Browse wiki

Sidney is the kind of man who can answer "Where are you from?" with either a succinct answer or an accurate one. He usually errs on the side of brevity, painting his past with broad strokes and tailoring the details to the particular interests of his audience. Locals might appreciate hearing that he was born in the capital city proper, while immigrants tend to relate more to his stories of an adolescence spent in the Lyceum. Scholars are offered the name of the highly respected scribe he apprenticed under in Lenosia, while artists are given a romantic summary of his brief time among the brutal cliffs and pirate bands of the Mourning Isles. All or none of it might be a fabrication, and he is rarely precise about dates. What is clear is that he returned to Arx at eighteen and was brought under the wing of the Whisper House shortly thereafter. At twenty, he has still not quite refined himself to their standards.

Sidney is a man who seems to live wholly and unrepentantly on the surface of his skin. A lifetime of unguarded expressions has etched laugh lines around the corners of his brightly perceptive blue eyes and naturally upturned mouth, and a slight pinch between his brows marks where they're prone to furrowing in concentration or sardonic humor. The calculated chaos of his dark curls gives him a playfully rakish air, and the way they dance over his brow and hang around his face emphasizes the slight softness of youth lingering in his features. His neatly shaped goatee is short and a bit sparse, possibly representing all the beard he can actually grow at the moment. He has the height and lean musculature of a man who has never known serious deprivation, and his nimble, long-fingered hands show only the calluses of delicate work.

There's a sly, irrepressible humor at Sidney's core which colors everything he does. Almost any embarrassment is met with self-deprecation; almost any threat with gallows humor. This irreverence can make him seem shallow or insincere, especially to those who buy into his persona of playful hedonism, but when it's required or desired of him he's more than capable of showing a deeply thoughtful side. Or an earnestly sympathetic side. Or an impulsive, impassioned side. Or, in fact, almost any side at all. Emotional flexibility is a bit of a specialty of his.