Thread:Selound/@comment-3462718-20111019155020/@comment-3462718-20111019214632

This is kind of long but it's as short as I could make it. Thanks for participating, I've been fishing around the wiki and I'm open for all ideas. Here's the story of the character I already have.


 * Pre-fanfic history - Vaccar the weasel grew up in a very strict and very violent colony of weasel coast raiders, who camped on the beaches in the far south. Redfang (his father) was the extremely harrassed cheiftain of the colony and couldn't have cared less about his son, ignoring him entirely most of the time; Skrugg (his mother) was ill-tempered, abusive, and a bit insane. When he was a Dibbun, Vaccar showed signs of being a gentle beast and was beaten and ridiculed for it; as he was raised to believe killing and fighting were signs of toughness, Vaccar came to think of himself as an incurable weakling, and lived a life of resigned self-pity for many seasons.

One day, when Vaccar was still a Dibbun, one of the weasels gave birth to a daughter; the babe's parents didn't want her, as the band already had four times as many females as males. Trying to force her son to prove his "courage" and get a taste for bloodshed, Skrugg tried to get him to execute the infant; Vaccar refused, telling his mother the abandoned baby would die soon enough without his help. Skrugg reluctantly agreed to this; however, Vaccar would secretly sneak out at night and feed the baby whatever broths he could scrape together, feeling terribly guilty but absolutely determined such a sweet little babe should not die. He also secretly tought her to walk and to talk and to play, and gave her a cute little name, not being old enough to think of a serious one (this is one of the areas where I need help). As he was named after a kind of flower (Vaccaria) as a derisive insult by his mother, Vaccar referred to her affectionately as his " little flower".

This went on for two seasons, and the band was mystified that the babe had survived for this long on her own. Redfang and Skrugg began to suspect; finally, Skrugg ordered her son, at knifepoint, to either kill the toddler or else lose his tail, nose, and ears. Vaccar grabbed his little flower and ran for his life; Skrugg chased him down, but, in the dark foggy night, she tripped over a log and fell on her own blade. Realizing he would be blamed and possibly excecuted for her death, Vaccar kept on running. During his flight, he and his little flower were separated; he tried to find her but was captured by captain Karturo of the Bowbolt and forced to work as a slave on the ship.

When it became apparent that he could steer a ship better than any of the corsairs, he was promoted to bosun. Because of his "peaceful" inclinations and refusal to leave the ship during raids, he was again mocked and largely ignored; he knew it was only his skill as a steersbeast that kept him from being executed as useless. When, many seasons later, Karturo was killed by the Voice of the Shadow and the crew of the ''Bowbolt" was forced to join the Black Shade's Ranks, Vaccar found himself without a job, and tried to hide unobtrusively in the background, knowing that as soon as he was revealed to be a "coward" he would be slain.


 * In-fanfic story. Many seasons passed; Vaccar was now approaching middle age (he'd be about 30 in human years). One morning, after he had been drinking heavily, he accidentally managed to get on the Black Shade's wrong side and was thrown into the slave cells as punishment; the wolf thought the woodlanders would leap at the chance to kill a weasel. However, the slaves were planning an escape, and decided to take him with them, as they were goodbeasts and senseless killing was not in their nature. This was the first time Vaccar had encountered beasts like this up close and personal; the concept of peacefulness being a good thing had never struck him before.

The slaves stole the impounded Bowbolt and sailed off in it; during the voyage, Vaccar proved very useful, entertaining little ones and explaining the finer details of how the ship worked. He was still looked on with slight suspicion by the goodbeasts for a time, but when the Ranks began to pursue, Vaccar offered to pilot Bowbolt, as he knew how to make her go faster than any of the other Ranks' ships. With his skill, she flew across the waves and up the River Moss, into a cave and down a dangerous underground rapids never before successfully navigated. Instantly, he became the hero of the hour, and was completely accepted as a true member of the goodbeast's crew.

When the fugitives formed a pact with the Whisperer bats, Vaccar was appointed the one to watch the batbabes and the children of the former slaves while the adults made councils of war. He got along with the little ones so famously that some of the older creatures realized he must have had experience with little ones before, and asked him about it. He told them the story of his "little flower", with which they sympathized. He then explained that he had realized that he was no coward but merely a beast of gentle demeanor, and that he was now proud of the actions he had once been ashamed of.

After the Branchbounders and Guosim teamed up with the Fugitives and Whisperers to make an assault on the Ranks and end them once and for all, Vaccar offered to pilot the army's newly acquired ship Reckless back to the lair of the Black Shade. He did not participate in the fighting but instead lead an undercover team who sneaked into the lair and set it aflame. At the end of the battle, several former otter slaves took the Reckless and sailed off in it to seek adventures; a now thoroughly happy Vaccar went with them, as steersbeast.


 * 'Post-Fanfic Story - This is the part I'm still working on. I know Vaccar and his "little flower" are reunited and eventually marry, but I don't have a backstory or a full name for her. If you think Little Flower is a good enough full name, that would be OK too. Sorry this is so long. I tried to cut as much extraneous info as I could but I get so detailed even in this little stuff.