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Name/Handle: Observer
OoC Account: Observer
Contact Information:
Character Information
Name: Vari
Type: Skaa
Age: 19
Gender: M
Place of Origin: Luthadel
Occupation: Thief
-Type: Rioter
-Metal(s) Used: Zinc
-Degree of Skill: Intermediate
-Status: Unknown
Appearance: Unusually short for his age, Vari is easy to ignore. Constantly dirty and depressed looking, he looks like every other skaa, which is the ideal appearance for a manipulator. Under all the ash and dirt his hair is a deep brown, which stands out in contrast to his skin, pale and white from never seeing sunlight under the dark atmosphere and grime. His eyes are a dull green and almost always downcast to avoid attention. He has a moderately muscular build developed from running for his life and the occasional fight, though it isn’t anything special, and is actually sub-average for a skaa.
Special Skills: Staff fighter, allomantiv knowledge, small metal cache, and martial applications to rioting
Strengths: An accomplished Rioter, Vari is almost obsessed with his power over emotions, the practice of which has taught him great skill in gradualism, which he believes trumps even subtle nudges in efficiency. That aside, Vari also has a mother, brother, and two sisters to care for, leaving him no option but to constantly carry on. He knows of allomancy, and is aware of the powers of Rioting, Soothing, Pewterarming, and Seeking.
Weaknesses: The biggest one is greed. Money is nearly everything to Vari, making him easy to sway and a touch selfish. Lack of funds and a slightly broken line of reasoning are the two other problems Vari faces. Being forced to keep his family hidden taxes his funds, and the guilt of getting his father killed and his mother and siblings forced underground weighs him down constantly. He almost obsessively Riots others, hoping that somehow good deeds will ease his conscience. He is unaware of the nature of Mistborn, Atium, and a number of other metals, powers, and creatures, leaving him at a disadvantage there as well.
Personality: Vari’s personality is dominated by his desire to fill the void left by his betrayal of his family. He seeks friendship and the constant burning of Zinc to keep his mind off the past, and lately the rumors of a rebellion have roused his interest as a new way to keep him active and helping. However, he also doesn’t like starving, and a handful of coins can change his allegiances in a heartbeat. Overshadowing it all, however, is the underlying need to fight. He believes himself to be cursed with the inability to be uncaring, and spends too much time trying to pretend he doesn't care about common skaa.
History: Vari, unlike most skaa, never had to work on the plantations or in the mines. He was born to the life of a skaa craftsman, and a particularly good one at that. The idea of a skaa dealing in metals was unthinkably stupid, but his father was good enough, and persistent enough, that eventually he managed to set up a small metals shop for illegal skaa mistings. He quickly gathered underground allomancers with his reputation for creating “better” metals. By going further and further into the details, by changing a metal percentage by a fraction of a number, he created slightly better metals. Or so he said.
Regardless of how much truth his claims held, he quickly became worryingly rich for a skaa, to the point that his front started to fall apart. And when Vari learned that his father was an allomancer, the allure of reward entered the picture. The metal shop hit hard times, and eventually hunger drove Vari to tip off a rival of his father in exchange for safety and food. The rival passed the hint on to the Ministry, and Vari's father was killed messily the next day. Unexpected by the shortsighted skaa boy, not only did he not get his food and shelter, but Inquisitors moved in, quickly killing half of his family tree in under a week. The guilt started to chip away at him as his family vanished one member at a time. When at last the remaining members of family learned of what he had done, their cold hatred and the guilt of the act drove Vari to near-madness, eventually snapping him.
Guilt-ridden and desperate, he gathered what was left of his family and hid them, quickly selling and abandoning the metal shop, but not before grabbing a few metal shavings. Quickly running through his money, Vari joined several thieving crews, building up “trust” in the underground as an unusually good crewmember and thief. Unfortunately his fickle loyalty has earned him an unsavory reputation among many thieves, leaving him crewless and without anyone to befriend to ease his pain. With nobody to turn to he has begun seeking out the rebellion.
Roleplay Sample
Vari stood beneath the ash-filled sky, quietly dying inside. He always felt like that, when he didn’t have anything to do. Around him skaa went about their daily business, walking with heads bowed and with unobtrusive motions. What would it be like to be a skaa? Just one of a million, nobody special. What would it be like to simply not care? To never have thoughts of overthrowing god, to not have to feel the pain as yet another neighbor died of disease. Yes, apathy would be nice...
Lost in his contemplation, Vari almost failed to notice that he had reached his destination. The Fountain Square. Few skaa milled about here, and for good reason. It was bad enough being forced to watch the executions, so why go anywhere near the place if you could help it? From the square there was a clear view of several noble keeps, as well as the home of God himself, Kredik Shaw. It makes you wonder how so many rebellions could occur, with the sliver of infinity himself living right here in the city. Vari mused. Nobody seems to remember much, other than the fact that there had been other rebellions, but it seems so hopeless that it’s amazing anybody could possibly continue. I wonder how they do it… Now the rebellion. The current one. That is something I’d like to be a part of. It took a massive stroke of luck just to learn they existed, and now I’m left with information I can’t use. Yet...
Vari’s contemplation was interrupted as another skaa came in from the north side. Draped in a tattered coat, he sported two dueling canes and a nobleman’s suit hidden beneath his clothes and grime, only barely visible to Vari's trained eye. So that’s where he’d been for the past week. The cocky man sauntered up to Vari, hands in his pockets and a bounce in his step. Aiden, Thief, informant, and insufferable optimist.
“Any news of the rebellion?” Vari asked hopefully, slightly rioting Aiden’s senses of trust and truthfulness, starting with a very small, but constant, nudge, and slowly, ever so slowly expanding it, eventually stopping with a small flame of constant trust within him. Harder and more expensive than it sounded, but worth every spec of Zinc it cost.
The thief shook his head. “Almost nothing. Whoever they are, they haven’t done anything too recently. I’m not even sure they exist! We have a few reports of thieving crew raids carried out by allomancers, but there’s a good chance they’re nothing more than that. In short, nobody knows anything”
Vari sighed dramatically, instinctively reaching to riot himself, to make it all feel better. He couldn’t of course, emotional allomancy couldn’t be used on oneself. The one, painful flaw of his powers, the thing that made them a curse.
Vari flashed back to that day, the day he had been punished with the same curse his father had been killed for possessing. The feeling of twisted, sickening irony as he burned zinc. He was a monster, soul taken by the mists that had become his home. Of course, there had to be a way to fix it. If he could make up for what he had done, giving people hope, fighting to his dying breath, perhaps he could be forgiven. Foolish, stupid, wonderful thoughts.
Aiden coughed, snapping Vari out of his inner turmoil. Up ahead was a small cluster of armored skaa. Soldiers. “The rest are in position. You ready to cause a little chaos?” Aiden asked with a mischievous grin, passing Vari a dueling cane. “No staff?” Vari asked in an annoyed tone. Aiden sniffed indignantly. “Don’t blame me! I couldn’t fit it on me, and I had no time to figure out a way to make it look normal. You’ll have to do with a cane.”
The cane in question was very well made, complete with a decorative handle. Anyone comparing the wielder with the weapon would quickly assume it had been stolen, and that the goal of the attack was to steal more. So long as nobody realized it was a distraction, the theft would go well. Vari and Aiden crept into position in opposite alleyways, waiting. If the small pack of soldiers stuck to their current path, they would pass between the two of them. Normally, only two very stupid skaa would dare attack a group of eight armored and armed soldiers with nothing but two wooden canes. But Vari and Aiden were no normal skaa. Vari turned on his zinc, reaching out and grabbing onto the emotions of all eight men. He felt a moment of fear. He wasn't meant to do crowds, even manipulating two people at once was a challenge. Individuals were his speciality, not groups. Shaking off the momentary fear, Vari signalled Aiden. It was time.
Moving with the grace and fluidity of someone burning pewter, Aiden stepped out of his alley and punched the nearest guard, smashing his head to the side and knocking him out cold. At the same time, Vari moved forward, attacking with a clumsy two-handed smack that took the unfortunate skaa right in the face. Anger, suprise, a touch of uncertainty...
The man’s companion turned, crying out with surprise and anger. He raised his arm to swing, looking partially amused at the sight of Vari's lack of skill. Vari flared his zinc high, slamming the man with a wave of pure terror. The unexpected mental assault froze him in place, giving Vari plenty of time to kick the guard’s vulnerable kneecap and smash in his face. Off to the side, Aiden held his own in a one on three battle, his inhuman endurance, speed and strength keeping his opponents off balance. Anger and courage.. Bravery. You have him outnumbered.
Three of the armored men moved in towards Vari, either too wise or too cowardly to attack the thug several feet away from them. That was fine with him. Vari flared zinc again, causing the enemy to lock up, startled. This one’s tougher than the rest. Vari noted, sidestepping the swings of the other two while sweeping the feet out from under the frozen guard. Shock and respect. With a touch of caution. Vari accented the emotional touch by stomping on the fallen guard's face.
The other two looked about uncertainly. They had undoubtedly heard of allomancy, though they would probably never figure out what was making their companions freeze. Of course, they didn’t need to understand it. Simply knowing of it usually allowed them to resist it. Vari flared his zinc high once again, swinging for the face. The guard didn't freeze.
Vari hurled himself to the side, but not before the enemy's sword sliced a deep gash across his arm. Vari screamed in pain, losing his grip on the group's emotions. Waves of anger, caution, and fear poured out of him, jumbling up and canceling each other. Vari cursed loudly. He'd had to counting on his lack of subtlety being missed in the heat of battle. Now there was no chance they'd fall to his manipulating, and little chance that they'd be frozen by his pulses. The ability was mostly for the beginning of a fight. But then again, they didn’t really need to complete the fight. All they had to do was keep the guards busy.
With this in mind, Vari signalled Aiden, turned, and ran. The thug followed suit, dashing off down a different alley, causing the stupid guards to split up to pursue them. Vari wove between the alleys, taking seemingly random turns and pathways, heading in the general direction of the Steel Gate. Towards the Twists, specifically. Far behind him, Vari’s pursuit stumbled and wheezed, apparently not very good at running long-distance with armor on. After only a few minutes of running, Vari lost them.
An hour later, Vari arrived in the safehouse. He ducked in through the back door, expecting the sounds of celebration and the music of coins clicking. There were no such sounds. No thieves either. Nothing but a mass of slaughtered corpses. Vari cursed to himself internally, immediately exiting the building and ducking back into the alleys he had just left. His arm wound throbbed, desperately in need of attention, but it could wait.
Who sold us out? Was it Aiden? No, Aiden’s a pewter addict. He couldn’t turn me in. Aiden had no idea what it was that gave him his strength, but his addiction forced him into total dependence on Vari. Of course, it was entirely possible that he’d figured out his “addiction” was little more than Vari rioting him, and had turned everyone in out of spite and rage. But that was unlikely. Maybe it had been Tass. He’d always been the kind of person to turn them in...
Vari snapped himself back to reality. The line of reasoning was pointless. It didn’t matter who had betrayed them, it mattered that it had happened, and that he was probably being hunted. It also mattered because he now had nobody to be around, nobody to riot. And at that moment, Vari officially made up his mind. He was going to find that rebellion, whatever it took.
Edited by Observer, 11 September 2012 - 02:16 AM.
