Cormac Trig

Player Name: Val

Full Name: Cormac Trig

Nicknames and Pseudonyms: Trig, Macncheese (thanks Libra). His birth name is Nathaniel Creed and he went by Nate when he was younger. He has a few other aliases he uses when necessary. 

Age: 39

Birth Date: September 23, 2274

Role on Ship: Medic

Homeworld: Animal Crossing

Significant Relations and Affiliations: Daisy, his EO - standard poodle (super fucking girlie, bubbly, obnoxious, and always want bows in her hair. She has all the charm that he doesn't.) Genevieve Creed (wife, deceased) Anita Creed (sister, presumed deceased) Parents (deceased) The Siren's Song crew. Annari Neuriko.

Bonds, Obligations, Debts, and Warrants: Yes.

Appearance: 5'9". He puts all the care into his EO’s appearance and very little into his own; he wears comfortable clothes, like plain t-shirts and jeans, and usually looks pretty scruffy with short brown hair and beard. He’s got a baby face when he’s beardless, so he makes sure he always has some facial hair. He’s got blue-green eyes and is covered in tattoos, many of which he doesn’t remember getting. He’s got broad shoulders and has a strong build, but isn’t ‘cut’ by any means.

Personality: On the outside he’s very straightforward, honest, even blunt, in a way that gives him a crappy bedside manner but means he’ll always shoot straight with you. He might be gruff, but he does like people, he’s just a little shy and has a hard time showing it. He’s really a softy on the inside, and more sensitive than he lets on. He’s very comfortable in his own skin and gives zero fucks about what anyone thinks of him or his masculinity. His first priority is Daisy, then keeping his crew alive.

Strengths, Talents, Abilities: Trig is a doctor, experienced with emergency and field medicine and a little bit with surgery. He’s extremely smart, but doesn’t show it off by any means. He’s gotten very good at styling Daisy’s fur, painting her nails, and putting bows in her hair. He’s the only doctor in the universe with legible handwriting; it’s actually a beautiful copperplate, he finds writing longhand soothing for some reason. He’s also very good at doing math in his head.

Weaknesses and Fears: Trig is an alcoholic. He’s utterly dependent on Daisy for his mental and emotional well-being. He’s got a tendency to get obsessed with or addicted to people or things that make him feel good, and wear those people or things out. He struggles with sobriety and falls off the wagon roughly once a year.

History: Trig doesn’t remember or think a lot about his childhood, except in terms of regrets. Nathaniel Creed had two parents, Marcia and Robb, who died when he was thirteen. They were okay parents. They pushed him to better himself, to be a doctor, to work hard and maybe earn himself an EO’s attention someday. He was easily molded as a kid, took his parents wishes and made them his own. They wanted him to be a doctor, so, he was gonna be a doctor. Case closed.

Then they died in a shuttle accident, leaving him with big sister Anita to look after him. He spiraled, but his brains let him keep on getting excellent grades even while he got in trouble for smoking, cutting class, bullying, talking back… Anita had her hands full, but she did her best. He trusted her, which was more than he could say for most adults. 

Nate grew out of his mean streak for the most part and turned introspective and quiet by the time he went to college. He still smoked, but he hadn’t yet been introduced to the vices that would rule his later life. He made friends, but wasn’t really close with anyone. He played ultimate frisbee and hung out with the team. But most of his years at school he was obsessed with doing well, with getting into medical school, and that was the main thing that kept him going when he was hit with the depressive phases and dark moods that had begun with his parents’ deaths, and became more frequent as stress and pressures of adult life took hold. 

Then he got into medical school, the Yarbrough Medical College on Animal Crossing, and he barely knew what to do with himself now that he’d achieved his one big goal. But then the grind of schoolwork started, and he got back into the familiar patterns of study, study, study. 

Then he joined a study group with Genevieve Strauss, and everything changed. She made a point to sit next to him, then invited him to one-on-one study sessions, then to coffee, and then they were dating, and then she was in his bed. She was leading him around by the nose and he would follow her anywhere. He was hooked on Gen worse than he was on cigarettes. He was obsessed. And if she hadn’t been so determined to make them both study hard and pass their classes, he would have failed out of med school because he was so busy acing Genevieve 101.

They got married only a year after they met. Her parents loved him. Anita never met Genevieve. She was off-station at some new job she wouldn’t talk about, it was all real hush-hush, and she wouldn’t even tell him where she was, much less what she was doing. They argued about it all the time, and when she didn’t come to the wedding, that was the last fucking straw. He didn’t speak to Anita for three months. He was busy being in love, anyway. Who needed family? They’d make their own.

Then Gen died, in a stupid and preventable accident, after a stupid argument over nothing, that left Nate a hollow, broken mess. Her parents handled the funeral. He was walked through decisions that he can’t remember, he was in a zombie-like, numb state where he couldn’t quite believe she was dead. Not until he saw her in the casket and he truly broke for the first time. Gen’s dad put a drink in his hand to get him through the day. Nate had had alcohol before, he was a binge drinker when he did drink, but he’d never needed to be numb the way he did after Genevieve’s death. He put himself under like the booze was anaesthetic, and didn’t come up for air for a very, very long time. 

When he did come to himself, he was living out of his car, kicked out of med school, with no motivation and nothing to live for but finding the next drink. Then a pair of blue eyes met his, and he was lost all over again, this time in a way that saved him. Daisy, an EO poodle pup, found him in his stupor at the park, and they bonded instantly. Her mama didn’t care much for the drunk she’d bonded with, but done was done, and suddenly Nate had something to live for. Daisy was everything to him, and she was determined that he live his life fully.

Daisy’s mama, Hazel, wouldn’t let Daisy ruin her life for her new Adept, so she convinced her own Adept to take Nate in, clean him up, and help him figure out his life. Nate sobered up, the shock of the new bond helping him this time, and decided to join the military to finish medical school. The military was glad to have him and Daisy, and he managed to finish school and get an assignment at a military hospital on Praxas with no trouble.

Okay, not much trouble. He’d crossed a bridge he couldn’t uncross, and the urge to drink was always there, crawling under his skin. Every time something went wrong, every time stress reared its ugly head or the depression pulled him down, he thought of a drink. He white-knuckled his way through it most of the time, but once in a while he went on a bender and got himself - and Daisy - in a heap of trouble. He lasted a few years, but eventually the chief medical officer got sick of his shit and he got slapped with a dishonorable discharge. 

It was hard to find work after that, despite his medical license. His reputation was shot with reputable employers, at least in the medical field. He wound up getting on a transport heading for Heritage Terminal. He found work as a medic with a mercenary outfit that lasted about six months, then moved on to another gig on a luxury liner. He usually lasted at each job from six months to a year or so, or as long as he lasted between benders. He got into trouble with the law, tore through a few aliases, and in general drifted along like a piece of flotsam on the galactic waves.

Along the way, Anita stayed in touch with him. She worried about him, but not enough to come see him in person. The rift was still there, and he felt bitter that she couldn’t be bothered to be there for him. A small part of him knew she had a right to her own life, but he wanted his big sister. At least he had Daisy. Daisy was everything. 

He washed up on Warden Station, patching up ne’er-do-wells and transients. He’d gotten a weird message from Anita that he’d put on the backburner, at least until Libra and her sisters turned up on his doorstep. They were sick, and the formula Anita’d sent was the key to saving them. Trig - he was going by Cormac Trig by now - couldn’t turn his back on them. He did what he could to help, but they still lost one of the girls. That weighed on him, even though the girls didn’t seem to blame him. They stayed in touch after they moved on, even when he’d become a pirate on Zaire’s ship, the Siren’s Song. 

He put more time in on the Song than he had at any other gig. The captain put up with Trig’s shit better than anyone else who’d come along, and their crew became something like family to Trig and Daisy. Which was a good thing, when he realized that Anita’s long silence meant that she was likely dead. The girls from Warden Station joined the crew, one by one, and life felt complete. Even if Trig’s balancing act was on the wobbly side, most days, he was doing all right. 

They crossed paths with a ship called the Pōmaika'i a Sila from time to time, first with hostility, then they became allies, even friends. Trig agreed to help them source supplies for a formula, using the contacts he’d accumulated over the years, and worked with their cute medic, Annari Neuriko, from time to time. 

And oh, Annari. He found himself thinking about her when he was alone. Thinking about her a lot. Enough that he met her alone when she wanted help, and their chemistry took over. Then they started talking over messenger, and video calls, and they even went on an actual date… his first since medical school. The realization frightened him, but Daisy reassured him. They were long distance, after all. There were limits to how fast and how far they could take things. 

So then Annari needed his help again. His usual contact was in prison, so he wanted to help her with the new contact in person… so he packed his bags to join the Sila’s crew, at least for now. 

Anything Else: 

Model: Tom Hardy