areion [Ready] Stellar Sign

[Windwright]

Roleplay Type:  WoE
Name: Stellar Sign, "Inque Noire", "Inky"
Gender: Male
Age: Stallion
Species: Areion
Eye colour: Gold
Coat: Bluest Black (#000230)
Mane/Tail: Eminence purple (#6C3082) mane and tail, both naturally wavy. His mane is kept in a neat comb-over style not unlike a suave silver screen stallion, while his tail is allowed to fly free, so to speak.
Physique: A bit on the skinny side of average, Stellar is an author, but he likes working out of cafés and insists on lugging his typewriter and manuscripts with him, so he gets plenty of exercize.
Residence: Canterlot
Occupation: Author under the trade alias Inque Noir
Cutie Mark:

A constellation in the shape of a fedora and greatcoat collar, which he earned almost embarrassingly late when one of the short detective stories he wrote got turned in instead of a class assignment, and his teacher sent it to an open call she'd heard about. The colt spent the next few weeks trying to become invisible, but eventually his teacher put a copy of the magazine on his desk opened to a page where, accompanied by a line-shaded illustration of a stallion in a trench coat, his story had been published with an editor's choice award.
Unique Traits:

Stellar Sign is a specialist-type flyer. He's not particularly strong or fast, nor does he have particularly high endurance as these things go, but he's silent in the air. He also learned fairly early on how to adjust his eyes more quickly to changing light conditions than most areion, which also allows him to operate on a crepuscular schedule that mostly aligns with 'regular ponies'.

History: 

Stellar Sign was born to a night watchstallion and an astronomer in Manehattan on a foggy, moonlit night. The pair lived in a high rise on the lower east side, and had been trying to save up for a better place when they learned they were expecting. Still, Stellar wasn't neglected growing up in spite of how busy his arrival made his parents. He had uncles and aunts to look after him and his brother when they could, but often the only times he actually saw his parents was in the wee hours of the morning when his mother arrived home from work, or in the early evening before his father left for his job. This, combined with the fact that the colt's bedroom window was next to a neon sign, left his sleep patterns rather erratic when compared to most areion. He'd wake up in the evening to see his dad off, take a nap late at night, then wake up again for his mom, and take another nap when the morning sun finally rose high enough to leave his room shadowed. It wasn't until he was sent to school that he adjusted to typical areion hours, a habit he fell back out of as he matured into adulthood.

Lacking any shared interests with his brother or other relatives, the colt took to reading picture books, then comics, and eventually fiction, his bedroom eventually ending up resembling a small library. Some of his school-friends assumed that one day he'd pick up just the right book and get a cutie mark from its pages, and most of his teachers assumed he was napping too much instead of exploring like a healthy colt, so he was a very late bloomer. In fact, he was the last one in his school year to get a cutie mark by more than a full year. He didn't exactly mind, though, as even before he found his calling he was content to scribble and read.

As he grew older, he was able to turn those stories of his into full fledged novels, which earned him a humble, but livable wage as long as he was relatively focused. On the advice of one of his early publishers, he developed and started using his nom de plume: "Inque Noire". He and that editor eventually had a falling out over royalties, but he was able to find a new editor, a mare named Doublegum Bubble, living in his apartment complex.

From there he settled into a meagre, but comfortable life for himself. He'd write a few novels a year, sell some short stories to pulps and trade mags, do some occasional guest-writing for comics in his genre, and mingle and mix with industry names if he was feeling stir-crazy. But mostly he spent his days writing and his evenings reading or listening to jazz noir stations, drinking coffee as black as his preferred medium and genre, and avoiding committing to any of the string of admittedly lovely mares his parents not-so-subtly tried to nudge him toward.

Character Personality:

Stellar Sign attempts to project a gruff, tough-stallion image to those around him, but he's a total softy once you get to know him. He tends to be antsy and nervous around dawn and dusk, and often makes time for a nap around noon, but otherwise sleeps through the night since adulthood, since it makes it easier to interact with industry contacts and fans. The image and industry is also why he keeps the Inque Noire mask up around those not in the know. Ponies expect someone who writes detective novels to be hard-boiled, suave, and witty, while Stellar himself is only one of the three.

Beneath his gruff persona, he's kind, passionate, and generous. He keeps an entire bookshelf in his living room with autographed trade hardcovers of comic arcs he enjoys sharing, surreptitiously feeds stray kittens and pigeons, and tries to come and go by his study's window (his bedroom lacks one to help him nap) to avoid disturbing his neighbors. His highrise apartment is decorated in inexpensive thirdhoof furniture aside from the bookshelves, his writing desk (which didn't count since it was a gift), and the linens for his hide-a-bed.
Character Summary:

Stellar sign is a stallion of many layers. He is Inque Noire, a rough, no-nonsense areion minor author of detective mystery novels to those who don't look twice at him. But he's also a gentle soul who can't stand to see the vulnerable and innocent suffer. His reputation means a great deal to him, but only because it frees him to be himself in the shadows and twilight, where he thrives. He lives in a ratty, austere apartment because he'd rather spend his bits on books and charity, and he's an oddball in both the pony and areion communities to which he ostensibly belongs.

[SteelEagle]