Yaksha Catseye Tommyknock [Peacekeeper, Finished]

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I'm Bad Behavior, but I do it in the best way.

Name: Yaksha Catseye Tommyknock
Age: 46
Gender: Male
District/Area: 2
Appearance:

Yaksha's age shows in many ways, though his skin isn't nearly as wrinkled as it could be. He's got salt-and-pepper hair, which he'll dye either completely white or completely black at times. It's more often black than white, though he's not above walking the streets posing as an elderly man. He walks with poise and purpose, at home very nearly anywhere. His facial hair is often trimmed but not completely shaved, giving him a slightly mussed look to him. His hair, similarly, grows wild and untamed. The only nod towards hair maintenance he makes is his occasional dye jobs, and a scorched earth policy when it comes to haircuts; for a good month or so afterwards, he often looks nearly bald.

His dress is almost always lavish, but far less intimidating than a traditional Peacekeeper suit. Two piece suits are the norm, typically in a very dark color. It depends heavily on the day, but shades of red or green are quite common, with black being a very good sign that he's in a foul mood. He almost never wears it outside of formal affairs, and even when he does he takes a small bit of joy in altering his suit in some small, easily hidden way; whether it's a tiny bit of filligree penned in that can easily be washed off, or a flower tucked into the visor, he always enjoys being able to show off just the tiniest bit of personality.

He carries himself with pride, though he doesn't speak with it. He'll pepper his speech with slang as often as he can, and actually goes out of his way to try and keep up to date with the more modern phrases and acronyms. His wrinkles are just beginning to show; a lifetime of stress and tough decisions has taken its toll on him, leaving him with an almost constant scowl that he has to actually work to wipe away. The only time he actually pays enough attention to pose as a rather happy person is when he's dealing with those accused of crimes, leading many people to believe he quite simply enjoys the job.

His face droops the slightest bit, and his overall build makes him look remarkably thin, like a candle that has been burned a little too many times, and not properly cleaned. But his eyes are a lovely shade of brown, which give off the impression that he's looking at a spot a few inches behind people, with them standing in the way. He gives off the faintest smell of aniseed, and can often be found with a handful in his pockets. Aside from this, his smell varies between blood, sweat and fear, and a faint must.

When Yaksha smiles, his teeth can be seen slightly yellowed, and give off a sense of benign neglect, like much of his body. He appears like the kind of man who remembers to brush his teeth just often enough to avoid tooth decay, but not often enough to look good. His hair is often mussed, and his outfits, while pressed and buttoned properly, may have the odd stain that is in need of treatment. This too adds to his image as a rather strange man amongst the Peacekeepers, thought to be slightly too old, and slightly past his prime.


Personality:

Capricious may be one of the best words to describe Yaksha. He's equally good at playing the malicious lawbringer as the mischievous lawyer, and is as likely to take the side of the Peacekeepers or the accused. It's hard to gauge his true intentions or desires most of the time, but it is clear that he feels the rest of the Peacekeepers are, if not cruel, then at least wasteful.

For a Peacekeeper, Yaksha gets along surprisingly well with civilians, perhaps because he's always been able to maintain a smile and a good sense of humor while on the job. Many people in the area fear his attention as much as they would any other Peacekeeper, but there's a sense of familiarity there, as well; Yaksha is remarkably loathe to jump to conclusions, and has a bad habit of interrogating the accused on the spot rather than executing or punishing them. Many a person realizes that amongst the Peacekeepers, Yaksha is the closest they'll get to a fair trial.

This isn't to say he's nice, by any stretch of the imagination. One of Yaksha's favorite passtimes is entrapment, and he's not at all above goading people into speaking ill of the Peacekeepers or President Snow. To Yaksha, one of the most entertaining things in the world is the moment when a person's entire world falls out from underneath them, and allies turn into enemies...or vice-versa. Perhaps this, more than anything else, is why Yaksha enjoys standing up for the little guy so often. The looks of dumbfounded surprise at the end are, to Yaksha, one of the best parts.

He's a strong proponent of alternative forms of punishment for crimes he catches people involved in; a favored one for him is demanding people buy Tesserae for themselves or their family members. Depending on the severity of the crime they may be told to burn the oil and grain, to give it away, or to simply leave it in his care and watch it spoil. He's gotten a cruel reputation for this as well, but it's also been well-received amongst those people who keep their heads low and obey; grain and oil at someone else's expense is a very good incentive to stay loyal.

He's a fairly laid-back person, despite his job, and does his very best not to let the job get in the way of his enjoyment. He's been known to invite entire families out to dinners, to feed them quite well before immediately launching into a round of interrogations on the parents, or to check into their children's Reaping records. Even while on the job or in the course of interrogations, he'll be apologetic and quite polite, acting as if sending the youngest child to die in prison is no worse than borrowing him to mow the lawn. His ability to jar others with a sudden shift in tone is one of his best skills, and it's part of why he's so prized amongst the Peacekeepers.


History:

Yaksha was born into District 2, and like most he was raised to mine. But he was always a notorious troublemaker, running on ahead and refusing to work with the others. Even from a young age, Yaksha was a loner, preferring to work alone over being asked to cooperate with others. It was hard to pinpoint the reason, but constant complaints about his peers were common. Anything from their conduct to their ability to actually discern valuable gems was subject to Yaksha's lashing tongue, leaving him with a reputation as a know-it-all.

Unsurprisingly, Yaksha was very talented among his peers. He had a particular drive and desire that was hard to find in children, and he would often assail any adults he could to learn more about the trade. An accomplished autodidact, Yaksha was always comfortably ahead of the curve; while his friends were learning how to identify precious gems, Yaksha was learning how to purify and grade them. He lived a fairly normal, fairly successful first twenty years of life. His parents often tried their best to break him of his bad habits, but Yaksha seemed to have serious issues with his peers. All too often, he'd prefer the company of adults, or no company at all.

At the age of twenty-two, the first sign Yaksha would make a good Peacekeeper came. He was a studious, polite child who hardly ever seemed to cause trouble...and he was, more than anything, prolific. His presence had become a normal part of the background, and coupled with his natural desire to go unnoticed, he was able to learn some very interesting tidbits about people's lives. He learned who was sneaking gemstones home with them, who was scrawling graffiti in public areas, and many other big things. Often he kept them to himself, but once or twice he'd anonymously tip off Peacekeepers.

The biggest event occurred when he was twenty four, and overheard one of his friends speaking to their girlfriend. She had, it seemed, been cheating on him...and the child was not legally his. Normally not a problem, she confessed a concern that their child would not be able to enlist in the Reaping if he was not her birth father, a comment which brought on a tirade of insults that would've made most people's ears burns. But in the midst of it, Yaksha learned one very important detail; his friend was technically still eighteen, though his parents had been able to falsify documents claiming he was twenty. It seemed he'd taken his older brother's identity some time back.

One stabbed back and quite a lot of praise later, Yaksha was recommended to become a Peacekeeper. He was keen on the idea at first, being relatively uncertain what it entailed; the idea of killing or punishing others perturbed him somewhat, but the biggest impediment Yaksha found was the civilians themselves. Yaksha had always believed the life of a Peacekeeper easy; doors were opened, people were taken by the hand, and crimes were punished. But countless chases down abandoned mine shafts, limitless examples of parents sheltering children, and notable cases of outright scorn began to leave Yaksha facing the tough truth; his job, as necessary as it was, was not welcome. He would face opposition at every turn.

It was at the age of thirty, when he was already well used to the notion of executions that he first started to hone the art of putting up a front. He taught himself to smile, to laugh, and to appear genuinely concerned...a perk that would've landed him any number of fine wives if he hadn't been dedicated to the job. He was particularly baffled by how many people attempted to bribe him, the very moment he started playing amicable. It was a surprising take on the same old problem; he was hated and despised for his job, but his personality itself? Why it was downright loved.

The lies and the faking only grew over time, alienating more and more of the people he met. Even within the Peacekeepers it became difficult to tell when he was being serious, and many coworkers would crack a joke only to find themselves backhanded for insubordination, or simply stared at in deadpan silence. Paranoia and doubt surrounded the last fifteen years of Yaksha's life, with many people believing he was both the best and worst thing to happen to his district in quite some time; he was certainly an improvement over the old ways, but the endless doubt and wondering, and the concern when he might confront you over something months or even years old began to fester, lead him to become one of the most polarizing people in his district.


Codeword: ODAIR
Other: Yaksha is a remarkably good dancer, and is absolutely not above drafting random passerby to dance with him, under threat of various petty charges. He also loves cooking, and will often force it on unsuspecting people.