shepherdly

OOC Information:
Name: Pam
Are you over 15? Yes!
Contact: AIM: usagipin | E-mail: rainbunneh@gmail.com | usapin

IC Information:
Name: Ren / Reincarnated: Mr. Snuggles
Canon and medium: DRAMAtical Murder
Age: 23 / Reincarnated: 1 ½
Preincarnation Species: Originally Ren is a mere entity of Aoba’s mind, but transfers into an Allmate which is some kind of helper robot in DMMD canon. In Rhyme battles, he’s a humanoid, while after his death his mind is reincarnated in Sei’s human body -- Ren goes from an entity of someone’s mind, into an Allmate/Rhyme battler, into a normal human being of sorts. Yeah. It’s stated that his type is a Japanese Spitz, despite being black-furred.
Preincarnation Appearance: Allmate | Rhyme | Sei
Any differences: He’ll be a tiny black pomeranian, keeping his dog form.


Preincarnated History:
Ren’s wikia | Ren’s route LP

THIS SECTION CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT OF DRAMATICAL MURDER (there is one)

NB! This history section is written based on Ren’s route. There are some minor alterations, especially for the endings, but this route is most relevant for Ren. If you want me to add extra parts on the other routes as well, let me know! Also I'm currently only pulling things out of the main game itself, if you want the additional story from re:connect, let me know - however I don't feel it's as plot relevant as the game is more as a fan-service than anything.

Ren starts out as a part of the playable character’s mind. Aoba has an ability called Scrap, which is a mind controlling power that can be used to control other people and bend their will. Within Aoba there are two entities, one who wishes to abuse the power and one that is Aoba’s “normal” personality. Ren was created to keep an eye on the former, so that Aoba wouldn’t go completely out of control, created to keep the entities in balance. One could say Ren is actually Aoba’s voice of reason.

At some point Aoba starts playing Rhyme, which is a virtual computer game where you use your mind to play. For this, Aoba would use the scrap to find opponents’ weaknesses and exploit them in order to win. At some point Ren’s voice stops reaching out to Aoba, so he starts to actually break peoples’ minds, damaging other players for good. He transfers himself into an old allmate Aoba finds, so he’s able to physically influence him instead, however Aoba still goes on a rampage until Virus and Trip find out about him and erases both Aoba and Ren’s memories, so Toue, the inner city’s leader won’t find out about the scrap and exploit it-- because they’re interested in it themselves.

Because of this memory loss Ren forgets that he’s actually not an allmate. Aoba forgets about a good portion of his past as well, only left with headaches after the memory loss, and only medicine prescribed by his grandmother, Tae, is what leaves his mind balanced. This is where the actual playable part of DRAMAtical Murder starts out, and we meet Ren for the first time after Aoba gets off work and he’s hitting up a delivery before heading home, introduced as Aoba’s allmate. He’s used to find the quickest route to deliver the package and head home. It’s then revealed that allmates are AIs programmed to make things easier -- sometimes even programmed to do chores and housework. Ren is an old model, but Aoba’s become too attached to him so he decides to keep up a heavy maintenance on him rather than replacing him with a newer model.

The next day, Aoba gets pulled into a drive-by rhyme battle. Rhyme is initiated by mutual agreement and battled out with a judge, usually Usui, which keeps the damage limit safe and ends battles based on points. However, drive-by rhyme battles are unauthorized, and there is no damage limit -- meaning that whatever damage you get in the battles might return to you physically even after the battle ends. Rhyme is a battle using ones mind, so the damage you receive shouldn’t be there when you return, even though you’ll feel it.

A stranger with a rabbit head, demands that Aoba should fight with him, even using his full name. Aoba and Ren are confused, because they have never played Rhyme before -- or so they think.

Reincarnated History: Mr. Snuggles’ never really had a lot to complain about in life. He was sold to a rich family when he was 8 weeks old, and has little recollection of his mother and his sibling, and his new family did treat him well. He was the birthday present for a wealthy family’s 14-year old daughter, and thus began his life as a rich teenager’s purse dog. Not to forget about the silly sweaters he obviously didn’t need, but hey, it’s not like he could complain or anything. He got the softest dog bed, first class dog food and the occasional belly rub.

What happened to your character that got them to this point in their normal, human life? While a lot of information isn't necessary here, please give us a clear picture of who they are now and where they'll be headed in the context of the game. If you're re-apping a character you previously played, please include their experiences in-game and what they've been doing in the mean time as well.

First Echo:
His life wasn’t really eventful. He ate, pooped and slept, like most dogs would, except his trips would include being carried in the newest pink prada. Sometimes, he would chew shoes. But only because they were shiny, and this one was red and glossy and reminded him of tomatoes. Not like he knew what a tomato was anyway, but he had licked one once and it didn’t taste all that terrible.

His favourite place to sleep was the nice white couch in the living room. The father of the house had fallen asleep on the couch, leaving the TV on, so he jumped up on it, curling into a pile of fluff to stare at the flat screen. Mr. Snuggles liked TVs. They had strange people on them, but the people would never notice him or anything, and when he chased them he bumped his nose into the screen. He quickly learnt to just observe. Okay, it might have taken some time. This time, Mr. Snuggles was lucky enough to catch a movie. If he knew what movies were, he’d know that his was Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and while he couldn’t do anything about the terrible choice as he didn’t know what a remote was, he was left to watch.

He was quick to see the dogs. But they… barked weird? Kind of like humans did. Mr. Snuggles found it odd, dogs certainly didn’t bark like that at all. These dogs were strange, odd, and made him slightly a bit uncomfortable-- to be honest. “Eugh.” He caught himself in the moment he had spoken. In his entire life, Mr. Snuggles had been pretty sure he couldn’t do that. This was also when he decided that his sweater itched like hell, and he needed to get it off stat and it was dumb and silly and he already had enough fur as it was-- He turned to the father of the house. Still asleep.

As he struggled to get the sweater off, all he did was get off his extraordinary pink collar. And wiith that, he realized something. He could run away. Mr. Snuggles had seen other dogs that looked exactly like him, it would be hard for them to find him if he ran far, far, away. But… did he want to do that? … Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? He felt confused, scared and also a bit hungry. Jumping off the couch and to his food bowl, he contemplated taking a wall. It would be easy, if he used the pile of books strategically he could get on the chair tall enough to slip out of the window.

He would return later. Probably. Mr. Snuggles just needed some time to think.

Preincarnation Personality:
When first introduced, you learn that Ren is an allmate, a technological dog that’s like a support system to remember dates, configure maps, and so on. Kind of like an iPad except shaped like a dog. Because of this, Ren has the personality of a typical robot. His personality is programmed; he’s serious, patient, confused by emotions-- yet extremely protective of Aoba and is genuinely concerned for him.

This is explained at a later time as it’s revealed that Ren’s odd affection and protectiveness of Aoba isn’t just because he’s an old model of an allmate, but because Ren is actually an entity created by Aoba’s ability, scrap, to protect him. However, as he was only a figment of Aoba’s mind he could only influence him on the inside and when at some point the voice no longer reached out, he transferred himself into an old Allmate so he could (almost) physically influence Aoba and his actions.

Because of a rhyme incident, both Aoba and Ren lost parts of their memory-- Ren forgetting that he actually isn’t an allmate, hence why he’s an allmate with somewhat more emotion and sense than an ordinary allmate. This is why he’s got different emotion sets than other allmates.

All in all Ren’s existence is all because of Aoba. He has the strongest sense of loyalty for him, respects him and takes care of him as much as he can. Ren wants to be able to be there for Aoba always, and he tends to be insecure about his actions because he’s too caught up in not hurting Aoba in any way, and doing what’s best for him. Whenever Ren accidentally tickles Aoba, he’s worried he hurt him. He needs to be in perfect shape so he can be there for his master, so whenever he gets a bug of sort he’s extremely disheartened, almost self-depreciatingly so, to the point where he’ll tell Aoba to get himself a new allmate, he’s trash.

Feelings and emotions are really confusing. Ren often doesn’t catch jokes or sarcasm, and he can also react oddly to certain things due to not being sure of the emotion or display itself. He does attempt to make jokes, but they’re terrible, and no one laughs, ever, unless they’re laughing because Ren tries. He tries so hard. His entire creation was to protect Aoba, and that’s what he knows the best.

Any differences:
First of all, Ren’s an actual dog. While he’ll still be extremely confused by certain emotions, he will certainly become more curious, more intuitive and act more on instinct like an actual dog, until he echoes back to his actual self. This means he’ll probably be distracted by squirrels, have extreme feelings of “I LOVE YOU” to whoever feeds him or treats him well, as he works his way back to an intelligent life form.

He’ll still be somewhat serious, able to introduce himself as “Mr. Snuggles” with a straight face, as he has no idea what is wrong with his name. He likes snuggles, it’s a good name, okay.

Also, as his entire life isn’t dependant on Aoba anymore, he’ll be somewhat more free, though probably feel the same protectiveness of people he’ll learn to love. He’ll come with some kind of extra sass this time, though, having lived a luxury life in a big nice house with soft beds and good food.

Abilities:
wip

Roleplay Sample - Third Person:
Mr. Snuggles was having the worst dilemma. Now that he seemed to… think more than he did before, he realized how awfully odd humans treated him. Why did they make their voice like that when talking to him? --Sure, he did get excited, but he’d understand them just fine without the entire “Who’s a good boy, who’s a good boy??? You aaare, you aaaare.”. It’s not like he didn’t understand it the first time, why did they keep repeating themselves? Truly puzzling.

The food was good, though. He didn't mind the food at all. Or the toys. Or the belly rubs and cuddles. Especially the scratches behind his ear. Oh boy, that was his favourite thing ever. But... he couldn't help but think there was something missing. Perhaps trust. He would probably protect this family with his life, but now that he was suddenly so aware of everything, he didn't know what to do now that he had sentience, now that he could talk. Should he tell them? The thought scared him, because he didn't want to be thrown out or appear as some kind of freak, but, how could he live with this secret?

His barks seemed half-hearted now, but his family didn't appear to notice. They only coddled him and fed him like normal, and so Mr. Snuggles acted like "normal". Whatever made them happy, though he himself grew a bit tired of the charade. He felt like writing this down somewhere -- maybe he could steal his master's computer, during night-time when they were all asleep. It wasn't like he didn't know the password, he had watched his master type it so many times while he was seated on the couch. 

Maybe he should get a blog. Dog with blog, yeah, that sounds cool.

Roleplay Sample - Network:

[ audio ]

Hello? [ He’s so confused, talking quietly into nothing in the middle of the night. His voice is lowered, to not wake his masters -- and he’s decided to go with audio as… he doesn’t know what people think of talking dogs. And he can’t really read. ]

I don’t understand what’s going on, but I think I’m talking to someone. Is there anyone there? Hello?

[ A brief pause to scratch at his collar. It results to a small jingle of bells, until he stops and continues: ]

I’m Snuggles. Mr. Snuggles. At least that’s what they call me. Sometimes my owner likes to call me Snuggly-poo. I don’t know why, but I think it’s a good thing. It usually happens when I get belly rubs.

[ … Wait, do other people get belly rubs? He hasn’t seen anyone get belly rubs like dogs do… ]

If anyone could explain what’s going on, that’d be nice.

[ Something must be going on! He can’t remember talking before this, after all. ]