(no subject)
Time to fine-tune aspects of my background and personality for Rowan o/ It's pretty messy but I don't even care right now since it is for my own reference
Thing is, dynamics can be so random with characters. Ones that you think would make great friends end up enemies, and other ones who once made good friends go through a minor reboot and utterly hate each other. Douweis and Conrad are my best example of this one - basically the only things that changed were that Conrad picked up the role as class president and Douweis didn’t come in with the same crippling insecurity, and they went from being close BFFs to being rivals that really honestly did not like each other much. There was seriously nothing Shinn and I could do to get them to be friends again, so we went fuck it and went with the rivals and, from there, would’ve developed them into friends again if the RP hadn’t died.
But onto Rowan.
Rowan is a jerk with a huge sense of purpose, a belief in tough love and ‘tact’ is just lying but prettier, very protective, very territorial, and very, very suspicious. If you are outside of his group (generally defined as his family and people in the Hour), he will not like you. There are not many exceptions to that rule. If you are outside of the Hour and try to get into the Hour, he will get in your face and act like a hissing, puffed up cat trying to keep enemies out of his territory. He did this to an elf trying to help, he did this to a sister of one of his closest equivalents-to-being-a-friend, he did this to the firedog who could have easily killed him by touching him.
He is not smart about trying to defend his territory. One day, I am counting on him getting his ass beat on for it because he doesn’t have any physical skills to speak of. He can barely run if it isn’t in a panic-fueled adrenaline thing. He can probably ride a horse and understands you don’t touch the sharp end of a sword, but that is where his knowledge on any of that ends.
He is paranoid and suspicious of most people around his things. He, more than anyone else, is fully aware of how dangerous what he studies is. His focus might be trying to find antidotes for poisons, especially the long-term ones, but he has to understand the poison itself first, and that means he has a number of plants that can be processed and used to kill people. And he has the first-hand knowledge on how to do any of that. And he isn’t that pleasant of a person. And there is Belief to consider. It doesn’t take that much to add up that he is verging into dangerous territory in about ten different ways and any misstep in doing so will probably end up with him dead. So he doesn’t want a Neophyte assigned to him unless it’s someone he can trust entirely. (and no, telling ME isn’t going to work. HE has to trust you and he has trust issues. Good luck with that - he doesn’t trust his closest-thing-to-a-friend-and-eventual-friend-with-benefits with this)
He makes a horrible Adept to be assigned to, knows it, and that makes him even less likely to take one on. He is patronizing, he is negative, he tears apart the goals of Neophytes under the guise of well, these are things you have to think about. He dismisses Mari’s abilities (admittedly he has some reason for this), he is less than supportive of Lucia’s switch into alchemy even though if she does succeed, it’ll be a huge giant help for his own research. He doesn’t say anything about Marijke’s, mostly because she was an Adept when he was still a Neophyte and has at least that much respect for seniority.
But. At heart, he is a good person. He thinks he’s being helpful when he tears apart what everyone else does - the Adept he was assigned to did that for him, and he learned to think through his plans fully and completely and be able to argue back just as vehemently about why his plans are worth something. He is focused entirely on helping people. He is territorial because he doesn’t want outsiders to touch and ruin what is his and will protect it with all of he has, even if he is hurt in the process. He is suspicious of people trying to get close to his studies because he is well aware of the damage it could cause. Someone takes one of his poisonous plants and puts it into a well or in the drinks of a party of a bunch of nobles? Depending on what they use, it could be tasteless and fatal. He does not want to be responsible for the deaths of that many people for any reason. Ever.
Important people or events in his past that may or may not make it from the canon I am working on and into RP!canon -
The Adept he had shadowed. She was an older woman, a dedicated doctor who specialized in medical botany and a sharper tongue than the thorns of her beloved roses. She had chosen him; he had barely known she existed at the time, and promptly set him to work and demanded that he work perfect and without mistake. Anything he said was shot down. He learned fast that she had kept very few Neophytes under her care and each one was picked, and all but three ran away after about a week of her, uh, care.
He talked to one, a woman, who told him the point of it - he was supposed to fight back. She didn’t want an obedient slave. She wanted a challenge, because challengers make people stronger. He was known for his sharp tongue and quick mind, and just needed to settle into something and she was sure that she was the one to do it.
Knowing this, he went into fighting full out.
Thing is, dynamics can be so random with characters. Ones that you think would make great friends end up enemies, and other ones who once made good friends go through a minor reboot and utterly hate each other. Douweis and Conrad are my best example of this one - basically the only things that changed were that Conrad picked up the role as class president and Douweis didn’t come in with the same crippling insecurity, and they went from being close BFFs to being rivals that really honestly did not like each other much. There was seriously nothing Shinn and I could do to get them to be friends again, so we went fuck it and went with the rivals and, from there, would’ve developed them into friends again if the RP hadn’t died.
But onto Rowan.
Rowan is a jerk with a huge sense of purpose, a belief in tough love and ‘tact’ is just lying but prettier, very protective, very territorial, and very, very suspicious. If you are outside of his group (generally defined as his family and people in the Hour), he will not like you. There are not many exceptions to that rule. If you are outside of the Hour and try to get into the Hour, he will get in your face and act like a hissing, puffed up cat trying to keep enemies out of his territory. He did this to an elf trying to help, he did this to a sister of one of his closest equivalents-to-being-a-friend, he did this to the firedog who could have easily killed him by touching him.
He is not smart about trying to defend his territory. One day, I am counting on him getting his ass beat on for it because he doesn’t have any physical skills to speak of. He can barely run if it isn’t in a panic-fueled adrenaline thing. He can probably ride a horse and understands you don’t touch the sharp end of a sword, but that is where his knowledge on any of that ends.
He is paranoid and suspicious of most people around his things. He, more than anyone else, is fully aware of how dangerous what he studies is. His focus might be trying to find antidotes for poisons, especially the long-term ones, but he has to understand the poison itself first, and that means he has a number of plants that can be processed and used to kill people. And he has the first-hand knowledge on how to do any of that. And he isn’t that pleasant of a person. And there is Belief to consider. It doesn’t take that much to add up that he is verging into dangerous territory in about ten different ways and any misstep in doing so will probably end up with him dead. So he doesn’t want a Neophyte assigned to him unless it’s someone he can trust entirely. (and no, telling ME isn’t going to work. HE has to trust you and he has trust issues. Good luck with that - he doesn’t trust his closest-thing-to-a-friend-and-eventual-friend-with-benefits with this)
He makes a horrible Adept to be assigned to, knows it, and that makes him even less likely to take one on. He is patronizing, he is negative, he tears apart the goals of Neophytes under the guise of well, these are things you have to think about. He dismisses Mari’s abilities (admittedly he has some reason for this), he is less than supportive of Lucia’s switch into alchemy even though if she does succeed, it’ll be a huge giant help for his own research. He doesn’t say anything about Marijke’s, mostly because she was an Adept when he was still a Neophyte and has at least that much respect for seniority.
But. At heart, he is a good person. He thinks he’s being helpful when he tears apart what everyone else does - the Adept he was assigned to did that for him, and he learned to think through his plans fully and completely and be able to argue back just as vehemently about why his plans are worth something. He is focused entirely on helping people. He is territorial because he doesn’t want outsiders to touch and ruin what is his and will protect it with all of he has, even if he is hurt in the process. He is suspicious of people trying to get close to his studies because he is well aware of the damage it could cause. Someone takes one of his poisonous plants and puts it into a well or in the drinks of a party of a bunch of nobles? Depending on what they use, it could be tasteless and fatal. He does not want to be responsible for the deaths of that many people for any reason. Ever.
Important people or events in his past that may or may not make it from the canon I am working on and into RP!canon -
The Adept he had shadowed. She was an older woman, a dedicated doctor who specialized in medical botany and a sharper tongue than the thorns of her beloved roses. She had chosen him; he had barely known she existed at the time, and promptly set him to work and demanded that he work perfect and without mistake. Anything he said was shot down. He learned fast that she had kept very few Neophytes under her care and each one was picked, and all but three ran away after about a week of her, uh, care.
He talked to one, a woman, who told him the point of it - he was supposed to fight back. She didn’t want an obedient slave. She wanted a challenge, because challengers make people stronger. He was known for his sharp tongue and quick mind, and just needed to settle into something and she was sure that she was the one to do it.
Knowing this, he went into fighting full out.