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Dramatis Personae: Puk

“I’m caught in the grip of the city madness.”

-Deltron tha’ Funky Homosapien

      Pük decided early on that the only way he would ever be free is if he managed to exist without playing roles for anyone.  His take on it is that as soon as someone begins to expect something of you then you’re immediately bound; it’s better to go wherever the wind decides to take you than to allow something as fucked-up as another human being to hand down your fate.  Living as the ultimate spectator, nothing escapes his notice. Why is that by attempting to resist the pull of others expectations he immediately ends up surpassing them, becoming firmly engrained into the minds of everyone his life touches?

Name:  Pük (Pronounced "puk," the umlouts are there because they make the u look like a smiley-face.  His real name is never mentioned; it has become moot.)

Age:  16  

Sexuality: Whatever. Mostly straight.

Creativity: Poetic Terrorism. (It's explained below, no worries.)

Appearance:    Pük's eyes are the color of leaves just as they begin to loose the vitality of summer and go to brown.  His darker skin and wider nose give reason indicate mixed Japanese/African blood, though as a Wayward, that means little to him. Diaspora is a totally different game in Krysolis, as many cultures and peoples fled into the cities, stiring the mixing pot of urban life.  A life spent mostly struggling to secure what he needs to live has left him well muscled and strong. His hair is bound in a mountain of dreadlocks which he adorns with everything from trademark Wayward ribbons and beads, to bottle-caps he has found on the ground.  Shirts, if he wears them at all, are generally left hanging open and all of his clothing is worn loose and comfortable.  As being homeless doesn’t put one in a position to split hairs over fashion, his clothing is never new, but also never awful. Most importantly, he’s always wearing a smile, if nothing else.

Personality:  His entire bearing exudes confidence and contentment. Pük is always twitching; he can’t sit still for more than a moment or he becomes unbearable.  He loves his body but not to the point of narcissism.  Pük speaks in a largely incomprehensible jumble of street slang, Wayward terminology and in-jokes which take a bit of getting used to. He'll tone it down if necessary, but usually cares little about whether other people understand him or not. If you don't get it, he wasn't talking to you.

Pük gets the joke that he feels the world has been trying to tell everyone since the beginning of time.  There are few things that he does not answer with a grin and a clever or, more often than not, senseless quip.  What bothers him most is that all of the energy he feels seething and writhing within him is not shared by others and he makes every effort for that to come to pass.  Everything Pük does, he feels he must do actively; living passively is a frightening and foreign concept to him.  Very little gets under his skin.  It is nigh impossible to make him angry and when he appears to be enraged it is generally for the sake of the person who wishes Puk to be angry.  He likes his audience happy.  Nothing short of attempting to harm the people closest to him can actually drive him over the edge.  In essence, Pük is so laid back that he makes sequoias look like they’re hurrying by.  Anyone watching his behavior sees a person completely absorbed in pointless motion.  He has reasons behind everything he does, however they are of a most personal nature and never expresses them openly to anyone. 

Relationships:             

            Tsukino:  Pük is not gay but he does enjoy the show that he and Tsuke are able to produce by pretending to be an item. 

            Koyumi:   She is a fun toy.  Poke and her and she flails!  Teasing her elicits such a charming display of violence that Pük can’t help but count the seconds until he feels it is safe to try again and still escape a severe beating. Joking aside, he provides a listening ear when she gets completely fed up with Tsuke and her brother. 

            Bookwyrm:  Both he and Pük possess the same gift, the ability to read people like an open book.  Chumming around is all they do together.  They're the perfect best buddies, the inseparable oddballs always getting involved in hilarious scrapes but coming out on top. Puk makes sure to keep an eye on Bookwyrm's projects and tries to help him not fuck up. While Pük is likely to dissappear for a week, Bookwyrm mentally jumps around mid-conversation, and Pük runs damage control.

            Maria:  Occasionally Pük is quite put off by her, which disturbs him to no end; she was the first person Pük ever came across that would at times do so little as blink in response to his antics or react in a completely contrary way to what he intended. He can't quite figure her out, but empathically recognizes her as a sort of lost puppy, and so takes care of her and does what little he can to help her with her problems.  More than anything, Pük would like to see Maria become more independent. He feels that Tsuke and Koyomi often take far too aggressive a role as her sworn protectors and she unconsciously relies on this for support rather than stand on her own.  In his eyes Maria is just a girl who won’t be able to enjoy her freedom until she sees how much she deserves it.

            Masakazu:  Much like his interaction with Koyomi, Pük never tires of irritating the man.  He is exemplary of Pük’s usual targets, people who perceive themselves and their lives with such severity that they make the most stern faced governess look like a topless frolicking hippy.  Pük easily picks up on the sheer absurdity of some of Masakazu’s more interesting habits.  However, Masakazu is a case in which Pük does step lightly; witnessing on more than one occasion what the fellow is capable of in reaction to slight inconvenience, saying nothing of actual rage, inspires caution even in Puk.

Family:  Pük's original name and place of birth are unknown. From what little he has intimated to Tsuke and Bookwyrm, we can assemble the following concept of his childhood. Children in Pük’s family were trained to use their perceptual faculties to observe everything about the way in which people with whom they dealt altered their behavior based upon their environment; it was through this emphasis on awareness in his early childhood that Pük garnered some of the skills he has today.  He was born the third of four sons, thus he was not accorded any special place in the familial hierarchy and received no inheritance or benefits.  His family was very active in the Harbors. His life was not unnecessarily harsh or terrible, but Pük could always feel that it had more vacuum than atmosphere.  He found out some less-than kosher details about exactly how his family's business worked, which completed his disillusionment and disgust with his home in general.  Pük picked up everything and left.  After wandering the countryside he eventually gravitated toward Krysolis and upon his arrival, he immediately fell in with Wayward culture and began to create a new home for himself.  

Poetic Terrorism:  Pük’s art exists outside conventional means of expression.  He feels that activities such as painting, writing, and music are all just like acting: creators existing to fill roles.  Because of this, creation that utilizes traditional mediums may have substance but due to the way in which these mediums are received the potential impact of the art is blunted by set reactions.  Pük will do anything short of seriously injuring someone to do what he feels art should, which is to heighten someone’s awareness.  Graffiti, senseless poetry carved into bathroom stalls, tiny fetishes and dolls left around for people to find, kidnapping a random person and making that person happy, this art is essentially anything that inspires beneficial terror.  The type of terror, that just for a moment, rattles the preconceived notions that everyone has about the world, and lifts the rock of the world and allows those who experience to see all the scary and wonderful crap crawling underneath.   

Metaphysics:  As the story progresses Pük learns the Dramatic Art of the Wayward, which is the capacity to manipulate Estuaries.  Along with this he is very in tune with the natural flow of forces in and out of reality and the Magic Theatres and can to a point control this flow to his own ends, but never to the degree that Koyomi or Bookwyrm could while exercising every power they have (or, in Bookwyrm's case, had).     

House: Pük, being a “bum,” would naturally never refer to anywhere as “home.” More often than not, however, he can be found hanging around Bookwyrm’s, and he pays back the favor by cooking while he's there. He also has a little spot to himself in his troupe's hideout, and has a few areas around the city that he frequents more than others.

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