▶ PLAYERHANDLE: Faetan
CONTACT: ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
faetanOVER 18? Yup!
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Winter Schnee
▶ CHARACTERNAME: Mantis
CANON: Guardians of the Galaxy / MCU
CANON POINT: After Infinity War, before Endgame
AGE: Unknown (somewhere between mid-20's to early-30's, likely younger than Peter Quill; if a definite age is needed, I'll pick 31 since that's how old the actress was when the movie came out)
BACKGROUND: Here!PERSONALITY: When you're raised by a living planet named Ego who callously murders all of his offspring, it's a little difficult to get a good grasp of social norms. Mantis has almost no experience with interpersonal dynamics to the point where she hasn't even attempted smiling around other people until she first meets the Guardians (and she's awful at it too). For the majority of her life her sense of personal value was centered solely on fulfilling her purpose, which was to ease Ego's conscience and help him sleep. He seems to have provided well for her as she shows signs of being educated and intelligent, and she held a great deal of respect and gratitude toward him for raising her, but she's also extremely naive and innocent about a lot of things to the point where it's a fairly big fault.
Though Mantis strives to be polite and has an ingrained tendency to be deferential around others, her lack of social understanding can often embarrass, confuse, or simply entertain others she comes in contact with. The most normal person she interacts with on a regular basis is an emotionally closed-off assassin, so her own chances of fitting in with normal society are hilariously doomed. That might be for the best; for better or worse, Mantis is endearing in her efforts to befriend others, wholly unique, and pleasant to have around. Her empathic gifts enable to her to understand and share the emotions of others, and her earnest yearning to understand and be liked by other people is usually well received.
She is wildly impressionable and often tries to emulate the behaviors, speech patterns, and gestures of others in order to better match another's preferred customs. She doesn't always get it right, and it's likely her time around Drax (whom she seems to regard as an admired big brother figure) has made her just as likely to take things literally the way he does. Mantis is inherently curious about other people, and usually she's polite enough to ask for permission before touching people to feel their emotions. There are a lot of things she's eager to experience and feel, so she's very happy to meet others who are accommodating about sharing their emotions with her in a literal sense. Once she's picked up on someone's emotions (as she not only perceives the emotions but feels what they feel too), she immediately tries to mimic their own habits and personality, much as she did when joining Drax in pointing and laughing at Peter.
Mantis is still discovering a great deal about herself, such as what she likes and dislikes. She was raised on a planet that was a perfect paradise of unparalleled beauty, but she was always miserable and lonely there. Now that she's traveling the galaxy in a dirty spaceship with a bunch of weirdos, she couldn't possibly be happier, and she's always excited about little things like Earth movies, music, and knife fights. It seems that she feels more at home in less than ideal situations because she's lived with perfection in a state of constant unease and solitude. It didn't make her nearly as happy as she is traveling with some of the most flawed and maladjusted people in the galaxy.
Also, she freaking loves puppies and cute things, so there's probably a super girly-girl side to her that will also adore scratch-n-sniff stickers, Lisa Frank posters, and handcrafted desserts. Really, Mantis is ridiculously easy to please, and the slightest bit of effort to be nice to her will be enthusiastically received. She's likely to tag along on the heels of anyone who's willing to tolerate her unending curiosity, and she'll happily shower people with gratitude for their kindness (even if that kindness is only perceived as such; she was also grateful to be called 'ugly' when it was explained to her that it's easier to tell who genuinely likes her in spite of her hideous appearance).
While she may be innocent about a lot of things, she isn't shy about discussing the mating habits of others (even if she doesn't seem to have experienced such things for herself). Ego was an intergalactic manwhore who slept with every alien species he came across in his efforts to breed the perfect kid, and Mantis went along with him for most of those pimptacular journeys, so yeah. Sex isn't going to make her blush. Though Mantis is sort of a doormat and a pushover, she does have moral boundaries, and is slowly developing more confidence in who she is and her ability to say 'no' if she finds someone's behavior evil or atrocious. She's willing to help her friends wherever she's needed, and isn't short on courage to do the right thing.
POWERS/ABILITIES: Mantis is a talented empath who can pick up the feelings of another person simply by touching them. Not only does she perceive these feelings, but she also seems to feel them as well. What's more, Mantis is capable of
altering someone's emotions so long as she can touch them. She can cause someone to feel fear, or calm, or even entice someone to fall into a deep sleep (or wake them from an unconscious state). The biggest drawback is that she does have to touch them, and someone with a very strong willpower can resist her efforts. Most of the time Mantis will ICly seek permission from another character before using her abilities, and player permission will always be required before she uses her powers offensively or without the character's permission.
INVENTORY: Nothing; just the clothes on her back! She doesn't have any belongings of note, not even weapons.
MOONBLESSING: Cordis
▶ SAMPLESThere isn't anything on the app page that says how old samples are allowed to be, so I hope these are acceptable. They're from August and October of 2018, and an accurate representation of how I play her against other characters from non-MCU canons. And if the August one isn't okay, there are some additional links to her test drive threads just to make sure I cover all the bases.
link #1link #2test drive #1last resort back-up TDM thread parent up for Mantis's starter comment<a href=
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
