User Profile

canon character/series: Ascot/Magic Knight Rayearth.
name: If he remembers his real name, he probably won't tell you; Ascot was an alias given to him by Zagato, under whom he worked for most of his short life.
age: 18
gender: Male.
race/ethnicity: Human/Irish.
sexuality: Heterosexual.
appearance: Ascot stands at exactly six feet tall, his skin pale and his body almost devoid of muscle. His Irish heritage gave him reddish-brown hair, vivid green eyes, and just a faint trace of freckles on his cheeks and across the bridge of his nose. Unfortunately you probably won't get a chance to see the latter two; his hair grows fast, and he's long since given up on trimming his bangs. Most of his hair is kept short and hidden underneath a worn, black bucket hat. His bangs, however, stop just above his nose and veil his eyes. It's a wonder he can even see through them.

In terms of attire, Ascot is almost always completely covered. You see little more than his fingers and his face which, even then, isn't entirely visible. More often than not he dons a black button-down shirt, tucked haphazardly into a pair of well-worn khaki slacks. Leather belts of various sizes adorn various parts of his body, including but not limited to his waist, upper arms and left thigh, carrying pouches that either conceal his throwing knives or carry what little he earns as a cabin boy.

His slacks are tucked into a pair of dark brown leather boots that, if not for the straps that keep them together, look like they would probably fall apart if he did so much as wiggle his toes in them. His hands are partially covered by fingerless gloves of the same fabric. Lastly, you'll find an animal of some sort either at his feet or draped around his shoulders. They're drawn to him like he's some sort of magnet, although sometimes he has to wonder how they got on the ship in the first place.

personality: It's hard to sum up what he's like now. As a child he was, for the most part, very friendly and always willing to help, even when people didn't want his help. Now, however, Ascot has been shaped into a shy, withdrawn young man. He lacks confidence and self-esteem, and his self-deprecating behavior goes far beyond what people consider modesty. He doesn't trust humans or anything that even closely resembles them, and if he ever does talk to one he keeps them at arm's length. Ascot doesn't even try to make friends; he just quietly goes about his work, and he prefers not to be bothered. Beneath the antisocial exterior, he's still retained some of his childlike traits, but that's a side few rarely get to see.

His antisocial behavior is rooted in insecurity. He doesn't bother forming relationships with people because he knows how temporary they can be... unlike his animal friends who, though they might come and go, will be loyal to him 'til the very end. Ascot doesn't want to be ridiculed, ostracized or hated anymore than he already has been in the past; of all the things he doesn't know, at least he's sure that the world is a cruel place, and he often wishes he wasn't a part of it. He works hard at everything he does, but if he's doing it for somebody else it's possible that he's also looking for some sort of praise -- something he rarely gets to hear.

Though Ascot doesn't have many friends, he is fiercely loyal to those lucky, chosen few. To them he can be friendly and agreeable, and if need be he would go to the ends of the earth just for them. Needless to say, he would probably risk his life as well.

abilities/weaponry: Ascot has the ability to communicate with animals, monsters and large beasts. Although this has made him an outcast in other people's eyes, he's found that being able to talk to a monster has earned him their loyalty; hell, he could get the Loch Ness Monster to do his dirty work for him if he wanted. Ascot is always seen with an animal, but he also keeps a set of throwing knives on his person at all times, in case his friends fail him.

weaknesses: Perhaps even greater than his physical weaknesses (he is quite lanky after all, and therefore easily overpowered) are his personality flaws. Having been shunned almost all his life, Ascot hardly talks to anybody besides his animals and his captain. He is insanely protective of them, moreso than he is of himself, and is known to snap if he thinks they're in danger. Moreover, while he has become adept in fighting and in some forms of manual labor, Ascot is quite lacking in the "people skills" department. In fact, to say he had any at all would be a joke. Also worth mentioning is the fact that he hasn't attended school past the second grade; he reads at the most elementary level, and his handwriting looks like chickenscratch. Just talking to him you wouldn't be able to tell, but if you asked him to write something he'd get embarrassed and try to avoid it.

history: Ascot doesn't like to tell people about his childhood, to the point where you'd start to wonder if he ever even had one. But of course he did, as everybody did. He was born to a devout Catholic family of means in northern Ireland, and for a few years they spoiled him with every luxury they could afford. If he wanted something - and sometimes, even if he didn't really need that something - they got it for him. The real trouble began, however, when they decided to get him a dog for Christmas. All seemed well at first, but before long Ascot started to claim that the dog was telling him it wanted to go out, that it didn't like certain things and preferred others, and so on. Though they wanted to believe it was just his growing imagination, over time it started to scare them. Afraid that, perhaps, the dog was having a bad influence on their child, Ascot's father tied the puppy up in a burlap bag and threw him into a river. They told Ascot that he had run away.

Unfortunately, this didn't stop him from talking to other animals. By the time he was seven, animals were actually seeking him out for help. At times he'd disappear for days on end, and when he returned he claimed that an animal had asked him for help and that was why he left. Distraught, Ascot's parents turned to his Sunday School teacher for advice. The old woman concluded that it was the work of the devil, and that they had to purify their child by any means necessary. When his father spoke of killing him, in the same fashion he had the dog, his mother drove him out of town in the middle of the night and left him on the street. Ascot never saw her again.

He had been an orphan since age eight and the year after he met a man by the name of Zagato. For a while he was like a father figure to him; despite the fact that he ran something akin to a mafia (and even at that age, Ascot knew what kind of business he dealt in), because he was the first person to even seem like he cared about his situation. Everywhere Ascot went, animals were sure to follow. If he stopped to talk to them (which he always did; he couldn't ignore his only friends) he earned himself weird looks and snide remarks from passersby. Zagato offered him a place for him and his friends to stay: a home, if you will. And in exchange, he wanted Ascot to use his abilities to kill designated targets. At age nine, he was already a hitman. Perhaps even the perfect hitman; not only would people underestimate him because of his age, but he always kept his hands clean and let his animal companions do the work. (These weren't little animals like squirrels, mind; by that time, even bears and mountain lions had found their way to him.) This was how he lived for eight years.

On that seventh year Zagato finally revealed to him that he had taken a young woman by the name of Emeraude hostage, that three young girls had been charged with finding her, and that he was to eliminate these girls using any means necessary. He underestimated them at first, having taken a nap while he let his animals kill them for him. Unfortunately, when he awoke, he found the dead bodies of his "friends" littering the area where those girls were supposed to be. Ascot had never failed quite like that before, and he vowed to avenge his friends at all costs. He tried various other times to kill the girls, and every time he swore to exact even more revenge as they continued to kill the animals he sent after them. He was sixteen then.

Finally, when he was seventeen, he got what he thought would be his chance to avenge all of their deaths. Once again using his friends' help, he finally decided to take matters into his own hands and confront them himself. He had captured two of them, and was going to kill the third -- Umi Ryuuzaki, who he considered pretty even with her really strange and in no way natural blue hair. After she literally slapped some sense into him and told him that he was making his friends commit murder against their will, he realized the err in his ways. Ascot knew that, if he continued down this path, he may soon have no friends at all. Umi told him she thought he had a gift, not a curse, and not too long after he resolved to leave Zagato's gang. Unfortunately leaving meant he'd also have to go into hiding; he became yet another one of the man's targets soon after.

This was primarily why life as a pirate appealed to him. That way he was constantly on the go, regardless of whether or not his crewmates accepted him as a person rather than a spawn of the devil as his parents had. Not only was he safe from Zagato out on the seas, but he had the faintest of hopes that, someday, he might see Umi again. (For all he knows they might have reached Zagato already.)

crew position: Cabin boy aboard the Artemis' Bow.