OOC INFO
Name: EJ
Age: 26
AIM: paythepiper79
E-mail: heraldofzeus@gmail.com
Timezone: CST
Experience: I’ve been RPing since I was 15 in various places, started with a Freeform game called Worlde Arcane (not Journal based), then moved to Livejournal/Greatestjournal based games. I’ve since been playing off and on in various games that have since died, mostly OCs. Currently I am playing in a game on Livejournal called a_facility.
IC INFO
Basic Info
Full Name: Léon Henri Shaw
Nicknames: Shaw, Sir Grumpy, Loutre [By his mother alone. Thankfully.]
Age: 18
Birthday: 20, August 1992
House and Year: 13th year, Sonnier
Electives: [Schedule].
Wand: Ash, 10”, Veela core. Sturdy.
Boggart: A rat.
Patronus: Fox Terrier [Picture]. -- The reasoning behind this is rather simple, Leon is a lot like several of the breeds characteristics. They tend to be "alert, quick of movement, keen of expression, on the tip-toe of expectation at the slightest provocation." In a lot of ways it is as if they are ready for a fight, or excitement at any moment. Also, they are a working dog breed, and thus in need of a lot of stimulus like Leon is himself. Also, like a number of other dogs, they are loyal in their own, independent way. Again, much like Leon. All in all, Leon exhibits a lot of the tough, determined nature that the dog's breed does.
Animagus Form: He doesn’t have one
Religious Affiliation: None
Extracurricular activities: Dueling Club, Chess Club, Debate Club, Charms Club, Brew Masters
Family/RelationshipsParents: Patrick Shaw [Father - Wizard], Amarente Eytinge-Shaw [Mother - Witch]
Siblings: Gaël Shaw [Older, twin brother]
Extended Family: William Shaw [Paternal Grandfather - Muggle], Amie Shaw [Paternal Grandmother - Muggle], Jeremy Shaw [Paternal Uncle - Muggle], Ellen Shaw [Jeremy’s wife - Muggle], Bruce and George Shaw [Paternal Cousins - Muggles], Henri Eytinge [Maternal Grandfather - Wizard], Seline Eytinge [Maternal Grandmother - Witch], Andre Eytinge [Maternal Uncle- Deceased - Wizard]
Familiar: Chester, an orange tabby cat.
[A Picture.]Sexuality: Homosexual, but he’s so far into the closet that he’d fall on a knife before admitting it.
Significant Others: Avery Valentine [boyfriend]; Adelaide Legaux [Ex-girlfriend]
AppearancePB: Sondre Lerche
[Icons] [Picture 1] [Picture 2]Physical description: Léon stands at a whole five feet, nine inches in height, with an average weight and build. His face is a little more drawn than Gaël’s, but on a whole he and his twin can be rather difficult to tell apart at times. His eyes are a striking blue that sometimes look a bit like a misty gray, and his skin is fairly pale. He likes to keep his hair a bit on the longer, shaggier side of things as well. The biggest difference between the twins, though, is that Léon is the one that rarely smiles when people can see, and Gaël rarely frowns in the company of others.
As far as clothing goes, Léon dresses neatly enough for day to day school activities. His tie is sometimes a little loose around his neck, and his shirt is occasionally untucked, but for the most part he looks the part of a well-kept student. When not dressed for class he can usually be found in slightly baggy jeans and an assortment of tee-shirts.
PersonalityLikes: Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Aqua, Jefferson Airplane, Alternative Rock, 70s bands, 80s hair bands, Footie (aka Soccer), fresh strawberries, England, Moleskin Notebooks,
Catcher in the Rye,
Waiting for Godot,
Grapes of Wrath,
Moby Dick, reading, Britney Spears, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Hugh Grant, Disney movies, Quidditch, and lastly he really likes a good bread pudding.
Dislikes: Rats (they give him the creeps, especially the males), Reggae music, Tic tacs, dancing, failing, qoudpot, Astronomy, Magical Biology, Herbology (though potions are okay), homosexuals, hot temperatures (I.E. Summer), driving, and lastly he isn’t much of a fan squash.
Quirks: He sings in the shower when no one else is there. He talks to himself when he is thinking, sometimes holding whole arguments. Léon reads aloud, softly to himself when he is reading a book (so he doesn’t lose his place as easily). He communicates with Gaël through expressions, sometimes having a whole conversation without uttering a word. Be it a twin thing, or just the fact that they’ve shared a room all their life, it can sometimes weird other people out. He doesn’t like to eat eggs, he things they are weird. He also thinks the jell-o might someday come to life as a mutant blob and eat people. He doesn’t really share that quirk with people all that often.
Secrets:
+ His big one is that he is homosexual, and violently opposed to others finding out. However, he has other secrets that are more likely to be discovered first.
+ He has a deep interest in the dark arts (fueled by his now deceased uncle).
+ He likes the band Aqua, which is cleverly renamed as something else on his ipod.
+ He actually likes a large assortment of chick flicks; think Hope Floats, Sleepless in Seattle, all the Audrey Hepburn, and Hugh Grant movies. What? Hugh Grant is great, and derpy.
He also has sexy eyes. + He sections his life into groups, allowing only certain people to know certain things about his likes and interest. Maybe it isn’t really a secret, but it is a way of keeping things from others. He doesn’t like anyone person knowing too much about him, save maybe Gaël .
+ He has a budding drug habit. Mostly it consists of over the counter drugs, at the moment, such as No-Doz, and other stimulants that help him stay away to study. It certainly has the potential to branch out into other, more dangerous drug habits.
+ He suffers from depression, but adamantly lies and hides that fact to the point he can sometimes convince himself it is all in his head. His self-esteem is in the dumps, and it is the root cause for the majority of his surly disposition.
+ [For the rumor mill, if you wish it] Léon’s bad attitude has gotten him into a fair amount of trouble at home, enough that his parents sent him to a boot camp (He can be a bit of a bully). In reality, Léon spent a good portion of his last break in France with his mother’s parents for no particular reason. They simply thought it would do him some good to spend time away from his twin.
What’s in your characters pockets? A lot of things. Though, those mints aren’t really mints. Just going to say that now. + a wallet
Strengths: Defense against the dark arts, charms, lying, his focus, thinking on his feet, sarcasm, speaks fluent French, his English accent (diluted though it might be).
Weaknesses: Impatience, arrogance, low self-esteem, rashness, his temper, Sophie, Gaël, his inability to sometimes mind his own business, and herbology.
Strongest subject in school: Defense Against the Dark Arts
Weakest subject in school: Herbology
One thing he/she can't live without: His brother. No, seriously.
Detailed Personality: Léon’s personality can be a bit of a quandary for those looking from the outside in. On first appearances he seem quite, even reserved with a touch of a stand-offish nature that can put even the most friendly at edge from time to time. He genuinely seems the sort that prefers to sit in a room, alone, with a book and read over the much more engaging atmosphere of a group game night, or just shooting the breeze with friends. But beyond that first, dour impression he seems relatively nice, intelligent, and possibly even friendly.
Upon slightly closer inspection, though, he can come off as a bit of a hard-nosed bully with a taste for harsh insults, and a quick threat if one steps past his invisible ‘do not cross’ lines. He has a particularly nasty habit of taking any and all aggravation with his day out on the slightly unsuspecting, and usually innocent passer-by without so much as a ‘hey, you’ for a warning. He can be brash, cruel, cold and heartless in his delivery of ‘meant to make you bleed’ comment, before walking away with no hint of apology on the horizon. This habit of his tends to particularly be aimed at any and all openly gay, or gay-friendly individuals.
However, to truly know Léon Shaw is to be willing to put up with every road block he can possibly conceive in an effort to make you walk the other direction. Once you’ve broken down those walls and entered into the realm of ‘friend’, it becomes clear that much of who he is is a well-kept secret. For one, he can be charming from time to time, even cracking a joke or two (which might come as a startling surprise to those on the other end of his usually surly attitude.) He is also remarkably loyal to his friends, though he’d never openly admit most of his feelings toward them. And while he isn’t much for showing affection, those that he is closest to sometimes get the wayward, unannounced hug as he wanders by in his daily musings.
One thing is certain, though, that despite what end of the spectrum you land on, Léon seems closed off and in his own world. It certainly is something that has changed over the years for those that have known him. He smiles a little less these days, sticks to himself more and more, and has a relatively glum appearance for the most part. Not that he spends his days bemoaning whatever troubles him. It is more of a quiet change in his over all outward appearance.
Taking a glimpse in the inner workings of Léon’s mind, if one were able to take a peep inside, one would find a boy faced with a lot of confusion about who he is, and what he wants in life. At one time he was full of ambition, with a dream to go back to England and work as an auror. Now the only real ambition he has is to simply graduate from the Academy with decent enough marks to get a job, any job. He is hard on himself, but seems to have given up on things as well, as if to say any failing grade received is because he’s just an idiot to start with. Logically Léon knows it is just the depression talking, and despite the fact that he’s received counseling for it, it still seems to be an uphill battle; one he’s not always sure is worth fighting. Some days are better than others, and sometimes he smiles more for it.
There is also the issue of his sexuality, something he’s not shared with a soul since the day it even remotely crossed his mind. He doesn’t
want to be homosexual, in part because he is afraid of what his family would say, or do for that matter. His parents both come from strict upbringings, and his father’s family makes no secret of their hatred for homosexuality. His worst fear is that his twin, Gaël, would reject him after finding out the truth. The idea that he could be is both terrifying and disgusting to him, but since he can’t take it out on himself (or at least it hasn’t occurred to him to try) he focuses a lot of that anger and disgust on others at the school that…aren’t as concerned about their sexuality.
But for the most part, Léon relies on his twin for a lot of his day to day mucking about. Gaël grounds him, talks him down from stupid things, keeps him focused, and in general reminds him of when he’s making a complete ass of himself. In his mind, Léon would be lost without his brother, floundering in the water without any sign of rescue. Gaël ’s always there for a laugh, or support when it seems he needs it most. At least he feels guilty that he can’t seem to return the favor as much, but he tries his best to be that for his brother as best he can.
HistoryLéon Shaw’s story really begins in Hartfield, in the East Sussex’s county of England. It was there that a set of twin boys were born to a Patrick and Amarente Shaw in the late summer of 1992. The new parents were proud of their sweet, beautiful boys, but little did they know just what sort of an adventure this birth had started for them.
The first years of the twins’ lives passed them by like a blink of the eye. Amarente, a stay at home mother, would often take them for outings into London where she would brunch with Patrick’s muggle parents, and then sometimes she would take long visit to the French country side where her own parents would giddily collect the boys into their arms. From the outside looking in, it was an ideal world full of love and charm.
Reality, however, has a way of being much more callous than anyone ever realizes. For example, Amarente’s parents often talked to her about leaving her husband and taking the twins with her, or maybe just leaving them behind. Their blood was, after all, tainted with that of a muggleborn, English wizard. Her brother, likewise, often made large fusses about the unfortunate state of her marriage, and endlessly accused her of been struck down by a love potion. After all, she had only known Patrick for a short time before they eloped. When she came to visit, Andre often found ways to arrange visits from many possible suitors, touting their praises and pedigree from sunrise to sunset. Her father, Henri, was equally quick to criticize her choice of husbands, but Amarente truly believed the worst of it came from her mother, Seline. She was a charming witch, as graceful and warm as the sun, but one to beware of; for like the sun, she could burn a person terribly when they crossed her. And Patrick Shaw had crossed her the day he married her one and only (pureblooded) daughter.
That wasn’t to say it was any safer when it came to Patrick’s family. Oh no, quite the opposite really. William and Amie Shaw were an adorable English couple that watched TV from the time they came off work to the time they went to bed. Their eldest son, Jeremy, had made them grandparents sometime before, and thus they’d long considered themselves ‘grandparenting pros’; if there were such a thing. Amie never missed the opportunity to tell Amarente just what needed to be done around the house, with the boys, and countless other things. She had an opinion about everything, from the choice of wall color to the carpet on the stairs. Nothing was ever, it seemed, right. And that was not to mention the fact that Amie and William Shaw objected whole heartedly to the boys learning anything about the French, even if their mother (God bless her unfortunate soul) had been born one.
The couple quickly found that the best way to survive their families was, simply, to avoid them.
By 1996 Patrick and his wife were practically pros at the ‘oh so sorry, just missed us!’ However, it seemed things were about be become much easier for the couple. Despite the Ministries insistence that Voldemort was not back as Harry Potter claimed, the twins’ parents grew increasingly uneasy with the tension that spread across England. As an auror, Patrick weighed the risk of a possible fight, well aware that regardless of Voldemort’s actual presence, the death eaters themselves had had a surge in activity. Unlike like the first war, when he’d been a lad just out of school, he now had a family to think about.
Packing their bags, and hardly pausing to look back, the young family moved as far as they dare go from Europe, and settled across the pond in a little town called Chelsea. Life in the Untied States was rather different than the one they’d left behind, however. Patrick struggled to find a job, and Amarente found that the neighbors were far more curious than she’d ever expected. And when asked where their car was, she wasn’t quite sure what to tell them at all.
One night, after a long day of job hunting, Amarente greeted Patrick at the floo with a smile on her face and a bounce to her step. In an effort to help them blend in, she’d done two things she’d: one)
She’d purchased them an autohome; which was like an automobile, but slightly better. And two) she’d enrolled the twins in daycare. It was all the rage according to the other house mums.
And so, Léon’s first real memories were hazy glimpses of sitting in the back of the family autohome as Amarente attempted to drive into downtown Chelsea everyday to take the boys to school, the old city shops passing them by as people always seemed to stop and stare at the spectacle she was making. As the twins started their first school, surrounded by muggles and a strange since of being out of place, their parents’ lives began to settle out into a pattern. Patrick found a job with a local branch of the American Ministry of Magic, and with her new found time Amarente took up cooking; which she was unfortunately disastrous with.
It was during this time that they met a strange girl they had more in common with than anyone realized. She took to following them about, informing them of every odd and end little thing she could see. Often, even, she pointed out that they called ‘funny’, with their young English accents. She even pointed out once that the twins, despite looking just alike, didn’t have the same dominate had. Gaël was left handed, and Léon right. At first they seemed to find the girl rather annoying, her constant talking and general girlyness was distracting from their greatest purpose in life: stealing cookies.
Janis Sophie Parke was perhaps the biggest event to occur in their young lives, and yes…yes, Janis most certainly was an event. Over the years, from the time they met her to the day they started school, the three of them were nearly constant companions. When they were ten (Janis, being a year younger than them, was only nine), the trio had gone down to the creek to play. In their world, nothing could touch them, the three amigos; the three musketeers of France! (Well, sort of.) But what their parents couldn’t stop them from doing, nature could.
The twins, ever prone to fighting, had come up with a plan to prove who the best twin was once and for all. Upon Gaël’s insistence, they both climbed the nearest tree they could find, and prepared for what they considered to be an epic battle. With stick-swords in their hands, they balanced upon tree limbs as they started to duke it out like pirates at sea. Gaël, the eldest, boldly dared Léon to go ever higher as they fought, Janis below calling up to them, ‘guys, guys stop it! Something’s going to happen. I can feel it!’
And something did happen, much to all their horrors. As Léon stepped back, swinging his sword around to whack at Gaël’s, he lost his balance and slipped. He tumbled from the height (which in retrospect was not nearly as high up and they had thought it was), Léon tried to catch himself before landing on the ground is a loud, cracking thud. Gaël scrambled from the tree, terrified, as Janis leaned over Léon with the greatest concern on her face.
Rushing home, Gaël tried to explain to his mother in gentle terms what had happened before Janis and Léon hobbled into the house. Amarente was shocked to find her youngest son in pain, before finding her own wand to heal him. It was, in some ways, the start of a lot of changes within the twins. And it was certainly the start of something uncomfortable for Léon, himself. For Léon, Janis became an outlet for things he never knew about himself in that last year before he and Gaël went off to Crescent City for school.
Even after he began school, however, he continued to write back to her about the things that went on in life, who they’d met, and the strange distance that seemed to be forming between himself and his brother. And Janis, perhaps, was the one person in the world he felt could understand when he needed someone to listen.
For Léon, school started like everyone else. His first three years went by relatively painless; at least it felt that way until it was time to be sorted. There was a large part of Léon that wondered if the sorting had really be all that accurate. There was a part of him that sometimes felt that Lalauri was a better much, but he and his twin both found themselves settled into Sonnier at the start of their 9th year.
It was around this time that Léon’s personality seemed to start to change. He began to withdraw a little more as the months went by, verbally lashing out at more than a few people. It seemed that he took a particular disliking to anyone that came across as homosexual, or even supported the idea of it. It was a behavior that became an increasingly sore spot between the twins, Gaël not understanding where this seemingly bizarre and unexpected personality change had come from.
By year 12, he had pushed a good deal of people out of his life, having become a virtual loner a world that demands attention. From a distance, he looked the same, a youth who sometimes smiled at a passing thought, or a butterfly that flapped by. But upon closer inspection, it increasingly seemed as if he was wasting away from some inner anguish that he was neither inclined nor willing to share with others. Nor did it truly invoke any sympathy from others.
SamplesJournal Entry: Fear. In simple terms it is defined as a feeling of agitation or anxiety, as if danger lurks about the very corner at this exact moment. And who knows, maybe it does? What with CNN breaking news about the wizarding world to the greater American public, perhaps the best question one can ask themselves is this: what’s
not to fear?
Of course my father would say, in the words of his favorite book
Dune by Frank Herbert, "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Such words of wisdom uttered from the lips of the Bene Gesserit in the face of fear. But even now, when I fully see the truth in them, I cannot help but think: this fear I face comes in a much bigger package than some small box I trap my hand in.
Afterall, how does one simply turn ‘fear’ off? It is not as if there is some switch that I can happily wander up of and proudly proclaim, “hey mate, don’t need you anymore. Well, it’s been good, but I’ll just be turning you off now.” If the world, if
emotions worked like that, well everything would be so much simpler, wouldn’t? Imagine all the things you could turn off. Having a row with your girl? “Oh, best be turning off the anger switch before I say something I shouldn’t.” What about all those times you were secretly watching a girl movie,
Up for example? A bird might walk in at any time, might want to turn off the “I cry at the movie” switch. Not very manly, crying over cartoons. (However, I do challenge anyone to say they don’t cry at
Up. If you don’t, you’re probably one of the most heartless people I’ve ever met.)
Of course, I suppose the simplest answer is really right in front of me: facing fear itself. Though, if I were truthful, I would admit that the idea of muggles knowing all about the wizarding world doesn’t really scare me. No, if I really wanted to face fear down, and tell it to shove off…I’d buy a rat. That isn’t likely to happen, ever. There are just some things in this world that are far too creepy and disgusting to even contemplate facing off with. I’m fairly certain that flea infested rats can safely be listed behind giant cockroaches, and flesh eat bacteria.
Then again, that could just be me.
RP Sample: The club’s music vibrated the table every time the bass blasted into the room, the beers rocking back and forth in their glasses as Léon watched the crowd idly. Gaël was packed in tight with a group of people, dancing as if the night was the last he had on earth.
“That’s shit,” he muttered, as the song changed from one annoyingly loud beat to a new, equally annoying beat. Lifting a glass of beer off the table, he leaned back in his chair, an arm hanging off the back as he watched people dance to the newest pop-dance sensation.
”From New York to LA, getting high, rock and rollin’, get a room trash it up till it’s ten in the morning….”Léon nearly snorted in his beer as he listened. Lambert, ha! Queer of the century right there, all but prancing down the walk with his cock hanging out, sign taped to it ‘suck my knob.’ There was no effort to hide who it wanted to polish it, either. What with the gayest lyrics Léon had ever heard, they had a way of making him shift uncomfortably, even blush just a little.
“You want to dance?” A voice said, an arm snaking up around his shoulders as he glanced back to see one of the girls they’d slipped into the club with. She was in Uni, and there by all the legal means that a good charm couldn’t replicate. Not that she knew better about the twins.
“I’m not a dancer,” he said with a touch a slur, “more of a drinker…”
“But
that isn’t any fun, babe. Come on, you’ll have fun.” She smirked at him as one of her hands slapped down to his leg, freely exploring the curve of his inner thigh before pushing higher. “I’ll make it fun for you.”
For a moment he hesitated, glancing down at her hand before looking up again. “We’d need a room if you wanted to do that sort of dancing,” he remarked, shifting in his chair uncomfortably as he looked away. He could feel her breath a moment later, brushing against his ear as she leaned in, breast pushing into his arm as her tongue flicked out to run along his ear.
“We could do that, too” she purred.
“I’ll pass,” he muttered, lifting his beer again as she scowled and stalked off. “Fucking, mouthy slag.” Turning his attentions back to the dance floor, he silently went back to nursing his beer.
MiscPlot ideas you think we should know: None at the moment.
