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Aug. 9th, 2016 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theveilisinOOC
Player Name: Emi
Age: 28
Preferred Contact: PM or![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
sweetjerry
Existing Characters: N/A
IC
Character Name: Luvander. This canon is awful about actually telling us any last names, but if that's acceptable I'll just go with something if necessary.
Canon: The Volstovic Cycle
Canon Point: End of Steelhands
About:
(First, the basic nitty gritty details that will make the rest of this section make sense!
- Luvander used to belong to the Dragon Corps in the country of Volstov, which means it used to be his job to ride sentient mechanical dragons into battle with the Ke-Han. Volstov = fantasy Russia, Ke-Han = fantasy China, basically.
- He was chosen by one of the dragons as her rider when he was in his teens, and has lived with his fellow airmen in a building simply called the Airman ever since, and thereby during most of his adult life.
- Around a year ago at Luvander's canon point (in the first book in the series, Havemercy) the Dragon Corps were forced to launch what was basically a suicide attack on the Ke-Han capital, and only a small handful of the original 13 airmen survived. Most of the dragons were destroyed, and the ones that weren't ended up being dismantled as a part of the peace treaty with Ke-Han.
- The fourth book in the series, Steelhands - aka the book in which Luvander features as a character and has more than 5 lines - deals with the ruler of Volstov, The Esar, secretly starting to assemble a new version of the Dragon Corps using very unethical methods, and the fallout of this. It's narrated by two other former airmen, Balfour and Sergeant Adamo, as well as two University students.)
If you want to be charitable, you could definitely call Luvander eccentric. Since most of the people he knows are not much interested in being charitable in the first place, it’s more likely to hear him referred to as being crazy as a soap teacup. A more accurate assessment would be that he is a man who has figured out his own personal peculiarities while living within a group full of equally colorful men, and has worked out how make them work to his advantage – and that he’s just a little bit insane, just like all the other airmen.
Most noticeable is probably the fact that he never shuts up. He appears very fond of the sound of his own voice, in fact, and is extremely prone to meandering monologues which are most of the time both colorful and nonsensical in nature. He doesn’t much seem to care if what comes out of his mouth is entirely suitable for the situation, or makes sense at all, or even if it makes him come off as either hugely insensitive or just plain weird. Since his attention span is also a little bit erratic, it’s not unusual for him to jump from one subject to another without warning. All of this might seem like traits solely belonging to someone rather incredibly self-centered, but as Adamo points out in his narration, it’s actually often a case of Luvander trying to fill up the silence so no one – presumably including himself – is going to have to feel awkward. Regrettably this doesn’t always work, especially in the case of more timid and cautious personalities, but that doesn’t change that it is just as much an attempt to make people feel included as it is a symptom of verbal incontinence.
Despite his blatant weirdness, he is also among the most well-balanced of the motley band of madmen he belongs to. This is made particularly obvious if you compare him to the other surviving airmen after the war, and how well they seem to cope. Balfour is a ball of anxiety, and shows clear signs of suffering from PTSD; Adamo feels uncomfortable with his new place in life and is generally angry with the world; Rook escapes the city and is an absolute mess of grief and rage after losing his dragon; Ghislain also leaves to become a pirate. Meanwhile, Luvander manages to wriggle out of any responsibility toward the government which might otherwise limit his career choice, buys himself a hat shop right next to the great big statues erected in the honor of the airmen, and names the shop after his dragon. While the others seem caught up in their past lives, unable to move on, Luvander appears to have landed on his feet and is adjusting admirably to life as a civilian. Although he clearly mourns his dragon and the people he lost, he seems to have put that part of his life to rest.
He has been described by the authors as being a natural caretaker due to having a fair number of younger siblings growing up, and this is made rather obvious by his behavior in Steelhands as well. The moment he realizes that Balfour is having trouble taking care of himself, he - without asking permission first - tracks down his address and invites himself over, apparently to make sure the younger man has a proper breakfast, but probably also just to check that he's okay. And once he and Adamo decide to keep an even closer eye on the younger man, he takes very naturally to it. All the later secret meetings are held at his hat shop, it being a neutral location, and despite the tense situation he also seems to rather enjoy his role as a host. It could be speculated that a man who at first comes from a very lively home, only to spend years and years living at the Airman, might find that living on his own all of a sudden feels a bit empty.
At the Airman, however, there was also a rather nasty culture rife with hazing and generally some very toxic views, and Luvander was hardly immune to it. He certainly took part in the ruthless bullying of Balfour, and played along well enough not to be a target himself. Even outside of that environment, his sense of humor frequently comes off as insensitive or even unkind at times. Yet you never get the feeling that there is any true malice behind his actions, but rather a somewhat skewed idea of what's funny, cultivated in an environment where not picking on others in one way or another were seen as signs of weakness. This, coupled with a temperament that compels him to not let go of a joke unless more or less forced to, seems to be the cause of his sometimes disrespectful behavior, rather than outright cruelty.
That sense of humor can also be problematic when things start to get serious, because Luvander seems to be physically incapable of not running his mouth, or simply making light of the situation in ways which understandably are taken as rather offensive by some. On the flip side, you can definitely tell that sometimes, this very way of acting is a kind of defense that he employs. It appears that he’s not good at – most likely not comfortable with – expressing anything that touches him on a more personal level, and making fun of a situation or telling random anecdotes allows him bypass having to deal with actually talking about his feelings. Balfour notes that for someone with an extremely expressive face and lively mimicry, he very rarely expresses any genuine emotions at all, and the best way of telling if something has gotten to him is usually via the absence of any expression at all.
That is not to say that he's emotionally deadened or compromised as such, and some things definitely get under his skin. Often this is hinted at by a flicker in his carefree demeanor, a pause that goes on just a bit too long, or in extreme cases, how he simply goes still and unmovable, suddenly devoid of hyperbole and absurdities. He is certainly capable of serious moments and speaking directly about important/emotional matters when he feels the situation calls for it, most particularly out of empathy for others. However, the only time you ever really see him properly break character is when the dragons and his comrades are concerned, and when there is a direct risk of actual, right-this-moment physical danger to people. When faced with seeing what’s left of their dragons disassembled and ready to be built into new dragons, he definitely displays open rage, even if it’s expressed through freezing up and speaking quietly and venomously - he shuts down, as if he's not sure how to deal with that level of negative emotions. On the other side of the spectrum, when airman Raphael turns up after having been presumed dead, Luvander is noticeably moved to the point of actually being speechless, something that really doesn't happen often. In that situation, he also quickly tries to direct attention away from himself, as if embarrassed by expressing genuine emotion.
Being a trained soldier, he will not show a moment’s hesitation in putting himself in danger for someone else, or even giving his life if he has to. This is obviously best demonstrated by him taking a direct hit by a catapult with his dragon to save Adamo during the war, but also by how readily he and the others decide to break into a prison and defy their on ruler for the sake of a former comrade. He does seem more inclined to think before he leaps than some might be, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t still leap with gusto once he’s figured out what he’s supposed to do next.
Word Of God from the authors is, somewhat vaguely, that all the airmen are “somewhere on the Kinsey scale”, but that Luvander is definitely gay. At the Airman, one facet of the general toxic atmosphere was rampant homophobia, and Luvander does at one point tell Balfour that once he’s holding a secret, it’s gone forever. That does indeed to be the case, because even a year after having left the Airman he still keeps making oblique comments which could be taken both ways, but are clearly intended to be interpreted as if he's attracted to women. Lying without actually lying, in other words. It also doesn’t seem like anyone else is aware of his orientation (except possibly Adamo, but if he does it's probably because of an educated guess). It seems like he spent such a long time playing a role, it's hard for him to really separate himself from it anymore, or break away entirely. This could be another reason for why Luvander is so prone to acting carefree even in face of serious situations, and why expressing himself without his perpetual jargon seems to come so very hard. Generally speaking, leaving yourself open and showing your true feelings in the Airman was more or less like painting a target on your back, and Luvander had more to hide than most.
Inventory: Rather fancy Victorian style street clothes geared towards winter weather, and a knife tucked inside one boot.
Feature Type: He'll have features taken from the Ring Tailed Mongoose (1, 2). He'll get the ridiculous fluffy tail, the weird ears and a set of much sharper teeth. While his eyes will otherwise look the same, he'll also get the horizontal slit-like pupil typical for mongooses, shown here on another breed.
Mongooses are very scent-oriented, so Luvander will also get a slightly better sense of smell, for all the good that does him.
(I am assuming that since the mongoose is a "smaller predator" that means he'll end up in Birch. Hopefully this is correct.)
What are your plans with this character? Luvander will most likely want to continue life as it was back home, meaning he'll be trying to set up a hat shop. That might be a bit of a hassle since that is more Willow territory, but he'll be willing to work for it to happen. He's also a terrible gossip and nosy in general, and will probably try to keep tabs on whatever plots are ongoing, meddling whenever he feels like it.
Sample: TDM thread!
Player Name: Emi
Age: 28
Preferred Contact: PM or
Existing Characters: N/A
IC
Character Name: Luvander. This canon is awful about actually telling us any last names, but if that's acceptable I'll just go with something if necessary.
Canon: The Volstovic Cycle
Canon Point: End of Steelhands
About:
(First, the basic nitty gritty details that will make the rest of this section make sense!
- Luvander used to belong to the Dragon Corps in the country of Volstov, which means it used to be his job to ride sentient mechanical dragons into battle with the Ke-Han. Volstov = fantasy Russia, Ke-Han = fantasy China, basically.
- He was chosen by one of the dragons as her rider when he was in his teens, and has lived with his fellow airmen in a building simply called the Airman ever since, and thereby during most of his adult life.
- Around a year ago at Luvander's canon point (in the first book in the series, Havemercy) the Dragon Corps were forced to launch what was basically a suicide attack on the Ke-Han capital, and only a small handful of the original 13 airmen survived. Most of the dragons were destroyed, and the ones that weren't ended up being dismantled as a part of the peace treaty with Ke-Han.
- The fourth book in the series, Steelhands - aka the book in which Luvander features as a character and has more than 5 lines - deals with the ruler of Volstov, The Esar, secretly starting to assemble a new version of the Dragon Corps using very unethical methods, and the fallout of this. It's narrated by two other former airmen, Balfour and Sergeant Adamo, as well as two University students.)
If you want to be charitable, you could definitely call Luvander eccentric. Since most of the people he knows are not much interested in being charitable in the first place, it’s more likely to hear him referred to as being crazy as a soap teacup. A more accurate assessment would be that he is a man who has figured out his own personal peculiarities while living within a group full of equally colorful men, and has worked out how make them work to his advantage – and that he’s just a little bit insane, just like all the other airmen.
Most noticeable is probably the fact that he never shuts up. He appears very fond of the sound of his own voice, in fact, and is extremely prone to meandering monologues which are most of the time both colorful and nonsensical in nature. He doesn’t much seem to care if what comes out of his mouth is entirely suitable for the situation, or makes sense at all, or even if it makes him come off as either hugely insensitive or just plain weird. Since his attention span is also a little bit erratic, it’s not unusual for him to jump from one subject to another without warning. All of this might seem like traits solely belonging to someone rather incredibly self-centered, but as Adamo points out in his narration, it’s actually often a case of Luvander trying to fill up the silence so no one – presumably including himself – is going to have to feel awkward. Regrettably this doesn’t always work, especially in the case of more timid and cautious personalities, but that doesn’t change that it is just as much an attempt to make people feel included as it is a symptom of verbal incontinence.
Despite his blatant weirdness, he is also among the most well-balanced of the motley band of madmen he belongs to. This is made particularly obvious if you compare him to the other surviving airmen after the war, and how well they seem to cope. Balfour is a ball of anxiety, and shows clear signs of suffering from PTSD; Adamo feels uncomfortable with his new place in life and is generally angry with the world; Rook escapes the city and is an absolute mess of grief and rage after losing his dragon; Ghislain also leaves to become a pirate. Meanwhile, Luvander manages to wriggle out of any responsibility toward the government which might otherwise limit his career choice, buys himself a hat shop right next to the great big statues erected in the honor of the airmen, and names the shop after his dragon. While the others seem caught up in their past lives, unable to move on, Luvander appears to have landed on his feet and is adjusting admirably to life as a civilian. Although he clearly mourns his dragon and the people he lost, he seems to have put that part of his life to rest.
He has been described by the authors as being a natural caretaker due to having a fair number of younger siblings growing up, and this is made rather obvious by his behavior in Steelhands as well. The moment he realizes that Balfour is having trouble taking care of himself, he - without asking permission first - tracks down his address and invites himself over, apparently to make sure the younger man has a proper breakfast, but probably also just to check that he's okay. And once he and Adamo decide to keep an even closer eye on the younger man, he takes very naturally to it. All the later secret meetings are held at his hat shop, it being a neutral location, and despite the tense situation he also seems to rather enjoy his role as a host. It could be speculated that a man who at first comes from a very lively home, only to spend years and years living at the Airman, might find that living on his own all of a sudden feels a bit empty.
At the Airman, however, there was also a rather nasty culture rife with hazing and generally some very toxic views, and Luvander was hardly immune to it. He certainly took part in the ruthless bullying of Balfour, and played along well enough not to be a target himself. Even outside of that environment, his sense of humor frequently comes off as insensitive or even unkind at times. Yet you never get the feeling that there is any true malice behind his actions, but rather a somewhat skewed idea of what's funny, cultivated in an environment where not picking on others in one way or another were seen as signs of weakness. This, coupled with a temperament that compels him to not let go of a joke unless more or less forced to, seems to be the cause of his sometimes disrespectful behavior, rather than outright cruelty.
That sense of humor can also be problematic when things start to get serious, because Luvander seems to be physically incapable of not running his mouth, or simply making light of the situation in ways which understandably are taken as rather offensive by some. On the flip side, you can definitely tell that sometimes, this very way of acting is a kind of defense that he employs. It appears that he’s not good at – most likely not comfortable with – expressing anything that touches him on a more personal level, and making fun of a situation or telling random anecdotes allows him bypass having to deal with actually talking about his feelings. Balfour notes that for someone with an extremely expressive face and lively mimicry, he very rarely expresses any genuine emotions at all, and the best way of telling if something has gotten to him is usually via the absence of any expression at all.
That is not to say that he's emotionally deadened or compromised as such, and some things definitely get under his skin. Often this is hinted at by a flicker in his carefree demeanor, a pause that goes on just a bit too long, or in extreme cases, how he simply goes still and unmovable, suddenly devoid of hyperbole and absurdities. He is certainly capable of serious moments and speaking directly about important/emotional matters when he feels the situation calls for it, most particularly out of empathy for others. However, the only time you ever really see him properly break character is when the dragons and his comrades are concerned, and when there is a direct risk of actual, right-this-moment physical danger to people. When faced with seeing what’s left of their dragons disassembled and ready to be built into new dragons, he definitely displays open rage, even if it’s expressed through freezing up and speaking quietly and venomously - he shuts down, as if he's not sure how to deal with that level of negative emotions. On the other side of the spectrum, when airman Raphael turns up after having been presumed dead, Luvander is noticeably moved to the point of actually being speechless, something that really doesn't happen often. In that situation, he also quickly tries to direct attention away from himself, as if embarrassed by expressing genuine emotion.
Being a trained soldier, he will not show a moment’s hesitation in putting himself in danger for someone else, or even giving his life if he has to. This is obviously best demonstrated by him taking a direct hit by a catapult with his dragon to save Adamo during the war, but also by how readily he and the others decide to break into a prison and defy their on ruler for the sake of a former comrade. He does seem more inclined to think before he leaps than some might be, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t still leap with gusto once he’s figured out what he’s supposed to do next.
Word Of God from the authors is, somewhat vaguely, that all the airmen are “somewhere on the Kinsey scale”, but that Luvander is definitely gay. At the Airman, one facet of the general toxic atmosphere was rampant homophobia, and Luvander does at one point tell Balfour that once he’s holding a secret, it’s gone forever. That does indeed to be the case, because even a year after having left the Airman he still keeps making oblique comments which could be taken both ways, but are clearly intended to be interpreted as if he's attracted to women. Lying without actually lying, in other words. It also doesn’t seem like anyone else is aware of his orientation (except possibly Adamo, but if he does it's probably because of an educated guess). It seems like he spent such a long time playing a role, it's hard for him to really separate himself from it anymore, or break away entirely. This could be another reason for why Luvander is so prone to acting carefree even in face of serious situations, and why expressing himself without his perpetual jargon seems to come so very hard. Generally speaking, leaving yourself open and showing your true feelings in the Airman was more or less like painting a target on your back, and Luvander had more to hide than most.
Inventory: Rather fancy Victorian style street clothes geared towards winter weather, and a knife tucked inside one boot.
Feature Type: He'll have features taken from the Ring Tailed Mongoose (1, 2). He'll get the ridiculous fluffy tail, the weird ears and a set of much sharper teeth. While his eyes will otherwise look the same, he'll also get the horizontal slit-like pupil typical for mongooses, shown here on another breed.
Mongooses are very scent-oriented, so Luvander will also get a slightly better sense of smell, for all the good that does him.
(I am assuming that since the mongoose is a "smaller predator" that means he'll end up in Birch. Hopefully this is correct.)
What are your plans with this character? Luvander will most likely want to continue life as it was back home, meaning he'll be trying to set up a hat shop. That might be a bit of a hassle since that is more Willow territory, but he'll be willing to work for it to happen. He's also a terrible gossip and nosy in general, and will probably try to keep tabs on whatever plots are ongoing, meddling whenever he feels like it.
Sample: TDM thread!
