Halcyon Watts

N/A

He had a rough start to life, being born to a single mother who was in deep with a man who dealt with drugs. Hal was frequently ignored and left to his own devices, though he had to watch the man beat his mother when she failed whatever task she was given. One day when he was six, the man flew into another rage, this time grabbing Hal and bashing his head against a dresser to keep him out of the way as he "taught his woman a lesson". The fight escalated to the point that police were called, and upon their arrival they arrested the man and rushed Hal and Deanna to the hospital. His mother died the next morning, and he remained in hospital for several days due to his head injury. Once he had recovered, he still suffered neurological damage. It results in his head jerking violently to the left several times in a row, in short bursts throughout the day. It also affected his behavior, making him have erratic thoughts and actions beyond his control.



Out of the hospital, he was put into foster care. It was with the Esters that he met Jacques. The boy was 6 years older than Hal, and while he found the young boy with a twitchy head annoying at first, he soon found that Hal did whatever he asked so he kept him around as essentially a minion. Hal thought Jacques was so cool, and admired his strength and cunning. He would stick close to the older boy, following him blindly as he felt in his heart that they were true brothers. When he was 9 he developed restless leg syndrome, and had to contend with constantly feeling like things were crawling under his skin on top of his head's constant twitching.



When Hal was 11, Jacques decided he was going to run away from home. His parents, he felt, were too religious and stiff and wanted too much control over his life. He took Hal with him purely to spite his parents and because he figured the skinny kid would be useful. They crashed at several of Jacques's friends' places for a time, rarely staying more than a week. After a year, with several odd jobs and out stayed welcomes, Jacques managed to land a place for them to permanently live in a run down motel, on the wrong side of the tracks in a new city. It was the kind of place where questions weren't asked, so long as one had the money to pay rent. Hal thought it was all rather fine and dandy, thinking of it as one big adventure. He would stay home while his brother went out and made money and a name for himself on the street. As he grew older, Hal secretly began to venture out of the motel grounds to get to know the city, restless with being cooped up. One day, when he was 15, he chanced upon a dog that was behaving rather aggressively. Before he knew it he had been cornered by the dog, and it lunged at him. It sank its teeth deep into his arm, though Hal managed to break free and get away. Confused and injured, Hal stumbled back home. He tended to his wound, panicking and calling Jacques to come back as quickly as he could. Upon getting home, his brother was angry to discover that Hal had been sneaking around behind his back, and had the stupidity to approach a rabid dog. He grudgingly took Hal to the nearest hospital to get the wound treated, but beat him once they were back home. The way Hal managed to keep getting back up when thrown down gave Jacques an idea of how to profit from his brother. Turning around and soothing Hal, he began to coax Hal into agreeing to his new idea. Happy that he wasn't being rejected, Hal agreed. 


The next few years saw Jacques turn quite a profit in pit fighting, using Hal as one of his fighters to battle in the matches. Hal always felt somewhat bad the times he did manage to win a fight due to his agility and the dirty fighting techniques his brother taught him, but it won him favor with Jacques and at the time that seemed important to him. As time went on, Jacques began to treat Hal more and more as just a dog, not a human. He grew greedy with the money and underground fame he pulled in from their victories, and he frequently kept Hal in what was essentially a cage. The boy liked his cage; it kept him safe from the perceived cruelty of the outside world. For a time, Hal lost his human side, gaining the mindset of a "dog", loyal to his master. He was 21 by the time he finally began to pull back from those depths and realize that his brother wasn't treating him as right as he should be. In a fit of spontaneity, he decided it was time to strike out on his own! Though, he had no idea how he was going to do it. So he quietly watched and waited for a chance. It came soon enough, when Jacques returned to bring him out for another fight. Thrashing, he managed to pull free and quickly booked it away. No one had expected Hal to be one for such action, so he was able to dart out and away from the compound to freedom.



Hal wandered for a time, sustaining himself on whatever he could find to eat and sheltering where he could. Having spent most of his time the past few years indoors in the confines of the fighting pits, the outside world was gloriously overwhelming to his senses. Ever since, he has wandered aimlessly, hopping on trains with the other hobos, trying to find a place to call home, people to call friends, and someone to call his own. At some point on these journeys he was the victim of an accident that saw him lose his right arm from the elbow down.  

His path eventually took him to Crawford City, and he spent time living in the alleyways in the Sea District. It was there he befriended a woman named Gina, who for whatever reason decided to give him a job. After he had proven he could do a reasonable amount of the tasks required of employees, Gina officially hired him on to work at the Frying Nemo. He even got to sleep on the cot in the back! As the friendship between him and Gina grew, he eventually moved into an apartment with her. As run down as it is, Hal loves every decrepit inch of that apartment. When he was trusted enough to be let in on the underground portion of Gina's business, he was absolutely in awe with the new knowledge of his friend. He works hard to keep the shop running when Gina is off on her business trips, and is often helped by a man named Corbin whom he met several months earlier and has recently begun dating. He positively adores Corbin and Gina, feeling as though he has finally found a family.


His behavior is frequently erratic, and his is quite compulsive. Hal rarely hesitates on his actions, essentially lacking the inner voice that tells him "dude no this is a bad idea". It results in him frequently landing in trouble or fights. He has no filter on his mouth either, and says things as they come to mind. This makes it hard to have friends as it's far too easy for him to insult someone in the same breath he complimented them with. He's not entirely the brightest, though on rare occasions he may hit on a great idea.



Despite the lack of filters and control, he is extremely loyal to those he has taken a liking to (even if they're not exactly fond of him in return). He is also eager to please those he's grown attached to, and sometimes comes across as clingy. Easily excitable and frequently brimming with energy, he will constantly be grinning and laughing as he bounces about. He's incredibly weird and not always quite right in the head.



Rejection is hard for him to accept, and even though it cuts him deeply every time it happens, he'll still try to be accepted by the rejector. Because he's willing to accept everyone as they are, despite even glaring faults, and do what he can to be in turn accepted by them, he is often purposely blind to being used by others. It takes a lot for him to finally turn on someone. When he's having a downturn of his mood, you'll find him curled up in the smallest nook he can find. He's always found a sense of safety to small closed off spaces, likely stemming from his past when cages meant nothing could get in to him.



When he flips from happy to sad, his sadness can be just as extreme as his normal happy state. Hal will for once not press himself upon people; instead, he will quietly accept their decision to either try and comfort him or ignore him entirely. It's the only time where he will remain quiet and docile, just staring blankly around and not really interacting with the world as he sits tightly curled up. Once it passes however, he will snap right back to his erratic flouncing annoying self.



Hal is also a bit of a sexaphile, and thoroughly enjoys being with basically anyone. He's not picky. He does tend to be destructive to his own body, frequently gnawing or scratching or picking at his limbs. These are all done in nervous expenditure of energy, and he doesn't even realize most of the time that he's doing it.