xxxx× × ×xxxxTHExxxA U R E L I U Sxxx FAMILYxxxx× × ×xxxx (( family co-owned by MJ Spooks and addaellis ))
xxxFAMILY TREExxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Valerius Aurelius,son of Cato and Audenzia de Luca Played by MJ Spooks Aurais Aurelius,son of Cato and Audenzia de Luca Played by addaellis
xxxFAMILY NPC'Sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cato Aurelius,husband to Audenzia, father to Valerius, Aurais, and Serafina Audenzia de Luca,wife to Cato, mother to Valerius, Aurais, and Serafina Serafina Aurelius,daughter of Cato and Audenzia, sister to Valerius and Aurais
xxx❖xxxV A L E R I U S xxxC A T Oxxx A U R E L I U Sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxx❖xxxA B O U T MExxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
NICKNAMES»» Val AGE»» 12 BIRTHDAY»» 27 June 2043 GENDER»» Male FACE-CLAIM»» Aiden Gallagher ✖ BLOOD STATUS»» Pureblood WAND»» 10 1/2 inches, Sycamore with raven feather, springy and smooth LANGUAGES SPOKEN»» Fluent: English, Italian. Conversational: French, Greek. Academic: Latin. ACCENT»» Faintly Italian PET»» Owl da Vinci
LIKES xxx»» History xxx»» Museums xxx»» Food, any kind xxx»» Big cities xxx»» Muggle technology DISLIKES xxx»» Large animals xxx»» Quiet xxx»» Teachers xxx»» Expectations xxx»» Being cold HOBBIES xxx»» Reading xxx»» Exploring xxx»» Cooking
xxx❖xxxP E R S O N A L I T Yxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SCHOLARLY xxx»» Valerius inherited his parent's hoarding habits; however, he doesn't hoard objects. What he hoards is knowledge. It doesn't matter the subject, it doesn't matter how mundane, it doesn't matter how complicated; if you stick a book in his hand, he will devour it in a matter of hours, and then go looking for another one. He isn't much of a do-er. He understands most things in theory, but actually applying the knowledge can be difficult. Still, he reasons that those who can't do, teach, so if nothing else he's got a career as a very excellent teacher ahead of him.
CURIOUS xxx»» The issue, Val thinks, with the whole "satisfaction brought it back" thing, is that he's never satisfied. Rather, he is insatiably curious about the world and everything in it. He's never met a question he didn't want to find the answer to, or, in cases where there is no hard answer, like philosophy or psychology, every single theory and the history behind them. He's not even concerned with forming opinions, though he has them. He just wants to know what all the different schools of thought are. He likens himself to the modern version of a renaissance man, dabbling a bit in everything.
CONTENT xxx»» Val, being the oldest of his siblings, is naturally being raised as the heir. There are expectations on him, to better the family fortune that his parents foolishly squandered, to make a good match with a good girl and generally carry on the family's good name. Val... is not concerned with any of this. He was too young when the money got tight to remember the times of luxury. As long as he can pop down to a library and read a book, or interesting strangers to talk to about their lives and interests, he's got all he really wants out of life. His greedy nature extends only to knowledge; in all other things, all he wants is for himself and his family to be healthy and cared for.
DOTING xxx»» A secondary result of being the oldest sibling is the sense of responsibility Val feels over his two siblings, particularly Aurais, since he blames himself for his brother's accident, having been responsible for watching his siblings when it occurred. His solution? To do absolutely any- and everything for the both of them. Just about the only thing that can distract him from his voracious reading habits is either of his siblings wanting or needing something, and then he will drop everything to achieve it.
APATHETIC xxx»» The thing is, on the rare occasion that Val doesn't care about something, it is impossible to make him pay it any mind. He struggles a lot with things like money and investing and business because to him, those are petty concerns that stand in the way of him and learning all the things. He doesn't want to have to spend his time worrying about finances and helping run whatever his parents most recent business venture is. He wants to explore the world, meet new people, read new books, and by God, he's going to do it. Anything he doesn't care about is at best a nuisance and at worst an obstacle, and all he cares about is avoiding it.
INTUITIVE xxx»» Being so well-read, Val knows a lot of things about a lot of different subjects. As such, he's very good at picking up nuances and understanding how things work. He rarely bothers with things like instructions because most of the time, he can figure it out well enough on his own. He's generally good at reading situations and applying problem solving skills to helping improve them. Occasionally, his 'solution' ends up being a lecture so long that both parties just cave and compromise, but he's going to stick to that being a cunning strategy and not just happenstance.
STRENGTHS xxx»» Well-read xxx»» Thoughtful WEAKNESSES xxx»» Obsessive xxx»» Stubborn FEARS xxx»» Memory loss xxx»» Large animals
xxx❖xxxB A C K S T O R Yxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CHILDHOOD xxx»» Valerius is the firstborn of Cato Aurelis and his wife Audenzia de Luca, an Italian couple who transplanted to England shortly before their son's birth. The couple each came from old, wealthy magical families, and were, while not quite an arranged match, not quite a love match, either. They were, at least, good friends, and grew to love one another by the time they began having children. The move to England was rather impulsive, and surprised their families; Audenzia's father had died and, as she was his only child, inherited his entire fortune. She wanted to use the money to "strike out" and try her hand at business.
xxx»» Unfortunately for the family, Cato and Audenzia had expensive taste, and could uncharitably be described as "hoarders." Audenzia also had no real head for business, and Cato, being the lastborn child of five, had never been taught the ins and outs, it having been (quietly) assumed he would simply work for his eldest brother for all his life. As such, it wasn't long before the money began to run low. By the time their third child, a daughter, was born, the de Luca fortune was all but gone.
xxx»» The family tried to get on with less money, even going so far as to begin pawning off some of the expensive items the couple had bought, though not many, because neither could bear to part with most of it. Things got desperate when their middle child, Aurais, suffered the effects of a curse caused by one of the many antiques they had stashed in the attic. The curse itself caused an illness that left their son's throat badly damaged. They ended up borrowing money from family in order to cover the expenses accrued while he was healing. Unfortunately, they overshot the family's goodwill, and were eventually cut off.
xxx»» Desperate, Cato and Audenzia returned to attempting to sell and pawn off their antiques and other items, but it was (for them) an extremely difficult process. Valerius and his siblings watched as their parents struggled, not quite understanding but sympathetic and more than a little worried. They were quite surprised when, mere weeks before Val received his Hogwarts letter, the pair suddenly seemed to calm. The shopping trip for his school things was not met with fretful counting of every coin, but with wide smiles and insistence on "only the best." When Val asked, his mother simply replied she'd had some luck on her investments, which he took at face value and was relieved to hear. It was bad enough he was leaving his siblings behind; leaving them behind to suffer increasing poverty seemed like a nightmare. But, he was reassured that things would be just fine from then on out, and was able to leave for school excited to learn.
SCHOOL YEARS
FIRST YEAR»» Val was not surprised to be sorted into Ravenclaw; he was, however, surprised by how difficult he found some of his classes. Specifically, he struggled with wandwork, because he tended to overthink things and get a little too caught up in the details of how a spell functioned and trying to force it to work. He resolved to do better the following year when he found his end of the year exam scores to be less than acceptable by his own (exceptionally high) standards. xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - SECOND YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - THIRD YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - FOURTH YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - FIFTH YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - SIXTH YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - - SEVENTH YEAR»» - - - xxxEXTRACURRICULARS»»- - -
xxx❖xxxS C H O O L AND C A R E E Rxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ATTENDING»» Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry HOUSE»» Ravenclaw YEAR»» Second BEST LESSONS xxx»» History of Magic xxx»» Potions xxx»» Astronomy WORST LESSONS xxx»» Transfiguration xxx»» Flying xxx»» Charms LIFE GOAL»» To discover something or solve an unsolvable puzzle
xxx❖xxxR E L A T I O N S H I P Sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxx🦜BASICS🎹xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx PRONUNCIATION or-REY-us or-REY-lee-us NICKNAMES Aur GENDER male SEXUAL ORIENTATION straight? AGE 14 BIRTHDAY September 3rd, 2044 -- Virgo LANGUAGES British Sign Language, English (fluent). Italian, [language club languages 2055-2058] (basic)
BLOOD STATUS pureblood WAND Alder wood and galena powder core. 10 inches, surprisingly squishy. Carved, sanded, and finished thrice over. [x]
PATRONUS parrot (not learned yet)
FACECLAIM William Franklyn-Miller HEIGHT 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) WEIGHT 112 lbs (50 kg) APPEARANCE ---
xxx🦜SCHOOLANDCAREER🎹xxxxxxxxxxxx ATTENDING Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry YEAR fourth HOUSE Ravenclaw
CLUBS ■ Language club ■ Art of the Sword ■ Order of the Stick (yr 2+, only occasionally) ■ Music Club (yr 3+, only occasionally)
BEST SUBJECTS ■ Music ■ Potions ■ History
WORST SUBJECTS ■ Charms ■ DADA ■ Healing
DREAM JOB Composer? Student? (Can you be paid to go to school forever?)
xxx🦜PERSONALITY🎹xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ANALYTICALAurais loves to get into how things work. He has a sharp mind for systems and processes, and the more gorey detail he can get, the better. He thinks in terms of not what is but what could be or might be. He loves overthinking theoretical or hypothetical situations, and loves diving into the logistics of things. How to make fantasy things happen or translating an idea into an actionable project is an area of fascination. Actually making or doing things…is less exciting.
AMBITIOUS Aurais always has at least three creative projects on his plate at any time and somehow still stumbles into more. Even if he’s focused and working, he just runs into some new interesting thing or has a new idea and bam, new project to do. Unfortunately, while he’s great at the planning, analysis, and reporting phases he’s not as great at doing things and thus often has a lot of incomplete or partial projects that are “stuck”. Aurais has often tried to take on too much, burns out, and gets upset and miserable because of it, then cheers himself up by taking on even more things. It’s a problem. He knows this. He still does it.
MEDITATIVE Perhaps it comes from eating particularly slowly due to trouble swallowing, or expressing emotions being particularly hard, but Aurais moves through life at a turtle’s pace, always thinking and thinking some more before actually doing something, if anything, about things. The only times he rushes are to get through a book faster to the interesting part, when he’s trying to write everything down, or during a fast piano piece. His mind is either zeroed in absolutely focused, or wandering a half-dozen directions at once.
CHEEKYAurais generally tries to get along with others and tries to get others to get along. He believes everyone can be kind, even in criticism, and tries to be supportive and polite if nothing else. He does have a spontaneous and playful side though, and his sense of humor is apparent to people who read his writing or sign language. For someone who is silent, Aurais does not fade into the background.
GROUNDED As much as Aurais enjoys creative possibilities and projects, he likes things that are doable and within his wheelhouse. He’s more sensible and reasonable than floaty, and his idle daydreaming time is usually spent thinking of how to work on one of these projects. His ideas should be built off of something, not just dangling off nowhere, and even when he’s writing fanfiction, he needs it to be firmly grounded in some form of canon or system of rules; out-of-character is a terrible insult unless it’s done with meaningful purpose!
🦜🎹HOBBIES ■ Analyzing stories and writing about them (He has a blog of reviews!) ■ Playing piano ■ Taking pictures and scrapbooking
🦜LIKES ■ Coffee, Drinks, Soup. ■ Science fiction/ Science fantasy ■ Book stores, Antique stores, Hipster cafes, Arcades-- just being around town. ■ Psychological horror films “Fiction isn’t scary. It’s not real. Real life is scary.” ■ Post it notes and fancy pens
🎹DISLIKES ■ Nothing turns him off faster than “You need to drop something”. ■ Stealing/ Having an idea stolen -- He gets inspiration from people and wants to work with other people on his projects, so he’s happy to share ideas, but also partially fears someone taking over or stealing the ideas he’s working with. ■ Basically anything critical of his aphonia. “Are you upset? / “If you practiced more you could talk” / “Isn’t there some kind of spell or potion?” / “Eat faster” ■ Deadlines or time limits ■ Politics. Talking about politics. Politics change all the time but nothing gets done. It’s the worst.
🦜STRENGTHS ■ Accepting and resilient. Tries to believe in the best of everyone. ■ Remarkably good memory
🎹WEAKNESSES ■ Time management ■ Perfectionist who doesn’t know when to say no.
🦜DREAMS ■ Aurais has a dream where he eats the words off of books and eats the memories out of people. ■ Maybe travel the world.
🎹FEARS ■ Forgetting and losing thoughts. ■ Not having the energy or creative drive to do things that make him happy. He’s felt that before. He doesn’t want it to happen again.
xxx🦜BACKSTORY🎹xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 🦜🎹EARLY CHILDHOOD Cato Aurelius and Audenzia de Luca moved to England from Italy in 2043, after Audenzia’s father had died, leaving her his entire fortune. They bought a luxurious flat in a well-to-do part of London, where Audenzia tried her hand at various investments and businesses, all which seemed to fall short. The couple also had a passion for antiques, which they collected and hoarded. They had 3 children in 5 years: Valerius Cato, Aurais Flint, and Serafina Lucia.
When Aurais was very young, he stumbled upon a cursed antique radio amongst the horde of things in their attic. He recovered, but had irreversible larynx damage and anarthria-- damage to the nerves that control speech. Having squandered their fortune, Cato and Audenzia reached out to family back in Italy to fund his recovery. With therapy, Aurais was eventually able to eat and swallow, but it remained hard for him to move his mouth and jaw, and impossible to make more than a meaningless raspy noise. Finally, they bought him Astyth, an African gray parrot that would be trained to act as a voice for him.
Between the haze of the sickness and the years of constant therapy, Aurais doesn’t really remember having a voice, and has taken the experience mostly as just who he is. He expresses himself fine enough through a combination of Astyth, sign language, and piano. He enjoys following Valerius to the library, although he is mostly there to admire the woodwork and reference craftsmen journals. He has only recently in the last few years had enough energy to really run around, and has channeled this energy into excited to explore and learn everything he can. He has started taking to assembling everything--from his fanfictions to story analyses (also known as his list of shipping fodder) to family photos and wood shaving samples and Astyth's loose feathers-- into zine- style scrapbooks.
🦜🎹SCHOOL YEARS🦜FIRST YEAR Aurais spent his first year mostly just acclimating to Hogwarts: he was excited to see everything, and got into photography as a way of keeping record of all the cool things he saw. His first time at the Music and Art clubs were quite overwhelming and chose to practice the piano instead when the music club was not meeting and do art on his own. He did though, find exercise in Fencing and fun in Language clubs. Outside of classes and clubs, Aurais mostly hung out with Valerius, or worked on his Flintzine projects.
🎹SECOND YEAR Serafina joined the elder two Aurelius children at Hogswarts this year, and Aurais was eager to show her around--in the process, she introduced him to a bunch of students in her year. He was dragged to her Order of the Stick LARP club a couple times, but happy to know Logan from Art of the Sword there. With Fina's encouragement and company, Aurais made a point to attend at least one meeting of every club he could, to at least see what else was there. In the end he decided to just stick with fencing and language, but he did enjoy the exploration.
While in the music room near the end of the year, he met Simon Layne, a fellow mute, who encouraged him to go to Music club and gave him some advice for mute spellcasting.
Friend he occasionally gets to smooth/ Maybe just a bit more than friends (hopefully?) The incredibly sensitive and wonderful Annalise Watson FRIENDS ■ Best Friend: Lucian Valentine ■ Older:Diego Correa-Luney (NPC), Logan Strife, Annalise Watson, #Val friends ■ "Elementals group": Tamhas Ghobhainn, Barbara Luney, Aedan MacInnes, Giovanni Nardovino, William Thomas
xxx🦜UPDATES🎹xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CREATED 6 June 2020 UPDATED 19 May 2023 UPDATES MADE ■ Yr 3 update ■ Peacemaker > Cheeky. Personality reworded to account for the more cheeky way I've been playing him. Some of the text was moved to Dislikes > Stealing/ Having an idea stolen (replaced cleaning) ■ (recent update)
