Description 

Appearance

Aleck isn't particularly remarkable, a man of average height and build, strong and muscular from his lifestyle, though not abnormally so. He dresses modestly and comfortably, and he shaves only semi-regularly. He keeps his ginger hair trimmed short off his neck to help with the heat. He's got hazel eyes and often an easy, sideways smile on his lips. His hands are strong and calloused from hard work, and he walks with an easy saunter that speaks of the slow way he goes about life.

Scars

Aleck sports a lot of scars, callouses, marks, and bruises on account of the life of spills and tumbles he's led, but there's one scar that is most prominent on his body. He sports a long scar down the left side of his face, a trophy from a cougar attack on his home ranch back in Texas. He'd tell anyone the story, if they asked, and tell them that he found out he learns best by experience that day, thankfully, able to walk away with it.


Fashion

Aleck likes to dress well, though his fashion isn't necessarily fancy. He wears a lot of loose rolled up shirts, and he's not much a tie guy at all, even forgoing the bandana some days. He usually wears chaps to protect his legs, already bruised and knicked up from his lifestyle, and often is chewing on a toothpick in his mouth to keep himself busy. He's a jean and leather kind of man, and he's not too bothered by blood or dirt on the clothes as long as it isn't bothering those around him. He's a bit too lazy to shave religiously, settling for a permanent five-o-clock shadow.

Temperament

Aleck is laid back, flirtatious, and carefree. There's not much in the world that can upset him, and many people around him are evidence of that. He gets irritated by the presence of criminal activity around him, though it would take a lot to make him do anything active about it. He fancies himself a pacifist, and he also tells people around him that he thinks that no person is black and white, and everyone is some kinda shade of grey. He's a violent drunk, which is why he always cuts himself off at having just one. He'd tell anyone that asked that he doesn't like the man he is when he's drunk. He's a dog lover and a people person, and he'd go out of his way to help someone whenever he gets the chance. He loves swimming and fishing, and nothing brings him more joy than being on the back of a bull or bronco, or racing on the back of a horse. He's a real rodeo cowboy at heart, a smiler and winker and a tip-of-the-hat kind of guy.

Talents

Aleck has always been a lover of guitar, his mother taught him to play when he was around 8 years old, and after she passed away, he started playing more to spend time with her memory. He often plays by the fireside or on the porch late at night, or sometimes early in the morning. He can sing, though he usually doesn't while he's playing, much preferring to listen to the sound of the instrument instead of sing over it.

Early Life 

1880: Aleck is born on a Ranch outside of Austin, Texas to a young mother and father who'd recently inherited the ranch from his father's old man. Aleck isn't a fussy baby, quite content, able to be left to himself to occupy himself with something simple, a blade of grass, a leaf, a few pieces of the dog's hair he seemed intent to pull out, while his mother works around the house.

1884: His mother just finished a quilt she made for him, even though she's not very good at sewing. It's uneven and the squares don't line up well, but Aleck seems a grateful child, dwarfed under how large it is, but insists on curling up with every inch of it at night. His mother tells him she made it so large so he can grow into it and not out of it like the other boy's quilts. She's afraid of him not needing her anymore when he grows up, this confuses him and he assures her he'll always grow alongside her, having little concept yet of adult life or leaving the home. She seems settled by that.

1885: He spends a lot of time outdoors chasing his father around the ranch, and Aleck's father, despite the boy's size, does not coddle his son. It's not to say he was a harsh man, but he never really told Aleck not to do anything the boy set his mind to doing, to the frazzlement of his mother. Aleck seemed to learn well as a child this way though, the first time he fell over into the horse's water trough and soaked his sunday best, was the last time he tried to play in it like it were the river. The first time the cat scratched his nose, was the last time he stuck his hand in her bowl. He was a quick learner this way, though it seemed to put many grey hairs on his mother's head. His father usually just passed by with a chuckle, knowing the way he learned as a young boy.

1886-1893: This mentality of Aleck's extended into his late childhood and teen years. At times, it made him reckless, and as he grew, it was clear he was growing into a man that liked a good thrill. People that visited the ranch were likely to hear his mother shrieking across the ranch as bulls chased him around the pens or he would come spilling over the side of the fence, bruised up, but always with a big ole grin. Not much seemed to bother him, he always took his lessons with a smile so big it met his eyes, and a thoughtful look. When he turned ten, his father started taking him to work daily, prioritizing it over school, and because of this, Aleck doesn't read very well. Aleck seemed to take to it better, a tactile learner, and wanting to be hands on. His father always said that getting good at anything meant you had to be bad at it first, and it never seemed to bother Aleck when he couldn't get something right the first one, or even ten times. He was always quick and easy going to take advice, though not always smart enough to follow it. His Father said a man never stops learning, and the moment a man's pride gets in the way of him taking advice from others that can teach him, is the moment a man may as well hang up his lasso. There was no room for pride in ranching, pride got fellows hurt.

Aleck's thrill seeking nature seemed to enjoy ranching with his father, much happier to drive cattle than sit in a schoolhouse or work in the town as an apprentice to the crafstmen or at the warehouses. It was harder work, but he knew hard work was always more fulfilling at the end of the day, and he drank whiskey often in the evenings with his father. His mother hated it, wishing Jack would send him out to play and learn and chase girls and dogs like the other boys his age, but Jack told her the boy worked like a man, and hell if he wouldn't be allowed to drink like one. His father is probably responsible for his early alcoholism.

1894: Aleck is left alone with the ranch for the first time at 14, on account his mother and father were heading up to Austin to pick up a girl by the name of Mary Sue Lane. It was his 3rd cousin on his father's side, and after her parents had divorced on account of her father's alcoholism and her mother unable to provide for her with no child support actually making it's way in from her father, Jack offered to take her in as his own daughter. She was 16 at the time, and Aleck knew the adjustment would be hard on her, so he was ever eager to prove to his father he could handle the ranch for a few days while they made the trip, and he aught to go make sure she's brought back with open arms. Jack seems to trust his boy easy, though the look he gives Aleck before leaving is one that knows how far the apple fell from his tree. Aleck is a bit reckless, but dependable, and Jack was sure he'd return to a few bruises, but a fine ranch.

Aleck is determined to prove himself during these few days, and when he finds one of the sheep gutted, he takes it upon himself to take his Father's cattleman he left behind and go hunting for the beast, confident in his capabilities as a shot, but not realizing the strength of cougars. He got 6 bullets in it before it went down, but not before leaving a deep gash across his face. While he makes it home alive, something his parents would likely be relieved about, he feels ashamed for it, and it's a lesson learned rather hard. But with his parents gone, and unwilling to leave the ranch untended while he sees a doctor for stitching his face, he cleans it and waits for his parents to return.

Three days go by and his mind is more on the state of his face than the fact that they haven't returned. The skin is getting well past stitching, and it's clear he's going to have a prominent scar, he seems less worried about that then dissapointing his father. This apprehension keeps him settled for a whole nother day past when they were supposed to arrive home, and on the fourth day, Aleck rides down the road to Austin to go looking for them, positive they must have gotten hung up, or Mary Sue's train just hadn't come in on time, the railroads less than reliable at the time. It's about halfway to Austin that he leans over the edge of a ridge and sees a wagon wheel. The bodies under bloodied fabric, are picked apart by predators and birds, but the little embroidered rabbit on the corner of his mother's apron is something his eyes fixate on immediately.

He doesn't talk about what happened after he found them, he'd wave it off and simply say he went to fetch the coroner, though the sherrif's report details two bodies laying side by side at the head of the trail, arms folded over their stomaches, a bluebonnet flower between each of their hands, a sleeve ripped from a shirt layed over the bird picked eyes of the woman. Aleck didn't return with the coroner to pick up the bodies, nor did he hold a public funeral, Jack and Elise Owen going in a public cemetary close to the city.

Aleck rode into town, one sleeve missing from his shirt, to find Mary Sue Lane in a cheap room in the inn, terrified she'd been abandoned. He didn't tell her much, other than his Mama and Daddy were dead, and he was here to bring her home. He adopted her in that moment, and she adopted him just as much. She didn't baby him, her parents were alive, but she knew the kind of pain in his eyes. Hers may as well have been gone too. Aleck was a real gentleman to her, and treated her like she was his blood and flesh sister, and anyone that ever asked about her, that was all he'd tell them. She was his older sister, and that was that.

1895-1897: Aleck and Mary lived on the ranch, Aleck handling the ranching and Mary handling the home, though he took to teaching her quite a few things about ranching, insistent that she'd be able to live for herself, fend for herself, and take care of the ranch herself if she wanted or willed it. Aleck's parent's early death taught him to have a respect for how fragile life was, and he was determined that Mary wouldn't be able to fend for herself if God ever took him out too. Younger men in town noticed the two, and they saw the potential in courting Mary, how easy it would be to take the ranch out from under an alcoholic young rancher not even of age. Aleck transferred the deed to Mary, as she was older, and he was positive he would go out first anyhow.

1898: Aleck drank more, it became such a problem he beat one of the boys that had been taking to come up the ranch to flirt and court Mary mighty hard after the guy made a crass comment about his sister. He didn't pull a weapon on the guy, but it didn't make his fist and boots any less damaging. Mary kicked him out then, and told him not to come back till he cleaned up. True to his nature, he learned the hard way, but he learned, and a few months later, he was back on the porch, quilt in hand, and Mary let him back in without a word edgewise to the matter. They took up as before, falling easily back into the life they'd had, but Mary told Aleck she'd met a man, a nice one, and even though Aleck wanted to hate him, he couldn't. Thomas was a hard working man, a rancher himself, the youngest of his family, and polite even under Aleck's needling comments at times. Aleck knew he was good for Mary, and he also knew that he couldn't stay at the ranch and give Mary and Thomas the life they deserved. He bid Mary a good life, and he went to travel north.

1899 - 1901: He still drinks, though Aleck refuses to get drunk, strict about cutting himself off after just one, even if it's one every night after working. He didn't shy away from hard work either, taking up work with ranches as he made his way through the country, though he always seemed to be searching for something that felt like the home he'd left. He'd stay on for a season, and move on to the next place. He took up rodeo cowboying between work seasons, making his money bronco and bull riding, and he's got more than a few damaged ribs that pang him at night from those days. He stuck in Oklahoma the longest after falling into a relationship with one of the rodeo clowns. It was a public relationship, and one that made him quite a joke, but he always seemed to give the laughs a dimpled grin and a wink, apparently unbothered. Louis Allen was a good rodeo clown, and saved his life more than a few times from the ring. Aleck knew it was easy for him to get overlooked, the painted face, the colorful rediculous clothing. Louis was a distraction for the crowd, a distraction from just how dangerous the entertainment they were watching was. Louis was also the first to volunteer his own bed and care each time Aleck busted a rib, caring for him without mothering him. It wasn't all that grand, the way they fell apart. Louis simply became discontent with the life, and Aleck didn't want to leave it, unwilling to go settle down in the city like Louis wanted. Louis constantly angered with Aleck for getting back on the bronco too soon after he was hurt, and when Louis asked him to give up rodeos and steer herding and horse breaking entirely, Aleck refused. It was the life he'd chosen, and knew, and it was a life that brought him the excitement he knew he'd always need. They kissed less, and argued more, and while Aleck doesn't hold any resentment now, they finally agreed to go their own ways and find what they needed from life. Aleck writes Louis, though only very occasionally, and not very deeply. Louis married a businessman in Tennessee, and adopted a girl with him, and Aleck seems to be happy when he talks about it.

Present Life 

What brings him to New Austin is little different than what brought him anywhere. Work, and searching. He met Icarius "Hoof" on the train into the state, and Hoof told him about some work out west on a little farm named Dead Crow Ranch. It didn't take Aleck much convincing to agree to take on work, and the conversation was about as simple as it could have been expected to be between the calm easygoing Hoof and the happy laid back Aleck. He's still searching for home, something he thought he might have found with Louis, but something he hasn't seem to found yet, something he's probably skeptical of finding at Dead Crow, but his mind hasn't totally closed off to the thought. He's convinced he'll likely be one for a season or two, and wander on his way, but Aleck is a people person, and he can already see the way Dead Crow is different from many of the rest. Chris doesn't seem the type to sit back and watch them work, only a few days in, Aleck can already see his eagerness to work as much as them, even with the prideful shell on display around the man, and Hoof has an easygoing care and honesty Aleck isn't used to, but probably needs. Whether or not Dead Crow will keep him longer than the rest, remains to be seen.

Affiliations 

Dead Crow Ranch

Quotes 

COMING SOON

Trivia