NetNavi
Name: PaperMan.exe
Gender: Male
Element: Wood
Subtype: Variable
Appearance: Origami is usually considered a fine form of art that requires many years of practice and dedication to master it. PaperMan, the origami Navi, is an unusual take on the craft. His body is a true masterpiece, articulate at every point the human body would be and then some, yet... he still looks pretty silly in the end. Maybe it's because of the vast majority of Navis these days being humanoid-types, since having PaperMan stand next to the average custom Navi makes him look like a cartoon character.
As his name suggests, PaperMan is completely made of off-white paper, folded and contorted into his mostly-humanoid body. His proportions are fairly accurate, aside from small things like him being a little blocky because paper doesn't curve well and an odd variation in depth. He'll go from near complete 2D around his joints (it helps with bending) to full 3D around the thicker parts like the torso, forearms, and thighs. His 3D portions are folded in an accordion style to provide thickening and allow the body parts to expand and compress as needed. There are two additional V-shaped folds on his body, one on his pelvis and the other on his upper chest, which serve as anchors for attaching his arms and legs. His legs each have a pair of those V-folds on the knees, mostly to provide some structure and keep his legs from just flopping around uselessly, and they end in simple 90-degree bends to his flat, toeless feet. Likewise, the elbows on his arms share the same V-folds as on his knees, but PaperMan's hands are a bit more complex. His palms are a pair of sleeves that contain his fingers, which stretch out of them like branches out of a tree. His index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers are all pretty straightforward: long, double jointed, and blunted at the ends. The thumbs, though, are triple jointed, allowing PaperMan an almost limitless range of motion with them. Also, after the third joints, his thumbs spiral tightly until they end in single, needle-like points, which serve a very important purpose to him.
PaperMan's head pokes out of the V-fold on his chest, and is attached by a long, blocky neck. The head itself is more or less a single rectangular block, sitting up length-wise on his neck. After that, there are really only 3 features on PaperMan's head: his eyes, his eyebrows, and his mouth. His eyes are really buggy and just bulge out of his head, and would look pretty gross if they didn't look so cartoony. His eyebrows are flat, 2D rectangles resting above his head, and often portray his emotions better than any other part of him. Finally, his mouth is one of the many V-folds on his body, but ironically, it serves no purpose. PaperMan lacks the ability to speak, and as a result is forced to communicate in another way. By producing some ink and using his sharp thumbs as pens, he writes out everything he needs to say on strips of paper printed from his own body, and does it quite deftly with his amazingly dexterous thumbs. When in a rush, he can swipe some ink across the sheet and have it auto-form simple sentences, but that technique is typically only used in battles as it only produces some very blunt wordage that sometimes has little to do with what he actually wanted to say. With all that in mind, the only thing left on PaperMan's body is his emblem: an origami crane that is actually drawn straight onto his chest, making him quite possibly the only Navi on the Net with a 2D emblem.
Personality: Despite his inability to speak, PaperMan actually loves to talk. His complete silence make people think he's a good listener, but really PaperMan is more occupied trying to write down what he wants to say himself. Since writing is time consuming, he has learned to be very concise in his words, so much so, in fact, that some people actually find his sayings insightful and wise. Sadly, though, none of that is true, and PaperMan is actually a little dumb. He's not outright stupid, but is a little slow-witted and can get tripped up if Turner isn't giving him orders. Wits aside, PaperMan is very kind and friendly, and genuinely does his best to make others happy, regardless of the fact that he isn't the strongest Navi out there.
PaperMan has developed a very animated body language, possibly as a counter to his muteness. His gestures always seem to correlate to what he's thinking, regardless of whether or not he's actually aware he's doing it. Since he can't shout, he'll hop up and down and wave his arms in the air to get someone's attention. When he's pleading with someone, he'll often stick his hands out palm-up, as if to offer something. When someone's in a bad mood, he'll pat the air in front of him to tell them to chill out. Things like that are only a few of the motions in PaperMan's body language, and even he is probably not aware of just how many different movements he has.
Turner and Shiri are both regular thoughts in PaperMan's mind since they're family to him and he worries about them. By far, he's more worried about Turner, who has been about as useful as a dead fish these last few years. Turner doesn't hate PaperMan, but he isn't really interested in him either, so he typically just gives blunt, straightforward orders in battle. PaperMan follows them obediently, congratulates Turner when something goes well, and gives him whatever encouragement he can, just so he can hope to raise Turner's mood a little. Shiri, on the other hand, is bubbling with the energy of her age, and PaperMan needs all the time he can to keep up with her. Since she doesn't really think too hard on strategy, PaperMan is often forced to improvise on his own with her, which is a major, major weak point for him. Regardless of that, PaperMan loves Shiri a lot, and really likes spending time with her. He just wishes his two Operators would spend some time together themselves...
History: PaperMan originally belonged to neither Turner nor Shiri, but the wife and mother of the family, Rosenna. While Turner worked his job as an electrician (as he still does), Rosenna put her work to the canvas as an artist. She wasn't famous by any means, but there was a certain beauty in her paintings that just left you captivated. Her specialty was to use the digital canvases that she had discovered in college, where the artist and their Navi can paint opposite sides of the same picture to create a stunning layered effect. Rosenna and PaperMan took to this style very well and created some great art that wowed her friends and then-boyfriend Turner. None of them, Turner included, had a custom Navi, so seeing what PaperMan could do for Rosenna's painting really threw them for a loop. Despite how impressive they were, though, Rosenna really never got anywhere with her art. She wasn't the type to get depressed easily, however, so she kept painting with PaperMan for her love of art until she finished college and married Turner. Shiri was born about 2 years later, and the Gollind family lived each day happily.
Unfortunately, complications from the birth plagued Rosenna on and off from that point on. Coupled with a particularly nasty virus that made its way around the next year, Rosenna found herself bedridden, then hospitalized, and then in emergency care until it all just fell apart and she passed away. Turner was heartbroken, PaperMan was lost, and Shiri was just 1 year old without a mother. Being in no position to raise an infant child on his own, Turner was offered by Rosenna's parents that they take care of Shiri until he can get things back together in his life. Turner absentmindedly agreed, and now, 5 years later, he's still out of it. Rosenna had two last wishes for him: take good care of Shiri and PaperMan, and live happily. Turner's currently failing on both counts, with his closest things to "successes" being replacing his generic Navi with PaperMan, who he now uses to assist with his electrical work that the Navi has no capacity for, and visiting Shiri occasionally at her grandparents' house, yet not really doing anything together.
Custom Weapon: Origami-jutsu
Having a far more malleable body than the average Navi, PaperMan decided to take advantage of that and make it into his fighting style. Paper sword, paper axe, paper spear... Heck, he even figured out a paper gun that fires ink. All the above and more have been PaperMan's arms at some point, and he's always playing with new forms to imitate. In the end, though, they are just imitations, and paper ones at that. Until he can figure out how to make paper a dangerous weapon, PaperMan will just make up the difference with effort.
Signature Attacks (60/60 points):
Papercutter (60 damage, Wood, Slashing, 2TCD; 60 points)
PaperMan folds his arm into a longsword, and delivers with it a sweeping slash that'll make the unfortunate do more than bleed for just a few minutes.