Booker DeWitt

NATIVE APPLICATION

Name: Buttercup
Age: old
Contact: butteredcups
Other Characters: Samwise Gamgee, Cassandra Pentaghast
Interests: What sort of RP are you hoping for in Fade Rift? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Types of plots or threads you're excited about? Do you love action scenes? Political intrigue? Rescuing lost animals? This doesn't have to be long or complex, we're just looking for a sense of interests and preferences so when we sit down to make up plots and events we have an idea what people might be into.


Name: Booker DeWitt
Canon/OC: Canon
Journal: dewittinvestigations
Race: Elf-blooded human
Nationality: Free Marcher
Occupation: Drunk
Age: 38

History

Canon history

If possible, please link to your character's history. If the linked history has significant holes that you plan to fill in with headcanon, please provide a write-up of that headcanon here in 350 words or fewer. If your character has been off-screen for a while, please provide a write-up of what they've been doing since their last appearance and their arrival in Fade Rift. This should also be no more than 350 words.

If apping an AU'd character, please link to their canon history and write up their AU history in 500 words or fewer. Bullet points are fine if you prefer.

Original characters obviously don't have a linkable history, so please just write it up in 500 words or fewer. Bullet points are still fine if you prefer.

Personality

Please describe your character's personality in 300-500 words.

Booker DeWitt grew up quickly: he was a soldier by age sixteen, and a father and widower by 19. Though he is still in his 30s, he has lived a lifetime’s worth of regret.

He is a violent man, as noted by various characters throughout the game; Comstock remarks that “It always ends in blood [with you]." The first time Elizabeth sees Booker kill, she is horrified and runs off, forcing him to pursue her. When he does catch up to her, he does not apologize for his actions, instead pointing out that escaping the city will not be as easy as walking out: that people are going to try to stop them, and that "if you don't draw first, you don't get to draw at all." He sees what he does as a necessity, and fails to display any sort of hesitation or uneasiness when he is forced to kill. This does not mean that he is entirely unaware of the moral implications of his actions, however. He seems to think of himself as already corrupted or tainted, and as a result is willing to do what must be done so that others don't have to; on multiple occasions, he insists - or tries to insist - on doing something questionable for Elizabeth (killing Comstock, desecrating her mother's grave) in order to keep her from getting her hands dirty or being corrupted himself.

Though not stated outright in the game, Booker is clearly suffering from a deep depression. He is described by Comstock as “self-destructive,” and this much is certainly true. He has made more than his fair share of mistakes, and awful, possibly unforgivable ones at that: the massacre at Wounded Knee, his work with Pinkerton, agreeing to sell his daughter to pay off his debts. He spends the years after losing Anna in a haze of drinking and gambling, and punishes himself by branding his daughter's initials onto his hand, ensuring that he would be reminded of his sins every day.

It would be impossible to discuss Booker DeWitt’s personality without also touching on the personality of his counterpart, Zachary Comstock. Comstock is the game’s main villain, a racist, xenophobic man who keeps his daughter locked away in a tower and has his wife murdered. While Booker is hardly a saint, he doesn’t go near Comstock’s level of pure evil. The game does not offer any explanation as to their differences, beyond the fact that Comstock agreed to be baptized and "born again" while Booker did not, and while I’ve read and discussed a lot of theories reconciling how the game’s (anti)hero and its despicable villain could be the same person, the one most intriguing to me - supported by various character recordings (or "voxophones" in-game) - is a matter of simple mindset. Comstock believes that he was truly “born again,” as a new man, and goes so far as to take a new name and refuse to discuss his history pre-baptism. He never learns to accept responsibility or repent for his prior sins, and so goes on to commit even more horrific acts as the Prophet of Columbia.

Booker, however, rejects the baptism and never becomes Comstock. When Elizabeth brings him back to the river at the end of the game and Booker steps forward to undergo (and ultimately reject) baptism, he says to her, “You think a dunk in the river’s gonna change the things I’ve done?” He refuses the idea of salvation and redemption through religious rituals, instead choosing to live with the choices he’s made. Whereas Comstock believes he has found “redemption” and forgiveness in the river and is free to turn a blind eye to his past mistakes, repeating them and ultimately believing that he is beyond reproach, Booker does the opposite: he drowns himself in guilt over his past. While Comstock builds himself up as the “hero of Wounded Knee,” Booker is still haunted by his actions there twenty years later. He spends the years after losing Anna as a broken man, full of regret and self-loathing.

However, it is this refusal to take the easy way out, to “wash away his sins” and therefore shirk responsibility for them, that allows Booker to finally at least begin to change and grow as a person. He accepts Robert Lutece’s offer to go to Columbia not for money or any physical reward, but simply to be with his daughter again. Of course, once he steps through the tear he forgets the true purpose of his journey, believing quite sincerely that he is there merely to retrieve Elizabeth and deliver her to an unknown client to “wipe away his debt,” but even so, by the end of the game, Booker has reversed his thinking; the quote on the Comstock House level loading screen, which allows us some insight into Booker’s thoughts, reads “There’s a debt I owe the girl, and if it means paying her and not the man in New York, so be it.” Though he is still far from perfect, or even a good person, he has begun to show some attempt to begin to redeem himself - to truly pay his debts.

Booker is a gruff, often sardonic man, stoic in contrast to Elizabeth’s more animated personality. He occasionally displays a sort of sarcastic wit, but is more often humorless and often exasperated or annoyed. Though he still uses violence ruthlessly when necessary, he is (at least by this point) not the type to kill without reason; unlike Comstock, he is not without a conscience.

He does occasionally show a softer side, playing the guitar and attempting - awkwardly - to comfort Elizabeth when she is upset. Overall, though, he is a jaded man, in contrast to Elizabeth's wide-eyed wonder at the world around her. While Elizabeth feels sympathy for the people of Finkton's Shantytown, Booker worries that her feelings may be "enough to get her killed." He says repeatedly that the conflict between the Vox and the Founders is not his (or Elizabeth's) fight, and tells Elizabeth that she is not responsible for the death and violence that result from their securing weapons for the revolutionaries. While he undeniably cares about Elizabeth by this point in the game, his empathy for other people is still sorely lacking.

Booker is resourceful and resilient, with a certain determined, goal-focused determination and practicality. Although he is baffled when first entering Columbia, he soon adapts to life in the floating city, quickly mastering and becoming used to new ways of travel, new weapons, and a host of unfamiliar sights, objects, and concepts. He even accepts Elizabeth's ability to open portals to alternate universes fairly quickly - rather than expressing disbelief or fear when he sees Elizabeth open a tear for the first time, he first considers the practical use of her ability ("I don't suppose you've got an airship in there,") and then, when Songbird nearly flies through, rejects any sort of curiosity about this new power in favor of keeping them both safe: "I don't really understand what I just saw back there, but it sure as hell looks like a shortcut to getting us killed."


Strengths & Weaknesses

Basically, what are they best at, and what are they worst at? Where can they help and where will they be a liability? It is not necessary to pick a class or to provide lists of specific Dragon Age skills or skill trees. It's sufficient to give us a general idea of areas and level of ability but please make sure you cover any magical ability or significant skill/resource/connection you hope to rely on in-game.

Inventory

Please list any notable objects your character will be bringing with them.

Motivation

What brings your character to the Inquisition? This can be as brief as "he's got a sliver of weird magic in his hand he'd like the Inquisition to deal with," and shouldn't be more than 200 words.


Please provide 2 samples. It doesn't matter if they're written or linked and we don't care if you prefer brackets or normal punctuation, but at least one must take place in the game world, and at least one must be a log rather than network tags (or their setting-appropriate equivalent). They can be of any length, as long as they provide a sense of your character's voice and internal narrative. If we feel they aren't sufficient, we'll ask you for more.