Maple Chaudhary

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An ill-tempered, yet somewhat aloof metalworker who spends most of his time at the forge. Under the apprenticeship of famed mechanic Ryujin Seong, Maple shapes the metal his boss then assembles.

He enjoys teaching people lessons (after scathing critique) and interspersing analysis with sardonic quips.

• A consequence of FLAME (as well as the majority of Values in the Environmental Connection family) is that emotions can activate the Value subconsciously. Many of Maple’s pants are charred and ashy due to him wiping the remains of whatever he’s unwittingly burned onto them.
• Neither of the Chaudhary brothers show any obvious outward affection towards each other. The younger brother, Rowan, notes that their serious heart-to-hearts have always been punctuated with fist-fights that Maple claimed would toughen him up.
  • The only way Rowan got the upper hand was through transformation. Rowan begrudgingly credits his dexterity as certain animals to brawls with his brother.
  • Rowan supposedly had a long phase where he deeply admired his older brother, to the point of following him around and copying him. Maple notes (with a disaffected tone, of course) that even Rowan’s signature hoodie + sunglasses style came from himself first.
• Until he was around 5 years old, Maple lived with his biological parents. Then he, alongside his toddler brother, were placed in the care of their uncles, who would undergo lengthy legal proceedings to formally adopt them and become their ‘new’ fathers. Both Chaudhary siblings regard them as such, with Maple being the only one to remember any part of their previous lives.
• Nature was his first personal interest, a result of being raised in a deeply forested area. One of his favorite family activities - camping - honed his wilderness survival abilities, which he insisted on as a necessary skill.
  • He particularly enjoyed the feeling of sitting by a man-made fire with a camp he set up surrounding him. At home, the closest he can emulate such comfort is by the fireplace.
• Wherever he goes, his trademark red cap follows. Even on formal occasions. Its visible wear indicates that he’s had it for a long time.
• Ever since his early twenties, he has been working as the primary apprentice for mechanic savant Ryujin Seong. He was drawn to her ingenuity in metalwork, as well as the broader realm of craftsmanship.
  • Though his speciality is blacksmithing - shaping the materials into usable parts - Maple strives to become a jack-of-all-trades craftsman like his mentor. He just needs to work on his... delicacy.
• As he works, Maple is typically seated. There are a number of dirty cushions both at his formal workplace and at home, since he likes to be comfortable even when working with messy things.
  • His relatively weak lower body is supposedly attributed to an incident that occurred when he was very young. So, he gravitated towards what he can do with his upper body instead.
• Religion-wise, Maple follows a Gnostic denomination of Synestheism. Here, the Additive and Subtractive deities are not equivalent to LIGHT and CHAOS; rather, they are inferior creations of the two, with the material world being their creations in turn. As a result, he sees great craftsmen as deities in their own right.
• In his school years, he was at the top of his class. However, he was standoffish and indifferent to his peers. Anyone who approached him on a bad day would get snapped at or threatened, so he developed a reputation as a ‘bully’. In reality, he simply didn’t care to make pleasantries or hold grudges against anyone.
  • He did manage to make acquaintances with two people in his year - Michael Eleazar, who was fascinated rather than intimidated by his strength, and Undine Belafonte, who always kept an eye on the troublemakers.
• Even though he doesn’t need them, Maple has an extensive collection of pocket lighters. He’ll be seen playing with them absent-mindedly. Ironically, these have a lower likelihood to start fires than his own hands.
  • He also finds making them a useful exercise. However, none of the ones in his collection are handmade, as he is never satisfied enough with the result to keep it himself.
• Due to his specialty in heavy, dark metals that require heat to be forged, he lacks any interest in the opposite - light, cold metals. He jokes that their craft is beneath him, angering tinsmith and friend (?) Jenny Faire. Though they are no longer coworkers, she still drops by now and then just to start another argument.
• Foods traditionally associated with breakfast are his favorite.
  • He claims that his first meal is his largest one of the day, so he can spend the rest of it focusing on other things. This is his excuse for forgetting to eat the other meals.
• In autumn, Maple’s mood sees a notable improvement. The cool temperature, colorful foliage, and mellow atmosphere seems to placate his usual hot temper.
• Repulsed by bugs (who made frequent appearances due to where the Chaudhary cabin lay), Maple picked up a habit of adopting salamanders in order to secure his living and work space. Though he prefers a dry environment himself, he makes sure that their terrarium is sufficiently humid.
• Every so often, Maple visits his biological father in prison as a means of keeping tabs on him.
  • He keeps these visits from Rowan, for whom their birth parents might as well have never existed.