Orion Basilískos

[Orion Basilískos]

Settle down, it’ll all be clear

Full name:Orion Basilískos
Nickname: Ryan, Ry to his more personal friends
Alias: n/a
Gender: Male
Age/Birthday: 26 years, July 25th
Celebrity Claim: Rodrigo Calazans

If you get lost you can always be found

Time Period: Byzantine
Appearance: Orion is shorter than most men, and unfortunately is closer to the height of women, which means he has to look up to most of his peers and is at eye level with most of the ladies. But what he lacks in height, he makes up for in Romani charm and style, often adorned with a few trinkets, a lucky talisman and a couple of gold rings. He's a bit stocky slightly muscular as his lifestyle demands, but also lithe and flexible. His red hair can be messy or kept, depending on the day, but his beard is always kept short since he doesn't like the way it feels if it gets too long. Orion has blue eyes that flicker with mischief, and are often filled with laughter for jokes not yet sprung. During the day he wears a white tunic with a deep blue vest and a belt, dark emerald leggings and black shoes. At night, he wears looser pants and often goes without shoes or a shirt if he's fire-breathing.
Height: 5’6’’
Distinguishing Features: A firebrand on his upper arm in the shape of a snake. Various henna tattoos from time to time, especially around festivals.

Just know you’re not alone

Personality: Orion's personality is like a fire. Gentle. Explosive. Dangerous. Warm. Addictive. He thrives on the dark, because that is where the light is the most beautiful. He emits an infectious energy to those around him, which allows him to get along well with others and to be popular in his group. At times he can be what some may consider bi-polar. Like fire, he has his extremes. Some have found comfort and solace in his warmth, while others have been harshly burned. Most often though, he can be found looking for things to amuse him, which in his sense of humor equates to pranks, jokes, and other adventures, as well as playing with fire.

Maturity is something that waxes and wanes with him. He is spontaneous and carefree, which can often be perceived as being childish. Worries don't worry him, they just make him work harder to fix it the problem. And if he can't fix the problem, like any good gypsy would, he travels away from it until it can't reach him anymore.

Above all else, though, family will always come first in his mind. And in his mind, his family is his entire clan. Within it, unity and strength are what he prizes, and takes pride in the strong bonds shared between the members as well as himself. They are everything he has ever known, and are the one thing even a gypsy cannot leave.

Fears:

Goals: To live life to the fullest, to see the Assassins liberate Constantinople, to accumulate as much wealth as he possibly can
Likes:

Dislikes:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Talents: Story-telling, Performing, Working with animals, and as a bonus he can belch the Greek alphabet.
Habits/Quirks: Stretching his neck and puffing his chest a bit when walking beside a woman who is taller than him, playing jokes on people, checks the grounds at night if he's awake just to be sure everything is as it should be in his homeplace
Occupation: Romani Firebreather
Alliance: Assassin

Cause I’m gonna make this place your home.

History: Born into a world of travel and raw culture, wonder, excitement, community and freedom, Orion is a Romani to the core. It's all he's ever known, and it's all he really wants. Though born with the natural wanderlust of a gypsy and the heart-aching desire to see the world, he's never had to look further than his own culture to feel at home.

Growing up in Constantinople, the culture center of the world, might have had something to do with all of that in addition to his heritage. As a boy he was taught to perform, to sing and to dance and to play music, to tend to the animals and to incorporate them into the shows. A cute ginger kid with a rabbit or a kitten or a dog was a good heart-warming side show before the heat and charisma of the adult performances. And Orion absolutely loved it. He loved the attention, the astonished and benevolent ooh's  and aww's  of tender laughter when they saw the tricks he could command his pets to do.

As he grew older, his place in the show grew as well. The animals got bigger, and what were once kittens and puppies were replaced with horses, dogs, birds and reptiles. His own participation became more acrobatic and skilled, until the day he was old enough to experience fire.

It was love at first sight. Orion had always admired fire; he grew up around it and witnessed it everywhere. But never until that moment had it been his. For years he trained, careful and cautious at first until he became cocky and overconfident though success without failure, under the watchful eyes of his many teachers. A day did come, though, when his carelessness finally caught up with him and he learned that even beautiful things could bite. Thankfully it wasn't anything too serious, and his burn healed without leaving a noticeable scar.

But his suddenly forced respect of fire didn't dampen his affection for it; instead it only grew, as fire did, into an obsession and a passion. Over the years, as his act became more routine and fire came to be a part of his daily life, the boyish fervor subsided into a more controlled affection; settled into the twinkle in his eye that ignites like a spark into its full ardor in the darkness of the night, when he is blind to all else and the flames burn brightest.

As an adult, and more importantly as a man, Orion decided he wanted something back from it. After all the years he had spent giving and investing in fire, training for it, nurturing it, feeding it, shaping it, dancing with it, watching it, loving it, he wanted something from it. A mark, of his own desire, to symbolize his standing as a Romani man now instead of a boy. He had been burned with fire before. Now, he wanted to be burned again. Seriously burned. Branded.

The firebranded snake on his arm is the result of that, a symbol of his dedication to the Romani and the family that they are - a family that only spreads and grows, without constraint, roams wherever it pleases and rests wherever it wills. A family that leaves their mark on the world, and gives it something beautiful to remember. A performance.


Mother: Thera Basilískos
Father: Alexander Basilískos
Siblings: n/a
Significant other: none
Pets: A dapple-grey and white Gypsy Vanner mare, named Xena (like this)
Home: He has his own caravan, which is his home wherever he goes. Most of the time it's set up in the Romani community in the Constantine District.

Behind the Scenes

Name/Alias: Lyndsey, but I'll respond to any of my character names
How long have you been in RP?: a little over 7 ½ years
How did you find Cutting Corners?: I made it

Music credit -- Phillip Phillips - Home