Corsaire
Legacy Name: Corsaire

The Storyteller

When you're in the profession you were born to occupy, no day ever feels like work.

I couldn't imagine myself in a role that didn't involve teaching. If I'm doing my job right, I make history come alive for my students in innovative ways that get even the most reluctant learner excited to show up to class every day. Learning is about so much more than a few facts spouted in a classroom. It's applying lessons to real life. It's making the connections between what was, what is and what will be. It's recognizing the prehistoric fossil's beautiful spiral in a passing scootle's shell.

I take my students on no less than three field trips a month. We not only study your more traditional Subetan museums, we relive great moments. We sit on blankets in Peka Park and listen to the greatest songs composed during Battle of the Bands. We get our paws (or hands or wings) dirty re-creating miniature gelatin models to commemorate the Gelatin Wars. We've even visited the shores of the Sacred Lands to make our own sand sculptures. (Anyone who tells you that art and science aren't critical parts of a study of history has been reading too many issues of Fringe Magazine in their spare time.)

All of my creative energy comes from what you might call a less-than-traditional upbringing.

My parents were super-creative types who believed in the value of teaching life lessons through stories. Father was the youngest feli to earn three doctoral degrees and mother just plain read too many books growing up, particularly those pertaining to adventures on the high seas. It's why she named me Corsaire, though I would hardly qualify as a pirate. (I've never even been late with a payment to the Subetan Revenue Service!) It's quite funny, really. My brother Buccaneer (he goes by Buc) is not only law-abiding, he's a highly decorated member of the Kumos Patrol. (Also a first for feli-kind, I might add.) My sister Marauder (I highly suggest you call her Mara) is a pathology specialist who consults with the Healer frequently. Then there's my youngest sister Raider...well, quite frankly she did live up to her name. Last I heard, she was crewing with the Freyalise.

Mom and Dad turned every book into an adventure, whether we were in fact sailing the high seas of imagination or orbiting somewhere near Atebus or cruising the mysterious forests north of Shadowglen. We read the books together then acted out our own variations. The most mundane objects would be recruited into our storytelling efforts. A folded sheet of paper became the captain's tri-cornered hat, a cardboard sword the sharpest rapier. Our treehouse in the backyard set the scene for the bridge of a ship, the keep of a castle or the hidden den of a pack of noble-hearted rogues. Nothing would keep us from enacting the next installment in our ongoing adventure series...not even the pouring rain. Dad was a wizard at fixing leaks.

When the weather turned too cold for such antics, we would snuggle down in a cozy heap before the fire, reading together to make the time speed past. There was no Luminaire present more appreciated in our household than a new book!

As much as we loved that old treehouse though, our favorite setting regardless of the story was the large forested area behind our house. We spent countless magical hours escaping our daily lives and pretending we were wizards or protectors of Shinwa or spooks rising from the Underground to party. Every week we would take a picnic lunch together. Mother always themed our snacks around the story we were working our way through. I personally adored her triple tuna nibblers but couldn't stand the winter berry pasta salad. (Raider could've eaten it by the bucket. My dislike of pasta is unique to me...my siblings would happily eat their way through a vat of the stuff.)

Sometimes Mother would take us on a family trip to the Subeta Natural Museum of History. (Father worked hard to support us all. We missed him on these weekend strolls but he never failed to be there for our bedtime story.)

I have a deep-rooted love for SNMH. It's the first field trip I took with my very first class of students. It's where I met the love of my life, my gorgeous wife of fifteen years. It's where our own three kittens beg to go on their birthdays. I guess I've done alright by teaching them the same love of stories that my parents taught to me.

Nizhoni and Xiri have been enormously helpful in raising my kittens. My pair of minions can sense when I've had a bad day or when I'm in the mood for a good adventure game that requires at least two players. They add an extra element of excitement to my stories, playing the devious villains our hero must overcome or the wise sidekicks who help the hero to achieve their goal. We couldn't afford minions growing up. Dad and Mom spent a little *too* much on their book collection, I suppose. My kittens will each have a minion of their own when they turn 13. It's a promise I made to each of them when they were barely old enough to string a sentence together.

We love going out to visit Grandpa and Grandma whenever we can get away. My parents have never lost their art for storytelling...though age catches up to all of us. Sometimes I must remind my children to take it easy and to walk on soft feet when Grandma or Grandpa is sleeping. There's no shortage of board games to keep the little ones entertained and the backyard could easily keep a full dozen kittens busy for hours.

Sometimes we act out the latest book for Grandma and Grandpa with puppets and a few magic tricks I've picked up over the years. (I'll never make anything levitate but I can sure pull a lot of coins out of an unsuspecting ear!)

My darling wife has been supportive of all my crazy ideas. She is no less eager to encourage our children to never give up on their dreams. She rubs my shoulders at the end of a long day and cooks me exotic seafood dinners on a whim. She'll never say no to a good adventure-fantasy game, even after she's put in a full day at the office.

I don't know what I'd do without her. She is my true happily ever after.

Credits

Profile Code by: Ringo
Extra Code by: Sunrise
Edited by: Chrysariel
Story by: Pureflower
Walking Feli Line Art by: Keshi
Walking Feli Painted by: Necolasa
Overlay by: Rah
Overlay Recolor by: Necolasa
Background: PngTree
Lantern by: Gyertyák-lámpák
Glows by: Roblox
Kittens Art by: Dreamstime
Name Art by: Chrysariel