Drey

Full Name: Drey
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Element: Earth
Birthplace: Outside Ba Sing Se
Position: Mine Shaft Construction Worker
Training: Earthbending (expert), Brute Strength (expert), Hand-to-Hand Combat (intermediate)


Personality: (241/210) Drey is pretty much a textbook example of a gentle giant - he definitely knows his own strength, and so treats everything but the rock he works with as delicately as he possibly can. He has a pretty good sense of humor and enjoys laughing (even if he can't really make a sound)... All in all, he's a pretty good guy, who meshes well with different types of people. Some would laugh and call him a good listener, because of his inability to speak, but it's true regardless - he does listen well when other people need to vent and he offers good advice, as well.

Truth be told, he's a bit of a softie on top of everything else. Drey really likes animals and kids, probably because watching them play, when they're able to be so carefree, makes him smile. He's the type of person to hold his umbrella over a box of kittens, getting soaked himself in the process.

The muscular man definitely has a protector's mentality as well, however. Being so large, he'll gladly be a shield or an avenging fist for someone in need, particularly if they're being bullied by someone larger than they are - his sense of justice is very clear. In that sense, he sometimes gets into trouble with authority figures at the mines, trying to stop them from giving out whippings and other beatings - usually taking them for others, at that point.


Abilities: (219/210) The affinity Drey has with rock and the earth was inherited from his mother, who taught him what she knew. Be that as it may, he hasn't learned much but how to shift and command the rock for the sake of mining or other such manual labor. Technique is a bit lost on him, when he's working, because he's always just done what has always worked. He would be lying if he didn't admit to throwing boulders around in anger, during his younger years, but Drey tries to keep his temper under stricter control, nowdays.

He does have a knack for 'feeling out' veins of crystal or gems, rather than straight ore. Once that was discovered, he was brought up in the ranks, so to speak, and brought onto the mine shaft team, where he feels out such locations, creating safe tunnels to them.

It's been kept a secret, thus far, but along with discovering the crystals and gems, he can actually bend them as well; with far better results than metal or sand. The raw stones are most malleable (he'd have a hard time bending a cut diamond, for example), and the lesser gems respond the best as well. During his practices, Drey has created some very beautiful smooth gem combinations that would make lovely pendants or gifts.


Appearance:
Height: 6'5"
Weight: Muscular
Eyes: Light Grey
Hair: Black
Skin: Dark Toned

(219/210) His build makes Drey an absolute mountain of a man; tall and broad-shouldered, as well as muscular from his work in the mines, he looks as though he'd be a force to reckon with. All along his back, shoulders and arms are rough, old scars that he's picked up from working at the mines, though he has large, angry looking scars at the front of his throat.

Drey also has a tattoo on his arm that he got when he was sixteen, from a friend who had some talent for such things. His ears are also pierced, though he only wears cheap rings and studs made of nickel.

Though his dark hair seems short, it's actually styled into individual cornrow braids that Drey has been carefully maintaining since his childhood. The dark tones of his skin and hair make for a striking contrast with his eyes, which are a light steely grey color - one of the few physical traits that Drey inherited from his mother (along with, most people say, his smile).

Drey's face is very expressive; it has to be, in order for him to really communicate. A lot of his feelings are displayed in his eyes and the positions of his eyebrows, but don't let that fool you, because he also has an excellent poker face.


Other Gear:

Gem Pouch
Materials: Canvas Cloth, Twine
Description: Though he never carries it with him while working, this little pouch is where Drey keeps the semi-precious jewels that he digs up when alone. There usually aren't very many at one time, since he makes them into nicknacks or trinkets to sell as soon as he's able, but the ones that do end up there are quite beautiful.


History: (665/520) Though he generally doesn't discuss his father - hurr hurr, mute humor? - Drey always liked the man, when he was growing up. His parents had never married, even after he was conceived, and thus Drey holds his mother's surname. Still, his father was around and somewhat involved in his early formative years, only vanishing from view when Drey was eight years old and his mother's husband had come onto the scene.

His stepfather was nice enough, he supposed, being that he never hit Drey or his mother, but he had also been a very stupid man. He had always been trying to invest the family finances in some scheme or other, claiming that it would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Well, Drey had been a boy of simple expectations, and his stepfather's investments had never even managed to meet those.

By the time he turned ten, Drey's family was nearly destitute. Unable to handle the stress of failure, his stepfather had gotten shit faced one evening before throwing himself off a bridge... to put it lightly, it was just Drey and his mother, after that, along with crippling debt. Though his mother was a strong woman, it was difficult raising her son and keeping the creditors off their doorstep, and so Drey became somewhat wild in the meantime.

Getting into fights was a common occurrence for the boy, and so by the time he was a young teenager, Drey was quite familiar with the City Defense Officials. It wasn't until one of them, a father with three boys of his own, had taken Drey under his wing, so to speak, that the boy started to shape up a bit. He didn't stop getting into trouble all together, but at least things were on the mend before he became an adult.

There was a bit of an incident, however, that really made Drey turn his life around. As a young, angry, vicious teenager... he got the bright idea of sneaking onto a wealthy man's estate in the dead of night to appropriate some treasures, which he intended to pawn off for extra coin. Unfortunately, rather than riches, he found only a very savage wolf-coon, which took great pleasure in going for the boy's throat. If not for a security patrol hearing the noise, the young boy wouldn't have survived; as it was, his vocal chords were shredded.

As soon as he was old enough, Drey had taken a job at the mines, which was about the only place that would hire a boy with a criminal record (however minor). Most of his income went to help his struggling mother put food on their table, of course, but it also kept them off of the streets and out of creditors' hands. The beatings from the mine overseers were something that he had to adjust to, but soon he was able to withstand the pain without the aid of costly healing ointments.

The work shaped his personality, however, mellowing him out considerably. It was hard to be a firecracker when you spent so much time digging down in the dark alone... it was very introspective down there, digging new shafts. Which, of course, was the kind of work they have you do, when they discover that you have the talent to search out pockets of gems - which Drey had. It technically would have put him above the standard miners, but it wasn't like him to get a swelled head.

During what little time off he's allotted by law, Drey will take himself up into the mountains to dig a small, secret - likely illegal, technically - tunnel that he built. He excavates poor quality gems which he then crafts into trinkets... hopefully to sell them for a little extra money, to get his mother out of trouble with his stepfather's old debts. If he isn't there, Drey would likely be in a quiet place alone, or in a tavern, among casual friends.


Character Box:

Drey	Good with animals and kids, gentle touch, practically a gem-tracker... Hard to believe he's still single!
Mood: Mellow Condition: Good	Link: Character Sheet

Bump, because finished!

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