"Rooster" Langolier is a Nocker Wilder with a passion for stock cars. He is also the assistant to Duke Murdoch ap Dougal.
Overview
Richard Langley came of age in Charlotte. Despite the prosperity of the city, Langley's parents were blue-collar workers; his mother a waitress and father a mechanic at the local gas station. Richard grew up "fixin' stuff." As soon as he was old enough to hold a screwdriver he started taking things apart to see how they worked and putting them back together, often in odd ways. Soon the home was "blessed" with an alarm clock with backward-running hands, a television in which sound only worked when hooked up to the washing machine, and a hair dryer that played a local FM station. Seeing his son's promise, it wasn't long before dad took Richard to work with him.
The Chrysalis didn't seem to change Richard's obsession with tinkering; it just made him more critical of flaws. Soon he was fixing cars his father couldn't repair and creating weird devices he hid in his "special" room in the garage. For his 16th birthday his parents got him his first fixer-upper car and Langolier (as he now called himself except around his parents) found his life-long passion: stock-car racing.
While not particularly interested in driving the cars, he was crazy to invent new and better ways of making them faster. He quickly became a regular around the Speedway, hanging around teams, talking with designers, and watching the cars' performance on the track. He made himself thoroughly unpopular with his constant carping and suggestions for improvements. He got the nickname "Rooster" because people said he was constantly crowing about his own skills. Despite his obvious talent, none of the teams would take him on because of how unpleasant he was. One more kindly soul told him to look him up when he grew some manners.
Angry that no one would give him a chance, Langolier got in his souped-up car and drove at random. Raching Chapel Hill, he realized he hadn't eaten in a while. He parked on Franklin street (a minor miracle in itself) and went to a local eatery. There he met Murdoch whose first words to him were "What a great car! Did you do the customizing yourself?" And so a friendship was born.
The two spent hours talking combustion engines and aerodynamics. Murdoch took the nocker too is apartment and they poured over designs, photographs, and various machine parts for half the night. Langolier never felt better. That's when he suddenly realized his friend was a sidhe. The discussion moved to chimerical improvements and crafting. Eventually Murdoch asked him to move to Chapel Hill and become his lab assistant. It didn't surprise him. What did was when he discovered his new friend was a duke.
Despite his tendency for sniping and finding fault, the two fae get on quite well together. As the sidhe's lab assistant, he gets a chance to work on projects he never would have originated himself and he occasionally gets Glamour from some of the duke's more ambitious designs. he still has plenty of time to devote to his own work. Between the two of them, they have constructed a stock-car engine they hope to have on the racing circuit next year... if they can find a driver.
Personal
He is as content as a nocker can be in an imperfect world. Something always gums up the works, and his comfortable rapport with the Duke may yet be destroyed by a pretty face and a pair of fur britches attached to a satyr minx named Cissy. Why can't things be perfect? Sometimes he gets so angry he just has to destroy everything and enjoy starting over. The Duke doesn't understand that, sadly. That's too bad because in many ways he's the perfect companion.
Rooster is an excellent mechanic and also quite good at theoretical sciences, though he rarely displays that talent. Despite his claim that he is a "workingman," many of his chimerical creations are as beautiful as they are functional.
Image
The nickname Rooster may have as much to do with his appearance as with his bragging. He has a bright mop of orange-red hair that tops a long face with a prominent nose and thin lips. His small, dark eyes peek out from under tufted eyebrows and his Adam's apple sticks out like a ball caught in his throat. He is tall and gawky and wears oil-stained clothes. In Fae mien, his skin is red, his hair is white, and he always dresses smartly. Aside from that he looks much the same.
References
- CtD. Kingdom of Willows, pp. 115-116.