Shiye (Drew) Benally

Basic Information

Birth Name (Name Guidelines): Shiye Benally
Aliases: Andrew, mostly Drew
Place of Birth: Bitter Springs, Arizona
Age: real and apparent) (see the age breakdown for vampires here, see the real/apparent age calculator for werewolves here) : 25 real - 19 apparent
Male/Female: Male
Current Occupation: Intern for the Meridian Archives
Past Occupation: (If different from above): Student

Appearance
Hair Color: black
Length and Style: just past shoulder length usually in a pony tail
Eye Color: Brown
Skin Color: Bronze/dark brown
Height: 6ft 3in
Weight: 220 lbs
Nationality: Diné (Navajo for the rest of you)
Race: (I.E. Vampire, Werewolf, human etc.) werewolf
Body Type: sturdy/athletic
Wolf Form (Werewolf - please read first): solid black one narrow vertical white streak under his right eye

Description (if an NPC) or name of your creator/gifter(if a PC) ( Please be as specific as possible, who your creator/gifter was, why he chose to change you, where is he/she now?): Ata'halne' Benally, Shiye/Drew's paternal grandfather. Within the Benally family it is traditional for a grandparent (an aunt or uncle if there are no living grandparent never a parent) to gift a child when the child indicates they are ready to accept the gift. Drew practically charged his grandfather the day he turned 13, the youngest his father would even consider allowing a child to request being gifted. Drew has been extremely close to his grandfather since he was born and knew since he was about seven he only wanted to serve the pack and protect those around him. It was only natural that Ata'halne' agree to gift him.

Personal Questions

1. Describe your character's personality a bit cliché but first impression is puppy. Very happy, cheerful, good-natured, friendly, damned near playful. He's open and honest and always willing to help. It takes a bit of effort but he can buckle down and solve a problem and take things seriously, its just not his first instinct unless he's been given a job to do and then he's all business.

2. Describe how your character would appear to a stranger (I.E. typical dress, way they carry themselves etc.) Student, everything about Drew screams, yes I'm a student with no money. His clothes are well loved, being a 25-year-old male often a bit wrinkled and occasionally mismatched, but he is approachable in the extreme he almost has 'good boy' tattooed on his forehead. In the middle of the night, in a dark alley, a woman walking alone might not cross the street to keep him from getting too close.

3.What does your character like? Ummmm... everything? He likes finishing a project, or paper or any task that's been given to him; being helpful, cartoons (shhhh! Don't tell) has a particularly fond of anime specifically Cowboy Bebop and Helsing, popcorn and he can wax poetic about the varieties, fishing and his laptop

4. Dislike? Cats, yeah don't ask... math classes, prejudice, pointless violence, reality TV, having his shoes come untied, having to wear a tie

5. (For humans) Describe what abilities you see your character having if they were turned. NA

6. What are your fears? (please choose and explain 3 minimum) Scorpions, he's actually allergic to the venom its seriously annoying and while he knows not deadly to him they are still extremely creepy critters that can do some damage.

Alienation, the reservation is already very isolated and within the Diné his clan, his pack, is looked on very suspiciously. His grandfather manages to hold some respect and/or honor among the tribe because of his military service, his father manages for the same reason as well as being one of the first in their community to get a college degree. They manage to keep the clan/pack somewhat respectable. Drew on the other hand has none (well he has the degrees but...) of this going for him and could very easily be dismissed worse yet what if that dismissal extended to the rest of his clan/pack and they became totally cut off from the tribe.

Telling the wrong person about the Pack/what he is. Wolves are not well though of in the Navajo culture often being associated with witchcraft, the Navajos call their witches "human wolves"Â? and they are believed to become supernatural being out to obtain riches or revenge and are also believed to be capable of causing illness or death. That's a little bit of a burden for a kid to grow up with while still taking pride in the fact that he is a wolf. So Drew is extremely careful about not letting people know what he is and that there are others like him.


7. What is your character's strengths and weaknesses? (please pick 3 minimum of each and explain in detail how and why this affects your character)

Organizer, he's not necessarily organized you understand but if you need an activity, event, party, something like that set up Drew can do it with one paw tied behind his back. He delegates like no ones business knows what is needed time and supply wise as where as where to get it cheap and he's so dang enthusiastic about it some how what ever he starts to put together is a screaming success. Darn handy for group projects in school too.

Talking, no, really. Drew can talk to any one and do it well. He seems to have unlimited mental data bases on more topics than you can shake a stick at. The truth, however, is he knows a little bit about everything and a lot about something, and is good at picking up things from whom ever he's talking to and then putting two and two together on the fly. He manages to sound intelligent on just about any subject. His maternal grandmother likes to say he can spin bullshit like nobody's business.

Mediation, its not that he's opposed to conflict every now and then its not only OK but its good to have a fight but Drew is often able to get in the middle of an argument and manage to get both sides to listen to each other. He can't always get them to agree but usually he can get them to hear each other out or find some common ground at least.

Wants every one to get along/be happy. He knows he can't do it, at least he knows it in his head, but he wants it so badly. He tries very hard to cheer people up or get them to look on the bright side. Not only can it be a bit annoying sometimes it can down right wear him out.

Wants to be liked, similar to above but not the same. Drew is known to attempt to be all things to all people. It sometimes gets in the way of him making the right decision or making a hard decision. It also means he volunteers for just about everything and get way too much on his plate. After all, if the only person it's hurting is him who else is going to worry about it?

Overly trusting and very much wants to be trusted. Drew is very opening, honest, and honorable in the extreme. The majority of his family is very honest and honorable as well, so Drew expects this from every one. Until he learns better, and usually from personal experience, he believes this of nearly every one he meets. He also very much wants people to trust and/or confide in him. It rather reinforces that he's a good person and worthy of their trust. As such, he goes out of his way to keep confidences.

Vampire -

Abilities (Listed here) NA

Flaws (Listed here) NA

Werewolf -

Abilities - Listed here (Include Tier Points) -

Spirit of the wind - 10
Pitiful wretch - 5
Team Spirit - 5

Total - 20

Flaws - Listed here(Include Tier Points) -

Feline Provoker - 10
Directional Impaired - 5
Bloody menu - 5

Total - 20

Hobbies & Skills brewer, makes some pretty good beer too; good desert and fair cold weather survival skills, fluent in Navajo and Spanish, freakishly good with video games, above average mechanic/auto repair, fair basketball player and minor league caliber baseball player (short stop)

Cosmetic Traits(Distinct, character defining physical attributes. These should be minor and offer no real power other than to make your character appear more interesting.) Bite scar on his right shoulder from his gifting.

Quirks and Habits worthy of mention - Chews his lip when he's concentrating, has been known to chew it raw during finals, rather obsessed with dental hygiene pretty much brushes three times a day and often carries floss with him (not a toothbrush though, that would be weird), paces or drums his fingers when nervous, talks to himself on a fairly regular basis, sometimes answers himself (hey it can get lonely out in the desert sometimes and the sound of a voice, any voice is good)

Personal History: Drew is Diné and within the Diné clan is very important. His clan also happens to be his pack. There have been whispers and rumors for generations about witchcraft, wolves and other unsavory ideas about what happens out past the middle of nowhere, where the Benally family lives. And it's for this reason that his clan is looked upon a bit suspiciously. They reside well outside of any human settlements and keep to themselves. On the occasions that any of them do go into town they tend to travel at least in pairs and work on keeping themselves to themselves.

His father is the alpha with in this pack and Drew is his only son. His father, Naalnish, also has two daughters. More to the point Naalnish is a bit of a rebel and secretly took an Illamar woman as his bride as such he was more than happy when Aidan Xephier came to power and enthusiastically supported the revolutionary new views finally bringing his wife out in the open.

Drew, of course, doesn't remember any of this, he wasn't even born. What he remembers is growing up in the pack and having a ton of cousins as playmates and generally having a good time. He, however, also learned early on that outside of the clan he was going to have a rough go of it. When he started going to school children from other families and clans would either out and out avoid he and his family or make fun of them. Faced with that he did everything he could, from being the class clown to being the brainiac who could help with anything to get people to like him. It worked, almost, some times. At least they didn't seem to hate him as much. They seemed to hate him even less by the time he got to high school and was one of the stars on the baseball team. Although they tended to hate him more if a big night game came up and he was 'sick' which always seemed to be around the time of the full moon. To this day Drew considers himself -extremely- lucky no one verbally put that little coincidence out there, but he is pretty sure most of them were thinking it.

After the rude shock of the public school system, about the time Drew was seven some of the older and more 'traditional' pack members thought they saw and opportunity to challenge Naalnish for his roll as alpha and bring back the old ways. There were rumblings for a month or two and many tense conversations between his father, uncles, grandfather and mother that he didn't understand. About the same time several of the pack started occasionally hassling his mother, which always upset Drew especially as he couldn't seem to help or do anything about it.

Then one night his father came home hurt, fairly badly, and his mother being very upset about it. But both his father and uncles seemed quite pleased. It was his grandfather who finally explained to Drew that the Pack was a family but didn't always agree and that years ago, before he was born, people like his mother who were not wolves were regarded and treated as inferior. But that those days had passed and new men were making sure things were equal for all of the pack whether they be Amaroq or Illamar. But that some of their clan had been upset by this change and thought people like his mother should be subservient. And so his father as alpha had to set them straight about that. It was Naalnish's job to protect all of the pack and that is what he had done that night and that sometimes the greater good of the Pack meant that any one of them might be hurt.

From that day forward Drew was very aware of his duty to the Pack. Even now, at twenty-five, his goal is to grow up and be like his dad and grandfather and take care of and protect his clan, his pack. He pestered his grandfather nearly continuously for stories and information and lessons. Both amused and aware how serious Drew was Ata'halne' saw to it that his grandson was taught everything as well as making sure that Drew had ample time to work with his father to learn as well. Drew saw it as a great honor that his grandfather agreed to gift him as young as thirteen. Both Ata'halne' and Naalnish had waited until they were in their early twenties. Of course, Drew later realized that was because both his grandfather and father had served in the armed forces, something that was very difficult to do as a werewolf. But Ata'halne' hadn't been too keen on his going into the army and saw Drew's enthusiasm to be gifted as a double blessing. No grandson of his was going into modern combat.

Drew graduated high school and was accepted to NAU (Northern Arizona University) and with several scholarships (including baseball, although he is still getting 'sick') behind him had a totally free ride all the way through his masters, which he's just gotten. Passionate about not only his pack history but his tribe history as well Drew took a double major in American Indian Studies and Archeology and completed his masters in Archeology. Still keen to learn and ready to try for a PhD, but not having the funding, Drew managed to obtain an internship with Meridian. Quite the coup among his fellow students.



OOC Checklist

Player name (online is fine) - Mike/Michelle
Other Characters you play - Do you really want the list? Pak, Val, Ambrose, Reign, Nikhila, Marie
How you came to SA (Other board, friend, etc) - friend
Have you read all the Rules? always
Do you understand that this is an adult board with adult content (sometimes graphic and violent in nature)? Yuppers
This board is adult only. Are you over the age of 18?