futurologists

[dishearten]

DON'T LET ME THINK WEAKLY, THOUGH I KNOW THAT I CAN BREAK
KEEP ME AWAY FROM APATHY, FOR I AM STILL AWAKE
AND DON'T LET ME THINK TOO LONG OF THE MONSTERS I'M BOUND TO FACE.

APPLICANT INFO.
NAME: Katy
CONTACT: go play zelda @ gmail, dw, and plurk
CURRENT CHARACTERS: none so far!

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: If he had a name before the curse, he doesn't know it. He went by the Huntsman in the Enchanted Forest. The curse gave him the name Graham Humbert.
CANON: Once Upon a Time
AGE: Looks early 30s. Add 28 to that.
APPEARANCE: One of the things that is easy to miss, considering how he's always pretty much covered in fabric, is that he's very lean and very fit. Extremely athletic. He's close to six foot, tall and kind of lanky. He's got blue eyes, brownish hair with some lighter hints. His hair might be a bit long lately, and he nearly always has some scruff. He's got some scars and marks but you'd have to get pretty close to note them, and they're generally covered.

Some gif evidence here.
CANON POINT: S1/E7. The very end. Meaning, after his death.

BACKGROUND: Huntsman Wiki, Graham Wiki

PERSONALITY: The Dark Curse that Regina brought down on the entire land of Misthaven was a remarkable one. With it, she created new identities, memories, and relationships for an entire land. It isn't as easy as breaking the curse and going back to normal, either — the people they were before the curse and during it affect the person they are now. As it was aptly put, they are both. This is also true of Graham, even though he never really had a chance to truly wrap his head around being the Huntsman and the Sheriff. He's going to struggle with that transition, as everyone else did, with old memories and new, and the decision of who he wants to be after.

Before the curse, he was known as the Huntsman. Not much is told about his childhood. He was abandoned at an early age, left in the woods to fend for himself or die. He doesn't remember why it happened, there's nothing he remembers of any parents that he surely had, at least long enough to grasp language. The only family he remembers is the wolves that took him in and took care of him, and those are the only family he ever thought he needed.

Obviously, being raised with and among animals shaped his personality, and one can argue not for the better. The Huntsman was more animal on occasion than he ever was man. He had a sharp temper and he didn't bother to curb it. He operated on instinct and reaction, not thought and consideration. He cared about his family and his pack and those outside of it merited little consideration. He could be violent and dangerous, and seemed to bear little regret for it. He didn't go out of his way to harm humans, but when he retaliated in self defense it was mercilessly.

It's hard to say what exactly inspired his dislike of humanity. It's easy to say a resentment toward parents he didn't remember, or that no human offered him shelter and sympathy, only wolves. Really, it's not quite that complicated. He sees his family as wolves, he sees himself more like his family than his fellow humans. He sees an honor and innocence in animals and nature that he never saw in humanity, whether that was because he never had the opportunity, or because he refused to look, is hard to say. Humans hunted and killed, were cruel and selfish, destroyed the woods and were rude and thoughtless, and the Huntsman had no fondness for them. He agreed to kill a human to protect his family and seemed to have no hesitation in accepting the terms, only curiosity as to why the Queen would want to have her stepdaughter murdered.

That awe and respect of innocence, however, is something that seems to linger in both versions. Finally meeting someone with a heart as pure as the animals he aimed to protect inspired what could argue was his bravest, and perhaps most foolish, choice. For letting Snow White go, and trying to deceive the Queen, the Huntsman lost his heart and became her slave. He was ordered to do awful things, and had no ability to refuse directly, though he did manage to subvert her commands in small ways. He found a light in the world despite having to exist in eternal gray and darkness, he chose to help people in the limited way he could, and he saved Prince Charming, an action that ultimately allowed him to get back to Snow White. Even without his heart, the Huntsman eventually learned that not all humans were the hateful entities he imagined them to be. He was still under the Queen's control when the curse hit, and in a lot of ways, little changed in that respect in the Land Without Magic.

Graham himself, though, changed quite a bit. He was wasn't as harsh or standoffish — he was the protector of the people, instead of their tormentor. He was friendly, perhaps not sociable, exactly, but he got along with the townspeople and garnered a great deal of respect. He cared about the safety of the people he was meant to look after, and did his best to do so. Without the memories of a feral upbringing, he's a little less disjointed in social situations, though he does tend to be a little distant in his approach to people. It's not an intentional choice; just as before, in the Enchanted Forest, he still did not possess his heart, though he no longer remembered what he was lacking or the reason for his absence of feeling and connection to the world around him. He has been heartless for a very long time, at least thirty years. This made it very hard to connect to emotions, but he still had a sense of right and wrong and a desire to help people. The emptiness tugged at him, though, leaving him with an overwhelming desire to feel something. Something he found in Emma Swan.

After kissing the savior, Graham's mind was flooded with flashes of the life that used to be his. The way he reacted to the memory was a dramatic, unhealthy tailspin. When he fixates on something, he can be hard to shake from it, for better or worse. He didn't sleep or eat, ignored a fever and multiple people trying to insist he take care of himself. He doesn't always deal with his problems in healthy or rational ways, and can let obsessions get the better of him. It isn't something he does regularly, but if he gets set on a path it can be difficult to shake him free of it.

Now, Graham is in the possession of both sets of memories. That of the Huntsman, the orphan raised by wolves and mistreated by humanity and left powerless at the commands of a Queen, and that of the Sheriff, the lonely but well meaning outsider to a town that treated him well and respected him, and seemed to trust his ability to protect them. Graham did seize his independence in the end, breaking away from a relationship with the Mayor in which he didn't feel anything. Something he paid dearly for, as she used the heart she still kept to squeeze the life out of him. Graham remembers that, too, and it's another thing that he will have to reconcile with his memories and transgressions. He knows how his story ends and sees each day as a second chance, one he intends to use to try and make amends for the things he did when he was not in control of himself. He still lacks his heart but knowledge of the absence at least explains his disconnect, though he still years to feel a connection wherever he can.

Lastly, it is important to note that during his time as the Huntsman and also his time as the Sheriff, he was in a sexual relationship with an inability to properly consent to it. Now that he can properly remember how he came to be in that relationship he considers it abuse. It is something that has changed how he views people and has increased the distance he keeps between himself and others. It's not something he is particularly comfortable talking about, on most terms, and because of it his freedom is very important to him.

ABILITIES: Graham is still human, with all that entails. He is currently heartless, though, which does change him a little, though it's arguable how much of an improvement it is. He does not have the same connection to his emotions that most humans do, and the only reprieve to that lacking sensation seems to be being close to the savior. Otherwise he generally goes through the motions but it's sort of like looking at a picture through foggy glass. He can see the bigger picture, just not the minute details. Things don't affect him in the same way, including pain, cold, hunger, exhaustion... the only thing that really seems to cause a strong affect is squeezing his heart. If someone were to come into the possession of it, they could order him to do whatever they wanted.

Outside of his heartlessness, the Huntsman has truly remarkable skill for tracking people, as well as marksmanship. His aim with a bow and arrow is legendary, and apparently that transfers to lesser sports like darts. He has a general awareness of law enforcement thanks to the curse. He knows how to live off the land and is far more comfortable in wilderness than he is with civilization. He's good at tracking both humans and animals, he is the Huntsman after all.

INVENTORY: Graham is wearing his usual sheriff uniform, which includes pants, a shirt, a vest, along with boots. He had his jacket off, so he's definitely gonna miss that. He also carries a few personal things, like a wallet and keys, though those probably won't get him very far. And, lastly, his sheriff badge... Also not gonna get him very far.

WRITING SAMPLES.
NETWORK SAMPLE: Lots on the TDM, there's some 3rd person there too.
LOG SAMPLE: Here and here to get up to five! Not set in game.