I'm Not Here.

Rapha’li could only shrug.

“It is what it is, isn’t it? I’m pretty comfortable with what I am and what I’ve got. Wouldn’t argue with a little bigger, but y’know. Not sure there’s a fella in this world who would.”

A thoughtful pause. Tap-tap of his finger along the rim of a mug.

...Crack of a fangy smile.

“Or maybe there is. Dunno; haven’t met him, though the gods and more’n one red-light bouncer all know I’d like to. Why? What d’you think about your gender?” The mooncat raised a midnight-blue brow at the shadow, all expectation and glimmering mischief.

(Thank you, anon! Whoever you are!)

- -

“...It’s home.”

Rapha’li cast a long look across the apartment, falling silent for a time. Something in his throat had chosen now as just the perfect moment to begin aching uncontrollably. There were books and bottles and pants strewn across the floor, and the wardrobe doors hung half-open in eternal disarray; the bed on the left was unmade, the right pristine, and down the middle a well-worn track of footfalls paced into a groove through the carpeting. 

The scholar was a well of silence, lilac eyes unfocused and turned away.

(Thank you, @ofswordsandseductions-ffxiv! Home is just missing something, and has been for either months or a minute or a literal eternity, depending on when you ask him.)

- -

“Health is a myth,” muttered Rapha’li, from behind a swallow of what constituted breakfast this morning: a cup of what resembled coffee -- cold, though not by choice, -- a splash of whiskey to warm it back up again, and a single raw egg cracked and swizzled into it all with a pretzel stick. The scholar raised a bone-thin hand to tremble the combination back toward his face, gulping down the yolk with the kind of stare that had certainly smoldered a hole through at least one stack of term papers. Maybe two.

“--Vitamins, this. Nutrients, that. Pfft. Health’s a binary; you’re alive or you’re not, s’all there is to it.” The circles underneath his eyes were a scant gravitational event from starting their own Eighth Calamity. A grumbled muttering under his breath, pat-pat along his pockets with an absent hand in search of... aha! A slim silvery case drawn from its depths, snapped deftly open at the second or third swipe of his thumb.

“...You got a light?”

(Thank you, @nocturnedreaming!)

- -

Basic Information:

Full Name: Rapha’li Narahl Nicknames/Titles: Instructor Hardass (by his students), Raph/Rapha (by friends) Gender: Cis Male Alignment: Chaotic Exhausted Age: 24, he thinks; indeterminate Race: Miqo’te - Keeper of the Moon Birthplace: South Shroud, the records suggest Current Residence: Limsa Lominsa

General Character Info:

Sexual Identification: Homosexual Relationship Status: Single; roommate of Ehnek’a (@mathemagiks​!) Occupation: Eternally-broke aetherial physics instructor, healer-for-hire, the world’s first man to thrive on an exclusive diet of donuts and shame Enemies: Philosophy majors. Primals. Literally anyone who tries to get too frisky with his roommate.

Character Appearance:

Hair: Navy blue, eternally tousled. Curly, but grown out into a loose-hanging mop. Skin: Fair, freckled-lilac. Eyes: Pale lavender, tired past the point of reason. Wears rimless glasses. Height: 5′1″ Markings (Scars, Tattoos, etc): A pair of lavender stripes on each cheek, a circular lavender birthmark just above his tail. A baffling series of arcanima diagrams tattooed at conveniently-hidden points across his body. Form: Short, compact. Varies between average and severely underweight, with seemingly very little time in between the two states. Common Accessories: His grimoire full of arcane geometries. A side-satchel laden with more parchments and reagents than it should reasonably be able to hold. A pocket watch. His trusty bandolier of aetherial inks. A hip flask. A usually-empty coin purse. A single heavy pearl earring.

Personality:

Social Level: If in a decent state of mental health, outgoing and flirtatious. Prone to lengthy periods of self-isolation, however, usually buried under an avalanche of half-graded papers and books. Optimistic/Pessimistic: If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. That’s why the gods invented scientists in the first place. Positive Personality Traits: Protective / Hardworking / Diligent Negative Personality Traits: Pessimistic / Unyielding / Sharp-Tongued Misc. Quirks: Aether-sensitive folk may very well boggle at how the hell this one’s even still alive. His very essence is held together with more aetherial anchors, redirects, and dead-man’s-switches than a cheap scrap of imitation Magitek. Prone to spontaneously appearing / disappearing in mid-sentence, much as if he himself didn’t expect it. Religion/Philosophy: Menphina’s all right, he guesses. Religion’s not a priority for him. Likes: Food, when he remembers to eat. Stimulants, occasionally combined with depressants. Men. Math and physics, to a life-consuming degree. Exuberant debates about magical theory. SLEEP: the rarest treat of all. Favorite Foods: Anything greasy and over-indulgent. Pour some melted cheese over a pile of fried chicken and lard-bread, then dump a bucket of bacon over it. Slap some hot sauce on top. Garnish it all with crispy onion strips and dot it with a single teensy sprig of parsley, because that’s hilarious. Favorite Drinks: Whiskey, pale ale, orange juice. Favorite Colors: Blue, silver, purple. Dislikes: Henpecking / smothering, solitude (though he’ll say he loves it), having to teach 9am classes to all you godsdamned daywalkers. Hobbies: A spot of recreational math, to take his mind off all the professional math. Lobbing terrible innuendos at handsome men, usually involving a groanworthy science pun or two. Puns in general, really. Doing nice things, but only when no one is looking. Recently, baking -- but only in 400-attempt batches, each one with a single variable changed in order to determine the best combination of heat and ingredients, Food Lab-style.

Hooks:

Are you a fellow scholarly-type? Want to learn from him, or alternately engage in increasingly-loud and petty debates about whose theorems are more on point? Flip a table or two? Develop a professional relationship (and/or rivalry!) that’ll rock the scientific community to its core? There’s a catte for that!

Are you some kind of aberration from another plane, such as a Primal/Voidsent/Fae, or just want someone to bounce really dangerous research off of?  Does it involve magic in some way? Raph is HERE for it. If your character is at all involved in Inadvisable Dickery™ for the sake of knowledge, he will at least be partially interested. Bring him along. What’s the worst that could happen? At least you’ve got heals now.

Speaking of heals: going on an excursion and need a pocket(-sized) healer with you? It’d do Raph some good to take a day off now and then, and see things that aren’t his classroom or his apartment. Maybe you’ve heard of the guy’s healing skills somewhere! Much of an ass as he can be, few will deny he’s damned good at what he does.

Just want to hang out and talk shit with a nerd for a while? Teach him new baking recipes? Get flirted at by a lightweight who has none of his shit together? Explore the depths and implications of mental illness and causality alike? I’m up for most ideas once we talk about it! Throw ‘em at me!

OOC: