BANKS, Darien Gregory

[darien gregory banks]

DARIEN GREGORY BANKS

FULL NAME: Darien Gregory Banks.
NICKNAMES: None. He hates nicknames.
AGE: Twenty-Four
GENDER: Male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Student.
GRADE: Junior.
MAJOR: Accountancy.
JOB OCCUPATION: Works for his father.

HAIR: Brown and longer than it ought to be. Sometimes it’s even longer than that! It depends what he can get away with and when his dad will be flying in. Styled usually with some product, the actually appearance varies on the length, and what he’s doing.
EYES: Blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: None, which is surprising given that his temper usually leads to him lashing out at walls and other inanimate things.
TATTOOS: Maori tattoo that covers almost all of his right side, his chest, back and shoulder. The words 'te arawa' down his shoulder, the name of where the tribe his mother came from and where he spent his first six years. He has more tattoos, including the Grim Reaper on the left side of his chest, a homage to the ancient worlds on his right forearm that includes pyramids, Stonehenge etc, and then his legs are mostly comprised of skulls and demons. His right stops at the knee, but the left goes all the way to the foot where he has a giant fly tattooed there. They’re all covered whenever he’s at his dad’s company or working.
PIERCINGS: His ears once on each side.
PLAY-BY: Vinnie Woolston!

LIKES: Tattoos, chilli dogs, running, being outdoors, his dad being away, the ocean, fish dishes, button down shirts, being able to grow his hair, going to bed, New Zealand, returning back to the tribe, the photos and memories he has of his mother, tap water, women who he’ll never see again who won’t bother him again, kale, art, the underground music scene.
DISLIKES: His dad coming to town, getting a haircut, shaving, ignorant people, fast food, being called ‘too serious’, trying to make relationships work, being the boss’ son, his college classes, clichés, roses, wonky frames, losing things, feeling stressed, not being able to get out of the city, sleepless nights, passing out at his desk.
FEARS: Disappointing himself, never seeing NZ again, forgetting what his mother looked like.
SECRETS: He dabbles in art, but only for his own mental wellbeing. No one has ever seen his work despite the room in his apartment full of sketchbooks and canvases. It’s a therapy for him, not anything he would ever consider as a career. He doesn’t share it because people would only push him towards more or ask him questions that he didn’t want to answer. So the room stays locked and he keeps the key around his neck.
PERSONALITY: One thing Darien hates about himself is that so many people are convinced that he’s too serious. It’s something that he’s inherited from his father’s approach to life and something he wishes he could change. He’s hard working, not because he wants to be but because he has to be. It’s rather common for him to pass out at his computer or in the office. In reality he’d rather embrace his outdoorsy side. Darien is too trapped in the city and longs to be out by the ocean, hidden in some quiet cove somewhere. He’s proud and shrewd but many people fail to see beyond that. There are many times when he seems cold and intimidating but this is usually because he doesn’t want people to get close to him; at least not people in the city. Darien has a terrifying temper, but unwavering self-control. He’s never hurt another person, but he is likely to hurt himself and put his fist through a wall when he sees red. He wouldn’t even contemplate lashing out at anyone else when he knows he’s hot headed. All of the above mean relationships of any kind have never really lasted, which does annoy him since it’s not the man he truly wants to be, but he’s honouring his mother’s wishes by standing by his father. Romance has gone nowhere. Plenty lust after him and he’s gotten into a habit of only spending time with women he knows he can cut from his life almost instantaneously. This is because they won’t come under scrutiny from his dad, or nag him about who he is. It’s defensive more than anything else. He’s got enough to worry about without needing a headache over love. It’s rather sad really, and even he knows it.

MOTHER: Kiri Banks, deceased.
FATHER: Warner Banks, 45.
SIBLINGS: N/A.
OTHERS: N/A.
PETS: N/A!
HOMETOWN: Rotorua, New Zealand .
HISTORY: Warner wasn’t always the stern and unmoving businessman he’s known to be now. There was a time when he was carefree and travelling the globe. It was during this time that he met Kiri. She was Maori, and falling in love unsettled her family and the tribe she came from, but there was no breaking them apart. At least not at first. She was so enamoured with Warner that she was willing to turn her back on everything she had ever known for him. Thankfully, it didn’t come down to that. Her family were reluctantly accepting in the end and when she had a son, they welcomed him, too. For six years Kiri lived in Rotorua with her little boy, Darien, whilst Warner divided his time between them and the company back in New York where his own father had a business. It was complicated stuff, but when he was with his family he switched off and didn’t talk about work; his attention was entirely on them.

Darien was six when Kiri grew ill suddenly. She knew she had been ill for a while, but she believed in alternative medicine and thought the treatments of the healers could cure the disease that riddled her bones despite when doctors told her she was terminal. She died quickly, and without much pain. In her final days she told Darien to stay with his dad, to tolerate him through the grief and to help him as much as he could. It would be tough on them, she said, but Warner would need his son more than ever. What Darien didn’t know was that his paternal grandfather was also sick, dying, too. He had only met the man once when they went to New York for Christmas and he had been nice to him. He passed away just six weeks after Kiri did.

The grief was overwhelming for Warner. He was pushed to the forefront of his father’s company in the aftermath of his death, and Darien had no choice but to move to New York with his dad, too. Life was entirely different from there on out. Warner used the work to bury his grief. He began forgetting about the wonders of the world and the life he had been building with his wife and son. Everything became about the business, expanding and furthering what already existed.

Darien ended up being raised by a man who had no time for games with his son, or vacations. Instead he insisted his son make straight As and cut out any kind of frivolous behaviour. The little time Darien spent with his dad was full of lectures about how he would one day be in Warner’s shoes and running the business and how he needed to be prepared for that. They never spoke of Kiri and there was never any affection shown between them after they moved to the spacious New York home. Darien was cheated out of a childhood, and once he was old enough his dad was showing him spreadsheets and finances for the company, trying to ensure that he knew everything long before he probably needed to. Kids his age were going to school football games, or spending weekends at the mall, but Darien was doing extra homework, or at the office with his dad learning the ropes to the business that would one day be his. Having no kind of social life or friends to call his own meant that Darien became quite a cold person, one who people felt intimidated by.

When he graduated high school, he was able to return to New Zealand for a year. He only managed it because his dad was setting up a new office there and thought it would be an excellent experience for his son to see what they were doing out there and ensure the start up went well. While out there, Darien got to see his maternal family again and get back in touch with the roots that he had neglected for so long. He remembered the things he loved, and realised just how much he hated the life he was living in the city and the man he was becoming. He didn’t want to dishonour his mother though, and made another promise to see this through until he could find a way to help his dad remember all the wonderful things, too. He got his tattoos, or at least the first of them, and made sure they could be hidden. He found himself, to be short about it, but realised the mask needed to stay on if he wanted to help his dad and not just get a door slammed shut in his face.

He had deferred for year from college, which was extended when the trip took longer than planned. This was at his father’s request when something didn’t add up in the six month report from the NZ office. Darien stuck around to straighten it up and then return to New York for school. It had to be New York so that he could work for his father as well as making classes. Three years on and he’s tired. Unbelievably so, in fact. He’s been trying his best to help his dad, but it’s a struggle. His own life is suffering now and he fears that there may never be a way to remind the man of who he once was, or find a way to live the life he wants to live, whilst still honouring his mother’s wishes and his father’s demanding hopes for him.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: IN THE MOON KINGDOM.
SAMPLE:

myaw?

[kim]