Post by orin on Nov 23, 2008 1:20:55 GMT -5
Referred By: A random felicitous Google search
Name: Orin Sebastian Shaw
Age: 15 (b. January 18, 2004)
Sex: Male
Nationality: USA
Speech: US English
Blood: Half-blood
Father: Grayson Alexander Shaw [Wizard, deceased (August 12, 1975 - May 14, 2007)]
Mother: Melinda Ophelia Carr Conrad [Muggle (b. March 28, 1981)]
Siblings: Half-sister Ophelia Samantha Carr [Muggle (b. June 19, 2001)]
Other Family: None Orin has met since he was 3 years old. His new stepfather [George Harold Conrad, Muggle (b. December 12, 1973)] is certainly not what Orin would consider family.
Family Interactions: Orin's interactions with his family have always been somewhat strained. This is due to the fact that his father died, when Orin was three years old, in a widely-publicized accident that was described to Muggles as a freak earthquake. His mother's side of the family, however, had already been picking up clues as to the nature of "that Shaw failure" and his experiment gone awry proved to be the last straw. They disowned Melinda, and the entire family unit dwindled to the three of them, as they had never known any of his father's family.
Due to underlying resentment, Melinda and Ophelia tended to gang up on Orin as he was growing up; most of the time they treat him kindly, but once in a while they still say things to him about his father and his Wizardry that make him feel horrendous. Luckily, Melinda did send him to a Wizarding school in the United States, so Orin was able to develop that side of himself in a positive way. He does not feel very affectionately towards either of them, but he treats them with respect and shows extreme deference to their desires. In order to compensate for the burden he is convinced he has been, he will do basically anything that they ask of him.
Height: 5'9" and growing
Weight: 170 pounds
Hair: Dusty blond-brown, close-cropped
Eyes: Remarkable deep blue
Skin Colour: Fair
Clothing style: Run of the mill, nothing that would make him stand out
Accessories: His father's class ring: Hogwarts, 1992
Other: A moon-shaped scar on his left cheek
Paragraph Format: Orin's physical appearance is not exactly striking. He is on the tall side, currently 5'9" and growing like a weed, and the build of his body is on the stocky side. He is in good shape, as swimming has been a constant activity in his life, but his physique doesn't make him stand out as anything other than a healthy young man. His skin is quite fair, prone to freckling (especially across the bridge of his nose) and burning; a tan is not something that you're likely to see on Orin anytime soon. The color of his hair is debatable - blond? brown? something in between? - and he keeps it neatly trimmed, just long enough to cover his head and not get into his eyes. He would never admit it, but he knows that his eyes are his best physical asset, and this is why he keeps his hair short; his eyes are a deep, vibrant blue, a color you might see from an airplane window flying over the Caribbean. They are heavy-lidded eyes, leading people to describe his looks either as "sleepy" or "sexy." He prefers the latter.
Shortly after the death of his father, Orin's mother smashed some china in a rage and the three-year-old Orin managed to fall down face-first in the pile. As a result, he has a distinctive scar on his left cheek. It curves in a wide arc from below his ear down towards the corner of his mouth. Orin is generally wearing jeans or khakis and a button-down shirt in a solid color. Polo shirts and the like are what his mother buys for him, and he adores the fact that he doesn't have to put any thought into his wardrobe. The only accessory he wears is a gold ring with a blue stone in it: his father's Hogwarts class ring from 1992. This is his only memento of Grayson, and he has the same ambivalent feelings toward it as he does toward the idea and memory of his father.
Personality: Orin is generally capable, but he is a dilettante with a very short attention span. It is perfectly possible for him to be successful, to excel at something, but Orin doesn't apply himself at much other than getting pretty good grades in school. This is a facet of Orin's general complacency; he is not often enthusiastic, he has never experienced burning passion for any subject, and he has never been smitten with another human being. Orin is not malicious, nor is he overly friendly. It stands to reason that he is not unable to make friends, rather that he is reticent and it takes him some time to develop any sort of attachment.
The only thing that has been a constant hobby for Orin is swimming. He tries to swim for at least an hour every day, and it helps him to decompress and gives him time to think. Orin retreats to the pool when he is trying to comprehend the world around him. He has no concept of whether he is a fast swimmer, and he has no interest in discovering how he would fare in a race. Orin simply swims because it makes him feel good, and that's basically all he could tell you about why he enjoys it so much.
Overall, Orin is a directionless sort of person. He does not think about long-term goals, and he has no ideas about what he wants his future to be like. He is pleased enough to meet new people and to spend time with them, but it rarely occurs to him to consider what might develop between him and another. He has adequate intelligence and reasonable social skills, but Orin doesn't apply himself well to projects that will pay off more in the long-term than in the immediate future. It is to be hoped that at some point he will discover a passion; then he will really be able to make something of himself.
History: Melinda Carr had her first child, Ophelia, in 2001. Ophelia's birth was the result of a one-night stand, and even the name of her father is unknown. She was raising Ophelia in the traditional Muggle way when, a few years later, Melinda met a Wizard named Grayson Shaw. They dated for a few months, Melinda under the impression that he was a Muggle, before Orin was conceived (a surprise for them both). At this point, Grayson felt a duty to stay with the family, and he revealed to Melinda that he was, in fact, not the ordinary Muggle she had assumed. This caused much resentment on her end, and Melinda felt tortured and mildly disgusted by the child she would soon bear. She wasn't doing too well fiscally, however, and Grayson's marriage proposal came with far too much monetary encouragement for Melinda to refuse. She moved from her Detroit suburb to Hyde Park, on the South Side of Chicago, where her new husband was working in an experimental lab beneath the University of Chicago's football field.
Unfortunately, she found it more difficult to hide the truth from her family than she had expected. Her parents and siblings had picked up some clues, with surprising astuteness, and it was only a matter of time before they discovered what was really going on and made clear their disapproval. The time came on May 14, 2007, when something went terribly wrong underneath the U of C field, and Lake Michigan leapt up into a minor tsunami. The details are unclear, but it is known that the 5 Muggles killed and 27 injured fared much better than the Wizards in the underground facility whence the catastrophe erupted. After this event, Melinda received only one enraged phone call from her father, and has been unable to get in touch with any of her family since.
In the years that followed, Melinda and Ophelia did not treat Orin in any way that he would have termed "abuse." It must be said, however, that they spoke disparagingly of magic often, and sometimes mocked him when strange things occurred that they interpreted as the first signs of his power. Over the years, Orin grew to feel ashamed of his heritage, and this was encouraged by the way the Muggle children picked on him when he attended elementary school. Because he didn't have any friends, Orin devoted a lot of time to his work and was put into the fast track in school until he was in fifth grade. Then he received two letters of admission: one from Hogwarts, whence his father had graduated, and one from a smaller, less expensive, and less accredited school in the Western United States. Due to fiscal restrictions, Melinda sent him off to the latter, a place called Thornfield Academy.
Orin was disappointed not to be attending his father's alma mater, where he might have been able to discover something more about his progenitor, but he was thrilled to be out of the house. He was understandably reticent and nervous at the beginning of his course of study, and was hyper-aware of how he viewed his classwork; he wanted his mother and his sister to know that he was taking everything with a grain of salt, and that in some way he was still on their side, so they oughtn't turn on him. This attitude was a detriment to him for the first few years, and his grades were less than satisfactory at first. Through the guidance of a counselor, however, he was able to separate the problems of his mother and sister from the general practice of magic. It took him a while to be rehabilitated from the Wizard-bashing he had grown up with.
By the end of his fourth year, however, Orin had become a much better student. He excelled in Charms and Potions, and accepted the fact that he would never be better than disappointing in Herbology. He was able to form a few friendships, but Orin had always been and would remain something of a lone wolf. This made it easy for him when he found out at the end of his fourth year that his mother was getting married, to a man who had greater resources, and that this man had kindly offered to pay Orin's tuition at Hogwarts. Orin suspected that this was more a way to get him out of their hair than a genuine gesture of compassion, but he certainly wasn't about to complain. He met George, attended their wedding, and then headed across the Atlantic.
codewords: [purple]A D M I N EDIT[/PURPLE]
Name: Orin Sebastian Shaw
Age: 15 (b. January 18, 2004)
Sex: Male
Nationality: USA
Speech: US English
Blood: Half-blood
Father: Grayson Alexander Shaw [Wizard, deceased (August 12, 1975 - May 14, 2007)]
Mother: Melinda Ophelia Carr Conrad [Muggle (b. March 28, 1981)]
Siblings: Half-sister Ophelia Samantha Carr [Muggle (b. June 19, 2001)]
Other Family: None Orin has met since he was 3 years old. His new stepfather [George Harold Conrad, Muggle (b. December 12, 1973)] is certainly not what Orin would consider family.
Family Interactions: Orin's interactions with his family have always been somewhat strained. This is due to the fact that his father died, when Orin was three years old, in a widely-publicized accident that was described to Muggles as a freak earthquake. His mother's side of the family, however, had already been picking up clues as to the nature of "that Shaw failure" and his experiment gone awry proved to be the last straw. They disowned Melinda, and the entire family unit dwindled to the three of them, as they had never known any of his father's family.
Due to underlying resentment, Melinda and Ophelia tended to gang up on Orin as he was growing up; most of the time they treat him kindly, but once in a while they still say things to him about his father and his Wizardry that make him feel horrendous. Luckily, Melinda did send him to a Wizarding school in the United States, so Orin was able to develop that side of himself in a positive way. He does not feel very affectionately towards either of them, but he treats them with respect and shows extreme deference to their desires. In order to compensate for the burden he is convinced he has been, he will do basically anything that they ask of him.
Height: 5'9" and growing
Weight: 170 pounds
Hair: Dusty blond-brown, close-cropped
Eyes: Remarkable deep blue
Skin Colour: Fair
Clothing style: Run of the mill, nothing that would make him stand out
Accessories: His father's class ring: Hogwarts, 1992
Other: A moon-shaped scar on his left cheek
Paragraph Format: Orin's physical appearance is not exactly striking. He is on the tall side, currently 5'9" and growing like a weed, and the build of his body is on the stocky side. He is in good shape, as swimming has been a constant activity in his life, but his physique doesn't make him stand out as anything other than a healthy young man. His skin is quite fair, prone to freckling (especially across the bridge of his nose) and burning; a tan is not something that you're likely to see on Orin anytime soon. The color of his hair is debatable - blond? brown? something in between? - and he keeps it neatly trimmed, just long enough to cover his head and not get into his eyes. He would never admit it, but he knows that his eyes are his best physical asset, and this is why he keeps his hair short; his eyes are a deep, vibrant blue, a color you might see from an airplane window flying over the Caribbean. They are heavy-lidded eyes, leading people to describe his looks either as "sleepy" or "sexy." He prefers the latter.
Shortly after the death of his father, Orin's mother smashed some china in a rage and the three-year-old Orin managed to fall down face-first in the pile. As a result, he has a distinctive scar on his left cheek. It curves in a wide arc from below his ear down towards the corner of his mouth. Orin is generally wearing jeans or khakis and a button-down shirt in a solid color. Polo shirts and the like are what his mother buys for him, and he adores the fact that he doesn't have to put any thought into his wardrobe. The only accessory he wears is a gold ring with a blue stone in it: his father's Hogwarts class ring from 1992. This is his only memento of Grayson, and he has the same ambivalent feelings toward it as he does toward the idea and memory of his father.
Personality: Orin is generally capable, but he is a dilettante with a very short attention span. It is perfectly possible for him to be successful, to excel at something, but Orin doesn't apply himself at much other than getting pretty good grades in school. This is a facet of Orin's general complacency; he is not often enthusiastic, he has never experienced burning passion for any subject, and he has never been smitten with another human being. Orin is not malicious, nor is he overly friendly. It stands to reason that he is not unable to make friends, rather that he is reticent and it takes him some time to develop any sort of attachment.
The only thing that has been a constant hobby for Orin is swimming. He tries to swim for at least an hour every day, and it helps him to decompress and gives him time to think. Orin retreats to the pool when he is trying to comprehend the world around him. He has no concept of whether he is a fast swimmer, and he has no interest in discovering how he would fare in a race. Orin simply swims because it makes him feel good, and that's basically all he could tell you about why he enjoys it so much.
Overall, Orin is a directionless sort of person. He does not think about long-term goals, and he has no ideas about what he wants his future to be like. He is pleased enough to meet new people and to spend time with them, but it rarely occurs to him to consider what might develop between him and another. He has adequate intelligence and reasonable social skills, but Orin doesn't apply himself well to projects that will pay off more in the long-term than in the immediate future. It is to be hoped that at some point he will discover a passion; then he will really be able to make something of himself.
History: Melinda Carr had her first child, Ophelia, in 2001. Ophelia's birth was the result of a one-night stand, and even the name of her father is unknown. She was raising Ophelia in the traditional Muggle way when, a few years later, Melinda met a Wizard named Grayson Shaw. They dated for a few months, Melinda under the impression that he was a Muggle, before Orin was conceived (a surprise for them both). At this point, Grayson felt a duty to stay with the family, and he revealed to Melinda that he was, in fact, not the ordinary Muggle she had assumed. This caused much resentment on her end, and Melinda felt tortured and mildly disgusted by the child she would soon bear. She wasn't doing too well fiscally, however, and Grayson's marriage proposal came with far too much monetary encouragement for Melinda to refuse. She moved from her Detroit suburb to Hyde Park, on the South Side of Chicago, where her new husband was working in an experimental lab beneath the University of Chicago's football field.
Unfortunately, she found it more difficult to hide the truth from her family than she had expected. Her parents and siblings had picked up some clues, with surprising astuteness, and it was only a matter of time before they discovered what was really going on and made clear their disapproval. The time came on May 14, 2007, when something went terribly wrong underneath the U of C field, and Lake Michigan leapt up into a minor tsunami. The details are unclear, but it is known that the 5 Muggles killed and 27 injured fared much better than the Wizards in the underground facility whence the catastrophe erupted. After this event, Melinda received only one enraged phone call from her father, and has been unable to get in touch with any of her family since.
In the years that followed, Melinda and Ophelia did not treat Orin in any way that he would have termed "abuse." It must be said, however, that they spoke disparagingly of magic often, and sometimes mocked him when strange things occurred that they interpreted as the first signs of his power. Over the years, Orin grew to feel ashamed of his heritage, and this was encouraged by the way the Muggle children picked on him when he attended elementary school. Because he didn't have any friends, Orin devoted a lot of time to his work and was put into the fast track in school until he was in fifth grade. Then he received two letters of admission: one from Hogwarts, whence his father had graduated, and one from a smaller, less expensive, and less accredited school in the Western United States. Due to fiscal restrictions, Melinda sent him off to the latter, a place called Thornfield Academy.
Orin was disappointed not to be attending his father's alma mater, where he might have been able to discover something more about his progenitor, but he was thrilled to be out of the house. He was understandably reticent and nervous at the beginning of his course of study, and was hyper-aware of how he viewed his classwork; he wanted his mother and his sister to know that he was taking everything with a grain of salt, and that in some way he was still on their side, so they oughtn't turn on him. This attitude was a detriment to him for the first few years, and his grades were less than satisfactory at first. Through the guidance of a counselor, however, he was able to separate the problems of his mother and sister from the general practice of magic. It took him a while to be rehabilitated from the Wizard-bashing he had grown up with.
By the end of his fourth year, however, Orin had become a much better student. He excelled in Charms and Potions, and accepted the fact that he would never be better than disappointing in Herbology. He was able to form a few friendships, but Orin had always been and would remain something of a lone wolf. This made it easy for him when he found out at the end of his fourth year that his mother was getting married, to a man who had greater resources, and that this man had kindly offered to pay Orin's tuition at Hogwarts. Orin suspected that this was more a way to get him out of their hair than a genuine gesture of compassion, but he certainly wasn't about to complain. He met George, attended their wedding, and then headed across the Atlantic.
codewords: [purple]A D M I N EDIT[/PURPLE]
