Empatheias app

[soulacebandage]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Marie
Contact: seemarierun on Plurk
Age: Way over 18
Current Characters:None!


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Will Solace
Age: 15
Canon: Camp Half-Blood Chronicles
Canon Point: The end of Book I: The Hidden Oracle of the Trials of Apollo series. Will has come in from the high-spirited celebration following Leo Valdez's triumphant return to Camp Half-Blood.

Background:

Will @ the Riordan Wiki
Links to the pages for his larger appearances: The Last Olympian, The Blood of Olympus, and The Hidden Oracle

A few additions of the deductive headcanon variety, since Will's backstory before the Battle for Manhattan is limited to his mother's name and career and his hometown:

- Will arrived Camp Half-Blood at age 11, as 10-12 has been given as the range for which demigods begin to be hunted by monsters.

- Will is one of the few campers who is a year-round resident of Camp Half-Blood, and this is canonically only done if living elsewhere would be a death sentence for the demigod (monsters can smell demigods). As he is not blessed with OTT offensive abilities (or, indeed, much of a brain for combat), I tend to credit his survival to his being attacked by monsters under the supervision of a satyr, as it is likely that the child of a country musician single mom was at a boarding school. Such schools are canonically monitored for demigods.

- Despite being a year-round camper, there are signs he still sees his mom for vacations, as he has souvenir gear from ski resorts and a tropical island.

Personality:

The most striking thing about Will Solace is how easygoing he manages to be surrounded by dozens of fellow campers who all have massive chips on their shoulders. He's generally mature for his age and composed, although he admits that sometimes he's only pretending to be so calm. He's been described as a live-wire underneath.

Will knows that, as one of the head counselors, other campers look to him for an example. He can't afford to lose his cool without a good reason. One of the only times he's been visibly shaken (after delivering a baby satyr, at fifteen), he signed up for a sabotage mission behind enemy lines to clear his head and possibly give himself a reason for being freaked out.

The other time, he manages to keep himself from running into the woods to find his missing siblings, the latest in a string of 5 campers to vanish. He was not happy about it, but there are half a dozen seriously injured campers to treat. Will has too strong of a sense of duty to charge off like that - and he convinced his impetuous father to stay as well.

Under pressure, he can be bossy or show a bit of a temper. He's not above ordering his own father around in a crisis (okay, Apollo was depowered, but he still hollered without hesitation. That's generally a big no-no.) As for the temper, Will doesn't like people who distort the facts, whether through lies or because they can't see the forest for the trees. He can, and does, rail against them when it happens, and then his stubbornness shines through.

In the Riordan mythos, demigods of the same parents generally share a common fatal flaw. The children of Apollo's flaw hasn't been officially identified yet, but it's pretty clear what it is: the complete and utter inability to accept that they are anything other than both right and amazing. Will doesn't give up in an argument, and truth-telling is his weapon of choice, although he will resort to anger and name-calling if things disintegrate.

But he stays pretty level-headed and exudes good vibes. He doesn't like talking about the bad stuff and tends to leave that to other campers, if he can put it off without lying. As implied above, Will's an honest guy, and most people seem to like him. Notably, he's able to say things and touch some of the camp's most notoriously prickly teens without getting punched in the face, or even yelled at.

As Nico di Angelo says, Will has a way of defusing anger, but it's really hard to not like someone who is non-judgmental, caring, sarcastically funny, and considerate. He genuinely notices people and things. Will pays attention from his low key, not-quite-last-row spot and seems to be good at assessing life in a short amount of time. It's little personal things like warning people away from mentioning someone's missing boyfriend or observing how Nico was a driving factor towards his own exile, and it's also big picture stuff, like how he's the one person among hundreds of demigods in a battle to see past the adrenaline of the charge to notice that there was a fast-approaching reason for everyone to maybe not charge.

That one might've been a little self-serving, because he'd be the one patching them all up later, but ... whatever, he was right (not that he admits when he's wrong). He does, however, sometimes partake in another family trait: sheer stupidity. Sure, he's a gifted healer and other campers consider him clever, so Will's obviously not always dumb, but he does have a few moments of mind-bending blondeness. For example, Will paints his face black and dresses in all black clothing for that sabotage mission... when the sun is up. Even if hadn't been, he forgot to cover his bright yellow hair. Also, when confronted by half a dozen armed Romans, does he pull his weapon? No, he runs... and somehow they just run after him. His is a charmed life.

It should probably be mentioned that Will is one of the three characters present at what's described as Octavian's murder-by-consensus/gruesome suicide who clearly observed that Octavian was set to be thrown himself if he set off the catapult. Will tries to plead for sanity and mercy - he makes more of an attempt to talk Octavian down than anyone else - but Octavian, insane with glory, continually cuts Will off before any real progress can be made (or, indeed, even an explanation of "you're attached to the payload, idiot"). Will has made peace with what happened. Octavian wouldn't hear reason, and the catapult shot did contribute to the victory over Gaea. It saved more lives than were lost, but Will's never going to count it among his finest moments.

While Will doesn't seem to be a fan of some of the camp's activities (three-legged death race, anyone?), he does seem to enjoy skiing, canoeing, and surfing.


Abilities:

The same Wiki as linked above has an abilities section. However, I find that several of these skills over-generalized as they apply to all of Apollo's children, so I'd like to take a moment to discuss some of them in more detail.

ARCHERY
I would clarify that Will's archery ability is definitely not an inherited godly talent, as it is with most of his siblings. Will is shown in canon wishing his archery was better for the war. However, given his presence in the Battle for Manhattan with the other archers on the bridge, and in other fights, it has likely been trained enough for him to not be considered pure cannon fodder, either. No army lets their best healer go sneaking around behind enemy lines unless they're reasonably sure they're getting him back.

It's likely that it's just something he's been trained in. The campers take classes in archery, swordplay, etc.

HEALING
Will's healing ability is more varied than the wiki claims. His best healing (and most taxing on him) seems to be vitakinesis (that's the wiki's word) they're describing, with a laying on of hands and a sung prayer. This type of heal seems to drain him significantly.

Luckily, he's also shown having an incredible knack for other healing practices, and the sung heal seems to be his absolute last resort. He has delivered a baby and stitched up campers. Will has successfully reattached limbs, and he has implied that he's performed surgery as well.

He is able to diagnose injuries through sight and touch alone, from knowing if someone's ribs are mending to being able to tell how much dark energy has accrued within them.

MUSIC
"Natural musician" seems to be a bit of a stretch. We're shown via his half-brother Austin what a child of Apollo is like when music is their inherited skill (jazz sax compositions going viral on Youtube weekly, making people cry with simple tune-ups), and Will even says that the awful, ear-piercing whistle is one of his few musical abilities. The whistle is definitely a power though - it stopped two charging armies. The others are likely the singing healing ability and possibly the guitar, as he and the other Apollo campers lead the nightly sing-alongs with their guitars.

Athletic
Uh... I don't consider that a power. (it's never explicitly stated that I can find). Apollo was the patron god of the Pythian Games (like the Olympics), so it would make sense but... I mean all the demigods partake in archery, swordplay and a daily boot camp work out. The Apollo campers seem to love the volleyball court, but I'm limiting this to his just being in peak condition.

The other listed powers/skills (enhanced battle reflexes causing ADHD and being able to curse people to speak in rhyme) are as written.

Alignment:

Sosyne. There are several options that would work for him, but his calm nature and calming influence are a repeated thread in his characterization. In addition to that, it's a character trait that he cultivates, because he knows how important it is for at least one person to be unphased when shit goes down. When you can survive your immortal god father becoming a regular mortal - and your age - without freaking out, I think you definitely should be aligned with Sosyne.

Other:

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉


General Sample: Sample on TDM ETA: Borrowing Cerberus was discussed with the player.

Emotion Sample:

Turning up like this - alone in the middle of nowhere - had him spooked nearly from the start.

Nearly because he was still buoyed by the jubilant scene that had surrounded him only minutes ago and because Will had a handy reason for why he might've moved to the edge of the lake. He'd thought that Nico might've shadow-walked them away from the amphitheater and turned to give him grief about at least giving him a warning before dragging a guy through oblivion in the name of faster than darkness travel. Nico wasn't there.

That was... strange, but everyone at Camp Half-Blood liked to have little fun and let off some steam. Maybe it was a bad practical joke - it was a good weekend for them, too. The camp was saved in an epic battle, no one was dead, and Leo Valdez had returned. Emotions were riding fairly high, and Will could see why Nico might've wanted to get away for awhile. The crowd was getting loud, even without Meg McCaffrey to stir things up.

Meg. Will frowned deeply, forgetting momentarily about his predicament and spiraling off on a mental tangent about the young demigod who had now officially vacated the camp. Running off after Nero solo, what was that girl thinking? She'd left Austin, Kayla, Apollo and all the others stranded in the woods, too. Maybe she hadn't noticed the literal Colossus that had been attacking the camp. He could give her the benefit of the doubt.

It actually pissed Will off, in a way. He ran toward screaming, and she ran away, leaving his family to work out injuries, escape, and an 80-foot automaton just so she could go charging pell-mell after the enemy that was already gone. It was so irresponsible, but Meg probably wouldn't even get bathroom duty. Why was he the only one -

The grass around his feet began to smoke green steam as the blades went gray. Will didn't notice, as the twilight made everything gray. Why was he the only one here, still? He had to have been standing here, lost in thought, for awhile, and Nico hadn't turned up. A practical joke in the sense of "surprise, now we're at the lake!" would've been a stretch. Something that involved hiding in the woods over there and jumping out to say boo? Not likely. It wasn't not Nico's style, and Nico was the only one who could've gotten Will here in a blink.

No, Nico was the only good option for how to be teleported away. Will knew that he wasn't the only way. Something was... wrong, and now that he looked around, the fear started to bubble up in his stomach. The lake was the wrong shape and way too big. When he risked a glance in the water, there was a distinct lack of water nymphs. Sure, they could've been somewhere else, but they were gossipy and flirty. They were always finding their way over.

"Nico? Are you there?" Will tried to forcibly return to the original idea, as he turned a slow circle. It was just Nico having a laugh. Wasn't Will trying to get him to loosen up? This was all just a misunderstanding. "You're kind of ruining the illicit, spur-of-the-moment sneaking out with hide-and-go-seek."

He had no idea why he was whispering, but alone in the growing darkness, it seemed like the right call. Will wasn't used to being alone for any length of time - he lived in a year round summer camp. Privacy did not come easy, with half-siblings for cabinmates, scheduled shower times, and communal meals. The continued lack of a companion and the still water had him thoroughly unnerved, increasingly afraid and angry. All the while, the grass around him steamed and dried out.

No one that Will knew would hold out on him this long. Backing away from the water creeped him out further, as the grass had not only crisped but hardened. It was like cheap Astro-turf beneath his flip-flops. When he bent down to examine the grass, he couldn't pick it.

Will was unable to continue pretending that this was some semblance of normal. He drew his dagger out of the sheath on his belt. It was more of a tool than a weapon - he carried it alongside a pouch of medical supplies to cut bandages - but it was something. When he was backing away from who-knows-what over fossilized grass, when he was increasingly certain that he was supposed to be somewhere else entirely, when he was mentally calling up all the terrible, mythical reasons this could be happening to him...

He was glad to have that something. After going backwards a few meters, Will turned and ran in what would've been the direction of the cabins from the lake. He prayed to his father that it was.

Questions:

I know characters turn up with whatever's on them, but I figured I should point out that Will would have some healing supplies on him.

Since campers tend to wander around with a smidge of battle stuff around, just in case the dinner gets interrupted by an angry peach spirit (... it's happened), I'd like for Will to turn up with his dagger and a small pouch of medical stuff on his belt. It wouldn't be big, and most of its contents would be mundane. Let's say a handful of bandaids, enough gauze and ace bandage for one more serious cut, and a sterile needle and thread. As for the magical demigod stuff, perhaps a half-empty pack of medicinal gum and a travel-shampoo sized bottle of nectar.

Would that be permissible? I'm absolutely fine with just the dagger and the normal human bandages, too.