Personality: Vin is a character ruled by fear. At no point in the scope of his life has Vin had the time or opportunity to grow up well-adjusted without the reality of grief or fear hanging over him, so it’s the primary focus of his personality. Above all his morals is a strict drive to survive, and while he does pride himself on being a good person, he has done unsavory things to get through his life, such as working for the wrong people. While the unsavory things he’s done has mostly amounted to delivering illegal goods and not, say, murder, he’s always biting back an apology when there’s something he’s doing that’s throwing someone under the bus. He’s apologetic by nature, and doesn’t want to inconvenience people for the most part. Aside from his paralyzing fear of authority and religious figures, he can generally see the good in anyone, or at least the reason, and while he doesn’t make friends very well, he’s at least accomplished at making allies. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be as adept at survival as he already is.
His strengths lie in his quick thinking. While he’s bad at long term planning and plotting things through, he’s excellent at making snap judgments from pressure and procrastination. These aren’t always good for the long run, but they’re usually suitable for just surviving in the moment. He’s not very self sacrificing— if it came between him and another person, Vin would most likely save himself. Self-preservation is so key to him that he hardly even understands what he’s living for. Let’s be honest, with a backstory that unnecessarily tragic, what else is there in life? Vin desperately wants to find that out for himself. Despite having every reason to, he’s never caved into despair or deals with feelings that embitter him to the world. He doesn’t have any long term goals aside from living, but the desire to make them is there.
He’s both hardened to tragedy and not, in a way. He’ll sympathize and empathize with characters going through struggles and try to do his best to help them, but it’s hard to make him sad. Panic and sadness are not quite the same thing, so while he has the former in abundance, actual mourning and grief are less so. He very much lives in the present, and tries to encourage others to do the same. While he hasn’t kept friends longer than a few years at a time, he’s proven himself to be an adept listener and helper to other people’s problems. He’s used to providing an unbiased point of view (unless being biased is important, right then) and can usually help people out with their troubles. Normally, though, no one asks Vin’s opinion of anything, so he keeps to himself. He’s particularly soft-hearted about animals, however, and will take care of strays if he has the means to do so. The jobs where he could take care of animals were usually the ones he enjoyed the most.
Vin isn’t unwaveringly loyal; he will occasionally make hard-hitting decisions to sacrifice for other people but never to the point that puts him in harm’s way. He’ll be close to you, sure, and he might even make friends with you, but it takes a lot of love from Vin’s side for him to become loyal. Overcoming his survivalism is a tough gambit and it would take only the most patient of people to inspire him to reciprocate loyalty. He’s decent at reading people from the years of working with shady people; he’s got a keen eye for manipulators and people out to use others for their own gain, so he’ll always keep people like that at arm’s length. People who are unfailingly kind and trustworthy almost make Vin kind of sad, and make it tough for him to get close. He doesn’t want to use anyone who he’ll hurt by abandoning in the end. This makes Vin fairly manipulative of his own relationships himself, and kind of hard to get along with sometimes.
Vin’s kindness, once you’ve earned it, is shy and reluctant, but ever-present. The only person he truly made friends with for a long time was the daughter of the owner of the farm he worked on, and he would constantly go out of his way to help her and make her life easier. He’s maladjusted, no doubt, and his only ideas of friendship are born from trying to help out as best as you can and not burdening another person. There’s also the fact that he thinks all friendships end sooner or later and sometimes it’s better to be sooner than later, especially if there’s a chance he could hurt them by running away.
There’s also the odd trait that Vin can be a bit… well, people who know him consider him to be a funny guy. This is entirely on the exterior, the combination of him being both jumpy and clumsy has had more than a few people poke fun at him. He takes it in passing, and doesn’t usually get defensive about it. After all, how could he explain why he is the way he is? It’s much easier to roll with the explanation that he’s a funny guy than a somewhat traumatized one. It can make for an interesting mask to use, to disarm other people to keep them from asking too much about his history. Vin prefers that to letting people know anything extra about him.
Vin’s relationship with his powers is a strained one. After all, his dream walking ability and status as a Somni is the reason his mentor, family, and just about everyone he could relate to is dead, and probably why he’ll die young. His status as an insomniac in his later years pushed him away from using his abilities more than he had to, even though Nella would preach to him never to be ashamed of where he came from. As he’d grow older, he’d learn to appreciate them more for the subtle power that let him manipulate others for his own safety. He’d only use it when pressed into a corner or if the situation was too tense not to, but there was also danger in being found out. The fact that his powers make him vulnerable while asleep is also a downside. In a setting where he could explore them more freely, he might adapt and learn from his powers as time goes on.
There’s also the relationship with his history. Vin’s memories of his early childhood are spotty at best, combining his young age and the trauma of everything that happened. He doesn’t remember much of his family, and while he intensely remembers his mother’s parting message, there’s little else of that he understands. What Nella taught him is what stuck with him the most. She would retell old Jöklan stories and folklore while he was growing up, and while he was expressly forbidden to repeat it, he’s memorized and taken all of those stories to heart. Vin has written most of them down according to memory in a little brown leather journal he keeps with him at all times, for the express purpose of revisiting his memory and identity. It’s a dangerous little book to keep, but it’s one danger he can’t live without. Even if he partially resents some of his identity, he desperately wants to keep the good memories as close to his heart as possible.
Vin is a complex guy and definitively simple at the same time. While kind and empathetic, the only side he’s ever on is his own. He’ll always have trouble with that, and it would only be with the help of others that he might unlearn that notion.
Abilities:
• Somnis Vin is a Somni, a human being with the ability to enter and influence the subconsciousness of others during his own and their own dreams. When he enters this state, the tattoo he was born with glows, and he’s able to find ‘lights on the horizon’ that he’s able to interact with by walking towards them and entering a dream. While he is not exceptionally skilled with this ability, he’s able to make subconscious suggestions within someone’s dreams, appearing as a calming figure covered in swirled tattoos.
He is able to talk to someone, to implant his own emotions or foreign ones into the other person. However, this power has been the reason for nearly dying all of his life, and for him to reveal it to someone else would take an unbelievable amount of character relationships and personal development.
It is also a power he would only use for his own safety, as in, if a character told him they were going to kill him.
Alignment: Thras. Vin is ruled by fear and made an exception by his acts of bravery. If he ever goes out of his way for others, it’s a characteristic mark of change within himself, and is the very juxtaposition on which the scale of his character rests on. If he’s going to change at all, in one way or the other, it entirely hinges on whether or not he can overcome his suspicion and fear of the outside world.
no subject
His strengths lie in his quick thinking. While he’s bad at long term planning and plotting things through, he’s excellent at making snap judgments from pressure and procrastination. These aren’t always good for the long run, but they’re usually suitable for just surviving in the moment. He’s not very self sacrificing— if it came between him and another person, Vin would most likely save himself. Self-preservation is so key to him that he hardly even understands what he’s living for. Let’s be honest, with a backstory that unnecessarily tragic, what else is there in life? Vin desperately wants to find that out for himself. Despite having every reason to, he’s never caved into despair or deals with feelings that embitter him to the world. He doesn’t have any long term goals aside from living, but the desire to make them is there.
He’s both hardened to tragedy and not, in a way. He’ll sympathize and empathize with characters going through struggles and try to do his best to help them, but it’s hard to make him sad. Panic and sadness are not quite the same thing, so while he has the former in abundance, actual mourning and grief are less so. He very much lives in the present, and tries to encourage others to do the same. While he hasn’t kept friends longer than a few years at a time, he’s proven himself to be an adept listener and helper to other people’s problems. He’s used to providing an unbiased point of view (unless being biased is important, right then) and can usually help people out with their troubles. Normally, though, no one asks Vin’s opinion of anything, so he keeps to himself. He’s particularly soft-hearted about animals, however, and will take care of strays if he has the means to do so. The jobs where he could take care of animals were usually the ones he enjoyed the most.
Vin isn’t unwaveringly loyal; he will occasionally make hard-hitting decisions to sacrifice for other people but never to the point that puts him in harm’s way. He’ll be close to you, sure, and he might even make friends with you, but it takes a lot of love from Vin’s side for him to become loyal. Overcoming his survivalism is a tough gambit and it would take only the most patient of people to inspire him to reciprocate loyalty. He’s decent at reading people from the years of working with shady people; he’s got a keen eye for manipulators and people out to use others for their own gain, so he’ll always keep people like that at arm’s length. People who are unfailingly kind and trustworthy almost make Vin kind of sad, and make it tough for him to get close. He doesn’t want to use anyone who he’ll hurt by abandoning in the end. This makes Vin fairly manipulative of his own relationships himself, and kind of hard to get along with sometimes.
Vin’s kindness, once you’ve earned it, is shy and reluctant, but ever-present. The only person he truly made friends with for a long time was the daughter of the owner of the farm he worked on, and he would constantly go out of his way to help her and make her life easier. He’s maladjusted, no doubt, and his only ideas of friendship are born from trying to help out as best as you can and not burdening another person. There’s also the fact that he thinks all friendships end sooner or later and sometimes it’s better to be sooner than later, especially if there’s a chance he could hurt them by running away.
There’s also the odd trait that Vin can be a bit… well, people who know him consider him to be a funny guy. This is entirely on the exterior, the combination of him being both jumpy and clumsy has had more than a few people poke fun at him. He takes it in passing, and doesn’t usually get defensive about it. After all, how could he explain why he is the way he is? It’s much easier to roll with the explanation that he’s a funny guy than a somewhat traumatized one. It can make for an interesting mask to use, to disarm other people to keep them from asking too much about his history. Vin prefers that to letting people know anything extra about him.
Vin’s relationship with his powers is a strained one. After all, his dream walking ability and status as a Somni is the reason his mentor, family, and just about everyone he could relate to is dead, and probably why he’ll die young. His status as an insomniac in his later years pushed him away from using his abilities more than he had to, even though Nella would preach to him never to be ashamed of where he came from. As he’d grow older, he’d learn to appreciate them more for the subtle power that let him manipulate others for his own safety. He’d only use it when pressed into a corner or if the situation was too tense not to, but there was also danger in being found out. The fact that his powers make him vulnerable while asleep is also a downside. In a setting where he could explore them more freely, he might adapt and learn from his powers as time goes on.
There’s also the relationship with his history. Vin’s memories of his early childhood are spotty at best, combining his young age and the trauma of everything that happened. He doesn’t remember much of his family, and while he intensely remembers his mother’s parting message, there’s little else of that he understands. What Nella taught him is what stuck with him the most. She would retell old Jöklan stories and folklore while he was growing up, and while he was expressly forbidden to repeat it, he’s memorized and taken all of those stories to heart. Vin has written most of them down according to memory in a little brown leather journal he keeps with him at all times, for the express purpose of revisiting his memory and identity. It’s a dangerous little book to keep, but it’s one danger he can’t live without. Even if he partially resents some of his identity, he desperately wants to keep the good memories as close to his heart as possible.
Vin is a complex guy and definitively simple at the same time. While kind and empathetic, the only side he’s ever on is his own. He’ll always have trouble with that, and it would only be with the help of others that he might unlearn that notion.
Abilities: