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light_mischief) wrote2023-05-03 02:41 am
[character information] sailduggery
At the end of the battle of Aranmore Farm, Skulduggery Pleasant finds himself ripped from his home dimension by the Faceless Ones, pulled through a portal that will surely lead to some hellish, madness-inducing wasteland of a planet. What happened instead was that he woke up in a bed with fresh linen sheets and the smell of salt water in the air.
After getting his bearings on the ship and having a brief, seemingly benign introduction to the Captain himself, Skulduggery decides to distract himself from his inevitable, terrible fate with all the mysteries the Serena Eterna has to offer him. It's the perfect setting for someone with his particular combination of overwrought heroism, selfish fear, and a smoldering obsessive streak that's been missing something ever since he murdered Nefarian Serpine.
Fairly quickly, Skulduggery comes to realize that all mysteries here lead to the Captain, a possibly-eldritch, possibly-just-a-dick magician who appears as an innocuous additional passenger to most everybody else. But not Skulduggery. He has an eye for these kinds of things. A taste for it, if you will. And he's always been able to discern the difference between sociopathic malice and burning fury.
He's used to dealing with stereotypically evil sorcerers. That's why all the bad guys in his world are named "Baron Vengeous" or "Nefarian Serpine." But he is also intimately familiar with the way a tragic life can lead to unstoppable rage, and it's that undercurrent that continuously prevents Skulduggery from writing the Captain off as nothing more than another Scaramouch Van Dreg.
As the months wear on, Skulduggery finds himself spending almost as much time at the bridge "interrogating" the Captain as he spends with his newfound friends. It had been easy at first to wave off Ava and Maximilien whenever they teased him for his obsessive qualities -- he's used to that, after all -- but the fact that people often turn to him for information about the Captain begins to weigh on the back of his mind.
Things escalate after he experiences a canon jump time-skip, absorbing the, IDK, essence of whatever of a future-point of his life, where he is tortured by the Faceless Ones for a year, then experiences the destruction of the Irish Sanctuary. Rattled by the experience and suffering long-term madness effects, Skulduggery becomes more reckless in his engagements with the Captain. Even his more concerned friends don't try to stop him, because he really is one of the very few people the Captain willingly talks to, but none of them could have guessed what would happen next.
Okay, well. Maybe Ava would.
After a long drive off a steep cliff, the Captain and Skulduggery's courtship becomes something bigger than either of them probably expected. Skulduggery finds himself willing to do more and more for the sake of the Captain's seriously-lacking sanity, including leading a group of friends on a dangerous quest to recover some part of the Captain's lost history.
Their relationship only becomes public in early December, and right after that, Skulduggery's homicidal alter ego murders a dozen people on an excursion. The Captain saves him from himself, quite literally, and from there on cements his place as Skulduggery's (sometimes unwitting) savior. After all, if he were back home, he would be stuck dealing with whatever Darquesse's deal is, and he'd rather... uh. Not. Thanks!
Skulduggery's life on the ship has spiraled out of his control, but he would never go back to the way things were. After living a life with hundreds of years of baggage, being able to set aside the things that weighed him down has allowed him to find a new purpose. He's become an adoptive parent to both Fio and Darcy; he's developed close ties with Ava, Maximilien, and Jade; he no longer has to carry the secret of Lord Vile with him... and most importantly of all, he's found himself desperately, wildly in love for the first time since he died.
His goal now is simple: keep his found family together, save the Captain from himself and those who would use him, and find a way to give all of them the freedom to start a new life. He will do anything to accomplish those goals, even if it means he doesn't live to see the happy ending he's working so hard to achieve.
Skulduggery Pleasant is a skeleton detective. If he had his way, that would be about all anyone would need to know about him, but here's a bit more:
Skulduggery was born in a small Irish village in the late 16th century. He grew up with magic, becoming an Elemental sorcerer who would eventually find himself in the middle of conflict. War broke out between worshipers of the Faceless Ones (ancient evil gods banished by the Ancients long ago), and pretty much everyone opposed to the world ending in such a horrific manner, and Skulduggery became a well-known leader of the resistance against the cult.
His opposition made him a prime target of Mevolent's forces, and he eventually paid a heavy price for his heroism. His nemesis Serpine murdered his wife and child, then used their deaths to trick and capture Skulduggery. It's unknown just how long Serpine tortured Skulduggery for; what we do know is that when Serpine no longer had a use for him, he used his red right hand to murder Skulduggery once and for all. His body was stuck on a pike as a trophy, then burned and tossed into a river.
That should have been the end of Skulduggery, and for nearly a century, it was. But his consciousness had been fused to his body, leaving him trapped at the bottom of the river, where he was forced to slowly piece himself together before crawling from the water as a shambling undead husk. Driven mad by the pain of his resurrection and the agony of what he'd lost, Skulduggery succumbed to his rage, which adopted a new persona: the necromancer Lord Vile.
He got over being evil after five years, and managed to hide his mass-murdering psychotic alter-ego from all of his friends. He didn't get over failing to murder Serpine before the War came to an end, but he sure spent the next century and a half stalking Serpine, waiting for him to screw up. And when he did -- the skeleton detective was right there to finally get his revenge.
There's a bunch of other stuff going on and you should totally read the books, but this account only acknowledges Phase One canon. Phase Two doesn't exist.
Skulduggery is an Elemental sorcerer, which means he has control over the four elements (fire, water, air, and earth). He's able to create fireballs, walk on water, and create barriers out of thin air. After experiencing a time-skip, Skulduggery has learned how to both fly and turn a fireball into a flamethrower from his palm, which is also pretty cool. (Don't worry about earth magic. What are the chances he's ever going to have to use that?)NECROMANCY
He isn't known for his necromancy, for good reason: the only part of him that has access to that power is Lord Vile. Vile is a ruthless, bloodthirsty necromancer, powerful enough to bend shadows to his will and able to wipe out vast swaths of life at once. But that was past Vile, Kevin! That guy hurt a lot of people, but you can't hold Skulduggery accountable for what past Vile did.NON-MAGICAL SKILLS
As of December 2022, the Captain has seemingly successfully helped Skulduggery to permanently shed Vile entirely. That, of course, only happened after Vile came alive, separated himself from Skulduggery, and murdered about a dozen people in obscenely brutal ways...
Egotistical as he may be about it, Skulduggery is actually quite a good detective. He has a keen mind, a sharp eye for details, and is deeply, maddeningly curious about pretty much everything. He is also proficient in combat: he was taught to box by his friend Ghastly Bespoke; has a basic mastery of sword fighting; and is proficient in both revolvers and rifles. (Yeah yeah, the rifle thing is from Phase 2. Shut up! You're not my mom!) His fighting style involves getting in close and laying on the punches, kicks and jabs. He's known to be a ruthless and unpredictable opponent on both the battlefield and in a bar fight.
His general methodology is to ask first, sass second, shoot third and fireball fourth.
The most obvious thing about Skulduggery is that he is a skeleton. No muscles, tendons, skin, eyes, or hair -- he's all bone and magic, baby. Notable features include high cheekbones, slightly uneven fingers (thanks Jade), and the most important feature of all: a deep, smooth voice with an Irish accent, gorgeous enough to read the phone book aloud.
He is almost always dressed in slim, fitted suits and matching hat -- the suits are almost all designed by Ghastly Bespoke, and serve as armor. If he's wearing a full suit, it's guaranteed that he also has his revolvers holstered under his jacket. He occasionally dresses down in simple linen button-down shirts and slacks, but this is very rare. He is always wearing a black-and-white friendship bracelet on his left wrist and has a shell pinned to either his hat or his lapel. He often, but not always, wears gloves. If he wears something specific in an attempt to disguise himself, I'll make sure to mention it.
Skulduggery attempts to appear confident and cool at all times. He is a proud, borderline vain man, and has no intention or interest in sharing his moments of weakness with anyone outside of his family. His natural curiosity has bloomed into a bit of an obsessive streak, and he's most in his element when indulging whatever flights of fancy take his attention. He's prone to occasional bouts of aggression that end as abruptly as they begin. He sometimes finds himself listening (and occasionally responding) to hallucinations of his loved ones from his old home.
However, some things can never be broken, and that includes Skulduggery's spirit. Decent, honest, good people will be treated with as much respect as they give him. Relatively harmless bad guys will be teased relentlessly, while those with sympathetic backstories will find him more willing to tolerate their nasty attitudes. Assholes get treated like children, because that's what they are. Be rude, and he'll either laugh or be rude in return. But so long as you don't do anything to earn a spot in his burn book, Skulduggery will try to give you as many chances as you need to become a better person.
Back-Tagging: Absolutely! If I drop a thread you want to continue, just hit me up!POSITIVE CR
Handwaving: Contact me to handwave threads that need to end for whatever reason!
Thread-Hopping: Please let me know beforehand! (Unless it's a gag tag or a [not here] reaction, I fuckin love those)
4th Wall: Unless we talk first, no thanks!
Opt Out Info: If, for any reason, you want to avoid playing against Skulduggery, or if you have specific things you'd like me to avoid (such as mentions of hallucinations), just let me know! No harm, no foul.
One More Thing: I'm not a big fan of the word "never" -- if you want to plan something with Skulduggery, I am definitely down to talk it out and see what happens!
Physical Affection: He avoids physical touch from most people, aside from close CR. He will return handshakes, but otherwise will react uncomfortably to any unprompted physical affection from people outside of his close friends.NEGATIVE CR
Flirtations: He's extremely vain and enjoys being flattered, but aside from a few playful comments, you're unlikely to get very far. That's because...
Kissing & More: ...Anyone attempting any sort of romance with Skulduggery will quickly find out that he only has eye sockets for the Captain.
Fighting: Both sparring and physical altercations are fine! Loose coordination OOC is preferred but not necessary to start a fight.
Injuries: I'm all for it, just hit me up OOC so we can figure out how to make it work.
Killing: Obviously yes, but let's talk OOC first so I can make sure it doesn't affect any plots.
Permadeath: That ain't a thing, chief, ain't you seen the news? Death don't matter on this ship!