Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Name Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Position Victim Advocate Counselor
Rank Lieutenant
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Species | Human | |
| Age | 40 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 6'5" / 196cm | |
| Weight | 220lbs / 99kg | |
| Hair Color | Black (greying at temples) | |
| Eye Color | Hazel | |
| Physical Description | Ezra is an imposing man, standing at 6'5" with a solid, muscular frame shaped by a hard life and years of discipline. He has a quiet but commanding presence--broad shoulders, thick forearms, and a square jaw softened by tired and careworn eyes. His hair is black, often worn short but tousled with streaks of grey at the temples. He moves quietly and with precision, as if he knows his size could intimidate. Therefore, he does not rush. His voice is low, soothing, and gentle (ASMR-like). He has numerous ghastly scars on his back and sides--all part of the trauma he experienced in his childhood. Truly, he is a gentle giant. |
Family
| Father | Unknown | |
| Mother | Zelena Van Wijnbergen | |
| Other Family | Adoptive parents: Commander Polys Koronos (Retired Starfleet Child Psychologist) Jarlin Koronis (Ornamental Horticulturist) Dogs: Trigger - Belgian Malinois Age 6 Personality: Alert, focused, and deeply attuned to Ezra. Trigger is the more disciplined of the two dogs, trained for threat assessment and patient protection when needed--but also knows when to sit quietly and offer a steady presence. He rarely seeks affection but accepts it with dignity. Role: Functions like an emotional perimeter; often takes cues from Ezra's unspoken tension and mirrors his vigilance. Patients with trauma often trust Trigger first, even if they don't trust people. Milo - Golden Retriever/Border Collie mix Age 3 Personality: Gentle, affectionate, and eager to please. Milo has a gift for reading emotional nuance--especially distress--and has an almost clownish ability to disarm tension. He's the one who'll nudge a crying patient's hand or climb half-into someone's lap uninvited. Role: Empathic and comforting, ideal for grief work or patients dealing with anxiety or isolation. He's also the one that makes other crew warm to Ezra faster than they expect to. |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | Ezra is the sort of person who listens more than he speaks--and when he does speak, it's with purpose. He carries a heavy stillness of someone who has seen too much, survived too much, and made peace with the parts of himself that still burn. His empathy is rooted in experience and not theory. His patients often feel it before they know it... that he is safe, and even more than that, he understands. He is the calm in the room and the silence that others are quick to trust. He is deeply principled but is often flexible in method. He is someone who knows justice can't always be found in a courtroom. He believes wholeheartedly in dignity, in boundaries, in holding space for those who've been broken and helping them rebuild in their own time. He is under no illusion that healing is often more painful than the trauma. Ezra does not tolerate cruelty, especially from those in power. It's one of the few things that stirs real anger in him, although he channels it quietly and effectively, usually by outlasting rather than confronting. |
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| Strengths & Weaknesses | Strengths: -Deep empathy and emotional intelligence -Trauma-informed care and support -Fluent in interpersonal de-escalation and mediation -Strong cultural literacy from growing up in the "margins" -Remarkable physical endurance and survival instinct Weaknesses: -Struggles to ask for help or express personal needs -Can become emotionally over-invested in difficult cases -Occasionally rigid when it comes to moral grey areas -Very rare but intense emotional shutdowns (turns emotions inward) -Prone to self-sacrificial behaviour under pressure (puts others first--always) |
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| Ambitions | Ezra has no desire for rank or command. His ambition is quieter: to be a steady presence for those in pain, to ensure the people forgotten by systems are still seen and heard. He hopes that by helping others find peace, he can continue to earn his own. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | -Animal care. He especially enjoys working with therapy animals and training them. He owns two dogs--Trigger and Milo. -Cooking. Prefers rustic, slow meals. Is at his best when cooking for large groups of friends. -Boxing and kettlebell training. A discipline that keeps his body steady when the mind is under stress. -Snoekerjie. A version of the old-Earth game, snooker. Is a shark. -Creative writing. Keeps a daily journal, but is also a lesser-known poet, having published two collections of poetry. |
| Personal History | Ezra Van Wijnbergen was born in 2357 on a planet most Federation maps no longer bothered to print: New Klipfontein, a failed human colony on Pi Cygnus III. Long ago, it had meant to be a beacon--a rugged outpost of hope. Then the tsunamis came, and later the slow rot of abandonment. By the time Ezra came into the world, the colony had become a dust-caked wound barely held together by violence and reputation. His mother, Zelena, worked in a brothel "owned" by one of the warlords who ran his portion of the city like a chessboard soaked in blood. She tried to keep Ezra safe, but safety was an imaginary word in Bergfontein. At age five, he watched her be brutalized for disobedience. At age seven, he was running errands for Golus, the warlord--watching, stealing, passing coded messages. By ten, he’d been made a blade: efficient, silent, obedient. Zelena tried to run. Once. She was caught. Tortured. Branded. Banished to the streets. Ezra never saw her again. By twelve, he was swallowed up in a war between factions, captured, and tossed into a canal to drown. He didn’t. A family--strangers--pulled him from the filth, hid him, fed him, and took him inland. Boenn was a place that tried to live differently. Ezra learned what silence felt like when it wasn’t charged with fear. He learned to plant. To milk cows. To read. To laugh--a little. Then came the quake. It split the land. His new family didn’t survive. He wandered for days before a Vulcan medical ship, running aid, found him: half-starved, half-feral, all bone and instinct. They took him to a starbase. There he met Lieutenant Commander Polys Koronis, a Betazoid counselor. He wouldn’t eat unless she gave him the food herself. He didn’t speak to anyone but her. So she stayed. Polys and her husband adopted him. Took him to Betazed. Gave him years of school, of healing, of long nights and hard conversations and quiet, steady love. There were relapses. Violent outbursts. Months where the past flooded in and he could barely breathe. But slowly, he began to believe he could be more than what Bergfontein made him. He studied. And he listened. And he endured. At 23, Ezra graduated from the University of Yalnos with degrees in xenopsychology and sociology. He entered Starfleet Academy and majored in Federation Law and Jurisprudence. The boy who’d once been forced to spy and kill was now writing legal arguments and counseling survivors. His first assignment was Starbase 315 where he served as a legal assistant in the JAG office. Starbase 77 followed, then a medical relief vessel, USS Talleyrand. He led trauma units on Earth, earned an MPhil from University College London, and later served aboard the USS Papineau, helping relocate Romulan refugees. He even spent time aboard The Artifact, quietly helping those still haunted by assimilation. In 2397, Ezra accepted a position aboard the USS Artemis as Victim Advocate Counselor. He knows justice isn’t always clean and that pain doesn’t follow schedules. That hope can look like stubbornness and healing can start with just being heard. He carries no illusions. Simply purpose. And he is very, very good at his work. |
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| Service Record | 2357: Born in New Klipfontein, Pi Cygnus III. 2370: Rescued from Pi Cygnus III, taken to a Federation starbase. 2370: Adopted by Polys & Jarlin Koronis, moving to Betazed. 2376-2380: Attended and graduated from the University of Yalnos, Betazed, with degrees in xenopsychology and sociology. 2380-2384: Attended and graduated Starfleet Academy, majoring in Federation Law and Jurisprudence. 2384-2386: Attended and graduated Starfleet Legal Academy, with a Master of Jurisprudence. 2386-2387: Assigned to Starbase 315, serving in JAG office as a legal assistant. 2387-2388: Assigned to Starbase 77, serving in JAG office. 2388-2390: Assigned to USS Talleyrand, serving as counselor. 2390-2394: Assigned to lead specialized trauma unit, Starfleet Medical, Earth. Earned MPhil from University College London in Behavioural Science/Psychobiology. 2394-2397: Assigned to USS Papineau, serving as counselor. 2397-present: Assigned to USS Artemis, serving as Victim Advocate Counselor. |