Ashley McConnell (a.k.a. Sek, Ash)
Physical Description
Sekhm appears to be a young man in his late 20s or early 30s, quite muscular, and body dotted with scars. The longer sections of his hair are bleached a pale blond, while the shorter sections are left a natural brown.
On his upper middle back, just between the shoulders, he has a tattoo of a black sun that he had gotten when he was still human.
Sekhm has several piercings, three in his eyebrow and four on each ear. He also has a nose piercing. He often will have some kind of bandage across his nose, as he frequently breaks it in fights. Generally, his face unshaven and left scruffy. During October/Putri he participates in Charity fights, donating all his winnings to breast cancer research, and will dye his hair a bright pink.
Mimic magic- Sekhm can mimic the last used spell of any person as long as he makes physical contact with them, skin to skin. He can only use it in the same manner as his target did, however he can teach the technique to others by essentially reversing the process- touching them skin to skin, and granting them the ability, should they be able to use magic in any capacity. He has a vast tool kit of many different forms as a result of this. There is however, a cost to this magic- any time he touches another person who doesn't share the same abilities he does, it drains his energy and can leave him feeling exhausted, weak, and vulnerable. This also occurs when for one reason or another he cannot mimic their magic. As a result, he often avoids physical contact with others.
Lightning mana- Although outlawed, Sekhm managed to learn this dangerous form of lightning magic and train with it in secret over centuries of practice. He has a surprising amount of control over it, however will only resort to using it in life and death situations.
Sekhm is also rather skilled in less than legal activities, such as breaking and entering, hacking, and forging multiple forms of identification such as passports, licenses, and IDs.
Sekhm doesn't have much for a fashion sense, wearing clothes he already has and only buying new ones when absolutely needed. He values comfort over style, making no difference between his gym clothes and casual outfits. Dressing up is a rarity for him, and most often only done at extremely formal events such as funerals and weddings and only when absolutely forced to by Lorenzo.
Mental characteristics
Sekhm was born Ashley McConnell to an average family in Sydney, Australia, in 1999. He had a relatively average life, coming out as transgender in his teens. Sekhm was an arts history major and took a trip to Italy with his classmates unfortunately right before the rise of the dragons. He became trapped in a foreign country, where he didn't speak the language, or know how to get home. Although he managed to avoid being captured or killed by the dragons in the initial war, and was quickly recruited by those resisting them, and was forced to learn how to survive for the most part on his own. At some point he was transformed into an omnia purely by exposure to draconic magic, and thus shunned by humans and dragon alike.
He found little solace in other omnia either, most being loners like him, or under the control of dragons who sought to kill those independent of them. During a search for food just before the War of Black Ash, he found the carcass of a pig and fought over it with another omnia who was also starving- Lorenzo. He and Lorenzo did not get off to a great start at first, mainly cooperating solely for their own survival but grew to be great friends and eventually, lovers. They have been together ever since, with only 'short' breaks in their relationship every few decades, where they date other people before resuming their own relationship. Sekhm himself rarely will date other people during these breaks, only doing so every few hundred years, but remains fully supportive of Lorenzo and his current partners during them.
Over thousands of years, constantly changing identity, he often defaults to using names that are familiar to him- His birthname, the names of close friends who have passed on, or nicknames. Most recently he has been using the name Sekhm, after his patron god, Sekhmet. In the recent past, Sekhm was a mercenary under the name Ash, working for the Nottingham Underground. During this time, he mainly would accept hits he considered to be the worst of society- rapists, abusers, and pedophiles, along with omnia who had become dangerous to others. He left the mercenary life behind when he realized that details of some of his hits were falsified, and instead became a low level MMA fighter- a job he loves.
He has extensive combat training, both self taught and professional. He's well versed in fire arms and blunt object weaponry, although he prefers to use his true form or improvised weapons.
During his human life, now long behind him, Sekhm was also an arts history major and worked as an EMT, having some emergency medical training. He also is self taught in treating many of his own injuries.
Sekhm is a professional MMA fighter, participating in brutal matches that often leave him seriously wounded.
He also spent a great deal of time, at least a century, as a mercenary for the Underground, killing target people who most often were dangers to the local omnia community.
Sekhm is a locally known MMA fighter, and quite good at it thanks to great experience with fighting and defending himself. He's quite proud of his victories and position, and has a great deal of love for his job and opponents.
He bears a large scar from a bite wound on his left shoulder. This was from a fight with another omnia which he lost and nearly ended his own life. This fight did result in Lorenzo McConnell, Sekhm's husband, becoming gravely wounded and nearly to die, retreating into essence form. Sekhm greatly regrets having challenged the other omnia for their territory, who was only acting in self defense, and become much more humble afterwards and no longer chases what he doesn't already have.
Sekhm suffers from extreme depression and PTSD, which he medicates for heavily. When off his medication he suffers nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety, prone to lashing out violently to anyone who tries to touch him. As such, he has become paranoid about making sure he always stays on his medication. He can be quite distant at times and requires a lot of emotional and physical space from others, and if pressed can react violently if repeatedly touched, which he is aware of and tries to avoid at all costs.
Sekhm refuses to harm children, and during his time as a mercenary, would not take hits where the target had any children, instead preferring to take on jobs going after 'the scum of the earth' as he called them. Criminals, murderers, rapists, etc. He later found many of his jobs were falsified in records, simply to make him do it, and quit.
He will not harm anyone he feels doesn't deserve it, and certainly won't kill anyone who doesn't meet that criteria either. This however doesn't stop him from defending himself, and he will kill to save his own life, which he values above all else, aside from Lorenzo.
Personality Characteristics
Sekhm lacks any particular motivation himself, instead primarily supporting those of the people close to him, such as his husband Lorenzo. He often remarks that this is a result of spending so much of his life simply trying to survive another day, crushing any hopes he had for the future. Most often, this results in him having a strong drive to be powerful enough to protect those Lorenzo, and by extension, he cares about and live long enough to see them have fulfilling lives.
While he is not suicidal, Sekhm does want to one day die permanently. He himself doesn't fully understand this desire, or know in what way or when, simply that he'll 'know when its time.'
Sekhm has issues regarding other languages, finding them much easier to read than he can speak them. This is particularly prevalent with the conversational form of Dragontongue, which he finds too complex and muddled for speaking, but he is quite fluent in the written form.
Sekhm is an incredible Star Trek nerd. He loves it, and is incredibly upset that of many omnia around today, very few are fans at all, never mind to the degree he is. His favorite color is blue, pink a close second.
There is also a deep hatred that runs through Sekhm's very bones for a chicken clock in him and Lorenzo's kitchen. Lorenzo adores it and calls it the Cock Clock, but no matter how much he wishes to get rid of it and claims it is 'the ugliest thing in the planet's history', he cannot throw it away. Sekhm tends to be very over dramatic for his hatred of this chicken clock, only egging on Lorenzo's love for it.
Sekhm is extremely aggressive for such a low level omnia, and extremely territorial. He is prone to chasing out any omnia other than Talv, Lorenzo, or Chiiri that comes within a few blocks of his home. He is incredibly defensive when coming into contact with them as well, and quick to start a fight.
Average, by all accounts. He bleaches and dyes his hair pink every October, part of a promotion for his matches in which all his winnings go to breast cancer research funds. As for clothing, he often wears the same clothes until they are completely worn out and is unwilling to get new ones or get rid of the old. As such, a lot of his clothes have been repaired and mended many times. Sekhm also tends to tear or cut off the sleeves from his clothes as well.
Social
Sekhm has long since outlived any family he had in terms of blood relations, instead choosing to consider Lorenzo his only family as his husband. Kari, Lorenzo's daughter, is his step daughter, although he has made no attempts to adopt her due to a close friendship with her mother, Rochelle.
To those not familiar with him, Sekhm can come off as cold, brutish, and aggressive. He's quite confrontational when he feels as though he's been wronged and incredibly guarded about his personal space, along with not letting others get to know him on a personal level until he feels they are 'safe' by his own definition.
With those he trusts, however, he is quite affectionate and very open about his emotions, even when opening up about them may risk his relationship with others. With Lorenzo in particular he is extremely open about their relationship and often cuddling, kissing, and showing affection to him in public.
Sekhm is a massive fan of many sports, particularly martial arts, and boxing. He rarely misses a match and will make any time he needs to watch or even go to one in person. He also is a huge fan of Star Trek and prone to rambling about it to anyone who knows what it is.
He is a cat lover, and has a four eared cat named Ruby.
He still retains a human era Australian accent, especially when speaking English.
Husband (Vital)
Towards Lorenzo McConnell
History
Lorenzo and Sekhm met during the The War of Black Ash in Italy, only a few years after Lorenzo had escaped from Neia. Both were starving and fought over a dead pig, eventually settling on splitting the animal between each other rather than waste their energy and risk injury. At first, the two of them did not get along and merely stayed together for the sake of survival, that 'two pairs of eyes were better than one'.
As the War of Black Ash ended, their relationship had developed much. From necessity, to close friends, and later on the two became a couple. Sekhm and Lorenzo got married as soon as they were able, often remarrying each other when they form new identities. Both are quite comfortable in their trust in one another, and occasionally take breaks to date other people for a short period of time before getting back together.
History
Sekhm and Chiiri have been friends for decades, long enough that neither is able to remember exactly how they met. Sekhm quickly developed a crush on Chiiri and often would flirt with him jokingly, although much of it went over the other man's head. Sekhm and Chiiri often would go out together, with Sekhm stealing street signs for his collection and Chiiri tagging, acting as look outs for one another.
Their relationship changed drastically after Chiiri's building burned down due to an electrical problem. Both he and Lorenzo backed off in flirting with Chiiri completely and offered for him to move in with them until he found a new place of his own. It was meant to be a temporary measure, however neither Lorenzo or Sekhm had any intention of kicking the younger omnia out before he was ready. Thinking that Sekhm and Lorenzo's sudden lack of flirting, which Chiiri had misinterpreted as them being friendly, was them being cold to him, Chiiri confronted Lorenzo on the matter. Lorenzo explained the situation to him, and shortly after, began a relationship with him and Sekhm both.
Shared Secrets
Chiiri is well aware of Sekhm's time as a mercenary, and that Sekhm has killed other omnia many times before.
Sekhm is also aware of Chiiri's PTSD and nightmares, as he is a light sleeper, and often woken up by his fits. Chiiri has asked Sekhm to keep it a secret from Lorenzo, to keep the other man from worrying.
History
Sekhm has been involved in Kari's life from the start, and is an incredibly loving step father to her.
Nicknames & Petnames
Sek
Relationship Reasoning
He adores Kari and often spoils her, taking her on trips to the park, showering her in gifts, and allowing her to have treats and snacks that Lorenzo and Rochelle don't normally allow her to have.
Acquaintance
Towards Victor Valentine II
Relationship Reasoning
Victor and Sekhm are not close, their entire relationship kept strictly to the professionalism of Victor being Lorenzo's boss, and Lorenzo as Sekhm's husband. Most of their interaction is when Sekhm comes to pick up Lorenzo from work and may occasionally talk to Victor if he sees him.
Shared Acquaintances
Lorenzo McConnell
History
Sekhm and Rochelle met by being introduced by Lorenzo, shortly before he and Rochelle got divorced. Rochelle was accepting of Sekhm and Lorenzo's relationship and remained on good terms with them both after her divorce from Lorenzo, and remains as one of Sekhm's best friends to this day.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Both Sekhm and Rochelle have a love of MMA and boxing, and share Sekhmet, Goddess of Lions as a patron god. Rochelle watches all of Sekhm's fights, and jokingly tells him that she bets on him winning frequently.
Shared Acquaintances
Lorenzo McConnell
devout
Towards Sekhmet, Goddess of Lions
History
Sekhm, then known as Ash, was one of her first dedicated fans during Sekhmet's boxing career, quickly turning into a superfan and follower of her throughout her growth. He continued to follow her through her ascension to godhood, becoming one of Sekhmet's first devouts, and a dedicated one at that, going as far as changing his name in honor of her.
Due to their unique relationship, Sekhmet is quite close to him and maintains a strong personal relationship with Sekhm, far beyond that of her other followers. Although they have only met in sparse moments during her boxing career, their online relationship is quite strong with the two frequently chatting not as devout and patron, but as friends.
Due to their combined income, with Sekhm as a regular MMA fighter and
Lorenzo McConnell, his husband, a respected archivist, they are both rather well off. Sekhm and Lorenzo have a relatively large house in a nice neighborhood of Nottingham, and two nice cars between them. They also have a substantial amount of money hidden away as emergency funds, should they suddenly need to move and start their lives over at any given point. Sekhm also has his own apartment in the downtown area that although small, is in a nice area, to keep many of his belongings for storage and as his own personal area when he needs space from others.
Despite this, they live rather humble lives, appearing by all accounts an average middle class family.
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