Sullivan

Sully stuck around like glue afterwards.

Life in the burrow

The young sekir largely stuck around the yutu that saved his life, inserting himself into that family whether they liked it or not. Fortunately for him, they liked it - and named him Sullivan in the process! So Sullivan, now named Sully, found himself greatly enjoying the quiet life the yutu led! He was raised quite well by his parents, being taught the values of family and just being generally loved by them. Despite being a bit untrusted around the entire burrow for a while (many other yutu were a bit frightened the sekir would turn and eat them one day!) Sully was eventually accepted around the place as a mainstay!

A mainstay that was also a nuisance. He stuck his little snout in everything he could - if only out of curiosity! He got many a verbal lecture from his sister thanks to his exploits! While he did learn to fear her strict voice and disapproving glares, it wasn't enough to keep him out of trouble.

Of course, being cooped up underground sometimes got to him - he went out to hunt quite often, sometimes spending days for a time away. Still, he always found his way back, maybe with some stories of cool things he saw or did! (Maybe they were exaggerated sometimes. Maybe.) Also, bringing back dead rabbits was considered weird to the yutu, as Sully soon learned.

Life was good for quite a few years! Unfortunately, they wouldn't last.

Slavery

On one of his usual hunting trips when he was around 10 years old, Sully got a little overzealous - he attempted to take down a large buck, one of the largest he'd ever seen. Filled with determination and just the thrill of the hunt, he tried to take it down! ...But he failed. He instead got dragged through the forest as he gripped onto it, getting thrashed around and rammed multiple times. He got thrown off when the buck trampled straight through a small encampment made by some aspiring fortune-seekers from Acetate. Sully lost consciousness from the whole ordeal, and later woke up in a cage, in the back of a truck.

He was taken to a small mining operation, where he was sold off as a slave and outfitted with a proper collar - one with a rune inscribed on the inside. He couldn't get it off, no matter how hard he tried. He was shipped off underground and was forced to develop his tracking abilities to find precious metals, helping make the other digging slaves more efficient in their jobs and making the owner of this whole operation all the richer.

Needless to say, he suffered immense cruelty at the hands of the foremen here; harsh requirements that were punished with no food if they weren't met, still expecting him to help dig on top of his tracking job, and all-around unsafe and bad working conditions all day by day utterly crushed his young spirit. His homesickness, the longing to return to the yutu burrow, did not help matters in the slightest. It did not take long for him to become more solemn, more serious - the carefree lizard who got into things for the sake of it was ebbing away, and little could be done. The only solace he found were in some of the other slaves, who were utterly appalled at how young we was; he was likely going to spend the rest of his (perhaps short) life here.

Still, he fought back when he could - he was feisty and outspoken, taking several verbal potshots and oppositions at his captors. He also stole food when he could, either for himself or for others who had gotten punished. These traits made him a nuisance, and he was treated as such - he was beaten. Often. But this never deterred him. Maybe he'd be pushed down for a time. But he was never out. He was always back at it whenever he was able. In fact, he even managed to snag a small, raw ruby away and squirreled it away inside his own mouth. This was never discovered.

He never saw the sun for at least a year, maybe longer. One day, one of the older slaves, a Sten Vardna simply named Iron, approached Sully. He was going to get him out. Follow him. He had been planning something, watching some of the foremen and guards - there were less at this time of year. Many went away for some celebration or some such. The other slaves were broken by these damn mines - he couldn't see Sully be the same. Too young. Too full of spirit. He was going to get him out.

And it was true. There were so few guards underground, the duo was able to jump and overpower them before any guns could be fired. They rode a rickety elevator up to the surface...where Iron proceeded to hurl Sully over the electrified fence surrounding the perimeter, commanding him to run. Iron was old. He knew he couldn't make it through that - but Sully deserved to live his life. Get his collar off.

Sully protested, of course - he helped him, there had to be a way out for him too! Sully couldn't just abandon him! But Iron was resolute. Sully eventually conceded and slinked away, saying his goodbyes.

Finding Kallis

Even being just 11 or so, Sullivan was quite adept at surviving in the wild, but he was lost. He had no idea where he was, where his home was...he had no direction, and a collar that threatened to choke him to death as he grew. But he did have a developing hatred of humans, particularly rone. This did not go unnoticed.

This is when he ran into Kallis, another sekir who took him in and mentored him in using his tracking abilities, 'help' him in removing his collar among other things; he had to remove it himself. Hey, if he couldn't handle this little thing, then Sully wasn't worth more of Kallis' time. Still, he offered some guidance Sully was so desperately seeking around this time - and he seemed to get it, too! The humans were the bad guys - they had to be beaten back, yeah!

Kallis imparted many more skills than just developing Sully's tracking magic - swimming, basic (proper) fighting skills, staying hidden, lockpicking...he was a veritable wealth of knowledge for Sully, whose mischievous characteristics were honed to become more thief-like.

Still, Kallis was a harsh teacher, often belittling Sully and insulting him for even the slightest mistake. All this left Sully conflicted - he represented a good thing, and he was teaching Sully! So that was good! But he was kind of...mean, too? But he was so much older, he had the experience, so this had to be how it was like, right? This was how the world was.

Kallis' influence morphed Sully into a colder, angrier individual, an anger most directed towards rone and even humans in general.

Together, they travelled around Lith, generally stealing objects owned by humans traveling or in towns and moving on before anyone noticed. It was all good fun, really, causing this petty harm to humans and peddling it off for money.

Sullivan aided Kallis in freeing several slave camps during this time as well, and though many slaves had collars that could be removed with a certain "password" of sorts, none had the means to remove Sully's personal collar. Different password and all that. The situation was becoming quite dire, in fact - the collar was ever-present, closing around his neck, and around age 14, the thing was making it quite hard to swallow and even breathe. He had to get it off, now.

Luckily for him, while they were hanging around the outskirts city called Trifold, Sully found a solution to his collar situation within the city - and it lied in an eccentric shopkeeper who was calling himself Crow. The odd man cut the collar right off of him for free, no strings attached - and Sully could not have been happier at this situation. Finally, the last remnant of his time as a slave was gone - and he could finally breathe again! He couldn't quite pay the man back yet, but he swore he would one day.

Present Day

And as it would turn out, that day would come fairly soon. When Sully was around 16 or 17, Kallis decided to let him loose for a while - he still had things he wanted to take care of, but Sully did have to prove to him he could hold out on his own. Kallis left Sully in Trifold, telling him to do whatever, as long as he could practice his thieving skills and hamper those stupid humans in some way. He'd be back to check up on him eventually.

Sully wound up returning to Crow's shop and formed a partnership of sorts with him - Crow let him stay in his shop, and Sully supplied him with shiny goods of dubious origin. It was pretty great, and the two formed quite the odd friendship over this course of time, even being shown the Rock City, one of Crow's more closely guarded secrets (or so Sully thought) after some time.

Many, many things are challenging his worldview at this point in time, and he's dealing with it...still. He's been brightening up a bit as of late.

Abilities and Powers

Natural Abilities

Sully is an adept climber, able to move up many surfaces using his sharp claws to dig in and cling to walls. He is also good at remaining unseen when he wants to, especially at night when his skin color helps him to blend in.

His natural sekir tracking resonates the strongest with any precious or odd stone/gem, being able to detect them at long ranges automatically. He also has a slight affinity with small animal game and berries developed in his early years, though this has waned from being used less and less.

Tracking Magic

On top of his natural tracking abilities, Sullivan has also developed specific tracking magic. Rather than detecting these automatically with his tail, he can mark locations, objects and items with a magical mark of varying strengths if he comes into physical contact with it. This lets him track objects or pinpoint locations over extraordinarily long distances, longer than any natural treasure lizard ability ever could.

Due to the peculiar structure of the sanctuary stones, his marking of one has marked them all. However, their inherent magic interferes with his ability and only allows it to work at closer ranges on top of only giving a vague, fuzzy area of where the stone lies.

Relationships

Chicory

My older sister - and just. I'm glad I ran into her out of the blue, like, what are the odds of that?? She cares for me so much, and actually saved my life from what I know? I'm willing to believe it. She definitely healed a lot of silly injuries I got when I went out hunting and everything, and just...she's great, okay? She's determined and caring and knows what she's doing and it's just- It's great she's helping us find the stones and is such a great addition to the team.

...Also, maybe she's a little fun to tease sometimes. I can't help it, okay??

Sid

Okay. Another roner. Also a bit of an asshole. I don't like him. Still, he's fun to banter with, and I GUESS he's pretty trustworthy...maybe. Well...he definitely seems protective of Raz, and that's a good quality, and he has helped with the stones. I guess I'll give him credit for those...

Oh, and I'm absolutely baffled at how he likes those stupid metal deathtraps of a human invention. Seriously?? It's like he wants to die!

Gru

He can be obnoxious, that's for damn sure! Especially the way he just...smiles sometimes. Yeah, anyone who knows him probably knows what I mean. I feel bad for what he told me happened to him, and well...I don't think he lied. He's alright.

Raz

I feel bad for the lil guy. Not only was he unfairly sealed away for...I don't even know how long, hundreds of years? Thousands? Way too long is the point...sealed away by humans, I should probably add - another point in their fuckup pile. But uh, he also kinda had all his friends and probooobably his home destroyed by them as well without the chance of saying goodbye or anything. Yeah, that's...something. I don't want to know what he's experiencing but it's kinda obvious it's bad. Oh, and now the dream god wants him dead. Fun.

I dunno how much I can help him out, but hopefully just being there's enough to help alleviate some of it. It's the least I can do to help repay him for saving Crow's life. Maybe I can help save his, now.

Beyond that, he's alright. Even if he calls me stupid sometimes...a lot of people do that, actually. Huh. Well...he's good to have around.

Braelii

I guess she's helping us now? I don't know her too well yet...she seems alright.

Kallis

My mentor. The guy helped lift me up and taught me so many skills that I'm indebted to him for! We had a lot of good times too, just messing with stupid humans! He's pretty great! Except for when he's insulting me. He, uh, he did that a lot...? That never feels good. But he has to be doing it for a reason, maybe he was trying to toughen me up! That's probably what it was!

And he really, really dislikes humans, and like, I get it, they're really bad! Usually! Mostly. Maybe. I don't know. I think I've ran into a few okayish ones now...maybe he was too harsh? Even if MOST of them ARE DEFINITELY bad. But he's not the nicest himself...? I don't know.

Crow

I really can't express how grateful I am to Crow. He--well, he really did save my life getting that collar off of me and then gave me a house to live in Trifold. And my sister. And my kid-I mean Emii...my kid. He's smart and knows what he's doing - I trust his judgement in almost everything! Everything that doesn't involve social skills and sleeping habits.

Yeah, he still manages to baffle me a lot, like. That can't be healthy for him?? I'm trying to help out but, uh. Yeah. And...did he REALLY have to invite that rone into the store, too...? They destroyed his forest. Come on, Crow!

Emii

I...okay, she's human, she's small, she's cute, and she likes me. A lot. Look, she was--she was defenseless when I found her, and enslaved or something, and horrified, and look, she may be human, but come on. She's a kid. I couldn't just...leave her. I couldn't. Ugh...I don't want to know what Kallis is going to think of her...

But. She's wonderful. A handful. But a wonderful handful. She's always so full of energy and cute and tiny, and she REALLY LIKES juice and it gets really tiring sometimes, but seeing her so happy and smile a lot...that's fulfilling.

Gizem

A pretty adorable kid that I'm not quite sure what she is. But she's, you know, a kid. That much is obvious. And her determination to help us is as cute as it is confusing. Like, she's pretty DANG determined. Maybe Raz just rubbed off on her that much...

Still. She's already been pretty useful! Even for being a kid. I'll keep an eye on her, if not for me, then for the parents she apparently ran away from. She'd better not get herself hurt.

Irwin

Annoyed. I'm annoyed he's here, annoyed Crow let him live here, annoyed by his stupid hair, annoyed at the fact he just wants to avoid me, annoyed by him in general because he's a goddamn rone! From Navroya! Ugh. Emii likes him though, and he does clean, and I don't know. Is he okay? I don't want to believe it. Talking to him is weird. Everything is weird. Crow described him as a slave, apparently?? Also weird.

Te'Keer

sully cant pay the juice tab. have mercy.