Luceti Application

[wee_big_man]

Mun

Name: Tori
Livejournal Username: tori-angeli
E-mail: phoenixrider at earthling dot net
AIM/MSN: m t angeli
Current Characters at Luceti: noprevaricating

Character

Name: Rob Anybody Feegle
Fandom: Discworld
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Time Period:
Wing Color: Dull brown on the back, striped black-and-cream on the front, after a little sparrowhawk.
History:
Rob in general
Pictsies
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith
I Shall Wear Midnight

Personality:
I'm the Big Man o' the clan.

(Please consider here things such as habits, likes and dislikes, thought patterns, experiences and so on. This section should be fairly detailed!)

Strengths:

Physical
I'll wallop ye and ten like ye!

Rob Anybody, like other Feegles, is strong enough to lift at least one quarter of a cow. We know this to be so because that is how Feegles steal cows—one at each hoof, lift, run. His fighting style is dirty as your average Dane Cook joke but wildly efficient, although not quite so suited for one-on-one. Feegles have very hard heads (Hamish, an aviator, used to land on his head before Tiffany taught him about parachutes), so headbutting is part of it, as well as giving the enemy “sich a kickin'.” The kickin', of course, is also abominable due to the constant state of hygiene of the Feegle foot (excepting the time when Miss Level made the little men take a bath).

Feegles are also incredibly fast. Their sheer speed makes them capable of moving virtually unseen. This is very useful for the “drinkin' an' fightin' an' stealin',” for obvious reasons, but it can also be very useful for any humans they decide to help. Tiffany, to impress Roland, once pointed at a bucket and declared, “Fill yourself!” For all appearances, the bucket barely moved, and was instantly sloshing with water. The Nac Mac Feegle had taken the bucket out and filled it so quickly that it was never missed. This is not to say that Feegles do everything that quickly, har har.

Perhaps most unsettling is the fact that Feegles are virtually indestructible. They can die, of course, but they're hard to kill. If you throw one down, it bounces back. If you crush one, it springs back up, not to mention it can carry you by itself so don't bother. This is described in various places in the books, most notably Wintersmith.

Mental
Whoever writted that book didna stretch himself, in ma opinion.

Feegles are not known for their brains, as fish are not known for their bicycle pirouettes. Still, Rob surprisingly bright and can read and write, even though he can't do either particularly well. The fact that he can do it at all, as a Feegle, is still a mental strength on his part, and it comes in very handy when breaking into Tiffany's diary. He is also capable of thinking existentially (and even uses the word “existential” at one point), something that panics most Feegles. He is the Big Man of the Chalk Hill Clan, so he is in charge of tactics. His tactics usually consist of “when something comes in, we fight it!” but can be stretched to include things besides mindless violence. For example, when trying to leave the underworld, the Ferryman will not let Roland and the Summer Lady pass because they cannot pay the fee. The Feegles are free to go, since they are not wanted. Rob threatens the Ferryman that he and every one of the Feegles will stay if the other two cannot come with them. It works like a charm.

He is very creative. His wife says his Explanations (it has to be capitalized) are very long and the kind of thing no one else would come up with. When asked how he did something, he offers the truth—or the story with dragons and unicorns in it. People usually ask for the truth, at which point he is disappointed, because the truth is so boring.

I'm not sure if I should put this under “mental” or “physical,” but Feegles have an ability called the “crawstep.” It allows the Feegle to travel between worlds. He sticks his elbows behind him, leans way back, puts a foot out for balance, wiggles his ankle, and leans forward again. The moment his foot touches the ground, he is gone. This is not used for traveling within a world, the proper tool for that being “feets.” As this is Luceti, the crawstep will not be very useful.

But perhaps most striking is a certain wisdom in supernatural matters, his memory and absorption of all things “fairy” and “ghost” and “hag” (witch). Feegles are very keen in this way, and Rob in particular advises Tiffany often in regards to the supernatural. How else would she know to look a headless horseman in the eyes he has not got?

He also knows what “poetic symmetry” is. For a Feegle, this is no small feat.

Emotional
I never braked my word yet. Except to polis'men and other o' that kidney, ye ken, and they dinna count.

As Feegles are essentially tiny Bravehearts, and Rob Anybody is one of the bravest of the brave, being the one to rile up his brothers so they can face such terrors as bogles, the Fairy Queen, lawyers, and dirty dishes. He can read and write, which is considered very brave and heroic. In A Hat Full of Sky, he stays behind alone in Tiffany's mind to protect her from the hiver while the other Feegles perform a fetch quest. Speaking of, he is also fiercely loyal to those he cares about—not only his brothers, but his wife Jeannie and Tiffany Aching. Most astonishingly of all, at the beginning of A Hat Full of Sky, he has a bit of an existential crisis, torn between his “big wee hag” and his wife and kelda. This level of internal conflict is so unusual and distressing for a Feegle that he refuses drink. Once he has proved to the satisfaction of the other Feegles that he is not dead, Jeannie recognizes his difficulty and places him under a geas (pronounced like the bird), an unbreakable oath, to protect Tiffany. His code of honor is fierce, and he does not break his word (see the above quote for exceptions).



Weaknesses: (Physical, mental and emotional; PLEASE PROVIDE CANON EXAMPLES)

Physical
Ach, there I goes again, accidentally nearly throttlin' ye.

Feegles can get out of anywhere--except pubs. This is a very serious physical weakness. Also, Rob is about six inches tall. When fighting a human-sized foe, Feegles usually make a pyramid out of themselves. The tallest one them punches the human in the face. Once they're down and everyone is the same height, it's a free-for-all. Alone, Rob does not have that. He has to make do at his current height unless he can find something to climb on (which, to be fair, can very much be the person he's trying to knock out).

Mental
Okay, lads, this is what we'll do. As soon as we see somethin', we'll attack it. Right?

Wintersmith reads, “[Rob had] learned to read and write because Jeannie had asked him to. He did them with a lot more optimism than accuracy, Billy knew. When he was faced with a long sentence, he tended to work out a few words and then have a great big guess.” While the fact that he can read is a marvel for a Feegle, he cannot do so very well, nor is he, as the quote above implies, often very thoughtful in other ways. It isn't that Rob is incapable of hard thinking, it just isn't common for him to expend his energy in that way instead of physically. He'd much rather fight something than think about it (a rubber duck was the victim of this trend amongst Feegles in A Hat Full of Sky). Some of his better plans (“plan” being spelled PLN as of the second book, his literary skills being in their trembling aurora during this time) come out of instinct rather than careful thought.

Counting is not his best skill. Numbers generally serve to confuse him. When trying to spell “marmalade” at Granny Weatherwax's order, Granny began counting as a way to make him nervous (it ended up spelled MRAMLAD). He uses mnemonic tricks to remember how letters look, but does not always remember which way the letter R points and other fine details. His tendency to act first, think later (he tries to headbutt Death in A Hat Full of Sky) runs rampant unless someone duller than he (like his brother Daft Wullie) is in need of correction. In general, his head is better used as a weapon than a supercomputer.

Emotional
Hey, I wuz breakin' it tae her gently! I did say “wee bittie” twice, right?

There are four very serious emotional weaknesses stated outright in canon. Three come exclusively from women, particularly deadly when performed by the kelda or Tiffany Aching: the Pursin' o' th' Lips, the Foldin' o' th' Arms, and the Tappin' o' th' Feets (oh waily, the Tappin o' th' Feets!). The fourth is lawyers, although these are not quite as terrifying now that Rob knows he can have a defense lawyer. Words were once a cause for terror, but now, Rob has learned how to read.

Feegles are not known for their tact. They are emotionally sensitive enough, but when Rob tells Miss Level that one of her bodies has died by calling her “a wee bittie dead,” it is not received well. They regularly break into Tiffany's room, invade her privacy, and read her diary because why would she lock it up if she didn't want someone to read it? On an unrelated note, their self-control is practically nonexistent. When in someone's house, they will drink anything that looks alcoholic. In The Wee Free Men, they drank kerosene without knowing it was not booze (no one died, but once he knew what “inflammable” meant, he ordered his brothers to avoid taking a leak anywhere near any open flame.)

Rob is not as easily upset as many other Feegles (most notably Daft Wullie) but this brave little man is still intimidated by witches, as are most Feegles. This might be traced back to the authority a woman holds in the Feegle clan. He has spent his life as a member of the Chalk Hill Clan, his mother and wife both acting as kelda during his lifetime, and keldas can be very like witches, with the First Sight (seeing things for what they are) and the Second Thoughts (thinking about how you're thinking—Rob knows what all this is, of course, but does not always possess these traits himself). A woman with authority is a big deal, and witches can turn you into frogs and other unpleasant things.



Samples (ALL samples must be set in Luceti-verse.)

First Person:

Ach! Crivens!

[On the screen, a blue man can be seen with tall green plants around him. Wait, no—that's grass. That is grass, and the man is roughly as tall as the grass. And the man is not blue. On closer look, those are tattoos, everywhere on his body, and blue paint everywhere that's not tattooed, but it requires quite a bit of focus to see this. He's wearing new feather pants and appears to be attempting to bite his own wings.]

Ohh, this is a piece o' work! Daft Wullie! Big Yan!

[Beat.]

Daft Wullie? Big Yan? Eheheheh, I get it! It's nae a bad joke! Hamish? You're a part o' this, no mistakin' it!

[He parts the grass with his hands, scanning, then peers at the sky.]

Hamish? Your wee burdie wants its wings back! HAMISH, IF YE DON'T GET DOON HERE RIGHT NOO I'LL GIE YOU SICH A KICKIN'!

...Boys?

[He looks at the wings again.]

Ach, this is nae guid. It's back tae th' land o' th' livin', is what. Less'n I'm mistaken. I'll miss bein' deid.

[The dirty, hairy little pictsie sits in the grass with a sigh.]

Puir Jeannie, an' her wi' all the wee babbies.


Third Person: (Samples must be 300 words or above. Remember to write using proper grammar, verb tenses, and paragraphs.)