'T'was more than a day, but here it is.
Player: Question Mark
Group: Military Mission
Name: Henry Jean Vesalier
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Rank: Captain
Highest Rank Held: Major
Social Standing: N/A
Sexual Preference: Heterosexual
Appearance: Tall, nearly 190 cm, with a willowy build and long legs that make him a naturally good runner. Maintains a bushy brown mustache on a handsome, albeit worn, face. While in uniform, wears a red and blue kepi, a blue single-breasted shell coat with golden buttons and epaulettes, white gloves, and dark blue straight-legged trousers with a golden stripe running down the outside leg.
Weapons: At all times, Henry possesses a standard Le Hir Revolver, loaded. When in uniform, he will also carry a
Pattern 1633 Cuirass, which he bears with great pride. Finally, he maintains a standard 1630 Bosc rifle, which he keeps in his quarters.
Extra Gear: The usual toiletries. In addition, Henry possesses an older style pocket watch, the outer casing of which bears a map of the (then) known world, itself ringed by an artistic representation of the Doldrum. He also carries a handkerchief for his persistent cough and a finely carved wood pipe inlaid with brass, although he does not smoke it.
History: Henry was born into poverty in the year 1613 to his father, Jean, and his mother, Amelie. A clotheswasher, Amelie died during childbirth. Jean, a factory worker deep in debt, frequently took out his anger and grief on his young son, indirectly blaming him for his wife's death. Henry grew up covered in bruises and reeking of the gin his father bought with money he didn't have to spare. He loved his father despite the harsh treatment, and being an intelligent and surprisingly emphatic child, often worried after his health and fortunes.
By the age of 6, Henry was working 12 hour shifts as a chimney sweep. Several years later, Jean was jailed in a debtors prison. As a result, Henry began boarding with his father's sister. Despite her close relation, she maintained that it was Henry's responsibility to pay down his father's debt, and so he continued working. Her husband, a Lieutenant in the army named Picard, returned later that year on a brief leave. A kind man, he persuaded her to release Henry to the army, and to use part of her considerable savings to make Jean's debt solvent, allowing Henry to stop working and attend a private school as a ward of the army.
Despite his late start, Henry proved to be a voracious student, excelling in reading, arithmetic, and oration. On Picard's advice, and inspired by his grand tales of soldiering abroad, Henry applied and was quickly accepted into the Malix Military Academy. He again excelled academically, but received poor marks in the areas of leadership and military strategy. Upon graduation at the age of 21, Henry was assigned as a 2nd Lieutenant to the 12th Logistics Corp and stationed in a city garrison as a supply officer. Proving adept at maintaining the supply chain, he quickly rose to the rank of Major over the next decade. Henry set aside a percentage of his wages to paying off his father's debt, but was unable to keep up with the accruing interest. Growing desperate, Henry entered into the contraband black market. By changing numbers in supply ledgers, he could reroute weapons, food, and clothing to illicit buyers without arousing suspicion. With this robust income, he quickly paid down the interest, released Jean, and even bought him a small apartment in the city. However, he was forced to discontinue sending money after an investigation nearly uncovered his role in the contraband racket.
Two years later, war broke out with Tauacia. Henry was commissioned as a chief logistics officer for one of the many fronts, and was moved out to a supply camp near the fighting. A month into the war, a misled Tauacian force assaulted the depot, having incorrectly believed it to be a staging area. Although the force was quickly rebuffed due to the timely arrival of an Osoren regiment, Henry took a ball to the chest in the chaos and nearly died of pneumonia the following week.
While recovering from his injury, a messenger arrived bearing a formal accusation of Henry for contraband smuggling. He would later learn that a captured fence working for the contraband ring had given up his name under duress.
Despite the ongoing war, Henry was forced to return and stand trial. As it turned out, the evidence against him was not especially strong, and Henry was able to narrowly evade a conviction by nullifying the incriminating testimony and citing his distinguished service. Fearing an incorrect verdict, the military tribunal nonetheless busted him down to a Lieutenant, docked his pay, and assigned him as a "morale officer" to a 9th Infantry fort on the fringe of the fighting, far away from any major supply lines. The position was intended as an indirect punishment, and Henry spent the remainder of the war pacing the walls of the fort and cleaning equipment, growing resentful and bitter. His wound, although fully healed, had left him with a persistent cough, and the cool climate only exacerbated the problem.
After the war, Henry repeatedly petitioned for reassignment, and was repeatedly turned down. Even when he received a rain-soaked letter telling him of Jean's death, the Osoren army refused to grant him leave to return home and bury his father. The fourth year of his assignment crawled by, and Henry began contemplating desertion. Before he could steal away across the border, a letter arrived bearing his name. His sixteenth reassignment request had been granted: he was ordered to immediately report to the nearest port and rendezvous with a mission to the distant Araki Empire. Included was a parcel bearing the epaulettes of an Osoren Captain and a signed order confirming his promotion.
Initially, Henry used the command as a cover-up for his desertion. Three nights after leaving the fort, Henry encountered an Osoren military convoy led by a man who recognized him from his highly publicized trial four years earlier. After a brief inquiry, Henry was forced to reveal that he was destined for the nearest port. Surprised, the leader of the convoy insisted that he travel with them since, through sheer luck, that was where they were headed. Unable to decline without revealing his desertion, Henry found himself unwillingly escorted to the port.
