Too late to quit, too soon to go home.
| Name: | Zale Runnoe |
| Bond: | Wiro |
| Bonded At: | Star City Dragonry |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 29 |
| Sex: | Male |
| Height: | 5'9" |
| Hair: | Black, worn long, bleached white-blonde at the tips |
| Skin: | Pale |
| Eyes: | Brown |
| Residence: | Star City |
| Position: | Apprentice Robotics Engineer (back at the beginning....) |
| Description: | Zale would probably be called handsome, if not for the fact that he is unhealthily thin, of a sallow complexion, with dark circles under his eyes as if he hasn't slept in a week, and dresses as if he could care less about his appearance. His hair is long and a beautiful blue-black color, bleached to white-blond at the tips, but is lank and more often than not unwashed and loose, hanging around his shoulders or peeking out from under a ratty hood. Though he prefers to be clean-shaven, most days he has a shadow of stubble, as if he had simply forgotten to shave it off. His dark brown eyes are usually slightly vacant, Zale's thoughts elsewhere, and he is almost never seen without headphones blaring music. |
| Personality: | Seven years before he bonded, Zale was a friendly,
motivated, clever Journeyman Robotics Engineer with a comfortable life
and bright future ahead of him. He smiled often, had a good number of
friends, loved his work, and was pleasant to be around. After several
years of addiction and another of attempted recovery, however, he was
left withdrawn and shy, out of touch with people who used to know him and,
one might say, reality. He is still friendly, when someone manages to
get past the shield of personal distance, though his responses still end
up being vague and distracted. One would do best to not take his
distraction personally, however; he likes people well enough, or he used
to. His personality change was entirely because of the drug, which destroyed most of his skill with robotics and left him
nerve-shot and shy.
Now, after being bonded for several years to his Wiro, Zale is at least halfway recovered, though it isn't likely he'll ever be quite the same again. He is still quiet, words often failing him, and he still suffers the occasional craving, but he's tolerable to be around again and is even working steadily. Friends are still few, but he's happy with his family and his dragon, for the most part. |
| History: | Zale is a living lesson in the evils of
substance abuse. He threw away his career, his friends, and even his
family because of an expensive, exclusive designer narcotic called
Butterfly. The first use, at a small party with one group of his
friends, was enough to begin a serious addiction that lasted for six
years and quite effectively ruined Zale's life. Though Butterfly was not
physically lethal in any dosage amount, it had a powerful capability for
addiction, and the user's body demanded to be satisfied at least once a
day, with stronger and stronger dosages required to feel the same
effect. Zale spent all of his savings, sold his few previous Cyborware
enhancements and most of his belongings, and finally had to resort to
stealing to be able to afford to feed the cravings.
The last was what actually ended up being the final key to perhaps getting his life back on track. Zale was caught in the act of a robbery of his own old robotics company, which he had been fired from over two years before as he never showed up anymore and performed shoddily when he did. Rather than being sent to jail, however, he was put into a detox program. After a year of detox, Zale has at least brought himself to the point where he knows he can survive without his next fix, but the cravings never really go away. He drowns them out as well as he can with music, constantly wearing headphones whether at work at his new job, at home, or wandering the streets. Unfortunately, Zale's addiction ended up loosing him all of his friends and alienating his family, with the sole exception of his concerned younger brother, Ian. There was no way, he knew, he could forge new relationships the way he was, and probably wouldn't be in any state to do so for several years, but he couldn't help being lonely. Being alone in his tiny apartment was almost as bad as being without music, drawing his thoughts back to what he wouldn't let himself have, and he knew he had to find some way to get himself company. So, he tried pets: starting out with fish, he has currently graduated up to a dog, a large, shaggy thing named Cannon. It isn't quite the same as a sentient, sensible companion, however, and for months, he didn't know what to do, besides spend all of his time with his brother Ian, and Ian's girlfriend was starting to get annoyed with him. Then, a childhood dream came to him. When he was younger, before he could have ever imagined what his life would really turn out to be like, Zale had always dreamed of being a dragonrider. It wouldn't have been possible at the time, bondings being fairly controlled by royal decree, but now that the station was free, there was nothing stopping him from trying, now. He thought he had the solution: companionships, stability, and maybe even a more steady income than the meager salary he pulled working at the station's massive grocery. Though most of the careers open to one bonded to a dragon were out of the question for Zale, unless his recovery sped up exponentially, there was no reason the dragon couldn't have its own job, if it wanted one, and maybe he could find something for them to do together. So, Zale signed himself up for the now-open hatchings, and contented himself to wait and hope-- though surprisingly enough, it didn't take very long of waiting. The very first hatching he attended brought him a strong, sensitive, lightning-marked silver named Wiro. She is everything Zale could have possibly hoped for, and more, and she seems to love him, too. |
| Theme: | The Wallflowers, Too Late to Quit |
Background from Background Paradise
Quote borrowed from "Too Late To Quit" by the Wallflowers