twentycoolpoints | Cosmographia Application

Player Info:
Name: Lampdevil
Timezone: AST (One hour ahead of EST)
Contact:

lampdevil

Character Info:
Name: Picky Minch
Age: 18
AU/PG/CANON/OC: Earthbound/Mother 2 AU (Mother 2: Harmony)

Key Points:

Picky is the youngest child of the Minch family. With a greedy and abusive father and a neglectful alcoholic mother, neither boy seemed likely to turn out well. His older brother Porky did, in fact, go join up with an evil alien as his henchman, then move on to travelling through time and wrecking things up pretty bad.

When a meteor crashed on a hillside near his home, Picky and Porky went up to investigate. Porky got scared and ran home, leaving Picky behind. He fell asleep under a tree, and was eventually 'rescued' by Porky and their neighbor Ness. Then there was a bunch of stuff about destined children and aliens and a horrible future and a bee that wasn't a bee and a silver spaceman that tried to whomp them all. That was all the excitement that little Picky got to see, however. Very grounded for having snuck out, he remained safely back home while his brother Porky went off to go do henchman stuff for the alien Giygas.

Bad as his brother might have been, Picky still missed him. Porky's absence hurt him considerably.

Despite his crummy family, Picky has turned out to be a pretty good kid. When younger, he was known for being braver and more level-headed than his older brother. He made friends with Tracy, the girl who lived next door who was near his age, who gave him the kind of support and stability that his broken family couldn't provide. He was kind of a gangly goofy dork, but he was good in a way that his parents or brother weren't.

In his senior year of high school, Picky took on a new "cool" persona, in response to Tracy's new post-braces-removal popularity. Feeling he had to compete for Tracy's friendship, and very much threatened by someone hitting on her, he went and learned the ways of coolness from Frank, former gang leader and current buger-flipper. He got himself a synthetic leather jacket and a motorcycle, out-cool'd a jerk, and reaffirmed their friendship.

Upon graduation, Picky and Tracy went to take a tour of Fiveton University. While there, time and reality flipped out, animating objects and making animals aggressive. Tracy developed her latent PSI powers, they made some new friends who fought alongside them, and the entire mess culminated in Porky Minch popping out of a rift in time, old and terrible and in a spider-mech. Through psychic powers, future tech, and the power of friendship, Picky and his friends beat back his brother and shoved him back into the temporal rift.

In the middle of this battle, Porky extended the offer to Picky to come and travel through time with him. He tempted him with the idea of being a general, someone with power who commands respect. Porky pointed out that the world was cruel and hard, and couldn't possibly be anything in it for someone like Picky. Picky countered, as he disabled Porky's shielding, that the world had given him a friend in Tracy, and that was enough.

Picky attended Fiveton University in the fall, waffling between majoring in psychology or political science. He, Tracy, Tracy's family, and the friends they all made in Fiveton took some time off for a trip to Winters. While there they cleaned up a remnant of Giygas's original invasion fleet, and spent some time addressing Picky's insecurities around his friends rejecting him and/or other people coming to take his place in their lives.

On the whole, Picky story is one of an insecure kid growing into a young man that better trusts in himself and in his value to his friends. He might not know what he's going to do with his future, but he knows where he wants it to be, and it's alongside those that he loves.

History:
Picky Minch is the youngest child of the Minch family. His mother Lardna is a neglectful alcoholic, his father Aloysius is an abusive and greedy man, and his older brother Porky is a time-traveling alien-supporting world-threatening child tyrant.

Now, let's back this up a bit...

One evening in the town of Onett, a meteor fell from the sky. Picky and his brother Porky wound up going to investigate, but Porky became spooked and ran away. Picky wound up falling asleep under a tree, and was woken up by a returned Porky and their neighbor Ness, who had been recruited to help look for him. He got up, a light emerged from the meteor, and a bee-like creature from the future named Buzz-Buzz told them of an alien called Giygas and four fated children that were destined to stop him. Ness was one of those children. Back down the hill they all went, but when they were almost home they were halted by a silver spaceman who proceeded to attack them. After a scary fight they returned home, Picky and Porky were chased upstairs and punished by their father, and Ness's adventure continued... but that's his story, not Picky's.

The next days were the same, except that Porky was acting odd. He eventually left home entirely, much to Picky's confusion. In the end, when the sky grew dark over Onett and the world needed saving, Picky had the slightest idea that something was really wrong and maybe his brother was muddled up in it, but who really knew? The skies cleared. The world was saved by Ness and his friends. And Porky never came home.

This is where Picky's story diverges into AU, going by the fan comic Mother 2: Harmony. Picky grows up alone in the Minch household, alternately ignored and berated by his parents. His lifeline was Tracy, next door neighbor and Ness's younger sister. She was the only person in all of Onett who would give him the time of day, who didn't judge him for being his father's son or his brother's sibling. They grew up together, becoming very important in each other's lives. His desire to protect his friendship with her was the catalyst for his outward shift from goofy loser to Cool Guy in their senior year of high school.

After graduation, Picky and Tracy took a trip to Fiveton University. It was there that a rift in space-time opened up, animating objects and driving wildlife into a frenzy. It also spat out a girl from the future named Lydia, who had been on a time-travelling trip with her now-missing father. In the middle of this, Prince Kang of the kingdom of Dalaam, son of one of Ness's friends, poofed in via PSI teleportation, eager to help with the fight. And fight they all did, though just when they thought they had it under control, out popped Porky in a spider-shaped mech. They fought, Picky rejected his brother's offer to come time traveling and conquering with him because his friendship with Tracy meant so much, Porky was driven back into the rift, and the day was saved.

And then there's a little wintertime side-story where they fight one of Giygas's forgotten minions and Picky actually learns to deal a little with his friendship-related jealousy issues.

Personality:
Picky is a lanky and unassuming-looking young man. He blends in with crowds, and he wears his clothing baggy and his hair shaggy. He doesn't purposely try to be a loner, and does want to befriend other people. But it was always hard to make friends when your family has a town-wide reputation for being terrible. Porky's reputation for being a pain had begun to rub off on him, and he could see no way to counter it. By the time that Porky was long gone, it was too late. The mold had been cast and the expectation that Picky Minch was lousy and uncool was just a matter of fact. By high school, he had given up on anyone other than Tracy being his friend. In college and beyond, after the wild adventure they he went on, he's starting to realize that there are people out there that'll give him a chance, if he just bothers to reach out.

He's a decent enough young man, or tries to be. He's kind and loyal to the friends that he does make, and cares for them deeply. He'll defend those he cares about from threats and danger... even if the threats and danger are only in his head. Friendship is a very big deal for Picky, and he's prone to anxiety about losing the friendship of those he cares about. He's can also be jealous when he feels that someone may be trying to take his place in the lives of his friends. He can become mean and irrational at times like these, and he may say or do things that could genuinely damage his relationships. Having had so little friendship growing up, he clings tightly to whatever he has.

Picky is vegetarian, which is one part from eating a really bad burger and ten parts having sympathy for animals and not wanting to harm them. It's something that he has only undertaken for a year and a half, and he's still working out how to feed himself healthily. With most of his meals having been at Tracy's house, or as part of his college meal plan, Picky has barely learned to cook. He can make instant packaged foods and has one really good chili recipe, but he's otherwise hopeless and is going to need someone to teach him how to do this properly before he does his already undernourished self some damage. It's not something that he intends on giving up on, as the principle of the matter means too much to him. He'll hesitate to seriously harm animals in any fashion, and he adores fuzzy critters of all sorts.

Picky wanted to be a "cool hero" like Ness when he was a kid, and still sort of does. While the stuff he did while fighting to save Fiveton and fend of Porky was pretty cool, he's sure he's got a ways to go yet until he's really cool. For as much as he tries to act strong and look stylish in his synthetic leather jacket, he's kind of a dork. He has goofy ideas, tells dumb jokes, and has a chronic inability to put on any weight or muscle. He was once self-conscious about these things, but over time he has come to be more comfortable in his own skin. His friends like him just fine. He doesn't need to pretend to be something that he's not... but he certainly can build towards becoming the best darned Picky Minch possible. He'll stand up for what's right, whether armed with a tiny pocketknife or a great big bazooka. Even if it means he has to take some lumps in the process. He sees himself as a survivor, and is confident he can handle nearly anything.

His family is still a delicate issue. For years, part of him held out hope that his brother Porky would come home, and maybe he wouldn't be so bad of a person, and maybe things could become better. Abusive and neglectful parents were no picnic, but it was somehow easier to deal with when there was a brother at your side. But over the years, little resentments began to grow. Porky was always the favorite son, and mom and dad made no secret of this. Picky never quite fit into his awful family. Porky did. And when Porky returned, more monster than brother, Picky's hopes that they could ever be proper brothers again were completely crushed. He hates his brother now, hates what his absence did to him, hates what he has become, and hates what he represents.

His relations with his parents are similarly poor. He has the barest amount of contact possible with his mother and father. They were abusive and neglectful, and Picky still bears the marks. While he can be relaxed around people of his own age, he tenses up around authority, instinctively expecting the worst. Being used to hopping to it or getting hit, stimulus that reminds him of his father's punishments is liable to send him cringing, curling into himself, and darting away from the situation. He refuses to drink, because of the awful way both of his parents handled alcohol. He'd cut them both out of his life entirely if they weren't bankrolling the better part of his college education. Some of the pressure to get a "smart" degree comes from them, if just so he can do it to spite them. His father alternately pushed him towards high-paying or prestigious fields, then dismissed him as unable to ever succeed at such a thing. He firmly intends to have an incredible life, far away from them. He wants to prove them wrong and he wants to prove his own worth in the world at large. How, exactly, he'll do it, he's not sure... but he wants to, and that has to count for something.

Gem Considerations: I've chosen heliodor for Picky's gem. Going by the description, it's a stone known for its ties with optimism, confidence, and empowerment. He hasn't always been the most open and optimistic of people, but as of moving away from home and deepening his friendship with Tracy (and okay maybe saving the world a little) he's coming to believe more in himself and in others. It's also noted to renew trust and self-worth, things his upbringing hadn't done much to naturally instill. I want him to work past that and start truly believing in himself... and once he's gotten used to having that metaphorical light shining inside him, I'd like him to start shining that light on others to help them, too.

I also wanna stick it on Picky's forehead because he has those huge in-the-way bangs and I think it would be funny.

Power considerations:
List Three Powers You Would Like Your Character To Have:

Light Manifestation - Tying in with his gemstone, being able to project light from it or manifest semi-permanent balls of light to act as light sources, markers, or distractions seems fitting.

Animal Communication - Picky has a soft spot for animals, feeling large amounts of empathy for them. Being able to talk to them/understand them would help reinforce that.

Super speed - Because of all the physical sort of super-powers he could get, it would be a fun one to start him off with, given his energy levels and his goofiness.

Picky is an entirely average (occasionally less-than-average) human in his own world, one who has psychics and time-travellers and other impressive people for friends. While he's been confident in his ability to handle himself without superpowers, he's going to really enjoy being a little more than human. Or a lot more, as time goes on. He had spent a lot of time feeling uncool and not that special, and being granted special abilities will be something that he'll delight in. Maybe a little too much. If his abilities end up too cool, he might get a big head about it, and need to be taken back down a few notches by his friends.

Sample: Here's a bunch of stuff from the test drive!