#the wicked puzzleknot.

[ruinedwanderers]

achilles, achilles, just put down the bottle, don't listen to what you've consumed. it's chaos, confusion, and wholly unworthy of feeding, and it's wholly untrue. you may feel no purpose nor a point for existing; it's all just conjecture and gloom. and there may not be meaning, so find one and seize it, do not waste yourself on this roof.

— introducing finn stafford •‍ the wicked puzzleknot

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧…

FULL NAME — finn aodhán stafford

NICKNAME(S) — finnán

BIRTH DATE — february 14

AGE — 33

GENDER — cis man

PRONOUNS — he+him

ORIENTATION — panromantic pansexual

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧…

FACE CLAIM — boyd holbrook

HEIGHT — 6'1" / 185cm

HAIR & EYE COLOUR — blond & blue

RIGHT/LEFT-HANDED — ambidextrous

MARKS — a tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, "adventure." in typewriter font; scarred knuckles.

Whatever he hides, the surface makes something very clear upon first meeting; this man has trouble in his mind. It's the way the corners of his mouth inevitably always pull up into a mischievous grin, the way his eyes scan a room looking for a thread to pull. Finn keeps his unkempt and floppy blond hair relatively short, yet even when it's as short as it is, there's no taming it, having it stick out every which way no matter how often he might push a hand through it.

His manner of dress varies vastly, going from white t-shirt and flannel over top, torn jeans and worn boots when he isn't being purposeful, to slick and put-together when the situation calls for it. It betrays a lot of his personality; he knows all about etiquette and manners, and will wield it when it'll get him somewhere, but his default is blunt and to the point, not a diplomatic bone in his body.

𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬…

✱ KNOWLEDGEABLE

If you ask Finn, he bullshitted together his PhD. As it is, he's not only a bookworm that will read books 80 kilometres per hour, he's also gifted with the natural skill of "connecting the dots". Generating new information by connecting two seemingly unrelated bits of data is how he subconsciously stays ahead in life.

✱ STUBBORN

If Finn doesn't want to do something, no twisting or turning will get him to do something. Once he's put his heels down, very few things — or rather people — can convince him to do anything or go anywhere against his will. Unfortunately this is usually employed to benefit others rather himself. Unless it's about opening up about his inner most feelings.

✱ CURIOUS

Curiosity is what has driven him to many ends of the earth in the past, and it hasn't stopped moving him since he was a wee child. Like a cat demanding to see what's on the other side of the door, if there's something that sparks Finn's interest or curiosity, no matter how reckless or dangerous, there's few forces in the world that may deter him from reaching the other side of that damn door, come what may.

✱ IMPATIENT

When you take curiosity, a sense of adventure, and a stunning case of lack of self-preservation, and mix them all together, you get Finn's brand of "fuck it". Yes, he can be reckless and negligent towards his own well-being, but he would argue in the carpe diem variety. After all, if you know what needs to happen to make anything happen, why sit around and talk about it?

✱ QUICK-WITTED

While he is quick with his words, Finn is even quicker with his mind. It doesn't take him very long to get the gist of a situation, a text, a person, and react upon it. It's not that he knows everything, rather than he knows how to find out everything. For Finn, his mind is a giant search engine that he only needs to input the relevant data to figure out an appropriate — albeit preliminary in a lot of cases — answer.

✱ ARGUMENTATIVE

Arguments are the whetstone of the mind, and o boy does he love keeping his sharp. While often he doesn't argue for argument sake, when you leave him bored and to his own devices, he will start shit just for the "thrill of the fight". Great when you're in a college room arguing theories with your classmates. Not as much when you're in a bar calling some drunk guys idiots.

MBTI — entp‍ ‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ENNEAGRAM — 7w8‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍TEMPERAMENT — sanguine‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍MORALITY — chaotic good

𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 & 𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐬…

✱ BOOKS

When he was young, one could've been fooled to think that Finn was a reserved, introverted boy with burst of energy to him. Books are his escape, if not from the world, then from himself. You don't have to travel physically if you can travel mentally, and wishing you were someone else in the deep recesses of your mind is academic when you can simply be someone else for as long as there's another page to turn. If nothing else, books — any, really — are his lifeline to relative sanity.

✱ ART

Art museums of any kind make Finn feel a certain way, like putting a child in a candy store. Art was his in into history, and history is what his entire world revolves around. Don't get him started on the topic, however, because he will not stop and there has been times he has gotten quite heated over the morals of it — here's looking at you, British Museum.

✱ HISTORY

Not his first love, but definitely his true love. Finn got into it through movies, The Trojan Women at five years old, and eventually — realising there were whole books that contained more of the like — fiction and non-fictional books of historical accounts. By the time he was fifteen and he first saw The Lost Ark, he decided to also become a "professor of archaeology". In hindsight, the professor part was too boring, and nowadays he realises he prefers working in the field.

✱ LANGUAGES

Voracious reader as he is, a language barrier never stopped Finn. After his first foray into mythological fiction of the film kind, he discovered the Sword-and-Sandal series, made a few years before his birth — unfortunately all in Italian. It was his first proper solo venture into a foreign language, but certainly not his last. The world of linguistics opened up even more books for him to read, and through reading, he learned an astounding amount of languages, to the point where, at 33 years of age, he can now be considered a successful polyglot.

✱ PARKOUR

So this was largely by accident. Growing up, a way for Finn to get out of his head was by getting physical — climbing trees, running around, even getting into fights as a teenager. It didn't take too long for him to figure out that if he turned the environment into a puzzle for him to solve, he could keep his mind sharp and occupied with anything that wasn't rumination and ruin. So when sitting still and reading books wouldn't do, he'd go out into the world and he'd fling himself on and against and off anything he could find, pushing himself further and further.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭…

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍Finn was born in Swords, Ireland to a barely 19-year-old mother, shunned by her very Catholic family, struggling to make ends meet as a single mother with very little financial or emotional support.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍he was six years old when his mother packed everything they owned in a single suitcase and moved to the United States under promise of better days by an American man she'd met once in Dublin and had shared a two-week long intense romance with.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍a month after arriving there and living in his house, they broke up and she was kicked out along with her son; it wasn't long thereafter that both he and his mother ended up the hospital, where he survived — an event Finn still doesn't remember to this day and the details were never clear on — but she didn't.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍a stranded boy in critical condition without American nationality, it was by the grace of a doctor working there that he found a new family; before he was even discharged, he'd been adopted into the Stafford family.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍throughout his growing up, he showed promise and potential, a quick mind and an eager spirit that turned restless in his teenage years; although he was provided everything he needed to live in comfort, his parents were busy people, and the attention they did manage was unloaded on Hal, his older brother.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍there's never been resentment for this towards his brother, not now nor as he was growing. Finn loves his brother, the most consistent person he's known in his life, his role model, the shining beacon whom he placed upon a pedestal that can do no wrong in his eyes and to whom he can never live up to — if Hal said jump, Finn would ask him how high, something that no one else, not even their parents, have ever managed.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍how Finn graduated at 15 years of age is anyone's guess, with the trouble he frequently found himself in and his habit of bullshitting through every piece of homework that was assigned to him — even in college, his drive, passion, and interest, that some might call obsessive, saw him spending much of his free time, if he had any, in libraries.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍while he had outstanding grades, his track record in high school was troubled to say the least — but if your family is who they are, good colleges are easier to come by even if your behaviour left something to be desired; and thus, to occupy his time as much as he could with something that took his full interest, Finn went on to double major in archaeology and anthropology with a minor in classical history and ancient languages.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ultimately, his PhD was in archaeology, and much of his professional life was spent travelling, which worked out just fine for him — being away from his family was sad, but nothing that could stop him from desperately keeping his mind away from the darkness that threatened to consume all he was any moment of any day.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 & 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬…

✱ THE PLANE IS NOW BOARDING

Finn's reason for boarding the flight was partially because it had been a long time since he'd properly seen or spent any amount of time with Hal and Yazmin, between their mutual busy schedules, and partially because... well. He'd never been to Sydney, but he had it on good authority that there was a rabbit hole of a party that was happening in the city in the very near future that he very much wanted to slide down into.

✱ I'M GOING ON VACATION AND I'M BRINGING...

Research-minded and inquisitive, Finn still uses his creative analytical and problem-solving skills to... well, solve problems. For the most part, he's a generalist, knows a little about a lot, enough to make him dangerous, as they say. His PhD and general education has primed him to being able to solve puzzles with a lot of pieces missing, to see beyond the evidence you have into what the evidence could be. He knows the basics of camping, he knows how to fight and win, and he's a skilled polyglot — even in languages that are considered dead today.

𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬…

✱ GENERAL DEMEANOUR

Finn is outgoing and while he can be stubborn and a blunt prick, he's not necessarily hard to get along with. He is who he is unapologetically and there's very little about himself he'll hide from people. From the get-go, he'll treat everyone like an old acquaintance he hasn't spoken to in a long time, until he gets negative reactions. While he's not going to go out of his way to antagonise anyone, he'll also not stand for bullies — whether the target is him or another person.

✱ THE INNER CIRCLE

If you've managed to get into Finn's inner circle, you'll get to see a truer part of who he is, a vision of his personality with more clarity than what he presents to the general public. He's a man who'll go out of his way to make his friends and family happy, loyal to the bitter end, and willing to damn himself to protect others — he's not a stranger to dirtying his hands for the greater good, and if he can keep others from having to do the shit that needs to be done, then that what he'll do. Frankly, for his inner circle, he'd walk through fire without so much of a complaint.

✱ THE NINTH CIRCLE

It takes a lot to get on Finn's bad side — or, on the other hand, perhaps it doesn't. While Finn's morals can bend to accommodate situations that are complex and not so cut-and-dry, there are certain things he simply will not tolerate. A very dangerous thing Finn can do is to shut off all feelings and act, allowing him to walk straight into hell to strangle the devil himself, if he has to. Abusers, predators, exploiters, anyone who looks at another person and imagines an easy target or a victim will find themselves quickly on the receiving end of his unrelenting fist — until they stop moving or he does.

[planetouched]

...𝙸𝙽𝚃𝚁𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙲𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐋𝐄𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐓

FINN MCGINTY is a THIRTY-THREE year old CIS MAN. he makes a living as an ARCHAEOLOGIST, which often takes him out of town for months at a time. while he’s KNOWLEDGEABLE and CHARISMATIC, he’s also known to be ARGUMENTATIVE and RECKLESS.

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musing

...𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸��𝙽

NAME — finn mcginty

NICKNAME(S) — finnán

AGE — 33

GENDER — cis man ( he & him )

ORIENTATION — biromantic bisexual

ROMANTIC TYPE — monoamorous

OCCUPATION — classical archaeologist & egyptologist

ETHNICITY — irish

RELIGION — atheist

...𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

FACE CLAIM — boyd holbrook

HEIGHT — 6′1″

WEIGHT — 172lbs

ACCENT — north dublin (irish)

EYES — blue

HAIR — blonde

STYLE — long enough to be a mess; unless he actively puts in the effort to tame it, his hair’s wild and seems to like ‘float’ with the smallest movement of his head

...𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

MBTI — entp

ENNEAGRAM — type 7w8

MORALITY — chaotic good

ANGER — hot

TEMPERAMENT — sanguine

POSITIVE TRAITS — charming; mischievous; passionate; knowledgeable; quick-witted

NEGATIVE TRAITS — argumentative; reckless; impatient; chaotic; competitive

...𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

usually with finn, you either absolutely hate him or you love him, there’s no inbetween. he talks fast, he thinks fast, everything has to be and go fast, and there’s just no stopping him once he gets going. the only ones who can stop him in his tracks and make him behave are his da and his older brother (both whom he absolutely adores).

art and history (and art history) aside, finn’s two big loves are books and languages. he knows approximately fifteen languages in various states of fluency, and there’s no chance that he’ll pass up a bookstore, especially not a second hand one; much of this is due to the incredible speed at which he devours books -- it takes him approximately 4 hours to read a 100k word book front to back on a bad day, faster if it’s a book he’s familiar with (like the aeneid or the illiad). the languages he knows as of right now are, in order of learning: english (native), irish (c2), esperanto (c2), spanish (c2), french (c2), latin (c1), italian (c1), arabic (b2), mandarin (b1), japanese (b1), ancient greek (theoretical), demotic (theoretical), coptic (theoretical), akkadian (theoretical).

while finn doesn’t have many tattoos, there’s one that’s impossible for him to hide. located on his back, between his shoulders, it’s the tattoo that represents his family -- one that was only partially voluntarily (the choice at 16 years old was, get the tattoo or be disowned). his family is a gang of vigilantes spanning three generations who are trained from age four to fight, and essentially beat the shit out of rapists, abusers, child molestors, and the like, the ones that slip through the cracks of the law. a good thing, you’d say, until you realise that this roman catholic family has to give up their ‘place in heaven’ for the protection of others according to their generation’s ringleaders. his cousin, however, who is his generation’s ringleader, has chosen to break the cycle due to what he knows it was doing to his cousins and didn’t want the same for his own kids.

finn is energetic and chaotic and humorous and wickedly optimistic... and also clinically depressed. the latter is something he hides very well, but often it comes out in uncharacteristic irritability and being especially impatient and aggressive. he’s terrified of being abandoned (partially which stems from being adopted, and partially because he has zero self-worth) but these are the times he wants desperately to be alone. at the same time, though, he’s terrified of being alone in those moments because of permanent impulsive decisions he might make. it’s those times he misses his parents and his brother the most.

[spellscarred]

[spellscarred]

[spellscarred]

Shipping and Handling for finn !!! !

Woo.

PLATONIC

So there's different ways you can become friends with Finn. Be aware, though, that he'll be friendly and cheeky with every single person, but that doesn't really mean shit. You might think you're his friend, but you're probably not really.

- Be exciting/interesting/challenging. Finn's entire life is about aggressively avoiding boredom, and this includes boring people (or people he thinks are boring). If you're easy to figure out, he probably won't think twice about you.

- Be adventurous and cheeky. Finn is a mischievous fuck. He loves doing everything that's forbidden and chaos is his bread and butter. He's the guy who spends his first day in school in the principal's office while also inexplicably getting effortless Bs (everyone knows he can do better, and all adults involved are frustrated that he underachieves as though it's a paying job).

- Have integrity. It doesn't matter if you're the biggest asshole in the room, or the softest summer child. As long as you have integrity, and you're not just playing a part, or playing people (see: manipulation, not being coy), he'll stick around.

- Be serious. That's probably a weird contradiction. Be fun and adventurous and mischievous, but be serious? There's a time and place for both, and if you know when and where, undoubtedly you'll be his friend. The thing is, sometimes things need to slow down and you need to talk about something that really matters to you, something you're really passionate about, without cheek, without trying to be witty or trying to outwit him. Show him you care about something.

ROMANTIC

This is a hard one. Finn doesn't think he's worthy of romantic love, and that people just don't like him like that. Discovering you do like him like that is easy compared to convincing him that you're really not confused about it.

- Be patient. Initially, he will reject you. It's less about you, and more about his own self-esteem, a form of self-destruction. Just be patient and stick around, and argue with him.

- Stick around. Maybe an extension of the previous point, but it's just really important. Finn has a lot of abandonment issues, and he's used to people leaving, especially when things don't go as they want, or he isn't what they imagined he would be. He's not always fun and cheeky. Sometimes he's cold, dismissive, and even suicidal. Don't let it deter you.

- Show genuine interest. Even if you're not into the things he's into (though it helps a lot), listen to what he has to say. Undoubtedly if there's (subconscious) romantic intentions, he'll do the same for you.

- Fuck him. Like a lot, lol.