Geck O'Riley
A boisterous, bomb-happy Irish rebel with Faelic blood and enough grief to fuel a revolution.
At a Glance
| Age | 26 |
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Human (Irish descent, partial Faelic ancestry) |
| Homeworld | Velmoor (New Belfast) |
| Current Location | Active with the HLA |
| Affiliation(s) | Human Liberation Army (HLA) |
| Role / Occupation | Demolitions specialist |
| Status | Active |
Appearance
6'1", wiry and deceptively strong, with the kind of lean muscle that comes from years of running, climbing, and occasionally falling off things. His hair is short and wild, and goes its own direction regardless of what he does to it. Sharp green eyes that miss very little, a square jaw, and persistent stubble.
His ears are pointed, a trait inherited through his maternal great-grandmother's Faelic blood. The expression is stronger than most New Belfast humans carry, full and clearly non-human, the kind that draws stares offworld. He has worn them his entire life and treats the staring as other people's problem.
Multiple piercings in both ears. A small chin piercing. A Celtic knot tattoo on the right side of his chest.
Clothing & Aesthetic
A battered leather jacket that has survived things it probably shouldn't have. Black trousers, brown combat boots, fingerless gloves. Goggles he keeps pushed up on his forehead.
The one item he treats with anything resembling care is a ratty green scarf his grandmother knitted. It's falling apart, but he refuses to replace it, claiming it's lucky. He has survived enough improbable situations that this claim is difficult to argue with.
Personality
Geck is boisterous, boastful, and relentlessly cheerful in a way that takes people a moment to realize is not naivety. Geck is not cheerful because things are fine. He is cheerful because it stems from despair and grief, and because making the Empire furious brings him genuine joy. The chaos is real. The calculation underneath it is also real. People who underestimate him based on the first tend to regret it.
He is fiercely loyal to his own, which means humans broadly and his family and the HLA crew specifically. He's suspicious of non-humans by default, a suspicion built from experience rather than ideology, though he is not needlessly cruel to them.
His feelings about human subjugation are more personal than political, and nothing grates on him more that encountering a human who has accepted their status as a pet or a lesser being.
He is Catholic, as most New Belfast residents are, thought after his parents' death and his old crew's disappearance, his relationship with God has become strained.
Strengths
- Deceptively sharp underneath the apparent disorder
- Exceptional under pressure. The worse things get, the more focused he becomes
- Emotionally honest in the way of someone who has already lost the things they were afraid of losing
- His humor and bravado make people consistently underestimate him
Flaws
- Carries survivor's guilt over his parents that he has not fully processed and probably never will
- Self-destructive streak. Takes risks that are not always necessary
- Grief over River and the Raiders sits unresolved. He still believes they abandoned him
- Pride can tip into recklessness when his heritage or humanity's worth is challenged
Likes
- Fighting (the honest kind, where everyone knows what is happening)
- Cheap whiskey
- Traditional Irish music
- Homemade bread
- Being a pain in the Empire's side
- The smell of a fuse burning
Dislikes
- Authority, specifically corrupt authority
- Human subjugation
- The Kaleidian Empire and Shynites specifically
- Anyone dismissing human history or achievement
- Strawberries
Speech & Mannerisms
Thick Irish accent that gets thicker when he's angry, amused, or showing off, which is most of the time. He uses European slang freely and swears with genuine creativity. His oaths pull from Catholic tradition, Celtic mythology, Norse mythology, and Faelic spiritual tradition in roughly equal measure, combined based on the situation's specific requirements.
Common expressions:
- "Morrigan-damn this feckin' fuckery!"
- "Brigid's tits, that was close."
- "Odin's left nut, what the feck."
- "Morvane take the bastards."
He strums his banjo and sings when bored. The songs are usually about rebellion, drinking, or the various inadequacies of the Kaleidian Empire. Sometimes all three at once.
He refers to the Kaleidians with a rotating selection of unflattering nicknames. Shynites get particular creative attention.
Abilities & Skills
Aether
Sensitivity: Moderate. Though he would probably laugh if anyone told him this.
Other Skills
| Skill | Proficiency | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Demolitions | Expert | Intuitive rather than purely technical; treats it as an art form |
| Infiltration | Proficient | Knows how to move through spaces he is not supposed to be in |
| Escape and evasion | Expert | Has broken out of more places than he has stayed in |
| Hand to hand combat | Highly proficient | Scrappy and effective; fights like someone who learned in situations with no rules |
| Marksmanship | Proficient | Gets the job done; not his preferred approach |
| Manipulation and social engineering | Highly proficient | Can talk his way into or out of most situations when he chooses to; usually chooses not to bother |
| Banjo | Proficient | Self-taught; plays traditional Irish music; writes original material |
| Piloting | Competent | Enough to get from A to B and survive a scrap |
Background
George Paul O'Riley was born on Velmoor in New Belfast, twenty-six years ago, twin to Roxanne. He grew up on stories: Irish rebel history, Celtic and Norse mythology, Faelic traditions and Elder Spirit theology that came down through his mother's side. His maternal great-grandmother was Faelic, and that line left its mark on him most visibly in his ears, which are pointed in the full Faelic manner rather than the subtle tips more common in New Belfast humans.
He was nine years old when he and his parents were taken by a Shynite who collected rare and unusual humans as status symbols. They were not treated cruelly, but more like objects of great value.
At eleven, Geck escaped, vowing to come back for his parents when he was strong enough to actually do something.
At fifteen he fell in with the Raiders, a gang of smugglers operating in the fringes. He discovered two things talents: tearing thing up and pissing people off. He also found River, his first girlfriend, and something close to a family in the crew.
At eighteen, he and Roxanne went back for their parents. They found them docile, hollowed out by psychotherapy designed to render them compliant. Patrick and Caitlin O'Riley looked at their children and did not know them.
Geck walked off the barge and blew it up. Everyone on board went with it, including his parents. He has never described this as anything other than what it was.
He grieved heavily for a year, trying to keep busy with smuggling jobs. Then he and River had a fight, small and stupid, and he stayed behind to mope while the crew out on a job. They never came back. He still doesn't know what happened to them, but he believed they abandoned him.
At twenty he joined the HLA, and that's where he's been ever since.
Timeline
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| Birth | Born on Velmoor, settlement of New Belfast, identical twin to Roxanne O'Riley |
| Age 9 | Kidnapped with parents Patrick and Caitlin by a Shynite collector |
| Age 11 | Escaped captivity; vowed to return for his parents |
| Age 15 | Joined the Raiders smuggling gang; discovered talent for demolitions; met River |
| Age 18 | Returned for parents with Roxanne; found them psychologically altered; destroyed the barge and everyone on it including his parents |
| Age 19 | Year of grief and guilt; argument with River preceded her disappearance with the crew |
| Age 20 | Joined the HLA |
| Present | Active HLA operative, age 26 |
Relationships
| Person | Relationship | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Roxanne O'Riley | Twin sister | Shares the loss of their parents; their relationship carries the weight of that shared history |
| Patrick O'Riley | Father (deceased) | Killed when Geck destroyed the barge; grief is complicated by the fact that his father was already gone in the ways that mattered |
| Caitlin O'Riley | Mother (deceased) | Same as Patrick; Geck's Faelic ancestry comes through her line |
| Maternal Great-Grandmother | Great-grandmother (status unknown) | Faelic; the source of Geck's pointed ears and his early exposure to Faelic mythology and the Elder Spirits; name TBD |
| River | Former girlfriend (status unknown) | Disappeared with the Raiders crew after a minor argument; Geck believes he was abandoned; truth unknown |
Quotes
"Aye, Captain! I rigged that comm tower to play my new single on loop when it blows. Call it... cultural enrichment."
"Ya stupid bleedin' bellend, if yer wantin' to be a pet so bad, I'll strap ya with a collar and ye can bark like a mutt all ye want! Just stop bein' a bloomin' doormat for those blue bastards!"
"We built feckin' Stonehenge before we had two-ply to wipe our arses with, alrigh'? Don't ye be talkin' yer shite about humans!"
"Y'wanna be my little revolution, darlin'?"
Trivia
- Has a preference for rolling his own cigarettes.
- Has strong opinions about homemade bread.
- Constantly forgets to call his family when he's out in space and his sister and grandmother berate him for it at every turn.
- Wants to marry and raise children one day, but keeps putting it off.