Pegasus J Crawford (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mister_foppish) wrote2013-02-05 12:25 pm
mister_foppish) wrote2013-02-05 12:25 pm
App for GB
OOC:
Name: Cinders
Are you over 16?: Old enough! 22.
Personal DW:holy_cinders
Email: bloody.canticle@hotmail.com
Timezone: PST
Other contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://www.plurk.com/favicon.ico)
holy_cinders
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: I blame Emmy.
IC:
Character name: Pegasus J. Crawford
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Timeline: Post Duelist Kingdom; After his defeat Pegasus fell off of everyone's radar, disappearing completely. Come episode 41 Croquet mentioned Pegasus had been put in the hospital. He himself later let it be known that during that time he was lingering on the verge of death and had to be taken care of by doctors around the clock. It is in this period of time during his recovery that I wish to take him from as it will, I feel, help his development in the game considerably.
Age: 24
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths:
At this point in his canon he will not have any noteworthy "magical" abilities. He is, for all intents and purposes, simply a man, as the Millennium item he was once in possession of was stolen* (more on this in the background information), hence robbing him of what supernatural powers he once had.
Several strengths are worth noting however:
Flair for Business
Despite his eccentricities Pegasus has proven himself to be a very capable businessman, and as he's said to Yugi, he doesn't make mistakes. As Head of the Company of Industrial Illusions, it is the only company that never suffered from financial hardship during the entirety of the show.
Painting and Romance
He is shown engaging in this hobby from a very young age, indicating he probably had enough financial security to pursue a career that wouldn't necessarily be economically viable. He uses his art to portray what is important to him, specifically represented in the full frontal portraits of Shadi and Cyndia. He is capable of much more dynamic poses since he initially created all the Duel Monsters cards himself.
Strengths:
As discussed in his personality section, Pegasus has several key strengths that made him once a rather effective villain and presently make him a rather effective businessman: His highly driven sense of professionalism, his ability at diplomacy, and his high versatility. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants, and knows how to convince or manipulate others into following along with his demands in whatever fashion he sees fit. When these qualities are cultivated towards something he has in mind, he can be quite the force indeed. Highly inventive and creative by nature, Pegasus always finds ways to implement people or things into his designs. He is also an incredibly savvy businessman, which also points to his being highly intelligent. While his intelligence is sometimes overlooked because of his eccentric behavior, he often uses this to his advantage.
Though flamboyant he still manages to know how to entertain in just the right manner to create intrigue rather than disgust, being quite the showman as the CEO of Industrial Illusions and the Creator of Duel Monsters. He's always seen to be in front of large crowds of people, his adoring audience, who cheer for him. To command such a presence he'd need to wield quite the charm indeed. Hence, his charisma is also very high.
Pegasus is also quite capable of being honorable, which may be unusual for his type, but he has a code which he abides by in his own way, seeing it as "rude" or unacceptable to cheat at a card game even though he once stole the souls of others and imprisoned them.
Weaknesses:
He's mentioned several times in canon that he detests sports, thus I do not see him as a particularly athletic person at all! Hence, he does not boast any noteworthy physical abilities. But while most of his powers are indeed mental he isn't clumsy, simply not a fighting type at all. He is also somewhat of an emotional hermit due to his wife's death, which makes it difficult for him to have any worthwhile attachments to others—indeed, even to Kaiba he has mentioned several times that toons were "his best friends".
Pegasus is noted to have something of a short temper as well, especially if one manages to push his buttons. He hates losing, crassness, or uptight people in general, which can make him a bit on the immature side.
Even though the Millennium Eye gave him incredible power, it influenced evil due to its curse, causing the wielder to hunger for dark powers and eventually corrupting the mind. To that end, because the Millennium Eye also had a negative effect on his perception of others, he had a low tolerance for others' faults and became incredibly angry, for instance, when Bandit Keith cheated in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. As a result, he is secretly lonely and often depressed given he cannot relate to others easily. He often ends up alone, saying that he prefers solitude, and in turn becomes more bitter overall.
How would they use their abilities?: Given Pegasus' propensity to have charisma, his showmanship, and his high versatility, he will use his clever designs to make a name for himself, get business ties, and establish his place on the S.S. Thor. Rather than allow himself to remain poor he will adapt, with the end result being to reinvent himself and his company.
Appearance:
Height/Weight: 6’2”/143 lbs
Birthday: 10/8/1973
Extremely tall, with a dandified if not effeminate appearance. His hair is silver, long, and always falls over the left side of his face, to keep what used to house his Millennium Eye from being seen. It now simply hides the empty socket where the Millennium Eye used to be.
He prefers expensive clothes, often wearing a carmine suit with his signature ruffled shirt and a bow tie beneath it, though he is seen wearing other lovely fashionable wear in the series as well.
Background:
A long time ago Pegasus met a lovely girl named Cyndia at a party his father in his countryside estate, a businessman in Las Vegas, had hosted. Even though they were just children at the time he fell instantly in love. So in love with her was he that she became the object of his adoration, his muse. So perfect and pure was this girl that he painted portrait after portrait of her, immortalizing her in his paintings. And when he reached the age of 17, they were wed. Tragically however, their love was never meant to flourish, for she died not long afterwards. The anime is not exactly clear about the cause of her death other than it being a "terrible illness", but it rattled the spirit of the poor man, and his heart grew bitter and cold.
This led him in chase of the Egyptian legends which say that meeting the deceased are possible. And so he went to Egypt in search of a way to resurrect his dead lover. When he got there he found much more than what he'd initially bargained for. While in the village that is known in the manga as Kul Elna, Pegasus met a mysterious Egyptian man who warned him to go home, that he should not be there in Egypt as it would not heal his grief. However, what fueled his broken heart would not be healed by turning back then. Despite the warning the then young Pegasus followed him unto an underground temple where the resting place of the Millennium Items were.
This stranger's name was Shadi, a guardian of the seven Millennium items, and Pegasus, having witnessed something he shouldn't have—the punishment of a tomb robber—could not be allowed to leave, for it was sacred ground. Shadi used this as a way to test him to be one of the sacred items' owner, and it was then that he gained the Millennium Eye in exchange for his human eye and to be granted his dearest wish: a last chance to see his dead lover, Cyndia, again. (Had he not been seen as worthy the only thing awaiting him would've been death.) The Eye accepted him, and he was given his one dearest wish, and he held Cyndia for one last time.
It was this event that led to Pegasus' creation of Duel Monsters, along with years of intensive study of the ancient Egyptian shadow games, and the palettes that held the stone tablets' portraits of what would be their later card counterparts. He promptly created Industrial Illusions, his company that produces Duel Monsters. Then by deciphering the magic words kept hidden in Duel Monsters and converting them into IC chips, Pegasus made an enormous fortune.
Pegasus visited Egypt several times afterwards, a notable incident being when he heard of the existence of the Gods. He constructed an expedition to find the Gods' tablets, which with Shadi's help, he was able to do so. He then returned to America to create the God cards, basing them off of the tablets themselves. However, everyone involved in working on the excavation of the God cards died. Despite this, he stubbornly refused to stop the project. He became obsessed with their powers to the point where he said to Shadi at one point that if the devil himself must devour his soul so be it, that he had to complete the game with their creation. Out of deviance or perhaps simply that obsession that fueled his ambitions, Pegasus painted the god cards themselves with his own hands. However, faced with a terrible vision and a warning that Duel Monsters held the power to destroy the world, he was forced to realize he could not control all three of the Gods at once. Fearing for the worst, Pegasus then heeded Shadi's warning, and went back to Egypt to have Ishizu Ishtar, a tomb guardian, seal the Egyptian God Cards back within their resting place.
Around the same time that Duel Monsters was starting to become a big hit like Pegasus wanted, he received a business proposal from Seto Kaiba from Kaiba Corporations inquiring about the development of Dueling Arenas using Kaiba's Virtual Simulation System (aka Solid Vision holographics) to amplify the game. It wasn't until Pegasus was called out by the "Card Professor" Bandit Keith, who wanted to challenge him via the Intercontinental Duel Monsters Championship, the game's creator to a duel, that he would accept Kaiba's proposal.
It was a great spectacle in itself, as Pegasus, taking this as an insult, agreed to the challenge if it was made a public event in front of a live audience. As expected, it wouldn't go as Keith hoped. Instead of dueling him directly Pegasus picks a child from the audience whose name is Tom, writes down every move he'd need to beat Bandit Keith, and has him duel in his place. Using that written strategy alone the child defeated him, humiliating him and essentially destroying his reputation as a duelist. Meanwhile he himself sat next to Kaiba the entire time, discussing the business proposal and starting their company relations.
Sometime before the beginning of Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus became informed of how a boy named Yugi Mutou defeated Kaiba in a duel, and hence Kaiba's investors were not happy with him given his and his company's reputation banked on Kaiba being the number one gamer in Japan. The Big 5 as they were called struck a deal with Pegasus: If he could defeat Yugi Mutou in a duel to restore Kaiba Corporations' reputation, they would hand over the stocks of the company to him. The deal was quite attractive to him, for various reasons. Pegasus knew it to be his chance. If he could get ahold of Kaiba Corporations' technology, there was a strong possibility he could resurrect Cyndia using a combination of magic and its Solid Vision technology. For this reason he would go to such extreme lengths, designing the Duelist Kingdom tournament as a means to defeat Yugi.
Using the dark magic of his Millennium Eye, Pegasus sent a video tape and the items inviting him to participate in the tournament (along with 40 other notable contenders, making this an official DM tournament). Through the video tape using a shadow game Pegasus was able to test Yugi's abilities in a timed duel, and thus forced him to participate in the tournament itself by stealing the soul of Yugi's grandfather via a Penalty Game. The conditions being that if Yugi wished to have his grandfather's soul back then he had to go to Duelist Kingdom. Likewise, in order to set the wheels of motion on Kaiba's behalf, he had his henchmen kidnap his little brother Mokuba given he held a key to a safe that held key documents to his taking over Kaiba Corporation and had them go after Kaiba himself as well.
Kaiba however managed to escape his henchmens' clutches, and make it to Pegasus' island to attempt to strike a deal with Pegasus in order to get Mokuba back. Pegasus' terms were then changed. He stole Mokuba's soul before when he'd attempted to escape and using that his advantage, stating that If Kaiba wanted his brother back he had to collect star chips on the island like the other duelists in order to have the right to challenge him himself. Five star chips he gave Kaiba that Mokuba had previously stolen, and the other five he would have to collect by defeating Yugi. Kaiba proved good on his end of the bargain, and when he attempted to challenge Pegasus himself, proposing that they use his duel disks in what he thought would be a way to thwart his Millennium Eye, Pegasus refused by saying if he wished to use them then he would have Mokuba's soulless body operate the duel disk in his place. Of course, Kaiba then was forced to operate on Pegasus' terms, and with the ability to read Kaiba's mind Pegasus defeated him and collected his soul as well. That had been the risk, after all, and really it was a victory that would make his job easier in the end.
While Yugi battled his way through the semi-finals Bandit Keith, still angry with Pegasus over his humiliation, held a gun to Pegasus' head and demanded the prize money of the tournament. Pegasus however stayed calm and merely opened a trap door that caused Keith to fall into the ocean. As predicted, Yugi wins and is thus allowed to face Pegasus in the final duel. Prior to the duel it was agreed that should Yugi lose Pegasus would then collect his soul. But if Pegasus lost he would release the souls of both Yugi's grandfather and that of the Kaiba brothers. Armed with the Millennium Eye, this duel indeed would not be easy.
While initially gaining the advantage, Yugi was able to eventually outsmart him, by using a mind shuffle technique that kept Pegasus from reading his mind since it was then that Pegasus became aware that this change in minds, or personalities, was actually the manifestation of an ancient spirit living in the puzzle hanging around Yugi’s neck. The mind shuffle technique thus worked by having each of them play a card face-down and then having Yugi switch to the other mind without letting the other know what card they played.
Even though the dark powers of the Millennium Eye were able to engage a Shadow Game that led to the collapse of the purer self of Yugi, the "other" or "Yami" Yugi was able to carry on and with the aid of Yugi's friends reaching out to protect him, allowed him to destroy Pegasus' monsters and win the duel. Pegasus, ending up defeated, is utterly stunned that he should lose and disappears shortly to his sanctuary, where he begins to realize that perhaps he had been wrong. True to his word, he releases the souls of Yugi's grandfather Sugoroku, and that of Kaiba and Mokuba. However, while in his sanctuary he is attacked by the dark spirit living in the Millennium Ring worn by Bakura, who steals the Millennium Eye from him easily with his powers being weak due to the duel with Yugi. Pegasus is last seen being carried away by Croquet and several of his bodyguards, who mention that Pegasus had been attacked. Yugi and his friends are thus able to proceed to his sanctuary and obtain his journal, which detailed the story of his tragic past.
Personality:
Incredible Eccentricity/Bizarre Behavior
Pegasus is quite the mixed bag of tricks; Over the course of the series his behavior ranges from campy to downright diabolical. Upon first impression he seemed nothing more than a cheater with a thirst for power who used others to achieve his own ambitions. However, this impression is eventually changed when his true motives are revealed. His motivations for acting as the above was all for the dream of seeing his deceased wife, Cyndia again. Furthermore, despite Pegasus' archetype as an "eccentric American", we find that his character is made more compelling because of his inner bitterness and coldness for having had experienced tragedy at such a young age. His heart became cold after his wife's death, and from this, we see that the corrupting influences of the Millennium Eye were able to come to fruition.
On the surface he displays quite a theatrical range of emotion, playing games with other's minds just to see their reactions, and appears to enjoy dissecting their inner struggles. He can even become rather spiteful when provoked, going so far as to toy with a person's emotions in order to punish them. He especially hates any untoward comments towards himself, uptight people, and crassness.
He purposely acts immature sometimes to catch others off guard, though as he reveals to Yugi in one of their duels, he is perfectly in control at all times. Oftentimes he'll refer to Yugi and Kaiba by the condescending—if not playful—nicknames "Kaiba-boy" and "Yugi-boy," which suggests that initially that these two duelists are the only ones he considers a threat, and therefore the only ones worth toying with. However, as he continues to call them this long after the tournament we could also conclude he does this out of an ironic fondness for them.
Mostly though, he seems to be amused by their reactions, especially Kaiba, and thus he channels a lot of energy into annoying him—though in some cases he can be cruel in exacting his frustration out on him. For instance, he kidnaps Kaiba's little brother Mokuba not only "just for laughs", but because by having Kaiba enter Duelist Kingdom he has a shot at taking over KaibaCorp, which he needs to further his ambitions and achieve his end goal of resurrecting his dead wife.
This show of power play makes him a clever man, and indeed, he's found to be highly intelligent.
Even for all his showy acts and mock theatrics, Pegasus does in fact know how to behave properly when he wants to and when the occasion calls for it. In a professional setting, Pegasus shows himself to be an efficient and brilliant businessman, and even though that is contradictory to his outwardly strange behaviors and personality traits that seem to prevent him from running a business properly, he has a remarkable talent for selling himself, his ideas, and his company. He has very high standards of behavior despite not always holding himself up to that level, and was raised with a strong sense of what is and what is not "proper". (Example: While he's not honorable in that he tries to steal Kaiba's company out from under him, he keeps his word when Yugi defeats him.) And while he is campy in the privacy of his own home, he is entirely in control of himself in other situations where his affluence doesn't allow him to behave however he wants. To that end, he's very versatile.
Overall, due to his wide range of emotion that can seem borderline insane, creepy, or quite simply bizarre, Pegasus proves himself to be somewhat unusual for a villain, honoring his pledge to Yugi Mutou about releasing the souls of the Kaiba brothers and Yugi's grandfather after he lost the duel to Yugi, claiming to be both "duty bound" and a "man of his word".
Loneliness/Darkness/Solitary
We know very little of his childhood, but from a brief flashback in which he is shown engaging in painting at a young age, we get the impression that Pegasus was a very solitary boy with solitary habits, and did not prefer physical activity in comparison to other boys his age. In fact, because his father was an affluent businessman in Las Vegas it's not altogether hard to imagine how a young boy transformed into a man with a flair for the theatrical. His eccentricity stems in part from his wealthier background, where he was free to engage himself in a number of flighty pursuits deemed economically inviable, such as painting and romance.
This appears to carry over into his adult life as well, as Pegasus has also been shown to be an incredibly solitary man, a habit that extends back into his childhood. In fact, most of Pegasus' dialogue outside of his duels is directed at himself. Aside from the times when he is accompanied by his butler Croquet, he is almost never seen interacting with anyone outside of giving his men orders. This ties in with the fact that much of his idealism presumably died with Cecelia. Consequently, during Duelist Kingdom, his tolerance of others' faults is incredibly low when it should be more optimistic (in the manga he essentially kills Bandit Keith for cheating). The fact that the Millennium Eye appears to affect his perception of others it is reasonable to assume that he would not go out of his way to seek the company of others. The fact that he owns and lives on his own private island attests to this fact: Pegasus either just doesn’t care for other people’s company or cannot seem to make any worthwhile friends.
His Love for Toons/Childishness
His sense of humor is also shown to be somewhat juvenile at times, and he seems to possess a degree of schadenfreude that can seem child-like, laughing at the expense of others. And all too often Pegasus gets rather annoyed when others don't share in on his jokes, and complains that he only wants to have fun. His desire for constant amusement is a very immature aspect of his personality, as it keeps him from being more considerate of others. On that note, he doesn't "play nice" with others, either. If anything, he's very self-centered, overindulgent of himself even. He doesn't like losing, and has no intentions of playing fair in order to win (though he does appear to object to other people cheating). It should come as no surprise then that among his hobbies one of his favorite things to do is read comics and watch cartoons. (His absolute favorite being "Funny Bunny", which is your typical American cartoon about a clever rabbit forever running away from McRuff McRuff, a police dog.)
Hence, this "childish mindset" of his can be ascribed to how he values innocence and simple enjoyments. He even has an obsession with cartoons, stating that they were the "absolute best" and his "best friends" growing up.
High aesthetic sense, Idealistic and romantic
Highly idealistic and romantic, Pegasus's true motivations are worth reexamining, if solely for the reason that much of his motivation stems from this. As mentioned before, Pegasus fell desperately in love with Cyndia when they were just children, and he even ends up marrying her when he was just 17. However, after her tragic death, he continues to idolize her, going so far to chase after her shadow into the cursed lands of Egypt not only because he loves her, but because grieving and moving on would be normal. Romance requires of Pegasus that he devote his life to the woman he loved and not move past her death.
This idealistic attitude is also apparent in how he deals with Kaiba and Yugi's competition towards one another. He pits them against one another and steals the souls of their loved ones for little more reason than it adds an air of romance to the story; It gives Yugi and Kaiba's struggles a sense of tragedy. Pegasus appreciates the tragic because tragedy is an essential element of romance. In his deck and dueling strategies as well, Pegasus proves to be quite romantic/idealistic. True, his deck is toon themed, which might appear strange to anyone else, but that is his favorite art form; which, therefore makes Toons quite important to him. Thus, the toon side of his deck represents his aesthetic sense: the ideal. However, Pegasus' deck also has a lot of dark monsters like Relinquished—monsters which represent the tragic side of life.
Mysticism
It might be said that Pegasus has a very "impractical" view of the world by Kaiba's standards, as his mysticism goes hand in hand with his idealism and aesthetic senses. To Pegasus, magic, gods, and the supernatural are not only possible, but real. He believed this even before he came into contact with the Millennium Items and the dark magics of Egypt. In fact, Pegasus is open to all sorts of spiritual experiences; in this sense, symbolism is very important to him, and possibly why he is so successful in his campaign with Duel Monsters.
He even allows himself to be used by the Millennium Eye simply because it is his destined role. Hence, because he was chosen by the Millennium Eye to resurrect the game of Duel Monsters he considers himself to be a guardian of the game and of the cards, which might explain why he reacts so negatively to cheating.
He's wary of how powerful he creates the cards, not only because they may be too powerful within the limits of the game, but because he's aware of how dangerous they could be if they fell into the wrong hands.
Have you read up on how the game works?: Plugin: Flaming Ferrit!
Money is earned by trifles known as missions, which are issued from other people/aliens or 'ship' missions, or by sucking off your cast mates and/or friends like a moocher. Or stealing, if that floats your boat.
1st person sample:
Croquet-saaaan! Where the devil are you?! Oh my god!! What? Unbelievable! Ridiculous, I absolutely don't believe it! Let go of me this instant or I will file a harassment suit!
No. I will not…[huffs, off-screen, it seems there's some kind of commotion going on. Or just that he's creating a scene. Nothing too unusual, given who he is!]
Please! I don't want to have to use force but I will…! W-waaah!! [There's a comically splayed Pegasus knocked right onto his rear.]
O-oh. Ouch. You…Oh, that does it!
[Definitely not one of his more graceful moments. His arms are crossed and he is pouting! Being manhandled was no amount of fun for him. Not to mention he's about as mad as he possibly could be, given the less-than-favorable situation. They were not treating him with any amount of respect or courtesy here, which he certainly was used to getting!]
You're making a serious mistake! Do you know who I am? I am Pegasus J. Crawford, creator of Duel Monsters. That's right! Get me your Captain, immediately! You've….never heard of me? You can't be serious! I will be informing the proper authorities about you. Now out of my way! I haven't time to waste with you.
3rd person sample:
Pegasus had seen many amazing things on his travels to Egypt, where Gods were real, but nothing, absolutely nothing like this! A spaceship. A real-life spaceship! Mankind had always been on the verge of space travel, one day, for sure. But, this was beyond the imagination! Unbelievable! Simply breathtaking. He sat with his face nearly pressed to the glass, utterly amazed as billions of stars and planets and galaxies seemed to almost float on by.
Just as in his endeavors to develop Duel Monsters for Industrial Illusions' reputation to become the hit it was, he would've thrown away his very soul if it meant having even a fraction of the power that this ingenious space station seemed to possess!
"Whether it be the power of the gods or the power of darkness, I can control both with no trouble!" He'd once said that, as he sat painting the Gods themselves after everyone on his expedition died by their curse. He got cocky. Bold in his suppositions then. But to be truthful this was an unprecedented situation for him. In the time it took for him to recover he had had a long time to reflect on what he'd done wrong, in the past. He'd admitted once, to Cyndia's likeness in his Sanctuary, as much. He knew it to be so. His defeat had startled him to a frightening reality.
The interest he once had for forbidden powers was waning. Instead, in his absence from the limelight he focused on producing Duel Monsters cards, and maintaining Industrial Illusions' reputation while he was away. The fact that he'd trifled with dark powers, was later robbed of his strength, and lingered on the verge of death proved that Pegasus was more than happy to keep from being in the forefront. At least, not like before. He was still weak. He was also still not fully recovered from all that had happened at Duelist Kingdom, after that thief had stolen the Millennium Eye.
His gaze wavered, just as his powers waned the moment he'd succumbed to his illness brought on by his failure. As he sat, staring out the thick glass window into the empty stars, he grew…heavier. His excitement waned. It was plain to anyone who could see that this man, no matter who he claimed to be, was but a fraction of what he used to be. Or perhaps, he simply held experiences no man could rightly boast or tell, and in his reflections, was made all the more miserable because of them.
Just that the realization of space was so big and empty and lonely, and it reminded him of terrible memories…The endless nights of nightmares, of darker days, and the whisperings of ancient card games that held the power to destroy the entire world. This alone he had made for himself, and now, it was gone. His empire, in effect, was destroyed. Along with it, all that he cared about. Was this even worse than when he'd been faced by utter ridicule from all sides? From when his very life had been held in the balance?
Through it all, if he had managed to succeed and escape with his life, this was a situation he could pull through. Somehow. He'd lived through it all. After dabbling in those gruesome rituals, and engaging in occult magic this had to be a piece of cake, right? No matter if the Eye was presently absent, and if his original purpose had been fulfilled, Pegasus became aware that this journey would simply be that. Another chapter as of yet unwritten…To that end, he would brave this, just as he had when Shadi had imposed the Eye itself on him.
Questions?: Do you like card games?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: 8( I tried.Yes!
Name: Cinders
Are you over 16?: Old enough! 22.
Personal DW:
holy_cindersEmail: bloody.canticle@hotmail.com
Timezone: PST
Other contact:
Characters already in the game: N/A
How did you find us?: I blame Emmy.
IC:
Character name: Pegasus J. Crawford
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Timeline: Post Duelist Kingdom; After his defeat Pegasus fell off of everyone's radar, disappearing completely. Come episode 41 Croquet mentioned Pegasus had been put in the hospital. He himself later let it be known that during that time he was lingering on the verge of death and had to be taken care of by doctors around the clock. It is in this period of time during his recovery that I wish to take him from as it will, I feel, help his development in the game considerably.
Age: 24
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths:
At this point in his canon he will not have any noteworthy "magical" abilities. He is, for all intents and purposes, simply a man, as the Millennium item he was once in possession of was stolen* (more on this in the background information), hence robbing him of what supernatural powers he once had.
Several strengths are worth noting however:
Flair for Business
Despite his eccentricities Pegasus has proven himself to be a very capable businessman, and as he's said to Yugi, he doesn't make mistakes. As Head of the Company of Industrial Illusions, it is the only company that never suffered from financial hardship during the entirety of the show.
Painting and Romance
He is shown engaging in this hobby from a very young age, indicating he probably had enough financial security to pursue a career that wouldn't necessarily be economically viable. He uses his art to portray what is important to him, specifically represented in the full frontal portraits of Shadi and Cyndia. He is capable of much more dynamic poses since he initially created all the Duel Monsters cards himself.
Strengths:
As discussed in his personality section, Pegasus has several key strengths that made him once a rather effective villain and presently make him a rather effective businessman: His highly driven sense of professionalism, his ability at diplomacy, and his high versatility. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants, and knows how to convince or manipulate others into following along with his demands in whatever fashion he sees fit. When these qualities are cultivated towards something he has in mind, he can be quite the force indeed. Highly inventive and creative by nature, Pegasus always finds ways to implement people or things into his designs. He is also an incredibly savvy businessman, which also points to his being highly intelligent. While his intelligence is sometimes overlooked because of his eccentric behavior, he often uses this to his advantage.
Though flamboyant he still manages to know how to entertain in just the right manner to create intrigue rather than disgust, being quite the showman as the CEO of Industrial Illusions and the Creator of Duel Monsters. He's always seen to be in front of large crowds of people, his adoring audience, who cheer for him. To command such a presence he'd need to wield quite the charm indeed. Hence, his charisma is also very high.
Pegasus is also quite capable of being honorable, which may be unusual for his type, but he has a code which he abides by in his own way, seeing it as "rude" or unacceptable to cheat at a card game even though he once stole the souls of others and imprisoned them.
Weaknesses:
He's mentioned several times in canon that he detests sports, thus I do not see him as a particularly athletic person at all! Hence, he does not boast any noteworthy physical abilities. But while most of his powers are indeed mental he isn't clumsy, simply not a fighting type at all. He is also somewhat of an emotional hermit due to his wife's death, which makes it difficult for him to have any worthwhile attachments to others—indeed, even to Kaiba he has mentioned several times that toons were "his best friends".
Pegasus is noted to have something of a short temper as well, especially if one manages to push his buttons. He hates losing, crassness, or uptight people in general, which can make him a bit on the immature side.
Even though the Millennium Eye gave him incredible power, it influenced evil due to its curse, causing the wielder to hunger for dark powers and eventually corrupting the mind. To that end, because the Millennium Eye also had a negative effect on his perception of others, he had a low tolerance for others' faults and became incredibly angry, for instance, when Bandit Keith cheated in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. As a result, he is secretly lonely and often depressed given he cannot relate to others easily. He often ends up alone, saying that he prefers solitude, and in turn becomes more bitter overall.
How would they use their abilities?: Given Pegasus' propensity to have charisma, his showmanship, and his high versatility, he will use his clever designs to make a name for himself, get business ties, and establish his place on the S.S. Thor. Rather than allow himself to remain poor he will adapt, with the end result being to reinvent himself and his company.
Appearance:
Height/Weight: 6’2”/143 lbs
Birthday: 10/8/1973
Extremely tall, with a dandified if not effeminate appearance. His hair is silver, long, and always falls over the left side of his face, to keep what used to house his Millennium Eye from being seen. It now simply hides the empty socket where the Millennium Eye used to be.
He prefers expensive clothes, often wearing a carmine suit with his signature ruffled shirt and a bow tie beneath it, though he is seen wearing other lovely fashionable wear in the series as well.
Background:
A long time ago Pegasus met a lovely girl named Cyndia at a party his father in his countryside estate, a businessman in Las Vegas, had hosted. Even though they were just children at the time he fell instantly in love. So in love with her was he that she became the object of his adoration, his muse. So perfect and pure was this girl that he painted portrait after portrait of her, immortalizing her in his paintings. And when he reached the age of 17, they were wed. Tragically however, their love was never meant to flourish, for she died not long afterwards. The anime is not exactly clear about the cause of her death other than it being a "terrible illness", but it rattled the spirit of the poor man, and his heart grew bitter and cold.
This led him in chase of the Egyptian legends which say that meeting the deceased are possible. And so he went to Egypt in search of a way to resurrect his dead lover. When he got there he found much more than what he'd initially bargained for. While in the village that is known in the manga as Kul Elna, Pegasus met a mysterious Egyptian man who warned him to go home, that he should not be there in Egypt as it would not heal his grief. However, what fueled his broken heart would not be healed by turning back then. Despite the warning the then young Pegasus followed him unto an underground temple where the resting place of the Millennium Items were.
This stranger's name was Shadi, a guardian of the seven Millennium items, and Pegasus, having witnessed something he shouldn't have—the punishment of a tomb robber—could not be allowed to leave, for it was sacred ground. Shadi used this as a way to test him to be one of the sacred items' owner, and it was then that he gained the Millennium Eye in exchange for his human eye and to be granted his dearest wish: a last chance to see his dead lover, Cyndia, again. (Had he not been seen as worthy the only thing awaiting him would've been death.) The Eye accepted him, and he was given his one dearest wish, and he held Cyndia for one last time.
It was this event that led to Pegasus' creation of Duel Monsters, along with years of intensive study of the ancient Egyptian shadow games, and the palettes that held the stone tablets' portraits of what would be their later card counterparts. He promptly created Industrial Illusions, his company that produces Duel Monsters. Then by deciphering the magic words kept hidden in Duel Monsters and converting them into IC chips, Pegasus made an enormous fortune.
Pegasus visited Egypt several times afterwards, a notable incident being when he heard of the existence of the Gods. He constructed an expedition to find the Gods' tablets, which with Shadi's help, he was able to do so. He then returned to America to create the God cards, basing them off of the tablets themselves. However, everyone involved in working on the excavation of the God cards died. Despite this, he stubbornly refused to stop the project. He became obsessed with their powers to the point where he said to Shadi at one point that if the devil himself must devour his soul so be it, that he had to complete the game with their creation. Out of deviance or perhaps simply that obsession that fueled his ambitions, Pegasus painted the god cards themselves with his own hands. However, faced with a terrible vision and a warning that Duel Monsters held the power to destroy the world, he was forced to realize he could not control all three of the Gods at once. Fearing for the worst, Pegasus then heeded Shadi's warning, and went back to Egypt to have Ishizu Ishtar, a tomb guardian, seal the Egyptian God Cards back within their resting place.
Around the same time that Duel Monsters was starting to become a big hit like Pegasus wanted, he received a business proposal from Seto Kaiba from Kaiba Corporations inquiring about the development of Dueling Arenas using Kaiba's Virtual Simulation System (aka Solid Vision holographics) to amplify the game. It wasn't until Pegasus was called out by the "Card Professor" Bandit Keith, who wanted to challenge him via the Intercontinental Duel Monsters Championship, the game's creator to a duel, that he would accept Kaiba's proposal.
It was a great spectacle in itself, as Pegasus, taking this as an insult, agreed to the challenge if it was made a public event in front of a live audience. As expected, it wouldn't go as Keith hoped. Instead of dueling him directly Pegasus picks a child from the audience whose name is Tom, writes down every move he'd need to beat Bandit Keith, and has him duel in his place. Using that written strategy alone the child defeated him, humiliating him and essentially destroying his reputation as a duelist. Meanwhile he himself sat next to Kaiba the entire time, discussing the business proposal and starting their company relations.
Sometime before the beginning of Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus became informed of how a boy named Yugi Mutou defeated Kaiba in a duel, and hence Kaiba's investors were not happy with him given his and his company's reputation banked on Kaiba being the number one gamer in Japan. The Big 5 as they were called struck a deal with Pegasus: If he could defeat Yugi Mutou in a duel to restore Kaiba Corporations' reputation, they would hand over the stocks of the company to him. The deal was quite attractive to him, for various reasons. Pegasus knew it to be his chance. If he could get ahold of Kaiba Corporations' technology, there was a strong possibility he could resurrect Cyndia using a combination of magic and its Solid Vision technology. For this reason he would go to such extreme lengths, designing the Duelist Kingdom tournament as a means to defeat Yugi.
Using the dark magic of his Millennium Eye, Pegasus sent a video tape and the items inviting him to participate in the tournament (along with 40 other notable contenders, making this an official DM tournament). Through the video tape using a shadow game Pegasus was able to test Yugi's abilities in a timed duel, and thus forced him to participate in the tournament itself by stealing the soul of Yugi's grandfather via a Penalty Game. The conditions being that if Yugi wished to have his grandfather's soul back then he had to go to Duelist Kingdom. Likewise, in order to set the wheels of motion on Kaiba's behalf, he had his henchmen kidnap his little brother Mokuba given he held a key to a safe that held key documents to his taking over Kaiba Corporation and had them go after Kaiba himself as well.
Kaiba however managed to escape his henchmens' clutches, and make it to Pegasus' island to attempt to strike a deal with Pegasus in order to get Mokuba back. Pegasus' terms were then changed. He stole Mokuba's soul before when he'd attempted to escape and using that his advantage, stating that If Kaiba wanted his brother back he had to collect star chips on the island like the other duelists in order to have the right to challenge him himself. Five star chips he gave Kaiba that Mokuba had previously stolen, and the other five he would have to collect by defeating Yugi. Kaiba proved good on his end of the bargain, and when he attempted to challenge Pegasus himself, proposing that they use his duel disks in what he thought would be a way to thwart his Millennium Eye, Pegasus refused by saying if he wished to use them then he would have Mokuba's soulless body operate the duel disk in his place. Of course, Kaiba then was forced to operate on Pegasus' terms, and with the ability to read Kaiba's mind Pegasus defeated him and collected his soul as well. That had been the risk, after all, and really it was a victory that would make his job easier in the end.
While Yugi battled his way through the semi-finals Bandit Keith, still angry with Pegasus over his humiliation, held a gun to Pegasus' head and demanded the prize money of the tournament. Pegasus however stayed calm and merely opened a trap door that caused Keith to fall into the ocean. As predicted, Yugi wins and is thus allowed to face Pegasus in the final duel. Prior to the duel it was agreed that should Yugi lose Pegasus would then collect his soul. But if Pegasus lost he would release the souls of both Yugi's grandfather and that of the Kaiba brothers. Armed with the Millennium Eye, this duel indeed would not be easy.
While initially gaining the advantage, Yugi was able to eventually outsmart him, by using a mind shuffle technique that kept Pegasus from reading his mind since it was then that Pegasus became aware that this change in minds, or personalities, was actually the manifestation of an ancient spirit living in the puzzle hanging around Yugi’s neck. The mind shuffle technique thus worked by having each of them play a card face-down and then having Yugi switch to the other mind without letting the other know what card they played.
Even though the dark powers of the Millennium Eye were able to engage a Shadow Game that led to the collapse of the purer self of Yugi, the "other" or "Yami" Yugi was able to carry on and with the aid of Yugi's friends reaching out to protect him, allowed him to destroy Pegasus' monsters and win the duel. Pegasus, ending up defeated, is utterly stunned that he should lose and disappears shortly to his sanctuary, where he begins to realize that perhaps he had been wrong. True to his word, he releases the souls of Yugi's grandfather Sugoroku, and that of Kaiba and Mokuba. However, while in his sanctuary he is attacked by the dark spirit living in the Millennium Ring worn by Bakura, who steals the Millennium Eye from him easily with his powers being weak due to the duel with Yugi. Pegasus is last seen being carried away by Croquet and several of his bodyguards, who mention that Pegasus had been attacked. Yugi and his friends are thus able to proceed to his sanctuary and obtain his journal, which detailed the story of his tragic past.
Personality:
Incredible Eccentricity/Bizarre Behavior
Pegasus is quite the mixed bag of tricks; Over the course of the series his behavior ranges from campy to downright diabolical. Upon first impression he seemed nothing more than a cheater with a thirst for power who used others to achieve his own ambitions. However, this impression is eventually changed when his true motives are revealed. His motivations for acting as the above was all for the dream of seeing his deceased wife, Cyndia again. Furthermore, despite Pegasus' archetype as an "eccentric American", we find that his character is made more compelling because of his inner bitterness and coldness for having had experienced tragedy at such a young age. His heart became cold after his wife's death, and from this, we see that the corrupting influences of the Millennium Eye were able to come to fruition.
On the surface he displays quite a theatrical range of emotion, playing games with other's minds just to see their reactions, and appears to enjoy dissecting their inner struggles. He can even become rather spiteful when provoked, going so far as to toy with a person's emotions in order to punish them. He especially hates any untoward comments towards himself, uptight people, and crassness.
He purposely acts immature sometimes to catch others off guard, though as he reveals to Yugi in one of their duels, he is perfectly in control at all times. Oftentimes he'll refer to Yugi and Kaiba by the condescending—if not playful—nicknames "Kaiba-boy" and "Yugi-boy," which suggests that initially that these two duelists are the only ones he considers a threat, and therefore the only ones worth toying with. However, as he continues to call them this long after the tournament we could also conclude he does this out of an ironic fondness for them.
Mostly though, he seems to be amused by their reactions, especially Kaiba, and thus he channels a lot of energy into annoying him—though in some cases he can be cruel in exacting his frustration out on him. For instance, he kidnaps Kaiba's little brother Mokuba not only "just for laughs", but because by having Kaiba enter Duelist Kingdom he has a shot at taking over KaibaCorp, which he needs to further his ambitions and achieve his end goal of resurrecting his dead wife.
This show of power play makes him a clever man, and indeed, he's found to be highly intelligent.
Even for all his showy acts and mock theatrics, Pegasus does in fact know how to behave properly when he wants to and when the occasion calls for it. In a professional setting, Pegasus shows himself to be an efficient and brilliant businessman, and even though that is contradictory to his outwardly strange behaviors and personality traits that seem to prevent him from running a business properly, he has a remarkable talent for selling himself, his ideas, and his company. He has very high standards of behavior despite not always holding himself up to that level, and was raised with a strong sense of what is and what is not "proper". (Example: While he's not honorable in that he tries to steal Kaiba's company out from under him, he keeps his word when Yugi defeats him.) And while he is campy in the privacy of his own home, he is entirely in control of himself in other situations where his affluence doesn't allow him to behave however he wants. To that end, he's very versatile.
Overall, due to his wide range of emotion that can seem borderline insane, creepy, or quite simply bizarre, Pegasus proves himself to be somewhat unusual for a villain, honoring his pledge to Yugi Mutou about releasing the souls of the Kaiba brothers and Yugi's grandfather after he lost the duel to Yugi, claiming to be both "duty bound" and a "man of his word".
Loneliness/Darkness/Solitary
We know very little of his childhood, but from a brief flashback in which he is shown engaging in painting at a young age, we get the impression that Pegasus was a very solitary boy with solitary habits, and did not prefer physical activity in comparison to other boys his age. In fact, because his father was an affluent businessman in Las Vegas it's not altogether hard to imagine how a young boy transformed into a man with a flair for the theatrical. His eccentricity stems in part from his wealthier background, where he was free to engage himself in a number of flighty pursuits deemed economically inviable, such as painting and romance.
This appears to carry over into his adult life as well, as Pegasus has also been shown to be an incredibly solitary man, a habit that extends back into his childhood. In fact, most of Pegasus' dialogue outside of his duels is directed at himself. Aside from the times when he is accompanied by his butler Croquet, he is almost never seen interacting with anyone outside of giving his men orders. This ties in with the fact that much of his idealism presumably died with Cecelia. Consequently, during Duelist Kingdom, his tolerance of others' faults is incredibly low when it should be more optimistic (in the manga he essentially kills Bandit Keith for cheating). The fact that the Millennium Eye appears to affect his perception of others it is reasonable to assume that he would not go out of his way to seek the company of others. The fact that he owns and lives on his own private island attests to this fact: Pegasus either just doesn’t care for other people’s company or cannot seem to make any worthwhile friends.
His Love for Toons/Childishness
His sense of humor is also shown to be somewhat juvenile at times, and he seems to possess a degree of schadenfreude that can seem child-like, laughing at the expense of others. And all too often Pegasus gets rather annoyed when others don't share in on his jokes, and complains that he only wants to have fun. His desire for constant amusement is a very immature aspect of his personality, as it keeps him from being more considerate of others. On that note, he doesn't "play nice" with others, either. If anything, he's very self-centered, overindulgent of himself even. He doesn't like losing, and has no intentions of playing fair in order to win (though he does appear to object to other people cheating). It should come as no surprise then that among his hobbies one of his favorite things to do is read comics and watch cartoons. (His absolute favorite being "Funny Bunny", which is your typical American cartoon about a clever rabbit forever running away from McRuff McRuff, a police dog.)
Hence, this "childish mindset" of his can be ascribed to how he values innocence and simple enjoyments. He even has an obsession with cartoons, stating that they were the "absolute best" and his "best friends" growing up.
High aesthetic sense, Idealistic and romantic
Highly idealistic and romantic, Pegasus's true motivations are worth reexamining, if solely for the reason that much of his motivation stems from this. As mentioned before, Pegasus fell desperately in love with Cyndia when they were just children, and he even ends up marrying her when he was just 17. However, after her tragic death, he continues to idolize her, going so far to chase after her shadow into the cursed lands of Egypt not only because he loves her, but because grieving and moving on would be normal. Romance requires of Pegasus that he devote his life to the woman he loved and not move past her death.
This idealistic attitude is also apparent in how he deals with Kaiba and Yugi's competition towards one another. He pits them against one another and steals the souls of their loved ones for little more reason than it adds an air of romance to the story; It gives Yugi and Kaiba's struggles a sense of tragedy. Pegasus appreciates the tragic because tragedy is an essential element of romance. In his deck and dueling strategies as well, Pegasus proves to be quite romantic/idealistic. True, his deck is toon themed, which might appear strange to anyone else, but that is his favorite art form; which, therefore makes Toons quite important to him. Thus, the toon side of his deck represents his aesthetic sense: the ideal. However, Pegasus' deck also has a lot of dark monsters like Relinquished—monsters which represent the tragic side of life.
Mysticism
It might be said that Pegasus has a very "impractical" view of the world by Kaiba's standards, as his mysticism goes hand in hand with his idealism and aesthetic senses. To Pegasus, magic, gods, and the supernatural are not only possible, but real. He believed this even before he came into contact with the Millennium Items and the dark magics of Egypt. In fact, Pegasus is open to all sorts of spiritual experiences; in this sense, symbolism is very important to him, and possibly why he is so successful in his campaign with Duel Monsters.
He even allows himself to be used by the Millennium Eye simply because it is his destined role. Hence, because he was chosen by the Millennium Eye to resurrect the game of Duel Monsters he considers himself to be a guardian of the game and of the cards, which might explain why he reacts so negatively to cheating.
He's wary of how powerful he creates the cards, not only because they may be too powerful within the limits of the game, but because he's aware of how dangerous they could be if they fell into the wrong hands.
Have you read up on how the game works?: Plugin: Flaming Ferrit!
Money is earned by trifles known as missions, which are issued from other people/aliens or 'ship' missions, or by sucking off your cast mates and/or friends like a moocher. Or stealing, if that floats your boat.
1st person sample:
Croquet-saaaan! Where the devil are you?! Oh my god!! What? Unbelievable! Ridiculous, I absolutely don't believe it! Let go of me this instant or I will file a harassment suit!
No. I will not…[huffs, off-screen, it seems there's some kind of commotion going on. Or just that he's creating a scene. Nothing too unusual, given who he is!]
Please! I don't want to have to use force but I will…! W-waaah!! [There's a comically splayed Pegasus knocked right onto his rear.]
O-oh. Ouch. You…Oh, that does it!
[Definitely not one of his more graceful moments. His arms are crossed and he is pouting! Being manhandled was no amount of fun for him. Not to mention he's about as mad as he possibly could be, given the less-than-favorable situation. They were not treating him with any amount of respect or courtesy here, which he certainly was used to getting!]
You're making a serious mistake! Do you know who I am? I am Pegasus J. Crawford, creator of Duel Monsters. That's right! Get me your Captain, immediately! You've….never heard of me? You can't be serious! I will be informing the proper authorities about you. Now out of my way! I haven't time to waste with you.
3rd person sample:
Pegasus had seen many amazing things on his travels to Egypt, where Gods were real, but nothing, absolutely nothing like this! A spaceship. A real-life spaceship! Mankind had always been on the verge of space travel, one day, for sure. But, this was beyond the imagination! Unbelievable! Simply breathtaking. He sat with his face nearly pressed to the glass, utterly amazed as billions of stars and planets and galaxies seemed to almost float on by.
Just as in his endeavors to develop Duel Monsters for Industrial Illusions' reputation to become the hit it was, he would've thrown away his very soul if it meant having even a fraction of the power that this ingenious space station seemed to possess!
"Whether it be the power of the gods or the power of darkness, I can control both with no trouble!" He'd once said that, as he sat painting the Gods themselves after everyone on his expedition died by their curse. He got cocky. Bold in his suppositions then. But to be truthful this was an unprecedented situation for him. In the time it took for him to recover he had had a long time to reflect on what he'd done wrong, in the past. He'd admitted once, to Cyndia's likeness in his Sanctuary, as much. He knew it to be so. His defeat had startled him to a frightening reality.
The interest he once had for forbidden powers was waning. Instead, in his absence from the limelight he focused on producing Duel Monsters cards, and maintaining Industrial Illusions' reputation while he was away. The fact that he'd trifled with dark powers, was later robbed of his strength, and lingered on the verge of death proved that Pegasus was more than happy to keep from being in the forefront. At least, not like before. He was still weak. He was also still not fully recovered from all that had happened at Duelist Kingdom, after that thief had stolen the Millennium Eye.
His gaze wavered, just as his powers waned the moment he'd succumbed to his illness brought on by his failure. As he sat, staring out the thick glass window into the empty stars, he grew…heavier. His excitement waned. It was plain to anyone who could see that this man, no matter who he claimed to be, was but a fraction of what he used to be. Or perhaps, he simply held experiences no man could rightly boast or tell, and in his reflections, was made all the more miserable because of them.
Just that the realization of space was so big and empty and lonely, and it reminded him of terrible memories…The endless nights of nightmares, of darker days, and the whisperings of ancient card games that held the power to destroy the entire world. This alone he had made for himself, and now, it was gone. His empire, in effect, was destroyed. Along with it, all that he cared about. Was this even worse than when he'd been faced by utter ridicule from all sides? From when his very life had been held in the balance?
Through it all, if he had managed to succeed and escape with his life, this was a situation he could pull through. Somehow. He'd lived through it all. After dabbling in those gruesome rituals, and engaging in occult magic this had to be a piece of cake, right? No matter if the Eye was presently absent, and if his original purpose had been fulfilled, Pegasus became aware that this journey would simply be that. Another chapter as of yet unwritten…To that end, he would brave this, just as he had when Shadi had imposed the Eye itself on him.
Questions?: Do you like card games?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: 8( I tried.