Kaldur'ahm [Aqualad] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
apologiesmyking) wrote2034-02-15 11:39 pm
apologiesmyking) wrote2034-02-15 11:39 pm
Entry tags:
- app,
- ooc,
- tu shanshu
[OOC] App for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tushanshu
Player Information:
Name: Kathrine
Age: over 18
Contact: spkathrine[@]gmail.com / plurk: chocolateisbrainfood
Game Cast: None
Character Information:
Name: Kaldur’ahm (codename: Aqualad)
Canon: DCA: Young Justice
Canon Point: End of “Insecurity,” after it’s been revealed that Artemis tricked the boys so she could go after Sportsmaster and Cheshire herself.
Age: 16
Reference: Kaldur'ahm at the Young Justice Wiki | DC Universe: Earth-16
Setting:
Enter the multiverse. 52 Earths all within their own universes with their own people, ideals, cultures, and even their own superheroes. And sometimes they have many superheroes. Earth-16 is not that much different in this regard. This is an Earth that looks like many other Earths, maybe even one your average reader could recognize. There are seven continents, oceans, over 200 countries, one moon, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It is Earth is all the ways that count. Technology is more advanced than what we know, but not by much in the public spectrum, since the most advanced of it is used by people with more than enough money and power to get it built and kept secret (or from alien planets that are far advanced in comparison). Personal computers, smart phones, motor vehicles, holographic projection systems, all of these are standard. Then there is the Zeta-beam technology, which is known to few (particularly the Justice League and STAR Labs), that allows instantaneous transportation from one “tube” or designated location point with a Zeta-beam machine to another.
But there are also several differences. This is an Earth where superhumans exist. Aliens from other planets, people living in the ocean, humans born with special powers or shaped by extraordinary circumstances to become vigilantes that protect the common civilians. In the ocean there is the kingdom of Atlantis, a powerful island nation with ties to Ancient Greece that sank under the waves and the people had to use sorcery to adapt to the new living conditions or die. Many of Atlanteans look like normal humans, but have the ability to breathe water. The magic took the adaptations of others in the kingdom even further, giving them the attributes of the sea life around them. They can have gills, webbed hands and feet, head of an octopus, skin the color of eels, and even fins. The kingdom is vast, having spread wide across the ocean depths and the people having spread with it.
It is a place of great diversity, but not everyone accepts this. There are those called Purists who look down on any Atlantean who does not look like a normal surface-dwelling human. Anyone with traits like that of the aquatic creatures they lived in tenuous harmony with was considered impure. It was not the most prominent view of Atlanteans, but it was not an uncommon or quiet one, either. Kaldur deals with these kinds of prejudices because not only does he has gills and webbed limbs, but his father is also human, making him only half Atlantean, despite the fact his father gave up his surface-dweller life to be with Kaldur’s mother. This is a dark side of Atlantis that he is very aware of, but because of the diverse city-state of Shayeris that he grew up in, very little surprised Kaldur when it comes to how a person can look or what kind of powers they may be capable of utilizing. Atlantis also believes strongly in boys learning discipline and service to their king and country by requiring all boys to serve in the military for at least two years at the age of 12. This has influenced Kaldur greatly and he considers this normal, but it is unusual in comparison to most of the more industrialized and developed countries on the surface.
The Conservatory of Sorcery is very important and considered the best school in the kingdom to train at, but Kaldur gave up his position there to become King Orin’s personal pupil. Because of this, his studies in sorcery were halted, as proven by the thick black tattoos that are visible on his arms at all times. If he had continued on and advanced his studies, they would be invisible save for when he used strong magic.
The King of Atlantis is Orin, also known as Aquaman by many surface-dwellers, a member of the world renowned Justice League. It is an organization of superhumans (aliens, humans with special abilities, and even just very skilled humans, most of which with secret identities) who have come together to protect the world from various threats at home and abroad. It started with a few heroes, and grew over time (and will continue to grow as the years pass) and has gain more acclaim with every major disaster or conflict the League has helped to solve. It was not the first organization like this in the world, as the Justice Society and some others existed before it, but it is the most well known, watched, and accepted of the time. Not everyone accepts the League, considering it a threat that so many superhumans have come together in one organization, but for the most part the public looks on them favorably. Some of the members have even taken on young protégés, primarily teenagers who have special abilities of their own, or the skills needed to keep a pace with the superhumans they fight alongside, although Batman was the first to do so. Aquaman took Kaldur as his protégé after Kaldur and his friend Garth helped Orin to defeat the Ocean Master, the leader of the Purists.
Just as there are heroes in this world, there are also adversaries, some with great ambitions of power and control and others with more unstable and destructive goals. Ocean Master was one of the former, but surface-dwelling humans were no different. Some even took to experimenting on themselves and others to try and produce powers to fight against superhumans or took to creating innovative technology for the purpose of committing crimes. Like Project Cadmus, and organization of scientists who create special serums to give people superhuman abilities and even cloned superheroes to give themselves an advantage. Cadmus was working under the guidance of The Light, a secret group of people (who would be considered supervillains) working toward their own goals and ambitions, led by the immortal Vandal Savage.
This is a world where aliens from outer space are more like the neighbors next door than anomalies that shouldn’t exist, where superheroes save the day from terrorists around the world and from the latest supervillain’s (sometimes called “Rogues”) plot to destroy Metropolis or Star City. It is a world where special humans are selected to be part of a peacekeeping force that spans the universe with the power of special rings (the various Lantern Corps) and where cloning is not only possible, but has been done more times than we know. Kaldur had never even visited the surface until he became Aquaman’s partner, Aqualad, but he had always had the desire to see what he could of it, always full of curiosities and willing to learn what he could to the best of his abilities. He’s more likely to try to understand his circumstances and new surroundings than to reject them as false for that reason.
Personality:
“For honor and country” could be Kaldur’ahm’s motto. Everything in his life revolves around living in an honorable way, protecting those he cares about, and serving his King, Orin (codename: Aquaman). His desire to protect and serve is in large part, the reason why he chose to give up his studies at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis to become the partner and pupil of his king. He became Aqualad not only because of his hidden wanderlust and desire to learn about the world of the land dwellers, but also because protecting others (being a hero) is instinctive to him. Once he asked his friend Garth if he ever thought about what it would have been like had Garth become Aqualad and Kaldur remained in Atlantis, but both stated the thought had never even crossed their minds. For Kaldur’ahm, he is doing was he was born to do.
However, that does not mean that serving his king and protecting people is all that there is to Kaldur’ahm. He’s quiet, but sardonic at times, and he’s known to show impulsive behavior if he believes that he is in the right, such as when he, Robin, and Kid Flash decided to put out the fire at Cadmus and infiltrated the building to find the source. He believed they were in the right because it was something that needed to be done and he felt that taking initiative to prove that they were ready to be true members of the Justice League was the best course of action at the time. Kaldur can feel hurt and betrayal, as he did when he believed that Aquaman had deceived him about the truth of the Justice League, which is also part of what prompted him and the other two “sidekicks” to act on their own.
Despite agreeing to go against the wishes of their mentors, Kaldur’ahm still wanted to have a plan of action ready—which did not work out. Kid Flash and Robin went on without him and they had to think on their feet from there, but this also showed that Kaldur is capable of improvising while in the middle of a mission. Their self-made mission ended in freeing Superboy, destroying a large building, and calling too much attention to themselves, but Kaldur still stood up to his king in the end because he believed they were doing only what they had been trained to do. He also took control of their first mission as a true team when they were sorely under-prepared and if it was not for him doing so, they would not have made it out off of the island as unscathed as they did. Kaldur does not see himself as a leader—for he is a soldier, a guard, a knight—but he is also the most level-headed and willing to look at situations that he and his team get into from various angles.
This does not mean that Aqualad is perfect. He’s kind, generous, cordial, playful, and even sarcastic at times when he feels that the bite will get his point across better than a polite rebuke, but he is by no means unflawed. He is at times too passive, allowing the louder, more forceful personalities (Robin, Kid Flash, and at times even Artemis) of the Team to control the situation and create distractions when he shouldn’t. This could be because the team at the time was still so new and he was not yet fully accepting of his new role as leader, but it still affected him later on until he finally had to take control of his role and the mission he and his team were on. Aqualad does not see himself as a leader because his primary goals do not need him to be one, but there is also more to it. He can lead and will take on the role should someone else not be present, but in his heart, Aqualad does not consider himself someone worthy of leading others. He has such high standards for himself that he does not believe he is a person whom others should look to for leadership in the way that his people look to his king. He takes the idea and responsibility of being the leader of his Team so seriously that he distances himself in some ways from the others of his team.
He’s still friendly with them and deeply believes in the camaraderie of their team (even to the point of agreeing to outings that could be considered “team building exercises”), but Kaldur also believes that as the leader he must give 100% of himself to the cause and more. He must always be alert for he might have to make a split second decision at any time should they find themselves unprepared for events in the field. While he watches the rest of his team getting closer and more familiar with each other, he holds himself apart if only because as a leader he knows he will have to make decisions that may hurt them or himself for the greater good of them all. It is not because he believes that he is above them or does not want to get close to the rest of his team, but that he feels as a leader it is not fully his place to. This is the “burden” that Kaldur agreed to bear until Robin was ready to become the leader of the Team himself. This could also be considered a flaw, as his standards are so high that he may never be able to reach them, but he does not hold others to the same standards he holds himself.
When he was homesick and missing the girl he loved, Kaldur lost his devoted focus to the cause and thus became a liability, even to the point that the Team was beaten and had to be rescued by Batman. This shows he is not infallible. He is young and, at times, his emotions carry more weight than his logical sense of duty. But Aqualad was aware of his own failings in this, and knew he would have to make a choice. He almost chose to return to Atlantis and the love he had left behind, only to find that she had moved on. This hurt him, but further cemented in his mind that Fate had already chosen his path for him. If he had truly been meant to return to Atlantis, Tula would have been waiting for him. The fact she wasn’t could only mean that his true place was no longer in Poseidonis with her and Garth, but with Aquaman and with his Team. Kaldur’s conviction may have wavered, but it had not been truly broken. It only needed something to reconfirm that he had not given up more than he had gained, like any person at his age—or at any age.
This was not the only time he doubted himself and the role he had accepted, and there was even a time he wished to give up being leader of the Team after the errors of the simulation mission when he sacrificed himself early on to save his Team and Martian Manhunter. He recognizes that he sees himself too much as a soldier who is meant to protect and serve than as one who is willing to make the harsh decisions that could sacrifice others in the heat of the mission. He will always see himself as one of the acceptable casualties, and in his own words thinks “too much like a soldier, instead of a general.” In many ways, Kaldur does not want to be that person either, but he would rather take on those responsibilities that force anyone else on his team to do so. He can look at his own teammates and accurately assess each one’s capability to lead and how the burden of it would affect them, which in the end leads to him accepting that the only one left is himself. It eats away at him, but in many ways he sees it as the lesser of great many evils.
Because he made the choice to remain Aqualad, Kaldur’s friends on land—the other members of his Team and even Red Arrow who refused to join—are very dear to him. He is separated from the childhood friends he grew up with and even though he maintains some modicum of distance, he considers the Team just as important to him. Their opinions of him do mean a great deal and that is one of the reasons he strives to be the best for them. But by holding their opinions and bonds so dearly, they also become liabilities that can be used against him. He was willing to step down as leader after the team discovered he had withheld information from them about a possible mole because he wanted to do what was right for them and knew that if the Team could not trust him, he could not lead them. At the same time, this came up in the middle of a mission and Kaldur had to aggressively take back the reigns of control that he had allow to slip because he recognized that losing focus could not only cost his team the mission, but their lives and the life of Captain Marvel.
He allowed himself to be distracted at hearing Red Arrow’s insults about them because Red Arrow’s opinion matters to him and that allowed Sportsmaster to gain the advantage against him in their fight. He showed how forthright he is by choosing to directly bring up the issue with Red Arrow as well, rather than leave the words festering between them. He also refused to air the accusations that there was a mole on his Team publicly because he trusts his teammates and would not let the bonds of his team broken by potential lies from an enemy. Still, as the leader, he could not ignore the possibility either and chose to investigate himself, in hopes of debunking it all. Even though his friends mean so much to him, Kaldur does not forget his duty, that he is the leader and must thus lead by example. The problem is that he is not always sure of what that example should be.
When it comes to Tu Shanshu, Kaldur would be surprised by the suddenness of his arrival there, as his memories would not reflect any reason to have arrived here. He might even at first perceive that it is a trick by one of the enemies of the Justice League or his team. But as he learned more, he would keep himself collected and in control because that would be the best way in which to find out what he needs to know and to decide what his next course of action would be. Knowledge of a world between life, death, and dreams would not surprise him as Atlanteans are rather spiritual and believe that many things exist in the universe beyond what their own eyes can see or they have yet to understand. Once he came to accept that he would not be able to leave that easily, Kaldur would become more settled, as he is an adaptable person, but he would not give up the desire to return home, especially since by being here he is neglecting his duties to his team and his King. He is a hardworking person so finding a job and keeping it would not be a trouble for him. In the end, this is not a place he would hate, but it would not be a place he would choose to remain if he had the choice of leaving and that would reflect in how he interacted with the people and the environment.
Appearance:
Aqualad is half-Atlantean so many of his features may be abnormal to most humans. He has gills on his neck for breathing under water, webbing between his fingers and toes, tough/thick skin, and wears pants with fins on the backs of the legs to facilitate swimming. He’s also dark-skinned, blond with very pale green eyes (they look almost silver or grey at times), and has thick black tattoos called “skin icons” in the design of an eel trailing over his back and both arms that allow him to use sorcery to control water and electrical currents.
Abilities:
The tattoos on Kaldur’ahm’s arms allow him to channel magic and maintain some control over water and electrical currents, much like the “electric eel” that the tattoo resembles. Usually he does this through channeling water through the water bearer weapons he carries, which allow him to also manipulate the water and change it into whatever shape he wants (often he does this in the form of close combat weapons, but he’s been known to use them to create offensive constructs. As not every area has water that can be utilized naturally, he keeps his water bearers in a containment unit on his back with a few gallons of water inside of it. The fact he is half-Atlantean also means he breathe underwater with no trouble, has superior strength (to the point he was strong enough to go head-to-head with Superboy for a while), is extremely fast in water, and trained in physical combat underwater and on land. His heritage also provides him with some trouble in that Kaldur is a lot weaker against high temperatures in comparison to your average human, to the point of losing consciousness if left in them too long.
Inventory: Water-bearers, (1) Water containment unit, and his standard Aqualad uniform.
Suite: Water Sector. Kaldur is a very calm, collected, and easy-going person. Monetary wealth isn’t important to him since wealth is looked at differently in his home of Atlantis (more communal). If taking a vow of poverty were required to serve his king, he’d do it and not consider it any kind of hardship. Kaldur may love to learn, but he himself admitted he could never see himself being anything but what he chose to be. Protecting people and being in the service of others is important to him and he certainly is a hard-worker, but Kaldur has learned when to only focus on the little things necessary because the stress of it can be too much. He had to learn when to let them go, to know how to keep things in perspective. He’s also Atlantean and living in a water-related community where he has access to it would be better for him.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
He had only been gone for a few days. He enjoyed spending time with his family, his parents were an integral part of his life and seeing them well helped ease some of the tension in him. Things had been happening so quickly recently, too quickly. It felt as if they were racing through the dark towards something, only they had not yet seen the shark’s teeth opening to greet them.
Recognized: Aqualad, B-02.
He smiled softly at the now familiar greeting, exiting the zeta-beam terminal and making his way out of the mission room into the hall. No more than a few days gone and yet it felt as if it could have been forever. Does this fit the land-saying that “Home is where the heart is”? Perhaps he should plan for something to do with his team. Something to help with the tension that had grown between all of them since Red Arrow’s agreement to join. Roy was his dearest friend on land, but he could not deny that the distrust he displayed was hurting the team. He had to make a choice on how to--
--Kaldur is frozen in place, staring at the living room. Or what was once the living room. Currently, it is a veritable wasteland of wrappers, crumbs, half-eaten food, and at least a dozen pizza boxes. There were blankets thrown over couches and bags on the floor, the lumps beneath them informing him of where his teammates might be in this chaotic-seeming environment. The TV remains frozen on the Menu of some comedy that he has not seen and cannot quite deduce the topic of, the word “play” highlighted in white.
A few days and their headquarters had been reduced to…a trash bin? He could already feel a headache building.
He stepped further into the room, dodging box and unknown foodstuff alike. His foot bumped into a solid, warm object and said object moves, jerking with a soft groan of irritation. Red hair stuck out from beneath a black sleeping bag in the midst of the mess.
“Not yet…gotta catch the ice cream man…”
Wally rolls over, only mildly disturbed and still asleep, shifting closer to the couch where Artemis sleeps without even noticing. Kaldur took the time to look around, seeing one other sleeping bag—Kaldur wonders how Wally managed to convince Robin to sleep out in the open, even if the boy was wearing a mask to bed—and the other couch also in use with black hair trailing obviously over the edge. He sighed, then quietly made his way into the kitchen, returning with a garbage can and began to collect as much of the trash as he could without waking them.
Not that he believed he had succeeded where Robin is concerned, but he would let him keep the illusion of sleep.
Everything else could wait until tomorrow. He wasn’t going anywhere. He took a look over the room again and noticed the four present. M’gann and Conner were not here, but perhaps they left on their own when the others decided to sleep. It was unlikely there would be such an event in the Cave and them not be included. Not with how close his Team had come to be.
But they were not the only two left uncounted for.
He really should speak to Roy. Tomorrow. There was still time to have that talk.
He might also suggest to Black Canary that certain people had extra energy to burn off during training.
Network:
[Kaldur takes in the location as calmly as he can after having the strange location explained to him. He knows that this is a city on the back of a turtle—which sounds vaguely like something out of one of the books on surface-dweller mythology he had read once—but why he had been chosen and how cut off his final memories were before arriving here was still a mystery.]
It is said that to better understand your surroundings you must look at it with many eyes. [He is formal, but genial. He does not wish to start a confrontation in his first day.] I am known as Aqualad. It is a very…unique situation in which I find myself. Where we are and how we may have come to be here has been explained to me, but I would greatly appreciate any further information that those who come before me are willing to provide.
[If none respond, he will have to seek a less direct route of coming by the information.]
Name: Kathrine
Age: over 18
Contact: spkathrine[@]gmail.com / plurk: chocolateisbrainfood
Game Cast: None
Character Information:
Name: Kaldur’ahm (codename: Aqualad)
Canon: DCA: Young Justice
Canon Point: End of “Insecurity,” after it’s been revealed that Artemis tricked the boys so she could go after Sportsmaster and Cheshire herself.
Age: 16
Reference: Kaldur'ahm at the Young Justice Wiki | DC Universe: Earth-16
Setting:
Enter the multiverse. 52 Earths all within their own universes with their own people, ideals, cultures, and even their own superheroes. And sometimes they have many superheroes. Earth-16 is not that much different in this regard. This is an Earth that looks like many other Earths, maybe even one your average reader could recognize. There are seven continents, oceans, over 200 countries, one moon, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It is Earth is all the ways that count. Technology is more advanced than what we know, but not by much in the public spectrum, since the most advanced of it is used by people with more than enough money and power to get it built and kept secret (or from alien planets that are far advanced in comparison). Personal computers, smart phones, motor vehicles, holographic projection systems, all of these are standard. Then there is the Zeta-beam technology, which is known to few (particularly the Justice League and STAR Labs), that allows instantaneous transportation from one “tube” or designated location point with a Zeta-beam machine to another.
But there are also several differences. This is an Earth where superhumans exist. Aliens from other planets, people living in the ocean, humans born with special powers or shaped by extraordinary circumstances to become vigilantes that protect the common civilians. In the ocean there is the kingdom of Atlantis, a powerful island nation with ties to Ancient Greece that sank under the waves and the people had to use sorcery to adapt to the new living conditions or die. Many of Atlanteans look like normal humans, but have the ability to breathe water. The magic took the adaptations of others in the kingdom even further, giving them the attributes of the sea life around them. They can have gills, webbed hands and feet, head of an octopus, skin the color of eels, and even fins. The kingdom is vast, having spread wide across the ocean depths and the people having spread with it.
It is a place of great diversity, but not everyone accepts this. There are those called Purists who look down on any Atlantean who does not look like a normal surface-dwelling human. Anyone with traits like that of the aquatic creatures they lived in tenuous harmony with was considered impure. It was not the most prominent view of Atlanteans, but it was not an uncommon or quiet one, either. Kaldur deals with these kinds of prejudices because not only does he has gills and webbed limbs, but his father is also human, making him only half Atlantean, despite the fact his father gave up his surface-dweller life to be with Kaldur’s mother. This is a dark side of Atlantis that he is very aware of, but because of the diverse city-state of Shayeris that he grew up in, very little surprised Kaldur when it comes to how a person can look or what kind of powers they may be capable of utilizing. Atlantis also believes strongly in boys learning discipline and service to their king and country by requiring all boys to serve in the military for at least two years at the age of 12. This has influenced Kaldur greatly and he considers this normal, but it is unusual in comparison to most of the more industrialized and developed countries on the surface.
The Conservatory of Sorcery is very important and considered the best school in the kingdom to train at, but Kaldur gave up his position there to become King Orin’s personal pupil. Because of this, his studies in sorcery were halted, as proven by the thick black tattoos that are visible on his arms at all times. If he had continued on and advanced his studies, they would be invisible save for when he used strong magic.
The King of Atlantis is Orin, also known as Aquaman by many surface-dwellers, a member of the world renowned Justice League. It is an organization of superhumans (aliens, humans with special abilities, and even just very skilled humans, most of which with secret identities) who have come together to protect the world from various threats at home and abroad. It started with a few heroes, and grew over time (and will continue to grow as the years pass) and has gain more acclaim with every major disaster or conflict the League has helped to solve. It was not the first organization like this in the world, as the Justice Society and some others existed before it, but it is the most well known, watched, and accepted of the time. Not everyone accepts the League, considering it a threat that so many superhumans have come together in one organization, but for the most part the public looks on them favorably. Some of the members have even taken on young protégés, primarily teenagers who have special abilities of their own, or the skills needed to keep a pace with the superhumans they fight alongside, although Batman was the first to do so. Aquaman took Kaldur as his protégé after Kaldur and his friend Garth helped Orin to defeat the Ocean Master, the leader of the Purists.
Just as there are heroes in this world, there are also adversaries, some with great ambitions of power and control and others with more unstable and destructive goals. Ocean Master was one of the former, but surface-dwelling humans were no different. Some even took to experimenting on themselves and others to try and produce powers to fight against superhumans or took to creating innovative technology for the purpose of committing crimes. Like Project Cadmus, and organization of scientists who create special serums to give people superhuman abilities and even cloned superheroes to give themselves an advantage. Cadmus was working under the guidance of The Light, a secret group of people (who would be considered supervillains) working toward their own goals and ambitions, led by the immortal Vandal Savage.
This is a world where aliens from outer space are more like the neighbors next door than anomalies that shouldn’t exist, where superheroes save the day from terrorists around the world and from the latest supervillain’s (sometimes called “Rogues”) plot to destroy Metropolis or Star City. It is a world where special humans are selected to be part of a peacekeeping force that spans the universe with the power of special rings (the various Lantern Corps) and where cloning is not only possible, but has been done more times than we know. Kaldur had never even visited the surface until he became Aquaman’s partner, Aqualad, but he had always had the desire to see what he could of it, always full of curiosities and willing to learn what he could to the best of his abilities. He’s more likely to try to understand his circumstances and new surroundings than to reject them as false for that reason.
Personality:
“For honor and country” could be Kaldur’ahm’s motto. Everything in his life revolves around living in an honorable way, protecting those he cares about, and serving his King, Orin (codename: Aquaman). His desire to protect and serve is in large part, the reason why he chose to give up his studies at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Poseidonis to become the partner and pupil of his king. He became Aqualad not only because of his hidden wanderlust and desire to learn about the world of the land dwellers, but also because protecting others (being a hero) is instinctive to him. Once he asked his friend Garth if he ever thought about what it would have been like had Garth become Aqualad and Kaldur remained in Atlantis, but both stated the thought had never even crossed their minds. For Kaldur’ahm, he is doing was he was born to do.
However, that does not mean that serving his king and protecting people is all that there is to Kaldur’ahm. He’s quiet, but sardonic at times, and he’s known to show impulsive behavior if he believes that he is in the right, such as when he, Robin, and Kid Flash decided to put out the fire at Cadmus and infiltrated the building to find the source. He believed they were in the right because it was something that needed to be done and he felt that taking initiative to prove that they were ready to be true members of the Justice League was the best course of action at the time. Kaldur can feel hurt and betrayal, as he did when he believed that Aquaman had deceived him about the truth of the Justice League, which is also part of what prompted him and the other two “sidekicks” to act on their own.
Despite agreeing to go against the wishes of their mentors, Kaldur’ahm still wanted to have a plan of action ready—which did not work out. Kid Flash and Robin went on without him and they had to think on their feet from there, but this also showed that Kaldur is capable of improvising while in the middle of a mission. Their self-made mission ended in freeing Superboy, destroying a large building, and calling too much attention to themselves, but Kaldur still stood up to his king in the end because he believed they were doing only what they had been trained to do. He also took control of their first mission as a true team when they were sorely under-prepared and if it was not for him doing so, they would not have made it out off of the island as unscathed as they did. Kaldur does not see himself as a leader—for he is a soldier, a guard, a knight—but he is also the most level-headed and willing to look at situations that he and his team get into from various angles.
This does not mean that Aqualad is perfect. He’s kind, generous, cordial, playful, and even sarcastic at times when he feels that the bite will get his point across better than a polite rebuke, but he is by no means unflawed. He is at times too passive, allowing the louder, more forceful personalities (Robin, Kid Flash, and at times even Artemis) of the Team to control the situation and create distractions when he shouldn’t. This could be because the team at the time was still so new and he was not yet fully accepting of his new role as leader, but it still affected him later on until he finally had to take control of his role and the mission he and his team were on. Aqualad does not see himself as a leader because his primary goals do not need him to be one, but there is also more to it. He can lead and will take on the role should someone else not be present, but in his heart, Aqualad does not consider himself someone worthy of leading others. He has such high standards for himself that he does not believe he is a person whom others should look to for leadership in the way that his people look to his king. He takes the idea and responsibility of being the leader of his Team so seriously that he distances himself in some ways from the others of his team.
He’s still friendly with them and deeply believes in the camaraderie of their team (even to the point of agreeing to outings that could be considered “team building exercises”), but Kaldur also believes that as the leader he must give 100% of himself to the cause and more. He must always be alert for he might have to make a split second decision at any time should they find themselves unprepared for events in the field. While he watches the rest of his team getting closer and more familiar with each other, he holds himself apart if only because as a leader he knows he will have to make decisions that may hurt them or himself for the greater good of them all. It is not because he believes that he is above them or does not want to get close to the rest of his team, but that he feels as a leader it is not fully his place to. This is the “burden” that Kaldur agreed to bear until Robin was ready to become the leader of the Team himself. This could also be considered a flaw, as his standards are so high that he may never be able to reach them, but he does not hold others to the same standards he holds himself.
When he was homesick and missing the girl he loved, Kaldur lost his devoted focus to the cause and thus became a liability, even to the point that the Team was beaten and had to be rescued by Batman. This shows he is not infallible. He is young and, at times, his emotions carry more weight than his logical sense of duty. But Aqualad was aware of his own failings in this, and knew he would have to make a choice. He almost chose to return to Atlantis and the love he had left behind, only to find that she had moved on. This hurt him, but further cemented in his mind that Fate had already chosen his path for him. If he had truly been meant to return to Atlantis, Tula would have been waiting for him. The fact she wasn’t could only mean that his true place was no longer in Poseidonis with her and Garth, but with Aquaman and with his Team. Kaldur’s conviction may have wavered, but it had not been truly broken. It only needed something to reconfirm that he had not given up more than he had gained, like any person at his age—or at any age.
This was not the only time he doubted himself and the role he had accepted, and there was even a time he wished to give up being leader of the Team after the errors of the simulation mission when he sacrificed himself early on to save his Team and Martian Manhunter. He recognizes that he sees himself too much as a soldier who is meant to protect and serve than as one who is willing to make the harsh decisions that could sacrifice others in the heat of the mission. He will always see himself as one of the acceptable casualties, and in his own words thinks “too much like a soldier, instead of a general.” In many ways, Kaldur does not want to be that person either, but he would rather take on those responsibilities that force anyone else on his team to do so. He can look at his own teammates and accurately assess each one’s capability to lead and how the burden of it would affect them, which in the end leads to him accepting that the only one left is himself. It eats away at him, but in many ways he sees it as the lesser of great many evils.
Because he made the choice to remain Aqualad, Kaldur’s friends on land—the other members of his Team and even Red Arrow who refused to join—are very dear to him. He is separated from the childhood friends he grew up with and even though he maintains some modicum of distance, he considers the Team just as important to him. Their opinions of him do mean a great deal and that is one of the reasons he strives to be the best for them. But by holding their opinions and bonds so dearly, they also become liabilities that can be used against him. He was willing to step down as leader after the team discovered he had withheld information from them about a possible mole because he wanted to do what was right for them and knew that if the Team could not trust him, he could not lead them. At the same time, this came up in the middle of a mission and Kaldur had to aggressively take back the reigns of control that he had allow to slip because he recognized that losing focus could not only cost his team the mission, but their lives and the life of Captain Marvel.
He allowed himself to be distracted at hearing Red Arrow’s insults about them because Red Arrow’s opinion matters to him and that allowed Sportsmaster to gain the advantage against him in their fight. He showed how forthright he is by choosing to directly bring up the issue with Red Arrow as well, rather than leave the words festering between them. He also refused to air the accusations that there was a mole on his Team publicly because he trusts his teammates and would not let the bonds of his team broken by potential lies from an enemy. Still, as the leader, he could not ignore the possibility either and chose to investigate himself, in hopes of debunking it all. Even though his friends mean so much to him, Kaldur does not forget his duty, that he is the leader and must thus lead by example. The problem is that he is not always sure of what that example should be.
When it comes to Tu Shanshu, Kaldur would be surprised by the suddenness of his arrival there, as his memories would not reflect any reason to have arrived here. He might even at first perceive that it is a trick by one of the enemies of the Justice League or his team. But as he learned more, he would keep himself collected and in control because that would be the best way in which to find out what he needs to know and to decide what his next course of action would be. Knowledge of a world between life, death, and dreams would not surprise him as Atlanteans are rather spiritual and believe that many things exist in the universe beyond what their own eyes can see or they have yet to understand. Once he came to accept that he would not be able to leave that easily, Kaldur would become more settled, as he is an adaptable person, but he would not give up the desire to return home, especially since by being here he is neglecting his duties to his team and his King. He is a hardworking person so finding a job and keeping it would not be a trouble for him. In the end, this is not a place he would hate, but it would not be a place he would choose to remain if he had the choice of leaving and that would reflect in how he interacted with the people and the environment.
Appearance:
Aqualad is half-Atlantean so many of his features may be abnormal to most humans. He has gills on his neck for breathing under water, webbing between his fingers and toes, tough/thick skin, and wears pants with fins on the backs of the legs to facilitate swimming. He’s also dark-skinned, blond with very pale green eyes (they look almost silver or grey at times), and has thick black tattoos called “skin icons” in the design of an eel trailing over his back and both arms that allow him to use sorcery to control water and electrical currents.
Abilities:
The tattoos on Kaldur’ahm’s arms allow him to channel magic and maintain some control over water and electrical currents, much like the “electric eel” that the tattoo resembles. Usually he does this through channeling water through the water bearer weapons he carries, which allow him to also manipulate the water and change it into whatever shape he wants (often he does this in the form of close combat weapons, but he’s been known to use them to create offensive constructs. As not every area has water that can be utilized naturally, he keeps his water bearers in a containment unit on his back with a few gallons of water inside of it. The fact he is half-Atlantean also means he breathe underwater with no trouble, has superior strength (to the point he was strong enough to go head-to-head with Superboy for a while), is extremely fast in water, and trained in physical combat underwater and on land. His heritage also provides him with some trouble in that Kaldur is a lot weaker against high temperatures in comparison to your average human, to the point of losing consciousness if left in them too long.
Inventory: Water-bearers, (1) Water containment unit, and his standard Aqualad uniform.
Suite: Water Sector. Kaldur is a very calm, collected, and easy-going person. Monetary wealth isn’t important to him since wealth is looked at differently in his home of Atlantis (more communal). If taking a vow of poverty were required to serve his king, he’d do it and not consider it any kind of hardship. Kaldur may love to learn, but he himself admitted he could never see himself being anything but what he chose to be. Protecting people and being in the service of others is important to him and he certainly is a hard-worker, but Kaldur has learned when to only focus on the little things necessary because the stress of it can be too much. He had to learn when to let them go, to know how to keep things in perspective. He’s also Atlantean and living in a water-related community where he has access to it would be better for him.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
He had only been gone for a few days. He enjoyed spending time with his family, his parents were an integral part of his life and seeing them well helped ease some of the tension in him. Things had been happening so quickly recently, too quickly. It felt as if they were racing through the dark towards something, only they had not yet seen the shark’s teeth opening to greet them.
Recognized: Aqualad, B-02.
He smiled softly at the now familiar greeting, exiting the zeta-beam terminal and making his way out of the mission room into the hall. No more than a few days gone and yet it felt as if it could have been forever. Does this fit the land-saying that “Home is where the heart is”? Perhaps he should plan for something to do with his team. Something to help with the tension that had grown between all of them since Red Arrow’s agreement to join. Roy was his dearest friend on land, but he could not deny that the distrust he displayed was hurting the team. He had to make a choice on how to--
--Kaldur is frozen in place, staring at the living room. Or what was once the living room. Currently, it is a veritable wasteland of wrappers, crumbs, half-eaten food, and at least a dozen pizza boxes. There were blankets thrown over couches and bags on the floor, the lumps beneath them informing him of where his teammates might be in this chaotic-seeming environment. The TV remains frozen on the Menu of some comedy that he has not seen and cannot quite deduce the topic of, the word “play” highlighted in white.
A few days and their headquarters had been reduced to…a trash bin? He could already feel a headache building.
He stepped further into the room, dodging box and unknown foodstuff alike. His foot bumped into a solid, warm object and said object moves, jerking with a soft groan of irritation. Red hair stuck out from beneath a black sleeping bag in the midst of the mess.
“Not yet…gotta catch the ice cream man…”
Wally rolls over, only mildly disturbed and still asleep, shifting closer to the couch where Artemis sleeps without even noticing. Kaldur took the time to look around, seeing one other sleeping bag—Kaldur wonders how Wally managed to convince Robin to sleep out in the open, even if the boy was wearing a mask to bed—and the other couch also in use with black hair trailing obviously over the edge. He sighed, then quietly made his way into the kitchen, returning with a garbage can and began to collect as much of the trash as he could without waking them.
Not that he believed he had succeeded where Robin is concerned, but he would let him keep the illusion of sleep.
Everything else could wait until tomorrow. He wasn’t going anywhere. He took a look over the room again and noticed the four present. M’gann and Conner were not here, but perhaps they left on their own when the others decided to sleep. It was unlikely there would be such an event in the Cave and them not be included. Not with how close his Team had come to be.
But they were not the only two left uncounted for.
He really should speak to Roy. Tomorrow. There was still time to have that talk.
He might also suggest to Black Canary that certain people had extra energy to burn off during training.
Network:
[Kaldur takes in the location as calmly as he can after having the strange location explained to him. He knows that this is a city on the back of a turtle—which sounds vaguely like something out of one of the books on surface-dweller mythology he had read once—but why he had been chosen and how cut off his final memories were before arriving here was still a mystery.]
It is said that to better understand your surroundings you must look at it with many eyes. [He is formal, but genial. He does not wish to start a confrontation in his first day.] I am known as Aqualad. It is a very…unique situation in which I find myself. Where we are and how we may have come to be here has been explained to me, but I would greatly appreciate any further information that those who come before me are willing to provide.
[If none respond, he will have to seek a less direct route of coming by the information.]