Earth Pony Haver [Ready]

[GhostGirl]

Name: Haver

Gender: Male

Age: Young Stallion, just entering his prime.

Species: Earth Pony

Eye colour: Ruddy Brown

Character colour: Haver is a Chestnut Roan, his coat being mostly white, with patternings of a reddish brown.

Mane/Tail/Other: Matching his coat, Haver’s mane and tail are mostly chestnut, with some white interspersed. He keeps his short mane in a bit of a tidy mess, a devil-may-care style that takes him no effort to maintain. His tail, also, is short and messy. Overall, he looks so perfectly unkempt as to appear utterly suave.

Physique: Haver is perhaps half a head taller than your average stallion, and just stockier enough for his build to be noticeably different. It’s obvious he can carry more than most stallions, and even more obvious that he is significantly more agile and dexterous than other ponies.

Residence: Haver shares an apartment in Canterlot with his two siblings.

Occupation: Professor of Linguistics at Canterlot University. He and his siblings will go on research trips during breaks.

Cutie Mark: A mosaic butterfly, symbolic of his love of ancient civilizations and his agility and sure-footedness.

Haver obtained his cutie mark one summer during his foalhood when his parents, professional archaeologists, brought the three foals to their summer digsite. The youngest, Sonnet, was still too young to go exploring with her older brothers, so she stayed with their parents while Haver and Oxford wandered through the digsite. As they wandered, Oxford pointed out traps, and Haver nimbly led the way past them, his sure footing avoiding the various triggers and showing his older brother were to step so that they both traveled safely.

Despite their teamwork, the brothers would soon be trapped. They found their way to a vault filled to the brim with ancient puzzle boxes, and their curiosity took hold. The colts rushed into the room, tripping a mechanism that closed the vault behind them, but also lit torches throughout the entire room. The colts barely spared a second to be concerned about a way to escape before their attentions were turned to the puzzle boxes littering the vault. Oxford, being the master of such physical objects as pottery and puzzle boxes, set to work opening them right away. He passed the scrolls off to Haver to translate, however. Haver, always prepared for such an occurrence, sat down and began deciphering the ancient language.

Haver, noticing that the language was not far off from another ancient language he had been studying in his free time, had a translation within hours. He gathered information about the culture from the documents, and information about the vault itself. Namely, a secret panel in the backwall of the vault, which could be opened by stepping on a trigger. Within the secret panel would be instructions for opening the door to the vault once more, should somepony be accidentally trapped inside. With this information the colts found their way out and backtraced their steps back to camp in a hurry. In all the hubbub and excitement about the two young ponies finding such valuable information about the ancient culture, not to mention their parents having been so worried about where they’d been for the past several hours, the group barely noticed that the colts’ had received their cutie marks.

Unique Traits: Haver is exceedingly sure-footed, to the point that he has probably never tripped or stumbled in his life. He comes across as suave up to the point where he opens his mouth. The stallion has a terrible tendency to stutter and to stumble over his words, which is odd, considering he’s a Professor of Linguistics. Despite his speech impediment, he is a master of languages, and will do anything he can to get his hooves on scrolls from ancient civilizations so that he might translate them.

History: Haver is the middle child of a pair of professional archaeologists, his older brother being Oxford Comma, and his younger sister being Sonnet. As a foal, Haver showed both a speech impediment that refused to leave (no matter how much speech therapy his parents bought for him), and an unparalleled knack for languages. He, like his older brother before him and his younger sister after him, was always completely interested in his parents’ line of work, though mostly in the ancient documents and writing and pictographs that they would find rather than the artifacts themselves.

Being raised in Trottingham, the siblings really didn’t share their interests with other ponies their ages. In the end, all the three of them wanted or needed was each other, though they would be as friendly as they could with their peers. What the three really looked forward to, every summer, was their trips to their parents’ summer dig sites. Every summer they would travel to a dig site and learn from the various experts. Haver was latched onto a particular associate of his parents’, a linguist by the name of Silver Tongue.

Haver’s summer instruction by Silver Tongue was what the colt loved about his summer trips. The linguist taught him languages from around the world: Fet Loch, Germanian, Itailian, Manechurian, Unyasan. The linguist taught him the dead languages of the world, the older than dead languages, and how to decipher a language he’d never seen before. More than anything, these were the skills that Haver valued the most, and he would utilize the last one more than ever before on the day that he and his brother found their cutie marks.

Haver was less than halfway through foals’ school when he received his cutie mark. Later, when he had finished foals’ school, he chose to advance his studies. He continued to learn more and more languages, and he went on research trips and digs as an intern linguist, and when he was stuck at home he was asked to give presentations at the foals’ school. While he stuttered and stumbled over his words, his enthusiasm and excitement about what he loved so much helped to get his words across to the foals, and a few of the foals found a new interest for themselves as well. The foals’ excitement only further boosted Haver’s excitement and by the time he was ready to attend university he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

The rest of his years in schooling were spent pursuing a doctorate in linguistics. His free time was split between his peers and siblings, and he would still go on research trips during breaks. After obtaining his doctorate, the university brought him on as a professor of linguistics. He still does presentations at foals’ schools, but now he holds his presentations throughout Equestria instead of only in Trottingham. His research trips now are funded by the school, and anything he brings back is material for his future teachings.

Character Summary: Haver is, overall, an intelligent individual. He’ll spend hours at a time buried in piles of scrolls that need to be translated, scribbling away. He’s frequently late to his own classes and sometimes misses entire meals because of his work, but he loves it. He loves every second of what he does. When he does leave his office to visit other ponies, he will talk for hours on end about the languages and cultures of ancient civilizations. Really the only thing other than his work that he shows any excitement for is hoofball. He doesn’t play himself, but he’s a season ticket holder for the Canterlot Hoofball Club.

The stallion, as previously mentioned, is incredibly sure-footed. No matter how uneven the ground is, or what may be in his path, he never trips or stumbles. He can climb things most ponies wouldn’t dare even look at, and he’s never had any trouble running at breakneck speeds through the university to get to his classroom before the students all left. When he isn’t speaking, Haver often comes across as a very suave and sure of himself individual. And then he opens his mouth. He stumbles over his words and often has to start sentences over and re-word them entirely in order to finish them all. His stutter is prevalent and highly noticeable. Despite this, he gets his point across very well when he touches. Many of his students theorize that he conveys his thoughts through sheer force of will alone.

Finally there’s the research trips. They vary from digs to what could be perceived as treasure hunting expeditions. Haver and his siblings will hang around in Stalliongrad, strongly agreed to be the best place to find adventurers. They sit around in the Iron Saddle and give information to the bartender, and she does the rest of the work. It’s taken them a few years to figure out this process, but now it’s seamless and easy as breathing. On the research trips, Haver remains wary of the adventurers in his employ, and maintains a scrutinous eye when exploring ruins with them. Unlike with his students, he’s generally not terribly open with the adventurers who go along on the research trips.

[Armony]

How is this application coming along?

[GhostGirl]

After reading through this app again, I'm going to go ahead and mark it ready.

[Bellosh]