Roman Rosales, Pilot Royal, Director of Candidate Affairs

[Tally]

Roman Rosales, Pilot Royal[/size]

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"Maybe next time I tell you to clean the spoon, you'll clean the spoon." — discussing important matters of state

Does it kill
Does it burn
Is it painful to learn
That it's me that has all the control

Does it thrill
Does it sting
When you feel what I bring
And you wish that you had me to hold
~Maroon 5: Harder to Breathe[/size]

Selective Obliviousness . Blue Eyes[/size][/center:vtz3zuq4]

Current Threads:
Time stays, we go
out of reach, out of time
Movie night!
Just a little bit of target practice
Who's Watching?
we would love not to care
Who wants some pie?!
Crippled
You're Going Down When I Get Up
[right:vtz3zuq4]Completed Threads:
Pilot Candidate Festival
Providence[/right:vtz3zuq4]


__________________HOLD MY HEAD INSIDE YOUR HANDS[/size]

Name:
Roman Rosales

Nicknames
Romance (courtesy of Wulf), Romanator, Romalicious, Romy, Roro

Gender:
Male

Species:
Human

Age:
36

Height
6'1"

Home:
The Citadel, Haviah, Aedolis

Rank:
Pilot Royal [dragon Scheherazade]
Director of Candidate Affairs


I NEED SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS________ __________[/size]

Appearance:
Inky black short hair, generally looks a little haggard, like he hasn't slept in days or is under a lot of stress.  Fastidiously clean.  Tall and with a solid build. Really intense blue eyes.  He's cut, too; doesn't skip the gym. Often out of uniform. Typically wears blue jeans, sneakers, and a white t-shirt. Sometimes wears a white collared shirt—usually left unbuttoned—over the t-shirt.

Personality:
He slips easily into whatever role he needs to fill.  He can be ruthless, threatening, comforting, kind...whatever he needs to be to hep his candidates succeed. When not on the job, however, he's friendly and laid-back, generally on good terms with everyone.  Doesn't hold grudges. Quick to anger but equally as quick to let things go. Often finds it hard to stop being a teacher, however, and sometimes catches himself lecturing his old students even after they've become Pilots. Remains protective of them no matter how many years go by. Nothing makes him happier than seeing students he has personally mentored become excellent Pilots.

Is not a sadist, despite what some disgruntled candidates may say. He does what he has to to get the job done. Would never hurt someone just to hurt them.

Has a reputation as a player, and this was accurate in the past.  He slept his way through many of his fellow candidates during his training years, and for a long time after becoming a Pilot he treated the candidate pool as his own personal brothel. These habits have died down over the years, due in large part to more and more responsibility taking up his time.  These days he's always working and rarely has time for anything else, including his old recreational activities.

History:
He is the result of an affair between a married man and a low caste stripper and prostitute.  His half brother is Temple Rosales, whom he has never paid much attention to one way or the other, despite Temple's fervent hatred for him. The disgust of his father's family never bothered him, as he knew from a very young age that he was psychic, that he would be a Pilot, and that Pilots transcended all castes. 

A severe and humorless child, it was the Pilot training program that loosened him up and created the amicable, laid-back person he is now. He completed the training with a focus and determination that bordered on obsession.

Scheherazade, his dragon, is a smaller, older model.  They are well suited, for she too is a creature of subtlety and calculation.  He rose through the ranks fast because of an uncanny ability to read people that has nothing to do with psychic power.  After Elijah Lyre disappeared he was up for the Imperial position, but Royal is all he ever aspired to.  Being Imperial comes with headaches he doesn't want to deal with, and Scheherazade herself has no desire for the position either.

These days he spends most of his time training Pilot candidates and overseeing conflict-resolution within Haviah—i.e., throwing down on dissidents, which he gets a real kick out of.  When he is dispatched elsewhere, it is usually as a diplomat or liaison or spy.  He was strictly black ops in the war.

Abilities:
His psychic power is quite weak, but he does have an intuitive understanding and control over the vagaries of thought.  The subtleties he is capable of make him especially treacherous to other psychics, as he has an arsenal of nasty tricks, deceptions, and deflections all designed to him get him into hand-to-hand range where he has the greater advantage. He excels at hand-to-hand combat.  Since he cannot rely on his psionic abilities for direct combat, he had to develop these tricks to compensate.  Worst of all for other psychics is that they are largely improvisations and personal techniques that he rigged himself, not tactics that psychics would have encountered in training or be able to anticipate.

Relationships:

• Gabriel Tierney - Roman was Gabriel's mentor and saw him through his candidacy, which was marked by a whole lot of yelling and headdesking on Roman's part.  Gabriel was and still is one of the few people who can draw Roman into a shouting match.  At some point when Roman wasn't looking, he and Gabriel made the transition from teacher and student to friends. Teasing Gabriel is something of a hobby at this point, but Roman is actually very protective of him and values him as a friend.  Thinks Gabriel's fashion sense is atrocious.  Gabriel still tries his patience on a daily basis, but Roman wouldn't have it any other way.
  
• Temple Rosales - Roman's half brother.  They share the same father.  For all the years they've known each other, they've gone out of their way to ignore one another.  This is especially true of Roman, who has been dismissive toward Temple ever since they were children.  They have not said a word to each other, spoken or otherwise, for over five years.

Likes:
Being a dick, teaching, Aedolis, Gabriel, Seiteki, Bart, most of the other Pilots

Dislikes:
Edanith, dissidents

Wins the RotE award for:
Most outstanding use of a sledgehammer.

Commentary:
Most notable distinction: my very first character on RotE. Came to my mind almost fully formed, complete with first name, and the rest all fell into place on its own.  One of the easiest characters I've ever had to develop. He pretty much wrote himself.