Raphael Quinn

[Raphael Quinn]

Player Name: Ethan [Lucian]

Name: Raphael [goes by Rafe, said "Ray-ph"] Quinn
Age: 24
Race: Human
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 168 lbs.

Physical Description/Personality:
Raphael looks like he lives- fast, shrewd, and devilishly sly. His crooked smile is nearly charming when coupled with natural good looks. Quick hands and even quicker hay-yellow eyes give him a natural edge in his greatest love after himself- gambling. He is in good physical shape because of vanity primarily, and necessity afterward, his build considered to be slightly thinner than average. His short-cut hair is a shocking silver, and not as the result of any coloring on his part. However, he typically wears a knit black cap to cover his hair and thus usually keeping people from seeing it.

Aside from the cap he typically wears a slightly-big dark blue dress shirt with undone cuffs paired with black trousers held up by a thin belt and silver buckle. He wears over this a well-fitted black traveler's coat, his feet shod in leather boots [all of these things aquired over the years in various gambling endeavors].

Vain, proud, and damn good at living in trouble, Raphael was taught all of life is chance and has taken the lesson to heart.

Possessions:
His single physical weapon, a short gladius-like sword that when he carries on his person is bucked across the backs of his hips, belted over his traveler's coat.

Within his traveler's coat he always carries a deck of cards, dice, in addition to tobacco, paper, and matches. His money is carefully portioned out, some readily accessible from his pockets but the rest stitched into his boots and coat.

He also has one large silver coin that he never gambles with but is always fiddling with, rolling it back and forth between his knuckles, flipping and catching it.



Strengths/Abilities:

Swordplay - Not by any means particularly skilled, but he knows just enough to be dangerous. The gladius is close-range and heavy, not really a skill weapon to begin with.

Telekinesis - Here is Raphael's real skill, his perpetual ace-up-the-sleeve. His innate ability to effect is surroundings with his mind. Ever since childhood he's been able to do little things, like make a marble roll across the floor or [with a great deal of focus] make a piece of parchment paper stand up on end. With puberty though it strengthened notably, being able to pick up small rocks and knock over chairs, slam doors closed. He can feel that he has the ability to make it stronger, more precise, but it would require time, focus, and a great deal of effort and frankly; he is not particularly driven to do so, as currently it suits his needs just fine [that is, tipping up other player's cards, stopping the roll of the dice, etc.].

He can use it to do things with a fair amount of dexterity [untie a string, pour a bottle of wine], but he has to be able to see it to effect it [in other words he wouldn't be able to undo a lock without seeing the mechanisms inside it]. Moreover, he can make a lift in a certain area, suspending things of a lightweight nature [raising hats from heads, pulling up on skirts and coats], thus creating a startling diversion, but he cannot by any means individually manipulate them [or keep them up for very long], and just to lift so many things requires a huge amount of focus and energy [as he inadvertently is trying to tug upward on people, tables, the floor, etc.] and invariably gives him a horrible headache afterward.

He can lift and hurl one small object at a time with this ability [stones, flatware, etc.], but that is the most.

Wit/Intelligence - Rafe deals with more trouble in a month than most people seen in a decade. As a result he has developed a keen instinct for when things are going against him as well as the remarkable ability to talk himself out of trouble.



Weaknesses:

Compulsive Gambler - There's no other way to say it. Raphael lives to gamble and as a result frequently owns nothing and what he does own is owed to someone else. A direct result is that there are many, many people who would like to see him dead. Moreover he can rarely walk away from a good bet, even when all reason says he can't win.

Arrogance - Raphael is good-looking, innately skilled, and has survived more insanity and close calls than most. It's no surprise then that he's got it all figured out and is the best thing to happen to life since sex. This makes him impossible for most people to deal with.

Casanova-complex - He loves women and believes that all women love or are bound to love him, sooner or later. Curves and cooing have a rather profound effect his reasoning capabilities.



History:

Born in the region far to the west of Marn, against the ocean, Raphael was the youngest of four boys born to a fisherman and his wife. Despite that his older brothers took to their father's trade as soon as they were able to walk, Raphael never felt the kinship to this place and lifestyle that his family seemed to love. He grew to hate the meager living and the everyday-sameness of fishing life, which earned him the disapproval of his mother and resentment of his father and brothers.

He was five when he first noted his ability to effect his surroundings with thought. One of the first games he learned was marbles, which he played continually with his brothers and the other boys who lived in their small fishing village. On that day he had been playing a particularly fierce game with one of the most skilled older boys in the village. On a crucial play he realized he had not put enough force on his shot as it was slowly rolling short of its target, and in despair he had willed the marble to keep rolling.

And it had.

Everyone present knew something had happened. The marble should have stopped rolling, but it had nudged along and made that crucial connection with his opponent's marble, knocking it beyond the confines of the ring.

But who could say he cheated? They all saw that he had done nothing.

Raphael went home that day with a much heavier bag of marbles, beating most of the boys in the village that afternoon. He told no one, because who was there to confide in with this secret?

As he grew, so grew the animosity between his father and himself. It became clear as he reached his early teens that he had no desire or inclination for the life of a fisherman, while he daily slipped away from the home and snuck to the village where he watched the older men play cards and dice for old coins and gleaming trifles. Beatings did nothing to change his disposition as he consistently evaded going out in the boats or partaking in any way with the doings of the village trade, while he became something of a novelty to the local low-lifes, a charismatic boy who played cards and dice with astounding competency, which horrified his conservative parents to no end when they heard of this.

He was fifteen when he returned to his home late one night to find the door locked and the lights off. He pounded at the door, shouting for his family to open up, but only for a moment before he knew what was happening. He stood there for only a minute as he processed that he was officially shut off from his family now, trying to summon up emotion that he thought he should be feeling.

But there was none.

Three months later found him farther inland that he suspected any of the people in his village had ever been before in their lives. He survived as a scamp, begging and stealing with remarkable emotion and skill. It took him one day of gambling to find out that this wasn't the old men of his village. It didn't matter how obvious it was that you weren't cheating, if you didn't lose sometimes, people would beat the hell out of you anyway and say you were cheating because they hated losing.

Rafe collected the lesson, his bruises, and himself and moved on to the next town.

Naturally good with people and with an innate sense of timing, Raphael became quite a sensation in small circles wherever he went, though never in one place for too long. The handsome and charismatic boy became well-aware of the extent of his charms and abilities, and exploited them to the fullest degree. However, for all of his intelligence it seemed that he would always, sooner or later, push his luck too far and then it became necessary to clear out of town fast.

So he lives to this day, playing his life on chance and the exploiting of the moment. He is young, resourceful, and always looking for the upperhand.



Favorite Quote:
"I'll die someday, but damned if it'll be this one."