Post by lithle on Jan 11, 2011 21:23:23 GMT -5
Spenser
Name: Spenser
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Prisoner: Yes
Crime: Murder
Craft/Rank: Journeyman Smithcrafter
Appearance:
Spenser is unlikely to be described as handsome. It's doubtful he'll even get an attractive out of the average observer. He does, however, merit an 'interesting' from some onlookers. Far from a paragon of vitality, there's something clearly well, unhealthy, about his appearance. He's thin, and more than that. He could gain thirty pounds and still merit thin. Spenser is gaunt, a too tall, wraith of a creature with sallow skin that has an almost greenish cast. Yet it's clear that he could be larger. He's built on a frame he fails to fill out, with broad shoulders and large hands.
His hair is perhaps his most impressive feature. A vibrant, eye-catching red he keeps it cut choppy and short, messy chunks falling into his face. It's not a stylish haircut but it works with his generally careless style. Besides, as he'd say, it matches his prison reds. His eyes are simply brown and his gaze is restless, always jumping about looking for something new and exciting to distract him. He has high, strongly defined cheekbones and a chin that might best be described as 'heroic'.
Personality:
Spenser is pure energy channeled into a nominally human form. This much is clear at a glance. He's never still, often rolling a small disc of metal over his knuckles or finding some other way to fidget when work isn't available. When work is available, he does it, and, should the work interest him, he even does a good job. Spenser can channel his energy productively, it just takes a lot to keep him from getting bored and distracted. Boredom is a dangerous state for Spenser, as he's liable to do something stupid and possibly life threatening when not entertained.
Fear is a concept utterly alien to Spenser. For reasons deeply rooted in his own history, the man fails to understand death as a bad thing, or anyway, considers it impossible to avoid. Indeed, he seems to have a morbid obsession with pursing things that might kill him. Whether he has a buried suicide wish or a desire to prove his mastery over the grim reaper, it's hard to say. Regardless, he'll fight someone three times his size or go after a rampaging feline without a moments hesitation. Indeed, he seems to take great joy in such activities and, imprisoned, often seems to pick fights with wher handlers just to bait their whers.
Another idea that Spenser struggles with is a sense of right and wrong. It's not exactly that he doesn't have a moral compass, his needle just swings a bit more freely than it should. Yet, there's very little anger in him and no maliciousness. He lacks some of the other inmates joy in causing hurt, but doesn't hesitate to cause it when he feels the situation calls for it (and sometimes, extreme boredom seems like a good reason to cause a bit of mayhem). Laws and rules aren't even suggestions to him, they're abstract ideas. Only bribery serves to keep him in line even temporarily as threat utterly fails to register.
Underneath the energy, the morbid risk taking and the near constant boredom is someone unreachable to most. Spenser is a brilliantly loyal friend, yet he has only one person who might claim his friendship. For those he loves, he's capable of channeling all his wildness into dedication. It's just hard for him to stop flitting around long enough to notice other people are more than particularly entertaining toys. He's quite talented at his craft, though he practices it only in its most rudimentary form at Warden's. Indeed, there's intellect in there somewhere, and one can, with effort, coax intelligent (if morbid) conversation out of the man, if they don't mind the way he fidgets as he talks.
History:
Spenser was the first and only child of his parents, two journeyman healers. His mother had difficulty carrying children to term and Spins was an unexpected miracle born when his mother was beyond the age usually associated with childbirth. Yet, from the first it was clear that there was something wrong with him. He was frail, fidgety, reluctant to feed.
As he grew, it became clear that, while Pern had no explanation for what plagued him, he was indeed ill. He got sick quickly and often. Sevendays and months were spent in bed for illnesses other children shook off in a matter of day. Spins was always sick, always fragile, and death became as closer companion than the other children, who he rarely saw. He learned not to fear death and instead became rather fixated on it. If he was going to die, and he clearly was, he wanted to go out in an interesting fashion. He wanted to have fun first.
Through his illnesses, through long months spent in bed, Spins had one constant companion. Jaden, a child of one of the kitchen workers. Jaden attached himself to Spins, became his protector and guardian. If other kids picked on Spins, it was healthy, charming Jaden who protected him. If he collapsed, it was Jaden who went to get the healers. Jaden slept at the foot of his bed. Jaden made him laugh and kept the madness of boredom at bay. Jaden reminded him to take his medicine. In many ways, Jaden kept him alive.
While it'd be a stretch to say that Spenser fully outgrew his frailty, he grew stronger with the passing of turns. Perhaps he'd simply already almost died of everything there was. Nothing was left. Whatever the reason, he was able to remain out of bed for longer periods of time. At fourteen, he convinced his parents to allow him to enter a craft of his own. Already a wild, restless creature when able to stand upright, he was able to irritate them into allowing it.
He joined the Smithcraft, where he flourished. Sure, he was reckless and impatient. And sure, he got ill more than other students. Nevertheless, Spins was good at Smithcraft and found it interesting enough that he was able to focus for long periods of time, provided the task was difficult enough. He still saw Jaden on his visits home and the two boys remained close. At twenty, he walked the tables. At twenty-one, he went home and Jaden was nowhere to be found.
At twenty-two Jaden showed up on his doorstep, bloody, bruised, half mad and strung out on dust. For months, Spins cut himself off from everyone, devoting himself entirely to rebuilding this frail, terrified creature that had once been his friend. The story came out slowly. A boyfriend. Nice at first. No, really. And then, well, he just got so angry.
Spins got angry too. But he couldn't leave Jaden's side. The man was prone to fits of panic, he trusted no one near him but Spins. It took him a year, to heal to the point where he was capable of surviving on his own. So Spins was twenty-three when he killed the man who had broken his friend.
It was another turn before he was caught, though he made only a cursory effort to hide his crime. He certainly admitted no guilt. To be guilty was to have done something wrong, and Spins doesn't think he did. The man needed to die. So Spins killed him. Still, he found himself at Warden's with Jaden joining him in less than a turn.
At Warden's, he's been on far from his best behavior. Sometimes he works, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he picks fights. Sometimes he tries to run away. He spends a lot of time in the infirmary. And he protects Jaden. He's not violent enough to merit constant isolation, though he's found himself locked away on more than one occasion. He is, if anything, an irritation.
Other stuff: Jaden will be apped shortly.