Chinese Zodiac

Wood Sheep

Sheep simply want a bit of peace. They enjoy carrying on with life in their own quiet, individual way, content to be in the middle of it all rather than to be leading it. Sheep are quiet and calm people. They enjoy cultural things and focus much of their energy on artistic hobbies. Sheep are easygoing and relaxed, happy to be going with the flow.

Sheep are nurturers. They enjoy taking care of other people. Like their animal counterpart, Sheep people are pretty calm individuals. Their personalities are quiet, reserved and soothing. They like to be in the company of others but do not wish to be in the middle of everything. They like standing in the back, watching contently from the sidelines, as others dazzle the company. Sheep will generally do better than they are aware because they are so good at keeping the peace and accomplishing the tasks at hand.

Generally surrounded by a bevy of friends, these Sheep enjoy being in the midst of a crowd. People flock to these Sheep, possibly because they are so compassionate and helpful. Their sincerity can be taken advantage of and Wood Sheep may get their feelings hurt by undeserving sympathy seekers. Sometimes, Wood Sheep need to suppress their caring ways and take care of themselves.

Greek Zodiac

Leo

People born under the sign of Leo are natural born leaders. They are dramatic, creative, self-confident, dominant and extremely difficult to resist, able to achieve anything they want to in any area of life they commit to. There is a specific strength to a Leo and their "king of the jungle" status. Leo often has many friends for they are generous and loyal. Self-confident and attractive, this is a Sun sign capable of uniting different groups of people and leading them as one towards a shared cause, and their healthy sense of humor makes collaboration with other people even easier.

Leo belongs to the element of Fire, just like Aries and Sagittarius. This makes them warmhearted, in love with life, trying to laugh and have a good time. Able to use their mind to solve even the most difficult problems, they will easily take initiative in resolving various complicated situations. Ruled by the Sun, Leo worships this fiery entity in the sky, quite literally as well as metaphorically. They are in search for self-awareness and in constant growth of ego. Aware of their desires and personality, they can easily ask for everything they need, but could just as easily unconsciously neglect the needs of other people in their chase for personal gain or status. When a Leo representative becomes too fond and attached to their achievements and the way other people see them, they become an easy target, ready to be taken down.

East Meets West

Leonine Sheep: Fun to hang out with, these independent people are a bit more outgoing than other more tranquil Sheep. They are fair, just people who are honest and kind.

1. When and why did he decide to be a guide?
Well, he always had a good sense of direction. An intuition for where to go.

"Officially", though, it kinda just happened to him when he was 13. His grandpa died of a heart attack when they were on the road. Then, while wandering around in an aimless daze he came across a random string of snail shells, which he took. Then, a couple days later, he encountered a merchant caravan which was lost -- their usual path to Doxapolis had stopped working suddenly. When Casey came along, he decided to replace the barnacle shells on the post with the snail shells. Since the coincidence was too fortuitous to ignore, he offered to find a new way for them. It worked and they paid him and fed him and housed him. So he just kept doing it.

2. Does he have a family (or friend-family)? Does he miss them? Visit them?
Every so often he returns to his family plot in Tehachapi to pay respects to his parents and grandparents and say hi to his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He likes his family but doesn't feel that much more attached to them than any friends he makes along the way. He hardly knew them growing up because once his parents died his grandpa sorta kidnapped him.

(Casey's Grandpa is a character. This guy was very eccentric, possible senile, and sometimes unreasonably paranoid. Casey loves him, though.)

He's got six kids that he visits every time he's anywhere near the neighborhood (which is to say, very, very sporadically):

• Giovanni (20), a young man from Ambra, a Doxapolian port city
• Oluwaseyi (16), a young woman from Yewande, a Yaréan settlement
• Luka (12) and Kuro (6), both boys from the same mother, from San Nicolas (an island nation of Macitica-altepetl)
• Kanguq (9), boy, from the Adlartok tribe somewhere in the Eternal Winterlands (the only one whose birth Casey was around for)
• Chang Bao (2), boy, from Han Hanying, a small village in the Dai Kun province of Qianliguojia

He's certain there are more, but these are the ones who he knows by name and whose mothers are willing to let him be in their lives. And whenever he encounters another guide who's headed in any of these directions, he'll hire them to deliver things -- letters (to his literate kids, anyway), souveniers, valuables, whatever he has on hand. Sometimes he'll get stuff back, but this is very rare.

Generally speaking he's got a good relationship with these kids and their mothers. Not necessarily with their mothers' families (though in many cases he's on good terms with them too).

He's also got a ton of friends. He likes being helpful and talking to people. For point of reference, he's on "first-name basis" (only in the figurative sense, because they do naming differently) with the entire Adlartok tribe alone. Just like with his kids he'll visit whenever he's in the area and send them stuff when he's thinking of them.

3. What is his favorite aspect of his current life?
All the scenery he gets to see. All the people he gets to meet. Just how small and in the midst of everything it makes him feel. (The world is a HUGE place and he's just an infitesimal blip. It's a very awe-inspiring, humbling, and comforting feeling for Casey.)

4. What, if anything, does he find really off-putting?
There's nothing universal. There have certainly been times in his life where he's been off-put, but it was all a collection of things in specific contexts.

5. What does he find particularly attractive? (not just sexually. Like, what really grabs his attention and draws him in)
All kinds of scenery. Some of the gorgeously colorful flora and fauna around Yaré and other tropical places.

6. His favorite and least favorite places he's been or experiences he's had.
It's hard for him to pick a favorite. There are a lot of places that he almost couldn't bring himself to leave.

One such place is Perla, Yaré's famous underwater kingdom. It's so elegant, so beautiful, so intuitively constructed that he almost knew how to get wherever he needed to go upon first setting foot in it.

The wastelands between Bakersfield and Where the Earth Meets the Sky are his least favorite. Which isn't to say there aren't things that he likes about them. It's just very difficult and dangerous to travel out there, and once was enough for him. Casey has a ton of respect for the guides who regularly guide pilgrims to the Hot Springs.

His least favorite experience was being keelhauled. He doesn't elaborate a whole lot on that.

7. Before he was a guide, what did he do?
He's always been a guide, even when he wasn't actively guiding. But he's also been a sailor, a slave, a pearl-diver, a dockworker, a basket-weaver, a logger, a whale-hunter, a shark-hunter... the list goes on.

8. What's his favorite food and favorite beverage?
Really, it varies from place to place. For example, the hot cider from Villengen-Schwenningen would not be as yummy in Macitica-altepetl during the summertime.

If pressed, though, he'd offer a list of favorite foods/beverages from each place he's been.

9. Is he actually as chill as he's acting?
Uh... ? Depends on your definition. He genuinely has a constant go-with-the-flow attitude. But he's also got a grossly understated courage and a deep, enduring love of life in general.

10. His favorite type of art in general, and his favorite types of music and dance in particular.
He doesn't have one. Each place does different things differently and it's all mind-blowing to Casey. Plus it's a completely different experience when under the influence of psychadelics, which adds another dimension to them.

Mild Malnutrition
Proto-Skin Cancer

He met Slavina, Aaren and Dora about 10 years ago in Bakersfield. Slavina (then Bozydar) hit it off with him and they hung out for a while.

Slavina definitely thinks he's hot.