"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle
Destry Barlow
Former Gladiator
Criminally Successful Businessman
Ambitious to the Grave
Garrett. Willard. Destry. Ul'dah's own Barlow boys, in that order. Some days the only thing they seemed to have in common was their mother, worn to mania, and their joint desire to claw from the depths of abject poverty, to reach for more than the bottom of the barrel.
Garrett and Willard inhabited divergent worlds of thought as to the means of achieving this end: one forged a path to the Coliseum, where glory awaited; one lingered in the back alleys, places so dark you don't always notice the rats. At the age of sixteen, Destry chose to follow Garrett's example, and to the fighting pits he went, all the arms and accouterments needed handed down from his eldest brother.
Arrogance, for some, comes naturally. Winning wasn't always so effortless. Destry lost several fights — and then he won several more. The young man was tireless, it was said, more often than not on the training grounds from sun up to sundown; sometimes he was alone, sometimes, than more than sometimes, he was in the company of a scarred and stoic Tia gladiator.
Unprompted, a veteran fighter by the name of Obnoxious Roach, Hellsguard solid and looming as they come, tipped him off to weapon tampering just before a match. As a result, Destry was prepared for the inevitable mishap , and though he lost the fight, he kept his life.
From then on, they were rarely seen apart. Instead of Roach's boisterousness overshadowing Destry's more subtle charisma, they complemented each other, such natural friends they were more brothers than his actual brothers.
Destry's unyielding force of personality and Roach's barefaced ferocity, together, earned them the favor of those they may not have gained individually. They were handed invitations to private, more profitable fights, ones twice as dangerous, fighting man and beast alike. Through these blood sports Destry met a beautiful woman of substantial wealth, Roseline, and was instantly smitten.
In time he would win her hand in marriage, but not before winning more fights, becoming one of the known names in the underground circuit, particularly for doubles matches in which he fought alongside Roach. They continued to step into the ring individually, however, and it was in one such match Roach, by then beginning to feel his age but as ever refusing to admit it, was paired against a Highlander who dwarfed even him. A Highlander, likewise a crowd favorite, who was known for "accidentally" slaughtering his opponents, a death toll that included Garrett Barlow.
When the fight took a turn for the worse, Destry intervened. It cost him his eye, good lucks, some measure of his reputation, and effectively ended his career and his marriage in one fell swoop.
Down but not out, Destry simply changed course, taking a page from his still-living brother, Willard, and forcing his way onto the scene of Ul'dah's drug trade. He climbed the ranks faster than he ever would have in any fighting pit, in his wake leaving a great many curious misfortunes. His ex-wife vanished, and her body was found in the drainage ditch of an Ul'dahn sewer pipe. His brother vanished as well, and he was not found anywhere, but Destry found his way into the position of power Willard had once occupied without much trouble.
Within the span of ten cycles, he had married and divorced his second wife, founded a legitimate shipping company that served as a two-fold means of laundering drug money; paved the way for Roach's financial freedom, married and divorced yet another wife, and made a great number of friends and a greater number of enemies along the way.
Updated January 13th, 2019
For nearing a decade, Destry's progress goes mostly unhindered, his misdeeds mostly unchallenged. A staunch supporter of Ul'dah's traditions and its pecking orders, many with the means to oust him have no reason or desire to. The man has paid his tithes. Paid his dues. Paid respects where and when he's had to.
Furthermore, his Free Company, dubbed Song of the Sands Shipping by the unexpectedly poetic Roach, financially and/or publicly offers support to the work of the Brass Blades, the Immortal Flames, and most of all the struggle to free Ala Mhigo: to his fellow Ul'dahns, he speaks of it as a means to liberate their home from these unwashed masses, and to those unwashed masses, he speaks of sincere care for their cause.
He has long returned to the Coliseum as a patron, plucking able-bodied and capable men (and sometimes women) from the streets or sourcing them from other Free Companies he's spent time in or with.
Destry reunites with E'vahn Tia, the Miqo'te he had once spent day and night training with, and with E'zayi, a man of the same tribe whom he has never fought, but has seen fight, and confidently goes on to sponsor both of his own accord and at E'vahn's request.
The bottle brings out his temper. Knowing this, Destry tends to avoid it. But one night he throws caution to the wind and drinks heartily. The same night, E'vahn and E'zayi come to blows over a shared love interest, and Destry in a drunken fit of anger threatens Zayi, his unborn child, and the woman carrying it, E'kalani, whom Roach has taken to a liking to.
To appease Roach, Destry offers E'kalani a highly paid position within the Sands and what for him constitutes an apology. Roach decides to leave the criminal workings to Destry entirely, so elsewhere, he renews business contacts with his old friend Malachi.
For moons things carry on with little more than an occasional bump in the road.
Then Malachi slips up. Tahla, the Miqo'te who indirectly brought the Eft men to violence against one another, learns the secrets of the Free Company. But Destry knows of E'vahn's deep love for the woman... and he hesitates to harm her, instead suggesting they blackmail her into helping break ground in the Twelveswood, the one part of Eorzea Destry has had consistent and insurmountable problems with gaining access to. Tahla, after all, knows the Black Shroud well, and has useful connections in Gridania.
Malachi slips up again. Destry learns of some gil he's been pocketing, of some deals he's making behind his back, of his concern that Destry is "going soft."
Malachi slips and falls off a cliff.
Destry convinces Roach to return to their black market dealings. Moons more go by. Then somehow, it's Destry, now, who gets careless. The authorities come knocking, wanting to know about his company, about his cargo. He has barely enough time to leave Roach a signal in the headquarters of their company before he flees for the East.
Now he tarries in Kugane, keeping his head down and his profile all the lower, biding time until he can amass the resources to determine the hows and whys. Until he can return to Ul'dah, tireless as ever, and find those who have wronged him.
Destry was a handsome man once. The present is another matter. The man stands at roughly 5'9" as a muscled patchwork of gladiator life, sporting a thick, puckered scar that runs vertically down his left eye from his hairline to the crest of his upper lip and numerous other disfigurements, including but not limited to his thrice-broken nose and a burn scar on his right shoulder.
His wounded eye is no longer an eye at all, but a glass replica of slightly lighter color than its twin, an ill-fitting one at that: it doesn't always move how it's supposed to, sometimes it doesn't move at all. Rather than suffer self-consciousness, Destry seems determined to draw attention to it, shaping his bangs so they somewhat curtain his functioning eye. Rumor has it it's part of a business tactic to unsettle those across the table from him during negotiations.
Prior to his fleeing to his homeland, he was known to dress strictly in Ul'dahn garb, no matter where he was or why, a flippant arrogance that was known to aggravate some of his business associates. Now he wears attire befitting his refuge in Kugane, has done his best to conceal his facial scar and glass eye as best he can, and has taken to dyeing his hair.
A natural leader, birth order was the only time Destry Barlow came in last. He is in some respects an idealist, believing with enough resources he can accomplish anything, and with enough time, he can amass those resources. The bigger the problem, the greater the challenge. Everything is viewed through the lens of a long-term prospective: he has visualized what success might look like -- what it will look like -- before he's even begun, and considered every step he must take to get there.
He has a knack for knowing just where every key player is best placed, the hows and the whens, but little has he patience for blunders in these grand schemes. One mistake is one too many; two and he may well set his sights elsewhere, a ruthlessness that has cost him friends and made him enemies throughout his life. Those able-bodied and competent will never truly reach their full potential either, though, not in Destry's eyes. His standards for himself and for others are impossibly high. Enough is never enough.
But those who have garnered favor have spoken of him as a generous boss, if not with his approval then at least with his coin, and he has been observed as an encouraging friend and downright doting lover -- at least if you ignore those rumors about his first marriage. Concerning these precious few people, brushes with sentimentality seem unavoidable, try as he might to dismiss or ignore them.
These days, albeit not without effort, his temper is funneled through a businesslike composure. His wrath tends to be a slow-burn, strategic retaliation, for he has learned self-restraint has its place, and on occasion, sitting idle is a strategy in and of itself. Quick-witted though he may be, some lessons take losing everything to learn.
LIKES
- Ul'dah, to the point of extreme nationalism
- Dogs
- Music
- Gourmet food
- Coffee
- Combat spectating
- Knowledgeable people
DISLIKES
- Swimming
- Alcohol
- Pickles
- Gridania
- Incompetence
- Boredom
- Cooking
As always, IC is IC, and opinions this character has of others do not reflect my OOC opinions of these characters. If you would like your character removed, just let me know.
Color Key
♥ In A Relationship
♥ Romantic Attraction
♥ Sexual Attraction
♥ Platonic Love
♦ Friend
♦ Friendly Acquaintance:
● Good Standing
● Neutral
● Bad Standing
♠ Dislike
♠ Hate
♠ Fear
♠ Rivalry
♥ Family Member / Related by Blood
✔ Business
✖ Deceased
?Hidden Feelings/Unknown
NPC
Lillian Barlow ♥ ●
Mother of three and lifelong maid to those among Ul'dah's wealthier social strata, Lillian is an embittered woman with whom Destry has a strained relationship. He has been sighted giving her satchels of gil in the past, but doesn't seem to have expended the effort to see she's cared for beyond that, and to date, the feeble and increasingly disoriented woman is more or less homeless.
Garrett Barlow ♥ ♥ ✖
????
Willard Barlow ♥ ● ✖
???
Roseline Barlow ♠ ✖
???
PC
Obnoxious Roach ♥
???
Fallen Peak ♦
???
Malachi Rayver ✖ ?
???
Odette Rosendwin?
???
Abbey Barlow ✖ ♥
???
E'zayi Tia ♠
???
E'vahn Nunh ♥ ♦
???
E'kalani Malha ●
???
Tahla Jakkya ●
???
Ekhram Almasi ●
???
Some rumors are simply speculation, greatly exaggerated or not true in the slightest. Anything listed here is free use IC within reason.
RUMORS
•
RP HOOKS
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RP LIMITS AND INFO:
■ Mature content and themes, up to and including coarse language, violence, sexuality, drugs / alcohol are all fine as long as they fit within the narrative. I do not do random ERP or godmoded fight scenes. Above all, the line between OOC and IC must be adhered to. I will discontinue any RP and cut ties with those who OOC bleed and/or godmode. Ain't nobody got time for that.
■ Any romances, with very few exceptions, must meet one of two requirements: the characters have known each other for at least a month, minimum, or the players have known each other for at least six months. Going on a casual date is one thing, but I will not tie characters down to anyone / anyone's character who doesn't meet this prerequisite.
