Name: TAQUIN AGERES (ta-KEEN a-GARE-ez)
taquin - french for "teasing"
agere(s) - latin for "meddler"
Blood colour: #cc3300
Gender: male
Symbol:
a combination between this and this.
Personality:
Taquin is a very outspoken, opinionated, meddlesome troll. When it comes to others he will disregard anything known as "personal boundaries" or "private life". Your business is his business, as far as that's concerned. He'll usually hang back and absorb all he can about a troll before he approaches them. When he does, he brings up subjects he thinks they'd be sensitive about and evaluates their response. His main method for getting to know someone is usually not through story or fact, but through the personalities they display and their reactions to certain subjects.
He especially finds it funny when someone gets flustered or angry, so once he finds out what someone is embarrassed or touchy about, he will use the knowledge for his amusement. Since he's totally cool with lying, Taquin might go to lengths greater than most to get the reactions he wants.
If you ask Taquin about himself, his life, his hive, his lusus, what he tells you will most likely be a lie. Depending on the seriousness of the conversation, he will weave a convincing story or just come up with some joking atrocity on the spot. He loves messing with people and having the power to make them believe what he wants. He finds it amusing how gullible some trolls can be. It also tests his creativity when he has to come up with something crafty without skipping a beat, a challenge he craves. He doesn't take it very seriously, treating it all as a big mind-game. If you see a hole in his story and catch him red-handed, he won't care much. He'll admit to his lies and hold you in higher respect for being able to see through them, though it is more fun for him if you don't.
His deceitful nature mostly comes from his unwillingness to talk about himself. Talking about himself is boring to him, he'd much rather hear about you, and he sees no reason to let people know anything about him. He's not looking for trust or friendship, and don't expect him to get emotionally attached to anything besides his lusus. He's found that if he doesn't answer people straight or seriously, they quickly give up on trying to dig information out of him. And even if they persist, he still has the satisfaction of getting to come up with his little fables.
However, if you ask Taquin what he thinks about things, that's a different story. He would love to have a intellectually stimulating conversation about politics, morals, history, etc., and the theories behind them. They're things he thinks about all the time. He hasn't found many who are willing to talk about this kind of thing, but that may be his own fault in hanging out in the wrong sorts of places. He also probably comes off as pretty cocky to most trolls who would otherwise be happy to talk with him.
Taquin is discontent with how the hemospectrum plays such a large role in troll government and society. He puts no stock in it, and firmly believes that the hierarchy should be determined by personal achievement and attitude and not some arbitrary phenotype like blood color. It frustrates him how people are sorted out as inferior/superior at birth and no one has the ability to escape their social fate. He has contempt for anyone who believes they're better or worse because of their blood color.
For Taquin to have any respect for others they must have confidence in themselves. A troll with low self-esteem is a pathetic troll indeed. Occasionally if he notices a pushover being trampled and tampered with unfairly, Taquin will give that troll one hell of a pep-talk. No, he won't approach the bully/user/harasser and talk to them about how unfair and disrespectful they're being and blah blah blah. He believes that it's the victims job to buck up and state that they won't stand the injustice any longer. He won't do it for them, but he will show them that they have the power within themselves. If they don't learn to use it, then that's they're own fault.
Taquin spends most of his time out of his hive, out in the sprawling public of the city. He'll hang out on the outskirts of clubs or bars and eavesdrop on conversations, searching for that interesting troll. This is something he does all the time, every time, and he moves from one troll to the next pretty quickly. The ways trolls interact with each other is fascinating to him, especially in how different every single troll is, and he likes to theorize how they became that way. This is usually how his interest peaks and he starts following certain trolls around or talking to their friends to learn more. It's very seldom that one would catch his attention enough for him to obsess over them longer than a day, but when that happens, he whips out those stalking abilities and puts them to good use.
One thing that he's strangely passionate about is lusi. He believes they are horribly disregarded by most trolls and not given the respect they deserve. They're such kind beings to offer themselves as the guardians of the young, shouldn't they at least have their own holiday or something? He gets frustrated with trolls who take their lusus for granted, and any neglect or dysfunction between a troll and their lusus's relationship he will usually blame on the troll.
However, he will not be the one to start a revolution, whether to dissolve the hemospectrum or raise lusi abuse awareness. If a revolution were to come around and gain enough force to convince Taquin that it would prevail, he would join and support it, but at the same time he would most likely be surreptitious about it so as not to get caught if the revolution failed. Just because he doesn't believe in their current caste system doesn't mean he disregards it. He is well aware of the consequences of a lowblood speaking out against the higher power, and is not stupid enough to overstep the lines they set for him. Sometimes he'll vent to Poodle-dad about how unfair it all is, but that's as far as it gets.
Strengths:
Confident- Taquin is never unsure of himself and he is unafraid to voice anything. He doesn't worry about who may be offended by his intrusive behavior or his teases, as long as they are no one too high of power and too short of temper. He's able to draw that line between confidence and stupidity. His confidence is something he highly prizes, as he believes it's the most important thing for a troll to possess to get any respect or admiration. When struck with a dilemma he'll face it head-on, no worries. Even if he screws up he just takes it in stride and learns from his mistakes. He doesn't bother trying to hide his mistakes, he'd just come out looking like a paranoid idiot, and directly addressing your flaws instead of dancing around them is proof of confidence in itself.
Independent- He doesn't rely on anyone for much except to alleviate boredom. Then again, if he were ever the last troll on Alternia he could probably find a way to amuse himself. Friendship and support from others isn't important to him, his high self-esteem comes from within. He is very self-sustained, and not one to spend his beetles unwisely. His lusus doesn't do much like cleaning or errand-running or warding off overly-curious trolls, so Taquin has developed the ability to take care of those things himself.
Perceptive- Taquin is always pondering things, gauging reactions, and making connections with his think pan. He's pretty good at reading expression and body language to tell how trolls feel about this subject or that, and tends to psychoanalyze every word they spew to get to know them as best he can. He thinks a lot about troll-kind as a whole, all the social aspects that arise when certain trolls get together, and how their actions affect each other psychologically.
Composed- No matter the situation, Taquin will keep his head. Of course he gets excited over some things, but it will seldom get past something simple as grinning to himself, or folding his hands together in anticipation. Though he gets frustrated and angry pretty easily, he never loses his temper and the rage subsides quickly. He's not one to hold a grudge. Also, if his life is at risk he won't panic but consider closely the possibilities open for him to survive, and take the most reasonable path.
Flaws:
Meddlesome- He dabbles into people's personal lives far too often, especially without their consent or knowledge. He tends to eavesdrop, and is pretty good at staying out of sight when he doesn't want to be found out. He loves it when people gossip within range of his hear-ducts, but he won't accept it as truth until he discovers enough evidence to prove it. He doesn't spread rumors either, but keeps all communications under his hat, so to speak. He might sneak into a troll's hive to find out more about them if he's interested enough.
Deceitful- He often makes lies up about himself. He's pretty crafty in this aspect, weaving stories that are difficult to see through. However, sometimes the stories get so out of hand that it becomes obvious that he's making it up. On the other hand, the truth will be mixed in there as well and it gets to the point where other trolls don't know what to believe about him. ...It's pretty hard for Taquin to have any close friends because of this.
Conceited- He is not a humble troll. He's proud of his high intelligence, meddlesome ways, and mysterious personality. The fact that he's a lowblood is a source of amusing irony to him, and he'll laugh at anyone who thinks of him as lowly because of his blood color. Ironically, his low caste enforces his pride in how well off and educated he is. He's dug himself out from under the hemospectrum with his own two hands (and occasional nudge from his lusus), refusing to be affected by it, and that's a large contributer to his conceit. He's also very stubborn in his opinions, and loath to admit that he's wrong about anything because he sees himself as very learned and of a higher intelligence than most other trolls. However, he is not one to boast, because that would only make him sound like an insecure nubnook fishing for admiration to make himself feel good.
Critical- Because of his proclivity to analyze everything, Taquin can make some harsh conclusions about people. He tries to understand them the best he can, but he's definitely not the type to focus on the good in everyone. When he notices a flaw in someone, it tends to stick out to him and he loses respect for them if he doesn't think they're trying very hard to fix it. What really gets to him is when people have flaws and they don't even realize it. That being said, he knows the mistakes he's made and how pitiful he was as a child, and he uses the memories as an example for himself of what not to be. He doesn't chastise himself ceaselessly for it, rather he does his best to learn from it so as not to make the mistake later.
Weapon:
polekind: Taquin wields a simple fighting staff for his no-doubt inevitable duels with his no-doubt inevitable kismesis. He is seldom an aggressor and a pro at defending himself, but if properly provoked, or if you're extremely persistent, he won't hesitate to flippin' wale on ya. And have fun with it.
Appearance:
Let's start at the top.
Taquin has coinciding horns that sprout from the sides of his head, go out at a slightly raised angle, and then bend back towards his head. His left horn is much larger than his right. Now imagine this, and tilt them by about 35 degrees forward. There you go.
He's styled his hair by parting it on the left and flipping it over to the right side. Then he buzzed most of it off until only a section of hair was left to curve down past his face to his chin on the right. He's dyed the foremost strip of hair his blood color. Geez, that's hard to describe. Good thing there's a visual.
He wears circular rose-tinted glasses, has small eyebrows, a slightly down-turned nose, and his left canine tooth sticks out over his bottom lip.
He wears a sleeveless, tightly-clinging turtleneck with a cape-like tail that displays his symbol on the front. His symbol is also down the back, exaggerated vertically. He wears a blood-colored belt and grey skinnies. His skater shoes are the same tint of rosey-purple as his glasses. He also has a black wristband on his right wrist.
Home:
city--He lives in the bustling city of New Hemisect in a Communal Hive Stem. His respiteblock is located near the top of the building where he and poodle-dad can look out over all the pincerbeast-sized people on the ground. His block is fairly small with nothing much more than the necessities since he spends most of his moonlight hours out of the hive. He has a couple band posters of "My Caliginous Romance" and "30 Seconds to Derse" on his wall.
Lusus:
His name is Stratus, but Taq will always call him "Poodle-dad". An extremely fluffy and loving lusus with three pairs of doggy legs. He is of course the origin of Taquin's compassion for lusi. Taquin is extremely possessive and protective of Poodle-dad to the point where he doesn't want other trolls to know about him. This is mostly in fear that P-D will get killed for being such a small fragile lusus, or that someone who has a problem with Taquin will take it out on his guardian.
Taquin has told anyone who asks that his lusus is dead because of an accident/fight/he killed it. He never leaves the Hive Stem with P-D and keeps close watch to make sure they are never seen together. P-D understands Taquin's strange aversion, and is okay with staying a secret. It's easy enough for him because he just lays around in the hive and sleeps most of the time.
Poodle-dad is extremely laid-back and mostly lays around the respiteblock and yawns, but when his troll is distressed he knows exactly how to act. Which is to come and lay his head down on Taq's knee and listen to everything he has to say, offering a few wet licks of affection every now and then.
Taq & P-D
Power: nah
