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sean kendrick ([personal profile] nojockey) wrote2018-06-21 02:15 am
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( ooc / application )


SEAN KENDRICK
"Why yes," he said, "I know a cure for everything. Salt water." "Salt water?" I asked him. "Yes," he said, "in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea."

STATISTICS
NAME Sean Kendrick
AGE 19
DOB November 1

HEIGHT 5'8"
BUILD Lanky but strong
HAIR Black
EYES Dark

THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE

If there are a hundred people milling in a room, look for the corner that's completely still. That will be where Sean is standing.

ABILITIES & SKILLS
CAPAILL UISCE
There's no one on the island better with the water horses than Sean.
MINDING HIS BUSINESS
Stay out of his way and he'll stay out of yours.
SILENCE
He will only say what he needs to say, no more and no less.

QUOTES

We are shoulder to shoulder due to the size of the cab, and if Gratton is made of flour and potatoes, Sean is made of stone and driftwood and possibly those prickly anemones that sometimes wash up on shore.



"I don't trust the ocean, either; it would kill me as soon as not. It doesn't mean I'm afraid of it."



With his back to us, Sean tugs the halter from the mare's head. She kicks out, but he steps out of the way as if it were nothing at all. With a shake of her mane, she leaps mightily into the water. For a moment she struggles over the waves, and then she is swimming. Just a wild black horse in a deep blue sea full of the ashes of other dead boys.



Sean, as always, gets by on one word while everyone else needs five or six.



It's only because I've lived with brothers that I realize, after a moment, that he's not looking outside but rather inside, wrestling with something inside himself. And there's nothing for it but to wait.



"I've grown up alongside Corr. My father rode him and my father lost him, and then I found him again. He's the only family I have."



"Mr. Kendrick was born on a horse and he'll die on one, and maybe that's not something you can breed for. He's one of those rare men who can make a horse work for him but never asks for more than they have."



I try to put my finger on how it is that Sean Kendrick seems so different to other people, what it is about him that makes him seem so intense and still at the same time, and I think, finally, that it’s something about hesitation. Most people hesitate between steps or pause or are somehow uneven about the process. Whether that process is wrapping a leg or eating a sandwich or just living life. But with Sean, there’s never a move he’s not sure of, even if it means not moving at all.
IN CHARACTER
Character Name: Sean Kendrick
Canon: The Scorpio Races
Canon Point: Before the races, after quitting his job

In-Game Tattoo Placement: The two antlers will be placed on either of his inner forearms, reaching from his wrists to about halfway up his arms.
Current Health/Status: Alive and well.
Apparent Age: Early 20s, maybe?
Actual Age: 19
Species: Human (although people like to whisper that he has a little sea magic in him)

HISTORY
The island of Thisby has a unique tradition—the Scorpio Races, held in November every year, when the water horses known as capaill uisce climb out of the sea and riders try to conquer them to ride. The races are dangerous and often deadly, as the water horses are not easily tamed and will as soon eat or drown a man as let one ride them, and it isn't uncommon for riders, trainers, and observers alike to lose their lives either to the sea or the horses (or both). This tradition has existed for centuries, so long that there are ancient cave drawings depicting a water horse and its dead rider—but only on Thisby, where the island is much the capaill uisce's as it is the people's. Or perhaps only on Thisby because they respect and fear the horses more than anywhere else might.

Sean Kendrick's father was a rider in the races and a trainer of horses by trade. Until Sean was ten, his father rode in the races and survived—but that year, his father was thrown from the back of a red stallion named Corr, dragged under the hooves of dozens more capaill uisce, and reduced to little more than a red smear in the sand. Although Sean had known for a long time that the races were deadly, and that November was a fatal month for many, it was the first time that he had paid the price himself.

Following his father's death, Sean lost his mother to the mainland, leaving him effectively an orphan on Thisby. He was hired by the Malvern family, the richest family on Thisby and owner of the largest stables on the island, to care for the horses and capaill uisce that the family owned and trained for the races. He did well—better than anyone expected, maybe—and quickly earned himself a well-deserved reputation as the island's most reliable horse man. Whether it was innate knowledge or whether Sean had a little bit of sea magic in him, well, that was a mystery left to the whisperings of the island people, but the fact was that Sean had a way with the capaill uisce that nobody else did—and it was for that reason that he was able to re-capture Corr, the red stallion who threw his father, when he was only thirteen years old. After six years together, the strong bond between Corr and Sean has made Sean a four-time winner of the Scorpio Races.

His skill with the horses made him invaluable to the Malvern family, as the sale of horses and the training of capaill uisce was most of how they made their money. It also made it hard for Sean to escape them. More than anything, what Sean wanted was to buy the stallion Corr and live in his father's house on the cliffs outside town, where he could train and raise horses of his own—he would never leave the island, least of all without Corr. But Corr belonged to the Malverns, and Sean owed them a debt. Benjamin Malvern was motivated by nothing more than money, and he knew that without Sean, his horse empire would fall apart. So he refused to sell Corr, keeping Sean effectively bound to his will.

But even Sean's patience had limits. With the encouragement of an American investor called George Holly, Sean gave Malvern an ultimatum—either sell him Corr and keep him working at the stable yard, or Sean would walk away. Malvern chose the latter, and so now Sean is poised at a crossroads, trying to find a way to earn his and Corr's freedom without compromising the core foundations of himself.

Hometown/World
Isle of Thisby, off the coast of England, near the Isle of Man. Earth.

CRAU History and Impact
Sean lived in Deerington for several months (from July '18 to April '19). During that time, he unsurprisingly wasn't much of a social butterfly, but he did make a few close friends—and more than that, he got a taste of what it could be like to live on his own, out from under the thumb of the Malverns, with Corr as his horse and not functionally a horse he rents from his employers. In that sense, it would be a little... traumatic, for lack of a better word, for Sean to get used to such a life over the course of nine months, only to be shoved back into the drudgery of his original life on Thisby. Being back in Deerington would make him a little suspicious, but also even more keenly aware of how quickly all of it can disappear, so it could either make him withdraw entirely or make him appreciate it even more and work harder to be active.

PERSONALITY
Sean is first and foremost a very solemn person. I think this has to do with several factors, but the most notable are as follows.

Sean grew up watching his father train water horses for the Scorpio Races, a race which is widely known to be extremely dangerous and which claims lives even in the training periods before the races begin. From a young age, he had a deep understanding of personal risk and human mortality, as he undoubtedly witnessed many a death in the process of watching and helping his father train. In fact, one of the deaths he witnessed was his father's, and it was not exactly a pleasant sight. His father was thrown from Corr's back toward the head of the pack of horses in the race, but by the time the horses in the back had passed his father is described as being little more than a crimson smear on the sand. However, Sean's emotional reaction as he witnesses his father's death is less one of shock and horror and more one of understanding and almost expectation, as if he had already realized that this was a possibility and steeled himself against it.

Growing up on Thisby, Sean had to learn to work hard and earn his keep earlier than most other children would have. After his father died, that same year his mother left for the mainland and abandoned Sean on Thisby, making him effectively an orphan. That same year, at only Ten years old, Sean was hired by the Malvern family to help raise and train their horses—not because they took pity on a poor child, but because of Sean's natural gift with horses. Becoming a working member of society as a young teenager is a heavy burden to shoulder, but Sean manages. This sense of responsibility undoubtedly contributes to his serious nature and tendency to complete his work in silence without saying anything more than is necessary. By the time of the story, when Sean is nineteen, he's already developed such a reputation that people give him a berth when he walks through town, his name and face are common knowledge not only among locals but among tourists as well, and whenever something goes wrong with the water horses he's the first person that they come to find. Sean has a great deal of personal responsibility and he takes it very seriously.

Finally, the water horses themselves are more sea than they are horse, wild through and through and very difficult to break for riding. Sean, possibly more than anyone else, understands exactly how frail humans are in the face of creatures like these, and in the face of the sea itself, which has a magic nobody really understands. In a way, this awareness of his own smallness is something that would probably weigh on him, and in combination with the other things mentioned above I think it makes sense that Sean is such a recalcitrant, serious person. Even Puck describes him this way, saying that Sean never speaks a word that isn't necessary and never makes a move he doesn't mean, even if that means staying still and silent for a while first.

MORALS
It's hard to succinctly summarize Sean's moral code. In terms of religion, he doesn't have much of one—in the novel, Puck notes that she never sees him at the local Christian church, St. Columba. However, later on Sean participates in a traditional pagan funeral for a young man killed by a capall uisce, suggesting that he is at least familiar with the old Celtic religion that governed the island before the onset of Christianity. It seems likely to me that Sean is not particularly religious, but that if he were to choose, he would feel more affinity towards the old traditions that revere the sea and the land.

Aside from religion, Sean is not a hero, nor a champion for anyone. He isn't out to save anyone except maybe himself, and it's rare for him to involve himself in other people's affairs. Maybe the best summary for this would be "live and let live"—as long as others aren't bothering him, Sean won't bother anybody either.

Sean is also very familiar with death. He understands and accepts it as part of the natural course of things, and he's comfortable with making a choice about who to save and when. This is a natural byproduct of his lifetime spent working with the capaill uisce, who are violent (although not necessarily malevolent, per se) and have a tendency to bite the throats out of people who unwittingly stray too close. If it comes to it, and a capall uisce attacks someone nearby, Sean knows how to decide almost immediately whether that person can be saved, or whether it's better to let the water horse finish what it started before he tries to calm it down. As far as he's concerned, if someone chooses to put themselves in harm's way—such as training water horses for the Scorpio Races—then they've accepted the potential consequences, and while he won't stand idly by and let people get hurt, he doesn't feel a great deal of personal responsibility for it if they do.

However, there are at least two notable instances in the novel when Sean does take personal responsibility for someone's death. The first is when Mutt Malvern, the hot-tempered and egotistical son of his employer, goes out at night to try to catch a capall uisce of his own, although freshly-caught water horses are hard to control and Mutt doesn't have much experience. It goes about as well as one would expect, and as a result someone has to come and wake Sean to have him come to the beach and help. In the chaos, a friend of Mutt's—someone who hadn't wanted to take part, but was dragged there because he was unable to say no to Mutt's influence—is killed by the water horse. Sean's "revenge" is small but immediate. Despite being told by Mutt not to release the horse, Sean does so as soon as the horse is under control, sending it back to the sea.

The second instance is after Sean quits his job at the Malvern stable. One of his duties as their employee was to choose a capall uisce for Mutt to ride in each year's races—and he never chose Corr, partly because of his own attachment and partly because he truly did not believe that Mutt would be able to handle Corr. After he quits, though, Mutt immediately decides to ride Corr in the race, and brings him down to the beach to train. However, Sean was correct, and Mutt does not have what it takes to handle a stallion like Corr—so on the beach, Corr lashes out and kills one of the stable hands. This is something for which Sean feels some responsibility, since it was his actions (in quitting his job) that ultimately allowed Mutt to climb up on Corr's back the way he did.

Finally, Sean generally believes that issues with another person should be settled with that person, without bringing anyone else into it. His rivalry with Mutt is something he's fine enduring on his own, without losing his temper or giving in to the temptation to fight Mutt—but eventually Mutt takes it too far. He cuts the tendons on one of the water horses, thinking it's Corr, and renders the mare unable to walk—he also, during the race, specifically targets Sean's friend and romantic interest, Puck Connolly, in an attempt to gain retribution against Sean. These are things that Sean cannot abide—the issue is between him and Mutt, and bringing the horses into it, or bringing Puck into it, goes against his moral code.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses: It's arguably not magic, despite the whispers around town, but Sean is very, very good with horses, both regular and water.
Ability/Power/Magic Warping: N/A

Inventory
1. One outfit (jacket, shirt, boots, pants; one pocket of the pants full of salt, the other full of holly berries)
2. Corr, the water horse (he is in fact the size of a standard horse)
3. Corr's saddle
4. Corr's bridle and reins
5. A red ribbon tied with bits of iron
6. A seashell from the horse goddess (no magical power, just a charm)

Writing Samples

1. "Do you ever wonder about miracles?" Sean asks.

He's on the shore of the lake, shoes off, feet buried in the gritty sand that lines the edge. It's nothing like the beach on Thisby, but the sound of the water lapping gently at the shore is just barely enough like home to soothe.

Up to his knees in the murky lake water, Corr keens a low, sleepy noise. A night noise, Sean knows. He hears it for the call it is and answers in kind, a cluck of his tongue against the roof of his mouth such that Corr doesn't have to turn his head, doesn't have to look with his good eye to know Sean is there.

Naturally, Corr doesn't wonder about miracles. Sean, though, is halfway through a bottle of whisky and his mouth wet with it, tongue loose, thoughtful.

"All I ever wanted was you," he tells Corr, who ducks his head down to nudge at the surface of the water, maybe in search of fish. Cow would be better—fish are pale and slimy and bloodless&mash;but meat is meat and capaill uisce are not picky. "You and a place of my own, not the Malvern Yard. And I got it, in a way, didn't I?"

Corr sniffs the water and then snorts. Sean sighs. "You'd as soon eat me as let me ride you, wouldn't you," he says, with no heat and no accusation, and takes another drink of whisky. "But let me drink the sea if I'm not glad you're here."

2. August TDM Thread

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Min
Player Age: 18+
Player Contact: [plurk.com profile] citylovelights

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: sean kendrick: min
Permissions for Character: HERE
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes!

What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?
Jump scares are fine, but I most enjoy horror that's able to gain a response without overusing that kind of trick. Alfred Hitchcock films, Kairo, A Quiet Place, most of Stephen King's novels, etc. are all good examples in my opinion! I like horror that makes me feel creepy without ever actually giving an adrenaline rush per se, as I find that those are the movies that stick with me the most.

Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Rape, self-harm
Additional Information: None comes to mind, but I can always be contacted by Plurk or PM with any questions!

◇Min ◇18+ ◇PST (GMT-7) ◇PB: Francisco Lachowski ◇CODE BY TESSISAMESS