Your Nickname: Maddy
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Other
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Aberdeen Spencer, Pax Wintergreen
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Lukesh ‘Luke’ Adani
Character Birthday & Age: 5th October, 1975, age 33
City & Country of Birth: London, England
Blood Purity: Muggle
Alma Mater: Edinburgh College of Art (Graphic Design)
Job/Position: Graphic Designer

Wand: N/a

Physical Description:

Luke stands at a lean 6’1, but with his gentle, unassuming demeanor and loping gait, he isn’t a particularly imposing presence. He has fairly distinctive features, most noticeably a high forehead and longish nose set in his sienna brown skin beneath dark umber eyes.

Generally looking smart as a force of habit, Luke wears crisp, button down shirts and nice trousers, or polo-necks and cargoes at his most casual, and keeps his soot black hair neatly parted and combed, though it won’t always lie flat. He sports a pair of glasses with black, rectangular plastic frames that look uncannily similar to those of the Tenth Doctor of Doctor Who. (This is not a coincidence.)

Personality Description:

Intuitive, supportive, and tirelessly patient, Luke always figured he’s end up with a family of his own. He keeps a level head except in the most extenuating of circumstances, and tends to act as a calming agent for his wife Aberdeen, whose elusive emotional state he as always been good at reading.

Luke is quite adept at reading people in general in fact, although he isn’t the most naturally sociable person. He is, however, fairly easy-going, with a decent sense of humour, and tends to shrug off insults. He comes off as rather passive because he doesn’t often stand up for himself. This isn’t because he doesn’t care what people think, but rather because he doesn’t like to get worked up or make a fuss. He does like spending time with people, and certainly comes off as friendly, but by nature he’s an introvert.

Highly intelligent and creative, he knew he wanted to go into art and design quite early on. His values are in tune with Aberdeen’s, insomuch as while he is very driven in his work and his job is very important to him, his family comes first.

History:

Nadira Bhattacharyya and her parents moved from Punjab, India to the UK (specifically London) when she was a small child, and it wasn’t until she started work as a secretary that she met Naveen Adani, who was English-born, though he parents hailed from the Himachal Pradesh region. Technically she first met his elder brother Nishan, who worked in the same office as her. They courted for a little, but ultimately it was Naveen she fell for, after a while of getting to know him through his brother. They both wanted the same things out of life; stable income, marriage, their own home, and a little family.

By the time they had attained their first three goals, Nadira and Naveen were in their late thirties and quite worldly-wise, so when in October 1975 they realised their final dream with the birth of baby Lukesh Adani, they were ready to take the little miracle in stride. They doted on Luke rather a lot at first, knowing that they weren’t going to have any more children after him, but as he grew up they were careful and measured in their discipline. Once Luke was school-aged his parents were, in some ways, quite strict, and Luke had to work hard for their approval, but at the same time they didn’t spare on the praise and encouragement when he did well.

Luke tackled all his subjects in primary school with the same sort of tentative willingness to learn, but when he reached secondary school, his academic performance became a lot more polarised. There were subjects that bored him, such as history and biology, and though he was intelligent enough that he was never deeply in trouble with such classes, he was clearly coasting, almost certainly so that he could dedicate a lot more time and energy to the subjects that really interested him; maths, and most especially, art.

Though gifted intellectually, a teenaged Luke was a bit awkward socially. He did have a few close friends, but he tended to devote his time to studying and drawing. He got very into science fiction television shows, and went through a phase of designing star ships in painstaking detail. After a while he started on futuristic buildings, and even nursed a dream of becoming an architect for a while. By the time he came to graduate however, he had settled instead on something his art teacher suggested he had a proficiency for: graphic design.

Luke attended the Edinburgh College of Arts, and came out of his shell a lot more in this time, flourishing academically and developing socially. Realising that getting along with people became a lot more important when it came to developing a career, he started to put more effort into keeping friends once he’d made them. It wasn’t particularly intuitive for him to spend lots of time with people, but he got used to it, and it ended up improving his self confidence. One of the things that had driven him to succeed in his stronger subjects was an unconscious desire for approval; as he approached the end of his Graphic Design degree, he found that people actually valued his insight on varying matters, which helped him to have more faith in his own abilities.

After graduating university in 1997 and subsequently attending an intern program in London, Luke found a place with a fairly new graphics company called Interlace Designs. More loyal than ambitious, Luke was content to work hard and stay with the fledgling company as it was finding its feet. It was within his first year of working for Interlace that Luke first encountered the wizarding world.

In January 1998, Luke was on his way home after a late night at work when he stumbled upon a small gang of people who seemed to have appeared from nowhere; Snatchers who had apparated there, he had learned later. Luke, unnoticed to start with, witnessed them ambush a ragtag group, later revealed to be muggleborns on the run, and attempted to call the police. However, due to all the spells being fired, his mobile phone wouldn’t work properly. He tried to run to get help, but that was when the Snatchers spotted him. The end result of the ordeal was most of the group being captured, with only Luke, one witch, and two wizards escaping.

Luke led the three fugitives to his flat, where they, out of desperation, opted to explain the situation to him instead of wiping his memory. It took a while for it all to sink in, but once it had, Luke realised what the best thing he could do was. He hesitated in offering, but not for long. The four of them came to the agreement that Luke would house them, and they in return would magically protect his home. Staying put ended up being the best solution; they all survived to the end of the war. Luke parted ways with the three, having earned their respect and gratitude to such a degree that they decided to forgo the Statute of Secrecy and leave his memory in tact. He had built up a particular rapport with the witch, Aberdeen Spencer, although he didn’t particularly expect to see her again.

Life picked up for Luke over the next few years. He started to work his way up the ladder at work, impressing his supervisors, gaining more trust, more responsibility. He thrived on it. He moved out of his basement flat into something that actually let daylight in. His parents were proud of him, which meant a lot to Luke. And then, in 2001, he ran into Aberdeen Spencer at a supermarket. It obvious to anyone who happened to be watching that they were pleased to see each other. They made arrangements to catch up over a coffee, and after that, they just kept coming up with excuses to keep seeing each other. Luke found Aberdeen’s almost cheerful cynicism intriguing, and she in turn was drawn to his calm nature.

Oddly, the deeper their feelings for each other grew, the more distant Aberdeen became. Luke finally called her out on it, and she admitted to fearing for his safety, given her line of work as an Auror, if they were together. Luke reminded her that they had kept each other safe during a war; there was no one he trusted more with his life than Aberdeen Spencer. In 2005, after they had been living together for two years, Luke proposed. They married a year later.

Luke had always wanted to be a parent, an aspiration he shared with Aberdeen, but neither of them realised how quickly it was going to happen. They had barely been married a day, when a very close friend of Aberdeen’s, Margo Valdaine, came to them in fear of her life. Pregnant, and convinced she was in mortal danger from the child’s father, she was not someone the newlyweds could bear to turn away. She stayed with them until the birth of her son, Robin, in May 2006. Shortly after giving birth, she died of a lethal hex; but not before she had secured a promise from Aberdeen to take care of her son.

There was no question in the couple’s mind of what was the right thing to do. They adopted Robin, leaving his mother’s name and the circumstances of his birth off the record, so as to reduce the chances of his birth father finding him. The man was the prime suspect in Margo’s murder; they wanted to protect Robin from him at all costs.

Aberdeen had always felt slightly uncertain about taking on the role of Robin’s mother, even though she loved him as her own, because she worried about usurping the late Margo. Luke, perhaps because his counterpart was a wanted criminal, had no such qualms, and knew that no matter what blood said, Robin was his son from the first moment he held the precious, fragile, tiny boy in his arms. When Aberdeen was able to return to work at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Luke was only too happy to arrange to work primarily from home so that he could stay with Robin. To Luke, Robin was a miracle that emerged from a tragedy, and he counted himself among the luckiest in the world to have the little wonder in his life.

So when, on 6th January, 2009, after he and Aberdeen were dealt a Memory Charm to remove all traces of Robin from their minds, Luke learned that not only did he have a son he had somehow forgotten, but that the boy had been kidnapped (by his murderer of a biological father, most likely), it was as though his entire world had shattered like so many fragments of broken glass. The Auror Office was informed. He and Aberdeen were taken to St. Mungo’s to see if any memories could be recovered. Luke spent the next few days in a state of shock; the only thing holding him together at all was his desire to comfort his wife, who was also distraught. As the whole awful situation sank in, the heartache never did ease, but they did learn to live with it, if for no other reason than to hold onto the hope that Robin would one day be brought home.

Describe your job duties and how you go about them:

Luke currently works for a small graphic design company based in London, called Interlace Designs, which currently specialise in web design. Luke has been with the company since it was in its early stages, and has become a very valued member of the design team, so much so that Interlace they were accommodating of his need to work from home so that he could watch Robin back when Aberdeen returned to work. After Robin’s abduction, however, Luke couldn’t face spending so much time in an empty house, and returned to work at the Interlace office again fairly soon after being released from St. Mungo’s. Luke’s primary responsibility is usually heading up the artistic design of whatever project his team has been assigned which, these days, tends to be websites, though he does also collaborate with the coding aspect of website design when necessary.

Elaborate on your expertise in your field:

After Luke completed secondary school, he studied Graphic Design at the Edinburgh College of Art. Once he had graduated with a first-class degree, he went into an internship program to gain a little more experience. With his bright ideas, creative drive and natural way with computers, he soon after found work with Interlace Designs back when it was still just starting up and hadn’t yet found its niche. Luke stuck with the company through those bumpy early days, and managed to work his way up in terms of creative input and responsibility within the company.

Writing Sample: N/a

Sum up your character in one paragraph:
‘If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs...’ Luke is an emotional rock. He’s not the most confident person in the world, but he’s secure enough in himself that he can act as an anchor for the people around him who need his support. He doesn’t always speak up, but he does try to do the right thing when it matters. While very intelligent and creative, Luke is also a classic sci-fi fan, which keeps him from taking himself too seriously. Calm and patient, although not so sedate that he can’t have a laugh, he takes the view of learning from mistakes rather than dwelling on them, and moving forward as best he can.

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