Daniel

Biography: The youngest child of a very poor family with a lot of debts, Daniel grew up in a dockside slum in White Cape, cold and underfed but happy. He spent his time doing odd jobs to give coin to his parents, and the rest of it dicking around freely with his brothers and friends, mostly making trouble because they could. Then one day, he was taken to Merket and sold into slavery just before puberty to pay off his parents’ debts, and was quickly bought for a high price as part of a long-term plan to assassinate a wealthy pervert. Along with many others, most of whom didn’t survive, Daniel was trained in a number of things before being sold again and purchased by a new master who happened to be a wealthy pervert, after which he began to find his real purpose in life.

Notes:


 * Daniel was taught to lie at a very young age and almost everything in his life has reinforced that lesson
 * Other people’s fascination with sex has always confused Daniel a little, but now that he has a few people he likes to have sex with, he gets it. He’s still unsure what the whole romance thing is about
 * Daniel used to be left-handed. He’s ambidextrous now but tends to use his right hand because people are less likely to pay attention to that
 * Daniel never thinks about the family who sold him
 * Daniel was never modest, but he did used to be shy because he was so small compared to others. Several years of enslavement have cured him of any worry about his body
 * Daniel has always known how to be and stay quiet, but now he’s improved that to the level of instinct
 * Spontaneity has never been one of Daniel’s skills, and his preference for a lot of planning often trends into a fear of commitment to one course of action
 * Daniel has never been much of a leader. He prefers having someone to direct his actions
 * Of all the boys in his group, Daniel wasn’t the best fighter, or the strongest or the fastest or the smartest. But he was the one most willing to become what he needed to become
 * Daniel’s greatest fear is the idea of being completely alone

Quotes:


 * “The man ta..taug…Taught. The man taught the boy to read.”
 * “I hate you. I hate you, I hate you. I hate you so much. Just…die…”
 * “I didn’t come to live here. You brought me here. It wasn’t my idea.”
 * “Not a killer. Just a slave. A scared, naked little boy who’s too stupid to realize he’s being used.”
 * “Most people would rather hear lies than the truth. They’re easier to hear.”
 * “It’s not about my best interests.”
 * “We’re all just tools to them. To all of them. Just…property.”
 * “You’re all I have, Theodore. Why would I leave?”
 * “They never trusted me. They bought me and broke me and sold me. They never trusted me, they never told me the truth. This was all a lie from the beginning.”
 * “I’ve never told a lie in my life.”
 * “Saint Daniel, that’s me.”
 * “Oh. Right. The fucking little boys thing. I almost forgot about that.”
 * “Fuck Theodore.”

Trivia:


 * Daniel was nearly taken to the market and sold on his fourth birthday (though his parents were going to pretend it was his fifth), but a sudden change of circumstances for his parents led to his continued freedom
 * Daniel was five when he first saw people having sex—it was two older boys behind a pile of netting, and he watched the whole thing, including the transaction of money after
 * When Daniel was seven, he snuck onto a ship in the harbour to steal food. He got caught by a boy a little older than him, who claimed to be the first mate and gave him a bag to keep the fruit in so he didn’t drop it
 * Daniel used to want to be a sailor when he grew up
 * Daniel retains a fear of seabirds from his childhood; he was bit by several as a child
 * Daniel was often too shy to interact with people sexually as a boy, though he did do so on occasion if someone else suggested it, and he didn’t masturbate for the first time until after he’d been enslaved and all the boys were doing it together
 * Daniel feels most like himself when he’s doing flips or other gymnastic feats
 * When Daniel was ten, he choked on a piece of crabmeat and swore he’d never eat crab again
 * Daniel was bullied frequently as a young child, and was frequently hit or pushed around, made to do things for other boys, and on several occasions was stripped naked and made to walk home, which often led to him being naked for several days at a time because clothing was expensive.
 * The biggest thing that still surprises Daniel about Theodore’s house is how warm it is, even in the winter

Modern AU: Modern Daniel has been in the foster system for many years, or at least that’s what everyone assumes, since his paperwork for a two-year period seems to have been misfiled and nobody is quite sure who was caring for him during that time. Either way, he’s now being fostered by Theodore Silver, a wealthy philanthropist known for taking in orphaned and homeless boys and caring for them, where he’s gotten stuck in a game of power between himself and Theodore with the other boys in the middle. When he’s not playing high stakes games with his own body as a playing piece, Daniel is a member of the school’s gymnastics team and sometimes correspondent for the student newspaper.