Character Page: Bakri

Full Name: Zerîn Anwar al-Bakri

Meaning of Name:

'Zerîn' is Kurdish and means golden, referring to the golden undertone of his eyes, skin and hair. Like many things, this name is something he holds close to his chest. Only close loved ones are allowed to use it.
‘Anwar' is an Arabic patronymic, meaning 'bright.'
'Bakri' is also Arabic, referring to a pre-Islamic people who occupied upper Mesopotamia (the city of Diyarbakir in modern Turkey is named for them).

Family: Bakri's father is named Anwar, and he has a so-so relationship with him. His relationship with his stepmother, Hejar, is better. His biological mother, Lorîn, left shortly after he was born.

He has three older brothers named Aram, Rojdar, and Elind. He has one younger sister, born to Hevta and Anwar and named Ajda.

Nicknames: 'Reed,’ by his siblings, later ‘Loverboy’ by Theo.

Favourite Meal: Liver kebab.

Favourite Drink: Black coffee or tea, he’s not particular.

Favourite Flower: Tulips.

Age: 28.

Birthday: September 20th.

Height: 5’3’’.

Gender: In Nayiri terms, sephalos. In modern terms, nonbinary butch, though he uses other terms like 'transmasculine' and 'lesboy' as well.

Pronouns: He/they/she.

Romantic/Sexual orientation: Lesbian, grey-ace or demisexual.

Zodiac: Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Capricorn Rising.

Tarot Card: Temperance.

Appearance:

He rarely moves unless he has to, and is easy to miss in a room if you’re not looking for him. The set of his lips and brows gives him a melancholic aura.
His skin is a medium, olive/golden brown and quite dry if not moisturized frequently. He is covered head-to-toe in freckles, which only grow more numerous when he goes into the sun. When not in the sun or sick, his olive tones become sallow.
He has medium brown eyes, one of which is permanently dilated due to a childhood injury. He has a staring habit, but dislikes eye contact. His undereyes are sunken, with puffy lower lids.
He has a prominent, pointed nose, with a bump at the bridge. It is slightly crooked from repeated breaks.
His lips are of medium fullness, with a deep cupid's bow and a downward set that contributes to his somber resting expression. Smiling takes ten years off his face, as his teeth are crooked in a boyish way. His tongue is pierced.
His hair is sandy brown and hangs in ringlets. He wears a scarf over it at almost all times. Cutting one’s hair short denotes grief in Nayir, so he covers it to avoid questions or odd looks. He trims his facial hair, but leaves the rest.
The nickname ‘Reed’ came from his slender build growing up, one he never quite got away from. Though he’s built significant muscle tone, he laments his skinny legs and bony knees.
He has long limbs and large hands with long, knobbly fingers, also crooked from breaking. His nails are pared short at all times.

Languages spoken: Nayiri (Northern Dialect), some Karani.

Hobbies:

Horseriding. Horseriding competitions are popular in his home province of Sorikar, and while Bakri never got as fancy with the tricks as his brothers, he routinely came out on top in races. His horse is named al-Munir, Arabic for ‘torch,’ a medium-sized stallion with a grey mane and white coat that sheens like metal.
Reading. He has endless romance novels shoved underneath his bed, though he also loves epic poems.
Tinkering and restoration. This would later develop into his engineering focus in the Nayiri Protection Force. He enjoys mending, cleaning, polishing, and otherwise ‘fixing’ things.
Singing. Not just for the beauty of it–though he loves going to the temple and listening to the choirs–but for storytelling. With a paper for memory jogging, he can memorize and sing fairly long poems and parts of the religious texts they all share, which is useful when he can’t take a book with him.

Bakricore Quotes

"If he wept in the hills, he wept alone, with only God to witness his weakness."

William Saroyan, "Buried Treasure"

"It was a warm day and the light of the sun was on my face, going through my shut eyes to the measureless depths of the rest of it, the past of my life, the place where the past is assembled, lighting up this vast area inside, and I was feeling quiet as a rock and very truthful."

William Saroyan, "Buried Treasure"

"The battlefield is compared to a barren field which can only be adorned by tulips, i.e., the bloodied bodies of soldiers. The tulip has been a symbol of martyrdom from medieval times. The growth of tulips in the field is a symbol for the increasing deaths at the front and growing rows in the cemeteries."

- Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, ‘Martyrs of Love’ Genesis, Development and Twentieth Century Political Application of a Sufi Concept

“25 years later, after the wall fell, Berlin remains complicated and unfinished. Complicated by history and counter-history. The urban fabric resists all attempts to reorder it. Berlin fascinates. And people continue to be drawn to its darkness and its light.”

"If you hate me with one eye, well, I hate you with two."

Kurdish Proverb

"A head that is to be cut off cannot be ransomed."

Kurdish Proverb

"The camel's fleece is loaded on the donkey."

Kurdish Proverb

Anthony Bourdain, "Berlin." Parts Unknown

"The call 'I am the Truth' connects the soldier to Hallāj, transforming his death to a mystical annihilation."

Asghar Seyed-Gohrab, ‘Martyrs of Love’. Genesis, Development and Twentieth Century Political Application of a Sufi Concept

"A terrible situation! to be touched. To be granite and to doubt! to be the statue of Chastisement cast in one piece in the mould of the law, and suddenly to become aware of the fact that one cherishes beneath one's breast of bronze something absurd and disobedient which almost resembles a heart! To come to the pass of returning good for good, although one has said to oneself up to that day that that good is evil! to be the watch-dog, and to lick the intruder's hand! to be ice and melt! to be the pincers and to turn into a hand! to suddenly feel one's fingers opening! to relax one's grip,--what a terrible thing!"

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"Then I felt her body move closer and we kind of melted together. I discovered all the sweet surprises a femme can give a butch: her hand on the back of my neck, open on my shoulder, or balled up like a fist. The feel of her belly and thighs against mine. Her lips almost touching my ear.."

Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues

"Sharks feel to Jay like busted robots: empty eyes, shattered-glass teeth. Orcas, though, inspire the worst heiliger Schauer Jay has ever felt. With their tidy, evenly spaced teeth, pillowy pink tongues, and cheerful faces, orcas look like malevolent clowns, so embroiled in the religion of death their markings resemble skulls."

Daniel Kraus, Whalefall

Birthday Lore

German, a Berliner specifically, he learned English fairly early on but still has an accent
Works as an auto tech and sometimes a bouncer at EBM clubs and festivals
Can sing! His voice has a buzzy, brassy tone to it, he can also growl and scream loud as hell when the music calls for it
In the AU where he's in a band, the sound of it is very Melechesh + And One + Chrom, he loves combining traditional instruments (tembur and such) with electronic sounds
Zero social media accounts, as the fast pace of it makes his head hurt
Old man sensibilities 💙 dresses in hand-me-downs and sometimes just wears his work uniform out, tries to look tidy but that's it
Bakri likes feet, he discovered this while tickling Theo and experienced Feelings
For some reason this came as more of a surprise to him than the myriad other things he's into
Theo teases him about it and will forever and ever

Magical Abilities

Magical Abilities: His aura is opaque and holds close to his body, specifically around his eyes. It gleams like mercury and moves slowly as crystallized honey. His magic manifested at age 13, allowing him to see outside the spectrum of light, including auras, aural trails, and the natural magic contained within all things. Since he repressed the ability, it manifests as headaches, nausea and vertigo that builds whenever he practices or is otherwise affected by magic. He eventually learns to ‘open’ his magical eyes and to realize a balance between not using his magic at all and being overwhelmed by it.

Queer Headcanons

The ‘born this way’ sentiment was meant for Bakri and Bakri specifically. He came out of the womb a butch lesbian, something neither he nor those close to him ever doubted. His affirming home environment meant that he could wear masculine clothes and go on puberty blockers and testosterone. This was more for himself than anyone else, and continues to be. Though he holds affinity for FtM (the old-timey sound appeals to him), transsexual (same), transmasculine, lesboy, and nonbinary, how other people gender him is irrelevant. Being the fourth al-Bakri brother and also their little sister, Theo’s girlfriend, and a male dyke and a butch woman all fit and hold no contradiction in his mind. His greysexuality is a more recent development, as he believed his lack of sexual attraction was merely a manifestation of trauma and dysphoria that would ‘work itself out’ for the right person. While he did eventually feel a level of sexual attraction both for Theo and his old girlfriend Nesrîn, it took years of romance to develop and is still quite low overall.

More Queer Stuff

Happy lesbian visibility week, here's some butch lesbianisms Bakri engages in that I think are funny/ID with lol

Three girlfriends ever and none of them are from his province he had to Travel to see them
Fucks ten thousand girls a year, none of them are allowed to touch him though he just gets satisfaction from pleasing them
The shirt and pants and boots and toolbelt and gloves stay ON during sex
Hand and forearm fetishist
True believer in the eroticism of grievous bodily harm
Never talks about feelings unless it's though thirty layers of metaphor and preferably abstracting it into a story or fable. He's fine
Deeply troubled relationship with his mother(s)
Loves machines. Wishes he could be one

More Unstructured Thoughts

Bakri's catsona is a black-and-brown torbie Oriental Shorthair with one green eye. He lives in a barn, hunts mice for his owners, and has a skinny build with goofy big ears and paws. Mean to everyone, very good at hunting, though his depth perception is bad and it makes him miss jumps a lot

It's actually crazy that Bakri's scarf looks like Javert's ponytail

What is the dry equivalent of a soggy cardboard box of a man, Bakri has the energy but he is Dry

Theo is of course the obvious Horse Girl choice her favorite movie in the modern AU is how to train your dragon so that's where she's at BUT Bakri IS the horse girliest he's literally a cavalryman and could ride a horse when he was like. Idk five lol and even before then his brothers used to hoist him onto their backs while they rode and the motion of the horse would put him to sleep immediately. Nap time

Bakri's smile is perfect and I wouldn't change a thing but it does have that very distinct sharpness on the corners that makes him look like he eats sheet metal regularly #skye's thoughts#that's why he's an auto tech#he eats the scrap shavings to help ease his iron deficiency

So I just finished Whalefall and it's so good "Sharks feel to Jay like busted robots: empty eyes, shattered-glass teeth. Orcas, though, inspire the worst heiliger Schauer Jay has ever felt. With their tidy, evenly spaced teeth, pillowy pink tongues, and cheerful faces, orcas look like malevolent clowns, so embroiled in the religion of death their markings resemble skulls."

BIG blorbo energy. Bakri is a shark, a broken/breaking machine, dead eyes, needs to move to stay "alive" even though he sees himself as neither alive nor dead

NSFW Stuff

Bakri 🍋 Headcanons

Under the cut the sake of people's dashes.

CW: Brief mention of dysphoria, as well as blood and needleplay in a kink context.

They're a transmasculine butch lesbian and self-identify as a stone-ish top/dom.
They'll accept most masculine titles like Sir/Mister/Daddy, though Master leaves a bad taste in their mouth.
They're experienced in sex overall, but have only allowed three people to touch them in return, all intimate partners.
They won't reject neck, chest and stomach kisses, but any lower and they'll tense up and guide their partner elsewhere. This does not apply, however, when they've got a packer or strap on.
They prefer their chest is addressed in masculine terms. With their genitals, all words are fine.
They have tongue and nipple piercings, as well a pair of Duke piercings and two weighted outer-labial rings on either side.
They don't shave anywhere sans their face. If their partner requests they trim, they will, but that's it.
They have a plethora of scars from training, though they're harder to see due to the freckles and body hair. No need to avoid them, but paying special attention to them will turn them off. In short: don't be weird.
Their go-to is giving their partner oral, a skill they take pride in. They'll drag it out for hours if their partner lets them.
When their partner does cum, they'll swallow. Squirting delights them. As long as cum stays off their clothes, finishing anywhere is fine.
The few noises they do make (grunts of effort, moaning when they cum), are quiet. If they want their partner to stay in a certain spot, they'll just move them manually.
Their favorite positions for topping are pinning their partner up against a wall, missionary while holding their partner's legs up (wheelbarrow style), and their partner straddling their lap.
Their favorite positions for bottoming are cowgirl (facing toward or away from their partner) and the Amazon position.
Their kinks include: Brat taming (giving), sadism (giving), impact play (giving), choking (giving), bloodplay, needleplay (giving), degrading and other forms of humiliation (giving), biting and scratching (giving and receiving), praise (giving and receiving) and anything with leather (giving and receiving).
They're an unforgiving, inflexible, rule-driven hardass dom. Not only that, but they're patient. Their sub can cry and thrash and make things difficult all they want--Bakri will wait.
Their dislikes include: Mixing magic into sex, anything that makes them feel small or powerless, including most forms of submission, 24/7 dynamics.
Service topping is a notable exception to their submission-aversion, especially if mixed with praise.
If it were acceptable to hand their partner a sheet for them to fill out with their specific aftercare needs, they would. Unforgiving and cool as they are in-scene, they're awkward in the aftermath. But they take the trust their sub puts in them seriously, and will do their absolute best to take care of them.

Unstructured NSFW Thoughts

The way that Bakri is just like me fr...sees sex as an instrument and not an end unto itself, does not understand the desire for it, and assumes it's because he never met the right person and was heartbroken when he was happy with Theo and still didn't experience the sexual attraction and came to her nearly in tears over it because SHE seemed so happy and free with her sexuality so why couldn't he be? Then Theo’s like oh yeah you're ace, that makes a lot of sense, I just thought you were just repressed And he is, totally repressed, but he's had sex with many many girls and felt the same as he did at the beginning, it's not a repression problem it's a sexual orientation