( CONTENT WARNING FOR MENTION OF SUICIDE IDEATION, GORE. )
His life as Selkirnemus Graven was the darkest time in his shoddy memory, and for all his memory problems, Gray has always been grateful that that part of his life is shady, full of holes, a distant nightmare. As it was, his mother died five years after his birth, and while he doesn’t remember her face, or her voice, or how she smelled even, he does remember the way she made him feel. For a long time, Gray felt that she was the only one who ever loved him and the only one who ever would love him. His father was a resentful drunk, struggling to raise a child in poverty on the Upper City of Taris, with a job that barely paid enough for food and shelter. All this resentment and his own insecurities he often took out on his son, who, to this day, fights hard against that voice in his head that agrees with the man.
Needless to say, Selkirnemus Graven had been a miserable child growing up into a miserable teen. His future was bleak, and he was utterly understimulated under the thumb of a father who neither loved him nor cared for him. The only way he could keep himself out of the swirling black depths of his mind that craved release was by stealing — less out of necessity, more for the thrill of it. Grav-cars, burglary, food, small statuettes that charmed him; no matter how big, small, or rife with consequences, he did anything to feel alive and claw his way out of that black hole. As it was, he wouldn’t survive much longer.
At age fourteen, his life was saved by a looming, self-inflicted premature death by one Vidu Regia, a girl two years younger than him, but to whom he’d become joint at the hip with the next few years. She introduced him to her family like a stray dog she’d found on the streets, and nicknamed him ‘Gray’ due to exasperation about his given name. For the next year, Gray became more and more involved with the Hidden Beks and swoop racing, initially as a by-standing interest, but before too long as a participant himself. The first time he got on a swoop bike, he knew that was the end of his life as he’d previously known it.
By the time he was fifteen, Gray entirely stopped returning to the Upper City and his father, and his home was now permanently within the Lower City and his family the Hidden Beks. Of course, with his new family, he inherited their war, and Gray quickly showed himself a natural on a swoop bike, on and off the track. At sixteen, he was already full grown and struck an intimidating figure, despite the fact that anyone with the Hidden Beks knew that behind his hot temper, aggressive disposition, and fierce competitive nature lay a veritable heart of gold.
For the next few years, Gray’s fame (now dubbed Gray Wivern, a name he and Vidu picked for him together) as a swoop racer grew, as did his fighting skill alongside his family, and the Exchange took notice. There was an offer to take his racing beyond Taris, and while the prospect was exciting, Gray was loathe to leave his found family; Vidu’s older brother, Moloth — and consequently, his boyfriend for almost as long as he’d been with the Hidden Beks — made the choice for him. The Exchange had already been monopolising his time, and Moloth wouldn’t let Gray give up such an opportunity for his sake (or even Vidu’s). When Gray protested — loudly — Moloth promptly broke up with him and followed it up with a few choice words to further chase him away and towards what Moloth thought was a “higher calling”.
As Gray geared up to leave — hurt, heartbroken, and feeling as though Moloth’s words extended to the Hidden Beks, and worse yet, Vidu, who’d been his inseparable partner-in-crime for years — the Mandalorians arrived. Gray fought hard and fiercely with the resistance, but ultimately the Exchange decided to salvage the situation and got him out. Just not before a sharp pillar of scrap metal had cleaved into his right leg and essentially pinned him where he lay; Gray experienced the worst pain in his entire life that day as he was pulled from the wreckage, his leg essentially torn from him.
He woke up on Telos, with a new leg that took a while to take used to; too long. The time for a comeback in swoop racing came and went for him, the Exchange decided, but his time with the Hidden Beks had left him with more than just one skill set for them to gain from. From then on, at twenty years of age, with his family presumed dead, his home in flames, and only the Exchange as his link to what had been, Gray became their loyal agent, working hard and fighting harder.
Gray is a very competitive, hot-headed, reckless, and impatient individual, but for all his flaws, he makes up with it by being incredibly good-natured, brave, loyal, and unassuming. It’s not hard for him to consider people his friend — even in this day and age — and he’ll walk through fire for his friends. He struggles a lot with insecurity in his own intelligence, but he takes on challenges with two hands and a lot of gusto. With Gray, what you see is usually what you get; he feels no compulsion to lie, and even though he’s not against telling lies if he has to to protect the people he loves — or to assure people he’s fine when he’s not — he’s also very expressive, and anyone less than oblivious can usually tell when he’s lying. As a physically affectionate person, Gray has a lot of trouble with personal space, and will be quick to touch you (unless you make it clear that you don’t want him to), such as back patting, hair ruffling, and putting his arm around your neck.
All in all, while he can be emotionally oblivious (and a bit unstable due to reasons), he’s a nice guy with good intentions, a lust for life, and a crippling fear of rejection, abandonment, and failure.
