RPG Characters History (Part Three) [Edited]
dunkel as HMF
Dec|2|2007
Your ‘Friendly’ Traveling Salesman
Claude Stone
Guess since I have it, I’ll post up the profile I made for… Maple Village, I think.
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[General]
Full Name Claude Stone
Pronunciation Clode Stone
Gender Male
Age 28
Birthday Autumn 18th
Gold 705G
[Currently]
Occupation Claude’s a travelling salesman; he brings goods to and from other villages. However, he is always on a constant lookout for odd jobs to earn some extra Gold.
Home/Workplace Content to sleep in the same place that also houses the goods he sells, Claude lives and works in the cart that he [sometimes] so effortlessly pulls along.
[Sketch]
Appearance
Claude stands at five foot nine inches with a dark gray fedora covering his short mahogany hair. He is often well-dressed, in a suit that was a deep shade of royal blue, a black dress shirt that made him appear as closed as his eyes and soul were, and a stunning white tie. The tip of a black handkerchief sticks out from his breast pocket, the one he uses to wipe beads of sweat from his brow. However, he was careful to make sure no one noticed that his suit was more worn than his cart’s wheels, and that it was the only ‘classy’, expensive thing he owned.
He is slightly tanned from having to travel in the sun all day, and is usually seen with a cigar sticking out of the right corner of his mouth. A small sack of gold is tied to his belt, along with a single silver key.
Personality
Claude loves to play with words, and could converse about any subject to anyone. He is a very playful person, but in very subtle ways. Initially, it might seem that he doesn’t like to be around people, but in actual fact, he wouldn’t be able to stay sane alone.
Appearance is very important to him for sales, so he often speaks in a slightly more high classed language when new people enter his life. However, he loosens up later on - often times quicker than he would like to believe and claim. He loves to meet people, but tries hard to not become too close to them. As a traveller, he doesn’t want the burden of knowing someone is missing him in a village far away.
Claude always appears to be carefree and content; he learned early on that any other emotion was poison for marketing. If hiding his real feelings becomes completely impossible, he often gives in to a nice cold glass of beer.
He is always open to criticism and new ideas, and is difficult to anger. He loves to try new things and is already learning a second language. Claude is easily interested, and is definately the cat that curiosity loved to kill. Be forewarned however, this cat that sports a friendly mask holds onto grudges with a grip strong enough to split century-old trees into two.
Likes
o cigars - They have become as normal in his routine as waking up in the morning. As dangerous as they may be in his wooden cart, they are most often his only source (or reminder) of warmth as he wanders through the cold, the dark.
o making others laugh - He isn’t quite good at doing so, but he enjoys it when he does.
o street entertainers - Claude likes to travel with the entertainers. They had a common goal: to sell, and to explore.
o languages - Communication is key.
Dislikes
o cobble stone roads - The cobble stones cause his cart to tremble dangerously; he has many fragile things to sell.
o second hand stores - Items that already hold memories should never be forced into a story they don’t belong in.
o being alone - Having company puts colour in one’s life; cheesy as it sounds.
o books - Why rely on written words when you can tell an even better story without?
Talents
Claude can draw quite well, but is very modest about it. He may be seen practicing when he has the chance to. He can cook well enough to provide a decent meal for himself, and knows enough first aid to treat mild injuries and illnesses. Claude is also good at lying to make himself appear happier, wealthier, and more successful ..but that consequently leads to his lack of trust in others.
Inabilities
Musically handicapped ever since he was born, Claude cannot play any musical instrument, cannot sing, and cannot dance. He won’t notice if a villager plays a wrong note, or if a young child sings out of tune. He is unable to keep a steady beat, much like how his lifestyle suggests.
And although he does it for a living, Claude is horrible at persuading others. He is rarely able to sell anything, but his determination keeps him going from door to door, and from person to person, in hopes of finally making some money. Perhaps one day, he can buy a new suit.
Trusting others is also a great difficulty of his, since liars always assume others lie as well.
Fears
Claude is absolutely terrified of being alone. But he hides it well.
[Personal]
Family
A strong believer in that every person should hold at least one secret, Claude refuses to talk about his family.
Pets
None.
History
Claude was born into a modest family twenty-eight years ago. He was lucky enough to attend school, but stopped when he finished the fifth grade. The Stones moved to a nearby country, which soon sparked Claude’s interest in travelling.
Claude worked for a local carpenter for a short while, and learned basic carpentry skills. When he finally saved enough money, he left his town, soughting only for land to quench his thirst for travel.
And now, with a cart at hand, Claude decided to make money as he explored the world, by selling other people’s goods, and by doing quick, simple jobs.
Aspirations Claude hopes to discover a new plot of land that has never been touched by humans before, and to declare it “de Stone”.
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Originally..
Claude was supposed to have a donkey pull his cart. But I figured he could pull his own. That was probably the biggest change from Original-Claude. I’ve never rped anyone without a pet before.
Purpose of Claude
When I first made him, I was a member of.. I dunno.. 4 HMF RPG boards? I wasn’t active though. So I thought making a traveling salesman would help with my activity.
He was going to literally be a traveling salesman. I was going to have him go from RPG to RPG, asking people for stuff he could sell for them. He was going to give back a fraction of his profits (though he tends to rip people off) whenever he returned to the village. My plan phailed miserably though, as it takes time to realistically build enough ‘trust’ with characters in RPGs to have them give you things to sell. So I ended up going back and forth in between HMF and Maple Village (’back and forth’ being.. twice max.). Maple Village, frankly, got boring fast, so I ended up just rping Claude in HMF and having him leave for ‘another village’ every once in awhile.
I was also going to use him to practice my French (which caused a lot of repetition as I had to type out the French and then hint at the actual meaning of whatever gibberish came out of his mouth so then other people would understand.. It was kind of fun actually.), but. phailed. Waay too lazy.
Paintings
I was going to have Claude paint various things/people of Aurora Village. He had a half-finished painting, the one with the pine tree in the winter time.
After having his paint set traded in to pay off for a particularly large meal (because Wallace performed again D:<), I just happened to grow bored of Claude. I had to have him sell things, but no one else was around to sell to. As time dragged on, I just lost interest in getting his paint set back, but needed it to make more paintings. In the end, I said he earned enough money from other villages and got the paint set back. And then had him leave Aurora Village forever soon after.
Moneys? 8D
I liked the stereotype of Salesmen being greedy. So that’s how I played him. Selfish, and often ripping people off. However, Claude does not keep his money. This is not due to gambling, or just liking to spend. It was a psychological state of sort, where he just /could not/ be in possession of a large amount of money. Although he was notorious for jacking up his prices for useless trinkets, he would not accept more money than he asks for. Once a villager gave him 1000G or so, I remember him.. Hell, I’ll git you a quote.
1000G?? Claude hurriedly shoved the money back at the farmer, as if the gold burned his hands.
And really, Claude believed for some reason that too much money was bad. Though I’ve never really taken the time to think out the reason for that. Just thought it was a nice little twist.
Not much else to say..
I leave you with his exit post. It’s important:
Two long thin tracks ran parallel to a set of footsteps that lay in between them, footsteps that didn’t belong to a person in a hurry, nor to a person with an abundance of time.
Claude walked in a leisurely pace, though determined to leave Aurora. There was nothing left in this town for him. He waited for business to increase, and for his name to become well-known, but none of that happened. Most of all, he waited for his daughter to arrive, but she never came.
There was no reason for him to stay in Aurora anymore. The most logical choice then, was to leave. He didn’t want to, for something was still holding him back. The slight hope that he might actually hear her laugh again..
But as time passed, Claude knew, Aurora would become ‘just another town’ to him.