CLOPAN DE LA RUE

• Name: Nicolae, assumed name Clopan de la Rue
• Species: Mixed breed goat
• Sex: ♂
• Age: Late 20's to early 30's
• Height: 5ft 7in (170.18cm)
• Weight: Average
• Build: Narrow shoulders, light build, not very much defined muscle tone
• Father: Transylvanian Romani coppersmith
• Mother: French seamstress
• Siblings: 4 older siblings, 3 younger
• Setting: No set time period or location but default is pre-industrial Europe in an old-world “storybook” feel

Clopan is an anthropomorphic goat from an original universe. The setting he exists in is flexible but usually based on mainland Europe. His family are very down to earth, and moral yet raucous, and Clopan himself is a romantic spirit who loves theatre, art, and music.

Family Situation

Clopan was raised by his mother and father, and has 4 older siblings. He was closer to the maternal side of his family than the paternal, although he was not as close with them as he was with his immediate family.

His immediate family was estranged from his paternal family, hence the lack of closeness and contact. Clopan's family never fully explained the reason for this while he was growing up, however he was vaguely aware that it was due to some transgression on his father's part. As an adult, he was finally informed that it was because his father's family hadn't approved of him marrying his mother.

Because of this, Clopan never really got to know the Romani side of his family so his knowledge of them remained incomplete and he kept a romanticized view of the people and lifestyle.

Judgemental Side

Nurturing

As the fifth of 8 siblings Clopan was doted on like one of the babies of the family, especially by the female members of the clan. As a result he was given all sorts of sweet nicknames.

However, due to the very busy culture of his family he didn't get this kind of doting for long after toddlerhood unless he deliberately set out to get it.

Clopan and his siblings rough-housed a lot, so their elders didn't take the occasional scrape or bruise too seriously. If anything more serious happened then the elders would calm or soothe Clopan, but this nurturing was limited as far as they deemed it was needed. After they were sure he felt comforted, he would be scolded if he had hurt himself by his own tomfoolery or poor judgement.

Whenever Clopan felt sad, his caregivers would usually try to empathise, although sometimes they would ignore him if they didn't understand his sadness of considered it trivial. Their response depended on the severity of his sadness, with deeper sadness taken more seriously. Clopan has never been prone to depression, so any sadness he demonstrated in front of his family was of a temporary nature.

Whenever Clopan got angry, if his anger was mild enough he would be given space to cool off. Alternatively if he was being particularly destructive his caregivers would scold or discipline him to bring him into check.

Whenever he felt scared (at least when he was younger), he would be empathised with, but as he grew older and his clan considered that he should be more emotionally self-sufficient, he was no longer nurtured through his fears and instead told to “be strong” or “be a man”. However if the caregiver and Clopan found themselves fearing the same thing, the experience of fear would likely bring them closer together. It was always possible however, that their fear would prompt either Clopan or the other family member to snipe or lash out at each other when either felt a need to protect themselves but circumstance prevented them from fighting off or escaping the true source of their fear.

Whenever Clopan felt joyful his family was likely to join in with feeling it. Like many children Clopan could be loud in his joy, but his family could be quite raucous anyway so this tended not to cause them to withdraw their goodwill as much as a quiet, reserved family might. It was not impossible for Clopan to be too disruptive even for them, and if he did then this would be frowned upon, but this was unusual.

Critical

Clopan's mother and father set, and maintained, the rules that Clopan lived by while he was growing up. Given that Clopan was one of 8 siblings, they were not – and could not be – micromanaged and the children, by necessity, were encouraged to be self-sufficient in tending to their own emotional and, to a lesser extent, material needs.

The few rules they did have to live by included:

• Respect your elders
• Don't interfere with elders' work
• Do your share of the chores and housework
• Don't hurt anyone, and make amends if you do
• Share your space and possessions
• Maintain your cleanliness (both of your body and your home)

His parents came from different cultural backgrounds, so their world-views, including their ideas of good and bad, differed. However, they had a few common values which they used to raise their children, including:

• A good person is dignified, industrious, and supportive of their family
• A good person is hospitable and shares the fruits of their success
• A bad person is lazy, promiscuous, defiant towards their elders, and/or aimlessly violent (however, sparring in a controlled environment was considered acceptable)
• A bad person is selfish, and disregards the needs of their family and community
• A bad person is exploitative or predatory

Overall in their culture, “bad” behaviour was to be remedied by shaming, and repeat offenders were to be shunned or avoided by the family, community, and by social contacts and business prospects.

Given that Clopan's family were goats they had naturally high libidos, however chastity was valued, especially in females. As a result they encouraged unmarried offspring to marry or redirect their sexual energy into other activities.

Clopan loved getting attention but his family was generally too busy to entertain this desire, so when they felt he was trying to get more attention than they could give he would be called a few shaming names, including:

• Silly
• Attention-seeker
• Show-off
• Annoying

If Clopan acted out, the standard response was that he would be swatted and yelled at for being naughty or in the way. More serious physical discipline than this was rare.

The elders were good at refusing to reward behaviour they didn't like by giving absolutely no response, and if Clopan tried to get attention via “bad” behaviour then he would be ignored (after all: “bad” people were to be shunned, according to the family's values).

Objective Side

Rational

Clopan has a keen awareness of the here-and-now. This may be because, as a goat, he is a prey animal, or it may be social conditioning due to being the subject of prejudice given that he is part of a marginalised group (i.e., he is part-Romani gypsy). Perhaps it is also because he is one of so many siblings that he needed to be alert during childhood in order to get his share of food, space, and other things.

He has a very external focus and readily notices social and non-verbal cues, and changes in his environment. This is in addition to his preference for whimsy and fanciful things, and certainly not in conflict with it.

Childlike Side

Free

Clopan craved attention and wanted more than he got. Although his family held a certain disdain for attention-seekers, he developed an interest in theatrics and spectacle, which helped him to get the acknowledgement he most wanted. With a growing arsenal of theatrical skills on his side, he got good at being the centre of attention (even if it was an uphill struggle with his family).

When Clopan was 3 years old, he liked playing with the various toys provided by his parents to all of their children (none of the toys belonged to any specific child), and exploring his surroundings with a particular interest in sensory rewards such as warm sunshine, soft fabrics, or music.

At age 7 he still liked to explore, but he would explore further and deeper, and find out more about his world. He also got to meet more children outside of his own family, so this exploration took a more social turn and included exploring the culture and social rules of other families, and their implications.

At age 13 his play continued to become more and more social, including playing and sparring with other boys. He also started to take an interest in girls and a more varied interest in the performing arts as both a spectator and a performer. This included:

• Dancing
• Singing
• Music
• Acting
• Puppetry
• Sleight-of-hand magic

At age 18 his interest in girls had taken centre stage (no pun intended) to a greater degree, although at around this age he experienced a failed courtship which discouraged him from courting again (despite a cultural expectation that he should). Instead, he spent more time exploring the world of performing arts, particularly street and stage theatre, and finding out what else there was to life outside of his theatrical and social network.

His distancing of himself from the world of courtship was only temporary however, and while in the current day Clopan is usually single, he is no longer averse to courting, even if his family are starting to consider him a little old for that.

Compliant

As much as Clopan loved getting attention, he quickly learned only to do it in pleasing ways: by being cute, positive, or interesting. Getting attention via behaviour his culture considered “bad” seldom earned him any attention, so he learned not to do this as he seriously disliked being ignored.

Overall, he was unlikely to break the rules when his caregivers weren't around since the cultural rules that he and his family all lived by were deeply ingrained in him. However, he is still a goat so has always had a distinct headstrong streak, and this prompted him to test the boundaries on occasion. He loved novelty so he sometimes got into trouble for the sake of his own amusement; usually this happened when he saw something new and interesting to explore that he knew his family would disapprove of.

Defiant

If Clopan disobeyed the rules of his family and/or culture, there would be consequences but these depended on the severity of the situation. As a child, he could be physically punished but this was swift and not too severe. Aside from this he was likely to be ignored or given time out from the group, or be scolded or shamed for his actions.

Given the straightforwardly explicit nature of the rules (and their enforcement) that he was brought up to live by, Clopan found that if he wanted to defy them then his best bet for getting away with it was via indirect means. For him, that meant being impish and cute and playing up to his role of the “baby” of the family. This worked less well as he grew older so as he grew up, he modified this to exude roguish charm instead.

This worked best for low-level rule-breaking, but for more serious transgressions, being submissive and deferring to his elders worked best. However, this was a direct response to direct authority and Clopan was so used to finding indirect means of getting what he needed, and had such an active, eternally-curious mind, that he would always be looking for ways to get his own way, regardless of his elders' disapproval.