Simon the Digger

"Hey, this is Simon--" There's a pause as an indignant animal noise cuts in. "--and Boota. Leave a message!"

Out Of Character Information
Name: Wingus | [wingus]
Age: 26
Time zone: -6 GMT
Contact: CallMeWingus @AIM/wingus
Anything we should know?: I like puppies.

In Character Information
Name: Simon. Alternately, Supreme Commander Simon, Simon the Digger, That Idiot From Team Gurren
Series: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Canon Standing: Simon cuts off from the timeline right before he and the other members of Team Dai-Gurren launch on the Cathedral Terra/Super-Galaxy Dai-Gurren to go rescue Nia from the Anti-Spirals. (End of episode 23/beginning of episode 24.)
Age: Mid-20's.
Birthday & Astrology Sign: December 10 - Sagittarius
Arcana: Chariot

Personality:
Simon is a man who embodies the ideal of "nothing is impossible", something that came with a great deal of hard work and loss of an important figure in his life. Don't tell him the odds - he doesn't believe they matter. He'll take even the slimmest of chances, and to him, that's as good as 100%, and he will bite and claw his way to make that happen, consequences be damned - he'll beat those down too once he gets to what he's after. While he's prone to be fairly high-energy, loud, and boisterous when riled up, Simon is normally a pretty simple, laid-back, and calm guy. Politics and the like are something he prefers to not be involved in - he's fairly naive and painfully optimistic, always looking for the good in people. This allows him to be taken advantage of by more underhanded people. However, he's not completely lacking in subversive ways of thinking, or opposed to doing so - shown when he takes part in a diversionary mission to distract enemies so he could hijack their battleship - then later hides his mech in said battleship during his team's assault on the enemy city, and launching it when it looked like the ship was wrecked.

The most important thing to Simon is people that he considers his friends. They support him, they give him the drive to carry on, they give him something to fight for - and god help you if you attempt to lay a hand on them. Or try to oppress them. Or just generally oppose them in any way. You will very, very quickly regret it once he rains down a manly, drill-laden hellacious wave of wrath upon you, complete with a stirring Shut Up Hannibal speech. And speaking of epic speeches, this guy takes being a big ham to insane levels. When life gets rough, he will tell life to kindly shut the hell up and go home, because he's gonna keep on going no matter what.

Down at his core, Simon is a freedom fighter - once spurred on by Kamina, his adoptive big brother to stand up to the oppressive Beastmen as a teenager, Simon took up that mantle once Kamina died, taking the fight to the Beastmen and their king, winning humans their freedom from oppression and underground imprisonment. And then afterwards, when the Anti-Spirals threatened humanity as a whole, Simon once again steps up to lead the charge against them. He believes that Humanity is meant to move forward, bit by bit, changing a little with every movement, similar to a drill.

The man who inspired him, Kamina - he was a quick-to-boast, reckless man - he was essentially an idiot cheerleader. Simon was the hard work and level head that balanced him out. With Kamina's death, he found himself trying too hard to be like his adoptive brother, but upon meeting a girl named Nia who showed him that he should accept himself for who he is, and that it's okay to be different than his bro, he took up some facets of his brother's personality - the determination, the brazen spirit, the never-say-die attitude. However, he tempered them with his own logic and careful way of thinking. He knows when to back off from a fight, that some situations demand a lighter touch than others, and that while dogged determination is useful, it's nothing on its own.

Backstory:
http://gurrenlagann.wikia.com/wiki/Simon#History

Canon Powers:
Spiral Power (Mind with Almighty potential?) - Simon is a man who never gives up. Beat him, break him, tear him down continually, he will get back up. He will not give in. Locked in a prison? He'll grin and bear it until a way to get out makes itself known. Continually thrown into despair-inducing situations? He'll keep pushing until he comes out on top. A blast stronger than the creation of the universe bearing down on him? He'll endure that, too. Quite simply? He. Does. Not. Quit. It's not in his vocabulary. And while this is a rehashing of his nothing-is-impossible ideal, it's important because this is the basis of Spiral Power.

Spiral Power, which while never fully explained, generally operates as a hodgepodge of Rule of Cool, Hot Blood, and The Power of Friendship given physical form and shown to be the power of evolution itself. This ability runs parallel to Simon's own level of determination - the more determined he is to do something, the more power he has to do it. Being as bullheaded as he is, this gives him access to a -lot- of this power. However, it's not perfect - bringing him down from an emotional high - basically finding a way to unseat him, get him unfocused, startle him out of that never-say-die mindset - that will send that built-up power plummeting. Granted, given his mindset, it's tricky to do, and generally he'll recover from it fairly quickly, but he's not invincible.

What this power basically does is allow Simon to bend reality temporarily - create things from nothing, repair damage, change things into something they're not - things like that. The ways these powers are manifested are as follows:

Forming Gurren-Lagann: Gurren-Lagann is formed from two robots - the main body, Gurren; and the head, Lagann, which is piloted by Simon. By channeling Spiral Power, Simon can connect Lagann to Gurren, and physically alter its form into a single entity. After battle, the pair generally disconnect, and revert back to their normal forms.

Temporarily repairing damage to Gurren-Lagann: There's a few instances where Gurren-Lagann is damaged, and during a dramatic moment, a burst of Spiral Energy repairs the damage. However, once the battle was over, and Gurren and Lagann disconnect from each other, the damage is back as if it was never repaired.

Attacking with Gurren-Lagann: There is a myriad of ways this is accomplished, though it mostly stems from generating various types of drills from nothing, and using them for attacking. Either by sprouting them from the body and striking the enemy, or launching them like missiles, or even sprouting an ENORMOUS drill from the hand and using it and Gurren-Lagann itself as a gigantic projectile. Wide drills have been used as shields, a water screw was generated once for underwater combat, and the drills have been used to gather energy attacks and sling them back at the enemy. It's also been shown that Spiral Power can be concentrated and used as a beam weapon.

Capturing/Transforming Other Vessels: In several instances, Simon has used Lagann along with his Spiral Power to hijack larger vessels, using the same logic behind how he merges Lagann with Gurren. He's also used Gurren-Lagann to transform a small starship into a larger robot, and that one to transform a -larger- battle cruiser into an even bigger robot. Granted, the two ships were done at moments of high intensity - when defeat seemed definite. There was also the spiral power of other beings involved in the process, so while Simon can trigger these things, they take a LOT of energy, which would include other people. Though, with mod permission, it would really be awesome to have Simon hijack an enemy vessel, turn it into a huge robot and turn it on the enemy for one battle. This power has also been used to improve Gurren-Lagann's functionality once - attaching a smaller, flying robot to its back and assimilating it to give Gurren Lagann a jetpack and set of wings.

Teleportation: It's shown that Spiral Power can allow Gurren-Lagann to teleport over a good bit of distance, but it requires a great deal of focus on a target. In the instance shown in canon, it was a person, and the person was on the same planet. This is an ability that was only used once, and would only be used for plot relevant things, generally.

While Simon is a human, this manifestation of power is something limited to the humans and other 'Spiral Races' of their universe. Most everything there has the potential to access the power, but a great many do not. (An example being Simon's pet pigmole, Boota - whether it was a natural progression, or being exposed to Simon during his growth as a Spiral Warrior - at a point in the series, it's shown that he's essentially a walking Spiral Power battery, lending his power to a character who was unable to access the energy.)

And to reiterate something - yes, Spiral Power can and does bend reality, but these abilities' effects are always temporary, and always localized to Gurren-Lagann. (In theory, he can also use it to form things around himself, but this was shown in the movies and while he was riding an immense emotional high point.) There is potential for the power to be abused, but Simon's personal responsibility keeps him from doing so.

Canon Weapons|Items:
Drill (Strike) - A large, conical hand-crank drill, used for digging tunnels.

Core Drill (Mind/Almighty) - A small, drill-shaped device Simon wears as a necklace. Functions as an ignition device for Lagann, and seems to be a key component in how Lagann converts Spiral Power into energy. It's a little key of pure potential - Simon needs both the key and his own spiral power to activate Lagann. (Or Gurren-Lagann, if they're already combined.)

Canon Allies:
Boota - A small creature known as a pigmole. Shows some signs of being smarter than the average pigmole, and has actively helped Simon and others in his group out several times in various ways. The most notable was serving as a battery of Spiral Power so that Gurren and Lagann could work in tandem, as Gurren's pilot at the time was incapable of producing Spiral Power.

Canon Baggage:
-Gurren-Lagann - A giant robot made from three smaller robots, though spends most of its time combined into one robot at Simon's canon point. Can feasibly be separated.
-Awesome Supreme Commander uniform
-Awesomer Crazy Spacefaring Adventure Outfit
-Framed group photo of Team Dai-Gurren after Teppelin's fall

Persona
[THE GREAT KAMINA]
LVL (1) | THE CHARIOT

Fire	Lightning	Earth	Water	Ice	Wind	Dark	Light	Physical	Mind
-	Wk	-	-	-	-	-	Wk	Abs	-

COMBAT SKILLS
► Gale Slash (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage on all enemies.)
► Kill Rush (Inflicts a small amount of Physical damage up to three times on one enemy.)
► Tarukaja (Doubles an ally's Attack power. (1 turn))
► Matarukaja (Increases all allies' Attack by 25%.(1 turn))
▷ Revolution (Greatly increases probability of Critical hits. Universal.)
▷ Blade of Fury (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage two to four times on all enemies.)
▷ Power Slash (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage on one enemy.)
▷ Giga Drill Break - Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage up to twice on all enemies.
★ The Spirit of Real Men - Give all allies a 50% chance to resist fear effects.

SUPPORT SKILLS
► Physical Boost ( Physical-based attacks are 25% times more effective.)
▷ Endure (Survive being knocked Unconscious once per battle )
▷ Large Counter (20% chance of repelling Physical attacks)


Writing Sample
Recovering from injuries like a normal person is for chumps.

Your name: Wingus
Your LJ: wingus
Your email: wingus@centurytel.net
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: CallMeWingus
Invited by: (If you are already playing at Trans9, ignore this)

Character's name: Simon
Character's LJ: punchoutdestiny
Character's canon: Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann (TV Series)

---

Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
Simon is a man who embodies the ideal of "nothing is impossible", something that came with a great deal of hard work and loss of an important figure in his life. Don't tell him the odds - he doesn't believe they matter. He'll take even the slimmest of chances, and to him, that's as good as 100%, and he will bite and claw his way to make that happen, consequences be damned - he'll beat those down too once he gets to what he's after. While he's prone to be fairly high-energy, loud, and boisterous when riled up, Simon is normally a pretty simple, laid-back, and calm guy. Politics and the like are something he prefers to not be involved in - he's fairly naive and painfully optimistic, always looking for the good in people. This allows him to be taken advantage of by more underhanded people. However, he's not completely lacking in subversive ways of thinking, or opposed to doing so - shown when he takes part in a diversionary mission to distract enemies so he could hijack their battleship - then later hides his mech in said battleship during his team's assault on the enemy city, and launching it when it looked like the ship was wrecked.

The most important thing to Simon is people that he considers his friends. They support him, they give him the drive to carry on, they give him something to fight for - and god help you if you attempt to lay a hand on them. Or try to oppress them. Or just generally oppose them in any way. You will very, very quickly regret it once he rains down a manly, drill-laden hellacious wave of wrath upon you, complete with a stirring Shut Up Hannibal speech. And speaking of epic speeches, this guy takes being a big ham to insane levels. When life gets rough, he will tell life to kindly shut the hell up and go home, because he's gonna keep on going no matter what.

Down at his core, Simon is a freedom fighter - once spurred on by Kamina, his adoptive big brother to stand up to the oppressive Beastmen as a teenager, Simon took up that mantle once Kamina died, taking the fight to the Beastmen and their king, winning humans their freedom from oppression and underground imprisonment. And then afterwards, when the Anti-Spirals threatened humanity as a whole, Simon once again steps up to lead the charge against them. He believes that Humanity is meant to move forward, bit by bit, changing a little with every movement, similar to a drill.

The man who inspired him, Kamina - he was a quick-to-boast, reckless man - he was essentially an idiot cheerleader. Simon was the hard work and level head that balanced him out. With Kamina's death, he found himself trying too hard to be like his adoptive brother, but upon meeting a girl named Nia who showed him that he should accept himself for who he is, and that it's okay to be different than his bro, he took up some facets of his brother's personality - the determination, the brazen spirit, the never-say-die attitude. However, he tempered them with his own logic and careful way of thinking. He knows when to back off from a fight, that some situations demand a lighter touch than others, and that while dogged determination is useful, it's nothing on its own.

---

Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:

http://gurrenlagann.wikia.com/wiki/Simon

Simon cuts off from the timeline right before he and the other members of Team Dai-Gurren launch on the Cathedral Terra/Super-Galaxy Dai-Gurren to go rescue Nia from the Anti-Spirals. (End of episode 23/beginning of episode 24.)

http://testrun-box.livejournal.com/267365.html

---

Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):

---

If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:

Simon is shown to have two special powers in canon. One, he never gives up. Beat him, break him, tear him down continually, he will get back up. He will not give in. Locked in a prison? He'll grin and bear it until a way to get out makes itself known. Continually thrown into despair-inducing situations? He'll keep pushing until he comes out on top. A blast stronger than the creation of the universe bearing down on him? He'll endure that, too. Quite simply? He. Does. Not. Quit. It's not in his vocabulary. And while this is a rehashing of his nothing-is-impossible ideal, it's important because this is the basis of the second power.

Two, Simon is shown to have a rather extraordinary ability - Spiral Power, which while never fully explained, generally operates as a hodgepodge of Rule of Cool, Hot Blood, and The Power of Friendship given physical form. This ability runs parallel to Simon's own level of determination - the more determined he is to do something, the more power he has to do it. Being as bullheaded as he is, this gives him access to a -lot- of this power. However, it's not perfect - bringing him down from an emotional high - basically finding a way to unseat him, get him unfocused, startle him out of that never-say-die mindset - that will send that built-up power plummeting. Granted, given his mindset, it's tricky to do, and generally he'll recover from it fairly quickly, but he's not invincible.

What this power basically does is allow Simon to bend reality temporarily - create things from nothing, repair damage, change things into something they're not - things like that. The ways these powers are manifested are as follows:

Forming Gurren-Lagann: Gurren-Lagann is formed from two robots - the main body, Gurren; and the head, Lagann, which is piloted by Simon. By channeling Spiral Power, Simon can connect Lagann to Gurren, and physically alter its form into a single entity. After battle, the pair generally disconnect, and revert back to their normal forms.

Temporarily repairing damage to Gurren-Lagann: There's a few instances where Gurren-Lagann is damaged, and during a dramatic moment, a burst of Spiral Energy repairs the damage. However, once the battle was over, and Gurren and Lagann disconnect from each other, the damage is back as if it was never repaired.

Attacking with Gurren-Lagann: There is a myriad of ways this is accomplished, though it mostly stems from generating various types of drills from nothing, and using them for attacking. Either by sprouting them from the body and striking the enemy, or launching them like missiles, or even sprouting an ENORMOUS drill from the hand and using it and Gurren-Lagann itself as a gigantic projectile. Wide drills have been used as shields, a water screw was generated once for underwater combat, and the drills have been used to gather energy attacks and sling them back at the enemy. It's also been shown that Spiral Power can be concentrated and used as a beam weapon.

Capturing/Transforming Other Vessels: In several instances, Simon has used Lagann along with his Spiral Power to hijack larger vessels, using the same logic behind how he merges Lagann with Gurren. He's also used Gurren-Lagann to transform a small starship into a larger robot, and that one to transform a -larger- battle cruiser into an even bigger robot. Granted, the two ships were done at moments of high intensity - when defeat seemed definite. There was also the spiral power of other beings involved in the process, so while Simon can trigger these things, they take a LOT of energy, which would include other people. Though, with mod permission, it would really be awesome to have Simon hijack an enemy vessel, turn it into a huge robot and turn it on the enemy for one battle. This power has also been used to improve Gurren-Lagann's functionality once - attaching a smaller, flying robot to its back and assimilating it to give Gurren Lagann a jetpack and set of wings.

Teleportation: It's shown that Spiral Power can allow Gurren-Lagann to teleport over a good bit of distance, but it requires a great deal of focus on a target. In the instance shown in canon, it was a person, and the person was on the same planet. This is an ability that was only used once, and would only be used for plot relevant things, generally.

While Simon is a human, this manifestation of power is something limited to the humans and other 'Spiral Races' of their universe. Most everything there has the potential to access the power, but a great many do not. (An example being Simon's pet pigmole, Boota - whether it was a natural progression, or being exposed to Simon during his growth as a Spiral Warrior - at a point in the series, it's shown that he's essentially a walking Spiral Power battery, lending his power to a character who was unable to access the energy.)

And to reiterate something - yes, Spiral Power can and does bend reality, but these abilities' effects are always temporary, and always localized to Gurren-Lagann. There is potential for the power to be abused, but Simon's personal responsibility keeps him from doing so.

---

Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here): Simon is skilled at digging tunnels, piloting Gurren-Lagann, motivational speaking, and can generally hold his own in an average fistfight. He's also got an uncanny ability to take off without much of a plan, fly by the seat of his pants, and make it work out somehow - often by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat when the moment calls for it.

Gurren-Lagann as a robot, sans Spiral Power, is a melee-centric robot, relying on hand-to-hand combat, and use of the chest-face-mounted sunglasses as a melee weapon. It's also flight-cabable, with the assistance of a small flying robot that Simon assimilated into Gurren-Lagann years before his draw point.

Simon is also the only shown person who can not only endure Nia's terrible cooking, he LOVES it.