Nick
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:30 am
Name: Nicholas D'Alvere, known more commonly as simply 'Nick'
Age: 26
Race: Human
Physical Description: Nick is tall, though not unusually so, standing at about six foot three. Pale, Thin and lanky, with particularly long arms and legs, he presents himself with a sort of awkward grace, always relaxed and seemingly uncaring, but always very sure of the way his body moves. Bright blue eyes peer out from beneath a shock of unkempt black hair, and his facial features are sharp, drawn and gaunt. He always sports a sly smirk, giving the impression that he is perpetually up to something. Despite all this, he's handsome enough. He usually dresses in dark, ragged clothing, though he has shown a predilection toward high style whenever he can afford it.
Possessions: The only possessions that stay with Nick-as he has a tendency to pawn the rest off when he needs cash-is his clothing, his collection of balanced throwing knives, and a pouch filled with various kinds of poisonous plants and liquids.
Powers or Strengths
Poisoner: Nick has a somewhat extensive knowledge of various poisonous plants and liquids and how best to apply them. He has, to this date, never used this knowledge to kill someone, though he certainly has the know-how.
Sly Charmer: Despite giving the impression of being a troublemaker and ne'er-do-well, Nick has a silver tongue and a knack for winning the friendship of others, most of the time without even trying to, even to the point of talking shopkeeps into giving him discounts on their goods or strangers into buying him drinks.
Physically fit: While of only above-average strength in comparison to others, Nick is an exceptionally fast sprinter, and can continue running at a good pace for a couple of hours before becoming exhausted. In addition to this, he's a magnificent climber-if a wall has something he can work his fingers into, he can probably climb it. He's also particularly dexterous.
Inconspicuous: Despite his height, Nick is adept at blending into crowds and just being unremarkable and forgetable in general. In addition to this, he knows a bit about sneaking around, hiding, and being quiet when he needs to be.
Calm and gathered: It would be out of character in the extreme for Nick to lose his calm or panic. Even in particularly perilous situations, or in moments of emotional duress, Nick stays calm and manages to deal with the situation with an idle sense of humor.
Devil's luck: Nick is just generally a lucky guy-not supernaturally so, just extremely lucky. Things just seem to go his way.
Weaknesses
Look out for number one: That is essentially Nick's golden rule. While not opposed to taking risks (far from it, actually), he always keeps in mind ways to escape with his hide intact-and he's not opposed to letting others take the fall, even those who he'd consider friends. When confronted by people he's betrayed in this way, Nick will usually try to laugh it off and convince them it wasn't that big of a deal-with variable results.
Emotionally shallow: Nick is incapable of taking much anything completely seriously. So while he is a charmer, this can get in the way of him truly connecting with people emotionally, and while people may have faith in his competence, they'll rarely trust him as a person.
Disrespectful: Nick questions anyone who claims to have any authority over him. Just about the only way for someone to get him to behave is to convince him utterly that disobedience will mean severe physical consequences (and even then that's questionable) or to pay him off in some way.
Greed: Nick cannot seem to live within his means. He always seems to need more money, and it is this that fuels his increasingly more dangerous activities.
History: Much of Nick's current behavior stems from the fact that he had no parental oversight as a child. Born in the town of Shim to simple folk who farmed for a living, his father died when he was very young, a vicitm of a poisonous snake bite while he worked the firelds of his farm. By the tender age of two, his mother had followed-a victim of a combination of heartbreak, poverty and disease. By decree coming down from Kaledin manor, the family farm was sold off to pay his mother's debts, leaving Nick with nothing.
Nick was not left to rot, however-the friends of his father and mother in the community took turns watching over Nick for the next five years or so. Nobody really seemed to know what to do with him, and he rarely spent more than a month in the same house. Because he was passed on from house to house among the people of Shim, he made many childhood friends in the town.
Upon turning seven, there were many half-hearted attempts ot teach Nick the value of a hard day's work, but none of these really remained with him. It was during this age that Nick, bored during the day and having nothing to spend his money on, began stealing small knicknacks from the people who harbored him, but far more commonly, from travellers passing through at the Red Chalice Inn. These items he quickly sold off to travelling vendors, having no place of his own to store them.
At the age of nine, the innkeeper of the Red Chalice inn tried to employ him as a general servant boy at the inn. Unfortunately, this just afforded Nick greater opportunities to thieve from travellers. On the few occasions when he was caught, the staff of the inn (who thought he was a perfect darling) would defend him quite violently from the accusations of strangers. Nick was, however, notorious for practicing throwing with the kitchen knives.
At about the age of fourteen, Nick acquired an interest in poisons after an unfortunate incident at the inn when a poisonous herb, which looked much like a spice the inn served on its food regularly, was picked and delivered to the Red Chalice and cooked into its food. Nick found the resulting bouts of sickness utterly hilarious. Seized by the desire for knowledge and finding the books of Shim lacking, he trailed along with a patrol of the city guard back into the city of Marn.
In Marn Nick had his first real brush with violence. Accosted in the streets while wandering around, learning his way around Marn, Nick was overpowered by an older man. One can only guess at what the man wanted with a younger boy, but it was clear that he was unpracticed or not expecting resistance. Nick, who had taken up the habit of keeping stolen kitchen knives on his person, stabbed the older man in the gut and ran. Nick never knew, but the older man later died of that wound.
Nick didn't let this deter him. He rented a room at an inn in Marn, and while such a young man on his own was widely questioned, he managed to talk his way out of most suspicions. He spent a week familiarizing and becoming enchanted with Marn, despite (or perhaps because of) its dark nature. During this week he snuck into a library and walked out with an extensive tome on poisons. It would be the only thing he ever studied.
He returned to Shim after the week was up, and regaled his friends with tales of his misdeeds in the city. Nick was having quite the negative impact on the youth of Shim, and some to this day even go so far as to blame him for the corruption of that entire generation of the town. He spent the next five years working at the inn, becoming a more daring thief, studying poisons, and eventually discovering and becoming quite the charmer of women.
When he was nineteen, he convinced several of his childhood cohorts to join him on his greatest robbery yet-a journey to Marn to to infiltrate and rob the manor of a noble. They all succeeded on the infiltration part-but Nick was the only one who managed to escape the manor with any goods. His four friends were put in shackles and thrown in jail. Nick, knowing the accusations he would face back in Shim by the parents of his friends, and finding Marn much more his speed anyway, took up a somewhat permanent residence in Marn-though he never stays long at any one address, and still does visit Shim from time to time, at least since his cohorts had been released from jail (none of them were behind bars for long, their youth was a factor taken into consideration in their sentencing, as well as their generally polite and repentant manner and the fact that this was their first offense.)
The result of the manor robbery put a damper on his daring-but not for long. Nick has spent his life since then moving from inn to inn in Marn, associating with the seedier characters there, becoming an even more daring thief, gaining some knowledge in defending himself, and gaining a reputation as a charming scoundrel.
Age: 26
Race: Human
Physical Description: Nick is tall, though not unusually so, standing at about six foot three. Pale, Thin and lanky, with particularly long arms and legs, he presents himself with a sort of awkward grace, always relaxed and seemingly uncaring, but always very sure of the way his body moves. Bright blue eyes peer out from beneath a shock of unkempt black hair, and his facial features are sharp, drawn and gaunt. He always sports a sly smirk, giving the impression that he is perpetually up to something. Despite all this, he's handsome enough. He usually dresses in dark, ragged clothing, though he has shown a predilection toward high style whenever he can afford it.
Possessions: The only possessions that stay with Nick-as he has a tendency to pawn the rest off when he needs cash-is his clothing, his collection of balanced throwing knives, and a pouch filled with various kinds of poisonous plants and liquids.
Powers or Strengths
Poisoner: Nick has a somewhat extensive knowledge of various poisonous plants and liquids and how best to apply them. He has, to this date, never used this knowledge to kill someone, though he certainly has the know-how.
Sly Charmer: Despite giving the impression of being a troublemaker and ne'er-do-well, Nick has a silver tongue and a knack for winning the friendship of others, most of the time without even trying to, even to the point of talking shopkeeps into giving him discounts on their goods or strangers into buying him drinks.
Physically fit: While of only above-average strength in comparison to others, Nick is an exceptionally fast sprinter, and can continue running at a good pace for a couple of hours before becoming exhausted. In addition to this, he's a magnificent climber-if a wall has something he can work his fingers into, he can probably climb it. He's also particularly dexterous.
Inconspicuous: Despite his height, Nick is adept at blending into crowds and just being unremarkable and forgetable in general. In addition to this, he knows a bit about sneaking around, hiding, and being quiet when he needs to be.
Calm and gathered: It would be out of character in the extreme for Nick to lose his calm or panic. Even in particularly perilous situations, or in moments of emotional duress, Nick stays calm and manages to deal with the situation with an idle sense of humor.
Devil's luck: Nick is just generally a lucky guy-not supernaturally so, just extremely lucky. Things just seem to go his way.
Weaknesses
Look out for number one: That is essentially Nick's golden rule. While not opposed to taking risks (far from it, actually), he always keeps in mind ways to escape with his hide intact-and he's not opposed to letting others take the fall, even those who he'd consider friends. When confronted by people he's betrayed in this way, Nick will usually try to laugh it off and convince them it wasn't that big of a deal-with variable results.
Emotionally shallow: Nick is incapable of taking much anything completely seriously. So while he is a charmer, this can get in the way of him truly connecting with people emotionally, and while people may have faith in his competence, they'll rarely trust him as a person.
Disrespectful: Nick questions anyone who claims to have any authority over him. Just about the only way for someone to get him to behave is to convince him utterly that disobedience will mean severe physical consequences (and even then that's questionable) or to pay him off in some way.
Greed: Nick cannot seem to live within his means. He always seems to need more money, and it is this that fuels his increasingly more dangerous activities.
History: Much of Nick's current behavior stems from the fact that he had no parental oversight as a child. Born in the town of Shim to simple folk who farmed for a living, his father died when he was very young, a vicitm of a poisonous snake bite while he worked the firelds of his farm. By the tender age of two, his mother had followed-a victim of a combination of heartbreak, poverty and disease. By decree coming down from Kaledin manor, the family farm was sold off to pay his mother's debts, leaving Nick with nothing.
Nick was not left to rot, however-the friends of his father and mother in the community took turns watching over Nick for the next five years or so. Nobody really seemed to know what to do with him, and he rarely spent more than a month in the same house. Because he was passed on from house to house among the people of Shim, he made many childhood friends in the town.
Upon turning seven, there were many half-hearted attempts ot teach Nick the value of a hard day's work, but none of these really remained with him. It was during this age that Nick, bored during the day and having nothing to spend his money on, began stealing small knicknacks from the people who harbored him, but far more commonly, from travellers passing through at the Red Chalice Inn. These items he quickly sold off to travelling vendors, having no place of his own to store them.
At the age of nine, the innkeeper of the Red Chalice inn tried to employ him as a general servant boy at the inn. Unfortunately, this just afforded Nick greater opportunities to thieve from travellers. On the few occasions when he was caught, the staff of the inn (who thought he was a perfect darling) would defend him quite violently from the accusations of strangers. Nick was, however, notorious for practicing throwing with the kitchen knives.
At about the age of fourteen, Nick acquired an interest in poisons after an unfortunate incident at the inn when a poisonous herb, which looked much like a spice the inn served on its food regularly, was picked and delivered to the Red Chalice and cooked into its food. Nick found the resulting bouts of sickness utterly hilarious. Seized by the desire for knowledge and finding the books of Shim lacking, he trailed along with a patrol of the city guard back into the city of Marn.
In Marn Nick had his first real brush with violence. Accosted in the streets while wandering around, learning his way around Marn, Nick was overpowered by an older man. One can only guess at what the man wanted with a younger boy, but it was clear that he was unpracticed or not expecting resistance. Nick, who had taken up the habit of keeping stolen kitchen knives on his person, stabbed the older man in the gut and ran. Nick never knew, but the older man later died of that wound.
Nick didn't let this deter him. He rented a room at an inn in Marn, and while such a young man on his own was widely questioned, he managed to talk his way out of most suspicions. He spent a week familiarizing and becoming enchanted with Marn, despite (or perhaps because of) its dark nature. During this week he snuck into a library and walked out with an extensive tome on poisons. It would be the only thing he ever studied.
He returned to Shim after the week was up, and regaled his friends with tales of his misdeeds in the city. Nick was having quite the negative impact on the youth of Shim, and some to this day even go so far as to blame him for the corruption of that entire generation of the town. He spent the next five years working at the inn, becoming a more daring thief, studying poisons, and eventually discovering and becoming quite the charmer of women.
When he was nineteen, he convinced several of his childhood cohorts to join him on his greatest robbery yet-a journey to Marn to to infiltrate and rob the manor of a noble. They all succeeded on the infiltration part-but Nick was the only one who managed to escape the manor with any goods. His four friends were put in shackles and thrown in jail. Nick, knowing the accusations he would face back in Shim by the parents of his friends, and finding Marn much more his speed anyway, took up a somewhat permanent residence in Marn-though he never stays long at any one address, and still does visit Shim from time to time, at least since his cohorts had been released from jail (none of them were behind bars for long, their youth was a factor taken into consideration in their sentencing, as well as their generally polite and repentant manner and the fact that this was their first offense.)
The result of the manor robbery put a damper on his daring-but not for long. Nick has spent his life since then moving from inn to inn in Marn, associating with the seedier characters there, becoming an even more daring thief, gaining some knowledge in defending himself, and gaining a reputation as a charming scoundrel.