Sixthiteration Application

[seekingvinland]

BASICS

Your name or nickname: Koko
Your year of birth: 1986
A reliable DW account the mods can PM to reach you: Opticon
Link to your hold comment: http://sixthiteration.dreamwidth.org/2016/03/04/holds.html?thread=52075#cmt52075
Referral: Kayla - Kol Mikealson

Character name: Thorfinn Thorsson / Karlsefni
Character type: Fandom + CRAU history
Fandom/Canon: Vinland Saga
Character DW journal: SeekingVinland
Does this character have previous CR?: Yes.

HISTORY

http://vinlandsaga.wikia.com/wiki/Thorfinn Thorfinn @ Vinland Saga Wikia
http://seekingvinland.dreamwidth.org/911.html?thread=399#cmt399 History + Medietas

PERSONALITY OVERVIEW

Starting out, Thorfinn was a cold angry young man. Someone who would cut down anyone in his way of his goals. He had a strong sense of pride and stubbornness that kept him alive where most might have just laid down and died. Using biting sarcasm and heavy cruses to push people away from him. To keep from being touched, loved or helped. He has always had a need to carry his own weight and shoulder everything himself. Even when he complains about it, it is a deep part of who he is. He carries the weight, he does the dirty work, he cuts a path to a better tomorrow. Be it from trying to kill the man who killed his father, or trying to make a colony in a new land for the cowards and out-casted of the vikings world.

Thorfinn has a deep sense of pride and honor, even when he was a mass murdering viking he had this trait. It was so strong that the man he swore to kill considered him one of his most loyal minions because Thorfinn would never dishonor himself by slitting the man's throat. He had to kill him in an honorable way. Now that he is older and has realized the horrors he has committed, he carries the weight of those he killed and plans to do more good than the bad he did to balance the scales and try to give his victims peace to move on.

Thorfinn is a very respectful and polite young man, the complete contrast of the blood thirsty teenager he had been. He feels he must be kind to everyone he meets even those who clearly mean him harm. Going as far as to say thank you to a man who punched him in the face. He is a little two-faced in this because he will be kind to people that he clearly wants to kill, going as far as to tell his bff Einar not to look at the bodies of the dead before meeting the king lest it sway their thoughts. As deep as his hopes for a new life run, so does the pain and suffering of his past. He suffers from violent nightly nightmares that he often doesn't remember, and his temper remains under the surface.

In his younger years his temper was his Achilles' heel, he could think well through a battle but as soon as he lost his temper it was over. Most of the scars on his body come from losing his temper. And when it rises something bad always happens. He's too strong for his own good and when he gets pissed he hurts people even those he has no issue with. The only real exception to this is woman and children. Even when he was a monster he NEVER hurt woman and children, going as far as to coldly warn women that his old companions were rapists and they should run while they can. This stemmed from missing his mother and sister back home and waking up beside one too many rapes in his years. It wasn't so much he cared about the woman's fate as he just didn't want that on him. The vile acts openly disgusted him.

He is not the best at being social with other people. He spent so long trying to be separate from the band he grew up in that he doesn't always get social cues and simple things. An example of this is Einar had to flat out tell him they were friends, and Thorfinn still didn't quiet grasp it. When he is awkward with a situation he tends to just get up and leave and go find something to do instead of dealing with the issue for fear of triggering his temper in frustration. He likes solitude but has become dependent on company, and will do anything for those he counts as his own, going as far as to break his own vows to protect those important to him. What he wants is not always what is important at any moment in his mind.

He is also not the most sound of mind, Thorfinn is quick to depression and feeling like he has no energy when things don't go his way. He will feel sorry for himself and try to stay quiet but usually he needs to talk it out with someone. Also, when his stress gets high, or he is faced with problems that he can't handle, he starts to see the dead around him. This tends to be Askeladd acting as a spiritual adviser for him, it happens quiet a few times. The dead aren't really around him but he feels guilt for so many deaths that he sees their bodies and their cold hands pulling him down a lot. He doesn't usually talk about this to people, Einar was one of the few who knew since he has a fear of good people knowing about his past. He never told Arneis he was a warrior for fear of losing her friendship.


PERSONALITY QUESTIONS

What skills does your character bring to the situation?:
Thorfinn is a survivor, having learned to adapt even when it doesn't suit him or his moods. He will do whatever he -has- to do to survive. He might bitch and moan under his breath but push comes to shove he's going to do what needs done. Proving himself to be very dependable and honorable when it comes to completing any task laid before him. Even those he does not want to do. He was so dependable that even the man he wished to kill, Askeladd considered him one of his most loyal men, because Thorfinn would never sully his honor for anything.

He has survived the horrors of viking warfare and the prejudices of slavery. Both times came out mostly okay. He can be both a vicious killer and a strong shoulder to cry on. Though communication will be an issue for him at least for awhile, he can still be very kind and understanding. Trying his best to keep people from suffering the way he does. Or as he calls it, being cursed as he is. Thorfinn suffers horrible nightmares of the zombified ghosts of those he killed literally dog piling him and yanking him off a cliff. This with the emptiness he feels since Askeladd's death, he considers these a curse. The constant reminders of the terrible deeds he has done. Sometimes he feels so weighed down by what he has done, and his mind's terrible reminders that he can do nothing but sit in silence and brood. Other times he just needs to be around other people to keep from losing himself to those terrible feelings. He wants to help people to ease the guilt and suffering of his own soul, to not be weighed down by his sins and his dark thoughts.

Having spent his youth as a child viking, Thorfinn has the ability to shut off his emotions and do terrible things. This did him wonders on the battlefield. He was very good at the art of murder, with the strength and skills required to end a man's life with the swing of his fists or the clash of steel. He can do the terrible things no one else wants to. The deeds of his bloodstained youth, the ghosts that haunt him, and the memories of the horrors have has done do weight him down. Even with the pain he suffers nightly, he wants to be a light. A beacon to help those that would otherwise be lost to the wayside. To be kind and helpful to any and all who might need a hand.

Thorfinn, also, grew up with the ability to survive on his own. He had to hunt and feed himself to do the tasks laid before him. He refused to take meals with the rest of the band he traveled with, so he learned to hunt and roast meat himself rather than ask for help. His hunting skills also helped in helping him learn to track both humans and animals. Askeladd often sent him to trail people who he felt were dishonest because like the animals he hunted they never noticed him until it was to late. Many of the tasks Askeladd would lay out for him to earn duels to avenge his father's death, tended to be suicide mission level deeds, such as collecting the head of a commander, or taking down a group of grown men. It is not really something he wants to do anymore having hollowed out when Askeladd died, he lost his desires to most things aside from eat and work. He has grown used to having friends and companions around to help with the tasks of the day to day. He has learned to farm and to cut wood and in this he has found a zen that he didn't have before. A way to both help people and help ease his troubled mind. Upon arrival his zen may be disrupted from being uprooted from his life a second time, but given the powers on high messing with everyone, he will likely return to his means of using hard work as a way to keep him from losing his temper and keep himself mellowed out.


Explain how your character would react to the following:

- Discovering that their memories may have been tampered with:
Thorfinn will be very displeased. One's memories make them who they are, without those memories one could easily become someone else. Even at times when he wises to forget the his bloodstained past those memories shaped him into the man he is now.

The idea of losing anything of himself would be very unsettling. An example of this being if Askeladd's final words were taken from him; he might have stayed in the Prince's service and become an even more blood stained monster than he already was. Askeladd's dying words shattered part of who he was and laid room for his growth. A memory like that vanishing would change his would outlook on life for the worst.

He has dreams that he wishes to see come true, so the idea of someone messing with his mind is deeply unsettling. He would want answers as to why someone was in his head, and what they were after. However, given there is little he can do about it he will learn to deal with it and push on even if it will bother him to his marrow.

- Having to do physical labor to survive:
Thorfinn has no issue with doing physical labor. He is a survivor through and though. From the age of six he has always done what he needs to do. Have spent the last four years of his life working on the Ketil farm, both logging and farming, the latter of which he learned there, he knows how to work. He doesn't mind working. It keeps his mind focused and hard work tends to always pay off in one way or another.

A man's worth in his time was measured in his strength and victories. While Thorfinn no longer cares about the victories, he does still highly value a man's strength. Physical labor would help in keeping him strong. Though it may not help with survival at a base level it is more important to him on a spiritual level. So, if doing a lot of physical labor helps someone weaker than him survive and be safe, than that he would feel was a bonus and that he has done something worth doing.

- Having to share resources with others: 
Life on the Ketil farm made him accepting of not only have to share resources but allowing others to take credit for things he had done. Thorfinn has never been keen on being given attention for his actions and deeds, be it the good or the bad. So, when given the chance he would rather someone else take credit for what he's done to spare him any awkwardness from his lack of social skills. When the Ketil farm was nearly lost to King Canute, Thorfinn himself went and spoke to the king, taking a hell of a beating just to do so. Thorfinn speaking to his old friend saved the farm, and he gave his blessing to the Master's son Olmar to take credit for it. He didn't want the attention, he just wanted to pay back a debt he felt he owed.

He has no problem at all with sharing, it makes survival in situations much more possible than one hording everything to themselves, like he may have done in his teens. Having grown up in a time before modern conveniences, Thorfinn knows that communities must work together to assure survival. The stronger must protect the weaker, and if that means shouldering as much as possible he is willing to do so to help those who may lack those skills.

- Being unable to leave the area:
As mentioned above, Thorfinn has spent the past four years in slavery where he was forbidden to leave the Ketil farm. If he tried to run, he would have been executed. Even if he is a freeman once more, the mentality of 'you're not allowed to leave -or else-' would be something easily forgotten. Even if he -can- take a beating, it doesn't mean he wants to, or whatever the world may do to those who try to escape. This doesn't mean he wouldn't try at least once, but once it's made clear that leaving wont be something that can be done he will learn to move on and live with it.

Though, all of this said, him being a free man again he will not be to happy to be contained to an area. Having worked very hard to regain his freedom there will be bitterness over not being free to go anywhere he chooses. He will resent the higher powers of the world and likely spend time praying to his gods for some means of escape or the serenity to deal with it and move forward with his life.

- Doing without modern conveniences and technology and/or being around tech more advanced than they're used to: 
Thorfinn is pre-Edwardian, he is from the viking age. So most of the technology is beyond him even with his time in Medietas. Everything will be futuristic and he will be easily amazed with lots of the things in the village. The clothes for starters, clothes like scrubs and overalls didn't exist at all for his people. Hell even some of the colors are beyond him. He will adapt but likely not understand a lot of things. A camera obscura would likely scare him half to death. Not to mention his religion could be frightening to those that don't know of Vikings and their ways. He wont have an easy time with adapting, but he will do his best.

- Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable:
Being separated from his family and friends is both something he is used to and something that will be very upsetting to him. He was separated from his family for sixteen years, from the time he was six, until he was twenty two. He had only just been reunited with them, but had planned to leave again soon after. Thorfinn had swore over the corpse of his dead friend; Arneis, that he would go to Vinland and build a new country to protect and home the outcasts of the viking world. Those that do not fit the molds of his society. This has become his goal in life, and to do so he couldn't remain in Iceland with his family for long. He is already used to being away from his family, so even when he misses them the issue. The issue is more of his close friend, Einar. He has become dependent on his brother from another mother, spending nearly four years sleeping in hay near him and talking and learning from him daily. Einar has become a huge part of his life, a touchstone to remind him WHY he has to change. Why they must go to Vinland and build a new life. Einar keeps him from resorting to violence when he feels the anger rise. So he will be very upset to find out he may never see his friend again.

However, as common as death and separation happens he does expect it to happen. He doesn't want it, but he expects it. He will mope, and be depressed over being stolen away into a world where he can barley communicate, but he wont let it destroy him.

WRITING SAMPLES

http://sixthiterationooc.dreamwidth.org/5201.html?thread=174161#cmt174161 < Sample one: Helping Kate Kelly.

http://sixthiterationooc.dreamwidth.org/5201.html?thread=178769#cmt178769 < Sample two: Meeting Jon Black.

http://seekingvinland.dreamwidth.org/1180.html < prose sample