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tbd.

eventual how's my driving & permissions post. should be anon on, ip off, etc etc.
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Age 6;

"Since adults always said it when it was going to hurt; he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth."

"And Peter won't hate me anymore. I'll come home and show him that the monitor's gone, and he'll see that I didn't make it either. That I'll just be a normal kid now, like him."

"It was not his fault he was a Third. It was the government's idea, they were the ones who authorized it -- how else could a Third like Ender have got into school? [...] The experiment entitled Andrew Wiggin hadn't worked out after all."

"They were all wondering if he (Stilson) was dead. Ender however, was trying to figure out a way to forestall vengeance. To keep them from taking him in a pack tomorrow. I have to win this now, and for all time, or I'll fight every day and it will get worse and worse."

"Take my monitor away and I am just like Peter."

"I know I'm a Third, I know it, if you want I'll go away so you don't have to be embarrassed in front of everybody, I'm sorry I lost the monitor and now you have three kids and no obvious explanation, so inconvenient for you. I'm sorry sorry sorry."

"Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they'd leave me alone. [...] You took away the monitor, I had to take care of myself, didn't I?"

"Ender almost said, I want to. But he held his tongue. [...] But to leave Mother & Father, and above all, to leave Valentine. And become a soldier. Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid."
exponent: (Default)
player information.

name: Scotty
are you over 18?: Over.
personal dw: [personal profile] hypothalamus
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: AIM @ ependymocyte
characters in abax: None.


in character information.

series: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
name: Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin.
age: 11.
sex: M.
race: Human.
weight: 85 lbs.
height: 4'8
[OPTIONAL] cause of death: n/a
canon point: End of chapter 14; after Ender meets his Jeesh and they discuss the Third Invasion.
previous cr: n/a

history: Ender Wiggin & Ender's Game.

personality:

Ender Wiggin is a child thrust into an adult’s world, born for the sole purpose of being the next Mazer Rackham in defending Earth from an onslaught of invaders known as Formics, or buggers. But Ender’s story doesn’t quite start there.

It starts specifically with his parents, both of whom had gone out of their way to fall under the compliance acts of this particular version of Earth, ruled by a Hegemony as a single political power and a near constant conflict in between the countries of the world. As part of the compliance acts, each family is given two children, who are tested for suitability into Earth’s most prestigious program: Battle School. This particular school trains children as young as six and turns them into military commanders and tacticians for the sole purpose of being prepared for the Third Invasion, an inevitable conflict between humanity and the alien race known as buggers. With this in mind, Ender’s parents have two kids, Valentine, far too emphatic to qualify as a potential candidate, and Peter, far too aggressive to make a good leader. It is because of these two extensive personality traits that his parents are asked to produce a Third, a third child and in this particular universe, given the population load, frowned upon in society.

Given the reason he existed in the first place, Ender was nothing more than a mere creation, designed to be self-sufficient at a young age and an amalgamation of both his elder siblings, adhering to that Goldilocks style belief that he would fall under neither extremes of aggressive or empathic, essentially designed to be the one commander humanity needed against the buggers. Despite the promising outlook he’s offered as a Third, Ender is constantly teased and bullied, leading to his aggression in lashing out in self-defense against Stilson, a young boy who constantly picked on Ender for taking too long with his monitor being removed and for simply being a Third. Battle School, run by Colonel Graff picks up on this incident, which is unlike anything Ender has ever done before. His response, very simply is: “I have to win this now, and for all time, or I'll fight every day and it will get worse and worse.”

From this moment on, we can see exactly the kind of boy Ender is, a determined child who wants nothing more than to simply be normal despite everything that occurs with his life. He dislikes the fact that he is a Third, looked down upon and believes he has no chance at succeeding, despite later on making it to Battle School, and simply wants to be accepted by someone other than his sister Valentine, who represents the only person Ender is even remotely close to and shows any semblance of affection towards.

"I know I'm a Third, I know it, if you want I'll go away so you don't have to be embarrassed in front of everybody, I'm sorry I lost the monitor and now you have three kids and no obvious explanation, so inconvenient for you. I'm sorry sorry sorry."


Ender is smart enough to realize that he has a purpose where others don't, that as a Third, he needs to succeed, to take a role within a school as a leader, a mere soldier for Battle School's ulterior purposes. These purposes are to turn Ender from a child into the eventual leader of the Third Invasion and save humanity from the Formics. Knowing this purpose, as seen above, Ender wants nothing more than to prevent his parents from being let down in the event that he fails. It is because of this mentality that he continues to persevere at Battle School, forming all of their tasks with the sole purpose of pushing himself under the standards the teachers imposed.

Battle School, which breeds commanders and leaders for humanity's war against the Formics, continuously alters their rules in order to ensure that the conditions are perfect in making sure that Ender emerges as the superior commander. They break him both mentally and physically, with decisions that isolate him from being able to form relationships with the other students at the school, resulting in Ender being nearly alone throughout all his years there. However, despite this, the other students are made aware of Ender's success, indicating that he is exceptionally competent as a leader. In addition to the fact that Ender is far younger than the average commander of an army, his innovative methodologies and willingness to look beyond regular practices further sets him apart because he refuses to achieve the standards, preferring to look beyond them.

We see Ender's capabilities in creativity throughout the challenges he's offered as a commander. Where most commanders don't compete in battles until 3 months into their leadership, Ender is forced to take his army to a battle within two weeks, and from there, is forced to fight a battle a week, in contrast to every two weeks as normal. Furthermore, he's pushed to two battles a day, and from then, two teams at a time, where each subsequent battle has Ender pushed to his limits in terms of strategies. However, Ender and his army consistently top the ranks of Battle School, living up to the expectations as a Third and surpassing them with ease.

One of the most common recurring theme throughout the novel is Ender's awareness of being a child and contrasting that with him aware that he is a tool meant to defeat the buggers. He constantly comes to the realization that he is offered zero chances at acting his age when at Battle School, being stubborn enough to not want to return on his only leave in between Battle and Command School. At the same time however, he is acutely aware of his role, and short of the occasional childish outbursts, he concedes to it without question, accepting that he has no choice but to be trained.

However, it is not until Ender finally goes through the final "practice battles" with Mazer Rackham, that we see just how easily manipulated Ender is due to his young age. Manipulated into believing that Ender was playing competitive battle scenarios against his mentor Rackham, Ender actually leads humanity's armies against the Formics. This realization considerably damages his psyche, when at the age of eleven, Ender had unknowingly committed xenocide as a perfect weapon. Ender is subsequently riddled with an overwhelming guilt for allowing this to happen as well as continuing to be used by the military for their overall purpose in winning the Third Invasion. He vows never to allow this to happen again, and wants to resume his life as a child who longer has an overwhelming responsibility to the world. This redirects the reader back to realizing Ender's main goal throughout his life was to simply be normal, and blend in, not endure effects throughout his childhood and school that furthered his ability to converse with his others and pretend that he was no longer manipulated.


abilities/powers: Outwardly, Ender is human though that doesn't deter him from still holding a couple of advantages over the average person:

child prodigy
✔ High IQ
✔ Efficient with minor technology hacks

master strategist
✔ Top in his class, rushed through Command School.
✔ Trained by Mazer Rackham, former commander of International Fleet and responsible for winning the Second Invasion.

emphatic
✔ vulnerable to emotions
✔ easily manipulated

first person sample:

[ It starts with the fumbling of the screen and you catch a glimpse of a young child, no older than 11 at best before the video fades to black. They're not the desks he's familiar with in Battle School, and the phones lack all the efficiency that they offered, and while he grimaces in defeat, it's not enough to put Ender off just yet, tinkering through the device for a moment longer.

Waking up in a morgue after being declared the savior of the human race is not how things are supposed to proceed when you're Ender Wiggin; what he wants to do is relax, return home back to his sister Valentine, pretend he's no longer a mass murderer that just committed xenocide at the age of 11, because that's what he is, and that's what he'll never let go of despite what Rackham and Graff continue to tell him. They were adults, adults that for the first time told a lie to protect him from a truth he should have known from the start, however needed the lie was in the first place.

No one's told Ender to hide, though he has every inclination of doing that, because the last thing the world needs to see is the face of the young boy suddenly hailed as a hero before he's even ready for it. He doesn't hide anyway, satisfied that this isn't Command School, but rather somewhere else where he seemingly isn't held prisoner. The video goes back on and Ender's face is a near perfect expression of confusion; no lies, no hiding his emotions, just Ender peering outwards with a hint of curiosity. ]


The buggers were destroyed. [ It's a matter of fact statement, the only indication he gives as to where he's from. ] Can I go back to being a child here? [ For a second he frowns, as if second guessing the statement, whether or not anyone should have heard that sentiment from Ender just yet, but it's too late, and he lets it go. ] I mean - I guess the better question is, what does the government want from us here? What does the government here want from me?

[ Which is how it works in his mind; that anyplace with humans demands a government that runs, and ultimately dictates how things work. ]

third person sample:

When Ender wakes again, this time it's with relief. Relief that just maybe he's human and emphatic for once in his life when the news dropped onto him no longer exists and he's not a perpetual murderer at the age of 11. He's just a kid, he reminds himself, shifting onto his back, sheets tossed around him; he hasn't slept properly since Rackham delivered the news that the buggers were all destroyed and he was responsible. Even now, in this uncertain city, at least he was just a child, he was someone who could fit in with ease and not be praised for the condemned actions he had been responsible for.

He lays in bed for a while longer, just because he can, and there's no one around to issue orders, no one around to tell him to fight this team or even that team, or constantly wake him up at the crack of dawn of running simulations that weren't simulations in the first place. It comes back to him so easily, as Ender forces himself to sit up, rubbing at his eyes, as if it would wash away all the negative thoughts that keep circulating once again.

After five years of being told what he could and could not do, Ender cracked a slight smile at the fact that he was utterly free. He'd get over the pain slowly, one day at a time, so long as he wasn't held back by people who simply wanted to see what he was bred for, that just maybe, he could finally be normal.

case no: RNG.

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June 2012

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