casualbird

here's a longer profile of my precious d&d 5e character, cyril inkblot. i had a lot of fun writing this up--almost as much as i do playing this dumb boy.

name: cyril inkblot

age: 28

race: human

class: cleric, level 17

day job: life insurance salesman

alignment: neutral good

appearance: cyril is awkwardly tall, standing around six foot four. he's skinny as a rail, and never puts on a pound no matter how much ice cream he eats (right out of the thing!). cyril's face is angular and long, and his eyes are a lovely spring green. he wears his brown, prematurely greying hair with far too much gel. cyril's wardrobe has two extremes: business casual, usually involving skinny ties, autumn tones, and suspenders, or dressed to kill, which usually consists of large floppy hats, jewelry with celestial motifs, and long, showy black dresses.

personality: cyril is every inch a camp gay stereotype and he owns it like his life depends on it. he's highly expressive and easily overwhelmed, and can get a bit squeamish, especially when his adventures take him into dripping sewers or foul necromancer's lairs. (okay, so he does all his own death magic, but clean up, people.) though cyril can be a little over-the-top, especially at first glance, he is a genuinely kind person who has a surplus of concern for others. he is constantly trying to help in his way--whether that's casting a heavy-duty warding spell before a brief encounter or doling out wet-naps and granola bars from his clipboard of holding. he has a real passion for his insurance work, and hawks life insurance only because he truly believes that it's something everyone would benefit from. the most likely in his party to burst into song, dance, or tears.

backstory: cyril came from a prominent family in the north, the petrunins. he was his parents' only child, and as such a lot of expectations weighed on him. he led a mostly isolated child, spending a lot of time studying to fulfill his parents' desire for him to become a lawyer. this made him very sharp, but also painfully shy.
when cyril came of age, he enrolled in a prestigious university in the city of gold point, a hub of trade and innovation. he studied the law, even though he didn't especially care about it. mostly, he felt like a small fish in a large pond, and he had little contact with his peers.
there was one person, however, who reached out to him--a tiefling in the business school, who had an ambitious new idea. this young man's name was caedmon, and he took shrinking violet cyril under his wing. cyril, being rather lonely and anxious, was excited to have a friend who was cheerful and kind, and caedmon was pleased to meet someone so soft-spoken among the raucous young adults in their collective peer group. cyril's eye for danger helped refine the safety aspect of caedmon's business idea (a park with scenic jungle zip lines) and the two became fast friends. eventually they fell in love, and in their third year of university, they married.
this was a bit of a sticking point for cyril's family--they didn't like him shacking up with a tiefling, of anyone he could have chosen. in a rage, they cut him off, and the newlyweds--the inkblots--were suddenly very poor.
still, they loved each other immensely. cyril provided a filter for caedmon's reckless impulsivity, and caedmon helped cyril to come out of his shell. caedmon dropped out and worked odd jobs to support cyril's continued tuition, and they stayed in a 'cozy' apartment to keep living costs down. they were, in short, happy.
nine months into their marriage, there was an accident at one of caedmon's job sites. cyril was rushed to the hospital to be with him, but by the time he arrived, caedmon was gone. uninsured, cyril proved to have lost his livelihood as well as his beloved husband. in short, he was suddenly grieving and suddenly destitute.
for years, cyril did whatever work he could find to stay afloat, training as a cleric in what little spare time he had. surely, someday, he could reverse this--could bring his husband back to him so that they could have the life that they deserved. it was exhausting, harrowing, but it was what cyril had to do.
cyril's luck changed when he happened upon a budding insurance firm--with his almost-finished education, and his commitment to the work, he managed to land a steady job.
in the mail room.
still, over the next two years, he worked his way up until he was able to become a traveling insurance agent, and now he roams, taking on jobs and selling his wares, still honing his necromancy in his spare time.
someday, he'll make it back home, and everything will be as it should.