User:Arakis Carvi

Description
Arakis is a king cheetah - instead of the usual small spots, he has larger spots, blotches, and streaks of black running along his back. His facial markings are the usual, including the distinctive tear tracks. He stands 5'4" tall and is slimly built, weighing around 120 pounds. He tends to favor loose clothing in light shades of tan; often has a scarf in cooler weather, which is red; usually has a red and green checkered bandana; and, due to a congenital oversensitivity to light, has a pair of amber tinted goggles whenever he might need to go outside in daylight.

Family
Arakis is born to Miriadne Carvi(female, owner of the Carvi Estates winery) and Dekari Carvi né Nyarr. Dekari Nyarr is himself bonded with two other cheetah males as "heart-brothers", their union formed when Dekari was eight, his brother Narvain ten, and their brother Silan, seven. The trio grew together, studied together, did pretty much all things together – even married together; legally, they were a unit. (In theory, if any of them got into legal trouble they would all share that, too, but they did nothing more than the usual misdemeanors expected of almost everybody.) The family home was a small but arable skylet in the vicinity of Cidade; recent severe weather caused it to drift about a good deal, and it is now near Olio instead.

Of the three, Dekari is considered the primary male; the other two are equal to each other. In practise, they are all equal in most things, the primary exception being who fathers children first: When the trio first married Shianna Fervu, Dekari is the one who fathered their first child, Dessa. Shianna was killed in a house fire when the child was half a year old; the Nyarr brothers managed to continue raising her, and attracted the attention of Miriadne Carvi. Again, Dekari fathered her first child.

The children in order, with years of birth(AU) and fathers noted:


 * Dessa, female, 180(Dekari, prior marriage)
 * Alyss, female, 183(Dekari)
 * Darvin, male, 184(Narvain)
 * Jay, male, and Robin, male; twins, 186(Dekari)
 * Felix, male, 189 (Silan)
 * Arakis, male, 190(Dekari)
 * Teyna, female, 193 (Silan)
 * Fargo, male, 197(Narvain)
 * Virian, male, 199(Narvain)

The family have no plans for more children.

Early Life
Miriadne Carvi is heir to a fairly extensive wine-making operation. Though the skylet doesn't have terribly much room for crops, the family winery has settled into a comfortable niche by focusing on sweeter, fruitier wines. Red grapes are the staple, but other sweet berries are grown in smaller patches for specialty wines; every year has at least one pressing of Carvi Black, a sweet red grape wine with blackberries added. The children were often called to help with the various tasks involved, especially around harvest and pressing time.

Though his older brothers formed pairs of heart-brothers(the twins with each other, Darvin with Felix), Arakis did not, and nor have his younger brothers. Arakis is also the only one so far who did not choose an occupation that can be done at home: always wanting to see what was over the next horizon, always enchanted by the things traders brought to the skylet... he learned to fly. He started young, at thirteen, receiving instruction from one of the winery's delivery pilots, and in accordance with his past, he's generally been inclined toward heavier planes; but he's developed a reasonable ability with faster and more maneuverable rigs as well.

Romance
A friendly, open youth, well-favored and with a prosperous family, and with the distinctive markings of a king cheetah(the only one in his immediate family, though a few of his cousins are similarly marked), Arakis was considered by some to be quite a catch. So when he and a cheetah maiden a year older than he, Andreya Mariss(daughter of a well-to-do merchant and frequent client of the winery), became romantically involved in 204, it was encouraged by both families.

Then she and her father died when their plane crashed off Jordan. The canopy was cracked, twisted, and jammed shut by the impact; by the time search and rescue crews could haul the plane up to the surface and open the canopy, it was too late.

The families grieved; Arakis was distraught. He found comfort in the arms of Andreya's cousin, a male named Jurian. The Mariss family raised eyebrows over this union, but Arakis's fathers were vehement in their support.

But the next year, just as the pair were settling into as happy a life together as two teens could ask for, Jurian was caught in a sudden, violent storm and blown off the edge of Cidade.

At this point, Arakis was already emotionally unstable. But over the course of 206 AU, he lost three paramours in a row - Ayana Korlan, a female cheetah, to a house fire; Celeste Norton, a female ferret, the plane she was travelling on shot down by pirates; and Jerome de Marcie, a male tiger, to illness - and snapped. So many people close to him dying so randomly, yet he, who lived a rough enough childhood that he'd picked up a number of scars and broken his share of bones, still suffered through each death... He slit his wrists, and probably would have died if Narvain hadn't checked in on him unexpectedly.

He received counselling, and proved himself resilient; he regained much of his positive outlook over the next year. But though he had a number of partners, he never again put such stock in any one. Thinking it safer all around for nobody to hang their lives on one person alone, he courted several - honestly and with genuine fondness, but making it plain that he simply couldn't bear the responsibility of being anyone's sole lynchpin; he encouraged his lovers, too, to find more relationships, if not with his other lovers, at least with someone. This did result in his relationships being rather fluid, as his partners gravitated to people who were more into single relationships; but he took it with a smile and moved on in good terms.

He isn't prone to jealousy in the conventional sense, but he can be quite protective of his partners and even his friends, and doesn't like to see them abused or taken for granted. However, he also realizes that he can't make their choices for them; if he sees a problem, he will try to think of a way to bring it to light without seeming selfish, and will then abide by their decisions.

In recent times, he's settled down somewhat, largely getting over his anxieties. Aside from a brief entanglement with Ikkyo, his only known relationship is a triad with Drew "Copper Cheetah" Katokan and Ginger O'hara. He does have some fondness for Natalie Forrester, but this is more friendly and protective than romantic.