Post by Leander Murray on Dec 26, 2014 16:37:52 GMT -5
Leander Murray
NAME: Leander Murray
AGE: 16 (3rd October 1867)
SOCIAL CLASS: Lower Class
STATUS: Single
PLAY-BY: Leonardo DiCaprio (young)
BlOOD STATUS: Muggleborn
EYES: blue
HAIR: dirty blonde and short with bangs in the front
SKINTONE: slightly tanned
HEIGHT & WEIGHT: 5'5 and lean
DISTINGUISHING MARKS: His calloused hands
OVERALL PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: James is a lean boy who is still hoping for a growth spurt. His arms are relatively muscular and but rather wiry than bulky due to hard physical work and his hands are strong. His hair is cropped short, but still falls into his eyes as it divides in the middle, no matter how often he pushes it back. His blue eyes are very expressive and display most of his emotions along with his eyebrows. His high cheekbones, slightly hollowed cheeks and quite chisled chin, despite his age, make him a handsome young man (if he could afford the right attire to look proper).
NON-MAGICAL SKILLS: Due to often helping his father in the mine and otherwise supporting his family by making money, he can use his hands well for physical work. However in working breaks he has been seen juggling with various working tools or balance on beams around the timbered house on his hands and feet.
MAGICAL SKILLS: James' Transfiguration skills are pretty neat. As he has good concentration techniques he doesn't need to practice hard to get spells right and, being a muggleborn, he thinks transfiguring objects is fun, so he does it often without any reason whatsoever.
BEST/WORST CLASSES: James bonds well with animals which is why he's good at Care of Magical Creatures, whereas he doesn't see the use in potions. His lacking motivation is the reason for his bad marks in the subject. His best subject, surpassing all others, is Transfiguration however as he has a vivid imagination and the ability to concentrate well.
WEAKNESSES: When it comes to his special talents James can be vain, no matter how much he tries to fight it. Secretly he believes himself to be the only one and the best at what he can do and thinks himself above others in this point, if he can't surpass others in any other area such as money or manners.
Sometimes James' bravery and curiosity borders on stupidity. The thrill he gets from it makes him inconsiderate towards danger, most of all when others are watching.
STRENGTHS: James can be very determined when it comes to his skills, which he wants to extend and perfect, but at the same time he doesn't want his efforts to be in vain. Instead he seeks for the attention and praise of others for what he can do. He is also very brave. If a cat sits on a tree meowing he's the one to climb on the skimpiest branches to rescue the animal. The same goes for standing up to people. Maybe it is stupidity, but he stands up to people, disregarding rank and consequence, to claim his rights. When he only smells injustice he can already feel his blood boiling.
QUIRKS & HABITS: There are times when James can't sit still. Then he throws around with whatever object he can get his hands on and catching it again and often enough the easiest way isn't the best for James as he'd rather make it diffcult by choosing the direct way over low walls, trees or furniture.
OVERALL PERSONALITY DESCRIPTION: James is a bundle of energy, who works hard to be able to show off. Challenges don't scare him, he faces them head first. He knows he has nothing to his name and so he tries to make himself a name through his actions. When he was younger no tree was night enough to jump down from, in the middle of the market place of his home town and no daring too daring. He wants to prove his worth to everyone who doesn't want to know. Difference in rank and consequence don't keep him in check either as he believes that everyone is born equal and the differences are made by the ones coming out on top. He is stubborn and proud and doesn't take failure lightly.
BIRTH PLACE: County Wicklow, Ireland
PARENTS: father Martin Murray (1843): working in a copper mine; mother Jane Lynch (1848): daughter of a man coming to Ireland in times of the gold rush (1795 - 1830)
SIBLINGS: Margery and Ines Murray (1870), not educated, helping the mother with sewing
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: none
CHILDREN: none
OTHERS: none
PET: none
CHARACTER HISTORY: Martin Murray, James' father, had been born in Ireland. His family had always lived in a small house, some would call it a shack, with heavy boots standing in front of the door and various tools leaning against the wall. The Murray family was one with a long tradition of miners, the father going to the mine every day with all sons old enough to go and earn money to keep the family from starving. The daughters always helped the mother in whatever she could do best which she could sell in the village or help the neighbours out with, in hopes of getting something else in return. Many repairs about the house were made by the inhabitants and by keeping a garden as much food as possible was grown there as well.
Jane Lynch's family had not had that sort of traditional bounds. Using the word lightly they could've been described as normads, seeking their fortune in different places instead of waiting for it by settling down. This restlessness was what induced Jane's father (1805) to move to Ireland (1824) with his wife as soon as they were wed when he heard that gold was to be found there. Gold was found and money lost in a never ending circle caused by greed. In good times children were created, which were born in bad times where it wasn't granted that they lived to see the next day or starve before the next day.
Hence Jane has many siblings, even more who she never got to know, as she is the youngest one.
Only 6 years after arriving in Ireland, the gold had come to an end and the family was poorer than before with 4 more children than they'd moved in with though. Those were hard years and only the youngest of the children survived the years to come.
Eventually Mrs. Lynch took the reins in hand and started offering her services in the richer households in the next village, helping with cleaning and cooking, and hereby earned enough money to keep the family fed. By the time Mrs. Lynch was with child again, her husband had caught on with the ways of a stable job, he could provide for food and water as well. It wasn't much they had, but at least the children who came thereafter stayed alive, but for one.
When Jane was old enough to work she joined her mother in cleaning and cooking for the rich. On the way to the next town they often passed the Murray men on their way to work and when once her mother had fallen sick and had been forced to stay at home for a fortnight, the two youngsters had come much closer and caught a mutual interest in each other. It took another two years before Jane Lynch was wed to Martin Murray.
After the wedding the young couple moved into a small house, a shack not unlike that of his family, which Martin had built for himself, a possible family in mind. Soon Jane was with child an Leander was born. He was a lively child, who always needed to be watched or the house would've been lit aflame more than once. At first Martin's mother helped with the task of containing the child with the great curiosity and energy, but all too soon, when Leander was three years old, a spell of dizziness hit his mother when she was with child again, and caused her to tumble down a flight of stairs. Her knee was injured in the accident and the unattended break would stiffen the joint over the years to come until she would be completely unable to move it, a numbness in her right leg. So the young woman was then able to look after her son instead of going off to work, but had, most of all in the first weeks after the incident, difficulty managing her own household. All her in-laws helped her greatly during that time and showed even more support when Jane gave birth not to one but to two children. The twin girls had survived their mother's fall unharmed.
Bound to the house and with two more mouths to feed Jane started to teach herself to sew. It took long until she was good enough to sell her work, but for children's clothes her skills sufficed in the beginning just fine.
Leander didn't bond well with his two sisters. They were busy with each other and still being babies they couldn't provide amusement for him as all they did was scream. He rather went off, wandering through the village on his own. Once or twice he even followed his father into the mine, but was soon found out and brought back to his mother to be locked in his room as punishment. However he always managed to get out, much to the astonishment of his parents, for they, being muggles, could not explain the boy's magic.
In 1875 Mr. Lynch died, a year after his wife, peacefully in his bed. For in the end he'd found that settling down wasn't that bad after all. Or maybe he just hadn't wanted to admit that his health hadn't allowed him to travel anymore and seek further adventures. Martin carried his wife to her parents' house for her to collect a few memories. When Jane went to the back of the house where she wanted to bury the couple's rings, she was met with resistence in the otherwise soft earth. She had discovered what her father had saved in the good times of the gold it seemed. When she told her husband, the man suggested to similarly hide the little chest in their house, for they could support their family for now. Should dire times come however, should he die, Martin dared to say, there would be a chance for the rest of the family to survive.
But that was not the case. Instead, when Leander was 11, a letter arrived, which would be the reason for the money in the chest to slowly vanish. It turned out a great discussion if the boy would be allowed to go to a boarding school which would keep him from working most of the year, but would even cost money. Knowing that now Leander's curiosity about this other world had been spiked he wouldn't rest until he could find out more about it, maybe even be part of it, she begged her husband to let the boy go and take her father's money to pay for his education. In the end Martin relented under the condition that Leander should earn money whenever he was home to help support his sisters. They in turn soon learned sewing from their mother and carried their own weight in the family. However they would never have the privilege to be educated like their brother, nor did they show special talents like he did. He was all special. He was a wizard and he could do all sorts of things. He could even dance more elegantly than they could and secretly they hated that about him.
At Hogwarts Leander was neither a loner nor was he the most popular student around. He found a few people he got along with and a few who he offended with his confident air, which wasn't befitting a lower class boy. Of course he was fascinated about the magical world, but he never got too much into it. Instead of practicing his spells or writing his essays he went outside to climb in trees, sometimes even do cartwheels or walk on his hands through the castle, just because he could. He'd done it often at home and it reminded him of that. Magic was fascinating enough, but he was more enchanted with what he could make his body do than with what his wand could do. The dream formed in his mind to one day earn his money with it, join a circus and have people watch him to fascinating things every night.
In the summer between fourth and fifth year this dream seemed almost at an end as there had been a fall in metal prices and his family was hit hard by that. His father didn't want him to return to Hogwarts, but stubborn Leander went anyway, fearing that he'd be made to work if he stayed home, and maybe be locked in the mine. But if he went to Hogwarts he could practice his favorite art the way he wanted to and could still chase his dream.
For fear of being kept at home should he go back, he stayed at Hogwarts for the Winter Holidays and instead found someone to pay him for stocking shelves at Honeydukes, half of the money he sent home, half of it he kept for his future.
NAME: Leo
AGE: 21
YEARS ROLEPLAYING: 1
DO YOU AGREE TO THE RULES OF LOVE?: yes
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE RP TERMS UNDER RP: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW?: yes
HOW'D YOU FIND US?: Fiat Lux
DATE: 27/12/14
ROLEPLAY SAMPLE: (worst personality I have ever written I think. I'm sorry)
this application was made by dear agony, @ SP. removing this credit or claiming as your own will guarantee a visit by an evil spider.[/i]
