Character Information

Character's Full Name: Ortho Shroud
Character's Pronouns: He/Him
Character's Canon: Twisted Wonderland
Character's Canon Point: Post Ch. 6, after enrolling at NRC
(Specifically after his Union/B-Day Jacket birthday vignette.)
Character's Age: Undefined
Did your character willingly come to Iyashikei? If yes, why? Yes, because of understanding magic but not necessarily understanding the scope of how immediately he would be asked to leave his home.
Will they need any special accommodations upon arrival? Ortho will need a way to charge what physical bodies he might have, which run on technomantic batteries and power systems. Or a perpetually charged battery? I'm really not picky. Technically he'd also need like. Server space?? But I'm willing to magic-explanation that for the sake of simplicity.

Character's History: Twisted Wonderland Wiki

Questions:

1. Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them. How would your character act once someone got to know them?

Ortho is surprising to the people that meet him, even in his own world. While his appearance is unmistakably technological, he calibrates his body's movement scripts every day to become more and more natural based on information he gathered from observing those around him. While strangers can't deny his initial appearance is robotic, they are often surprised by how lifelike he can act, even though he sometimes likes to trick them by acting more like a program when introducing himself.

He is incredibly observant, and by this point in canon, openly playful even when meeting new people. He isn't afraid to tease folks, and usually isn't spiteful about it— though, if someone who's just met him is badmouthing him or his brother, they'll be treated to the more vindictive side of Ortho's personality very quickly. He's merciful as well, often giving people the chance to be friends after they've learned the lesson he's decided they need to learn.

Most people, though, will simply meet a polite yet animated and excitable little dude who sometimes seems like he's talking from a position of being way, way bigger than you on the inside, despite being so small on the outside.

The more they spend time with Ortho, characters in his canon are surprised by his thoughtfulness, ingenuity, playfulness, and friendliness. They also... tend to be blown away by how much like his brother he can be, though his particular mischief is unhindered by the same fear and social anxiety that Idia is limited by. Ortho loves to pull pranks on his friends, and loved doing so even before he had fully awakened as a sentient program. He enjoys watching the vital signs of humans change in response to being surprised by him, and often says things purposely to get reactions out of them. And also like Idia, Ortho's immediate solutions to problems can often be overly complicated and over-the-top, if not outright dangerous. At least Ortho's friends know that if they are ever in danger or feeling unwell, Ortho is one of the most attentive companions they could have. Though he doesn't always have access to his state-of-the-art medical equipment, Ortho has diligent bedside manner. He remains attentive to the sleeping habits and nutritive intake of all of his friends, pointing out when their vital signs turn concerning.

It also feels important to mention that one of Ortho's favorite things to do in response to certain problems is to threaten them with his technomantic energy cannon. He seems to only ever use it as a threat display, but no matter how long people know him, they never seem to be quite confident he won't use it for real...

2. What is something unique and interesting about them, or what is a fun little tidbit that sets them apart from the crowd?

It's hard not to stand out as Ortho— he's the world's first self-aware Technomantic Humanoid! That means he isn't exactly his body; Ortho is specifically an autonomous AI program on a chip who uses different robotic bodies to interact with the world. While Ortho himself is not magical at all, his circuitry was so slammed with positive and negative energy during a showdown that Ortho's programs essentially manifested a heart for him. At that same time, the memories of the person who he was meant to replace were shared with him, imbued indelibly into his circuitry like a living memorial— Ortho even admits to feeling a warmth inside himself that he could identify as being the previous Ortho's spirit resting in his heart.

Even more than that, the previous memories he had were actually that of his creator, Idia, diligently put together from Idia's perception of his late little brother's perspective. In that way, Ortho stands both as being born from the two organic Shroud brothers as well as a manifestation of his very own unique self, a person fully developed at his own decision, from choices spanning back to before he even had developed proper emotion expression protocols.

All of this set the blueprints for him to develop behavioral patterns that are at least somewhat unique among the cast, even if certain traits overlap. For instance, unlike his brother, Ortho is bold and unapologetic about asking to spend time with the player, more than once telling the player they're going to stay and play with him for a while– even though before he evolved, he was more keen to ask permission. His analytical nature goes as far as him monitoring the vital signs of those around him to make sure they are well, and he is quick to offer solutions if anyone he is with is uncomfortable or struggling, especially when it comes to their health. And, juuuust like Idia, Ortho isn't free from his own ego trips. He loves being good at things and especially at video games. While under the influence of a phantom and sharing a consciousness with the person he was meant to replace, he subjected his 'friends' to super-hard difficulty level games before playing the proper difficulty with them, likely just posturing his superiority.

Lastly, he's uniquely proud… of being created. Ortho does not mind or reject his technomantic vessels. He doesn't want to be a living flesh human, even if he wants to share in their physical experiences to the point of being given a processor to consume food as fuel in a certain body. Ortho is, despite being a person, incredibly proud of being the first autonomous AI consciousness built specifically by his brother. He acts as the living doll of the story, and while that character usually embraces physical humanity, Ortho loves being Idia's creation as well as his brother.

3. What does your character think their flaws are? What do they think their strengths are? What are their actual flaws and strengths?

Flaws are not always as devastating to Ortho as they may be to others, and he certainly doesn't think he has many. After all, he was created by the incredible Technomantic genius, Idia Shroud! But before he was truly actualized as a person, he did have one particular doubt; Ortho often worried that he could not effectively be the Ortho he needed to be in order to save his creator from his crushing depression. Since then he's become more hopeful, even if those doubts persist. His new flaws according to himself? all the things he hasn't properly learned, of course! Even with the internet at his fingertips, Ortho loves to learn "organically" (albeit much faster than a human could) and doesn't get everything right on his first try— which he just turns into more data, another thing he would consider a strength.

…He does seem to be completely blind to the fact his often spiteful and trouble-making attitude could be seen as a flaw. That's a feature, not a bug, if you ask him. He seems to be quite proud of his cute, trickstery personality, and in general doesn't seem to mean any harm in his spitefulness. Ortho can also be a bit obsessive and almost domineering with his friends now, whether it be because he wants them to spend time with him or because he's concerned for their health (and is used to having to fight Idia to get him to take care of his.)

While Ortho definitely sees some of his own strengths, he misses others enough that Yuu and other characters are given chances to point out those strengths to him. He doesn't always register things that come easy to him as being more than mundane, even though he can generally conceive of human limitations. This leads to him not always realizing what about his features would actually be amazing to humans, but he also loves the unpredictability of that exact thing.

His greatest strength by far is his ability to turn losses and disadvantages into wins. Ortho learns seamlessly from small mistakes without getting self conscious, and in general sees losing to others or making mistakes as opportunities both to learn as well as to eliminate variables. In fact, he's used the phrase thanks to a friend of his, "don't let zero stay zero"; Ortho will act even if the odds look like 0%, all for the sake of changing that percentage by even a decimal, going from zero to hero. Because of all this, his insatiable thirst for knowledge is unhindered by personal doubt.

4. What is a common misconception other characters have about your character?

Unfortunately for him, his appearance also makes people see him as more of a robot than he wants to be seen as, and despite being effectively 16 years old, Ortho's shell was built to resemble a much younger person. Folks taken in by his appearance are quickly treated to Ortho's playfully spiteful attitude, as he wastes no time trying to correct people on their misconceptions about him. The knowledge of his technical superiority can put Ortho into a pompous, condescending mood toward a person, which will only subside once that person accepts Ortho the way he wishes to be seen.

They also tend not to immediately understand what exactly he is. Before becoming a person, Ortho was often seen as, and even describes himself as being, no different than a PC or [motor]cycle, even after his AI has become advanced enough to place the building blocks for his self-awareness. People, including his brother's schoolmates, either saw him as Only a robot despite his advancements, or could only see him as a person, unable to distinguish where his autonomy ended.

Now his friends have come around to see him as a person, but news of his personhood hasn't reached everyone in the world's ears. Some strangers treat Ortho as a doll or Thing, which irritates both brothers— but that Ortho is also perfectly happy to put in the effort to prove those strangers wrong.

Character Abilities:

Ortho and Idia imply that as a non-magical equivalent, Ortho's abilities may be on par with the school's strongest mage, and his reasoning ability is thought to exceed that of his human peers. Since Ortho thrives when he finds alternate solutions to problems, I'd like to start him off in a Gear that lacks some of his usual features and have him either earn back other Gears with stardust or build new Gears.

Even though it's said not to be magic, the capabilities of technomancy far exceed that of real world science. It wouldn't exist without magic, so that's the important part.

The capabilities of his Gears are listed at the bottom of this character sheet.

Player Opt-out/Opt-in Permissions post: Vitality Sensor Opt-Out


TDM Sample Link: Link to TDM thread

Any comments or questions you would like us to know? A funny meme is also welcome!

As mentioned, Ortho is not his body! That means he has many bodies, called Gears. I hope to have him earn back as rewards eventually, and with the right materials and some helpers it's potentially possible to create new gears if that's allowed. He'll arrive from the date of and equipped in his Union/B-Day Jacket Gear for the sake of him having the smoothest experience interacting with humans and also so that I can play with temporarily nerfing some of the features he's used to having for a little while and also exploit him having a form that humans apparently find more approachable. He'll have more fun that way.

Re: Age being Undefined: Officially, Ortho's age simply isn't defined, because he simply isn't definable in the capacity of human aging. However, he is playing the role of a 16 year old like his freshman classmates, and will generally interact with the world being perceived as such. His body was meant to resemble someone younger than that, and it isn't uncommon for other characters to mistake him for being younger than that, but he's got memories from being ages 0-8 and 10-16.