Wallace Urry

[Wallace Urry]

Player Name: Joseph Zouk
Character Name: Wallace Urry

Family: Borth (father)
Larine (Whitaker) (mother)
Merthin (grandfather – deceased)
April (Sister 15 years old)
Iris (Sister 13 years old)

Age: 10
Race: Human
Height: 4'10"
Weight: 72lbs

Physical Description:
Wally is undersized to say the least, and weaker than the average boy of his age – traits that are emphasized by a left leg which failed to fully develop. The leg causes him pain, sometimes when it rains or becomes cold, but always by the time his daily chores are finished. His brown hair grows in a curled tangle that is as thick as a hedgerow, and his wide-eyes are a bright, crystal blue, disguising him with a meekness that hides his intellect.

Powers or Strengths:
-Musician. Although his repertoire is small, Wally’s mechanical skill with his whistle is well above average. His grandfather taught him simple scales and patterns that fit over common progressions, but once he learns the mathematics of chord construction and is able to understand written notation, his abilities will become apparent. He is a natural showman at heart, knowing when to smile and dance, and likewise knowing when to fade into the background.

-Mechanically adept. Though he has had no formal training with machinery, he has a knack of understanding how things logically fit together; this is evident with his understanding of the many levers and valves on his whistle.

-Empathetic. The boy has the ability to ‘put himself in other’s shoes’ as the saying goes. This is a trait that likely helps keep him sane between his father’s harshness, his mother’s weakness, and his older sister’s spiteful nature. He is not cruel or judgmental as he knows that what is seen of a person is but a picture made up of all that brought them to the present.

Weaknesses:
-His left leg. He can run in a fashion – if he must – though he pays dearly from the pain of the effort for days afterwards. It’s a defect that is explained by some as a curse of a displeasured god, or a symptom of a near demonic possession by others. His father’s personal opinion is that he wasn’t the father, and that Wallace’s mother’s unfaithfulness brought her guilt that affected the boy in the womb.

-Weak. He is small and not strong. His natural understanding of mechanical things is an offset to this.

-Closed. Despite his ‘entertaining’ side, he keeps his feelings to himself, particularly with regards to his family (except Iris, or course). That being said, his worldly experience is next to nothing so to expect the strangers would invoke a different reaction from him is doubtful.

-No formal education. Everything Wallace has learned he has learned either from his grandfather (Music, how to read and write), his sister Iris (Shooting a bow, and general self-awareness), or simply by applying himself. He has read his father’s books (unbeknownst to his father who would have been livid at the trespass) on herbals and the benefits to animal husbandry, and also books on architecture that his father had purchased long ago. Borth used to have plans of designing and building his perfect mansion once his business evolved into the lucrative endeavor that it was destined to be (the blame for the failure is placed squarely on his wife and children). All of the aforementioned items being noted, the one thing that did make Wally more curious than anything else was a map of the known world that he had once seen. Many of the names of the far-away places he had memorized, and in his imagination he could see them all – pristine and magnificent. His dream of dreams was to someday see those places.

NPCs:
Borth, the boy’s father, is a crass and thankless man and prone to the escape of the bottle, and his violent nature is not uncommon to see when he drinks. His life’s business is the breeding of animals, and he is openly displeased with his wife Larine for bearing him naught but daughters and a broken son. Borth’s intention when he was married was to have children that could assume the manual duties of the business, leaving him free to sell his services and count his gold without dirtying his clothes. A day rarely passed when Borth does not remind Larine of his disappointment of her fruits.

His mother, Larine is a quiet woman, though the trait is something that was taught to her by Borth. She is thin, with graying hair, and she spends her days seeing to the duties she was married to do - cooking, cleaning, and sewing – all expenses in the eyes of her abusive husband. ‘Defeated’ is the best description for her – to defy her husband is asking for blackened eye or a bloodied lip, thus she avoids opposing Borth on all topics – including the fates and well-being of the children.

The boy was close to his grandfather, Merthin, before he passed away. Before the old man’s death, Merthin gave Wally a levered whistle and taught him as much about it as he could. It wasn’t much, though it instilled a much-needed sense of accomplishment in Wally. His grandfather told him a tale of how his great-grandfather had used the whistle to protect their home from a wild fire that had devoured all the land as far as the eye could see. Wally wanted to know how, and Merthin told him that the whistle had magical powers – a fact that needed to remain a fast and well kept secret. It made Wally giggle, although he promised the secret was safe with him.

April, Wally’s eldest sister, is at the age of courtship. Borth strives desperately to find her a groom from a family that would elevate his status, though it is a quest that isn’t going well – April was not the most handsome of girls, and the promise of the gift of livestock did little to offset her appearance. At best, April would be married to the potter’s son, a stupid boy who had not yet earned the title of ‘potter’s son’. It was difficult for Wally to feel sorry for April – his older sister had an evil side that matched his father’s, though it was subtle. If their mother wasn’t watching, April would take Wallace’s dinner, or trip him and laugh when he fell to the ground – a trick that their father found amusing as well. It was a wonder Wally had managed to keep his whistle from her.

Iris was the odd member of the family – odd meaning normal. She had her father’s brown eyes and dirty, blonde hair which she kept in a long single braid that trailed down her back, but other than that she had little else in common with either parent or sibling. Not only was she revealing a beauty foreign to the family as she grew older, she was also strong and fast and could strike the heart of a target with the bow better than any of the boys her age. In fact, she was so much better at it that Borth forbade her to shoot as he did not want her offending any potential husbands by proving herself more adept at anything ‘meant’ for the male gender. Iris did so anyway - in secret. Sometimes she helps Wally finish his chores and they sneak off into the woods where she has a maple short bow and a quiver of arrows hidden – to Wally’s delight she lets him shoot too.

Possessions:
His levered whistle is his pride and joy. He wears a crystal pendant that is suspended on a braided twine that Iris gave him. She said that is said to have healing powers, though the claim hasn’t manifested itself as a change in Wally’s leg. He loves pattered clothing, particularly paisley when he can get it, but otherwise stripes, squares, dots, or anything other than a solid color, thus his favorite pants – blue and green paisley with yellow trim. In a belt pouch he carries a folding knife, a hair brush which he seldom uses, a rabbit’s foot, and a cloth to clean his whistle.

A Day in the Life:
"Its' beautiful," Iris said.

Wally nodded in agreement. He had never seen a horse so magnificent before. The beast didn't wasn't happy either - it stomped its hooves and snorted warnings at the pair of men who held its tether.

"I want to ride it," Wally's sister winked at him, urging a laugh from the boy.

"I'm telling father," April, who had crept up behind them, said with a sneer.

Wally's laugh ended abruptly. April, the eldest of the three didn't like it when Wally had fun.

Iris, on the other hand, seemed to welcome the challenge. She hopped down from the split rail fence and stood eye to chin to her bully-of-a big sister. "Is that what you're going to do? Tell daddy?"

"Father!" April went off like a gnome-made burglar alarm at Iris's challenge. "Iris isn't doing her chores! Either is..."

The older sister didn't finish her snitching due to Iris balling her fist and punching her in the stomach - hard. But unfortunately the siblings’ disruption had already reached the ears of their father, Borth, who was stressfully occupied with the task of readying a mare to meet the newly arrived stallion.

April dramatically gasped for breath as Borth came marching from barn. "Do you see that stallion standing there?" He asked as his long strides closed the distance between himself and his children. "It's worth more than all of you put together..."

"She started it..." Iris began.

"I did not!" April shouted, her ability to breathe miraculously returning.

Borth didn't care. "…The mare is worth more than the barn and house combined," he continued.

As frightening as their father could be, Iris held her ground. She was certain he would not strike her - she was already being eyed by potential suitors - the family who owned the mare waiting in the barn was one.

Without another word Borth slid his belt from the loops of his trousers - the leather made a hissing sound like a snake as it passed against the woven cloth. He grabbed Wally by the wrist and jerked him into to the air and began to beat him. The buckle of the belt tore the boy's checked tunic and paisley pants, staining the cloth with his blood.

"Stop!" Iris pleeded, as tears spilled from her eyes. "Please father! Stop. It's not his fault!"

But Borth was making a point. He paused long enough to say, “This is your doing, Iris.” And then the beating resumed. The man lost count of how many times he drew back the steel-ornamented leather strap and lashed it against the small boy's back and legs. When at last he finished, he left Wallace crumbled in a breathless, sobbing heap.

Iris dropped to her knees beside her brother, cradling his head.

"If I hear another sound..." The man walked back to the barn, re-buckling his belt as he went.

April giggled and skipped away as if it were her birthday.

[Katona]

Hi Joseph, and welcome to Thar. I wanted to mention, first of all, that it might be a bit more difficult to find a thread for a character like Wallace, but if you're alright of that, it's no problem.

I'd love to see more about what kind of person Wallace is. Even if he's only 10, he'll have his own personality, including things he's interested in or things that really bother him. Try to add some more strengths and weaknesses even if they're not things that have a huge impact on the character aside from showing his individuality. Maybe things he hates/fears, or how he interacts with people? It would be good to see some examples of how Wallace's physical disabilities affect him too.

Where is Wallace from if not Marn? Who did his parents sell him to and why? How did Wallace feel about leaving his family behind? Did he have any other family members?

This application is by another member and it might give you some idea of the kind of traits you could list for a child character.

Just leave a reply when you're done and I'll look over it again.

[Wallace Urry]

(Work in progress: In hind sight I should have posted to the 'Works in Progress' thread - hopefully it's not too annoying that I am in the Applications thread.)

Fathia's link is very helpful, thank you!

I do think I have gotten ahead of myself. Yesterday I began working on Wally's first month or so in Marn, and it led me to wanting to modify my application - a lot. It also raised a question.

As far as where Wally is from - I had assumed Shim, however is Shim far enough away where Wally would be effectively 'exiled' from home? If not, is it possible that the boy came from somewhere further away where his family could believably have lost track of him?

Thanks again.

JZouk

[Katona]

Shim isn't that far from Marn. People travel between the two easily enough, and it would actually be too close if Wallace's father was going to sell him, because slavery is illegal in Marn. Regardless of where the boy is from, whoever took him would have to be careful that he didn't let anyone know what the real story was behind his new acquisition.

Your character can be from anywhere, within reason. Slavery is found often in the southern provinces of Eyropa, particularly around Semerkhet, so you might want to consider his family being located around that area. Technically though most of Eyropa and Tian Xia could be used, depending on what kind of culture you'd like him to be used to. You might want to glance through setting pages or threads in the world development forum, or ask us if you're curious about something you can't find.

Do you mind putting the Family/NPCs sections at the end of the app? Just to make it easier for other people reading through your application later on.

Don't worry about the thread being in Applications as opposed to WIP. Edit is as you wish and reply when you're ready to have it looked over again. Of course, you can always message me or another moderator if you have questions about anything.

[Wallace Urry]

I took this a different direction. Wally is in Shim, and still on the farm. I think i'd like to take my time developing him before he goes off into the wild blue yonder.

It's ok if I don't get involved right away with an interactive story, at least not right away. I try to read a little bit every day. Sometimes about the setting, and sometimes I read the stories others have posted - there's a lot to take in. On the other hand, I've certainly established a reason Wally might want to run away from home, and should I end up at the Red Chalice Inn, or Marn, or floating down the Orifyu to places unknown then I can see contributions being more in the form of 'cargo' or 'a face in the crowd'.

We'll see how it goes.

Ultimately, I like to write, and reading other's efforts has benefits that are at times easier to see than when your face is planted into your own work. At least, I think so. English, grammar, and vocabulary was always a weak spot for me, despite how much I loved to read in high school, but I have been trying to improve myself. I'm enjoying this site for that fact as much, or maybe even more, than making a story itself!

Thank you again. Have a great day!

JZouk

[Frug]

Hello,

Katona is indisposed with real life matters currently, so I've been asked to take a look at this. Apologies for the wait.

It looks good to me, and certainly has nothing that could raise any alarms. However, I'd like to see some mention of Shim in his application and make sure you are aware of the society he's growing up in if he is a Shimian. Quiet locals, magic and religion being prominent issues, big brother Marn enforces law from next door.