Reddel

Basics

Name: Reddel Blake (Blake: derived from Old English blæc "black" or blāc "pale")

Age/Birthdate/Zodiac: 18 / February 16th / Aquarius, Scorpio moon - Metal Horse

Occupation/School/Usual Hang Outs:
Unofficial public fountain cleaner.  Reddel has a GED, but no job, and scavenges off the city pretty well for someone who absolutely refuses to panhandle.  He'll also earn a bit now and then running errands for buskers or other street folk who get on his good side.  When he's not hanging around the older quarters of the downtown, he could be either bumming around the university, the public library, or the beach.

Skills, Hobbies:
Reddel feels compelled to keep himself in good shape, so he counts that as a hobby.  Due to his current lifestyle, he's developed a knack for urban survival and freerunning; from his family, he learned basic survival skills, cooking (he's surprisingly good, as long as he doesn't have to cut anything), and how to fight off two older brothers at once.  He collects information habitually, from books and field observation (of what?  anything and everything).  Sometimes he'll catch himself daydreaming or designing something in his head, and then immediately forget what he was thinking.

Likes:
*Watching.  He constantly studies the behavior patterns of both living and inanimate things (tides, weather, faultlines).
*Ideas, even utterly pointless ones.  This is half the reason he hangs out at the university.
*Camping, luckily for him.
*Puppies and kittens; young domestic animals in general.
*The Armed Forces, because he associates them with family (esp. Air Force).
*Personal freedom.  
*Documentaries, esp. about animals.
*Bruce Campbell, esp. the Evil Dead movies.  He knows they're dumb, but he still likes them.
*His family; they're very close-knit.

Dislikes:
*Bad or absent logic, esp. in authority figures.  Silly logic is different.
*Having to repeat himself for the nth time ("What happened to your arm?").
*Having to undo something he's done--but also not being able to undo it.  Some fear of commitment here.
*Debt.  Like a used diaper, something to be disposed of as soon as possible, if it can't be avoided completely.
*Alcohol.  Just the smell of it makes him irritable.
*Being an obligation.  He's a big boy now!  Legally....


Timeline:
*1990: Born in San Diego.  Twin brothers turn four.
*1993: moved
*1994: Younger sister born.
*1995: moved again
*1997: moved again
*1999: December - Age nine, Reddel has his one and only epic snit about being allowed to stay up on New Year's Eve.  His siblings back him fully.
*2000: January - Goes to bed without complaint at 00:05 hours, January 1st.  
June - moved again
*2002: Turns twelve, earns the nickname "Redshirt" for a streak of peculiar bad luck which will last roughly five years.
*2004: Another move.  The twins turn eighteen, and enlist in the Armed Forces--one in the Air Force, and one in the Navy.
*2007: July - loses his father and his left arm in a particularly nasty car crash.  Awakens partway, although it's overlooked in the middle of everything else.
September - commences the worst school year he will ever have.

--This Year (2008):
*February: turns eighteen
*March: wins his GED, immediately stops attending school
*May: Foreclosure.  His mother and sister go to stay with one of the twins, but Reddel decides to strike out on his own.
May-September: wandering around California, diligently trying to not look like a hippie.  Starts noticing signs of his awakening.
*September: Discovers Sunset City.  He can no longer brush off his growing power, but he doesn't know anything about it.


Big Deals

Appearance:
*Hair:  Could not possibly be browner.  It's cut short, in the most ordinary, classic men's fashion; fussily combed out on his right, and somewhat mussed on the hard-to-reach side.  His hair has some body to it, and is fairly soft and fine, but there is no curl or particular thickness.  He's not aware of any baldness in the family.

*Face:  A narrow sort of oval, with high-set Norse cheekbones.  His other features show a similar Norse delicacy: his nose is narrow for its length, and finely shaped; his eyes (brown, although later they will turn red from heavy magic use) tip up at the corners as if they were meant to go on a girl; his upper lip is narrow and very sharply chiseled, but the lip below it is only a graceful, complementary curve.  He has fairly ordinary, pale pink skin which just won't hold a tan, even from living outdoors, but is also difficult to sunburn.

*Build:  Reddel looks as if he'd do better on the wrestling team, than the swim team--his shoulders are narrower than a swimmer's, but proportionate to his 5'7".  His left arm was amputated just above the elbow, and some scars remain across his ribs and flank on that side.  He's serious about keeping the rest of his body in shape, with an emphasis on optimum mobility, and has adapted to his missing arm much better physically and socially than mentally.  His smaller frame, pretty face, and lean musculature sometimes get him hit on by gay men.

*Dress: He's a t-shirt & jeans kid.  He has a set of sweats, but they don't feel as durable to him as denim.  He likes to wear regional shirts--not necessarily touristy ones, just ones that say where he's been--or shirts from websites he likes.  They must be close-fitting, however, because a regular size tee can interfere with the reach of his right arm, or snag itself where he can't unhook it.  Apart from shirts, he is particular about boots.  He wears an awesome old pair of square-toed black boots from Lord Knows Where--his other old gear (all military surplus, granted) can be dated to a rough time and place of manufacture, but the boots are a durable old mystery.  They also get him hit on by gay men.  


Personality:
*Virtues: cunning and innovative, resourceful, adaptable, self-possessed, cautious
*Neutrals: army brat, reserved, v. old standards of masculinity & morality, some homophobia & "hippy" bigotry
*Vices: standoffish & introverted, fear of commitment, massive emotional instability, bastard potential


Blurb:
Before July 2007, Reddel was a fairly well-adjusted military brat, with a close-knit family and an Air Force career in his future.  From frequent relocations during his formative years, he became very slow to make friends with civilians, but very good at packing all his belongings into cardboard boxes.  After the 2007 accident, he suddenly found himself the handicapped son of a widow.  His brothers helped him come to terms with the loss of his arm, physically at least, but their respective duties did not leave them enough time to help him heal the emotional damage.  The loss of his father was particularly harsh, since their relationship had been special: the twins had each other, and his sister had their mother, but Reddel had had his father for primary emotional support.  The loss of a military career is secondary, less personal, but equally devastating.
The 2008 foreclosure was just one tragedy too many in too short a time for Reddel.  He would have done better to move in with one of his brothers than to strike out on his own, but was/is a poor judge of his own emotional health.  His habitual distancing of civilians has only made him better at convincing himself he is healing himself somehow, rather than making new layers of denial and pretense.  It's telling that he has not once tried to contact his family since striking out on his own.

The Other Side
Elemental Control: Energy: Fire
Type of Hunter: Summoner
Relic: ...prosthetic arm
Band: probably Fortress, whether he likes it or not.