Inspired by: aragorn, geralt of rivia, matt murdock, spike spiegel,lucien vanserra, vash the stampede
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full name: ballister boldheart faceclaim: riz ahmed
dob: february 3 zodiac: aquarius
occupation: fugitive protector—unemployed
birthplace: lower district of aurelia
orientation: gay
song: "way down we go" - kaleo film: children of men
education: trained by the kingdom that later condemned him
temperament: guarded-dominant
MBTI: INFJ alignment: chaotic good
abilities: elite swordsman, tactical combat, adaptive engineering, relentless survival instinct
hogwarts house: gryffindor emoji: ⚔️🩸
· · ─ ·taken connections · ─ · ·
ambrosius goldenloin ᯓ first love | the person who knew him before the world fell apart. despite everything that happened between them, bal never truly stopped loving him.
nimona ᯓ chaos incarnate | found family | she reminded him how to laugh again when he thought that part of himself was gone for good.
· · ─ ·present · ─ · ·
most people here don’t know who he is and bal is fine with it. His name means something different here. no titles attached to it or broadcasts. no kingdom waiting to judge whether he succeeds or fails. Here he is just a man trying to figure out what comes after surviving the collapse of everything he once believed in. he settled into the city quietly beside the little family he found in the aftermath of ruin, building something small and fragile out of shared meals, tired laughter, and the kind of love he never expected to survive long enough to have. still, some part of him aches for the guard life.not the politics or the institute. but the purpose of it all. the simple structure and the certainty that every morning he woke up knowing exactly who he was supposed to be. there are days he catches himself standing a little straighter when he hears sirens in the distance or instinctively scanning crowded streets for danger without realizing it. sometimes he misses the armor so badly it feels physical; like phantom pain from a missing limb. he doesn’t know what his future is supposed to look like anymore. and hat terrifies him more than being hunted ever did. but maybe healing isn’t about becoming who he used to be. maybe it’s about learning there’s still a life worth building after taking off the armor.
· · ─ ·past · ─ · ·
ballister boldheart was born in the lower districts of aurelia, raised in a cramped apartment tucked above rusted streets and factories that never seemed to sleep. he never knew his mother beyond scattered memories and fading photographs; she passed when he was still too young to understand what loss truly meant. after that, it was just him and his father.
his father loved him. but love, in their home, was never soft. not when his father had spent most of his life working himself to the bone just to survive, and somewhere along the way, survival became the only language he knew how to speak. he was stern, demanding, and impossible to impress. mistakes were corrected sharply and weakness was not comforted. bal grew up learning how to swallow his pain quietly and push himself harder than everyone else before the world could decide he wasn’t enough.especially because the world already had. they were commoners. the kind of people the kingdom overlooked unless it needed something from them. but bal was stubborn…and worse, hopeful. while other boys dreamed of escaping the lower districts, he dreamed of becoming a knight. protecting people. standing for something good. his father called it foolishness, insisting the kingdom was never built for people like them. maybe that was exactly why bal wanted it so badly.when the institute accepted him as the first commoner ever admitted into their ranks, the entire kingdom treated him like some kind of living experiment. proof that the system worked. nobles smiled at him with teeth instead of kindness, waiting for him to fail so they could say they had been right all along. bal refused to give them the satisfaction. he trained harder than anyone else, endured every insult in silence, and carried the weight of impossible expectations on his back until it became second nature.
and despite everything…he loved it there.the guard gave him purpose. structure. belonging. for the first time in his life, bal knew exactly who he was supposed to be. every bruise, sleepless night, and impossible training exercise felt worth it because he had finally become something more than the frightened boy from the lower districts.he had earned his place. and somewhere along the way, he found people worth staying for. among them was ambrosius goldenloin, the kingdom’s golden heir. beloved. brilliant. everything bal wasn’t supposed to stand beside, let alone fall in love with. but ambrosius looked at him without pity or mockery. with him, bal didn’t feel like a symbol or a mistake. he just felt seen.for the first time in his life, the future felt certain.
then came the assassination.one moment shattered everything. the queen now dead. blood staining marble floors before he could even process what had happened. overnight, the kingdom’s golden success story became its favorite villain. the same people who once praised him turned vicious with terrifying ease. broadcasts painted him as a monster. the institute erased him like he had never belonged there at all.what destroyed him wasn’t just the betrayal.
it was the realization that their belief in him had always been conditional.somewhere between the running, the fighting, and the disasters that followed, bal found something he never expected to survive long enough to feel again:hope. he found it in nimona.
chaotic, strange, impossible nimona crashing into his life like a wildfire refusing to leave it untouched. she reminded him how to laugh again. how to survive without becoming cold and how to keep going even when the world insisted you were monstrous. through her, through the truth they uncovered together, bal slowly began finding his way back to himself…and eventually, back to ambrosius too.his name was cleared in the end. the truth about the queen’s death finally exposed for what it was. but surviving something like that changes a person. the kingdom could apologize all it wanted; it could never give him back the life it destroyed. still, somehow,hel found something better waiting in the ruins.not glory or knighthood. just people who loved him anyway.
· · ─ ·future · ─ · ·
he doesn’t know what his future is supposed to look like anymore, and for the first time in his life, he’s trying to be okay with that. there’s no kingdom demanding something from him now. no title to earn and no impossible standard of survival. just a quiet life beside the people who chose him even at his worst. for now, that's enough and honestly? he thinks he’d like to keep it that way for now.
ballister drove another nail into place before leaning back to inspect his work. the wooden boards weren't perfect, but they were sturdy enough to hold, which was what mattered. hiis sleeves had long since been rolled past his elbows as sawdust clung to his shirt and work gloves while he moved down the line of damaged fencing. no one had asked him to fix it and truthfully, he wasn't even sure who owned the property anymore. but he'd passed by it enough times during his morning runs and after the storm, the broken section had started to bother him. so here he was with his hammer tucked through his belt, measuring tape hanging from a pocket, and a growing pile of replaced boards at his feet. ballister reached for another plank and paused, squinting down the length of the fence.
“..that looks straight..” he tilted his head to double check “...mostly straight." he gave a small nod to himself before setting the board into place and reaching for his hammer once more.
