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Entry tags:
recolle app.
CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Angel
AGE: It's not canonly stated, but early to mid-twenties sounds about right.
CANON: Borderlands
NAME: Angel
AGE: It's not canonly stated, but early to mid-twenties sounds about right.
CANON: Borderlands
CANON HISTORY: wikia
CANON PERSONALITY:
"Jack's daughter. He protects her. Maybe he's a bit overprotective, but that's a father's right, isn't it? And maybe he manipulates her abilities to his benefit, but that's also a father's right, right? And maybe he's performed experiments on her... Okay, so Jack's not the best father. Angel turned out pretty good though. Sweet, supportive, and self-sacrificing, she lives up to her name."
- An actual quote from Matt Armstrong, Borderlands Franchise Director
One of the first bits of knowledge needed to understand Angel is that, for many years, Jack was her only source of human contact. Locked up by her father in order for him to exploit her abilities as a Siren, Angel was forced to play whatever role Jack asked of her since she was at least 12-years-old. While it's implied she had a relatively normal childhood, crying for her recently deceased mother in one of Jack's Echologs and giving the camera a peace sign in a photograph where she's only a child, the rest of her life was... not as normal, no. Being isolated for many years caused her to become lonely and weary, which is noticeable in the drastic shift of tone between her childhood Echolog and her recordings as a late teen/young adult. She sounds tired, her tone nearly flat as she reports her findings to her father.
While it's not until later that her relationship with Jack takes a blatantly antagonistic tone, it's clear that she's not really happy doing his bidding as she grows up. This becomes explicit in Borderlands 2, where she actively begins to rebel against him. Though she played the part of an AI in the first game, reciting the script she was given without a moment's hesitation, her humanity begins to seep through in her interactions with the second group of Vault Hunters. For starters, she calls them her friends, showing a sharper sense of humor than she ever did during the first game (even in the portions where she had to go off-script), and generally going out of her way to help them. This is not to say that she wasn't kind in her own way to the first group of Vault Hunters, but that as she grew older and more exhausted of being Jack's puppet, she embraced her need to interact with other human beings.
This is to be expected, of course. With Jack as her only source of human contact for a big chunk of her life, Angel grew up without anyone else she could see, touch, or speak to. She jumps at the chance to interact with other people, and it does seem like she genuinely means it when she calls the Vault Hunters her friends. This is specially apparent during Rising Action (in Borderlands 2), where she sounds tired and remorseful even as she lowers Sanctuary's shields so Jack can attack the city. As the Vault Hunters move to save the people of Sanctuary, Angel quietly asks: "We're not friends anymore, are we?" It's immediately after this storyline mission that Angel decides enough is enough, and begins to guide the Vault Hunters so they may take Jack down once and for all. Though she's forced herself to see things from her father's point of view for several years, believing everything he's done to be for the good of Pandora, being used as an tool to attack her friends is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Going back to the quote from above, it's clear that Angel grew up to be a very different person from her father. Polite, sweet and friendly, she cares immensely for those she considers her friends and even shows sympathy towards CL4P-TP, who everyone else hates. Though Jack puts his words in her mouth more than once, it soon becomes clear that her desire to help is genuine. And even if she comes off as cryptic more often than not, she still remains a kind and encouraging presence to the player characters. She prefers to work around a problem instead of rushing into it head-on, always searching for alternative solutions when Option A doesn't seem to be working. Whether this is a result of how Jack raised her or whether it's just part of her by default, Angel's temperament is pretty subdued when compared to her father's. She doesn't yell when frustrated and doesn't lose her marbles when confronted with a problem. Though she might occasionally use some family friendly curses when something goes wrong, she always keeps a cool head and quickly adapts to the situation. As her father says, she has "a brain the size of a planet" and it shows in the way she's quickly able to improvise and find solutions.
This is not all to say that Angel is incapable of being just as down for violence and death as everyone else in the Borderlands universe. Though she's pretty darn tired of manipulating and lying to other people, these are still two of the most powerful skills in her inventory. Much like her father, she's capable of being pragmatic and cruel when the time comes — and she's not above threatening, manipulating and extorting other people to get what she wants. She says herself that "nothing gets results like a death threat," and she doesn't seem to have a problem when she sends the Vault Hunters out to kill other residents of Pandora. There is a definite survival of the fittest theme in the Borderlands universe, and Angel understands that.
That said, her relationship with Jack becomes irreparably negative after Rising Action, the friendly father-daughter banter from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel long gone. It's to the point where, among other reasons, she commits suicide by Vault Hunter in order to get the heck away from him. As she tells the Vault Hunters in Borderlands 2, her death would be the end of a lifetime of servitude. Though Jack pleads and begs her not to do it, she pointedly ignores him and instead tells the Vault Hunters to kill him. In her last moments, she exercises what little agency she has left. She chooses to die, and to give her dad one final "fuck you" by helping the Vault Hunters out in the process.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Sirens, in the world of Borderlands, are women gifted with incredible powers that allow them to transcend the limits of what human beings capable of. Angel is (or was, considering she died) one of six Sirens in the whole galaxy, and like every other Siren, it's implied her abilities are connected to the Eridians and the Vaults left behind by them. Not much in know about how Siren abilities work, exactly, but it seems like its grants them the power to tap into the same dimension the Vaults reside in. How this happens varies from Siren to Siren, as their powers are pretty unique even among themselves. Basically — it's vague, handwaved spaced magic to be used as the plot and gameplay mechanics deem it necessary.
Her specific Siren ability is known as Phaseshift. It's apparently the "creation and manipulation of artificial realms"... Which sounds cool and all? But is not very specific. I'll do a handy-dandy list below to try and sum up what we do know about Angel's powers, considering her's are the vaguest/most bullshitty of the bunch.
CANON PERSONALITY:
- An actual quote from Matt Armstrong, Borderlands Franchise Director
One of the first bits of knowledge needed to understand Angel is that, for many years, Jack was her only source of human contact. Locked up by her father in order for him to exploit her abilities as a Siren, Angel was forced to play whatever role Jack asked of her since she was at least 12-years-old. While it's implied she had a relatively normal childhood, crying for her recently deceased mother in one of Jack's Echologs and giving the camera a peace sign in a photograph where she's only a child, the rest of her life was... not as normal, no. Being isolated for many years caused her to become lonely and weary, which is noticeable in the drastic shift of tone between her childhood Echolog and her recordings as a late teen/young adult. She sounds tired, her tone nearly flat as she reports her findings to her father.
While it's not until later that her relationship with Jack takes a blatantly antagonistic tone, it's clear that she's not really happy doing his bidding as she grows up. This becomes explicit in Borderlands 2, where she actively begins to rebel against him. Though she played the part of an AI in the first game, reciting the script she was given without a moment's hesitation, her humanity begins to seep through in her interactions with the second group of Vault Hunters. For starters, she calls them her friends, showing a sharper sense of humor than she ever did during the first game (even in the portions where she had to go off-script), and generally going out of her way to help them. This is not to say that she wasn't kind in her own way to the first group of Vault Hunters, but that as she grew older and more exhausted of being Jack's puppet, she embraced her need to interact with other human beings.
This is to be expected, of course. With Jack as her only source of human contact for a big chunk of her life, Angel grew up without anyone else she could see, touch, or speak to. She jumps at the chance to interact with other people, and it does seem like she genuinely means it when she calls the Vault Hunters her friends. This is specially apparent during Rising Action (in Borderlands 2), where she sounds tired and remorseful even as she lowers Sanctuary's shields so Jack can attack the city. As the Vault Hunters move to save the people of Sanctuary, Angel quietly asks: "We're not friends anymore, are we?" It's immediately after this storyline mission that Angel decides enough is enough, and begins to guide the Vault Hunters so they may take Jack down once and for all. Though she's forced herself to see things from her father's point of view for several years, believing everything he's done to be for the good of Pandora, being used as an tool to attack her friends is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Going back to the quote from above, it's clear that Angel grew up to be a very different person from her father. Polite, sweet and friendly, she cares immensely for those she considers her friends and even shows sympathy towards CL4P-TP, who everyone else hates. Though Jack puts his words in her mouth more than once, it soon becomes clear that her desire to help is genuine. And even if she comes off as cryptic more often than not, she still remains a kind and encouraging presence to the player characters. She prefers to work around a problem instead of rushing into it head-on, always searching for alternative solutions when Option A doesn't seem to be working. Whether this is a result of how Jack raised her or whether it's just part of her by default, Angel's temperament is pretty subdued when compared to her father's. She doesn't yell when frustrated and doesn't lose her marbles when confronted with a problem. Though she might occasionally use some family friendly curses when something goes wrong, she always keeps a cool head and quickly adapts to the situation. As her father says, she has "a brain the size of a planet" and it shows in the way she's quickly able to improvise and find solutions.
This is not all to say that Angel is incapable of being just as down for violence and death as everyone else in the Borderlands universe. Though she's pretty darn tired of manipulating and lying to other people, these are still two of the most powerful skills in her inventory. Much like her father, she's capable of being pragmatic and cruel when the time comes — and she's not above threatening, manipulating and extorting other people to get what she wants. She says herself that "nothing gets results like a death threat," and she doesn't seem to have a problem when she sends the Vault Hunters out to kill other residents of Pandora. There is a definite survival of the fittest theme in the Borderlands universe, and Angel understands that.
That said, her relationship with Jack becomes irreparably negative after Rising Action, the friendly father-daughter banter from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel long gone. It's to the point where, among other reasons, she commits suicide by Vault Hunter in order to get the heck away from him. As she tells the Vault Hunters in Borderlands 2, her death would be the end of a lifetime of servitude. Though Jack pleads and begs her not to do it, she pointedly ignores him and instead tells the Vault Hunters to kill him. In her last moments, she exercises what little agency she has left. She chooses to die, and to give her dad one final "fuck you" by helping the Vault Hunters out in the process.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Her specific Siren ability is known as Phaseshift. It's apparently the "creation and manipulation of artificial realms"... Which sounds cool and all? But is not very specific. I'll do a handy-dandy list below to try and sum up what we do know about Angel's powers, considering her's are the vaguest/most bullshitty of the bunch.
TECH MANIPULATION: In the games themselves, we see her interface with technology, speak to and aid the Vault Hunters by hopping from one device to another (as long as there's a physical or wireless connection between them), and just generally manipulate all different kinds of software however she pleases. She's basically a space technomancer, and this is the main ability that allows her to pass herself off as an AI to the first and second group of Vault Hunters. After Borderlands 1, this ability is even augmented by several connector ports implanted into her skull — presumably to help her interface with more than one source of data at once.In addition to her Siren abilities, Angel is noted to be a skilled manipulator and actress. She's extremely intelligent, to the point where her father tells her she has a brain the size of a planet while scolding her, after she gives him an inconclusive answer. She also knows a lot about futuristic technology, partly due to her ability and partly due to her father being a programmer and engineer for Hyperion. Finally, she knows quite a bit about firearms, considering Pandora's whole economy runs on shooting people faster than they can shoot at you.
ARTIFICIAL REALMS: Again, nooooot an ability that's explained in detail. However, in the original draft for Borderlands 2 the Vault Hunters were meant to walk into an artificial realm created by Angel. This realm would have taken the appearance of Angel's childhood home, where they would have been forced to navigate through the rooms until finding her in one of them — moments before the illusion is shattered by Jack dragging her away. The artificial realm concept is still present in the final game, but not in as much detail due to graphical limitations. Instead, Angel projects a strange, ethereal room where she shows them an image of the Vault Key and a projection of herself, completely with dramatic special effects as she reveals her identity as a human being and Siren. The illusion is still broken by Jack dragging her away.
ERIDIUM: For reasons also not entirely explained in the games themselves, any Siren that consumes Eridium will gain an enormous boost to their powers. Another Siren is able to teleport an entire city while using Eridium, and Angel herself is pumped full of the stuff 24/7 in order for her to serve as Jack's ears and eyes all over Pandora. This results in Angel having "wings", floating, and shining bright like a sad glow-stick. Presumably, Eridium would also grant her augmented healing abilities, as another Siren is noted to heal within seconds while using the stuff. Unfortunately, the amount of Eridium Angel has been exposed to has left her with a crippling dependency, to the point where she dies seconds after being cut off from it.
GLOWING: Not much of a skill, but a Siren's tattoos glow whenever her specific ability is used. As long as Angel isn't juiced up on Eridium, her tattoos would retain their normal blue color until she uses her Phaseshift ability.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Angel Dawes
AU AGE: 23
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: No injector/connectors ports, for starters! Though she'll retain the shaved spot on her head as a fashion choice, there won't be any body horror happening on her skull or on her torso. Her siren tattoos will also be gone, and her appearance will be healthier in general. This means lightly tanned skinned from spending time under the sun, no sunken eyes, and a little bit more of weight on her.
AU NAME: Angel Dawes
AU AGE: 23
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: No injector/connectors ports, for starters! Though she'll retain the shaved spot on her head as a fashion choice, there won't be any body horror happening on her skull or on her torso. Her siren tattoos will also be gone, and her appearance will be healthier in general. This means lightly tanned skinned from spending time under the sun, no sunken eyes, and a little bit more of weight on her.
AU HISTORY:
i certify i talked to the respective players to hash things out through the au workshop and pms.
» Born outside of Recollé. Her mom died when she was way too young to remember her, and her dad dumped her on her maternal grandparents to run off and get a fresh start.
» Tragically, still Jack's daughter. Her interactions with her dad while growing up consisted of phone calls, packages over the mail, and yearly deadbeat dad "let's go get ice cream and you can tell me how school is" visits. He sent her money, too?? It was Fine.
» Because I'm still laughing at this suggestion from Ash — he bought her a stupidly expensive gift for one of her birthdays and then... didn't.......... show for the birthday party. Thanks, Dad.
» Tony Stark/Carter was her questionably shitty honorary uncle while growing up. May or may not have thrown her a quinceañera despite Angel not being Latin American. She stared into the abyss throughout the whole thing while whispering "why."
» When she dies, Angel wants Tony and Jack to lower her coffin so they can let her down one last time. On the bright side, she had a pretty good relationship with her grandparents while growing up.
» She graduated high school at 15 (with her 16th birthday in July), with honors and exemplary grades in all subjects.
» At 16, she enrolled in college and went on to complete a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design.
» Graduating at 20, she then proceeded to complete a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, as well as some post-bachelor certifications on the side.
» Got a job as tech support after graduating. Not exactly the job she wanted, but it pays the bills and gives her job experience. She hopes to one day land a job where she can work with the nitty gritty details of designing a product.
» She had a moment of Deep Introspection at this time, and decided that maybe... she would like this give this father-daughter thing a try? Maybe? This led to her looking at Recollé for further academic options as an excuse to make the leap.
» So after doing the admissions process and soliciting a transfer in her workplace, Angel packed her bags and moved to Recollé in order to study Software Engineering. She would have begun as a late admission in the February - May trimester.
» She didn't tell Jack she was moving here until she was like, literally done unpacking her shit. Whoops.
» This means she's been in Recollé for a relatively short period of time, though enough for her to know most of the city by memory.
AU PERSONALITY:
Without Jack imprisoning her and being an abusive piece of shit dad, Angel is doing a hundred times better than her canon counterpart. She's still sweet and polite to those around her, but also more "worldly" due to growing up surrounded by other people. She's no longer the naive young woman locked up in her throne, quick to latch onto any kind of human interaction and desperate for people to call her friends. Without any heavy restrictions imposed on her, she has become more outspoken and assertive, actively showing her agency as her own person rather than a pawn raised by a megalomaniac. She's noticeably blunter than her canon counterpart at times, and has no fear of repercussions if she has to verbally smack her deadbeat dad down.
Another thing of note is that Angel won't be nearly as pragmatic as her canon counterpart. Though she still knows lying and gently nudging people in the right direction can be useful, it's never to the extent shown in the Borderlands series. At the absolute worst, she would lie to get out of an awkward date or nudge people into doing her a small favor. It would never be to harm or manipulate someone else, and she would be pretty darn horrified by how blasé her canon counterpart is about violence and death. This is not to say she's against doxxing people (gotta put those skills to use somehow), but she would never be as malicious or cruel as her canon self can be.
Finally, she has no knee-jerk reaction against cursing now. She will say fuck, shit, crap, and damn however many times she wants without swapping them out for a family friendly alternative. It's great.
i certify i talked to the respective players to hash things out through the au workshop and pms.
» Tragically, still Jack's daughter. Her interactions with her dad while growing up consisted of phone calls, packages over the mail, and yearly deadbeat dad "let's go get ice cream and you can tell me how school is" visits. He sent her money, too?? It was Fine.
» Because I'm still laughing at this suggestion from Ash — he bought her a stupidly expensive gift for one of her birthdays and then... didn't.......... show for the birthday party. Thanks, Dad.
» Tony Stark/Carter was her questionably shitty honorary uncle while growing up. May or may not have thrown her a quinceañera despite Angel not being Latin American. She stared into the abyss throughout the whole thing while whispering "why."
» When she dies, Angel wants Tony and Jack to lower her coffin so they can let her down one last time. On the bright side, she had a pretty good relationship with her grandparents while growing up.
» She graduated high school at 15 (with her 16th birthday in July), with honors and exemplary grades in all subjects.
» At 16, she enrolled in college and went on to complete a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design.
» Graduating at 20, she then proceeded to complete a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, as well as some post-bachelor certifications on the side.
» Got a job as tech support after graduating. Not exactly the job she wanted, but it pays the bills and gives her job experience. She hopes to one day land a job where she can work with the nitty gritty details of designing a product.
» She had a moment of Deep Introspection at this time, and decided that maybe... she would like this give this father-daughter thing a try? Maybe? This led to her looking at Recollé for further academic options as an excuse to make the leap.
» So after doing the admissions process and soliciting a transfer in her workplace, Angel packed her bags and moved to Recollé in order to study Software Engineering. She would have begun as a late admission in the February - May trimester.
» She didn't tell Jack she was moving here until she was like, literally done unpacking her shit. Whoops.
» This means she's been in Recollé for a relatively short period of time, though enough for her to know most of the city by memory.
AU PERSONALITY:
Another thing of note is that Angel won't be nearly as pragmatic as her canon counterpart. Though she still knows lying and gently nudging people in the right direction can be useful, it's never to the extent shown in the Borderlands series. At the absolute worst, she would lie to get out of an awkward date or nudge people into doing her a small favor. It would never be to harm or manipulate someone else, and she would be pretty darn horrified by how blasé her canon counterpart is about violence and death. This is not to say she's against doxxing people (gotta put those skills to use somehow), but she would never be as malicious or cruel as her canon self can be.
Finally, she has no knee-jerk reaction against cursing now. She will say fuck, shit, crap, and damn however many times she wants without swapping them out for a family friendly alternative. It's great.