Orpheus Black

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• Vital Stats

  • Name: Orpheus Black
  • Gender: Male
  • Played by: Skyker
  • Nicknames: Orph, Orphie, Blackie, Darky, Sin, Curse, Black Cat, Black Malkin
  • Race: Human/Shapeshifter
  • Age: 21
  • Body Type: Toned, muscular
  • Height: 6'1"
  • Complexion: fair but not pale
  • Hair: black, jaw length. Falls in front of eyes if not swept to the side
  • Eyes: Dark brown
  • Handedness: right
  • Scars: A faint scar on the inside of his right leg, just above the ankle. It’s thin and about an inch long. He got it from running track, hitting his leg off a poorly jumped hurdle. He had twelve stitches.
  • Relationship Status: unavailable, but single
  • Personality: The best way to describe Orpheus’ personality is like that of a stray cat. He like his freedom and will wander where he will when he wants.
  • Likes: Napping in patches of sunlight, exploring the city, parkour, night time
  • Dislikes: Staying in one place too long, being bored

• Description

  The best way to describe Orpheus’ personality is like that of a stray cat. He like his freedom and will wander where he will when he wants. His interest in things is entirely subjective, meaning it could be the most dazzling thing in the world and he wouldn’t care, while observing someone grocery shopping, or something mundane, could capture his attention like nothing else. The truth is that Orpheus is temporary by nature. He never says in one place very long, and his interest in something is likely to hold out as long as his curiosity in it. As soon as he feels he knows enough about it, he will move on. And if curiosity were ever to ‘kill the cat’, it may as well be Orpheus, as he’s broken a few hearts with his nature. I would say he has commitment issues, but that’s not the whole truth of it. Other than that, he’s a rather laid back guy, happy to take a job working at some private retail store in the downtown district and happy to get by in a hovel of an apartment or basement, always rented, never owned. He doesn’t have an overly demanding life style other than the costs of moving so often, though he has hitchhiked before.
  
  He likes to explore cities, mainly interesting spots like the older parts of town and downtown area. During the day he may take a walk to scope out an area but he prefers to do his city crawling in the evening, or after dark. He likes this less busy time of day, and with the pace he sets, prefers not to do so under a hot sun. Though, he definitely loves flopping down on his bed or couch in a spot of sunlight for a catnap.
  
  He can feel quite deranged and cooped up in the winter and it’s usually just after winter that he moves, unless he feels he hasn’t seen everything there is to see in the city. Even then he’ll want that aspect of exploration to shake off the winter blues.

• Biography

  Orpheus was born to a young middle-class couple living in new-development suburbs. His father was a charming nobody who had swept his mom off her feet, he had also named Orpheus. His mom was a pampered daddy’s girl, and their first home has been bought and paid for by the woman’s father. Orpheus later understood it was just to ensure the husband would stick around and support daddy’s little girl. And Orpheus’ father did stick around for a little while, but so much like his son, he craved freedom and adventure. He was restless and left Orpheus’ mother when Orpheus was the age of five. The too-young mother was left with a fatherless kid, and only her own father for financial support. It was a rough couple of years after that, his mother’s self esteem was at an all time low, and she was prone to bouts of depression, leaving Orpheus standing outside her locked bedroom door with tears of confusion in his eyes. Why was his mom so sad all the time? He was too young to understand a broken heart when he saw one. He was too young to understand that his parents had eloped on a whim, too young to understand the implications.
  
  When Orpheus was six, his mother had mostly recovered, and though she did her best she was still a bit of a mess mother-wise. She wasn’t experienced or ready to deal with being a mother, but she made a valiant effort. Her older brother came around often, and Orpheus greatly loved the fellow, he ended up being more like a big brother to him than anything.
  
  It was his uncle who first discovered Orpheus’ shape shifting ability. The boy had always gotten along spectacularly with his uncle’s cat, but he never suspected such an anomaly. The boy had been startled in a near car accident on a slippery winter road, being driven home by his uncle from school. The boy had somehow rearranged his bones, his muscles, morphed his skin. A black cat sat, hair on end, claws dug into the seat, eyes wide, where Orpheus had been. Orpheus had never fully changed before, but he woken up with a tail, spontaneously sprouted whiskers, and had found strange patches of fur on his stomach on various occasions. Of coarse his mom though he had an amazing imagination. It seemed that the adrenaline rush and scare had finally jolted his feline form into true being.
  
  After that occurrence, changing was a lot less easy, in fact it was painful for the first dozen or so changes. And his uncle insisted he did it under his supervision and never ever in front of anyone else. The man was clearly scared, freaked out, but also fascinated.
  
  When Orpheus was ten, his mother was a stress bomb waiting to go off. She had a sickly complexion and worked two full time jobs. Her father had passed away because of a heart attack, and there was no one there to pick up where he had left off, offering financial support. This is when Orpheus’ mom finally came to understand the hardships of middle-class life. This year was stressful for the boy, he wanted to help his mom, and he did. He helped around the house as much as a ten year old could. He made a most dedicated effort to keep his room clean, which is incredibly difficult for active little boys of his age. He would hand his mom spoons or a can of this or that to help in the kitchen. He watched her like a hawk, learning how to work the stove. This eventually lead to a small house fire in his attempt to ‘help’, once everything had settled down his mother affectionately teased him about it for years to come.
  
  When Orpheus was twelve he began to run track at school, and fell in love with the motions. He loved the feeling of flexing his muscles, pushing his limits, feeling the pavement slide away beneath purposeful strides. Most of all he loved the rush. He had always been fairly quiet in his classes, preferring to watch his fellow students than to participate. This year he found some good friends, fellow runners. The common ground and friendly competition seemed to bring the boy out of the spectator position and into a more active role among his peers.
  
  This was also the year that his mother finally hit the wall. She fell into depression once more, and was put on blood pressure medication from all the stress she was putting herself under. Orpheus was stressed out along with her, but he had an outlet. The emotional output is what made him great on the track. But inside he was hurting pretty bad, worried about his mother. This time he did cook and clean for her, and she remained locked in her room more often than not. When Orpheus was thirteen, his uncle took charge, selling their old home and making the two move in with him so he could better care for Orpheus’ mother. Orpheus seemed to thrive in the change of pace and scenery; he joined the track team of his new school, and took up doing hurdles. His mom started going to therapy.
  
  It was in high school that Orpheus began to grow restless. He was become much like his father in that aspect, craving a sort of roaming freedom. He started to spend his evenings out of the house on personal missions to explore the town. He got into a few sticky situations once or twice, but never truly got himself into trouble. Once, he was caught on private property, and was shortly reprimanded and sent on his way. Another time he caught his jacket on a fence in a place he really shouldn’t have been. He narrowly escaped getting caught... he lost his jacket in the process.
  
  In his senior year Orpheus dropped out of the track team, much to his peers’ dismay. Some developed a grudge for the talented runner. Orpheus took to being a loner again, and kept only loose relations with a few of his old track friends who weren’t so royally offended about him leaving. This is where he discovered parcour, a sport that involved running from one point to another as efficiently as possible, even if that meant scaling walls and leaping obstacles. He wasn’t quite so interested in parcour’s showy brother, freerunning, which incorporated stunts and flips. But he put a new spin on the sport. He did it in the evening, and he did it without a particular destination. Occasionally he would join a small group, learn some new things, show them some interesting places, but for the most part he explored alone, like the stray cat he was.
  
  Fresh out of high school, his mother was mostly alright. But he was ready to be away from his home. His part time job during his high school years paid for his first bus ticket and his first month’s rent in a strange city. This is where he began to get lazy, contacting home less and less. There was a part of his mind that wondered if he may happen upon his father in his travels, would he know him when he saw him? Though, with a name like Orpheus, how could his father not know him? That part of his mind was small and kept near the back. For the time being, he is on a journey to find himself, even if he doesn’t realize it.