App for eachdraidh

[livedielive]

( PLAYER ★ INFORMATION )

NAME: Ronen
AGE: Late 20s
CONTACT: RoRodiculous
CURRENT CHARACTERS & LATEST AC: Cole - Dragon Age [AC LINK]

RESERVATION LINK: HERE

( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yes
NAME & AGE: Nux, mid-20s
CANON & CANON POINT: Mad Max: Fury Road, film, post-canon
CANON INFORMATION: Nux's page on the Mad Max Wiki

PERSONALITY:
(Headcanon is highlighted.)

When we first meet Nux, he is presented as a typical war boy: obsessively loyal to Immortan Joe, eager for battle and desperate for glory. When he sees Slit, his lancer, trying to walk off with his steering wheel, he jumps up and grabs it to defend his place in the fight — even though he's weakened by his illness and currently hooked up to a captive blood donor (Max).

SLIT: There's no time!
NUX: We take my Blood Bag! We'll take my Blood Bag and string him to the lancer's perch.
SLIT: It's got a muzzle on it. It's a raging feral!
NUX: That's right! High-octane, crazy blood, filling me up. If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die historic on the Fury Road!

Right off the bat, Nux shows himself as someone who can hold his own in the "boys' club" of life as a soldier, who can wield outward confidence and braggadocio to prove his worth and earn his place.

While many people living in that sort of environment would be tempted to try and make themselves look better by putting down others, Nux shows remarkable support for his fellow war boys. When another war boy sacrifices himself by leaping onto an enemy car, Slit judges the sacrifice "Mediocre," while Nux jumps to call out "Witnessed!" — thereby declaring it an honorable death. When contrasted against Slit, Nux demonstrates a genuine enthusiasm for the cause and a willingness to support others that often takes precedence above his personal ambition.

It helps that Nux's confidence is more than just bluster. He's a skillful driver and mechanic, so he sees no need to take others down a peg to make himself look good. He's happy enough to make a name for himself on his own merits. Still, his need to prove himself leads him to take risky moves and rush in without always thinking things through. This behavior is at least partially nurtured by war boy culture, which values tactical sacrifice, but Nux takes it an extra step further than most, pulling his rig ahead of the others to roar into battle. He's good, and he's worthy, and in those moments he knows he is, and so he's willing to throw himself right into the thick of it.

The downside of Nux's reckless behavior is that it doesn't always work out the way he's planned. He may be good, but bad luck or small oversights (or being high on paint fumes) can lead to failure, and because Nux believes he's meant for greatness, he judges himself harshly for his shortcomings. It's even worse when his oversights are caused by being blinded by the approval of an authority figure. Having gotten the attention of the Immortan, at one point Nux promises that he can get back onto Furiosa's war rig and retrieve the Immortan's escaped wives. Immortan Joe leaves no doubt in Nux's mind that this will earn him lasting honor:

IMMORTAN JOE: Stop the rig. Return my property... and I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla!
NUX: Am I awaited?
IMMORTAN JOE: You will ride eternal... shiny and chrome.

Nux jumps onto the war rig, but, distracted by the knowledge that he's being watched by the Immortan, gets the chain on his wrist caught and falls off. The same hero-worship that drove him to take a chance was the very thing that caused him to fail.

Having been raised to be subordinate, Nux places a high value on authority of any kind. When he sees someone as worthy of respect, he gives it instantly, even if he saw them as worthless before. This is exactly what happens when he realizes Max is a skilled fighter, and believes that Max is on his side:

NUX: He's gonna be so grateful! We could ask for anything... I wanna drive the War Rig.
MAX: That's MY jacket!!
NUX: Sure. I mean, you could ask for more than a jacket.

On its face, his comment is flippant, but there's a tone of deference that shows he now sees Max as at least an equal, if not a better (plus, he does give the jacket back). This exchange is also notable as one of Nux's most casual moments: he's not grandstanding or in the heat of a fight. His way of speaking is more relaxed. We get a brief glimpse of Nux without the learned affectations of his everyday life: friendly, exuberant, and just a bit awkward.

Nux's largest turning point comes after he falls in front of Immortan Joe, and it involves his encounter with Capable, one of the Immortan's wives. She finds him lying at the back of the war rig, despondent over his failure.

NUX: Three times the gates were open to me.
CAPABLE: What gates?
NUX: I was awaited in Valhalla. They were calling my name. I should be walking with the Immortan. Feasting with the heroes of all time.
CAPABLE: I'd say it was your manifest destiny not to.

While his relationship with Capable is never precisely defined, it does have signs of budding romantic interest: they are physically close almost immediately, and when she helps him in his efforts to get the war rig out of the mud, he eagerly offers her a kiss on the cheek. He does nothing to indicate that he doesn't see her as an equal, but in contrast to his behavior with anyone else, Nux's treatment of Capable is tender, a type of intimate care that goes beyond being teammates. This shows that not only does he have the capacity for that kind of tenderness, but that his effusiveness extends outside his enthusiasm for glory to the expression of other emotions. I also shows that growing up in a harsh and violent world has not completely hardened him.

The question of what Nux would do without some cause bigger than himself is never addressed. He turns away from the Immortan only to dedicate himself to Furiosa and the women who follow her. The closest thing we see to Nux without a cause is before Capable gives him hope, when he thinks he has missed out on his chances at Valhalla and starts beating his head on the floor: he has let his ultimate authority figure down, has failed to live up to his own expectations, and is driven to punish himself. His sense of self-worth is intimately tied to the use he can be to others. This way of thinking has also been nurtured by the world he grew up in, where mouths to feed are a liability unless they can give something in return, and war boys are even more than mouths to feed — they have to be kept healthy enough to repair rigs and do war, which is a greater drain on resources. There is always pressure, then, to be the absolute best he can be: an obligation Nux takes seriously, since he believes so much in his causes and his heroes.

If there is one marked difference between Nux at the beginning of canon and Nux at the end, it is the why of what he does rather than the what. As a war boy, he might well have wound up giving his life, but it would have (so he believed) been in the service of a living god, with the faith that his sacrifice would be rewarded in the afterlife. His actions would have had no impact on the people left behind except to hold up the status quo. Through his encounters with Furiosa, Max, and Capable, he comes to see that there are ways to serve that can change things for the better, that there is hope for the end of suffering in this life, and that doing what he can to bring that about is worth it — even if there's no guaranteed reward.

COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING: The world Nux grew up in is wildly chaotic, but the society of war boys led by Immortan Joe was a way to impose order on the chaos and impart honor to its most devoted members. For this and the reasons below, Nux should be Seelie.

Death Before Dishonour
☠
Honor has been the cornerstone of Nux's life for almost as long as he can remember. War boys live to do war, to serve the Immortan, and to reach the end of their half-life with a glorious death. To shrink from the moment of death in the service of the "greater good" is a disservice and a betrayal. Given the choice, Nux would rather face the end of his life than an act of cowardice.

Love Conquers All
☠
Nux's need to believe in something greater than himself goes way back before the Immortan. It began with his mother and father, who refused to sell him or each other out. They trusted in the bonds of love and helped each other survive rather than looking out for 'Number One.' For all that Joe was a tyrant, Nux found a strong camaraderie amongst the war boys, bound together by the love they had for their Immortan. And when he started to turn away from the war boy way of thinking, it was the gentle, caring love of Capable that first convinced him. Although it has always been of a different kind — familial, fraternal, romantic — wherever Nux has turned his faith, love has led the way.

Life and Rebirth
☠
In addition to honor, a good death promised rebirth in Valhalla, an endless road where the great warriors would ride eternal. By the time Nux carries out his final act, flipping the war rig to close off the pass and let the wives escape, he has started to doubt whether Valhalla is waiting for him. Still, not knowing whether there is an afterlife is not the same as believing there isn't one. Once brought into the Drabwurld, he will easily take to the Seelie concept of a cyclical universe.

ABILITIES: Nux has no supernatural abilities. His major talents have to do with the technology of his world, specifically, motor vehicles:

☠ Driver: War, in Nux's world, is fought between speeding vehicles much in the same way ships might do battle on the sea. As a war boy and a driver, Nux can operate a car or truck confidently at high speeds and under hostile conditions.

☠ Black Thumb: Nux understands engines and other vehicle components inside and out, and has a lifetime of practical experience building and repairing car parts. He's competent enough to do repairs even in the midst of a battle while crouched in the undercarriage of a war rig. A practical offshoot of this is the strength and stamina necessary to hang on and keep his focus under physically and mentally challenging circumstances, which is likely to come in handy even without any cars around.

INVENTORY: Nothing but the clothes he was wearing and a few basic tools.

( WRITING ★ SAMPLES )

NETWORK SAMPLE:

[Video. Nux is looking into the locket with a sort of wide-eyed bewilderment.]

What is it?

[He moves the locket over so that it shows the horse he's standing next to.

And back to Nux.]

It's got eyes. Don't like the way it's lookin' at me. [The horse snuffles, and Nux looks nervous for a second — but okay. Focus. He rolls a shoulder, gearing himself up.] But I s'pose you can't walk into war. So, if I'm gonna ride a beast, I gotta know how to drive it without gettin' my skull smashed to schlanger. Any tips?

LOG SAMPLE: Eachdraidh Test Drive