Julian Crimeboy

* Arc 9
* A9E8

Official image of Julian, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Julian Crimeboy is Player Character from Arc 9 played by Gus .

## Description

Julian is a Kalashtar Circle of the Grassland Druid. He looks 11 years old, but has been alive for 110 years as of Arc 9, due to a curse. This curse also makes his pale skin glow constantly in a soft and subtle way, and he hovers a few inches above the ground instead of touching it with his feet. Because of this, he doesn't walk, but just hovers around.

Usually, he wears the fantasy equivalent of blue jeans, a red T-Shirt, and a first grader's backpack.

He is polite, and very neat. After having lived in a lot of filth for decades, he likes that his life now allows him to keep his bed, hair, and shirts neat and in order. Nonetheless, he doesn't take things too seriously. Still influenced from his past, he is willing to do a lot of the dirty work for the crime family.

He is pretty content with his life in the body of an 11 year old: while he has the intelligence and wisdom of an adult, he still has the desires and interests of a child. For him, life is full of simpler joys, colours are brighter, and he is more easily entertained.

Julian does not understand how the curse that afflicts him actually works, and for a while he thought that maybe he might die of old age despite looking like an 11 year old, but as he is approaching 111 years of age, he is no longer scared that this might be an option. However, he does not want to find out what would happen if the curse would be lifted.

His adoptive mother Juniper Erydis adores him, and he cares about her just as well, and sometimes worries about her mental wellbeing. While he does not know much about her wife, he knows that there is a wife and a wing that she is missing, and that she is stressed a lot. Their relationship is one of mutual care, because while he is a boy that needs a mother, he also has the wisdom of 110 years of age, while she is 26 years old. Their morning ritual consists of Juniper measuring his height on a wall to check whether he has grown at all.

In the crime family duplex, he shares a bedroom with Serenity. She is quite chaotic, but he is fine with her leaving trash on the floor as long as his bed is neatly made. Serenity would be a bad influence for him if he wasn't already past his formative years.

His magic item is one of the Partners in Crime Bracers. The matching one is worn by Juniper. His bracer looks like a colourful slap bracelet, and it is very useful for him when he runs off and then teleports back to his mom to bring her something he found.

## Backstory

Julian has a regular childhood up until the age of 11 years, where he, while playing in the woods, touches something he should not touch, and gets cursed. Since then, his body no longer ages, his skin glows, and his feet hover a few inches above the ground.

He joins a few groups of criminals, where usually his place was that of the lowest caliber intern. He is the one who has to do the most dangerous and unpleasant missions, the jobs that nobody else wants to have, because people see a weird kid, and not a respectable member of their crew. They call him "crimeboy", and at one point, he just picks that up as his surname.

After decades of living in this situation, Juniper finds him, murders the criminals that mistreated and exploited him, and then adopts him as her son. Since then, life is better than ever before for Julian: The two of them join a crime family that treats them well around 141 or 142 AE, they live in a duplex in the beautiful tourism hotspot Qto, and he has a mother that loves him and cares for him.

## Character Arc

Julian is very careful, and scared of any kind of danger that he cannot prepare for. He is experienced with crime and has killed before, but he much prefers to be able to mentally and get the necessary tools and defenses. Because of that, he gets very frustrated when his crime family downplays the danger they are in, or the threat of the deals they made.

His team tries to sugarcoat the danger they are in at first, anyways, partially because they don't want it to be true, partially because they see him as a child. This frustrates Julian, but at the same time, he uses his appearance to his advantage, and can easily ask questions that would be considered blunt coming from an adult.

He finds comfort in making friends with animals. Thus, he finds a new friend in the bird he calls Will, when he runs into the forest, frustrated by Lacewing and his party. Later, he uses *Mind Link* to communicate with Lee. He finds compassion for him, and quickly forms a bond comparable to the one he forms with injured animals he nursed back to health.

In the room under the tree, as they all have to share a secret, Riot reveals that they are leaving, and Serenity reveals that she does not actually needs the money and comes from a rich background. Julian feels offended by what he feels like is the two of them treating the only life he has ever known as a little vacation. Especially Riot being very secretive all the time and then suddenly ditching them offends him.

Julian tells the others that he resents the way everyone treats him, especially because he sometimes feels like he is smarter than the others. Juniper talks to him about this, because most of their arguments stem from the exact problem that Juniper sees him only as a child instead of the very experienced person he also is. However, Julian does not really feel like she listens to him, especially as she reveals that she plans on finding Ilsa alone, without Julian or the others. She refuses to take him with, because she could not bear losing him, while he cannot imagine letting her go alone into a danger like this.

In his anger, he retreats from the group a bit. Later, Serenity and Julian are on watch together, and Serenity uses the time to speak to him. She explains that she does not see the crime as fun, and understands how hard and dangerous it is, but stays because the group are the first people that have seen her for who she is. Julian decides that he wants to prove himself to the others, and suggests running away together to find Lee's legs without the others. Serenity agrees to not let Julian go alone. As they realise that the legs are inside the mountain, very close to Render, Julian is the one who suggests to abandon that plan and meet with the others again, which Serenity points out to the others as they regroup.

Later, he has a conversation with Riot, in which the two of them try to get to know each other and their thoughts a bit better, and Julian tells her that he is glad that Riot and Juniper are friends. Riot in turn tries to put in a good word for him and his capability with Juniper. Still, Juniper and Julian cannot come to an agreement on their arguments. Juniper still treats him like a child, and they each refuse to find a compromise in their points. Julian is especially angry because he feels that she willfully refuses to see him as an adult, because a child is easier to parent for her.

After they defeat Render in the final fight, Lee offers to grant each of them a wish, which comes unexpected for Julian. Overwhelmed by the sudden opportunity to maybe remove his curse, he goes last, and has a conversation with Juniper again, during which they still cannot come to any agreement between them. Julian tells her that over the last few days, she made him hate himself with the way that she treated him, and even though he loves her for the new life she originally gave him, he does not think he is what Juniper wants him to be. They hug tightly in what feels like a goodbye, before Julian goes to Lee and asks him for the opportunity to finally move on, after having lived much longer than he should have.

Lee is distressed by Julian implying the wish to die, and begs for a different option. However, Julian cannot think of a way to feel comfortable in his body again, because even if the curse was lifted, he would still be much older than his body, and there is no way to actually give him the body that he would belong into anymore, since he is so unaturally old. Finally, Lee offers to turn Julian into a star, and Julian asks what that feels like, and whether Lee ever feels lonely. The two of them agree to be the sun together, as a double star, and Lee grants him that wish and turns him into the sun, with Julian hoping to be able to find peace in this form. Then, Julian has a proper goodbye with his old friends, during which Juniper, in tears, gives Lee her bracelet and asks him to look after Julian.

As the sun, Julian looks mostly like he did before, but now gloes much brighter. He feels amazing, and powerful, and Lee has to hold him back a bit, knowing that the new powers can be overwhelming at first. Although he cannot visit the Material Plane again, he can still send messages there.

## Trivia

* Gus shared on Twitter that the name Julian Crimeboy was one he had come up with months before the arc:  Gus (@GusRachels) on Twitter: "Julian Crimeboy was a name i devised last December before Haley even knew what Arc 9 was going to be so to say I am excited is an understatement" (2022/07/18). He also confirms this again in Episode 0 of Arc 9.
* Julian floating is just a bit of flavour, he does not have a flying speed.
* Sometimes, when the rest of the crime family and Art's wife Landra are out in the town drinking or something, and he cannot join because he looks 11 years old, he stays behind and watches Art's kids.
* He has a great circadian rhythm and wakes up as soon as the sun goes up.
* He drinks his coffee black.
* His magic is bright white with many multicoloured sparkles.
* Julian has never seen boobs.