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[overnightoaks]

★ Character Information ★

Character Name: Henry Oak
Character Age: 37
Character Species: 75% human, 25% wood elf
Current Health: injured (stab wound in his shoulder)
Outfit: Henry is wearing: short sleeve button down shirt, organic cotton undershirt, khaki cargo shorts, leather Birkenstocks, white tube socks. He wears glasses but they're not prescription.

Character Canon: Dungeons & Daddies
Link to History: Wiki link. Henry was born in a hippie commune in the Forgotten Realms, the son of a powerful druid named Barry Oak. Barry's mother was brought into the Forgotten Realms by an eldritch being known as the Doodler that represents randomness & chaos. Barry, being her son, bears a fragment of the Doodler's power. Henry also has that power inside him, though he cannot access it consciously. When Henry was a young man, he inadvertently used the Doodler's power within him to transport himself from the Forgotten Realms to our world through a shard of a magic mirror. The experience was so traumatic that it gave him amnesia, and he forgot all about his life in the Forgotten Realms. He was found by a hiker named Mercedes Garcia, and the two would eventually wed and start a family.

Mercedes gave birth to twins whom they named Lark and Sparrow (the Doodler's power passed on from Henry to his sons, growing ever stronger). By the time the boys were twelve, Henry was working as a geologist at the San Dimas Museum of Natural History, living a pleasant life with no memory of ever being anything but a normal, run-of-the-mill human on Earth. One day, while carpooling with some other dads and kids from Lark and Sparrow's soccer team, the minivan they were driving in drove through a portal and wound up in the Forgotten Realms. The group passed out, and when the dads awoke, their sons were gone. They set out on an epic journey to recover their lost sons, during which Henry regained his lost memories and confronted his father. Barry Oak had partnered with two of the other dads' fathers, Bill Close and Willie Stampler, to kidnap their grandsons and attempt to use them to increase their Daddy Magic and become immortal. Henry and his friends took to calling their dads "the Omega Daddies."

Early on in their journey, the dads learned of a prophecy that foretold the coming of the Doodler, "when the blood of the unsung hero is spilled." They only knew of the Doodler as the mascot of their sons' soccer team, which Sparrow had drawn. Weeks or maybe months later, after the sons had been rescued, the Omega Daddies had been defeated, and everyone had made it back home to Earth, the group all gathered at the Oak-Garcia household for a movie night. Sparrow and Lark came to Henry in the kitchen, and Sparrow told Henry that Lark wanted to apologize and bury the hatchet of a grudge he had been holding against Henry. Feeling happy, Henry hugged his son, at which point Lark slipped a knife into Henry's shoulder, revealing that Willie Stampler had told him that Henry was the unsung hero, and by spilling his blood, they would bring the Doodler into the world.

Canon Point: End of Season 1, right as Lark stabs him.
Canon Iteration: Original canon

★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★

Skills:

• identifying rocks/general geology knowledge
  
• freestyle rap
  
• basic first aid
  
• vegan cooking
  
• lip reading
  
• beginner-level salsa dancing
  
• fluency in Spanish

Canon Abilities:

• Druidic Magic — Henry can cast a wide variety of magic spells for healing, defense, or offense. He can teleport himself and others, and transform into any animal he's seen before. (He mostly sticks to the animals from the San Diego Zoo.)
  
• Daddy Magic — Through the power of his strong bond with his sons, Henry can cast the powerful spell Animal Shapes, which allows him to transform groups of willing people into animals.
  
• Elven Blood — Henry's elven lineage from his paternal grandfather gives him certain abilities: he can see in the dark up to sixty feet, he is more able to prevent himself from becoming charmed, and he cannot be put to sleep by magic.

Role: Legend
Role Qualities/Attributes: Upon entry to the world, Henry will gain two mismatched wings, one for each of his sons: the left wing of a lark and the right wing of a sparrow. Any animal that Henry transforms into using his Wild Shape ability will also have these wings, appropriately sized to the animal in question. If he transforms into something that already has wings, it will have two additional tiny lark & sparrow wings somewhere on its body, the appropriate size of an actual lark or sparrow. After spending some more time in Folkmore, he will begin to develop other physical changes— namely the color of his eyes changing with his emotions, and a halo filled with static when he casts any spell higher than first level.
Role Reasoning: Henry is one of the dads' only healers, and he generally sees himself as a good, moral person. He tries very hard to do the right thing at all times, and to make sure he isn't hurting anyone (who doesn't deserve it). When it comes to the prophecy of the ritual that will summon the Doodler, Henry plays the part of the Unsung Hero. Being heroic is in his nature, which comes from a desire to help others, protect the people he loves, and, deep down in a place where he will never admit to it, garner the kind of praise his father would never give him. Henry can also be a very emotional person, and can lose himself to his anger. I'd like to explore the delicate knife's edge Henry is walking with his emotions, between his morality and the dangerous, insidious thing inside of him.

★ Personality ★

OPTION 2 QUESTIONS (PICK 4-5):

What was the most traumatic experience your character endured? How did this change them?

(cw feces/diarrhea mention) After their first confrontation against the Omega Daddies, Henry's friend Darryl Wilson was given a piece of his favorite candy, Charleston Chew, that unbeknownst to him had been cursed by the head Omega Daddy, Willie Stampler. The cursed candy nearly killed Darryl, but through the quick use of magic and healing potions, he was able to shit out the worst of it, suffering only some minor internal bleeding (and some major embarrassment).

When Darryl emerged from the toilet stall at long last, he made the classic dad joke, "Do not go in there!" But Henry was too curious for his own good, and needed to know what foul magic Willie Stampler had used against his friend. He went back into the stall and looked into the soiled toilet bowl. What he saw caused him psychic damage, and placed irreparable cracks in the walls his mind had made to block out all memory of his youth in the Forgotten Realms— blocks he had placed there for his own safety and sanity.

Witnessing the evil poop shook Henry to his very core, and he was unable to recover from the experience until he confronted his father in Oakvale and finally let down the walls keeping his old memories inside.

What is the most important and defining relationship(s) in your character's life and why?

1. Barry Oak — Growing up, Henry never lived up to his father's expectations. No matter how much magic he learned or yoga he practiced, Henry wasn't good enough for Barry. Henry was so driven to please his father, despite resenting him for his lack of affection, that he worked tirelessly until finally he (inadvertently) succeeded where Barry couldn't, and crossed from Faerûn into our universe. However, he was so traumatized by the incident (and his father's abuse), that his mind locked all memories of Faerûn away. All Henry could remember was being unhappy growing up in a hippie commune, and not getting along with his father.
   
   
2. Lark & Sparrow Oak-Garcia — Due to the overbearing nature of Henry's relationship with his father, Henry took the opposite tack when raising his sons. He tried what he calls "free-range parenting," treating his boys like equals and trying to let them make their own decisions, while providing unconditional support and his best attempt at guidance. As such, the Oak boys became wild, violent tweens who craved violence and power above all else. Henry was able to teach Sparrow the value of love and peace, but Lark was not able to be reached. Henry loves his boys fiercely, but he recognizes the anger that he represses inside him manifesting in them, and is terrified of what they have the potential to become.
   
   
3. The Dads — At first, Henry's relationships with Darryl, Glenn, and Ron was one of convenience— their sons played on the same soccer team, and they were carpooling to a tournament together. Over the course of their journey through Faerûn, Henry learned not to judge another man's parenting style by his behavior, such as Glenn's outward insistence that everything was fine even though he'd lost everything when he made the decision to give up his son Nick so that he wouldn't be an orphan. He learned that although Darryl could be a stereotypical masculine sports dad, he was still unwavering in his support of his gay son Grant. And he learned that Ron's cooky behavior that baffled explanation came from a place of real trauma over childhood emotional abuse. Henry's always touted the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but by getting to know the other dads, he learned to practice what he preached.

If you could give your character a Taylor Swift playlist, which songs would be on it and what would they represent about your character?

Tell Me Why (Taylor's Version)

I'm sick and tired of your attitude
I'm feeling like I don't know you
You tell me that you love me,
then you cut me down
And I need you like a heartbeat

Henry's abusive relationship with his father.

exile (feat. Bon Iver)

You're not my homeland anymore
So what am I defending now?
You were my town
Now I'm in exile, seein' you out

Putting his life in Oakvale under his father's thumb behind him.

I Forgot That You Existed

I forgot that you existed
And I thought that it would kill me, but it didn't
And it was so nice
So peaceful and quiet

Forgetting about his father, mother, and prior life in Faerûn.

Out Of The Woods

Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods?
Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet?
In the clear yet, good

Being lost after leaving Faerûn, until he was finally found by Mercedes.

I'm Only Me When I'm With You

And you know everything about me
You say that you can't live without me
I'm only up when you're not down
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground

Falling head over heels in love with Mercedes and starting a new, happy life with her.

marjorie

Never be so polite, you forget your power
Never wield such power,
you forget to be polite
And if I didn't know better
I'd think you were listening to me now

Trying to get through to his chaotic boys and teach them to love other people the way they love each other.

It's Nice To Have A Friend

Twenty questions, we tell the truth
You've been stressed out lately? Yeah, me too
Something gave you the nerve
To touch my hand
It's nice to have a friend

Getting to know the other dads and learn to trust and care for them.

this is me trying

I just wanted you to know
That this is me trying
They told me all of my cages were mental
So I got wasted like all my potential
And my words shoot to kill when I'm mad
I have a lot of regrets about that

Returning to Oakvale, remembering his past, and confronting his father.

You Need To Calm Down

And I ain't trying to mess with your self-expression
But I've learned the lesson that stressin'
And obsessin' 'bout somebody else is no fun
And snakes and stones never broke my bones

Living a life that is accepting of others and denouncing violence unless absolutely necessary.

What is your character's moral code? Do they have one? Why or why not?

Henry has a strong sense of moral certitude that comes from his father's teachings. He thinks of himself as a Good Person who does Good Things. He can fall into the trap of lecturing others about behavior he sees as immoral or bad (such as the time he lectured the rest of the dads over why they shouldn't eat meat, and why his vegan diet is superior), but he is a bit of a hypocrite because in his attempts to be Unproblematic and Woke, he inadvertently allowed his sons to grow into little deviants who want nothing more than to prove themselves in tests of violence. He tried so hard to do the opposite of what his dad did to him, that he overcorrected too far in the other direction, and was too lenient when his sons could have used structure and rules to guide their chaotic behavior.

Henry often is the voice of reason in the group, insisting that they return to Neverwinter to face the consequences of their careless actions which led to the deaths of hundreds of people when they accidentally summoned a giant pyramid on top of a tower, which fell and crushed all the people inside the tower instantly. It’s because of examples like this that Anthony Burch, the DM of the podcast, describes Henry as being objectively the best person in the group. He is so consistent in his idealism that he is more willing to answer for his crimes than he is to evade the law and focus on their main mission of finding and rescuing their sons.

Is your character capable of forgiveness or will they hold a grudge until they die? Would anything ever make them change their mind?

Harry would always rather forgive the people who have wronged him. He does his best to look at things from their perspective so he can understand what made them act the way they did, and in doing this he comes to truly care about them. When confronting his father, Henry says, "Dad, I can’t carry hate for you in my heart. What does that teach my boys? I just told them they’ve got to love everybody, which means I have to love you, and I love you, and I don’t… I don’t want to fight."

However, Henry is only willing to forgive if the person he is forgiving is willing to meet him halfway and not only accept that what they did was wrong, but actively take steps to better themselves so it doesn't happen again. Shortly after giving that impassioned speech, Henry finds out that Barry has actually kidnapped Lark and Sparrow and replaced them with homunculi, even going so far as to lie about it to Henry's face. It becomes clear that Barry was not repentant in the slightest, and only cared about himself, not caring at all about the ways he had hurt Henry. Once this becomes clear, Henry rescinds his offer of an olive branch, and engages his father in combat to save his sons.

★ Player Information ★

Player Name: Chris
Pronouns: she/they
Are you over 18?: yes
Contact(s): millennialfalcon + ©hris#1234
Who Invited You?: Milk/mod
Current Characters: N/A
Permissions: Here
Writing Samples: TDM 1 + TDM 2 + TFLN

Comments

CANON UPDATE - 1/11/23

[overnightoaks]

Player: Chris
Character Name: Henry Oak
Update Details: Update from Season 1 epilogue to Season 2 Episode 23.

Spoilers below, click to expand (CW for eldritch monstrosities, body horror, fighting between father & son)

After Lark stabbed Henry at his prior canon point, black ichor started spewing from Henry, Lark, and Sparrow's eyes, mouths, ears, etc. This was the Doodler being brought into the world after the blood of the Unsung Hero (Henry) was spilled. The Doodler substance flew out Henry's kitchen window and began to spread to cover the whole world, growing so massive it blotted out the entire sky, so the only thing visible when you looked up was "the undulating, scaly, but slimy, but furry, but indescribable exterior of the Doodler's ass."

In the years following, Henry and the other dads make it their mission to fight off the Doodler's influence, but it is a losing battle. They do their best to keep their sons out of it, but it becomes clear that they're either needed for the fight against the Doodler, or they're all just so inextricably linked that it's impossible for them not to fight.

At one point, the dads and sons enter a place known only as The Church of the Doodler, where there is a way that one can look into the mind of the Doodler. They hope to do this to find its weaknesses. After one of their allies, Scam Likely, tries to sit on the throne with no effect, it becomes clear that only someone who has been touched by the Doodler's energy will be able to make the connection. This leaves it up to Henry and his sons.

Henry at first says he'll be the one to do it, but Lark steps up and says no, it's his fault that the Doodler is here, so he will do it. Henry tries to stop him and Lark lashes out, punching Henry first in the face and then in the stomach. Lark gives an emotional speech about how he blames himself for the world becoming Doodlerized, but more than that, he blames Henry for not being a better father, for not stopping him, and more so, for not punishing him after the fact.

Henry tries to tell Lark that he doesn't blame him, that it isn't his fault, that he was only a kid when Willie tricked him into stabbing Henry and unleashing the Doodler. He tells Lark that he forgives him, and that Lark is right, it is Henry's fault that all of this has happened. He begs Lark to let him be the one to sit on the throne, saying that he can't bear to watch something else horrible happen to his beloved son.

However, it is revealed that the whole thing was a ruse. The Lark who had fought with Henry was actually Sparrow in disguise, distracting the dads so that the real Lark could sneak around and sit on the throne while no one was looking. Immediately, Lark's back arched with pain and darkness shot out of his eyes as his mind was connected to the Doodler's mind. Henry and Darryl tried to pull him off the throne, but they too became wracked with pain and overwhelmed by a flood of emotions: love, confusion, betrayal, sadness... and deep anger.

When it passed, Lark gasped for air, and he had a look of fury in his eyes. He refused to talk about what he saw in the Doodler's mind, and insisted that they "just got to fucking kill it."

Mental or Physical Changes: No physical changes, other than the now-healed stab wound in his ribs. Mentally, Henry is even more wracked with guilt and feels like he really failed as a father, by not being able to get through to Lark both before the Doodler was released, and after. He is more tired and battle-weary than he was at his first canon point.