Application - Sky of Diamonds
May. 2nd, 2012 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
onemoredrinkSleeper
Character: Owen Carter
Username:onemoredrink
Canon: OC - Golden Hour RPG
Summary: In the land of Balfour, a small kingdom in medieval Europe, researchers study the manipulation of Belief, a thing that seems to bring about mythical creatures and magics that, before, had no proven existence. All creatures and magics could be real, it was only a matter of having enough people Believe in them. These researchers based their organization, the Golden Hour, in the city of Tyrol, Balfour's capital, where the Citadel, the kingdom's religious organization, had their own headquarters. Cita-worship was widespread throughout the kingdom, and while the rest of Europe followed Christianity, Balfourians faithfully stuck with the Citadel.
Unfortunately, the Citadel was against the Golden Hour and their practices, believing Others, what those of mythical origin came to be called, to be demons. This lead to strife between Civitates and the Golden Hour and their 'pets'. Somehow, the Golden Hour's manipulation of Belief caused the city to attract Others, and more and more were seen arriving in the city.
Played-by: Ville Valo of HIM.
Canon point: Post-Citaspolsion, Pre-gangwar.
Age: 35
Appearance: Standing six-foot-two in height, Owen is a tall man who, while physically fit from his many endeavors, would hardly be considered muscular. He's lithe and flexible, and moves with fluid, graceful motions, unless he's drunk out of his mind, which is hardly uncommon. His shoulder-length, brown hair is often disheveled, and he actually puts effort into ensuring its wild state, strands frequently dangling before his blue-green eyes. He's rarely seen without a smile on his face. He prefers leathers for pants and footwear, and silken shirts in vibrant colours. Occasionally he may be seen wearing a collar, and he tends to wear eyeshadow to darken the area around his eyes. Oh, and he loves hats.
Personality: At his very core, Owen is a hedonist. He lives to enjoy life. He loves all forms of pleasure, from intimacy to food and drink, and the only thing he has no interest in is gambling. He smokes, he drinks, he fornicates, he runs around causing trouble, plays truth or dare with anyone willing, and enjoys the company of everyone and anyone, human and Other alike. He has no prejudice, outside of preferring the company of whores and criminals to that of those with authority. He has nothing against authority, however, and if caught breaking the law, will give himself up without a fight, laughing and joking the entire way to the gaol. He has never committed murder, and has no intention of doing so, but just about anything else is fair game.
As a thief, he was careful of his targets, preferring those who looked like they had coin to spare. Call it a conscience, but he had no interest in putting the downtrodden down further. While he no longer commits theft for monetary gain, he still maintains those skills, and occasionally puts them to use to cause mischief - there's something entertaining about the smug, rich boy discovering he can't afford the round he'd boisterously ordered for his friends.
Owen is a very social extrovert. He talks to everyone, drinks with everyone, and will seek out conversation with anyone he comes across, even if they look less than interested. If it is at all possible to find himself in a social situation, he will find a way in. He has attended noble gatherings as a drink server, become a regular at the Guard's favourite drinking spot, and even got himself invited to a nobleman's wedding as a guest. He's flirted with everyone from commoners to nobility, guards to Civitates, and has something of a reputation as a friendly, if flirtatious, individual. Conversation is, quite possibly, his most favourite activity, even though he claims it's drinking.
Owen has no qualms with Others, or those not of human origin. While he never openly stood up to defend them, he was getting close to wanting to. Equality is something of importance to him, and saw no reason Others couldn't be treated fairly as people. If an Other committed a crime, they deserved to be called on it, but if they were living their lives and causing no harm, why should they be made to suffer? Sure, some of them had powers that made them fearful, but unless they actively used those powers against others, what threat was there? In fact, many used them to make a living, and Owen had no problem buying magical charms or potions from those able to make them, even if he kept quiet about it.
While he may seem very open about himself and his dealings, and, indeed, has little about himself he keeps private, his general friendly appearance is something of a guise. He's very careful to keep himself emotionally detached from most people, and rarely finds himself growing fond of someone. It's a weakness, this bonding thing, friendships, caring about people. A weakness that can cause problems. Still, there are those he winds up growing fond of, such as Amber and Laurent, and a few of the whores he visited regularly. And while he may not form close bonds easily, he is very loyal once he does, offering everything of himself to those few who have earned his fondness, giving them a place to stay, someone to talk to, and doing everything he can to help them feel better when they need it.
Despite his hatred for his father, Owen managed to pick up some of his father's business sense, expanding on it once he opened his tavern. He's a quick learner, learning best from first-hand experience, and dabbles in many areas. His initial interest in running a business was to make money, but he quickly learned that information was freely available to those who looked for it, and with the right businesses, the more information you had access to. Drunks talk, and he knows how to listen, how to pick up the things that go unsaid and grasp at the things that are mentioned in passing, and how to dig for more information without being obvious about it. Running a brewery gave him access to other businesses that sold alcohol. Running a print shop meant he had first access to anything that got printed. He made it a goal to collect information wherever possible, storing it until he found someone who may be interested in it.
Owen may be considered a pacifist, simply because he has no combat training at all, and far prefers talking to fighting. If at all possible, he'd rather talk through a situation than get into a fight - unless it's a bar brawl, those are just fun. While he considered this a good thing for most of his life, he learned more recently that it was a failing, and regrets not having taken up some training, even if he only ever used it in defence. In searching for a short-cut to becoming more useful in this area, Owen offered a large sum to be turned into a werepanther - the idea of being an exotic Other was, itself, very enticing, and being something that could fight, could defend itself and his friends, and could even kill if needed (but only if needed), only made his interest grow. The city was under constant threat, it seemed, and that included his friends, as few as they were.
The most advanced thing Owen has ever seen was his printing machine, and there was this girl talking about designing clockwork cats. Beyond that, he knows nothing of technology. Everything he did used 'old fashioned' methods, from brewing to printing. His print shop used movable metal type, small blocks of letters that were arranged into the words of the page and set into the frame for print. Everything he wrote was handwritten with quills and ink. Pens would be 'advanced' for him, let alone these crazy writing machines! There will be a huge amount of culture shock for him as he tries to adjust to the setting he's been thrown into, and he'll believe that his life was all a dream because this couldn't be something his subconscious could make up, it's way beyond him. He won't like it, but he'll believe it.
History: Owen was born a bastard. His mother was a whore that his father paid visits to once a week for several months while his marriage lay in crumbles. Unfortunately, the man cared little for the whore or his bastard son, and even tried to convince her to abort the child early on. While the idea was tempting, she decided against it, instead taking up an offer made by one of her other customers to provide them with a child.
The couple the boy went to were kind and gracious. They had been struggling to have a child of their own for many years, and had even taken to affairs in case it was simply a matter of incompatibility. Nothing had worked. Once this whore turned up pregnant with the child of a man who wanted nothing to do with either of them, the husband, William Carter, made the proposal. His wife, Julie, holed up within their home for the duration of the pregnancy, and the whore, a woman named Maria, was brought in to stay with them until she gave birth. She was cared for tenderly, treated well, and once the child was born, sent on her way with a full purse of coin. She saw nothing wrong with this arrangement, and it suited her well, for those coins went to buying her way out of the city.
Thus Owen grew up in the Carter household, the only child of a commoner couple who had little to offer the world but for their trade, Father running a small fabric company in the city. It wasn't an unheard of situation, and while rumour about it did fly freely, nobody really cared one way or the other. They were only commoners, after all.
While he may not have lived a life of grace, he certainly didn't spend it in poverty. Father's trade was prosperous enough to afford decent clothing and meals, and even a decently sized home. Mother took care good care of him, cooked all his favorites, and even at a young age let him pick out his own clothes. He was, essentially, spoiled.
Outside of the home, he played with all the rowdiest boys, getting into trouble on a regular basis. While Father didn't much care for the trouble he caused, Mother doted on him over it, her scolding nothing more than encouragement to continue.
Into his teenaged years things only grew worse. He spent his nights drinking with his friends, and slept his days away. Mother continued to spoil him, much to Father's annoyance. He'd hoped this boy would grow up to inherit the family business, but with how she'd ruined him, he was in no way suitable for such a responsibility. Instead, he adopted a cousin as his inheritor, which was just fine to Owen. What did he want with some little fabric shop, selling bolts of cloth to seamstresses? What did he know of fabric aside from that silk felt better, looked better, and cost more than cotton? That was not how he wanted to spend his life.
As to what he did want, he still had no clue. On his sixteenth birthday, his friends took him to a brothel, where he got to experience intimacy beyond his Mother's coddling for the first time. And found that he really enjoyed it. From then on, half of his cash went into paying for whores, while the other half kept going into alcohol, until the fated day that his father put his foot down, cutting his allowance. That only caused him to throw a tantrum, and Mother tried to argue on his behalf, claiming that boys will be boys and that he would grow out of it. Father remained firm.
Grumpy at losing most of his income, Owen took to the streets to look for ways to make an income with as little effort as possible, and started picking pockets. At first he only targetted the elderly or very young, those he could fight off if he got caught, but as he learned the trade, with some guidance from his street-dwelling friends, his target selection grew, aiming for those who had the most coin to spare rather than those who were easy marks. It made him enough to keep him drowning in women and drink.
At the age of twenty, his father started talking about marriage. He shuddered. By Cita why would he want to be bound to one woman? And kids? Not a chance! (He likely already had a few bastard children out there anyway, that was enough!) He refused, adamantly. Father merely shrugged him off and went about his business, and left it to Mother to try to encourage it. This was when she found out just how spoiled he was. He threw a tantrum, refusing to marry any of the women Mother would try to introduce him to, and finally fed both his parents up to the point that they told him the truth about his past. Disgruntled, but not entirely angry, he left home.
At first, he lived on the streets, supporting himself with his illegal dealings and getting mixed up with gang members. He made friends with members of several gangs, and in fact had something of his own thing going, where he helped out the younger kids finding themselves on the street, ensuring they learned the ropes and found a place for themself. He was in no way a leader, and his little band wasn't a gang so much as a stopping point for potential gang members, who would move on to one of the proper gangs in the city. He befriended a young girl named Amber, though she didn't stay long.
Later, he started taking up lovers for money. He didn't compete with the brothels, only accepting those clients who came to him. At first it was simply a willingness to share a bed, but he discovered they'd give him gifts of coin or jewelry for his services. Eventually, he found himself the lover of a wealthy nobless. She was older, but not unattractive, and very good in bed. All she asked was that he keep it to himself, which he did, gladly.
Then one night, the husband walked in. Owen was sure this would be the death of him, and was not only surprised but thoroughly confused when, rather than shouting for his head, the husband approached the bed and began to undress. The woman seemed disgruntled, but not unwilling (do I have to share siiiigh) and managed to talk Owen into participating. Thus was his first experience with the same sex. ...and he enjoyed that, too.
Now that he had both of the couple in his pockets, he started to save. Much of his money from the couple was tucked away, the pile growing rapidly over a few years, until he had enough to open his own business. Then he considered what business that would be. He already knew where - he spent a lot of time in that area of town, but he didn't want to compete with the brothels in the area. Instead, he decided to go with a tavern, a place to provide the other of his two favorite things in the world. He called it the Fox'N'Crown.
Business was slow at first - not unexpected, really. He made a few bad business decisions, but he learned quick, and made up for it with the great interest he showed his patrons. In time, his business grew prosperous, and he started tucking most of his profits away for future endeavors.
The city was one plagued by gangs, the two main ones, Signifer Gladios and the Whispers, constantly bickering and battling over territory. Somehow, Owen managed to arrange a neutrality for his tavern, where any gang member caught causing a fuss was berated by their own leaders. This worked well, as it ensured his business remained profitable and out of danger. Owen collected and sold information to the two gang leaders, and strove to expand his information business, luring in businessmen and even nobles with his charisma.
In the year that followed, Owen opened up his own brewery, specializing in ales and a particular drink of his own making that he tended to call Carter's Special Brew. It was stronger than anything else served in the area, and he even began exporting it to the sea town not far away.
Not long after, he opened a print shop. He hired young women who couldn't find work elsewhere - single mothers who were frowned upon, homeless women who needed shelter - giving them simple jobs and easy work. He never expected anything out of them other than that they get the job done. They appreciated the work, as it allowed them to take care of themselves and their children. His relationships with them remained purely professional.
Owen started to flirt with a nobleman named Laurent, cousin to the heir of the Vaux household. When Cita arrived in physical form, and took up arms against the Golden Hour, Laurent ran to help defend innocents against this so-called God of the Citadel. For the first time, Owen found himself honestly worried about someone's safety, and grew frustrated at his own inability to help.
With threat of war still in the air, the Whispers' front-man confronted Owen and demanded loyalty, forcing him to choose between them or Gladios. This man, who went by the name Jai, was someone Owen had recognized from youth. He'd been the girl Amber in years long past, and while Owen kept his knowledge of Jai's old identity to himself, he still felt the fondness for her that had been formed from their shared background. Having no ties to Gladios, he accepted the demand, swearing his loyalty to the Whispers.
Shortly after this became public knowledge, Gladios reacted, depositing the Whispers' second in command on Owen's doorstep, who also happened to be someone Owen had rather liked, a younger man named Rhys, unable to speak yet still very expressive. His death left behind the pup he'd acquired, and Owen took the pup up as his own, letting it stay at the tavern.
The Whispers had to respond to the attack. War was brewing, and everyone knew it. Owen was unable to fend for himself, he knew nothing of combat outside of basic street fighting, most of that drunken. He wanted to be able to defend himself, to be of more use to Jai and the Whispers, and to be able to protect those few he knew and cared for, such as Laurent, and the whores he'd grown attached to.
It was around then that rumours spread of the Golden Hour's increased ability to manipulate Belief to the point of turning humans into Others. Owen wrote to the man said to be responsible, offering a substantial sum to be turned into a werepanther. This would give him the ability to protect himself, his property, and his friends, and be of more use to his new boss.
It was shortly after this that he awoke to find himself in this... strange place, with strange machinery and magics beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
Powers/skills:
Powers: Owen will discover that he can turn into a panther, as becoming a werepanther is the one thing he wanted most before 'waking up' from his dream, in order to make himself more useful at protecting those he cared about. Unfortunately, he won't get all the other benefits of being a were-creature - no improved healing, heightened senses, or enhanced strength. He'll be able to turn into a panther and will have to adjust to being a panther before that is even of much use to him, but over time, his panther-self will have the senses, agility, and eventually, instincts of a panther. Practice makes perfect, and all that. (Though he'll also be awful cuddly for a panther. >_>)
Skills: Owen's skill consist mainly of the things he did in his various professions. Pick-pocketing, medieval-era brewing, bartending, keen business sense, bookkeeping, printing by way of a movable-type print machine. He also has very good social skills, and can usually manage to figure out how to play up to a person's interests.
City
Name: Julian Mitchell
Position: Brewer - Runs Mitchell Brewery and Distillery (MBD), formerly Ivory Tower Ales.
History: [tw; child abuse, teen abuse]
Julian was born to a military mother and her domestic partner. The two later had a military wedding when their boy was three. The family was relocated often due to his mother's career, and he's spent time just about everywhere. Because of this, he had few friends growing up.
Leading into his teens, he started hanging out with anyone who'd have him - this was, usually, the troublemakers of society. He got into trouble so often his father started trying to beat sense into him, starting at the age of twelve. The beatings grew more and more severe as Julian refused to submit to the ruthlessness, and at the age of fifteen, during one of his mother's longer postings, he wound up hospitalized due to his injuries - two cracked ribs and a broken arm, and a lot of bruising. His father claimed he'd gotten mixed up with drugs, and since traces were found in the kid's system, the doctor's believed him.
They did, however, inform the police, who showed up to question him at the hospital. Clearly this boy had some sort of involvement in illegal activities, and they tried to convince him to talk. When he kept refusing, they took him into the station, where he demanded they contact his mother.
When they found out who his mother was, at that time an officer in the special forces, they were quick to get in touch with the military to have her informed of the problem. She couldn't get away for at least a month, and the military sent someone to investigate on her behalf.
It wasn't until she returned home to see what was going on that Julian co-operated, and told her what had actually happened. In a rage of fury, she attacked her husband, beating him to near death before the other officer was able to restrain her.
Julian's father was taken away to be prosecuted. Julian never heard from him again. His mother was reprimanded through the military, but retained her position. Unfortunately, this left Julian without a legal guardian. He was entered into military school shortly before his sixteenth birthday, against his wishes but with his mother's blessings.
Things didn't improve much for him. Sure, he didn't have a father beating him at every opportunity anymore, but he hated his school, and spent more and more time goofing off, and looking for ways to push authority. He took up drinking and smoking, found himself a few lovers, and was constantly punished for a variety of things, including theft, vandalism, disturbance, and was generally considered a bad influence. His mother tried to talk sense into him, but he was having none of it - he resented her. She'd left him to an abusive father and then abandoned him to this hell. It was all her fault.
He was enlisted on his eighteenth birthday. Still the troublemaker, his superiors were especially harsh on him, piling chores and exercises on him so that he had very little free time. When he did get time off, he spent it drinking and fucking. At least he wasn't getting into trouble. And he did take his lessons seriously, if only because it was kind of cool learning the arts of war, and he felt like it made him a badass.
At twenty, Julian managed to escape, having grown tired of the war game. He started traveling the lands until he made his way to the Diamond City, where he took up an assumed name, Jake Sanders, and lived a poor life as a beggar until he managed to land an under-the-table job doing deliveries. He didn't ask questions, and followed orders, and his new boss, after testing him with some special deliveries, started setting him up with more difficult operations. While Julian never asked, he assumed they were illegal dealings, but kept doing them because the money was good.
He started experimenting with brewing, since alcohol was expensive and he wanted to get as much of it as possible while spending as little as possible. As it turned out, his recipes were rather well received by friends, and eventually his boss got wind of it, and had him deliver some of his goods to their base of operations. Finding he enjoyed the ales 'Jake' managed to produce, he set Julian up with a brewery to start a business, with all shared of it owned by his boss. Julian tried to refuse, since if the business did well, his face would get out, but his boss insisted (with force/threats) and he had no choice but to agree.
He did his best to keep out of the spotlight, running things from the background, but during a commercial run, someone managed to snap pictures, and they got out. The military eventually tracked him down and arrested him, locking him up for desertion complete with a formal dishonorable discharge. Julian didn't argue. Most in prison left him alone, though he made 'friends' with a few of his boss's other men when they were informed he was in. Mostly they kept tabs on him to ensure his silence, which he had no interest of breaking.
However, during his incarceration, his boss wound up being taken out by police who had a plant in his illegal activities. Since the brewery wasn't directly owned by the criminal, and was a legal business, it didn't get closed. Instead, with legal council, Julian was able to claim ownership of it, using his assumed name as a business name, which wasn't unheard of, while also convincing the jury he had no knowledge of the illegal activities and was just a brewer. The military could have refuted the claim, but Julian's mother managed to smooth talk her superiors into letting her son be.
He spent the rest of his prison term supervising his business through telephone calls or visitations. Since he wasn't considered a threat, his lawyers managed to hook him up with more lenient visitation rights, though all belongings were still searched before each visit, and the visits were monitored. This allowed him to discuss business and even sign papers when needed.
Once he was released, he went back to work. He continued to drink and smoke, but he had a business, and was content let management continue with most of the work while he oversaw things, signed papers, and focused on the recipes, though he did put through a name and label change for the company. He paid close attention to quality, making many trips to test the products the company produced, and his business expanded to meads, then later to rum, and put a lot of effort into promotion.
His mother kept in touch. It had been ages since he'd felt any sort of hatred towards her, and he'd come to recognize that she couldn't have known what kind of a man his father would have become. Yet having never really known her, he felt something of a detachment, and mostly put up with the attention because of some vague sense of duty to a parent. He refused to even look for his father, whom in turn has never made an attempt to contact him before the disaster struck.
Proof: A recording of a commercial he took part in to promote his ales after being released from incarceration, the legal documents declaring his business as his.
Playing
First-person sample: How's this?
Third-person sample: And this.
Did you read the rules? Aye.
Character: Owen Carter
Username:
onemoredrinkCanon: OC - Golden Hour RPG
Summary: In the land of Balfour, a small kingdom in medieval Europe, researchers study the manipulation of Belief, a thing that seems to bring about mythical creatures and magics that, before, had no proven existence. All creatures and magics could be real, it was only a matter of having enough people Believe in them. These researchers based their organization, the Golden Hour, in the city of Tyrol, Balfour's capital, where the Citadel, the kingdom's religious organization, had their own headquarters. Cita-worship was widespread throughout the kingdom, and while the rest of Europe followed Christianity, Balfourians faithfully stuck with the Citadel.
Unfortunately, the Citadel was against the Golden Hour and their practices, believing Others, what those of mythical origin came to be called, to be demons. This lead to strife between Civitates and the Golden Hour and their 'pets'. Somehow, the Golden Hour's manipulation of Belief caused the city to attract Others, and more and more were seen arriving in the city.
Played-by: Ville Valo of HIM.
Canon point: Post-Citaspolsion, Pre-gangwar.
Age: 35
Appearance: Standing six-foot-two in height, Owen is a tall man who, while physically fit from his many endeavors, would hardly be considered muscular. He's lithe and flexible, and moves with fluid, graceful motions, unless he's drunk out of his mind, which is hardly uncommon. His shoulder-length, brown hair is often disheveled, and he actually puts effort into ensuring its wild state, strands frequently dangling before his blue-green eyes. He's rarely seen without a smile on his face. He prefers leathers for pants and footwear, and silken shirts in vibrant colours. Occasionally he may be seen wearing a collar, and he tends to wear eyeshadow to darken the area around his eyes. Oh, and he loves hats.
Personality: At his very core, Owen is a hedonist. He lives to enjoy life. He loves all forms of pleasure, from intimacy to food and drink, and the only thing he has no interest in is gambling. He smokes, he drinks, he fornicates, he runs around causing trouble, plays truth or dare with anyone willing, and enjoys the company of everyone and anyone, human and Other alike. He has no prejudice, outside of preferring the company of whores and criminals to that of those with authority. He has nothing against authority, however, and if caught breaking the law, will give himself up without a fight, laughing and joking the entire way to the gaol. He has never committed murder, and has no intention of doing so, but just about anything else is fair game.
As a thief, he was careful of his targets, preferring those who looked like they had coin to spare. Call it a conscience, but he had no interest in putting the downtrodden down further. While he no longer commits theft for monetary gain, he still maintains those skills, and occasionally puts them to use to cause mischief - there's something entertaining about the smug, rich boy discovering he can't afford the round he'd boisterously ordered for his friends.
Owen is a very social extrovert. He talks to everyone, drinks with everyone, and will seek out conversation with anyone he comes across, even if they look less than interested. If it is at all possible to find himself in a social situation, he will find a way in. He has attended noble gatherings as a drink server, become a regular at the Guard's favourite drinking spot, and even got himself invited to a nobleman's wedding as a guest. He's flirted with everyone from commoners to nobility, guards to Civitates, and has something of a reputation as a friendly, if flirtatious, individual. Conversation is, quite possibly, his most favourite activity, even though he claims it's drinking.
Owen has no qualms with Others, or those not of human origin. While he never openly stood up to defend them, he was getting close to wanting to. Equality is something of importance to him, and saw no reason Others couldn't be treated fairly as people. If an Other committed a crime, they deserved to be called on it, but if they were living their lives and causing no harm, why should they be made to suffer? Sure, some of them had powers that made them fearful, but unless they actively used those powers against others, what threat was there? In fact, many used them to make a living, and Owen had no problem buying magical charms or potions from those able to make them, even if he kept quiet about it.
While he may seem very open about himself and his dealings, and, indeed, has little about himself he keeps private, his general friendly appearance is something of a guise. He's very careful to keep himself emotionally detached from most people, and rarely finds himself growing fond of someone. It's a weakness, this bonding thing, friendships, caring about people. A weakness that can cause problems. Still, there are those he winds up growing fond of, such as Amber and Laurent, and a few of the whores he visited regularly. And while he may not form close bonds easily, he is very loyal once he does, offering everything of himself to those few who have earned his fondness, giving them a place to stay, someone to talk to, and doing everything he can to help them feel better when they need it.
Despite his hatred for his father, Owen managed to pick up some of his father's business sense, expanding on it once he opened his tavern. He's a quick learner, learning best from first-hand experience, and dabbles in many areas. His initial interest in running a business was to make money, but he quickly learned that information was freely available to those who looked for it, and with the right businesses, the more information you had access to. Drunks talk, and he knows how to listen, how to pick up the things that go unsaid and grasp at the things that are mentioned in passing, and how to dig for more information without being obvious about it. Running a brewery gave him access to other businesses that sold alcohol. Running a print shop meant he had first access to anything that got printed. He made it a goal to collect information wherever possible, storing it until he found someone who may be interested in it.
Owen may be considered a pacifist, simply because he has no combat training at all, and far prefers talking to fighting. If at all possible, he'd rather talk through a situation than get into a fight - unless it's a bar brawl, those are just fun. While he considered this a good thing for most of his life, he learned more recently that it was a failing, and regrets not having taken up some training, even if he only ever used it in defence. In searching for a short-cut to becoming more useful in this area, Owen offered a large sum to be turned into a werepanther - the idea of being an exotic Other was, itself, very enticing, and being something that could fight, could defend itself and his friends, and could even kill if needed (but only if needed), only made his interest grow. The city was under constant threat, it seemed, and that included his friends, as few as they were.
The most advanced thing Owen has ever seen was his printing machine, and there was this girl talking about designing clockwork cats. Beyond that, he knows nothing of technology. Everything he did used 'old fashioned' methods, from brewing to printing. His print shop used movable metal type, small blocks of letters that were arranged into the words of the page and set into the frame for print. Everything he wrote was handwritten with quills and ink. Pens would be 'advanced' for him, let alone these crazy writing machines! There will be a huge amount of culture shock for him as he tries to adjust to the setting he's been thrown into, and he'll believe that his life was all a dream because this couldn't be something his subconscious could make up, it's way beyond him. He won't like it, but he'll believe it.
History: Owen was born a bastard. His mother was a whore that his father paid visits to once a week for several months while his marriage lay in crumbles. Unfortunately, the man cared little for the whore or his bastard son, and even tried to convince her to abort the child early on. While the idea was tempting, she decided against it, instead taking up an offer made by one of her other customers to provide them with a child.
The couple the boy went to were kind and gracious. They had been struggling to have a child of their own for many years, and had even taken to affairs in case it was simply a matter of incompatibility. Nothing had worked. Once this whore turned up pregnant with the child of a man who wanted nothing to do with either of them, the husband, William Carter, made the proposal. His wife, Julie, holed up within their home for the duration of the pregnancy, and the whore, a woman named Maria, was brought in to stay with them until she gave birth. She was cared for tenderly, treated well, and once the child was born, sent on her way with a full purse of coin. She saw nothing wrong with this arrangement, and it suited her well, for those coins went to buying her way out of the city.
Thus Owen grew up in the Carter household, the only child of a commoner couple who had little to offer the world but for their trade, Father running a small fabric company in the city. It wasn't an unheard of situation, and while rumour about it did fly freely, nobody really cared one way or the other. They were only commoners, after all.
While he may not have lived a life of grace, he certainly didn't spend it in poverty. Father's trade was prosperous enough to afford decent clothing and meals, and even a decently sized home. Mother took care good care of him, cooked all his favorites, and even at a young age let him pick out his own clothes. He was, essentially, spoiled.
Outside of the home, he played with all the rowdiest boys, getting into trouble on a regular basis. While Father didn't much care for the trouble he caused, Mother doted on him over it, her scolding nothing more than encouragement to continue.
Into his teenaged years things only grew worse. He spent his nights drinking with his friends, and slept his days away. Mother continued to spoil him, much to Father's annoyance. He'd hoped this boy would grow up to inherit the family business, but with how she'd ruined him, he was in no way suitable for such a responsibility. Instead, he adopted a cousin as his inheritor, which was just fine to Owen. What did he want with some little fabric shop, selling bolts of cloth to seamstresses? What did he know of fabric aside from that silk felt better, looked better, and cost more than cotton? That was not how he wanted to spend his life.
As to what he did want, he still had no clue. On his sixteenth birthday, his friends took him to a brothel, where he got to experience intimacy beyond his Mother's coddling for the first time. And found that he really enjoyed it. From then on, half of his cash went into paying for whores, while the other half kept going into alcohol, until the fated day that his father put his foot down, cutting his allowance. That only caused him to throw a tantrum, and Mother tried to argue on his behalf, claiming that boys will be boys and that he would grow out of it. Father remained firm.
Grumpy at losing most of his income, Owen took to the streets to look for ways to make an income with as little effort as possible, and started picking pockets. At first he only targetted the elderly or very young, those he could fight off if he got caught, but as he learned the trade, with some guidance from his street-dwelling friends, his target selection grew, aiming for those who had the most coin to spare rather than those who were easy marks. It made him enough to keep him drowning in women and drink.
At the age of twenty, his father started talking about marriage. He shuddered. By Cita why would he want to be bound to one woman? And kids? Not a chance! (He likely already had a few bastard children out there anyway, that was enough!) He refused, adamantly. Father merely shrugged him off and went about his business, and left it to Mother to try to encourage it. This was when she found out just how spoiled he was. He threw a tantrum, refusing to marry any of the women Mother would try to introduce him to, and finally fed both his parents up to the point that they told him the truth about his past. Disgruntled, but not entirely angry, he left home.
At first, he lived on the streets, supporting himself with his illegal dealings and getting mixed up with gang members. He made friends with members of several gangs, and in fact had something of his own thing going, where he helped out the younger kids finding themselves on the street, ensuring they learned the ropes and found a place for themself. He was in no way a leader, and his little band wasn't a gang so much as a stopping point for potential gang members, who would move on to one of the proper gangs in the city. He befriended a young girl named Amber, though she didn't stay long.
Later, he started taking up lovers for money. He didn't compete with the brothels, only accepting those clients who came to him. At first it was simply a willingness to share a bed, but he discovered they'd give him gifts of coin or jewelry for his services. Eventually, he found himself the lover of a wealthy nobless. She was older, but not unattractive, and very good in bed. All she asked was that he keep it to himself, which he did, gladly.
Then one night, the husband walked in. Owen was sure this would be the death of him, and was not only surprised but thoroughly confused when, rather than shouting for his head, the husband approached the bed and began to undress. The woman seemed disgruntled, but not unwilling (do I have to share siiiigh) and managed to talk Owen into participating. Thus was his first experience with the same sex. ...and he enjoyed that, too.
Now that he had both of the couple in his pockets, he started to save. Much of his money from the couple was tucked away, the pile growing rapidly over a few years, until he had enough to open his own business. Then he considered what business that would be. He already knew where - he spent a lot of time in that area of town, but he didn't want to compete with the brothels in the area. Instead, he decided to go with a tavern, a place to provide the other of his two favorite things in the world. He called it the Fox'N'Crown.
Business was slow at first - not unexpected, really. He made a few bad business decisions, but he learned quick, and made up for it with the great interest he showed his patrons. In time, his business grew prosperous, and he started tucking most of his profits away for future endeavors.
The city was one plagued by gangs, the two main ones, Signifer Gladios and the Whispers, constantly bickering and battling over territory. Somehow, Owen managed to arrange a neutrality for his tavern, where any gang member caught causing a fuss was berated by their own leaders. This worked well, as it ensured his business remained profitable and out of danger. Owen collected and sold information to the two gang leaders, and strove to expand his information business, luring in businessmen and even nobles with his charisma.
In the year that followed, Owen opened up his own brewery, specializing in ales and a particular drink of his own making that he tended to call Carter's Special Brew. It was stronger than anything else served in the area, and he even began exporting it to the sea town not far away.
Not long after, he opened a print shop. He hired young women who couldn't find work elsewhere - single mothers who were frowned upon, homeless women who needed shelter - giving them simple jobs and easy work. He never expected anything out of them other than that they get the job done. They appreciated the work, as it allowed them to take care of themselves and their children. His relationships with them remained purely professional.
Owen started to flirt with a nobleman named Laurent, cousin to the heir of the Vaux household. When Cita arrived in physical form, and took up arms against the Golden Hour, Laurent ran to help defend innocents against this so-called God of the Citadel. For the first time, Owen found himself honestly worried about someone's safety, and grew frustrated at his own inability to help.
With threat of war still in the air, the Whispers' front-man confronted Owen and demanded loyalty, forcing him to choose between them or Gladios. This man, who went by the name Jai, was someone Owen had recognized from youth. He'd been the girl Amber in years long past, and while Owen kept his knowledge of Jai's old identity to himself, he still felt the fondness for her that had been formed from their shared background. Having no ties to Gladios, he accepted the demand, swearing his loyalty to the Whispers.
Shortly after this became public knowledge, Gladios reacted, depositing the Whispers' second in command on Owen's doorstep, who also happened to be someone Owen had rather liked, a younger man named Rhys, unable to speak yet still very expressive. His death left behind the pup he'd acquired, and Owen took the pup up as his own, letting it stay at the tavern.
The Whispers had to respond to the attack. War was brewing, and everyone knew it. Owen was unable to fend for himself, he knew nothing of combat outside of basic street fighting, most of that drunken. He wanted to be able to defend himself, to be of more use to Jai and the Whispers, and to be able to protect those few he knew and cared for, such as Laurent, and the whores he'd grown attached to.
It was around then that rumours spread of the Golden Hour's increased ability to manipulate Belief to the point of turning humans into Others. Owen wrote to the man said to be responsible, offering a substantial sum to be turned into a werepanther. This would give him the ability to protect himself, his property, and his friends, and be of more use to his new boss.
It was shortly after this that he awoke to find himself in this... strange place, with strange machinery and magics beyond anything he could have ever imagined.
Powers/skills:
Powers: Owen will discover that he can turn into a panther, as becoming a werepanther is the one thing he wanted most before 'waking up' from his dream, in order to make himself more useful at protecting those he cared about. Unfortunately, he won't get all the other benefits of being a were-creature - no improved healing, heightened senses, or enhanced strength. He'll be able to turn into a panther and will have to adjust to being a panther before that is even of much use to him, but over time, his panther-self will have the senses, agility, and eventually, instincts of a panther. Practice makes perfect, and all that. (Though he'll also be awful cuddly for a panther. >_>)
Skills: Owen's skill consist mainly of the things he did in his various professions. Pick-pocketing, medieval-era brewing, bartending, keen business sense, bookkeeping, printing by way of a movable-type print machine. He also has very good social skills, and can usually manage to figure out how to play up to a person's interests.
City
Name: Julian Mitchell
Position: Brewer - Runs Mitchell Brewery and Distillery (MBD), formerly Ivory Tower Ales.
History: [tw; child abuse, teen abuse]
Julian was born to a military mother and her domestic partner. The two later had a military wedding when their boy was three. The family was relocated often due to his mother's career, and he's spent time just about everywhere. Because of this, he had few friends growing up.
Leading into his teens, he started hanging out with anyone who'd have him - this was, usually, the troublemakers of society. He got into trouble so often his father started trying to beat sense into him, starting at the age of twelve. The beatings grew more and more severe as Julian refused to submit to the ruthlessness, and at the age of fifteen, during one of his mother's longer postings, he wound up hospitalized due to his injuries - two cracked ribs and a broken arm, and a lot of bruising. His father claimed he'd gotten mixed up with drugs, and since traces were found in the kid's system, the doctor's believed him.
They did, however, inform the police, who showed up to question him at the hospital. Clearly this boy had some sort of involvement in illegal activities, and they tried to convince him to talk. When he kept refusing, they took him into the station, where he demanded they contact his mother.
When they found out who his mother was, at that time an officer in the special forces, they were quick to get in touch with the military to have her informed of the problem. She couldn't get away for at least a month, and the military sent someone to investigate on her behalf.
It wasn't until she returned home to see what was going on that Julian co-operated, and told her what had actually happened. In a rage of fury, she attacked her husband, beating him to near death before the other officer was able to restrain her.
Julian's father was taken away to be prosecuted. Julian never heard from him again. His mother was reprimanded through the military, but retained her position. Unfortunately, this left Julian without a legal guardian. He was entered into military school shortly before his sixteenth birthday, against his wishes but with his mother's blessings.
Things didn't improve much for him. Sure, he didn't have a father beating him at every opportunity anymore, but he hated his school, and spent more and more time goofing off, and looking for ways to push authority. He took up drinking and smoking, found himself a few lovers, and was constantly punished for a variety of things, including theft, vandalism, disturbance, and was generally considered a bad influence. His mother tried to talk sense into him, but he was having none of it - he resented her. She'd left him to an abusive father and then abandoned him to this hell. It was all her fault.
He was enlisted on his eighteenth birthday. Still the troublemaker, his superiors were especially harsh on him, piling chores and exercises on him so that he had very little free time. When he did get time off, he spent it drinking and fucking. At least he wasn't getting into trouble. And he did take his lessons seriously, if only because it was kind of cool learning the arts of war, and he felt like it made him a badass.
At twenty, Julian managed to escape, having grown tired of the war game. He started traveling the lands until he made his way to the Diamond City, where he took up an assumed name, Jake Sanders, and lived a poor life as a beggar until he managed to land an under-the-table job doing deliveries. He didn't ask questions, and followed orders, and his new boss, after testing him with some special deliveries, started setting him up with more difficult operations. While Julian never asked, he assumed they were illegal dealings, but kept doing them because the money was good.
He started experimenting with brewing, since alcohol was expensive and he wanted to get as much of it as possible while spending as little as possible. As it turned out, his recipes were rather well received by friends, and eventually his boss got wind of it, and had him deliver some of his goods to their base of operations. Finding he enjoyed the ales 'Jake' managed to produce, he set Julian up with a brewery to start a business, with all shared of it owned by his boss. Julian tried to refuse, since if the business did well, his face would get out, but his boss insisted (with force/threats) and he had no choice but to agree.
He did his best to keep out of the spotlight, running things from the background, but during a commercial run, someone managed to snap pictures, and they got out. The military eventually tracked him down and arrested him, locking him up for desertion complete with a formal dishonorable discharge. Julian didn't argue. Most in prison left him alone, though he made 'friends' with a few of his boss's other men when they were informed he was in. Mostly they kept tabs on him to ensure his silence, which he had no interest of breaking.
However, during his incarceration, his boss wound up being taken out by police who had a plant in his illegal activities. Since the brewery wasn't directly owned by the criminal, and was a legal business, it didn't get closed. Instead, with legal council, Julian was able to claim ownership of it, using his assumed name as a business name, which wasn't unheard of, while also convincing the jury he had no knowledge of the illegal activities and was just a brewer. The military could have refuted the claim, but Julian's mother managed to smooth talk her superiors into letting her son be.
He spent the rest of his prison term supervising his business through telephone calls or visitations. Since he wasn't considered a threat, his lawyers managed to hook him up with more lenient visitation rights, though all belongings were still searched before each visit, and the visits were monitored. This allowed him to discuss business and even sign papers when needed.
Once he was released, he went back to work. He continued to drink and smoke, but he had a business, and was content let management continue with most of the work while he oversaw things, signed papers, and focused on the recipes, though he did put through a name and label change for the company. He paid close attention to quality, making many trips to test the products the company produced, and his business expanded to meads, then later to rum, and put a lot of effort into promotion.
His mother kept in touch. It had been ages since he'd felt any sort of hatred towards her, and he'd come to recognize that she couldn't have known what kind of a man his father would have become. Yet having never really known her, he felt something of a detachment, and mostly put up with the attention because of some vague sense of duty to a parent. He refused to even look for his father, whom in turn has never made an attempt to contact him before the disaster struck.
Proof: A recording of a commercial he took part in to promote his ales after being released from incarceration, the legal documents declaring his business as his.
Playing
First-person sample: How's this?
Third-person sample: And this.
Did you read the rules? Aye.
