Welcome to Gaia! ::

First Glance

Character's Name: Batholith
Race: Hybrid: Imp/Demon
Zodiac Sign: the Spear
Academy House: Enoch
Gender: Male
Starting Stage: Senior
Body Type Base: I; eyebrows, mouth, and nose of 5, eyes of 6; Demon horns 4, Imp ears 3. No chest fur; demon arms. Imp tail instead of Demon tail.
Brief Description of Appearance: 5’0” tall; hair is in a thick braid that reaches his waist.
naked, with clothes; jacket and boots are made of leather.

Positive Traits: determined, self-controlling, intelligent, observant, brave under certain circumstances
Negative Traits: anxious, low sense of self-worth, stubborn, worried, abrasive
Likes: being respected, learning new things, reading, rocks, strawberries, grapefruit, his hair
Dislikes: disrespect, people getting too close to him, getting screamed at, being complimented, any reference to his eyes
Favorite Class: science, oddly; also, life skills.
Least Favorite Class: social studies, probably—geography and culture is just too boring to him
Hobbies: rock collecting; he doesn’t have any, but he wants to.
Secrets: former gang member; history of suffering abuse, history of violence
Fears: being found by his old “buddies,” being expelled; romantic or sexual intimacy

Let’s see…where to begin…the obvious, I suppose. Bath is currently a seething cauldron of contradictions:

Guilt: Batholith has just betrayed the people who raised him to their worst enemies. He has broken the trust they, admittedly reluctantly, put in him, betrayed the only moral code he’s ever followed, and condemned them to prison for crimes that he himself had a hand in. At the moment, Bath feels very, very guilty. He feels selfish. He knows that his primary motivation was to get out to the cycle of abuse he’d been trapped in, so he feels like he’s hurt a lot of people for his own personal gain, and he feels terrible. He also felt terrible meeting the victims of his crimes, around the time of the trials; he now understands the full terrible, shocking weight of the crimes he committed “for survival,” and to obtain a position of power that he feels he clearly did not deserve. He feels trapped between the general populace and his “family,” caught in a never-ending loop of shame and disgust with himself. He feels like an honorless, worthless parasite of government effort and funds.

Fear: And at the same time, he is terrified of what will happen if he is ever caught again. He doesn’t feel like he deserves a second chance at anything (despite constant assurance by his case worker that at sixteen, he’s definitely allowed one), but he does not want to be kicked out of school. He’s not far from his old home, and he knows that if he leaves school, he’s as good as dead. So as much as he might sometimes complain about school or say he’s uncomfortable, or call the rules stupid…he ain’t gonna break ‘em. He’s way too afraid of the consequences. And yet, for all of his fear of his past life, he’s actually pretty brave. He isn’t afraid of the bullies he meets at school. He’s not afraid to take risks with his own life—if your Frisbee lands on the roof and you need someone to get it, call him, he’ll climb the outside of the building to get it. If he doesn’t like a person, he’ll tell them. It’s not that he’s especially honest—he’ll lie if he has to—but he keeps a mental list in his head of who can mess up his life and who can’t, and if you’re on the latter list, he’s not afraid of your reaction. If he wants to spend time with someone, he will also ask them. There are some things he is afraid of though—intimacy being the major one. He’s had intimacy problems in the past, and as such, intimacy of all kinds is difficult for him.

Aggression: Years of crime and rivalry on the street has instilled in Bath an instinctive anger and aggression towards the outside world. He doesn’t like being insulted, he doesn’t like being disrespected, and in the past, it has been to his advantage to show it. In his new environment, he will have to remind himself that he will get in trouble if he shows his anger and aggression. He has taken to wearing a rubber band around his wrist; whenever he feels angry or realizes he’s acting aggressive, he’ll snap the rubber band. He hopes this negative reinforcement will help him keep a lid on himself. This is one of two methods he has to control his anger—the other is to act as calm, cool, and collected as he can. He will respond to insults with calmly delivered responses, dodge out of the way of fights, and generally act like he is in total control of the situation. This serves a double purpose—not only does the effort of keeping cool focus his attentions elsewhere, it acts as camouflage—he never acted like this in his gang days. To other students, Bath will appear to be a composed individual in control of every social situation and always ready with a witty remark. Others with more emotional maturity and insight will be able to tell that it’s an act.

These contradictions combine to make Bath rather anxious. He has techniques of keeping himself calm—whether it’s by tugging on his own ears in private, or furiously scribbling in a notebook he hides under the mattress, or snapping that rubber band, or even, someday, finding other people he can confide in—but he can occasionally break down. He does so in private, and has the self-control to keep his outbursts short so that they do not interrupt his time in class. He suffers from occasional bouts of stress-related health issues, but his fear of being hurt by other people or suffering the consequences ensures that he hides the problems and carries on as normal.

His ability to control the way he acts comes from his unshakeable, rock-solid determination, possibly inherited from his demon parent’s side of the family. If he wants something, he will throw himself into it and work hard to get it. He does not give up easily, and will keep working away at something even when others would have given up. Even at his young age, he has tasted the fruits of his labor and deemed them sweet ambrosia. As such, he is motivated to keep trying no matter what. He believes that anything is possible if you work hard enough at it. Old acquaintances would agree that determination, more than aggression or anything else, is his strongest trait.

Bath is not the world’s best communicator. He’s good at telling people the simple things—I like you, I don’t like you, you’re weird—but he’s not good at articulating complexities—I enjoy your energy, I don’t like it when people talk to our teacher like that, I’ve never met someone who enjoyed the smell of sulphur before. When he tries, he tends to articulate it…poorly: I don’t hang out with you for your voice, You’re always talking crap, Your nose needs fixing. Combined with his tendency to let people know it if he doesn’t like them, no, he’s not going to make very many friends. But what friends he does have will have someone loyal, steadfast, and helpful on their side. Even if he’s not very good at complements.

Once again, the issue of intimacy should be addressed: Bath prefers friends he knows he can rely on, but gets nervous with friends who want to help him out with his issues. He’d much rather be providing aid than receiving it. He’s had “friends” before that betrayed him to other members of their gang, members he wasn’t “friends” with, and as such he’s come to be very wary of any relationship in which he is not clearly giving them a lot. In his experience, when someone wants to give aid, it’s because they want something in return (his own tendencies notwithstanding), and it’s usually something he’s not willing to give them. So those friends he does have? Will find that he has an emotional bubble around himself that should not be popped. This will turn some people off—I myself would be turned off by that. But it is something that will improve. By the time he graduates, he will be a little more trusting and have an easier time making friends. His romantic intimacy problems would be even more difficult to solve; they’re like his friendship intimacy problems on steroids. He could form a romantic relationship, but it would take hard work on both their sides, and a lot of love. More than anything else, Bath needs a therapist, and he’s afraid that a therapist would take advantage of his vulnerability…so he’s a little paranoid.

The biggest change that Bath has experienced as a result of his turn-coating is not, however, his new mental health issues—that’s more like an egg that’s finally hatched. The egg that’s just been laid is his newly found moral center. Throughout the information gathering, the reports, and the trials, Bath has learned how to see things from other peoples’ perspectives. He’s come to realize that short-term actions have long-term consequences, and they can have devastating results on other people—such as making them feel the way he feels now. He is coming to terms with the crimes he’s committed and it’s not only making him disgusted with himself—it’s making him want to change and become a better person. He’s starting to shed his old belief that might makes right in favor of the strong defending the weak. The new ideas are starting to build up, and he’s a little shocked at not only how good acting nice is, but how naturally it comes. Now if only talking like a nice person came just as easily…

Bath has some basic education, and he’s always had this weird thing for learning new things. Reading was something he could do privately, so he used to read whatever he could find, which has given him a somewhat eclectic knowledge base. The Academy will be his first encounter with formal education, and to his surprise, he will find himself actually sort of good at it. He gets good grades in some classes, and decent ones in others, and he’s frankly as shocked as everyone else. His favorites tend to be the more esoteric ones, the ones that don’t involve people—math, for example, but his favorite by far is the subject of geology. He’s been fascinated by rocks since he was a little kid, but geology will be a revelation for him. Wait, what? You can learn things about rocks? There’s an entire science devoted to rocks, and how they’re formed, and what they mean?! He will be very stoked about that, and it will give him an extra added incentive to do well in school. And he does have incentive to do well in school—he does not want to be expelled, either for academic or for behavioral problems. As such, he tries to behave and does his homework as soon as he can, as thoroughly as he can.

Besides new classes, the Academy is providing him with new experiences, such as the experience of less cutthroat social organizations (clubs) and kids his own age that are…well, he’d say soft, but what he’d mean is gentle and unfamiliar, like a bed with sheets made of a strange material. When he arrives at the Academy, the other students are, to him, background noise at some place he’s laying low for a while, but as he gets more involved, he will come to see them as peers and equals—the society to which he now belongs. It will be a strange revelation for him, and while it will never fully erase his past interactions with people, it will serve to show him that people are far more complex than he ever gave them credit for, and have motivations more boundless than the sea.

So how does Bath fit into Enoch? Honestly, he doesn’t fit into Enoch. At all. And everyone knows it. He knew he wouldn’t fit into any of the houses, so Bath picked Enoch on the grounds that a house full of scientists and mathematicians was most likely to be quiet so that he could go to sleep at a reasonable time. Even after he gravitates towards the sciences himself, he’s never quite as logical and detached as they are, no matter how studious he gets. He’ll never fully fit in, but in the end, he won’t really care. He’ll just shrug and figure that that just means he’ll have to be the loudest person competing in house games.

Finally, the subject of race. Bath’s old gang mates used to mock and tease and bully him mercilessly for being a hybrid. As such, he’s come to really hate being one, and automatically assumes that all hybrids have suffered the same prejudices that he has. He refuses to believe it when they shrug and claim that they’ve never had a problem with it. Bath originally identified more strongly with the Demon part of his heritage because it’s more “badass,” whereas Imps are…well, fluffy. He liked how Demon culture is all about determination and self-discipline; to him, Imp culture is just about having friends and a big family. His perceptions lead him to never take Imps seriously. Which isn’t to say he’s too hot on Demons at the moment—he considers them to be little more than arrogant bullies, and views their actions and motives with high suspicion. He’s not as familiar with other races; he thinks Geists are alright, since they tend to give back what they steal; he considers Fallen and Litches to be nerds; he’s heard that Chimeras are stuck up and xenophobic, so he lumps them in with Demons; and he has no strong opinions either way about Baphomets and Grimms, other than that they sound pretty badass. His history classes will eventually lead him to change his mind about Imps—it will make him realize that Imps are surprisingly awesome. By the time he graduates, he will identify most strongly with the Imp part of his heritage. By the time he graduates college, he will learn how to balance his Imp heritage with his Demon heritage.

To downplay his race, Bath used to shave his tail every day and tie a bandage around the tip—his official story to people who didn’t know him was that he had a demon tail, and his spade had been cut off. As a result of disguising it, he’s never developed his ability to use its prehensile capabilities. His tail is easily the weakest part of him. His ears were less easy to hide—he grew his hair long originally to hide them, but gave up and started braiding it later when it became a liability. It’s still a liability, to be honest, but his hair is Bath’s one vanity—he really loves his hair. He’s proud of it, and takes very good care of it.