Sixsmith — Roleplayer Guild

"all which isn't singing is mere talking
and all talking's talking to oneself"

Name:
Saul Hannibal Kirschenzweig
Appearance:
Caelbury has a propensity for hiring men of tall stature and with keen eye for intimidation. Saul is one such man, though aged, is among the more physically dominating personalities in most of the Academy. He's a stark 6'3" with more than the average muscle build; a man trained for physical activities and, more specifically, the outdoors. A very gruff looking individual there ever was one, who's taken more than a liking to his facial hair, which, among many other things, is extremely groomed and well kept. He prides himself in his hygiene and health, keeping at his top physical shape, even at his older age. Speaking of which, he doesn't take so lightly to people pointing that out, especially when he can probably do more physically than most other people.
Age:
45

"(whether that oneself be sought or seeking
master or disciple sheep or wolf)
gush to it as diety or devil"

How Long Has Your Character Been Teaching at Caelbury Academy?:
1 year.
Social Class:
Ex-Elite/Middle-Class
Social Class Explanation:
Explained in his history, but... just know he was up there and had a few lowish areas. At the moment, he's currently considered a middle-class citizen, though people argue otherwise.
Subject:
Dramatics/Theatre
Why is Your Character Teaching Here?:
He needs a new driving force in his life and Caelbury was looking for someone to fill the role he was so well trained for. How could he not? He just had to get a teaching license and he was there, happy as ever.

"-toss in sobs and reasons threats and smiles
name it cruel fair or blessed evil-"

Personality:
A critical man if there really ever was one. He'll tell you the honest truth what he thinks about in regards to anything really and he really won't hold back. People are often too babied to realize that the world is a harsh reality and that it takes more than a few 'fun-loving' teachers to ruin that for you. Of course, he doesn't think it's bad to have fun in the classroom, only that students need to learn that it really isn't all fun and games. Being the theatre and dramatics teacher, however, means his class is fun by nature, though that doesn't mean he isn't critical of his students. He wants them to get better and giving them sugar-coated compliments would do the exact opposite of that. It's not a terrible class, but there are always students who would prefer he not say a word about their performances; it certainly isn't what people expect from a theater/dramatics class. That being an easy A. It's actually among one of the more acclaimed classes, mainly for its toughness, especially as a theatre class and for how well it rounds out those who come to be actors, singers, dancers, or performers. He's not had a class in which not one person cried, to be honest.

Outside of class, he's still the blunt, no-bullshit guy everyone knows and loves, but he doesn't make a show out of criticizes people. That's reserved for shows, rehearsals, and the classroom. He's actually a lot friendlier than people make him out to be. Very intimidating at first glance, he's got a large soft spot for kids in general and by kids he means the ones in elementary school. It's mostly a deep yearning to have children of his own, but at his age, it's nigh impossible to find someone willing to settle down who hasn't already settled down themselves. He's a deep romantic, though he finds himself mostly alone in those general areas, literally. He's a private person and usually doesn't like it when people see the deeper side of him. As well, being private, he's not one to share information unless you really show interest in him and get to know him. He likes making friends, but he doesn't have many good friends, solely because of his abrasive nature and usual aggression. He's a gruff guy who's prone to putting people off with outward boisterousness and a propensity for drinking; he's touchy when people get near him and a tad too rough for others to enjoy his presence. The surface of Saul is often ready to try out anything, which can be rather... bad.

In a relaxed state, however, he's a quiet person who often has a deep love for movies and music. He's also an aspiring cook, a terrible one, and loves cuisines. This side of him is usually reserved for those who've known him for a few years and recognize he's not the extremely loud, demanding person he usually is. Of course, this side is also a lot more vulnerable and prone to attachment to anything really. He needs the feel of something to need and want, so when the boisterous part of him gets into things like drinking and drugs, underneath all of that, he becomes deeply affected and attached to said habits. It makes him a habitual person in general, prone to making rituals in which he mindlessly plays each out. Of course, it could be attributed to his uncanny ability to memorize and remember things (people often think he has an eidetic memory). Regardless, he's a clingy individual in every sense of the word and can be overbearing as both a lover and a friend (when friends get close enough to him). He's definitely still working out his kinks and habits, which he intends to fix.. and it's getting harder as he grows older.

"it is you (ne i)nobody else
drive dumb mankind dizzy with haranguing
-you are deafened every mother's son-"

History:
The Kirschenzweig family is not one of vast wealth, in fact, they were poorer than dirt itself. A Jewish mother from Germany and a starving artist of a father who lived most of his life in Sydney Australia, Saul knew hardly anything of the grand world and grander life.

But he yearned for it.

Living off of absolutely nothing was difficult, but his family made do. However, it wasn't very long until his parents had decided that they weren't going to find prosperity and wealth in Australia, of any kind. They didn't need to be rich, but they didn't want to wonder where their next meal was coming from. In fact, their decision was rather forced. Saul's mother, Veronika, had her third miscarriage and, even if she didn't seem to be having children anytime soon, the idea of one more pregnancy being successful was too scary for her. They could barely afford to feed all three of them, another mouth would capsize the boat. His father, though reluctant at first, came to accept that fact. For Saul it was just another hopeful opportunity to grasp onto.

They scrapped up every bit of their money, once Saul's father, Eliot, ensured a reasonable job—he had a wealthy brother in New York willing to employ him—they were off. And it wasn't much of a change, but there was a discernible difference in each of the family member's demeanor; they were in America, what more could they have asked for? Of course, life still wasn't perfect, but it was much, much better to each of them. They had food on the table, a homely apartment, and enough money to live a relatively comfortable life, even if each parent had to literally bust their asses working. Saul was happy, Veronika was happy, Eliot was happy and life could only go up from there. It could only ever get better from there.

It wasn't until Saul was in school did either parent realize the untapped talent within him. It was obvious from that early age that Saul was born to entertain. He'd put various plays on for his parents, write his own stories, could sing, could dance—he was a bustling riot. Being relatively poor, though, they couldn't afford the lessons that other parents could pay for. This fact never hit home for Saul, though, as he was always absorbed in his own fun to realize that he couldn't quite have what the other kids did. So, to make up for his, and even if he was oblivious to their situation, his parents had let him learn on his own. They saved enough money for various things, even if it took a bit to gather said money as they still had bills to pay. It exhausted them, strained them, aged them even, but whenever they saw their child's face light up in joy, they couldn't have been more happier. From makeshift tap shoes to crappy guitars lacking strings to a piano they found out in the alley, missing a few too many keys. He effectively mastered them all and could write his own masterpieces and act out his own plays like he had been trained by the best. They couldn't tell just how good he was, but they could tell he had more potential than they could ever afford.

In his high school years, he was sent to a public school—Caelbury was much too expensive and he hadn't visibly shown his talent—where he dominated the theatrical scene. He got every lead role in every large play, leading to a few jealous friends, but they knew he had talent beyond their comprehension. Saul was a popular kid despite his theatre nerdo because he had the package, the charisma, the charm, the talent. People were too in awe of him to ever decide they wanted to bully and demean him and how could they? It was obvious where this kid was going in life, which was to a far better life than they could ever hope to imagine. That was when his talent was seen full-blown and out in the open. His drama and music teacher couldn't touch him; he'd taught him everything they could have. By the time he was in his junior year he was already getting letters from prestigious drama schools around the world, namely Juliard, of all places. Everyone knew which place he would choose. It was obvious, since he even spent a lot of his time already on the Broadway stage his sophomore year.

And Juliard it was. The judges for his audition were speechless, beyond mere words of flatter by then. So, despite his class status, he was given a full-ride, all quarter of a million dollars right down the drain just for him. Granted, he was the only one out of the pool of accepted students who got it, they still put most of their expectations on him. But, college went by like a breeze. It wasn't a wake up call and it wasn't anything his family or friends made it out to be. He had fun, but he also worked harder than most to achieve the opportunity he had been so graciously handed. That was it, though. He made friends, he passed classes, he partied, and continued doing great work in the spotlight.

From then on he made a life for himself, mostly on the Broadway scene. His parents still lived in New York and he felt he owed a lot to them. But, life wasn't really much else but productions, lead roles, press, hype, grueling rehearsals, drama, and really little room for anything else. It was tough, but it was his dream and he loved every bit of it. And didn't quite take it for granted after a few years later...

Saul is a very dependent individual and he relies on a lot more than just himself. So, when people decided to pressure him into recreational drug usage, he complied. He was stressed, he was tired, and needed a little pick me up. Add to that an already hard dependency upon alcohol, and you've got trouble waiting to explode. This was a very, very low point in his life. He got attached to things like cocaine, meth, ecstasy, painkillers/pills and alcohol just topped it all off. Saul became unapproachable, extremely irritable when he wasn't on anything, and overall a pain in the ass. He was a detriment to himself and to people around him, but no one questioned him because it didn't affect his onstage persona. Talent, however, would only get him so far. When he decided to take his anger out on an innocent bystander after a rough day in a bar, he was arrested and charged on various accounts of assault, public drinking, and illegal use of marijuana. It wasn't until later till the police found out that there was a lot more than just marijuana under his belt.

Everything crashed down: his family wouldn't talk to him, it was now starting to affect his work, he began losing his money due to no longer getting parts or jobs and wasting what he had on drugs, and he soon found himself getting kicked out of his apartment. The police didn't book him for much the first time and overlooked the drugs the second, should he agree to stop using them and go to rehab, but he didn't and they let him crash and burn. It was hell for him and nothing could have fixed it. Well, not a lot of options were quite open to him yet.

However, his father's brother did come to him in his time of need, out of all his family that man did the absolute most to help them out. He gave him a home and shelter and told him one thing: he could stay for just a few weeks until he found out what to do. When his weeks were up, then he'd find something for him to do and it wouldn't be pleasant. Well, his weeks were cut short after his uncle found him snorting cocaine in the bathroom. He was out, a marines pamphlet shoved into his chest as the door was slammed into his face. He was only 22 by then and was forced an opportunity to which he wasn't too happy with—two whole years of fame and fortune down the drain. Of course, it was either that or die in the streets shooting up in an alleyway. So, up he went, ready to change his life yet again. He couldn't skirt on his talent if he was too busy smoking reefer and taking ecstasy for a good high. His dependency was real, his addiction was even more so and it took throwing away his dreams and being thrown out of his own home to realize that. He eventually came back with his decision and the hope that his uncle would support it. You can't necessarily get into the military with drugs still heavily in your system.

So, he flushed it all out in a weeks time, suffered through massive withdrawals and was sent off to apply. From there, it was pretty basic. The marines made him into a better man than he could have ever seen. It made him realize his flaws, the addiction and the terrible dependency that plagued him and he battled them, shut them down and sealed them deep inside. He didn't solve them, but they weren't quite doing any immediate harm. Once they did, however, then he'd realize that pushing them back and forgetting about them was largely a big mistake, but he was young and he was allowed to make mistakes. This particular mistake was just a tad larger, but he kept an eye on it, especially since he didn't quite know how to deal with it.

Going through everything was rough at the start, as it usually was. He wasn't used to the harsh and rough reality, but he was forced to get used to it and he forced himself to appreciate it. This was molding him into someone better than what had dragged him into all that mess. Live wasn't too rough to him through his years in the Marines, having gladly gone through his years of service without any complications and deciding, after he found there really wasn't more he could do, enlisted into more and continued down that train for a good portion of his life. The first months of his last two deployments (of which he lost count of) went by smoothly with a few scares, but a year later he was in for a nasty surprise. During a transport mission, in which he was to be transported with a unit of infantry to another base, his caravan ran over a makeshift road mine. It hit the driver side tire hard. The truck was thrown violently on its side, but not before shrapnel came shooting through the driver window and door where the man next to him took the brunt of the blow, then Saul was tossed into his own door where the rest of the shrapnel shredded through his vest, digging deep into his chest and tearing a nasty gash in the side of his neck, barely missing his jugular.

Most of the unit died in the crash, including the driver next to him. After a few hours unconscious, Saul woke up in an unknown hospital room after quick emergency surgery taking out the surface of metal and shrapnel that was lodged into his chest and shoulder. He had to wait another hour getting prepped for them to take the deeper pieces out. He was immediately discharged after with a purple heart and retired from the Marine Corps. It was all definitely an eye opener, but something he probably wouldn't ever do again. With a renewed vigor, though, he returned back home. He was diagnosed with minor heart palpitations and could no longer do anything too physically demanding for too long before he would literally pass out. But, he cared about himself more, his health both mentally and physically, and before long he was back onstage. Though, after his first show (counting every performance in it, which was usually an entire year, if not more), he knew it wasn't quite possible to exert himself that hard.

Saul, then, went to play writing and writing in general. He spent a year or two in this before deciding it wasn't for him and that he was beginning to lull into another rock bottom. However, he was a much stronger person now and denied himself any foothold into drugs or alcohol. That was when Caelbury offered him a job, though he didn't have the license to teach, it only took a year of motivation and convincing to get him to do that. It was probably the best idea he'd ever had as the job couldn't have been much better. It gave him something to hold on to and something to live for and, along with many other choices in his life, it was the best thing he could have done for himself.
Miscellaneous:
—If Media Man will allow it, this guy can be the SMI for the MJCROTC program—
—Can speak both French and German fluently—
—Has a heart problem in which he can't exert himself too much before passing out. He keeps himself very healthy despite this and can sometimes still overexert himself, which causes some pretty nasty dizzy spells in which he has to sleep off for quite some time. Of course, this is talking about super intense workouts and having to do shows everyday, effectively exhausting him more than the average person.—
—Will not care much if you mess up his last name. Often goes by Mr. K or Mr. Kirsch, though he does expect anyone in the MJCROTC Program to learn exactly how to pronounce his name and refer to him as such.—
—Really loves birds and has a few in his classroom. Two cockatiels to be exact: Dallas and Esther.—
—Even after so many years in America and in the Marine Corps, he still retains his Australian accent, which kinda grew back after being retired from the military.—

"all is merely talk which isn't singing
and all talking's to oneself alone
but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence "
—E.E. Cummings, all which isn't singing is mere talking

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Left half of Lancelot (It's the better half)

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