app; we the lost

[expurge]

Player Name: Isen
Preferred Pronouns?: She/Her
Player Contact: isenette
Other characters in play? Jeremy Fitzgerald (FNAF/The Games)

Character Name: The Batter
Canon: Off!
Game Transplant: The Games
Original App: Link
Game Summary: The Games is set in the fictional world of Panem and based on the Hunger Games series. Characters were originally brought in as Tributes to fight in battles to the death in specially designed arenas, with outlandish ceremonies for the victors, but the rebels in District 13 have conspired together and started fighting back to liberate the other Districts and free the oppressed from the Capitol's power. The Capitol is fighting back, starting an all out war between Capitolites and rebels, and most offworlders don't have a choice in which side they're fighting for. But both sides will do whatever it takes to emerge victorious in the end.

How long was your character in Game: Approximately five months.
History of Character in their Game:The Batter arrived in Panem just after Off!’s Judge ending, in which the player takes control of the Judge in order to battle and inevitably defeat the monstrous Batter for good. Having never been defeated before, the results of that battle were nothing short of unexpected, and his arrival in Panem shortly after even more so. But the Batter is quick to see it as a means of redemption - not in the moral sense, but a way to reclaim some lost pride and dignity. His initial arrival in Panem was spent exploring the Capitol, and he took a bit of a liking to the arcade machines, resulting in a collection of cheap plush animals and toys that he inevitably gave away to a fellow tribute’s fan following. It would not be his last interaction with one Sandy Marko, but it would be the one with the least amount of bloodshed.

He meets his District 2 mentor early on, one Leonidas Cora. While not one to show much respect to an authority figure, the Batter is able to make a connection between the role of a mentor and the role of a player; in essence, theirs is the overseeing force that sets the Batter on his path. The Player observes as the Batter purifies his homeworld, and the Mentor observes as the Batter eliminates his competition in the arenas to become the Victor.

It wasn’t long after that meeting when the announcement of a mini-arena event drew his attention, and the Batter signs himself up for his first arena experience. Despite being a powerful fighter, the Batter made a poor decision by cornering and taking out Sandy early on in the arena, right in front of one of her closest friends and protectors - the Panem version of Phil Gray. As it turns out, brutally murdering someone that someone else really cares about can make that someone break their otherwise peaceful persona and go full murder happy themselves. Who would’ve thought?

After that considerably abysmal performance in the mini-arena (not even a real arena, much to his frustration,) the Batter resigns himself to the training areas and fully commits himself to earning that victory in the next arena. It is his only purpose for being, now. With Leo’s guidance and assistance, the next arena starts to look a little more promising for a District 2 win. But the Capitol has a suprise announcement this time: fighting in the arenas alongside offworlder tributes this time are children native to the Panem districts. It came as quite a shock to most of the offworlders, but to the Batter, they are mere obstacles in his path. He’s quick to take out one of them right at the beginning, young Bison from District 10, before the boy even had a chance. For a brief, fleeting moment, the Batter is reminded of little Hugo. But he’s quick to shake off those thoughts and continue on his journey in the arena.

For seven weeks, the Batter makes for a formidable opponent in the arena. Everything looked to be going in his favour, despite facing equally strong opponents and taking plenty damage himself, right up until a familiar face shows up once more: Sandy Marko. Something seems off about her this time, seemingly deranged and off kilter, but she’s merely yet another obstacle to the Batter. Their confrontation is just as quick as before, though while Sandy takes a fatal blow from the new bat that had been sent to him from Leo, the assumption that it was over then is what costs the Batter his life this time. Sandy makes one last crazed attempt to fight back and lunges forward to take a chunk out of the Batter’s throat with her teeth. Another hard hit with the bat makes her let go and fall dead to the ground, but the damage is done, and the Batter joins Sandy in death only a few moments later.

The 15th Arena is over soon after, with District 2 claiming victory with a different offworlder tribute, Cullen Rutherford. At least Leonidas Cora is able to celebrate a victory then. But the Batter does not return to the Capitol after his death in what would be the final Hunger Games arena in Panem, as the war breaks out soon after.

How did they change from their canon personality wise (Please explain what caused it to happen?) The biggest change to occur with the Batter is the recognition of his separation from his connection with the Player. The Batter realizes that there is no one pulling his strings, so to speak, and he is free to act of his own free will. He considered it a concern at first, but after meeting his mentor Leo, he forms a different sort of connection as a replacement. Rather than purifying this world in its entirety, he modifies his plans and instead focuses on becoming a Victor in the arenas, and eliminate the competition as a sort of alternative to purifying the same way he’s used to.

On top of the new connections and reformed goals, the Batter starts does start to actual emotion, something he’s largely unaccustomed to. More specifically, he starts to feel anger. In his homeworld, the opponents he faced were strong, but he was always stronger. Any difficult battles he considered a minor inconvenience at best. But in Panem, he is more frequently defeated than he’d care to admit, and it causes him to feel a deep seated frustration not only towards his opponents but towards himself as well. He knows himself to be better than this, stronger than this, and he can’t fathom why he continues to lose these battles. The only possible explanation he can surmise is that he has grown weak, weak from his encounter with the Judge back home, and he resolves to continue training and fighting until he regains the pride he’d lost in his defeats.

The Batter still cares little for others around him, forming no emotional or affectionate attachments to anyone he comes across. While Leo became someone he knew would help drive him and aid him in his quest, he wouldn’t give it a second thought and would easily fight him if the man suddenly stood against him. But the Hugo flashback in the beginning of the 15th Arena did start the tiniest of inclinations towards another change in the Batter: doubt. The doubt that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t entirely in the right in his methods back home. Maybe Hugo didn’t deserve the same fate as the other spectres and impure spirits he’d previously destroyed. But it seems like such a preposterous thought, one the Batter actively tries to ignore in order to pursue his goals of victory in Panem. Though in the Meadous, that may not be such an easy feat to accomplish.
How did they change from their canon physically (Please explain what caused it to happen?): Physically, the Batter is largely unchanged from his canon appearance. He wears the same baseball uniform and rarely changes his facial expressions beyond “unimpressed” and “mildly frustrated.” Aside from a few battle scars here and there from his final battle in the Arena, namely the bite marks around his throat from Sandy,, he hasn’t changed much at all.
Powers: The Batter possesses an inhuman physical strength, capable of beating his foes to a bloody pulp in a few quick blows. He’s destroyed every living thing in his homeworld and rose through the ranks of Panem tributes on sheer strength alone. In his homeworld he was aided by three spherical shapes known as Add-Ons, but even without them the Batter is recognized for his power throughout the zones.

Aside from his remarkable bat-swinging strength, the Batter has the ability to see impurities in beings that appear normal otherwise, most notably in the form of blackened and smoky creatures. Elsens appear to have normal humanoid sprites in the game, but when switching to the Batter’s perspective in battle mode, they can drastically change form when seen through his point of view. Perspective is a major theme in Off!, and serves a narrative purpose to throw the player for a bit of a loop near the end of the game - especially in the Judge ending. Therefore, Meadous residents as their normal selves may not appear as such in the Batter’s eyes.
Possessions: The Batter will only have a baseball bat and a photograph in his possession. The bat is a wooden one that his District mentor Leonidas Cora had specially made for him, as the Batter’s own did not arrive in Panem with him, and it bears the words “DISTRICT 2” engraved on the end. And the photograph is the Batter’s token item from Panem, a black and white photograph of the Batter and a stone statue of Zacharie the merchant on a roller coaster.

Please provide three samples from your previous game, at least one will have to be third person with context:
Sample One: In which the Batter is kind of okay at Duck Hunt.
Sample Two: In which the Batter’s first arena does not go well.
Sample Three: In which the Batter’s next arena goes a little better.

Notes: While the Batter does not physically transform into the monstrous Bad Batter on his own, anyone in the Meadous who may be psychically or spiritually inclined may feel free to perceive him as his more grotesque and demonic appearance.

Also: the Batter did appear on Caesar Flickerman's interview show and spoke to the Judge, who was brought in just for that interaction. The post is now locked however, and I don't fully remember exactly how the interview went. At most I can say it would've contributed to the Batter's feelings of anger and doubt, but since I'm not 100% certain, I've omitted that thread from this app. I hope that's okay!