-- In Depth --

Appearance

Despite nearing middle-age, Tempest has something that screams ‘petulant child’ about him. His range of facial expressions is astounding, and while his facial structure is definitely that of an adult male, when he sulks he tends to remind one of a sulking teenager. He’s had the fortune of being landed with the more ‘traditional’ form of masculine beauty – strong jaw, prominent nose, wide cheekbones, good tan. Nothing very feminine or delicate about him at all and he possesses some sharp teeth. He has some heartbreaking eyes though; they’re a very dark grey, with some traces of green.

His hair is a very bright blonde, and though naturally of a coarse texture its been softened up by the shampoos and conditioners of the palace to the point where it’s not going to eat anyone’s fingers (or destroy any more hairbrushes). His haircut leaves a bit to be desired though – it’s uneven and ragged. His former masters – and the Palace – insisted on him having longer hair, which he loathes. So when they took the scissors, Tempest (who was not a barber by any stretch of imagination to begin with) took to the kitchen knives. The result was hair that was flopping around his ears and falling in his eyes.

As for the rest of him: Tempest is a very muscular guy. No body-builder by any stretch, but clearly someone who enjoys physical activity as his main form of recreation. He’s very long limbed, and has a noticeably nice butt. The majority of his strength is in his arms and shoulders rather than his legs though. He can still run like the wind, but he’s more likely to punch than kick with good reason. Temptest has BIG shoulders, and his arms are easily the most muscular part of him, with hands that can pick up the average person by the throat and toss them one-handed. Big hands he has. Big feet too for that matter. Not to mention a big… well, that’s sort of a given isn’t it?

Tempest tends to dress… in a very masculine manner. You will not find him wearing silk bathrobes at dinner, velvet, or flowy fabrics. Ever. You’re more likely to find him running around barefoot in his jeans (formerly full length jeans until he cut them off at the knee for fishing purposes) and without his shirt. Not that anyone’s complaining. He doesn’t like wearing shirts very much, kudos to the person who manages to get him in one.

He smells like fruit and flowers, to his chagrin. It comes from the bath products he has available – it’s all smelly stuff.

Personality

The Hurricane Key is not recommended for the mild or tender, because Tempest is a rowdy individual. He’s loud, rough, and is not necessarily obedient at all times. Fortunately, he’s not much a schemer. Subtly? What’s that? If he wants something he goes for it, if he feels a particular way, the whole world knows and he tends to feel very strongly. There’s no ‘half-way’ with him. It’s not to say he’s a completely insensitive ass – but it’s definitely not one of his strong points. He’s not afraid of apologizing when he accidentally does real damage, but will get frustrated when dealing with the over sensitive. Instead of cuddling them, he’ll become blunt, and distant.

If it’s been a long while between masters, he starts talking to himself and becomes fidgety. It’s also during the long ‘waiting periods’ that he’s most likely to try and make an escape attempt (which has clearly been unsuccessful) because he won’t have his masters to distract him from the fact that he’s a slave. After such attempts, he’s usually locked up to just his rooms (see Room description for further details). When allowed to dwell on it, Tempest can become deeply resentful and sulky, even with a master around.

He tends to be curious about people, which does not always sit well with his masters. It’s possible that due to finding himself locked up, he tries to keep in contact with the outside world through the people who own him. He will bug them – where are they from, family, business, current events? PLEASE. If they, for some reason, have brought a newspaper or magazine with them, it’s likely they will not get it back. Tempest misses his roaming days dearly, and right now this is the closest he can get to it.

Threaten him with confinement solely to his rooms, and Tempest will do almost anything. This is quite possibly the only thing that’s encouraged him to keep his suit clean since he is by nature an incredibly messy individual.

Tempest does have a particularly violent temper once provoked, which in the past had contributed to his decisions to leave certain areas sooner than he normally would – his police record for bar fights is impressive. So is his ‘tab’ for property damage. This is to the point that there are some cities he will simply not return to for fear of being arrested. He doesn’t really get pissed at ‘simpering weaklings,’ but insulting him is a good way to get there fast and so is going through his personal belongings (the only one of which he considers ‘personal’ at this time being his journal).

Do not let him near a kitchen. For your own safety, do not let him attempt anything more complicated than a ham sandwich. If you set up a bonfire for him to cook fish over… well, that’s not too bad. It’ll be edible. Otherwise, don’t.

History

Born Kelim Rakaven, he abandoned the name when he became a key, to try and divorce himself from what he was, and what he’s become. No one’s been able to pry his birth name out of him yet. Throughout this section, he’ll be continued to be referred as Tempest to avoid confusion.

Tempest was born ‘average.’ Average family, average schooling, average life. He had two sisters – an older and younger one, his father worked in a corporation and his mother worked at home, managing her sewing business and her family. Despite the abundance of female influence in his life, Tempest never really understood women, to his sisters – and his mothers – amusement. He dated, that didn’t change much either. He messed around sexually with men and women, and though preferred women wouldn’t turn men down either. In his younger years he took boxing to tone his energy down some, and while he ceased taking classes, it didn’t keep him from practicing.

He tried the college thing, but it didn’t really suit him. He’d been rather refractory throughout his public schooling days, and while College fit him better, it wasn’t by much. He didn’t attend classes he didn’t want to and flunked them horribly, he partied where he would, and sometimes disappeared for weeks on end to travel. He was considered the classic failure – no motivation, no brains, and was thus booted out of college. It took a few weeks for the letter to find him, and for his parents to track him down and give him the dressing-down of his life.

He tried again, same result. He simply couldn’t sit still long enough – what was over THAT hill was far more interesting than what was on this side of this hill, and he tended to leave wreckage a mile wide wherever he went, making him easy to track. He survived by doing the odd and temporary job, which gave him a passing acquaintance with all sorts of skills, but no real mastery. But he still managed to always go home to see his family and sisters for the important occasions. (His younger sister turned out to be just like him to their parents disapproval.) He spent the majority of his time along the west coast and the Gulf of Mexico, due to the fact that he was particularly fond of the weather there.

When he was 28, he wandered into the wrong area of San Francisco (his first trip to the eastern side of the US), and wound up getting jumped. Tempest got the shit beaten out of him (he’s no professional fighter after all), and when he came to, found himself sold into the possession of the Palace as the Hurricane Key…

Early on in his ‘career’ Tempest made the mistake of ‘falling in love’ with one of his mistresses, which ended up in initial heartbreak that he eventually got over. He’s spent the time since then not getting TOO attached to his owners, and making escape attempts that usually fail miserably.

Room Description

The Hurricane Key rooms are… strange. At first they give the impression of being a stilt-house on an island resort – the entrance door has a covering ‘mat’ that is rolled down when a master is present, so that it merges with the walls, which are seemingly made of woven straw. It’s actually straw mats covering typical plaster walls, and the air-conditioning vents in the ceiling are left uncovered and hum inconspicuously when on. There are also wooden fans hanging from the ceiling, and the floor is made of polished wooden planks. There are four rooms – the living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. The bedroom and bathroom are to the ‘right’ of the entrance door. The first room is the bedroom, and further to the right of that is the bathroom. The kitchen is to the left of the entrance door. The rooms are all of a vaguely ‘rounded’ shape, not quite square, but not really circles either.

The living room is the largest room in the suite, with bamboo furniture. There are three loveseats – which are surprisingly luxurious - situated around a glass-and-bamboo table, all facing the eastern wall, which is made mostly out of glass windows. There’s a bookshelf pushed against the left wall near the kitchen door, but there are very few books – save for Tempest’s journal and the trashy ‘erotica’ novels he’s concealed it amongst – and instead full of things like seashells, the exoskeletons of dead animals, bird feathers, and so on. There are also watercolors on the walls depicting tropical scenes, and light fixtures set up discreetly in the corners of the room. The floor near the porch door is extremely sandy – Tempest doesn’t sweep much apparently. If one checks near the windows and the glass doors, there are metal storm sheets rolled into the ceiling, as if to protect the interior in the event of a hurricane… or to keep the hurricane from getting out.

The bedroom is the second largest room, the bed obviously dominating the decor. It’s huge, soft, and draped with dark blue silk hangings, the sheets themselves done in patterns of hunter green and pale gray with a LOT of pillows. The sheets are made of rylon, after Tempest complained that he couldn’t get any purchase on the satin ones and that he and his current master kept slipping off the bed. Oddly enough Tempest bothers to make the bed, perhaps out of something resembling work ethic. There’s a wardrobe full of clothes and towels (mostly sandy clothes and towels), along with a full body-mirror hanging on one of the doors – nothing too interesting. Then there is the chest of toys on one side of the wardrobe, and the cold box full of various foods and syrups to be perused at leisure. The strawberry syrup container is a bit low. There’s a second chest for the visiting master to put their things in on the other side of the wardrobe. Again, the eastern wall has a particularly large window that takes up most of the wall, and the south wall has a decorative window as well, though not nearly as big. Both have the storm shutters on them. The light is on the ceiling this time, accessible by a switch by the door to be as bright or dim as desired. The weaving in the walls is oddly done, and seems to resemble clouds…

The bathroom is actually about the same size as the bedroom, but differently shaped (to allow for that second window in the bedroom). Instead of circular, it’s an elongated oval. The section with the sink and the cabinet and mirror are sheltered by a curtain to the left, which cuts it off from the main part of the room which is composed of a giant hot tub big enough for four to swim in comfortably, with nearby shelves offering various bubble baths, body washes, shampoos, soaps and so fourth. The place smells like a rainforest. Again with the light fixtures in the nooks and crannies of the room.

The kitchen is the smallest room, and consists mostly of a cold box, a sink for dishes, a microwave, cupboards for the dishes, and drawers for utensils. There is also a ‘box’ in the west wall that is attached to the palace, to allow for food to come and go. Usually Tempest makes his own food except when a master is present, then the cooked foods come through there. On a counter there’s a knife block, but it’s strangely empty… they took the knives after he hacked his hair off.

Past the porch is the beach. There are fold-up chairs leaning against the porch. After about a hundred yards in all directions from the rooms though, one runs into resistance – barbed fences that deliver electric shocks, and in the water metal poles with sharpened and hooked ends to deter boats, or swimming away. The fences are well hidden by shrubbery, and Tempest found out about them the hard way once. As far as that goes, the owner/writer can take whatever liberties they want with the outdoors.