" oh, tarzan, you have no idea what's in store for you. you're going to see the world, and all kinds of people will want to meet you. leaders, scientists, writers. "
NAME — stark clayton
AGE — twenty-three
HERO— tarzan
GENDER— male
SEXUALITY— bisexual
FACECLAIM— cykeem white
" his eyes were intense and focused, and i'd never seen such eyes... "
PERSONALITY— a stoic, worn warrior at first glance, stark is a man who has been through a lot, and yet, has a gentle heart. he fights with protective strength, easily forming strong affinities to people and vowing to protect them with his life. stark thinks of those he cares about as family. he values nothing more than that family he has found and cultivated over the years, even those he has had to leave behind. stark is a wonderful listener and very curious. having been immersed in a very new, very different world, he finds that there is always so much more to take in. he is curious, never judgmental, and asks questions. he comes across as shy, speaking little, at times, having a lack of confidence about his language skills, although they have improved vastly-- he still makes mistakes at times, or conflates idioms. stark is gentle, playful, and overall, a soft-hearted individual. he cares about the experiences of others, even if he doesn't understand them. as a result of his youth and experience in the kingdom, he seeks to make everyone feel comfortable-- even if, especially if, they are different from others around them. stark can be goofy at times, especially to make others feel more comfortable. he loves to make funny faces across a room to make people laugh when they seem nervous. he loves to make impressions of others (of course, in a loving, non-mean way-- unless, of course, they're the royals, in which case, it is okay to make fun of them). stark is playful. he can turn almost anything into a game. he's active, energetic. he can barely sit still through an entire dinner. he loves to run and climb and be active. he's adventurous and incapable of being contained. he has no table manners, no typically learned behaviors of politeness, no social graces. he has learned nothing of curtseying or bowing or starting with the outermost fork. stark is raw. he says what he believes. he cares for others, deeply, honestly, and cares not for shallow, materialistic things. he doesn't place his value on his looks. he doesn't place his value on his achievements. he merely, he says, wishes to be treated like a person. he is malleable, and trusting. he will try everything once. he will take any advice given to him once, which sometimes makes him vulnerable to embarrassment. he is fiercely protective and fiercely loving. he loves physical affection, in a sweet, constant way. he likes to hold hands. he likes to feel the heartbeats of others. he likes to brush knees against the other while they sit nearby. stark is wary of others to a degree. he often gets defensive when startled. he often assumes bad intentions when frightened. he defends himself, but he can become too defensive, building his walls up too high (particularly around people he already has a bias against, like the royals). he balances the line between being too trusting of advice and too wary of presence. a warrior's blood still runs through his veins. he still finds himself checking the periphery. he still finds himself ready to bolt if ever needed.
STRENGTHS— kind, gentle, empathetic, skill with a spear, speed, agility, climbing, thoughtfulness, listening, a prodigious skill and affinity for animals, protectiveness.
WEAKNESSES— overprotective, wary, overly honest, poor social graces, bias against the royals, a weaker command over language and written text, a tendency to react to being scared with violence.
" why are you threatened by anyone different than you? "
BACKSTORY— born to the lord and lady clayton, stark was born into a wealthy family that had been delighted to welcome their firstborn son, their heir, into this world. they christened him stark, meaning harsh, strong, or severe-- setting a high bar for this young child to reach. when he was still an infant, his parents still young, they sought to bring the baby to visit his maternal family (as his mother's line originates from another kingdom across the sea, having crossed the ocean to be married to her husband according to both families' wishes). however, a band of pirates interfered with the young family's plans. wrecking their ship, the family was marooned on an island off the coast of the kingdom. they tried to survive. they fought. and yet, despite even building part of a treehouse, his mother grew ill and died. his father drew the ire of a local band of gorillas, aggressively attempting to fend them off with a torch. his foolhardy plan failed. he was killed by one of the gorillas. at the sound of the strike that had killed his father, the baby stark heard and began crying. the gorillas listened. they heard a sound like those from their own youth. one of the women reached out and pulled the cover from his crib to see a human baby. while several of the male gorillas wished to kill the strange-looking infant too, she, having just lost one of her own children to an attack by a tiger, begged for his life. she begged to raise him as one of her own. she won. stark was raised as her child, alongside the other children. however, he struggled with the obvious differences between himself and his kin. he was targeted by the other children at a young age, and yet, he grew to be a strong warrior. despite being castigated from the clan, forced to eat last, bullied, with a gorilla about his age even throwing a rock at him in his adolescence, stark grew in strength. he grew in agility. he was able to climb like one of his kin. he was able to fight like one of his kin, owning a spear he used in battle. in his adolescence, he won the respect of his kin after fighting off a vicious wolf that threatened to kill one of the elder gorillas. stark was wounded, a scar marring his chest to this day, and yet, he had earned some degree of respect that he would be able to carry with him for the rest of his life. stark became a hunter. a warrior. a defender of his clan. this defense was carried to its limits when the kingdom decided to incorporate the island into its lands, sending a ship over to explore. stark, for the first time, caught glimpse of a ship filled with people who looked like him. he panicked, ran away, ended up stumbling upon the old treehouse, still with his parents' dusty belongings inside. his mother confronted him. she told him of his family. she told him of how they found him. she told him of a land where people looked like him. where people were like him. where he would no longer have to prove himself through combat, and even then, still be different, still not be equal... stark bid his family goodbye when he was only about twenty, although he doesn't know his exact age, of course, and boarded the return ship. the people aboard spoke to him in a language he couldn't understand, attempting to teach it to him. he learned slowly, speaking stiltingly at first, but slowly, gaining a grasp on the new language. they told him that he would be a hit. that he would be a wonder, a curiosity. everyone would want to see the young clayton child all grown up. everyone would want to see who could have been a proper, learned lord. who had instead become a warrior, scarred, worn, and weathered, wearing the tooth of a tiger and the tooth of an alligator around his neck and who had a hard, jaded edge in his eyes. stark entered the world and became a curiosity. people wanted to speak to him, but they didn't respect him. they wanted him to pose with his shirt off with a spear. they wanted him to make guttural noises, imitating his gorilla kin. they wanted him to show his scars. they didn't treat him like one of them. the royalty even had him brought before them as a curiosity, for amusement, and stark began to realize that he would belong nowhere. he began to realize injustice. he began to harbor anger against the royals. he found his voice in language, away from the spear, and he began to use it. he learned to read and devoured texts that spoke of freedom away from a monarch. ultimately, though, he was a warrior. he joined the rebellion, speaking out against a hierarchy that demeaned people. he fights. he uses his agility, his skill with a spear, his senses, every tool at his disposal to fight for freedom. he thought of returning home, and yet, he knew that he wouldn't fit in there either. he was recruited into the rebellion, and for once, stark has begun to feel at ease knowing that he may attempt to create a world where someone like him can feel like they belong.
" it's a lovely heartbeat. it's very nice. "
NOTES
— stark has a scar on his chest from a wolf, a pink-ish bite mark where its teeth sunk in deep. he has several other, lighter scars across his body, and a weathered countenance with thick calluses on his hands and feet and freckles from the sun on his face and shoulders. he is also very notably very muscular, having large muscles and high definition.
— stark is constantly fidgeting and can never stay still. he always wants to be doing something active. sitting around, doing nothing is like poison to him. he doesn't understand how people do it.
— stark always wears a necklace with an alligator's and tiger's tooth, as he once defended his clan against these creatures and holds these moments in pride.
— stark still struggles to read as fluently as some others, and still makes mistakes while speaking. he can communicate with gorillas. he will not answer that question if asked of him.
— stark gets extremely homesick at times. during these times, he wants to be alone with nature.
— stark tries to dress more formally than he needs to, in order to affirm his own humanity. however, it isn't what makes him feel the most comfortable.
— stark is rather unfamiliar with romance and romantic attraction. he's only really read of it, but he's already a hopeless romantic, dreaming of such a thing although he hardly lets himself believe it is possible.
— stark has fantastic, sharp senses. he can often smell food before it starts cooking or hear people and identify them by their footsteps before they even enter a room.
— stark doesn't understand comforts. he likes to go outside in the rain, for example, and he's been known to ask skittish people if they think they're "made out of sugar," genuinely without a hint of sarcasm.
— stark is rather tall, striking an intimidating figure at 6'4".
— he has a low, rumbling voice that often surprises people when they finally hear it, as he hardly ever does speak.
— he enjoys the sound of classical music. he dreams of one day being able to play the piano.
— he is terrible with the cold as it was never cold back at home. he shivers easily and grows paler.
— he tends to be overly physically affectionate for most people after they first meet him.
ROYAL— prince atlas