[hider=Merrek Eilynbras]
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[color=#B7BD1A][CENTER][sup][h3][i][b]Charming Bastard[/b][/i][/h3][/sup][/CENTER][/color]

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27 [color=black][b]|[/b][/color] Male [color=black][b]|[/b][/color] Ridiculously Queer (Bi)
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Gladiator [color=black][b]|[/b][/color] Brawler [color=black][b]|[/b][/color] Irrepresible Flirt
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[hider= The Journey So Far]
[sub]
Merrek wasn't born in to slavery. He was the only child born to Garret and Luella Eilynbras, freemen of the city. Merrek knows little of his mother as she 'disappeared' before he was two; Merrek never thought to ask his father if Luella did a vanishing act on them, or if it was a euphemism for death. Garret worked as a locksmith, working hard to provide for his son; he was a good man who adored Merrek and wanted to ensure he had a good, free future ahead of him. As Merrek gre, he would occasionally got with his father and help him work to increase their income.
Unfortunately, when Merrek was ten, Garret succumbed to an illness; or so Merrek thought at the time. Due to his work as a locksmith, Garret often found himself involved in petty crime. One day he refused to work on a bigger case as he dare not risk getting caught for fear of what might happen to Merrek; by way of teaching Garret a lesson, he was jumped in the streets. Garret was able to make it home to Merrek, where they spent a few hours together before the former died of internal injuries.
With the death of his father and no other known family, a 'kindly' neighbour took him in. Unfrotunately, the neighbour had no real interest in raising or caring for Merrek, but instead saw it as an opportunity to make coin by selling him in to slavery. It was only a few months before the neighbour found a suitable buyer with a suitable price; a brothel owner who knew the value of young boys. Being gay in the city was not something to be openly spoken about, so androgynous boys, dressed as girls, made the perfect 'clients' for those with less than savoury tastes.
Merrek had been with his new master for three years when Arrel, a boy of eight, was 'recruited' after his mother sold him to pay for opioids. For whatever reason, Merrek and Arrel formed a fast friendship, with the former looking out for and protecting the other where ever he could. Arrel soon began to refer to themselves solely as their female name (all the male prostitutes would use a feminine name in line with how they dressed and represented themselves, regardless of how starkly obvious their true sex was), Magdalena, or 'Lena' for short.
During his time, Merrek developed a fondess for sneaking out and stealing alcohol from local pubs and taverns. Sometimes he got caught, and a swift beating would follow. However, it was only in these scuffles that Merrek felt he had any control over his life and it was not long before he would actively seek them out, gaining a reputation for being a brawler.
During all this time, Merrek remained loyal and watchful of Lena. There was one regular client to the brothel, a Master Syldren, who specialised in the training and trading of slaves who worked on farms, who had rather [i]particular[/i] tastes when it came to the bedroom. Syldren was a sadist, who took great pleasure in beating the whores he paid to be with. Merrek and Syldren came to an agreement that Merrek would take any amount of beating without resistance, if Syldren kept away from the others (in particular Lena). It was Syldren who broke Merrek's nose, leaving it permenantly crooked since.
When Merrek was twenty-two he was walking through the halls to his next 'client' when he heard Lena crying in pain. Merrek went to investigate and found Syldren with Lena, her shoulder dislocated and massive welts to her body. Merrek saw read and kinda just lost his shit at Syldren; attacking the man and beating him half to death before being pulled off him kicking and screaming and covered in blood.
For this, Merrek was quickly sold to the gladiatorial arena; it wasn't intended to be a new career, but a death sentence. Masters unhappy with their slaves, rather than killing them outright, would make a small profit by selling them to the arena as 'bait'; the humans that were 'first blood' in the fights, who had no skill and existed simply to be an opening act of violence and death to whip up the grounds.
Merrek was not meant to survive, but he had been fighting for years in the back alleys, and now it was fight or die. Merrek miraculously survived his first baiting, then his second, then his third. It quickly became apparent that this man was worth keeping around. It didn't take long for a buyer to come around, willing to train Merrek and have him fight in the arena in earnest, as a gladiator. Merrek's innate skill and charm with the crowds quickly won him a following and within a few years he found himself a fan favourite, and a prize item in any collection. Merrek was finally sold to Master Viseryn, who collected valuable and unusual gladiators, seeing just how much further potential this man had.
Merrek isn't a born gladiator; he has not had the years of weapons training that many others have had. But he fights dirty, he fights hard and he will fight to never have to return to where he came from.
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[hider= Kinfolk & Saboteurs]
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[color=#B7BD1A][i]Garret Eilynbras[/i][/color] - Father - Locksmith, deceased. Loved Merrek very much and did everything in his power to protect him and bring him up well.
     
[color=#B7BD1A][i]Magdalena 'Lena' Milisendis[/i][/color] - Best Friend, Ex 'Colleague' - Lena is a whore who Merrek befriended; protecting Lena is how Merrek found himself sold into the arena. Merrek loves Lena and she him, but it is entirely platonic (even if they have fucked on occasion). Lena was moved to a different brothel after the incident between Merrek and Syldren to protect her (the Madame did look out for her girls).

[color=#B7BD1A][i]Master Syldren[/i][/color] - Ex Client - Frequent visitor with sadistic tendancies. Cause of Merrek's broken nose. Merrek isn't actually sure what happened to Syldren after the beating; he suspects he is still alive, but the attack was vicious enough to have leave lifelong injuries.

[color=#B7BD1A][i]Master Viseryn[/i][/color] - Current Master - Merrek doesn't trust any of the Masters, but as they go Viseryn seems candid enough (at least to his gladiators; Merrek always questions what the Masters do behind closed doors). Merrek is currently one of Viseryn's two favourite fighters.
     
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[CENTER]
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[/cell][cell][sub][b][color=#B7BD1A][i] Looking in the Mirror [/i][/color][/b][/sub]
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[color=gray][indent] Merrek stands at 5’8” making him far from the most imposing of fighters in the arena, with the build of a blacksmith than that of the many hulking brutes he contends with. Merrek has dark, umber hair, that he keeps cropped short at the sides and to his shoulders in a strip down the middle; when fighting he wears the longer hair tied in a ponytail, but when not it is often left loose. Merrek prefers to wear his hair this way (along with the stubble across his jaw) in an effort to detract from his once boyish features that made him so popular in his previous role. Merrek’s eyes are a dark, stormy grey and more expressive than he would like. Merrek’s nose has clearly been broken at some point and not correctly set, making it a little crooked; Merrek likes to say it was from an early fight, but in reality in was an unsolicited and unwelcome ‘request’ from a previous client. Merrek also has a fine, pale line crossing from the centre of his forehead, across his left eye and finishing on his cheek bone; this scar, Merrek is happy to say, was from the arena.
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[sub][b][color=#B7BD1A][i] Name Those Demons[/i][/color][/b][/sub]
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[INDENT][color=gray] Merrek does remarkably well at pretending he is less broken than he is, partly because he long since gave up giving a damn about his own life. Merrek might be alive, but he knows his life is owned by others, paid in for in gold and blood. He hates the fact he is a slave, but he has resigned himself to his fates; as far as Merrek is concerned, fighting for his life day in and day out, is still an improvement to where he came from.

Merrek is prone to violence, as would be expected of anyone in his position, but Lena always told him, he was not violent because he was a gladiator, he was a gladiator [i]because he was violent[/i]. Merrek begrudgingly agrees with this, though he would never admit it.

Merrek is particularly touchy about his past. He would rather be remembered as the fan favourite fighter who died choking on his own blood than the whore in the back alley. Not much is able to get under Merrek's skin, but his history is one of them. The other is Lena; he loves her intensely (though platonically) and would die to protect her. 
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[color=#B7BD1A][sub][b]  Jottings[/b][/sub][/color]
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[*]Merrek used the alias 'Aria' when working in the brothel.[/list][/color]
[sub][b] Notes 2 [/b][/sub]
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