FAMILY: Alistair MacKenzie, Father (deceased); Alba MacKenzie Ferguson, Mother; George Ferguson, step-father (deceased); Ian Farlan MacKenzie, brother (31); Mary Elizabeth MacKenzie (27)
CURRENT RESIDENCE: New Shelby, on a small farm on the edge of town
APPEARANCE: Robert has dark hair and striking blue eyes, a MacKenzie family trait. While he's not as tall as his younger brother Ian, he stands 5'10", still usually a couple inches taller than his compatriots. He's broad shouldered and sturdy -- perfectly built for the animals and manual labor that he's taken up as his profession. He's stronger than he looks.
PERSONALITY: Robert is affable -- it's hard to dislike him on first meeting. He has a quick smile and an easy laugh, and is just as comfortable putting people at ease as he is his animals. He's also been told that his brogue is soothing. He rarely acts rashly, preferring to weigh the benefits and consequences carefully, but once he makes up his mind, he goes forward with it without hesitation and with calculated resolve.
SPECIAL SKILLS/WEAPONS: As a result of constant lessons befitting the son of a wealthy landowner in his youth, Robert has quite the musical skill. He is proficient on both the piano and violin, as well as a lovely singing voice and quite a talent for dance.
WEAKNESS: For all the benefits it brings, Robert is still very much the oldest son. He harbors a perfectionist streak and will go to lengths to be in control of a situation.
HISTORY: Robert is the oldest son of Alistair and Alba MacKenzie. Growing up he split his time between the town house in Edinburgh and the large rural estate outside the town of Inverness that his father took them to summer at. His parents were quite different -- Alba coming from Edinburgh and preferring nothing but the city, and Alistair being raised on a large country estate and only coming into the city when he was older because that's where his business and Alba had led him. Robert inherited his father's love of the outdoors, as did Ian and Mary Elizabeth. But even with their differences, Alistair and Alba enjoyed each other's company and Robert grew up in a happy home.
The happy home didn't last forever -- Alistair was returning home from London when his carriage was found the next morning crashed into a tree and Alistair dead in the ditch. Robert insisted there was something suspicious about his death since the carriage was shattered, but there were no marks on his father, but since there were no witnesses, the investigation was dropped. Robert was 18.
Alba remarried quickly, to George Ferguson, one of Alistair's business associate while Robert was attending the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh. Robert heartily disapproved of his mother's remarriage, always suspicious of the way that Ferguson looked at his mother at social occasions when his father was alive. The dislike was mutual, and Ferguson made no secret of his wish to be rid of the three MacKenzie children.
By the time Robert finished with his veterinary studies at the age of 23, he was forced to buy his family's farm back after Ferguson decided to start selling off the family assets to pay off gambling debts. He couldn't stand by and watch this man squander his mother's money, so after being rebuffed by his mother for expressing his concerns, Robert moved permanently to the estate at Inverness to set up his veterinary practice.
Robert was visiting the home in Edinburgh for Christmas years later when he realized that his mother was no longer the spritely woman he remembered growing up with. Mary Elizabeth had sent letters to that extent, as she still lived at home, but he hadn't believed it until he saw it for himself. When Ferguson laid a hand on his mother, Robert viciously insisted that he leave the house and not return. Ferguson coolly refused, and Robert and Ian were forced to throw him out.
George Ferguson was found strangled by a set of reins a month later in the estate stables. Because he was so deeply indebted to his gambling creditors, the police declared him murdered by one of the holders of his loans, although that explanation didn't seem to totally satisfy the investigation.
Robert decided to leave Scotland not soon after Ferguson's untimely demise, itching for a change of scenery and hopping on a train as soon as his boat got into New York. He got off in New Shelby and decided to set up his practice there for a few years.
He plans to return to Edinburgh after a few years, but a change of scenery is always good for a little while.
MUN: Rebecca PB: Paul McGillion
Random Facts About Robert:
- Robert was raised Catholic, and briefly toyed with becoming a priest while he was in school at St. Edmund's College. His mother sent both him and Ian for schooling in England so they'd have a proper Catholic education.
- He decided on veterinary studies instead because of his love of summers spent at the family estate in Inverness. While his mother scoffed at the idea, Alistair loved helping the farmhands and stable workers tend the livestock, and Robert got first hand experience with it each summer.
- While the majority of his inheritance is held at the banks in the United Kingdom, Robert keeps a comfortably large nest egg at the bank here in New Shelby, although he has attempted to keep that out of town gossip. Only he and the banker know how wealthy he is, and he plans to keep it that way as long as possible.
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robertmackenzie) wrote,
