i've been trying to fix my pride but that shit's broken

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Cris
AGE: 28
JOURNAL: idec
IM / EMAIL: ensigncris.4369 (discord) / ensigncris@gmail.com
PLURK: borf
RETURNING: N/A

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Archibald "Archie" Andrews
CHARACTER AGE: 15/16
SERIES: Riverdale (TV)
CHRONOLOGY: During the final episode, post-sweetwater river rescue.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Heropa independent housing with Reggie, please!

BACKGROUND: The series takes place in a small American town called Riverdale in the summer/fall of the year 2016. As far as has been shown, Riverdale's universe is identical to our own in terms of history and pop culture up until that point. Archie's personal role in the events of the show is detailed here!

PERSONALITY: The first thing people tend to say about Archie Andrews is that he's a good kid. He is polite, goes out of his way to be kind and considerate whenever he can, and in general tries his best to do the right thing—though like most people his age, he doesn't always know what that actually is. He is a very hard worker, has an open mind and cares deeply about practically everyone and everything.

He's not perfect, of course. He's really sheltered and more than a bit oblivious, he has an unfortunate tendency not to think before he acts, he's painfully indecisive and gets very emotional, very fast in ways that make him disgustingly easy to manipulate. He has a need to insert himself into the center of problems involving the people he cares about and take responsibility for fixing them even if his help is unsolicited (or unneeded.) His guilt complex is through the roof and his self esteem is in the absolute dumps. He requires constant positive reinforcement in order to feel good about himself, and won't stand up for himself unless someone else is also on the line. He is, on occasion, optimistic to the point of idiocy, frequently comes off as air-headed and flaky, and can be far too permissive when it comes to his friends.

A lot of Archie's current personality is shaped by the fact that, over the recent summer, he was lured into a sexual relationship by one of his teachers. Over the course of their affair she isolated him physically from his peers and emotionally from his father, manipulated him into lying to the police, and managed to convince him not only that he had been the one to pursue her (patently false, as seen in flashbacks), but that if they were ever discovered he would be in just as much legal/social trouble as her (her exact words were "I could lose my job. You could be expelled. We could go to jail.") When she was chased out of town by a friend's mother, he became blatantly self-destructive (hitting a punching bag until his knuckles bled, playing football with an injured hand and then trying to apply his own first-aid after, picking physical fights on his friends behalves, etc etc ad nauseam) and deeply self-loathing, calling himself too stupid and selfish to deserve the friendships he'd had since childhood, and being convinced that everything he touches he manages to somehow ruin.

At his current canonpoint it has been months since the teacher was privately run out of town, but Archie absolutely has not in any way processed what happened to him, or even that anything damaging did happen to him. Instead, in his struggles to fill the void she left behind, Archie throws himself into new romantic relationships and also into taking care of other people and trying to solve their problems (both things that seem to help him regain some semblance of confidence/self-esteem.) He exhibits a dogged persistence and resourcefulness when he is motivated by helping other people that can be very effective, but can also get him and others into genuine danger. He wants to be there for people (he wants to be the one to be there for people, which lead to a some discomfort/jealousy when his two best friends entered into a relationship with each other and no longer needed specifically his support) and he starts to get restless and reckless when he can't, either driving himself to danger (as when he confronted the Serpents in their own bar) or to distraction (as when he got drunk before Jughead's party) to cope.

When his parents split up two years pre-series, Archie was given the choice to move to Chicago with his mother or to stay in Riverdale with his father. He chose the latter, which means that he was there to see his father unravel in the wake of being left by his wife (his father spiraled all the way to the point of receiving a DUI that he then proceeded to hide from Archie.) A good chunk of his guilt complex/his idea that its his job to fix everything probably grew out of this experience, because by the age of 15/16 Archie fully believes that he's responsible for 50% of their household finances/security and for protecting his father, keeping him safe and happy. He is convinced that he owes his father for raising him and that he should be paying him back by working off his debts, something he literally does when he goes to work for his father's construction company over the summer and on the weekends during the school year, despite not liking the job and wanting more than anything to secure a different kind of future for himself through studying music. This culminated, in the season finale, with Archie attempting to take an actual bullet for his dad, though he was unsuccessful because he didn't manage to insert his own body completely in the way before the gun was fired.

But Archie's life isn't all (or even mostly) bad, and he's certainly not always sad. He is reasonably popular at school, and has a genuine love of playing football and writing music, both of which he has managed to find a way to pursue largely through the support of his peers. He enjoys watching movies and playing video games and reading comics—in particular, his bedroom is absolutely lousy with DC Rebirth posters—he laughs a lot and he just plain old likes people. He's ridiculously romantic and tends to fall in love at the drop of a hat, he almost never manages to hold onto a grudge for longer than a few days at a time, and he has an uncanny way of making friends with just about everybody no matter what the circumstances or what strictly highschool social taboos they're flying in the face of by socializing. Honestly, just some distance from Riverdale's particular brand of chaos alone has the potential to be very, very good for him.

POWER:

Danger Magnet: When Archie goes out looking for trouble, he will be able to find it. He will have a vague sense that he should be headed somewhere in particular when he's looking for crimes in progress (or whatever) to stop, even if he's never been there before. This ability has to be activated by intent, so he won't have any forewarning if, say, he were about to get sucker-punched, or if someone was getting kidnapped nearby but he wasn't actively looking for people to help.
Safety Jacket: Archie's letterman jacket is indestructible and when he wears it, that indestructibility transfers to him. He can't be physically harmed while it's on, but if someone tried they could probably pull it off him, or if he took it off (because Florida weather is so hot you guys wth), he would be just as vulnerable as any other absolutely not-combat-trained teenager. (Only works on him. He can't let someone else borrow his coat and have them become indestructible.)
Team Spirit: When Archie works alongside anyone—whether government assigned teams, an impromptu volunteer team at the site of a disaster, or something just like a group of his friends—towards a common goal, he will be able to run faster and hit harder. The more cohesive the group, the better his boost will get, up until the point of peak human performance, so at his strongest/fastest he'll be able to lift 500lbs over his head and sprint at about 30mph. This is activated specifically by striving to accomplish a goal (whether stopping crimes, rescuing people from burning buildings, winning a game of football or doing reconnaissance), so he won't be able to get a boost just for hanging out with friends/teammates at a party.

〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:

[A face snaps into view over the Network, a teen who looks low-key stoked just to be there, face-timing in a wacky alternate universe. He smiles tentatively, dressed in a blue and gold letterman jacket. If small-town were a way someone could look, that'd be him all over.] Hypothetically, if someone needed a superhero costume and a mask and stuff, where would they go? Are there like, stores for that kind of thing? [Does he think he's fooling anybody? Maybe a little. But it was either this or Googling "how do I be a superhero?" Actually, he probably should have done that... Archie runs a hand through his messy red hair, looking like he realizes how lame this post is a little belatedly. Oh well, too late now.] Or, I don't know, tailors? Tailors who work for really cheap? I mean, hypothetically.

... Also it has to go with a jacket.

[Archie's gonna be great at this.]

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: TDM Thread!

FINAL NOTES: