Welcome, everyone, to the third day of Fall 2024 Fanon Con, concerning the Character Creation Contest!
Today's theme is Duality, that is, having to create a character or a duo of characters that represent the concept of duality, either literally, metaphorically or a combination of the two (ha).
Without further ado:
Second Place[]
| Chocobonnie's Entry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Byrus and Gonathon Vreedle, collectively known as By-Gon Vreedle, are a pair of conjoined twin Vreedles
Appearance[]Byrus and Gonathon are conjoined twins, sharing a large rotund body with two sets of arms. They collectively share a large white shirt and pants, black shoes, brown apron and two pais orange gloves for each hand. Byrus has black hair and a black moustache, with a dark brown hat and a brown stripe on the head. Gonathon on the other hand has a bald head with a black beard and an orange bowtie Backstory[]Back when Ma and Pa Vreedle first got together and were trying to raise a family of clones, their first attempt to make two sons went awry as instead of making a set of twins, they managed to fuse the two together. Naming them Byrus and Gonathon, not having quite worked out the shape name gimmick, the two kept them around and kept refining the process of making Vreedles until they ended up with the rest of the Vreedle family. Consequently, when Ma and Pa eventually did split up and took two of their children each with them, Byrus and Gonathon decided to strike out on their own, always feeling they were the odd one out. They eventually went on to work at a kid friendly restaurant as a bartender of sorts, serving non-alcoholic drinks, while also moonlighting as a freelancing repairman. Personality[]Byrus is peppy and cheerful half of the two, being the one to interact with guests the most, thus being the one that guests like the most. Byrus is almost described as a proto Rhomboid, due to how naive and trusting he can be, but Byrus has a limit that he insists upon if someone tries to push boundaries. Out of the two, Byrus wishes the other Vreedles could also turn a new leaf and make an honest living. Gonathon is the more stoic and cold half, being a man of few words. The proto Octagon to Byrus, Gonathon is the more calculating of the two, being the half to take care of the technical side of things, and is the one to handle repair cases. Gonathon was the first one of the two to think about leaving the Vreedles, and thus is more cold to the idea of making amends with them. Powers and Abilities[]Like the other Vreedles, Byrus and Gonathon's primary abilities rely on being able to survive in space and having enhance durability. Like Rhomboid, they also happen to have super strength, although they have enough care to watch their strength. Weaknesses[]Due to being twins, their primary weakness is that if one of them gets knocked out or disagrees with the other half, the other can't act on their own. Trivia[]These characters were made for Fall Fanon Con 2024 and are thus free to use The abbreviated name for these two are both based off a bigon, a polygon with two sides and vertices, and the phrase "Let bygones be bygones" referencing how the two feel about their family, with one wanting to reconnect with them and the other wanting to just forget and move on
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This is a surprising entry, both in terms of time of submission and content. Personally, I have a limited amount of patience and tolerance for the Vreedles as a whole, being restricted to the original brother duo for the most part.
But I must say, this new addition to the family is quite fun. The combined name is clever, the background fits perfectly with the lore and it adheres to the theme as well. A very good entry overall. Now I wish that these guys were canon. Oh, well.
First Place[]
| Photon's Entry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sznrr'gie is a gestalt entity, formed from the union of Sznrr, an Ectonurite, and Maggie Mortimer, a Human. Appearance[]Sznrr'gie appears to be mostly human typically, albeit with some deep scars across their body. However, under their skin parts of their body have become horrific in nature, including a skeletal arm, and coiled up tentacles that can come free when the skin is peeled back. Their hair is white, their skin very pale, and they have two different eyes, one looking like a typical amber-coloured Human eye, the other black with a glowing pink-purple iris (usually covered with an eyepatch). History[]Pre-Gestalt[]Sznrr[]Sznrr is several thousand years old, and has spent much of that time on the run across the galaxy thanks to his penchant for causing chaos. Eventually he was captured, and imprisoned in a specialised pod aboard a prison ship that roamed the galaxy so its location was ever-changing and difficult to track. Sznrr spent several decades in this prison, before an attempted break-out by other prisoners caused an explosion, and Sznrr's pod was flung from the ship. After some weeks of uncontrollably hurling through space, the pod hit Earth's atmosphere. Though the pod survived the crash, the door was damaged, allowing Sznrr to escape, albeit severely burned up from atmospheric entry, reducing him to only a few cells. As Ectonurite genetics also carry out the functions of a brain, effectively housing their consciousness as well as biological information, they are able to live on in even a small amount of genetic material. As such, the few cells of Sznrr that survived were able to remain conscious, but too little was left for his healing processes to ever hope to regrow his body. In order to keep himself alive he took a host, as the phased state his body entered while possessing someone kept it from further injury. With his host and the enhanced powers his possession gave them, Sznrr gained a reputation as a criminal and an apparent sorcerer, resulting in his being hunted down and captured. As it happened during the day, he was unable to leave his host without risking destruction by sunlight, and was rendered unconscious when his host was knocked out. Upon awakening, Sznrr found himself trapped within a box, buried underground. His captors had unknowingly trapped him inside his former prison pod, and as such he was unable to phase through. Now in much worse condition than before, Sznrr was once again trapped, though this time it would be for several centuries. Maggie Mortimer[]Margaret "Maggie" Mortimer was born in the aftermath of the First World War. At an early age, she developed the superhuman ability to mimic the appearance of others after making physical contact. Following an incident where she took on her friend's appearance in a public place, the threats of violence from scared villagers resulted in Maggie and her family moving to another town where they wouldn't be known, and Maggie was forced to hide her ability by her parents. For some years, Maggie made an effort to not use her power, but after she began attending university, the constant misogyny she faced from her almost-entirely-male cohort resulted in her beginning to use her power again in order to humiliate her bullies. She eventually became an archaeologist, and again faced prejudice, often being relegated to glorified assistant roles. She began using her power to enter sites and carry out tasks she normally wouldn't be allowed to do. Though it occasionally caused confusion amongst her peers when people were seen in places they knew they hadn't been, Maggie was never caught or even suspected of being involved, and so was able to live out her archaeologist dream, if not how she had hoped. Sznrr'gie[]During an archaeological dig in Guatemala, Maggie came across the box containing Sznrr. Though confused by its clearly non-Mayan design, she attempted to open it, unknowingly releasing Sznrr in the process. Jumping at the opportunity to gain a new host after centuries trapped with the remains of his previous one, Sznrr attempted to possess Maggie. However, in doing so he triggered Maggie's powers, which didn't simply change her appearance but also her genetics. Through a violent and painful seizure, Maggie's body became part-Ectonurite. Maggie's brain and Sznrr's genetic consciousness fought for control of the body, but both had relatively equal control, and so came to a stalemate. After Maggie realised she couldn't revert to her normal self, and Sznrr realised he couldn't take full control or leave her body, the pair eventually decided to talk it out, as the constant struggle wasn't working for either of them. The biggest issue was Sznrr's desire to cause chaos and inflict harm, which Maggie refused to let run unchecked. Though it took a lot of convincing and compromise, they eventually agreed that Sznrr's evil impulses would be channelled towards those who Maggie believed deserved it. Over the course of months and years, they continued to negotiate and make compromises, resulting in the lines between their two personalities blurring. After a few years, 'Maggie Mortimer' became nothing more than a legal name to make their life easier, and they instead donned "Sznrr'gie" as their "true name". In the decades since their fusion, they have acted as a vigilante, inflicting harm (and occasionally death) on those they believe to be evil. Personalities[]Sznrr[]An angry and violent figure, Sznrr gets immense joy from inflicting harm onto others and throwing people's lives into chaos. The reason for this is unknown, it may be the result of events in his life, or he may have been born that way. Regardless, Sznrr would be the first to admit he's 'evil'. Though for a good while he despised Maggie, he eventually came to care for her, making her the only person, and potentially even the first person, he cares for. It's difficult to say whether this is his own emotions, or the intertwining of their personalities has corrupted him to make him care. Maggie[]Although generally a rather joyous person who can find wonder just about anywhere, Maggie has been burned by a number of life experiences, mostly resulting from the rampant misogyny of her time. She has come to believe that some people don't face consequences for their actions, and has learned to take things into her own hands at times. After merging with Sznrr, this drive for justice was amplified, and taken to an extreme, as the only way to keep Sznrr from harming innocent people was to focus him on evil people instead. She was horrified by some of the things they did together at first, but eventually came around to it, possibly due to Sznrr's influence on her, and has come to enjoy their vigilantism a lot. Abilities[]Mimicry: Maggie's body is able to mimic others by making physical contact with them. Much of her genetics are altered in the process, and her appearance changes to become an almost perfect match of the person.
Intangibility: Sznrr'gie can become intangible in order to pass through solid matter. They can only spend a limited amount of time intangible, less than a minute typically, occasionally even only a few second (this is likely due to not being a pure Ectonurite). Functional Immortality: Much like pure Ectonurites, Sznrr'gie does not physically age, and so barring extreme injury or disease, they won't die. They have not aged at all since their amalgamation in the late 1930s, and have yet to face any disease or illness that they have been unable to fully recover from. Weaknesses[]As Sznrr'gie is the combination of two individuals partially merged together, their differing views on things often result in conflict. Though they have learned how to compromise over their decades together, they do still have arguments and occasional struggles for control when they feel passionately about certain things. Trivia[]
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An enjoyable entry that fits the theme rather well, interpreting it with an example of permanent symbiosis. The backstories for both characters work, I mostly liked Maggie's for tying it into the early 20th Century and taking advantage of the social climate of that era to shape her character.
I'm not sure if a permanent melding with an Ectonurite has been done beyond the popular AU idea of having Zs'Skayr take over Ben, so it was nice to see another execution of that concept. Giving Maggie mimicry and having Sznrr be a few leftover pieces helped facilitate this unbreakable bond. The gestalt entity causing each component to gain characteristics of the other person as time goes on is also something I really liked.
Extra points goes for incorporating an Ectonurite into the entry, as it fits the month. Huge fan of the artwork too.
Conclusion[]
Fortunately, we got two entries this time around, so it still felt like a contest. Congratulations to both contestants for some great entries! See you all next time!