[center][h2][u]Individuality, Agency, and Uniqueness[/u][/h2][/center]
I've always liked to mess around with notions of individuality and uniqueness. We strive for it so much. It's so important to so many of our self-concepts, and the variety of characters on here represents that, even the very cringey ones. They're all an attempt to express something about ourselves or explore different facets of identity that we'll never personally experience. I enjoy exploring hybrid identities, multiple identities, and identities still forming.

In particular, I've always found the concept of conjoined twins intriguing. What would it be like to live as two people permanently stuck together and sharing the same body? There are all sorts of cool philosophical, practical, and humorous implications. Someday, I hope to actually get to play this kind of character (these kinds of characters?) for more than a couple of posts.

[hr]This was an almost-finished CS for a cool Ready Player One inspired RP called [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/176407-th-univ-rs-ready-player-one-inspired-rp/ooc]The Universe[/url]. It was my second try at playing conjoined twins, since I hadn't really gotten the monkey off my back from the Sinclair Twins and Deadland Wasteland (life had forced me to drop early). 

[hider=The Brightman Twins]
[center][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/997dd941-898d-4c6d-8316-d8337976ad6c/d34r4qw-46704f09-0bb0-4f3f-9198-dd5bc84cc5f1.jpg/v1/fill/w_900,h_615,q_70,strp/twins_01_by_yigitgunel_d34r4qw-fullview.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Names:[/b] Jocelyn & Madison Brightman

[b]Age:[/b] 27
[b]Gender:[/b] Female
[b]Sexual Orientation:[/b] Hetero
[b]Height:[/b] 5'6"
[b]Combined Weight:[/b] 180 lbs

[b][u]Appearance:[/u][/b] 
[hider=What Goofs][center][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/997dd941-898d-4c6d-8316-d8337976ad6c/d34r8mz-9edff8f9-eefe-4631-becb-0060e7163e5a.jpg[/img][/center][/hider]
On their own, Jocelyn and Madison would be two completely average, reasonably attractive Caucasian women in their mid-late twenties who, status as identical twins aside, wouldn't stand out in a crowd one iota. Brown-haired bobs and grey eyes tend to just sort of fade in. Of course, that's not exactly possible when you're conjoined. From shoulders to toes, the two of them share a single body with a slightly widened torso. Madison controls the right side while Jocelyn controls the left. The extra weight that has to be carried on a normal pair of legs, along with the twins' fairly busy lives means that they really don't have much choice but to be physically fit. In terms of clothing, they prefer to dress light, bright, and active or artsy, but they'll wear basically whatever they have to for photoshoots. Hey, when you're that unusual, you're an attraction whether you like it or not.

[b][u]Ring Location:[/u][/b] Middle City

[b][u]Occupation:[/u][/b] Professional hosts, celebrity reporters, and media personalities

[b][u]Real Life Skills[/u][/b]

Combined: The twins are fully ambidextrous and can play the guitar and violin right or left-handed, though Jocelyn is better with the former and Madison with the latter. They enjoy sewing and modifying clothes and tend to be good with cars. They're surprisingly handy at fixing things in general. Yes, they joke that "two heads are better than one". This extends to multitasking, perceptiveness, and general problem solving. Individually, each is above average. As a unit, they're unstoppable. While they're capable of all of the normal things that you'd expect of competent adults, being conjoined definitely makes these a bit harder. They're not winning any foot speed, balance, or physical endurance contests. 

Jocelyn: While the twins are biologically identical and should respond the same way to things, Jocelyn is totally unaffected by even the spiciest foods. In general, she just has an abnormally high pain threshold. She's also surprisingly good at sleight-of-hand tricks thanks to countless hours practicing to be a magician with her sister as a child.

Madison: Though she shares most of the aforementioned skills with her sister, Madison tends to be the weaker of the two. Where she excels is in her focus, ability to be incredibly precise, and steady hand. Playing darts, tossing a ball, or firing a gun, her accuracy is impressive for someone who hasn't been specially trained. 

[b][u]Likes[/u][/b] (J) = Jocelyn // (M) = Madison // (B) = Both
[list]
[*] magic tricks (B)
[*] fast cars (B)
[*] celebrity gossip (J)
[*] tech and gadgets (M)
[*] making funny faces and snuggling (B)
[*] DIY 'life hacks' (B)
[*] classical music (M)
[*] rock music (J)
[*] coffee (J)
[*] just the nastiest health drinks and smoothies (M)
[*] really cute flats and heels (B)[/list]

[b][u]Dislikes[/u][/b] (J) = Jocelyn // (M) = Madison // (B) = Both
[list]
[*] coffee (M)
[*] health drinks and smoothies (J)
[*] walking long distances without a destination (B)
[*] people who take themselves too seriously (B)
[*] being stared at beyond the obvious second glances that they're used to receiving (B)
[*] lazy people (M)
[*] pretentiousness (J)
[*] when the one falls asleep before the other (B)
[*] spiders (B)[/list]

[u][b]Personalities:[/b][/u] The Brightman twins have been a curiosity from the moment that they were born, and have always had to deal with some degree of public attention. As a result, they've developed 'personas' that play up their few differences without consciously intending to. The truth is that the sisters are similar in overall personality and habits and pretty flexible in terms of what they like and dislike. Both are used to living with compromise and they rarely fight. It's not exactly like they can give each other the cold shoulder. Out of the two, Madison is definitely the more concerned about eating and living healthily. Jocelyn's mostly just down to freeload, much to her sister's annoyance. For the most part, Madison is the more driven of the two as well and the more likely to take charge while Jocelyn is a bit more of a laid back joker. The former is more likely to read something and the latter more likely to try something. Both can talk a mile a minute, though. Both hate to sit idle. They're friendly, gregarious, and welcoming towards others and genuinely want to make people smile but, when you spend literally every waking moment in each other's company, you can't help but become a social unit unto yourselves, so the twins can definitely be a bit judgemental and tend to prioritize themselves and their own relationship at the cost of others. That's not to say that they're aloof or selfish. Both have friends. Both are funny, good-natured people who use their occasionally over-the-top sense of humour to put others at ease. It's just that, when your performance on the stage of life is a harmonized duet while everyone else only has to play a solo, you'd better prioritize being in sync with each other.

[b][u]Background:[/u][/b] coming soon

[u][b]UNDER CONSTRUCTION[/b][/u][/hider]

The Mimic was a CS submitted for [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/165154-justice-league-unlimited/ooc]Justice League Unlimited[/url] a few years back. I (and a few others) thought that it was a novel and interesting concept, but it was rejected. The idea was to explore a consciousness with no fixed form or identity and how society would shape it. I guess that was just a bit too 'out there'. 

[hider=The Mimic][u][b]Name:[/b][/u] 

n/a

[u][b]Alias:[/b][/u] 

The Mimic, Marjorie Dawes

[u][b]Age:[/b][/u] 

Unknown, but young, or at least seems to be. When taking the form of Marjorie, late twenties.

[u][b]Personality:[/b][/u] 

Quiet, childlike, innocent, unsettling, inquisitive, subtly humorous, evanescent

[u][b]Archetype:[/b][/u] 

Alien, most likely

[u][b]Powers:[/b][/u] 

The Mimic has only one power: it can become something or someone else. It is not sure how it does this or what its limitations are. It only knows that it cannot become anything exceptionally large or small. Perhaps it cannot become another thing for too long. In any event, it has never tried. 

[u][b]Weaknesses:[/b][/u] 

The Mimic itself possesses a type of sentience (if indeed, it can be called sentient) that is profoundly different from that of humans and most alien races so far encountered. In its base form, it either cannot or will not verbalize. It takes on not only the abilities of things that it transforms into, but also their weaknesses and, if those things are sentient, some semblance of their characters. It’s believed that The Mimic grows more sentient by living as others. From them, it learns all of the constructs and values that govern human society, such as right and wrong, strong and weak, and male and female. It is learning that these things are not as easy to define as they would initially seem to be.

The longer that The Mimic spends imitating something else, the more that it desires to be that thing and the more impact that thing will have on its character. Obviously, this can be a double edged sword.

[u][b]Appearance:[/b][/u] 

In what most people consider its basic form, though nobody truly knows, The Mimic is a roughly watermelon-sized and shaped blob in a pale greyish-blue that usually hovers two to six feet above the ground. It seems to have a fixed shape, though this will change in colour and texture depending on its impression of the people around it. Sometimes, when faced with unusual or unexpected stimuli, and particularly when someone’s behaviour does not match his or her words, it forms exaggerated faces, almost as if it’s lampooning its surroundings. It seems to be able to turn itself into a flat, disc-like object with a hole in the center. In terms of human forms, it favours that of a young woman with red hair, freckles, and mousy features. Her hair is often pulled back into a messy ponytail, she’s wearing jeans, a sleeveless t-shirt, and a light button-up sweater. Nobody knows why The Mimic chooses this form so often. Perhaps even it doesn’t know.

[u][b]Character Evolution:[/b][/u] 

The Mimic isn’t sure what its purpose is. Perhaps it has no inherent purpose and must find one. It doesn’t know, and so it will learn so that it can know.

[u][b]Bio:[/b][/u] 

The Mimic does not know what it is. It does not know if it is a living thing or a piece of technology, or if it can be both at the same time. It does not know where it is from. In fact, it does not know when it is from either. Time is a concept that it is attempting to understand. Really, The Mimic does not know what it can do. It has noticed that it takes the form and the qualities of other things around it, so long as they are not excessively large or infinitesimally small. It is not sure how it does this or even why. It just does. If there is any mechanism governing what it decides to mimic, it doesn’t understand how that mechanism works. It just chooses things and becomes them unless there is a direct threat. Then it responds by becoming something more powerful and neutralizing the threat. It is not sure why it does this. The Mimic is not much of anything, after all. The Mimic does not know much of anything either, but one thing is certain: it is learning.

[u][b]Notes:[/b][/u]

The Mimic does not need to take notes. When it sees something, it understands all of its physical details immediately and is incapable of not understanding them after that.


[u][b]Sample Post:[/b][/u]

On the first day of the new Justice League, there are throngs of well-wishers outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new superheroes. Among them is a small, red-haired young woman with mousy features, freckles, and dimples. She stands beside a streetlight on an uncluttered part of the sidewalk and whoops and cheers with the others. Nearby, there is a teenaged boy with shaggy blonde hair and a pair of beat up skateboarding shoes. She studies him carefully, closely, for just long enough not to unsettle him. She wouldn’t want to make the subject uncomfortable. It would be rude and unprofessional.

On the second day, hanging around that same streetlight, the teenaged boy whoops and cheers with thousands of others. Not far away is a portly middle-aged woman with dark skin and hair pulled neatly back in a bun. He looks at her for a second, fidgeting as he gets all of her details down. He’s trying not to sketch her out. That’d be a bit fucked up.

On day three, the middle-aged woman stands beside that same light and adds her voice to the crowd. It’s a bit smaller than it was the past few days, but she remains enthusiastic. Not far away, an old Asian man seems just as energized. He’s wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and socks under his sandals. The woman gets a read on him, notes what she needs to note, and looks away. She’s not trying to make anyone uncomfortable. That’s not how you make the world a better place.

On the fourth and final day, an old Asian man stands in that same spot amid the crowd, beaming and waving as the final group of superheroes walk past. Nearby is chubby young man in his thirties, with a batman shirt and a bag of takeout. The old man decides to take a gander in that direction, but then he reaches up and clutches at his chest. A look of shock and dismay crosses his features. It’s what one would expect and it isn’t. It’s unsettling. A couple of people look in his direction. He slumps to the ground, but when the crowd parts enough to allow others to help him, he is gone without a trace. There is only a fire hydrant close to where he was standing.

Hours later, once the hubbub has died down, a man walks his dog along the sidewalk. The dog stops beside the hydrant, lifts its leg, and lets loose with a foul yellow stream. The Mimic is disgusted. It nearly turns itself into a larger angry dog in response. In the event, it does not, but it feels satisfaction at this reaction nonetheless. It believes, to a certainty of over eighty percent, that it interpreted the construct of ‘disgusting’ accurately while not being in the form of something that would have an innate understanding of such.About ten minutes later, a bus stops in front of the hydrant. When it drives off, there is only an empty sidewalk and a stray cat walking away. 

The cat walks into a nearby park. It trots into a public restroom. There is a long period of silence. Washrooms are convenient, The Mimic has learned. They are places of secrecy because of ‘disgusting’. About twenty minutes later, a young woman with red hair, freckles, and mousy features walks out of the washroom, hands tucked into her pockets. She is not the real her. She is The Mimic. She is attempting to understand superheroes. She is reviewing right and wrong. Insofar as she can determine, it seems that the latter is more prevalent but the former is received more positively. Is it due to a scarcity effect? Why do these beings consider a more difficult, less common, and statistically less materially rewarding behaviour to be more desirable? The Mimic does not understand, and it wants to understand. Perhaps it can learn about ‘good’ by doing ‘good’. Perhaps it can do so as a superhero.

The young woman is so wrapped up in her thoughts that she doesn’t see the man come up behind her until he is almost upon her. She takes a few steps back and he pulls out a knife. “I want your money, not your life,” he demands, “But if you try to make a move, I won’t think twice.” The Mimic bolts. This is a bad man, it determines. This man is threatening it with physical harm. The Mimic runs behind a tree. From the other side emerges Batman. Batman kicks the bad man so hard that there’s a sound from his abdomen that indicates bodily injury. He crawls away, coughing up blood, eyes wide with fear. The Mimic wonders if it just did a bad thing. Then it decides that it’s safer as a cat.[/hider]
 
A CS for a post-apocalyptic survival RP called [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/164022-deadland-wasteland-start-recruitment-exe-open-apply/ic]Deadland Wasteland[/url]. Yes, they're conjoined twins. I've always been kind of drawn to the unusual and 'out there'. Also, two heads are better than one, aren't they? These two were actually a ton of fun to play and I regret giving up on them.

[hider=Hannah and Amanda Sinclair][center][color=lightgreen][h3]Basic Information[/h3][/color][/center][color=linen]
[center][img]http://orig09.deviantart.net/d956/f/2013/042/1/b/geek_girls_by_crackspid3r-d5unnz1.jpg[/img][/center]
[color=palegreen][b]Name:[/b][/color]
[indent]Hannah and Amanda Sinclair[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Age:[/b][/color]
[indent]23[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Nationality:[/b][/color]
[indent]Canadian[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Ethnicity:[/b][/color]
[indent]Caucasian[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Sex:[/b][/color]
[indent]Female[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Height:[/b][/color]
[indent]5'4"[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Weight:[/b][/color]
[indent]151 lbs. (combined)[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Eye Color:[/b][/color]
[indent]Blue-Grey[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Hair Color:[/b][/color]
[indent]Red[/indent]
[color=palegreen][b]Physical Disabilities:[/b][/color][list]
[*] Dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins
[*] Slightly far-sighted 
[/list]
[color=palegreen][b]Physical Identifiers[/b][/color][list]
[*] They basically look like a two-headed woman.
[*] Both wear glasses, though Hannah needs them more.
[*] They used to wear yellow contact lenses, though that's largely fallen by the wayside.
[*] There are a handful small of surgical scars on their back and shared shoulder.   
[/list]
[color=palegreen][b]Appearance:[/b][/color]
[indent]Perhaps the twins could be described as a pair of young women with red hair, light skin, and freckles. This alone would make them stand out in a crowd given the relative uncommonness of that complexion. They also show the strong and slightly cleft chin characteristic of many people of their ethnic background. However, these features are secondary, as Hannah and Amanda are instantly unmistakable due to the fact that they're dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins, not dissimilar to [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel] Abigail and Brittany Hensel[/url]. Given the extremely high incidence of fatal birth defects present in such twins, they are very fortunate to enjoy health that - after a few corrective surgeries during their infancy and early childhood - falls within normal parameters.

Amanda and Hannah are identical, though their freckles (not particularly numerous or pronounced) differ. Hannah usually wears her hair shorter and will sometimes wear either a choker or a bracelet to distinguish herself from her sister. They customize their clothes when need be to fit their wider-than-average shared torso, but often prefer to wear things that are either loose-fitting or can stretch a good deal. They prefer wide-necked, tank, or off the shoulder tops for obvious reasons. Their dressing style can best be described as either casual or, at times, 'look at me, I'm a gamer gril.' They've had to focus on practicality since everything went pants a few months back.[/indent]
[hider=Biography][color=linen]
[indent]Amanda and Hannah were born in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, in the year 2088, the second and third (Amanda jokingly refers to herself as the older twin) children of Matthew and Evelyn Sinclair. Informed before their birth of their situation and the likelihood of them dying in infancy, their parents did not opt for an abortion. After crossing a number of important hurdles, the twins emerged as happy, healthy children, their lives understandably the focus of intense public curiosity and media attention. While their parents did their best to strike a balance between appeasing the demand for information and raising the girls normally, by the time that they started the first grade, they were well aware of just how different and special they were.

While some dicephalus twins manage to co-ordinate the fine motor control needed to master everyday tasks, doctors advised caution and patience when the girls were young. Thankfully, this proved largely unwarranted. Amanda and Hannah seem to be able to anticipate each other's movements perfectly and rarely need to communicate in order to co-ordinate their movements. As their older brother Nate was an avid videogamer, the girls would often play with him. Before long they became deeply interested in videogaming and general geek culture, and this carried through into their teens. With two sets of eyes and two minds to process information, their situational awareness was difficult to beat. 

As they progressed through high school, sporadically in and out of the public eye, the two of them made a decision: a 'normal' life and career were not in the cards, and their uniqueness was best embraced and used as a source of profit. Shortly after their eighteenth birthday, Hannah and Amanda moved to Vancouver to try their hands at professional gaming. They also studied programming and public relations on a part-time basis at UBC. Firmly ensconced within the 'geek' scene, they became regular attendees and a sometime attraction at gaming, comic, and anime conferences, often getting involved with cosplay. The twins have always been secure enough in their separate identities to eschew ham-fisted attempts to assert their individuality. The truth is that they have pretty similar personality types and their interests overlap significantly. The only notable difference is that Hannah is slightly more bookish and knowledgeable, while Amanda tends to take the lead and is a better judge of character.

They were in nearby Seattle, doing a series of interviews for the upcoming Emerald City Comicon, when the world ended. Perhaps playing so many videogames and watching so many zombie movies imbued them with the paranoia to survive. Amanda and Hannah mostly just stockpiled necessary items and hid for the first couple of months. They taught themselves to shoot an actual gun and found that it was a bit harder in the real world. Upon hearing the call to Refuge, they made their way there immediately.[/indent]
[/color][/hider]
[center][h3][color=skyblue]Extended Information[/color][/h3][/center]
[color=powderblue][b]Residence:[/b][/color]
[indent]Vancouver, Canada[/indent] 
[color=powderblue][b]Profession:[/b] [/color]
[indent]Professional Gamers (former)[/indent]
[indent]lookouts, scavengers, and programmers (current)[/indent]
[color=powderblue][b]Aligned Faction:[/b][/color]
[indent]currently unaligned[/indent] 
[color=powderblue][b]Relatives:[/b][/color][list]
[*] Matthew Sinclair, father (whereabouts unknown)
[*] Evelyn Sinclair, mother (whereabouts unknown)
[*] Nathan Sinclair, older brother (Vancouver, Canada at last contact)
[/list]
[center][h3][b][u][color=coral]Personnel Data[/color][/u][/b][/h3][/center]
[b][color=lightsalmon]Weapons[/color][/b]:[list]
[*] A pair of Springfield Armory XD(m) pistols firing .45 ACP rounds.
[*] A pair of Swiss army knives.
[/list]
[b][color=lightsalmon]Equipment[/color][/b][list]
[*] One pair of night-vision goggles (the second pair malfunctioned), a large hiking backpack, and a laser pointer
[/list]
[b][color=lightsalmon]Miscellaneous[/color][/b][list]
[*] Amanda: Samsung smartphone, apack of pencil crayons, contact lenses, desalinizing solution, one six-sided die 
[*] Hannah: iPhone, a small combination lock, contact lenses, a compass, one six-sided die[/list]

[b][color=lightsalmon]Trade Skills:[/color][/b][list]
[*][color=lightsalmon]Not an Easy Mark[/color]
As professional gamers, Amanda and Hannah possess excellent reflexes and consistently react quickly and decisively to changes in their situation. Their situational awareness is virtually unparalleled, due to their unique physiology and chosen profession. They are extremely difficult to sneak up on. 
[*][color=lightsalmon]All Your Code are Belong to Us[/color]
While no means seasoned professionals when it comes to hacking, the twins understand a decent amount about a handful of different types of code and generally know their way around computers and electronics: both hardware and software. 
[/list]
[b][color=lightsalmon]Talents & Hobbies:[/color][/b][list]
[*][color=lightsalmon]Creativity[/color]
The twins, especially Amanda, enjoy designing their own cosplay outfits and can sketch pretty ably as well as sew and repair clothing and other materials.
[*][color=lightsalmon]General Knowledge[/color]
The twins, especially Hannah, have pretty good memories and are knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects. 
[/list]
[b][color=lightsalmon]Limitations:[/color][/b][list]
[*][color=lightsalmon]Like a Sore Thumb[/color]
Amanda and Hannah are immediately obvious and stick out like a sore thumb wherever they go. There's no chance of fading into a crowd or simply disappearing. They draw immense attention wherever they go (and not all of it is positive). Usually they embrace it, but sometimes it really starts to wear on them.
[*][color=lightsalmon]Conjoined[/color]
Though they are young, in reasonable shape, and quite physically capable, Amanda and Hannah are still conjoined twins at the end of the day and their two legs have to carry more weight than most people's do. They're a little bit slower, their balance is a little bit worse, and they tire marginally faster than other people of similar age and physical condition. Though they've been mostly problem-free up to this point, some minor birth anomaly could always rear its head.
[/list][/color][/hider]