Placebo
Apr 21, 2020 21:07:04 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2020 21:07:04 GMT -5
-CHARACTER INFO-
Player: Toggs
Name: Placebo (Prefers Dr. Bo)Age: Middle age
Gender: Mech
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Decepticon
Original Occupation: Psychiatrist
Occupation/Specialization: Psychological warfare/PSYOPs, therapist,
Appearance:
Placebo is a svelte, long-limbed mech who is roughly Knock Out’s height. He appears delicate at a glance, with his thin limbs and bright white paint job with soft, baby blue accents on his shins and shoulders. His plates are all rounded, with scarcely a sharp angle anywhere on him, for the purpose of making him seem non-threatening and approachable. His optics are big and bright, their pink color subdued by the tinted, heart-shaped visor which shields them from his own weaponry. He has two decorative finials mounted on ball-joints on either side of his head which swivel and rotate in accordance with his mood, granting him a broader range of emotional expression. Typically, they can be seen pointing completely upright at an unnaturally stiff angle.
His most notable feature is perhaps his smile, which is broad and ever-present, never leaving his face no matter the circumstance. Mecha often assume his mouth is just stuck that way until they see him speak, at which point they realize he just never ever stops smiling.
Altmode: DIVCO step-van (stylized as an ice-cream truck)
Pertinent History:
Forged into the intellectual class, Placebo began life from a place of privilege. He was granted a bit more choice when it came to deciding what he was going to do with his life than the average Cybertronian, and straight away he knew he wanted to help people. He became a psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology, and took special interest in “lost cause” cases that his peers had neither the time nor patience to work with. Tellingly, most of these mecha were either low-caste, outliers, or glitched beyond surgical correction.
It was through these mecha that Placebo eventually learned of the fledgling Decepticon cause. As social tensions began to rise and the class-disparity became impossible to ignore, Placebo began to notice a drastic shift in his clientele – out of the blue, an alarming number of his regulars stopped showing up for their sessions. They stopped answering his calls, friends and neighbors couldn’t tell him where they had gone. It didn’t take long for Placebo to come to grips with the terrible realization that his drop-caste patients were actually being dropped. Killed in workplace accidents, in riots, by police, by every social institution put in place to ensure they couldn’t survive, let alone thrive.
It was then Placebo realized something had to change. People – and they were people, no matter what the law said – were suffering. Being a high-caste mech, he was actually in a position to do something about it, so he did: he joined the Decepticons. One of his patients got him an in, inducted him into the fold, vouched for his character despite his being a bright-plate. He did what he could to help, lent his credentials, his wealth, his social standing, his skills as a psychiatrist – whatever was needed to help bring about the change that was so desperately needed.
Eventually, he’s not sure how or when or why, but eventually things changed from organizing protests and touching hearts and minds to orchestrating domestic terror attacks. It all just happened so quickly, so seamlessly he didn’t notice the transition until the war was on top of him, and by then he had already drawn his line in the sand. He had decided who his skills would most benefit, which faction had the most troubled, disturbed mecha who would suffer without his help. Maybe if he helped enough of them, if he could sway enough hearts and minds, he could open them up to the idea of peace so they could put an end to the war and stop all the senseless bloodshed.
Obviously, this approach didn’t work. He realized a few thousand years in that no amount of coaxing would ever convince anyone to end the fighting, to lay down their arms and just stop being awful to each other. He realized that people, at least Cybertronian people, were at their core, awful, violent creatures that had no better natures to appeal to. He realized that he had wasted his entire life trying to help people when people honestly and truly did not deserve help – not a single person, not even the best of them. Bit of an eye-opener, the realization that everyone was an irredeemable blight on the universe that could not justify the space they filled.
But Placebo, he’s still a helper, despite it all. He still works with the Decepticons even though he has no dedication to the cause, not because its convenient or because he’s afraid to leave, but because he’s finally figured out what the right thing to do is – how to make up for being a silly goose and doing the wrong thing all these years.
In order to do that, he’s taking a space-bridge to Earth, the far-away little planet where the war will hopefully come to an end.
Personality:
A far cry from the typical Decepticon, Placebo is chipper, optimistic, and personable – he has never met a stranger because he treats everyone as though they’re his best friend in the world, despite all evidence to the contrary. Unlike many of his comrades, Placebo has a strong sense of morality and always tries, genuinely, to do the right thing and be a good person – tries being the key word.
See, Placebo is under no delusions that he is a good person; he’d LIKE to be, but that isn’t the same thing. At all. He’s acutely aware of all the moral failings of the Decepticon army and knows that he is objectively one of the bad guys – but Placebo is nothing if not a persistent go-getter, so he does everything in his power to make the best of a bad situation. He has long since come to the conclusion that the war is not a problem that can be solved from the outside; it’s only by getting right in the thick of things and doing what he needs to do that Placebo can change things for the better. Of course, his views on what needs to be done are wildly unpopular, so he has to keep them to himself, but it’s fine – it’s fine. It’s Fine. People come to him with their problems, he doesn’t bring his problems to other people.
Not that he has any! No, Placebo does not have any problems because what sort of psychiatrist can’t fix their own problems? Certainly not Dr. Bo, who is a great doctor and is doing just fantastic, thanks for asking. Sure, sometimes he gets a little stressed, a little down, but that’s fine, that’s healthy, that’s normal. Sometimes a guy just needs to vent, to purge all his unhealthy feelings so he can go back to being the sunny, upbeat guy he needs to be in order to survive the unyielding horror of daily existence.
That’s why Placebo never goes anywhere without a smile – even when things are at their worst, especially when they’re at their worst, you need to keep a positive attitude and just smile through the pain. You’ve got to fake it till you make it, or so the saying goes, and Placebo has been faking it for so long that he’s bound to make it any day now.
Any day now.
Likes: Alien cultures/species, dancing, musical theater, cute animals, arts and crafts, board games, the color pink, quick and painless deaths, puns
Dislikes: Conflict, violence, people, idleness, silence, cruelty, selfishness, when people don’t use their gosh darn turn signals – it’s not that hard!
Strengths/Weapons:
Psychoactive Agent – The key weapon in Placebo’s arsenal of psychological warfare is coincidentally the most unassuming: a small, (Cybertronian) coin-sized disk which – when placed directly on a Cybertronain’s helm - produces electro-magnetic pulses that disrupt the normal functions of the victim’s brain.
The effects of these disks vary from Cybertronian to Cybertronian, and making it difficult to predict what specific reaction an individual will have. The effects come in a variety of four: some mecha experience vivid hallucinations, some become disoriented and confused, others experience temporary memory loss/the inability to form new memories, and others have their motor control/motor functions severely impaired. These effects only last until the disks lose power or are removed.
In all, Placebo only has three of these disks, as they are costly to manufacture and cannot be recovered once they are used, as they are designed to self-destruct if tampered with once activated. Any attempt to remove the disk will result in the disk short circuiting, destroying itself so that it cannot be reverse engineered while also giving its victim a nasty jolt directly to the processor. Thankfully it is not difficult to remove the disks, as they are only held in place by a relatively weak magnet.
Likewise, the disks tend to burn themselves rather quickly – they have a battery life comparable to that of a cheap smart phone. Depending on the size of their target, they can last anywhere from a full day (for particularly small mecha) to just a few hours (for average-sized mecha.) Because the disks are delicate and volatile in nature, they cannot be thrown or shot from a gun – they must be applied by hand, which requires Placebo to get up close and personal with his victim.
Vesicant Guns – Housed inside Placebo’s arms are twin hoses which fire an acidic chemical slurry, with a maximum range of 20 feet. The spray is designed to cause more psychological damage than physical, though it certainly does that too. The vesicant only affects living metal, causing it to blister and dissolve on contact. Thankfully the watery foam is designed to slough off and become inert shortly after discharge, so it cannot eat through armor and damage internal systems – only leave horrifically painful surface-level burns. As an added treat the foam discolors Cybertronian metals, making it appear as though it has caused its victim to spontaneously begin to rust. The acid is not strong enough to cause permanent blindness, however it can still severely impair its victim’s vision if it gets in their optics. Naturally, if the foam is ingested for whatever reason (or injected intravenously), it will cause significantly more damage than it does when applied topically.
The chemical slurry is housed in a secure tank within Placebo's chest cavity, which can hold up to 15 gallons. The tank is lined with non-living metal to prevent corrosion, and is artfully sealed to prevent leakage – however, the tank itself is not especially durable, so a particularly well aimed blow to the chest could easily cause Placebo devastating/potentially lethal injury.
Unfortunately, the materials necessary to create the vesicant are somewhat difficult to come by on Earth, which means Placebo must water down the mixture and diminish its effectiveness if he wants to have a full tank of ammunition. In short, he has to choose between quantity or potency – which can be troublesome since he has no way of knowing which will be more advantageous ahead of time.
Mr. Sandman - Placebo has dealt with more than his fair share of belligerent, aggressive patents and for his own safety has had a pair of injectors installed in his palms to deliver sedatives when the need arises. The sedatives work not unlike putting water in a car’s gas tank – by injecting a neutralizing liquid directly into his victim’s energon lines, he causes their fuel intake to slow and prompts their systems to shut down to conserve energy. One dose is enough to make most mid-sized mecha feel a bit drowsy, but two or three might be needed to induce the same effect in larger mecha. Placebo must be able to put his hands directly on his victim in order to inject them – once the needle pierces mesh, it tears from its housing like a bee stinger and auto-injects the contents of its barrel.
Placebo only ever has two needles at a time, one in each palm, and is absolutely not above re-using needles after they've been discharged, assuming they can be salvaged. However, he would prefer to have the security of readily available replacements so he doesn't have to go digging needles out of people's necks, so he'll need to establish some sort of trade/manufacturing agreement with the med-team. As for how he acquires the anesthetic, he has routinely relied on supply from the medical bays of the various bases at which he has served, though when denied this supply he simply resorts to replacing the anesthetic with various other liquids which, while not as safe or effective, still dilutes the victims energon and induces sedative effects.
Weaknesses:
Instability: Many who look at Placebo for more than a second will be able to tell that something’s not quite right with the mech. Maybe the thousands of years of war have taken their toll, maybe it’s all the vicarious traumatization he’s experienced over his career, maybe he dipped into his own pharmaceutical supply a few too many times and now his brain is just fried beyond all repair – maybe it’s a mix of the three, and more. Whatever the reason, Placebo is a deeply troubled individual who has difficulty regulating and even experiencing emotion. His feelings are rarely appropriate or proportional to the situation at hand, and he can sometimes act irrationally or impulsively when someone triggers a particularly strong emotional response in him – namely anger.
Unfortunately, reacting poorly to the emotions he does experience isn’t nearly as dangerous as how he responds to the ones he doesn’t. Placebo is plagued by chronic anhedonia and a total lack of fear, which has resulted in him having absolutely no sense of self-preservation or the least consideration for his own wellbeing. As a result, he is prone to taking risks and making decisions that can result in significant harm to himself as his ability to make risk-reward calculations is completely butchered by his emotional castration. Placebo often deliberately places himself in dangerous situations just to see if he can spur any feelings of fear or anxiety within himself, but he has yet to experience a satisfactory result.
Dammit Jim: Placebo is a (psychological) doctor, not a fighter, and his lack of lethal weaponry reflects that. In hand-to-hand combat, there’s really no way for Placebo to outright win; he can’t really defeat anyone, he can only hit-and-run and hope his opponent doesn’t come chasing after him.
Quality controller: Placebo tends to use himself as the test subject for all of his pharmaceuticals, and as a result he’s developed a bit of a drug habit – but not the conventional kind. Rather than using circuit boosters or other feel-good narcotics, Placebo tends to mix together different chemical/electric cocktails to see what combinations can actually make him feel something – anything – good or bad. While not addicted by any means, Placebo’s tendency to recklessly combine volatile mixtures that could have devastating effects on his body and psyche in a desperate attempt to self-medicate is arguably even worse than if he simply had a bad syk problem.
Weaksauce: Placebo's armor is painfully light. If he takes even an average-strength blast from a gun he'll crack like a Fabergé egg.
Special Skills:
Psychology: As a psychiatrist, Placebo has an intimate understanding of the intricacies of the Cybertronian mind. He knows what makes people tick, what influences their thoughts and emotions and behaviors. He is, in simple terms, an expert manipulator who has no qualms whatsoever in using a person’s own psyche against them to suit his own purposes. Typically, this means boosting morale and winning hearts and minds to keep the Decepticon war machine running, but sometimes it means encouraging violent, destructive behaviors and undermining a person’s recovery so they stay a murderous psychopath who will hopefully take a few hundred people out with them as they slowly self-sabotage their way to an early grave.
Dr. Feel Good: As a psychiatrist, Placebo is a medical doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of behavioral, emotional, and mental disorders. As such, he has a good working knowledge of psychology, pharmacology, neuroscience, medicine, and biology/biochemistry -specifically as they pertain to the treatment of mental/emotional/behavioral conditions. Due specifically to his training in pharmacology and neurology, Placebo has a profound working knowledge of how various pharmaceuticals and electro-magnetic devices affect the Cybertronain mind, and over the years he has refined the use of these medical supplies for offensive (and recreational) purposes.
From psychedelics to dissociatives to deliriants - if it causes drastic effects to a Cybertronain’s perception of reality, chances are good Placebo either knows how to make it, or can replicate the effects using chemical compositions he is more familiar with. In this same vein, Placebo is also an expert when it comes to analyzing and editing mecha’s coding. He can by no means rewrite their personalities or erase memories, but he can fix bugs, make patches, and add subroutines which can help alleviate minor symptoms of complex psychological/emotional problems.
As of his arrival on Earth, he only has a small case of pharmaceutical supplies to work with – he has the medical know-how to replenish his dwindling stock, however whether or not Decepticon command will grant him the materials to do so is another matter entirely.
(Disclaimer: Despite technically being qualified to preform first aid/basic repairs, Placebo adamantly refuses to treat any ailments outside his realm of expertise, citing his lack of practical experience as a field medic/general practitioner. If someone has a problem with their head he'll be happy to take a look, but anything from the neck down is none of his business.)
Arts and crafts: It’s a little hobby he picked up back in the days when he still had his patients do art therapy. He’s gotten pretty good at painting, if he must say so himself, and he’s not half bad at sculpting either.