⏵ player informationname and pronouns: Tsa (she/her)
age: 18+
contact: ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
thepreciousthing /
thepreciousthing on disco
⏵ character informationname: Dylan Brock
canon: Marvel Comics (616)
age: 16
canon point: After the end of
Venom Warhistory: wiki link!abilities: Symbiote Hybrid - Dylan is half-symbiote, and has some traits related to his unique biology:
Boosted healing
He can psychically connect to any symbiote in his hive
Other unspecified nonhuman traits (his blood tastes like shit to vampires)
Codex & Sword Summoning - In addition to generalized Symbiote Hybrid abilities, Dylan has a fighting form called Codex that looks older and more muscular. This form is activated by summoning a sword from his chest. The sword is a de-powered version of the necrosword that has since been dubbed the Codex Blade. At this time, Dylan is not able to summon the blade without being bonded to another symbiote.
Survival Skills - Dylan spent a significant part of the last few years being homeless on-and-off, and has learned to find shelter & resources to care for himself.
Weapons Knowledge - Dylan was once locked in a bunker for an extended amount of time with nothing to do but read manuals for the care & operation of military-grade weapons.
Problem Solving Skills - Dylan is a clever kid. He doesn't have his dad's strength and often makes up for it by finding creative solutions to problems he faces. He outmaneuvered The Maker one time, that alone is worth a mention.
Leadership Skills - Dylan was able to pull together a team of other symbiote hosts to help him track & face down his father.personality: For the first 12 years of his life, Dylan grew up in the care of his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Carl Brock. Day by day, he focused on trying not to set his grandfather off. He did not have a safe place to express his own anger or even process it in a healthy way. Periodically, Dylan would entertain fantasies about hurting or even killing his grandfather, but would be too overcome with guilt to linger too long on it. Even when he asked Venom to kill Carl, Dylan quickly backtracked. Despite all the rage Dylan has been bottling up, he can't handle the idea of Carl being murdered.
Dylan's gotten quite good at bottling his anger, especially by distracting himself with other responsibilities to take care of. But when he gets an opportunity to safely be violent on an "acceptable" target, that rage comes out.
Every parental figure in Dylan's life has failed him, so he's learned that he needs to depend on himself. The best example he had to follow was the one set by the heroes that populate Dylan's world, the kind of people he wished he had in his own life. From following the examples that superheroes set, Dylan managed to cultivate a big heart and a bigger sense of responsibility. He feels his loved ones should be able to depend on him, but does not expect that to be reciprocated. After all, Carl failed to provide a safe and loving environment, and often treated him like an inconvenience. Part of Dylan's survival strategy with Carl had been to be as inconspicuous as possible. He hates feeling like an inconvenience. Meanwhile, Eddie left a trail of literal and metaphorical messes for Dylan to clean up. It's easier to just expect he won't get any help at all.
Still, Dylan holds the heroes he grew up watching on a high pedestal. Ms. Marvel had been able to help him pull himself out of an angry, depressive spiral. When he sought out Moon Knight for help, he let Moon Knight take the lead and followed his example. Even non-heroic adults, like the biker who gave Dylan shelter at his bar for a few nights, can earn his respect with a few scraps of the good will he's so starved of.
The life Dylan has lived up until now has been pretty isolating. Even when he lived with Carl, Dylan didn't really have any friends, and thus never really learned the interpersonal skills & vulnerability that comes with having close friends. Because of this,
he has trouble connecting to people on a personal level and can come off as standoffish or surly when he's trying to be polite. That said, if Dylan doesn't like someone, he will say so very brazenly.
In the last few years of learning about his symbiote heritage, Dylan has started to lose sight of his own identity outside of being the Son of Venom, which has contributed greatly to his struggle to connect with other humans. His only friends are other symbiote hosts, and even they are kept at arm's length. However, discovering he was half=symbiote did make him feel more connected to the Venom symbiote and to Sleeper. After that revelation, the Venom Symbiote's doting attention during their bond was a comfort to him, even if Dylan himself had few naturally-occurring symbiote traits besides being able to connect to the Hive. However, Dylan did start internalizing the idea of being a caretaker for his "extended family" - For example, while the Toxin symbiote is technically Dylan's nephew, during his bond with the Venom symbiote he more readily referred to himself as Toxin's grandfather. He also shouldered the responsibility of caring for any young symbiote spawns and trying to find good hosts for them — a job that should have belonged to Eddie. But being able to feel connected to something, and like he's doing right by the people who need him, does give him satisfaction.
samples: right here! 
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Pronouns: She/Her
Are you over 18? Yes
Contact:
Current Characters: n/a
Who Invited You?:
Character Canon: Marvel Comics (616)
Character Age: 14
Canon Point: Middle of Venom #200, after page 57 (Dylan in the principal's office)
Link to History: Dylan Brock (616) at the Marvel Wiki
Inventory: Cell phone filled with photos, texts, and videos from back home.
Skills:
Superpowers:
It's not lost on me that symbiotes are, to use the technical term, hella OP. I plan to try to mitigate this by having Dylan discover his powers slowly & connect it to personal growth:
Symbiotes have also been shown to be able to interface with computers, even non-sentient ones like PCs.
Limitations:
Of course, to make informed decisions, Dylan needs to be aware of what's happening — so he absolutely hates it when information is kept from him, especially if it's done to "keep him safe." He'd much rather know what's going on and judge for himself. He values his independence – after all, for the first 12[1] years of his life, even his own legal guardian couldn't be trusted to protect him. If he wanted to be kept safe, he'd have to rely on himself to do it.
Yet despite his struggles growing up, he's held on to his ideals. Dylan holds his father's philosophy of "protecting the innocent" close to his heart, wanting to be the kind of protector he himself needed in his early childhood. He strives to uphold that value whatever way he can, even if it means putting himself at risk.
Growing up with this trauma, Dylan has a lot of repressed anger, and much of it manifests when someone tries to hurt him or a loved one. In the face of opposition, Dylan is boisterous and defiant. He'll yell, swear, and threaten violence to protect himself and anyone who needs him. He's a fan of the edgy anti-hero archetype, and that comes out in the way he stands his ground.
Though Dylan's threats may feel sincere in the moment, it's often just his rage. He won't always follow through, even when the opportunity presents itself. For example, when he first met Eddie, Dylan did not hesitate to ask if Eddie could help him kill his abusive grandfather — but when pressed, Dylan backed down, realizing he didn't have the heart to actually follow through. On the other hand, Dylan didn't hesitate to sic vicious, feral symbiotes on The Maker as a distraction to get himself & his friend Normie Osborn to safety, fully knowing that The Maker might be killed.
Dylan's not blind to his father's flaws, but Eddie displays sincerity that Dylan's never gotten from authority figures before, and that's worthy of Dylan's respect. In addition, Dylan admires Eddie's willpower and tenacity, struggling to maintain his ideals in the face of hardship.
Yet now that life has begun to resemble something normal, Dylan's more lost than ever. He has a stable home & money in the bank, but the father who promised to be there for him is disappearing for days, even weeks thanks to new responsibilities spanning the whole Universe. Dylan's left to fend for himself while settling into a new school & dealing with his own trauma. He has the company of his symbiote brother Sleeper & their other father, the Venom symbiote, but despite their efforts they're not equipped to give Dylan the help he needs.
During the battle with Knull, Dylan was told that the symbiotes created him to fight this war. With Knull defeated, his purpose has been served and his powers have been taken. What's leftnow? What does he do with all this anger, this trauma, this loneliness? Who does he talk to when none of his classmates could ever understand what he's going through?
Suffice it to say, Dylan's on a downward spiral of depression, and that's where we find him as we bring him into Metaheroes.
Samples: Here!
[1] While the Wiki says Dylan was 9 when he met Eddie, his age is never officially stated, and dialogue in later issues suggests he was older than 10, most likely 12. (Back to Personality)