Thinkin' 'bout Zan'Kuja and the fact that she really is a girl without a country. She was born at sea, her some is a ship that might not even exist anymore. Her mother's gods rejected her (and her mother) simply because of what she is. And as she goes on in life and learned more about shamanism she becomes a child of the earth and the wind and the sea and that's enough for her.
She doesn't warm up to Mudde at first not because she hates him but because there's no room for him. She was raised by an entire ship crew, any gap that missing her second parent left was filled by them the day she was born. She doesn't know what to do with him, where to fit him into her life. I imagine they eventually fall into this nebulous, non-specific 'family' relationship, with Drekora being more like an older sister than anything else. She really takes to Malik and the two of them go off on many adventures when they're older.
Mudde stumbles across Zan'Kuja when she's grumpy and in pain because she ran out of potion. He talks to her for a bit, and eventually gets her to tell him what's up. She's always had issues with her bones, since goblin and troll skeletons were probably never meant to be combined. It's a lot like early onset arthritis plus scoliosis, I guess. And her teeth are all hecked up. She has pain, off and on, and can usually regulate it with potions, but she's run out of her supply and has to get more. She doesn't like to talk about it if she can help it.
Mudde feels pretty bad. Feels like it's his fault. So he starts to apologize, but ZK stops him. She doesn't want people feeling sorry for her.
They stand in some super awkward silence for a while. ZK pipes up with "Sooo I heard you shot a guy in the knee.", because this is obviously the best way to bond. They fumble through their conversation for a bit more, until Mudde tries to apologize again, so ZK tells him,
"Look, I don't hate you. But I didn't come and find you because I wanted to bond and make up for lost time and all that shit, I came because it was the last thing my mother asked me to do. I'm not sure why, she never told me that part, but I'm not going to deny her last request just because I don't get it. What I'm saying is, don't feel like you have to take care of me. I'm doing fine."
He nods and she mutters something about going to find some potion and half-limps off. Mudde sighs to himself and feels like a big dummy.
I wrote this mostly for my own reference and to get it out of my head but Ceth inspired me to post it so here. It's a big list about a goblin.
- He's a goblin from Tanaris. Steamwheedle Port.
- He went to Kezan once and thought it was smoggy and gross.
- He has no formal education. He's mostly illiterate (I suspect he's either dyslexic or has some sort of learning disability related to reading/writing.) He can speak several languages, though, from hearing them growing up in the port.
- The only phrase of Dwarvish he knows is "Get me another round!"
- He has an innate ability with nature magic, though it isn't strong enough for him to actually cast spells. It does allow him to do things like speak with insects and take on the characteristics of the ones he's around. (i.e. run across water when he's with his water strider, etc.)
- He isn't actually aware that he has any magic ability at all. To him it's just intuition.
- The weapon he's most skilled with is a rifle. He also knows how to use other types of guns, crossbows, axes, machetes and knives. He's also pretty okay in a fist fight, but it's not his first choice for self defense.
- His mother named him Mudde so he would be lucky. The idea is that you'd have to be lucky to find water in the desert, and a signal that water is nearby is...mud.
- and he IS lucky. Extremely lucky. Not that he has good luck or bad luck, he's lucky both ways. Meaning that unlikely things happen to him often. i.e. he'll get himself into crazy situations but against all odds come out of them alive.
- At some point in his past, he had a card reading by a wandering fortune teller. Among other things, it predicted he would die in a fire. Also that his death would have something to do with a boat.
- Some of the cards in that reading were the Seven of Swords and the Tower, among other things that I need to figure out. It's part of why he stays with the Wolves even though they drive him nuts: he believes they will play an important role in his ultimate fate.
-Speaking of Tower: he's in Mudde's top five list of People Who Are Most Likely To Be The Death Of Me, the other four being Lellentyr, Vandrian, Drekora, and Vymissa.
- Speaking of fate: Mudde believes in karma. He doesn't -call- it karma, of course. He would just call it alchemy, if he had to name it. His philosophy revolves around the idea that every action will have an equal and opposite reaction, eventually. The universe will make sure of it. However, if you don't make an attempt to balance out actions yourself (i.e. if someone punches you you punch them back), they'll "clog up", so to speak, and eventually the universe will balance things out all at once. He believes this is why so many goblins die by exploding, and why he hasn't yet.
- He's currently 49 years old and damn proud of his age, mostly because growing up he was told by many people that he was an idiot, and has since outlived all those people.
- He always wears a top hat, which he won from Dr. Dealwell at the Thunderdrome. They had a silithid colossus in the ring, which Mudde was confident he could beat, but Dealwell said he wouldn't put on a good show because he was "just another merc with a gun." Mudde gave Dealwell his rifle, saying if he lost, it could be added to the pot, but if he won, he got to have Dealwell's top hat. Dealwell accepted. Mudde killed the colossus with a hatchet, since he's extremely familiar with the creatures and knows their weak points. He makes a point to tip his hat at Dealwell whenever he sees him.
- Mudde was subsequently banned from competing in the Thunderdrome.
- The hat has an enchantment on it that keeps it clean.
- Mudde is covered in scars, and is missing two teeth on the left side of his bottom jaw. His left eye is permanently half-shut, and his expressions are all lopsided. His nose is crooked. There's a noticable chunk of flesh missing from his left shoulder, which tends to pop out of its socket once in a while.
- He scratches behind his ear when he's uncomfortable.
- He enjoys drinking and also smokes on occasion. ...I say "enjoys" as opposed to some of my other characters who don't drink at all. He still likes to be able to shoot straight.
- He has a terrible sense of direction and gets lost often. Whatever screws him over in reading words also screws him over in reading maps.
- He intentionally seeks out and befriends very dangerous people and creatures. His logic is that the safest place in a storm is the eye.
- He often plays the fool so people will underestimate him.
-Not to say he isn't naturally somewhat foolish, he is. He just...intentionally plays up those qualities of himself.
- He loves the rain but hates the snow.
- He was in Silithus when the Cataclysm hit.
- He enjoys swimming.
- He has no idea how to use chopsticks. He just uses them as skewers.
- He usually wakes up early to watch the sunrise, and hates people waking him up when he's sleeping.
- He will go with anyone as long as they aren't undead or furry. (even occasionally. So no druids or worgen.)
- His swarm:
Cindy, a female wasp from Siltihus.
Chitters, a female scorpid from Uldum that he uses as a mount.
Squash, a male silithid from Tanaris with a broken carapace and exposed brain.
Glowbutt, a small male firefly.
Flatfeets, a male water strider from the Dread Wastes.
Tiye, a female scarab housing the spirit of a hozen named Bik Bik, put there by Tower Gregory. The scarab was given to him by Cethlenn Cunningham.
-He can play the harmonica. If some things in his life had gone differently I could see him being a bard instead of a bug tamer marksman guy.
