Emil Steilsson - Iceland

[Carr]

Name: Emil Solveig Steilsson
Nicknames: Shortie
Age: 17
Date of Birth: June 17th
Gender: Male
Occupation: Junior bird keeper at the zoo
Heritage: Munchkin Cat
Seed Rank: Flight Seed
Birthplace: Reykjavík, Iceland

Appearance: Emil stands about 5’5, with a rather lean frame and weighing a bit less than he probably should. His hair is an unusual shade of silver grey, with equally unusual violet colored eyes. He often winds up dressing like an old man, despite being so young; simply because the out of date and out of style clothes are a good deal cheaper than stylish ones. He’s almost always wearing a bowtie or ribbon tie though.
Distinguishing Features: None
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Likes:

• Birds- Despite being a cat, Emil adores birds. He loves every part of them; the feathers, the hollow bones, beady eyes and beaks. Their ability to fly utterly fascinates him, and the fact they’re descended from dinosaurs of the past is intriguing as can be. He even has his own pet puffin.
  
• Coca Cola- Emil is practically addicted to the stuff. Aside from the bare essentials, and sometimes even less than that, nearly all his money goes into feeding his addiction to the sugary soft drink. It’s rare to ever see him without one in his hand.
  
• Hakarl- Easily one of the most disgusting foods in the whole world.. And yet Emil snacks on it whenever he can. Aside from finding it quite tasty, it also reminds him of home.
  
• Rain- Emil enjoys nothing more than just sitting outside on a park bench, only under an umbrella to watch the rain pour. He finds it to be quit relaxing, often taking naps whenever a storm rolls in due to the peaceful sound of the rain.
  
• Money- Only because he doesn’t have enough to pay off his numerous debts and I-O-U’s. He’s always trying to get more and more of it do so; odd jobs and gambling most of the time.

Dislikes:

• Danish Pastries- They’re Danish. They’re just gross in general.
  
• Money- Again; he just doesn’t have enough of it. He’s easily annoyed and jealous of people who do have it and flaunt it- rather they’re doing it intentionally or not, it bothers him all the same.
  
• Hats- It seems like everyone he knows has hats and can be recognized by that alone if nothing else. He would start wearing one himself.. But his scalp is frustratingly sensitive and wearing anything on his head, rather it is a hat, hood or hand.
  
• Icelandic- Aside from his parents he keeps in contact with every so often and a few words out of Lukas.. No one he’s met has ever been able to understand or speak it. He tries to avoid using it as much as possible, but it slips out whenever he gets embarrassed.
  
• English- His accent is extremely thick when he speaks English; and sometimes it’s almost as hard to understand him as when he speaks Icelandic itself. He doesn’t like being poked fun of over it.

Interests/Hobbies:

• Ornithology- This is why he’s been working at the zoo as a junior bird keeper. He enjoys studying birds and collecting feathers of ones from around the world to save in his scrap book. It’s partially for the sake of Mr. Puffin too. The bird is awfully picky about many things, so Emil wants to learn as much as he can about him and other birds in case he ever takes in a companion bird for him.
  
• Gambling- It’s a guilty addiction of Emil’s. He’s always gambling. Lottery tickets, scratch-offs, card games, sports. If there’s even the slightest chance that he could win more money than he’s spending, Emil is right there betting and gambling like he owns the place. He just hopes that one day he’ll get lucky and win a jackpot without having to work too much for it.
  
• Music- Emil enjoys a variety of music. Anything from pop to indie rock to classical to metal. He has everything and anything on his iPod, which he never goes anywhere without. It’s one of the few things he can’t bring himself to sell like most of his possessions he’s pawned off. While he was still in an actual school, he was one of the lead violinists.

Aspirations:

• To Get Out Of Debt – Travelling down to France as a sixteen year old high school student, he has racked up quite a debt. Borrowing money, giving out I-O-U’s to restaurants and hotels or even just bailing on a bill. Emil’s even had a bookie before, to help him get across the French countryside and onto the Southern coast. He wants more than anything to square away these debts.
  
• To Have A Normal Relationship With His Brother – Over time, Emil has come to terms with the fact that he may be attached to Lukas in a less than brotherly way.. He’s still young though, and despite how genuine those feelings really are, he’s constantly hoping and praying for them to just disappear. So that one day he could call Lukas ‘Bror’ without feeling guilty or uncomfortable.
  
• To Become A Great Violinist- He’s been playing violin for a long time now. Despite his interest in studying birds, his real dream is to play violin in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. They’re renowned for their violinists, and even just playing there for a short time—or even being taught by one of them, would just be a huge honor and accomplishment for him.

Fears:

• His Brother Hating Him – Given what most might consider ‘unnatural’ feelings for his older step-brother, this is a very real fear of Emil’s. Lukas is easily the most important person in the world to him and it would utterly kill him if the man began to dislike or even hate him for those feelings he’s been trying to get rid of.
  
• Losing Mr. Puffin – As sad as it may be from an outside perspective, Mr. Puffin is Emil’s best friend and soul confident. But because the bird can talk unlike many—any other puffins in the world, he’s rather worried that some sort of research department might whisk him away to scientists.
  
• Debt Collectors – It’s only natural for someone who dreams of being debt-free, to fear debt collector a little. He’s more fearful that somehow his actual identity may be connected with his many debts and that collectors and bookies may target his parents or even Lukas in an attempt to get what’s owed them, rather than them coming after him himself.

Personality: Emil is typically a very calm and collected person. He’s rather quiet and prefers to keep to himself, despite others’ attempts to draw him out of his shell. He only speaks when he feels like it, and then, only if he doesn’t mind the person he’s talking to; otherwise, you won’t get a single word out of the boy. Despite how he usually acts rather confident, though not overly so, he’s constantly worrying about what others think about him. He never does much of anything to improve other’s opinions of him, however; feeling that if they don’t like him for who he is, then they should just leave him alone, no matter how much it bothers him.

Due to having no friends or even friendly acquaintances when growing up, just selfish people and even bullies for the most part, he’s become a bit suspicious of people. Though he will become instantly thrilled and happy when someone speaks to him or shows him kindness, the doubt and suspicion isn’t far behind. “What do they want? Why are they being nice to me? What’s their ulterior motive?” are some of the usual questions that flood Emil’s mind after any kind of positive interaction with another person. He just can’t bring himself to believe that people will be nice just for the sake of being nice. Aside from his elder brother, of course. He’s the only one that Emil puts his whole-hearted trust into, despite how he acts nearly all the time.

On the topic of his brother, though he loves and respects him dearly, Emil is absolutely embarrassed to claim any familial relation. For one, his brother’s.. beliefs, though similar to his own, are not something Emil really wants to be associated with. Though he’s still a strong believer in magic and the ethereal like his brother, most people aren’t, which becomes nothing but a disadvantage when trying to make friends. Though he’s not ashamed of his beliefs, he isn’t about to go around talking to sprites and telling people there’s a troll behind them. His lips are sealed.

For all his outward calmness, Emil gets flustered and embarrassed extremely easily. Being a former, social outcast, he is very awkward and unfamiliar with most social experiences others face on a day to day basis. Because of this, he tends to have surprisingly cliché, overreactions to things he’s not used to; however sad it may seem, they’re all genuine though. He’s an awkward conversationalist unless talking about something he’s passionate about; then, contradicting his usual quietness, its quite hard to shut him up. He can talk endlessly about the things that he loves, and enjoys sharing those things with others, once he’s gotten to know the other well enough.

One thing he’s not shy about, is denial. Emil is simply a flustery ball of denial. He’ll vehemently deny being Lukas’s brother. That he believes in magic. That he’s lonely. That he’s scared of the dark. That he wore dresses when he was a little kid. That he’s had a bookie before. That he actually likes Danish pastries. And most of the time, his own feelings. If someone refuses to believe him the first or second time around, he’ll continue to repeat himself and deny the subject in question; often becoming very loud and vehement, to the point of shouting and stomping his feet childishly, despite his normally quiet nature.

Despite how he hates money, he’s constantly seeking out new ways to get a lot of it quickly; he’s prone to using what little money he does have trying to gamble and win or on lottery tickets, rather than say, buying himself food for the day. He does realize it’s probably not the best thing to do, but he’s racked up quite a debt with a number of people that he just hopes and prays one day he’ll get lucky if he continues trying to win. Because of how (unwisely) he uses the money he manages to get, he’s often “dieting”, despite being rather scrawny as it is.

Family:

• Mother - Russian Blue
  
• Father - Calico
  
• Step-brother/Cousin – Lukas Iverson – Norwegian Forest Cat

Brief History: Emil was born years after his older cousin/step-brother, in Reykjavík, Iceland. However.. His mother had wanted a daughter, to name Solveig, after her own mother. Vastly disappointed and since time stops for no woman, she went right ahead and named her son Solveig; Emil Solveig. With her husband almost always away at work, she was free to dress her second son in all kinds of frilly dresses for the year of his life. Even after she went back to work though, and Emil was left in the care of a nanny, considering all his mother had bought were girls’ clothes to last him well into his early teens, Emil was still dressed as a girl..

When he had just turned 7, his blood cousin Lukas was brought into their family after the boy’s parents passed away. Instructed to think of him as a brother, Emil tried his best to, but it always just felt a bit off, no matter how much he loved being around the older boy. He followed Lukas around everywhere he went, following him around like a lost duckling for years. When he turned 10, he was finally big enough to start fitting into Lukas’s old, hand-me-downs and he could finally get out of all the dresses. But since he’d been wearing them all his life up to that point, (though he’d deny it now), he hated wearing his brother’s clothes; trying to change back into one of his old dresses whenever he was at home. This behavior didn’t stop until he was at least 13 or 14 and he’d become much too big to fit into them anymore.

One day when he was skipping class again, as he so often did to avoid having to do actual schoolwork, he came across an injured puffin in a nearby park. Having always liked birds since a little kid, he carefully took the wounded bird home with him to his family. Though his parents didn’t approve at first, with a little pouting from Emil they agreed to help him take care of the little creature- on the promise that he’d improve his grades and attendance. After the puffin had fully recovered, the two brothers had taken it to release it back into the wild. However, to their surprise, it wouldn’t fly away; and even more shockingly, followed them back home. That same little puffin has been Emil’s faithful companion ever since.
Despite his puffin friend’s company, Emil had fallen into a minor depression when Lukas had moved away for university. With his parents’ reluctant support, he switched to homeschool to go and to surprise Lukas at Oslo. He was the one who had surprised instead; Lukas had moved to continue his studies in a city in France. His parents had been unable to reach him during that trip to inform him.. So instead of going back, Emil used the little bit of money he had left to try and get himself to France to be reunited with Lukas. Upon arriving near the Southern Coast of France, lost and broke, to his surprise he was taken in by a kind stranger, Sadik Adnan. He’s been living there with him and continuing his homeschooling.

OOC

Name/Alias;Carrot
Age;21
Favorite Pairings;None
Do you want to be Cbox, Thread, or Both?: Both
Did you read the rules? Mebbe.

It was his first day of college after the entrance ceremonies.. And where was Emil? Science class? His dorm room? The lunchroom? Nei; Emil was at the zoo. He wasn’t quite sure why he had decided to skip class on his very first day.. No one but his brother knew him here. It was like a completely new start. New people, a new place. A whole new world, he thought. “A new world, but not a new me..” He muttered to himself as he slipped into a crowd of people going through the front entrance; he didn’t have any money, so of course he wasn’t about to pay the admittance fee. He felt a little bad for sneaking in.. But he simply couldn’t afford it, despite how much he wanted to go.

“Its not like a few missing bucks is gonna make much a difference to them, Ey.”

Emil sighed softly, still feeling a little guilty and he reached up to lightly pet the puffin, Ari, on his shoulder, “Ja, I know.. But that doesn’t make it right, hn..” He mumbles, affectionately scratching the puffin’s head. The little bird was his faithful companion and childhood friend; always wearing a little red ribbon around its neck so Emil didn’t lose track of him. Though, its not like he could even if he tried. Probably the only case in the world, but; his puffin could speak. Not unlike a parrot or something, but for some reason.. Ari only spoke..well.. Like an Italian Mobster. Even Emil hasn’t quite figured out the reason.

Now that he was securely inside, the Icelander began to relax, smiling as he wandered from exhibit to exhibit; lingering at the bird sanctuary longer than the others. He was really just trying to forget everything for a little while.. When he woke up earlier and started to get ready for class.. He had caught a glimpse of other students already out and about on campus and suddenly.. He just didn’t want to go to class. He didn’t want to face them. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want a repeat of every other school before. He just.. couldn’t find the courage to walk through the hallways.

His smile slowly began to fade the more he thought about it, before a rough nudge from Ari snapped him out of it; the smile returning as he glanced up at the magnificent eagles that were soaring overhead. Birds were always much better company than people anyway.. They didn’t mock you. Well, except parrots. But that’s why he had Ari instead.

[Reed]