Dylan Brushnie

With scarf.

Dylan Brushnie is the leader of the Secessionist movement on Gledig, and is credited with helping the Secessionists become less a terrorist organization and more a respectable political movement, in part due to his own personal charm.

Physical Characteristics

Dylan is a spare, lanky Asanii, more humanoid in face and body than felid, and with sharp cheekbones, short dark hair, and hazel eyes often considered striking. His fur is brindled, similar to that of his sisters who showed the brindling pattern in black and silver over gray; his eyelids are dark and his eyelashes black, and his hands are a warm gray with square-tipped fingers and close-cut nails, and calluses indicative of work and swordplay.

Dylan habitually wore a long black woolen coat and a red scarf, and smelled "like pine and musk and a faint warmth," per Svetlana Karishenikov.

Dylan is known for being "young and good-looking and a fantastic speaker." His voice is a baritone.

History

Family

Dylan grew up in a family with both parents and two older sisters. As a youth, he studied swordplay under a mentor, and won the colony championship three years running; he kept the sword that he used for the championship (a gift from his mentor) locked under his bed.

A pirate raid approximately 20 years before Sword of the Alliance killed his parents immediately via direct hit, and resulted in the kidnapping of his sisters, then sixteen (Tati) and 18 (Rhonwyn), while he was pinned down by rubble; he personally witnessed their rape and capture. This experience (and especially that he had no bodies of his sisters to mourn, and no closure) permanently changed his opinion of the Alliance and Fleet, and led to his support of the Secessionists. His practice sword did not survive the attack, but his gift sword did, though somewhat discolored.

Recent History

Dylan is the public face--and ostensible head, though some of his subordinates, particularly Langorn, go behind his back--of the Secessionist faction on Gledig. Ostensibly, and unlike the Secessionists of several decades prior, Dylan's Secessionists are a peaceful political group. In truth there is a "radical faction" that exists within the Secessionists that Dylan can't control.

Dylan met Svetlana Karishenikov at the graveyard in Daleth, where the two had a heart-to-heart about the planet and its issues, neither knowing who the other was. They "met" shortly later when infiltrating the Governor's Mansion for the formal welcome of the UAV Stardancer senior staff. Makeup had 'transformed' Dylan into a Harat-Shar pardine, complete with rosettes, dark green eye templifilms, and a black wig, though he recognized Svetlana Karishenikov in a similar disguise. However, one of his compatriots, Gavin Medearin (possibly/probably with the aid of Langorn, bombed the meeting; in the aftermath Langorn was seriously injured and he, Dylan, and Perisse were forced to flee--and to lose track of Svetlana.

In the aftermath, Dylan sought to find out where Kerenkev was--for political reasons--and where Svetlana was--for more personal ones (and to the dismay of Perisse and Langorn). He visited Svetlana's mother, but failed to locate her there either; however, he did discover that Svetlana had been Fleet. Still rattled by this discovery, he addressed the leaders of all the Secessionist cells, at which he discovered that the terrorist branch had taken an injured, and unconscious, Kerenkev captive. He managed to talk down the crowd and to seemingly cow the human in charge of the explosion, Gavin Medearin.

He encountered Taylitha Basil and Svetlana on the streets of Daleth and invited them to lunch, where he and Svetlana got into a not-exactly-unpredictable debate and Taylitha learned a great deal of new information: specifically, that Kerenkev had been stealing imports from offworld to fund his lavish lifestyle and pay off the other members of the government; that the other representatives, in addition to being in his pocket, had also not been fairly elected; and that Kerenkev had been killing members of the opposition without trial. Unfortunately, just as the discussion had become productive, a group of Secessionists led by Medearin attacked the restaurant and attempted to take Taylitha hostage. Dylan talked them down, and guaranteed Taylitha and Svetlana safe passage.

Upon returning to the base, Dylan discovered that Medearin's people had captured Svetlana and tortured the location of the Pro-Accord base out of her; he also discovered that Langorn had been going behind his back to support and direct the terrorist faction of the Secessionists, and was directly responsible for Svetlana's capture and interrogation (though Medearin was the torturer). Despite his fury at what Langorn had been doing and how it had been (to his mind) hamstringing the cause, he set a time for attacking the Pro-Accord base. Dylan and Svetlana shared an intimate, soul-baring moment, but not one that could change the other's mind.

After informing Perisse in no uncertain terms that no one was to follow through on Medearin's threat to Svetlana's family, Dylan made arrangements for attacking the Pro-Accord base, and retrieved the sword that his mentor had given him many years prior, before the pirate attacks began again.

Dylan avoided being killed when Maire collapsed the roof of the base on nearly two hundred of his people, just in time to see the return of the pirate shuttle over Daleth. When he started for the shuttle to fight the pirates, instead of continuing to pursue the Pro-Accord faction, he was challenged by Medearin; Dylan insisted on continuing toward the pirates because "That [...] is why this began." Medearin attacked him from behind, and Dylan disabled and then killed him.

Dylan was responsible for personally killing several pirates with his sword, and then went to meet the Fleet Eagle, where he ordered the hostages (Kerenkev and Courtland, who had been caught while fleeing) brought before Alysha Forrest. He witnessed her interrogation of them, and then challenged her to a duel for the mantle of defender of Gledig: himself, or Fleet.

The two arranged to fight until one yielded. Alysha held her own despite far less experience at swordplay. She ended the fight by catching his blade with her bare hands, risking the loss of her fingers rather than backing down. Dylan wordlessly conceded to her and vanished.

Dylan encountered Svetlana one more time, on the night of the memorial for Gledig's dead. He told her that there was no future for him, as there was too much blood on his hands, and that the best thing for him to do was to "remove himself." Svetlana pleaded with him not to do it, and he promised her to think about it, and that he would leave her a sign either way so she wouldn't have to wonder (as he had had to wonder about his sisters).

Before leaving the planet, Svetlana went again to the graveyard where she had first met Dylan, and found his sword driven into the earth, and his red scarf wrapped around it. Svetlana took the scarf with her.

Trivia

• Kept the sword his mentor gave him to encourage him to excel; his practice sword burned with the house. He practiced with the surviving sword, alone. The sword has a five-foot blade and is a hand-and-a-half sword; originally its hilt was wrapped with silk cords, and Dylan never replaced them. The metal is discolored where he scraped the fire scale off it after rescuing the sword from the ruin.
• Won Gledig Colony Championship three years running.
• Takes his coffee black and without sugar.
• Referred to Svetlana as 'cariad,' part of the language of Gledig with the meaning 'beloved.'
• Swears: "hell", "damn,", "Stars-be-damned"

Body Language

Clean, economical, and very deliberate movement; no motion accidental or wasted. Svetlana interpreted this as 'courtly graces.' "[T]here was no mistaking the way he walked, carried himself, came to a halt with an assurance so fundamental it needed no bluster."

Quotes

• "“It’s a good day when you can be grateful to hear the truth.”

• "When life is the stake, there's only one try at the game. One. No more."

Story Appearances

Sword of the Alliance (Fiction)