Post by madb on Sept 28, 2012 19:05:04 GMT -5
NAME: Brackos
RANK: Wherhandler and cook
AGE: Thirty-six turns
GENDER: male
ORIENTATION: heterosexual
WHER: brown Brask x
PETS: n/a, Brask would eat them alive
APPEARANCE:
handsome in a dark and rough sort of way, softened slightly by the slight pudginess around his waist that he’s recently acquired. He wears his hair short and he’s always got a five o’clock shadow, if not an outright beard, as he forgets to shave often. He wears dark brown or black clothes at all times, not for any other particular reason except that he likes them. Brackos’s appearance is sun-touched, his rather large hands are calloused, as are his feet. He rarely smiles except to smirk.
PERSONALITY FAULTS:
He doesn’t do ‘change’ and he doesn’t do ‘quick’. He likes life as it is; in his strict, rigid, and simply organized way. Brackos is rarely around as much as he would like to help his wife raise Decon, which their relationship occasionally suffers some strain from. While he’s not utterly isolated by his wher (he is at night), he does not make friends, instead preferring to keep his relationships at ‘acquaintance’ level. Brackos tends to overwork himself and is often found with bags under his eyes. Brackos does not get along well with curious people, loud people, or ‘irritating people’. He is quite standoffish. Brackos is a gambler and wastes a lot of his money on games, especially runner games. He likes to drink.
PERSONALITY STRENGTHS;
Brackos is parental, especially to wher candidates and the younger wher handlers. He likes looking out for people, even if it is from—as it often is—a distance. He can smell bullsh*t from a mile away and deals with it before it can grow into a bullsh*t bush. He is calm, controlled, even-tempered, fair and even-handed. Though it might seem like he views life as an every-man-for-himself kind of game, with the big dogs eating the little ones, in all actuality it takes very little for Brackos to get involved and pull people apart. He is a simple man, and a flawed one, but ultimately good.
FAMILY:
Wife, Dainni; she has long black hair and tired brown eyes, and a kindly smile. She is tiny but it is obvious she has worked hard her entire life and can take care of herself. She is thirty-eight turns old. Her parents were miners but she always dreamed of traveling. In fact, in her girlhood days, she had wanted to be a trader. Dainni fell in love with a boy whose father was a wherhandler that worked in the mines, and wound up staying instead, until the opportunity to go to Mavros presented itself.
Son, Decon; he is three turns old, a late blessing, and has dark curls and solemn black eyes that stare without blinking at everything. Decon prefers to be carried around, though he can walk, and he doesn’t like to speak, though he can. He never was a crier. Decon is currently obsessed with dragons. Brackos keeps his son far away from Brask.
HISTORY:
Some people believe he just popped out of a rock one day, fully grown, and with a son and a wife on either arm. Others wouldn't be surprised if that had happened. After all, the man is made of stone. He might even be made of firestone. Useful, but frakking awful to the taste buds.
Truthfully, he always was like this. While other boys ran around pulling girls' hair, playing pranks, and having adventures, Brackos was hoarding his little stock of marks he
The only time he ever acted like a sharding child, was when he fell in love, for the first and last time in his life. Then Brackos became 'a fool'--in his daddy's words. Dainni was a few turns older than he, and well pursued for her beauty. Her pretty dark coloring was a rarity to see anywhere in Pern, but especially so in a small hold like this one. She had an infectious laugh and a dreamer's personality, always looking outside the small area she was born in, and thinking big. Brackos had never met anyone that made him feel like his whole way at looking at things, on focusing on the small things, seemed silly.
At first Dainni wasn't interested, more amused and tolerant of his attentions. But his unfaltering personality, and the respect that he always showed her, won her over. As her mother was all that remained in her family, Dainni easily convinced her to agree. Brackos's father was not so swayed. He was worried that his son, who showed aptitude with whers and had the bloodline for it, would leave with 'that dreamer'. And he was right. But it would not happen in his lifetime.
In fact, Brackos had just put together his whole life savings, packed his bags, and swooped up Dainni into his arms--although, likely not literally--when the news came from the mines that there had been a collapse of infrastructure, and that his father was fast-fading to between. It was as if the old tunnelsnake had planned it. At first, he hesitated. They had never been close, and had barely exchanged two words in the last turn. Both he and Dainni knew what the old man would say. And they both knew what Brackos would feel duty-bound to follow. But Dainni squeezed his arm, and ordered him to 'go to him. There are things in this life that are more important than anything else. Family is one of them.'
So he went to him. He sat at his bedside, heard the rattle in his chest. The man's arm stretched out and he clawed his fingers in tight, leaving red marks on skin which would not leave for days. 'Take care of Brask. That will be his name soon. You will do this, for I would have no other but my son, I cannot trust anyone but you. You will do this because you will not let him go feral. Do you hear me?'
Brackos did as he asked. It is always difficult, to re-bond a wher. There were no men of character that could have done it--that is Brackos's firm belief.
Dainni and Brackos stayed in their mine-focused Hold for turns, as Brackos attempted to manage his duties as a wherhandler at night, with his duties as a husband during the day. They attempted to start a family but were not blessed. Brackos found a love of cooking, quite accidentally, and attempted to now juggle three things. He started his habit of power-napping for two hours between each, with family life occasionally getting the short-end of the stick.
His and Brask's shining moment of fame happened one night while they were paroling the mines, actually taking over for a green wher and her bonded that night, when they heard a sound. Brackos rushed to discover a young miner apprentice was actually stealing ore, likely in an attempt to make money and move to a bigger hold with better opportunities. He had hired three large thugs on faith that the plan would work. Brackos was by no means a small man, but he was outnumbered. Brask, sensing his bonded's distress, lashed out in a rage, taking down one of the men. Brackos was left fighting the other two, with no weapons. He used his first opponent's weight to throw him over his shoulder and then knocked him out with a powerful slam of his fist. While he and the other thug struggled, Brask darted out to catch the thief after pulverizing his first victim. He caught up easy and, before Brackos could make it over or manage to stop him, Brask mauled the boy to death.
Neither handler nor wher were punished for the overkill by their lord and lady holder. Dainni, who had been neutral about the wher, actually gave Brask a huge slab of meat and grew quite fond of him from that day on.
It doesn't sit well with Brackos, though. Around this time, though many in that hold were fond of drink, he started to slip into it more frequently. He took up gambling his precious-saved marks, anything to escape the memories of Brask standing over that poor boy's body. He grew more distant and less friendly. The hold was shadowing over him now, full of memories that he couldn't seem to escape; not his father's shadow, not his actions. And his mood further soured Brask's, the wher continuing to grow more and more volatile, when before he had been a rather slow-to-act creature.
On the other hand, there was a spark of light during those years. Decon was born, a surprise to them both. They had long ago given up hope of children. Dainni saw his birth as a sign that things would soon be looking up.
Then two turns ago, a childhood friend contacted Dainni, saying that she and her 'cook husband' should come over and work at Mavros weyr, which was of great need for people, even dragonless people. After contacting the head cook and the headwoman of Mavros, than talking to the lord and lady holder, Dainni gained permission for both her and her husband to leave. In fact, at this point, it seemed as if it would be best for everyone involved. But she had still not told the hardest person to convince; Brackos.
She sat down with him one morning, after he returned home tired and strained. She massaged his shoulders and talked about the past, when they were young. She talked about the events that had strained their marriage and still haunted him. She talked to him about his father. And then Dainni asked for what she had always wanted, to move away from the hold.
How could Brackos ever have refused her anything? After everything they had gone through, and after everything that he had put her through, her and his child both.
And that, my friends, is how Brackos wound up here.
IN THE EVENT OF YOUR SUDDEN, UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE SITE AT ANY POINT IN TIME, WHAT DO YOU WISH TO BECOME OF THIS CHARACTER AND ANY CREATURES THEY MAY IMPRESS?
b. Turn them into an NPC who may be killed off or used for plot purposes but who will not be played by someone else.
