Barbel Gingly He/Him 11 sweeps (24 yrs) Bloodcolour: Blush #B44668 Sway: Derse Classpect: Theif of Mind Lusus: nurse shark (good relationship, very affectionate, they nap together) Origin Planet: Seiche Job: Dock Warden Bit of a bastard tbh.... Barbel insists lowlood oppression isn't a thing since it's not happening around him (I promise, he learns). He’s pretty materialistic, collects anything pretty and shiny and keeps it in basically a Little Mermaid style underwater hoard room. Money problems are for Other People, he's loaded and that's what matters. He talks a lot about his treasure and what he wants, but is very bad at asking for other people's input or feelings (or if he does, actually giving a shit is hard). Once he's done running his mouth, he's bored and wants to go nap, which he does very frequently. Barbel is the Dock Warden in the City of Sedimentary’s harbor. He doesn’t work unless he has to, and most commonly can be found in his office building small model boats or fucking around on Chitter. Ship captains tend to enjoy him because he lets others slack off, and lowerblooded crews hate him because he mostly just ignores them. As he's aged out of single digits, it's starting to sink in that there's Always A Bigger Fish,which he’s decided isn’t great for him, so he’d prefer to mostly stay off anyone’s radar by not being around social circles. Mostly he just wants to live in his own little bubble, but not really having friends starts to wear on him when he watches every other troll his age have people to talk to. While his strife specibus is speargunkind, he's actually a pacifist, and when another larger seadweller gets in his face he's quick to use his status and position of power on the docks to win an argument, and then fuck off somewhere quiet to stress-nap. He knows he’s kind of annoying and can rub people the wrong way with extended socialization, but doesn’t really care enough to change that about himself.
One troll who he doesn’t use his status with is his kismesis Merlin, a tealblood ship inspector who has been doing his job since trolls first began inhabiting the planet. Merlin is twice Barbel’s size, way older, and he absolutely keeps him on his toes around the docks. Merlin forces him to do a little more work, but Barbel quickly figures out he gets under the teals skin as much as he’s under his, and it actually *works* for them. Turns out having a grumpy, stuck up teal call him on his flaws might actually nudge him in the direction of self-improvement.