Elliot Gardiner

[edit] Elliot Gardiner Backstory Creations Journal (Hooks and Stories in-progress) Relationships Affliations Skills Rumors Usually Spotted At OOC Info Fun Stuff Error creating thumbnail: File missing  Elliot Gardiner Error creating thumbnail: File missing "..." - Elliot after being asked to speak Gender Male Race Hyur Clan Midlander Citizenship Gridania Age 19 Affiliation Member of Reclaimed Fortune Alignment Chaotic Good Profession Adept Engineer D E S C R I P T I O N Elliot is a guy who happens to be a bit on the quiet side, mayhaps too quiet, and carries with him an air of timidity, preferring to be alone or in a small group over roaming around in the crowds as they tend to overwhelm him. Those who seek to know him will have to deal with his initial adjusting phase where he robotically goes through the motions of meeting someone before letting his sweet, kind, joyful self shine through. While he does seem cold at times, he’s pretty warm-hearted, willingly wearing his heart on his sleeve. There’s just a problem or two with him, just the one, he can’t talk. He’s been unable to for however long it has been. He may have been cursed or he may have been born with a defect in his vocal cords, nobody truly knows. He has learned to make do with his quill and paper he carries around everywhere, although this is often unreliable when the people he’s trying to ‘talk’ to is unable to read what he puts down half the time. Another problem is that he’s quite aether-sensitive and has been known to act as though he’s in a drunken stupor, or be close to fainting, when exposed to sources of strong aetherical constructs, whether physical or no. And as an added ‘bonus’ to being aether-sensitive, he’s unable to manipulate aether in the way that a native Eorzean can despite not being a native Garlean. This hasn’t stopped him from attempting to manipulate the magicks in alternate, more mechanical ways. The boy had taken up the profession of tinkering when he was pretty young, not having much of a grasp at it at first, but he eventually quickly learned from his trials and errors to the point where he began experimenting with known blueprints in his mid-teens before the calamity struck. L I K E S A N D D I S L I K E S Elliot, first and foremost, is awed by the wonders of technology, particularly those of a magitek bent. He has been known to study such objects for hours without so much of a noticing of other people. As is expected from someone like him, he likes to read. He has no real preference to any particular genre but, again, if it has machina in it, it's likely that he'll read it. He's very fond of animals and most bugs, as is expected of someone born from Gridania. He likes helping people in need of help, whether they ask for it or not. Elliot will find a way. --- While he can stomach some sweet things, Elliot does not like super sweet stuff. Chocolate is the biggest offender as it has the tendency to make him sick. He will take chocolate that is dark, though. The boy does not have the patience for those who seek to take advantage of another person, whether that is for monetary gain or for more nefarious methods. It appears that he takes this very personally. He prefers to stay away from violent conflicts, often seeing it as a last resort more than a tool. Unfortunately, he has had to employ it more often than not since most unsavories don't speak diplomacy. B A C K S T O R Y History This is the lore for this particular OC, things can and will change as time goes on. Everything in the past has been spoilered to retain space. Show text I Wanna Be Your Canary - Before Calamity Elliot never had much of a family, he was born to a young couple who were living within the Twelveswood, the woman a conjurer, the man an ex-performer for a travelling troupe that will be expanded upon at a later moment. He was an only child and, as such, lived a life of solitude within the wood's arboreal walls although he did have friends in Gridania, so it wasn't an entirely lonely existence with his parents. In fact, he had a rather decent life, having been taught to read and write by his parents and more besides, it wouldn't take many years, however, before a spot of trouble befalls the family. They were running low on gil and despite doing odd jobs here and there, they weren't able to scrounge up enough to maintain themselves, and therein, an idea formed in the head of the father known only as Sal Gardiner. He would attempt to find his old troupe that he had retired from many many moons ago and have them offer a job of sorts to their only child. However, the mother disagreed with this notion, finding it to be ridiculous to have the son follow in the father's footsteps after an event that had happened moons ago that forced the man's retirement. An argument broke out between the two but eventually, with no other real options, Elliot was to join the troupe. The name of the troupe? The Shining Opal Theatrical Wanderers, often shortened to Opal Theatre, they are a travelling troupe that, as the name suggests, provide theatrical entertainment. They're usually hired by rich folk to entertain, most of the time being in Thanalan, but they sometimes offer a show to the poor folk that are unable to see their shows, in fact, they do encourage the poor folk to do what they can to see their plays, much to the dismay of law enforcement as this involves sneaking in or breaking into a theater and so on. There is another side to the troupe that both parents are very much aware of, they steal things. However, unlike most thieves and pirates, they stole from only the richest of folk (with a few, certain exceptions of a manly manner) right from under their noses. If there was a rare jewel to be found, they would steal it. Maiden looking for an excuse to escape their fathers? Sure, they'll do it. But they do have morals and oftentimes when they're hired by the more shady folk, they would go along with it to a degree. Need someone assassinated? Okay, they'll 'kill' said person somehow but, hmm, that's strange, is that the Brass Blades at your door? Either way, they are said to be noble thieves amongst the poor and destitute, in fact, they often bring in orphans or those in desperate need of a new life on board to raise as their own. Anyway, it just so happens that on the day that the father decided to find the troupe, they were paying the Twelveswood a visit. A parley of words were exchanged between the boy's father and the leader of the troupe and the boy was brought on board with the travelling troupe. At first, he wasn't fairly confident in himself, his self esteem heavily damaged by his parent's situation, he would often shrink away to hide amongst the caravans and would often ask to be cast in less limelight hogging roles, preferring the backstage more than the front. In an effort to raise his self-confidence, it was decided that the child needed someone of his own age to be with and, it just so happens, they had recently picked up a stray Moonkeeper Miqo'te girl at the time who was, if not the same, of similar age to him. Elliot was introduced to magitek during the caravan’s visit to a Garlean Castrum to provide entertainment for the Garlean troops stationed there. He was assigned, alongside three others, the role to sneak in and steal the blueprints to their secret weapon to sell off to the Alliance for money. Long story short, it nearly failed and Elliot and his friends were unable to retrieve the blueprints for the secret weapon that had been locked oh so tightly and kept under close guard by magitek vanguards. Of course, Elliot does manage to find a small compendium of magitek machinery ranging from making everyday tasks that little bit easier to devices that can cause destruction, to a degree, not as strong as a thaumaturge or a powerful marauder or even a conjurer wielding the power of stone but it’s still something. Naturally, the gang of thieves decide to use it to improve their theatre game after Elliot tinkers around with spare parts they’d find lying around and finding that they can use it for special effects to make their performances that much better. And being able to draw more attention to their performances will allow them to let their hidden front go through undetected. It’s perfect. And it was perfect. Their heightened performances began to surge them in popularity to the point where they were doing more legitimate works than they did stealing from the rich. Of course, they only get paid meagre amounts, so they did have to paw some goods from the rich folks of Ul’Dah while they weren’t looking. It’s worth to note that those acting as thieves for the job are masked so as to conceal their identities and this gave the Brass Blades a headache as they had to deal with royals and the wealthy complaining to them day in and day out about missing and stolen goods. One day, though… their troupe stole from the wrong person and what happened next isn’t exactly pretty. Breaking Boundaries - During Calamity to A Realm Reborn Well, the calamity really hit people pretty hard, our travelling troupe also was a victim of such a calamity, losing a caravan, a few chocobos, and their handlers to a seemingly random meteor that was sent flying from the Fields of Carteneau. This really set the group back severely as getting a hold of transportation was near difficult with their new-found fame, which eventually dwindled as the years went by. Elliot, at the time, was still studying the magitek with some of the engineers in the troupe and attempting to find newer and better ways to improve their performances, both on stage and in the shadows. It doesn't help that, in recent times, security has been ramped up and the gil hoard that they once had would slowly dwindle overtime despite everyone's best efforts. Nothing was getting done and the troupe decided to have one last hurrah before disbanding, hosting a spectacle of the ages, as they advertised, inviting any and all who would listen. And, on top of this, there was one last job that, conveniently, came up around that time from an anonymous person. There was supposedly a caravan containing rare and valuable goods making its way through Thanalan and the employer asked for a specific set of thieves to raid it and bring it to a remote part of Thanalan, the Sagolii Desert. Elliot, the aforementioned Miqo'te girl, the troupe's leader, and a Roegadyn were amongst the ones selected. With only days left to prepare, the leader enacted an acting leader to take his place while he and the others go out to raid the caravan while the play is ongoing. The day eventually arrives, a theatre within Ul'Dah was rented out for the formerly travelling troupe's last hurrah and they've managed to gather a rather decently sized crowd made up of many different monetary classes; the rich, the poor, the middle, all were here to send off the troupe. Meanwhile, when the night fell, the play was a foot, both on stage and in the shadows. The caravan raid went off without a hitch, in fact, one could say that it went a little too well, the chocobo leading the caravan was seemingly unafraid of the approaching rogues and the merchant peddling these rare wares was all too easily willing to give up his goods in exchange for his freedom. There were no guards or anything, it was way too easy and yet, everyone seems to not notice this, except for, well, Elliot who recognizes the trope in play and attempted to tell the others to exercise caution as they made their way to Sagolii Desert to meet with their employer to obtain their reward. And that's when everything began to fall apart, suddenly, the theatre went up in blazes thanks to a faulty piece of tech, injuring many people, especially audience members, and, in the desert, well, a rather large group of shady folk surrounded the light party and, as it turns out, in a sad twist of fate, the employer happened to be none other than the acting leader, the very man that they stole from who had quite a bit of underground connections. As it turns out, they've been tracking the group for quite some time now, many, many moons at that, and now that they're being disbanded, what better way to send them off than to send their best and brightest thieves back into the aether? As for the others, well, the blades are going to be involved and, well, they're going to take the blame for committing arson. A fight breaks out, the enraged leader conjuring up a storm of stones and water while the others fend off the would-be assassins, what's more is that some of the folk they were fighting looked quite a bit like those from the troupe, even those had been with them for years. How amusing it must be to see the troupe fight amongst themselves at their final hour. Swords were swung, bullets were shot, daggers were slashed, spells of all kinds were tossed to and fro. The outcome was never truly clear but, according to some eyewitnesses who had happened to find the ensuing battle, there was a huge aetherial explosion and then, silence. Those who arrived after the explosion found a scene of many collapsed bodies, the number of casualties are unclear but it was clear that Elliot was among the survivors, although out cold, his weapon blown to bits and pieces. After that day, The Shining Opal Theatrical Wanderers were found out to be nothing more than mere thieves, their reputation tarnished amongst the rich and wealthy, many members were taken into custody and others still had fled to parts unknown and eventually, their shining light shines no more, disappearing into the annals of history. Flames Burn Immortal - A Realm Reborn Elliot was eventually able to recover from the ordeal, although it had costed him severely. The exposure to a lot of fire-based aether had rendered his voice useless and his face received a scarring after pieces of his gun scratched at his face after the explosive flare that had happened that day. On top of that, he had found himself unable to use aether in a magical way, although it was said that the exposure to aether, while it may have played a part in it, isn't the true cause or, at least, some conjurers believe that to be the case anyway. During the time with the troupe, his parents were able to live out their lives peacefully, although they eventually passed away around the same time the boy was assaulted, records say. This left the boy homeless and without anyone to go back to. The troupe was disgraced and disbanded and he was trapped in Ul'dah for the time being due to his wounds. While the boy was first suspected to be a part of the troupe of thieves, he, and eventually, the troupe itself, was eventually let go from custody by a mysterious benefactor and pardoned under the pretence that he perform what amounted to service to the community under the banner of the Immortal Flames's Free Brigade. Essentially, he was to become an adventurer. Payment came in the form of extremely basic lodgings and a small amount of gil. Eventually, he would come to find himself under a new banner, Reclaimed Fortune, a free company run by an Au Ra woman named Odtsetseg Gan. Things eventually began to look up for the boy. Present Day A Voice - Heavensward Years later, the boy's life couldn't really be any better than it is right now. Working under the Reclaimed Fortune banner had helped him hone his past thievery skills in the name of property reclamation and has enabled him to pursue his hobby of mechanics once again. Right now, at this time, the boy had managed to reclaim his deceased parent's home, an apartment, in Lily Hills and has now found himself associating with a free company known as The Wandering Tonberries, lead by one Flynt Knoltros alongside Ritsu Knoltros. What will happen beyond here? Maybe he'll eventually find a way to reclaim his voice, his power, or maybe he might find his old troupe members, his old friends. They have to be somewhere, out there. Somewhere. Elliot is a rather inventive engineer, albeit not as great as someone with many, many years of experience, each and every creation of his here are normally prone to bugs and glitches and although most of them are fuelled by the very same power that powers the airships, Ceruleum, a few certain pieces of equipment appear to run on alternate power sources. Mekanism - Field Testing - First off, a magitek staff that allows the boy to achieve his dream of being a conjurer and then some. Unlike most standard equipment he's tinkered with, the staff appears to run off of an alternative fuel source if the faint blue-green glow isn't obvious enough. Shards, elemental shards power the staff and gives it its power, although it is prone to malfunctioning as a result, endangering the boy's already feeble and sub-par resistance to the aether. Also occasionally makes a loud horn-like noise when in use. (In-game model is Ironworks Magitek Cane) Eripio - Field Testing - A flintlock rifle. A very patchy flintlock rifle that's been modified to take more than just standard bullets by using the wonders of MAGIC and SCIENCE to convert any appropriately sized metallic construct into a single bullet. Ideally, this allows Elliot to effectively have unlimited ammunition at all times. However, it fails very often and, despite tweaks to the matter, the mechanism that governs this feature would often clog up and expel more gas than it should, so he doesn't rely on this feature. It operates by way of aether crystals pertaining to certain elements such as wind, lightning, water, earth, and so on. When he was younger, he was capable of using it in a fashion similar to the Conjurers and Thaumaturges by shooting elemental bullets that would mimick the spells that they cast, eventually the core that powered this feature broke down and he'd been unable to use it this way ever since. (In-game model is Ironworks Magitek Revolver) Glove-mounted text-to-speech device (Textra) - In cooperation with Shankara of the Wandering Tonberry, this glove has been outfitted with magitek that enables the user to speak via typing on a keyboard peripheral. While it is still slightly faulty, presumably due to the use of a mammet's vocal processor amongst other things, and the voice that comes out is most definitely female, Elliot seems happy that his concept has finally seen the light of day. Quests ("Stories") Accepted: Field Test Three Steps Away - Character Story - Long-term - Elliot has returned from wherever he went off to with new and improved gear and machinery. Although he's still quiet as he once was, it appears that his mechanical skills have been improving. In fact, he's field-testing a couple of weapons that he'd based off the Ironworks blueprints just to see if he could find a way around his odd inability to use aether. They can be found in the 'Creations' tab and are marked appropriately. Rounding Up The Troupe - Character Story - Long-term - Recently, Elliot has been stalked by a carbuncle that seems to have taken a liking to him. It appears to answer to the name 'Opal' which, as Elliot can vaguely recall, happens to be similar to the name used for what amounted to the now-disbanded troupe's family pet. Well, technically, carbuncles are pets to a degree, so it works. Of course, what's odd is that its master is nowhere to be seen, odd. More on that as the story develops Show text In Want of a Voice - Maiden Voyage - Elliot is currently creating a tablet-like device that is capable of, well, displaying text that he writes and displaying it on a screen. All that he is missing is one vital component, a piece that interfaces with the entire construct. Although searching for the parts have come up short, he had managed to get into contact with one of the engineers of The Wandering Tonberry and, after brokering a deal with the Free Company's leader, Flynt Knoltros, the engineer that went by the name of Shankara suggested that they raid a Garlean convoy before finding out that the boy isn't entirely prepared yet. A few days later, however, Elliot, along with a group of people from the Wandering Tonberry, raided what appeared to be an abandoned outpost, which turned out to not be abandoned. There, they found a group of Garlemald forces supposedly stationed to gather up equipment and to find a prototype the outpost's people had been working on afore it was abandoned. Needless to say, it was a wild ride but they had found what they came for and then some. ♥ Romantic Attraction – ♥ Attraction – ♥ Platonic Love – ♥ Family – ✔ Business – ✖ Deceased – ● Positive – ● Negative – ● Neutral – ≈ Unsure R E L A T I O N S H I P S Relations (NPC) Relations (NPC) Someone (● ) - Something Something : Details about the character Relations (PC) Relations (PC) Odtsetseg Gan ( ● ) - Leader of Reclaimed Fortune TseTse: This Au Ra woman offered him a place within the Free Company known as Reclaimed Fortune. She's been pretty good to him and, for that, he regards her pretty highly. The Shining Opal Theatrical Wanderers - Ex-Member - A disbanded troupe of travelling performers. Disbanded for years now. Reclaimed Fortune - Member - A Free Company of Treasure Hunters Property Reclamation Professionals. The Wandering Tonberry - Associate M A J O R S K I L L S Engineering - Elliot is what one would say an adept at engineering, capable of understanding and building basic machina. He has been known to experiment at times with the blueprints, most have failed, few have passed his own rigorous testing. Only two, after minor tweaking here and there, have ever seen the light of day beyond the prototype phase, however, this doesn't stop him from building said prototypes. The first of the two is, of course, his weapon of choice, a rifle based on the designs obtained from the Garlond Ironworks with a few modifications of his own. The second of the two seems to be a staff based off of those wielded by the conjurers of Eorzea, though it could be considered magitek by nature, it appears to be powered in a different manner. Gunplay - Elliot is a rather deft hand at using a musket, revolver, what have you, if it can shoot, he can use it. While he may not be as good as a shot as the marksmen of legend, he is still a really decent gunner. Essentially, one wouldn't want to run into his sights when he's rather peeved. Stealth - Elliot is well-versed in stalking the shadows, perhaps something from his past has to have something to do with it. But either way, it might be hard to see the boy coming, although you only need to look for the bright lights that show on his weapons of choice or the glint of his clothes in the pale moonlight. On that note, he appears to be perfectly capable of stealing things when people aren't looking, making him perfect to bring along for treasure hunts in forgotten ruins where triggering a trap can cause a boulder to come out of nowhere and music to start blaring for some reason.1 M I N O R S K I L L S Conjuration and Thaumaturgy - While he is magically disabled for the most part, he used to be capable of casting spells when he was much younger until an accident rendered him unable to manipulate aether as well as he could. As a result, if he wants to cast spells, he will have to rely on the aetherial crystals of lightning, fire, and ice for thaumaturgy and water and air for conjuration. His pseudo-spells may not be as effective as a regular conjurer or thaumaturge nor are they as reliable as the magitek he uses has a chance of backfiring (even more so for the more potent stuff) but, well, he can spellsling like the rest. Acting - The boy can act, slightly better than the average person but not godlike or anything. Spending years living with a travelling troupe that doubled as a family can change a man, although he seems to prefer the roles that don't involve much speaking or time in the limelight, something that plagued the troupe. Well, until the incident. Knifeplay - The boy knows how to handle a knife with the skills of an adept rogue. However, it seems that he favours less violent routes and may only really use these as a last resort. Eorzean Sign Language - A more recently acquired skill during his year's absence from the scene of Eorzea. He doesn't quite have the hang of it yet and is prone to being misinterpreted. 1This may or may not have happened during his time in Reclaimed Fortune. NPC Rumors Common Rumors - Rumors that are, well, commonly heard. You are free to use them as you wish! Uncommon Rumors - Heard much less than the aptly named common rumors. You may use them sparingly, or you could just ask! Rare Rumors - These ones are hard to come by, if you want to use them, I highly suggest you get in touch first. PC Rumors The Quicksand - Ul'Dah East Shroud, around Bentbranch Ishgard, normally around the Skysteel Manufactory The Hermit's Hovel Lavender Beds, Ward 8 Subdivision, Apartment #38 The following tropes may apply to Elliot (also, I am SO sorry!): Shy Blue Haired Boy - Being mute, lacking in social skills and a lack of grasp of said social conventions, then mixing that up with whatever happened to him during his disappearance from the face of Eorzea. He's not quite a Shrinking Violet but he comes close. Also has the blue hair, gotta have blue hair. Teen Genius - Despite his creations that tend to go outside the box being the kind that could blow up in his face, he's still abnormally intelligent for his age. Adorkable Cute Mute - Kinda. While he, himself, is rendered unable to speak, he has a device that speaks for him. It does require that he types something in, though, since it doesn't just read his mind. Stats if he was an actual character and not some RP one (Out of a possible 10) STR: 3 DEX: 7 VIT: 2 INT: 6 MND: 6 PIE: 4

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