<Snipped quote by Punished GN>
Gottcha, I did leave it too vague. Added more detail to the backstory and the changes are in white with the rest in gray. Hope that's better. I am on discord.
"You know that cliche about kids running off to join the circus, that’s me, I’m the cliche."Psychology
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Wyatt Anderson
He/Him | 30 | White | 5’10 | 165lbs
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Showman
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Skills & Talents
"Full of mostly useless talents."
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[Magician] ⫻ Wyatt could probably do most card and coin tricks in his sleep. Adept at sleight of hand, misdirection, and most importantly, keeping people entertained and distracted.
[Circus Preformer] ⫻ His job, which has been more or less his whole life for most of his life has instilled a few eccentric skills. In addition to magic; juggling, juggling while riding a unicycle, juggling things that are on fire, and various fire-related tricks are all things he’s comfortable performing.
[Optomist] ⫻ He can look at most things and find something good there to focus on.
[Fit] ⫻ His hobbies keep him active, his job keeps him active, and budding up with the strongman didn’t hurt either.Appearance
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"I bet I know what you're thinking, that's a mighty fine mustache. Am I right?"Never one to want to blend in, Wyatt takes pride in the features that make him stand out. His fiery hair for one. Way back when folks used to say he had his mother’s hair, and if that’s all she saw fit to leave him with, at least it was something nice. He takes even more pride in his well-maintained facial hair, it all helps draw attention and that’s exactly what a performer wants. He's 5’10 with a muscular build, not only from spending a good deal of time lugging around heavy objects but his choice of workout buddy is the circus’s strongman. Wyatt loves a challenge, even one he knows he could never compete with.
As for his skin, there's a dusting of freckles on his face, and a tan rather than a sunburn tends to elude him. Wyatt’s got tattoos on the neck, arms, and chest, all of varying degrees of shoddy quality. They don’t really have meaning, he just likes letting amateurs use him as a sketch pad. He’s got scars here and there, more small scars than stories for them, but you don’t make a living playing with fire without a few. A burn near his wrist, a larger one on his shoulder, but nothing too bad. As far as clothing goes whatever he can get that’s cheap, comfortable, and casual is his preference.
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"I like to think I made the best out of what I got."MAIN GOAL ⫻ Find answers to the whole Eleanor conspiracy and once all that is settled, maybe try and go back to the way life was before she vanished. Wyatt isn’t one for big long-term goals, that’s too much structure for him.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ “The point of living is to just go out there and do whatever makes you happy. That and the future’s always a day away, the past is always behind you, so the only thing that matters is right now. Oh and never trust the government or the cops, they’re always up to something.”
SECRETS ⫻ The one thing Wyatt seldom talks about is his dad. His dad was drunk, who left the gas stove running all day, woke up from being passed out, lit up a cigarette, and BOOM, no more old man. That’s the official story, except it was Wyatt who left that stove on and went out to play with friends. It wasn’t intentional, he was a forgetful kid, but that doesn’t stop the guilt.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Hetero
FEARS ⫻ Losing people he’s close to, being left by people who are supposed to stick around, and letting people down.
WHO IS ELEANOR BLACK TO YOU? ⫻ Buisness partner and good friend.
FLAWS ⫻ Wyatt’s just the classic overly cocky, naturally impulsive, often annoyingly talkative, people pleaser who believes that being fun and exciting is what will make people like him.
Backstory
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"I remember my mom taking me to the circus once when I was real little. The air smelled like corndogs and popcorn. Everything was so colorful and exciting. And there I was just tugging on her hand, desperate to see it all. And I remember it being windy and her red hair was blowing all around. But I don’t remember her face, or much else about her anymore. It was a really good day though, went a long stretch without days that good and that memory kept me goin'.”That’s the only memory he has of his mother, just a fading presence and a guiding hand on a real good day. She left not long after that, then it was just him and his dad bouncing around through various small towns in Flordia. His dad had trouble keeping work, trouble putting the bottle down, and most days, trouble just getting off the couch.
His dad was never a mean drunk, just someone who’d checked out long ago. Heart still beating, lungs still drawing in breath, but no longer living. Just a hollowed-out husk that had once been a person. Watching someone carry on like that made it difficult to hold onto any resentment over his mother leaving and it only made him feel sorry for his dad. So Wyatt just helped out around the house as much as he could and tried not to bother his dad too much. He figured out how to fend for himself, he’d ingratiate himself with the neighbors; old folks always liked someone willing to do yard work for cheap and other kids usually liked someone willing to do anything so long as it was phrased as a dare. People seemed to like a hard-working daredevil so that’s what he became.
Then the accident happened. He was making lunch, classic mac n cheese from the box, on a lazy summer day. There was a knock at the door in the kitchen followed by the voice of a friend inviting him to come and check out his new trampoline. He just got so excited, he hadn’t even added the cheese packet, just tossed the pot to the other side of the stove and ran out the door. He couldn’t miss out on being one of the first in the neighborhood to try out the trampoline. He could just clean it up later. So he was gone most of the day, after that they’d all gone fishing. By the time he was heading home, it was dark, he saw a fire truck go by and a few moments later he saw that truck in front of his house. There was his whole life up in flames. He’d never been academically gifted but he was quick to add two and two together there and it added up to all his fault.
So he hid, wasn’t like he was going home now. Spent that night in a friend’s treehouse and the next day he heard the full story. So now people were looking for him and he knew he was going to be in so much trouble and he couldn’t stick around for that. Wyatt followed the tracks to the train yard and hopped his way out of town. He hated it, the long stretches with nothing to do but get lost in his thoughts; the what-ifs, and the guilt. He could just kind of feel it; his life flickering out and Wyatt knew how that went, what it looked like to just be a husk that wasn’t quite alive.
When he saw a big billboard advertising a nearby circus, that’s where he went. That was his happiest memory, being five years old at the circus with his mom, and he just wanted to feel that good again. But they weren’t open yet, just setting up and Wyatt just started helping out, kept just acting like he belonged there and no one wanted to kick out a thirteen-year-old kid who had nowhere else to go. So he kept on helping out, traveled with them, learning whatever they were willing to teach him, and they kept on letting him stay. The circus was the perfect place for a fresh start, the work made it easy to forget the past, and he was never alone.
The way Wyatt likes to tell it, his life started the day he joined the circus. Clowns became his wacky uncles, the fortune teller his wise old grandma, his cousins were all acrobats and jugglers and there was never a dull moment. It was grunt work at first, manning food stands and ticket booths, using every bit of his free time to learn a few talents until he could perform. There was nothing like it, to have crowds of people cheering him on, to have a family that was this close, to never have too much quiet time to dwell on the past. Just always felt like the circus was where he belonged.
Elenanor Black was just another stray they picked up on the road. Wyatt showed her the ropes, and they got along well and became good friends over the next few years. When the old magician retired, it was Eleanor that pushed him to set up his act and take the guy’s place. Eleanor was the brains behind most of his best tricks, the real big showstoppers. She was his business partner, the plant in the audience, the one who triple-checked everything for safety. Everything was going better than he could've ever hoped for.
And then one day she was gone. In her place was someone else and everyone acted like Eleanor Black never even existed. At first, he thought it was a weird joke. How could a circus full of people forget someone who’d traveled with them for almost five years? That would be crazy. So he waited around for the big reveal, ready for a good laugh, but it never came. And the next day Eleanor didn’t show up for rehearsals, “and there was no goddamn way I was doing bullet catcher with a stranger.” So it wasn’t a prank.
Then Wyatt got fired because he refused to pretend that the new girl was Eleanor. No one wanted to work with the crazy guy who kept ranting about someone who didn’t exist. The not knowing just consumed him. He looked for any trace and it was like she’d never existed. And then no one wanted to work with the crazy guy ranting about “CIA black ops MK-ultra shit’s going down, they’re not just making people disappear, it’s like they never existed in the first place. They are out here wiping people’s minds! Or maybe it’s aliens…” No other circus kept him on for more than a few shows and he couldn't keep his focus on performing anyhow. He had to go get a normie job at a dive bar. He knew he sounded crazy, he felt crazy, but he had to know, had to find someone who believed him.
Endless internet searches turned up stories of other people missing an Eleanor Black. All over the world women named Eleanor Black were disappearing. None of it made sense but it all added up to a weird conspiracy that needed unraveling. If others were working on it, he was damn sure going to help. Eleanor was a friend, she was like family, and he won’t be the sort of person who just gives up on family. So off to the Swampland.
Paranormal-Abilities
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"Magic, pretty much know that bag o’ tricks like the back of my hand. Wait, you mean like real magic? Guess anything’s possible, world’s a strange place, but tell me what you saw and I bet I can figure out the trick there."
Blind, and while he’s not naturally skeptical about much, he knows enough about performance magic to believe it’s all about smoke and mirrors.
Other
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"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and prepare to witness an awesome spectacle that will make you question the very fabric of reality. I am Antares the Astonding. Here to entertain, captivate, and, most of all, mystify. A quick warning for those in front rows, this show brings the heat!"
Much better, he’s accepted. I am at work atm so I will write his abstraction later.
Now join the Discord:
discord.gg/4FznNGS
Most of the discussion takes place here using an ooc is sooooo… 2014. 😛