Tarrlok (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodisthicker) wrote2019-03-19 12:30 am
bloodisthicker) wrote2019-03-19 12:30 am
Entry tags:
PRISMATICA APP/INFO
NAME: Tarrlok
CANON: Avatar: Legend of Korra
CANON POINT: Before Korra shows up in his office in Episode 8
AGE: 37
BACKGROUND: Wiki link, wiki link.
PERSONALITY: So, that smooth-talking, ambitious, young (well, for a politician) politician from the notoriously smug Northern Water Tribe who is popular with the general populace… you know that guy? The one who smells like a lady? Yeah, that guy. Well, let me let you in on a little secret.
He has a lot of dark secrets and is honestly kind of a douche.
I know.
You are totally surprised.
Well, let’s start with “honestly kind of a douche” before we get into “dark secrets,” shall we? Tarrlok is the kind of guy who will go to extremes to get what he wants, and what he wants tends to be power. Bribery? Oh, of course. Emotional manipulation? Totally. Media manipulation? He has it down to an art form, man. McCarthyism? Hell yeah, let’s do this thing. Kidnapping the Avatar after she shows up getting all mad about him imprisoning her friends to keep her in line and then locking her in a metal box? Well… that’s for special occasions. Behind his amiable, impeccably groomed façade is the sort of ruthless, calculating asshole you’d expect an ambitious young politician to be under all the bullshit.
If he wants someone as an ally, well… expect him to try to come off as their best friend and buy them all the expensive things. Maybe there will be some sort of manipulation outside of that, but hey! As long as he can get partial credit and come off as really impressive, he will be behind you the whole way. Well, unless you get in his way or things go sour between you. Then he will be a snide asshole who is pretty fantastic at hitting where it hurts most in order to intimidate you, and he will give negative fucks about it. He’s fairly cunning and good at figuring out how to spin a situation to his advantage, though he’s not always on top of things.
This is pretty obvious when he’s put in opposition to a group he just doesn’t get. Canonically, he tries to combat the Equalists by using hardline tactics that make them look like they have more of a point and, basically, play right into their hands. His response isn’t to lighten up the pressure or try to figure out the enemy’s mindset—he just keeps stubbornly sticking to the initial line of logic and upping the intensity. Even though he’s a cunning manipulator, this has the potential to make him fairly easily manipulated himself. Or just easily trolled, honestly, that works too. Point is, he’s very unlikely to waver on a decision when he’s come to one.
...he also has a pretty bad temper, although… it’s really only in relation to specific things. Like, you know, being compared to Amon, the dude terrorizing Republic City, who he’s mentally comparing to Yakone, the dude who terrorized Republic City years ago (and is also his horrible fuckin’ dad who he’s trying really hard not to be but kind of failing at, whoops). It should be noted that the person he attacked on this basis was someone he was at the end of his rope with anyway, but that doesn’t exactly mean he can’t crack and flip out on someone in a situation that was a different kind of stressful. He’s not exactly terrible at covering his tracks, and will go to pretty significant lengths to do so up to and including injuring himself to make it look like he was attacked… but more likely than not, he’d probably just end up digging his hole deeper, to the point where things would undoubtedly fall in on him in the worst way possible.
Another point is… yeah, he has a stunning lack of self-awareness. He’s kind of set himself up as the savior of Republic City who can remodel the everloving shit out of its rotten, crime-loving foundations… but honestly, he really isn’t all that different from his awful mafia dad, as much as he’s trying to run things from the top rather than the bottom. He doesn’t want to second guess himself or back down because he thinks that’s probably part of what screwed up his life so badly as a kid… after all, years of being berated for not being able to horrifyingly bloodbend animals as well as your brother does something to you. So does your brother telling you you’re weak for wanting to take care of your mom instead of running away… before he runs away himself in a blizzard and (very likely definitely totally but they never found the body) dies.
If Tarrlok really had to confront the person that he’s become over the years and reflect on it, for whatever reason… well. It probably wouldn’t sit very well with him. He liked to think he’d dedicated his life to being better than that. But… he really didn’t accomplish it.
POWERS/ABILITIES: As stated before, he’s pretty good at douchey, underhanded political maneuvering by knowing exactly what to say, when to say it, who to say it to, and to have… at least enough conviction to believe his ends justify the means. He’s also pretty charismatic, and can can hold his own in a fight by being an accomplished waterbender.
Waterbending is basically just controlling water via martial arts forms, specifically tai chi. It works on basically any form of water and can be used as, say, a whip of some kind or a shield, and it can be used to instantly freeze water into ice or melt ice into water. So, you know, he could use ice knives or freeze someone in place.
...of course, since the, uh, vast majority of the human body is water, you’d wonder if that would come into play, and in Tarrlok’s particular case, you’d be right. Bloodbending basically involves dragging people’s blood around to control their bodies in whatever way you want, apparently extremely painfully. Most people can only theoretically bloodbend under the full moon (and it honestly seems a bit less painful then…) but Tarrlok’s father apparently either had some kind of genetic ability to do it at literally any time or figured out how to do it at any time. So, uh, Tarrlok can do that too, though he has a lot of trauma associated with that whole thing so it’s basically an absolute last resort in the event that he’s going to die.
In both instances, he needs to be able to use the appropriate movements to either waterbend or bloodbend, so if he’s tied up or something, he’d probably be incapacitated. Since the ability to bend is tied to chi, it’s also possible to temporarily prevent people from bending by hitting specific pressure points on their arms and legs and whatnot.
INVENTORY: He really just has a leather pouch full of water and a wallet… RIP, I guess.
MOONBLESSING: Cordis!
CANON: Avatar: Legend of Korra
CANON POINT: Before Korra shows up in his office in Episode 8
AGE: 37
BACKGROUND: Wiki link, wiki link.
PERSONALITY: So, that smooth-talking, ambitious, young (well, for a politician) politician from the notoriously smug Northern Water Tribe who is popular with the general populace… you know that guy? The one who smells like a lady? Yeah, that guy. Well, let me let you in on a little secret.
He has a lot of dark secrets and is honestly kind of a douche.
I know.
You are totally surprised.
Well, let’s start with “honestly kind of a douche” before we get into “dark secrets,” shall we? Tarrlok is the kind of guy who will go to extremes to get what he wants, and what he wants tends to be power. Bribery? Oh, of course. Emotional manipulation? Totally. Media manipulation? He has it down to an art form, man. McCarthyism? Hell yeah, let’s do this thing. Kidnapping the Avatar after she shows up getting all mad about him imprisoning her friends to keep her in line and then locking her in a metal box? Well… that’s for special occasions. Behind his amiable, impeccably groomed façade is the sort of ruthless, calculating asshole you’d expect an ambitious young politician to be under all the bullshit.
If he wants someone as an ally, well… expect him to try to come off as their best friend and buy them all the expensive things. Maybe there will be some sort of manipulation outside of that, but hey! As long as he can get partial credit and come off as really impressive, he will be behind you the whole way. Well, unless you get in his way or things go sour between you. Then he will be a snide asshole who is pretty fantastic at hitting where it hurts most in order to intimidate you, and he will give negative fucks about it. He’s fairly cunning and good at figuring out how to spin a situation to his advantage, though he’s not always on top of things.
This is pretty obvious when he’s put in opposition to a group he just doesn’t get. Canonically, he tries to combat the Equalists by using hardline tactics that make them look like they have more of a point and, basically, play right into their hands. His response isn’t to lighten up the pressure or try to figure out the enemy’s mindset—he just keeps stubbornly sticking to the initial line of logic and upping the intensity. Even though he’s a cunning manipulator, this has the potential to make him fairly easily manipulated himself. Or just easily trolled, honestly, that works too. Point is, he’s very unlikely to waver on a decision when he’s come to one.
...he also has a pretty bad temper, although… it’s really only in relation to specific things. Like, you know, being compared to Amon, the dude terrorizing Republic City, who he’s mentally comparing to Yakone, the dude who terrorized Republic City years ago (and is also his horrible fuckin’ dad who he’s trying really hard not to be but kind of failing at, whoops). It should be noted that the person he attacked on this basis was someone he was at the end of his rope with anyway, but that doesn’t exactly mean he can’t crack and flip out on someone in a situation that was a different kind of stressful. He’s not exactly terrible at covering his tracks, and will go to pretty significant lengths to do so up to and including injuring himself to make it look like he was attacked… but more likely than not, he’d probably just end up digging his hole deeper, to the point where things would undoubtedly fall in on him in the worst way possible.
Another point is… yeah, he has a stunning lack of self-awareness. He’s kind of set himself up as the savior of Republic City who can remodel the everloving shit out of its rotten, crime-loving foundations… but honestly, he really isn’t all that different from his awful mafia dad, as much as he’s trying to run things from the top rather than the bottom. He doesn’t want to second guess himself or back down because he thinks that’s probably part of what screwed up his life so badly as a kid… after all, years of being berated for not being able to horrifyingly bloodbend animals as well as your brother does something to you. So does your brother telling you you’re weak for wanting to take care of your mom instead of running away… before he runs away himself in a blizzard and (very likely definitely totally but they never found the body) dies.
If Tarrlok really had to confront the person that he’s become over the years and reflect on it, for whatever reason… well. It probably wouldn’t sit very well with him. He liked to think he’d dedicated his life to being better than that. But… he really didn’t accomplish it.
POWERS/ABILITIES: As stated before, he’s pretty good at douchey, underhanded political maneuvering by knowing exactly what to say, when to say it, who to say it to, and to have… at least enough conviction to believe his ends justify the means. He’s also pretty charismatic, and can can hold his own in a fight by being an accomplished waterbender.
Waterbending is basically just controlling water via martial arts forms, specifically tai chi. It works on basically any form of water and can be used as, say, a whip of some kind or a shield, and it can be used to instantly freeze water into ice or melt ice into water. So, you know, he could use ice knives or freeze someone in place.
...of course, since the, uh, vast majority of the human body is water, you’d wonder if that would come into play, and in Tarrlok’s particular case, you’d be right. Bloodbending basically involves dragging people’s blood around to control their bodies in whatever way you want, apparently extremely painfully. Most people can only theoretically bloodbend under the full moon (and it honestly seems a bit less painful then…) but Tarrlok’s father apparently either had some kind of genetic ability to do it at literally any time or figured out how to do it at any time. So, uh, Tarrlok can do that too, though he has a lot of trauma associated with that whole thing so it’s basically an absolute last resort in the event that he’s going to die.
In both instances, he needs to be able to use the appropriate movements to either waterbend or bloodbend, so if he’s tied up or something, he’d probably be incapacitated. Since the ability to bend is tied to chi, it’s also possible to temporarily prevent people from bending by hitting specific pressure points on their arms and legs and whatnot.
INVENTORY: He really just has a leather pouch full of water and a wallet… RIP, I guess.
MOONBLESSING: Cordis!