Name: LaRoce Calder
He's based on another character of mine named Colored Spring...thus LaRoce from a scrambled-up prettied-up anagram of "color", and Calder, meaning "spring" or "stream" or whatever. I also like Calder because it sounds like caldera! Colored Spring's name was originally inspired by Yellowstone. :U
Blood colour: #AE1C0C
Gender: duuuude
Symbol:
It is a combination of an old symbol for "spring" or "body of water" (a circle with the bottom half filled in), and the glorious SUNSET, with which LaRoce is so taken!
Personality:
The first thing any troll learns about LaRoce is that he is obsessed with the color red. His hair is dyed bright red. His clothes include a gaudy assortment of red accessories. Even his sclera are red. He's an incredibly showy fellow. The few reasonably safe hives in the decrepit Old Hemisect hivestem in which he lives are all decorated with a profusion of red objects he has scavenged from around the city. In fact, he tried to paint the building red...the base of it is red up to the point he couldn't reach anymore with the twelve-foot ladder he found somewhere, and the windows look like they're dripping deep, red blood. It's pretty obvious this fellow loves the color red, and also that he has little respect for other trolls' property...even if "they were dead when [he] found them and they sure don't need it anymore."
LaRoce's obsession with the color red goes back to the night that he first emerged from the hatching caves. Despite his lusus's best efforts to prevent him from leaving just yet, LaRoce charged headlong into a day that was just ending, a sun still just above the horizon. He gazed directly at the sun, though the sparse tree cover around the caves obscured his view, and the late-evening light was much weaker than mid-day. His eyes were damaged, the sclera turned red and his vision--at the time, he was rendered almost blind, but quick medical care mitigated the damage to a degree. But what LaRoce saw in that moment would inspire him for the rest of his life. The sunset was incredibly vivid; the sun itself almost the exact color of his blood as it dipped below the horizon. He took it as a clear sign of his destiny, and his passion for the color red was stoked by his sense of divine providence. The image of the sunset was burned into his mind, and now he obsessively rises early every night to watch the sunset, despite the risk of early blindness. Unfortunately, the sunglasses diminish the brilliance of the event, but even LaRoce knows better than to remove them to watch.
LaRoce's passion for the color red knows no limits. A brilliant sunset, a brilliant sunrise, his own blood, any incredibly red thing is enough to stop LaRoce in his tracks and shut his mind down. He'll be absolutely mesmerized, nearly powerless to tear his eyes away, at least for several minutes. Of course, his sunglasses dull colors down enough to save him from randomly turning into a vegetable at inconvenient moments. Stupid sunglasses. But it's not too hard to convince LaRoce to take the glasses off, either, even though his eyesight isn't so great.
As far as other colors go, LaRoce likes orange almost as much as he does red; sort of likes yellow and purple; doesn't care too much about blue one way or the other; and hates the ever-loving s**t out of the color green. When does green ever appear in the sky?! Only when nature is trying its damnedest to murder you, and also during rare occasions that LaRoce failed to experience early enough to reform his thinking. As one might expect, LaRoce's feelings about the hemospectrum mirror his feelings about colors in general: he'll instantly start fawning over any redblood he meets, even die for a complete stranger if it comes to it, but he'll straight murder a greenblood, or try, or at least think about it. This is polite troll society, after all; you might see him shaking a bit with the effort to control himself, and he'll probably be a bit (a lot) nasty, but he's not going to instantly go for the throat unless he's on a battlefield or something. His reactions are immediate, visceral, impossible for him to control in much the same way any vivid red thing seizes his mind. LaRoce is not consciously trying to overthrow the hemospectrum. He just really wants everyone to worship the ground redbloods walk on. On the other hand, if he received an order from a purple- or blueblood, he'd carry it out with due diligence, just as long as bringing harm to redbloods is not involved.
Of course, with that kind of attitude, LaRoce is bound for at least a few good beatings and attempted-cullings. He's not afraid to start the fights he knows he can win. If he gets in over his head, he's not afraid to run away, either. LaRoce is not notably skilled or unskilled at fighting, the main things going for him being endurance and upper-body strength, but he occasionally overestimates his own abilities. Which means he probably gets the tar beaten out of him quite often! But that's not enough to get him to shut up and toe the line. In fact, he's just a wee bit masochistic, so all his aggressors are likely to accomplish is encouraging him. If it wasn't already abundantly clear, LaRoce is just not a very smart dude; street-smart enough to not be dead already, but definitely not an academic type. He doesn't really think about what he's doing before he does it; he just tackles his problems head on. He's definitely not the type of troll who sneaks around making underhanded deals in smoky backrooms.
LaRoce is clearly prone to great obsession. If he sees something he wants, he pursues it relentlessly until he obtains it. But he tends to lose interest quickly, just like that kid who whines and whines about wanting that sweet new toy, plays with it for a day, then throws it in the back of his closet and never looks at it again. LaRoce does the exact same thing whether his latest obsession is an object or another troll. He falls in and out of lust easily...but flushed/caliginous feelings rarely factor in to the equation. (Though this probably doesn't happen very often when LaRoce is still a kid. At least not in any fulfilling way. Yanno.) LaRoce will gladly dedicate a good portion of his night to stalking the latest object of his affection (read: hot redbloods), regardless of quadrant. LaRoce is so full of himself that he can hardly imagine actually being rejected. Maybe that is justifiable. He is quite skilled at turning on the charm, pretty much becoming a completely different troll. He is less good at keeping the suave act going for more than a few days, but in that time he'll have probably gotten what he wanted and moved on anyway. If LaRoce fails to get his way, well, that will just make him more determined and increasingly more obnoxious. But at least when other trolls are involved he's not about to force someone to do something they don't want to do. Beating LaRoce within an inch of his life might be only way for his targets to get him to stop stalking them, however...
As far as trolls that LaRoce doesn't unreasonably lust after or irrationally hate, well, he's pretty comfortable around other trolls. He likes being in the center of a big group, and he tends to keep a lot of acquaintances rather than a few close friends. He doesn't talk about himself that often, or rather, he doesn't start conversations about himself that often, but not because he's a particularly private person. LaRoce lives in the present, and he thinks talking about the past that he already lived is pretty boring. And he hates talking about feelings! But he'll gladly tell other trolls all about the last time he beat up a greenblood or why redbloods are so great. He's extremely full of himself, but that translates more to easy confidence than obnoxious bragging most of the time. Besides, LaRoce is the type to ask other trolls about themselves more often than not.
Strengths:
Integrity
LaRoce's views on himself and the world are rock-solid, very nearly immutable. He'll never compromise his views, however flawed they may be, for money or sex or even the reddest of things. He can't be cowed into being someone he isn't. LaRoce sticks to his guns. Granted, those guns are a little pear-shaped, and other trolls might question his morals. But they're his morals, and they aren't changing.
Outgoing
LaRoce likes other trolls (that aren't greenbloods). He likes them a lot! He might spend hours by himself stalking other trolls, but that doesn't mean he isn't perfectly happy to be at the center of a large crowd. LaRoce is very extroverted, definitely a guy who gains energy by being with other people. He's not going to go around being nasty and unfriendly (except to greenbloods). Anyone who can tolerate his eccentricities is welcome! And being so outgoing will definitely help him to, you know, spread his message around.
Go-Getter
LaRoce is a doer, not a thinker! When he wants or needs something done, he's more than prepared to do it himself. His hive? He painted it. His hair? He dyed it. He's not going to sit around saying to himself, "one day I will do this!" He's going to go do it! Even if he's not very good at whatever it is, at least he can say he tried. A little failure isn't enough to get him down when there are so many other things to do. LaRoce doesn't hesitate to try new things; he just dives right in. He hates it when people stand around talking about what they want to do, and when someone needs to force them to make a decision and act on it, he's the one to do it, whether it's a matter of choosing a restaurant or starting a war (not that he has any serious plans of doing that, of course).
Flaws:
Rash and Unconstrained
LaRoce's flagrant disregard for the hemospectrum and obvious pride in his blood color aren't likely to win him any points with a lot of trolls. But it goes beyond that. LaRoce doesn't care much for the subtler social arts, common manners, rules of any kind, even direct orders (though he'll still follow those, at least). He does what he wants, when he wants, where he wants, how he wants. In rigid troll society, some might resent the ridiculously free way he lives his life, or view it with jealousy. In addition, LaRoce is prone to acting without thought to the consequences. If he's determined to do something, nobody's going to change his mind, even if he's walking straight into a trap or about to do something horrible.
Passionately Obsessive
Calm the ******** down, dude. LaRoce's spontaneous, extreme reactions to the colors red and green point to some serious mental imbalance, but everyone who lives in Old Hemisect is a little crazy. But even redbloods probably won't appreciate him fawning over them, and his emotional extremes have got be a little tiring for everyone around him. Besides that, he's a pretty excitable guy. It's not hard to get him riled up in general, but it takes a while for him to calm down again. Combine this with his rash personality, and you've got a ticking time bomb on your hands.
Immature, Selfish a*****e
Man, he really is. LaRoce's tendency to act without thinking precludes any effort to consider what effect things he does or says might have on other trolls. He's not completely without tact, but, well, he doesn't really hold back, either. He just says what's on his mind, which is probably why he doesn't have any really close friends. And he constantly expects to get his way. When he wants something, he better get it, or he'll act like a whiny grub for days. And that's just if he's not completely obsessed with it. He's got some room to mature, is what I'm saying.
BONUS: Red (I gotta mention it but I don't want it getting in the way of his personality flaws ok)
The color red might be everything that drives him, but man, get the sunglasses off of him, wave a red thing in front of his face, and he just freezes up. Dang. This is such a blatant physical weakness it can't not be mentioned. Makes him easy to kidnap, murder, maybe even manipulate, though you'll never be able to get him to do something that goes against who he is.
Weapon: LaRoce really likes fire, in a flashy pyrotechnic sort of way...but that's not very practical in actual combat...
...so he carries around a couple of single-shot flintlock pistols. Which are still not ******** practical, so he also carries some ridiculous ornamental saber he yanked from someone's hive. Turns out it was a pretty well-made antique that just needed a little sharpening.
Appearance: - Medium-length hair, which he dyed red himself, parted on the left side. Long bangs swept in the direction of his part. The color isn't exactly even and his natural black shows around the roots.
- Red sclera, if you can see his eyes. (woops I forgot that I SUCK sob)
- Custom made Trollkleys with red lenses - LaRoce hates wearing glasses, but if he's going to do it, he's going to do it in style. LaRoce never buys anything but clothes, food, and basic necessities, so he probably accumulates a lot of beetles selling ill-gotten loot he finds in Old Hemisect.
- Wears light hoodies with the sleeves torn off or t-Shirts with his symbol emblazoned quite obviously on the front. Short sleeves even in winter! His favorites are of course zip hoodies, which he enjoys wearing partially unzipped without a shirt underneath.
- Wears his jeans pretty much falling off. Everyone can see your boxers, LaRoce. If he gets in a fight, he usually just kicks his jeans off. Go steal a belt, dude!
- Bright red tennis shoes.
- Keeps the pistols in shoulder holsters...or...something...idk...and the sword strapped to his waist. Incidentally, he's right-handed.
Home: That slum, Old Hemisect (I mean beach...not that he is very much a beach person, but he is attracted to Old Hemisect, rather than Chittentown, because here he might find both red/orange bloods and green bloods! And gog knows what else..Old Hemisect seems like a relatively lawless place, with a much less rigid approach to the hemospectrum, so his antics are more likely to go unnoticed by anyone with real social status. Besides the seabloods, and why would they even care about some punk attacking greenbloods willy-nilly? They're probably all no more significant than ants in their eyes...)
Lusus:
LaRoce's lusus is a massive (we're talking nearly a ton here), warty, tusky wild boar usually known as the Hogfather. When LaRoce was but a grub, the Hogfather was a tender and loving guardian, always careful to avoid squishing him. But as LaRoce got older, bigger, and more importantly, tougher, the Hogfather became less and less affectionate and more and more violent and totalitarian. It was in fact the Hogfather's way of encouraging independence in his charge, but the Hogfather's intentions weren't obvious to the young LaRoce (or even the somewhat less-young LaRoce). LaRoce did not take kindly to the totalitarian approach and resented the Hogfather's rigid enforcement of "the rules". His response was a hearty "screw you!" and he took to prowling around Old Hemisect, doing whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, LaRoce's relationship with his lusus greatly deteriorated (in his eyes; the Hogfather considers the result a roaring success), ending with LaRoce locking the Hogfather in the basement. LaRoce visits his lusus once a day to feed him, but avoids him like the plague the rest of the time. (As a side note, LaRoce might consider the Hogfather good and contained, but the Hogfather can get out of the basement any time. He's a massive boar for chrissake.)
As far as the Hogfather's personality goes, well, he's an awful lot like two thousand pounds of Theodore Roosevelt, barring his child-rearing techniques. Terrifying.
Power: Illusion! LaRoce's obsession occasionally manifests itself as "turning everything red". Then his mind locks up, but that's neither here nor there. But he is who he is, so he's never really noticed that he's the one who does that, always attributing it to some trick of the light. In battle (if he knew how to use his power, anyway), it mainly translates to flashy distractions (defense style B). Illusion clones would probably be the most obvious use, but LaRoce just isn't that savvy.
