Post by Akante on Feb 1, 2012 0:44:04 GMT -5
Name: Mara.
___Title: "monster of the island."
Pronunciation: 'Mah-rah', quick and guttural.
Meaning: The Buddhist personification of evil and temptation, a devil of sorts.
Gender: Male
Breed: A mash of breeds, some hybrid of timber/dire/arctic that was elsewhere called an 'island dire'.
Height/weight: 3'2"; 130-142 lbs or so.
Homeland: Asylum.
Rank: n/a.
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Relations:
-- mother
deceased.
father
deceased.
siblings
last-born of the litter; siblings unknown.
other relatives:
uncle. a few cousins, all deceased.
Friends: none.
Lovers: none.
Allies: Loath.
Nemeses: the jackal.
~
asexual not by sexuality but by choice and discomfort; can't sustain the intimacy needed for a relationship. childless.
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The general picture:
// ....... "Friends: What is Mara, Transient, Painful, No-Self & a State of Ceasing? At Savatthi. While seated, the Venerable Radha asked the Blessed One:
Venerable Sir, one says: Mara, Mara!! What, Venerable Sir, is Evil Mara?
Radha, form, feeling, perception, mental construction, and consciousness
is Mara, is a state of Mara, is impermanent, is of an impermanent nature,
is suffering, is of a painful nature, is no-self, is of an impersonal nature,
is in a state of destruction, is in a state of vanishing, is a fluctuating
state,
is always in a state of momentary ceasing.
Radha, you should therefore leave behind desire, should leave behind lust,
you should leave behind all desire and lust for whatever is a state of Mara,
for whatever is impermanent, for whatever is only impermanent appearance,
for whatever is suffering, for whatever is of a painful nature, for whatever
is no-self, for whatever is of a selfless nature, for whatever is a state of
destruction, for whatever is a state of vanishing, for whatever is in a state
of arising, for whatever that is a state of cessation."
--------
~
-- fur would be blue-sheened coal if it had better nutrition and care, but his instead manifests as a dulled shadow-black. As a proportionate creature of square stance and strong angles, the dire might have been handsome in some parallel universe. In this one, grisly scar tissue ruins his face; gashes run crosswise and asymmetrical, a horrible design of old wounds that radiates inward to mangled sockets that once housed eyes. Someone hurt this character horribly, a long time ago; the damage is unmistakable, irreversible and grisly. He was lucky to survive, one might say, but he would disagree.
There are no eyes anymore.
- - -
other physical features to note:
Has large paws with large nails. "scimitar" tail, with a distinct curve to it. Legs are muscled, even while the rest of his body isn't particularly visibly toned. Has very defined shoulders. His fur "scruffs" up where the back of the neck meets the horizontal line of his back; when his hackles bristle, it's particularly exaggerated at this point. He has a slight, barely-noticable overbite. As for distinct facial features, has "skinny", sharp ears and a lean faces.
concept:
-- nihilistic. has a pessimistic view of people and the world; sees little point in life beyond survival, and little reason to believe that the people he meets are "good". To Mara, the world is out to get you and what you need to do is bite it first. and you shouldn't feel guilty for whatever you do in relation to that, because they would've done the same if they had the opportunity.
-- deeply depressed and angry, something that becomes evident the longer the time spent with him; someone stole his eyesight. Some sort of incomprehensible betrayal in his past and cruelty from strangers that left him alienated.
-- "inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist", or so the saying goes.
-- "sees" in sketchy white diagrams, mental pictures crystallized from a combination of sound, scent and memory. Only vaguely remembers the concept of colors.
-- hates the jackal because he's a threat. because he's whole and prideful and hypocritical, and Mara would show him if he could what an ugly place the world is. he wants to pull the wool from the guard's eyes because misery likes company, and in some disconcerting way, the jackal is the closest one to the dire now.
-- has an affinity for birds in general, but hates crows with an incoherent passion and will attempt to viciously kill any crow he comes across. sees them as scavengers out to take his food. dislikes hawks and birds of prey for the same reason, but grudgingly gives them berth for their formidable beaks and talons.
-- hateful. hateful in the basest, most petty and common way. hateful beyond having a reason to hate. resents anyone with good fortune or happiness he never managed to get; misdirects his anger and it feeds on itself with increasing acidity, until he hates blindly and for no good reason. maybe it's not childish to be so virulently jealous and terribly wrathful for what he lost, but it's certainly irrational. he cannot be reasoned with, he is not interested in being cooperative or fair, he is a wounded and selfish creature certain that he doesn't owe anything to the world because he and the world are enemies. rage is Mara's crutch, and his only trusted friend.
-- the stress of this makes him perpetually ill, plaguing him with frequent stomach pain (maybe he'll die eventually from an ulcer?).
-- likes water; dens by the side of a river in the heart of the island. often journeys out to the coast (if it has one?).
-- a weirdly good listener, when he cares to; this is not often.
-- overexaggerated startle response.
-- isolates himself, but really was never one to cope well with the life of a lone wolf.
-- neurotically territorial.
-- occasionally has a strangely-nurturing affection towards some things that are absolutely defenseless, could never pose any threat to anyone, and seem to be putting in some fight and fire of 110% in bad circustances. ex., would leave some lost kid to rot if they're sitting there screeching for mama, with absolutely no qualms, goodwill or second thought, but might find a lost bird at the bottom of a tree and attempt to nurse it back to health if it's trying to climb back up find its parents. just doesn't have enough practice to be competent, though; he's the cocaine addict who tries to nurse a doomed dumpster baby with too-cold formula and mashed-up old carrots. almost always fails at these once-in-a-blue-moon sympathetic endeavors, which makes him immensely sad. even though he'll never tip to it.
~
// ....... History:
The devil went down to Georgia,
he was looking for a soul to steal
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind: he was willin' to make a deal
when he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
and the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Boy, let me tell you what;
I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too,
and if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
Now, you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due:
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin,
but I'll take your bet, youre gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."
--------
-- born elsewhere on an island connected to a forested mainland by a "bridge" of sparse, jagged clusters of rocks that dotted a crude path close enough to be jumped/swam from, one to the next.
-- grew up strong-willed and fiery, maybe a little on the nastier side of things but certainly not as he is now. A mama's boy for sure,
[2:27:04 PM] Theral: locked in some competition/challenge/duel of a relationship with his father
[2:27:20 PM] Theral: then...somehow some shit happened and everything exploded and something dramatic
[2:27:31 PM] Theral: and ended up being mauled and losing his eyes, from strangers
[2:27:39 PM] Watcher: throw in a corrupted uncle
[2:27:54 PM] Theral: father died in an unrelated accident, their relationship never got closure, anticlimactic
[2:27:55 PM] Theral: oh, how so?
[2:28:14 PM] Watcher: like. The uncle gets his nephew into trouble after the father dies
[2:28:31 PM] Theral: ooooh
[2:28:43 PM] Theral: maybe he was the link between Mara and the strangers
[2:28:53 PM] Theral: people who would've attacked his uncle attacked him instead
[2:28:58 PM] Theral: and he never got to know why
[2:29:02 PM] Theral: so basically it was just
[2:29:06 PM] Theral: random violence that maimed him
[2:29:07 PM] Watcher: random to him
[2:29:10 PM] Watcher: yeah
[2:29:10 PM] Theral: yess
[2:29:14 PM] Theral: and completely undeserved
+ at some point ended up on Asylum's Island
+ got in a terrible fight with the guard of that island, when the jackal intruded on his 'space'; it was hate at first sight.
+ was approached by Loath. Listened apathetically to the alpha's idea of a pact -- that Mara could squat on the island if he was willing to attack interlopers who shouldn't be there. As they seemed to want the exact same things, the blind animal had no grounds to refuse, and agreed to this other wolf's pact.
there's more to this and all that but you know what I don't feel like making a huge write-up right now. I've got a mental picture of his history and that's good enough for now. I'll fill this out later.
Miscellaneous: his original eyes were grey. also happens to be an excellent swimmer.
basics solidified, profile complete.
>> the islander
>> devil went down to georgia
>> counting crows, colorblind
>> sonata arctica, don't say a word
>> sh2 ost; the darkness that lurks in our mind
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has no art. I like the idea of just having this char be a mental picture for people.
CREDIT:
-- myself for the "design".
-- myself for everything, really.
-- the whole Asylum island shit is obviously Watcher's brainchild too and not some random shit out of nowhere.
-- the avatars: madamem-stock.deviantart.com/, emeraldsugar-stock.deviantart.com/, night-fate-stock.deviantart.com/
--