Nathaniel Ankah

[Nathaniel Ankah]

NATHANIEL ANKAH "I'm too old to be dreaming of changing the world or go carving my name into stone. I'm a man, now. Got responsibilities. Got a woman to take care of. That's me. Can't let any pair of tits, dice or fists sucker me into something not worth the bloody bother..." Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 31 Birthday: 25th Day of Fall, 483AV Birthplace: I don't remember... somewhere west, maybe. Appearance: Best described as "towering" and "solid", Nate is certainly a man that few fail to see coming their way. Just over six-and-a-half-feet tall, a life of manual labor and gutter brawling has left him with a bulky, powerful physique, but one of hard, practical use rather than studiously observed exercise. His callused hands and weathered skin speak of days spent lugging around hundred-weight bags of grain at the Docks, and the scars dotting his arms, torso and neck of bitter quarrels in the bars and brothels after. Stark, pale green eyes stare out at the world with typical Sunberthian sullenness, but Nate's is a face that's surprisingly warm when it creases with a smile or bursts out a roll of rumbling laughter. His hair is usually cut very short - less chance of mites and fleas, for the Sunset Quarter is hardly pristine - and Nate probably wouldn't know what you were talking about if you asked how he "styled" it. He usually has a couple of days worth of stubble on his face, save for the Fall and Winter, where he lets it grow into a full beard covering his chin and throat, a cost-efficient way to keep his face warm in the harsh Sunberth cold. Character Concept Well, what you see is what you get, sweetheart. What was in that mug? Wine? What a coincidence, let me just get another for you. Now, what were you saying? Oh, want to talk about me, did you? Well, I'd much rather discuss your charming self... oh, there's not that much to say, really. What did the poet say? "I was born, I grew up"... that's pretty much me. Not a great mage or a shiny knight, my honey. Just a big lad from the docks who's good at hauling things-ah! Here's your wine! Prompt girl, our waitress... Oh, love, you're really going to push this? Really? Well, fine, if you want it... lemme just get my thoughts together. Me, me, me... hmm... well... I'd say I'm a practical man. Got to put food on the table and pay the rent, right? Man's got to have his priorities in order... doing what? Oh... no, no, not anymore, love. Oh, you think so, do you? Well, yes, back in the way-back-when I suppose I got into a scrape or ten, but not anymore. That shyke's only fun for so long, and y'don't find many old men there. Any other reason? Now you mention it, yes. Sure you don't want another? Oh, yes, right, ah... reason, yeah... her name's Kayleah. Ha! Don't look at me like that, girl! She's... well, I suppose you could say she's like my mother. Not my actual mother, though, I don't know where she is. Hmm? Oh. Long story. Another night, maybe. Speaking of which, what are you doing tomorrow? Gods, but you are curious, aren't you? So many questions! Nathaniel before ye isn't too complicated, girl. He's not a boy, he's a man, and all that romantic shyke about proving himself and spitting in the gods' faces... ah, fuck it. Gets you nothing but grief and a grave, if yer lucky. Like I say: priorities. And there's a lady worth more to me than a loaded ship from Eyktol depending on me working fair-to-legal and bringing home the mizas. 'scuse me while I just pay- Ah-ah-ah. Now, that wasn't too smart, was it? You run along, love, grab me another ale. I won't be long here. No, she's just leaving. I told you I ran with the bad boys for a fair while, my honey. Think I don't know the feel of a whore feeling up my purse under the table? You were a good one, though, but came on too strong. Shoulda' been more focused with getting me into bed, not my life story. That might have worked. Oh, stop your whining, girl. This is Sunberth, and I'm a son of those gutters as much as I am my mother's womb, wherever the fuck she ended up. You played the game and you lost... now hold still. This is going to really hurt... oh, stop crying. A few years back I would have cut your whole hand off and been done with it. I'll just smash it a few times with the handle. You'll be light-fingerin' with your other hand for a season or two, then back to old trick, eh? Hold still. Stop blubbering, girl. Honestly. Remember where you are... Character History The Good Ol', Bad Ol' Days The past? Pah... how far back you wanna go? I mean, it all gets more and more hazy and bloody depressing the further back I try and remember, so... lets get that out the way first, yeah? I dunno where my family came from. West, probably. Outside Zeltiva, maybe? Nyka? Ravok? Shyke, fuck does it matter, eh? Never gonna find 'em... tried, when I was younger, but where do you start? I remember... I remember the smell of salt. The sea, probably. Tall trees, green all year round... not much of a village, close to a big city with lots of ships. Slavers came. At least, I think they were. Y'know, kill the men like my father, take the kids and the women and anyone else too weak to fight back. Burned everything. Fires. Choking smoke. Iron on my wrists, my ankles, weighing me down as I tried to... Anyway. Didn't last. Not long, anyway. We got close to some big, smelly, smoking shithole - Sunberth, you fat fucking whore - and another bunch of bastards had a crack at the first bunch. Ain't that just the fuckin' Berth for you, eh? Can't even go on grabbing slave without some bastard trying to cut in on your action. Anyway, fucking bedlam, as you could guess. All just men in armor smashing long bits of metal into each other, and of course we're going fucking mad in the cages on wheels, and the horses bolt, the cage turns over... The hole was big enough for me. Just me. I was still little then. Gods... eight summers. Maybe nine. My mother pushed me towards it and when I tried to hold on she smacked me, hard, and pushed me in the hole. Grey eyes. She had... eyes like thick mist. I still see them at night when it rolls in during the spring. I see them when... yeah, thanks, another'll do me fine, cheers. Thirsty work, talking about the past, eh? I get through the hole and the broken metal tears up my side and I'm reaching for my mother and she's just... backing away from me. Screaming at me to go. My older brother's doing the same. My sister. I dunno... maybe I could have dragged one of them out. But they were fighting like mad around me and the other slaves were starting to crowd around closer, and I reached and some fucker scratched my arm and I pulled away... ended up in the ditch. Covered in mud, bleeding down my side. Something big in armor smashed down next to me and it was one of... fuck, I don't even know. I kicked him in the face and ran. Into bushes that grabbed and tore at me, across stinking water, until the grass and screams vanished and I was... in a city, out of fucking nowhere. I tell you, mate, Sunberth never snuck up on anyone, but it surprised the fuck out of me, lemme tell ya... First year or two, gods below and above... I was more like those dogs you see skulking around than a boy. All lean and feral, wide-eyed and sticky-fingered. Wouldn't have known manners if they'd come up and decked me. Didn't speak much... didn't care to. Just wanted to steal enough, fight hard enough and sleep safe enough to survive each day. Day after day after day after... well... you get the idea. Two years. Lot of time and bad memories... then I tried to rob the wrong lady. Sunset Quarters. Now, this was before Jillene, and Calyn hadn't been there that long. Place was... still a little rough around the edges, moreso than now, anyway. Lot of gangs running in and out of the houses, bodies on the streets... well, once again, more than now. So I saw this older lady putting out her washing and I smelled... gods, it was like ambrosia and freshly-shaved cunt, pardon my Myrian. Just wonderful, so I thought, "While she's busy with her delicates, we'll have a shufti at what's on the stove, aye?" Old girl must have had ears like a bat. I get in the kitchen and WHACK! Bloody frying pan to the back of the head. I wake up and I'm struggling and snarling and there's this old biddy straddling my chest with her arm cocked back for another swing. "You going to behave?!" "No!" WHACK! Gods, didn't make that mistake again. Came to again with my head twice the size it should be... or just feeling that way... and something definitely like blood in my mouth... and, oh yeah, a loose tooth. Kayleah had some muscle back then, lemme tell ya. But she had more than that, too. Most woulda' kept hitting until they heard that CRUNCH and then tossed me out for the dogs to chew over. But... she got off me... I felt the weight just fall away and when I woke up... there was a plate of what I'd smelled sitting there just for me. It was pie. Cow tongue pie, all fluffy crust and gravy and it was... she put it on my own plate. Spoon and everything. You know what I did? When I saw her standing behind it, looking all expectant and patient? I grabbed the plate and ran for it, like any other Sunberth rat. Didn't even stop to listen to her, just... ran. I ate it like an animal, nearly choked on it, and the thing was, when I ate it, it... didn't taste good anymore. Because I didn't understand it. Two years I'd been living like a wolf, and then someone treats me like a dog. No, better than that... like a little boy. I curled up under the storm drain that night and I couldn't sleep. I remembered her eyes. They weren't grey. They were brown. Deep and soft and unafraid of the little guttershit from the bad end. I went back the next day. Sat across the street in rags and waited for her to come out. She saw me and she crossed her arms... and I bought back her plate and spoon. "Now then," she said, and she didn't hit me, just used The Tone, "Isn't that better?" "I dunno. Is it?" "Well, I haven't hit you with the frying pan, have I?" "... not yet." She laughed and it made her hair shake and the years fell off her like... like snow from trees when you shake them. Like all the wrinkles and the pain and the sorrow from living in this cunt of a city, they didn't matter to her. The little boy had made her laugh, and he smiled at her. I couldn't remember the last time I'd smiled. For anyone. Anything. "My name's Kayleah. What's your name?" I had to think hard on that one. "... Nathaniel. I think." "You think? No parents?" Dunno what I said after that put she didn't push it. Not that day. "Well, Nate... you mind if I call you that? Oh, good. Nate, if you want some food, you can do some chores for me. I can swing a pan well enough but I'm not as young as I was and a young thing like you could help out surely, hmm? How's that sound?" I said it sounded good. That was... fuck me, nearly twenty years ago. Days became seasons became years, and before I could blink quick, I was living with her. Not like that, get that fucking smirk off your face. Gods, man, she's forty years older than me and I barely knew what my cock was for back then, let alone how to use it... that way! Bloody pervert... After a few days, Kayleah asked if I had a place to stay, and I told her the truth. She thought about that for a while and just like that, she made up her mind: I'd stay with her. It'd only be a cot in the corner but it was under a roof and there'd be food... as long as I worked for it. Sounded good to me. I got older, and I got bigger, as you can guess. Helping her with her sewing and laundry became working at the docks... and other things, when night fell. Kayleah taught me to use my tongue again, not just my hands, but while that helped with finding work, it also made trouble easier to get a hold of, too. Gods, there are more gangs in this city than any man can count. I don't mean the "syndicates". They might as well be Ivak and fucking Sylir for all the street rats see of 'em. I mean the down and dirty ones, the kids running around and waging war on each other outta boredom, rolling drunks, running little dice games if they can get hold of the bones, y'know? Then when you grow up, show you can survive and turn some coin, maybe the big boys take an interest. Sounded good to me, that did. And, like I say, I got bigger. Docks filled me out, sewing made my hands quick, and I'd already cut my teeth on the gutters for two petching years... yeah, I took to it pretty good. Took this little beauty off the first man I killed. Boy, really. Big lad from the far west, just didn't know when to let a grudge lie, y'know? Wanted me dead. Didn't want it hard enough. He didn't need the blade, so... I took it. Kayleah didn't like it, and Cheva fuck me if that didn't actually matter to me when she said it. Every night she'd tell me I was better, worth more, smarter - ha, that was a sodding laugh! - and every night I felt like a turd because I knew I'd go back to it. I was good at it, y'know? Anyone can stack sacks of flour or rice or grain or bolts of silk on the dock... but to be a street demon? Takes sand. Get you attention, respect, all that stuff. Gods. I was such a dumb little shit. Then things went bad, about five years back. Kayleah... well... she was always too trusting. Same thing that happened to me, happened to another kid when I was away one night. Only he played nice, nice enough to take that frying pan from her, and... she was older then. Not as strong. I wasn't there. I should have been, I was... at the tavern, probably. Boozing it up with cunts I didn't like and whores I could barely stand to stick my cock into. I came home and she was... she was bad. Legs bashed up. Face all pulpy. I came apart like someone'd thrown a brick at a mirror and carried her down to the sawbones and begged him to help her. I emptied my purse, I offered the blade I'd taken as a trophy, anything. He did what he could... what any Berth sawbones could do, I suppose. But when she woke up, I had to tell he she couldn't walk again, not without sticks. I held her hand and sobbed as she smiled at me with her swollen face and her puffy lips and patted my cheek. I should have been there. I wasn't. I'm never making that mistake again. Grown up a lot since then... thanks, your health, mate. Got harder, I think, but cleaner, if you can believe that shyke in this fucking city, eh? Cut out the whoring and the booze and the fighting... well... the last one, now and then. Rent's gotta get paid somehow and Kayleah don't know it. But most days I'm at the dock hefting sacks or crates or looking scary on one of the wagons when we make deliveries. Kukri and mace on my belt, big fella like me? It suffices, most of the time. Nah, nah, none for me, mate. Actually, gotta get back to the old girl. Promised myself a quick half after work and here I am, nattering away. Well, I'll see you later, yeah? Thanks foor the brews, this... should just about cover my end. Ahh, shut yer face, mate. You can pay next time. Language Fluent Language: Common Basic Language: Fratava Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Brawling 25SP 25 Novice Bodybuilding 15SP 15 Novice Weapon: Kukri 10SP 10 Novice Weapon: Mace, Heavy 10SP 10 Novice Instrument: Fiddle 5SP 5 Novice Observation +3 3 Novice Rhetoric +3 3 Novice Socialization +1, +2 3 Novice Unarmed Combat +2 2 Novice Endurance +2 2 Novice Philosophy +1 1 Novice Lores : Helpful Lores: (Pick 2) Lore of Sunberth Street Layout Lore of Sunberth Culture Location: Al's Tankard Fighting from necessity Weighing up an opponent Taking a beating Dragging out a fight will yield a better payout Lores Professor Geloron: Passionate but old Lore of the University of Zeltiva: West Wing How to address professors The difference between Zeltivan and Sunberthian humor Gelron's Warning: Be careful with Mages Lore of the University of Zeltiva: East Wing Lore of the University of Zeltiva: Stonemiller's Office Differences between East and West Wing Professor Stonemiller: Head of the Djed College Lore of Stonemiller's all-knowing gaze Overgiving: The overuse of Djed The College of Djed: The three tasks to enroll Lore of the University of Zeltiva: Scholar's Asylum Recognizing the Sound of Madness Bethany: Chief Orderly of the Asylum Lore of the University of Zeltiva: Living Quarters The Process of becoming a College of Djed Student Possessions 1 Set of Clothing -Simple Shirt -Simple Pants -Simple Undergarments -Simple Cloak or Coat -Simple Boots 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Metal) -Brush (Metal) -Soap -Razor -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel Weapon: Mace, Heavy Weapon: Kukri Weapon: Dagger, Punching Weapon: Brass Knuckles Training Post, Simple Dog, Guard - Akinva Deerstalker ("Jorka") Fiddle Heirloom: Housing Location: Living Quarters, University of Zeltiva House: A plain but well-kept single apartment in the University that Nate shares with his beloved Akinva Deerstalker, Jorka. Ledger Item/Purchase Cost/Reward Total Starting +100gm 100 gm Weapon: Mace, Heavy -12gm 88gm Weapon: Dagger, Punching -2gm 86gm Training Post, Simple -5gm 86gm Weapon: Kukri -15gm 71gm Dog, Guard -25gm 46gm Gambling Winnings +75gm 126gm Contract Fee +100gm 226gm Living Expenses (Spring 514AV) -45gm 181gm Gambling Winnings +200gm 381GM University Courses/Housing -100gm 281gm Thread List Spring, 514AV : Gray Areas (Matthew) - 21st of Spring - Fresh from an illicit money-making errand, Nate is surprised to find a too-smooth visitor in his home, charming Kay and making him uncomfortable. Pit Sweat - 21st of Spring - Looking to make some quick money for Kay, Nate goes to a tavern where the action downstairs is both profitable and brutal. Meh, Close Enough... (Noven) - 33rd of Spring - Desperate for extra money as Kay's condition worsens but forcing himself to stick to her words about avoiding the violence of his past, Nate visits an old acquaintance to see if he can do a little bad for a bigger good... and get paid for it. [Dreamscape] Just Another Bar Brawl (Tinnok) and Lost Night (Tinnok) - "Bit of a queer duck, this one, but 'twas a good scrap, lemme tell ya... and that was before I even got to the girl." Harsh Realities (Matthew) - 37th of Spring - Having earned enough to keep them both afloat, Nate finds the spare coin to get Kayleah taken to a doctor... and the news is not good. And So They Go (Matthew) - 45th of Spring - Kay is out of time and out of options, and just as Nate feared, she's turning to him for her release. On Her Way (Matthew and Noven) - 50th of Spring - Nate buries the best part of what becomes his past, mourns the departed with new and rediscovered friends. Summer, 514AV You Go To What You Know (Raenetyr) - 10th of Summer - "Old habits are like greased holes: far too easy to slip back into." Needle In A Nailstack (Raenetyr) - 14th of Summer - Days after first meeting, the rough-hewn bounty hunter Nate met outside Tall Johnny's returns, this time with an offer of work. Bottoms Up! (Loghan) - 17th - Your ordinary, average, humdrum barroom apocalypse comes back to bite Nate in the hairy rear when he finds his nemesis from that brawl in the Blood Pits... fighting on his side! The Samaritan (Edreina) - 19th of Summer - A ragged refugee limps back into Sunberth, and a still-grieving Nathaniel becomes her unlikely helper. One-Way Trip For Two (Edreina) - 20th of Summer - In the space of two days, Nate goes from a guide to a traveler... to becoming one himself. Unfurling Greenery (Tinnok) - 65th of Summer - Their first time, she had been the jungle witch venturing into the urban wilderness of Sunberth; this time, it's the city boy that's scrambling around a verdant, bountiful and utterly hostile new clime... with only one surly protector to aid him. One Quite Ordinary Step, Really - 80th of Summer - Nathaniel Ankah's voyage to Zeltiva comes to an end, and he begins to start a new life in somewhere that doesn't stink of fresh blood and dried vomit. Terror And Tedium - 81st of Summer - Wasting no time in his new home, Nate marches into the University of Zeltiva and enrolls at the College of Djed to learn Shielding and Morphing... and into the College of Applied Skill to work on his much-neglected musical skills. Qualifications (Ricky) - 81st of Summer - Pigs are flying and Leth shines red and fish are walking West End, because Nathaniel Ankah is going to be... a Guardsman. Breathing It In (I'saya) - 83rd of Summer - Nate takes his first jaunt in Zeltiva, exploring the night life and hoping to absorb some of the music he seeks to learn.