:: OOC ::Moniker:JQ
How did you hear about us?:CoFounder
:: Character Information ::Name:Kyo
Pronunciation:Kyo (Dunno how else to break that one down guys, sorry! lol)
Title:Senior Journeyman Seacrafter. Rigger.
Honourific:N/A
Age/ Turn of Birth:28 /474 AL
Gender:Male
Place of Birth:Fort Sea Hold
Place of Residence:Red Star's Revenge, Smuggling vessel
Craft:Sea Craft
Occupation/ Role:Smuggler/ Former Privateer/ Cabin Boy & Rigger
Character Aspirations:Kyo is unable to imagine living his life any other way than near or on the sea. Though he is typically viewed as one of the more soft-hearted of those hired to man the sailing vessel of smugglers back and forth across Big Bay, he is content with his work and proud to belong to such an outstanding crew. He does assume that one day he will decide to want to do more with his life such as Captaining his own vessel perhaps, but for now, he just enjoys...being...and working...and enjoying the simplicity of not having such demanding responsibilities.
Family:✣Father: Haiden (457) [D]
✣Mother: Ranye (458) [D]
✣Siblings: None
✣Children: None known though he has had two long-term lovers in the large port city of Fort Sea Hold and one elsewhere, in another port city along the Big Bay.
✣Other Significant: N/A
Appearance:✣Face: Jun Matsumoto
✣Hair: Wavy, dark brown
✣Eyes: Dark brown
✣Height: 5’10”
✣Build: Very trim and very athletic, medium sized build. His work has built him a pretty incredible upper body strength. His body is also highly flexible since freerunning is his hobby.
✣Other Notable Traits: A long scar running down his right forearm at an angle, starting just below the underside of his elbow.
✣Style of Dress: In cooler weather when he’s at port, prefers a black leather coat resembling a duster of sorts, with a wide, double-breasted lapel. Otherwise, his attire tends to be simple and almost always black; belted trousers and boots, a fitted short sleeved shirt and a leather cord necklace and leather bracelet. Maybe a loose white tunic shirt instead? Half of the time, he also wears a light scarf around his neck, looped loosely.
Either way, when he’s back at sea, attire is back to uniform!
✣Possessions usually found on persona:✣Two Knives. One 8 inch, one 12 inch.
✣Two shorter utility blades
✣Small pouch for marks in his pocket, though rarely carries more than a few fraction marks on him. Usually pretends to be broke but considering he has had little to spend his pay on over the past few turns, if no one else pays it, he returns to pay his tab in full later on
History:✣Born to a Sea Craftsman and a drudge, his father was taken by a storm at sea. Having turned ill with grief, his mother, soon thereafter, threw herself from a cliff, being swallowed up by the same deep waters that took her husband. So, orphaned at the age of eleven, Kyo had no choice but to set out on his own to begin life anew. Being nearly old enough to begin an apprenticeship in whatever craft he chose, he decided to remain connected with the Sea, thereby always being connected to his parents also. The Sea Craft was his choice. Anything to be at sea.
Though many other Sea Crafters in the area had known his father and thus, enough connections were available to start him working under any of the local Sea Crafters, he was still a bit young for them to want to take him on. After all, the Sea Craft was one of the most dangerous of all the crafts and none of them seemed quite willing yet to be the first responsible for putting their late comrade’s son in harms way, so soon after his parents departing from this life.
It was an a tavern keeper whose own family had been family friends of his parents that finally took him in, caring for him during the few months he would have to wait until his 12th birthday. Though the tavern keeper was a good and kindly man who shared his own sons’ things with Kyo and may have even wanted to truly adopt him, Kyo was glad of the day that his birthday did come. More than anything, he felt he needed an apprenticeship to head his life in the right direction. He needed an apprenticeship to focus his energy on something other than his sorrow. He needed it...to learn to be more independent and free
✣Starting out in his apprenticeship in 486, he began working for a local fisherman who ran a sizable operation. He worked in this operation throughout his apprenticeship and into the first turn of his Jr. Journeymanship.
✣In a matter of a few turns however, about halfway through his first turn as a Junior Journeyman in 493, Kyo decided that he wanted to trod down a different path. As more recent events had had it, there were a number of ships who’d begun pirating on a much more frequent basis in the area, and were becoming a threat to the livelihoods of everyone. Several Captains were requisitioned by the Lord of Fort to help protect the Hold’s interests and protect their waterways. Kyo decided to join one of them.
To find and put a stop to the pirates, that was his plan. The thought never entered Kyo’s mind that he would go out to fight and become a hero. He simply wanted to be part of the action when it happened. From then on, Kyo lived as a privateer, helping to safeguard Fort’s waters and her Sea Craft businesses.
✣Turn 496. One.. Two.. Three turns after joining his new captain, for reasons at least partially unbeknownst to him, his Captain fell out of favour with the Lord of Fort, causing great dispute between them. Eventually the Captain no longer did business with the Fort Lord Holder and the Captain Kyo worked for was in danger of losing his Ship and all of his livelihood due to the situation. Likewise, each of his crew members was at risk of being without work soon too. In order to save them from losing their Ship and having to part ways from eachother, each of them made the decision whether or not he would support the Captain were he to turn the ship into a smuggling vessel that could support them. Kyo was no different in that decision. His attachment to the captain, ship and the rest of the crew were enough to overcome any worry about that what they were going to be doing was ‘wrong’. After all, they had been wronged by the Holder of Fort in this situation hadn’t they? They were also perfectly equipped for turning themselves around to be a smuggling ship already, given that it was a Privateer Ship and the Captain had numerous points of contact on both sides of that conflict.
So, smuggling it would be! And such has been their life ever since.
Throughout his Jr. Journeymanship, due to his particular set of skills, his Captain often assigned him as a Runner/ messenger, an informant, or periodically as a spy to slip in and out of places quietly, unseen. Being as that Kyo is familiar enough with the ins and outs of many of the ports in Big Bay, that is a task that he’s well suited to. He’s skilled enough at his job that the Captain has always had a hard time ever wanting to assign him to anything else when they’re at port, so typically, as soon as they dock, Kyo disappears to meet with all of their contacts and deliver messages/parcels from their Captain.
Personality:✣Ultimately good-natured and kind-hearted, even if he has no fantastical ideas about utopian principles and beliefs. It would seem, lacking any real sense of greed, nor any real preference toward serious violence, that for a smuggler he would have a strange set of morals indeed.
✣Realist: He has no misconceptions about the life he leads as a smuggler; that ethically, most people would understand what he does occupationally as being very wrong. To some degree however, that thought thrills him. Morally he feels no real shame or guilt for what he does and feels as though he can justify his decision in that the crew views it as that the Holder of Fort had wronged them to not allow them to continue privateering; he also sees it as a justification that as long as they run a large smuggling operation, they can keep the waters free of other smaller entities who would do the same thing, or worse, creating competition for them. In that way, they are still safeguarding the waters of Fort, they're just taking payment for it in other ways than through the Holder himself.
✣Risk-taker: Similarly as the above, it thrills him even more that if any of them were to be captured, they would likely be met by the most severe of punishments at the hand of the law. Living every day with that knowledge kept him on his toes. It excited him.
✣Humourous: He has a good sense of humour that hasn’t been completely corrupted by those around him considering the rough, even crude crowd he works and lives with.
✣Shy around girls when it comes to introducing himself or conversing with them at first.
✣Quick witted and Intelligent.
✣Hard working and enjoys physical labour. It’s something that his father had always instilled into him and is something that is simply part of the culture of Sea Crafters that must have been born into him.
✣Not necessarily loyal per se, but he is too dedicated to his work, and to the direction of his heart, to accept any diversion from that path once he starts down it. He is also very attached to the Captain, crew and ship he’s served on for many years, and chooses to be around those people that he admires and trusts rather than being loyal to an ideal. Instead of choosing “good vs evil”, he chose People he cared for.
✣Enjoys the simple things life has to offer, like his hobby of freerunning and feeling the spray of ocean mist across his face.
✣Not incredibly ambitious about the kinds of things many people might be ‘ambitious’ about, like money or position. Perhaps he’s just not matured enough into an adult mindset to feel a need for such things, but somehow he doesn’t see himself ever getting to that point.
✣Has a knack for reading people and knowing how to approach them that seems to keep him well accepted amoungst most circles he meets.
✣The above trait also feeds into his Acting ability. He’s a pretty good actor when it comes to needing to be misleading, which is one of the reasons he’s done well as a messenger/ informant/ spy of sorts for his Captain.
✣Frugal: Avoids spending his own money, rarely carrying much of his own on his person. Usually wherever he goes, he has some sort of tab tallied up for things he's purchased but yet to pay for. If someone else won't pay for him, he's good to pay it later, he just puts off having to hand his money over to someone else. More or less, he also has fun giving others a hard time, enjoying watching others get frustrated with owing them and continuously stacking his tab.
Shortcomings:✣Some look on him as being too soft for his (smuggler) occupation and feel that they can push him around.
✣When he gets nervous, anxious or in a rush, tends to talk in halves, causing him to come across as unintelligible, or somewhat half-witted.
Mannerisms/ Habits:✣Tends to draw one side of his mouth up in an adorable, lopsided smirk that seems to work for him to compliment almost any mood or expression.
✣Has a habit of fiddling with his knife, carving things into table tops and other wood surfaces.
✣When he gets nervous, anxious or in a rush, tends to talk in halves, causing him to come across as unintelligible, or somewhat half-witted.
Skills/ Likes:✣[Port City Life]:Drinking with friends; Freerunning in the city; The feel of being Home in the streets of Fort Sea Hold; all of these things and more.
✣[Brawling/Sparring]: This is usually what happens after the above: drinking with friends.
However, such fights are hardly ever serious with him and he avoids lethal force.
✣[Brawling/Sparring]: His hobby of freerunning will take him to any kind of path whether it be the ship he is on, the port city he is in, some sort of wilderness terrain. Kyo takes it as his own personal challenge to traverse as freely as possible across/around/through any obstacle the world puts in his way.
Unskilled at/ Dislikes:✣[Storms]: Storms take lives at sea when the Sea Craft is already dangerous enough without them.
✣[Judgemental people]: It irritates him when people are judgemental or stereotype because he feels as though he doesn’t completely fit into any of those stereotypical perspectives of Sea Crafters (especially of his brand). People, situations and circumstances, they’re all different so isn’t it just better then, to get to know someone instead of judging them?
Fighting Style/ Weapon of Choice:Kyo enjoys brawling and fighting with his bare hands, but only in good fun. He is very skilled when it comes to hand-to-hand combat given that the crew of a Privateering/ Smuggling vessel puts some considerable amount of time into combat readiness. Some of the crew were ex-Guardsmen as well, from the days when they were hired to protect the waters of Fort from Pirates. Unless he’s truly in a desperate situation though, Kyo doesn’t like the idea of using lethal force, so he typically does everything he can not to have to use a weapon. These measures include using that sharp wit of his, and is also when freerunning comes in handy. If he’s on land, he’s far more likely to run away to escape a confrontation altogether. Being isolated on a ship while being faced with combat makes running away difficult, especially when there’s a Ship and lives at stake, and a Captain’s orders to consider.