trashmouthed | application for wsh

PLAYER INFO.
NAME: Noodle
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She/Her
ARE YOU OVER 18? Yes, 31 and feeling it in my kneeees.
CONTACT:

doggos / noodle#7170
CURRENT CHARACTERS: hoping that this is the first!

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Richie Tozier
CANON: IT, film adaptation. Chapter One: (2017)
CANON POINT: In the midst of the struggle beneath Neibolt with IT in their attempt to rescue Beverly.
AGE: Thirteen
GENDER: Cis-Male

HISTORY:
"Oh, okay. Trash the trashmouth, I get it."

• Information on IT: "Wait, can only virgins see this stuff? Is that why I'm not seeing this shit?"
• World Description/Setting Information: "I hear the list is longer than my wang."

APPEARANCE: "Am I still handsome as an adult?"

ABILITIES:

Richie is a thirteen-year-old boy in the mid-1980s his only real skillsets are talking shit, playing video games, and serious bicycling. He's got a good head on his shoulders and is the smartest of his group in terms of being educated and book smart, this intellect ties directly into a sense of realism too, putting him slightly ahead of the curve where the other losers are concerned. His most prolific skill would be talking, and he's well-known for running his mouth. He could sell water to a whale and make it believable enough to distract from any unwanted questions, he's been in the business of using that skill and doing impressions for years and has been given the nickname "Trashmouth," because of that and has lack of a filter.

SUITABILITY:

Derry, Maine is a small isolated town near Bangor that was struck with an evil that preys upon the weak in its homestead every 27 years. That same evil has made a bedrock out of the intricate sewer system beneath the town and its presence has actively poisoned the people within its borders for centuries. It breeds the worst of humanity and growing up before taking on Pennywise the dancing clown Richie already had to avoid lecherous adults and bullies his age with murderous rage and pocket-knives. He's witnessed actual horror, seen the worst of what a person can be and what's really crawling around in the dark. What he's experienced goes so far beyond that of a run-of-the-mill teenager, and what he's witnessed and had to live through has made him familiar with survival and standing up to fear.

PERSONALITY.

● Your character has a chance to undo a terrible mistake, but in doing so, there could be unintended consequences for everyone they know. Is it worth the risk? Or should the dead stay dead?

Half of everyone he knows deserves what’s coming to them, that much Richie’s sure of. There are only six people in the world he gives a shit about, and if he lost any one of them, he’d be willing to bargain with whatever unintended consequences might come their way. Staring his own probable death in the face changes a person and knowing what he could lose and how quickly it all could disappear makes a little hardship worthwhile in the long run if it means keeping their merry little band of social outcasts whole. Richie doesn’t think in platitudes, or in cause and effect, he’s not quite so black and white with how he interprets everything. His own skepticism and selfishness would be the motivating influence behind his decision there. What’s a little more hardship to a group like theirs if it keeps them all together? Whatever they might have to face because he took the bargaining chip is a gamble that they can all face together. They fought something like IT and lived to tell the tale, and so they’re better together than they are apart. One of them might as well be all of them as far as Richie’s concerned, and losing someone close to him like Eddie, or Bill would be the only way he’d ever make that kind of negotiation without clear and exact stipulations. He’ll charge headfirst into the fire for any of them, evidenced by how willing he was to climb around in the sewer with a flesh-hungry sideshow attraction when they rallied the troops to save Beverly. You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. To him, the ends justify the means.

● If your character had the option to permanently lose the ability to feel certain negative emotions like fear or grief, or permanently forget certain memories, would they take it? What if they will never know that something has been taken from them? Does loss only matter if it's known what's missing?

This question actually brings up an aspect of IT and the close brush with death had on him in the future. After leaving Derry the entirety of the loser’s group apart from Mike just forgets about what happened to them that summer. They don’t remember any of it, Bev and her altercation with the deadlights, the monster under the Neibolt house, or each other. Given the obvious disenchantment in the lives of all the losers and what that summer meant to Richie and to his progress and continued growth as a person, I think he’d choose to remember if he had the option. The losers unlocked something in Richie he’d kept under lock and key for a long time, and his friendship with them challenged him in ways that helped him to grow and find insight beyond his own perspective. Before them, life had been lonely, and he’d felt alienated even in the company of his own family and people he saw regularly. What they went through changed them and somehow, they came out better for it. He had people that he could count on, friends he loved, and moments he wouldn’t take back or trade for anything. Without those memories, those moments, Richie is reduced to a borderline successful comic that is stuck in an endless loop of jokes that aren’t his and a life that felt hollow and cheap. Even though some of what he’d gone through in Derry would break the average person, those things needed to be felt. Richie still being so young lends him toward being hopeful. He would believe that what he did mattered and what he went through made a difference. None of that fleeting bullshit is worth missing out on the big picture over, and he'd never want to forget what they accomplished. The good times and the bad times helped to shape him into the person he was supposed to be and without those memories, he became something else entirely.

● Could your character ever forgive themselves for something morally wrong that they've done? No matter how much time has passed? No matter how much penitence has been done? Is being sorry enough to be a good person?

With what Richie’s seen and had to deal with on a regular basis at such a young age, his moral compass is always pointed inward. He takes on more responsibility than he has to and has always turned his grief on himself like an attack dog. Early into the film, this is used to It’s advantage, “Don’t touch the other boys, Richie – Don’t or they’ll know you’re secret.” His lack of adult supervision and any nurturing influence in his life and the overall judgment of the town has led Richie to act one way to protect himself and hide who he truly is and how he truly feels to protect everyone else by association. The loud antics, the comedy, and punchlines at the most inopportune moments are all part of the ruse. These feelings of self-loathing with regards to his own identity almost impede his ability to help one of the most important people to him: Eddie.

With his tendency to take on any kind of emotional frustration as a form of flagellation it’s clear that penitence and self-forgiveness wouldn’t be an option for him long term. The things he hides are the same that bury him alive, and no amount of regret or repentance would keep him from blaming himself long term. It wouldn’t absolve him of what he had done or what he’d been responsible for. His tendency to be his own worst enemy would win out in the end and given his experiences with the likes of people in Derry change wouldn’t make much of a difference. Some wounds run too deep, and some habits are too strong to break.

● Your character has a secret they have been sworn to, but revealing this secret could save the lives of countless others. Is it worth breaking the promise to save others, or is betrayal never justifiable?

Despite his grievances with people charging in headfirst without a plan putting everyone else in jeopardy, Richie knows a thing or two about real secrets. The kind of stuff that could break a person if it ever got out. Real growth is about experience, and at thirteen years old it would depend on just how personal that secret was. If it was like his, something that kept a person up at night and could ultimately be their undoing and that person was a close friend of his he might consider the loss of life a worthy price to pay.

People like Eddie, friends that he grew up around and risked his life for are more valuable to him than a bunch of strangers that Richie doesn’t know. He can be short-sighted when the reflection of a situation can be attributed directly to himself or involves the people that mean something to him. He’s not an altruist and he’s never going to care about how the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Not when his entire life he’s been the few and the many have been trying to kick him in the teeth on a day-to-day basis. Even when he went back into the hell under Neibolt it wasn’t for Georgie, it was for Beverly. Someone real and alive to him, someone that he’d come to know and care about. He wasn’t going to let Bill go alone and once the rest of them signed on the choice was made. Richie can’t solve the Trolly Problem because theoretical people don’t matter to him. His skepticism leads him to question the kinds of problems that don’t have conclusive answers or real follow-through. He can’t care about a bunch of people that may or may not exist, not when the person that trusted him is real and very present.

● Has your character ever gotten joy out of hurting others, physically or mentally? If they have, does it scare them?

As much as Richie might want to be the type of person that can throw a few punches in the heat of the moment and not regret it later he has always been too sensitive and too self-deprecating to rationalize that kind of action. Even though his temper is a loud and raging thing Richie has always fallen back into himself after those moments and found regret and remorse for those actions after the fact. Richie talks a mean game and has no problem pointing out the flaws in other people but after being chased by Bowers and seeing Ben all cut up, he doesn’t have the fortitude or the blinders necessary to do something like that so flagrantly. There is no joy in that kind action for him, it’s all fight or flight, a means to an end or a last-minute decision. His constitution isn’t built for that kind of behavior, and even twenty-seven years in the future that kind of violence still makes him squeamish.

At his very center despite the crude jokes and the arrogant façade he’s got a gooey core. Richie cares, he just doesn’t always make that obvious and goes out of his way to hide it so he doesn’t seem weak. A few badly placed jokes doesn’t make that any less true, his coping mechanisms being what they are lead people to believe differently but the knightly way that he always revered Bill in is just another mirror of his true self itching to get out. Not everyone is a hero, sometimes you're lucky just to be a supporting character.

WRITING SAMPLES.

SAMPLES:
TDM from a previous game.
TDM, game specific.
Network Specific

NOTES.

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS:
not applicable.