More than a human, less than an animal.

 How am I doing with my OC? Too much? Too little? Let me know here!

[Player information] 
Player Name: Shade
Age: 23
E-mail: PM for it, please.
Other characters played at Cape Kore: None

[Character information]
Name: Garrett
Canon: Original Character
Canon Point: Directly post-killing of the Witch
Age: 16
Appearance: There's three basic forms Garrett has. Usually, he can be found with his hide on, covering most of his face. He very rarely takes it off. When he shifts into a grey fox, he looks something like this.

What's a little harder to tell from the pictures is what will be discussed here. He's really skinny and very small. The grey fox cloak goes down to about the end of his back. The forelegs cover his arms and the back legs hang loose. Garrett himself is all long, sharp angles, and looks more like he’s made up of elbows and knees than arms and legs. Garrett is currently 5’4” and is underweight, around 105 lbs. He’s in the awkward part of going through a growth spurt, so he’ll be putting on some height and weight, provided he gets enough food. 

The pelt is bonded to him through magic, and subsequently, it never shifts around or falls off, even if someone tries to yank it off. Beyond seeing his eyes through the eye holes, it’s rare (though not impossible) to see him without the hood. As for what he looks like under the pelt?

Light-brown skin, shaggy dark brown hair that is in badly in need of a haircut, and eyes the same color. He jokes he was made out of mud and set out in the sun to dry. His eyes have round pupils like a human’s, but they can go vertical in bright lights or during intense emotions like a grey fox’s. He’s got a slightly curved, very deep scar starting just above his right eyebrow that goes down across his eyelid and halfway down his right cheek. It doesn’t affect his sight. He wears a short-sleeved white shirt with a tan leather vest over it and brown pants that have become an inch too short for him. The vest has a pocket on the inside of it which can hold a few choice items. All are looking tattered and worn-out. He’s never worn shoes, and consequently, his feet are all cracked and scarred up.

To be blunt, personal hygiene is not this kid’s strong suit. He takes a bath by his own estimation about once a season. Considering there’s only four of those in a year, yes, he does smell, a foxy odor that’s similar to, but not as strong as, that of a skunk. While his teeth are white and all still present, the advantage of an all-natural diet without any sugar to rot them, his breath stinks something fierce.

Inventory:  He carries a Muirwood staff that stands at 5’10” tall wherever he goes. It's made from a magical tree from Garrett’s world. Muirwood is very rare and is also very powerful. It’s basically a great big battery, soaking up the meager magical energies in the world until it is so chock-full of the stuff, it’s fit to burst. It’s a very useful wood to have in a land that relied so heavily on magic. They can live for thousands of years. They never stop growing. In the golden age, they were specially cultivated, the wood being used in everything from the weapons people used to the tables they ate off of. After the magic began to drain, Muirwoods became rare without any magical gardeners to specifically cultivate them.

The staff has unique qualities all on its own. For starters, it runs on passive magic. Anything that happens to it is negated by using its surroundings for the best possible outcome. Nothing breaks it. A car runs over it, it’s lucky enough to stay intact. Take a chainsaw or an ax to it, the blade glances right off. The Hulk tries to snap it into a toothpick, it conveniently slips right out of his hands. Magic spells tossed directly at it get absorbed, since the wood is basically a giant magical battery. However, if the magic is powerful or dark, it can overwhelm and eventually destroy the staff.

The other wonderful thing about Muirwood is that it is impossible to lose the staff. Garrett could set it down on a rock, walk to the nearest village, and find it in a ditch on the side of the road when he got there. If someone stole it from him or used it without permission, they’d find a miserable existence as the staff tripped them up, cracked against their shins, and made a nuisance of itself until they threw it away in frustration……it’d then roll down a hill to land right at Garrett’s feet again. If he put it down with the specific intent of coming back later to get it, it would stay put.

Is it sentient? No. It’s particular brand of magic is still too passive to allow it to become a fully living creature. But the tree still willingly gave part of itself to Garrett and a bond like that is nothing to be sneezed at.

Other things he has in the pocket of his vest are a small carving knife, a salt lick, and a little bit of elk meat jerky.

Abilities:  

Skinwalker
Garrett is a Skinwalker, a species made up of magical shapeshifters. They use the magic that bonds them to their hide to turn into the animal they are wearing. The bond deepens the longer a hide is worn, with the full magical potential being “charged up” after about a decade. Having only had his hide for a little under four years, there’s a lot of growing room for Garrett. Still, he has the basic abilities. The first and foremost of this is that he can turn into a full-grown grey fox at will. He can still speak and retains his human intelligence in this form. He can shift as many times as he can push himself to do, though fatigue starts to set in after four or five shifts. Since the magical energy only compensates so much, he eats a ton, even more than your average starving teenager. Eventually, he’ll be able to shift into a half-and-half form, but that’s still far beyond his current level of bond and skill.

As a human, the hide provides enhances the basic five senses and allows for greater strength, speed, and stamina than a normal sixteen year old would have. It only boosts him up to as good as a man in peak condition can get, so while he’s not Spiderman or Superman, he’s still much stronger and faster than someone his age. As far as the five senses go, his hearing and sense of smell are equivalent to that of a grey fox. His hearing is much better than a human being, and he could hear a conversation going on through a wall. He can identify someone and follow a trail by scent alone. If another scent is strong enough or the trail is old, it can throw him off. Another thing to note is that he can smell magic, since it is something that possesses a scent in his world. If a character is a frequent magic-user, he can smell it on them, like another odor mingling with their own, and can identify magical objects.

The disadvantage of having a hide is that it is the main source of power for Garrett. Without it, he’s helpless as any other sixteen year old, and vulnerable to a dangerous level. For this reason, Skinwalkers rarely remove their hides, with the exception of bathing or treating wounds. The attachment level varies from clan member to clan member, from those who can casually remove their pelts without a thought to those who feel like they are getting flayed alive with just a simple separation. Garrett is at the far end of the scale. Any separation from it, even a willing one, is painful on both an emotional and physical level. Just to remove his cowl requires a lot of mental preparation on his part. While he may be fine for short periods of time, a separation that lasts for longer than a few hours is akin to having his physical skin and muscle peeled off. It’s like mentally cleaving his soul in two.

If someone steals and then claims ownership of the hide, they essentially own Garrett, body and soul, as a servant. In this state, they can command him to do anything, and he must obey, even going so far as to kill someone. Unless Garrett can retrieve his hide, he’s stuck in this state forever. A hide separated from its owner can also be destroyed. Dark magic or fire are the two most common methods. If the hide is destroyed, Garrett dies right then and there, plain and simple.

Climbing 
Grey foxes are known as the tree-climbing fox, being the only canine to possess any the skill in any degree. Garrett has always been agile, and receiving his hide only accentuated his abilities. Be it an oak tree or a seven-story building, if there’s a way up, he’ll find it. He’s an excellent climber and rarely falls. Combine this with his agility, and he’s got a way to move around an area quickly, jumping from tree to tree (or rooftop to rooftop).

Staff
He’s also good at using his staff as a defensive weapon. He’s not a warrior at heart, but there’s not a Skinwalker alive who doesn't know how to defend themselves against an attacker. His brothers have made sure his skill is high enough that he can reasonably defend himself, at least until someone else can rescue him. Since he comes from a fantasy world, the definition of an attacker is usually someone with a bladed weapon or magical attack. Still, warrior is hardly what he’d describe himself as. Anyone with a decent fighting skill set is going to overwhelm him more often than not, and that’s if he doesn't end up doing something stupid like breaking his own wrists swinging it around too hard.

History: Once upon a time, there was a lovely world that was soaked in magic named Tarrah. Everyone used it at their leisure, the same way humans use electricity today. Anything that was wanted could be found with a summoning spell at the snap of their fingers. Then one day, the magic began to fade away. The people didn't understand or grow nervous, not at first. Life went on. Then the magic grew weaker in leaps and bounds, until it faded away almost entirely. Only small bits of energy remained, and even those were unable to be harnessed without the use of crude conduits. Society as everyone knew it had broken down. The golden age was over and the hard times had begun.

Fast-forward about five hundred years. Society had become a whole lot rougher. There’s no more big cities and world-wide communications are a thing of the past. Superstitions, fear, and whoever is the strongest are the trifecta that rule the people. The slice of the world Garrett lives in, the Western Front, has become like the Old West, large gaps of land with small frontier towns and ranches in between. Skinwalkers are a loose-knit group of clans who specialize in shapeshifting magic. They live a nomadic existence, traveling around the land, never resting in one place for too long. They are regarded with fear by the normal humans, who greatly outnumber them.

When Skinwalkers come of age, usually between the ages of 12 and 18, they go on a journey to prove they are adults. They’re dropped off in the place they were born with no supplies, not even clothes. The first animal they come across is their’s. They then have to hunt down and kill that animal by any means necessary or die in the attempt. If successful in the hunt, the hide is removed and stretched to fit them through a series of blood magic rituals and a potion treated with secret magical herbs. Once bonded with their pelt, it is theirs for life, rarely to be removed. They can then return to their clan and are considered an adult.

There was an on-going prophecy that one would be born who would unite all the clans together, a Skinwalker who could shift into every type of animal known as the AllSkins. A god who would fall to Earth and become mortal, he would be their Chosen One, bringing great prosperity for that particular generation. The prophesied AllSkins came into being and proved to be all that the clans were hoping for. He took the disunited people, strengthening them and giving them hope, forming most of them into a giant group known simply as the Clan. Being a powerful, formidable leader, many of the Clan members wanted to take him on as their lover. Never one to say no to a pretty face, his bed was never empty of company.

This is where Garrett's personal history starts. Where his father came from or what his name originally was, no one ever knew. Even the mother of his child, Ilsa, only knew the bare minimum. This particular AllSkins, in addition to having an extreme talent in regards to shapeshifting magic and being a good leader, also had an extreme hedonistic streak. He took on many lovers over the course of his life. One of them was Ilsa, a young and pretty badger Skinwalker. She had no illusions about being the great love of his life. While it eventually became closer than mere physical contact, it never blossomed into an amazing love affair.

Ilsa became pregnant and Garrett was born as the summer turned into the fall. The AllSkins saw him once after his birth and then continued his duties as leader of the Clan. He had no time for raising yet another one of his children. Still young, Ilsa didn't want to give up her lifestyle for her child. Garrett was left with her mother, an old, crotchety coyote Skinwalker named Lara. She took care of Garrett for the first year and a half of his life. The winter was a bad one that year. Little Garrett caught a cold that morphed into pneumonia. This was very serious in the Clan. If a competent healer could not be found, the baby would be in danger of lose his life. Fortunately, Lara found one just in the nick of time. His mother had been absent for almost the entire ordeal. Lara decided enough was enough. She took her daughter aside and explained to her in no uncertain terms that it was time for her to become a mother. If she didn't, all she was going to do was hurt her son over and over again. So she could either pick up her duties or get the hell out of his life for good. Ilsa chose instantly. Her son was the most important thing in the world to her.

Garrett grew up a rambunctious and curious youngster. He was always a little small for his age. Ilsa suspected the pneumonia as an infant as being the underlying cause. He always seemed to be poking his nose into something instead of doing what he was supposed. As Garrett grew, he started having questions about his father. Ilsa explained to him how his father was the most important man in the Clan, how he was the leader of all Skinwalkers. Garrett never understood why this meant he had no time for his son. He became determined from a young age to get his father’s attention, one way or another.

When Garrett was three, Ilsa became pregnant again by the AllSkins. While he had many half-brothers and sisters, this was to be his only full-blooded sibling. His little brother Lucas was born in the springtime. His mother explained it was his job as the older brother to watch over his little brother and always protect him. He took his role as older brother very seriously. When he was seven, he had a rare opportunity to spend a week with his father. He was initially thrilled, but his father proved to be a very distant man emotionally as well as physically. One thing he mentioned to his son during a rare one-on-one moment was about the importance of each Clan member having his or her own purpose and destiny. This was a mantra that stuck with Garrett for the rest of his life. It became something close to a subconscious obsession.

It was around this same time that an event happened which solidified his promise to his mother to watch over his little brother. The Clan was crossing a river that had become swollen by an unusually warm springtime. The snows had melted much quicker than they anticipated. They could either build rafts and float their wagons across, or attempt to swim them through at the shallowest point.

Ilsa chose the latter. Garrett and Lucas were inside the small covered wagon as the mules drawing the wagon half-swum, half-walked their way across. Without warning, the wagon began to tip dangerously to one side. One of the mules had lost his footing and panicked. He tried to turn and swim downstream. The other three in the team likewise began to slip. Water began to fill the wagon as Ilsa struggled to turn the team. Garrett felt Lucas begun to slide from his arms as wave after wave of water hit the small children. Without thought, he yanked sharply on Lucas’ arm, throwing him to the canvas side. Garrett pinned him there with his body. If anyone was going to be lost, it wasn't going to be his brother. Fortunately, Ilsa managed to get the team under control and turned them back the right way. While they all survived, it was an incident that would stick with Garrett for a long time, solidifying the idea of putting other people before himself. It also, once the shock and fright had worn off, provided him with the first taste of how intoxicating an adventurous, interesting life could be.

It was around this time Garrett and Lucas became aware of the outcasts of the Clan. The hanger-ons, who for one reason or another, were no longer welcome among the decent members of society. Ilsa explained one of them was their half-brother Iscariot, a rattlesnake Skinwalker with a bad-luck name and a bad-luck hide to boot. She told the two of them not to go anywhere near the Clan member who reportedly made his trade as a killer. So, naturally, that’s exactly what they did. What they found instead of a battle-hardened, ruthless killer, was a Clan member who was lonely and in need of companionship. They would often sneak off to spend time with him whenever Is wasn't off making his living. In gratitude to his new-found brothers, Is taught them quite a bit about poisons.

Up to this point, Garrett had been aware that Skinwalkers were a group set apart from other people, but the moral behind the message had never really sunk in. Not until the group decided to stay for the winter season near a small frontier town with the unfortunate name of Gambler’s Paradise. Garrett saw first-hand the kind of prejudices the town had against those who were different. They ranged from mild indifference to out-and-out hatred. While he didn't receive much first-hand, being a child, he saw many frightening instances of prejudice at work. The Skinwalkers were turned out of stores and bars. Women and children crossed the street when they saw Clan members coming. Hostilities went on and on, with each side pushing until the tensions were about to boil over.

It led to a dirty fight which nearly led to a lynching before his father and the tow stepped in. It gave Garrett a firm reminder to the messages always being instilled in him. Other people weren’t just different, they were dangerous. You stayed with the Clan because they were your family and because they could protect you.

The group left Gambler’s Paradise with a new addition: a Catholic priest by the name of Father Robert Wayne. A new arrival to the Western Front, he was determined to “save the souls of the unfortunate heathens.” While the Clan felt insulted by the idea that they needed to be saved from anything, he made himself a niche in the community by becoming a teacher for the Clan's children. He taught them how to read, write, do basic sums, and the Common language (their world’s version of English). Garrett attended dutifully, for his mother wished him to be proficient in the language, but he exasperated the priest at every turn with questions about his faith. While he picked up some Common, he remained dismal in the other subjects taught by Father Wayne. The priest left the group after three years when they reached another frontier town consisting of a brothel, a bar, and not much else. He decided these souls might be more receptive to the message of Jesus Christ. Garrett and the other children were honestly sorry to see him go.

It was about the age of ten that Garrett seriously begun to think about the Journey to get his skin. To do so, he would have to undergo a long and dangerous ritual. Most children didn't undergo the Journey until they were at least twelve. But Garrett thought that getting his Skin would make his place in the Clan clear. He went to his mother and grandmother with the idea. Both flat-out refused. Over the next few months, he begged his mother again and again to go. Finally, she relented, but only if he stayed until he was twelve. He agreed.

As soon as he was twelve, Garrett was off on his Journey. To do so, he had to travel back to the place he was born, with nothing more than the skin he was born in to help him on the way there and back. He was well aware of the fatality rate among Clan children who went on their Journey when they were young, as opposed to when they were older. But he was determined that he would come back with his hide or not at all. Garrett ended up on a small island just off the coast of a craggy beach. Once he had reached the shoreline of the island, he sat there and waited. It took half a day before a large grey fox appeared, scanning the beach for mussels and dead fish. Garrett immediately gave chase, but his opponent wasn't just large, he was also old and clever.

Garrett tried for weeks with every trick in the book to capture his animal. Nothing worked. Fall turned into winter. Garrett came to the sinking realization that this island might also become his tomb if he failed to catch his fox. Sitting there one night, dug into the side of a hill with only a meager fire to keep him from freezing to death, the fox came over the horizon. He walked right up to Garrett, fearless. Then he did something peculiar. He laid his head right in Garrett’s lap. He could have killed the fox in an instant. But he didn't. If this was the way he was to get his hide, he wanted no part of it. He was going to kill his animal fair and square, not taking the easy way out. He drove the old dogfox off and swore the damned animal was grinning as he ran back over the hillside.

The resolve that came from knowing he had done things the right way instead of the easy way gave him the strength to survive. Winter was just barely giving way to a mushy spring when he finally caught the dogfox. He gave him a quick death, snapping his neck, making sure his animal felt no pain. Then came the most important part. The ritual of removing and stretching the hide was one filled with ancient magic. It bonded the hide of the dogfox to Garrett for life, giving him its senses and the ability to shapeshift. Once he was fully bonded to the fox hide, he returned home to his Clan, weary, beaten-up, and much skinnier, but triumphant nonetheless. 

The next year was uneventful as Garrett adjusted to being a full-fledged member of the Clan. It was a big change to go from being a kid with minimal responsibilities to an adult expected to pull his own weight. Garrett had a lot of trouble with the change. Much of the tension came from his older brother Thomas, a wolf Skinwalker who looked likely to take over leadership of the Clan when or if ever his father stepped down.

During the summertime, the Clan spent a night under a Muirwood tree. It was an old and ancient type of tree, special for its two unique properties: it never stopped growing and, more importantly, it absorbed magic like a sponge. The longer it absorbed the magic, the harder the wood became. This one had stood for so long, a thousand years at least, that the wood had become nigh impenetrable. The Clan tried with little success to harvest any and then settled in for the night. Garrett was on watch that night, choosing a perch on one of the large roots. He was staring out over the land when a loud Crack! came from overhead. The branch that had broken off fell right at his feet. When he told his mother in the morning, she said it was a sign he was meant to keep such a special gift. The tree had given him the staff for a reason. It would become Garrett’s most treasured possession.

The year of Garrett’s fourteenth summer was a hard one. The Clan was down on their luck, unable to set up camp anywhere near normal human beings. The year had been a dry one, withering the crops that managed to creep up from the dust-dry ground. The normal humans blamed the Skinwalkers, the Skinwalkers blamed their long-time enemies the Rath, the Rath blamed witches, and the circle went on and on. Without adequate food, the Clan began to fray around the edges. The AllSkins spent all his time just trying to keep his Clan from eating itself alive. Garrett was expected by Ilsa and Lara to pick up the slack, but transitioning from childhood to adulthood was still an ongoing process for him. He got snappish with his entire family, starting with his mother, Lucas, and any other sibling unfortunate enough to cross his path.

One night, he was put on guard duty at the orphan’s wagon, where the parent-less children of the Clan slept. He took along Lucas so that he could keep an eye on him at the same time. His brother just wouldn't calm down and go to sleep, staying up and chattering at Garrett until he finally snapped. Yelling at his little brother, he stormed off, leaving the safety of the camp. He meant to only go a short distance, long enough just to calm down and clear his head. Leaving the camp would be a mistake that would haunt him, to an extent, for the rest of his life.

Garrett had no way of knowing the Clan was going to be attacked that night by a group of Rath. The Rath were similar to the Skinwalkers, nomadic tribes knit together with close bonds, but that was where their similarities ended. Rath tattooed themselves with markings that both identified their individual clans and allowed them to access minor magical abilities. A Rath clansman might tattoo himself with a lightning bolt, and then spend his entire life working to harness the ability to produce electricity. They were known for being fierce warriors and extremely barbaric in their thinking. They would plunder and pillage, leaving towns and Skinwalker clans alike in ruin.

Garrett had been walking for almost a league when he saw the flames rising high into the night. Racing back to camp, he entered into a Hellish nightmare of fire, smoke, and chaos. The Skinwalkers, caught completely unaware, were fighting for their lives. Garrett had only one purpose in his mind: to find Lucas. The orphan’s wagon was already gone when he returned back to where his brother and the other children should have been. Frantic and on the verge of panic, Garrett tore through the camp. Catching his brother’s scent, he followed it, just in time to see another group of Rath stealing away the children in the missing wagon. There was nobody else in sight besides Garrett. Impulsively, he attacked the Rath head-on, determined to get his brother back or die trying.

It was a lovely and dramatic sentiment, but reality came crashing back down almost immediately. One teenager against a group of seven or eight fully-grown men was no contest at all. It came to a swift end when the leader of the Rath, Theifold, slammed an ax at Garrett’s head. That would have been the end of the little Skinwalker, and nearly was, except for his quick reflexes and the Muirwood staff. He locked handles with the Rath clansmen, the ax failing to do more than leave a deep gouge in his face. Still, the man was bigger and heavier, and pressed down harder and harder. Just as Garrett’s strength gave out, he was rescued by another of his brothers, Stubborn, a bear Skinwalker. The shock of Garrett’s injury was too much and he fell into unconsciousness before he could tell Stubborn the children were gone.

When he woke up the next morning, he had several injuries to deal with, physical and mental. Thomas lashed out, blaming him for losing the children. This only added to Garrett’s already great guilty conscience. He walked out of the campsite. Everyone assumed he’d be back by sundown. They were wrong. Knowing there would be a party of Skinwalkers sent out to retrieve the children, he followed them. Catching up, he found it consisted of his brothers, Thomas & Leonidas, a mountain lion Skinwalker, his sister Rachel, a “jackhare” Skinwalker, and Alana, a hawk Skinwalker. Much to Thomas’ dismay, he refused to go home. He was the one who had lost the children and he would be the one to help get them back. The Rath had a day's head start on them, and to make matters worse, they had used a form of magic to hide their tracks.

Their first stop was to get one more member for their party, an old cantankerous man named Owen who was the best in the business of tracker spells. They found him in a saloon on the wrong side of the nearest frontier town, Fallow's Turn. Normal humans didn't take kindly to Skinwalkers at the best of times and it had been a bad year already. One thing led to another and before Garrett knew it; his family was engaged in an all-out brawl with one of the most prominent families in town, the Careys. It was time to get the hell out of there. Garrett exasperated Thomas further when he kept insisting he could smell one of the missing orphans in town. The others had their misgivings as well, chalking it up to his guilty conscience.

Refusing to listen to them, Garrett followed his nose right into a brothel. Once inside, the other realized he had indeed been right as they caught the girl's scent. Upstairs in a locked room, he found one of the orphan girls, Odette, crying and scared, but fortunately unharmed. Getting her out of there caused another scene, but this time the townsfolk’s’ ire fortunately wasn't aimed at the band of Skinwalkers. They left the town just as the men were pulling the brothel owner out onto the street and stringing up a rope for him. They were joined by a normal human, John Carey, who joined the mismatched outfit out of a mistaken rumor that the Skinwalkers knew the long-forgotten magical art of turning rocks into gold.

Leonidas headed back to their Clan with the little girl in tow. The other kept on after the Rath. Finally catching up, they found that the children had been given to a band of Sorcerers, the most powerful magic-users in the world. The Rath leader, Theifold, revealed that the entire attack on the Clan had been a diversion. Their true purpose had always been to kidnap the children. The Sorcerers wanted them for reasons unknown to the Rath.

Theifold, upon hearing the previously unknown news that one of his men had sold Odette to a brothel, furiously killed the wayward Rath clansmen. Not intimidated by the gesture, Rachel challenged the Rath leader to one-on-one combat. If she won, the Rath promised to help the group get the children back. It was a severely mismatch bout....for Theifold. Rachel defeated him easily. Though he was reluctant to help, a promise was a promise. Theifold and his man joined the Skinwalkers and the humans.

They caught up to the group of Sorcerers in ancient ruins. During a conversation between Garrett and Theifold, they unknowingly set off a magical keyword that brings part of the ruins back to life. An old recording explained the history of their world and the last dying days of when magic used to be plentiful. Many desperate methods, the recording went on, were tried but only one was found to work: sacrificing a child would give a man untold magical powers. The group realized that the Sorcerers planned to sacrifice all the children to bring magic back into the world permanently.

The group launched a desperate, suicide attack on the Sorcerers. Knowing how severely outclassed they were, all they could do was hope to hold them off long enough for the children to escape with Garrett. At least, that was how the plan was supposed to go. Lucas wasn't with the rest of the children and Garrett refused to leave without his brother. He found him with the head Sorcerer, Mengl. Mengl figured one child was better than none at all. Garrett once again impulsively attacked. It worked about as well as a mouse going up against an elephant.

The situation was beginning to look very bleak. The group was clearly outmatched, with Owen and several Rath already dead. The Sorcerers were threatening to overwhelm their defenses. Then Leonidas arrived, with the whole Skinwalker Clan, the Careys, and a more than just a few other allies in tow. Thomas, with the battle now more balanced, found Garrett about to be killed by Mengl. He jumped into the fray. Between his own skills, the Muirwood staff Garrett tossed him, and help from Garrett & Lucas, he defeated and killed the demented Sorcerer. The move helped to heal the rift between Tom and Garrett.

With the children safe and sound, the group split up, with each member of the band returning back to their own people. Things settled back down for the Skinwalkers. Lucas, inspired by his harrowing experience, went on his own Journey, much to the worry of Garrett. Leonidas finally worked up enough courage to propose to Alana. They held a wedding ceremony, during which Lucas returned wearing a squirrel hide. Less inviting was a messenger. He brought news for the entire Clan: The AllSkins’ children were summoned to an AllThing, a ritual that hadn't been held in several generations.

Despite the lack of details, Garrett knew there was only one reason to hold an AllThing: to choose a new leader. He traveled there with Leonidas, Lucas, Stubborn, and Stubborn’s twin sister Bashful, a boar Skinwalker. However, just traveling to the spot proved to be an event in itself. They first encountered their cursed brother Perseus, a horse Skinwalker, who was under the control of some sadistic ranchers. Almost immediately after rescuing him, they then ran into a particularly nasty Witch who tried to eat them. They've just disposed of her body when Garrett wakes up in Cape Kore.

Personality: The first thing people notice about Garrett is that he’s always right in the middle of things. Even when everyone would prefer him to just stay put and do as he’s told, he just has to find a way to poke his nose in. Friendly and loud, there’s no standing back and blending into the crowd for the fox. He’s got a mouth on him that often runs ahead of his brain. While this mainly expresses through sarcasm, he’s also got a well-tempered sense of humor and wit that even his serious-minded brothers will admit helps alleviate tense situations. His impulsive nature is a double-edged sword, for he’s often in getting himself into more trouble than he wants or needs. Over the past two years, he’s been trying to reign it in. He’s still got a long way to go, but at least now he tries to look before blindly jumping into things.

Under the surface, things are a lot different for young Garrett. He’s got an inferiority complex like no other. It stems from his father never giving him so much as the time of day as he was growing up. While the AllSkins does love his son (thought Garrett doesn't know it), he’s a distant parent, and shows very little open affection. With pressure already on him to succeed, Garrett has tried from early on to be a son his father could be proud of. But he’s not a great warrior, nor a mystic, nor even a healer like his other siblings. He’s not living up to his own inhumanly perfect standards, and therefore in his mind, he’s no good to the clan.

For him, the clan is everything. Even if he may not always like his family, he loves them with his whole heart and soul. He’d sacrifice his own life for his family if it came right down to it. No matter how badly he clashes with them, Garrett is fiercely loyal to his siblings. Being smack-dab in the middle, he can easily slip back and forth between annoying yet extremely endearing and lovable younger sibling mode and protective, will-kick-the-ass-of-anyone-who-looks-at-them-wrong older sibling mode. 

Because of his fierce devotion to the Clan, it was inevitable that an attitude about outsiders would crop up. Garrett views people outside the Clan in an "Us vs. Them" mentality. He's quick to judge them and can take forever to trust them. Part of this is justified, given the harsh world he lives in, but part is also just plain old prejudice. There are times when he can and should trust other people outside the Clan, but will refuse to because of his own stubbornness. In the game, he's going to need to start confronting these issues right away. Despite his mistrust of the outside world, it's even worse in his eyes to be all alone and on his own. Kindness shown to him, even if its something small, goes a long way. Similarly, if his trust is betrayed or he is mistreated, he'll carry the memory and grudge with him for a long time afterward.

Skinwalker clans have an old saying: “Unless the child is about to fall into the fire, let him figure out that it’s hot by touching it.” Everything he’s ever learned was done the hard way. Much like the fox he can shift into, he may look small and cuddly, but he’s still got fangs. His fight or flight response is set firmly on fight. He doesn't back down from conflict, whether that's physical or mental, and this is yet another reason he keeps ending up in hot water in the Clan.

He does use the fact people tend to consistently underestimate a small, skinny teenager who talks a lot and turns into a cute, little, fluffy animal to his advantage. He's full of guile, pretending to be weaker than he actually is until whoever he is trying to charm has let their guard down and Garrett can get what he wants. While he may not like fighting, he knows how to defend himself against enemies. And Skinwalkers never take prisoners.
The Skinwalker clan runs on superstitions, omens, and legends. Having absorbed this all his life, Garrett tends to follow what he sees as signs and dreams that point towards his eventual destiny. He also believes this holds true for other people, though he’s not pushy about. The clan also believes that this life is as good as it’s gonna get. The next world is boring and full of shadows, not Heaven so much as Limbo. Garrett has taken this as a sign to live life to the fullest and he’s doing his best to do just that.

Skinwalker clans tend to be fairly relaxed about sex. Multiple lovers and sexual partners of both genders are prominent, rising even more so after the example the AllSkins set with taking on multiple women as his lovers. Monogamy, while still in the minority, has begun to get a stronger foothold among the clan, particularly among the younger generation. Gay sex is seen as nothing out of the ordinary, though men who bottom are seen as lesser, weak creatures. Of note is the fact that Garrett has never had much interest in either sex. Partly this is due to his inferiority complex, feeling himself unworthy of attention, but mostly, his life is just too darn complicated and hectic to deal with a lover. He’s still waiting for his first kiss, an act of affection that will probably rock his world from top to bottom when it happens.

[Samples] We would like 3 samples. One must be prose. One must be action spam/network style and the third can be either one. Of these three samples, at least one must be a linked thread so that we can see how the character interacts with other characters.

Dean Winchester gets turned into a centaur. Garrett finds this highly amusing.
Garrett swaps phones with Melissa McCall and has to get it back to her.

Prose Sample

Garrett’s ears and nose told him he was no longer in the desert before he even opened his eyes. As he struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff, he inhaled deeply, his mouth opening slightly so that he could get a better taste for the air. The amount of trees and their varied scents confirmed it for him. He was no longer where he should have been.

His right hand tightened around the silvery wood. There was only one thing he knew of that could transport him so far from home. Magic. That meant there was a potential enemy out there waiting. Well, he wasn't scared of any sorcerer, no matter how powerful they were. He was going to find them and then beat them over the head until they teleported him back to where he was supposed to be.

There were buildings off in the distance. He supposed that was as good a place to start as any. As he went along, he called out for his brothers and sisters. There was little chance they were here. He would have picked up their scents if they were. “Leo? Bash?” After a moment’s pause, he let out an eerie, high-pitched cry, the yelp of a fox calling out for its family. It was a sound that no ordinary human should have been able to make. He waited, letting the call fade into the distance. When nobody answered, the teen’s shoulders slumped in an imperceptible movement of defeat. Then, straightening them back up and holding his head high, he continued walking.

Anything Else? Garrett will be arriving in-game with some scrapes, bruises, and four long claws marks to his shoulder, courtesy of his family's run-in with a Witch just before arriving. Um, and I apologize for the length of this app. It definitely got away from me. <.<