App - Folkmore, January 2023

★ Character Information ★

Character Name: Esteban
Character Age: 89 years old, looks early 20s
Character Species: Half-elf, half-dragon.
Current Health: Good!
Outfit: One thin wool shirt in dark navy blue, thick cotton pants of dark grey that tuck into calves-high leather boots in a deep brown. A wool woven belt of multiple colours, with a scale pattern. Optional: two small earring-like charms woven in his hair-- both different shades of gold; each just a little smaller than a thumbnail. One knitted woolen cloak that ends just a bit below his elbows, with matching fingerless gloves (It was fall in his world)

Character Canon: OC
Link to History: Esteban lives on the wold of Gaia, on the Wandering Seas continent.

Several hundred years ago, most gods were killed or left the world to become the third and fourth moon in the sky, leaving behind a grim period of reconstruction around their absence. The kingdom of Amarilys, next door to the elves, used magic to drag the land to them, as a bulwark against threats-- thus swallowing Catrionis under the sea, and leaving the elven lands only with the mountains that formed around the Naming Trees to protect them from the gargantuan floods that sweep the lands whenever all three moons align, three times a year.

Locked in mostly self-autonomous city-states by the tides, the Moon Mountains became a hub of mostly human and elven origins. Comfortable living, but with little technology to speak of, they began prizing mages highly for their fast-track to convenience. A large relay of trades from city to city was established early in the Moon Mountains, and with each flood, the towns have started to celebrate the newfound peace, inviting a plethora of travelling merchants and entertainers to come to their domain and reinforce their trade (and standing) with other towns.

Esteban is one of the many entertainers of his world, travelling from town to town to ply his trade as a fire-dancer. He's been on the road for a few years, first learning his skills from a group of fire-artists that claimed to be descended from elementals before striking out on his own. He has low, but positive contact with his parents, with whom he shares a complicated history, and has met and lost a fair few homes over the years, due to his lifespan being an oddity in his world; both too long-lived for his mortal friends, but too short-lived for his immortal families.
Canon Point: 7 months post VoidTreckers
Canon Iteration: CRAU
Canon Iteration Explanation: Esteban is starting to believe there is something quirky about his world. There are multiple tales of other worlds connecting with his own, and people vanishing without reason or say, and Esteban himself had his soul trapped in a train that travelled between worlds and dimensions. While he doesn't know what to do with that information yet, he won't be that surprised to encounter a new world.

The VoidTrecker Express had been the first confirmation to him that other worlds exist and he's gleefully made it his mission to learn all he could about his friends; about their worlds, and their challenges, and their lives, before. His grand-father used to say that people create stories, because they are made of stories, and Esteban greedily collected the tales that people were willing to share with him, of their world and cultures and troubles.

He's done his best to help the VoidTrecker in its own quest, but he'll undoubtedly find it very difficult to explain what was going on to anyone else, seeing as those were troubles that Esteban cannot wrap his head around. Something about a time-collapse paradox, and space-time being ripped apart, and a giant being of nothing-and-everything. He's pretty sure it was a god. Maybe. Potentially. But they managed to defeat it and restore peace, though Esteban was more concerned with making sure his friends would be fine, than to think too deeply about what had just happened.

And then... they had to part ways.

He retains vivid feelings for the people lost, just a few months ago. Friends and family, most of whom he can no longer see or contact due to them returning home. Daia is one of the rare exception, as he uses the VoidTrecker Express' offer to visit other worlds to visit Esteban in his own home, where they can manage it. Both of them are quite close, and have a lot in common, so Esteban more than welcomes his presence, and enjoys flirting with his smaller companion whenever he can (which is to say, often).

★ Folkmore Roles & Attributes ★

Skills:
- Fire-dancing / fire-spinning (with references)
- Fire breathing and fire-based party-tricks (not dragon-related)
- Generally decent at hand-to-hand combat
- Good at surviving in the wild, can use the sun and stars for orientation (in his world), knows a few plant salves to help minor wounds.
- Cooking
- Basic Sign Language, and several languages from his own world
- Good with animals; wyverns, dogs and horses (and variants) in particular
- Can play the drums but doesn't have one

Canon Abilities:
- Can shapeshift into a humanoid dragon
- Gliding in his half-dragon form
- Fire resistance
- Naturally high body temperature (+ minor cold resistance)
- Minor darkvision
- Half-Mortal. Due to quirks of his world, Esteban knows he has a set lifespan, but has no idea how long his lifespan is. His best guess is about 400-500 years old, but this is just a guess.
Role: Legend
Role Qualities/Attributes: Golden marble-like streaks across his wings and back and along the fan of his tail. Some delicate golden lines around his eyes as well, and his irises shimmer just a bit.
Role Reasoning: There just isn't a single mean bone in Esteban's body. He's clumsy, and he has his challenges (particularly concerning immortals), but he genuinely wishes everyone happiness and will go well out of his way to make sure people around him are content, are cared for and are loved. Sometimes, he is so driven into helping that he is actually too heavy to bear, and makes it even more difficult for people to rely on him for their troubles.

Esteban also goes far out of his way to make new friends whenever he can. Anyone that seems troubled attracts him like a magnet, and he'll happily offer his assistance, whether it is wanted or not. Excitable, and always eager to point out the beauty and joy in life, he'll try his best to prod at what his newfound friends enjoy doing, find comfort in, and even if it's something Esteban is not particularly good at, he'll try it along with them, to bring them to smile again.

★ Personality ★

Option 1. CW: lots of minor mentions of death/mortality.

Esteban is the living embodiment of "You only live once" and "No regrets." He is an arrow-- honest, caring, and determined to enjoy the moment. To him, that's all there is to life; making the best of it, that the good days should outweigh the bad, and that thinking too hard and deep about things is just going to make someone suffer with no true results.

Born of two immortal parents, but incredibly aware that he is half-mortal himself, possibly due to being a hybrid, he's had incredible trouble fitting in with expectations laid on him growing up; but has found ease and acceptance in other mortal races, particularly humans. However, his lifespan is still far greater than most of his friends, meaning he is doomed to watch them fade away, if he is even allowed to stay that long near them.

He will lose them, and he knows this. He cannot keep his friends alive on hopes or prayers, but he can keep them in his memories, close to him. He can tell their stories, and share in their skills when they are lost to him, and while he has them, he can strive to make their lives brighter, even if just a little bit. He refuses to let the fear of losing them narrow his world. He will make friends, and he will lose them, but he will love them furiously, recklessly while they are here. That isn't to say that he doesn't have his moments of weakness, but he strives to remain positive through it all.

Esteban lives in the moment. All the time. He strongly comes off as being ruled by his emotions, as he finds no shame in expressing them, part due to his world's culture being very open about them, and part because Esteban has only vaguely heard of shame before, and is barely acquainted with embarrassment. When he makes mistakes, he believes his apology is better applied into actions than in words, since he is terrible at forming actual sentences when they matter anyways.

As a strong conflict of value, he tends to prioritize the safety of individuals, over the safety of many. His friends matter more to him than the end of the world does, and he cannot understand why there are so many people he knows personally who are so willing to give their lives for the greater good, especially when all lives have an end.

Esteban finds it incredibly selfish of them. While he will absolutely do his utmost best to help anyone in trouble, and take calculated risks over his own life, he will also not step over the limit, refuses to burden his friends and family with the death of someone they hold dear. If someone is willing to risk their lives for the world, why can't they understand that they can mean the world to the people near them?

He wouldn't want to lose them; and so, his life is precious. While Esteban can be quite reckless at times, playing with fire (so to speak), he is also adamantly careful not to overstep his limits, and often tries to pull back friends who have pushed themselves too hard for the sake of others. But if there are people he cares about who are in mortal danger, his own life becomes irrelevant, so long as he can save them.

Esteban's concern for the future is strongly related to his relationships; whether friends, lovers or family. He wants them all to be happy. His potential lies in making sure people around him find as much joy as they can in their lives, and he hurtles himself into making their days brighter, into learning as much as he can about them to lure out their hopes and the little things that make their day better. He is also there to listen to the bad, to understand what troubles they've faced in the past, and he'll often try to make his friends value themselves more, though that has not been very well received so far. That might have a lot to do with how clumsy he is with words.

★ Player Information ★

Player Name: Ley
Pronouns: she/her
Are you over 18?: yes
Contact(s): LaureLey on Plurk, LaureLey#5044 on Discord, PM.
Who Invited You?: Tseil did
Current Characters: n/a
Permissions: Here
Writing Samples: a combat thread, a goodbye thread, and a small prank that backfired pretty badly.