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Fantasy 𝔞 𝔟𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔰 - 𝔠𝔰
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jones573
gen, you viper
Nikolai Thorne
# the leader
# aaron bernards
♡coded by uxie♡
Name: Nikolai Thorne
Nickname: Nik, sometimes. “Boss” on occasion. ‘Kolya’, but only by the Lover.
Age: 22
Gender: Cis male, uses he/him pronouns
Sexuality: Bisexual
Role: The Leader
Hair: Black. He usually wears it shorter on the sides and a bit longer on the top, but has grown it out to shoulder length before on a suggestion from the Lover.
Eyes: Very dark brown.
Build: Nikolai is a little over 6’ tall. His frame is a bit on the leaner side, but he still has defined muscles.
Faceclaim: Aaron Bernards
Personality:
It’s a good thing the Lover has social skills, because Nikolai does not. Or rather, he has them, he just generally chooses not to use them- If he needs to be charming and suave, he certainly can be. But most of the time, he’s a bit of an asshole.
His experiences have made him cynical and jaded. It’s not that he sees the worst in everyone and everything- He just has what he believes to be realistic expectations. That those expectations tend to be correct has only reinforced his thinking.
He tends to think of people as resources- How useful they are and what he can get out of them. This even applies to his crew in some extent, even if he has grown fond of several of them. They are all there for a reason, and if they fail to fulfill that purpose, he has no use for them.
As he has matured- and has had the luxury of not needing to make split second decisions- Nikolai has become less hasty in his choices. However, once he has committed to an action, he rarely backs down and he never apologizes.
Likes: The Lover. Money. (Which one ranks higher depends on the day.) Watching it rain or snow from the warmth of indoors. The thrill of a challenge completed. Very strong tea.
Dislikes: Being disobeyed or doubted. Dogs- Though he is surprisingly very good with them, as he is with other animals.
Gratuitous violence- Even if he has used it more than once to make his point. Pastries, supposedly- In reality, he likes them fine, but pretends they are too sweet for him as an excuse to give his to the Lover. Bugs like centipedes or millipedes.
Ambitions: Get revenge on those who have wronged him, specifically those involved in stealing his inheritance from him. Be rich enough to not need to budget so carefully. Keep the Lover happy enough not to realize he isn’t good enough for her.
Fears: The death or illness of the Lover. Having to live on the streets again. The break up of his crew.
Which side did they choose?
Throughout history, there have been rebellions. Those rebellions tend to fail. Even those that succeed, eventually end up becoming just as corrupt as those they replaced. Either way, the material life of those without political power does not tend to change much. As far as Nikolai is concerned, the rebels have nothing to offer him but some feel-good fantasies that will never come to pass. The royals, on the other hand, have offered money. Lots of money. Retire and move to the countryside and never worry about money again kind of money. It was an easy choice for Nikolai. He just didn’t realize it would be so divisive.
Abilities: None.
Specialty:
Nikolai has a duty to care for his crew, and he fulfills it. The majority of proceeds from any job go into his ‘business’ fund, a portfolio of different investments and stocks from which he earns passive monthly income. That income pays for a roof over their heads, blankets on their beds and clothes on their backs, and food on the table.
When he and Ziva first started out together, there were months where they could pay the rent and eat whatever they liked. But sometimes there were months where they could only do one of those things. And even a few months where they could do neither. In an industry where demand for their skills isn’t constant, Nikolai wanted to make sure that their quality of life wouldn’t take a huge hit just because it had been a while between higher paying jobs.
This isn’t to say some months aren’t harder than others- After a big job, Nikolai is more prone to splurging and can be wheedled into new purchases to improve their somewhat rickety old house. If business hasn’t been steady, he might toss a needle and thread at a crew member who complains of a hole in their coat, and remind them that he’d given them a bonus on their monthly allowance three months ago- Maybe if they’d saved it, they’d have enough for a new coat now.
But generally speaking, Nikolai makes sure that everyone’s basic needs are met, and that they have at least a little spending money.
In addition to handling the finances, Nikolai also meets with all potential clients to hear about possible jobs- Depending on his suspicions about the client, he might take the Charmer or the Brute with him as back up, in case he needs people skills or the threat of imminent violence in order to keep the situation in hand.
He decides what jobs the crew takes, usually without consult from the others, though he has on occasion asked for input- Usually from the Strategist or the Inventor.
He used to make all the plans for the jobs as well, though since recruiting the Strategist- and watching them work- he has become more open to collaboration in planning.
Strengths: Finances & bookkeeping, able to keep a clear head in almost any situation, is good at recognizing other people’s strengths and facilitating their success, great at planning ahead and preparing for different outcomes
Weaknesses: Awful at people pleasing and many social situations, can sometimes be too clear-headed that he becomes detached, has difficulty expressing himself, not good at following orders or even taking suggestions
History:
“You are a thorn in my side,” the Madame of the brothel used to tell him as he trailed after her, but there was often a note of exasperated fondness to her complaints. He wonders if she was his mother- It seems unlikely that the son of just any prostitute would be allowed to grow up at one of Ostya’s finer pleasure houses. But he didn’t look like her, any more than he looked like any of the other woman there. He must have gotten his looks from his father.
Maybe his mother was the beautiful blonde who taught him how to read, or the dark eyed woman who spoke to him in foreign tongues, or the younger girl who would give him piggy back rides up and down the stairs. Nikolai was raised communally by the woman of Dacha Tsvetov, and it wasn’t such a terrible childhood as it might seem, even if his room was no more than a closet and his meals were meager leftovers. The Madame beat him if he broke her rules, but she was as fair to him as she was to her employees.
As Nikolai got older, he had more responsibilities- cleaning up the rooms, preparing refreshments for the patrons, helping the Madame review receipts- but he had more freedom as well. He took to the streets as often as he could, falling in with various gangs of kids and falling out as quickly. He learned to navigate the city by street or by rooftop, to pick pockets, and judge marks. He loved the thrill of stealing- Not just the money it brought, but the challenge of it as well.
He began to assess the patrons of Dacha Tsvetov, wondering which would be the easiest to steal from. There was one particular gentleman, a wealthy merchant, who came in once a week and always carried a sum of money. He was friendly to Nikolai when the boy took his coat, asking him about what he was reading or what he had done recently.
What Nikolai didn’t know was that the old man had been in the military, and had much quicker reflexes than his age might suggest. When Nikolai snuck his hand into the man’s pocket, he ended up against the wall with a knife to his throat.
And then the man laughed. And laughed some more.
The Madame was furious, and prepared to throw Nikolai out on the streets for the offense of trying to rob a patron. But Master Pasternak had a different idea.
His son had died five years ago, and his extravagant house was empty and lonely. He had no heir except his younger brother, to whom he had no desire to leave his fortune. He was successful but unhappy, and no one challenged him anymore.
Nikolai was young and smart, but clearly had reached the limit of education the woman of Dacha Tsvetov could provide. If he stayed at the pleasure house, he would stagnant in his learning, and turn to more and more destructive habits in order to stimulate his bored mind.
Pasternak would take Nikolai as his ward, and see that he was well educated and taught to function in society. If Nikolai did well, he would make the boy his heir.
The Madame agreed immediately, and Nikolai’s new life began.
He was enrolled in one of the best schools in Ostya, and quickly caught up to and then began to surpass his peers. At home in Pasternak’s mansion, Pasternak taught him to balance ledgers and manage a household staff. Nikolai had a sharp tongue even then, and was often rude to the old man when he thought a certain lesson - such as table manners- was trivial, but Pasternak would laugh and challenge him to reconsider how it might one day be useful.
They got on well despite their differences, and their arguments became philosophical in nature, rather than just a clash of personalities. Nikolai was thriving in those years, and Pasternak had drawn up the papers to formalize the boy as his heir.
But good things can never last.
Pasternak suffered an attack of the heart one evening during dinner, and was dead by dayfall.
And then the vultures moved in.
At first, Pasternak’s lawyer held up the claim that Nikolai was the merchant’s heir. But Pasternak’s weasley younger brother soon arrived, and the attorney’s tune changed.
It went to court, but even with the testimonies of the household staff, Nikolai wasn’t surprised by the result- The brother got everything, and Nikolai was turned out onto the streets at 14 years old.
He considered returning to the Dacha Tsvetov, but his pride wouldn’t let him. Instead he fell back into the life of a street urchin- Considerably harder now than it had been when he was younger, when he’d known he’d have a roof over his head when he slept.
Harder than sleeping on the streets and scrounging for scraps, though, was dealing with the others of the various gangs he bounced to and from- Nikolai hated taking orders, he clashed with the other kids, and fought with the leaders about what corners to beg on and whose pockets to pick.
In the space of a year, he’d been a new recruit to nearly half the urchin gangs in Ostya, and was on his second ‘last chance’ with his current one.
They’d been staking out a mansion for almost two weeks with the intention to rob it, when the owners came home unexpectedly. The leader called off the job, nervous about the increased risk of getting caught- And to no one’s surprise, Nikolai argued the decision.
The guards posted around the mansion weren’t going to change their night rotations just because the master and mistress were home, and it wasn’t like they had been planning on sneaking through the bedrooms during their heist.
Nikolai decided to do it alone- Risky, yes, but he was determined to prove it could be done. He broke into the house exactly as he had planned it, and was able to crack the lock on the silver vault, just as he’d said he’d be able to do.
That night, however, he stole something far more valuable than the silverware.
With Ziva at his side, Nikolai was able to traffick in more than coin and melted down silver- He could trade secrets, and he charged a hefty price for them. Word began to spread about what the duo could do, and they began to take jobs on commission, always vetted by Nikolai first. Steal a painting. Rescue a hostage. Kill a competitor.
There were many jobs Nikolai turned down of course- Not enough money in it, or he suspected the customer of withholding information, or it simply wasn’t possible. But he never turned down an offer for such simple reasons as the morality of the task.
In time, their team grew- Nikolai will grumble that Ziva kept bringing home strays, but the fact is that he recruited quite a few of their ‘business partners’ as well.
Though he has grown grudgingly fond of his crew, Nikolai still keeps them mostly at arm’s length and maintains his privacy even when he expects to know all the details of his crew’s life. His past and other secrets are kept behind closed lips, even to the Lover.
Maybe his mother was the beautiful blonde who taught him how to read, or the dark eyed woman who spoke to him in foreign tongues, or the younger girl who would give him piggy back rides up and down the stairs. Nikolai was raised communally by the woman of Dacha Tsvetov, and it wasn’t such a terrible childhood as it might seem, even if his room was no more than a closet and his meals were meager leftovers. The Madame beat him if he broke her rules, but she was as fair to him as she was to her employees.
As Nikolai got older, he had more responsibilities- cleaning up the rooms, preparing refreshments for the patrons, helping the Madame review receipts- but he had more freedom as well. He took to the streets as often as he could, falling in with various gangs of kids and falling out as quickly. He learned to navigate the city by street or by rooftop, to pick pockets, and judge marks. He loved the thrill of stealing- Not just the money it brought, but the challenge of it as well.
He began to assess the patrons of Dacha Tsvetov, wondering which would be the easiest to steal from. There was one particular gentleman, a wealthy merchant, who came in once a week and always carried a sum of money. He was friendly to Nikolai when the boy took his coat, asking him about what he was reading or what he had done recently.
What Nikolai didn’t know was that the old man had been in the military, and had much quicker reflexes than his age might suggest. When Nikolai snuck his hand into the man’s pocket, he ended up against the wall with a knife to his throat.
And then the man laughed. And laughed some more.
The Madame was furious, and prepared to throw Nikolai out on the streets for the offense of trying to rob a patron. But Master Pasternak had a different idea.
His son had died five years ago, and his extravagant house was empty and lonely. He had no heir except his younger brother, to whom he had no desire to leave his fortune. He was successful but unhappy, and no one challenged him anymore.
Nikolai was young and smart, but clearly had reached the limit of education the woman of Dacha Tsvetov could provide. If he stayed at the pleasure house, he would stagnant in his learning, and turn to more and more destructive habits in order to stimulate his bored mind.
Pasternak would take Nikolai as his ward, and see that he was well educated and taught to function in society. If Nikolai did well, he would make the boy his heir.
The Madame agreed immediately, and Nikolai’s new life began.
He was enrolled in one of the best schools in Ostya, and quickly caught up to and then began to surpass his peers. At home in Pasternak’s mansion, Pasternak taught him to balance ledgers and manage a household staff. Nikolai had a sharp tongue even then, and was often rude to the old man when he thought a certain lesson - such as table manners- was trivial, but Pasternak would laugh and challenge him to reconsider how it might one day be useful.
They got on well despite their differences, and their arguments became philosophical in nature, rather than just a clash of personalities. Nikolai was thriving in those years, and Pasternak had drawn up the papers to formalize the boy as his heir.
But good things can never last.
Pasternak suffered an attack of the heart one evening during dinner, and was dead by dayfall.
And then the vultures moved in.
At first, Pasternak’s lawyer held up the claim that Nikolai was the merchant’s heir. But Pasternak’s weasley younger brother soon arrived, and the attorney’s tune changed.
It went to court, but even with the testimonies of the household staff, Nikolai wasn’t surprised by the result- The brother got everything, and Nikolai was turned out onto the streets at 14 years old.
He considered returning to the Dacha Tsvetov, but his pride wouldn’t let him. Instead he fell back into the life of a street urchin- Considerably harder now than it had been when he was younger, when he’d known he’d have a roof over his head when he slept.
Harder than sleeping on the streets and scrounging for scraps, though, was dealing with the others of the various gangs he bounced to and from- Nikolai hated taking orders, he clashed with the other kids, and fought with the leaders about what corners to beg on and whose pockets to pick.
In the space of a year, he’d been a new recruit to nearly half the urchin gangs in Ostya, and was on his second ‘last chance’ with his current one.
They’d been staking out a mansion for almost two weeks with the intention to rob it, when the owners came home unexpectedly. The leader called off the job, nervous about the increased risk of getting caught- And to no one’s surprise, Nikolai argued the decision.
The guards posted around the mansion weren’t going to change their night rotations just because the master and mistress were home, and it wasn’t like they had been planning on sneaking through the bedrooms during their heist.
Nikolai decided to do it alone- Risky, yes, but he was determined to prove it could be done. He broke into the house exactly as he had planned it, and was able to crack the lock on the silver vault, just as he’d said he’d be able to do.
That night, however, he stole something far more valuable than the silverware.
With Ziva at his side, Nikolai was able to traffick in more than coin and melted down silver- He could trade secrets, and he charged a hefty price for them. Word began to spread about what the duo could do, and they began to take jobs on commission, always vetted by Nikolai first. Steal a painting. Rescue a hostage. Kill a competitor.
There were many jobs Nikolai turned down of course- Not enough money in it, or he suspected the customer of withholding information, or it simply wasn’t possible. But he never turned down an offer for such simple reasons as the morality of the task.
In time, their team grew- Nikolai will grumble that Ziva kept bringing home strays, but the fact is that he recruited quite a few of their ‘business partners’ as well.
Though he has grown grudgingly fond of his crew, Nikolai still keeps them mostly at arm’s length and maintains his privacy even when he expects to know all the details of his crew’s life. His past and other secrets are kept behind closed lips, even to the Lover.
Last edited:
x_Tasia_X
𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚏-𝚋𝚘𝚢
Last edited:
Limeaid
im eatin burgur
WIP
basics
appearance
psyche
backstory
gallery
the inventor
♡design by neon reverie, coded by uxie♡
Meowfyre
Member
Name: Naut Harreveld
Nickname: Harry
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Gay
Role: Brute
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Build: Average height with an athlete's physique.
Faceclaim:
Personality: Naut, or Harry to his friends, is a broken tool. A blunt instrument to be swung around, and he knows it. At a young age he trusted his fate to [the Leader] and surrendered his agency to them. Whenever [the Leader] wanted someone intimidated, roughed up, or someone dead, Naut was there. He does all this with a dead face, an uncaring lie. But outside of that, when the thieves are together cracks of Naut's humanity shines through. He greatly enjoys books, but is completely illiterate. As such he has [character] read cheap block books to him in the afternoon when neither of them are busy. He'll even spend some of his frugal savings on coffee for the two of them to enjoy together. Within the thieves as a whole Naut often acts as a stern older brother, especially to the youngest members. But he doesn't get along with all of them. Naut has a deep seated resentment and hatred of royalty. He was very hostile to [the Runaway] when they first joined. He found it insulting that they would give up a lifestyle that he'd do anything for, and he's never really accepted them as part of the thieves.
Motivations: Beyond anything else Naut is motivated to escape poverty, and will do anything in service of that goal. Of all the people he's met, the only person he believes can accomplish this is [The Leader], and as such he'll do anything for them.
Which side did they choose?: Royals.
Abilities:
-Naut has a limited form of magnetic magic. He can pull metal towards him, but that's all. He cannot push it away, or precisely direct it. Nonetheless he make skilled usage of it. He can draw enemies into close range with him and once they're there he can unbalance them by pulling on metal parts of their clothing. He can also protect allies from gunfire by hiding behind a sturdy piece of cover and redirecting the bullets towards him where he safely hides behind cover. And of course if someone is standing behind a sturdy piece of metal he can send it on a collision course with them. Though if they dodge this can backfire easily, if Naut can't cancel the magic in time said piece of metal will knock him on his ass.
Specialty: Violence.
Strengths:
-Naut's one and only strength is that he is profoundly skilled in combat. Even without his magic he's a dangerous hand to hand fighter with a deadly proficiency in boxing.
Weaknesses:
-Completely useless outside of combat.
-Naut is addicted to opium, and if caught after imbibing some he would be much less dangerous.
-Not an independent thinker. He does what The Leader tells him to and nothing more. Incapable of improvising.
History:
The year and a half after Naut was born was the best it ever got for him. Then his mother died. This was a tragedy, that ruined both his and his father's life. Not only did an infant lose his mother and a husband lost his wife, a household lost its provider. Naut's mother had been a highly skilled house-servant and had eventually been trusted with managing the logistics of the house's food. She was no cook, over a hundred servants worked in that household, and the nobles themselves had picky pallets. Keeping the former fed and the latter happy without overreaching in cost was no easy job and bought them a good house in one of the satellite market towns near Ostya.
Naut's father had been an unskilled laborer, with his worthiest quality being a kind enough man to be worthy of his wife. Long before Naut had been born his father and his mother had decided that his father would quit his mining job to care for the house and the baby. This was how the first year and a half of Naut's life went, and it was wonderful. Then his mother did something inconvenient at work. They never knew what. But when Naut's father heard she had a workplace accident, he knew the truth. He never was able to bury her.
That's when the downward slide of Naut's life began, and it never really stopped. Naut's father had to sell their house and move to a poor mining town far away near the border. As Naut grew, his father was a positive but oft absent influence in his life. He quickly fell in with other young poor children, who instead of a formal education quickly became acclimatized to the facts of life. They were dirt and nobody would do them any favors.
But Naut differed from the other children because there was still two people doing him favors. His father and his mother from beyond the grave. The house she had bought, and her husband sold, as well as other savings from his job, allowed her husband to offer Naut something the other kid's lacked. A tutor. Not in anything taught in in a university, Naut hadn't the chance to demonstrate an affinity for any such subjects. But as he grew in years, he had shown an affinity in something. In childish arguments that escalated to fist fights, or feuds with older and stronger kids. Feuds he often ended up losing, but nonetheless got into.
Naut's father was no fool and had grown up in similar conditions. He didn't waste time on moralistic lectures. He hired an experienced boxer to teach his son, with the hope that beyond offering his son a way to protect himself one day it would offer him a path out of poverty. Naut took to it well, and as he grew into a teenager, he stopped losing fights. By the time Naut was 16 the downward slide of Naut's life seemed to be leveling out. Then his father died.
This time when he was told a parent died in an accident, he believed it. 7 other miners died when it collapsed, and the vein they had been mining had been mostly depleted. It wasn't deemed economic to dig their bodies out. Furthermore, the remainder of the savings were seized by the local lord on the grounds that no formal will had been written. When Naut produced a will, it was invalidated on grounds of suspected forgery. If Naut's tutor hadn't been present to hold him back he would have gotten himself executed then and there. If the lord had been less smug and more eager Naut would have been executed anyways. But Naut was spared because the lord enjoyed the thought of letting him suffer, so Naut's tutor dragged him away.
Even worse, soon after Naut learned he was a wretched. He found out while venting his anger in a pointless fight and killed someone he didn't mean to. At that point he was very much in danger of being executed, so he fled and quite quickly. His tutor was willing to take him out of town, but made it plain that he would not care for Naut. His tutor had little money and great debts and would quickly move on to find more work. But he did one last act of charity for Naut, if it can be called that. He introduced Naut to underground fighting.
Ostracized from any other avenue, illegal fighting was Naut's last resort. As a Wretched he was billed less as a human and more as a lion or elephant, a highly dangerous wild animal dragged into the colosseum for sport. From the outset he was put in disadvantageous fights, and never fought a fight where he wasn't outnumbered, handicapped, or both. All of his early fights ended with him K.O'd and brutalized on the ground. It was during this period that he developed his opium addiction, as instead of proper medical treatment boxers were given a pipe to numb the pain. But Naut was well and truly motivated to develop his power, necessity drove him to learn new and inventive usages for it. The tide turned, and Naut went from losing of his fights, to losing some of his fights, to losing none of his fights.
By the time he was 19 his reputation was well established and crowds all over Druysia's underbelly cheered his name. It was not long after his birthday, though he wasn't keeping track at this point. He had just finished a fight in one of the market towns near Ostya, and when he returned to his staging room, he found he was not alone. [The Leader] was waiting for him. They had been in the crowd watching his fight and thought his talent was wasted fighting in garbage heaps for money. [The Leader] was planning a job, and they wanted Naut to help.
Naut was skeptical at first, but he accepted. He could hardly pass up a chance to earn some more money. To his surprise, the job went exceptionally well, and so did the next. And the next. And the next. After the first few worked out he was able to quit pit fighting and fully commit to [The Leader]'s plans. [The Leader]'s repeated success earned Naut's trust, and in time his devotion. He even grew to care for the other members of [The Leader]'s crew. Well, most of them at least.
It has been many years since Naut first met [The Leader]. While in many ways his life is still poor, a fact which eats at him every day, his almost familial bound with this group eases the pain. Perhaps it could be said that the downward slide of Naut's life has began to even out. But in Naut's experience, every time things are starting to go good, that's just about when everything gets worse...
Nickname: Harry
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Gay
Role: Brute
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Build: Average height with an athlete's physique.
Faceclaim:
Personality: Naut, or Harry to his friends, is a broken tool. A blunt instrument to be swung around, and he knows it. At a young age he trusted his fate to [the Leader] and surrendered his agency to them. Whenever [the Leader] wanted someone intimidated, roughed up, or someone dead, Naut was there. He does all this with a dead face, an uncaring lie. But outside of that, when the thieves are together cracks of Naut's humanity shines through. He greatly enjoys books, but is completely illiterate. As such he has [character] read cheap block books to him in the afternoon when neither of them are busy. He'll even spend some of his frugal savings on coffee for the two of them to enjoy together. Within the thieves as a whole Naut often acts as a stern older brother, especially to the youngest members. But he doesn't get along with all of them. Naut has a deep seated resentment and hatred of royalty. He was very hostile to [the Runaway] when they first joined. He found it insulting that they would give up a lifestyle that he'd do anything for, and he's never really accepted them as part of the thieves.
Motivations: Beyond anything else Naut is motivated to escape poverty, and will do anything in service of that goal. Of all the people he's met, the only person he believes can accomplish this is [The Leader], and as such he'll do anything for them.
Which side did they choose?: Royals.
Abilities:
-Naut has a limited form of magnetic magic. He can pull metal towards him, but that's all. He cannot push it away, or precisely direct it. Nonetheless he make skilled usage of it. He can draw enemies into close range with him and once they're there he can unbalance them by pulling on metal parts of their clothing. He can also protect allies from gunfire by hiding behind a sturdy piece of cover and redirecting the bullets towards him where he safely hides behind cover. And of course if someone is standing behind a sturdy piece of metal he can send it on a collision course with them. Though if they dodge this can backfire easily, if Naut can't cancel the magic in time said piece of metal will knock him on his ass.
Specialty: Violence.
Strengths:
-Naut's one and only strength is that he is profoundly skilled in combat. Even without his magic he's a dangerous hand to hand fighter with a deadly proficiency in boxing.
Weaknesses:
-Completely useless outside of combat.
-Naut is addicted to opium, and if caught after imbibing some he would be much less dangerous.
-Not an independent thinker. He does what The Leader tells him to and nothing more. Incapable of improvising.
History:
The year and a half after Naut was born was the best it ever got for him. Then his mother died. This was a tragedy, that ruined both his and his father's life. Not only did an infant lose his mother and a husband lost his wife, a household lost its provider. Naut's mother had been a highly skilled house-servant and had eventually been trusted with managing the logistics of the house's food. She was no cook, over a hundred servants worked in that household, and the nobles themselves had picky pallets. Keeping the former fed and the latter happy without overreaching in cost was no easy job and bought them a good house in one of the satellite market towns near Ostya.
Naut's father had been an unskilled laborer, with his worthiest quality being a kind enough man to be worthy of his wife. Long before Naut had been born his father and his mother had decided that his father would quit his mining job to care for the house and the baby. This was how the first year and a half of Naut's life went, and it was wonderful. Then his mother did something inconvenient at work. They never knew what. But when Naut's father heard she had a workplace accident, he knew the truth. He never was able to bury her.
That's when the downward slide of Naut's life began, and it never really stopped. Naut's father had to sell their house and move to a poor mining town far away near the border. As Naut grew, his father was a positive but oft absent influence in his life. He quickly fell in with other young poor children, who instead of a formal education quickly became acclimatized to the facts of life. They were dirt and nobody would do them any favors.
But Naut differed from the other children because there was still two people doing him favors. His father and his mother from beyond the grave. The house she had bought, and her husband sold, as well as other savings from his job, allowed her husband to offer Naut something the other kid's lacked. A tutor. Not in anything taught in in a university, Naut hadn't the chance to demonstrate an affinity for any such subjects. But as he grew in years, he had shown an affinity in something. In childish arguments that escalated to fist fights, or feuds with older and stronger kids. Feuds he often ended up losing, but nonetheless got into.
Naut's father was no fool and had grown up in similar conditions. He didn't waste time on moralistic lectures. He hired an experienced boxer to teach his son, with the hope that beyond offering his son a way to protect himself one day it would offer him a path out of poverty. Naut took to it well, and as he grew into a teenager, he stopped losing fights. By the time Naut was 16 the downward slide of Naut's life seemed to be leveling out. Then his father died.
This time when he was told a parent died in an accident, he believed it. 7 other miners died when it collapsed, and the vein they had been mining had been mostly depleted. It wasn't deemed economic to dig their bodies out. Furthermore, the remainder of the savings were seized by the local lord on the grounds that no formal will had been written. When Naut produced a will, it was invalidated on grounds of suspected forgery. If Naut's tutor hadn't been present to hold him back he would have gotten himself executed then and there. If the lord had been less smug and more eager Naut would have been executed anyways. But Naut was spared because the lord enjoyed the thought of letting him suffer, so Naut's tutor dragged him away.
Even worse, soon after Naut learned he was a wretched. He found out while venting his anger in a pointless fight and killed someone he didn't mean to. At that point he was very much in danger of being executed, so he fled and quite quickly. His tutor was willing to take him out of town, but made it plain that he would not care for Naut. His tutor had little money and great debts and would quickly move on to find more work. But he did one last act of charity for Naut, if it can be called that. He introduced Naut to underground fighting.
Ostracized from any other avenue, illegal fighting was Naut's last resort. As a Wretched he was billed less as a human and more as a lion or elephant, a highly dangerous wild animal dragged into the colosseum for sport. From the outset he was put in disadvantageous fights, and never fought a fight where he wasn't outnumbered, handicapped, or both. All of his early fights ended with him K.O'd and brutalized on the ground. It was during this period that he developed his opium addiction, as instead of proper medical treatment boxers were given a pipe to numb the pain. But Naut was well and truly motivated to develop his power, necessity drove him to learn new and inventive usages for it. The tide turned, and Naut went from losing of his fights, to losing some of his fights, to losing none of his fights.
By the time he was 19 his reputation was well established and crowds all over Druysia's underbelly cheered his name. It was not long after his birthday, though he wasn't keeping track at this point. He had just finished a fight in one of the market towns near Ostya, and when he returned to his staging room, he found he was not alone. [The Leader] was waiting for him. They had been in the crowd watching his fight and thought his talent was wasted fighting in garbage heaps for money. [The Leader] was planning a job, and they wanted Naut to help.
Naut was skeptical at first, but he accepted. He could hardly pass up a chance to earn some more money. To his surprise, the job went exceptionally well, and so did the next. And the next. And the next. After the first few worked out he was able to quit pit fighting and fully commit to [The Leader]'s plans. [The Leader]'s repeated success earned Naut's trust, and in time his devotion. He even grew to care for the other members of [The Leader]'s crew. Well, most of them at least.
It has been many years since Naut first met [The Leader]. While in many ways his life is still poor, a fact which eats at him every day, his almost familial bound with this group eases the pain. Perhaps it could be said that the downward slide of Naut's life has began to even out. But in Naut's experience, every time things are starting to go good, that's just about when everything gets worse...
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RayneIlStorm
Junior Member
Jackson
Name: Jackson
Nickname: Jax
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Pansexual
Role: The New Recruit
Hair: His hair is originally raven black but he bleached it to make it blond. His bleached hair is shoddily done and still shows obvious black roots. It’s cut short and styled towards the side.
Eyes: His eyes are a deep forest green that he got from his father. They always shine brightly, no matter what.
Build: He is 5’ 6” (168 cm) tall with a lean build. Most of his musculature shows in his leg area, showing that he’s more prone to running than fighting. His arms are thinner as well as his fingers, which are long and nimble. His skin is pale, almost ghostly, with two scars cutting over the left side of his lips.
Faceclaim: Ludi Lin
Personality: He’s cocky, to say the least. One success for him is proof that he’s as good as he thinks he is. Not saying that he’s bad at what he does, ‘cause if he was, he’d probably be dead. What he really likes, though, is approval from those that he thinks are better than him. So, most of the time, you can find him doing either what he’s told or doing the most outrageous stunt just to get his betters’ attention. Either way, he knows when to show off and when to shut his trap. He’s kind of childish as well, almost like he never knew to grow out of it.
Likes: hit-and-runs, eating good food, parkour, animals, pretty jewelry
Dislikes: His parents, rich people, capitalism, mud
Motivations: The admiration of his peers, the approval of his betters, a good life
Which side did they choose?: The Lovers
Abilities: Can make objects he touches emit light.
Specialty: He’s a good distraction and good at getting away (unscathed? Maybe, maybe not.)
Strengths: good at pickpocketing, really good art parkour and running, agile and nimble
Weaknesses: lacks physical strength, finds everyone attractive, can sometimes be too daring
History:
Jackson is an orphan, it’s as simple as that. His father wasn’t there and his mother couldn’t care for him, so she gave him up to the streets. He grew up with a small gang of other orphaned children, finding a family with each other, and worked with them to survive for years, but as everyone left one way or another, he became alone. From there, he fended for himself and survived pickpocketing others.