Full Name:
Starling James Rhydderch
Nickname:
Jay, Rhy or Rider, occasionally. More often he'll just use his first or last given name. He is, however, referred to as 'Skate King' in tags, or, a bit less frequently, 'Graveyard Crew's Skate King'.
Age:
18
Gender:
Male
Sexuality:
Closeted Homosexual
Profession
Skate King {Informal}, Sound Techie {At Their Local Skate Hang Out; where he gets most of his actual money}, Librarian {When money's tight he picks up shifts at the library across the street from his skatepark}, Musician {When he can get Gigs}, seeking professional skating backing.
Starling James Rhydderch
Nickname:
Jay, Rhy or Rider, occasionally. More often he'll just use his first or last given name. He is, however, referred to as 'Skate King' in tags, or, a bit less frequently, 'Graveyard Crew's Skate King'.
Age:
18
Gender:
Male
Sexuality:
Closeted Homosexual
Profession
Skate King {Informal}, Sound Techie {At Their Local Skate Hang Out; where he gets most of his actual money}, Librarian {When money's tight he picks up shifts at the library across the street from his skatepark}, Musician {When he can get Gigs}, seeking professional skating backing.
Hair Colour:
Black.
Eye Colour:
Hazel
Height & Weight:
5'7", 127 lb
Distinctive Markings:
Scars:
Having been skating for the majority of his life, Starling naturally has some scars. Both knees and both elbows are covered in scrape scars, and his palms and wrists are similarly treated. He has a scar on the back of his neck from a minor surgery that had to be done in his teens, and scars across his calves, hips, and any other bony protruding part of him, of which there are many.
Birthmarks:
Local legend says that the dark spot on Starling's left cheekbone is a gang initiation tattoo; it's not; it's a beauty mark, as embarrassing as that is for a man of Starling's nature. He also has a few dark spots on his left outer thumb.
Tattoos:
The first, important tattoo is the one on Starling's neck on the left side; and a matching one on the right hand. [X] On his right arm, there's a skull design on his bicep and a variety of smaller designs on his forearm, as well as some larger, more intricate black and white work and a spiderweb across his elbow. His left bicep is adorned with flower outlines and designs. [X]. He has a collection of further tattoos, as well. [Reference Face Claim for tattoos.]
Clothing Style:
Starling dresses like you would expect of a skate king in Manhattan. He's the east side's leading man in terms of skate fashion, at least, that's what his crew say. Often seen without a shirt, Starling is found most often in skateparks in only shorts or ripped jeans and whatever skate shoes he tossed on that day. He generally wears whatever he can afford that looks half decent on him, and pockets are a must for him. He's almost never seen without a cigarette, and absolutely never seen without at least one skateboard.
Black.
Eye Colour:
Hazel
Height & Weight:
5'7", 127 lb
Distinctive Markings:
Scars:
Having been skating for the majority of his life, Starling naturally has some scars. Both knees and both elbows are covered in scrape scars, and his palms and wrists are similarly treated. He has a scar on the back of his neck from a minor surgery that had to be done in his teens, and scars across his calves, hips, and any other bony protruding part of him, of which there are many.
Birthmarks:
Local legend says that the dark spot on Starling's left cheekbone is a gang initiation tattoo; it's not; it's a beauty mark, as embarrassing as that is for a man of Starling's nature. He also has a few dark spots on his left outer thumb.
Tattoos:
The first, important tattoo is the one on Starling's neck on the left side; and a matching one on the right hand. [X] On his right arm, there's a skull design on his bicep and a variety of smaller designs on his forearm, as well as some larger, more intricate black and white work and a spiderweb across his elbow. His left bicep is adorned with flower outlines and designs. [X]. He has a collection of further tattoos, as well. [Reference Face Claim for tattoos.]
Clothing Style:
Starling dresses like you would expect of a skate king in Manhattan. He's the east side's leading man in terms of skate fashion, at least, that's what his crew say. Often seen without a shirt, Starling is found most often in skateparks in only shorts or ripped jeans and whatever skate shoes he tossed on that day. He generally wears whatever he can afford that looks half decent on him, and pockets are a must for him. He's almost never seen without a cigarette, and absolutely never seen without at least one skateboard.
Personality:
A born rebel, Starling will generally do things simply because they're against the rules. Starling is fiercely loyal to his friends, and to skate culture in general. He retains control over the 'turf' of many a skatepark in Manhattan, and has a loyal gang of skaters on his side. He finds interest in most alternative culture indulgences; tattoo art, punk music, and tagging and street art. Still, unexpectedly, Starling is rather not intimidating most of the time. He seems laid back, almost a little shy, and somewhat quiet. Not like the type of guy who could knock you down with a single punch. He closes off any suffering he goes through for the most part, and is good at modulating emotional expression. It's hard to tell what he's thinking or feeling at any one moment.
Starling spends most of his free time at the skatepark or in his tiny apartment (or the coffee shop beneath it if someone who allows boards inside the shop is on shift), and with his gang, Graveyard Crew, tagging walls and putting up vast street art. He also frequents the library just across the street from the skatepark which marks the middle of Graveyard Crew 'turf', and, surprisingly enough, is endlessly curious and has a voracious appetite for literature and trivia.
Likes:
|x| Skateboarding and everything associated with it |x| Rebellion, parties, and free-spirited endeavors which make him feel alive. |x| Reading & books |x| Music, especially punk music |x| His crew |x| Tattoos |x| Tagging |x|
Dislikes:
|x| Authority figures |x| Unnecessary violence at the park |x| Tag wars |x| Spiders |x| Crossing the street in crosswalks |x| Schoolwork |x| Talking about his family or future plans or past or anything except his present really |x|
Fears:
|x| Spiders
|x| Fatal Injury
|x| Guns
|x| Being outed
Strengths:
|x| Good at modulating emotion and faking confidence
|x| Amazingly quick learner and eclectically knowledgeable
|x| Great on a skateboard and better with leading a skate gang.
A born rebel, Starling will generally do things simply because they're against the rules. Starling is fiercely loyal to his friends, and to skate culture in general. He retains control over the 'turf' of many a skatepark in Manhattan, and has a loyal gang of skaters on his side. He finds interest in most alternative culture indulgences; tattoo art, punk music, and tagging and street art. Still, unexpectedly, Starling is rather not intimidating most of the time. He seems laid back, almost a little shy, and somewhat quiet. Not like the type of guy who could knock you down with a single punch. He closes off any suffering he goes through for the most part, and is good at modulating emotional expression. It's hard to tell what he's thinking or feeling at any one moment.
Starling spends most of his free time at the skatepark or in his tiny apartment (or the coffee shop beneath it if someone who allows boards inside the shop is on shift), and with his gang, Graveyard Crew, tagging walls and putting up vast street art. He also frequents the library just across the street from the skatepark which marks the middle of Graveyard Crew 'turf', and, surprisingly enough, is endlessly curious and has a voracious appetite for literature and trivia.
Likes:
|x| Skateboarding and everything associated with it |x| Rebellion, parties, and free-spirited endeavors which make him feel alive. |x| Reading & books |x| Music, especially punk music |x| His crew |x| Tattoos |x| Tagging |x|
Dislikes:
|x| Authority figures |x| Unnecessary violence at the park |x| Tag wars |x| Spiders |x| Crossing the street in crosswalks |x| Schoolwork |x| Talking about his family or future plans or past or anything except his present really |x|
Fears:
|x| Spiders
|x| Fatal Injury
|x| Guns
|x| Being outed
Strengths:
|x| Good at modulating emotion and faking confidence
|x| Amazingly quick learner and eclectically knowledgeable
|x| Great on a skateboard and better with leading a skate gang.
Starling was born in Brooklyn, New York, but raised until he was five years old in Belleville, New Jersey. He spent his youth, oddly enough, learning to sew, paint, draw, and make music with his artistic and pacifistic single mother, Loraine Rhydderch. It wasn't until he was five that he was relocated back to Brooklyn to live with his father and new stepmother, when Loraine decided to take a travelling tour of the country. Starling spent a year of his youth getting used to his new placement, and picking up a skateboard for the first time, and then his father and stepmother relocated him again, to his father's sisters house in Manhattan, where he spent four years being raised under his six elder cousins in a four room apartment. He spent most of his time outside and alone, tracking down skateparks and friends.
He met the beginning skeleton of Graveyard Crew in these years; two of his best friends and a third, who would later leave the crew for a rival after a particularly vicious tagging war and some scandal over who's girlfriend was whose which Starling didn't get into (but that's a much later story for an entirely different day). He learned independence most in this stage of life. After that, he moved back in with his father and a completely different stepmother, only a few blocks away, and spent a great deal of time with his elder step brother, Casimir Graves, who taught him to sing and play guitar again, and who got him into punk music. Casimir became a constant in Starling's life; he was enchanted with the older boy who could do kick flips like they were nothing and who knew every single band ever.
Starling lived with them from the ages of twelve to seventeen, and it was nearing his seventeenth birthday when Casimir died. Cass had been struggling with alcoholism, depression, and being a closeted teenager in a home full of bigots for as long as he could remember, but Starling wouldn't be told of the reasoning behind his stepbrother's suicide until many months later, when he fleetingly found contact again with his mother, and she informed him she'd been told he killed himself because of those things. It scared Starling beyond repair. By that time, he'd left home at seventeen to crash on a friend's couch and stay at their apartment until he was eighteen and could find his own. He barely managed to scrape by in senior year. He's only recently started to find some stability in his own apartment and leading Graveyard Crew, which he's been amassing for years now.
Now: Now? Well, now Starling is living alone, in a small apartment just above a coffee shop, and juggling time between doing sound tech for shows at the skatepark in the middle of his turf (as well as other locations that friends own), participating in skate competitions and other skate king duties, playing local librarian across from said skatepark, tagging walls and subway cars with his crewmates, and spending time practicing his music in the hopes he someday gets a gig.
Family: He has a mother, Loraine Rhydderch, a father, Merlin Smith, an ex-step mother, Cassie Smith-Johnson, and a current step mother, Delilah Smith-Graves, all of whom Starling is estranged from, as well as an elder deceased stepbrother, Casimir Graves. He considers, more than anything, his crew his family.
Secrets: The whole "gay thing" is probably Starlling's biggest secret.
Reason: He's at the library because he's just getting off a shift change wherein he worked there, and he's waiting for his crewmates to text him back, but the two closest which he's waiting on never do. As his absent friends make him more and more worried, he feels a little better just sitting in the library trying to calm down about their wellbeings.
Face Claim: Ash Stymest
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