Arcjec Voorat
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Arcjec Voorat, also known by his Skorpe handle animatedHumorist, is one of the main characters in the webcomic Vast Error. His associated alchemic sigil is Magnesium, however it is heavily modified from its original form. Arcjec's symbol is the only featured character symbol that is not close to an exact replica of its real alchemical counterpart. He has messy, medium-length hair, and his horns are blocky cones with a pointed, curling protrusion at the apex of each one.
His blood has been notably referred to as 'corn syrup' by the cast, and appears to be a 'mixture' of normal Repitonian bronze blood and lime blood. This blood type and Arcjec's unique sigil were passed down to him by his Ancestor, whose blood was modified after his attempted suicide by hanging and subsequent revival by The Vivifier during The Renaissance.
He was the first troll introduced and the first troll to enter the game.
Biography
Six Sweeps
Arcjec wasn't always like how he is currently. Prior to his difficult relationship with Taz, he was apparently much more outgoing and enthusiastic, if somewhat naive. He used to be interested in comic books and superheroes as well as drawing, 2D animation and scrapbooking, evidenced by the posters on his wall, drawing tablet and the book on top of his refridgerator.
He also seemed to be very interested in (now outdated) SBVRPRPG tournaments, which allowed him to be a little more knowledgable in how The Game should function.
Pre-game
The first thing Arcjec is seen doing on the night of The Game, is replying to a message from Ellsee, who worries that she is needy and unlikable. He offers the insecure troll an attempt at advice, but accidentally turns the conversation around to being about him. Ellsee, amused but touched at him trying to be help despite being very poorly equiped to do so, decided that she will finally introduce herself to him and explain their deeper connection. She goes to his hive and tries to get his attention from his respiteblocks window. The sight of a strange troll trying to get his attention terrifies Arcjec and he turns away in shock. He then tries to get a better look at this mysterious troll outside his hive, but ends up falling out his second floor window, into the mud and passing out. Arcjec proceeds to have a cryptic dream where he is standing in a shapeless void colored in static noise. In this dream he briefly see White Noise, before he abruptly awakens on the floor of his room, covered in crumpled up drawings of strange symbols; something that has been a regular occurrence for Arcjec for much of his life.
Meanwhile, during Arcjec's nap, Murrit sends out a mass-memo to all the trolls (except Ellsee) pertaining to The Game and the events surrounding it. Additionally, after the Lotus Time Capsule in the Frog Temple opens, The Game is suddenly installed on all the troll's main computers.
Shortly after waking up, Arcjec finds himself accosted by Taz, who had been unceremoniously thrust into the game alongside Arcjec (and had apparently been coerced into speaking to Arcjec by Murrit, to her immense displeasure). Taz uses the game's cursor to drag Arcjec to his desk and look at his computer. The former friends bicker for some time before Taz forces Arcjec to look at the reality of the situation -- literally. When Arcjec dismisses Murrit's memo as an elaborate prank done by the sea-dweller, Taz retaliates by forcing him to look out his window and look at the meteor hurtling towards his hive. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Arcjec agrees to work with Taz, despite her constant antagonism and berating of Arcjec. The two reach an uneasy truce (although mutually agree to avoid each other once everything is said and done) and begin working to unravel the secrets of The Game. Arcjec realizes that the symbols he's been writing in his sleep are connected to the game, and he begins inputting the symbols into the game window, while Taz inputs a set of codes she recieved from Murrit's memo. This allows Taz access to a set of objects to place in and outside of Arcjecs hive. Proceeding outside, Taz places a series of pillars and an archway outside Arcjec's hive, and a mysterious chest in Arcjec's room. Arcjec opens the chest, which unleashes a powerful gust of wind which send him hurtling out of his room (destroying the wall in the process). The wind blows Arcjec right in front of the archway, which activates into some sort of portal. Taz uses the game cursor to pull Arcjec into the portal. Meanwhile the pillars around Arcjec's hive divert the oncoming meteor away from his hive, preventing its complete destruction.
During the game
Arcjec awakes on a gray platform inscribed with the Breath symbol, floating in an blank, stark white void. The powerful winds seen during Arcjec's entry appears once again, and in a powerful convergence of wind, it transforms before Arcjec into the denizen of Breath, Zehanpuryu. Arcjec -- terrified and bewildered after the mayhem leading up to his entrance into the game -- simply laughs hysterically at the sight of denizen, which the denizen imitates awkwardly. After some back and forth between the two and after Arcjec calms down slightly, Zehanpuryu introduces Arcjec to the game and its purpose, pledging himself as Arcjec's guide. Stating that Arcjec is the Bard of Breath, he beckons the Bard to find him again when he is stronger. He inserts himself within the Breath plaform and changes the blank planet around them into the newly formed Land of Mirage and Monochrome.
Personality and Traits
Arcjec is largely defined by his depressive personality. Due to a severe lack of motivation, he largely spends his time in his room sitting at his computer and drinking soda. Arcjec has been known to go as far to perform mundane tasks in his imagination while failing to perform them in reality. Arcjec has a generally sardonic attitude towards most things in his life and his life in general, and has little tolerance towards anything bothersome to him. He seems to be a little obsessed with how things work in "real life" and generally sees things from a rather bleak black and white perspective.
This stunted emotional mindset masks a residual attachment Arcjec still has to his old life that can be seen in his many conversations with his friends, in which he paradoxically claims to be apathetic while also appearing heavily invested in the conversations, as evidenced by the amount of effort put into his responses. His general demeanor is, ironically, pointedly the opposite of what his typing quirk and screen name would imply, which can be inferred to be a result of Arcjec losing interest in the personality that he had facilitated when he was younger.
He has love of Mountain Dew: Code Red that borders on addiction. This, along with his hatred of Lunchables, might be some sort of coping mechanism for his past which he simultaneously embraces and rejects in a painful, vindictive loop.
Relationships
Taz
Arcjec and Taz have had a difficult relationship since the comic started. Stemming from their largely difficult past and assumedly unrealized romantic entanglements. There are many indications that their relationship was at one point abusive or unrequited; mutually or otherwise -- though neither of these points have been directly confirmed. After some kind of relationship-ending incident, Arcjec has since vehemently avoided any interaction with Taz for over two sweeps while Taz has since desperately tried to reach out to Arcjec. The resulting fallout has evidently deeply affected Arcjec, with Arcjec having displayed a drastic change in personality and demeanor. Meanwhile Taz appears to felt abandoned or betrayed by Arcjec.
When the two are forced to interact with one another during the events of the game, the two are constantly at each other's throats, barely being able to stay civil with one another, even for the sake of their mutual survival. Despite this, even though it is very slight, they did have a couple moments of levity and have been shown to complete their goals as a team rather efficiently all things considered.
Ellsee Raines
Not much is known about Arcjec and Ellsee's relationship, though Ellsee does seem to value him a great deal. One of her goals being to finally meet him and introduce herself personally, though she is never able to bolster up the courage to actually do it. Even when being at his hive already.
Ellsee appears to care for Arcjec and worries for his wellbeing, even dropping all of her fear to run back to him in order to try and rescue him once she notices the meteor heading towards his hive. Despite this, Arcjec doesn't appear to know much about Ellsee at all. Though he does seem to have an easier time speaking to her than the other trolls in his chat fodder. When Ellsee asks if she was likable, Arcjec does actually try to give her advice (albeit poorly).
It is known that Ellsee and Arcjec's ancestors had some sort of connection to each other, but it is not known how relevant their relationship is to Ellsee and Arcjec specifically.
Laivan Ferroo
Despite Arcjec's generally unfriendly demeanor, Arcjec and Laivan appear to have a mutually pleasant friendship, at least by Arcjec's standards. There are hints that there may be be some sort of deeper connection between the two however, given how Laivan acts towards Arcjec on Prospit and the fact that Arcjec's jeans match Laivan's blood color.
Murrit Turkin
Arcjec does not appear to be a big fan of Murrit. After reading through his memo he believes that the game is a prank set up by him and the others to make fun of him and later notes after collecting his personal game codes that he is a "slam jockey with more jolted RGB wires than common decency". And when telling Zehanpuryu about what he believes should have happened post-entry he notifies that he is a "friend" and also that he is "actually much worse at explaining things than you or this game."
furbishFacilitated
Arcjec has mentioned FF once during a conversation with Taz as they were working towards his entry. He seems to know enough about her to guage what her interests are, but otherwise there is no information on their relationship.
Trivia
- His trolltag 'animatedHumorist' is an ironic holdover from his past active interest in comic books and cartoons. 'Animated' refers to the way in which characters in this medium are portrayed, and 'Humorist' in how cartoons are often comedic in nature.
- Arcjec is often compared to Karkat Vantas, due to their similarly cantankerous demeanors, penchant for tirades (although Karkat is clearly the more long-winded of the two), and their roles as "the first troll" in their respective comics. This has become a bit of a running joke between fans of the comic, who often ironically ship the two together. This was brought to a head for April Fools Day 2017 when there was a short four page comic dedicated to the subject.
- Arcjec's archetype is simply "main character" but is also paired with "self insert". It has been noted that he was at one point a true self-insert of Austin in the very early stages of development in 2011. However he claims that they do not "really share any similarities at this point, except for soda consumption".
- Arcjec has a habit of typing out loud, or rather, speaking whatever he happens to be typing.
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