Silent Spring App

[justanotherjohn]

OOC
Player Name: Trystan
Pronouns: He/him
Player Age: I’m in my forties
Player Timezone: GMT
Anything you MUST have warnings for? school shootings
Other Characters in Game: n/a
Plurk (if you have one): NewKillerStar
Other Contacts: DM this journal
Invite source: Mod invite

IC
Character Full Name, Western Order: (John) Homelander
— Diminutive, if applicable: Most of the time, he’ll introduce himself as Homelander, but sometimes he’ll let people call him John.
Character Chronological Age: early 40s
Character Visible Age, if different: a buff and healthy early 40s
Character Gender: Male

Canon: The Boys
Canonpoint: At the end of Season Three, Homelander introduces his son Ryan to a group of fans. One person in the crowd is not a fan of superheroes, and throws a drink at Ryan. The can hits Ryan in the head, but startles him rather than harming him. Homelander steps in front of his son and uses his laser eyes to murder the can-thrower in broad daylight, in front of hundreds of witnesses. There are a few beats of silence, where the crowd doesn’t react. Homelander is from those exact moments, when he knows he’s crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed and is unsure on how the crowd will react.

ONE paragraph synopsis of character and canon premise: In a world where superheroes are real and a valuable commodity, Homelander is the strongest one out there. Imagine Superman, but with crippling emotional baggage and a short fuse that burns down a lot more frequently than anyone would like. Raised in a lab and systematically tortured to be crafted into the ultimate American superhero (or Supe), Homelander thinks he’s far more intelligent and conniving than he actually is and has a dangerously inflated sense of self that’s only second to his pathological need to be loved. He simultaneously believes he’s a superior being that should be in control of all normal people and that he’s a weak, sad little man who needs to scorch all the lingering feelings of isolation and depression out of himself. Anyone who tries to take him out is met with extreme prejudice; anyone who acts like they care for him is met with smothering, misguided affection.

Character Personality:

--Manipulative: Homelander can, will, and does try to manipulate those around him to go along with what he wants. His success with this is variable: he’s used to easy acquiescence from Vought execs, but also knows that’s only because they’re afraid of him; when he comes up against people who aren’t afraid of him, he’s befuddled, and his manipulation tactics often fall flat. His power at manipulation is backed by his powers, and he is aware of it. Characters like Billy Butcher, a normal human, infuriate him, because Butcher is impervious to Homelander’s schemes and will even turn his back on him. Homelander doesn’t understand this, because he hasn’t quite realised that his manipulation skills are mostly in his own head, and that without Vought and the threat of laser eyes behind him, they’re not nearly as strong as he thinks they are.

--Short-tempered: the entire Supe experience in The Boys is one of branding and trying to sell an image, and Homelander is aware of this. He started off genuinely wanting to help people, but that isn’t a priority for Vought, and now Homelander is disgusted and disillusioned by the whole process. This gives him a short fuse, and he lashes out quickly and vehemently whenever anything pisses him off. He is the definition of a man-child who has a fit when he doesn’t get his way, and this has led to events like letting a plane of civilians crash and die, the frequent murder of Vought employees, and killing another Supe he'd known most of his life who kept a secret from him.

--Charming: all that said, Homelander has the ability to be very charming when he wants to be. It is entirely superficial and a way of posing for the cameras, but he knows how to smile and say the almost-right things to appeal to the masses. Most of this charm is calculated and learned, not natural, but it is an ability he possesses, and it has kept him out of trouble numerous times.

--False Bravado/Humility: much like his charm, Homelander’s bravery is manufactured. It’s difficult to be a coward when there is literally nothing in your reality that can really hurt you, but looking brave and noble is important for the cameras, so Homelander knows how to turn it on and off when it suits him. Of course, when it comes to things that he’s actually afraid of (intimacy, being alone, being insignificant), Homelander turns into an absolute mess, as he has no idea how to deal with them, and it usually goes poorly for him when he tries. Which leads to his next character trait…

--Crippling loneliness: Homelander has been taught and told his entire life that he should get whatever he wants. He’s internalised this, but what he’s never been able to do is reconcile it with his failures to get what he really wants. Homelander tries again and again to find love, affection, and acceptance, and continually fails. He likes one of his tutors when he’s a child and goes to hug her: he accidentally breaks her spine and kills her. He opens up to another Supe and tries to have a relationship: turns out she’s a literal Nazi. He discovers Soldier Boy is his father and begs him to have a relationship with both Homelander and Ryan, begs him to be a family together: Soldier Boy calls him a weak piece of garbage and punches him in the face. He tries to speak up and persuade billionaires to follow one of his schemes: he looks like an idiot and needs to be saved by another Supe who has weaker powers but is far smarter than he is. He tries to be a father to Ryan: Ryan starts pulling away because he’s both a teenager and he realises how Homelander has no idea what he’s doing. The only acceptance he’s ever found is from the anonymous crowds who love him because he's a Supe, and that love has gotten more shallow and meaningless as he’s aged. All this combines to lead to his final character trait…

--Split personality/significant mental illness: in the final two seasons of The Boys (I’m apping from season three but this has been a recurring event in season four as well), Homelander’s personality has begun to fracture. All the pressure, disappointment, loneliness, and ego-mania have gotten to be too much for him, and he is no longer able to compartmentalise and deal with it. When he’s alone and distressed, he will sometimes see a different version of himself in mirrors. The mirror Homelander is confident, full of bravado, and vehemently hates normal people. He also hates the weak parts he sees of the real Homelander, who he calls John (the name Homelander was given in the labs as a child, but which he rarely, if ever, uses). Mirror Homelander hates John, and wants to burn that part of his personality away, so that MH can ascend to the godlike state he believes is his birthright.

Which is the real Homelander? Opinions are divided amongst the fandom, but I have been playing him like John is the real personality. I find that more interesting and also less loathsome; Mirror Homelander is both a hideous person and fairly one-dimensional, and I wouldn’t find it fun to play him. It will also be very difficult to keep up with Mirror Homelander’s demands, as a powerless, average person.

The point is that Homelander is a man constantly at war with himself. No matter how hard he tries to deny or hide it, he is, at his heart, very human, and has very human needs which have been denied to him his entire life. These depravations have led him to his breaking point, and left him in a very fragile mental state.

A side note: as mentioned in my invitation request, I have no interest in playing some of Homelander’s nastier tendencies, such as his issues with sexual consent or his racism. My hopes are that playing him depowered will curb some of those impulses, but I would rather play him slightly OOC than push those traits on other players, or have to play them out myself.

Character History: Homelander was a medical experiment back in the 80s. His father was the WWII Supe Soldier Boy, and his mother was a runaway who was implanted with Soldier Boy’s semen. Homelander never knew either of his parents; his father was frozen in a Russian prison for most of his life, and he killed his mother when he was born by blasting his way out of her with his eye lasers.

The lab who created Homelander proceeded to raise him, experimenting on him in ways that would make Skinner and Milgram cringe. The goal was to create the perfect superhero to defend America. In that, the experiment was successful: Homelander is ridiculously powerful, easily the strongest Supe in existence. However, part of the experiment went awry; the scientists used psychology to give Homelander a nearly pathological need for love and acceptance. What worked to control a lonely, unloved child created a dangerously unstable, highly suggestible adult, who easily falls under the sway of anyone who acts like they may care for him and give him the love he so desperately craves. Combined with his conditioning that he’s a superior being, this creates a true dichotomy in Homelander’s mind: he is the very best, the greatest there has ever been, so why doesn’t anyone love him?

As an adult, Homelander has gotten tired of the branding required by Vought, the company that controls most media and markets all the Supes. He has taken over Vought in a violent coup, elevating himself to the controlling power and putting lackeys into power positions. He then turned his attention to politics, and in the current season, is trying to set up a presidential assassination, create internment camps for those who disagree with him, and create punishing laws that would give Supes more rights than normal people. He is the epitome of toxic masculinity and divisive politics, someone who believes he should rule over everyone else with an iron fist.

Physical Details: Homelander is a prime physical specimen, someone carefully designed to look as American as apple pie. He is, however, starting to age, and with time are coming the typical indignities we all suffer: his hair is starting to grey, his prostate is slightly enlarged and causing him to pee more often, it’s implied he suffers from occasional tinnitus. He will vehemently deny all these failings.

Does this character use any disability aids? What are they and what is their purpose? No aids needed! I would, perhaps, have him need reading glasses at a later point, but that would be after being in the game for awhile.

Is the character bringing a pet? Describe them. No pets here.

Inventory upon arrival:

1. His flag cloak that you can see in some of his icons. However, I would want it hidden in the house, in a folded flag box like is given away at military funerals. In his Sweetwater history, his dad died in WWII, and I want him to have to grapple with that before finding his cloak.
2. A vial of what looks like Compound V (the chemical that makes superheroes in The Boys), but is really just blue water. This would also be hidden somewhere in his house, and may never come into play in the game. I want it purely to reserve the option to maybe, much later, have him have to decide if he WANTS his powers back.
3. That’s it!

Suitability

What elements of the game are you most interested in engaging with? The Cold War/Red Scare aspects are what intrigue me the most. This is a head canon on my part, but I think the Cold War Era would be very different in The Boys universe; it is canon that super heroes date back to WWII, so I imagine the nuclear arms race would have been less important or not happened at all. Also, Homelander isn’t the most educated guy, so even if it did happen, it’s realistic that he wouldn’t know much about it.

As such, the prospect of him being in a world where there IS this huge, existential threat that is not him he’s not able to deal with would be really scary for him. This is a guy who isn’t used to feeling physically vulnerable or afraid, and to be suddenly tossed into a world where he can’t laser eye his way out of conflicts would really affect him. This would likely make him latch onto the Red Scare politics, so he has a reason to feel scared and weak.

How will your character integrate into the setting? How do you see them dealing with life in Sweetwater? What are your plans for them in this game? He’s going to hate it so much at first! For the first time ever, he’s not the strongest, biggest threat around, and he’s going to be fighting his instincts to dive right into conflicts for awhile.

That said, I’m excited about how he’ll develop as a person without powers. In Sweetwater, he can be John instead of Homelander, and that’s going to be a very confusing time for him when he realises that. He’s wanted to be loved and to mean something to people for his entire life, and he’ll actually have that chance here. It could (and likely will) take months for him to shift himself from being a hero to actually being heroic, but I think that payoff would be really, really sweet.

Why did you choose this character specifically for this game? Homelander is, in his canon, an enormous piece of shit. He’s the final boss antagonist for his own series, as well as the spin-off series Gen V. That said, there’s a side to him, which he protects and keeps as close to his vest as he can, that desperately wants to be loved and to have an actual, real family. However, he’ll never get that as long as he’s The Homelander, the greatest super hero ever created in a lab.

I wouldn’t want to play him in any game where there is even the potential for power regains, because he’d immediately latch onto that, get his powers back, return to his comfort zone, and actively resist evolving as a character. I want him in this game because that’s not an option for him, and it will force him to reconcile John with The Homelander.

As for myself, my degree is in history and I find the Cold War era super interesting.

What are your favorite elements of horror? I’ve been a Stephen King Constant Reader since I was fifteen and stayed up too late reading Night Shift and scaring myself sleepless. I love creeping, existential dread horror, and my absolute favorite micro-genres are Doomed Arctic Exploration Horror and Take WWI and Make It WORSE, with zombies as a close second. Cosmic, Lovecraftian horror doesn’t do much for me; I like my horror closer, more personal, where human nature might just be the real problem and not the monsters howling at the doorstep.

Do you understand that Silent Spring's purpose is horror, not domesticity/found family, and that the following themes (nuclear panic, the Red Scare, conformism, sexism and restrictive gender roles, heteronormativity/gender binarism, surveillance, gaslighting, brainwashing/propaganda, disinformation, pollution/contamination, poisoning, loss of control, smoking, alcohol culture, and uncanny valley) cannot be opted out of? Absolutely! I’ve talked a lot about Homelander exploring life as John, which makes it sound like I’m here for found family, BUT the only way to get him to do those things is going to be through horrible situations. So bring on all the awful things he can’t control and let him squirm!

Do you agree to accept the potential IC consequences (social shunning/ostracism, potential exclusion from neighborhood social events, up to brainwashing, sleep deprivation torture, and nonconsensual haloperidol injection) in full for your character's actions in game? Yes! Let’s be real, he’s going to be testing boundaries fairly quickly, and I’m looking forward to him facing some consequences for the first time ever.

Do you agree to accept the most severe IC consequences (physical torture, excluding eye, nail, dental, or toe/finger trauma) for serious IC crimes beyond subversion (ex: attacking or killing an NPC, killing a PC, attempting a bank robbery...) or to abstain from having your character commit serious crimes in this setting? Yes, I’m game for these as well, although getting shunned will probably hurt Homelander worse than being tortured. That might be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow, at least for awhile. That said, I’m a huge fan of FAFO, and Homelander hasn’t spent enough time on the “find out” side of that equation.

Do you understand that this is a horrorgame, that some elements may be disturbing to you personally, and that you and only you are responsible for making sure that you don't engage with properly warned content that upsets you? I understand, and I say bring it on.


Link to TDM thread or toplevel with this character: Right here

Housing Preferences

What is your usual tagging speed? Tagging patterns? I try to clear my inbox a couple of times a week. The days can vary, depending on what I’m doing outside of rp. When I can, I take advantage of being in GMT and try to clear my inboxes while American rpers are sleeping.

What activity level is ideal to you in a partner? I like to get tags back within a few days, and try to respond in the same time frame. I’m open to backtagging, but if it takes more than a week or so to get tagged back, I’ll likely lose interest in the thread.

What is your timezone? How important is it that the other players in the household be in a similar timezone? I’m in GMT, so I’m used to other players being in different time zones. I’ll make timezone differences work for good CR!

Would you like a household with a child, without, or do you have no preference? Homelander would LOVE to have a kid, particularly a son, in his house! Whether anyone wants Homelander to be their “dad” is another story.

Are you okay with being placed with a character/character(s) that would impact your character's reputation? This sounds like an absolutely fantastic opportunity to force Homelander outside his comfort zone, so I am all in!