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GENERAL

Name: Roland Philip Messer
Nickname(s):
Gender/Pronouns: He/Him/His
Birthdate/Age: October 1, 17
Grade: Junior
Sexuality: Chaotic Useless.

Major Arcana: The Empress ("[The Empress] can signify...the medium of creative urges and projects. She can be viewed as a muse, a catalyst to the outbursts of imaginative energy. The Empress in a Tarot reading has the power to inspire.")
Minor Arcana: Swords

Concept: Space alien seeks greater meaning in forbidden places.


APPEARANCE

Height:5'10Hair Color:Black
Build:Brick ShithouseEye Color:Brown

Roland is intimidatingly built, big and broad and strong, but there's a boyish softness to his features and the expressions he wears on his heavily freckled face that gives him a sweet look. He carries himself with the confidence you'd expect of a teen boy built like a linebacker, but there's a subtle reticence to the way he never quite makes eye contact and always somehow dodges physical affection.

He looks somewhat out of place in blazers and sweater vests. Mostly, it's that Roland is deeply uncomfortable with performing the private school kid schtick. The very moment he is able to do so, it's out of the uniform and into his street clothes. His style is more adventurous than one might expect given his quiet demeanor. Thrift store scavenges, mostly, but he goes for the weird stuff, for sure.

PB: James Rolleston


PERSONALITY

Likes: Polaroids, photography, Nikon cameras, browsing exorbitantly priced lenses, rugby, tackle sports, roughhousing, heights, thrill rides, breaking & entering, loitering, early mornings, small vacations
Dislikes: Authority (oh my god, Roland), traditional classrooms, being left alone, having to carry a conversation, small talk, public transportation, big moves, strangers who talk to him in public
---


Quiet - that's the first word most people use to describe Roland Messer. Not a lot to say, but he's definitely there; his presence remembered. He never goes unnoticed. And part of that's because Ro's tall and he's big, yeah, but more than that, he radiates a quiet, easy confidence. The sort of energy you only see in 80s action heroes. Wherever Roland Messer is at any given moment, that's surely where he belongs.

It's hard to say, though, if this is a case of still waters running deep. Ro's not an outstanding student, nor is he particularly philosophical. He tends to take things at face value, not devoting a lot of time to analysis or critical thinking. But he is clever; a combination of smart and sure of himself that makes it hard to just write him off as a meathead. He also has a strange sense of humor; goofy and absurdist, with a fondness for puns. He's utterly unphased when his jokes and antics fall flat, like everything he does is for his own amusement, only.

In general, Roland is remarkably good at entertaining himself. This can manifest in some questionable ways, particularly given his predilection for disrespecting authority. He's got a rebellious streak that tips consistently into anarchistic, and he needs to be managed in a very specific way or he will absolutely go and do exactly what he is told not to do. In general, he just gets a thrill from misbehaving, going where he shouldn't go and being where he shouldn't be - snooping, breaking and entering, climbing the biggest thing in the room. He doesn't like being cruel or punching down, but he's an asshole for sure.

He gives the appearance of not needing people, but he's not quite an introvert. Roland gets lonely very easily, but prefers happily occupying the same space as others to being the life of the party. He's shy and he's awkward and, to be quite honest, other people - with their obvious gifts, smarts and attractive faces - are intimidating. He finds engaging in conversations a challenge, even though he's curious about and genuinely interested in others. So, he tends to gravitate toward people who do the heavy lifting of conversation for him, talkers and other strong personalities. He, himself, is a quiet eccentric, frequently feeling like an alien just visiting Earth.

Overall, though, his presence tends to be a positive one. He is not brusque, just awkward. Never mean - he simply struggles to keep conversations going. Roland errs genuinely optimistic. He certainly sees the bad, but he's not intimidated by it and he's not interested in dwelling on it. Ro lives in the moment. He gets over things quickly and when looking to the future he rarely has reservations about what it could have in store. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there," is a saying he'd deliver with more excitement than most.

What he lacks in academic and social skills, Roland more than makes up for in creative drive and artistic talent. He's curious about the world, constantly seeking to learn new things and capture unique experiences. He is an adventurer and an artist and a bit of a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to hobbies. He'll try anything once, and fearlessly approaches new challenges with a quiet smile on his face.


SKILLS

[PHOTOGRAPHY]: A natural knack for composition has been cultivated by hours and hours of practice. Roland's passion is photography. He is particularly fond of instant-photo polaroid shots for his own amusement, but he also has a Nikon DSLR and a Fuji mirrorless camera for more serious work, as well as his phone for snapping ridiculous pictures. He likes portraiture as long as it's animals - not so much when it's people. His favorite thing to shoot is landscapes with unusual perspectives or colors. The one way to ensure more than a one word answer from Ro is asking him about photography.
[ART CLASS]: Aside from photography, Roland also dabbles in sketching - his style is very cartoony - and painting with oils. Really, he enjoys any sort of messy artistic pursuit, but comes back to these two the most.
[PARKOUR, CLIMBING, ETC.]: Roland likes being up high, and has a lot of practice getting there. He's quite the athlete, climbing and free-running and flipping to get to hard to reach places, particularly to get that perfect shot with his camera.
[BELONGING]: Roland has an almost supernatural ability to melt into the background when he wants to. He's good at looking like he belongs somewhere, which is a great asset for sneaking into places he shouldn't be. He likes scaling buildings and slipping into "Employees Only" areas, and he has very little trouble accomplishing those tasks.


HISTORY

Family:

PETER MESSER (Father) Career military, hailing originally from Hawaii. A young father preoccupied with his wasted youth. A good guy, but quick to anger. Has difficulty talking to his son.
CARYNNE MESSER (Mother) Career military, hailing originally from Hawaii. Focused wholly on her work and far more likely than her husband to go on deployment.

Hometown: Various. Presently, his parents have a home outside of Washington, DC, but they move as needed. More permanent addresses include Phoenix, Arizona (maternal grandparents) / Honolulu, Hawaii (paternal grandmother)
The Messers have always made do, though they've never quite lived comfortably. Though Peter and Carynne hail originally from Hawaii, they haven't been back their permanently in a long time. Career military, both of them, and constantly moving, stationed all over the world at one time or another. Their son, Roland, was actually born in Iceland. The family spent his first two years there before packing up and moving back to the states, living in Texas for a scant four years before shipping off to Japan. And there were deployments in there, too. So their baby was never in one place for very long at all.

A semi-nomadic lifestyle is all Roland knew. Four years here, two there, eighteen months in another place. In the event that both parents were deployed, Little Rollie stayed with Grandma Messer in Honolulu, or maybe Pap-Pap and Mee-maw Owens in Arizona. Suffice it to say, true 'belonging' was a sense that always slipped through his fingers. Army brats are awkward to begin with, and Roland was a uniquely quiet child. But, still, spending a little bit of time in every possible place teaches you how to melt into the background anywhere. And that's a skill Roland would get a great deal of use out of.

From five to fourteen, Roland saw the insides of a dozen or more different schools. The internet facilitated friendships, sure, but kids grow up fast at that age. And if you're not right in front of them, well, Minecraft and Fortnite only do so much. So, Roland didn't have many friends. Which he didn't like precisely, but he didn't much mind, either - social anxiety might've been an easy diagnosis if his parents had the time or resources to take him to see a specialist. Instead, he just found comfort in being by himself. First, in nature. Later, where he shouldn't be.

Roland was never a bad kid. But it did bother the hell out of him that his parents put their service over their son. And he acted out. Mostly, by not being around. Staying out late, loitering, climbing all over everything, eventually breaking and entering. He learned to talk his way out of run-ins with the cops - just a boy checking out something cool where he shouldn't be. No stealing. No vandalism. He took to using his camera as an excuse - oh, I'm just trying to get a good shot turns a tresspasser into an artist. Before long, Roland discovered that he actually had a knack for this whole picture taking thing. And, more than that, he genuinely enjoyed it. The excuse became the raison d'etre. Roland started posting his photos to Instagram. He started getting attention.

He got it in his head that he could go to some sort of fancy boarding school for the arts, maybe. Finally settle down and stop moving. Instead, his search brought him to Finchwood. It wasn't an art school, but it was exclusive and, more importantly, free. So he applied.

He's not quite sure why he signed the contract. He'd wanted to get away from parents who were too busy for him and a life spent moving all over the world. But, maybe something pulled at his heartstrings. Be a soldier. Save the world. Like mom and dad.


COMBAT

Persona: Yeiazel, Angel of Divine Support
Element: Thunder


ACADEMICS

Core Classes: English, Mathematics*, Science, Social Studies, Training.
Elective Classes: Art, Life Skills

Clubs: Athletics, Gaming

General Performance: Average, but underwhelming. Roland's got a knack for numbers and an obvious talent when it comes to art, but he is so utterly disinterested in academics that you'd have about as much luck reaching him as you would punching through a brick wall. Homework and studying are not priorities, he never does extra credit and he procrastinates whenever humanly possible. School is just a necessary, boring torture he has to endure until he achieves the freedom of adulthood.


OOC

Player: Jenny
Email: tiny kitty feet
CDJ: [personal profile] 10billionghosts
Other Contact:
Time Zone: EST

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January 2019

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