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:

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

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

Questions: N/A

Player —

Player Name: Chris
Pronouns: she/her
Are you over 18? heck yes
Contact: millennialfalcon / ©hris#1234
Current Characters: n/a
Who Invited You?: Saint

Character —

Character Name: Gwendolyn Poole, aka Gwenpool
Character Canon: Marvel-616
Character Age: physically 19, chronologically 23 (4 years spent in a comic book universe where she doesn't age)
Canon Point: end of Gwenpool Strikes Back #5
Link to History: wiki link
Inventory:

1. Shark backpack with the following contents:
   • cell phone
     
   • earbuds
     
   • wallet
     
   • passionfruit lip balm
   
   
2. Gwenpool costume
   
3. normal outfit comprised of:
   • nerdy t-shirt
     
   • denim shorts
     
   • hoodie
     
   • sneakers
     
   • baseball cap
   
   
4. her gun which has two built-in settings:
   • very extremely lethal
     
   • creampuff (see above image)
   
   
5. box of ammo for above gun
   
6. two katanas, strapped to her back
   
7. Jeff, her pet baby land shark (who will eventually grow up into an adult land shark)

Powers —

Skills: Gwen is a talented fighter with swords and with guns. She's also been trained in hand-to-hand combat by Batroc the Leaper.

Superpowers:

1. Meta Knowledge: (Canon Power) Coming from the "real world," where everything we know to be fiction is still fiction, Gwen has a deep knowledge of pop culture, focused on but not limited to Western style superhero comics. She knows characters' names, backstories, powers, and publication histories.
   
   
2. Format Manipulation: (Canon Power) In the Marvel-616 universe, Gwen is able to manipulate the format of the comic book by moving in and out of the "gutter space," aka the space between panels. This effectively allows her to teleport, time travel, and create multiple clones of herself. The changes she creates are not always permanent, for example if she drags an enemy into the gutter space and abandons them there, they will eventually reappear inside the comic again. How successful Gwen's schemes are is entirely up to the writers/editors at Marvel who are creating her. She knows this, and she has a love/hate relationship with them as a result. As Gwen comes to the realization that she is no longer in a comic book, but instead in an online journal-based roleplay game, she will develop the ability to manipulate the DWRP format the same way she would manipulate the comic book: for example, by disappearing from one point in a thread and reappearing several comments back, creating a new branch in the timeline, or reading back through the archives of game communities' posts.
   
   
3. Situationally-Appropriate Weaponry: (New Power) Gwen's weapons from Earth-616 will magically transform or otherwise be enabled to be the exact type of weapon she needs for any given situation. She needs to chase a villain to the roof? Her gun will have a grappling hook setting! She needs to cut down a tree to rescue someone's runaway cat? Her katana will shapeshift into a chainsaw!
   
   
4. Pockets of Holding: (New Power) Any item of clothing that Gwen wears will be imbued with pockets, regardless of whether it had pockets originally. Moreover, those pockets magically expand to fit objects that would not normally be able to fit in the confines of a regular pocket. Once inside the pocket, items stored there enter a pocket dimension and have no volume or weight as visible from the outside world. Items stored in the pocket can be found and retrieved by reaching in with the intention of pulling that particular item out.
   

Limitations:

1. Meta Knowledge: Gwen's pop culture knowledge only goes up until media published in January of 2016, as that is when she transitioned into the Marvel-616 universe. I have an in-depth permissions post on Gwen's journal and will never 4th wall someone's character without obtaining OOC permission first.
   
   
2. Format Manipulation: Because Gwen will no longer be in a comic book universe, she will be unable to access the gutter space. At first she will think that she has just been completely cut off from this subsection of her abilities, but eventually my aim is for her to realize she has not just left a comic book, she has entered a new format: online journal-based roleplay. There is the potential for her to manipulate the format in other ways, that I will work with other players and the mods to implement when the time comes for that.Again, I will obtain OOC permission for all of Gwen's hijinks.
   
   
3. Situationally-Appropriate Weaponry: This power is limited by the number of weapons she has (three total) and the type of weapons they started as (one ranged and two melee). Gwen has to state out loud what she wants her weapon to transform into.
   
   
4. Pockets of Holding: Living things can only survive inside the pocket dimension for a maximum of one hour. In order to store something in her pockets, Gwen has to be able to physically lift it inside, or allow for it to climb inside on its own. The one item the pocket cannot store is money; Gwen can only keep a maximum of $9.98 in cash in her pockets at any given time. If Gwen wears clothing with multiple pockets, there is still only one (shared) pocket dimension at any given time, and the pocket dimension is only active as long as Gwen is wearing the item(s) of clothing. Anything still stored inside the pocket dimension will come spilling out once Gwen removes that article of clothing.
   

Personality —

What were your character's most formative experiences?:

In senior year of high school, Gwen decided (against her family's wishes) to drop out of school. All her friends went on to graduate and go to college, and Gwen spent a year home, friendless, and unable to land a job without a diploma. She was always a comics nerd, but it was during this time that Gwen turned to superhero media as an escape from the real world. Her home life was bad; she and her father constantly fought, and her mom did nothing to stop it. Her only ally was her brother Teddy, who supported Gwen in her madcap desire to flee the real world and enter Earth-616 for real. It was Teddy who discovered the means of making that jump, and who accompanied Gwen to Earth-616, although they soon were separated.

Later, Gwen had a formative run in with her evil future self. Throughout her early days on Earth-616, Gwen didn't show any care for the lives or needs of the people around her. After all, what does it matter if they die? They're all fictional, right? It wasn't until Gwen met her future self that she saw the logical progression of such an attitude: her transition into becoming a full-fledged supervillain. Evil Gwen used her knowledge of the comics medium to get whatever she wanted, no matter the cost. She killed wantonly, and threatened both heroes' lives, and those of their families. Present-Gwen made the decision then to show more respect for the lives of the people of Earth-616, even going out of her way to learn side characters' names, hoping that Marvel's editors wouldn't be able to kill them off if they had a name.

Later, Gwen went through a last ditch attempt to avoid her story in the 616 universe ending, causing her to "die." She took desperate measures, trying to give herself radioactive powers like Spider-Man, breaking into the Fantastic Four's mansion, and organizing a battle royale between Marvel's finest heroes. In the end, Gwen had a talk with her friend Kamala wherein she tried to explain her fears, but Kamala didn't understand her talk about being a comic book character. Instead she proposed an alternate explanation: Gwen's a mutant with reality-altering abilities, who created a delusion to explain powers she couldn't understand. Gwen reluctantly accepted this, and it worked! Gwen was retconned by Earth-616 to be a mutant, giving her a guaranteed future.

What values, morals, and/or philosophies does your character live by, and how are those beliefs demonstrated? What happens when they have to compromise what they believe in?

Gwen tries to have "good" morals lately, but she isn't afraid of using lethal force on henchpeople she's fighting. Her strongest belief is her knowledge that the world she's in is fictional, and admitting otherwise is painful for her, such as when she spoke with Kamala about being a mutant. She'll do it if she has to, but she doesn't like it. She tries to live her life without worrying about things too much, except when it comes to her continued existence as a comic book character.

What is your character afraid of? How does avoiding or preventing these fears influence their actions and decisions?

Gwen's biggest fear is that she will fade from relevance as a character, and Marvel's writers will stop making stories about her, essentially "killing" her. She will do anything if it means continuing her existence, no matter how drastic or how many enemies it might make her. Her lesser fear is that people will think of her as "crazy" because of all her talk about comic book universes. For the most part, though, she's just accepted this as an unfortunate fact of her life. Some people might believe her, but most won't, and that's just something she has to live with. She would rather keep telling her truth and be thought of as insane than accept the pretty lies she told Kamala.

What goals does your character have right now? What do they want, and how do they go about getting it?

At her current canon point, Gwen has achieved her main goal of furthering her existence on Earth-616. She's coming into game somewhat unfettered, wanting nothing more than to enjoy life. Before that future was secured, she would go to any length to ensure it. Now, she plans on indulging in whatever benefits the Alliance can set her up with, and having as much fun as possible. In general, Gwen's more long-term goals include staying on Earth-616 for the rest of her (now unnatural) life. She'll be a bit thrown off by not being in a comic book anymore, but since there are still superheroes and fun things to do here, she won't be all that bothered.

Gameplay —

Areas of Interest / Brainstorming: I'm interested in the plot arc of having Gwen come to the realization that she's now in a journal-based online roleplay, and seeing what avenues of hijinks that opens up for her. She may make some enemies with her brash nature, but I'm mostly hyped for her to play fangirl and meet heroes or villains she hasn't had the chance to fight alongside/against yet.

Samples: TDM thread w/ Eddie + TDM thread with David