quixocalypse

player information.

name: Quix
are you over 18?: Yep.
personal dw: quixocalypse
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: plurk: quixocalypse, aim: uncannyArtisan
characters in abax: NA.


in character information.

series: Homestuck
name: Sollux Captor
age: 20 human years (9 sweeps)
sex: Male
race: Alternian Troll
weight: 190 lbs
height: 6'2"
canon point: A couple weeks after the crew is sentences to scouting duty.
previous cr: Nope!

history: This Sollux's history is the same as canon up until the point where Tavros is crippled and Aradia is killed. This never happens in this timeline, leaving Sollux unmarred by the death of his moirail (a close, non-sexual troll relation) and free to grow up in a reasonably content emotional state. As content as Sollux ever gets, anyway.

Sollux never pieces together the code for Sgrub in this timeline on account of it not existing, and spends his first seven sweeps (or fifteen years) living on Alternia, as is typical for troll children. The rest of the key changes are details below.

alternate history: In this world, Sgrub, the universe creating video game played in canon Homestuck, never existed. As such, a terrible chain of events was averted. Vriska was never manipulated into maiming Tavros, Aradia never died, and Terezi was never blinded. Instead, the FLARP clan all remained friends with each other, Terezi's guidance keeping Vriska away from her more dangerous tendencies, while at the same time keeping her on the path of a more ethical method to feeding her monstrous spider lusus. Sollux was left untouched by the horror of Aradia's death at his hands, and together they grew up as friends, as happy and functional as anyone could really expect in a place like Alternia. It wasn't until they entered the Alternian military, as all young trolls are required to, that things went wrong.

Karkat's candy red blood (an abomination according to the troll's hemospectrum, a class system based on blood color) was a problem that didn't get solved, and he and his friends entered basic training hoping that they would be able to conceal it indefinitely. But in Alternian society, such optimism is almost always lethally misplaced. The plan lasted only a couple perigee before the whole thing was uncovered. A hasty and desperate plan was hatched to get Karkat off-planet before he could be captured and culled. All of the FLARP clan was involved, along with Kanaya and Sollux. In the end, however, it was only part ways successful.

Sollux was a spearhead of the attempt, and the one to break into control room and hack the computers in authorizing the shuttle launch that would allow him and his friends to escape. Unfortunately, information got to the guards faster than he had anticipated, and instead of escaping with the rest of them as planned, Sollux was forced to barricade himself into the control room while he attempted to guide the others to the shuttle bay. In the end, Kanaya and Karkat were the only ones to escape the planet. Terezi and Vriska were captured, and Aradia and Tavros were forced to flee the scene before they were implicated. Sollux was taken out by a hand grenade shortly after the guards broke through his defenses, and was taken into custody.

Typical procedure would have been to cull Sollux for his treason, but a commander in the Empire's secretive black ops programs saw far too much potential in his powerful psionics and unprecedented computer ability to let him go to waste. Helmsmanship - the process of installing a psionic into the bowels of a spaceship so that it may be fueled with their psychic energies - was another practical option, but no, this commander had more inventive ideas for her talented new captive. She had him drafted into black ops, and spent the next year or two using telepathy to break him down and rebuild him to be a weapon at the Empire's disposal. Stripped of his will and the ability to resist their commands, he became their lifeless puppet, conditioned to unquestioningly serve the Empire out of deeply implanted fear and despair. The longer he was manipulated, the closer he got to losing himself completely.

Eventually he was reconnected with some of his friends thanks to Vriska, another psionic who had been given a similar treatment by the Empire after her capture, but had been fortunate enough to retain most of her free will. The intervention came too late. Unlike her, Sollux no longer possessed the autonomy of mind to pay much attention to either his friends, or their attempts to get through to him.

It wasn't until a full four years after his capture that Sollux was finally liberated. Karkat, having joined and risen to the ranks of captain in the blood equality focused Rebellion, realized that Sollux was still alive after a chance encounter with him on a Rebel spaceship. Despite Sollux's deeply ingrained protests, Karkat and Kanaya launched into an extremely risky rescue plan to get Sollux, Aradia, and Tavros out of the Empire's clutches. And, after a great deal of drama, they were eventually a success. Sollux managed to break free of some of mental his programming, and they all escaped out of Empire space.

However, his troubles didn't end there. Karkat and his crew may have been willing to host him on their vessel, but the higher ups in the Rebellion were less than pleased to discover the risks Karkat had taken too see Sollux rescued. The moment they returned to the Rebellion's headquarters to make their report, Sollux was deemed a security risk and taken into custody. Karkat and Kanaya immediately began fighting for his release, arguing that the only way Sollux would be able to use his knowledge of the Empire to the Rebellion's advantage would be if he were allowed to fully recover, preferably on Karkat's ship where he could stay with his moirail, Aradia. The Rebels made some cursory efforts to interrogate Sollux and to even probe his mind with further psionics, but in the end they conceded to their demands, realizing that any attempt to crack open his mind would most likely leave him too broken to be of any use to anyone.

Sollux was allowed to go with them, but not without a price. Karkat and the rest of his crew were assigned to indefinite scouting duty in the distant edges of the galaxy. As far as they were concerned, the further away Sollux was from anything important, the better. Since then Sollux has been recovering, doing what he can to aid the Rebellion's cause while fighting against the psychic programming still woven into his mind. He can't help that worry that one day he'll cause them to regret ever taking him along.


personality: Sollux has never been without issues. As a child, Sollux was a creature of contradictions, largely resulting from his crippling bipolar disorder and his affinity for bifurcation. On the average day he could come across as casual and composed, with a "cool guy" exterior and a snarky attitude. In an upswing he could be called confident if not straight up arrogant - in those moments he was clever and he knew it, and wasn't afraid to let other people know it either. In a downswing this attitude was completely polarized. Instead of confidence, he found himself with crushing depression and self loathing, where nothing he does did ever felt like enough and everything seemed like his fault. This transition could occur neigh instantaneously given proper provocation.

However, due to the support of some of his friends and a notable lack of significant childhood tragedy - something that couldn't be said for his canon counterpart - he actually managed to grow up a relatively happy, stable person. Because beneath that facade of snarky arrogance, there has always a foundation of deep loyalty and dedication. He never liked to admit to it, but Sollux would do just about anything to defend the things important to him, even if it meant giving up his own life.

Which is exactly what he was forced to do. Because while the Empire didn't kill him for saving Karkat from culling, they nearly destroyed everything he had been.

The brainwashing and mistreatment he suffered during his time with black ops did a great deal of damage to his mind and spirit. He's had every bit of his identity and freedom stripped away from him for over three years, and though he's managed to regain some of himself through some intense mental athletics, he's still kind of lost. He's not completely sure he remembers who he's supposed to be, and struggles daily with the programming and constricting ideas that have been left implanted in him. But at heart, the Sollux Captor he used to be is still there - and he hasn't given up fighting. It's hard, but he's healing.

In the meantime, however, he's been left dependant and unstable. He relies heavily on people like Aradia and Karkat to keep him centered, because sometimes when his willpower fails his programmed instincts start to take control again. Sometimes he'll find himself slipping back under the control of his brainwashing, and find himself confused about his location and motivations, forgetting that he was ever rescued. In a way it's interwoven with his existing moodswings - like his highs and lows, his mental fortitude and ability to resist the pressures in his head fluctuate.

But there was one thing about his personality that the Empire could never break, and that was his loyalty. Even at his worst, he could never bring himself to seriously harm his old friends, and he clings to that as a beacon of hope for his future. In moments of security the troll he was is still very much there. While more subdued than he was in his youth, he's also more thoughtful, and more grateful for the little things in life. His experiences have given him perspective on just how bad things can get.

abilities/powers: Psionics: He is a high level psionic, with powerful telekinetic abilities that manifest with an intense red, blue, and purple glow. He can use these to fly and also lift and support a great deal of matter. He also can see the future and hear the voices of the imminently diseased, but both of those ESP qualities have, at the moment, been suppressed telepathically. That's likely to change in the future though.

Military training: Sollux has been through intense Empire military training, and is very competent at both combat and stealth. His specialties focus on infiltration and sabotage. He's athletically fit.

Computer prowess: He's also ridiculously proficient at computers, and can do a lot of things with programming that would completely baffle most people. He's lost some of his edge with this over the years, but he's till very talented.

first person sample: 'So how about this alternate dimension' discussion.

third person sample: Sollux and Karkat go on a tree date; it is questionably romantic.

case no: I am fine with whatever!