Post by Bobby Scrumble on Oct 29, 2012 21:20:05 GMT -5
Player: Josiah
Contact: PM me
Intentions: Support/Hero
Background
Name: Bobby Scrumble
Race: Noble Fey
Species: Brownie
Age: 43
Tier: 2
Social
Place of Birth: Ruthenia
Allegiances: The Ruthenian Resistance
Aspirations: Free the people ("people" means everyone)
Nicknames: Professor Scrumbley
Titles: None (Not a real professor)
Relatives: Ten siblings, thirty cousins, doesn't know any of them anymore
Significant Other: None
Mental
Personality: For what is right, sometimes you have to do what you don't want to do. Bobby learned that from the Shepherd, and it's how he lives his life now. He'd much rather be picking up rooms and teaching classes to anyone with the desire to learn. Instead, he pretends to be two feet of warrior, in a battle to change over 100 years of propaganda and bigotry.
Likes: Sweets, cleaning, diligent work, kids (even those bigger than him), getting piggy back rides (not that he'd admit it), teaching, being free, Shepherd
Dislikes: Spices, getting drunk (they were finding silverware all over the place for a week), having to fight (he'll do it), specism and inequality (which is what he'll fight against), seeing others still enslaved
Strengths: Bobby is a person of unwavering faith and resolve once he makes up his mind, and that extends both to people as well as ideals. He also makes a good teacher, what with listening in on so many of his previous master's tutoring sessions and all the books he's read (and re-read and re-read...). Sure, there are older, wiser people than him, and he's done little in the way of experimental, hands-on learning himself, but good teaching is as much a skill as knowledge.
Weaknesses: Bobby still has a submissive streak from his years in servitude, and while he's much more independent then he used to be, he still tends to fall in line quickly. He gets very anxious when he sees people fighting (verbally) with each other, and even more so if he has to get involved himself. His fight-or-flight button is very twitchy. While he doesn't get depressed about it himself, he still lacks a strong sense of self-worth. By Fey standards, he's barely more than a child.
Physical
Major Details: big grey-green eyes, clammy ashen skin, bald with unkempt shoulder length brown hair, 2' tall
Appearance: Think of a tiny skeleton, add just a smidgeon of flesh, and you're closer to imagining his body than he'd like. Stick thin, his head seems almost too big for his body. His eyes are almost twice the size of a normal human's, and large but pointed ears stick out straight to either side of his head, the full length over again to the tips. The top of his wrinkly head is bald, and unkempt brown hair tapers to shoulder length in the back. His teeth are a bit sharper than they should be. He wears the simplest of baggy clothes with multiple layers to make himself look a little "bigger," relatively speaking.
Natural Abilities: Being less than 20 lbs, lifting a ten lb weight on his own is impressive.
Natural Traits: Larger eyes and ears give him better hearing and eye sight than a normal human.
Strengths: Tininess has a few advantages, and Bobby is a very light-footed hider, quick and agile. He's more a bob-and-weave guy than a deflect-or-absorb guy. His small fingers are also highly dextrous, making him quite the tailor.
Weaknesses: He's two feet tall with limbs the size of most people's femur. Hercules, he ain't. He's also prone to light/noise sensitivity, and has to walk very fast to keep up with big people.
Magical
Specializations:
- Tier 1: Physical (Animation), Proficiency 2.5. Bobby can temporarily give a small semblance of life to inanimate objects by snapping his fingers, who thereafter act according to his will.
- Tier 2: Mental (Time), Proficiency 2.
Visual Display: There's a spark of light off his fingertips whenever he snaps his fingers.
Special Abilities: Telekinesis, Enhanced Toughness, Immune to Telepathy
Bonus Special Abilities: Immune to Cold, Alternate Sense (Magic) - Phasing
Unique Abilities: small of body, small of magic, there's something (super)natural about the tiny being that makes it harder for others to sense or notice him with sensory magic.
Strengths: The last decade has given him more practice with using his powers in combat situations, and he's become very good at Quickening himself from place to place, like a teleporting fey warrior of Arcadia. Where once he used it to clean a room spick and span, or fix a broken chair, now he knows how to freeze frame a fireball.
Weaknesses: Time magic is draining, and even if it comes second nature to him, he still has less magical stamina then others. He has to pace himself, and keep himself to small things over time. He also has no major offensive abilities, period. His best bet is shooting a rock very fast.
Inventory
Mundane: He keeps various tools and books in his bag of holding, for emergencies.
Magical:
Lucky Cutter - Written (Activated). A switchblade enchanted with runes down the length of the blade. When the blade is flicked out, it emits a glowing magical field of blue light. The field, extending a foot and a half from the handle, is able to cut through objects like a real blade, as well as through some magical abilities. It disappears when flicked shut.
Bag of Holding - Written (Perpetual). A small brown bag with an expanding opening. It's bigger on the inside.
History
Ruthenia is a hard place to live, between all the bad weather and the hard land. That wouldn't be so bad for Fey, except for a Fey creature, it's largely a choice of hiding in the wilds, being killed, or being enslaved. Bobby didn't get much choice. When he was born, his family had already been enslaved and forced to clean the house of their human masters, sibling and cousins spread all throughout the nobility. On the bright side, Beastfolk slaves don't have magic to fall back on like fey did, to help make the chores easier. On the not so bright side, kicking a stick across the room is easier than a pillar of beast flesh.
He was only ten, when their master sold him. That was the last time he saw his parents. Buyers like to get slaves young, the better to train them up as they like - or at least, that's the common rationale. That didn't mean anything to Bobby. It was trading one bad childhood with family to a bad childhood without family, and that made it all the more intolerable.
Like most slaves do, he learned how to behave quickly enough. Pain will do that to anyone. It was his job to keep the house clean - which, on it's own, wasn't so bad. He was good at that, at least. Get the buckets drawing water, teach the rags to wax on, wax off, and be sure to dig into the corners. He was a "welcome" addition to the household of one young boy with twins on the way.
Years don't mean as much for the near-immortal fey as they do for humans and Beastfolk. He kept occupied. He was good at that, when he didn't have anything to do. He taught the silverware how to dive into the sink, and gave them points for creativity. It wasn't until the children were a few years older that something special happened to him.
The parents got a tutor to home school their kids. Learning letters was first. Bobby had never had the opportunity to read before. The masters discouraged some slaves from becoming literate (read: punished them for it) like his parents, but there were several cupboards in the designated "class" room. If he cracked one of the cupboard doors just so, he could listen and watch the chalk board from behind the children. The master's kids didn't realize what a privilege it was for them to be educated. Bobby, from the cupboards, soaked up everything he could. As soon as he was a competent enough reader, he made a habit of doing his chores faster and "borrowing" books from around the house.
A sponge for knowledge with a fluid grasp of time, was it any wonder natural talent saw him adjusting time-space little by little. By the time the kids were well and gone, he'd read each book in the house several times through. The house was quieter then, and it was harder to get any new reading material, but he was glad - he had an education, and that was more then most slaves could say they had.
His life was a largely uneventful one by that point. The house was so much quieter without the kids around. The master must have thought the same, because he started having friends over for evening meals. He managed to eavesdrop enough to gather they weren't sharing fish stories though. His master had apparently risen up the ranks of the government enough to be noticed by other upper-ups.
Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for Bobby, he was also noticed by the Resistance. During one of the meetings, with so many important figures in one room, the Resistance attacked. It was only a small team, but it was enough. The house suddenly became the battleground of wizards, Bobby ducking for cover underneath or behind anything bigger than himself. It worked, remaining largely unnoticed as the big people blasted holes through the walls and wrecked one thing of furniture after another. He was hiding under a table, when his master landed on top and broke through.
Pinned beneath the table himself, he watched a man of shadow prepare a killing blast - and halted, when he noticed the elf too close. His master took the opening to attack back, injuring the shadow man and reversing the scales. Then they stopped, shadow man and master alike.
A shard of wood had embedded itself in his master's back. And he was the one who put it there.
"You didn't need to do that," the shadow said in an unexpectedly gentle voice, after the dust had settled.
Caught so thoroughly in shock and adrenaline, it was all Bobby could do to say, "You didn't need to hold back."
It was the closest thing to a kindness he'd known from a human. Then, with even greater kindness, the shadow man freed him. That's what he did - because the shadow was the Shepherd, and he was trying to free everyone. Without anywhere else to go, and already feeling so indebted to him, the small fey houseslave went with them.
He wasn't technically a member of the Resistance yet - they didn't see it as a "with us or against us" type of deal - but he lived with them for a time. He went back to old habits, cleaning the place as he could, staying quiet and out of the way, as if to repay the debt, or subconsciously change one master for another. And then he found their library, with all the books they could save, that Ruthenia thought for sure had been destroyed. If he thought a small little fey could ever hear an angel chorus in the background, it was then.
He poured over ancient scrolls (fixing a few by rewinding the clock a bit), opened books that weighed more than he did (never underestimate the utility of Telekinesis), and spent more than a few sleepless nights steeped in histories and stories and magic books. He became the unofficial librarian after awhile - something the actual bookkeeper had mixed feelings about.
And then something odd happened. A young Beastfolk, one of their recent rescues, came in one day with a question. It was a small question. It only took six syllables, from start to finish.
"Would you teach me to read?"
A life's purpose finds it's way to them in strange ways. A class of one became a class of three. A class of three became a class of six. More and more, liberated slaves came for their first real lessons from "Professor Scrumbly." So many people came to him with the same stories of slave life, of masters specist and terrible, that after a few months of classes, he finally made a decision.
"I want to fight."
And so he did. He joined the ranks of the Ruthenian Resistance officially, tagging along with those in need of a tiny back up warrior with his unique skills. He's no powerhouse, but helpful is as helpful does. He does.
Contact: PM me
Intentions: Support/Hero
Background
Name: Bobby Scrumble
Race: Noble Fey
Species: Brownie
Age: 43
Tier: 2
Social
Place of Birth: Ruthenia
Allegiances: The Ruthenian Resistance
Aspirations: Free the people ("people" means everyone)
Nicknames: Professor Scrumbley
Titles: None (Not a real professor)
Relatives: Ten siblings, thirty cousins, doesn't know any of them anymore
Significant Other: None
Mental
Personality: For what is right, sometimes you have to do what you don't want to do. Bobby learned that from the Shepherd, and it's how he lives his life now. He'd much rather be picking up rooms and teaching classes to anyone with the desire to learn. Instead, he pretends to be two feet of warrior, in a battle to change over 100 years of propaganda and bigotry.
Likes: Sweets, cleaning, diligent work, kids (even those bigger than him), getting piggy back rides (not that he'd admit it), teaching, being free, Shepherd
Dislikes: Spices, getting drunk (they were finding silverware all over the place for a week), having to fight (he'll do it), specism and inequality (which is what he'll fight against), seeing others still enslaved
Strengths: Bobby is a person of unwavering faith and resolve once he makes up his mind, and that extends both to people as well as ideals. He also makes a good teacher, what with listening in on so many of his previous master's tutoring sessions and all the books he's read (and re-read and re-read...). Sure, there are older, wiser people than him, and he's done little in the way of experimental, hands-on learning himself, but good teaching is as much a skill as knowledge.
Weaknesses: Bobby still has a submissive streak from his years in servitude, and while he's much more independent then he used to be, he still tends to fall in line quickly. He gets very anxious when he sees people fighting (verbally) with each other, and even more so if he has to get involved himself. His fight-or-flight button is very twitchy. While he doesn't get depressed about it himself, he still lacks a strong sense of self-worth. By Fey standards, he's barely more than a child.
Physical
Major Details: big grey-green eyes, clammy ashen skin, bald with unkempt shoulder length brown hair, 2' tall
Appearance: Think of a tiny skeleton, add just a smidgeon of flesh, and you're closer to imagining his body than he'd like. Stick thin, his head seems almost too big for his body. His eyes are almost twice the size of a normal human's, and large but pointed ears stick out straight to either side of his head, the full length over again to the tips. The top of his wrinkly head is bald, and unkempt brown hair tapers to shoulder length in the back. His teeth are a bit sharper than they should be. He wears the simplest of baggy clothes with multiple layers to make himself look a little "bigger," relatively speaking.
Natural Abilities: Being less than 20 lbs, lifting a ten lb weight on his own is impressive.
Natural Traits: Larger eyes and ears give him better hearing and eye sight than a normal human.
Strengths: Tininess has a few advantages, and Bobby is a very light-footed hider, quick and agile. He's more a bob-and-weave guy than a deflect-or-absorb guy. His small fingers are also highly dextrous, making him quite the tailor.
Weaknesses: He's two feet tall with limbs the size of most people's femur. Hercules, he ain't. He's also prone to light/noise sensitivity, and has to walk very fast to keep up with big people.
Magical
Specializations:
- Tier 1: Physical (Animation), Proficiency 2.5. Bobby can temporarily give a small semblance of life to inanimate objects by snapping his fingers, who thereafter act according to his will.
- Tier 2: Mental (Time), Proficiency 2.
Visual Display: There's a spark of light off his fingertips whenever he snaps his fingers.
Special Abilities: Telekinesis, Enhanced Toughness, Immune to Telepathy
Bonus Special Abilities: Immune to Cold, Alternate Sense (Magic) - Phasing
Unique Abilities: small of body, small of magic, there's something (super)natural about the tiny being that makes it harder for others to sense or notice him with sensory magic.
Strengths: The last decade has given him more practice with using his powers in combat situations, and he's become very good at Quickening himself from place to place, like a teleporting fey warrior of Arcadia. Where once he used it to clean a room spick and span, or fix a broken chair, now he knows how to freeze frame a fireball.
Weaknesses: Time magic is draining, and even if it comes second nature to him, he still has less magical stamina then others. He has to pace himself, and keep himself to small things over time. He also has no major offensive abilities, period. His best bet is shooting a rock very fast.
Inventory
Mundane: He keeps various tools and books in his bag of holding, for emergencies.
Magical:
Lucky Cutter - Written (Activated). A switchblade enchanted with runes down the length of the blade. When the blade is flicked out, it emits a glowing magical field of blue light. The field, extending a foot and a half from the handle, is able to cut through objects like a real blade, as well as through some magical abilities. It disappears when flicked shut.
Bag of Holding - Written (Perpetual). A small brown bag with an expanding opening. It's bigger on the inside.
History
Ruthenia is a hard place to live, between all the bad weather and the hard land. That wouldn't be so bad for Fey, except for a Fey creature, it's largely a choice of hiding in the wilds, being killed, or being enslaved. Bobby didn't get much choice. When he was born, his family had already been enslaved and forced to clean the house of their human masters, sibling and cousins spread all throughout the nobility. On the bright side, Beastfolk slaves don't have magic to fall back on like fey did, to help make the chores easier. On the not so bright side, kicking a stick across the room is easier than a pillar of beast flesh.
He was only ten, when their master sold him. That was the last time he saw his parents. Buyers like to get slaves young, the better to train them up as they like - or at least, that's the common rationale. That didn't mean anything to Bobby. It was trading one bad childhood with family to a bad childhood without family, and that made it all the more intolerable.
Like most slaves do, he learned how to behave quickly enough. Pain will do that to anyone. It was his job to keep the house clean - which, on it's own, wasn't so bad. He was good at that, at least. Get the buckets drawing water, teach the rags to wax on, wax off, and be sure to dig into the corners. He was a "welcome" addition to the household of one young boy with twins on the way.
Years don't mean as much for the near-immortal fey as they do for humans and Beastfolk. He kept occupied. He was good at that, when he didn't have anything to do. He taught the silverware how to dive into the sink, and gave them points for creativity. It wasn't until the children were a few years older that something special happened to him.
The parents got a tutor to home school their kids. Learning letters was first. Bobby had never had the opportunity to read before. The masters discouraged some slaves from becoming literate (read: punished them for it) like his parents, but there were several cupboards in the designated "class" room. If he cracked one of the cupboard doors just so, he could listen and watch the chalk board from behind the children. The master's kids didn't realize what a privilege it was for them to be educated. Bobby, from the cupboards, soaked up everything he could. As soon as he was a competent enough reader, he made a habit of doing his chores faster and "borrowing" books from around the house.
A sponge for knowledge with a fluid grasp of time, was it any wonder natural talent saw him adjusting time-space little by little. By the time the kids were well and gone, he'd read each book in the house several times through. The house was quieter then, and it was harder to get any new reading material, but he was glad - he had an education, and that was more then most slaves could say they had.
His life was a largely uneventful one by that point. The house was so much quieter without the kids around. The master must have thought the same, because he started having friends over for evening meals. He managed to eavesdrop enough to gather they weren't sharing fish stories though. His master had apparently risen up the ranks of the government enough to be noticed by other upper-ups.
Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for Bobby, he was also noticed by the Resistance. During one of the meetings, with so many important figures in one room, the Resistance attacked. It was only a small team, but it was enough. The house suddenly became the battleground of wizards, Bobby ducking for cover underneath or behind anything bigger than himself. It worked, remaining largely unnoticed as the big people blasted holes through the walls and wrecked one thing of furniture after another. He was hiding under a table, when his master landed on top and broke through.
Pinned beneath the table himself, he watched a man of shadow prepare a killing blast - and halted, when he noticed the elf too close. His master took the opening to attack back, injuring the shadow man and reversing the scales. Then they stopped, shadow man and master alike.
A shard of wood had embedded itself in his master's back. And he was the one who put it there.
"You didn't need to do that," the shadow said in an unexpectedly gentle voice, after the dust had settled.
Caught so thoroughly in shock and adrenaline, it was all Bobby could do to say, "You didn't need to hold back."
It was the closest thing to a kindness he'd known from a human. Then, with even greater kindness, the shadow man freed him. That's what he did - because the shadow was the Shepherd, and he was trying to free everyone. Without anywhere else to go, and already feeling so indebted to him, the small fey houseslave went with them.
He wasn't technically a member of the Resistance yet - they didn't see it as a "with us or against us" type of deal - but he lived with them for a time. He went back to old habits, cleaning the place as he could, staying quiet and out of the way, as if to repay the debt, or subconsciously change one master for another. And then he found their library, with all the books they could save, that Ruthenia thought for sure had been destroyed. If he thought a small little fey could ever hear an angel chorus in the background, it was then.
He poured over ancient scrolls (fixing a few by rewinding the clock a bit), opened books that weighed more than he did (never underestimate the utility of Telekinesis), and spent more than a few sleepless nights steeped in histories and stories and magic books. He became the unofficial librarian after awhile - something the actual bookkeeper had mixed feelings about.
And then something odd happened. A young Beastfolk, one of their recent rescues, came in one day with a question. It was a small question. It only took six syllables, from start to finish.
"Would you teach me to read?"
A life's purpose finds it's way to them in strange ways. A class of one became a class of three. A class of three became a class of six. More and more, liberated slaves came for their first real lessons from "Professor Scrumbly." So many people came to him with the same stories of slave life, of masters specist and terrible, that after a few months of classes, he finally made a decision.
"I want to fight."
And so he did. He joined the ranks of the Ruthenian Resistance officially, tagging along with those in need of a tiny back up warrior with his unique skills. He's no powerhouse, but helpful is as helpful does. He does.