Basics

Name: Xanthus Amancio
Meaning: Xanthus is a greek name meaning "yellow", obviously chosen due to his blonde hair. And yes, his mother did that on purpose. Amancio is a Spanish name coming from the Roman name Amantius, which means "loving." This was just pure coincidence. <3 Really.
Age: 19
Birthday: June 25
Zodiac: Cancer, Scorpio ascendant, Leo moon
Height: 5'11"

Likes:
Romance novels: It's odd for a man to enjoy romance novels, yes, but he sort of grew up on them, as his mother is a novelist of the romance persuasion. He enjoys all the different ways that one can say "penis" and "vagina", you see.
Anything older than himself: This man is full of nostalgia, whether it be music, writings, art, fashion, etc. He is absolutely convinced that things were much better in the old days, paying no mind to things like disease and war. He is particularly enamoured with the Italian Renaissance era, as well as the French Revolution. Ah, and British Renaissance as well. And on that note...
His basement dwelling: Yes, he's one of those guys that lives with his mom in the basement. Hey, he's got his own bathroom, and a minibar! Xanthus is very attached to his home, spending most of his time there. He's really a homebody (which may be why he's a slightly squishy man).
Wine: Xanthus is quite the connoisseur, preferring red over white, but enjoying it all just the same. He has a vast collection in his basement dwelling of different wines from different years. One of his most prized possessions, in fact, is a one hundred year old bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Don't ask how much it cost, just admire it. On a related note, he also REALLY LOVES HIS BRANDY. Brandy is reserved for special occasions, like drowning his sorrows. <3
Women: No. Really. Women really should be put under hobbies, it'd be a more accurate description. He's not the worst kind of womanizer out there, but he certainly womanizes. And he's good at it, too. Pretty much any time you see Xanthus out of his house, it's because he's looking for women to hit on. At least he doesn't call them chicks!
His Mom: Actually, he REALLY LOVES his mom. He's a momma's boy, to the nth degree. He spends more time with her than anyone else, even when she's not coherent enough to participate in said quality time. He basically thinks his mother is the most wonderful woman alive, and thinks every woman should be like her. Perhaps this is one of the reasons he is so fickle with his women.

Dislikes:
Boring and/or Submissive Women: This is absolutely the opposite of Xan's ideal woman. If he's unamused for more than five seconds, that girl gets the boot. He's very shallow in this respect. If a girl doesn't show some independence and a sense of adventure, or SOMETHING, it's just not worth it to him.
People in General: He's not a misanthropist, but rather a Selective Befriender. He has a very specific list of criteria that potential buddies have to meet, and then they're his buddies for life. The way he sees it, "Joe" is not "people" but "that guy over there" is "people." Make sense?
Being told what to do: This includes getting advice. Xan is of the opinion that no one can decide for him except for himself, so any attempt on another person's part to influence his decisions is rewarded with his moody, bitter retorts. It will go so far as to cause him to go and do exactly the opposite thing of what someone tells him he should do, which isn't always a good thing.
Marionettes: They scare the LIVING CRAP OUT OF HIM OMG THEY'RE GOING TO KILL HIM AAAAHHHH.
Loudness: People shouting, music, etc. His poor little ears are much more accustomed to nice, soothing classical music, or traditional Spanish music (from SPAIN, not South America). It's far too disruptive to Xanthus' squishy, comfy world, so it upsets him. And he doesn't like to be upset. Boo hoo.
Violence/Gory things: He's very squeamish about violence in general. Even someone punching another person is enough to make him ill. If there's a fight going on, he goes with FLIGHT, and very quickly. The whole concept quite frankly scares him, and he can't even stand to watch it on television. He sticks with sappy girly movies and lots and lots of books. It doesn't bother him so much to read about it, since he has the option of skipping the text.

Hobbies:
Writing: Like his mother, Xanthus enjoys writing very much, and hopes to follow in her footsteps as a novelist. He is never without his laptop bag, containing (DUHR) a laptop and a notebook. The notebook being for times when it may not be appropriate or convenient to bring out the Shiny Technology.
Sexual Intercourse: That's right, I said it. While Xanthus may not be reaching nymphomaniac proportions, he is still quite the sex addict, which gets him into trouble with his Woman of the Day (when she meets the Woman of Tomorrow. Heh.). Seriously, this boy needs help.
Antique shopping: He frequents antique and pawn shops to pick up anything that looks Victorian or older. His little piece of basement is absolutely full of old furniture, artwork, textiles and the like.
Museum browsing: He goes to museums for inspiration, finding girls or to unwind. Basically, Xanthus can be broken down to four locations (these are daily activities): Museum, coffee shop, antique store, and HOME.
Renaissance Faires: He goes to every one that passes within four hours drive of Grand Bend, and sometimes further. He participates in duels, dresses up, the whole bit. It's also a good place for him to pick up women.

Appearance:
Hair: Xan's hair is rather thick and highly unmanageable, preferring to keep it tied back most of the time. Though, there are always a few strands that refuse to stay put. It is dirty blonde with some very yellow golden strands throughout (natural!), and reaches a few inches past his shoulders.
Eyes: Muddy brown, rounded and mostly unspectacluar, save for the thick, dark lashes that prettify them. They're average, showing more of his northwestern European heritage than Spanish. He actually takes care of his eyebrows, so they're nicely shaped into gentle arches, though still thick enough so it's not too effeminate for him. His eyes and eyebrows, though not spectacular in an exotic way, are very expressive, and a good indication to what he is thinking at the time.
Face: Xanthus has an overall round face, with sharpness around his jawline, cheekbones and nose. There's a bit of chub to it, however, made more cute by the one dimple in his right cheek, nearly always visible with his everpresent lopsided smile. His lips are of an average size, not full yet not very thin, the top lip having a bit of a pronounced cupid's bow. He often goes without shaving for days at a time, and so it is not uncommon to see some nice, dirty blonde stubble along his chin and jawline. Perhaps he's going for the Sexy Guy on the Romance Novel Cover look. Xan's Spanish heritage becomes more evident when looking at his skin, being a medium to light caramel tone.
Build: Being 185 pounds, Xanthus has a bit of chub to him, most of it settling around his stomach area. He's not a big guy, exactly, but cuddly. There's no real muscle definition, as Xanthus is a lazy bum and does not excercise (save for a walk to the coffee shop, perhaps), so he's neither lanky nor stocky, but rather average. It might amuse one to look at his hands, for they are very well taken care of with manicuring and moisturizing. He has likely never worked a hard day in his life.
Carriage: Though his stride is confident, Xanthus walks with his shoulders hunched ever-so-slightly, as though to signal to others that he wants to be a wallflower. Depending on his mood, he can also be seen lumbering and moping.
Clothing: Xanthus favours button-up shirts and a nice pair of slacks, to look presentable, although his shirts are not usually tucked in. He is an avid collector of old suits, and so is sometimes seen in a nice circa 1890s get up, though not usually with a hat. He dislikes how he looks in hats. As for shoes, they always match the outfit, and are always dressy.

Personality:

A romantic at heart, Xanthus spends a great deal of time being charming at attractive women. He's rather fickle with his interests, however, and so the attractive women very from moment to moment. In fact, he's very easily bored in general, and so he is constantly seeking something to stimulate his almost ADD-like brain. He spends a lot of his time out people-watching and/or writing in his notebook to keep himself occupied for the most part, though he tires of these activities from time to time and looks elsewhere for amusement. It can come off as a bit cruel to anyone that knows him intimately enough, because he is known to use girls for a brief time while they are still interesting to him (which is about one or two days, usually).

Xanthus is not above lying to get women to sleep with him or to win someone's favour, and it's not too difficult for him to if only because of his easy manner. While most people who lie feel guilty and nervous, Xanthus' lies are executed smoothly and without and guilt whatsoever; he's very relaxed about it. He justifies himself in a variety of ways, such as convincing himself that he or she deserved it, or that his intentions where honourable and therefore it doesn't matter. Really, it's not that his lies are the horrible, life-destroying black variety; he's not clever enough to come up with elaborate schemes to lead a person down a long and tedious road of deceit. He just tends to mislead people about himself and his accomplishments, or will colour a story he's retelling with a few of his own 'creative' adjustments. And by story I mean retelling something that happened to him or that he was involved in.

Of course, Xanthus isn't always a lying, self-serving bastard. He's a moody Cancer, and is acting defensively when he's being particularly malicious, whether it's at the person who hurt him or an innocent bystander. If he feels offended or insulted, he immediately goes into sulk mode, and won't care at all about who he may be lashing out at to make himself feel better. He's got those crabby claws, you see. Most of the time, he's really not a bad guy. Just a bit of a womanizer. Really, when he's not being bitter and moody, he's a rather straight-forward and honest man. He sees it this way: If you give him a reason to be a jerk, he'll be a jerk. Nevermind that his bad behaviour is still not justified this way. XD

When he's on the positive side of his personality, Xanthus is a very caring and respectful man. He goes out of his way to be chivalrous (though he does tend to do this with an ulterior motive in mind), opening doors and pulling out chairs, being the kind of guy that you can take home to mother. Though being taken home to mother would probably freak him out at this point in his life. Eheh. He's also a very romantic kind of guy, writing poetry and giving flowers to his 'love' interest (and I do use 'love' loosely, as in 'lust'), or anything else that he thinks might convince the girl to date him/sleep with him/whatever. If one didn't know any better, one would think he has a one-track mind.

As mentioned above, when he's not trying to amuse himself with women or other endeavours, Xanthus is scribbling things in his notebook. He very much wants to live up to his mother's name (which isn't as well-reputed and amazing as he thinks), and so spends most of his time writing, rewriting and editing his stories. He has tried many different genres, but finds that he is most comfortable and effective in the romance and erotica genres, if only due to his experiences with women. If any of the girls he dated for more than a day ever read his work (which is under a female penname), they'd likely recognize a few things from their relationships with him - he uses his life, as many authors do, for inspiration, and simply adjusts a few details to make it a little more interesting.

Xanthus is a man who really enjoys his 'comfort zone.' He likes to be in control of the things around him, and doesn't like his world to be shaken around too much. This isn't to say that he can't deal with change, but changes in his life are very slow and gradual. He doesn't make good friends easily, and prefers to keep his circle rather small and cosy. His ideal night of hanging out with friends is either in his favourite coffee shop or in his basement, where he has a bit of a lounge-type area apart from his bedroom. So, he's a homebody type, but he doesn't necessarily need to be at home - just somewhere that is comfortable for him.

Comfort in general is a very big issue for Xanthus. One thing that he can't deal with is a friendship ending. Thankfully, he hasn't been in a relationship long enough to have a deep emotional connection, but if that happened and he got dumped, he'd be absolutely unbearable to deal with. He clings to his relationships (friends, and if it ever came up, romantic ones) very fiercely, because he puts so much emotional energy into them. He's not the kind of guy that will just give up on you if you're going through a 3-year whiny phase. He might not like it, but he won't give up on you. He's more likely to try and help somehow.

He's pretty aware of his emotions at any given time, as he's always thinking about them and rationalizing them. He doesn't like being too emotional (that's for girls, after all!), and so a lot of his introspective thinking involves him trying to figure out how to deal with each particular feeling and put it away. While this allows for him to be more stable and in control of his moodiness (for the most part), it can also make him seem insensitive. He gets over things very quickly, and so if you have an argument with him and try to talk about it more than a few hours later, he won't want to deal with it any more. After all, in his mind it has already been dealt with.

Unfortunately, Xanthus is not always the most understanding person. He has a hard time seeing other points of view, very stubbornly clinging to his own concept of the world and how it should be. This doesn't mean that he is unable to empathize, however, as he is always willing to listen to a friend's woes. Hell, he'll even listen to a stranger's woes - it'd give him ideas at least. He's much better at hugging and saying "It'll be okay." or "I care." than giving good advice. Basically, he can validate your feelings but not your thoughts, if that makes sense.

One thing a girl would never have to worry about with Xanthus is forgetting important dates. If something is deemed important, such as an anniversary or how he met someone special to him, he will remember it with a fair amount of accuracy. This doesn't stop him from making things up, of course. He's a rather thoughtful person, and tries to do something special for the birthdays or other special occasions that involve his close friends. He prefers to give them something he crafted himself, whether it be a story or a lopsided cake, because he feels that a gift is more meaningful that way. This also means that he's rather unhappy with people when they just give him a crappy Hallmark card and twenty bucks. He takes care in finding out what things are most special to the people he cares about, so he can do crazy random nice things for them to make them misty. It makes him really happy to see a person overcome with joy/love/etc. Unless he's bitter, but then, we covered that already.

Pros: caring, thoughtful, rational, in touch with his feelings, usually honest, respectful, introspective, romantic, friendly, good listener, good memory
Cons: moody, prone to bitterness, can be deceitful/a liar, doesn't let people into his 'circle' easily, stubborn, womanizer, slightly sex-addicted, doesn't understand other points of view

History

Present:

Idony Frodedatter, an erotica and romance novelist known as Idony Caron to her readers, had Xanthus out of wedlock at the age of twenty. At that time, she was living in a (very) cheap flat in the East Village in New York (for artistic inspiration or something), and very much a partier in a variety of the underground scenes. That being said, one can imagine the amount of "late night encounters" the woman may have had, being a rather free lovin' kind of lady. She was never married, and in fact isn't quite sure as to who Xanthus' father is. Her theory is, though, that is was Jorge Amancio, a Spanish man she had spent some considerable time with. It was an interesting time, 1985.

When she found out she was pregnant, Idony felt it was time to find her way out of the city and settle down somewhere. She had already had two (smutty) novels published, so she decided that she could support the child on her work. Fortunately for her, this plan worked. And so, Xanthus was born somewhere in West Virginia. Unfortunately, Idony had a hard time adjusting to a more settled life, electing instead to move around a lot through several states. When Xanthus was about eight years old, they had found themselves in Grand Bend, both falling in love with the house in which they lived. And so, that is where they stayed, though now Xanthus wishes he had selected a more "romantic" setting for his late childhood and teenage years.

However, his life was still far from uneventful, his mother being who she was. Which, of course, lent itself to a degree of eccentricity, of which Idony has an ample supply. Xanthus' childhood consisted of taking care of himself and his mother, sometimes coming home after school to find her passed out drunk in some area of the house not containing her bed, or writing on the walls somewhere because she was too inebriated to find paper or a computer for a particular idea. She was never an alcoholic, but she had moments where she felt she needed to drink to get inspired (there is, of course, a difference between alcholism and alcohol abuse). And of course, his mother was still the Town Bicycle, claiming that she needed men in her life to be inspired. Xanthus didn't understand what any of this meant until he got into high school, discovering for himself the world of sex and underage drinking.

This isn't to say that he had nothing but examples of debauchery shaping him, of course. His mother had more moments of sobriety than drunkeness. Xanthus also had day care, and school as he got older, his teachers being mentors to him, though none so smart and amazing as his mother, in his mind. His early writing was encouraged by teachers and his mother alike, though in grade school it was often fairy tale fanfiction. Basicall, her parenting style was more of a liberal one, because she never liked being restricted herself, and wasn't exactly prepared for a child in the first place.

Without a father figure, Xanthus grew up with some decidedly feminine ideas, though a bit skewed with the example of his mother's sex life. He got along with the girls a little better at school (much to the chagrin of the males), as his interests lay on the typically female side of the spectrum. Naturally, this became an advantage in high school, as he too became something akin to a Town Bicycle. Except, you know, safer. And male. It was around this time that he was also really inspired to start writing, though from experience with women he made his tales less erotic and more romantic. He also wrote the occasional poem, mostly for the girls he was trying to woo.

When he turned sixteen, his mother had him move from a small room upstairs to the basement, telling him he was old enough to have his own little 'bachelor pad'. This worked out wonderfully for Xanthus, as it became the centre of his life (you know, writing, sex, getting drunk. That sort of thing). He has spent the last three years furnishing it to his liking, giving it a very particular (romantic) atmosphere to make it comfortable to live in. Having his own space made him happy, and inspired him to begin writing more seriously. At seventeen, Xanthus had a short story published in a book that contained a collection of amateur works.

Now nineteen years old, Xanthus has completed a year of college, majoring in Creative Writing and English. He's still not sure whether or not he wants to go into teaching, or simply write for a living, like his mother (under a female penname, no less: Katarina Caron, an homage to Idony), but he knows it has to be something to do with language and writing. He is also in the process of learning Spanish, as he believes that his father was Spanish, as per what his mother told him.

Past: (forthcoming. I wish to plan with many of the female soldiers, as the Knight of Cups was quite the Casanova. Though he couldn't be compared to the Knight of Pentacles. Eheh. So I know he stayed away from the Princesses.)

Soldier Information

Knight Name: Knight of Cups

Sphere of Power: LOVE AND PEACE. Er. White magic and water.

Uniform Colours: Sea Green (hex #8BB381) and lemon chiffon (hex #FFF8C6)

Uniform: The uniform for the Knight of Cups is garb typical of an 18th century French nobleman. There is a mid-thigh length sea green silk coat with, literally, lemon chiffon ruffles at the cuffs of the sleeves. The accenting pattern on the collar, cuffs and hem line is swirly and woven in silver. Underneath is a shiny, hip-length, pale yellow waistcoat with a white ruffly shirt with a long cravat, a sea green oval gem at the collar of the cravat, and matching round buttons on the waistcoat. From there, the Knight's breeches are a slightly darker version of the sea green, more on the grey side, and stop just below his knees. His stockins are the same pale yellow as the waistcoat, though matted. Finally, a pair of dark sea green shoes with squared toes, high tongues, two inch heels and silver buckles adorn his feet.

Team/Alignment: The Knight of Cups is not technically aligned with any team, but he seems to enjoy hanging around Death's team a lot.

Transformation: There is nothing special about the Knight of Cups' transformation. He simply raises his representative card into the air, and glowy shiny things happen, and then he's in his uniform. YAY.

Powers:
Elixir of Love (white magic, defense)
A simple attack that involves a gold goblet (cup!), that looks like the cup in the Ace of Cups card in the Rider-Waite tarot deck (link forthcoming). A bubbling red liquid mysteriously fills the cup from the bottom up, and begins to glow, overflowing to the ground and creating a small stream. It pools around the target's feet, and that's when the magic happens.
Though this is white magic, it is certainly not healing magic; it is harmless, a mere distraction. Whoever is caught in this red goo will end up "falling in love" (obsessive lust) with the first thing he or she sees, regardless of what or who it is. This can also include him or herself, if a reflection is seen. Plus side: Target gets distracted and is rendered useless. Minus side: Very easily dodged, because it is rather slow. The best way for the KoC to pull this off is by sneaking up on the target from behind and hoping that he or she does not hear the incantation.

Pool of Tears (water, offense)
Also using the goblet, a similar sequence begins, though with a clear liquid (also known as water) instead, and it bubbles more furiously. By more furiously I mean that it practically spouts from the goblet and sprays the target in the face. THEY BECOME MOIST.
The water shoots out at a very high pressure, and is therefore it is rather painful to be at the receiving end. Many bruises have occurred due to this attack. Plus side: Bruise-y doom. Minus side: Doesn't really stop much, because though bruising is painful, it's not immobilizing. It can stun the target for a while, but not eliminate him or her from the fight. KoC has to depend on his hand to hand skills, which are also very lacking because he's a pacifist.

Writing Test: Xanthus' mission in life was to eliminate the existence of lonely women.