Meraki
Race: Wick (Human/Galdor)
Birthday: Loshis, 32 2697
Age: 22
FC: Charles de Vilmorin
Birthday: Loshis, 32 2697
Age: 22
FC: Charles de Vilmorin
Place of Origin: Brunnhold, The Stacks
Current Location: Old Rose Harbor
Occupation: Grifter
Player Name: Lazulum
Current Location: Old Rose Harbor
Occupation: Grifter
Player Name: Lazulum
Physical Description
As a child and young man, Meraki used to look incredibly awkward. His eyes were often swollen-looking, if not actually marred by the bruised consequence of youthful brawls. His limbs were gangly, rather than lithe. His hair was an atrocious bowlcut!
Yet as Meraki matured, his features settled into an unexpectedly decent appearance. Some things never change though. He both freckles and tans, with lighter-toned skin. He is closer to Anaxi Galdori height with about 5 feet 7 inches when he has good posture. His eyes can appear brown from afar, especially in shadows, but when one gets close enough, they find that his eyes are a very dark forest green.
His hair isn't a bowlcut anymore, though. Dark honey blond strands sometimes have glints of copper red in a lush, tousled cut that he keeps short at the sides. His body has evened in muscular proportions so while he is still thin as most Wicks tend to be, he is no longer awkwardly scrawny but lithe.
Meraki tends to wear simple trousers, laced up boots (sometimes with the lacing loose), basic long-sleeve shirts that often are only half-tucked in and have the sleeves rolled up, short vests, decorative scarves around his neck, and fingerless gloves. If it is cold, he will also wear woolen hats, sweaters, gloves, and thick coats.
Personality
Meraki has an undeniably youthful energy. While he is cynical in many ways, it doesn't keep him from enthusiasm. Sometimes, he is concerned about moments where he feels happy, or things seem peaceful or going "right". He is suspicious of these moments for he tends to believe that around the corner is something terrible waiting to pounce and destroy any happiness or peace.
He tends toward rebellious and stubborn attitudes, and holds more pride as an individual than he probably deserves. Meraki isn't cocky when it comes down to it, though he can sometimes pretend to be. He has his soft spots, and can easily get riled by acts of needless cruelty.
There isn't a lot of refinement when it comes to Meraki, though he is a far ways away from how rough he was when he was younger. He's willing to look disheveled, but he does have certain practices to keep a living area clean.
Meraki is aware that one can find out far more by remaining quiet and listening, than getting directly involved with things. He knows that rumors and gossip can be as powerful as physical enforcement. He doesn't have loyalty to anyone, nor is he very obedient when he does work for someone.
Backstory
Birth Premise
His birth mother, Liliana "Lily" Shireford, was a Galdori woman of a well-to-do family. She was a student at Brunnhold when she met the human who would be Meraki's father. His father, Davey Sweet, was a hard-working bartender of a labor family. The couple hit it off with a natural, romantic chemistry that neither could resist. It was a relationship of the purest and truest love between individuals, but due to their differences it was not without strain. The taboo caused tension where there otherwise would have been none.
Lily was absolutely devoted to Davey, and when she found out she was pregnant, she refused to get rid of the baby. Davey, on behest of the Shireford family, tried to convince her to get rid of the baby. He was paid a great sum of money to break Lily's heart... and he did with exceptional cruelty in the hope that it would stick. Afterward, Davey fled the Stacks never to be seen or heard from again.
But instead of what her family had expected to result from such heartbroken sorrow, Lily only got MORE insistent and determined to bear the child. She was sent to an estate, for the later terms of her pregnancy, to try and hide it from Galdori society. For as much as her family was deeply disappointed in her, Lily's father, Liam Shireford, adored her (for her mother had already passed away) and he had high hopes for her brilliance in academics.
Liam wasn't about to let his only daughter's studies go to waste because of one stupid love-struck mistake... but he also cared enough about her that he wasn't going to force her to not carry through with the pregnancy. Especially after he saw the heartbreak he'd caused his daughter by paying off Davey and getting rid of the human male. He tried only once more, in desperation, through poison... but before Lily ingested it, he knocked the tea away right before she drank it. He couldn't do such a thing to her, and he considered himself weak for this. After a heated exchange between father and daughter, there were no more attempts after that.
However, a compromise was made. Lily agreed to not raise the child. She couldn't, not with the rigors of her academic life, nor would she be able to handle the questions of where the child had come from, that would arise due to her unwed nature.
So, she bore the child to term. She spent three days with Meraki, nursing him and holding him close. She gave him the name, Lockett Sweet Shireford, even though she knew he would not be able to keep it. Then under the purview of her father, she gave the child away to a trusted servant in the estate.
Youth (0 - 12)
Raised in The Stacks by a single human who he knew as "Auntie Ma", Meraki learned he was an "orphan" at an early age. Auntie told him that she'd adopted him as a favor to his deceased mother who had died of a lung disease.
As a child, Meraki didn't understand how lucky he was; not only to actually have been born, but also to have a dedicated caretaker who could focus on him. He still doesn't fully understand, to the current day.
Much of Meraki's childhood was spent on fruitless quests to try and figure out who his parents were. Almost obsessive in this, it led him into trouble more than once. He caused Auntie no small amount of worry, as he would run off while she was away for work. For his younger years, she worked at a factory and he had long hours where he was left on his own, to do whatever, as often Auntie wasn't able to find a reliable sitter to watch him. As soon as he was old enough, he started to slip away to the streets and observe people. He was a proper little investigator during this time, and worked around the neighborhoods as a gossip-trader and informant for meager sums of money.
When Meraki was around 8, Auntie had an accident at the factory and couldn't work. He took on the "household" (though they lived in an apartment about the size of a closet) and did whatever he could to make money so they wouldn't get kicked out, still have food, and Auntie's injury could be cared for. It wasn't a crippling injury, but she did get an infection due to it, and that extended her recovery time. She lost her position at the factory, and her medical needs became greater. Meraki spent his days and nights between making money and caring for her. At times, during this year or so, Auntie would go into feverish rants and say things that didn't make sense to Meraki - things about his mother, and even his father. But it was mixed without clear context but he realized that maybe one (or both) of his parents might not actually be dead.
When Auntie recovered, he tried to ask her about it again - but she refused and insisted it was pure delusion due to the infection. Meraki stopped asking when Auntie got firm-handed against his inquiries. He withdrew from her, and looked to his "friends" on the streets - orphans and other rough and tumble kids around his age. Meraki got into a great deal of trouble at this point, often barely scraping by to not get picked up by the police. He brawled often and he rebelliously questioned laws, as well as society as a whole.
When Meraki turned 11, he learned he was a Wick when Auntie asked a tsat neighbor for help, and a Tsat arrived to test him for magic. It was a Wick traditional test, rather than a Galdori aligned measurement, but it did result in Meraki having magical capability. The Tsat gave him an eclectic Spoke's Almanac and stuck around for a few months to help teach Meraki about the basics of spells and the Mona. During this time, the Tsat also taught him some Tek.
His original name during his youth was actually "Tobias" or "Toby" for short, but on suggestion of his Tsat mentor, he was given the name he now uses as a means to accept his Wick nature. For a long while though, Meraki publicly kept by the name of Toby and most of his neighbors and community know him by that name instead.
For Meraki was upset by all of this. It confused him even more, about where he came from, who his parents were, and no one was giving him any answers. His investigations kept coming up cold, no matter who he talked to or what areas he placed himself in to try and find out.
It wasn't until one day, hobbling on his way back from a brawl where he'd taken the brunt of the losses, he saw an older Galdori man talking to Auntie at the door of their apartment. Meraki panicked and he hid to observe the exchange. He saw an envelope exchange hands, and Auntie curtsied many times to the well-dressed man who required a cane to walk.
Meraki trailed after the Galdori man, following him through the Stacks, until he couldn't handle the uncertainty anymore. He ran up to the man and proclaimed that it had to be his father! Who else could it be? Meraki did this in broad daylight at a public corner, riddled with fresh bruises and cuts, clothing torn and dirty from his recent brawl. The Galdori man was... shocked, to say the least. He refused to even answer. Meraki was insistent though, determined, and stubborn. The boy grabbed at the man to try and force him to admit it. He wouldn't let go of the man's coat. The Galdori struck him so hard with the cane that he blacked out.
When he came back to consciousness, he found himself having been dragged into an alley and without shoes. Meraki searched for the Galdori man anyway, but couldn't find him. Eventually, he returned, barefoot and frustrated to his home.
Auntie had been given a position as a kitchen servant to a small Galdori household. She heard of what had happened though, and decided to keep Meraki living in the small hovel in The Stacks rather than taking him with her to the household. So at age 12, Meraki mostly lived alone except for occasional visits from Auntie to make sure he was taking care of himself.
Older Life in The Stacks (12 -21)
Meraki busied himself with odd jobs here and there. He picked up most of his skills through these. As he grew up, he struggled to relate to the mostly human community of his neighborhood. He was an angry young man, but his anger turned inward rather than continuing to seek brawls and trouble.
He started to realize a certain gratitude toward Auntie, and felt embarrassed for how he'd acted as a child about things. During this time, Meraki also experienced many firsts such as his first crushes, and his first stable job, and his first close friends, and so on.
Meraki started to act as an older boy, to the younger orphans and otherwise in the streets. He often stepped in, to stop the sort of brawls that he got into, and to try and direct younger kids to safer and healthier avenues of expression. It was this where he found a role in his neighborhood community, and he gained a close-knit reputation as an "older brother" figure for a lot of kids. Not wanting to spend time alone in his hovel that he'd once shared with Auntie, he soon spent all of his time between his own labor and watching children while their parents/guardians were away at jobs. Many families in his neighborhood started to know him as a reliable person they could drop their kids off with and trust that harm wouldn't befall their offspring under his watch.
Most of his money - whether from his jobs or given to him by Auntie on her visits - got spent on these younger children too as he fed and clothed them. His generosity got taken advantage of, very frequently, and he was aware of it... but he continued anyway.
He wasn't particularly open about his Wick heritage, but he did read the Almanac here and there without hiding it. Most in his neighborhood were aware and there was often a blend of pity toward him from the actual families in his community, but not enough to step in or offer to help him understand.
Uncertain of his role in the world, who he was, what he was supposed to do with his life, Meraki often preemptively crushed his own hopes and dreams whenever they arose. He didn't want to work in the factories, though.
The Great Unknown (22 Current)
One warm, Dentis night... Meraki got it in his head that maybe he didn't have to live in the Stacks. Maybe he could travel, like Wicks do. Maybe he might even learn more about the world. For him, it was an unusually fantastical idea...
...It probably helped that he was exceptionally inebriated when he thought of it, but the idea proved pivotal regardless.
Days later, Meraki came to with the worst hang-over he'd ever had in his life. He had a swath of lost memory from a black-out. He found himself in a completely unknown area. He asked around about where he was... to find out that he had somehow gotten himself to Old Rose Harbor.
Without any money on him, and no idea how he'd gotten to the place, Meraki immediately went into survival mode. Whether to return to Brunnhold, or not, he hasn't decided yet...
Aptitude Skills
Mental
Good
Good
Physical
Excellent
Excellent
Social
Good
Good
Focus Skills
Career and Income
Housing and Inventory
Goals
Find a purpose, maybe. He will be naturally wary and resistant to this though.
Survive and find a way to make money in Old Rose Harbor.
Figure out if he wants to return to Brunnhold, or if he wants to travel, etc.
