APPLICATION @ CONSIGNMENT

[selfesteemissues]

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Aiden
✖ Contact: plurk: owlcoholic / aim: mischieving
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: N/A

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Arlert, Armin
✖ Canon: Attack on Titan / After chapter 56
✖ Character Appearance: Heyoyoyo
✖ Character Age: 15
✖ Pick A Number: 11, and 48!

✖ Canon Setting: The setting for Attack on Titan is a grim, post apocalyptic Earth - though probably not in the way that you're thinking. No nukes, wars, or zombies wiped this place clean - no, humanity was faced by the threat of the Titan: gigantic, deformed humanoid creatures that stand anywhere from three to fifteen meters in height (usually), and exist to eat humans. Or more specifically, just to kill humans.

Literally, just that. The titans seem to have no large amount of intelligence or any real proclivity toward cognitive thought at all; they're giant lumbering human-eating machines that do not feel pain, or seem to process any thought at all beyond see human, eat human, get full, barf up ball of humans, eat more humans again. The kicker here being that they don't need to eat humans to live, this is no hunter and prey play for survival, titans in fact have no digestive or reproductive organs at all, and seem to subsist entirely on sunlight. Forever. It's unknown if titans even have a natural lifespan at all, and they can only be killed by targeting a specific zone on the back of their neck, and rending away the flesh entirely. Any other blow they will regenerate from, and quickly, up to and including decapitation.

To counter this threat, the humans retreated behind a ring of walls, each 50 meters in height, to protect them from the titans, though the vast majority of the world's population was wiped out. For one hundred years, people have been living safely behind these walls, and life is.. more or less peaceful, in a way, as most have forgotten the threat of the titans. However, that soon changes when two titans bust unwanted into this party and attack the Shinganshina district (Armin's home city), and all hell breaks loose. The Colossal Titan (vaguely 60 meters in highs), beats down the gate with his giant hammy foot, allowing the Armored Titan (a linebacker plated like a stegosaurus) to pop in and take down the second gate, effectively allowing the titans to breach wall Maria and devour everyone in sight. Many evacuate as refugees (Armin included, as well as his friends Eren and Mikasa), but it was a heinously dark time, and as a result of this invasion, humanity lost well over 1/3 of its lands, as everyone living within wall Maria was forced to flee behind wall Rose. This put a strain on resources, and around 25% of the population was systematically culled in a government issued command to draft refugees into the military and attempt to take back wall Maria. Armin's parents, and grandfather, were among those sent to their deaths.

So what now? What's Armin up to, and how does this affect him? Well, to understand that, we'll talk a little bit about the military. It's split into three Branches: The Military Police, Garrison Forces, and the Survey Corps, in which Armin enlists beside his friends and classmates. This is the most dangerous of the three, as it's the only branch that leaves the safety of the walls to fight the titans head-on in attempts to gain territory and increase intel on the titan threat, though very little is usually gained and always at great loss; despite their work, the origin of the titans remains shrouded in mystery. Basically, being in the Survey Corps sucks big time because you watch your comrades die screaming around you for mere scraps of information - or sometimes, for nothing at all. No one likes the Survey Corps, and they're generally viewed, by the public (and sometimes the government!) as a waste of time, life, and money.

So basically, this world is pretty bleak. Children are raised beneath the shadow of the titan threat, and though some brave (possibly insane) humans attempt to fight back, losses are heavy and the strain is high, especially when the colossal and armored titans show up again to attempt to do the same song and dance in the Trost district, though their progress is mysteriously delayed by Eren's sudden coming into his ability as a titan shifter -- that is, a human who can turn themselves into a titan, with relative intelligence and super duper butt kicking ability.

Powers! Right! Aside from titan shifting, there aren't really any powers to speak of, in the world of AoT. People are normal humans, for the most part, no one uses magic or has bubblegum pink hair. And titan shifters are, as far as we know, exceedingly rare -- there are only four known shifters at the moment (though there are bound to be more), in a cast of well over twenty people. So it's not really common at all, and it's a very, very newly discovered ability as well.

And let's talk social issues for a second, too. As you can expect, that's not a terribly happy situation either, but you should have expected that, considering no one's allowed to be happy on this pathetic world. There's something of a caste system in place, and generally speaking, the further you live from the center of the walls, the less anyone really cares about you - and Armin and his friends lived about as far as you can get from the capital. Food shortages and poverty run rampant and unchecked. The few rich and noble are fat and happy and couldn't care less about the hungry masses, even going so far as to consider them dispensable, in many cases.

Right, so, living in this world is no fun at all. Technology has ground to a standstill, everyone's trapped within these walls like cattle, education is very poor, and you can't even go to Disneyworld to magic away your woes. Talk of the outside world is taboo and punishable, people are content to live safely within the walls without questioning it, children are recruited as military trainees as young as twelve years old, and humanity itself is consistently assaulted, and terrified by the titan threat. Grimdark as hell.

✖ Character History: Thank the heavens for wikipedia.

✖ Character Personality:


Growing up in the type of world that Armin did, you'd think he'd be absolutely bugfuck crazy, right?

Well, you're not entirely wrong. But more than some of the rest of them, Armin is a little more adept at hiding it. Still, there are many layers to this little onion, and though Armin may appear unassuming at first, he's a fair bit more complex than one might think, and he experiences a good deal of growth as a character as the series progresses.

When he was a child, and even into his teens, Armin was quite timid, and totally unafraid to fly the white flag of cowardice. Not without reason, of course - he was quite small and frail of build, and when combining that with his ceaseless interest in the world outside the walls - something considered taboo and heretical among them - Armin was the perfect target for bullying. He both refused and was unable to fight back, which in turn led to the rampant growth of a fine inferiority complex, considering his best friends Eren and Mikasa consistently came to his rescue. Becoming a burden to those around him is something that Armin cannot abide, to the rather extreme point that he states he would rather die than burden others.

So there's a little nugget of strength, here, beneath this yellow-bellied trembling, though Armin has a very difficult time developing any self worth. Because really, when your two best friends are insane killing machines it's kind of easy to feel like the third wheel. Especially when you're more or less made of glass. Eren and Mikasa, however, never saw him as a burden, though Armin's perception of this was skewed for much of his young life, and he consistently felt as if he were falling behind, useless to them, little more than a leech clinging to their greatness. Nevertheless, this lack of self-esteem is a plaguing flaw that dogs him for quite awhile, and creates issues and pitfalls that he is still currently falling into.

But it's a hurdle he is attempting to jump. After Mikasa and Eren blow his mind with their epic reveal of their consistent belief in his usefulness, Armin grows a little bit of a spine to stand on and reaches a nice turning point, as a character. After this, he becomes a bit less self-loathing and begins to recognize, and accredit himself for, his own abilities.

About those abilities. Armin is smart. Really smart! And not only that, he's also incredibly perceptive, and observant of the world around him. He's the guy who notices all the little things that many people don't, the guy with the steel-trap memory and the eye for detail - these two traits combined give him an excellent head for strategy; even in the heat of the moment he's often able to cook up half-baked plans that save his and the crew's collective asses on more than one occasion. Rather than being completely useless, Armin is actually quite a powerful asset to the team. He's the brains of the operation in every way, more often than not, and this is no small thing. Considering formal education is more-or-less nonexistent, Armin's meaty brains are quite valuable, and he's learned to better appreciate this talent as the series progressed.

But there's still more to it! Armin is also an incredibly loyal friend. So loyal, in fact, that he followed Eren and Mikasa into the survey corps, even though he knew it likely meant certain death. So loyal that he doubled back in an attempt to save an unconscious Jean, while preparing himself to fend off a titan, while on the ground and armed with only one blade, a sitting duck. In the end, Armin's friends have always been his pillars of support, holding him up when he felt he could not stand on his own two feet, and for that he is eternally grateful. Camaraderie is no small thing, for him, and it drives him in many ways. After years spent training, working, and fighting beside the members of the 104th trainees squad, Armin has developed a fierce loyalty toward them, and would protect them with his life, if necessary.

.. though not, entirely, to all ends. Here's where we explore a somewhat darker side of Armin's personality. He has a very realistic view of life and death, and a grim, almost vicious perception of sacrifice, and what it means. Unlike Eren, who's so shounen that it hurts, Armin is a firmly pragmatic creature, and he understands and entirely agrees with the sentiment that you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Like commander Erwin, Armin understands and deeply internalizes the ugly but true fact that in order to make great change, one must be willing to throw away something important. Many of his plans and strategies are cold, and even ruthless, but Armin does not like to take chances, and though he'd, of course, always do his best to minimize casualties, in the end he understands that soldiers rush into battle with the knowledge that they might not come out of it again, and some sacrifices are necessary. In this world, there's no room for hotblood or the endless manly power of friendship - things are grim, and grim choices must be made. However people might view him for it, Armin is not ashamed of this. In fact, he's more than capable of using underhanded tactics to achieve his goals; more than once he has emotionally manipulated his fellows-turned-traitors, and he is a fair decent liar as well.

He's also very recently come to terms with his ability to murder. In order to save his friend Jean, Armin shot a woman on the opposing faction in the face, without even a moment of hesitation. It all but shattered him, afterward. Once in relative safety again he fell into panic and despair, vomiting, sobbing wildly, apologizing profusely, and it offered him great insight into his own character. Armin has always been on the morally grey side, and he had clearly been able to compromise the lives of others through his plans, but outright taking a life with his own two hands had been another matter entirely. Still, despite how deeply it disturbed him to do it, he had done it, and he had done it coldly, thoughtlessly, because it had needed to be done, and in the moment there had been no time, no room for mercy. Within twenty four hours he had been back to normal, after a hard night spent questioning his own morality, but in the end Armin seems to be capable of taking matters into his own hands, doing what must be done, however grave and/or detrimental to his own state of mind, though he will never enjoy it.

But despite all this, he's not necessarily disagreeable. On the contrary, Armin is actually a rather polite, kind, and thoughtful boy, and he's certainly friendly enough, and very amiable and good-natured on a casual basis. He smiles easily, enjoys spending time with his friends and comrades, and isn't above sneaking out the occasional barbed tease behind an innocent grin. He has moments of sensitivity quite often as well, and cries easily when he's stressed, scared, or sad. He's also apparently devious enough to break his own legs (or pretend to) to get out of helping Jean steal food, apparently. He's also very, very much a dreamer. In fact, if not for his enthusiasm about the outside world, Eren never would have cottoned on to the concept of leaving the safety of the walls at all. Ever since he was a child Armin has longed to see the world, to explore every crevice. He has an obsession with the ocean and beach in particular, it's likely the very first place he will want to visit, if humanity is ever freed from the yoke of the titans. To Armin, it represents freedom and openness and the vastness of the world, all the things he has been denied since birth, that he longs to experience with every fiber of his being.

So there we have it. By now, in the series, Armin is a relatively well-rounded young man who's starting to come to terms with who he is, and what he is able to achieve. Though those age-old self esteem issues still plague him on occasion, and he's still rather fearful of death and certain torment, he's still more or less able to stand on his own two feet now, and take pride in his abilities as a tactician, to give his all for the future of humanity in any way that he can. He's introverted and patient, quiet and suited to working alone, though he's more than capable of following orders as well, when necessary. He's strong enough to risk his life for the cause that he believes in, and even potentially give it if he must. In the end, all men must die anyway, he's just hoping he'll be able to contribute something worthwhile, when it's all said and done.

✖ Character Powers: Armin is a pretty ordinary guy. As far as "powers" go, he doesn't have any to speak of really, but we'll chat a little about his abilities.

3DMG; That is, 3D-maneuver gear. Seen here. This gear was developed specifically to fight titans, as it uses a system of wires and pulleys to allow its user to fly around like spiderman and hack the necks off of titans. Also useful for climbing trees and knocking into your friends. Armin isn't particularly flawless in its execution, but he is trained to use this gear.

Military training; Armin is kind of a wet noodle in the physicality department, but he has been trained in military fighting techniques, including use of the 3DMG blades, and hand to hand combat. He doesn't particularly excel in this, as his reflexes are notoriously slow and he has very little stamina to speak of, but he managed to scrape by well enough to graduate at least, so there's that. This also means he knows how to take orders from higher ups without giving guff, and he gives a mean salute. Armin is also skilled and trained in the use of military weaponry, and firearms.

Brains; Now this.. this is where Armin shines! Without exaggeration he is a brilliant young boy with a strong head for tactics and strategy. So brilliant, in fact, that military leaders take him very seriously, listen to his ideas, and even invite him to sit in on their cool war plan meetings! This is kind of a big deal, for a 15 year old fresh recruit. Especially in this setting, where education is bare bones at best. More than once he has hatched plans to save his teammates and gain ground on the titans; he's absolutely not to be underestimated in this aspect.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: Thread here! Aaand also test drives over here!

✖ Third Person POV:

There's a tingling at the back of his neck, that sinks into his gut. It's that bad feeling that people talk about sometimes, though Armin is doing his best to shrug it off, to ignore it. He sits in silence at a rough wooden table beside the window, a book opened up across its surface, but he isn't reading it. No, he's staring at the pages instead, blankly, unable to make heads or tails of the words, unable to properly absorb them because of this bad feeling, this twisting in his belly, this deep-seated, tugging worry.

It's not that he doesn't trust Commander Erwin, and his plan. Of course he does. Erwin is the sort of man that Armin can believe in, a soldier of the people, a monster willing to throw away his humanity for the sake of all, for the preservation of the human race, and Armin can understand, and respect that. He's a brilliant man, and any plan that he might hatch would surely be well thought out. But why then, can't he shake this feeling of dread...

Because Eren is gone.

Eren is gone voluntarily, to be offered up as bait, and while Armin understands the power of this move he still can't help but feel uneasy. This is a dangerous gambit, after all, and even with the best laid plans, there's no saying what might go wrong, especially where Eren is involved.

With a low sigh, Armin flips the book shut in defeat and sits back, lifting his eyes to the wooden ceiling, attempting to appreciate the silence. The cabin seems so still now, though it's anything but empty - everyone else must be sharing his thoughts on some level, hanging on tenterhooks, waiting, worrying, hoping. Wood scrapes too noisily in the silence as Armin rises from his chair and makes to return the book back beside its brothers on the shelf, but he's too distracted, and his trembling fingers slip and it falls to his feet. Before he can even stoop to lift it there's another set of hands, small and foreign, lifting it for him, and the smiling face of a girl he does not recognize. Immediately Armin leaps back a few paces, his mind racing as he attempts to place her face, who are you, what are you doing here, I don't know you --

-- but in the end he relaxes. She's dressed in military fashion, the wings of freedom spread broad over her breast, he's being too jittery, surely she must be a messenger or some sort, sent to relay something, maybe, Armin's just too edgy for his own good. Even in the Survey Corps, there're plenty of people he does not know. "Ah, sorry, I'll get that -- "

"No, it's all right," she says cheerfully, turning to place the book neatly on the shelf with a smile. "I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to surprise you. Things are a little tense around here, aren't they?

"Yeah.." Armin relents, his shoulders falling slack, though the crease between his brows only deepens.

"It would be nice, if it didn't have to be this way, wouldn't it?"

Immediately his eyes snap upward, to her face, and he looks puzzled, and perhaps even mildly suspicious. What a strange thing to ask.. and from a complete stranger, too. But she seems genuine enough, so he tries to lower his hackles. "Well, I mean.. yes, of course, but I don't entirely follow."

"It's simple, isn't it? It would be nice if none of this had to happen, if you didn't need to use Eren as bait to achieve your goals.. if we didn't need to fight against humans to save ourselves from titans. It's just.. something I've been thinking about. Right?"

This is definitely getting weird. Who walks up to a person and casually says these things? And Eren.. is there something she's after, or is he reading far too much into this? He opens his mouth to retort, but she seems to catch on to his misgiving, and her expression softens. "I'm sorry," she says, with a shake of her head. "I must sound a little strange, barging in with everything like this.. I meant no offense. I just meant.. you know, that all of this seems so unnecessary. To have to root out our own government, to stoop to such a level, to prepare to fight other humans.. it's just sad, isn't it? It's scary. I wish it didn't have to be this way."

Armin is silent for several long moments, but.. soon enough he sighs again, softly this time, his gaze shifting from her face to an empty space past her shoulder. He still doesn't like any of this, but.. ".. yeah. So do I. So.. I guess my answer would be yes."

CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Blue.

✖ Mission Freebie: Access to Eren's basement. Everything they need there is key, so whatever can get them there!
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: As linked before, his 3D-maneuver gear!

✖ Character Inventory:

- His uniform, and nothing else.