Terry

Terry is of the batwing cursed race and a companion of Eleni, Eluin and Monica in the Hope/Despair series.

Family
Like all the other members of the Cursed Race Type 1, Terry's origins and parents are unclear. He doesn't know or remember them and no one else seems to know them either. He has no siblings to his knowledge and no other relatives.

Early Years
Terry was found by the inhabitants of a small city while wandering around the forest surrounding it. He had no real memories of anything before that time and no real idea of where he came from. Despite being of a different race and having strange wings, the people in the city welcomed him and took care of him. For Humans, that was something of a rare feat. It was a fairly sizeable city (as of yet unnamed) but all the residents of the place knew him by name and greeted him kindly. He made friends with the children and often interchanged where he slept at night so that it seemed the whole city was his family. His best friends were two girls about his age who were twins. One was named Lilah and the other was Miranda. He was approximately four when the city found him and about ten when Karthik attacked the city. Now, the city was fairly well known and engaged in significant trade with the two countries nearby and was relatively decent income for the crown. It was a rather average sized city when Karthik attacked. By the time he was finished, there was nothing but ruins. That attack was one of the memories that burned into Terry's mind, mostly because of his own helplessness. He watched as all the family's he'd stayed with were slaughtered. Lilah and her parents were captured (the only ones who were) and only Terry and Miranda managed to successfully hide.

For months afterwards, Terry was nearly insensible. Part of the curse on his race included the ability to hear the dead's voice in the stage after death. Because so many had died bad deaths in that spot, their voices kept screaming at him. That, combined with his own helplessness and grief, were incapacitating. He was incapable of caring for himself, which put the burden of getting out of the area and surviving on Miranda. She managed to get food and move past her own grief in order to take care of Terry. She transformed her grief to rage in order to function and vowed to save her family from Karthik's clutches. It took about six months for Terry to regain himself and actually be able to do anything. At that point, him and Miranda were all the other had left. They started to train together, trying to learn to fight and access their innate magics. They lived that way, just the two of them, for about five years.

At that point, Sanso entered the picture. The two were simply training as per usual, when Sanso runs in out of nowhere. They don't know who he is or what he wants, but right away, he moves to incapacitate Terry, leaving him lying on the ground conscious, but unable to move. Then, he turns and kills Miranda, hacking her to death with his twin axes. When she's finally dead and nearly unrecognizable, he leaves with Terry still bound in place. It takes Terry hours to break free of the spell before he can go to her side. He's distraught, as she was his last link, his last bit of family and closeness. His helplessness and desperation overwhelm him. Cradling her body to him, he weeps. He swears vengeance on her and his city, but especially her. To seal his determination and prove that he won't ever let his helplessness keep him from protecting what's dear to him, he rips off his right wing, burying it with Miranda's body.

Character
Terry was always a playful and somewhat manipulative child. He enjoyed the game, the challenge of it. Despite the tragedies of his life, he still retained the essence of his personality. He's got a deeper side where he stores his grief, but the side everyone sees is the mysterious stranger who's very good at smooth-talking. He gets along quite well with Eluin, but has trouble manipulating Eleni simply because she's so straightforward it confuses him. He doesn't really expect. His mission in life is to get vengeance, but he keeps that on the backburner, because he keeps everything about his life a secret. He uses his layers to stay unknown and protect himself from the self-hatred and grief he still keeps.

Books
Terry doesn't enter the series until book two, Blue, though I'm not certain exactly how he meets up with Eleni and Eluin. As a companion to the main group, he definitely continues throughout the rest of the first series, but I haven't yet decided whether he makes it on to the second series, though there is that possibility.

Theme Song
Leaving Hope by Nine Inch Nails

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