from, but there must be a story of some sort behind it! Perhaps it's a giant's salad fork! Or a three-pronged javelin from the Olympics of 1842! That was a banner year in the Olympics, you know! Why, my great-great-great-grandfather was in those Olympics!

Or maybe it's actually part of a complicated bit of alien machinery! A spaceship antenna or something of the sort! If this whole thing is being caused by aliens, this might be how they found us! With this very antenna!

[If this trident isn't identified fast, he will stand here and ramble on with ridiculous stories all day, probably.]

Any Questions? Can this game handle this much ham? CAN IT?