Okay, let's try this.

Once upon a time a man met a woman. This man was an ordinary man, a human man, a man who began to feel the weight of his age press upon him as a premonition of things to come. The man desired a child of his own, a son to continue the family line down the path of generations, a boy he could raise and love as his own. However, this man loved another man, and because of that the possibility of creating a child was quite limited. The man desired a child to raise on his own, but with the help of his male lover, his lifetime companion, without the involvement of the woman who would be necessary to create a child. His hopes of accomplishing this goal waned with every passing day, for it was not likely he would ever find such a woman, but then he met her.

She was no ordinary woman. She was an extraordinary woman. To some, this woman was looked upon as a goddess, but she was not that. No. This woman was merely a spirit of nature, an incarnation of an inevitable truth. This woman was known as She Who Tends the Dead, the Linewalker, and the Truthspeaker. She had no name of her own, but some mortals had fashioned a name for her that she answered to when addressed, a simpler name, a name she adopted as her own. This woman also desired a child, but for her it was merely a curiosity. This woman was fae, a creature of unfathomable power, of a race who were known not to raise their offspring as mortal creatures do. This woman was precisely what the man was looking for, and together they agreed to create a child.

That child was born, manifested, as a lie. That child was created out of love, out of desire, out of curiosity. That child is Salvador Delahada Azar-Gonzalez, imprinted with purpose and a list of names upon his creation that only he and his fae kin know. There is power in a name. There is power in him. Untapped potential and so much more...

He was "born," as mortal minds accept, on March 20, 2004. The first of Spring. At that time he was manifested as a child seeming to be no older than 13. Though like his mother, he was gifted with an affinity that had him growing to adult size in the span of a single year. Now he is a man of 5' 10" and an athletic build approximately 175 pounds in weight.

To many people, Salvador Delahada is a mystery. He carries himself with a mystical air. Empaths will find that it is impossible to read him. His emotions never show, they can't even be felt. His emotions and thoughts are so well guarded that even the most adept empath or telepath will soon discover that the only thing that can be glimpsed is a ceaseless cacophony of static or white noise. He is a mystery on the inside and the outside, a locked chest without a key and so horrendously booby-trapped that you'd have to be crazy to even try breaking in to have a peek. Tresspassers will be shot on sight, rather metaphorically speaking, but pain and possible death do apply.

Secret Keeper. A name whispered upon the wind, moaned amongst the trees. Salvador has many secrets. Some are his own. Some belong to others. No matter who or where those secrets originate from, he keeps them well. Even in his own words they are sacred and well-guarded. Like his mother, he is known for speaking cryptically from time to time, even in writing. There are secrets contained within the pages, underlining the words. As of yet, no one has been capable of deciphering the code to unlock the secrets contained within. Within himself and within the pages of his books, a series of events, of life, explained in his own words.

Karma Made Flesh. Another fragment of purpose, a name breathed upon the sands of time. Salvador is nothing if not a storehouse for fragments of memory, as is any body. What does that mean? Well, you'll see...

::grins:: I'm supposing this is where I tell you how I think of your character.

I really enjoy his concept; it's interesting, if nothing else. I've been trying to catch up on your writing, but it's been hard of late with everything happening. When I do have more time, though, I'll let you know better what I think; what I've read so far, though, has been well-written and pretty engaging. It's not hard to see how much work has gone into him, and I would love to see him in live play sometime.

Good work!

Sorry it took me a whole week to notice this...

Must confess I didn't expect it. Last person who read it was DL over on the old proboard. I should probably quote him here, because I did respond to him. Before that, though...

Very, very rarely I bring Sal into the MT. The Medieval lost a lot of its luster when queer became popular and the cliques got too tight. The only time I really get any interaction in there anymore is if Sin goes in with me or the off chance that I can find Mesteno already in play. Most of the regular crowd don't care much for Sal's existence. Not that I blame him. Having him in public play these days has been difficult.

Aside form the MT, I go to the RRT most of all. Sal's better accepted as existing there than he is at the Medieval. He's built up a sort of grudging respect rapport with the tavern owner, and made a few acquaintances that could also be called friends. He's not exactly what you'd call friendly, heh! But it'd be interesting to see how he and Harry interact, if at all. Harry might probably want to shoot him. The most common word used to explain Salvador Delahada is: asshole.

DL's comment from the old proboard was: "I just learned more about Sal in five minutes than I did in years of RP, and I think I saw one of his earliest appearances. I will say, though - some mention should be made of his famous temper. And a warning against back-slapping..."

To which I said: "You did see one of his earlier appearances. As I recall, you had a character by the name of Ynik who used Force power to understand him..."

And then moved on with further explanation which I'll just C&P in here.

When Salvador was manifested, he was made to exist knowing only one language. Because he was placed in Madrid, the logical conclusion was to program him knowing the native language of Spain. This made for difficulty in adapting to the local structure of Rhy'din, because Sal couldn't speak the common tongue. He was taking English lessons, but it took him an entire summer to learn it well enough to communicate with people and understand what they were saying. Ynik, as I recall, used the Force to translate the Spanish into English for himself and to then translate the English back to Spanish for Sal to understand him.

Because of his fae blood, he was gifted with an ability to learn languages quickly. Not half as quickly as his mother can, however. Pure fae only need to hear one word of a language to know it. Salvador has to be subjected to a language on a regular basis to be able to pick up a rudimentary enough understanding to communicate with native speakers. The only language he can speak perfectly fluidly is Spanish. He even has trouble with the English he learned, that everybody speaks in Rhy'din, at times.

Over the years, though, he has learned the following other languages thanks to family ties, personal curiosity, need and cultural immersion: Irish Gaelic, Italian, Drow, Greek, Latin, ASL, and Gruntese. I like throwing Gruntese in there, because it's funny. Salvador responds with grunts rather frequently. The Gaelic he learned from listening to Dris rant. The Italian he learned from hanging around his adopted sister. The drow he learned from two to three different sources, one of which was his friend Micarryl. The Greek he learned from his ex-lover. Latin he learned from his adopted brother, and American Sign Language he learned for Mara's benefit.

Now... The temper and the back-slapping are going to require some more explanation. Oi. I'll get to that.

He's not exactly what you'd call friendly, heh! But it'd be interesting to see how he and Harry interact, if at all. Harry might probably want to shoot him. The most common word used to explain Salvador Delahada is: asshole.

I dunno. That's the fun of it. Though, I'll say that Harold's probably come across bigger assholes -- when you run your own tavern, you get to see a huge number of people. And he's certainly been called that and worse himself.

Sometime, we'll have to see if they even would interact. Then the fun of seeing how. Until then, though, I'm gonna keep trying to work on reading your stuff and hope I catch up sometime soon. :-P

HGLowe wrote:
Until then, though, I'm gonna keep trying to work on reading your stuff and hope I catch up sometime soon. :-P

Likewise! Probably doesn't help that we both keep adding in new things. Haha! While I'm on that, and before I take a break from adding to Golden Threads, I should probably take a moment to explain a couple of Sal's better known abilities.

Because of his fae blood (or the essence in his blood), Sal's gifted with a large assortment of supernatural abilities. I started writing down the list of them at some point, but never did quite finish it. So maybe I'll do that here in the portfolio eventually. A couple are listed in his profile.

#1 thing people have come to learn is that Salvador is colorblind. Now, while he can't see the natural colors of the world -- green leaves and blue skies -- he does see color. Just not in the usual sense. Only by an imprint of centuries old knowledge does he even know what to call those colors: green, blue, pink, orange, and yellow. Obviously he couldn't learn them from the labels on crayons. He sees those as varying shades of gray, black and white. But the color he does see is the color of a person's aura, and to him it's like a whole other language that he just knows.

Auras consist of seven different layers that tell him about a person's current emotional state, physical health, and a few hints about current motive. His mother bears the title of Truthspeaker, and that was passed onto him too. An aura can tell him when a person is lying or hiding the truth. He can't read a person's thoughts to know what the truth is, but he can tell when someone isn't being truthful.

It used to be that his aura sight was an active thing, and there used to be a physical change in his eyes that indicated when he was activating it to look at someone's aura. But I changed that over time. Enough people had accepted the fact that he can see auras, and they got in the habit of hitting me with IMs to tell me what he'd see. Point of that "Aura Colors and Meanings" link here on the site being there is because of me. Now he sees auras all the time. Patterns of energy and light and colors. Which means he can also see invisible spirits as well as he can see people. They just lack the grayscale body within the aura. He can also see straight through illusions, because magic shows up as patterns of energy and light too. He calls it his fae sight, or his fae eyes, because that's how the fae see the world all the time too. True fae, at any rate.

Some of the stories in Golden Threads might not make sense if you don't know about Sal's object reading ability. The best way I know how to explain that is to ask if people have ever seen the movie "Hellboy." And if they have, or read the comics, they should remember that fish guy whose name I don't remember, and how he had that ability.

object reading is also known as psychometry, and it pretty much deals with the ability to glean information off of objects by delving into the past of that object. Kind of like a form of historical scrying, you could say. Salvador can't learn anything about the future from anything he touches and reads, but he can learn a great deal about the present and the past. Everything an object has experienced all the way back to its manufacturing date. Through that, he can learn a great deal about the person who owned the object. For instance, if he read Harold's browning, he'd get to know the man a whole lot more than the first passing glance of stranger with a name and a face. Of course, it would take him hours of study to delve through Harold's entire life, but you get the idea.

The 2nd Edition D&D Complete Psionics Handbook explains object reading as "the ability to detect psychic impressions left behind on an object by its previous owner, including his race, sex, age, and alignment. The power can also reveal how the owner came to posses the item, as well as how he lost it." Salvador, however, takes this ability to a whole new level in being able to capture complete memories of events that transpired surrounding an object or location. If he concentrates strongly enough, he can even capture specific memories from a person as well. Another advanced method of psychometry is known as Dermo-Optic Perception-- looks like that site's no longer active, so I left out the link.

Additionally, Salvador is clairvoyant. That's an active skill that is more a combination of two skills spliced to work together at the same time: Clairvoyance & Clairaudience. In brief, clairaudience is the ability to hear sounds from a distant area, and clairvoyance is the ability to see images from a distant area. These abilities together are very useful when it comes to using his relocation power (something that people may consider teleportation). Unlike Nightcrawler, he doesn't need to know the place or have been there, nor does he "bamf". He can search using these two abilities combined, see the place beforehand, and just go there (I'll explain that one later, it's a bit difficult). The further away the location he is trying to See is, however, the more he needs to focus and concentrate. So there are times in which he may seem distant and become very easy to sneak up on. This does not mean he becomes totally blind or deaf to his current surroundings. However, as explained in the 2nd Edition D&D's Complete Psionics Handbook, the images and sounds do overlap (superimpose) with what is right in front of him and around him. So there are times where he may close his eyes and ignore people who are talking to him if he needs to do so to concentrate completely.

Those are just the top of the list of his most used and most known about abilities. The only real mental powers he have. Salvador's by no means a complete psychic. He can't predict the future. He can't read or send thoughts. Can't delve deep into a person's mind. Can't control minds or anything spectacular like that. The rest of his abilities concentrate pretty much on the physical, and I'll get to them later...

I though...I might jump in on this.

I started playing with Sal with one character a time or two, then with Val. Sal was the first actual person Val would call a friend. She hadn't been around long when she met him. I was lucky enough to see Sal go through quite a few of his changes. I love how you keep him true to character so well in every situation, SM. I can say that playing with Sal makes me want to write. Gives me motivation to write better and play more often. In short; Beautifully done SM.

Oh, Val. How Salvador loves his funny little Valentine. ps: oh no! You outed me! Whatever shall I do? Not that people can't figure that out anyway. It's not as if I hide the truth real well. Anyway...

Somewhere in my vast collection I have the logs. Sal first met Shadey, though I don't remember precisely when. I do know that he first met her, and Val, before his first birthday. Before everything went crazy. And because of Val he had his first taste of blood. So all I really know is that it was some time before March 20, 2005. Not too long before his first birthday, but far enough back to make a difference.

Val was one of the other honored few whom he made immediate friends with. She never assumed. Always asked questions instead of guessing at answers. For some cracked out reason decided she liked Sal, and he's loved her for all that for the longest time.

Additional histories exist and can be found on two character journals. LiveJournal is a popular choice for IC journals. Neither of Salvador's are meant to be considered electronic, though. It was just a great way for me to present his personal thoughts by his own words on a service available for that purpose. The programming is brilliant.

1. http://en-medio.livejournal.com/ -- This is his first journal, which is currently tucked away in a secret hidden treasure location. The only person he has ever let read it in full was Sin. This old journal and Sal's old journal are both kept in the same location.

2. http://delahada.livejournal.com/ -- This is his second journal, and the one that Val is reading in her In the Spotlight series. Again, it's considered to be an actual paper bound journal. Not an electronic one. Val's player has done an amazing job using those bits and pieces of information, and I'm very flattered for all the involvement she's had as both a player and character.

While it's not possible for the first journal to be found, it is possible, especially now, for the second one to be discovered. Really depends on how well Val guards it. I'm always open to the possibility, provided a very good reason is presented to me.

The characters Sin, Val, and Havoc (who you don't see a lot of writing from, except where logs are converted to story form from others) all have an intricately interweaved relationship with one another. They're one big happy family, in the strangest ways. But I cherish the relationships our characters have together. It's great, inspiring stuff.

Now where's a Val portfolio? Heh heh.

Aww I'm sorry Superman...Uh, Clark Kent.

Though now they all know you're the genuis behind the character.

I remember Shadey first met Sal, small conversation then interruption from Shadi. Hard to make them interact too much anyway since Shadey was a quiet sort of angsty person.

Val met him in a much more strange way. She was coming out of a place and he was going in. She bumped into him, in her clumsy way, and fell down. Told him her name and she left. She heard his but made no indication. I remember how much she made him talk just because she loved his accent. Ahh she's adored him for so long.

About the journal, she's got it hidden in the apartment now. Probably because of something Allen said during a visit to the Rose last night. The journal is findable though that would have to be discussed. Val camps the apartment quite often.

Speaking of Journals. I think between stories, I'll be updating hers since she mentioned needing a new one in her last entry. The same for her as it is for Sal. It's just an electronic portrayal of her written diary. I'll start a profile for her soon. I wanted to when I found these threads. I just have to piece it together. Off to work!