Post by sven on Jan 27, 2009 3:24:49 GMT -7
The Handler
Name: Sven Erik Gunnarsson.
Nickname: Just Sven, or Svenny.
Classification: Troll, of the Scandinavian type to be exact – his grandparents migrated from Sweden.
Gender: Male.
Age & Birthday: 46, July 15, 1962.
Appearance: Short and pudgy at 5'7" and weighing 171 lbs, Sven really looks like a troll with his round face, small mouth and large nose. His eyes are also small and bright gray, often darting from side to side beneath his arched, thick eyebrows. His hair is dark brown and curly, in typical troll fashion very hard to keep in order with a receding hairline. Only one lock of hair remain on the front of his head, as if waiting to tell the rest of the hair that it’s safe to come back. Unfortunately this doesn’t go for the rest of his body, so he’ll be waxing that back until the day he dies.
His most distinguishing feature is a tail that ends in a thick tip of hair. He keeps it tied down his leg when moving among humans, and when free it bends a lot to the right because of this. His hands are also very large and hairy, but surprisingly flexible. Trolls are nocturnal creatures who doesn't care much for sunshine, so his skin is rather pale.
Attire: At work Sven wears dark, well-made suits, a white shirt and ties in green and earth-colors. For footwear he uses black, polished leather shoes. To hide the fact that he’s growing bald he’s taken to wearing a hat, which just makes him look even more ridiculous. When off and home alone he prefers jeans with a hole for the tail, T-shirts, sweaters and sneakers. The hat remains though, often in some horrible plaid pattern.
The Creation
Name: Sven.
Power List: 1)Temporary shape shifting into objects or small animals. 2)Temporary invisibility. 3) The ability to “twist sight” for a moment.
Detailed Power: Troll magic is by nature very weak and used mostly as a way to divert attention and run away. Temporary shape shifting is when the troll take the appearance of a rock, a pocket knife or a ball of yarn and roll off in a high speed. If you catch it and twist it hard enough, the troll is forced back into its original form. When a troll has taken the form of an unmoving object like a knife, you can break the spell by simply try to cut something with it. It will also feel warm and "alive" to the touch. This also goes for the invisibility; if the troll is caught and kept from fleeing, it has to reveal itself. Both the shape shifting and the invisibility can't last longer than about fifteen minutes depending on how skilled the troll is. The ability to “twist sight” is basically a very light mind-control that trolls uses to make people see things that aren’t there or become completely lost in familiar surroundings. It’s rather easy to break though if you just keep calm, and like the beforementioned powers it can't last longer than fifteen minutes.
The Potential
Alignment/Occupation: Pretty much depending on which side’s represented at the moment and how much hurt they seem able to deliver. If Sven would really, really have to decide though he’d be at the side of the magical races since he has never really felt like a part of the human world. He makes his living as a tailor for humans, but also for any magical creature that can pay for his time.
Weapons: None, but his tail is rather strong and can be used as a surprise way to deliver a blow. It is very rare for him to do this though since it's tied down most of the time.
Personality: Having lived a life of uncertainty and repeated bullying, Sven is a rather nervous, twitchy person who’s always on alert for possible threats – like members of his old gang turning up. He’s developed a very strong need for routines and stability, and basically has a written schedule for every day. He tend to make other people nervous in the long end with his twitchy demeanor and doesn’t really have any friends, except the lonely old housewives of the block who’s made his tailor shop their unofficial coffee-stop. This he doesn’t really mind though since he absolutely loves gossip. He's even put out a table and chairs by his store window and always keeps a pot of coffee brewing.
In conversations he's learned not to say very much and instead has perfected the art of listening. As in knowing where to say "Oh, that sounds very interesting" and just letting the other person go on. Besides working he’s also completely addicted to TV-shows about crime investigation, his two favorites being CSI and Cold Case. Since he's a nocturnal creature, he prefers to keep late hours and doesn't open his shop until after noon.
He's a single father to a 24 year old daughter who still lives at home, and he won't win any prices for his parenting skills. He's never been able to assert any kind of authority over her and has mostly used bribing or emotional blackmailing to get his way. The latter he's practicing very much nowadays to keep her from moving out of the house since he's scared to death of being alone. Finding another woman to solve that issue he's long given up on. There aren't any troll women around and he has no illusions about his personality being enough to compensate for his appearance a second time around. Instead he uses Ladies of Negotiable Affection whenever he takes trips to New York or Atlantic City.
Skills: Greatly skilled at sewing and constructing patterns, exceptional at using his powers. Speaks Swedish fluently. A rather good cook and decent with flowers. Plays poker, but mostly wins thanks to twisting sight.
Strengths: Very fast at thinking and moving, especially when in need of an escape. Exceptionally loyal to those who actually get close to him, whom so far have only been his daughter Ingegerd and her deceased mother Roseanne. He also does not under any circumstances drink alcohol or does drugs since he just can’t bear the thought of not being in control of himself. Doesn't lose his temper easily and never takes up on it when people try to bait him.
Weaknesses: Low self-esteem, because he knows he'll never become someone he could respect. Cowardice. Scared of being alone. Selfishness, especially when it comes to his daughter wanting independence. Is rather forgetful about small things like buying milk. Hates to clean and do laundry. Completely addicted to chocolate and coffee. Is horribly afraid of thunder and lightning, which probably is part of some trollish genetic memory from when the god Thor of thunder used to hunt them for sport.
The Story
History: Sven was born by trolls descended from Swedish immigrants in Newark. His parents moved to Newark from a troll community in the woods of Connecticut to get some independence from their own overbearing parents. In Newark the family were the only trolls in the area and no-one of course knew what they really were. This made Sven very lonely and desperate for any sort of acceptance. His parents were in all ways loving and involved, but it just wasn't enough. Using his powers to play pranks on people and stealing cigarettes and alcohol, Sven bought himself the approval of the misfit gang of the school - who still used him as a punching bag whenever they felt like it.
Finishing school with horrible grades Sven kept to his old gang that turned to burglary and muggings. With his powers he was actually rather successful and word was soon that there wasn’t a house he could get into unseen. Which still never changed the fact that he was the lowest in hierarchy of the group.
When Sven was 20, his parents decided they’d had enough of the big city and moved back to Connecticut. They offered their son to come with them, but he declined. He'd been born in the city and couldn't imagine any other life. They never had any official falling out, but he'd distanced himself from them during his teenage years so they wouldn't find out what he was up to. Sven has very little contact with them to this day, feeling ashamed and to have let them down.
It was also around that time Sven actually found love in a chubby, snarky young troll woman named Roseanne, working at a casino with a magical creature theme in Atlantic City. She didn’t as much love him as settled for the fact that she could do worse, and he was never short of money thanks to his life of crime. They moved in together in Newark and after a year their daughter Ingegerd was born. They were relatively happy, though Roseanne who’d had her tail surgically removed (chopped off by her father when she was born) spent a lot of dinner discussions arguing for that the same should be done for Ingegerd. It would be pretty damn easier than to twist the sight of the pediatric during every check-up. Sven refused on the grounds that he was not going to butcher their daughter before she was old enough to have a say about it.
Before any chopping could be decided on, Roseanne was run over by a bus when running out the street to pick up an unopened bag of Cheese Doodles someone had dropped. This became a wake up call for Sven who realized he couldn’t risk going to jail or be killed when he had a 4 year old child to think of. Said and done, he turned in his own gang during a heist, escaped and took all his savings (and theirs as well) and Ingegerd with him to Trenton. There he took an assistant/apprentice job with an aging childless Italian tailor who was so out from smoking pot that he barely knew who he was talking to. Sven’s father was a tailor – trolls are often very skilled craftsmen - and had taught his son as young with the thought that he’d carry on the profession. Sven had quit the lessons at 15 for the sake of his “manliness”, but quickly revived the skills he’d acquired. Taking over shop when the old man died he’s been living the straight life for 20 years now, living in a calm, blue-collar Italian area of Trenton where he's known as "that twitchy Swede dressmaker".
Before the move to Trenton Sven had never really given his magical heritage much thought, but in later years he’s been trying to reconnect to his roots in another attempt to find acceptance and has started to visit the Troll Market and socializing with other magical creatures. They don't find him any more appealing than the average human, but he’s generous with drinks and makes good coffee. It was then he learned of prince Nuada and his cause. Honestly Sven does not agree with the idea of wiping out the human world since there’s many things he likes about it. But if the choice’s between death or going back to the Stone Age, he’ll gladly spend the rest of his evenings acting out his favorite episodes of CSI using pine cones.
