Thread: Beyond Saving (Character Thread)

ROBERT ISLEY Nicknames Rob, Robby, Shorty Aliases Blind Nick, Two-Finger Tom, Billy the Cat, Monkey Boy, and a number of others. Occupation Second-story man, cutpurse, mugger, confidence artist, would-be Prince of Thieves, accidental and unwilling Champion of Teldir the Four-Faced Moon Physical Age 24 DOB September 16 Virgo Sex Born male, but now variable Race Human Eye colour Blue-green silver on the rare occasions he is serving in her office as Champion of the Four-Faced Moon Hair colour Dark brown silver on the rare occasions he is serving in her office as Champion of the Four-Faced Moon Hair length Slightly longer than collar length. Height 5 10 Weight 160 lbs Tattoos None. Avoiding distinguishing features is a good idea in his line of work. Piercings Rob got both ears pierced early on, but rarely wears earrings. Scars A long thin scar in his right earlobe, caused by an earring getting ripped out in a fight. A long thin scar on the outside of his left forearm. Two puncture scars in his right calf. Other noticeable traits Variable gender. Rob is male from the waning half moon to the waxing half moon, and female from the waxing half moon to the waning half moon. The transition is instantaneous, and occurs at moonrise whether she can see it or not. Psychological Sexual Orientation Rob started out as a Kinsey 1 predominantly heterosexual, with a couple of light flirtations with homosexuality. Ever since Teldir marked him as Their Champion, though, hes not sure what heterosexual means. Hes still attracted to women primarily, but shes attracted to men primarily, but their mind remains the same and the attractions bleed over - particularly in the first week after a transition. In other words, they are a genuinely confused bisexual these days. Hobbies Slight of hand and magic tricks. Reading histories and adventure stories. Juggling. Playing the violin self-taught and moderately skillful. Cooking. Likes Sleeping late. Good wine and good food. Comfortable boots. Cats. A well planned and well executed grift or caper. Dislikes Constantly having to look over his shoulder. Authority. Bullies. Turnips. Small yapping dogs. Fears More than anything, Rob has a grinding fear of poverty and failure. Deep down, hes afraid hell end up back in the dirt where he came from. Personality If you dont know her well, Rob seems like a study in contrasts. Hes warm and personable and gregarious and secretive and calculating all at once. Hes got a wide circle of friends, but gets close to only a few people. All of this is because he treats the entire world like hes casing it for his next job, and there just arent that many people he lets through that cynical detachment. Those that do, find that hes still a cynical and manipulative bastard. Its just that theyre part of the gang now, so hes their cynical manipulative bastard. Kinks Romance. Multiple partners. Rough sex hair-pulling, choking, biting and scratching,that sort of thing. Aggressive partners. Multiple orgasms. Risk of getting caught. Voyeurism. Hard Limits Stop me if youve heard this, but bathroom stuff. Just, nope. Capacities Skills Robs a pickpocket and second story man hes a good climber, can move and hide swiftly and silently, can handle most licks, and knows how to break and enter without making a whole lot of noise. He knows how to use misdirection to cut purses and empty pockets, and has built that into manipulating dice and card at street corner grifts and cheating while gambling. Hes also a decent cook and competent violinist, and has a surprising knack for languages he speaks three, and has a small vocabulary of four or five more. Supernatural abilities Rob knows some hedge magic tricks, like charms to ward off the attention of guards or evil spirits, and making amulets to protect from disease and arrows, and salves to heal wounds and grant keener eyesight. None of them are particularly dramatic, and some even work. As Champion of the Four-Faced Moon, Rob has access to more dramatic supernatural abilities. Teldir grants him supernatural swiftness, and the ability to see in the dark, and the ability to cloak himself in shadows or drive away darkness literal and metaphorical with a burning silver radiance, and the ability to infuse water with healing qualities. None of these gifts are under his control, however. They are granted at Teldirs discretion, and the God only bestows them when he is about the Gods business. Which is a rare thing, because Rob doesnt want to be Teldirs Champion, Alternate forms Robs a woman two weeks out of every month. Youd easily mistake her for his sister, really. The change makes him female, but she doesnt look wildly different in that form. Story Rob was born to a family of poverty-stricken Yeoman farmers, people who barely scratched a living from the soil. Especially after paying their taxes and tithes, and after his father drank most of the money they made selling their produce at market. He was the youngest of five, and his birth killed his mother. His mat be why his father beat him even more frequently than his older siblings, particularly after they escaped through apprenticeships or marriages. At the age of 11, after a particularly vicious beating, Rob ran away. He literally burned his bridges behind him, setting his family home on fire while his father slept in an alcoholic stupor, taking what little coin was left and heading for the big city really a town, but a population of 1,500 people seemed huge to the lad. Within two weeks, though, he had to flee the town. Hed been caught stealing apples from a cart, and the sentence for theft was loss of your right hand, and he was rather fond of that hand. Worse, he matched the description of a boy whod been spotted fleeing the burning Isley house, and the sentence for murder was hanging. His first real city was bigger than hed ever imagined, and more dangerous than hed expected. By sheer luck he fell in with a gang of adolescent criminals, rather than with one of the pimps, and started learning a trade of sorts. His age and small stature earned him the nickname Shorty, and he started his career as a cat burglar by crawling down chimneys to open doors from the inside. Robs moved a number of times since then, often leaving cities two steps ahead of the law, or one step ahead of an angry mark, or with one-time fellows hit on his heels over a dispute about division of profits. He likes to think of these involuntary relocations as opportunities to stretch his horizons rather than his neck. Breaking into the Temple of the Four-Faced Moon was going to be his big score. Temples were full of treasure, after all. Everyone knew that. Heaps of silver, in the form of altar decorations and statues and temple coins used to make change for secular money to make offerings. He should have been rich. Instead, all he found before the temple guards spotted him was a tarnished silver amulet. He made off with it, because he needed something to show for his efforts, and then barely made it out of the temple ahead of the enraged acolytes. He didnt even get a chance to fence the damned thing before he wax off to stretch his horizons once more. Six days later, he tripped over his own feet as the moon rose and his balance shifted because he was now a she. Fortunately for him... her, the transformation didnt change her height or weight, so her clothes still fit. Once she could stand up, she stumbled towards a local diviner to find out what had happened. She was informed that she had been touched by the moon, and must make amends. That same night, she chucked the amulet in a canal. Then she had a dream in which the silver and onyx hunting cats of the moon appeared, returning the amulet and declaring her the Champion of the Four-Faced Moon, chosen to defend the faithful of the God and to strike down Their enemies. When she woke up, she was still a woman and the damned amulet was around her neck again. She threw it in the canal again. And then she fenced it. Twice. And then she gave it away. And then she had to stretch her horizons again, fleeing two enraged dances and the Beggars Guild because they refused to believe it wasnt her fault the amulet kept ending up back in her possession. That was a year ago. Robs sort of made peace with the transition from male to female to male to female, learning to watch the lunar cycle, and wearing looser shirts and pants so he doesnt have to get a new wardrobe when the change happens her chest and hips are a little wider than his, and learning how to walk and run and climb with a changed center of gravity. Shes still not happy about it,and shed really like to get rid of the thing and stay a man the rest of his life. He doesnt want to be the Moons Champion, and she regularly argues with Umbra and Halo the two hunting cats when they appear in his dreams to tell her the will of Teldir and the duties he should perform. The Moon Priests could help, of course. Except that they want to cleanse the amulet by cutting her throat and washing it in his lifes blood. Somehow, they never got the message about his unwilling promotion. Last edited Dec 26, 2019