Player Name: James
Preferred Pronouns?: He
Player Contact: plurk - nathanderOther characters in play? N/A
Character Name: Pokey Minch
Canon: Earthbound
Game Transplant: Mayfield_RPG, then My Little Jamjar and Cosmographia
Original App: The Mayfield application is lost to time since it was pasted on the original Mayfield boards on Livejournal, but the app for My Little Jamjar is
here and for Cosmographia it is
hereGame Summary: Mayfield was a horror/slice of life game that took place in the ideal town of Mayfield. It looked like a pleasant little 50s town, where the milk was poisoned and sometimes the town had fun games to kill you with. It turned out in the end to be a simulated computer program and the people in it AI programs to inhabit it. In the end they got to make their own town.
My Little Jamjar was a game based off of My Little Pony. In it people were brought to the world of Equestria, turned into ponies or other creatures, and got to have amazing friendship adventures. Pokey got turned into a little dragon.
Cosmographia was a game based off of Steven Universe. In it, those brought to the game were made into gems a la Steven Universe and were set up to protect the town of Waverly Bay with the new super powers they had gained.
How long was your character in Game: 2 and a half years in Mayfield, one year in My Little Jamjar, and five-six months in Cosmographia
History of Character in their Game: CRAU History AWWWW HELL YEAH LETS GO:
Mayfield Year One (July 2010-July 2011)
- Having just finished betraying his planet and going around to screw around in the fabric of time and space, Pokey one day found himself plucked away from his time machine and kick ass science crap to live in rinky dink 50s town. Pokey did the only logical thing he could think of and decided to bitch about it and annoy the others stuck in the town with him due to his obnoxious bullcrap.
-The first few months, from July to October, were uneventful for Pokey, or at least as uneventful as living in a complex virtual reality designed as a safe place for humanity as it tried to hide from the bombed out wasteland that was its world. Despite this, theses first few months would see the establishment of five of the six most important relationships Pokey would develop in Mayfield: Lucas, Francis Fullbright, Lil Slugger, Kyrie Ushiromiya, and Mindy. A brief description of their relationships and their starting points will follow, we'll watch how they grow as the bullet points go on.
-Lucas was a boy who came from a future where Pokey had taken over the world and ruled it as a despotic tyrant. Lucas had been dealt a great deal of personal tragedy due to Pokey's cruelty, and yet despite his understandable hatred for the mean-spirited boy, Lucas took it upon himself to monitor Pokey and ensure he didn't cause trouble in Mayfield as well as attempt to persuade the now helpless and powerless Pokey that he needed other people. Pokey was usually dismissive, cold, or obnoxious to the other boy, not really caring about the harm he may have done Lucas or his family. Despite this, Lucas in his general goodness attempted to show the cruel teen that there was something to caring about other people.
-Francis Fullbright was the first person could say was a friend in Mayfield. A temperamental, rude, and disagreeable girl, Pokey first met her when he was trying to make a map of the town and she put a mustard gun to the back of his head and told him to get out of her backyard. Naturally, Pokey liked her on first meeting. The two of them, despite their natural tendency for loneliness and aggressiveness towards others, managed to get along quite well. Enough so that it took Pokey off guard when Frances attempted to persuade him to join a kid-led rebellion movement in the town. Initially rejected the offer, Pokey was surprised when the girl would continue to offer it again and again. Actually being offered the chance to be part of something was new to Pokey, considering the reputation he had in his home, and left him with confused emotions over it. In the end, he decided to take up Francis' offer since 1) being in a group would offer him
something to hide behind and 2) to impress Francis. The boy would, eventually, develop a crush on her due to the fact she was one of the few, and the first, person he ever felt close to in Mayfield.
-Lil Slugger was the embodiment of an entity that sensed and reacted to fear that disguised itself as a 10-12 year old boy who, unfortunately, was just stuck as a 10-12 year old boy. Upon meeting one another, Pokey and Slugger hated each other immediately, each being responsible for the other's first death. After having managed to kill each other, the two's immense animosity towards each other went to a somewhat more civil kind of hate, insulting and screwing with one another whenever they could. This would, ironically, be the start of the strongest friendship Pokey ever had.
-Mindy was a little girl living on the same street as Pokey who came around knocking on people's doors wanting people to bake cookies with her, since as six year old girls do, she thought such an activity would be fun. Pokey at the time just saw the girl at first as a stupid kid he could take advantage of for free food. As time went on and he ended up spending more time with her, Pokey ended up somehow becoming fond of her despite everything and in a weird way one of her primary caretakers.
-Kyrie Ushiromiya was a woman that Pokey met during his attempts to learn how to use the rifle that his "notdad", a drone (a basic AI program that acted like a basic, friendly townsperson) had in the house in order to defend himself. Due to his intelligence and cleverness, Kyrie seemed to take a shine to the boy. In turn, Kyrie seemed to give Pokey attention, so Pokey took a shine to her. Kyrie helped hone Pokey's thought process and problem solving abilities as well, taking interest in the development of a clearly angry and hurt boy. In return despite his attempt to remain hardhearted Pokey ultimately warmed up to the woman, and she more or less became the closest thing to really having a mom the guy ever had, at least in Pokey's perception.
-The first few months, more or less then, were Pokey dicking around and either being a nuisance and jerk or being baffled at the people he met who seemed to keep caring about him. Despite trying to annoy and hurt others as much as possible to keep them away, he'd meet people who simply wouldn't. This would set the tone for Pokey's development throughout much of Mayfield: a growing warmness, trust, and eventual love towards other people. He'd also experience his first death, though it occurred in a hallucinatic haze, and he barely recalled it.
-His second death in October wouldn't be so kind. Believing a Russian/communist dissident to have infiltrated the infrastructure of the town, the man running Mayfield sent out a group of living hazmat suits to find the man, and to scour the town until the man was given up to them as the leader believed the Mayfielders were hiding the dissident. One means of trying to force people to comply and give the man up was by having the hazmats burn down houses while the residents were still in them. Pokey was lucky enough to be one of the people chosen to be burned alive in his own home. Pokey used to think there was no real problem in wishing death upon people he hated, as he was sure that kind of pain and harm couldn't be that bad, so why not. Actually dying as painfully as that? Began changing his opinion and leading him toward a more empathic mindset.
-This mindset still wouldn't emerge for a while as a week or so after being burned alive Pokey would die again when he hit GLAdOS in the face with a wrench for getting in his business, which she responded to by slitting his throat. Dying would kind of be a trend for most of the first year of Mayfield as well.
-After an event showing everyone in town what they would be like ten years into the future, and seeing that he wouldn't change at all thanks to the physical immortality fucking with the time stream had given him, Pokey began to doubt how cool being immortal, posing the question to the town if they would choose immortality if they could, attempting to make it seem as if the obvious answer would be yes. The amount of answers refuting this idea managed to leave him shaken on his previous concept of immortality, thanks in part to his slightly growing empathy.
-The next major event for Pokey would be on Christmas. During the Christmas season, each resident received a card where they were asked to write down something they wished for that 'Santa' might make come true for them. Expecting he couldn't get anything he really wanted, and effected (though not wanting to admit it) by his growing affection for Mindy after having watched out for her, Pokey did the first non-selfish thing he had ever done and wrote down his Christmas wish as being for Mindy to have a good Christmas, assuming that the kid deserved it and that making her happy could be something that he could, at least, take credit for to some degree.
-Surprise. The whole thing was a trick, and the wishes get inverted. Specifically, on Christmas Pokey got a letter back from 'Santa' stating that while Mindy was very good,
he was very bad, and punishing him for being bad took precedence over rewarding Mindy for being good. What followed immediately was a phone call for Pokey to pick up that featured the sounds of Mindy being tortured and killed. Running over to inspect her house while questioning why he would even bother, all Pokey would find was Mindy's room covered in blood. It left him angrier and depressed than he would ever admit.
-Thing is, that was a trick too. Mindy wasn't actually punished, but rather made invisible to Pokey to add to the illusion he had more or less killed her due to who he was. The illusion wore off and Pokey found Mindy sitting outside his house the next day, as the two had promised to spend Christmas together. Deciding it was more important to run the kid off for her safety rather than to keep her around due to his enjoyment of her company, Pokey attempted to run Mindy off.
It didn't stick. In the end, Pokey wasn't able to fully reject Mindy, and ended up accepting the fact that he cared about this kid for reasons he couldn't properly explain to himself.
-The first Christmas event cemented several things about Pokey. The first was that thanks to being helpless in this town and having no power at all, the boy was forced to rely on other people and, to a point, began to understand and empathize with other people. He was still a nasty little shithead, but at this point he had to give ground to the idea that other people had worth. The second thing it cemented for him was that his actions effected others. Being a rude, selfish boy, Pokey had rarely before noticed or cared what effect his actions had on other people. Now, with this event, he was forced to realize that being a shitty person, while fun, could negatively effect other people. While he'd hardly take steps to change this immediately, this would be the start of him actually taking the time to be introspective, leading to him be better spoken. It'd also lead to him being more self-loathing.
-Aside from being turned into a 2 year old during a short event, January and February would be a time period primarily focusing on Pokey either being a snide asshole, taking care of Mindy, or being furious and lashing out as more and more people he ended up talking with and started bonding with got permadroned, especially Frances and Tak, an alien invader who Pokey had ended up finding he shared a great deal of similarities with. On the flipside, it would also be during these two months that Pokey and Slugger's relationship would begin further evolving from one of minor hatred and annoyance into
a weird frenemy relationship.-The next big event in town and to affect Pokey would be in March, when a mysterious highway appeared outside of town that people went to explore. The people in charge of Mayfield were quick to try and halt this exploration, offering certain residents in the town special powers, abilities, and authority if they would join the town leaders in either turning away any people exploring the highway or killing those who explored the highway. Pokey didn't go for the obvious offer because of his hatred for the people who ran the town, and while exploring the highway met up with Kyrie, who had become like a mother figure to him during this time period, who he trusted implicitly. Kyrie attempted to persuade Pokey from exploring the highway, but Pokey was more or less dead set on it. Because of this, Kyrie asked if she could put a four leaf clover pin on his lapel. For good luck. Pokey, trusting her, agreed.
-Kyrie lied. Having sided with the town, Kyrie had been given an acidic touch ability, which she then used to burn out Pokey's eyes to blind him and to burn his throat out to kill him. He still got the four leaf clover pin. Of course.
-After having a whiny tantrum breakdown once he resurrected the next day, the next stage of the event would begin as the town converged on the Mayfield Dairy, which had been making terrible noises since the event began, with the intent of taking whatever power source was there down. Angry and filled with hatred, Pokey would try to help on the attack on the Dairy. Unfortunately, this would end with him getting blown up, his fifth - and for a year, last - death.
-Regenerating again, Pokey would find that much of the town was busy fighting a giant Milkman Mecha. While this fight had been going on, another path had appeared outside of Mayfield, leading to a ghost town that many of those who could not fight decided to investigate. Realizing he'd probably just get killed again, Pokey left to investigate the ghost town, where he found the following
note left by one of the survivors.
-During the investigation, Slugger would show up, apparently wanting to check on Pokey as well as tell him about the events in the Dairy, where it had appeared that the power generator for the town which was hidden in the Dairy had been destroyed, and that the generator had seemingly run on/been powered by the souls of all those who had been in the town previously and had been permadroned. Pokey had a minor breakdown at the revelation; having allowed himself to become too close too so many people who just would not shut up and leave him alone, Pokey for once felt a genuine sense of grief and shame at being the last person standing. This would be the beginning of Pokey developing a deep, shaming sense of survivor's guilt, as well as bringing out more of his self-loathing.
-After this event, Pokey finally resolved to try and be helpful to everyone else in the town,
revealing the information he had found in the ghost town. The same event also saw Pokey giving ground to Lucas' attempts to convince him other people were good and deserved a chance, ultimately
admitting it to the other boy.
-Of course, a few days after this, the leader of the town would reveal that the entire event was a prank. Despite this, Pokey would remain convinced for a year and half that the claim of a prank was disinformation, until the leader of the town told him personally that the machine had never run on souls.
-In May, Mindy would begin to be terrorized by a person she named
the monster. The monster was a dude named Black Mage who hurt and terrorized anyone around him, but especially took amusement in tormenting Mindy. In retaliation and with Slugger's help, Pokey would severely beat Black Mage and then burn him to death in the belief that an equal display of viciousness would keep him from continuing to harm the girl. Results were lackluster.
-Also in May, Mayfield declared "Spring Cleaning", where each resident was given a set of people to kill and, in return, the more kills someone got the better 'reward' they could get. Pokey found himself playing remarkably less because of interest in gaining rewards and more to try and protect himself and Mindy. He only had one kill, Wheatley, who in turn had Pokey on his list and attempted to beat the boy to death with a plank with a nail in it. Pokey ended up shooting him to death with the rifle his drone!dad had, though not before breaking his shoulder in the process. It would be Slugger, again, who would help a wounded Pokey at this time get home, further cementing the boys' growing friendship.
-In June, the town would assign Pokey a job - a busboy at the local theater. Needless to say, Pokey happily slacked off on this loser job.
Mayfield Year Two (July 2011-December 2012):
-Pokey's second year would open up with the town affecting everyone in a manner that they had to speak the truth or reveal something about themselves. Pokey got hit to the point he
admitted the most major things he had done wrong and was surprised, yet again, by how forgiving the people in Mayfield were for the most part of him. Really, he was more embarrassed that
he actively admitted that Slugger was probably his best friend on the phone line and that he had a crush on Frances in a personal conversation with Slugger.
-Apart from the truth event in July, things would be slow and fairly normal until September. Pokey would still make a nuisance of himself, and would regain a few worthless items, such as the Annoying Robot (a poorly made robotic servant) and a helicopter Pokey had crashed and totaled during his canonical adventures.
-In September a player-caused event occurred in town that led to a zombie invasion and, not just that, but in the case of Mayfield residents zombies who still had a hankering for brains but who could retain their personalities and powers. Pokey and Slugger made a game of the event to see who could kill the most zombies, Slugger by nature of being Slugger and Pokey with the spider-mech he had regained early on in Mayfield. The event ended poorly as hell when a zombified!Black Mage decided to get revenge on Pokey by blowing the living shit out of his mech, causing Pokey to hide in a dumpster through most of the rest of the event until Slugger found him.
-Come October, the sixth of the big six influences on Pokey arrived in Mayfield:
Pokey's little brother, Picky. While Pokey had never been a particularly good big brother, Picky was one of maybe two people in his own world he cared about aside from himself. With Picky's arrival, Pokey proceeded to freak out and try to find ways to keep his little brother safe, as well as dreading eventually having to talk to Picky about why he abandoned him.
-October would also see Pokey's paranoia around Black Mage increase, as the Mage took to leaving poorly sealed wax packages with the words "hamburger meat" on them on the doorsteps of people who had gotten into previous fights with him. Terrified that the mage was stalking him and angry at the prospect that the 'hamburger meat' could be Mindy, Pokey went to confront Black Mage. Comforted (in a horrible way) that the hamburger meat was simply made from some talking unicorn, Black Mage still attempted to kill Pokey though, for once, luck actually waved in Pokey's favor and allowed him to manage to beat Black Mage to death a second time.
-The Halloween event that occurred throughout Mayfield was themed after old horror movies, with different events taking place each day. This included some residents of Mayfield being replaced by pod people for a day, and most of Pokey's conversations with these tended to end with Pokey getting shittalked, which helped to fuel and in his mind justify his continuously growing self-loathing, the worst of them being his conversation with the pod person of
Picky. Other events, such as
being shrunk down, were far more tolerable. The last event, where several residents were declared dead and buried, further cemented Pokey's survivor's guilt. The culmination of the event, with those who were declared dead coming back as cheesy-ass vampires, kind of helped to make it not as bad.
-November was a real shitshow.
-Okay I guess I should say more than that. Pokey kicked off the month by having a
nervous breakdown, buckling under the pressure and deciding it was worth it more to give up since he couldn't view himself as contributing to anything in any productive way. It was in the middle of this breakdown that Pokey also ultimately had to
talk to Picky about his actions back in Eagleland and Onett as Giegue/Giygas's servant. It was also the fact that Picky forgave him that helped bring him back out from continuing to just straight ass dive into depression. It was one of the most fortuitous moments in the kid's life, and yet further cemented his growing assurance that people were alright most of the time, or at least deserving a chance. It was also when he became committed to never abandon his brother again.
-In mid-November a player plot occurred that caused people to have hallucinations of their worst fears. Pokey managed to luck out of experiencing this one, though unfortunately, Slugger did not and proceeded to freak out, allowing
his powers to go haywire. The next day after everything had worn off, Pokey went to visit the other boy and in the end finally openly admitted that Slugger was his best friend. It was one of the first moments of pure, open emotional honesty that Pokey experienced.
-On Thanksgiving the leaders of the town, outraged, demanded that the residents of Mayfield show some appreciation for the life they were being given, as they didn't know how good they had it compared to everything else. The leaders then demanded thankfulness be shown. Pokey himself wrestled with the fact that he was, in fact,
thankful for being there.-It wasn't enough. The day after Thanksgiving, the town of Mayfield was rendered as it actually would appear in the real world: a devastated hovel of a town, windtorn and battered from years of being left to lie in ruin. All powers and personal possessions were taken from the town residents, leaving them all on the same, pathetic playing field with one another and for what was to come. Outside the town lay miles of barren deserted, scorched earth from a nuclear war. And beyond the desert were noises.
-Pokey, of course, had to go explore them, and as he move towards them he unintentionally caused most of the other children and teens in the town to follow him as they went to explore. They found that they could never quite reach where the sound was coming from, however, and thus headed back to the town and the places where they had found shelter.
-It was for the best. On the second day of the event, the source of the noise became clear: the gangs of mutant cannibals who roamed the wastelands and who proceeded to besiege the city, causing some residents to fight them while most tried to hide and wait them out. Pokey ended up running into a teenager he had made acquaintances with named Red, and the two attempted to quietly get back to their respective hiding spots once they found themselves trapped by the cannibals. Pokey fucked up the initial escape attempt, and instead of letting Red make a distraction, Pokey decided to use himself as a distraction instead. It was the first action Pokey had taken that could have, in some way, been seen as selfless or a sacrifice. Both boys, thankfully, made it to their shelters unscathed.
-The worst was still yet to come. On the third day, radiation sickness began to sink in on the residents, claiming most of their lives. Pokey managed to survive it, but in turn also was there to watch as most of the people he knew and those he had become friends with died, including Slugger and his little brother Picky. For a moment, Pokey was left in a mostly desolate world, alone except for himself, which had been a dream of his for a while. In this instance, and in seeing how it had happened, Pokey couldn't help but feel he had always been wrong. This event served as one of the most definitive nails in the coffin of Pokey's old self, or at least his most extremes, and simultaneously motivated him to try and be a better person for the sake of those he cared about as well as further entrenching his survivor's guilt as a part of his personality.
-Christmas, meanwhile, would be no better than it was the last year. This year the residents were visited in their dreams by someone close to them who would proceed to show them how the world would be a better place without their existence. The person, in this case Ness for Pokey, showed how the present world, and the future, would be much better if he accepted giving up his own existence. Pokey didn't even hesitate.
-Are you ready for a surprise, because the whole thing was a trick again. In this case, those who agreed to give up their existence instead were made to 'feel' as if they were fake to everyone else they spoke with in town (including each other if two people who had chosen to give up their existence spoke with each other). This lead to hostility and anger towards the fakes, especially when
Pokey like a shithead tried to convince others he wasn't one. Pokey was distressed to find that Slugger, Picky, and Mindy had also been doped into giving up their existence. He also found that
Lucas had given up his as well, leading to a brief understanding for Lucas as to how much Pokey had changed from megalomaniacal to self-loathing.
-During this event, Mindy expressed a desire to try and get everyone to come together for Christmas despite what was happening, asking for anyone who wanted to try and have a happy Christmas to meet her underneath the large Christmas tree Mayfield put at the center of the town. Unfortunately, the first person to find her was Black Mage, who
stabbed Mindy to death and hung her from the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It was, ironically, something similar to what Pokey feared had happened to Mindy the Christmas before. And thanks to his own constant use of violence, it had happened.
-Ironically too, Pokey had changed from last Christmas. With Slugger's help Pokey was able to get Mindy's body free from the tree so it could safely be taken home. When the programming that made people see those who had signed away their existence as fakes ended on Christmas Day, Pokey
asked the people in town to help make gifts for Mindy, seeing it as the main way to help her. Pokey, by this point, began to show definite change, at least for the people he cared about. He'd also start to question his own use of violence as an answer, though that didn't mean he wouldn't still default to it on many occasions.
-January would start off with a bang as Pokey's old boss, the alien invader Giegue/Giygas, showed up in town. Expecting Pokey to assist him unconditionally, Giegue was taken aback when Pokey showed reluctance to assist him and began to vaguely threaten the boy to try and gain his obedience. Pokey, like a spaz, decided to take to the phones and
warn everyone about Giegue, insisting that he would take care of the problem alone. THis was met with people telling him he was an idiot, both for thinking that he could do it alone and that his friends wouldn't help him. Most notable was Lucas' reaction, who, while he and Pokey would never be on specifically good terms, told him that after this time he
believed Pokey could do good.-Giegue would get permadroned soon after arrival. Still, the bolstering Pokey received from his friends helped him immensely.
-In late January another chance to cripple the town came up for the residents as they were presented the opportunity to strike at a vital point of the town. Unfortunately, they didn't know what that point they were striking did. Turns out it was in charge of power regulation in the town. In order to reduce the power usage of the town, the town induced several punishments on the residents, including all wounds that had been fatal. As the days went on of the town trying to conserve power, more and more of the wounds Pokey had suffered were inflicted upon him until he ultimately succumbed to them, dying a sixth time. He was somewhat surprised how worried people had been when he returned from the dead.
-Pokey would end up having his first kiss on Valentine's Day. While being mind-controlled by emotion inducing flowers. Into kissing his best friend, Slugger. He was also hit with a second flower later on that forced him to shout out his crush on Frances to the whole town. Valentine's Day was not a good time.
-Also in February the town ran out of regains to give Pokey that he would actually recognize, and proceeded to give him shit from the future he had no idea what to do with, including a robot version of himself and
a terrifying looking giant capsule. Upon learning the purpose of the capsule from Lucas, Pokey kept the idea of using it as a means of protecting others from him by locking himself in it if he ever got too bad or reverted to his old ways. This pattern of thought lead to a
heated discussion between him and Slugger that led to Slugger convincing him not to use it.
-In April Frances would return from having been droned, leading to Pokey
fumbling over himself to try and help her get situated in Mayfield again. She was someone Pokey had hoped to see again, but never believed he'd get to; it was a massive morale boost for him.
-It was also the final boost Pokey needed to give up his physical immortality. In Mayfield a system had been put into place to 'cheat' regains: people could get back powers and items from home by going to the Post Office and turning in old regains OR by giving up defining features of themselves, whether that be physical appendages, memories, or other abstract features. Pokey, in turn,
went there to give up his immortality for a video game system. What he really gained was freedom.
-While it'd be hard to say that the last few months of actively living in Mayfield were calm, they simply weren't as full of action and development as the previous period had been. In May there was a dance that the town held that Pokey invited Frances too, leading to the two dating in the way that two twelve year olds understood they could. June saw the beginning of the unraveling of the town, with Pokey helping add the information he had learned to the growing pool of evidence everyone had. In September Pokey helped on the journey into the inner programming of Mayfield to retrieve important data that would help the Postman and LIbrarian, the only two people in the town who could be convinced to empathize with the residents, to begin to try and take control of the town.
-Things would not go well, and Zemekis, the head of the town, would have enough and react poorly. He'd begin by rewriting everyone's memories hard enough that distinct relationships and memories changed. There was no longer the belief they had been brought here; everyone now was sure they had always lived there. This attempt at forgery wouldn't last long, and would lead to another exploration, where the residents would find a cavernous area containing all the copies of them that had died. Most people were horrified. Pokey was simply stunned by the fact that all those earlier 'hims' seemed so unlike him by this point.
-Once Zemekis' attempt to override failed, he was weakened enough that the Librarian and Postman could begin the process of ousting his control. Their attempt failed as one of Zemekis' subordinates, Ms. Johnson, intervened, killing the Postman and ousting Zemekis in order to take control of the town for herself, planning to experiment heavily on the population there now that no one could control or keep her from experimenting on them for her own amusement.
-The residents would eventually find Zemekis, powerless and dying, and be given the chance to question and speak with their capture. Zemekis would explain how they weren't just stuck in an artificial reality, they themselves were AIs created to fill the void of the town after most of the real people who were supposed to inhabit it died in an attempted coup and escape. Most of the people, even those who had begun to suspect they weren't real, were horrified. Pokey, on the other hand, was relieved, feeling that it meant he really didn't need to be who he'd been made to be, though he didn't say this out loud.
-Eventually the town began to lose power entirely as Johnson abused her power, as the town began to crash, the Librarian was able to usurp authority and lead the people of Mayfield to a new server and town. The Librarian explained she couldn't guarantee how long the new town would last with the server's power beginning to fail, but the she guaranteed the town would belong to the residents, seceding the world-shaping powers that Zemekis and his underlings had over Mayfield to the residents so that they could shape and create their new town anyway they pleased. Along with that all those who had previously been permadroned and kept in stasis were reawakened to live in the new town. Fittingly enough in a way, the town was opened up by
Pokey and the other children of Mayfield.History in My Little Jamjar (September 2014-May 2015):
-After getting to live in peace for about a year and a half, Pokey, now 14, was transported to a weird horse world, turned into a baby dragon, and brought into this stupid world while some real bullshit was going down. This sense of indifference would last few the first few months of Pokey's stay in Equestria. The boy had found a life in the new town that came after Mayfield. He had begun to grow. And now he was forced back into the ether again, and in his rage, he decided to try and shut out people as much as he could this time. To barricade himself away from others.
-It would only somewhat work. While Pokey in his obstinate demeanor would never be as close to as many people as he was at Mayfield, that didn't mean he wouldn't develop some lasting relationships. The one that would effect him the most would be Teddie, a bear who back home was...well, a bear. Or a bearsuit that grew a guy in him, Pokey was never sure about the details. Still, Teddie's naive, curious, and excitable nature grew on Pokey, thanks majorly in part to Teddie's kindness towards Pokey. It reminded Pokey of the kindness that he had received in Mayfield, and that made him like Teddie instantly.
-Pokey would also become entangled with an eldritch horror named Yg'baladaoth. Yg was drawn to Pokey because of his apparently resentful and willful nature; Pokey wasn't drawn to Yg so much as he just kept winding up meeting with and dealing with eldritch abominations. Pokey took an interest at first just because Yg seemed so different from the others of her type Pokey had met, canonically and in Mayfield. They never became friends so to speak, but Pokey remained an interesting specimen to her and Pokey felt he was obligated to keep an eye on her actions, especially when he was dumb enough to agree to enter her 'mindscape', an ability that pulled Pokey's consciousness into hers, as it essentially gave him a chance to 'see' Mayfield again, emphasizing Pokey's own constant yearning.
- Pokey also made friends with Leatherhead, an alligator who had been turned into a humanoid like dog, during this time, as Leatherhead's soft demeanor but much more outsider attitude towards things allowed Pokey to bond with him somewhat, and was the person Pokey was closest to aside from Teddie. Pokey would also become acquaintances with Kyouko Sakura, a girl who hung out (and later became the girlfriend of) Teddie, and also a girl who seemed interested at least in some mischief, which caused her and Pokey to cross paths a few times. While Kyouko and Pokey would interact frequently, it wouldn't be in Equestria that they'd cement their friendship.
-Pokey was satisfied with being a dickhead and just leaving things alone in Equestria, turning fifteen in October, until November when, much like in Mayfield,
his boss Giegue showed up again. Having grown yet more during his time in Mayfield, Pokey became confident he could handle Giegue. He would pretend he was on Giegue's side this time, all the while trying to monitor him to see if he could stop him when things eventually came up.
-Giegue's appearance would also cause him to ask the people in Equestria if they felt
someone evil could be redeemed. While he was trying to pose it specifically in regards to Giegue, it would be a lie to say it wasn't for his benefit as well.
-In December he would be bored enough to take on the project of helping a friend of Yg's, Strong Bad, make a version of a video game from home for another friend of Strong Bad's as a Christmas present...
so long as Strong Bad gave the rights to the game in this universe to Pokey. Pokey had changed; didn't mean he couldn't still be a breedy asshole.
-He also took December casually enough that he spent the time to make a massive snowfort
and declare himself the king of winter. It seemed like a good, annoying idea at the time. He also offered to make Teddie
bitching drill arms for Christmas, but Kyouko interjected. Oh well. It would, though, lead to a heart to heart between him and Kyouko, albeit a shaky one.
-During December, Pokey would also start to pay at least some attention to what was happening when informed that one of the native ponies of this Equestria
had a raging hate boner for the offworlders that had been brought in. While Pokey couldn't care about the native population, because of his time in Mayfield, he felt an inherent solidarity with those who were brought into this world with him.
-In February, Pokey would be caught off guard when Tails threw a tantrum over the network, expressing his views on love. Specifically, Pokey was caught off guard by the decision to defend that love was worth something from his own experiences with Frances and the people he knew in Mayfield.
-It, in fact, effected him so much Pokey went to the network to talk about how it was the effects of love that more or less
kept him from considering betraying the people here. It wasn't the most charismatic post, but it did express how much Mayfield had effected him, and meant to him, even if he was having trouble moving otherwise. It also made the Elements of Harmony sparkle, which was apparently a big thing, but he never found out about that.
-During a Fourth Wall event in April, Pokey would end up meeting his real self. The first conversation would simply be an expression of
disgust and hatred on Pokey's part towards the real him. The
second conversation, however, would demonstrate how far Pokey had deviated from who he was cloned from, and leave Pokey in the end feeling that he was, at least, somewhat of a different person from his real self.
-Starting in April, Pokey proposed his intentions to open an arcade using a construction group of Mr. Saturns that he had been able to create from the creation powers Mayfield bestowed on its residents at the end, and that transferred with Pokey over to Equestria. Giegue latched on to the idea, proposing its intention to use violent videogames that Pokey could supply as a means of feeding and enhancing the aggression of the natives, which Giegue would then use to power its PSI. Pokey, believing he could control the situation, agreed, making plans to sabotage the effort if necessary to keep Giegue from success.
-Pokey would also have a heart to heart with Teddie in early May over Teddie's fears and concerns regarding a friend that had
betrayed the community during a villain's attack on the town earlier in April. Pokey tried to help comfort his best friend in Equestria the best he could, including
writing a letter to the Princesses asking that Teddie be given the chance to visit his friend during his friend's punishment, since Teddie was too afraid to write himself.
-In late May, the arcade went live, and Giegue's plans began to go into effect. Pokey began to work on and start up his sabotage safeguards, but both he and Giegue would be poofed out of Equestria before anything came to fruition.
History in Cosmos (May 2015-November 2015):
-Pokey entered Cosmos in the most mature way he could imagine: with unbelievable anger at being driven further away from Mayfield even more. After a few days of punching walls and being pissy at everyone around him, Pokey would manage to calm down and try to be helpful by
offering to dispense whatever advice he could on about worlds like these.
-Pokey would also run into Kyouko when she arrived in Cosmos from MLJ. Seeing how distraught she was, and being able to relate, he attempted to
comfort her, with the two ending up talking about the people they had ended up falling in love with. It was the beginning of Pokey and Kyouko beginning to truly become friends.
-In June, Pokey would manage to get his dumb ass lost in the labyrinth of the Temple while trying to explore it. He wouldn't re-emerge until the middle of the next month in July, pissed off that he had gotten as screwed as he had by this place due to carelessness. It was upon his return that he started to strike up a friendship with Connie, who he somewhat projected his feelings of needing to protect that he had developed for Mindy onto.
-Discovering that his gem had given him the power of Astral Projection, Pokey did the only logical thing he could think to do with it: spy on the other people in Waverly Bay. Unfortunately, the other people were, for the most part, either boring or just weird weird, and Pokey began to quickly lose interest.
-One of the most important things for Pokey in Cosmos was meeting Dave Strider. Pokey had known a Dave in Mayfield as a friendly acquaintance; they never got to know each other very strongly, but they were cool with each other, their discussions usually meandering into silly, stupid bullshit. Upon meeting another Dave
who was being hounded by puppet possession, Pokey couldn't help but feel a pull of familiarity. It was the fact that he knew a Dave that attracted Pokey to interact with him; it was the fact that Dave was a
cool, nonjudgmental dude that caused Pokey to stick around with the guy, and he felt guilty that he couldn't offer Dave more help
when it came to one of Dave's worst experiences in Cosmos.-In late September, Pokey would use the animal-combining powers his gem had given him to try and open up a
'designer pet' business. Most people didn't take too friendly to the concept of mashing two animals together, and a small bit of blooming animosity between him and Jane Crocker over his business practices ended with the two declaring a prank war on one another.
-When Dave resurrected from his death and came back in September, Pokey
talked with the dude the way he wanted someone to have talked to him after death: like nothing had happened. While the two had been friendly before then, this conversation more or less began their friendship, though in many ways Pokey was wary as he felt he wasn't cool enough to be friends with Dave, and thus felt the need to continue to try and impress him. It wouldn't be just Pokey and Dave for long, however.
-Pokey would meet the third member of he and Dave's trio, Gary Smith, in a
pissing match. Pokey didn't think much of Gary: more that he was somewhat of a dick, but at least an amusing one. That opinion would come to change as time went on.
-In mid-October Dave would post a theory on what he thought was happening in Waverly Bay. Pokey took slight issue with it,
drawing from his own experiences on how he felt on the issue. The conversation showed how Pokey and Dave were becoming closer to a degree, especially with how openly Pokey was willing to talk to Dave. However, this same post was what would introduce Dave to Gary, who agreed with Dave almost entirely, and which caused Dave to click, or perhaps, cling to Gary. Dave would ask Pokey his opinion on Gary, to which Pokey would
express doubts on Gary's character from what he had seen of him even in Dave's post. Still, Dave seemed to like the guy and wanted to invite him to hang out with him and Pokey on Halloween, to which Pokey agreed. He could see no harm in it.
-Unfortunately as it went further Pokey could see harm on it. On Halloween (and Pokey's sixteenth birthday, though he kept that hush hush), Pokey, Gary, and Dave went out to raise some mischief on the town. While Pokey could enjoy and appreciate Gary's love of mayhem and pranks, he didn't appreciate the subtle ways in which Gary manipulated Dave in order to force Dave to take certain actions in order to impress him. Pokey recognized that type: before Mayfield, Pokey
was that type. And because of that, Pokey determined it was his responsibility to keep Gary from hurting Dave, or what Pokey perceived as hurting Dave.
-Also in late October Pokey ended up talking with Kyouko over her distress at death and the fact that death seemed to be meaningless here. Giving Kyouko his rundown on how he perceived death in places like Waverly Bay, he managed to help comfort Kyouko and give her a new perspective on the situation. The conversation solidified their friendship and ended with them
accidentally fusing, Pokey's first time to do such.
-In November Pokey began using his Astral Projection to spy and record Gary's actions. Pokey then had a brilliant idea to dispense justice and warn others about Gary and fire a warning shot meant to drive Gary's paranoia deeper: he posted
an anonymous message on the network under the alias "Crazy Larry" detailing Gary's behavior. This brilliant plan was destined for failure because it actually sucked, and had three unintended consequences: 1. it reminded several of the kids from Dave's world of an alien asshole they had to deal with, angering them, 2. It made Gary sympathetic and Pokey look kind of like and asshole and
-3.
It reminded Dave of his dead brother, who Dave had always tried to live up to but felt like he had failed, and who Dave idolized despite his brother's abusive behavior. Dave came to Pokey asking for help and to talk, as he was sure there was a chance Crazy Larry was his brother and that his brother cared so little about him that he wouldn't even tell Dave he was there. Aghast at just how much pain he had caused, Pokey explained how he was sure it wasn't Dave's brother because, from Pokey's own experience as a big brother, fucking with your little brother was just something you did, and you wouldn't just not tell them if you showed up. It helped, despite how painful it was for Pokey to talk about considering he caused this pain in the first place and it reminded him of Picky, but it helped Dave. And for that at least he was happy.
-Of course,
Dave then had to make a fucking network post attacking Crazy Larry and asking for help on helping a mentally disturbed friend. Moved yet again, Pokey tried to offer advice and comfort to Dave on the matter, ultimately talking to Dave in person about it. And the more he talked to Dave about it, the more Pokey realized what an asshole he looked like about all this, and came to realize that, perhaps to some degree, he was the one in the wrong. Because of that, he promised Dave that he would try to get on better with Gary. And, for a little bit, Pokey did get on better with Gary.
-But then Gary was gone. And Dave was gone. And several other people Pokey knew. And yet again he was alone.
How did they change from their canon personality wise (Please explain what caused it to happen?)While a good deal of this behavior has remained the, quite a bit of Pokey's hardness has changed thanks to his years in Mayfield. While still often mean spirited and cynical, the boy has learned to open up at least some to other people. Having experienced pain and hurt in several ways that he otherwise thought would be fine to inflict on others, he's also learned empathy, to at least some degree, that has come to hold him back from outright malice. The boy is, in fact, capable of friendship and love at this point, though only among people who he manages to become truly close to - which, having become a possibility in and of itself, is amazing. The boy has shifted, in a way, from a strict "Neutral Evil" alignment to a pure "Neutral" stance. Still, he's a con-man and opportunist at his core, and that'll continue to show for quite some time and to those people who he doesn't let in. He still has some growing to do.
Pokey has also become focused heavily on solidarity. While Pokey still wouldn't do much for the great majority of people he doesn't know, he
would do a lot for the 'community' of those who are brought to another world. A large part of this is because of how much his interactions with the people in Mayfield meant to him. Pokey still distrusts a lot of people, but considering how right the population of Mayfield did by him, he tends to be more trusting of those who are 'wanderers' like him. That isn't to say he just blindly trusts any of those who are also teleported to a new world, but he is more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt, and he's certainly more likely to provide aid and assistance due to his belief at this point that the only thing any of them truly have is each other.
An aspect Pokey shares with his canon future self is an obsession with the past. Whereas the canon Pokey is obsessed with the past in regards to the game he thought he and Ness were playing, and how his desire to be the "villain" in that game shaped him into the monster he has become, Pokey is, naturally, obsessed with Mayfield and the people there. They're the reason he keeps trying to act; they're the reason he tries to help when he's brought to a new place, when he eventually does. He owes it to the people he knew, if not the people he's meeting, to help and to pay their kindness forward. If he has any strength to do good and be a better person, it's because of his love, and in its unhealthier fraction his obsession, with the people he knew in Mayfield. He also can't forget or get over the fact that he seems to keep persisting while other people do not, and he hates himself for it. Self-loathing and survivor's guilt were something that etched themselves deep into him during his stay in Mayfield; now that he keeps jumping to other places and, from what he can tell, outliving others, they've etched themselves even further still. Which brings us to Pokey's wish...
While most of his major CR and how it changed him has been listed in his history, it's a good idea to note that Pokey is, to a degree more willing to being trusting. Often a stubborn - some might say pig-headed - boy who would meet any kindness with suspicion, the years of world hopping and experience with others has changed Pokey mostly for the better. The love he received from his friends like Slugger and Mindy, the affection he ended up feeling from Francis Fulbright. These had massive impacts on him at his lowest moments. Pokey still isn't a person who befriends others easily, greatly due to his assholish demeanor and tendency to be a shit, but they've changed him irreparably from the monster he was on a crash course to becoming.
However it has made Pokey needy to a point, as well as tending to overidealize the people who give him a chance. Pokey has managed the continuous feelings of guilt he has very poorly. Because of this when someone shows interest in him or gives him a chance, he'll be loyal to them to a fault almost, where he might excuse behavior he otherwise wouldn't accept because, of course, what does he know? This is clearly a great and wonderful person and they deserve his support, because he's such a poor example of a person anyway. Pokey will happily give shit to most people, but if it's someone he's latched on to, he has a much harder time.
How did they change from their canon physically (Please explain what caused it to happen?): Pokey arrived in Mayfield at the age of twelve and immortal thanks to messing with Time Travel. About a year and a half in he ditched his immortality thanks to the post office in Mayfield and has grown naturally since then. From the point he's being brought in, he'll be 16, close to 17.
This has naturally caused him to be taller, and while he's not any noticeably thinner he at least carries his weight a bit better. The biggest physical change is thanks to being in Cosmographia and being made a gem, a la the Steven Universe universe. This means that he has a barite stone slightly protruding from his throat. It also means that if his physical body is damaged enough that he essentially retreats into the stone in order to regenerate and heal, though he's never had to do this yet.
Powers: Canonically, Pokey has no powers. He did, however gain some thanks to being a gem in Cosmographia.
Astral Projection: Pokey can leave his body and take an astral form. This is risky as it requires him to actually leave his physical someplace safe as it will be more or less unattended, though it gives him the benefit of being able to move through most physical spaces like nothing and going undetected, although someone who could see spirits/is psychic could sense him.
Chimera Creation: Pokey can take two animals, or an animal and an object, and turn them into a singular creature. He has to be able to touch both the animals, or animal and object to do this and to continue touching them through the combination process.
Crystalline Spider Legs: Pokey can cause crystalline spider legs to grow out of his back. He can use these to maneuver, climb surfaces, and generally move faster.
Item Creation: At the end of Mayfield, the survivors of the game were given moderator powers. This allows them to be able to create items from nothing to suit their needs in the new town. It should be noted that Pokey is limited in what he can create, and that creating large items/things takes much more out of him, and he can use it less per day, than creating small objects.
Possessions: Pokey doesn't have much on him upon arriving in game. He has.
-His suit
-His journal that he's taken with him
-A small, four leaf clover pin
-A handmade comic book from his best friend in Mayfield
-A fake lapel rose
-A mustard bottle designed to work as a gun that squirts mustard at people
Please provide three samples from your previous game, at least one will have to be third person with context: Sample One: Mayfield -
Pokey warns the town about his old boss being in townSample Two: My Little Jamjar -
Pokey advertises his arcadeSample Three: Cosmographia -
Pokey's intro at CosmographiaAction Sample: My Little Jamjar -
Pokey takes a trip into his mind 
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timeasmymeasure
