Reynard

Reynard is a marbled fox. He has vibrant blue eyes. His tongue and paw pads are pink with soft brown speckles. He has warm light brown fur with a hint of pale blonde and patches of darker brown on his face, ears, shoulders, and tail. He has an off-white blaze marking on his face and striped off-white shoulders, underbelly, and tail markings. The fur on his face is split down the middle; the left is light brown, the right is pale blonde. His facial markings are also asymmetrical. The left side has a larger patch of dark brown with two light brown stripes below the eye. His right eye has a smaller patch of dark brown with only a single light brown stripe below the eye.

Reynard has various scars across his upper back, with a few on his chest, a single on his stomach, and one above his left knee. Many of these scars were the result of bullet and knife wounds, with a few of unknown origin. The scars are mostly across his upper back.

In feral and anthro, Reynard has optional messy short-cut hair. He often dyes his hair a solid bright yellow, because it's his favorite color. His natural hair color is actually a dirty blonde.

Reynard always wears his small black rectangular-framed glasses. He can see relatively fine without them but prefers to keep wearing them for looks. They've saved his eyes in a few situations before, and they're easy to fix if broken, anyways.

In all his forms, Reynard usually wears a necktie. It's either a solid yellow, checkered black and white, or a half-half design between both. The checkered motif is common with his gang members and is only sported during confrontations or to be subtle.

In anthro and Human, Reynard wears a slightly ruffled white dress shirt with a checkered pattern on the right side and a yellow patch on the left sleeve. He usually keeps the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He also wears a black vest, black pants with yellow stripes down the sides, and bright yellow shoes.

Reynard often has a gun holster or belt to keep weaponry on hand.

When he's not working, Reynard prefers to wear really loose and casual clothing - in his favorite color, yellow, of course.

Reynard does not have any powers or special abilities, but he is skilled in a wide variety of firearms and explosives, especially the rocket launcher.

Reynard is intelligent, quick-witted, and just as fast on his feet when it comes to avoiding the law and getting what he wants. He keeps track of his surroundings at all times and uses his quick reflexes to stay out of trouble. Whenever his gang finishes a job, he's responsible for cleaning up the trail and escaping before the police arrive.

If provoked, he will fight; he has the scars to prove it. It's always "now or never," and he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger, especially if someone threatens him.

He's business savvy and always looking for opportunities. It's the main reason for his businesses being so successful. He makes it a hobby to invest in smaller businesses and help turn them around. Though, he prefers to make fair deals and doesn't find joy in screwing other people over. Despite what most people think, a good chunk of his money is "clean" and not obtained through questionable means.

Because of the nature of his job, Reynard chooses his allies carefully and refuses to involve people who can't deal with it. He'll observe and sometimes test people before he deems them an enemy or ally. He values the trust of his allies, and he keeps his promises and backs them up as needed. Backstabbing isn't quite his thing; he'd rather not make more enemies. It'd only bring more unnecessary trouble.
However, if someone does betray his trust, he'll be sure to return the favor ten-fold. He doesn't appreciate traitors.

His main skills are acting and straight-faced lying; something he's mastered since childhood. He has an excellent poker face, making it difficult to tell when he's actually nervous. He can also cry crocodile tears and convincingly change his tone to match.

Deep down, Reynard isn't actually a bad person or evil in any way. He's very social with a kind heart and enjoys hanging out with people in his free time. He strikes up conversations all the time and means every compliment he gives. The "Reynard" that people know is genuinely how he is and not an act. He has a good reputation among the citizens, and he has people's respect. They don't fear him, but they know not to mess with him.
Many people question why someone like him is involved in shady business, and he always replies with: "It's more fun to be the bad guy."

He is quiet about his own feelings and often tosses them aside. If someone hurts his feelings, he brushes it off, usually with a smile, and doesn't let others know. There's only a select few in the city that he'd spill his heart out to, but, even then, he still holds back on it.

Despite being wanted by police, Reynard shows up in public fairly often and ever so casually. He knows they can't prove anything on him, and he keeps abusing loopholes. He loves to taunt and tease the police, especially Detective Keiran.
No matter how close they get, he's always one step ahead of the police.

He's very secretive of his past and has lived behind his fake name for years. There is very little known about his actual identity, except for the fact that he did have an older brother. He doesn't like hearing or talking about his brother, and pressing further only results in him shutting you down or possibly worse. As far as he's concerned, his brother is long dead, and the police should stop chasing after a dead guy. He wishes that Keiran would let go and stop blaming him for his older brother's crimes.

Reynard likes to collect guns and is skilled in handling a wide variety of them. He is, however, very strict about gun safety and will only show his gun collection to other serious hobbyists. His favorite weapons are explosives, like rocket launchers.

Reynard currently resides in the city of Luminea, but his place of residence is unknown. He keeps that information private - not even his closest friends know where his house is. He can often be found staying at the Malachite Manor, a hotel run by his gang, the Malachites, or hanging out at Squeaker's club on late nights.

For black market and gang-related dealings, Reynard has an office deep within the heart of the Malachites' base of operations, hidden under the city of Luminea. A massive painted portrait of his older brother, Thorne, sits at the back and looks down upon the room at all times. He likes to keep an assortment of weird trinkets on his desk and always has emergency measures on-hand for people who try anything funny.

Every now and then, Reynard does leave Luminea to head to Chromeill and other unknown locations. He is capable of getting in and out of the heavily-bordered cities without being detected.

On most days, Reynard manages the front desk at his weapons store and helps people set up for the shooting range just outside of the city. Aside from a really vague "I sell weapons," nobody knows which kind of business is Reynard's main business. They only know that he controls much of the black market and runs a legal surface business for fun.

The Luminea citizens have little use for guns and explosives, so his gun store shouldn't be floating along so well...

Reynard's early life and real name is mostly unknown, as he took extra steps to erase his past upon becoming the boss of the Malachites.

Reynard grew up on the streets of Chromeill and only had his older brother, Thorne, to protect them. He followed his brother's every step and learned how to fight and steal from him. Under his brother's guidance, they ended up running with the wrong crowd constantly.

Even as a child, Reynard was already accustomed to fighting and learning how to scam people out of their money to survive. One of Chromeill's gang leaders saw potential in the brothers and took them under his wing. The gang leader became a father figure to the boys and taught them everything he knew.

While Reynard was still a young teen, their adoptive father died from complications resulting from fight-related injuries, and Thorne took over. Wanting to follow in their father's footsteps, the brothers did anything they could to improve and expand the gang's territories. At this time, Thorne made Reynard take a back seat to gang-related jobs, so the young fox sought out employment at a grocery store.

Overtime, however, Reynard and Thorne slowly grew distant, with Thorne stressing over the pressure of living up to their father. He watched as his older brother became more ruthless, taking aggressive and often violent decisions against the other Chromeill gangs. They were constantly in fights due to his constant threats.

During this time, Reynard took it upon himself to sharpen his skills and asked a gang member to teach him how to properly use weapons, including guns. While he never saw much action, he would constantly practice to keep his aim sharp. He also began diving more into business as well. Having had a taste of working a normal day job, he wanted to open his own store and asked Thorne for some money to start.

After some persuasion, a young teen Reynard finally bought his own store from an owner who was moving out. He spent about a month on renovations and set up shop soon after. It was a small store and nothing special, but he was passionate about it. Without Thorne to command him around, he was free to do as he saw fit and chose to focus solely on his business. Though, he was a bit disheartened to see how little customers he had for the first few weeks.

One day, a young college student named Spicer walked into his store, complimenting on his decorative handiwork. They struck up a conversation, with Reynard admitting that he was fairly new to running a store, and she gladly gave him some advice on getting more customers. She would continue to visit every week after that, and they eventually became good friends. He would look forward to updating her on his latest achievements, and she'd update him on how her career was going.

Eventually, Reynard's store began to pick up, and he hired his first employee after two months. He used the clean money from the store to support his fellow gang members in way of food and other necessities, as their supplies began to dwindle due to bad relationships with the other gangs. Each day, after a day at work, he found himself wearily returning home to the complaints about Thorne's decisions and news of the gang's plummeting influence. It left him worried every night, knowing that there was little he could do to help.

Thorne would often complain about Reynard focusing too much on his "side project" of a business, but some gang members stepped up to support his side instead. After all, his "side project" was the only thing keeping them afloat.

Overtime, Reynard noticed that Thorne was changing for the worse. He became incredibly concerned over Thorne's increasingly violent tendencies towards their fellow gang members. He'd often have to talk everyone down from fighting and keep some members away from his older brother.

At some point, Thorne was even caught and arrested by the police on charges of multiple murders, but he was left go after being declared innocent, despite all evidence pointing to him. The gangs of Chromeill had already corrupted the justice system, and most police were being paid off beforehand. A detective by the name of Keiran was in charge of the case, and his investigations led the gang to go into further hiding.

Reynard kept a distance from Thorne but began to investigate into his behavior on his own. He would snoop around in Thorne's office, looking for any clues. In the desk, he found ominous writings in his brother's journal and noticed the signs pointing to a previously abandoned underground room being used recently.

There, Reynard discovered weird symbols scrawled across the floors among other worrying details. Everything about it left him feeling uneasy. Though, what Thorne was using the room for, Reynard didn't know at the time. When Thorne caught him, Reynard was scolded and told to leave without an explanation.

Almost a year later, Reynard watched as everything began to fall apart. Everything went wrong. Thorne was now unreasonable and constantly putting the gang members at risk. The entire gang became divided over following him or beginning their own branch, but they were unable to leave as Thorne threatened them all. A few gang members would slowly disappear. Whether it was related to their opinions of Thorne, fight casualties, or some other reason, they would never know.

One late afternoon, some of the gang members heard screaming from the underground pathways and rushed out only to find a trail of blood leading out to the river. Reynard was kneeling down near the river bank, covered in blood with loosened ropes around his wrists. He was clutching an ornamental dagger and staring emptily out into the bloodstained water. They later learned that Thorne had died that night, but they were unable to find traces of his body after days of searching.

There was no trace of clothing, his belongings, or even his fur. Thorne was simply gone.

Thorne's death was later confirmed by police, after they found his body in another part of the city, horribly mangled and barely identifiable. Even they couldn't figure out his cause of death, as it could've been a multitude of things, and only released vague details about it.

Because A.I. technology and genetic engineering were also on the rise at the time, the entire thing was barely covered in media and quickly faded from the minds of the public. All reporters and journalists turned their focus towards the announcement of Delta, and a new age of Chromeill was beginning.

Whatever happened that day remains unknown to everyone, except for Reynard himself. Reynard held onto all his older brother's belongings, including the journal, and placed them all into a locked box for safekeeping. He would never allow the others to touch it.

After the event and death of his older brother, Reynard became depressed and chose to do nothing but sleep for a week. However, his store employees eventually found and reminded him that they still needed their manager around. Not wanting to let them down, he got up from his slump and went back to work. He had hoped to keep his mind off of things by staying busy.

The sudden death of their leader had left the gang in shock and chaos. With nobody to lead, their operations had come to a complete stop, and their businesses began to fail. Reynard was the sole person bringing in enough money to support everyone else. They took a break and stepped out of all territory disputes, easily losing much of their properties to the rival gangs.

Even after a few members left, the rest of the gang chose to stay together, because they had come to see each other as family and couldn't let that go. They would help support Reynard's business in the meanwhile, working at his store or helping move supplies.

One day, Spicer, his favorite long-time customer, showed up to Reynard's store. They hadn't seen each other in weeks, and she was happy to see that his store was still in business. Being able to see Spicer again brightened up Reynard's day and brought him back to his former, optimistic self. They'd continue to catch up on everything and even began to hang out once in a while.

While everything looked down, Reynard still successfully expanded his business and managed to buy a bigger store in a nearby location, selling off his very first store location to someone new. He'd watch more customers walk in and the store's profits grow. It made him feel better, knowing that he could afford to take care of his employees and fellow gang members.

At the age of only 18, Reynard finally made the decision to take over the gang, making him the youngest gang leader in Chromeill. He began to pick everything up again and didn't hesitate to reform the gang itself. His first order was to take out all traitors - no exceptions. To prove how serious he was, he personally hunted down and executed one of their enemies. He renamed the gang to the "Malachites" and hired a fashion designer in private to change up their outfits to their present checkered patterns. Thorne's office was then repurposed to be his.

It didn't take long for Reynard to build up his reputation as a gang leader. Because many people weren't aware that Thorne even had a younger brother, Reynard found it easy to fake his name and started going by simply "Faux" for gang-related dealings. Unlike the other gangs, Reynard had his eyes on something more valuable to him than territory: the black market.

For the next two years, Reynard would begin taking over most of Chromeill's black market and expanding his connections. He gained access to top secret information from the biggest companies and artifacts of unknown power. He knew little about magic or their uses, but he knew how well of a price they'd fetch on the market. The whole gang grew to love their new leader and enjoyed their success through lavish spending and parties.

Under Reynard's rule, both of Chromeill's markets actually began to flourish. He would use his influence to fix things above the black market and gave more attention to neglected corners of the city. Every empty space was useful space for a business or some service, he believed. The gang's territory doubled up and much of the black market was under his control, but he liked to keep it fair for competitors. He considered competition to be healthy to their economy, especially for quality control.

When other gangs tried to step in and take over Reynard's territories, they'd eventually give up and relinquish everything to him again. Reynard knew business better than any of the other gang leaders, and anybody who tried to remove his influence over both markets would soon regret it. Without him, the market would start to crash. He knew this well, and he was often smug about it.

There were still territory wars here and there, but most were unrelated to the business scene. They were often personal disputes.

Just before Reynard's 21st birthday, Keiran showed up again and began his hunt for the gang leader. The detective was still holding a grudge over the Thorne murder case and was seeking revenge on Reynard in his stead. He blamed Reynard for everything Thorne did. Reynard, however, welcomed the challenge and made a cat-and-mouse game out of it. He'd always stay just out of arm's reach and constantly taunted the detective at every given chance.

Between playing games with Keiran and running his gang, Reynard still ran his main store with his employees. He found himself rather busy but having fun. While he could've expanded his store, he chose to keep it the same, as he had the rest of the black market as his playing field now. He didn't see a reason to overwhelm himself and was comfortable where he was.

On his 21st birthday, Reynard celebrated by going to the bar where Spicer worked for his first drink. He became a loyal patron after that, coming in at late nights to talk with her. He began to support her now, in return for all her support in the past. They continued being good friends.

Towards the end of the year, though, Spicer walked into Reynard's store for the last time. She thanked Reynard for being a good friend and told him that she was going to move away to the sister city of Luminea, as others have done. She encouraged him again, mentioning that his business skills had grown - that he could be successful anywhere he wanted. After bidding farewell to each other, Reynard watched as she walked away.

While gazing up at his older brother's portrait that night, Reynard began to realize that he'd accomplished everything he set out to do in Chromeill. He had finally run out of things he wanted to do and wondered if this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: stay in the city forever - when more was out there? He'd spend the night looking over everything he'd built and thinking over old memories.

There were still unanswered questions. Reynard wanted to know more about Thorne's journal, but, despite having many connections, there was nobody in the city who could decipher such writing. He would have to seek those answers elsewhere.

Being a fairly younger city, Luminea was the perfect place to start up a new business. There were no gangs to compete with, and it would be safer for his own family, the Malachites. He saw it as a chance to start anew and began to make preparations.

After a week, Reynard promoted his longest time employee to manager and told them his plans to move to the rest of his company. He assured them that he would still help run things and support them, just from a distance now. He entrusted the store to his new manager and wished them luck.

At the office, Reynard gathered the Malachites together and made the announcement that they were going to leave for Luminea. He gave them a month to prepare all of their belongings and organized a caravan for travel outside the city. They'd pack up everything from his office, and he appointed a few people to help continue running things on the Chromeill side. Those who wanted to stay in Chromeill were allowed to. The rest of the gang members would all move before the end of the year.

The Malachites packed up all their things and set off on a private caravan away from Chromeill. Reynard employed some extra help with warding away the monsters he'd heard of beyond city walls and made sure to read up on everything they'd need to know on their way there. It was a long journey, but they treated it more as a fun camping trip.

Upon arriving to Luminea, Reynard found them a place to stay, and they quickly set up shop. They arrived quietly, without the citizens knowing, and started building up their base of operations behind the scenes. They managed to get everything settled without a hitch and were pleased. With no corrupt police to interrupt him, Reynard was able to turn one of his favorite hobbies, collecting guns, into an official and - most importantly - legal business. He also set up a plot of land just outside the city walls as a shooting range, that he allowed the Luminea police to practice on as well.

Soon after, Reynard bought a massive plot of land that he'd begin construction work for. Unlike Chromeill, Luminea was freely open to visitors and especially adventurers. He planned to create a hotel to draw business, seeing as nobody else thought of it yet, but it would take a while to finish.

At the start of the new year, Reynard decided to start wearing his favorite color, yellow, and even dyed his hair as such. He managed to locate his favorite fashion design in Luminea and commissioned a new outfit. It was then that he chose to give himself a new first name, instead of going by simply "Faux" as he had for the past years. He'd change his full name to "Reynard Faux."

Reynard spent the first few months looking around the city and figuring out where everything was. He'd introduce himself to as many people as possible, while keeping his gang leader role on the lowdown. Since very few people knew what he looked like back in Chromeill, he ended up making friends easily, and nobody suspected him.

Squeaker's night club would soon become Reynard's favorite place in the city. Upon hearing that it was the only place with a bar at the time, Reynard became curious to see if a certain someone would be working there. He was happy to find out that, indeed, Spicer was there, and he decided to surprise her by showing up one day. They reconnected over a drink and began to catch up on everything that happened.

Spicer became one of the only few people who Reynard would confide in about his true role as the Malachites' boss. He informed her of his new name "Reynard Faux" and told her that he was starting anew.

After the Malachites had everything set up, Reynard allowed their business to continue as usual. He would open up his new store and proudly display his collections. Though, not as successful as his previous businesses, he was happy with finally owning a gun shop and had done it for himself. The city folk didn't really have a use for guns, after all.

Once things settled down, Reynard still felt a bit lonely and realized that he missed the games he'd play with the old detective back in Chromeill. He wondered how Keiran was getting along, considering he and the gang vanished overnight, and decided to write a letter of invitation to Luminea. If he was going to live in this city, he also wanted to bring the detective over, too. He included some money for the move in the envelope - should the detective accept - and sent a messenger to deliver it.

For weeks, Reynard kept a close eye on Luminea, waiting for any word of the detective's arrival. Until, finally, it happened: one of the gang members informed of his appearance just outside the city. They waited for a while, to allow the detective to find a place to stay first. Reynard chose a specific day to wait for Keiran by the police station. He wanted to be the first to welcome the detective to his new post.

Upon welcoming Keiran, Reynard was met with a series of punches that were easily dodged. He swiftly placed the welcoming gift he had prepared for him on the detective's luggage, before vanishing. It was a custom-made gun.

After that, Reynard felt that everything was complete. Luminea was now the perfect home for him. He had his friends and family in the city, and the detective, too. He was going to watch the city grow and have fun while he was at it.

While working on his store, Reynard met a friendly fashion designer by the name of Bijou, who was the manager of a clothing & design shop down the block. They got along well and began to go out for coffee together at the nearby cafe. Soon, he even got to know her friends and would invite them to Squeaker's club for drinks.

When the construction of Malachite Manor was completed, Reynard held an opening ceremony and invited everybody in the city to stop by for a grand party. He had the Malachites help decorate and host the party. He invited Spicer to be the bartender and Squeaker to be the DJ.

In the middle of the celebration, Reynard and a few of Bijou's friends found themselves having to solve a (thankfully not murder) mystery involving the missing wine and a lost guest.

...and they discovered a way into the underground ruins by accidentally making a hole in the hotel's basement.

Reynard later commissioned someone to build an official (but secret) way down into the underground ruins through the basement. It became an alternate way for the Malachites to get around without being seen on the streets.

After Delta's attempt to destroy Luminea was foiled, Reynard found himself haunted by nightmares of his past. He decided to pick up the mystery of his older brother's journal yet again and continued to look for an answer.

One night at Squeaker's club, Reynard discovered that one of Bijou's friends could write similarly to the scribbles in Thorne's journal. He later learned that this "scribbling" was demonic in origin. As nobody else practiced magic in Chromeill, he had difficultly finding someone who knew about it. He didn't expect one of Bijou's odd friends to be the clue he was looking for, though.

Once he learned about the presence of a demon in the city, Reynard began to read more about them on his own.

...and everything began to make sense...