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Byron Jacques
The Cynic
Byron Jacques
The Cynic
23
Male (ftm)
Byron Frederick Jacques
Jacques
Stuff of Dreams
Byron
Barn For Cows
By-ron
Frederick
Peaceful Ruler
Fred-er-ick
Jacques
Supplanter
Jah-kwes
Human
Slight build, a bit below average height
A bit below average weight
Medium brown with warm undertones, freckles
5'5"
Black
Brown
Fairly long, wavy; tied into a ponytail or bun
None
Slight limp and frequent pain in his right leg due to an injury sustained in the Woods.
Frequent frown, slight limp, glasses.
Byron is, to put it bluntly, a bit of an asshole. He's a dyed-in-the-wool cynic prone to irritation and bouts of depression, and stubborn (though he'd say "determined") to a fault. Despite his prickly exterior, he's fiercely loyal to those he deems worthy, such as Erik Mueller. On a basic level, he feels like he wants to be known for something, since that's how everyone else seems to think, but would really rather be left alone, but not lonely. He lost his parents at a young age and as a result fears losing everyone else, something that only worsens when both his younger brother Aristotle and his close friend Michael Norwood are killed on the same day. He seeks a purpose he struggles to find at the palace and finds a bit more of in the Elnore Woods, but still sometimes feels...empty. A mix of a choleric and a melancholic, he wears a performative detatchedness like a shield and a very real sadness like a blanket. He feels as though no one sees the world as he does, which exasperates him greatly. His loyalty is not easily earned, but hard to lose. After learning of his brother and friend's deaths, he has a brief self-destructive spiral, during which he runs until exhaustion and later ends up nearly being stabbed to death when he takes a dagger for Erik Mueller. He has a near-comical disdain for love poetry, brought about by his growing annoyance at its prominence, something that makes him butt heads with Oscar Mitchell, although they usually get along fairly well. He finds solace in intellectual pursuits, such as philosophy and reading, and eventually finds himself spending time at one of Yelena's scholar-temples.
Stands very stiffly, near-constant frown, master of the exasperated sigh
Flute, poetry, military strategy, good with a bow and arrow
To make a name for himself and figure out what exactly it is that he wants
Archery, poetry, playing the flute.
Cynical, blunt, easily irritated, melancholy, judgemental.
Against the Fae. Initially he's more open to the Fae than other humans, but this changes once they're blamed for the death of his younger brother Aristotle Jacques
Due to the setting it's never diagnosed in-story, but it's a near-certainty that Byron would have a depression diagnosis if he lived in our world.
Byron was born and raised in Spero in a rural farming town, although his parents were travelling merchants. His parents gave birth to a second son when he was four years old and named the boy Aristotle. Conditions in their town worsed due to droughts until a plague hit, killing the Jacques parents when Byron was twelve and Aristotle was eight. Unsure of what else to do, Byron decided to take a leap of uncharacteristic optimism and head for the palace.
A brief tangent: as a child, Byron would often don boy's clothes and present as male when on the road with his parents due to the danger added by being a little girl on the road. As he aged and began to realize that he was a trans man, he found respite in the trips since they allowed him to dress in something besides the skirts and dresses he wore at home. And so when he decided to try and seek refuge at the palace, Byron donned his father's clothes, pinning up the legs and sleeves so he wouldn't trip, and set off through the countryside with his brother in tow.
Upon arriving at the palace, Byron explained that he and Aristotle were seeking shelter from the plague and famine in Spero and that they had traveled for days to reach there. He added in that Aristotle had an uncanny sense of direction and had been reading maps before he'd been reading books and his own gifts when it came to strategy. As the king stepped forward to explain that the palace was not in the function of an orphanage, Lucius Treleven (the court astronomer) offered the boys shelter and to take care of them as he did his niece Alessandra Treleven.
While Aristotle spent his time at the palace befriending the children of other nobles, Byron sought to make himself indispensable to the crown so as not to be kicked back out and started reading all that he could about military strategy, finding that his previous knowledge when it came to strategy had been good instinct, yet lacking. By the time he was fourteen, he was listening in on meetings for the campaigns through the Elnore Woods, and by sixteen, he was offering his own input. By nineteen he had enlisted and was taken on as a soldier, although his group of ensigns were only ambushed once. In the time between that and being taken as an apprentice by Erik Mueller at 22, his only injury a burn to his right calf due to a chain of events involving spilled kerosine and bad timing.
Despite managing to stay stealth to all but a few people during his time at the palace, Byron had more difficulty doing so in the army due to the close quarters and general lack of privacy. Erik Mueller noticed his discomfort and made sure that he had places to change privately, and even used his chain of connections to help Byron receive top surgery before taking him on as an apprentice, since the apprenticeship would give him a less rigorous physical workload and time to recover.
Upon his brother's introduction to the army, Byron had been working in close association with the top generals and as the personal apprentice and close friend to Erik Mueller, the uncontested gem of the crown's army.
Fairly well, due to his time at the palace, as well as his desire to learn as much as possible.
October 29th
Frederick and Corinne Jacques
Art credit to the Adrisona maker Picrew by Adriabun
A battered notebook crammed full of poetry.
Erik Mueller
Michael Norwood
Phebe Marzal
Aristotle Jacques (younger brother)
Deer
Although he's skilled with a bow, his favorite weapon his his dagger
Strategist in Alchester's military
Toes the line of atheism and agnosticism; although he becomes a scholar of Yelena, it's out of a devotion to the goddess's ideals moreso than a devotion or belief in the goddess herself.
Maroon
Venison