Recollé Application

[theveilisin]

PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Emi
18+?: Yes
CONTACT: sweetjerry
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Souji Okita
RESERVATION LINK: Here.

CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Luvander (what are last names if you're a fantasy character?)
AGE: Not specified other than "older than Balfour, younger than Adamo", but I would approximate it at 32
CANON: The Volstovic Cycle

CANON HISTORY: Obscure canon, so here's a bullet point list of canon events relevant to Luvander's character specifically, as well as a few details that have been revealed through Word Of God:
- Around when he's 16 or so, Luvander gets accidentally picked as a dragon rider by a dragon, Yesfir, who just happens to see him and decide she likes him.
- For an unknown number of years, I'm going with around 15, he's enlisted as a rider of a mechanical, sentient dragon. The dragons are war machines used in the drawn-out war between his country, Volstov, and their neighbours Ke-Han. (Fantasy Russia and Fantasy China.)
- The Dragon Corps are necessary assets to the country, and the dragons being rather finicky creatures, the riders are very hard to replace. This makes it hard to discipline them, which means they are allowed free reigns to do pretty much as they please. At the start of the first book, this leads to one of them causing an international incident by being a sexist pig.
- A psychology student is hired in an attempt to curb some of their unacceptable behavior. That goes about as well as expected - he's mercilessly bullied and rarely co-operated with. Luvander doesn't appear to be among the main bullies, doesn't interact much with him at all, but he does seem to think it's a lot of fun.
- The Ke-Han manage to somehow poison the Volstov source of magic, which causes something like a plague among their magicians, and also causes the dragons to start malfunctioning.
- In an attempt to knock out the Ke-Han magicians responsible, the dragon riders launch an all-out attack on the Ke-Han capital, the Lapis. None of them expect to return home alive.
- Luvander and his dragon take a direct hit from a catapult during the attack to save Sergeant Adamo, and crash to the ground. His dragon is destroyed, but Luvander himself is saved by another rider diving down and pulling him from the wreckage.
- The attack is ultiately a success, but the price is high. Only five dragon riders return to Thremedon (Volstov's capital), a couple of them grievously injured, while the rest are either confirmed dead or missing and presumed to be. Most of the dragons are destroyed.
- When he gets home, Luvander wriggles out of any responsibilities the government tries to pin on him and opens the hat shop he always wanted. He names it Yesfir.
- A peace treaty with Ke-Han is negotiated, and as a condition of this treaty, the remaining intact dragons are dismantled, and Volstov promises not to construct any new ones.
- About a year later, something that is very much like the plague that struck the magicians starts to affect students at the Thremedon University.
- After trying to look into why this is happening, Owen Adamo, former chief sergeant of the Dragon Corps, is imprisoned.
- A couple of his students, a magician friend of his, as well as four of the former dragon riders - including Luvander - decide to break him out. They use Luvander's hat shop as a base of operations.
- They find out that The Esar, the ruler of Volstov, has been using the parts of the old dragons to rebuild a new version of the Dragon Corps in secret, using students as guinea pigs in this project.
- In the process of breaking Adamo out, they sort of accidentally manage to overthrow The Esar, and hand the throne over to his wife Anastasia and his previous mistress, the mind-reading magician Antoinette. As one does.

CANON PERSONALITY: 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. He'll also make some rather heinously inappropriate comments regardless of the company at times - it is implied in Havemercy that he's on rather friendly terms with the sex workers at the fanciest bordello in town, and combined with how uncensored the airmen are in general, it leads to a fairly saucy sense of humor, with little regard to anyone's delicate sensibilities. He's pretentious, and you can tell from the way he talks that he's rather impressed with his own cleverness, sometimes at the cost of other people's comfort.

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. He's aggressively extroverted and thrives on social interaction, but that doesn't actually mean that he's not also a rather awkward person, and his well-meaning attempts to make others feel better sometimes only make things worse. (Basically telling Balfour "Well, people call me mad too, it's not so bad," when Balfour is suddenly hearing voices is clearly an attempt at being comforting, but... it's somewhat lacking.)

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 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's the only one among the airmen who actually speaks about his own dragon without any prompting at all - to the rest, it appears to be far too painful.

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, going out of his way to make the others comfortable and even starting to cook in the middle of planning a jailbreak. It could be speculated that a man who at first comes from a very lively home, only to spend years and years living a military facility with 13 other men, 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 make a target of 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 own 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 is 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.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:
- Knife fighting. Luvander is mentioned to be as good at handling a knife in a fight as Ivory, who is hinted at to be fairly violent and fond of knives, so presumably he's pretty good.
- Ability to ride a huge-ass mechanical dragon and handle her in combat.
- ~Magical bond~ with dragon. Apparently the dragons choose their rider through compatibility with magic in their blood, meaning all the dragon riders have trace amounts of magic in them, but not strong enough that they master a Talent (magical skill). This bond is seems to be mental/emotional and fairly intangible.

CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Lavrenty Peacock
AU AGE: 41
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Luvander has a hooked purple scar on his throat which disappears beneath his clothes, and presumably some other scarring + damage from crashing his dragon, as well as some scarring around one eye, but all of it is fairly superficial due to being treated by magical healers. Lavrenty meanwhile only has scarring on his throat, as well as a tracheostomy implant - he uses a voice implant to speak, due to having had a complete laryngectomy.
His AU self is also 9 years older.

AU HISTORY:
- Born in the US to a Russian immigrant mother and American father, hence the eccentric name.
- He's got four younger sisters. His childhood home was loud, warm and full of laughter. His parents were fairly well off, his father working as an architect and his mother in mechanical engineering.
- Struggled to come to terms with his sexuality as a teenager because the early nineties didn't make it a lot of fun, kept postponing the inevitable conclusion despite being fully aware that he was attracted to men.
- Enlisted. Don't Ask, Don't Tell still in effect. At the time he saw that as a temporary solution to the problem.
- Went through Air Force training, became a pilot.
- Deployed to Afghanistan following 9/11, piloted helicopters for transport.
- Was on the ground waiting for orders when an explosion close by sent a piece of shrapnel right into his throat.
- He survived, but most of his larynx was completely destroyed, the rest surgically removed. He received a tracheostomy to allow breathing due to the extensive damage to his windpipe. As a result of this, he could no longer serve as a pilot in the army. He was honorably discharged, given a big medal and sent back home.
- He started working at a designer store, and worked on his own designs in his private time.
- His best friend got sent home a year later, minus one arm, and she moved in together with him. Thinking that what the hell, it wasn't as if he didn't actually love her, he proposed to her at 28. She said yes.
- At 29, their daughter was born.
- Three years later, he came out as gay to his wife. She told him he was an idiot if he thought she didn't already know. They parted as friends, and he shares custody of their daughter.
- Using money he'd saved and a loan from his parents, Lavrenty opened a shop, simply named Peacock, where he sells his own designs. He focuses a lot on alternative fashion, especially steampunk / Victorian / goth designs. He's done fairly well for himself, and in the right circles his shop is very popular.
- He remains involved in volunteer work aimed at helping other veterans, knowing full well that he has been relatively lucky.

AU PERSONALITY: While Luvander has lived in denial in both canon and AU, his canon self did in some ways have greater freedom when it came to exploring his sexuality - he was stationed right in his home city while serving, and while off duty could go and do pretty much as he liked, as long as he was discreet. He therefore came to terms with it quicker, even if he kept it a secret out of necessity. On the other hand, the atmosphere that surrounded Luvander in canon was a lot more vitriolic in its homophobia, and society less accepting as a whole, which probably explains why he's still not being open to his remaining comrades. Lavrenty, on the other hand, is by this point both comfortable and open with it, even if it took him longer to acknowledge it at all.
Because his position in the army wasn't nearly as irreplaceable and idolized as that in the Dragon Corps, and the atmosphere there not nearly as vicious, he's never quite developed the mean streak and overt rudeness that all the canon airmen possess. He's also likely to be a bit more tactful about how he expresses himself, and won't be prone to as many off-color jokes in mixed company - he's raising a child, after all, and knows when to censor himself.
Due to his physical disability, he's also just not able to talk quite as much as his canon counterpart - though he'd still like to - and is therefore somewhat less prone to keep talking over others repeatedly until they have to tell him to shut up. Somewhat.
A longer time living as a civilian - and having a family of his own - means that he's learned in general to be a little more honest about his emotions, even if he's still not at all comfortable expressing more complex / deep emotions.
Racism/xenophobia is a lot more socially acceptable in Luvander's canon, and while you never see him expressing direct antipathy and disrespect towards the Ke-Han the way some airmen do, he still shows signs at being affected by it. Lavrenty is significantly less likely to agree with / not disagree with such views.