[exsilium] character development

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❝ Good morning, Exsilium. ❞

LAST UPDATED: 8/2013PSYCHOLOGICAL;

     Since his arrival in Exsilium in April 2013 3313, Saul has undergone a number of drastic personal changes that have left him something of a raw, emotional mess. It began with finding former client Jesse Pinkman half-dead from an overdose the day he showed up; it's been a slippery slope downward from there.

     Saul's ability to keep a safe distance from the messes that came his way has served him well, up until now. With a wall built of aloofness and money, the line between him and his clients was never crossed or even so much as blurred, back home — his relationships were professional, his concern fueled by billable hours. So finding Jesse in Exsilium hit him like a ton of bricks. He stayed with Jesse while he was sick, during which time he did a lot of reflecting on all that went on back home and led Saul to realize just how much damage Walter White caused and how heavy Saul's hand was in helping Walt along. (For a cheat sheet on his relationship with Jesse and its development, click here & here.)

     That realization started wearing him down, emotionally. Saul wasn't equipped to deal with that sort of thing; he's a passionate guy, but he's not emotional in that way. Not outwardly, at least, because he was too controlled for that. Not anymore. It's around this point that Stephanie Brown (literally) dropped into his life, and all it took for him to fall in love with her was some flirtatious banter and a month's time. (For a cheat sheet on his relationship with Steph and its development, click here & here.)

     In late May, Saul died by trying to save Jesse. It didn't work. Their tearful reunion is what finally tipped Saul off to the fact that he was starting to care about Jesse a lot more than he ever thought he would — or could. A lot of other people he cares about died, too, including Stephanie.

     In June, he almost died again. Jesse almost died, too. Ever since the incident with Adam, Saul had been plagued with nightmares — they peaked when he fell ill. It's around this time that he started preparing for the worst: Walter's arrival. He wasn't sure when it would happen, or if it would at all, but Saul is Saul, and Saul is paranoid.

     In July, Walter showed up. Saul lost his shit all over again. Walt's appearance was pretty much all of Saul's nightmares come to life; he lost Jesse a little bit and was left, yet again, to do damage control. Walt has, thus far, not caused any trouble outside of shaking Saul and Jesse to the ground with his mere existence, but Saul is keeping a close, paranoid eye on him anyway. This month also found Saul in a relationship that isn't creepy; he started dating Effie Trinket for reasons clear to him but unknown to everyone else: she was in the same position he was in when he showed up, and he wanted to help her. He also wanted to get over Stephanie. The former is working; the latter, not so much. But he started falling for Effie, hard, which brings us to —

     August.

     Saul cares about too many people way more than he'd ever want to in any other circumstance. It's made him vulnerable and, in some cases, stupid. For someone like him to think with his heart rather than his head is dangerous, reckless, and foolhardy. The worst part is? He doesn't seem to care that this is happening, mostly because having so many people care about him in turn is so unfamiliar... and nice. That's the thing about being in a war zone — as much as Saul was caught in a war back in ABQ, it was nothing like this. He was never in the crosshairs, but now he is, and he's in the same boat as all the other Transports. So his priorities have shifted, a little.

     He wants to fight the good fight, for a change.

     But this is not to say Saul isn't still the sleazy, wisecracking lawyer he was back home. Despite the lack of a legal system in Exsilium — which Saul is working on — he's still managed to finagle himself a number of "clients." He's still manipulative, he's still prone to getting all up in everyone's business, and he's still a lying liar that lies, but his sense of conscience and selflessness is now dialed up; instead of being a jerk for his own purposes, he's being a jerk for what he thinks is the good of the community. Where Saul used to protect the legal rights of the people, he's at more of a point now where he's trying to protect people from the Initiative... and, in some cases, from themselves.

     Saul's CR chart, which includes thread tracking, can be found here.

PHYSICAL;

     Saul is much more physically fit than he was in Albuquerque, and not in a "I've lost weight from all this stress" way. He is now adept with firearms, specifically shotguns similar to his own sentient weapon, which he's been training with on a weekly basis. As a result, his weapon is now almost fully evolved. Channeling all of his hatred and anger over what happened back home, combined with what is happening in Exsilium and Walter's arrival, has led his weapon to become massively overpowered compared to what Saul thinks it can do; he hasn't yet used it, but his gun is no longer non-lethal. It responds to Saul's emotions during use, so it's very likely that if he is too scared or too angry when he finally does use it, he'll kill someone.

     Stephanie has also been helping him in the weapons department, showing him the basics of how to use Bat weapons. Batarangs, mostly.

     He began training with Coby in July. The Rokushiki classes have, thus far, left Saul with superhuman strength and the ability to use the rankyaku technique. He attends classes every other day, every week.

AFFILIATIONS;

     Saul co-founded the Department of Initiative-Transport Relations with Medusa in June. He is unofficial lawyer to a number of Transports, is attempting to form a government with Sonya Karimov, and also works for Tony Stark's company, Contrast Mechanics.