(no subject)

[bitchbabyquayle]

GENERAL

NAME: Ulysses August Quayle

NICKNAMES: His sister calls him "Uly," which he finds somewhat mortifying but hasn't been able to shake, despite his best efforts. ETA: "Baby Quayle." Goddamn it.

AGE/DOB: 16, June 24th

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male, he/him

SEXUALITY: Presumably straight

HOMETOWN: Olympus, Picket County, Tennessee.

"To the No-Maj world, the town of Olympus ceased to exist in 1907. It was actually bought out and transformed into a magical settlement. Currently, it's one of the biggest magical cities in the South. Many a visitor has compared it to Nashville due to its prominent magical music scene. The Quayles are one of the five founding members of magical Olympus.

The town is also home to the Swan Academy, a K-12 school that services most of the southeastern United States. While it is considered an upper echelon school, numbers tend to dwindle after the 5th grade due to Ilvermorny transfers. It does not have a house system and there is a small dormitory for students with special housing circumstances. In addition to both education and magical fundamentals, the Swan Academy also requires classes in manners, ballroom dancing, and other social graces to ensure their students are properly ready to enter magical society upon graduation."

CONCEPT: Darling baby-of-the-family grows up, gets a little lost on his way home.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Ulysses is careless with his clothes in a way only someone with money can be; he never seems to mind if something spills or tears or gets lost, because, well, he can always buy another. A dirty shirt is as likely to be replaced as it is washed. This means that his un-uniformed wardrobe is always changing, although the style remains consistent: preppy, expensive, possibly monogrammed ("UAQ"). He doesn't much care for the latter, but monogramming is a family tradition he's yet to rebel against.

HEIGHT: 5' 8"

PB: Dane DeHaan

PERSONALITY

LIKES: Quidditch, animals, especially his skink Rex, ghosts and ghost stories, Sundays, his childhood bedroom, slow and low Tennessee barbecue, eating peanut butter by the spoonful, reading, summertime, open spaces, walking through the woods, the smell of tobacco, scrapping with his friends

DISLIKES: Milk in his coffee, fake strawberry flavour, dancing, being told what to do, criticism of him or his family, having to pretend he likes the taste of scotch in front of his older male relatives, the day after he gets his ass into trouble

PERSONALITY:

Ulysses' key drive is the desire to find himself. The labels he once held in childhood (sweetheart, baby, mama’s boy, etc.) no longer seem to fit, and the change has left him feeling unmoored, lost, isolated even among friends. More than anything, Ulysses wants to fill that void and learn his place in the world. As a result, he has a tendency to throw himself into situations with a certain recklessness, like a blind man groping in the dark for something he recognises as familiar. The one exception to this is academic: Ulysses is a good student, and the thought of losing his status as “smart” (by doing poorly in a class, for example) is mildly petrifying to him, leaving him intellectually cautious in a way that could be mistaken for laziness. He’s unlikely to challenge himself in school unless pushed externally.

His upbringing has left him entitled and somewhat demanding; he’s used to getting the green-light, no matter what wants, and if denied, can act like a brat. He has a tendency to be caustic, moody, and impulsive, prone in equal parts to intense navel-gazing and physical fights. In layman’s terms: a real dickhead. Ulysses is sensitive about how he’s perceived by others, and while he pretends not to care, this anxiety dictates a lot of his life. Essentially, one could say Ulysses is ruled by id and superego, without the balance of a stable ego in between.

It’s not all dumbassery and teenage melancholia, though. On the flip side, Ulysses, is bright, articulate, and charming when he wants to be. Makes a great party host. Although he doesn’t quite know it yet, at his core, he’s gentle and sweet, good with animals, something of a homebody. Fiercely loyal, he cares deeply about his family and what they think of him, wants to do good in their eyes. As a personal side-note, Ulysses aspires to be Quidditch captain, and honestly, the responsibility might do him good.

Ten years from now, Ulysses' little shitlord phase will probably be naught but a distant memory, But for now, well. If his parents wants him to stay on the straight and narrow, they probably shouldn't have named him after a famous wanderer.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

Augustine Quayle -- Paternal grandfather. Pureblood. Former Wampus. Former MACUSA representative. The current mayor of Olympus, Tennessee. Married to Opal Quayle née Abbott.

Savannah Braxton née Robinson -- Maternal grandmother. Pureblood. Former Thunderbird. Former director of the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation. Current socialite. Married to Jonathan Braxton.

Ambrose Quayle -- Father. Pureblood. Former Wampus. MACUSA rep from Tennessee, with talk of a presidential run to come. Privately, Ulysses suspects his father disapproves of him and thinks he's soft/spoiled, although he doesn't have much evidence to support his theory.

Susannah Quayle née Braxton -- Mother dearest. Pureblood. Former Thunderbird. A true southern lady, with all that entails. Close to her youngest.

Aloysius Quayle -- Older brother. Former Coppertale and intern for the Tennessee Magical State Senate. Too cool for school.

Cressida "Cricket" Quayle -- Older sister. Current Ebonhide senior. Practically perfect in every way. Ulysses finds sweetness and affection a little lame these days, but he adores her nonetheless and finds the thought of disappointing her to be very upsetting.

Regan Hobbs -- Cousin. Current Azurcrest Sophomore.

HISTORY:

The third and youngest Quayle child, born with silver spoon firmly in hand. Real country club types, with old money and lots of it. Susannah, Ulysses' mother, had planned every detail of her adult life, including how many children she'd have, and so when he was born, she knew he'd be her last. Determined to enjoy every last drop of new motherhood, she kept him close: praising, protecting, fussing. Actually, everyone everyone did -- Ulysses was a beautiful child, precocious and uniquely well-behaved. Folks couldn't help but coo.

At Swan Academy, he was praised by teachers and idolised by classmates starry-eyed at his family name. Visitors and relatives were impressed by his Shirley Temple-esque good manners and charm. His sister doted on him, his mama gave him anything he asked for. Sometimes it seemed like even his tantrums were precious. He was rarely scolded at home.

And then, like his siblings before him, Ulysses started class at Ilvermorny. It was a rough transition.

Suddenly, he was expected to stand on his own two feet, but everything was different and strange and hard. People were mean: they told him "no," made him do things he didn't like. They teased him (gently) for his innocence and naiveté, which left Ulysses feeling angry, defensive, and small in a way he'd truly never felt before. He was still a good student, still a generally likeable kid, but he wasn't perfect anymore, and every criticism (hell, even the absence of praise) felt like a blow to his sense of self. Worst of all, he couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong.

His sorting into Wampus seemed like an odd fit, at first, but it turns out, little Ulysses has something of a temper under the dual pressures of puberty and social change. He grew more physical, even lashed out at times (much to the horror of his sister, he's sure). Discovering Quidditch brought some relief there, providing structure and direction and allowing Uly to reforge his sense of self on the broom. But just as he was finding footing, he transferred again, from Ilvermorny to Gooseberry.

Desperate to avoid old mistakes, Ulysses may have swung the pendulum a little too far into rebel-without-a-cause territory upon arrival, but despite a few spots of trouble, Gooseberry has been a much better fit for his journey of self-discovery.

SCHOOL

YEAR: Junior (Grade 11)

HOUSE: Ebonhide (formerly Wampus)

SORTING: It was a long sort; just under the 5 minute mark, although unlike his sister, no arbitration was required. Interestingly, it was mainly between rival houses Ebonhide and Azurcrest. With family expectations weighing heavy, Azurcrest's philosophy sounded awfully seductive to Uly -- he wanted carelessness and fun and unabashed superficiality. But while student preference plays a strong role in any sorting, it's not the be-all and end-all. Flightiness is just another outfit Ulysses is trying on right now; at his heart, he can be moody, stubborn, prone to philosophising, never easygoing, and very, very hard on himself. The bear pushed. Ebonhide it is.

WAND: 11", hawthorn and jackalope horn. A powerful and well-matched wand with an unfortunate tendency to backfire when Ulysses is distracted.

FAMILIAR: A blue-tongued skink named Rex. He loves it. The family has several horses and dogs, all of which he is almost too attached to.

CLASSES: Just 7.

Core:

• Transfiguration


• Outdoor education


• Potions


• Charms

Elective:

• Magizoology


• DADA


• Occlumency (A Quayle-endorsed subject; the whole family is trained.)

SENIOR PROJECT: Undecided.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: All the Quayles are strong students, and Ulysses is no exception. Unfortunately, things have become somewhat more difficult for him of late. Growing up privileged and academically-gifted has rotted away his tolerance for criticism and pain. He puts in his requisite library time, does all his homework, shows up for exams... but when something is difficult, really difficult, Ulysses' willpower drops away. Somewhere deep down, he's come to associate hard work with stupidity and stupidity with personal failure. It's a standard he applies only to himself -- he's impressed by his sister's fight for academic excellence, but there's a block somewhere deep in his own head.

His grades are stellar, but only because he will drop a class before he'll get a tutor. Now that he's a junior and taking more than just fluff-classes, this strategy is getting seriously tested. Whether he'll rise to the occasion or have a freakin' breakdown is yet to be seen.

Like a lot of others, his favourite class, hands down, is Magizoology. He'd never admit to it, though; the whole "soft spot for creatures" thing is sort of threatening to his burgeoning masculine identity. With enough time and praise from cute girls, he'll probably come to like this aspect of himself, but right now, he just sees it as embarrassing.

The principles of transfiguration come easily to Ulysses, which means it's also the class he puts the most work into. If he does poorly in it this year, he'll be crushed. He's quite nervous about how DADA and occlumency will go.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Quidditch - Chaser, boating, equestrian club.

OOC

NAME: cameron
EMAIL: captainkickflips@gmail.com
CDJ: angoranimi
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: email or gchat, pls & ty
TIME ZONE: GMT