Gar Logan / Beast Boy

THE BASICS;;
NAME: Garfield “Gar” Mark Logan
AGE: 14
SEX: male
CODENAME: Beast Boy
ALIASES: You name it, someone’s used it.
AFFILIATION: Teen Titan, dude!
STATUS: Playing video games, oh yeah.
CANON: Yes
PLAYBY: How many green dudes you see around here?



THE GOOD STUFF;;



PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Let’s face it, everyone’ll notice the green skin first. Sort of a medium, almost spring green, with darker, forest green hair, short and kind of spiked, if one can consider “messy” to be a “spiked” look. Going from there, Beast Boy has pointed ears, large dark eyes, and fangs. He’s quite short at only 5’1”, making him the shortest Titan. Despite that, he’s got quite long arms and legs, giving him a gangly look despite his diminutive size, and a larger than average head.

Since having a “secret identity” is really kind of impossible for Beast Boy (as Raven so aptly put it, “What secret identity? You’re green”), he doesn’t really tend to wear normal clothes all that often, preferring instead of just wander about in his hero uniform or in one of his animal guises. The base of his uniform is black, with a large purple stripe that takes up nearly the entire torso, leaving only small bits of black at the sides of his chest, and stopping at the top of his thighs. He wears silver gloves, and his shoes are a mix of black, purple, and silver. Other than that, he only has his silver belt with the communicator and various other necessary tools/gadgets on it.

PERSONALITY:
In many ways, and especially on the surface, his powers are about the only thing that separates Beast Boy from being a normal, out-going, awkward and blustering teenage boy. He laughs at fart jokes and uses the word “dude” enough to make adults twitch. He’s loud, likes to act overconfident, but his bubble is easily burst, and he doesn’t often think before he opens his mouth.

Never count him out, though, as immature as his commentary and suggestions might be. Beast Boy is highly enthusiastic, and never turns away from an act of kindness. He can easily be taken advantage of, but thankfully he has such paranoid wet blankets careful friends as Robin and Raven to keep his whims at a reasonable level of risk, and he would sacrifice anything at all for his friends. As a side-effect of his powers (not a literal side-effect, but if you’d been literally in the skin of an animal, it’d be hard to eat them), he is a vegetarian, edging on the side of vegan, a point of contention with the other Teen Titans as he’s vocal about his preferences, and would rather they all adopted them as well.

Although he prefers not to display it, Beast Boy is actually not as happy as he seems to be. He would rather be optimistic and bubbly, cracking jokes and learning how to burp the alphabet, than he would sitting around and wallowing in sadness. Who wants to mope about how their skin is green, and even if they wanted a “normal” life, rather than being a superhero, they can’t have it? Not this little green dude, thanks! This is what he’s got, he has great friends, and he can turn into any animal he wants! Way more upsides than down, right? In reality, Beast Boy is a pretty intense guy, but uses pranks, jokes, and laughter as his main outlets for them. Video games are a great outlet for him as well, and there’s little better way he can think of to spend a lazy afternoon than watching television or playing games with Cyborg.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES:

• The ability to transform into any terrestrial (sometimes extraterrestrial) animal at will, gaining physical attributes of the animal.
  
• Somewhat heightened senses in his human form—increased hearing and smell.
  
• “Werebeast” form—heightened strength and senses, but loss of some human elements, especially conscience and restraint. Highly feral. Rarely used.

WEAKNESSES:

• Green coloring never changes, regardless of his shape.
  
• No long range abilities.
  
• Average human strength in human form.
  
• Unable to speak when transformed (exception: parrot, etc., that can ‘talk’ already).

GOALS:
In a lot of ways, Beast Boy has what he wants most—good friends, a place to belong, and something to keep him occupied. For now, he’s just living, trying to be the best hero that he can and not let any of his friends down because that’s one of the things the hates/fears the most: to disappoint or upset people he cares about. As long as he can keep on the right side of that line, he’s having fun, and he’s doing good, then Beast Boy is accomplishing his goals.

For a more short-term goal, he wants to prove to the Titans that he really did see Terra, and hopefully restore her memories and bring her back as a Titan. He still believes in her, and he doesn’t think she deserved the end that she got.

HISTORY:
Garfield grew up with his parents, Mark and Marie Logan, traveling the world and researching wildlife. As such, even as a young (and normal, not green) child, Gar had a healthy respect for animals that naturally led to curiosity. Even though he wasn’t a scientist like his parents—nor did he really have the discipline for it, though he voiced the enthusiastic wish to be just like them when he grew up—Gar frequently stuck with them as they sought out each new species to study, learning vital survival skills in addition to information about the planet’s wildlife.

One year, when he was about ten years old, his parents were seeking a rare species of green monkey, but when they finally found it, Gar was bitten by the creature and contracted a disease called Sakutia. His parents did their best to cure him, but the serum that they gave him transformed his genetic structure, turning his skin and hair green, and giving him the shape-shifting powers he has to this day.

Not even a year later, as they were searching for a rare species of crocodile, his parents made a miscalculation and ended up running afoul of a bull hippopotamus, who destroyed their boat. His parents didn’t survive the onslaught, but Gar turned himself into a fish once he hit the water and swam around, confused, until he ended up on shore. He sat there for a long time, watching bits of the wreckage float down the river, blaming himself for not doing anything to stop it.

Frustrated with himself for being so useless when it most counted, Garfield decided to put his new powers to good use. He had heard of Doom Patrol but was too young to be taken seriously. So, to prove a point, he broke into their headquarters and was so impressive as he evaded capture that they decided to allow him to join.

As the youngest member of Doom Patrol, the newly dubbed Beast Boy was a bit intimidated but determined to pull through with a cheerful laugh and a joke. Their style didn’t suit him very well, though, with how hard they tried to impose discipline on the young boy who just wanted to be happy again and make a difference. After a couple years, when he had gained enough experience to be more confident in himself, Beast Boy took his newly acquired experience, the survival skills he had learned from his parents, and more proficiency with his powers to strike out on his own and find a new place to belong.

He stumbled upon Jump City and the Teen Titans. After a bit of an awkward meeting with Robin, who was very impressive to the still uncertain boy, Beast Boy helped them free Starfire from her Gordanian captors, earning himself a place in a new team. The varied styles and attitudes of the group, plus the loose affiliation more like friends than the Doom Patrol had been, suited Beast Boy perfectly. He fell easily into the role of comic follower, more than happy to follow Robin’s lead, comfortable with Starfire’s weirdness, and glad to have someone to compete against in Cyborg. More than anyone else, Raven intimidated him at first, but once he got to know her better (and what better way to get to know someone than traveling inside their psyche?), he warmed up to her and found a ‘straight man’, as it were.

Even after everything, though, Beast Boy still has feelings for the Honorary Titan Terra. He knows that he saw her, it must be her, though he doesn’t know if she just doesn’t remember them or is simply pretending not to. He has given up the search for her after much persuasion, but he hasn’t changed his mind. He’s just waiting for another piece of evidence to prove that he was right, so he can renew the search and have his friends backing him on it again.

THE NITTY-GRITTY;;
SCREENNAME: Hikari
Time spent roleplaying: About 7 years, off and on.
Other Characters: N/A

RP Sample:

Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeep. Beep beep beepbeep.

Beast Boy whined, his floppy ears twitching as he dug his head under the first available paw. Three liters of soda, and video games until six in the morning was not the best combination for waking up the next day. Nor did the light have any effect on his ability to sleep through the day—he could sleep anywhere.

Once upon a time, sounds wouldn’t have either, but this was one particular sound that he had developed a sensitivity to.

Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeep. Beep beep beepbeep.

Unable to drift back into sweet, sweet dreamland, he barked at the offending machine before shifting to his human form and stretching his limbs out on the couch, groaning. He cracked open one large eye to peer at the offending communicator, continuing to beep insistently at him since he hadn’t answered it yet. “Robin works too much,” he grumbled. Then, he snickered. “We should challenge his super boy wonder powers to a video game contest some night, and keep him up so late he has to sleep in like us normal kids! Right, Cyborg?” He laughed at his idea for a little longer, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling.

Then he realized there had been no reply. “Cyborg?” Lifting his head, Beast Boy peered around the empty room, then hoisted himself up and poked his head over the back of the couch to see the rest of the room. No one at all. Tilting his ears back, Beast Boy guiltily eyed the still beeping communicator, now wondering what time it was and hoping he hadn’t been supposed to meet the team somewhere or anything. Tentatively, he scooped his communicator up and clicked it on. “...Yeah?”