Linthus

Information

Player: Solly

Character Full Name: Linthus ‘Riptide' Brightsky

Character In-Game Name: Linthus

Nickname(s): Riptide

Association(s):

Race: Blood Elf

Class: Rogue

Age: 120

Sex: Male

Hair: Linthus, at best of times, maintains his hair very little. Being stick straight in nature, it generally doesn't tangle. The most attention it gets is when his hair gets too long and falls into his eyes. For this disturbance of Linthus' motion – his hair is rewarded with the razor sharp kiss of one of his blades. Of course, for a while when this newly shorn hair is.... newly shorn – he has a tendency to brush it back over the top of his head where it often makes soft spikes.

Eyes: His eyes are generally green in nature – much like other Blood Elves. His eyes are of a sea green hue. They are rarely hostile and generally regard the world with detached interest and perhaps a mild form of amusement.

Weight: 175lbs

Height: 6'1”

Alignment: Neutral with chaotic tendencies every now and then.

Appearance

Linthus likes sticking to low-key colors. He isn't too fussed about fashion so anything that's even vaguely comfortable is just fine by him. When he's ,ah, working... he likes to keep his face hidden.

Other: Occasionally, he has been known to roll up his mask and put it over his eyes to cut the light. And sometimes just to have a semi-legitimate reason to ignore people. But he only looks blind, right? Yep. And sometimes he pretends he's deaf, too.

Personality

Linthus generally tends to keep to himself. Reaching out and being super friendly to people isn't something he's overly known for. He's not mean or anything, but he does keep a lid on what he's generally feeling and thinking. Except when it comes to his cousin – his gut instincts are rarely wrong and he does like to let her know when he thinks they're missions might be a bit of a bad idea.

Or maybe they're not really ‘gut instincts' like a sort of sixth sense that allows him to predict certain aspects of the future. But more the sort of... Logic, I suppose. A high sense of self preservation.

A self preservation that Linthus is not afraid of maintaining – even if it means running away.

He's not overly big on ‘dying for honor' sort of thing. He kind of enjoys a certain measure of cowardice if it means staying alive. It means he's kind of likely to betray people, too. Not so much his own blood. But anyone that isn't a Blood Elf is definitely on the first to backstab list. Or, in the case of running away quickly, they'll be the first people he'll trip. Even Blood Elves aren't really that safe, mostly because he still carries a bit of paranoia when it comes to Blood Elves... With the whole being nearly killed by a couple of them in his travels because they rather enjoy a bit of mojo-stealing when the addiction sets in.

He kind of distrusts most people. He likes sticking close to his cousin, though. Family. Perhaps it helps him come to terms with the fact he's not likely ever to see his father again and that his mother probably succumbed to addiction and is most likely dead. Even with this feeling of loyalty or not wanting to be away from her for too long, he still doesn't have heart to heart chats with her all the time. Rarely comes to mind.

So, really, he's a man with few bonds. And a man with even fewer desires to make new bonds. However, when the mood strikes him, he will occasionally make an attempt to speak to people. Sometimes it's an amusing thing to do – talking to people, that is. Watching them is sometimes amusing as well. But of course, there are those people that are just so incredibly full of themselves that Riptide thinks they're worth ignoring. Lots of people are amusing to ignore, as well. Riptide's not usually one to blatantly insult people, that's not really his style. But he won't hesitate to have a chuckle at the expense of others.

When he's with the crew, he maintains a bit more of a congenial person. Vaguely friendly, if not mostly hung over. Or pretending to be hung over. It's hard to tell the difference. And he likes it like that.

Riptide does have things he likes to do. Like brewing new and potent droughts and making potions that do random stuff.... Perhaps a throwback to when he was a kid and practically the only time he spent with his mother she was brewing away or giving him brightly colored elixirs to drink.

He likes his job, too. But he doesn't really talk about that to people who aren't directly involved with his job because sometimes his job involves things that are a bit... Not really smiled upon.

Given Riptide's past – people might think that he's not really inclined to like poncy noble people. Riptide ignores poncy noble people. Love. Love's a good topic! No, Riptide has no romantical ties. If he has interests, he keeps them to himself. Unless of course he's with the crew and he'll put on the drunken pirate routine that almost anything with two legs and an active pulse is a goal. Or maybe he'll tell a story about the many kinds of women he's had. Whether he's really racked up as many people on his metaphorical bedpost as he claims, is anybody's guess. Hate should be mentioned, too. Or maybe not. Because Riptide doesn't actively hate anybody personally. Maybe a blanket statement on any race or person belonging or affiliated with the Alliance. It stems from the history. The whole betrayal thing. And the fact that he just generally doesn't trust people he meets.

Is Riptide lonely? Probably. Mostly. He would be more aware of his loneliness if he maintained some modicum of sobriety more often. Unfortunately for people who would like him to sober up – he'd far rather the haze of booze than the headsplitting pain that comes at times he can't control. Maybe it's all a control thing... I don't know, Linthus isn't being overly helpful in shedding a lot of light into his personality for me. But I suspect control could well be a part of his... Ness.

History

There had been a love affair. It usually happens that way. You know the kind...

It's how Linthus' life began. His mother was the bored noblewoman – supposed to marry some man of a decent income. Her life was going to be perfect.

Except, perfect is boring. Oh, so boring...

Enter Linthus' father. A surgeon. A doctor with a kind eyes and steady hands. They met over a sprained ankle (hers), he set it for her. They continued to speak after he discovered she was a skilled alchemist – science related blather ensued. Eventually they decided to try one of her experimental brews... They ended up drunk and procreating in the gardens.

Trouble came to a full blown poo storm when she began to show signs of, well... Pregnancy. The result was that her betrothed completely had an enormous hissy fit. Her parents faced a social bloodbath.... Unless, of course they disowned their naughty daughter and give her sister to Mr. Poncy Pants instead. Which they did. A family such as theirs with a decent social standing and producing fine mages wouldn't suffer the weight of this embarrassment well.

Luckily, the Brightsky's weren't arrogant fools (well, not as arrogant as most others) and took in the now disgraced and disowned woman. There was a quiet marriage and they moved out to the country or at least away from the central population.

It was a tormenting existence for Linthus' mother. Hers had been a pampered existence surrounded by other equally fawned upon people. Now she was with peasants with only her lover, who, she discovered was perhaps too quiet for her tastes after all.

In any case, born nine months later was a very healthy baby boy whom they named Linthus.

Linthus was done right or at least that what his parents figured so they never bothered to try it again. He was healthy, pretty cute for a squirming poo machine that consumed surprising amount of food. But at least he didn't scream or cry all that much. Linthus' mother was the envy of the neighbourhood (if you could call it that) women who had also had babies at a similar time.

He grew up in a kind enough atmosphere – his father was always happy to begin teaching him whatever seemed like it might stick in the child's mind at the time.

His mother, however, seemed to completely ignore his existence once she discovered that her son had not inherited her magical prowess. Frequently, he'd spy her sitting by the window, chin resting on her palm and staring out into space. He always figured there was a lot on her mind, but more probably the case was that she was day dreaming about an affair she could have had with a stable boy and still ended up married to Poncy Pants instead.

Whatever the case may have been, Linthus learned his surgeon-ing skills from his dad and when he was old enough to read he had discovered the trunks filled with his mother's old alchemy books and instruments. It wasn't long before he took to them.

He proved to be a bright child, picking things up quickly and a satisfyingly inquisitive nature. Eventually, his mother decided to try train him in the arts of mage-ing again but once it was well and truly confirmed that he wasn't just a late bloomer – she began to try (very systematically, too) to... Drug him into magical talent with a dizzying array of potions.

Sadly, it didn't work. At least not in the way she had intended because he never once showed any sign of promise or potential or even possibility of wielding frost, flame, or arcane as she had once done. Once Linthus' father found out, of course, it was all over. He could not believe that his wife had tried to drug their only child (the one that had been done properly, no less!) and decided to part ways. It was the only time that Linthus could remember his father yelling. It made an impression on Linthus' impressionable mind.

And obviously when there's a split, there's a matter of what to do with the extra... baggage. Linthus, mainly, as all their other ‘assets' were rather nondescript and kind of useless.

It's not like there was a lot of arguing, Linthus' mother was happy to let his father take him away and she returned, presumably, to the city where she probably had to take up some line of employment that involved entertaining the lonely in exchange for gold. Not that Linthus ever knew or particularly cared all that much.

After all, he'd been swept along with his father into a rather new and exciting life that piqued his interest. It wasn't exactly a life of a pirate for him. His father –was- pretty careful when selecting what jobs he took, not wanting to put his son into direct lines of danger. But occasionally when they were close to starving it was the ‘shadier' people who had more gold to throw around and if that meant accompanying them and patching them up after a scrap or two with some people who meant them no form of good whatsoever – then so be it.

Linthus' father may have been a quiet soul but he was willing to put it all on the line to provide for his kid.

And provide he did! Linthus learned quite a few life skills! Skills like reattaching limbs and still having the patient maintain some kind of use of said limb. Delivering babies (not that he ever intended to have any of his own – but life skills didn't necessarily have to pertain to his own life, just someone else's life who would pay him), repairing holes (OMG I CAN SEE DAYLIGHT THROUGH*faint*), removing implements of death (Er, that dagger is going to need to come out...), administering anaesthesia (Another round, barkeep!), and probably many other things as well.

‘Other things' were generally learned on trips when he had the opportunity to earn a little extra gold after his father had gone to sleep in the evening.

Those other things were what make him exceptionally good with his sneaking around and killing people and taking stuff.

But life was destined to change. It couldn't last in this quasi-wonderful life where father and son travelled bits of the world helping people and saving lives (and pillaging and plundering, as the case sometimes was with Linthus). No. Some –guy- decides he's going to go and rape the Quel'Dorei stash of magical mojo and use it to empower his buddy ‘cause they wanna go find some nice ‘n' powerful spellbook. It was a terrible time for a lot of people. Lots of dying and Scourging and fighting and killing and losing people that mattered... Of course, Linthus had been away from the general area at the time but unfortunately for him and so many others (the many others being the ones who survived and there weren't too many of them when you consider all things.... Sadness!) it didn't really matter where you were. Even for Linthus who had the magical prowess of a bouquet of Peacebloom felt some kind of repercussion from the destruction of the Sunwell.

Mostly it was a feeling of nausea. A never ending crashing sensation of waves of fatigue and nausea washed over him. The worst was yet to come. After Arthas decided to take his symphony of destruction to new and exotic locations, Linthus' father (who was on a slippery slope, facing Wretched-ness because he certainly didn't understand what the hell was going on with his newly found addiction to sucking mana juice from people) decided it would be a damn good idea to travel back to the city and find out what the heck just happened.

Of course, once he got there, there really wasn't much he could do to help anyone because there really wasn't much left in the way of people. There was a serparation in the sense father and son literally got separated from each other. Which in the long term was probably a good thing because his father got mixed in with the folks going to Outlands and Linthus.... Well Linthus was nearly destroyed by some mana sucking mage who needed more more more and thought Linthus would make a tasty (mostly metaphorically) snack.

He survived. But barely. And it was years before he really took up permanent residence with any fellow Blood Elves because he was kind of paranoid that they'd... y'know.... try to kill him to help cope with their magical addiction. It wasn't something he wanted to deal with when he had his own problems to face. That being a nearly constant headache that could at time completely debilitate him. Extreme sensitivity to light and sound... Blocking out the light entirely would help, but how long could he function when he couldn't see? And hearing kind of sucks when it feels like everything's right next to your ear and having a contest of who can be the loudest.

Finally, he fell in with a pirate crew whose captain recommended he learn to live like a blind man or to take up drinking.

Linthus decided to take up drinking which incidentally taught him how to function like a blind man. He got piss drunk so often that eventually he began to learn how to function when he had consumed enough alcohol that the air around him was possibly flammable. That being said, it was no small feat that he could still perform surgery when he was blind drunk. But, make no mistake, exchanging one addiction in favour of another was not really a good thing and the first couple of surgeries were seriously botched. But it was with this crew that he earned his nickname Riptide. The exact reason why this name was picked will probably never be truly known as that crew perished. Not all at once, of course, but now that they're all dead (except Linthus), it's really down to Riptide himself to tell people. And seeing as it's impossible to tell whether or not Riptide is actually sober (as in, he fakes being drunk when he just doesn't want to deal with people) or when he's lying, it's anyone's guess what –really- happened when he earned that nickname.

Eventually, however, he found his way to Silvermoon City where he ran into his cousin. Who was in the acquisitions business. Linthus sometimes helps out with this business and the rest... Well, it's not really history when it's happening now, now is it?