variantcover | Expiation app

Player: Chris
Contact:

millennialfalcon + objectpermanence @ discord
Age: 36
Current Characters: N/A (also apping Heimerdinger)

Character Name: Gwendolyn Poole, aka Gwenpool
Character Canon: Marvel-616
Canon Point: post Marvel Voices: Pride Vol 3 #1
Age: Early 20s-ish... She was around 17-18 in 2015, but she has been in a comic book universe with a sliding-scale timeline for about 8 years, so hasn't aged the full 8 years she would have in the real world.

Crime: Kidnapping. Which is only the most recent in a long, loooooong list of potential crimes committed.

Background: Wiki

Personality:

They say you should never meet your heroes. Whoever came up with that phrase probably didn't mean superheroes, but then why would they? Superheroes aren't real. They exist in an entirely different (fictional) universe. Thing is, though, through the magic of comic books, it is sometimes possible to cross between universes. That is what Gwendolyn Poole did, after dropping out of high school, losing all her friends when they moved away to college, and being unable to hold a job without a diploma. Her life became a dull, lonely, sanity-destroying place, where her only respite was the escapist fantasy of superhero comics, movies, and video games. Gwen decided to literally escape her stupid, boring regular life, and find a way to transport herself into the universe of her favorite characters: Earth-616, home of the Prime Marvel Universe.

This shows just how driven and self-motivated Gwen is. No matter whether the thing she wants to do is impossible, implausible, or just plain unlikely, she'll find a way to make it happen. The problem is, she doesn't always stop to consider the consequences of her actions. Turns out, Earth-616 New York City is a lot more dangerous than plain old regular New York City. There are superhero v. supervillain battles on every other street corner, and explosions just, like, happen. A lot. Gwen quickly realized that if she was going to survive in this comic book universe, she had to play by its rules. She had to adapt, and make herself into a character who couldn't just be killed off. No more would she be Gwen Poole, the innocent bystander! She would make herself into a hero, despite the fact that her only superpowers were knowing everyone's secret identities and a general understanding of how comic book storylines work.

At first, Gwen lacked empathy, believing that none of her behavior really mattered, because the people around her who were dying or getting hurt weren't real people, they were simply nameless creations of a comic book writer somewhere who only existed in ink and paper. What did that poor old woman matter? Or that cop, trying to stop Gwen from getting what she wanted? Eventually, Gwen was forced into realizing that if she continued along that path, sure, she'd have a long run with a ton of issues, but she would be a villain, not a hero. And in Gwen's black-and-white view of morality, that wasn't what she wanted. Ultimately, Gwen wants to do good. She wants to be the hero of her story. And so, Gwen was able to learn from her mistakes and treat the people of Earth-616 with more respect than ever before.

As Gwen learned and grew, she gained more control over the medium of the comic book universe she was in. She gained access to the "gutter space," the white space in between panels. She used this to defy the laws of time and logic, once again abusing her knowledge and power to get what she wanted. The people around her couldn't fathom what Gwen was doing, nor could they see where she went when she walked out of frame. From their perspective, all Gwen's talk about writers and editors was nonsense. Gwen was thought of as an unpredictable insane person. Gwen grew used to everyone thinking she was insane, and learned to either adapt what she said so her meta-knowledge seemed more believable, or, in other cases, embrace the persona of insanity and use it to her advantage. People weren't going to believe the truth, so might as well lie and tell them what they want to hear.

All-in-all, Gwen has learned some of her lessons, but she still falls prey to functioning in a very narcissistic manner. She has trouble viewing situations from any perspective other than her own, which often ends up pushing away the few friends she's been able to make on Earth-616. She's gone through a long journey of self discovery, retconning her in-universe origin story, making herself a mutant so that she had a reason to continue to be written about instead of fading into irrelevancy, and even coming to the realization that she is aromantic/asexual after trying (and failing) to manipulate herself into several different ~~romantic subplots~~ failed relationships. These days, she is doing fairly well balancing both her Empire State University game design classes and her superhero duties, while sharing custody of a young landshark puppy with her friend Kate Bishop.

Abilities: Although Gwen has been retconned into technically being a mutant with reality warping powers, she started life as a baseline human, with no powers per se. Her method of "warping reality" involves accessing the "gutter space" of comic books, i.e. stepping outside of the boundaries of a panel and using that to spy on other events/essentially travel to the future or past. When the comic she is in is a webcomic, for example, she can escape through the gutter space and browse the internet at large. However, since Expiation is neither a comic book nor a webcomic, this ability won't apply. Otherwise, she is a skilled combatant with many styles of weapon, most of all guns, katanas, and comically oversized hammers. She has in depth meta knowledge of many pop culture properties, but I will not have her fourthwall anyone without explicit OOC permission. As well, I have a screened opt-out post on her journal, so anyone who wants to avoid either being fourthwalled or interacting with Gwen altogether can easily let me know.

Inventory:

penguin backpack with the following contents:
- cell phone
- earbuds
- wallet
- passionfruit lip balm
Gwenpool costume
civilian outfit comprised of:
- nerdy t-shirt
- denim shorts
- hoodie
- sneakers
- baseball cap
twin katanas with pink and white leather wrapped on the hilts

Samples: TDM thread w/ Quentin + TDM thread w/ Kurt

Questions: N/A