Nickname: various foster-siblings have called him different things, but nothing really stuck.
Age: 16
Birthday: July 19
Sign: Cancer
Gemstone: Moonstone
Blood Type: A+
Fav. Food: his mom's fruit pies
Hated Food: he'll try just about anything. not too fond of bitter stuff, though.
School: Romano's Constitutional Haven
Hobbies: Sewing Sean started out sewing by helping his mom with the mending, then sewing little dresses for his foster sisters' dolls out of scraps, then moved on to modifying old clothes into Halloween costumes and beyond. Now he's pretty deft with a needle and thread, and regularly sews stuffed toys for his foster siblings. He's been thinking about volunteering to make costumes for the drama club, or maybe making plush toys to sell somewhere, but has no thoughts of studying fashion design or anything like that. He thinks clothing styles from different countries and cultures are pretty fascinating, though.
Childcare He's been helping his parents take care of foster siblings (always younger than him) since he was in kindergarten. He loves kids and taking care of them. He's developed lots of tricks to getting kids to do what the're supposed to, keeping them entertained, helping with homework, teaching them how to do things, and other elements of childcare. He's always happy to babysit if needed. He's pretty good at judging when kids should be allowed to try things on their own, when they may need help, and when they should be stopped before they hurt themselves.
Virtues: level-headed Sean is almost always calm and keeps his head in pretty much all situations. He's easygoing and always seems to be smiling. He approaches things logically and patiently tries to think things through, no matter what's going on. It takes a lot to shake him up and make him loose his cool.
Obedient Give him a task or direction, and he'll follow it without hesitation or complaint. No never have to tell him twice to do something, and if he's forgotten how to do a thing he's done before, he'll ask to make sure it's done right.
Hardworking He wants to do his best at whatever he's working on. From homework, to housework, to his own personal projects (usually sewing something) and beyond, he gives 110% at everything he does. You'll never find him slacking or dragging his feet when he's set on a task, and when he starts working he likes to keep going until it's done, if he can.
Flaws: Pushover His obedient, hardworking nature combine to leave him a big pushover. He'll do pretty much anything that anyone tells him, even if someone else is better suited to the task, or he's got a lot of other stuff to do. He'll try to get it all done, even if he sacrifices sleep, food or his own hobbies, though he tries not to sacrifice quality. Rare exceptions are when small children ask him to do something that would be bad for them, like let them stay up too late or climb on a precarious pile of toys and furniture. Or anything that would obviously hurt Sean, like jumping off a bridge. But by and large, ask him to do something and you can be sure it'll get done, and probably sooner rather than later.
Single-minded Once he gets started on something, it can he hard to tear him away. If he's got a bunch of things to work on at once, he'll prioritize one and work on it until it's done before moving on to the next. He can also get a bit set on idea, and resistant to considering something different until it's obvious that the first idea is wrong or won't work.
Absent-minded He can get so focused on one thing that other things fall by the wayside. He'll put something down that he doesn't immediately need and promptly forget where he put it, or he'll forget to do something that's not what he's working on. He tries to remember the important stuff, like not to stay late after school so he can go pick up his foster sibling from preschool, but sometimes he still forgets.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Eyes: olive green eyes, round but often partly lidded
Hair: ginger hair that's short but a bit shaggy. Tends to wear a brown newsie cap. [head reference]
Face: squared face, small scattering of freckles, nose a bit over-large
Clothes: camouflage plants, a forest green t-shirt and a khaki short-sleeved jacket with lots of pockets, black sneakers.
Civilian concept contest entry (did not win, but would like to use the same backstory):
The hospital room still and quiet, save for the beeps and whirs of medical devices. Periodically there would be some movement and quiet voices as visitors and doctors came and went, and sometimes the hushed atmosphere would be broken by a small child asking “Why won’t he wake up?” in a voice that was half pleading, half wailing. But the room’s occupant never moved or made a sound.
Sean Jones could only lay there, surrounded by life support machines and growing increasingly pale. The only spot of color on him was a red plush cat tucked under an arm that never moved to reach for it. He was a far cry from the boy who’d been up and about just a short time ago.
---
Almost two weeks prior, Sean had been sitting at home, engaged in a lively game of Cat vs. Dinosaur with his youngest foster sister. The game was played out great gusto using plush toys Sean had sewn for her. Cries of “Rawr, rawr!” and “Meow meow meeeow!” resounded through the house as the girl’s red flannel cat pounced at Sean’s blue T-rex. Just at the T-rex lunged to nom at the cat, Sean’s mother walked into the room.
“Sean, I hate to interrupt, but it looks like I’m short a few things for dinner. Could you run to the store to pick up some rice and onions?” she asked.
“Alright, just a moment,” he agreed. With one last dying “Raaaawr…”he let the dino fall to the ground, defeated by the mighty cat. Then he grabbed a shopping bag and jogged to the grocery store down the street.
Shortly after, Sean was browsing the produce isle, looking for the best price. Then a scream pierced through the market's cheery music. His head whipped up at the sound as several panicked voices joined in, and his eyes grew wide as he realized they were shouting about a monster. His gaze darted around as he tried to catch sight of it, but it wasn’t visible from here. Instead he heard crashes and deep screeching coming from several rows over, suggesting something big that sounded like no animal he’d ever known. He quickly decided it he didn’t want to see whatever it was; it was safer to get away before it could see him.
He hurried towards the door, ducking behind displays and shelves whenever he could, but pulled up short when a man in a dark outfit that looked like a uniform stepped in front of him. “Not that way,” the unknown individual told him firmly. “The monster’s heading for the door. It’s safest to go out the back,” he said, taking Sean by the shoulders and spinning him around before he could say anything. “This way,” the man insisted, pushing Sean down the nearest aisle. The boy was too surprised to protest, and started heading back the way he'd come. He didn’t recognize the man’s outfit, but uniforms tended to mean someone with authority, maybe some form of police or military. With that fleeting thought, he allowed himself to be herded away.
Halfway down the aisle, a sudden pain flared in his chest. He shouted, but his voice was drowned out by the many other cries that filled the building. Then everything went black and he toppled forward.
---
The Negaverse agent let the random shopper fall off his hand, extracting the starseed he’d grabbed a moment before. He gave the collapsed boy not another thought as he tucked his prize away. It was so much easier to do it this way; when a target never saw him coming, they couldn’t resist. Perhaps he’d have time to claim a second starseed before his youma was defeated.
---
Once the monster had been driven away, police and paramedics swarmed the building, looking for any trapped or injured individuals. Sean was found right away, sprawled in the middle of an isle with eyes open, but completely unresponsive. He was rushed to the hospital, and when all tests came back normal, he was expected to regain consciousness soon. He never did. To make things worse, his vital signs began to decline.
In the coming days, the hospital ran every test they could think of and quizzed his family on his medical history and habits. Nothing suggested any reason why he’d apparently fallen into a coma and was slowly dying. They finally had to admit to his parents that they could do nothing more than keep him on life support and hope he recovered on his own. They fully expected that he never would.
Still, his family visited regularly, hoping for any sign of life. His foster sister didn’t understand what was going on, and kept asking “Why won’t he wake up?” Nobody could give her an answer. She pleaded with him to open his eyes, promising that he could win next time. She even brought in her prized stuffed cat and tucked it under his arm. (As soon as she left, the hospital staff took it away and sterilized it before returning it to the bed.)
There seemed little hope for Sean any more. All his family could do was expect the worst and pray for a miracle.
Future plot line idea:
Sean Jones is based on a character I've used in a couple Pern B/Cs, so I have his personality all flashed out. His main flaw is that he's a over-obedient pushover, and will do pretty much anything someone asks him.
So after he gets his starseed back, recovers and leaves the hospital, he has a normal life for a while until a Negaverse agent recruits him by basically saying "Hey you, join the Negaverse." (Or maybe more of a "Hey, could you help me with something?" ) And he agrees readily because he's like that, and becomes a Lieutenant. He trains dutifully, learning basics like fighting, hating Order and draining energy. Until the time he takes his first starseed from someone, and suddenly realizes why he went into a coma and almost died. He has a big "What have I become?" moment and starts seeing everything the Negaverse does in a new light. He tries to keep doing everything he's told to do as usual, but he can't be comfortable with it anymore.
Somehow (probably by accident) he hears it's possible to be purified and leave the Negaverse. So he finally grows a spine, disobeys orders and seeks out help from someone on the side of Order so he can be purified. In the process of being purified, he awakens as a Knight. After a period of trepidation (considering he just left one group he joined without knowing what he was doing and instead was forced into another group with no say in the matter), he learns what being a Knight means and dedicates himself to protecting the innocent. Especially children, since he loves kids and has been helping take care of many foster siblings since he was very small. If he ever ended up on a team with some Chibis, he'd probably go all Papa Wolf on whoever threatened and/or hurt them.
Posted: Wed May 11, 2016 1:11 pm
mewrose
Hey Mew!
I'm happy to stamp your profile, everything looks good!
I do want to say that you mention a possible purification plot and him being surprised to become a Knight -- purifying an officer always results in them becoming a Knight, so he would know that going in most likely! However, the purification will have to be submitted to the mule for full review, so details will be fully discussed with you then! heart
You have a great concept here, so I can stamp everything except for the powered name! Unfortunately, right now the Negaverse is not using the names of rocks, so Steatite/Soapstone, as a metamorphic rock, would not be allowed—however!
I was browsing and tried to find a few similar names if you didn't have a backup ready!
Alternatively, if you had something else in mind, please feel free to go with that! I double checked and didn't see any of these on the Master List or currently being quested for!
If you have any questions or make any changes, please quote me and I'll be back as soon as possible!
Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 4:59 pm
Kyuseisha no Hikari
OK. Would Saponite be an acceptable mineral/name, then?
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