the pines app.

[slowdancer]

PLAYER

NAME: Mint
CONTACT: On plurk at Togamint
OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE PINES: N/A

CHARACTER

NAME: Johnny Joestar

CANON: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run
CANON-POINT: After “defeating” Sugar Mountain and the Eleven Men by giving up the parts of the Holy Corpse and sharing a drink with Gyro.

DOSSIER

HISTORY: Right here! If you need clarification or elaboration on any points, please let me know.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S STRENGTHS?: Johnny is a remarkably quick thinker, even in the most stressful of situations. He shows a creative method of problem-solving fueled by adversity and desperation, shown in the Civil War fight where he makes a massive gamble in shooting himself with his own ability to end up winning the fight and saving his friends. He’s loyal to the few people he loves, and has a strong (if slightly skewed) sense of justice, expressed in his hesitance in sending a fourteen-year-old to do the job of a grown adult. Overall, his moral compass is fairly set, which does nothing but fuel his unique Joestar determination, which is perhaps his strongest trait. Johnny rarely gives up at slight inconvenience, making a name for himself in his persistence and motivation whenever he sets a real goal and seeks to see it fulfilled.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S WEAKNESSES?: Johnny is often shown as being almost too merciless to his foes, having to be stopped from totally ruining them by his allies on more than one occasion. His emotions sometimes get in the way of his rational thought, merging with the last point to form a frightening portrait of a man who is both unrelenting and easily set off. While he can become extremely motivated to fulfill a short-term cause, Johnny lacks any real personal ambition, defining himself only by who he used to be and what little things he can do in the present without any real thought for the future. On a surface level, he can be short and blunt with other people, making him a less than pleasant conversational partner. He refuses to conform himself to the standards of other people, even when this might help him. Johnny is stubborn and set in his ways, making his strong moral compass less impressive.

WHAT EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR CHARACTER'S PAST HAVE IMPACTED THEM THE MOST?: Without a doubt, the list is topped by him being shot by a random man in line for a play. While also having the distinct physical outcome of Johnny being paralyzed from the waist down, the strongest effects are seen on his mental health. The shooting was provoked by Johnny boldly cutting in line in front of the man and subsequently taunting him about it, and during his recovery from the injury, Johnny chose to interpret this as a divine sign that his ambition and pride would ultimately destroy him, sending him into a deep depression he only barely clawed out of near the end of his life. While a character humbling themselves is usually seen as a good thing and a step towards immediate improvement, this is not the case with Johnny.

Another event that profoundly impacted him was the accidental death of his older brother, Nicholas, who was a far more successful jockey than Johnny. Nicholas’ accident was believed to be caused by a mouse running near the hooves of his horse: a mouse that Johnny believed to be the mouse that the brothers had released outside a few weeks prior. Even though Johnny was young at the time, the incident gave him profound guilt he would carry for the rest of his life, believing he inadvertently caused his own brother’s death.

(The theme in his life is guilt, self-doubt, and terrible accidents, if you couldn’t tell.)

If that wasn’t enough to damage his family relations beyond repair, the real cincher came several years after Nicholas’ death. Following a long and violent confrontation with his son over essentially nothing, Johnny’s father confessed that he believed God “took the wrong son”. After the fact, Johnny left his father’s house, but Nicholas’ shadow stayed with him throughout his racing career, leaving Johnny feeling inadequate no matter how well he succeeded. This put him into a spiral of self-destruction and indulgence, trying to ignore his sinking self-esteem by distracting himself with women and alcohol, culminating in the shooting that halted his career entirely.

On a better note, the most recent impactful event is his fateful encounter with Gyro Zeppeli that led him to race in the Steel Ball Run, and, just as importantly, taught him that he still had some hope left in his life to be able to do the sport he once was a champion at. Gyro accidentally running into him restored his sense of purpose and put him on the right track to both emotional and physical recovery: at his current canonpoint, he’s far from healed in either respect, but he now knows that he has the potential to be, which fuels his determination and drive to perfect his skills.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR CHARACTER?: Johnny himself phrases his motivation as a desire to “get back to zero”, in the sense that his life for the years following his brother’s death and later his injury have been a “negative”. He doesn’t want success in life, and only pushes himself to do well in the Steel Ball Run because that’s Gyro’s end goal, and Gyro has the ability that might allow Johnny to walk again. More than that, though, he doesn’t believe himself capable or worthy of a “positive” life, as evidenced by his poor self-image during the Civil War arc, where it’s shown that he still believes he should’ve died in his brother’s place.

While on the surface, fulfillment of this goal can simply be defined as regaining his ability to walk, it runs on a deeper mindset. As an adolescent, Johnny was told that his talents as a jockey were wasted if he wasn’t able to beat Diego Brando, his sporting rival, and, to some extent, even while his motivations lie beyond winning the race, he still feels pressured to do well. If he beats Diego, his “negative” will be back to “zero”. There’s no real ambition behind his actions--unlike other characters like Diego or Valentine, he doesn’t want glory or fame, or even to help other people in the same way that Gyro does. Johnny simply wants life back on an even keel, even with his background as an athlete.

Even as the story unfolds and Johnny gets embroiled in a national conspiracy, his base goal doesn’t change: he still wants to get back to “zero”, except with the way his character has developed, that “zero” now encompasses the lives of other people he’s invested himself in. As long as everyone he now cares about makes it out alive, he can bring himself back to that baseline status quo. For this reason, he tries to avoid personal contact; it is mentioned that he completely isolated himself after his injury, and his only true, consistent ally in the story is Gyro, who he needs to stay with to be able to learn the art of the spin. For this reason, Johnny is motivated just as much by protection as anything else: he wants to protect the ones he loves out of genuine affection, but also out of fear of what losing them might do to him, the perfect mix of selfessness and selfishness.

WHAT IMPRESSION DO OTHERS TEND TO HAVE OF YOUR CHARACTER?: Johnny comes off as a loner, keeping to himself for the most part and not engaging in small talk unless absolutely necessary. He’s polite to strangers unless provoked, in which case he’s prone to lash out in annoyance, such as when Hot Pants claims that Johnny and Gyro have to be killed for a minor spat over food. His patience is low and so slips of irritation are frequent, but rarely violent enough to warrant anyone’s attention beyond labeling him as a grouch. He does have enough of a sense of humor that he can genuinely appreciate jokes and make sarcastic comments himself, but doesn’t appear to like himself being the butt of any jokes. He is also oddly hostile to being helped in any way, and will pursue any other course of action besides simply asking someone for assistance before he has to admit he may not have the answer.

When trying to appear friendly, he still comes off as awkward and oddly stilted, with a constant veneer of suspicion over every interaction, though that usually goes away after he begins to know a person, as with Hot Pants or Lucy Steel. However, other may note that he has a strange tendency to remember small details and form powerful grudges against someone, even if he doesn’t voice them verbatim. He’s largely non-confrontational, but also refuses to put up with any more nonsense than he absolutely has to, and will often walk away from conversations if he decides that the subject is no longer something worth arguing over.

The overall impression one may get of Johnny is someone who is troubled but has a good head on his shoulders, and while he may occasionally snap at people who annoy him, he seems fairly docile and calm on the whole, if not a little tired whenever he’s seen. He has no desire to start fights...

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THAT IMPRESSION DIFFER FROM WHO YOUR CHARACTER REALLY IS?: ...But, like a lady, he will absolutely finish them. Johnny is surprisingly violent under the surface of civility, but outside of an active fight, he rarely demonstrates it. The best example of this trait is when told not to kill Diego Brando, he initially refuses to accept this as an option, and has to be insistently talked down by Gyro before he even gives in a small amount, agreeing to not kill Diego unless he was directly aggressing them. His tendency to form grudges and hold them for years at a time can often manifest violently, but typically only if he believes there will be no outside repercussions. He knows better than to flagrantly defy the law, because of the repercussions that will follow, but that does little to temper the underlying anger that lies just beyond his calm exterior.

Johnny is wary of other people only because of his journey on the Steel Ball Run, where any stranger could be an enemy, and there are traps around every bend. While he may be paranoid, the paranoia is--at least, in his mind--justified, and for the most part, he seems either unaware or uncaring of how rude he comes off as. For this reason, he’s slow to trust other people, and can be resistent to help being offered.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER HANDLE CRISIS OR ADVERSITY?: In a few words? Really, really badly, and then kind of less badly.

Johnny’s first instinct when faced with a problem that’s more than slightly challenging is to cry, especially if he’s either alone or at a significant disadvantage in the situation. This isn’t out of a desire to be pitied--it’s simply a frustrated response to things being out of his control, and probably more a sign of his poor emotional responses than anything else. In these kinds of scenarios, Johnny may freeze up and be unable to act on his plans out of sheer anxiety and a fear of potential failure, such as during the fight with Axl Ro, where he was fully about to die before the Holy Spirit intervened.

After this initial bout of emotional paralysis, though, Johnny is a frightening opponent to any problem or anyone who simply gets in his way. Once his head is clear, he’s able to use his clever ideas and quick thinking to his advantage, though never quite losing that emotional passion that carries him through the beginning of a conflict. As for longer term issues, he’s less successful, often avoiding significant thought about his situation, such as his deep denial about his social life and support following his injury. His coping skills are Really Bad in the long term, but the same ability to push things aside helps him in short-term crises when he needs to focus on the task at hand.

WHICH 5 THINGS WILL YOUR CHARACTER REMEMBER UPON ARRIVAL, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?:

1. Taming Slow Dancer, his horse. I chose this moment because it represents Johnny figuratively (as well as literally) taking the reins of his life into his own hands, making it a defining moment for his character development. Johnny isn’t quite himself without Slow Dancer, or at least the memory of her.

2. Gaining Tusk, his Stand, and the concept of what a Stand is. I chose this because I kind of want him to have some concept of what the hell this pink gremlin thing following him around is. (Check the abilities section for what Tusk is!)

3. The general concept of his friendship with Gyro Zeppeli. I chose this because his connection with Gyro is one of the few purely positive things in his life, and Gyro impacted him profoundly, and I want my boy to be confused as to why his buddy isn’t in Wayward Pines. Did his buddy ever exist? Johnny sure doesn’t know!

4. The death of his brother, Nicholas. I chose this because, again, I want him to be conflicted about what events in his life are “real”, and this is a specific and impactful detail that he would focus on.

5. The nature and vague circumstances surrounding his injury; ie, a gunshot wound to the spinal cord, but not the exact situation where he was shot. I chose this because I want him to know the bare medical details of what happened so he can properly look after himself for those first few days.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU FEEL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?: Johnny smiles less than ten times over the ninety-something chapter run of his canon. This isn’t especially relevant, but it makes me very sad.


SKILLS, ABILITIES, & PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES: Johnny has what is referred to as a Stand: a sorta-physical manifestation of his soul that presents itself as both a set of powers and a funky-looking spirit. Granted to him by Tusk is the ability to shoot his fingernails (from his hands, like a bullet) at targets with far more accuracy and power than a regular gun, with the only detriment to his health being that they take time to grow back, a process that can be sped up if he consumes herbal tea (chamomile specifically is noted as working the best, which doesn’t have much bearing on anything it all, but the author found it worth mentioning, so I guess I’ll mention it too).

But that’s not all! Johnny also has Tusk Act Two, which allows him to move the holes generated by firing a nail bullet across a surface, leaving a trail behind. For example, if he shot a wooden table, he could transfer the hole created to any point on the table or any other surface touching that table, creating a trench of hole wherever it moves. (The wiki is linked above, and can probably explain this terrible ability better than I can. Johnny, at his present canonpoint, only has up to Act Two, with Acts Three and Four being granted to him later.)

On a broader supernatural level, Johnny also has some training in the art of the Spin, an ancient ability that essentially lets him throw stuff real good by drawing on the natural geometry of nature, specifically the Golden Ratio. This ability allows him to do many other things, like...throwing more stuff real good, and granting him some (limited) range of movement. He’s far from an expert, so it’s a relatively trivial skill compared to Tusk.

Speaking in mundane terms, Johnny’s strongest skill is his equestrian ability. Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, he’s still an incredibly good racer, in addition to having a natural talent for calming horses. Aside from this, his athletic skills are fairly limited: his physical strength is around average, enough to where he can be easily beat in a simple battle of strength. He relies on Tusk in fights because of this. Outside of combat, he has relatively good survival skills when it comes to staying alive in the wilderness, demonstrated throughout the story.

As was mentioned earlier, Johnny is paraplegic, meaning that he has no feeling or ability for movement from the waist down. This severely limits his mobility when he’s unassisted by either his wheelchair or his horse, though he’s still capable of moving himself around. I have chosen not to change this aspect of his character, because his disability is crucial to his personality and outlook, and I would have no practical reason to take it away, even though the option is available.

INVENTORY:

• one set of winter clothing (heavy parka, gloves), along with his normal outfit (hoodie? it’s kind of a hoodie, hat, pantboots)


• half a bottle of whiskey


• a steel ball, weapon used by Gyro and later Johnny (not on his person)


• an amount of dried herbs


• a teddy bear


• a small pocketknife



SAMPLES

PROSE-HEAVY: Here!

DIALOGUE-HEAVY:



[The voice on the network is tired and annoyed, moreso than anyone who knows him would expect, which is a feat.]

Do y’all know where I could get somethin’ to get rid of these...shit, what’re they called? The vines that grow up on the side of your house. Creepers. I really, seriously hate to ask, but I’m not a fan of ‘em, and I can’t find anything that actually works. I’ve tried vinegar, and burning bits of ‘em off, and…

[He trails off, apparently distracted.]

Anyways. I don’t know. I just don’t have a real good sense of what I gotta do to get rid of these stupid goddamn...what are the called? That’s gonna annoy me. Creepers. But they have a specific...whatever. I’ll figure it out, and in the meantime, I guess I’ll ask y’all what I need to do.

I can buy my own crap, I just need to know what crap to buy.