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So, this is a combination SOTU and brainstorming post. Help me, oh Thusians (and anyone else)...

Zelgadis
Currently, Zel is getting into a place he's been once before in canon, which is wondering if it's worth giving a fuck about other people when they die.

So, this is a bit of headcanon. Zel's first appearance in canon is head of a gang of mercenaries that do Rezo's dirty work. When Zel tells Rezo to jump in a lake, two of them -- Zolf and Rodimus -- stick with Zel, which clearly moves Zel. Unfortunately, they're the ones killed off when Rezo goes all Demon Lord and we need some convenient redshirts to show that even Lina Inverse's magic isn't going to make a dent in this. After Zel, Lina and Gourry defeat Rezo-Shabranigdo, Zel chooses to leave Lina and Gourry's company and wander off alone.

Zel says it's because people like him aren't welcome in cities, but Zel's negotiated cities in canon. Heck, in Slayers Next he visits the very city he doesn't enter here with Lina and Gourry. So my headcanon is that Zel decides to deal with the fact that the only two people who haven't betrayed him (and aren't two people he got thrown with because of chance) just died messily and he's working with the idea that 'making friends with people means they betray you or die, or both'. That and the whole chimera thing had him convinced that he couldn't meet people easily or comfortably travel with them.

Canon plus Sabra mostly broke him of this habit because it forced him to rely on people. In Sabra, everyone got a bit of codependency on teammates simply because you were working with these people in life or death situations and getting all your dirty laundry hauled in front of them. Zel never had a chance to develop his standoffishness beyond a certain innate 'being the dependable Vulpecula'. (Canon already primed him for this because he'd made friends and started to find a place as part of a team, albeit a looser-knit one than Sabra).

Post-Sabra, left him without a goal, so he replaced it by trying to find a way to help people in Sabra (specifically that there was a version of Lina Inverse in the Pillar) instead of... say, going back to stay long-term with his friend/the girl who might still have a crush on him. Basically, Zel couldn't commit -- Sabra made him a bit codependent on 'must be near my people', but he didn't really have many life skills for being sedentary in a town. I'm playing with the idea that he was finally working through this when he died. So, no chance at closure with friends.

To some extent having Thusia reminded Zel a bit of the early last round of Sabra, before the games really beat in the armed camp mentality and teams worked together to get enough stuff for survival. It helped that people he knew kept showing up here, including Lucky and Nova. Of course, then most of them died/vanished into the jungle and Nova is... well, repressing most hints of emotion, and Zel feels he has no right to lean on him, since Lucky was more to him than she was to Zel, despite being teammates. And, to an extend, he's starting to wonder how much of his relationships in Sabra was just because they were on the same team and had to work together.

So, Zel's this close to going back to 'friends suck because they leave you or you leave them', but with a veneer of still being helpful and contributing because he still believes they'll all die if they don't work together. Hence being willing to help Lenalee look for Chrys and Ptou. Unfortunately, Zel's changed enough that this will make him miserable. He was ready to settle down and try town life with a friend before he died. He's starting to settle here. So he wants all those things like friendship and romance (oh, hell, he has no idea what to do on this one), but... well, unsure how to make friends when not in bossfights and unsure if Thusia will continue to suck and unsure as to how to maintain things.

I, as a player, want something to catalyze a change or revelation. I don't know what though.

Toph

Toph is sick of being blind in a tree. She's complained about this before -- that she can't leave HQ because she can't see, and HQ is slowly losing its nature. She can't teach people earthbending, there's only so much building she can do, she doesn't know any useful skills and she's generally bored and resentful that she can't leave without being defenseless and others can.

She's thinking about seeking out one of the gods for help, but she doesn't want vision... mostly because she's stubborn. (I'd also question if a blind-from-birth person even had the right brain pathways to see if she got vision.) Which means either trying to find a god who will expand her earthbending sense to work on things other than earth, stone and metal, or going to Ur'ghaste and experimenting with things like sonar and stuff.

Ur'ghaste could work, except Toph is terrible at introspection. She doesn't mind pushing other people out of their comfort zones, because it's hilarious, but she's terrible at figuring out herself sometimes. And most of her discomfort comes when it comes to actually conforming or working in a group.

(So, that's a direction, but there could be other ones to go with. Toph does like Zhen Ji's MO.)

Also, question meme. Why not? Feel free to ask about anyone I've played, past or future.
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Zelgadis Graywords

November 2012

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