[Q] Touchstone the Malboro [Ready/Crits/HAVE A POLL]

[medigel]

AMITYVILLE ACADEMY ENROLLMENT FORM

Full Name: Oscar Touchstone Devorant Shylock
Nicknames: Just Touchstone okay, it makes it sound cooler who names their kid Oscar anyway
Gender: Technically genderless, can be applied male pronouns
Age: Mental equivalent of 16 (plant monsters age slowly)

Faction: Monster
Race: Malboro

Natural Ability: Acidic Affinity - Malboros can expel a strong stomach acids that corrodes most materials, though as a first year it's not lethal. Does not smell good. 8(


Personality:
An Brit/Aussie mixed-flavored scareling of royalty, Touchstone is the love child of Skindiana Bones and Grieve Irwin and enjoys nothing more than to explore: uncharted areas of Halloween, ancient ruins where artifacts were once held, ghouls' favorite hangout spots and the best place to spy on them from. He gets a thrill from adventure and being on the move, and consequentially he's hardly seen to be standing still. There's always something to investigate, treasures to find, caves to spelunk, and so on! Mind you, some things he finds in his possession aren't alway, ah, legitimate, but . . . finders keepers?

Look, if you drop a pen and don't bother to look for it, he's happy to add it to his collection. You never know when you need like twenty inkpens okay.

For the most part, Touchstone is an easy going sort of monster who loves to pig out, get dirty, and otherwise not be very aristocratic. He does have the capability to be diplomatic and courteous but finds it to be stuffy and tried - why use words when you can use actions instead? And actions totally speak louder than words anyway so there. There are times where he can show he's not the brightest crayon in the bunch, but he'll definitely be the one on the scene first if he can help it: confident to the point of cocky, chipper, and ready to look danger in the eye and say G'day, mate.

A highly sociable creature, Touchstone loves to gab with others and gobble food - most likely at the same time. He often unconsciously uses his tentacles as feelers, investigating objects before actually holding or touching them with his hands as his eyesight isn't super spectacular; binding his tentacles cuts off his senses and can quickly bring out a fierce temper, so he tries to keep people from touching them on principle lest they decide to test just how flexible those things are - or accidentally get sprayed with acid for their nosiness.

Surprisingly, for all his bluster in the field, the malboro has an milder artistic side. Give him several paintbrushes or pencils for his hand and tentacles, and he can whip out drawings at a fraction of the speed of using only a hand. Mind you, they're not exactly expert right now, but he does have a passion for the arts. Most were ingrained as part of his classical education as prince, but it doesn't mean he can't be caught singing to his skin lotion bottle in his down time - more contemporary songs of course, though, the other stuff's too posh to liking. You won't catch him admitting to liking anything his parents forced on him openly.

All in all, he's a guy who wants to pave his own way to fame through adventure, not because of his bloodline, or politics, or whatever his parents are engaging in at the time. If there's anything Touchstone can't stand, it's being bossed around all the time. Just try telling that to his minis, though, whom he adores so much he's made personal schedules for everything they do.

Why are they enrolled in Amityville Academy?
The Malboro Overking has recently been allowing the underground clans to begin overworld interaction after a moratorium on travel - something to do with reapers and wildfire and a bad trade deal, Touchstone's been told. Despite the odd events happening at Amityville, his parents wish for him to get an "education" there (the word being used jokingly, as what overworld school could possibly match what they're taught at home?) so that he might broaden his horizons a bit, appear more worldly, and thus secure the clan more status for it. "Go through the motions" as it were. Touchstone personally is okay with any reason to gtfo from his home for a bit.

FEAR Ability: Hellish Halitosis (Headlights)
The infamous technique of most Malboros involves a nasty gas attack, of which Touchstone's is no different. If activated right, noxious fumes are expelled through his mouth to stun the target with an array of awful feelings, including general malaise, a much harder time breathing and seeing, and holy hell what is that smell.


Physical Description:
APOLOGIES I JUST SORTA VOMIT DO WHATEVER OKAY
Eye Colour: Amber
Hair Colour/Style: Short tentacles sweeping over his left eye in a wavy style, a few slightly longer ones in the back that look more sentient/have mouths. Some stalks poking out maybe?
Skin Colour: Putrid/muddy green and brown with hints of orange/yellow; darker freckles along arms and cheeks
Clothing Style/Colours: Messy casual/punk - I think of TWEWY with its street style: jagged short sleeve or sleeveless shirt, cargo pants, headphones, random accessories, a scarf (to add to the tentacle look even), Square-Enix's obsession with zippers
Extra: TENTACLESSSS. Also likes paintball/painting. A compass could be a fun addition since he likes to travel. Arms/hands could be a little on the longer side with a corses look on the hands to match the sentient tentacles maybe?
References: Scarves
UBER MALBORO ("sentient" tentacle look)
More malboro
Than you can handle
Moar TWEWY/ KH clothes inspirations
 

[medigel]

MALBOROS IN HALLOWEEN

Not often is a malboro seen in the overworld these days, preferring to keep to the fringes of society – especially within Halloween’s many forests and underground lairs. Proliferating in tropical environments, these monsters form into tightknit colonies called nexi (nexus being the singular form) in which specific cultures and dialects are cultivated in their own personal microcosm. All nexi are ruled by a sovereign pair, often stemming from the oldest bloodline of individual nexus. Nexi together serve the overking, a solitary malboro of unknown age that has been around as long as their memory stretches.

Despite their affairs being courtly in nature, their businesses often aren’t. Malboro are known for their tenacity, hunger, and nosiness to stick their vines into everything, all of which come up in their transactions. For the most part, malboros deal in poisons, antidotes, and other pharmaceutical and medical drugs both over (and under) the counter. Their most famous products are Malboro Cighoulettes and their subsidiaries, addictive items that launched the species from relative obscurity into a household name.

Most malboro prefer to work through an agent in the overworld, however, and only meet directly with clients in dire or special situations. Their seclusion within their own nexi has led to a sort of mistrust of the outside world outside of business matters, believing that without a contract to bind people they’ll act on base instincts of self-preservation and therefore are not to be trusted. On that same note, a paranoid malboro has no issue with breaking the deal themselves if they feel threatened – usually violently. Mediators are therefore the more safe solution in any transaction involving their products.

There’s something of a mafia feel to some of the underground syndicates if a partnership is formed. Should seeds or other goods not come in return for the goods they sell, a patrol will happily pay a visit to the poor saps that avoid them. While there are rules in place to avoid abuse such as extortion, well . . . they have a saying for it: “If tempers run high, you’d best say aye.”

It isn’t to say malboro culture doesn’t have individuals who choose other professions: with control over their vines, some make excellent multitaskers and are employed to do the several small jobs at once, especially in things like cooking and alchemy. And in spite of their aggressive natures, these monsters are very family-oriented and taught as a sapling to respect the needs of the whole instead of the needs of one. To gain a malboro’s trust is to become part of their family, and there is no higher honor in their society than to say one is “honor bound” to another.  

[medigel]

MISCELLANEOUS

• Touchstone is a huge minipet fanboil and loves to interact with them whenever possible. He has a fondness for vicious, underrated, and poisonous types, as well as those with, well, tentacles and vines and snakey thingssssss.

• If your student has done something notable or is known for something in particular, Touchstone will probably also be a fanboil of you as well. He’s big on getting to know people and that often means putting his ear to the ground and learning who’s who and why. If there’s anything he’s learned from his family, it’s connections, connections, connections.

• His favorite sport is Paintbrawl, a more vicious form of paintball, followed by a Casketball as a close second. This isn’t to say he wouldn’t love to try other physical activies either, however, as he enjoys exerting himself against competition and having fun.

• As much as he plays as a big brave boil, Touchstone is still afraid of certain things, certain things being the extremities of fire and ice – neither are exactly conducive to plantlife. While he’s not nearly as phobic as undead are to flames, and while he’ll try to pay it off, if things get a bit too much he’ll bail for his safety or find any means to get rid of the offending situation.

• Ghouls are also something mysterious he’s yet to really figure out, no matter how hard he tries or acts like he knows them. Being friendly to them is still as easy as breathing, but if flirting starts to happen, he’ll suddenly become very . . . not so cool. It’s unknown how he’ll react if a boil does the same to him.

(( more to come maybe idk ))  

[medigel]

Extra post just in case aaaaand ready to be looked at! Apologies if something is repetitive or doesn't make sense - my rough starts tend to have a habit of contradicting themselves on accident or not making things clear.

Main question for now is whether to keep him a boy or make him a girl. I'm just curious to see what others think while I spruce him up in the meantime and mull it over. ouo  

[Huni Pi]

How can you always come up with the BEST concepts? *0* heart You can play Touchstone as neither while leaning/preferring male or female OwO androgyny is awesome!