mindofathief | In The Night APP (Reply)

PLAYER INFO

Player Name: Nara
Player Contact: mutanthairything
Character(s) In-Game: N/A

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Duster
Age: Mid 20’s
Canon: Mother 3

World Description: Nowhere Islands

History: For only portions that include Duster, Chapter 3 can be skipped, and Duster appears in Chapter 7 at "The Fourth Needle"

Death: Going with the interpretation that everyone does die in the ending cinematic and they are all in the afterlife, Duster is killed with Lucas pulls the Final Needle and awakens the Dark Dragon, who destroys the world.

What are your plans for this character in-game?
I want Duster to have more time for self-reflection since for 90% of Mother 3, he has no clue what is happening with the plot. As the Nowhere Islands was a sanctuary from the rest of the world as mankind destroyed it, this setting will be familiar - Beacon is a lone island in an unknown world, though it's not a paradise. This can drive him to be more proactive, since he would feel guilty for failing his quest three years ago that allowed the Pigmasks to continue with their plan.

Eventually, I want him to grow his friendship circle and become more assertive by being involved in plot elements, hopefully through combat and infiltration/scouting missions.

What aspects of this game and/or its setting are you most interested in having this character engage with?
The afterlife setting and the metaplot about fixing whatever is happening to the location.

How does your character generally get along with other people?
Duster doesn't speak up often and lets others take charge. This introductory chapters has him listening to his father's orders and go with what is told of him, and when Lucas retrieves him from Club Titiboo while he has amnesia, Duster goes along with the others' idea to have him leave and help find the Egg of Light. There isn't a time in the story when he objects to something.

He is dutiful son and a loyal friend, which is a wonderful trait to have when the people he interacts with have his best interests in mind. When it comes to people that aren't the healthiest to be around, it leads to problems. During Chapter 2, he wouldn't dare to speak out against his father, and it took Princess Kumatora to step in and tell Wess to cut out his verbal mistreatment of Duster. He's a bit of the Distressed Damsel of the narrative, being the one party member held captive by the enemy and needing to be found/rescued a few times, but he has complete faith in his friends and that things will turn out alright.

He's more interested in staying in the background and helping the people he cares about to the best of his ability than confronting others. Duster works best in a group of people. He's called in-canon to be a weird but nice guy, so it's easy to assume that he's agreeable and easy to work with.

Duster is a humble, polite, compassionate man, talking gently with young Lucas, grieving over the recent loss of his mother, and befriending the child-like Mr. Saturns to the point where he understands their quirky speech and behavior almost perfectly. The day after Hinawa dies, he's the first person to approach her husband to offer his condolences. It's difficult for him to say something mean spirited, and even his sole two jabs at the main villain took a whole game of evil misdeeds to say. Despite his celebrity status by the end of the story, he remains just as quiet and introverted, preferring the company of a few friends to hundreds of fans, though the extra attention is amazing and he would never give up the chance to perform and make people happy. He likes pleasing people, friends and authority figures alike, and he needs people to stand up for him at times. In return, he'll defend them with his life.

What is your character's mental state upon entering the game?
He was ready for anything and was trusting Lucas pulling the Needle to fix everything, so he's just majorly disappointed and telling himself that he shouldn't be surprised. He wasn't alone in the underground cavern, so he'll be worried what happened to everyone else. Said cavern was lit by glowing power along the floor, so being in total darkness is going to be unnerving for a long time. He might also be confused if this is the reborn world.

Skills/Abilities:
Duster is trained in the Thief Arts, which is a fighting style taught by Wess. It gives him heightened speed and strength (even if he is outmatched by other party members in those individual areas), though his skills lie in status debuffs, sneak attacks, scaling walls, and multi-hit combos. Thanks to said training, he is able to run quickly and kick despite his limp.

He's also a pretty great bassist.

Flaws/Weaknesses:
Duster spent most of his (remembered) life isolated from the other villagers and following his father's training. During this time, it is implied that Wess was the cause of his limp, likely from an accident during training. Not only that, Wess was a controlling man with a tendency to insult Duster for his screwups all in the name of preparing him for a vague mission in the future. Duster doesn't talk back to his father at all and accepts this as part of his life. In game, townspeople comment on how he often takes walks at night, so when facing conflict, his preference is to avoid dealing with it and relax.

His disability doesn't come up in the plot, but it's reasonable to assume that he does have to put int a lot of effort to keep his legs in shape and in taking care of himself.

Duster is a passive player in Mother 3, following the ideas and plans of others rather than going out and working on his own. When given the opportunity to pick his own - to stay with the DCMC or to go with Lucas - he thinks about the benefits or both and needs the band to rig a game of chance to let him go with Lucas. He's worried about disappointing everyone, so it's difficult to get him to make an important decision on his own. Towards the end, his big moment is in deciding that is is passionate about going on this quest rather than going along with it to help the party, which is better than nothing.

Personality:
His default facial expression and appearance makes him look downcast about everything, but he has incredible hope that despite the suffering and terror the characters go through, in the end, it will be all worth it. When asked if he was an unlucky or lucky person for getting kidnapped right after being rescued by Mr. Saturns, he states that they're all lucky. The party is together again. When the Dark Dragon wakes and an apocalyptic scene ensues, he's calm when it's over and happy they have a new world to live in. This optimism helps himself and his friends push onward.

Despite how much he believes in others, he doesn't have a lot of faith in himself. He's one of the strongest fighters, an incredible musician, and when fighting solo, he relies on strategic use of his battle tools. Yet he'll downplay his abilities, such as when he first becomes playable: pointing out first that he has a pronounced limp, but it's okay, he'll do his best! When first asked to Wall Staple a cliff so Flint could scale it, he admits that he's unsure if he'll be able to do it properly in a real life scenario, but he does it anyway. If he's asked to do something, he will obey though he won't be surprised if it doesn't work out. Knowing he was of some use and that he helped is good enough for him. Becoming a celebrated musician helps him understand that he's more amazing that he initially believes, though he's not one to boast about his skills. He doesn't go around telling everyone that he's the musician known as "Lucky": it takes a dedicated fan to recognize him on the street before he admits he's that same person.

Items:
- some packaged food and snacks
- The Egg of Light, a small important-looking object that holds the villagers' memories of their old life.
- one Thunderbomb, which deals light damage over a small area (read: a gathering of enemies)
Duster has his Thief Tools that he uses in battle:
* Siren Beetle - emits an annoying noise that makes enemies turn away briefly
* Scary Mask - lowers attack
* Hypno Pendulum - chance of making a target fall asleep
* Tickle Feather - lowers defense
* Wall Staples (10) - can created a makeshift ladder along a wall or hold something/someone down.
* Smoke Bomb - change of making an enemy cry