Charlie Smiths

OOC Info
Username/Nickname: Russell (due to complete lack of originality)
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Character Info
Canon/Original: Original (He’s the Terpsy’s resident Baldrick! )
First Name(s): Charlie
Surname: Smiths
Nicknames: Known by everyone as “Clumsy Charlie” (or for those well versed in Greek mythology and epic poetry, “Cyclops Charlie”)
Age: somewhere in his late twenties to mid thirties
Sex: Male
Place of Birth: Rookery in Southampton on February 19th (Englishman)
Occupation: Able Seaman
Family: He has an unknown father and mother as well as some odd number of half-siblings, nieces, and nephews that he’s never met
Description: Slightly shorter than average, Charlie is gawky with long, nimble fingers and has a half-starved look about him. With one look in his direction, one will automatically realise that he is no charmer. He has a gaunt, sallow face with a large crooked nose, high cheekbones, and deep circles beneath his eyes. His yellowed horse-like teeth are over-sized and occasionally stick out as if he is constantly unintentionally baring them. They are in incredibly poor condition and are very likely rotting. Atop his head, he has greasy light blond hair that is kept relatively short. Charlie is actually one-eyed, having lost his eye due to a drunken brawl in his late adolescence, and in his right socket, he has a wooden eye. Sometimes he replaces it with a tattered eye patch if the wooden eye is bothering him too much. His remaining eye is light blue. His clothing is old, threadbare, coated in tar, and considerably smelly due to sweat and poor hygiene.

Admittedly, Charlie is very daft; he can neither read nor write and also has trouble grasping difficult concepts. Due to this, he sees science and medicine as a sort of magic and sometimes comes up with outlandish explanations for certain occurrences. He is very superstitious and overly religious. He has a habit of asking very random questions at the most inappropriate times and if he believes someone to be more knowledgeable than he is, he will likely follow them around and bombard them with silly inquiries. He also doesn’t understand when to shut up and often needs someone to shout him into silence.

He usually has difficulty making decisions on his own and as a result, he is completely useless living on his own, especially since he wastes his money on alcohol and pointless trinkets. Because of this, he often relies on his companions to help him out and point him in the right direction. Charlie is obedient and incredibly loyal to his friends. He is happy-go-lucky and doesn’t get angry or upset very easily. He is also kind-hearted and will go out of his way to help others, even if the majority of the time, he is very useless.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

• Charlie is an expert frog-catcher and whenever there are frogs around, he feels the need to catch one in order to show off. In fact, he could even catch a fish with his hands if he tried hard enough.
  
• Despite his stupidity and forgetfulness, he actually learns both useful and useless words and phrases from languages well enough equipped with a really heavy accent and long pauses.
  
• Although slightly disadvantaged by his one eye, he is a good fighter and gunner, making him an asset.
  
• He is a great climber and is brave enough, in a daft sort of way, to hang upside from great heights.

Weaknesses:

• Charlie is very clumsy, he trips and falls a lot and also easily loses his grip on things, dropping them. This gained him his nickname “Clumsy Charlie”. It also doesn’t help that he has one eye (and sometimes loses it).
  
• Because he usually cannot think for himself, he is actually very easily manipulated.
  
• Charlie is very, very forgetful and often makes mistakes with information given to him or messes up the chronological order of things or misplaces important things.
  
• He has a poor immune system and gets sick easily. He also sneezes whenever he smells anything he isn’t used to or if something foreign is introduced to the vicinity.
  
• Charlie is deathly afraid of spiders and snakes and will scream if one so much as comes near him.
  
• As a result of his superstitious side, he cannot swim and absolutely refuses to do so on the grounds that it would be tempting Fate.

Background: Charlie does not know who is father or mother and unbeknownst, his mother was a maid despite his belief that she must have been a prostitute. Although he is not very far from the truth, his mother was a loose woman and after giving birth to Charlie, her first son, as a result of some frivolous affair with Charlie’s father, a visiting guest. He had abandoned Charlie’s mother immediately the day after they had shared their intimate moment. When it was clear that his mother was pregnant, she was sacked from her job and descended into working the streets. After his birth, his mother abandoned him to the nearest orphanage. Growing up for some years there, he was the runt of the litter and often becoming sick, it was a miracle that he even survived past childhood. Charlie claims this is the origin of his generally sickly appearance.

When he was old enough to work, he left the orphanage and taken up his first job as an apprentice artificial florist. Perhaps out of pity and a kind-heart as he had had children of his own, the artificial florist allowed Charlie to work for him; although, this kindness did not last as Charlie was sacked after a few months as while he had a fine attention to detail and a slight artistic touch, he constantly messed everything up and his clumsiness cost them a lot.

Charlie also lived in poverty for some time, surviving as a pick-pocket. However, he was so terrible at it that he had gotten caught very early on and his friends thankfully helped him fib his way out of trouble. When he could, he worked but often moved from job to job. One of them notably was helping out a blacksmith in his adolescence and it was one of the few jobs that had lasted over a year. That was until he had set the vicinity on fire, an incident that he doesn’t usually talk about except to sometimes blame one of the starving cats that occasionally found his way in and in Charlie’s defence, had taken a liking to digging his claws mercilessly into his ankles. It is not clear, however, if this story is true or not.

Following the unfortunate accident, Charlie later relocated himself to Portsmouth by early adulthood and worked at the docks, helping load and unload trading and merchant ships. It was here that he had lost his eye in a drunken fight one night, a fight that he had completely lost; though, he does claim otherwise. Around this time, he voluntarily had taken up work on merchant and trading ships that travelled to the Americas and parts of Europe before he eventually started working as a Seaman in the Royal Navy.

Anything Else:


Writing Sample/Past Roleplay: Charlie entered the sickbay, grasping a cup of tea. Not listening to Kock the Cook’s advice, Charlie had touched the cup directly and burned his finger as a result, much of the tea’s contents had unfortunately spilled over the side and was dripping off of his shaking fingers. “I have tea, sir,” Charlie announced in an innocent voice as if he were oblivious to the unseemly presentation of the hot drink. After having cleaned the deck after Gallien had inspected it, the surgeon had requested someone to bring him some tea and somehow, one of those in charge of the request had passed it onto Charlie, thinking that they could take advantage of him.

When the surgeon’s head emerged from the dispensary, Charlie stood straight and proudly held it out.

“What’s this?” Doctor Gallien demanded impatiently. There was clear displeasure in his voice; although, Charlie could not understand why. Charlie thought that the man was a bit of a nutter when it came to cleanliness, especially since there had been one morning when he asked Charlie to scrub a certain part on deck repeatedly, even though to his eye, he couldn’t see anything wrong with it, even after seven times.

“Tea with extra sugar as you asked, sir,” Charlie answered, staring blankly at the man with his one eye. He then quickly added, “With your sugar from the… West Indies, sir.”

“My what?” Doctor Gallien said in a voice that was almost inaudible but sounded as if he were trying not to scream.

“Your tea, sir,” Charlie’s voice made it clear that he thought it was very obvious what he was holding.

“Smiths…” the surgeon began and Charlie nodded with a very distant expression on his face. The surgeon neared the cup and squinted as if to inspect it further. Charlie was a little worried that he had noticed through some sort of magic that Charlie had sneezed on the saucer earlier. The surgeon continued, “… do you realise that there is no longer any tea in my cup?”

Charlie nodded, “yes, sir.”

“Then why do you think this is acceptable enough to serve me… or anyone, for that matter?”
Charlie looked down at the cup and for the first time, it actually registered to him that it was in fact almost half-empty. “Sorry, sir,” Charlie responded, though he wasn’t really. He was a little embarrassed.

“Please, bring me proper tea,” Doctor Gallien responded and little did Charlie know that Gallien was hoping that someone else, maybe even Kock himself would bring the tea. Charlie left to bring the cup of tea back to the galley for Kock to refill. Along his journey, when he was certain no one important was looking, Charlie took a large sip of the sugary beverage. It was too sweet and caused his teeth to suddenly hurt in the back. Painful tea to match a very painful man, he thought as he returned to the sickbay.

It was only when the surgeon had asked an exasperated “why?” as if he had given up with the world that Charlie realised he was not really holding anything. Or perhaps the surgeon was sick of seeing his face, he couldn’t tell. He stood there, dumbfounded and staring at the surgeon, waiting to be told what to do. It was not until the man looked as if he were losing his grip on sanity that he instinctively dashed out of the sickbay. When he reached the kitchens, he swore to Kock that the surgeon had said, “Bring me the tea or I will throw that empty head of yours overboard!” Despite the fact that the man had actually said something a little more polite and patient, though incredibly forced and accompanied with a venomous gaze.

Code Phrase: Staff Edit

(I’m not knowledge in stuff about the Able Seamen (or even the lower classes for that matter), so be gentle!)

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