diadem app

[recreatable]

Player Information

Player: Elle
Contact: birdlaw
Invitation OR characters played: Theresa!
Are you over 18?: Yes!


Character Information

Character: Verso Dessendre
Canon: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, mid-Act 2 — after defeating both of the Axons, but before approaching the Monolith
Age: Physically looks ~30s-ish, chronologically "over 100"
History: Link
Possessions: Clothes on his back.
Weapon: Verleso, which he can conjure and dismiss at will — Verso has a two-handed fighting style and uses the pictured sword and parrying dagger simultaneously (ignore the gun lmfao... that ain't his). If having the dagger is overkill/counts as more than one weapon, I'm fine with just keeping the sword.

Powers/Abilities:

• IMMORTALITY / REGENERATION — Verso does not age and cannot die. He can heal from any wound, survive being poisoned, bisected, etc. Although he doesn't seem to be able to stop healing from something that would be lethal, he has limited control over this regeneration and can at least choose not to heal something entirely (keeping a scar, etc.).
  
  
• COMBAT — Aside from general swordsmanship, he occasionally uses minor combat magic to augment physical attacks (so, standard vidya fare). This magic is almost always light-based and never used without a physical attack. He also has the ability to take on other people's status effects and suffer them for them—translating this to RP, I would assume this is things like magical effects, etc. and not wounds, etc. as he's not able to heal anyone.
  
  
• MISCELLANEOUS — Having spent 67 years on the Continent, Verso is a good survivalist with basic wilderness skills. He's also talented at poetry, singing, and art, and has played the piano for a century.

Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?

The most important person in his life is his mother, who magically created him in a Canvas—essentially a fabricated world that Painters such as her can enter at will—as a perfect imitation of her dead son. 🫠

Tl;dr reason why she's important: His mother's reluctance to leave the Canvas, as it's the only place in which she can pretend her son is still alive, is the driving factor behind the Gommage, an annual massacre of every citizen in Lumière above a certain age. Since she refuses to leave the Canvas on her own, her real-life husband uses the Gommage as an attempt to force her out by destroying her creations.

This is obviously a bit of a guilt point for Verso! On top of that, Lumièran citizens hold yearly Expeditions in an attempt to reach and kill the Paintress, his mother; for years, he worked against them in order to protect her and keep their family together, but after growing disillusioned he now accompanies these Expeditions in the hope of expelling her from the Canvas for good. She's also the person who granted him immortality, which he very much doesn't want.

Obviously, a lot would be different if she weren't around. He wouldn't exist! His existence as a recreation of a person who lived outside the Canvas causes him no small amount of distress, as does the fact that his mother remaining in the Canvas is not only causing her psychological suffering but is also slowly killing her real body that exists outside the Canvas. The regular slaughter of the Painted citizens of Lumière is also indirectly due to his existence—both the Gommage and murderous attempts by his Painted father to 'protect their family'—which has been a large factor in his depression and disillusionment.

Aside from all that, he's a very dutiful son—he was created to be—and really, really loves his mother.

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?

During Verso's original Expedition, he was torn in half by a monster, called Nevrons in their world. His fellow Expedition members witnessed him healing from the very much lethal wound, and when questioned, he lied about it (his favorite thing to do). The Expeditioners became extremely suspicious, especially knowing that he and his father were the sole survivors of a previous search-and-rescue attempt, and eventually he was abducted and interrogated by a group of his fellow comrades, including Julie, the woman he loved.

He ended up killing his group of interrogators to protect his secret and his family, oops. Julie is the one person he wishes he could bring back from the dead, and originally, his goal is just that: to free his mother, the Paintress, from her confines so that she can revive Julie. Although his goal eventually changes to plunging everyone into oblivion instead, killing Julie is still his greatest regret.

He also regrets not trying to expel the Paintress from the Canvas sooner. He spent many years working against the Expeditions alongside his father before becoming disillusioned with both his own life and all of the suffering that maintaining the Canvas was causing; consequently, he made a 180 degree turn and now works with the Expeditions to find a way to reach and 'defeat' the Paintress, forcibly expelling his mother back from the Canvas and back into the real world (and dooming everyone inside the Canvas as a result, as she's the only thing keeping them alive).

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting? How might this impact their ability to adapt and in what ways will they confront this challenge?

Having a somewhat 'normal' life will definitely be a bit of a challenge for him. Verso has spent the past 67 years living in the wilderness on the Continent with only some sentient paintbrushes for company, save for the Expeditioners that he's helped and consequently watched die over and over again. He's not used to things like 'living in a society' or 'interacting regularly with human beings' anymore. He's also from what is mostly the technological equivalent of 1905 France, so it will be quite an adjustment for him to get used to things like cellphones and TVs, although the Continent can be pretty kooky and he's adaptable. He hasn't had an actual job in decades, and even before that, he was an upper-class pianist; I think he should have to suffer through being a retail worker, personally.

I think it will also be somewhat unmooring for him to have no clear purpose now that he's separated from the Canvas. While he will be extremely happy that he's gone from the Canvas, something he's been trying to achieve for decades—and something he assumes will drive his mother out as well—he will also have no real goal to achieve anymore! It will be difficult for him not to feel as if the other shoe might drop at any moment, given how hopeless life had been on the Continent.

Mostly, I see him dealing with this by throwing himself into his 'second chance' as much as he can. There's a lot of regular life that he didn't get to experience or had taken away from him, so now is the time!! He will mostly be interested in exploring music, art, and culture in this world, as well as maybe getting to talk to people who aren't liable to die within the next few days, weeks, or months. He will absolutely want to do whatever he can to ensure that he stays here long-term, so he'll be interested in looking into ways to avoid getting yoinked back where he came from.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?

General weirdness. Diffusion zones and cosmic dread won't faze him at all. The Continent, being what is essentially a magical world created by a family of artists, is full of strange and unusual things that generally operate on dream logic. The aforementioned sentient paintbrushes; giant magical flying wineskins; all manner of monsters; settings filled with flying fish; a manor that magically appears all over the Continent. Anything that appears to be weird and magical will be met with a shrug and 'sure, life is already so goddamn weird'.

After the initial adjustment period, I also see him adapting very well to being in another universe. Given that his existence in his original universe is a huge pain point for him, he will be thrilled to be here and will have absolutely no desire to go back where he came from, as he'll assume that the Canvas and his family are better off without him. He will love being among civilization again and being able to engage in the more cultured activities that he's mostly had to do without. Sleeping in a bed? Eating good food? Wearing clothes that aren't the same ones he's worn for 67 years? Everything is coming up Verso, honestly. As a wealthy Frenchman who's had to live a rather ascetic life out in the wilderness, he'll greatly enjoy having a life similar to the one he had to give up.

I also hope to see him create some emotional bonds with other characters! Since pretty much every human he's interacted with in the past few decades has died—and because his ultimate goal is to have everyone in the Canvas, himself included, erased—he's been opposed to forming deep attachments. Now that he's somewhere where people don't have expiration dates and he isn't hiding a terrible secret plan, I think he will learn to be far more open to friendships and human connection, which he could really use.

Samples

Sample: TDM top-level and a tag-out!