Willowarp JKLT
Image edited from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children – Black Book and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children – Red Book (video games, 2000)
Quirky Quantum Flame
Flame/Dimension Type
Original Media: The Chaos Zone
(first appeared in 2022)
Story
Willowarp is one of the four “Seekers of Strength” written into existence by Mega Beedrill, meant to represent power over fire. With his use of the Dimension element, he has the limited ability to manipulate abstract concepts of the world, such as those related to the concepts of quantum physics and alternate worlds (mainly dimensions and universes). This power was given to him to represent the incredible scope of Mega Beedrill’s plans to rule the world.
To a stranger, Willowarp can look carefree yet calculated, talking his carved mouth off with riddles and taunts, dodging any attempt to violently interrupt him, and crafting simple worlds for victims to explore. While Willowarp enjoys putting on this image somewhat, it’s moreso something put on him by Mega Beedrill.
Being forced to face the unplanned head-on was all it took to show his true colors: He hates when things don’t go as he planned, and his tone will quickly turn urgent and fiery as he struggles to recover the situation (not that he’s al that good at improvising). On the other hand, he’s easily intimidated, which can easily leave him anxious and trembling.
Abilities
Agi
Using Fire magic, Willowarp summons a fireball that erupts into a larger flame on contact. The size of the fireball and eruption depends on the power level: Agi is the lowest power level, Agilao is stronger, and Agidyne is the strongest. The variants Magi, Magilao, and Magidyne also exist, and act like their similarly-named counterparts besides that they target all opponents instead of just one.
Flame Type
Image is from Shin Megami Tensei V (video game, 2021).
Jack Shield
Willowarp surrounds himself with three bubbles that each protect him from one attack of any strength.
Crystal/Shield Type
Image is edited from Jack Bros. (video game, 1995).
Voice
General Description
Young Adult; pretty high-pitched; whimsical when in a good mood, but speaks very fast when agitated
Behind the Scenes
Willowarp was the last Seeker of Strength I invented before introducing the group into Chaos Zone; after struggling to think of a good idea for a fire-themed character to round out the elemental quartet, I was inspired by the “Jack o’ Lantern” character of the Megami Tensei series, especially as they appeared in the 1995 game Jack Bros.; Jack Bros. is an interesting part of Megami Tensei series, being perhaps one of its most light-hearted installments, and being considered by most people a perfectly decent game despite being made for the Virtual Boy, a poorly-recieved console which is infamous for its hardware more than its games.
While the other three Seekers had secondary elements that I myself invented, I didn’t have any element of my own I felt appropriate to give to this fire-based Seeker; I ultimately decided on giving him the Dimension element (invented by Beta Shadow) after noticing that the element had almost never been used on the forums at that point, and that it wasn’t clear what it represented that the Time or Space elements didn’t. This inspired me to give the element to Willowarp, and give it an identity of its own by giving Willowarp a focus on more abstract ideas such as the multiverse and quantum physics.
Pretty much everything about Willowarp’s personality besides his initial “trickster magician” attitude was something I improvised as I was writing Mack’s story; in a sense, Willowarp sparked the idea in my head of Mega Beedrill enforcing each Seeker to be something that they weren’t.
Images
Brash Buster 