Mechelen "Colin" Guiness

## Colin Guiness

"*There exists an essence so beautiful and powerful, so timid and proud that everyone can see it's majesty yet walk by it like a pauper on the street. Blue, to most merely a colour yet to me - a lifestyle. A hope. A battlecry. We come into this world blue and reaching for life. We live it underneath the blanket of the daytime and sail across the beds of Blue waves to seek fortune. And when we die, we turn blue out of respect. Some cry out-* **'****Listen here'** *or-* **'Follow me'***, but I pay them no heed. Blue is an aspect much older than their legends and stories, existent since the beginning. Not many can claim that. No, I live by Blue, find Joy in Blue, and fight in Blue. I do this out of reverence and respect for my oldest friend."*

## Becoming obsessed

"Don't forget your blue scarf, so that you don't get lost"

That's the last thing that Colin *thinks* he remembers his parents saying. It was a cold winter day, but the sun gleamed off fresh snow, and the woods out behind the farm called to the imagination of youth. Likely, that memory is just one that he altered to fit his fragmented recollection of his youth. He did love that scarf though, it's bright colour a contrast to anything he'd ever worn before. Unfortunately, a child's bright blue scarf also caught the eye of a capricious fae in the woods. Before he knew it, he was being dragged across the brush, struggling to hold onto his most prized possession. He only got a glimpse or two of the flitting fairy, but for all of his protesting it didn't stop trying.

The next thing he remembered was tripping on something, and then the ground suddenly giving out beneath him as he slipped forwards into a patch of bright, vibrant roses. Colin snatched the rest of his scarf and tucked it close to his chest, as whatever odd light bounced persistently against his head, before giving up. Finally unwinding to stand up, it appeared that Colin... wasn't where he was anymore. Or at least, where he should have been.

*Where did all the snow go?* He thought to himself as he sucked some of the blood off his thumb. He'd stuck it on a thorn in among these flowers. But all around him, oddities compounded. Trees in small shapes, mushrooms that dwarfed them in height. And everything was so colourful and clear.

What Colin didn't know is that he wasn't in Varisia anymore, having stumbled through some small fae gate into the first world. His time there wasn't particularly idyllic. Most of his memories are scattered and sporadic of those years. Some effect from pricking his finger on the rose had knocked him out. He was found by some band of Faerie creatures, and he somehow ended up trading hands many times over the intervening years - usually some point of display or novelty. Sometimes he was treated better, sometimes worse. He always had that scarf though, that comforting hue that consoled him when he needed it. It would cry with him when he was sad. It would reassure him when he needed a friend. And it would smile with him during the happy moments. Innumerable highs and lows, it was always there for him as one of the few constants. But living in the wild magic of the First World long enough eventually rubs off on you.

What begin as a coping mechanism because a fixation. Blue began to colour how he saw the world, and shortly after - how he interacted with the world. He was well into his teens by the point that he began to see the truth in Blue. It taught him things, like the patience to focus his mind. How to avoid being caught for tricks. How to hide. How to become one with the world around him, and how to change the world to fit his own view. It warned him, told him that his future lay elsewhere - calling him to escape his captors and return to his own first world. And in perhaps his first moment of true clarity in many years - he snapped. Strangling one of his captors with the scarf, he escaped his pursuers and sprinting in the direction of a circular cave. Something told him that if he could just reach the opening, he would be free.

Mere hand breadths away from the mouth, he felt a sharp yank whip his head back and stop his momentum. Something or someone had grabbed onto him! But he was so close, Blue had promised that he would see his own sky once more. His fingers pulled at the cloth around his neck, gasping for air while the other hand reached forward, fingers grasping for freedom. And with a sharp ripping sound, his old friend finally gave out beneath the stress and tore in two - causing Collin to stumble forwards and trip through the opening. It was like falling forwards, and then sideways, and then inside out before eventually - downwards.

Flat on his back. Staring into an open blue sky from a meadow of grass. It smelled... wonderfully mundane. He rose up, brushing a few flower petals off his sleeves. It looked like the force of his tumble had kicked up the border of some circle of plants. *Fae Gates-* something instinctively told him. So he kicked the edge once more for good measure, no need to let anyone follow him. He'd lost his comforter, sacrificed for his freedom. But he didn't need it anymore. He could bring Blue with him wherever he went. And he had his freedom, something no one would take from him again.

### Appearance

Colin is easy to spot in a crowd. Blue cloak, boots, gloves, tunic, leggings... Even if he's trying to blend in - he always wears something blue on him. Though perhaps his time in the first world shaped how he grew up, causing his half-elf heritage to manifest in sometimes odd ways. His right ear is pointed like an elf, though his left is rounded like a human. If compared, his left arm is slightly longer and more slender. And if left under the sun long enough, a slight marbling appears on his otherwise pale skin where some sections tan more readily than others. Much of this is covered up though when wearing his adventurers attire.

### Personality

Despite his fixations, Colin should come off to most as a relatively normal guy. He's a bit of a juxtaposition of ideals however. Normally impulsive and hard to predict, he believes strongly (perhaps naively) in the word of others. If Colin makes a promise, he will compulsively stick by those words. His moral compass is somewhat lacking, as he grew up without much of a structure for 'good' and 'evil', though he does have a slight distaste for Unseelie, and isn't very tolerative of slavery. Otherwise, he harbours no direct ill-will towards the world of the Fae. He has inherited a somewhat mischievous nature from them though, along with an odd sense of humour.

### Relationships

At present, Colin doesn't have much in the way of friends. He also doesn't have much in the way of enemies. Excepting perhaps a few of Absaloms housing boards...