Croach the Tracker

The Player
Name/nickname: Lia
Age: 24
Pronouns: royal we
Contact: AIM: ohliamylia
Experience: remember that time I played Ianto
Currently played characters: yeah Ianto

The Character
DW account: bagropa
Name: Croach, designated 'the Tracker'.
Alias: None, really. You can call him Croach, or Croach the Tracker, but never just The Tracker. Don't be silly.
Age/Birthdate: No canon age. Very difficult to say, given that he is an alien. Equivalent of human early-mid/thirties.
Species: Martian. The blue kind.
Canon: The "Sparks Nevada: Marshall on Mars" segment of Thrilling Adventure Hour. Most easily listened to here (the episodes labeled Sparks Nevada, obviously). Warning note that failing to listen to TAH before reading this app (mostly/particularly the history section) will spoil the heck out of you.
Canon point: Between TAH #150 "Free Kicks" and TAH #152 "Moonfaker".
Played By: Played by Mark Gagliardi, although I will be using his likeness from the graphic novel. A makeup artist once did the actor up in an original design for kicks, but bear in mind this is not quite what he looks like. Also, the suit is not how he dresses, the actors just dress up nice for the show. But still, it's not a bad reference.



Icon:


Abilities:
Croach possesses the ability to near-instantaneously track (discern the location of) things and people, thanks in part to his twenty-eight+ senses. While never explicitly specified what these senses are, many of them are analogous to human senses, only significantly stronger. He is imbued with nanotech (praise Nah Nohtek!) which can heal him of any injury, including ones which would be fatal to humans. The nanotech is rendered inert when he consumes alcohol, which he learned the hard way. He also has skill with a quantum bow and techno arrows. He can to some extent sense if someone is being honest or not.

I don't think he'll be getting an extra power from the rift, on account of his tracking abilities being pretty cool already. Maybe he'll get a trivial power.

Appearance:
Humanoid, with one head, two arms, two legs, all that fun stuff. He has two antennae, which can sense... assorted sensory things, like probably emotion. As Martians in "Sparks Nevada" are space allegories for Native Americans, Croach's clothing and accoutrements are vaguely reminiscent of that - leather pants and a leather vest at their most basic. Did I mention he's blue? He's blue. Black eyes, probably in an insectoid way. He is slight - a little moreso than would be proportionally normal for a human - but muscular. He bucks the tall thin alien trend at a solid 5'7". He has no visible ears or nose. At least not visibly where they would be on a human. Him being an alien and all. He also has two tongues. Hairless. Bioluminescent mouth, which he can alter the color (and presumably intensity) of at will.

Personality:
Though Croach claims not to feel emotions, he certainly does, although his ability to identify, understand, and express them is shaky at best. Through his exposure to humans and human emotions, he has felt/shown love, hope, sadness, and excitement, amongst others. This ostensible emotionlessness often manifests as very dry commentary that toes the line between intense sarcasm and straightforward honesty (such his frequent correction of Martian pronunciation). This straightforward honesty, typical of his culture and his tribe in particular, makes it difficult for him to understand metaphors. On the flipside, he can be trusted to always tell the truth (or most of it - just like he is beginning to learn emotions, he is learning to... exaggerate or omit the truth).

Croach does not tend to dwell on the past or the future, focusing instead on the present and the duty of fulfilling his current onuses. Martian culture places great importance on repaying debts. Croach tabulates them mentally and keeps track for matters large and small. For example, he could be under onus to someone for paying him a compliment, which is easily fulfilled by an equally small action. A canon example would be his onus to Sparks Nevada for Sparks' rescue of Croach's tribe from a flood. Because of the time spent with Sparks fulfilling that onus (and countless onuses acquired since), Croach is sort of between worlds - he does not feel at home with humans, but spending so much time around them has made him (though he would deny it) maybe a little more human and a little less Martian, making him abnormal in both cultures.

Prone to self-sacrifice due to onus- and/or pal-related reasons, though the motivation behind this is questionable (apart from practicality and the susceptibility of his chosen acquaintances, humans, to harm) as any injury incurred is healed by his nanotech. Also prone to quantifying his experiences (nth most painful experience (when injured), nth most disconcerting feeling, nth finest human encountered).

History:
Born and raised on G'loot Praktaw, Croach excelled from an early age: upon hatching, he fought for dominance among his broodmates and consumed them, emerging victorious. (This is how denizens of G'loot Praktaw have kids, it's okay.) Sometime during his childhood, Croach was made ill by oxygen-infected blankets given to his tribe by human settlers and had a period of convalescence. Upon coming of age, he underwent the sacred rite of Nah Nohtek (gaining his ability to self-heal) and received his designation "the Tracker". He was betrothed the Red Plains Rider, then G'rop N'go-goth ("She Who Came To Us From the Earthens, But Who Is Accepted as Our Own and Who Shall Be Betrothed to Our Youngling, Croach the Tracker"), a human who was raised by Croach's tribe. After Sparks Nevada rescued Croach's tribe from a flood, Croach was sent with him to fulfill the tribe's onus by tracking Sparks' robot enemies. Sparks suggested he further fulfill the onus by being "a general help", which led to them becoming partners and Croach becoming Sparks' deputy in all but name. They rode the red plains of Mars, righting wrongs, jailing robots, and averting apocalyptic disasters. He has grown over a series of adventures, developing emotions and a moral sense of right and wrong. (Spoilers!) He once swapped bodies with Sparks, gaining better understanding of emotions with a human body and brain. He fell in love (or never fell out of love since childhood) with the Red Plains Rider and then lost her when he could not properly articulate the depth of his feelings for her. He became close with Sparks after saving his life repeatedly, to the point that Sparks (though he is also unable to properly articulate it) considers him his best friend.

The depth of their friendship is obvious when (EXTRA SPOILERS) Croach intercepted a laser shot by Sparks Nevada and intended for a third party whom Croach was under onus to. Being drunk at the time (long-standingly so, driven by the apparent completion of his onus to Sparks and Sparks' romantic relationship with a woman), Croach's nanotech was rendered inert, and unable to heal, he was killed. He was later returned to life by a being possessing avcosmic force who sought to fix a future which had not yet (and, due to Croach's and Spark's intervention, would never) come to pass. After his resurrection, Croach and Sparks resumed their partnership.

The greatest test of their friendship came when Croach (SOOOO MANY SPOILERS) revealed himself to be fertilized, ostensibly by an adventure which had occurred several years previous (yes, before his death, totally believable) during which Sparks, under duress by a third party, stimulated Croach's egg sacs. Which apparently leads to fertilization. (I maintain that they finally decided to get with each other and, in the manner of tropes, accidentally got fertilized on the first try, and were too embarrassed to ever talk about it.) Sparks did not take this well and fell into a deep depression, seemingly uncaring about Croach's "condition", in stark contrast to Croach's excitement (an emotion he readily displayed) re: their offspring. After a failed "surprise event" to cheer Sparks, it was revealed, to their immense (Sparks) and apparent (Croach) relief, that Croach was not fertilized and was really impregnated via kiss (as they do on Jupiter) by Jib Janeen, a shapeshifting spy from Jupiter who had taken the form of Sparks. (... Hence the headcanon. Jib also reveals that he tried to impregnate Sparks via kiss while pretending to be Croach and that Sparks couldn't get Jupiterian-pregnant. So. Yeah.) After Croach gives birth, Jib takes his Jupiter spy baby and teleports back to Jupiter. After that burden that he totally won't miss, Sparks begins a partnership with, in plain terms, a Katniss Everdeen parody, Pemily Stalwark, who is both literally and metaphorically gunning for the position of Spark's deputy... and best friend.

Not at all feeling left out, Croach is then stolen away to 21st century Manhattan...


Writing Sample:
here wow it's so bad but it was the first time I played him ever so

Anything else?
He has a tendency to exclaim "Bagropa!", a Martian interjection. Nuts will kill him. But not peanuts, because they're actually legumes, obviously.