Plurk paste

player
NAME: Hal
DW USERNAME: dichotomy
TIMEZONE: Eastern Standard Time

character
NAME: Hershel Layton
SERIES: The Professor Layton series
WIKI LINK: Wiki here

PERSONALITY: Hershel Layton, at 17 or nearly any other age, is a mild, polite sort of person. He comes off as somewhat passive, usually allowing the people around him to make the moves and decisions, especially his friends. He's not exactly shy with people he knows, as he is shown being more than comfortable speaking to the people around town and is even described as 'adored' by Stansbury. It's not particularly hard to see why, as cliched as it is Hershel obviously has no trouble being a good samaritan and helping out where he can, more often than not solving puzzles for the people in town when they're stuck, curious or just plain bored. That meshed with his general respect and polite nature make him something of a tame, surprisingly behaved teenager- that is until you get Randall involved.

Despite his incredibly mild nature Hershel very obviously enjoys a little adventure in his life, and at 17 that adventure's name is Randall Ascot. Hershel often plays the straightman to Randall's antics, throwing in a voice of reason against Randall's sometimes too exuberant passion for puzzles, archeology and general troublemaking, though it's more than clear that Hershel likes being dragged along. Around Randall and people he's comfortable with, like his parents and Angela, he's also fairly sassy (more so in the British localization than the American) and enjoys ribbing Randall, one of his journal entries proudly titled 'Randall is a pighead' and at other times sarcastically commenting on how kind the Azrans are to Randall when his friend stated that the Azran ruins were waiting to be discovered by him.

Like a lot of teenagers Hershel seems to have some self confidence issues. He's reluctant in a lot of ways, one of his lines for getting a puzzle correct is 'did I get it?' said in a very uncertain tone, and his correct puzzle animation has him looking surprised when he does get a puzzle right. When Randall falls he's quick to blame himself for his friend's death and even eighteen years later he seems to feel a little guilty over leaving Stansbury and everything that happened there. In fact Randall's fall has a not so surprisingly big impact on Hershel. He begins to study archeology in Randall's honor despite his somewhat lukewarm attitude towards it and takes to puzzle solving, one of Randall's other passions, with gusto. Years later Hershel even uses some of Randall's correct puzzle solving lines, and dialogue with a college friend of Hershel's shows he becomes much more adventurous in Randall's stead, taking off of class to go do hands on work though pre-Randall's fall Hershel would certainly not do so (or not do so without a lot of prying from Randall.)

Before getting to know people Hershel seems shy, the picture we have of when he, Angela and Randall first meet having him look somewhat nervous or sheepish. He's a bit of a bookworm, he has to stop himself from picking up a book he hadn't read in a while when he was busy with something else. When Randall was digging up finds Hershel is seen in the background reading rather than contributing. He's also surprisingly sloppy, with a bit of dialogue revealing he tends to leave tea cups under his bed and the only reason his room is as neat as it is being because his mother cleans it. This is shown even more true in the future when we see his office, which is frankly something of a pig stye.

Though he isn't aggressive in the slightest Hershel does also have a passion for fencing, one of the few hobbies he seems to have commitment to other than reading. Despite some of his self confidence issues he comes off as very proud and fairly confident of his fencing, enough that he'll claim Randall can't beat him with a touch of bravado. When confronted with hostile robot mummies (yeah, I know) he's fairly quick to react and defend himself. He's clever and a decent fencer, his smarts coming more from his problem solving ability more than anything else, and his fighting strength coming more from what appears to be daily practice.

On the other hand his weakness is he can be something of a doormat, allowing Randall to go on a dangerous adventure and following him into it despite the fact both he and Angela very vocally disagree. Even when he tries to put his foot down he is rather quickly swayed, in both important and trivial matters. Socially he's also a bit awkward, especially with situations he doesn't understand. When talking to Henry they end up falling into awkward silence as Hershel clearly has no idea what to say and they end the conversation quickly.

AU DETAILS: The Layton universe is a bit offbeat but normal enough to fit into the modern day/Zero Escape world fairly easily. One of the main differences would likely be that the Azrans, who are an ancient, dead people who were once more advanced than current society, wouldn't exist or would be the same as any normal, ancient race. In turn that means Targent, the militarized group obsessed with the Azran that kidnapped young Hershel's parents, would likely be an organization with different goals though they would still do the same basic things.

In this AU most of Hershel's life would stay the same. He's be born to Leon and Rachel Bronev, the younger sibling to his brother, Hershel Bronev. His birthname is Theodore, and for the first five years of his life that would be his name. As stated above his parents get kidnapped, leaving him and his brother alone in the house. Eventually parents are found for Hershel but he, knowing Theo was far too young to be on his own and worrying about his happiness, tells Theo to tell them his name is Hershel. Theo reluctantly agrees and goes with his new adopted parents, the Laytons, leaving his brother and home behind.

Being only five and somewhat traumatized by all that happened Theo- now Hershel- forgets almost everything about his early childhood, including his brother and his original name, taking his brother's lie as the truth. Eventually, at around 13, he moves to Stansbury, a quiet English town next to some interesting archeological site. He still make friends with an excitable boy with a passion for archeology and puzzles. Note that for the purposes of the game and any Randall who may want to apply at some point as an older version or au them in differently that I'm keeping this friend's identity vague. Also, for the purposes of keeping this app easier to read, I'll be calling the friend Randall, even if it ends up not being Randall Ascot as we know it.

Randall finds the key to finding the site of some very ancient, unexplored ruins, dragging a reluctant Hershel along. The ruins would have a lot less puzzle related, Indiana Jones traps but Randall would still fall after part of the floor crumbled, Hershel unable to pull him back up when Randall doesn't give him his other hand.

Around the time he'd be taken from he and his family would be moving to London so Hershel could leave Stansbury behind and start college. Randall is presumed dead by Hershel and most of the town.


AU/MEMORY LOSS EFFECTS: There'd be very few differences because of the AU, the biggest being he'd understand more advanced technology than his canon had, things like cellphones and computers and the like. Other than that puzzle wouldn't be as insanely prevalent, so he'd be less likely to give people puzzles all the time or think finding puzzles hidden in his hair is normal.

The memory loss would change a bit but not a large amount: he wouldn't remember the events of Stansbury, so he wouldn't be as down about killing his friend or nervous. He'll likely be shyer than he'd usually be at this point in time, but would still come out of his shell much more easily as time went on. Canonly he seems to take losing and remembering large parts of his life in surprising stride, so for the most part he'll be unsure and shaken, of course, but he'll handle it.