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Vernon Tripe

I heard this one time a kid was late for basic braining and Coach Oleander held him upside down until he turned blue but the kid had just drank a six pack of soda and so when the coach shook him up, he exploded.

–Vernon Tripe

Vernon Tripe is a 10 year old psychic camper at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp.

Appearance[]

Vernon has yellow-brown skin, brown eyes, and brown hair. He wears the standard Whispering Rock T-shirt, green shorts, and a green hat with an orange pattern. He has four fingers on each hand and doesn't wear shoes.

Personality[]

I heard this one time a kid was late and Coach Oleander held him upside down until he turned blue but the kid had just drank a six pack of soda so when the coach shook him up, he exploded.

–Vernon, on being late for Basic Braining

Vernon likes nothing better than telling stories, and thinks he is incredibly gifted in this field. He comes from a long line of storytellers (or so he says). However, because of his dull, nasal voice, repetitive grammar, and excessive attention to trivial details, he is regarded by most of his campmates as the worst speaker in history, and is often avoided. Vernon has a dog named "Lady" with which he likes to go on (very) long walks.

Background[]

Excerpt from Vernon's campster page[]

"Long story short-- wait, that's impossible! There's too much I want to tell you about me!

I come from an ancient calling--the Storytellers.

Long before we had TVs and cable and basic cable and basic expanded cable and basic digital cable and satellite dishes and tivo... we had storytellers. When ancient man sat around the campfire of prehistory, chewing on woolly mammoth drumsticks, do you think he was watching TV? WRONG! They just had one member of the tribe who was really good at telling stories. Maybe his name was something like... Thogg.

Maybe Thogg's stories were simple, or even primitive. Maybe he'd just grunt and pound his chest, and point at the moon or the campfire, and howl. But the people loved him! They were thankful for Thogg's stories because Thogg distracted them from the brutal facts of their existence. Like the fact that a saber-toothed tiger might be crawling out of the tar to come eat them at that very moment. They knew that many of the tribe would die that year in dinosaur attacks, or spear fights, and they didn't want to think about that. They wanted to think about the funny stories that Thogg would tell about the fire and the moon. Oh, how they loved his stories. And that's why Thogg was the most popular member of the tribe.

Thogg passed his gift on. Maybe to his son named Gothar. And then maybe Gothar taught it to his son Narack. And then Narack taught it to his son Ka'ak. And then Ka'ak--hey, maybe he had a daughter named... Mitzie. And on and on all the way down to me.

Now, entertaining the children of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer camp is my sacred duty, to keep the children's minds off their rigorous training, and the fact that someday they will most likely die in the service of the Psychonauts, assuming they don't get their brains eaten this summer by the Hideous Hulking Lungfish."

Psychic Powers[]

Psychonauts[]

Most often when Razputin happens across Vernon, he is telling a story of some sort, some of which contain some hidden truths, and some of which are just complete nonsense.

The first time is in Basic Braining, where Vernon can be seen climbing across a ledge and exploding, and later is found in the plane at the middle of the level, where he will tell a literally never-ending story about a walk he took with his dog once, a story he has dubbed "The longest walk of all time". He is sucked out of the plane when Raz punches the door on the side open.

He can later be seen playing hide and seek with Dogen, Elka, and Milka, but he does not find any of them because they cheated, having gone invisible. He keeps looking for them for a long time afterwards, waiting at one point for Milka to come out of a cave he saw her enter, oblivious to the fact that it leads to the lake. He eventually finds Elka and tries to tag her, only to get hit before he gets the chance.

Vernon is later found sitting in the T.V. room with the de-brained Dogen, Kitty, and Franke. He tells a boring story to all of them numerous times, about civil war soldiers findingThorney Towers and discovering theHulking Lungfish living there. The story is mostly nonsensical, but does contain some foreshadowing. Vernon eventually gets up to go to the bathroom only to find everyone gone when he returns. Worried about their disappearance, he goes out looking for them but gets kidnapped by the Hulking Lungfish and is taken to get de-brained.

After having his brain found by Raz, and then getting it put back in place, he immediately puts himself to the task of writing down the amazing story of the events that happened during the game. When Raz goes to speak to him in the Main Lodge, however, it becomes apparent he is writing in a number of alterations to the truth, including making himself into the hero of the story.

Trivia[]

  • Using Clairvoyance, Vernon sees Raz as a giant ear, referring to how Raz often listens to what he has to say (if only because it is entertaining to the player), or potentially because he simply sees everyone, including Raz, as nothing more than an audience for his stories.
  • Vernon's first story, "The Longest Walk of All Time" is composed of pre-recorded lines played in a random order, just like Boyd's paranoid ramblings.
  • There are hints throughout the game that Vernon may have a crush on Franke Athens, and seemingly even considers her his girlfriend, though he believes it is a well-guarded secret.
  • Vernon's favorite movie is The Never-ending Story.
  • Vernon's favorite TV shows include Charlie Rose.
  • Psychadet rank: Tender Brain
  • Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
  • According to his old Myspace page, Vernon's zodiac sign is Capricorn.

Quotes[]

  • "Okay, okay. Everybody likes J.T. and so do I! Don't get me wrong! But sometimes, I'm just saying... sometimes maybe the harmonica jam sessions at the campfire go a liiiiittle long, is all I'm saying. Sometimes somebody's got a really good story they want to tell, but they can't because it's all harmonica, harmonica, harmonica, and I think honestly, just a tip--people would like to hear maybe more stories, less harmonica. Not that I don't love it of course. The harmonica. But who doesn't love a good story?" (Campster, JT's page)

References/Notes[]

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