"Something is rotten inside of me. I have to find it and cut it out.
Cut it out."
- House Song, Searows
BASICS
NAME: Karofka (care-ov-kah), often goes by Karof
GENDER: Masc. Non-Binary, AFAB
PRONOUNS: He/Him/His and They/Them/Their
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
BIRTHDATE: Fall 2754
AGE: 21 as of 2775
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Pirate Candidate
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Green
HAIR: Brown, shoulder-length, that mid-point between wavy and curly that is often wrought with frizz. Puts hair up when working
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 6'7", athletic build, broad shoulders and muscular arms
PLAY-BY: picrew by oldmaker
FULL APPEARANCE:
Karofka has a gentle face resting on an intimidating body. He is very tall, standing at 6'7", and has become very fit doing manual labor on pirate ships since he was old enough to do so. To his benefit, he reduced most of his admittedly small breast size from regular exercise. His hands are rough with callouses, his body lined with a handful of random assorted scars he collected over the years. Their jawline is defined, their eyes downturned, and their nose points out straight. Their hair is shoulder length, wavy strands trying their best to turn into ringlets but frizzing out under the heat instead. Some manage to curl, but more fail.
He wears nicer clothes now than he ever did on the ship, but their clothes never fail to be ship ready. Simple and practical clothes, yes, but at least they aren't ripped and torn at every edge anymore! He wears a large tooth necklace taken from a fish that he had caught many years ago. He does not and does not ever plan to bind, citing difficulty breathing and rib pains from the one time he gave it a go while doing labor.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
At their core, Karofka wants to be seen as good. Since moving to Semaca, this has changed from a want to a need. He has become image focused- less in the way he looks, but in how he is perceived. He holds himself to extremely high standards and will do just about anything to be seen as a 'good guy' by others. If it means he has to carve out being a pirate from his heart, then he's going to do it regardless of how much it would hurt.
He is used to being around one group of people, so while he isn't terrified to meet others, he's terrified to make bad first impressions. His emotions are felt deeply; his highs are on cloud 9, but his lows are at rock bottom. Even the smallest mistake could cause him to doubt himself on even his strongest abilities. He's even still hung up on mistakes from years ago! He doesn't like when people don't pull their weight, and he hates when people aren't on time. He will easily get frustrated with others for not doing their job correctly- if you have one, do it right!
But, that doesn't mean anything! Karofka is very friendly and charismatic. He loves to talk when he gets the chance and loves to goof around even more. He works better in a team setting than alone and feels that teamwork truly does make the dream work. He makes sure to pull his weight with his work, you'll never find him shirking off his responsibilities. They get a greater sense of accomplishment helping others achieve their goals than they do achieving their own. He's not really the leader-y type, mind you if he put his mind to it he's sure he could lead something, he's better off if he takes orders from others. He'd take the fall for someone even if it was their fault.
There's just one thing holding him back from being the person he wants to be, the ideals he was raised with. Despite his attempts, they're well ingrained. He really doesn't care what is yours. If they want it and you're not using it? They should be able to take it- and they often do. He's very stingy with his marks as well due to the pirate life- large amounts of marks were taken and then spent quickly, and he'd rather save his so he could have it all the time. He doesn't like to buy things unless it is absolutely necessary. It's survival of the fittest out at sea, and they're sure that that must apply on land too... right?
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Marinoff (father, alive) [+23]
- Karenka (mother, alive) [+25]
- Luruli (very dear friend and older sister figure, alive) [+5]
- The rest of their ship's crew (various family figures, alive) [+various ages]
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Pirate ship
HISTORY:
Karofka has never belonged to the land. Born to two pirates on a ship in international waters, the sea had been what they'd called home for as long as they could remember. He was one of two children on this particular ship, the other being a girl 5 years his senior named Luruli. Karof was assigned female at birth, but he knew early on that that just wasn't going to cut it for him. He fixed that very quickly and made everyone on board aware of it.
He spent his early childhood running around from deck to deck, fishing, and learning from the adults aboard the ship. It was a crew of great variety, former crafters, former weyr- and holdborns, descendants of the holdless, and, much like his parents, former traders with greed that outgrew their caravans. He learned how to read and write from the ex-crafters, how to barter from the traders, and how to read the night sky like it was a map on paper. One of his fondest memories was outfishing a former seacrafter (and it would be the only time he did so), catching a much larger fish (and having to get his father to help reel it in). He kept a tooth from the encounter and now wears it as a necklace around their neck. In their little mind, life couldn't get any better.
As he was just a child, he was kept away from the darker nature of the pirating trade. He knew his parents were pirates, but since he was made to stay on the boat with Luruli and whoever was guarding the ship, he wouldn't fully understand what that meant until much later. While their parents and shipmates were busy stealing their bodyweight in loot, Luruli was keeping the two of them occupied. Songs, games, stories, whatever she could think of to pass the time until their crewmates had returned. He looked up to her as an older sister figure, and she could often be found with them tagging along behind her.
Once he was ten turns old, he was formally told what the adults aboard the ship did for a living. He wasn't shocked. In fact, it made a great deal of sense, them sneaking off with nothing and coming back with a great deal more than what they started with. He was okay with it, well, why wouldn't he be? He'd been surrounded by pirates and their values since he was a child. He didn't know any better, so he just thought that was the way to be.
The adults decided he was old enough to work but not old enough to join in the stealing, and they put him wherever he was needed aboard the ship. Karof learned the basics of many of the jobs, but he wasn't interested in some of the more 'intellectual' ones. No, he was much better at manual labor. After he sprouted up to 6'7" and put on a good bit of muscle, they kept him there. He did the heavy lifting, helped with the ropes and the sails, and aided in repairs.
During a supply stop, a little orange kitten wandered aboard the ship and was found only after they had set sail. Karofka decided that that kitten would be his, and his it was.
They could count on two hands the number of times they'd stepped off the ship in their 15 turns. Docking at Semaca a turn after the pirate outpost had been established finally push it past a hand-countable number. His crew ended up settling in the pirate hold when he was 16, to his dismay. Not only did he hate the stability of the ground (his legs were used to adjusting his balance to the rocking of the waves), he didn't like the looks that some of the Semacans gave him. He nor his clothes were dirty, and he wasn't doing anything wrong, so what were the looks for? Was it just because he was one of the pirates that came to shore? Why was that such a bad thing? Pirates weren't bad, were they?
Well, as it turned out, piracy wasn't the most common way to live, and it wasn't exactly smiled upon either. For all he understood, the Semacans were only allowing them to live there because they could provide them a service- acquisition. This knowledge flipped their perception of their entire life on its head. Had he been living a bad life? Were his parents bad people? Was Luruli, who had grown old enough to participate in genuine piracy alongside the rest of the crew, a bad person? Was everyone aboard that ship bad? And was he, who aided and abetted them, equally as bad for doing so?
Yes, decided his brain after much deliberation, he was. He wanted to be better. Become an upstanding citizen. A rider, even a handler, someone who could do good and be good and, more importantly, be seen as good. He went to the latest Dragon Day with high hopes that he could be searched to stand on the sands. Luckily for them, they were. He now stands as a dual candidate, eager to impress to the first thing that happens to roll his way.
