Fifteen.

Female.

Leannán, but presides in Chaleur currently.

Searc has the paradoxical appearance of someone whose body has not quite caught up to the maturation of her mind. Obviously young, Searc has full cheeks that haven’t been melted away by dreary, life-pulling time. Her small, button-nose, dusted with light freckles and reddened at the highest peak, whether it’s cold or not, accentuates her cheeks and gives them an even wider appearance than the baby chub. However, her lower cheekbones have begun to thin, showing the beginnings of a strong, diamond-shaped jawline. The dull tan roughness of her lips, bitten to scabs and dried by the occasional dehydration, are disproportionate in thickness as the top is wide and the cupid’s bow is a small dip that barely impacts the upper lip’s shape while the bottom lip is thinner. Searc possess a small overbite, pronouncing the difference in her lip shape, and revealing the front of her teeth, which are slightly larger and with a small gap in-between.

Despite all the youthfulness in her face, Searc’s deep sky blue are surrounded by purple bruises brought by weary day’s work and little sleep. Her normally tan skin has an unhealthy sallowness to it and dark tan lines from where she works in the hot sun all day. The tan lines tend to show along her clavicle and lower thighs, since Searc prefers to wear shorts and cotton shirts that do not cling uncomfortably to her neck, though fit perfectly everywhere else to prevent the shirt from falling during stunts. Searc’s hair, once beautiful locks of brown, have been horrendously bleached by the day and constantly greased with sweat. Searc’s fingers and palms and heels and soles are rough with visible callouses; her fingernails are slightly chipped with a thin layer of dirt creviced between the nail and the bed.

Searc is young – obvious in her face, her body features, her small height of 5’1”, and even in the way she bounces on her feet. Though, the overwork on her body illustrates a life of hardship and constant struggle.

Certain traits are expected in someone with enough nerve to stowaway on the most famous ship of the moment. Adventurous, brave, ambitious, and definitely thrill-seeking. Searc Brolaigh is none of these. Actually, she is quite the opposite.

In reality, Searc is a lost soul who has no ambition or even a specific desire for adventure. She’s lost and doesn’t really know who she is; she moves through the motions of life, but she isn’t really living. The only thing Searc is focused on is surviving in this harsh, cruel world. Hardly living as a human, Searc lives as a subhuman, willing to degrade and demean herself for the cruel entertainment of upper caste members. Though, her humiliation does not affect her much – she instead believes she deserves it as she has an abundance of self-hate for herself. Everything that has ever happened in her life, Searc blames herself more and finds her life as more of a curse than a blessing. Seeing life as a curse, it should come to no surprise that Searc is an extreme pessimist. The world is dreary and in shades of black and grey for her; no good in the world can be seen. The only thing keeping her alive is her instinctive drive for survival.

Knowing how bleak Searc lives her life, it is a logical leap to assume that she is a rather withdrawn individual. She’s quiet and tends to internalize her problems, preferring her own company over that of others. This is not due to a dislike of other people, but rather of deep ingrained trust issues from her past naivety being taken advantage of too many times. However, if someone were to gain her trust, Searc could be easily manipulated by them as she tends to put her whole being into a new formed bond. Searc is obviously a very lonely girl, with no one to call family.

Not all of her personality is miserable and sad, though. Searc could pride herself on her independence – despite being all alone, she has made a living in the world and can provide for herself. She is capable of doing things on her own and does not want someone to hold her hand through the walk of life (though maybe she needs it). When she sets her mind onto something, Searc is incredibly determined and she is a hardworking individual that will do what she has to until her fingers bleed and her vision blurs. In addition, Searc is rather clever – she catches onto things quickly and can figure out things without help. Unfortunately, however, she has been deprived of a proper education and so she lacks in more scholarly knowledge, but she's not quite illiterate.

● Stealth.
● Intel.
● Acrobatics.

Searc suffers from astraphobia - fear of lightning and thunder. Searc developed the fear after being left by her circus troupe and abandoned to the life on the streets. Searc had to wait out storms in the open and suffer through them which has caused an extreme phobia of them. During a storm, Searc gets anxious and panicked - has vomited on multiple occasions due to her anxiety. On two occasions, Searc had broken into someone's home out of fear of the storm.

Furthermore, Searc has no skill in combat whatsoever and has never fought in her life. Searc has always been the type to runaway rather than face things head on. In all of her life, Searc had chose cowardice over coming to blows - avoiding the problem has always been the best solution in Searc's mind, and so she never learned how to protect herself from others.

Searc Brolaigh was born and raised on a small farm in Leannán. Her caretakers were her loving father and uncle – a year after she was born, her mother had run off with a travelling merchant and that was the extent of which Searc knew about her. Their small farm didn’t have much – a small coop of chickens and a single cow named Aoibheann. The first six years of her life were spent on that farm.

Famines are hard to live through – disease and starvation rattled the country. Searc’s home wasn’t any different. They had survived off the bare minimum of eggs and milk with a few fruits and vegetables they managed to salvage from their dying crops. It became much harder after Aoibheann stopped producing milk and two-thirds of the chickens were killed by a hungry fox. It was at this breaking point that Searc’s father and uncle decided on eating their livestock to survive. Searc was only five years old and didn’t understand why they had to die – she was very attached to the farm animals and she had developed a one-way bond with them as a child. Searc couldn’t prevent her dad and uncle from eating the chickens – they had done it before Searc even knew it – but she was able to save Aoibheann. Searc opened the gate of Aoibheann’s pen and let her runaway.

Without food, her uncle had a weaker immune system. He had an infection of some sort – he would cough up blood and mucus and got violent chills and night sweats. Her uncle eventually died and it was just her and her father at that point. They did what they could to survive – sometimes Searc would go in to town and steal items for them – food, blankets, other such necessities. Unfortunately, the only thing that lasts in a famine is the famine. Searc’s father had caught smallpox – Searc doesn’t know how (though she later believes it was one of the blankets she stole). Searc had become acquainted with death since the start of her life – the famine made sure of that – and after her uncle’s death, she understood disease quite well. Searc was six years old, and she didn’t want to die. She abandoned her father to the smallpox, running as far away as she could, in hopes that she wouldn’t die of it as well.

Weeks went by and Searc made do with stolen food and lived under any possible coverage, even during the rain. There was a point where Searc snuck into a travelling circus to see the sights – and to steal some coin for food – and an old woman caught her with her hands in another’s pockets. The old woman took kind on her and brought her under her wing. The old woman was named Amal, from Chaleur, and was a retired acrobat that travelled with the circus to lend a helping hand as a fortune teller. Under Amal’s direction, Searc began performing with the circus and travelling with them. She learned all sorts of acrobatics – tightrope walking, flips, trapeze, hooping, juggling, aerial silks, contortion, acrobalance. The circus became her family – for seven years, at least.

The circus had been doing a show in Chaleur – Searc was particularly excited to show off her new trapeze routine. Before it was her turn to do her act, Searc was walking along the circus’s caravans, when she overheard Amal arguing with another man over debts. Searc couldn’t hear the full conversation before she was ushered away to perform. However, later, she asked Amal about it – Amal only gave her cryptic, vague answers and Searc figured that was that. Except it wasn’t.

The next night, Searc wasn’t going to be performing, and so Amal brought her out to “meet a friend.” This friend, named Hakim al-Somail-Dokar ibn Fazid, was the same man she had been arguing with the other night. Amal owed him a lot of debts from before she ran off with the circus and now that she was back in town, he had come to collect. Working at a circus doesn’t pay that well, though, and Amal had nothing to offer him. Except for Searc. Fortunately, Hakim had no interest in such areas, but he did have use for Searc yet.

For the next two and a half years, Searc was employed to him as a spy of sorts. She gathered intel for Hakim from on the streets, helping him further his political position with her information. Meanwhile, she lived her life as a street rat. With no steady income, and being forced to pay off Amal’s debts with work, Searc had to resort to performing on the streets to gain money. At times it was bearable, at other times it became humiliating with jeers from the crowd over something or another. With what little money she had, Searc bought food, and for the things she couldn’t pay for, Searc stole. Living her life as a scoundrel, Searc became part of the “Ashen”, the low of the low in the caste system. People watched her from afar, treated her like shit, but Searc bared it with gritted teeth.

Until Searc snapped. It was a break of her anger, or even of her patience – it was the slow shattering of her resistance to such squalor. Searc became so tired of how she was living, or just living in general. Everything became a chore – breathing was a chore. But her drive to live kept her from ending it all. It was only when she caught wind of a special airship leaving that she found a way to escape Amal’s debt and Hakim's cruelty – Searc snuck into the bowels of the airship and said goodbye to her old life.

Searc hopes to start anew. She wants to live a life worth living and this airship might very well be her last shred of hope in the world. Even if it's a life of adventure and danger, Searc wants to feel more like a person than she ever did before and be able to let go of her past. Though, at the same time, Searc feels like she doesn't deserve it.

What does your character always have on them?
● Wire Rope — Typically used for tightrope walking on the streets as it is very durable.
● Cloak — A dark cloak with a hood that helps conceal Searc; it is covered in ash.
● Bag - The bag is completely empty except for three coins at the bottom of it.

Yamada Tokihiko

Thirty-one

Male

Nakata was one of many islands under the control of the Ichiren Dynasty. The "independent" state was actually one of the few islands where the lawful rule. The island's only landmark was the massive statue of a tiger's head. Based on ancient writings, the tiger had been there since the beginning of time. However, they did not state the purpose behind the spectacular statue, causing some people to form several theories. Regardless of the true purpose, people from all over often stop by the island to catch a glance of the tiger.

Chima was the name of the only town on the island with a population of fifteen thousand people. It was home to Yamada and his parents for a long time before he left.

Yamada did not look like somebody that was born and raised on lands controlled by the Ichiren Dynasty. Nakata often got more sunlight during the summer times, unlike Gekkō or Seishō and it made everyone's skins a bit darker. He stood six feet and two inches, the average height of a Nakatan, and he weighted only one-hundred fifty pounds. However, he was strong because of years of being a bodyguard and a bounty hunter. Plus, his daily workout also helped developed some muscles. It meant that his outfit had to be loose enough so he could move around freely and have protection against counterattacks. The outfit was passed down to Yamada from his father, who once was a pirate before settling down at Nakata. He made several changes and upgraded the outfit to fit his style before he left to explore the world.

His kasa cost a fortune to make from scratch, but it had lasted him for several years. It offered protection from the sun and useful in covering his hazel eyes, making him more menacing. Also, it kept his light brown hair from being blown by the wind. He also his necklace of the tiger from Nakatan as a reminder of his home.

Yamada was not a person that socialized with his compadre during his contacts. He kept his mouth shut and did his job until it was finished. People got scared of him because of his silence while working with him. The reason why he does not talk while working because it is respectful to shut up. After all, you do not want to befriend someone that you are protected since they could die at any moment. Plus, his sum went up because he kept his mouth shut. And whenever he talked, he only talked while giving out advice or sharing his observations. Despite his unfriendly demeanor, he possessed traits that countered that behavior.

He offered help to people that needed it and protect them during combat. And he also gave advice to people younger than him even if they never wanted it in the first place. Yamada is also more loyal rather than treacherous. In fact, he despised those that care only about themselves only. Plus, he is determined to protect the people that he had been told by the higher ups. Some people might look at that and call Yamada a lapdog. And they are right. He never questioned the people that he was protecting, the contacts that he got, and the targets that he just killed. Maybe that is why he got popular with the nobles and aristocrats.

He refused to give up on his contracts. It resulted in Yamada getting hurt more times that he counted. But, he never realized that some contracts were worthless to do. Or he was just too stubborn to handle the truth. As a doctor, he still believed that he could save someone's arm or leg even if the odds were against him. He got creative during some of his simple surgeries (surgeries that only involved in saving an arm or a leg) and it saved some lives. Or killed the patients. At the end of the day, you need to have a cold heart to handle the stress and trauma of the job. He did not get a degree in order to become a doctor; however, Yamada was the only person that knew basic medicines and how to treat simple wounds. He would of been a great doctor, if he spent least time being a bounty hunter and a bodyguard.

● Strength — Being the strongest will improve your chances of winning against somebody. Yamada learned that and dedicated his free time to working out and relaxing his muscles. It required him to do a full-body exercise for two hours a day and one hour of relaxing stretches. As a result, he was able to carry boxes full of stuff at ease. And he could carry a light weighted body around if he had to. His stamina also improved when he was working out.

● Swordsman — After being trained by his father, Yamada kept on improving his swordfighting. Years of being a bounty hunter and a bodyguard introduced him to the different types of swords from two-hand swords to a katana. He made sure to learn how to handle those types of swords in case he did not have access to his primary sword. However, he only had the option to take advance of his knowledge of other swords during combat. In the form of taking an enemy's weapon and using it against them.

● Medical Knowledge — Thanks to his mother and his two years spent as an assistant to a doctor, he had enough knowledge that he could do his own checkups or do basic surgeries (nothing too dramatic). He knew how to check sights of inflection, illnesses, very common diseases, and broken bones. However, he did not have time to advanced his skills because of his primary job. It meant that he did not know anything about the new illnesses and diseases discovered in the recent years. And he only knew about basic surgeries that involved with saving a leg or getting a bullet out of an arm. He did not know how to remove a liver or anything that involved with going inside a person's body and fixing their body parts.

Despite Yamada's skill with the sword, he was never quick on his feet. Maybe it was because of his armor or the fact that he never noticed about it. He was always slow while running or fighting; but, not too slow enough to get him killed. And he did not know how to run a ship or repair it. He spent years on board airships, yet he never thought about how they ran. Instead, he always assumed that mages kept the ship from falling to the ground with their spells.

Born to two lovely parents on the island of Nakata, Yamada Tokihiko always did his part that ensured that his family would survive. His father was once an ex-pirate and lived in Gekkō before he met Yamada's mother. Because of his father's past life, he was taught on basic combat with a wooden sword at a young age. It was not until the age of seven that he got his hands on a real sword and began training with it. His mother would offer neat medical tips to her son whenever he got hurt. The mother was a farmer that learned basic medical skills after bandits invaded her hometown when she was a teenager.

Life had been great on Nakata with his parents as he improved on his sword-fighting and medical treatment. When he became a teenager, life started to get tedious on the small island. Yamada wondered about the world beyond the island, especially when father's old friend arrived on the island. A small time bounty hunter that talked about his job while getting drunk at the local inn. His father wanted his old friend to leave without any questions; but, he had been hired to kill Yamada's father. Fighting ensured and the bounty hunter lost his life after getting his arm cut off and bled to death.

At the age of sixteen, both the parents knew that it was time for their son to leave—for good. Around the time of his departure, his mother was dying of a deadly illness. Before she died, he was given a necklace that represents his home. After her death and Yamada's mourning, his father revealed to him the outfit and sword that he wore while he was a pirate. It was a farewell gift before his own son left forever. And with everything that he got and learned, he boarded a ship to Gekkō and left to start anew.

Since he was still young, he had to get adjusted to his new life in the harsh island of Gekkō. He spent two years working as an assistant to a doctor because he saw how well the stitches were done on Yamada's arm. Thanks to the doctor's good eye, he got additional training that his mother could never give to her own son. Once the two years were up, he left to find new and better work. On one faithful day, he was walking back home when a noble mistook Yamada as a bounty hunter because of the outfit. The nobleman quickly handed off the contract and walked away before Yamada could react.

The contract was a simple assassination that the target had something that could destroy all of his hard work. After tracking him down and killing him, he felt like he finally found his true purpose. Once he completed the contract, the nobleman kept on using him as his source for killing "people that were getting in the way." With each kill that he earned, the nobleman told his friends about the bounty hunter known as Titan. Three years of working under the nobleman's belt earned him additional nobles that were interested in his services. It was there that he got the idea of offering protection for a small fee.

Yamada's most well-known contract was dealing with the airship, Bloodhound. It was a pirate ship that housed pirates that were known to attack trading ships and destroying transport ships. He had been hired by several noble families to destroy the ship and kill everyone on board. After days of tracking the ship, he found it and got on board when he was attacked. Several hours of combat ensured and it resulted in the ship flipping twice before it crashed landed into a small island, destroying it in the process. Yamada barely escaped alive; however, it spread his name to other nobles in different parts of the world. That was how he was well-known in the Archipelago.

Ten years of working later resulted in Yamada getting tried of being a bounty hunter and a bodyguard. He was planning on giving it all up until he heard about Madame Le Fèvre's expedition. It was not a surprise that a noble needed additional hands on an expedition. In fact, he had been asked to go expeditions before; however, he usually did not bother applying. However, this one felt different from the others. It felt like an opportunity to do something different in his life. He went to the interview. Many other bounty hunters and veterans from various armies were there. Yet, they lacked the knowledge of fixing up wounds and treating infections.

And two days of silence later, Yamada got an letter from Madame Le Fèvre that he was accepted to be a part of the daring expedition. And that was when he left for The North Wind to complete this unique contract.

Yamada's life had always been the same old thing since he left his hometown behind. Killing or protecting an individual started to get tiresome after doing it since his eighteenth birthday. When he applied to join The North Wind, Yamada looked at it like another simple contract that the nobility would often send. Protect the crewmates of The North Wind until the exploration is done. He was originally thought that he would get rejected. But he realized that it was an opportunity.

The opportunity to do something in his life before it is too late. He was getting old while new young and bright bounty hunters appeared to take him over. Instead of hoping that he would fail, he hoped that he was accepted. And once he was accepted, he headed towards the ship's location. Once the mission ends, he will most like resume his previous roles until he either got old or died during a contract.

● Curved knife — This knife was originally from one of his targets that he killed in Chaleur. The target was a blacksmith that used his talents to torture innocents. No-one knew about his second life until he kidnapped a noble's son. The father asked that Yamada brought his son back alive and kill the people responsible from the kidnapping. Three weeks of looking in Chaleur lead him to the blacksmith's house and the discovery of the son. After an intense sword fighting, the target was pushed into the fire pit and killed him as the flames consumed him. While he was burning, Yamada saw the knife and took it as a treasure—keeping it to this day.

● Necklace — A simple necklace that has a wooden carving of the tiger statue at Nakata. It was his mother's necklace that she got when she moved to the island. To many people, the piece of jewellery has no value and Yamada never wears it during combat, keeping it in his pocket.

● Medical Bag — The purpose of the bag is to store medical equipment that is able to use during combat. It contained bandages, dressings, medical equipments, and medications. Yamada would not take the bag unless it was a dangerous and long battle. For any serious wounds, they would need to go back to the ship for treatment

Albus Dinciburr Kitchingham IV // Kitch

19

Male

Bridesend, an island mainly known for its mines and animal husbandry. Not terribly well-off like the islands of Schuile or Baleine.

Standing at about 5'8 and with a thin but reasonably muscular frame, Kitch appears to have the options of both fighting and running away quite open to him biologically. He can physically seem like a brute to the most frail of crewmates, and a lanky runt to the more muscled. His features are neither too young nor too mature, letting even the most misjudged eye to guess his age accurately - sometimes much to Kitch's annoyance. He also happens to be somewhat handsome and well-spoken, and his skin is also rather pale for someone who grew up on a farm, allowing him to pass off for someone of much higher birth - something that Kitch tends to exploit. His hair is usually tied back in a small bun, and he favors a simple getup of a shirt, black slacks, and a moderately thick jacket when the weather calls for it.

For someone very much likely to be thrown overboard by the crew three days into the voyage, Kitch is usually quite quiet and reserved. He is the kind of person that lives his life observing the world and its events rather than throwing himself into the thick of it. Most of the time, he can be found within his quarters or alone on the deck practicing his already-dodgy arcane magic skills, writing things of no particular note in his journal, or just simply being by himself. He has also been gifted with quite an unreadable facial expression, something which he uses to his advantage. Many of Kitch's important thought processes are carried out inside his head, and to many people, he seems to be living in his own world.

Unfortunately, extended proximity with Kitch can begin to be rather toxic to moderately sensitive people. Despite not even having an official license from the university, Kitch seems to have complete faith in his arcane abilities, irritating the licensed and occasionally putting lives at danger. He never misses out a chance to display his skills to the less magically inclined - or to prove his superiority in general. He can also never seem to concentrate on a task 100%, and can appear to lack dedication to his skillset. Kitch has yet to learn that to be a great mage requires not just innate ability, but a long-term committment to excellence. To people who have had to work hard to get where they are, Kitch comes off as lazy and without true tenacity.

To top it all off, Kitch's greatest weapon (or weakness) is his tongue. He always has a witty, condescending, humorous, or downright insulting remark for every situation. While being unreadable himself, Kitch also has an uncanny ability to guess the emotions and thoughts of other people. However, while some people use this to uplift their fellows, Kitch abuses it. He can prod into a person's deepest being, identify their weaknesses, and 'yank their chains'. Kitch, quite simply put, is an arrogant little shit.

● Arcane Magic - The only reason why Kitch is still alive today is because he has unfortunately been able to back up his arrogance. Though he is not an Erasmus graduate by a long shot, Kitch has a brilliant, almost inhuman capacity for magic. Though he hates being constricted by specialties, Kitch has been recognized by Madam de Fèvre for his apparent skill in enchantment and material magic, being able to put magical wards, strengtheners, and occasionally curses on things.

● Social Interaction - For someone so irredeemably obnoxious, Kitch can, at times, be quite the diplomat. Having an unreadable expression and a control over his emotions combined with the ability to sense those of others makes Kitch almost invulnerable to social attack and humiliation - when he wants to.

● Observant - If asked why he was so quiet, Kitch would reply that he is merely observing the world. He pays attention to detail and never lets anything slip past his eyes without his knowing. He is incredibly observant and could probably spot danger just as fast as any other trained sailor on board. Since he grew up on a dairy farm, Kitch seems to also be very acute with his observations of cows and milk.

Kitch, for some very, very, odd reason, has a paralyzing fear of bugs - cockroaches, to be exact. It's pretty much gotten to the point that he'd send all the crew to their deaths if it was to avoid touching a roach. However, he hides this fact exceedingly well.

Though he looks the part, one could say that Kitch is not of high birth. He grew up in Bridesend on a dairy farm, the son of a minor member of the landed gentry. His parents, though loving, were also exceedingly strict, and when he had really done himself in, Kitch found himself working the fields and milking the cows along with his father's subordinates. Though much of his childhood was spent working, the farm offered many opportunities for isolation. Kitch was an only child and his mother was an extensive reader. Much of Kitch's free time was spent either buried in a book in the family library, or practicing his magic. Kitch's father, though certainly well-off, could not afford an education in Erasmus d'Aureveilly University. However, Kitch's father was also a law-abiding citizen of the Empire and made every attempt to ensure that his son did not grow up to become a hedge-wizard. Therefore, he urged his son to pursue a scholarship.

While slightly resenting his strictly regulated childhood life, Kitch saw the manner in his parents' madness and still appreciates what they did for his upbringing. Like the diligent yeoman's son he was, Kitch worked hard at his studies - or at least he appeared to, because the school matter was so ridiculously easy for him. He began to be known as 'Kitch' due to his teachers always reprimanding him by his last name for inattention in class (though he still excelled anyway). Kitch found more fulfillment practicing his magic with a part-time licensed mage who was a friend of his father's. Eventually, at the age of fifteen, he was recognized for his talent, and he made it to Erasmus. But amidst all the glory, knowledge, and prestige, Kitch resented the fact that he was not paying for his tuition. All the other mages-in-training respected his skill, but they never really saw him as a societal equal. Kitch felt doomed to be known as the milkman's boy for the rest of his life.

Kitch had one especially irritating classmate of his called Cumulus, named after the famed adventurer. Cumulus seemed to have everything - Baleinish heritage (which, some would argue, gave him his elitist personality), a magical skill just as good, if not better than Kitch's, and a lot of money to match. What made Cumulus so obnoxious in Kitch's eyes was that he always yearned for one thing - to be the best. All of Cumulus's efforts were to be the richest, the smartest, the most magically intuitive, and the most handsome. Anything that thwarted that was a threat to his very being and could very well send Cumulus over the top. So it was no surprise that Cumulus blew it when Kitch rose to be the valedictorian of their batch.

Cumulus was furious. How could a son of a milkman possibly best the son of a Baelinish duke? So, naturally, he did everything in his power to upset Kitch's supremacy. Ruthless rumors, relentless bullying, and even false accusations constantly surrounded Kitch the day he stepped onto that podium to receive that award. Over the course of events, Kitch gradually learned to not be so emotionally sensitive nor socially awkward. Both would make him dead meat in the eyes of the Erasmus elite - which Cumulus headed. Eventually, it got too much, and everything changed when Kitch, after class, killed Cumulus de Haroth in a fit of rage after a false accusation of cheating on the final exams.

Kitch, for a few minutes, could do nothing but stare at the hex of flame seared into Cumulus's face. That moment, he made a decision - to either turn himself in and risk everything he worked so hard towards, or to run.

Naturally, he ran.

So began the life of Kitch, the seventeen-year-old hedge wizard. With a very, very hefty price - more than half of his life savings, in fact - Kitch purchased a fake magical license of Erasmus d'Aurevilly University from a professional forger. Such a great loss to him meant he couldn't stay in a comfy dormitory like the one back at the university nor in the humble homestead back at the farm. He was always constantly in the employ of some shifty noble or criminal gang, and limited himself to being a nomad of the streets. The only possessions he had were his runic inscription kit, a small dagger, and his own wits. Kitch felt unfulfilled, disappointed, and a disgrace to his family, but it would be the only life he would ever know.

That is, until an agent of Madam de Fèvre appeared to him one day and encouraged him to join the journey to see what lay below.

---

"And what if I refuse?"

"Well, we do know about that unfortunate stint back at the university a few years ago."

"And what's your point?"

"We're not forcing you, but someone else could find out."

---

Kitch really had no genuine intention of joining the voyage in the first place - if he didn't, after all, he'd see himself in one of the Archipelago's prisons for at least fifteen years for unlicensed practice of magic and manslaughter. But he has attempted to see the good in his predicament and considers the entire thing a learning experience.

● A protective rune bracelet, which Kitch always makes a point to wear. When activated, it forms a force field around Kitch which can deflect at the most a crossbow bolt. It won't last long, however, and regularly needs to be recharged.

● His runic inscription kit, containing a small chisel, a pen and ink, and some stones.

● His tattered journal he has kept since he started his magical studies. The pages are meticulously well-kept, but nothing is written in them that bears any particular importance. However, it is one of the things that Kitch can truly get angry over.

● A rather small shortsword or an abnormally large dagger - whatever it is, it's sharp, pointy, and has kept Kitch alive for quite some time. However, Kitch very much favors his magical abilities first, and while his style is practical, it's definitely not 100% reliable.