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art by me
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-username:
supernovacity
name:
Carlisle
gender:
Male
role:
Fighter
guild:
Paleopaws
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𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｔｙ-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxbasicxxxxx
xxxxx♦ Stubborn
♦ Easily Provoked
♦ Quick to cry
♦ Protective
♦ Secretive
♦ Distant
♦ Fearful
♦ Fragile
xxxxxdetailedxxxxx
xxxxxCarlisle is seemingly cold and stand-offish - almost aggressive. his name meaning of "Stronghold of Lugus" being extremely accurate. He prefers his seclusion and isolation, so the fact that he would so willingly join a guild seems out of character, but within his guild, he acts as their stronghold, their anchor and defender. Despite claiming to have let go of all emotions and ties, he seems quite attached and protective of his guildmates - even if he does his best to hide it.
In reality, contrary to Carlisle's claims, he's deeply emotional and troubled. He has a deep seated fear of people leaving him, which is why he's come to enjoy his solitude - feeling as though people can't leave him if he doesn't allow them to know him in the first place. He was content to explore the catacombs on his own, and overall not have a goal of his own in order to protect his fragile emotional state.
While on his own, Carlisle spent many days in the Catacombs at a time, looking for items to sell or monsters to fight - he wasn't picky. He would often spend his days looking for a fight, trying to take out his frustrations on a battle. He was terrible at understanding his own emotions, or the emotions of others. He felt alone in his youth, and through his seclusion, made his loneliness worse, and he grew frustrated and angry that it felt that no matter what he did or where he went, he was going to end up hurt.
Upon joining his guild, Carlisle seems to change from his stand-offish and angry reputation, at least mildly. He becomes softer and more tolerant of those around him, and even makes attempts at socializing with guildmates or members of other guilds. He acts as though this isn't true, and keeps staunchly asserting that he doesn't need social ties, or that he is merely seeking a guild for practical reasons, but those around him are slowly seeing him change, and whether or not Carlisle realizes it, he's slowly bettering himself with the help of his guildmates.
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xxxxxcarlisle's perspectivexxxxx
xxxxxXeno - Childhood best friend - Positive - Guild Leader
Long before Carlisle turned to social isolation, he and Xeno were glued at the hip. When Carlisle eventually isolated himself, Xeno was worried sick. He spent a long time looking for Carlisle, but he never found the elusive and reclusive cat. Carlisle eventually found Xeno in the catacombs, being attacked by a monster. He quickly ran to Xeno's aid, and got him safely out of the catacombs. Upon finding out the Xeno was starting a guild of his own, Carlisle realized he didn't want Xeno to fall into dangerous situations on his own like that again, and swiftly joined Xeno's newly formed guild, though he'd never admit it was out of a desire to protect Xeno, Carlisle always insists it was simply more practical for him to stop exploring the catacombs alone.
xxxxxSolus - Close Friend - Positive - Guildmate
When they were growing up, Carlisle always viewed Xeno’s older sister as one of the cool kids - it was no surprise that he and Xeno stuck to her like glue, wanting to be part of the cooler, older crowd. As they grew older and closed the gap of maturity, Carlisle began to respect Solus for her merit, and her strong push to look after her little brother when their parents were far too busy. He tried in earnest to be her friend, realizing quite quickly that she was truly worth befriending. When he left for the catacombs, he told her exactly where he was going, and asked her to look after Xeno.
xxxxxIskandar - Acquaintance - Neutral
Carlisle finds most members of guilds other than his to be difficult to be around, and Iskandar isn't an exception. Carlisle finds Iskandar's character assessments bizarre and seemingly random, and he finds his wording too cryptic. Carlisle doesn't hold him in a negative light, but he doesn't trust him either.
xxxxxZulfiqar - Acquaintance - Positive
Carlisle finds Zulfiqar's bright cheerful attitude to be endearing, and he's often offered to help protect Zulfiqar should he want or need it. Carlisle finds Zulfiqar's attitude similar to Xeno's, and in a way that makes him predisposed to like Zulfiqar, and to protect him when necessary, even if he's not a guildmate.
xxxxxTsaniyya - Acquaintance - Negative
Carlisle practically despises Tsaniyya. At first, he found her tolerable, but then he found out Xeno was spending so much coin and time at her market stall, and he got curious, then found out why. It turns out Tsaniyya was swindling Xeno, sweet-talking him into paying more than what items were worth, or making unfair trades. Carlisle has dragged Xeno back to their camp from Tsaniyya's stall more times than once. Carlisle and Tsaniyya have been seen almost starting fights, but Xeno usually pulls Carlisle away before it can ever come to blows.
xxxxxothers' perspectivesxxxxx
xxxxxXeno - Childhood best friend - Positive - Guild Leader
Xeno is, in the present day, one of the few cats Carlisle wholeheartedly trusts. He’s one of two cats to know what Carlisle was like before bitterness took hold of him and changed him for the worse. Xeno fondly remembers those days, but it also means he doesn’t forget how crushed he was when Carlisle disappeared. Xeno always held out hope that he’d find Carlisle again one day, but never banked on Carlisle finding him. Xeno has faith that with time and encouragement, Carlisle will slowly change for the better. However, it’s uncommon to see Xeno very far from Carlisle, and while Xeno would never say it, it’s because he’s afraid he’ll leave again.
xxxxxSolus - Close Friend - Positive - Guildmate
When Solus woke up in the catacombs with no memory of how she wound up there, she had three options. Find the rumored city, find Carlisle, or find a way out. Regardless of which option she chose, she’d be in the catacombs for some time. She spent an agonizingly long amount of time lost, trying to find her way to safety, fighting and surviving with only her wits about her. Xeno found her while foraging, and when she was taken back to his guild in Catalena, and she saw Carlisle, he knew he was in for a chewing out.
See, Solus loves Carlisle like a brother, and she’ll always chastise him like one. Solus swore to his face, if she ever saw him again, he’d be getting a talking to for disappearing like that, and doubly so for hurting Xeno when he did so.
Rumor has it Solus still hasn’t dropped it.
xxxxxIskandar - Acquaintance - Neutral
Iskandar met Carlisle when he brought and injured Xeno back to Catalena. Iskandar immediately offered help, and to allow Xeno and Carlisle to have respite in his camp while Xeno recovered from his injuries. While staying in his camp, Iskandar gathered that while Carlisle was snappy and standoffish, he wasn't inherently a bad individual. Iskandar didn't develop a particularly close relationship with Carlisle, but developed a respect for him, in part due to Xeno's own respect of Carlisle.
xxxxxZulfiqar - Acquaintance - Positive
Carlisle's first impression on Zulfiqar was...less than positive. Carlisle met the cats of Laskar Al-Gaza'ir when he was especially agitated and stressed, and it caused him to be quite snappy and bristly. Zulfiqar was quite afraid of Carlisle, but Zulfiqar's opinion changed when he found Carlisle investigating his herb garden. Carlisle was in a particularly good mood, at least by his standards. Carlisle was curious about the herb garden, and Zulfiqar, allowing him to stick around, happily answered his questions. Slowly, he warmed up to Carlisle, if for no reason other than Carlisle was seemingly out of character levels of patient and friendly with him.
xxxxxTsaniyya - Acquaintance - Negative
Tsaniyya and Carlisle never quite got along - Carlisle was able to sniff out the lies Tsaniyya told from the start. Carlisle made it clear he didn't want to hear it, and would prefer if she stopped trying to fool Xeno. Carlisle remained tolerant and neutral though, as it seemed rather harmless at the time. He simply made it clear to her that her schemes weren't going to work on him. It wasn't until Tsaniyya actively scammed Xeno out of large sums of gold that Carlisle stepped in more effectively. Tsaniyya has decided, for no particular reason, which totally doesn't have to do with how scary she thinks Carlisle is, that it'd probably be smart if she stopped trying her schemes on Xeno specifically.
(Alternatively, reyligion drew up a sketch to summarize their relationship)
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xxxxxCarlisle grew up the middle sibling of three on the surface, and often felt as though he was lesser or outshined by his siblings, and it caused him to slowly grow bitter and desire a life away from other cats, and away from their expectations that he was never able to meet. Carlisle and Xeno’s village had a legend of sorts - that the catacombs are where the ghosts of your regrets go to slumber. The catacombs were the subject of countless stories - but surely, the cats of their village thought, there wasn’t any truth to them. Legends and tales made to scare children and pass the time of the idle minded. Carlisle and Xeno however, found themselves drawn to these tales and legends, and Carlisle knew that if he well and truly wanted his life of isolation, there was one place no one was going to follow him. He entertained the idea, sure, but he never felt spurred to do something so drastic, not without a catalyst, however, when his mother suffered an early death, he made the decision that he must go.
xxxxxCarlisle waited, rather impatiently, until he had an opportune chance to enter the catacombs. He left, and most who knew him closely, such as Xeno, knew he likely disappeared of his own volition, but people who were more distant from Carlisle assumed he must have gone missing or worse.
xxxxxCarlisle’s time in isolation only worsened his emotional fragility, constantly feeling like he was failing his own standards and goals, and despite fighting it, the self-imposed loneliness began eating away at him.
xxxxxCarlisle discovered Catalena unintentionally, just trying to make his way further into the catacombs. He wasn’t surprised by the signs of other cats, but he was surprised upon Catalena, almost akin to an underground city, full of life. Upon discovering it, he promptly turned back into the catacombs, and found a rather undisturbed spot a fair way out of Catalena, and made a camp there. He wasn’t going to live in Catalena by any means, but having it nearby was...convenient. He kept up a life of isolation and seclusion, even with Catalena barely a day’s journey away, stubbornly refusing to admit the pain his isolation was causing him, and growing more agitated with each passing day as his solution seemed to make him fare worse and worse.
xxxxxCarlisle’s frustrations were always at the forefront of his mind, and he would go to Catalena only on occasion to rest up, before returning to the maze-like catacombs. Other cats didn’t know much about him, but they knew not to bother the volatile cat, or try to stop him from returning to the catacombs. While in the catacombs, Carlisle would actively look for fights with monsters, and avoid other cats. He was prone to biting off more than he could chew, which only aggravated him further. Carlisle grew increasingly bitter towards the world, and it practically radiated off of him. Inhabitants of Catalena often stayed far away from Carlisle by this point, if they didn’t know of his reputation, interacting with him informed them rather quickly what kind of cat they were dealing with.
xxxxxCarlisle was desperate to blame someone other than himself for his misery and anger, even though he chose to live an isolated life, he refused to accept any feelings he felt as a result as his responsibility. He spent many nights alone in the catacombs, cursing his misfortune, his hand in life, anything but his own choices. He wouldn’t tell a soul of these uncertain nights, but he admitted only to himself, that occasionally he was desperate for the presence of another soul, if only just to wipe his tears.
xxxxxCarlisle was steadily becoming more emotionally volatile and desperate - he was falling apart, but he was in denial. He refused to admit that he’d made a mistake, or that he was struggling. It would take a stroke of dumb luck to take him off his dangerous downward spiral - and luckily for him, something saw fit to grant him this stroke of dumb luck. On one of Carlisle’s daily rounds of the area near his camp, he found a wounded cat trying to get away from a pursuing monster. He got in between the monster and strange cat, eventually scaring the monster off.
xxxxxHe knew he was going to have to help this injured cat back to Catalena, and as he prepared to do so, he recognized the cat as Xeno. Carlisle hurried Xeno back to Catalena and stayed nearby while he was treated, and stayed fairly close while he recovered. Carlisle pressed Xeno for details about why he was in the catacombs, and upon finding out the other was starting a guild, Carlisle immediately joined up. He claimed it was out of practicality, but it was a fairly transparent gesture. Carlisle was deeply lonely, and he, against the odds, had been given a chance to remedy his mistakes, and while he was never going to openly admit they were mistakes to begin with, realizing how much less miserable he was once he finally allowed himself to be around others spoke pretty clearly to him that he needed to swallow his pride, at least this once.
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xxxxx1 - Cemetery - “He is the richest man in the cemetery...”
xxxxxxxTo say Carlisle harbored animosity towards his father would be an understatement. Carlisle felt that after his mother’s passing, his father grew distant, and he began to feel emotionally neglected. Carlisle’s father was a working cat, supported the family, but was essentially absent otherwise. He has negative feelings towards his father, but that’s not to say he doesn’t respect him and his ambition.
xxxxx2 - True - “'Cause you don't need nobody else - When you are true, true to yourself...”
xxxxxxxAt the passing of his mother, Carlisle becomes assured that he needs some form of change in his life, and insisting on being true to his nature, he seeks out solitude in the most drastic way. Despite being told it may be wrong, he knows that even if they think it's the wrong thing, it's what he wants. In his times of doubt before he descends into the catacombs, he fondly recalls a phrase his mother told him.
"Always be true to yourself."
xxxxx3 - Way Down We Go - “You let your feet run wild - Time has come as we all, oh, go down...”
xxxxxxxWhen Carlisle makes his way to the catacombs, he feels an absolute sense of freedom, he feels in control, and for once, like he’s shed the shackles of expectation. Carlisle descends into the catacombs with a sense of liberation from his troubles - unknowingly descending into more trouble and hurt.
xxxxx4 - Life Is Strange - “Don't know what I'm doing with my life - But maybe there's no wrong or right”
xxxxxxxCarlisle begins to feel his doubts early, but he quickly pushes them down. He assures himself by insisting that doubts are natural with every major life change. He stubbornly refuses to acknowledge his regrets or doubts, and continues on, asserting to himself that he's happy, he has to be happy. He made the choice he wanted, and he didn't need anyone else. While he tries to fight it, his regrets catch up to him, as he wonders if he truly made the right decision.
xxxxxxxThe longer Carlisle spends in the catacombs, the more he begins to notice his bitterness and feel his loneliness. This does not grant him some startling revelation - not yet - but it does terrify him. He pridefully pushes forward, insisting he’s made no mistake, he has to do this, he’s doing what’s making him happy - however his own unfounded confidence is built upon shaky ground.
xxxxx6 - The Day the World Died - “The future's a tunnel stretching endlessly, Into nothing stumble in the black...”
xxxxxxxCarlisle’s bitterness eventually consumes him, he spurns the world. Refusing to admit his own faults, he blames everything around him. His stubbornness becoming his fatal flaw, as he gets so caught up in the idea that he cannot possibly be at fault when the world had been so incredibly cruel to him - even compared to his former friends on the surface, they were always so happy. So so so happy. He didn’t understand why he was seemingly doomed to a bleak, unhappy future. He stumbles into this future blindly, refusing to see that it’s his own doing.
xxxxxxxCarlisle, after a fair amount of time alone in the catacombs, begins to have his faith in his decisions shaken up. He seeks companionship in the little things, even just hearing other cats’ conversations in Catalena enough to take the edge off loneliness. He begins to admit to himself his uncertainty and fear, but he has no way of knowing how to steer himself away from his self-destructive tendencies.
xxxxx8 - Forget - “Sick of my small heart, made of steel - Sick of the wounds that never heal...”
xxxxxxxCarlisle, in his uncertainty, begins to feel sick of loneliness, his isolation finally coming to an end as he begins to spend more time in Catalena, thanks to Xeno. Other cats don’t approach him, but to a socially starved cat like Carlisle, just being in the general vicinity of other cats soothes his wounds. He stays stand-offish, but Carlisle’s reputation takes a slow turn, he’s a generous tipper at taverns, he’s got great stories if you stick around him long enough, and he’s a good teacher. Slowly, though they still respect that he’s scary, and kind of a jerk, the occasional cat’ll say hello to him now. Carlisle slowly starts to put his past behind him, all of it.
xxxxxxxTowards the present day, Carlisle slowly accepts his failures, and begins to work on his emotions. He refuses to admit it to anyone but himself, maintaining a fragile facade that he is confident and assured - though deep down he is wildly uncertain, questioning, and scared. He welcomes this new uncertainty, provided he can face it with his guildmates.
xxxxx10 - Open Air - “To leave the depths and dark behind - Free, unconfined...”
xxxxxxxAt present, Carlisle is full of hope, despite acting cynical. He’s learned that there’s hope in the world, and that there are others who are worth protecting and fighting for. He slowly begins to escape the tunnels and mazes he’s built for himself emotionally, and learns of the hope that can be found within everything he’s shut out. He longs to be free of his gripping cynicism and fear, and slowly, ever so slowly, he takes the steps to realize that goal.
