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Your Nickname: SJ
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
Are you over thirteen? Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Friend
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Dolly St. James
Sophie Flickwick
Liviana Wiedman
Magnolia Nettlebottom
Waverly Roh-Ballentyne
Effie Finnigan
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Ezekiel Rafe Abraham
Character Birthday & Age: January 16th 1988 (22)
City & Country of Birth: Hinklesprocket, England
Blood Purity: Halfblood
Alma Mater: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Gryffindor
Job/Position: Bartender at The Hopping Pot

Wand: 15 inch knobby supple Ebonywood with core of Ashwinder Ash.

Crafted for him by his great Aunt Hettie (one of the lesser known wandmakers of the UK) shortly after he was born, it was not actually his first wand. It was only after a very distressing trip to Ollivanders which landed him with a temperamental wand he could not seem to bond (and several months of distressing magical misfires) was the Ebony and Ashwinder Ash wand offered to him at the age of 12. There was almost an immediate change in his wand work, especially charms of protection.

Physical Description:
Height: 6’ 1.5”
Build: Lean, but muscular. Broad shoulders, strong arms, narrow hips – his build is very similar to that of a classic ballroom dancer (for good reason, he’s got the moves ladies).
Hair: dark brown, nearly black in color, left longish on top with the underside usually shaved; usually left mussed and bed-head-y rather than slick back or styled.
Eyes: brown, often unreadable, sometimes mistaken for cold or stony.
Other Identifying Marks: Both ears are pieced and gauged, his tattoo work started as a chest piece (Hope) and has since taken over his shoulders and formed full sleeves, down to the tips of his fingers. The most important and easy to differentiate are the words “My Family” on his right arm (which happens to be the arm he casts with). He has several other smaller tattoos including one right above his left eye reading “this is art”.

Personality Description:
People often confuse appearance for personality. They take one look at this towering man, covered in tattoos, standing behind the bar and they decide he has to be a hard ass low on social skills and IQ. In reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. He might look tough, but under that stoic gaze is a passionate heart and easy sense of humor. If you take the time to get to know Zeke you’ll find that besides being loyal, honest, fiercely protective, and excellent at tossing drunks there is a much softer side to him. A side that loves literature and music, a side adoring of all forms of art, and a side that honestly believes women are the only thing keeping the world from completely falling apart.

He is much like his father, gruff in speech, quick to worry, but always supportive of those he loves. Though it shouldn’t be it often comes as a shock to people that he’s a bit of a Mama’s boy. It comes from the deeply held belief that in a world of roughly spoken men, messy boys, and a daughter who was never much interested in girly things, his mother was the source of almost all that was good and sweet in their world. It is from her that he gets his true tenderness, the part of himself willing to quietly listen night after night to the same drunk sob stories and still want to find a way to help.

Though he has been accused of having a White-Knight complex, it isn’t actually that he believes women need to be saved. It’s actually quite the opposite. He is acutely aware of how much more men need women than the reverse of that (having lived through the few times his mother left them to their own devices growing up, he feels “boys are gross” is a fair statement). His adoration for the fairer sex has nothing to do with his own ego, or wanting to add notches to his bed post. He genuinely just loves everything about women.

Like most Capricorns he is disciplined (even if not in the ways his Auror brother would like), excellent with money management and planning, and pragmatic in most things. The down side to all of this is that he can often be blinded by his own work ethic and relationships suffer. Though he feels things, he is terrible at communicating them in a way most people can understand. Saying “I love you” is not something he’s comfortable with but there are a million little ways in which he will try to show people; the problem is, of course, signs are only really visible when you’re looking for them. On more than one occasion he’d been accused of being emotionally vacant. He has no defense because his strong suit has always been listening and fixing, and he doesn’t know how to fix his inability and fear of being open and vulnerable.

History:
Born in the small wizarding community of Hinklesprocket to Mackenize and Jacob Abraham, Ezekiel is the second oldest of four. Two years later came Walter and then finally baby Brett (whom Zeke affectionately called Janie), though their small house has always been crowded and a bit loud it’s also always been full of love. Owning and operating The Hopping Pot (local favorite of Ministry workers and the average Joe alike), Jacob was a gruffly spoken boisterous father who instilled in his children a solid work ethic and a keen sense of right and wrong. Mother Mackenize was more softly spoken, generous with her time and devotion; both always encouraging their offspring to find their true passion in life and follow the path it lead.

Most of Zeke’s childhood was spent between the Hopping Pot and his mother’s sewing room. He discovered his love of art at a very early age and is hardly ever seen without a sketch pad somewhere on his person. His father taught him to love the loud din of glasses clinking and billiard balls rolling, while Mackenzie instilled a desire for zen-like-peace, keeping things tidy, and reading. They both believed in the boys looking after Brett, both because she was the smallest and also…because she was the most likely to get up to something she shouldn’t.

At the age of eleven he went off to Hogwarts, was sorted into Gryffindor and proceeded to have the worst first term imaginable. He just couldn’t get a proper grip on his wandwork. It absolutely terrible and he went home at Christmas feeling like he might as well have been a squib for all the good he was at magic! This was made more difficult by the fact that everything seemed to come so easily to his brother Jacob. It is fair to say that Zeke was not a happy boy and often plagued by self-doubt in those days. It was only after spending Christmas with their Great Aunt Hettie (a brilliant, if little known, Wandmaker) he began to understand the problem wasn’t so much lack of skill but lack of bond with his first wand. For his twelfth birthday he was gifted a brilliant Ebony wand and once back at school there was a surprising uptick in his ability, though it was gradual as he rebuilt his confidence.

He would, of course, never be as academically minded as JJ or Brett (who both wanted to be Aurors), he was far more interested in the fantastical elements of magic, in moving images and different ways which it could be used. By the time he was seventeen he had already started experimenting with tattooing and magical inks (mostly on friends who were too young to go anywhere else). By the time he sat for his N.E.W.T.s Zeke was sure his main goal in life was to create beautiful things using the human body as canvas. His own inkwork is extensive, which would have normally made finding a job difficult maybe but he was quite lucky in that Jacob Sr. was looking to spend a little more time with his beautiful wife and was more than happy to pass a little bit of responsibility onto his second eldest. After all The Hopping Pop had been family owned and operated for nearly fifty years and had been passed to Jacob when his father crossed over.

So now Zeke divides his time between the pub and his art, still looking after his little sister and trying to keep her out of trouble (despite the fact she’s an Auror trainee!). Life has become a routine of work and sleep, but you never really know who’s going to walk through the doors of the Hopping Pot, so everything could change tomorrow.
 
Describe your job duties and how you go about them:
Pour beer, listen to drunks, wipe down counter, tally tab, and repeat. Working at The Hopping Pot isn’t hard. He’s been doing it since he was a kid. He learned the books by the time he was seventeen, and does a lot of the accounting, but with Jacob Sr. still active and around it’s not as though Zeke is going to take over the pub any time soon (or that he wants to). As for is job off the books, it involves a lot of being sure people aren’t too drunk, too stupid, or too young to understand they’re marking up their bodies permanently. It also involves hyper vigilance in attention to detail and sterilization, as well as a love of art and much time spent honing his skills and steady hand.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:
One does not really need to be an expert at pulling pints, tossing drunks, or listening to be a bartender. Zeke is much like his father, and having been brought up around the pub it all comes naturally to him.

In the art of tattooing people's skin he is still learning. The fascination started in early childhood given the clientele of the Hopping Pot, and his love for the art has only grown with time. He's been doing off the book ink work since he was 17, mostly experimental upon friends who were too young to visit the popular parlors. He spends much of his free time drawing and building a portfolio; while looking for a mentor to apprentice under.

Writing Sample:
See Dolly St. James

Sum up your character in one paragraph: 
Ezekiel Abraham is the second eldest in a clan of four. Stoic and at time emotionally remote, people mistake him for a humorless lackey, but as anyone will tell you still waters run deep. Under his somewhat stony exterior is the passionate heart of an artist – who just happens to like drawing on people rather than parchment, and doesn’t feel pulling pints is a waste of his life (no matter what his elder brother might try to say).