Name: Erasmus Vivere (Left)Stage: Youngling
Race: Lightning (Belrean)
Gender: Male
3 Base Traits: • adventurous • vain • possessive
Additional Traits: protective, active, ambitious, attentive, manipulative, loyal, passionate, perfectionist, romantic, narcissistic, deliberate, pragmatic, distrusting, materialistic
Personality: As a youngling, Erasmus is a much like most young, healthy, growing children: rambunctious, ever-curious, and spirited. Even early on, however, he shows a tendency toward being more deliberate and cautious than his twin, and particularly as he grows, life and the people he encounters will instill in him a notable undercurrent of leeriness and distrust in the world. He trusts and adores his family, but the older he gets, the more he will see that his situation in that regard is non-traditional, and that many of the things he considers precious are frowned upon or scorned by ‘society’ and the world at large.
But this is not enough to stop him from venturing out into it.
Despite his relative cautiousness, skepticism, and quiet distrust of most people not family, Erasmus lives (after his brother) for a good adventure, relishes in activities which get bloodflow up, and is anything but a coward. Calculated risks and new territory are Erasmus’ metaphorical cup of tea, and he would grow bored and restless if he were confined to a one-track life. He particularly enjoys challenges, and learning about wherever he’s made it to.
Erasmus is also a vain child (and eventually man). He thinks genetics did a wonderful job with both himself and his brother (identical twin), and while he’s intelligent enough to know better than to blather outright about it, his confidence in his appearance does affect his presentation to the world. He’s comfortable in his own skin, confident generally, and can be charming if he chooses. Most others interacting with him, though, will notice a subtle distance that he imposes between himself and ‘everyone else,’ and the especially observant might see this for what it is (or suspect). He does think he’s better than you, more attractive than you, and more intelligent than you. He simply won’t say it to your face, though he might let you know in some other fashion if he’s especially irritated.
Finally, Era is possessive. This applies across the board for him, but most vividly in regards to his twin and his Geian ‘mother’ — his father’s male partner, Naarhiji. Erasmus did not grow up destitute, both he and his brother were provided for and happy, but still their living conditions were modest and occasionally strapped for coin. He had a limited number of things which were ‘his’, and the oddity of his family set up (and accompanying low-key alienation he felt from those who spoke about their family behind their backs), all contributed to a polarized ‘us versus them’, ‘my things versus everything else’ mindset on some level. He does not appreciate anyone meddling too closely with anything of his, and his possessiveness often works hand in hand with short-fuse protective, defensive attitudes.
Most people are naturally protective of family, of course, but Erasmus is significantly more ‘over the line’ than most. That is his brother, his mother, his father, and he doesn’t frankly think most people really need to be interacting with them at all. No one else needs to step inside his house, speak to his family, invade his space, look too long or at all at any of them. If all humanity in Tendaji aside from his immediate family vanished overnight and it didn’t have drastic consequences on their mood, he could probably not care less and might consider it a boon. But he recognizes that these feelings are unrealistic, unusual, and on some level unhealthy, so he regulates his behavior and usually manages not to come across as overbearingly exclusionist.
Description: Erasmus and his twin have light skin for their race, though darker than the fairest among them, a warm orange-yellow, and violet eyes. Their crystals are mid-light green, richer than the palest, again, but still on the lighter side of the spectrum, and patterned in ‘snake bite’ of small round paired crystals (two) just above and below their left eyebrow respectively (such that it might be mistaken for an eyebrow piercing), a vaguely sunstar-esque arrangement on their left shoulder, and a semi-circle high on their hip that trails down into an irregularly-sized line of crystals down their left leg. They have bright, middle-range tangerine hair that is made of loose, messy curls and waves. They also have a light smattering of freckles across their cheeks and shoulders.
[[Note: Fluffesu has exact colors marked on her form and they are accurate; either way, the boys should have an identical base color palette and crystal placement (clothes and other more fluid things like hairstyle can be varied when that becomes relevant).]]
Clothing: n/a
Accessories: Hair tie - hair either pulled back in a ponytail/loose bun or in a small braid. (Not too long as a youngling; same length as brother, just more restrained.)
History: Malikai Dorran had never been an especially lucky man. He was born at the crust of the poverty line and never climbed much above that, though by his mid-thirties he might fairly solidly be considered ‘low middle class.’ After an ill-advised near-elope with a young woman well out of his social bracket in his youth (at approximately sixteen years old), however, and the calamity in its aftermath, he grew with the plague of having persons in power (read: the father and family of his would-have-been lady love) holding lasting grudges and (if subtly) seeing to it that he never made it anywhere of note in the world. In part due to this and in efforts to minimize the effect of the mishap, Malikai was arranged to marry shortly after the failed elope to a more suitable bride—though one far less eager to take the title.
Vanariah and Malikai had a union fraught with difficulty from the beginning, but one that managed to span nearly twenty years just the same. While together, there were brief periods of happiness as they attempted to make the situation work, but Malikai’s frequent absence for work purposes, the complications and difficulties imposed on him by those with unsavory motives, and Vanariah’s loss of their first child due to miscarriage while he was away, did not contribute to stability between them. By Malikai’s late twenties and into his thirties, his relationship with his wife had deteriorated to something he avoided thinking about on principle, and absences from ‘home’ became more welcome than not. A youthful drinking problem had progressed into fully-fledged alcoholism and depression, and he took to paying for the company of prostitutes when he could afford it during the course of his extended work leaves, wherever he happened to be.
Naarhiji was a surprise.
Before Naarhiji, Malikai had never stopped to consider bedding a man—of any stripe. He did and had always taken to women, and the boy was far too young for his profession of choice (in Malik’s opinion) regardless. But, there he was just the same, a nineteen-year-old Geian boy who ‘worked’ in the brothel Malik frequented while on an especially long stay in Talrise. They came to know each other through encounters of proximity first, not intimately, but in conversation between other business when Malikai came waiting for what he usually did. Then, in the aftermath of one particularly liquor-dense evening, things apparently changed.
In retrospect, Malikai would have difficulty explaining how things came about as they did, because he still has no memory of the first night, and even after it, the shift was not immediate. He couldn’t, at the time, realistically expect or even let himself want more from the obscure combination of odd-friendship and paid-for intimacy that he developed with Naar. The boy was young. He was married. He wouldn’t be in Talrise indefinitely, and he had no business allowing it to be or become anything more than it started as. But develop it did, until it became obvious (and objectionable) to virtually everyone involved in both or either of their lives.
Just as the line of vaguary between a business relationship and a romance (which had admittedly been a poorly constructed distinction from the beginning) fell apart entirely and Naarhiji’s only remaining family (his uncle and owner of the brothel) took to seriously attempting to remove Malik from his nephew’s life entirely, Malikai’s marriage also took a spiraling plummet in functionality.
Erasmus and Percivle Vivere were conceived, as if in a last fateful spit, in the midst of Vanariah and Malikai’s final marital ‘disagreement.’ The encounter was nothing pleasant, involving, among other things: vocal screaming, shattered objects, heavy intoxication upon both of their parts by the end of it, and once again apparently sexual relations, though Malikai was by then muggy on the details. It resulted, though, in more than Malikai ever thought to ask for.
By the time Vanariah contacted him to inform him of the result of their encounter post-split, Malikai had left Talrise with Naarhiji for the peace and seclusion of Zenner’s mountains. There, they hoped to escape the mass of complication and distaste left in the wake of their relations, and start ‘fresh.’ Vanariah chose then to reveal that she also had lover—and wanted nothing to do with explaining to said lover why, at the last possible instant, he might have to deal with raising the infants of her ex-husband for the next two decades. Malikai returned to Naarhiji in Zenner with twin boys.
Erasmus has since grown from infancy under the watchful eye of his father and ‘mother’ (as, in accordance with Naarhiji’s wishes, that is the term they were raised with for him), side by side always with his brother, Percivle. Their birth mother, Vanariah, maintains contact with Malikai on only the most minimal level to facilitate communication with her sons. While, in her new relationship, she did not feel well-positioned to take on the task of raising them, she is consistent (and persistent) in being sure that that connection remains intact. If the fact that she can afford to send nicer, prettier gifts to the children than Malikai or Naarhiji could afford from her home in the capitol and if that encourages them to come visit her, and if that only makes her ex-husband and his ex-whore unhappy or uncomfortable, well—those are just added perks.
Additional Notes: Malikai initially worked for the Sector of Safety, an odd sector for lightning workers, but that was his lot and something done by his brother, father, and grandparents before him. He typically did grittier work than might be expected of his race due to both his social class and history, and the people he worked for found ways to make that as much true as possible. When he left Talrise with Naarhiji, he left the Sector of Safety after his many years of service, and eventually took up railwork with the Sector of Transportation in Zenner, and does that currently. Though it is rare to switch, Malikai very much felt in need of a fresh start, and to break away from those he'd been working under previously.
