It's (Not) Mostly Dragons

As a character he has been with me for well over a decade, and he's got that special little place in my heart. But with so much time of him being a constant work in progress, how do ya even begin to unravel all the layers he has since made for himself and do so to any justice.

His original iteration was rooted amongst a world-building of demons, and revolved around a story about pushing back and fighting the forces that made you.

It's always interesting to me to see what these elements end up shaping into when passed through the lens of different worlds. I find a lot of comfort in his constants.

In the verse of our floofy bird folk Raul comes across aggressive and ill tempered, with little to say in word but lots in action. He's not what you'd call friendly, and for the most part very few stick around to dig much deeper than that. And that's the design, of course!

Get past that initial layer and he's still gruff and snarky, but for all the distance he keeps and upholds - he is craving proximity.

Proximity that his self-destructive ass does not believe he deserves (in most cases)

He's a master of self-sabotage. When things are going too good he has a tendency to toe the lines that would have him marked for watch. Risk taking skyrockets, an overconfidence in physical durability and a serious talent in proprioception seeing him push the limits of what he can achieve in highspeed high skill demands.

And when he inevitably gets himself hurt? Well. That's just deserved. Clearly.

Keep chipping, of course, and it becomes apparent so much of his bravado and attitude is bluff.

The most important aspect to Raul is that, at his very core, all his anger and lashing out is coming from the fact that he's scared. He's so scared of his own intensity, and his total inability to understand the 'why' behind the overwhelming extremes.

He's really no good at emotional talk – a disaster when you realise just how highly emotional he actually is. And this is a point of contention that leaves him spinning out into some truly awful spirals.

I'm putting him on blast here but he does not see all this with the clarity I'm laying it out in. Lol. Lmao even. Offense is the best defense and he'd be pissed off to be considered scared about anything.