Luke Graves for @wastelandwhisperer ‘s Sense of Home (HIGHLY BELATED HUEHUHEUHE I’M TRASH)
Young adult | Heterosexual Bouncer | Boxer | Single Dad Hot-headed | Active | Glutton
ft. his daughter Kyra Seven | Social Butterfly | Vegetarian (Grandma Rose can also be included if you like just lmk~)
(mention of drug and alcohol use and abuse, violence and general shittiness)
Luke Graves was always the fuckup of the family. Born with an identical twin sister who could do no wrong in their parents’ eyes, it was hard not to fall into the role he seemed born to play. She was the favourite, and Lucas very much just wasn’t. To watch them love her like an outsider in his own family was more than a boy could take some days.
Lacy excelled in school and had plenty of friends, Lucas fought so much he was expelled from two high schools and one middle school. Lacy graduated with honours, Lucas was lucky they let him walk across the stage. All their lives the two were polar opposites, as far from one another as they could be. And as Lacy’s life seemed to get more and more rosy, Luke’s seemed to worsen steadily.
Both he and her mother were eighteen when Kyra was born. Too young, far too young, but when the time came to put her up for adoption her mother couldn’t do it. Luke, Perpetual Fuck-Up, balked at the thought of having a vulnerable creature rely on him and promptly bolted.
A few years were spent engaging in general scumbaggery; he fought, drank, worked the bars, slept around, partied like his life depended on it. Some of those deep dark nights, his life truly did depend on it.
It wouldn’t be quite right to say boxing saved his life, but it did give him an outlet that didn’t involve tossing drunks out of the club or getting into bareknuckle brawls out back over something stupid - women, usually. It felt good to fight, freeing. Every hit given like a blow to all the hands that ever held him back, every hit taken a smack for the choices he made himself, all the gutters he had only himself to blame for winding up in.
It’s been two years that he’s been clean, a year that he’s been sober-ish. His grandmother Rose on his mom’s side was his only cheerleader all his life, and when he got out of rehab for the last time she invited him to come live with her in Henford on Bagley - a risky maneuver, but it meant he’d be out of the city and someplace a little quieter.
That, and having a clean, stable home meant Kyra could visit him, having come back into his life around the same time that he got clean.
Luke would never try to say he’s perfect, or anything close to it. Maybe he always will be the Graves fuck-up, maybe that’s all he was ever meant to be. But he’s trying to be better for his daughter, he’s trying to make sure that his grandmother - the only person to believe in him - didn’t go before she saw him make something of himself.
All he can do now is try, and hope that it’s enough.
Personality - Luke:
Luke is a hothead by nature, a sore loser if there ever was one. He’s spent so long giving in to the demoralizing, denigrating pressure put on him, he keeps expectations low and tends to let people think what they want of him. He tends to keep to himself -- most of the gossipers in Henford know his name, of course, know that he’s Rose’s boxer grandson, that he’s trouble from the city. Far be it from Luke to tell them otherwise, only to disappoint them.
Turning his life around is easier said than done. He’s still bouncing in the nearest city out, which means long commutes, and the bulk of his free time beyond is spent either training or with Kyra, of whom he has joint custody with his ex. His current dream is to go to Mt. Komorebi for a shot at a boxing championship, and the combination of a real goal and the presence of his grandmother and his daughter in his life has been crucial to keeping him on track and focused.
At the end of the day, Luke isn’t a bad man. He’s a sad man, a lonely man, fighting the truth he’d been told all his life that he wasn’t good enough. He’s deeply flawed and always will be, but there is hope there, if one can find it under the bruises.
Personality - Kyra:
At seven, Kyra is an inquisitive young girl and a nature enthusiast. She has a passion for all things nature, from bugs and bees to plants and the environment. Clever beyond her years - she always has been - she spends the majority of her time at Luke’s place outside, hanging with various animals, pressing leaves in her Nature Journal or helping Nana Rosie can the vegetables from her garden.
Her relationship with Luke is a surprisingly good one. Her mother never spoke ill of him, and he never spoke poorly of her. He was so young when Kyra was born, when she started to get older it was like they were both just kids - so the pair always had fun together, giggling and joking. While not always a good dad, Luke never failed to be a good friend.
Kyra visits as often as she can. Henford is so much nicer than the city, so she heads over with her satchel full of books, ready to chide Luke about recycling cans and see if she can’t get a few strands of horse hair to put in her Nature Journal.
Including a couple more pics of the man bc I love him, please enjoy
