Denouement application
May. 17th, 2014 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theveilisinPlayer Information
Player name: Emi
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
sweetjerry
Are you over 18: Yea verily yea.
Characters in the game already: Nope.
Proof of Reserve: The link's the thing!
Character Information
Character Name: Luvander
Canon: The Volstovic Cycle (specifically Havemercy and Steelhands)
Canon Point: At the end of Steelhands, after storming the castle but before that meddlesome spell is put on him and the others.
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Not dead yet.
History:
Like with most of the airmen, the dragon riders of Volstov, you don’t find out much about Luvander’s background at all in the books. Thankfully, a little information has been given via Word Of God from the authors. Luvander is from a fairly big family, the eldest of a group of siblings, and he got rather used to taking care of them – since his parents were probably fairly busy people, he would spend a lot of time babysitting them. It was also suggested that Luvander’s parents were among those that worked on the dragons during their construction, and since it’s mentioned in the books that The Esar gets rid of the magicians doing the major magic on the dragons, I am going to assume that they were more like metal workers or engineers. Craftsmen, in other words, and masters of their craft, since nothing short of the best would do for Volstov’s dragons.
That would place Luvander’s origins around upper Charlotte, the middleclass and tradesman’s district, but pretty close to Miranda, where Thremedon’s rich and influential class resides. This would definitely explain why it comes so naturally to Luvander to pick up a trade once the Dragon Corps are disbanded, and why he seems to adapt very quickly depending on the company he's in.
Luvander is suggested to have found his dragon a bit by accident, following his parents to work for some reason when Yesfir set eyes on him and decided that he was the one she wanted. Every airman seems to show a likeness to his own dragon’s nature – Jeannot’s dragon is quiet like him, Havemercy is just as crazy as Rook, Cassiopeia and Ivory apparently share a passion for arson – so most likely she saw something in him that reminded her of herself. By Luvander's statement in Havemercy, that he views his being her rider more as a case of her allowing her to hop on and tag along from time to time, she might've had a rather finicky nature, so that's another possible reason why.
Then, for an untold number of years, he spends his life in the Airman. It’s a very closed-in environment, a melting pot and battle ground of strong conflicting egos, where hazing is part of the everyday routine, and where misogyny and other forms of bigotry are rife. But the men living there are also brothers in arms, and joined in their love for their dragons. Yesfir being one of the swift dragons (smaller, lighter, faster) Luvander’s job as an airman would’ve been to scout ahead of a group usually comprised of three dragons, the two others being there to handle the wholesale destruction. While perhaps not the natural talent at reconnaissance as Balfour is mentioned to be, he is obviously good enough to stay alive through the years, despite flying one of the most vulnerable dragons of them all.
During the events in Havemercy, Luvander is hardly a prominent character. He seems to join readily enough in torturing the poor psychology student sent to study and teach them some sensitivity, but that is about all you can say. When their dragons begin malfunctioning, it is noted that all swifts apart from Balfour’s dragon are among the first to be taken out of action, and since that includes Yesfir, he’s among the airmen stuck on the ground and fretting as things come to a close.
During the final battle, all of the airmen fly out in a desperate attempt to take out the enemy magicians sabotaging their dragons and poisoning their magicians. When Chief Sergeant Adamo – riding one of the enormous crusher dragons which are vital for doing as much damage as possible – is almost hit by a catapult, Luvander makes use of the greater maneuverability of his dragon to take the hit for him, and is sent plummeting to the ground. One would assume that his life would end there, but Ghislain manages to dive down with his dragon and somehow pick Luvander right out of the wreckage, probably saving his life.
In Steelhands he appears again, being one of the three surviving airmen who are still in Thremedon city, where he has opened a hat shop and appears to be doing well. He is called in by Adamo after he finds out about a foreign magician attempting to rebuild one of the dragons, and for all that he seems to have settled rather neatly into his new life, he’s just as disturbed by the prospect as the rest of them are. He soon after seeks out Balfour in his own flat, seeming concerned about the younger airman, and perhaps also missing the proximity of the men who used to be a fairly intimate part of his life until the war ended. When Balfour starts having troubles related to the secret plan devised by the Esar – the ruler of Volstov – to rebuild the Dragon Corps, suffering fevers and hearing voices, Luvander and Adamo both agree to visit him daily and look after him.
While trying to find out more about the same things happening to his students, Adamo’s investigations attract the attention of the Esar and he’s imprisoned. The rest of the airmen – save Rook, but including another airman who had been thought to be dead, Raphael – get together with two students and Adamo’s friend Royston in a plan to free him. The rescue team doesn’t only succeed in liberating Adamo, but also unearths the new Dragon Corps – or Dragon Guard, as they are now called – and in the end set events in motion that result in the Esar being both dethroned and rendered comatose. His wife, the Esarina, takes his place as the ruler of Volstov, aided by his mistress Madame Antoinette. They decide to move the new dragons and the people telepathically connected to them to an estate out in the country. Three of the old Dragon Corps – Adamo, Ghislain and Raphael – agree to go with them to help out, and Balfour is one of the new dragon handlers, which appears to leave Luvander as the only one of the Corps involved who decides to remain in the city. At the canon point I'm taking Luvander from, this decision has been made, but they have not yet put the spell on him and everyone else that will keep them from mentioning these new dragons to anyone who isn't involved.
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. All of this might seem like traits solely belonging to someone rather incredibly self-centered, but as Adamo points out, 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 has been described by the authors as being a natural caretaker due to his many siblings, and this is made rather obvious by his behavior in Steelhands as well. The moment he realizes that Balfour is having trouble with his new prosthetic hands, he - without waiting for consent - 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 seems to take very naturally to it. All the 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.
However, as an alumnus of the bro culture in the Airman, Luvander does appear to have a somewhat unkind sense of humor at times. He mentions how he at one point in the past put fire ants in Balfour’s clothes – most likely underwear by the sound of it – and in Havemercy his only remark when Thom is miserably lamenting the ink handprint across his face is that he thinks it looks dashing. Adamo also recalls that he has a tendency of innocently resolving a situation – Raphael’s missing books, in this case – that he probably caused in the first place, suggesting that he perhaps strives to be somewhat more subtle about his pranks than some of the rest of them, but that he nonetheless finds amusement in them. And some of the jibes and jokes he makes are definitely on the insensitive side on the whole. Yet you never get the feeling that there is any true malice behind his actions, but rather a somewhat skewed sense of humor, cultivated in an environment where not picking on others in one way or another were seen as signs of weakness. This, coupled with an apparent inability to sense when perhaps a joke or remark is going a bit too far, seems to be the cause of his sometimes disrespectful behavior, rather than outright cruelty.
Even when things start to get serious, Luvander seems to be unable to stop 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 any genuine emotion for very long, and making fun of a situation or telling random anecdotes is simply an easier way of dealing than having to think too hard about something that disturbs him. 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.
That is not to say that some things don’t 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 as mentioned above, him simply going still and unmovable, suddenly devoid of hyperbole and absurdities. The only time you ever really see him properly break character is when the dragons 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 a helping of venom and sarcasm and an inability to move or look away, rather than a lot of shouting and punching people. And when it looks like they’re going to have a fight, he immediately and unthinkingly gets in front of the civilians, clearly focused on the task at hand, even if he might still let a glib line or two slip.
And of course, 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 rather than letting Adamo get hit from behind, 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 has made clear that all the airmen are “somewhere on the Kinsey scale”, but that Luvander is definitely homosexual. In Steelhands he tells Balfour that once he’s holding a secret, it’s gone forever, and that indeed seems to be the case. Even after he leaves the Airman and the oppressive environment there, he still keeps making oblique comments which seem to suggest attraction toward the fairer sex, and it doesn’t seem as if anyone else is aware or his orientation. After all, if you spend enough time playing a role, that role is sooner or later going to become a part of you, and telling yourself apart from it might no longer be possible. Perhaps this is another reason for why Luvander seems 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 an invitation to merciless bullying, and Luvander had more to hide than most.
Items on your character at canon point: Rather fancy Victorian style street clothes, a small knife tucked in his boot.
Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses: Having been a dragon rider and seeming like a fairly energetic person, Luvander is still physically fit, and can hold his own in a fight. It's pointed out in Steelhands that he's almost as competent at handling a knife as another airman who seems to have been a little bit... knife crazy. He's also a dab hand at sewing and darning and the like. His most noticeable strength is probably the fact that he never seems to give up, though.
But he is also kind of short and light for a grown man, and he's just an ordinary human being. And while being a trained soldier, he was a soldier mostly trained to rely on the huge mass of screaming vengeful metal that he used to be riding. He also has a tendency of taking things a bit too lightly right up until the point where things get really serious, and that's not always a survival trait. Oh, and he runs his mouth. Not exactly always a survival trait either.
Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:
Bastion, I thought this week had already been pretty damn strange, but I suppose there is no upper limit. This thing I'm writing with alone would have surpassed it otherwise.
[A concise enough text. Too bad that's not all of it. Someone is obviously fond of his own voice even in text form.]
You know, it’s quite hard for the small trader in the big city! Especially when he suddenly finds himself no longer in his city at all, and also unable to ply his trade, what with hat shops not being particularly known for their ability to follow a man around.
Mind you, considering how this week is going, I suppose I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it turned out that my humble shop had followed in the footsteps – or wing beats – of its namesake, and had learned how to fly. At least the Ke-Han couldn’t possibly object to that – I can’t see any warlord being very frightened of a flying haberdashery, can you?
[TLDR: He's confused and spouting a lot of nonsense? He's insane? He wants a flying hat shop?
Who can tell?]
But where are my manners? My name is Luvander, and I suppose you could call me a new arrival. Or you could say I'm another victim of apparent mass kidnapping, but that sounds rather terrible. I don't suppose anyone has even the wildest idea why we're here?
Prose Log Sample:
(It says "no AU's" on the app sample, but I'm not sure what exactly classifies. If a "what if X person survived" kind of thread is still okay, I have this sample. If not - and I do understand if it isn't - I have the following sample. I hope that either of them will be sufficient, at least ^^)
It had been a very long night.
Luvander sat on the floor with his back squarely leaned against the wall, waiting for decisions to be made in the rooms of the Basquiat currently crowded with magicians and other important people. Next to him, Raphael had collapsed onto the floor like a marionette who had been dancing on one last frayed thread and now had finally had it with that shit. His face was so pale now, and with the new grey hair in the mass of black curls, Luvander would normally have made a crack about him soon looking just like Ivory. He still would, later. But right now, he was far too tired.
Well, they all were. Completely out of it, really, except possibly that redheaded girl. She still looked geared up to fight, like he remembered sometimes being after a raid, the fire still burning so hot that not even the showers could take the edge off it, and sleep seemed ridiculous. Especially when you were new. With time, you learned to catch that sleep right after, or you'd end up passing out on one of the couches and waking up with your face redecorated. But sometimes, it was still worth it for that wide-awake feeling, those moments when you were just so alive.
But that was it, wasn't it?
There were so many things about this night that Luvander knew he'd want to never think about again, most particularly seeing that workshop with all the dragon parts spread out. He'd remembered then, standing there and holding that glittering piece of wing in his hand, how he'd walked into his parents' workshop as a child. The wonder he'd felt then, seeing all those gears and joints and intricate contraptions, such relatively small things that would nonetheless make an actual dragon put together. Except now he felt nothing of the sort. Because while a lot of these parts had been lovingly made by his parents or people just like them, they had been made for other dragons, other souls. And now they'd been picked together again like so many building blocks, as if what they had been before meant nothing. It was sickening.
And seeing the new kids with the new dragons came pretty close. There was no point in resenting them, they'd never asked for any of it, and he sure as the bastion didn't want some new dragon that wasn't his girl - Regina alone knew how Balfour could stand it. No, that part of his life was something he'd left behind in the ruins of the Lapis city, and he'd learned to be at peace with it. But that didn't mean that seeing them didn't make him hurt in places that he'd rather just forget that he had.
So there were so many things about this night which had made him wish it would just end, so much anger that he hadn't managed to quite keep in, so much betrayal which he knew he was foolish to feel. But still, now... now, he felt that buzz again. That feeling, as if the wind and the fire and the darkness had followed him inside, even as he'd left the skies behind. As if in the middle of not being sure if he'd make it out alive and not giving a fuck anymore, he'd heard an echo of beating wings and his girl laughing. He looked up at Balfour, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes, then over at Ghislain, leaning against a wall and still looking like he was ready to fight if he had to, and to Adamo, his face stony as always but strangely relaxed too. Back at Raphael, who was smiling feebly, looking as if he was waiting for his turn. "You too, right?" he said, his voice feeble but at least holding.
Luvander laughed tiredly, nodding and stretching where he sat. "Me too. I guess craziness doesn't wash out as quickly as you think it does, not for either of us. And isn't that a blessing?"
Player name: Emi
Contact:
Are you over 18: Yea verily yea.
Characters in the game already: Nope.
Proof of Reserve: The link's the thing!
Character Information
Character Name: Luvander
Canon: The Volstovic Cycle (specifically Havemercy and Steelhands)
Canon Point: At the end of Steelhands, after storming the castle but before that meddlesome spell is put on him and the others.
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Not dead yet.
History:
Like with most of the airmen, the dragon riders of Volstov, you don’t find out much about Luvander’s background at all in the books. Thankfully, a little information has been given via Word Of God from the authors. Luvander is from a fairly big family, the eldest of a group of siblings, and he got rather used to taking care of them – since his parents were probably fairly busy people, he would spend a lot of time babysitting them. It was also suggested that Luvander’s parents were among those that worked on the dragons during their construction, and since it’s mentioned in the books that The Esar gets rid of the magicians doing the major magic on the dragons, I am going to assume that they were more like metal workers or engineers. Craftsmen, in other words, and masters of their craft, since nothing short of the best would do for Volstov’s dragons.
That would place Luvander’s origins around upper Charlotte, the middleclass and tradesman’s district, but pretty close to Miranda, where Thremedon’s rich and influential class resides. This would definitely explain why it comes so naturally to Luvander to pick up a trade once the Dragon Corps are disbanded, and why he seems to adapt very quickly depending on the company he's in.
Luvander is suggested to have found his dragon a bit by accident, following his parents to work for some reason when Yesfir set eyes on him and decided that he was the one she wanted. Every airman seems to show a likeness to his own dragon’s nature – Jeannot’s dragon is quiet like him, Havemercy is just as crazy as Rook, Cassiopeia and Ivory apparently share a passion for arson – so most likely she saw something in him that reminded her of herself. By Luvander's statement in Havemercy, that he views his being her rider more as a case of her allowing her to hop on and tag along from time to time, she might've had a rather finicky nature, so that's another possible reason why.
Then, for an untold number of years, he spends his life in the Airman. It’s a very closed-in environment, a melting pot and battle ground of strong conflicting egos, where hazing is part of the everyday routine, and where misogyny and other forms of bigotry are rife. But the men living there are also brothers in arms, and joined in their love for their dragons. Yesfir being one of the swift dragons (smaller, lighter, faster) Luvander’s job as an airman would’ve been to scout ahead of a group usually comprised of three dragons, the two others being there to handle the wholesale destruction. While perhaps not the natural talent at reconnaissance as Balfour is mentioned to be, he is obviously good enough to stay alive through the years, despite flying one of the most vulnerable dragons of them all.
During the events in Havemercy, Luvander is hardly a prominent character. He seems to join readily enough in torturing the poor psychology student sent to study and teach them some sensitivity, but that is about all you can say. When their dragons begin malfunctioning, it is noted that all swifts apart from Balfour’s dragon are among the first to be taken out of action, and since that includes Yesfir, he’s among the airmen stuck on the ground and fretting as things come to a close.
During the final battle, all of the airmen fly out in a desperate attempt to take out the enemy magicians sabotaging their dragons and poisoning their magicians. When Chief Sergeant Adamo – riding one of the enormous crusher dragons which are vital for doing as much damage as possible – is almost hit by a catapult, Luvander makes use of the greater maneuverability of his dragon to take the hit for him, and is sent plummeting to the ground. One would assume that his life would end there, but Ghislain manages to dive down with his dragon and somehow pick Luvander right out of the wreckage, probably saving his life.
In Steelhands he appears again, being one of the three surviving airmen who are still in Thremedon city, where he has opened a hat shop and appears to be doing well. He is called in by Adamo after he finds out about a foreign magician attempting to rebuild one of the dragons, and for all that he seems to have settled rather neatly into his new life, he’s just as disturbed by the prospect as the rest of them are. He soon after seeks out Balfour in his own flat, seeming concerned about the younger airman, and perhaps also missing the proximity of the men who used to be a fairly intimate part of his life until the war ended. When Balfour starts having troubles related to the secret plan devised by the Esar – the ruler of Volstov – to rebuild the Dragon Corps, suffering fevers and hearing voices, Luvander and Adamo both agree to visit him daily and look after him.
While trying to find out more about the same things happening to his students, Adamo’s investigations attract the attention of the Esar and he’s imprisoned. The rest of the airmen – save Rook, but including another airman who had been thought to be dead, Raphael – get together with two students and Adamo’s friend Royston in a plan to free him. The rescue team doesn’t only succeed in liberating Adamo, but also unearths the new Dragon Corps – or Dragon Guard, as they are now called – and in the end set events in motion that result in the Esar being both dethroned and rendered comatose. His wife, the Esarina, takes his place as the ruler of Volstov, aided by his mistress Madame Antoinette. They decide to move the new dragons and the people telepathically connected to them to an estate out in the country. Three of the old Dragon Corps – Adamo, Ghislain and Raphael – agree to go with them to help out, and Balfour is one of the new dragon handlers, which appears to leave Luvander as the only one of the Corps involved who decides to remain in the city. At the canon point I'm taking Luvander from, this decision has been made, but they have not yet put the spell on him and everyone else that will keep them from mentioning these new dragons to anyone who isn't involved.
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. All of this might seem like traits solely belonging to someone rather incredibly self-centered, but as Adamo points out, 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 has been described by the authors as being a natural caretaker due to his many siblings, and this is made rather obvious by his behavior in Steelhands as well. The moment he realizes that Balfour is having trouble with his new prosthetic hands, he - without waiting for consent - 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 seems to take very naturally to it. All the 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.
However, as an alumnus of the bro culture in the Airman, Luvander does appear to have a somewhat unkind sense of humor at times. He mentions how he at one point in the past put fire ants in Balfour’s clothes – most likely underwear by the sound of it – and in Havemercy his only remark when Thom is miserably lamenting the ink handprint across his face is that he thinks it looks dashing. Adamo also recalls that he has a tendency of innocently resolving a situation – Raphael’s missing books, in this case – that he probably caused in the first place, suggesting that he perhaps strives to be somewhat more subtle about his pranks than some of the rest of them, but that he nonetheless finds amusement in them. And some of the jibes and jokes he makes are definitely on the insensitive side on the whole. Yet you never get the feeling that there is any true malice behind his actions, but rather a somewhat skewed sense of humor, cultivated in an environment where not picking on others in one way or another were seen as signs of weakness. This, coupled with an apparent inability to sense when perhaps a joke or remark is going a bit too far, seems to be the cause of his sometimes disrespectful behavior, rather than outright cruelty.
Even when things start to get serious, Luvander seems to be unable to stop 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 any genuine emotion for very long, and making fun of a situation or telling random anecdotes is simply an easier way of dealing than having to think too hard about something that disturbs him. 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.
That is not to say that some things don’t 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 as mentioned above, him simply going still and unmovable, suddenly devoid of hyperbole and absurdities. The only time you ever really see him properly break character is when the dragons 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 a helping of venom and sarcasm and an inability to move or look away, rather than a lot of shouting and punching people. And when it looks like they’re going to have a fight, he immediately and unthinkingly gets in front of the civilians, clearly focused on the task at hand, even if he might still let a glib line or two slip.
And of course, 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 rather than letting Adamo get hit from behind, 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 has made clear that all the airmen are “somewhere on the Kinsey scale”, but that Luvander is definitely homosexual. In Steelhands he tells Balfour that once he’s holding a secret, it’s gone forever, and that indeed seems to be the case. Even after he leaves the Airman and the oppressive environment there, he still keeps making oblique comments which seem to suggest attraction toward the fairer sex, and it doesn’t seem as if anyone else is aware or his orientation. After all, if you spend enough time playing a role, that role is sooner or later going to become a part of you, and telling yourself apart from it might no longer be possible. Perhaps this is another reason for why Luvander seems 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 an invitation to merciless bullying, and Luvander had more to hide than most.
Items on your character at canon point: Rather fancy Victorian style street clothes, a small knife tucked in his boot.
Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses: Having been a dragon rider and seeming like a fairly energetic person, Luvander is still physically fit, and can hold his own in a fight. It's pointed out in Steelhands that he's almost as competent at handling a knife as another airman who seems to have been a little bit... knife crazy. He's also a dab hand at sewing and darning and the like. His most noticeable strength is probably the fact that he never seems to give up, though.
But he is also kind of short and light for a grown man, and he's just an ordinary human being. And while being a trained soldier, he was a soldier mostly trained to rely on the huge mass of screaming vengeful metal that he used to be riding. He also has a tendency of taking things a bit too lightly right up until the point where things get really serious, and that's not always a survival trait. Oh, and he runs his mouth. Not exactly always a survival trait either.
Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:
Bastion, I thought this week had already been pretty damn strange, but I suppose there is no upper limit. This thing I'm writing with alone would have surpassed it otherwise.
[A concise enough text. Too bad that's not all of it. Someone is obviously fond of his own voice even in text form.]
You know, it’s quite hard for the small trader in the big city! Especially when he suddenly finds himself no longer in his city at all, and also unable to ply his trade, what with hat shops not being particularly known for their ability to follow a man around.
Mind you, considering how this week is going, I suppose I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it turned out that my humble shop had followed in the footsteps – or wing beats – of its namesake, and had learned how to fly. At least the Ke-Han couldn’t possibly object to that – I can’t see any warlord being very frightened of a flying haberdashery, can you?
[TLDR: He's confused and spouting a lot of nonsense? He's insane? He wants a flying hat shop?
Who can tell?]
But where are my manners? My name is Luvander, and I suppose you could call me a new arrival. Or you could say I'm another victim of apparent mass kidnapping, but that sounds rather terrible. I don't suppose anyone has even the wildest idea why we're here?
Prose Log Sample:
(It says "no AU's" on the app sample, but I'm not sure what exactly classifies. If a "what if X person survived" kind of thread is still okay, I have this sample. If not - and I do understand if it isn't - I have the following sample. I hope that either of them will be sufficient, at least ^^)
It had been a very long night.
Luvander sat on the floor with his back squarely leaned against the wall, waiting for decisions to be made in the rooms of the Basquiat currently crowded with magicians and other important people. Next to him, Raphael had collapsed onto the floor like a marionette who had been dancing on one last frayed thread and now had finally had it with that shit. His face was so pale now, and with the new grey hair in the mass of black curls, Luvander would normally have made a crack about him soon looking just like Ivory. He still would, later. But right now, he was far too tired.
Well, they all were. Completely out of it, really, except possibly that redheaded girl. She still looked geared up to fight, like he remembered sometimes being after a raid, the fire still burning so hot that not even the showers could take the edge off it, and sleep seemed ridiculous. Especially when you were new. With time, you learned to catch that sleep right after, or you'd end up passing out on one of the couches and waking up with your face redecorated. But sometimes, it was still worth it for that wide-awake feeling, those moments when you were just so alive.
But that was it, wasn't it?
There were so many things about this night that Luvander knew he'd want to never think about again, most particularly seeing that workshop with all the dragon parts spread out. He'd remembered then, standing there and holding that glittering piece of wing in his hand, how he'd walked into his parents' workshop as a child. The wonder he'd felt then, seeing all those gears and joints and intricate contraptions, such relatively small things that would nonetheless make an actual dragon put together. Except now he felt nothing of the sort. Because while a lot of these parts had been lovingly made by his parents or people just like them, they had been made for other dragons, other souls. And now they'd been picked together again like so many building blocks, as if what they had been before meant nothing. It was sickening.
And seeing the new kids with the new dragons came pretty close. There was no point in resenting them, they'd never asked for any of it, and he sure as the bastion didn't want some new dragon that wasn't his girl - Regina alone knew how Balfour could stand it. No, that part of his life was something he'd left behind in the ruins of the Lapis city, and he'd learned to be at peace with it. But that didn't mean that seeing them didn't make him hurt in places that he'd rather just forget that he had.
So there were so many things about this night which had made him wish it would just end, so much anger that he hadn't managed to quite keep in, so much betrayal which he knew he was foolish to feel. But still, now... now, he felt that buzz again. That feeling, as if the wind and the fire and the darkness had followed him inside, even as he'd left the skies behind. As if in the middle of not being sure if he'd make it out alive and not giving a fuck anymore, he'd heard an echo of beating wings and his girl laughing. He looked up at Balfour, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes, then over at Ghislain, leaning against a wall and still looking like he was ready to fight if he had to, and to Adamo, his face stony as always but strangely relaxed too. Back at Raphael, who was smiling feebly, looking as if he was waiting for his turn. "You too, right?" he said, his voice feeble but at least holding.
Luvander laughed tiredly, nodding and stretching where he sat. "Me too. I guess craziness doesn't wash out as quickly as you think it does, not for either of us. And isn't that a blessing?"
