Alabaster Fink
Alabaster Fink is average height and medium build, with long blonde hair and a shifty-looking goatee that does nothing to dispel the impression that he is about to sell you something. Time has softened his frame, adding weight to his face and a paunch to his stomach, but he is rarely seen without his cowboy hat and rarely heard without a story that stretches the truth past its breaking point. He claims he was born to a giantess named Linda Marie, who birthed him while hiking the Expanse without stopping, and that he landed on his feet and immediately helped her fight off coyotes. The actual truth is less colorful but no less remarkable.
Fink founded the Appaloosa Wildmen, the premier guide and tracking company in the Expanse, and has built it from a one-man operation into an outfit that commands between one hundred and five hundred members, depending on his sobriety at the time of counting. He personally vets every recruit, taking each new member on a solo overnight trail run with just the two of them. It is rare that he does not return with the trainee, though it has happened once or twice. Nobody asks what happened on those nights. The Wildmen have recently expanded into bounty hunting contracts, and Fink's knowledge of every ridge, hollow, and game trail in the Expanse makes him and his people uniquely suited to finding those who do not wish to be found.
His loud mouth is both his greatest asset and his most recognizable feature. It was that mouth that caught the attention of a mercantile company needing help crossing the Expanse, the job that started everything. Fink has walked the full length of the Expanse since he was fourteen years old, and there is no one alive who knows its dangers and its passages better. Whether he is telling the truth about any given detail is another matter entirely.
Fink founded the Appaloosa Wildmen, the premier guide and tracking company in the Expanse, and has built it from a one-man operation into an outfit that commands between one hundred and five hundred members, depending on his sobriety at the time of counting. He personally vets every recruit, taking each new member on a solo overnight trail run with just the two of them. It is rare that he does not return with the trainee, though it has happened once or twice. Nobody asks what happened on those nights. The Wildmen have recently expanded into bounty hunting contracts, and Fink's knowledge of every ridge, hollow, and game trail in the Expanse makes him and his people uniquely suited to finding those who do not wish to be found.
His loud mouth is both his greatest asset and his most recognizable feature. It was that mouth that caught the attention of a mercantile company needing help crossing the Expanse, the job that started everything. Fink has walked the full length of the Expanse since he was fourteen years old, and there is no one alive who knows its dangers and its passages better. Whether he is telling the truth about any given detail is another matter entirely.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Fink came from the small mountain town of Booneskokie, which burned down shortly after his birth. Found in the woods by another Appaloosan family who gave him the surname Fink, he was prone to trouble from a young age. By fourteen, he had begun wandering the full length of the Expanse, teaching himself every trail, every hazard, and every shortcut the mountains had to offer. His education was the land itself, and he proved an eager student.
His loud mouth eventually caught the attention of a mercantile company that needed help crossing the Expanse. That first job became the seed of the Appaloosa Wildmen. Fink took the payment, hired a few hands, and started offering guide services to anyone willing to pay. The operation grew as his reputation spread: loud, unreliable with details, but utterly dependable on the trail. He expanded into bounty hunting when it became clear that the same skills that kept caravans alive could also track down people who had disappeared into the mountains.
Today, the Wildmen are the Expanse's foremost guide company, and Fink remains at the center of it all. He still personally tests every recruit, still walks the trails he memorized as a teenager, and still tells anyone who will listen that he was born running. The truth of his origin is quieter: an orphan from a burned town, raised by strangers, who turned a lifetime of restless wandering into something that matters.
His loud mouth eventually caught the attention of a mercantile company that needed help crossing the Expanse. That first job became the seed of the Appaloosa Wildmen. Fink took the payment, hired a few hands, and started offering guide services to anyone willing to pay. The operation grew as his reputation spread: loud, unreliable with details, but utterly dependable on the trail. He expanded into bounty hunting when it became clear that the same skills that kept caravans alive could also track down people who had disappeared into the mountains.
Today, the Wildmen are the Expanse's foremost guide company, and Fink remains at the center of it all. He still personally tests every recruit, still walks the trails he memorized as a teenager, and still tells anyone who will listen that he was born running. The truth of his origin is quieter: an orphan from a burned town, raised by strangers, who turned a lifetime of restless wandering into something that matters.
Loud-mouthed founder of the Appaloosa Wildmen guides.
Children
