Accepted! ~Elle
Your Nickname: Dlee
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Friend
If you have written other characters here: No
If Yes, list them all:
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary
FULL CHARACTER NAME:
Deus Dunleavy Deres CHARACTER & AGE: September 3, 1992 – 19
CITY & COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Crovie, Scotland
PUREBLOOD, HALFBLOOD, OR MUGGLEBORN: Halfblood – ¼ Selkie
HOUSE & YEAR: Slytherin, Graduated
miraculously without getting expelledWAND: 10.5 inches, Black Poisonwood, Dragon Heartstring
Flexible, fast, and just a hair temperamental
Physical DescriptionDeus is as much of a slacker in his appearance as he is in academics. His tie's never tied, his shirt's rarely tucked in, and while his clothes are always clean and he never looks like a
slob exactly, he does have a slightly disheveled appearance that would suggest he finds other things more important than a meticulous exterior. His hair exhibits this as well; waves of haphazard almost-curls cling irregularly around his face. They annoy him desperately, and he tends to hack them off as close to his head as he can manage without cutting his scalp, but he doesn't notice them until they get to his ears at least, and so it's usually not a problem. It's brown, wavy, and boring.
He has hazel-green eyes that are inquisitive and sharp, framed by lashes that curl just like his hair (he would hack these off too if he wasn't sure he'd gauge his eyes out by accident). They are otherwise fairly unremarkable. His skin is the dark gold of someone who's always outside, which he is. If he's not physically outside, he will be in a windowsill or in the seat closest to the window. Scattered across his face and arms are a myriad of freckles that make him look younger than his age.
Also sprinkled over his limbs are various scars left by hexes, jinxes and scrapes that Deus has been afflicted with. Life in a criminal family has resulted in a few close calls. He moves like a cat or a dancer might, smooth, graceful, and ready to pull a wand or a fist whenever you're ready. Some boys play Quidditch, some boys study transfiguration, Deus Deres practices hexing and ambushing people. Hey, everyone needs a hobby. Most recently added to his collection of scars are a few inexpert sectumsempra slashes starting on his collarbone, and a viney, rope-like scar wrapping around his arm and ending in a blackened slash on his hand.
He's average height and he isn't particularly bulky. He appears fairly lanky, but that's only because his legs are really long compared to the rest of him, and he sort of has orangutan length arms. Though he's not, he has the sort of stretched out angles of someone not quite done growing, and large, wide hands with thin wrists. The only nod to his selkie heritage immediately apparent in his appearance is the fact his toes are ever so slightly webbed.
Personality Description//---EASY-GOING & SOCIALLY APATHETICDeus is clever to a fault, laid-back, and friendly but sarcastic. No one and nothing is sacred. He doesn't fluster easily, keeps his head, and generally remains calm and easy. He's too self-preserving to get in a fight without a good reason, and besides, he likes people. They amuse him, and don't mean much more than that, so why get mad, and why bother to judge? Deus's future is set and golden—he's going to rob people blind and retire rich. He doesn't have much need to impress or be impressed by anyone, and also no reason to draw attention to himself. The kid's not out to alienate or tick anyone off, but nor is he out to make best buddies out of everyone he meets. In other words, he's perfectly content to play straight man to your shining star without being a mindless lackey.
//---HAZY ETHICSDeus isn't a bad guy, really. He's never had a personal hand in any of the more grisly crimes his family has committed, but he's done his share of casual deceit, petty theft, minor injury and hexing, and has spent a good, solid portion of his spare time in detention for it. Deus is unabashedly self-preserving, and in the cut-throat world of Them or Us, he'll take Us any day. He's not irredeemably selfish, mind you, he's just not going to put himself at too much personal risk to save someone else. If he can help without much injury/damage to himself, he will, but hero he is not, and he will fight dirty every time. He cheats at cards, too.
//---DELINQUENTDeus spent a lot of time on a fast-track to trouble, and it's hard to say if he finally got off the road or is just better at hiding it. He isn't exactly the Big Bad Wolf, but Deus also isn't the type who's going to let rules get in his way of enjoying life. He's been known to do some petty theft (though he hasn't gotten caught), smoke gillyweed (not at work, naturally…he doesn't like rules, but he's not stupid enough to court arrest TOO closely…yet), and down things a little stronger than butterbeer when given the opportunity. He has a casual disregard of authority, but he doesn't go around blatantly flouting the law. For someone with delinquent tendencies, the boy's pretty mellow. He knows what he can and can't get away with, and so far, there hasn't been enough a conflict to cause too many major issues. How long that will last is up in the air—he has a lot of strikes against him, and the more he learns, the less he feels obligated to stick around and stick to the rules…
//---FLIRTDeus flirts (in his own dry, laidback way) with
everyone—from the little old ladies in the portraits to his best mate. It's his hobby. He's never serious about it, it's meant entirely in jest, but it's fun. Deus doesn't really believe in love. Not in any cynical, jaded sense, but in a sort of logical, shrugging, why bother sense. He's just never found a girl or guy that's tugged on his heartstrings, and vastly prefers temporary intimacy or long-term friendliness to attaching himself to one mate for any length of time.
//---AMBITIOUS SLACKERDeus is going to succeed. More than that, he's going to blow the whole bloody world away. He's ambitious as heck, and he's going to do it all by himself. He's not going to toady up to anyone to do it; it'll be him and his merit alone. He's cunning, clever, and has that certain disregard of rules that Salazar so prided. Ambitious? Underneath that complete lack of concern for how the world's moving around him, you bet he is. He's just biding his time. Academia isn't his world, and he knows he needs it, but it's not his arena of choice, so for now, it's just get-through-it for him. Deus is smart. Really. But he's a really lousy student. He hates busy work and will only do essays if they're on something he cares about. He tests pretty well, but his intelligence lies more in planning and creating than in academics. He's an inventor. He's most horrendous at potions. Royally. But he can charm or transfigure or hex anything that moves. Or doesn't. Usually his high test scores, extra work, and awful homework even out to just barely passing. Ambition is for the future.
//---GOSSIPOkay, Deus isn't going to sit around sipping tea and swapping stories, but he loves to know what's going on. Mostly so he can get as much knowledge of the people around him as possible—since, you know, he might have them blindfolded and being held for ransom one day, it's good to know these things. He never makes things up or spreads info around himself (unless it will benefit him somehow), and he's mastered—as much as a sixteen year-old can—the art of nodding attentively and encouraging people to go on.
HistoryDeus was born in a fishing village near one of the smallest towns in Scotland—good old Crovie. It was a very isolated little village on the edge of the island, with about four families in charge of maintaining and overseeing the operation, which involved regulation of local magical populations of sirens. Unfortunately, it was so isolated that when Deus's Mom and Dad died of a magical fever that came through during the chaos of time, it was too remote to get word to the Healers and get them there in time to save his parents. Deus was taken in by his uncle.
His uncle was, and is, a criminal. Small-time stuff, not enough to bother the Ministry much at first, especially with all the rest going on, but he tended to leave Deus with a family friend—a young, sarcastic woman whose father owned the Lazy Kelpie, a pub for the magicborn in Northern Scotland. She was in charge of laundering for the organization, moving stolen goods and the like. She got caught and hauled away when Deus was 10, and he misses her, but she's due to get out of jail soon. Point is, crime and secrecy are in his blood and in his brain from a young age.
There was never much doubt that Deus was a wizard. One of his earliest memories is being chastised by Pa Quigley—the owner of the Lazy Kelpie—for trying to go swimming with a selkie child he'd been playing on the beach with, the problem with that being that it was February. Pa Quigley was never really one for children, or for distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate language, and Deus looks back on that memory with a sort of gleefully amused fondness. His abilities began manifesting when he was fairly young, and in line with the rest of his doings, it was pretty subtle. Haley Quigley—his primary caretaker—nearly skinned him alive when she found out he was behind all of the patrons mysteriously tipping over 20%. His folks had a little money put away for him when his letter came, but his Uncle had gambled most of it away, so folks at the Lazy Kelpie pitched in to donate enough supplies to get him through the first year—provided he pay them all back with 30% interest. But hey, that's their way. Apparently, those at Hogwarts figured he was young enough to be redeemed and not held responsible for his family, foster or otherwise, and he's been there ever since. The Sorting Hat thought briefly about Ravenclaw, but Slytherin was the obvious choice.
He'd never admit it, but in his younger years, he was afraid every summer when he went back to Crovie that the occupants of the Lazy Kelpie would have packed up and moved out, as they're always threatening to do when the Ministry's sniffing their tails a little too closely. These days, he's hardened up a bit, and has realized that one of these summers, that will indeed be the case, and if isn't, then eventually it's going to be him that packs up and never goes back. He doesn't want to be a petty criminal like his uncle, answering to a bigger, badder criminal. Still, as long as Haley Quigley's coming back, and Pa Quigley's running the place, and the ragtag group of outlaws—including his uncle—that Apparates in to play poker, plan crime, and beat each other up every now and then is still coming to slog down firewhiskey, it'll be where Deus calls home.
Because Deus's home life has always been a little fragmented, it took some getting used to the regularity of Hogwarts. Luckily, he learned quickly, and after getting slack from the other Slytherins for losing so many points the first few weeks of classes, he shaped up, or at least learned to work the system and show up more or less on time to things. He's a planner, and when everyone begins panicking at the end of the year, Deus is the one selling note bundles and old essays in the back of the common room. He's got a reputation as a slacker among his professors, but he pays closer attention than most people think (as is usually evidenced in his final exam scores). Charms and transfiguration are his favorite classes—the latter for its potential smuggling applications, the former for its many varied applications. His reputation would suggest he spends most of his spare time smoking behind the Herbology greenhouses or in an empty classroom playing Wizard's Poker with the seventh years, and for the most part, that's true. But at least once a year, he gets that ambitious itch he needs to get out of his system, and he'll breeze into the library to research things like whether or not hijacking a portkey and redirecting the final destination is a viable possibility, and if it is, he'll work on it until he figures it out. He likes his reputation as it is—if folks think he's a no-account layabout, they won't be expecting him as the one who hijacked the Floo Network in ten years to kidnap a well-to-do Witch Heiress for ransom, will they? Doesn't happen often, but he is thinking about his future, for all that it's not very obvious.
He can't get quite get away from his uncle and his criminal buddies, and nor does he really want to—it's a family, it's a living. It's not glamorous, but he's good at it, and he's got some morals, so he figures better him than someone with none. He spends his summers sleeping in a loft over the Lazy Kelpie, waiting tables and keeping his head down as long as the Ministry is keeping an eye on the building. For now.
Deus was a smart student but not necessarily a GOOD one during his time at Hogwarts, more interested in what he could learn from and about his classmates than in turning in essays on time, and got by primarily on his test scores balancing out the lack of assignment effort. He experienced something of a change of heart in his sixth year, when it occurred to him actually doing decently in his education might be the ticket out of the seemingly inevitable criminal lifestyle his family had waiting for him. (And maybe, just maybe, he finally came around to the idea that making something of himself, doing something GOOD and helpful instead of sneaky and horrible might just be nice) He buckled down and did a decent job the last two years of his schooling, mostly staying out of trouble and under the radar (a shock for most who knew him) and was able to convince the Lazy Kelpie crew that training to be a Mediwizard would come in handy when the band of smugglers needed patching up after botched jobs. He's managed to keep his hands if not...CLEAN precisely, then at least regularly sanitized since graduating, though he continues to write impressively trashy romance novels for the wizarding world under his nom de plume, Delphinea D. Delacroix, and, occasionally, patch up the odd criminal that shows up at his dingy apartment, no questions asked.
How do you fit into your house?Ambition and cunning are the bread and butter of Slytherin, and Deus is here to provide a banquet. The cunning's pretty clear, but while you have to dig a little deeper for the ambition, it's there clear as day. His ambition may not have the traditional sorts of goals, but it has the violent, hungry edge Salazar wuld have recognized. He's no hard worker, courage is something that gets you killed, and the Sorting Hat DID consider Ravenclaw, but Deus's typical response to a riddle is pay someone else to answer it, or annoy the asker until they're too thoroughly disgusted to even want an answer out him.
Writing Sample:Deus's wiry hands flew over the cards, blurring them as they clicked against each other, shushing quietly against the calloused palms. "See 'ere, luv? Pay close attention now, eh? " He leaned in close, distracting the pretty brunette focused intently on his hands into looking up. Deus paused his hands and grinned, letting the stack of cards settle softly in one hand. He rose the other hand to lightly tap the girl's forehead back of his knuckles. "This is where the trick is. Ye payin' attention? " She giggled and nodded, his hand twitched, and then Deus spun the deck, whipping it into one last shuffle. With a flourish, he flipped over the last card, catching it smoothly between knuckles before rolling it between his thumb and index finger to display the grinning wizard on the front. "An' there ye are. 'At there? 'At's yer card. " He spun the card, slapping it down on the wood with another flourish as the brunette gaped in dismay.
"What? No way! I was watching! It was on the bottom!" with a pout, she locked her eyes on his, looking up through short, straight lashes. "You used a spell. What did you do?"
Deus snickered and stretched, long and languid like a cat before rocking back on his heels, catching himself on the table behind him. "Nae love, ain't real magic. " With his tie draped around his shoulders, hair a mess and just generally disheveled as usual, he was in direct contrast to the neat-as-a-pin Ravenclaw sitting with her knees together, ankles crossed precisely and prettily.
"Really." Her head angled, all mischief and disbelief.
"Honest truth. Darlin', would Ah ever lie tae ye? " Deus opened his palms skyward, radiating wounded pride and innocence.
"You'd lie to your own mother and not think twice, darling. If it wasn't magic, how'd you know which card I chose?"
Deus shrugged and dropped his weight so his face was about even with hers. With a wide grin he brought his nose to hers. "Maybe Ah jes getcha. Know how ye think. " His smile spread to cheshire proportions as a pink stain appeared on her cheeks.
"Maybe you cheat!"
"Maybe Ah jes know 'ow tae make a pretty girl look up 'stead of watchin' me 'ands like she's supposed tae. "He retorted, rewarding her shoot! with a small chuckle. She groaned, rolled her eyes and stood up. Deus, characteristically, didn't step out of her way, which brought her head even with his shoulders. She raised a hand and poked his collarbone.
"Okay, funny boy. I'll get you next time." She slid around him and sashayed out of the room, turning at the door to give him a smirk and a wave, which he returned.
"Darlin', " He purred as she left, settling himself crosslegged on top of the scarred wood. "Ye can try. "
Sum up your character in one paragraph.Deus Deres is an easy-going, socially apathetic Scot with some seriously hazy ethics and tendency towards delinquency. He's got a sketchy background, and it manifests itself in behaviors that one of these days are going to get him expelled. He's self-preserving, a bit of a slacker (ambition is for the future, academia is not his realm to shine) and a total flirt. He flirts with everyone and everything, from his best mate to the little old lady in the portrait down the hall. Too lazy and too socially apathetic to judge, he sees no reason to try and impress people and his expectations of his peers are pretty lax. He likes to listen to people, know what's going on, and play cards. But heads up? He cheats.
Deus Deres, Mediwizard/Wizarding Romance Novelist