VALENTAI, ambrose leah

by Leah Valentai Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:54 pm

LEAH AMBROSE VALENTAI
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INTRODUCTION
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FULL NAME: Leah Ambrose Valentai

NICKNAMES: Wicked Eel // Eel // Fishfingers

AGE: Fourteen years of age.

ALLEGIANCE: Neutral.

HOGWARTS HOUSE: Ravenclaw

CLASSES: Charms, CoMC, DADA, Transfiguration, and Potions.

WAND: Cypress, Acromantula web, 11 1/2 inches // inflexible

PLAY BY: Jamie Campbell Bower

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APPEARANCE
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HAIR COLOUR: Dusky blonde

EYE COLOUR: Stormy grey // blue

COMPARATIVE HEIGHT: Taller then average.

BODY BUILD: Ectomorphic // Waif-like

GENERAL APPEARANCE: More often then not, the most prominent feature of Leah are his baggy eyes. Which scream over reliance on the House Elves excellent coffee, and the odd power nap to stay mentally alert.
When he isn't yawning and looking like death warmed up or building bookhedge, Leah can generally be found to a pleasant looking individual, if somewhat alarming at first glance. His features are oddly exciting for someone of his temperament, and express far more emotion then is actually in the expression adopted at that time. A turn of an eyebrow means a good deal more on his face then many others, falling into the Pureblood fashion he typically leaves his hair long, keeping it tightly bound with a hair lacky he found the day before term started.
His skin is healthy, resistantly ignoring the paling intentions of his lifestyle, and turns olive given a a fair few hours of UV exposure. His eyes are nearly always gleaming at some internal joke or an occurrence in the world he found amusing. They are not shallow eyes, but are not the most expressive part of him so that finds itself to be something of a waste. His nose has a spanish turn to it, nearly the only portion of his Conquistador DNA left to physically display itself.

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PERSONALITY
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STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES:
[+] High power working memory: retains a multitude of knowledge and can manipulate that knowledge within his conscious mind rather then having it recalled via retrieval from his subconscious.
[+] Musical/mathematical talent: one of the odder features of the human mind is the correlation between subjects like music and arithmetic. In Leah, he is skilled at both, in composing and performing songs to a reasonable standard and using mathematics in his daily life (calculating probability and so forth).
[+] Poker face: as an avid reader and actor, Leah as long learned how to put on a show and fool all but the most adept readers of the human body. Which does include his parents, so he keeps in practise with his almost habitual habit of keeping secrets and then lying to keep them under wraps. This also lends itself towards being able to pick up on other people's acts.
[+]Intuitive: Leah typically gets a gut feeling on the majority of situations and people. This varies from outright avoiding some people, to feeling out of the ordinary attraction towards others. He also tends to be more sensitive towards magical folk of greater calibres.
[+] Creativity: can be dangerous when left in the hands of someone who has been given an education of muggle advancements and the nature of reality. That aside, Leah is highly capable of blending together a number of ideas -see high power working memory- and creating a new item that is somewhat different to what came before.
[+] Transfiguration: the subject that Leah possibly works the hardest at. There is no illusion that he is not the best student in the class with his lacking magical knowledge, but his ethic and passion towards the subject exceed his other studies.
[+] Charms: is the other largest area of work for Leah, as he finds it ordinary interesting and possesses natural talent towards the subject, and so doesn't put nearly as much work into it as some of his other classes.
[+] Potions: the last of the academic subjects in which Leah possess either a natural affinity for or a particular interest (the later in this case), vastly different from Muggle chemistry which Leah always enjoyed the theory of but never the practise, he has imported the values but not the knowledge from Thomas Tinker. Be safe, read the instructions twice, always have ventilation and don't take shortcuts ("Yes, putting sodium AND ammonia in at once is different then adding the sodium then waiting for it dissolve before adding the ammonia."-Thomas Tinker).

[+/-] Empathy: is something that Leah has struggled with greatly during his life. He relates far too strongly to individuals, and sometimes that becomes a bad thing as it predisposes him to caring more about them, then himself which leads to self-neglect.
[+/-] Flirtatious: at a young age, one might say that it is impossible for one to be flirty. Leah someone represents the middle finger to that statement, and while he does not mean anything by it -it's just the way he talks- his habit of using flowery language to address people gets him into trouble. And out of his sometimes, flattery gets you places.
[+/-] Competitive: while he doesn't like to think of himself as someone who makes an effort towards being better then others in every way possible, the unfortunate truth is that at the end of the day there is always someone better then you. Despite this, Leah preservers towards being that person at the end of the day who is looked up at in as many fields as possible.
[+/-] Slow twitch muscles: favouring endurance and preservation over high speed, slow twitch muscles give with one hand an take with the other. While it does not effect reflex speed, it certainly impedes the rate at which the body can react off the fly. If someone has warmed up and his practised with the motion, then it would be unlikely to effect anything.
[+/-] Tenacious: some might call it pig-headedness, but that isn't really quite the case with Leah. It isn't bravery, although it is occasionally misidentified as such. Simply put, Leah is unwilling to give up once he has committed to something, and will ignore the odds against him until it has been fully established that it is performable or not so.

[-] Offensive magic: for whatever reason, jinxes and hexes are not compatible with Leah or his wand, and tends to avoid their use entirely. This does not mean he cannot behave offensively via other branches of magic, simply that all spells that are openly, purely designed to be offensive, stunning, disarming, and the various other jinxes do not work as well for Leah as other Magi.
[-] Secretive: he dislikes telling people anything or generally letting them into his personal space at all. Which is something of a contrast with his fairly warm personality, and has gotten him into trouble before as this also includes being utterly unable to ask for help.
[-] Repetition: is something that Leah avoids at surprisingly large degrees. In essays, he will be almost painstakingly careful to avoid double use of the more colourful words and is something of a pet peeve of his if it falls through.
[-] Aloof: at odds with his empathy -which actually somewhat explains this trait- is the rejection of other human emotion, or at least their importance in regards to himself. This also plays into his acting ability, as it has somewhat cheapened the value of emotion for him.
[-] Distrusting: this ironically somewhat comes from his acting background, but trust of the human value of genuine kindness is somewhat worn away on Leah. There is always a motivation, always a reason even if they don't know if themselves.
[-] Passive: quite often Leah dislikes to take an active role in anything, or become the person who sits at the centre of attention, preferring to be a member of the general crowd with more knowledge then the others whom are observing.
[-] Indecisive: what the label is really. Leah tends to overthink and overanalysise and tends to be somewhat overwhelmed by the various options his imaginative and creative mind gives him. He is likely to become somewhat better as he grows older, as it will be slowly overcome by maturity but it haunts him rather badly at this stage of development.

LIKES & DISLIKES:
[+] The centrefold.
[+] Tapioca pudding.
[+] Music.
[+] New knowledge.
[+] Cats.
[+] Coffee
[+] Specific herbal teas.
[+] Money/success
[+] Dancing.

[-] Heat.
[-] Pain/suffering.
[-] Poverty.
[-] Failing at Xzy.
[-] Awkward combat.
[-] Spices.
[-] People without social skills.

GOALS:
[~] Doing well at Hogwarts.
[~] Altering the anti-Muggleborn culture in Magi society.
[~] Defeating the last Pac-man level.

HABITS & QUIRKS:
[~] Blinking idiosyncratically, he doesn't blink with both at the same time. Just the one at separate time-frames excluding events like getting an irritant in his eyeball.
[~] Whistling and humming simultaneously which produces a vibrating note in the air.
[~] Sitting on one side of a chair with his legs folded over the other.
[~] Keeping a mental tally of favours/disfavours he has done for someone.
[~] Haggling, no matter the exact circumstance.
[~] Wiggling his brows when he wants to emphasise the ludicrousity of what has come out of his mouth.

BOGGART: I'd prefer to establish these through IC interaction if it's all the same to you guys.

PATRONUS: Inib.

DEMENTOR: Inib.

VERITASERUM: Inib.

MIRROR OF ERISED: Inib.

PERSONALITY: A fundamentally peaceful and good natured fellow, Neah strives to do the best of any hand dealt to him. In this case 'entering into a society where his genetic standing predisposes him to sub-human levels' along with the usual teenager issues.
Driven by nothing in particular except that which forces men to climb mountains and build Pyramids. To see if if can be done, why lie to yourself over something so fundamental? Motivations are not unknown to Leah, but at his basest core, that is his driving factor. He also has the undercurrents of ambition, but is not ambitious as he does not really know what it is he wishes to attain or conquer which is a big difference in practise.
As a performer, he tends to feel a good deal more comfortable on-stage, and his reluctances of personality vanish away. He tends to get highly involved with the music he plays or the part he acts, but has yet to find the mental fortitude to apply this in real life. There is a certain magic on the stage for him that he cannot quite capture anywhere else. Be it the script, or the orderly nature of the occasion.
From that standpoint, he fades into the background very easily, adapting himself to the atmosphere and making corrections to himself so as to fit in, rather then stand out. All in all, a work in progress to say the least, but not one that is unpleasant to observe in action: something that in particular has been observed from his routine dances at the troupe. Unlike the majority of boys his age, he finds that dancing is somewhat related to the stage. There is a set motion, a pattern and it can be predicted. And this leads us closer to the truth of his conditions for comfort: control. He likes to be aware and others be aware of him, in a situation. Conflicting due to his dislike of the spotlight in normal social situations, but no one was ever made perfect. So it is unlikely he will find happiness there.

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FAMILY & POSSESSIONS
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FATHER: Marcus Valentai

MOTHER: Angeline Valentai nee Ambrose

SIBLING/S: n/a

OTHER: Thomas Nonja // Tinker Thomas

BLOOD STATUS: First Generation Magi // Muggleborn

RACE: Human

SOCIAL STATUS: Middle class

PET/S:
Cat // Rainy // Australian Mist

OTHER POSSESSIONS:
~~optional. magical artefacts must be claimed through the magical artefacts claim~~

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CHARACTER HISTORY
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Early Years:
Birth is in many ways a symbol of things to come, and can define the life of the child (or children) thereafter. A bad birth for example would tend to lend itself towards a life that would otherwise be harder then a simpler labour.
And of course, being a stillborn tends to put a damper on the whole 'going out and about' thing in general. Suffice to say that Leah was not born into the world with the aid of medical technology, nor was the caesarean section employed to remove him from his mother's womb.
It was as close to a natural birth as one could hope for, with only some local painkillers to dull the agony of the contractions. And they were needed, for the duration of the labour proceeded well into the night, the next day, and into that night as well. After nearly three days, Leah was produced. Quite tired, quite hungry and quite healthy.

The life Leah was born into, was not the typical one of a child who sees his father on weekends, mornings and evenings and his mother around the same time due to school.
Leah was born into a circus of sorts, although the people in charge -his biological propagators- would prefer it to be referred to as a 'troupe', as they did not specialise in traipse work, juggling and feats of the body. All of these were /present/ in the troupe, but not focused on or necessarily shown to any great amount. The En' Rah were concerned with acting, song and dance. A travelling theatre with feats of the body such as tight rope balancing mixed in to give their various acts a thrill that could not commonly be found elsewhere.
No adverts were put up, no signs. Word of mouth were all the En' Rah needed to bring the crowds, having been a presence in the entertainment industry since early on- reputedly having their routes in performing gypsy caravans.
And so, for the first few years of his life, Leah did not learn, did not attend school, he spent the majority of his time mingling with the performers and helping where he could. It was from this young age he learned that there was always, always something to do. You had no excuse standing still and waiting, you always needed to move and keep on moving: because motion kept you safe. However, it is required by law in most parts of the world where the troupe performed that children need to be given an education, they became part of the Global Correspondence Education Network. 'Sets', of work in a particular theme would be given, and Leah would complete them with the same ravenous attitude of someone who is not forced to do something, but is readily compliant with the act.
Being a single child -both his parents tried again, but miscarried each time- Leah spent most of his time around adults, or at least people who could be considered to be past the age of maturity.

One of these individuals was a magically redundant entity. Otherwise known as a squib by the magical populous, but Leah got into the habit of calling him Mere or Tinker- despite the fact that the elderly blokes name was Thomas.
Thomas was the 'special effects' producer of the troupe, because there was nothing quite like attacking as many senses as you could. One of their more infamous performances had taken advantage of the cave system beneath them and integrated it with their musical performances, which had resulted in the entire countryside vibrating in time beneath the feat of the audience as the play moved around before them.
He was the person who integrated new technology into their routines, and kept things fresh for them. Hence the name 'Tinker' which had been bestowed on him somewhat mockingly to begin with, but it had eventually became something deeply routed in the troupe's collective psyche, and he was called Thomas or Tinker with equal distribution.
It was Thomas who became first aware that Leah had magical potential, as their daily conversation -Thomas had unofficially become Leah's educator in the more advanced subjects he held large amounts of interest in- had moved onto some musical composition and physics, somehow stringing the two together to give analogies that made sense to the young Leah, whereas it would have lost others.
At this point in time, Leah was attempting to compose a piece of his own music which he had titled the 'Fall of Iskander' after one of the greatest military generals of all time Alexander the Great- to whom Leah felt an odd connection, for those experienced in the matters of younger children, this was Neah's first case of idolisation.
At Thomas's request, Leah began to play him the first part of his song- it was not by any means, a noteworthy production- but Leah took great pride in it. As most children would of their very own creation, and as he wound the song down to a close, the emotions he'd inlaid into the song hit him like a brick. And he bent over and sobbed, the mighty empire turned to dust as his loyal generals started on each other like rabid dogs.
Forgive him, at that young - fragile age. But accidental magic is typically created from a burst of emotion, something that triggers a feeling of intent so hard that the mind ignores the preconceived boundaries of reality and forces the intent into existence whereupon it takes a random effect on the world.
The dust on the floor, the spare particles in the air- all coalesced in front of him, the table itself they had been sitting on thrusting itself up into the air as a miniature bust of Alexander himself. Looking up at it, Leah only touched it once as a great crack ran down the middle of it.
What happens next is somewhat clouded for Leah, so from the perspective of Thomas Tinker it goes as follows: he took the young boy away from the distorted bust of his idol. Removing him from being able to see the thing, Leah questioned him, but Thomas had no real answers just yet. The course of action was still so clouded that there was nothing he could share yet.
But perhaps the truth. The truth might be the best. However, that would require something else, his parents needed to hear this as well. Time past by in which Thomas hailed Marcus and Angeline over, with the bust as proof it didn't take much time in convincing them.
And with a grace typical of the majority of muggleborn parents they took it in their stride and even took pride from it. After all, wasn't the combination of their genes something special if they could produce something as special as Leah?
Everything else, is as they say, history. A Hogwarts Representative came with the letter to give solid evidence to the family that magic did indeed exist. Not required, however the starting Hogwarts trust fund to allow the purchases of the supplies was.
This is roughly where the story really starts.

Hogwarts Years: His sorting went somewhat smoothly. Somewhat, being the Hat's choice to place him in Ravenclaw. Which did back him into something of a corner as he was aware of the House's relationship with the Slytherin's. Just as Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tended to group together due to the similarity in their values, so did Slytherin and Ravenclaw- their natural cynicism and drive for knowledge/glory found good mutual benefits. It was from these interactions that Leah became aware of the prejduice against him, some Ravenclaws using his presence as bargaining chip to gain some favour in Slytherin. There was nothing like improving relations with the middle man for your contacts.
Just as the Jews have always been the picking point of history, so were the muggleborns. Instead, Leah found it easier to lie through his teeth and stated that he was a 'halfblood' to pass questions away. It made him socially acceptable, and no one really asked questions without going through due process of etiquette which would require getting to know them, etc.
This part of Slytherin society, Leah fell in love with, the codes, the cloak and dagger. All of this he enjoyed, but the abuse was near constant. "Don't talk like a Mudblood,' 'you aim like a Mudblood,' 'a Mudblood could write faster then you." and so on.
This part of it, he found issue with.
Leah spent most of first year simply surviving, just staying under the radar and making sure no one aside from those whom he could trust ever asked the more personal details of his life. Instead, he focused on understanding the politics of Slytherin House (in some ways he became as bound to the green and silver as the purple and bronze) and doing well at school. He found the areas he excelled in, and those he didn't.
Now approaching his Second Year, Leah aims to begin making more of a mark this time round. He has armed himself with knowledge, and doesn't feel that there are any surprises waiting in the wings for him. Things are moving in the world, there isn't time to stand still. At this time, he again overestimated his influence, and managed to extract himself before it turned nasty. Getting away with only a few metaphorical burns to his pride, Leah refocused his attention to his education, becoming known as the 'bookhedge' builder where he would surround himself with texts in a specific corner he'd located. A new one started each time he began a major research project, as some new point of interest sparked his innate curiosity.
Third year began, and now Leah felt he'd begun to build some ground. He'd established himself in the Ravenclaw community. He had earned the right to wear their colours, outperforming several other students in his class and vying with the others for higher status.
Marks meant everything in Ravenclaw. Not getting them tended to leave you diminished in the group. It was a dog eat dog world in that small portion of Hogwarts. But cabals were formed for the benefit of all concerned. After first year, people tended to recognise that if they worked together, they could get a better mark. Sharing the research load and insights doubled their efficiency. This became the biggest issue for Leah. Only a number of people were free, and they had already partnered up into unofficial study groups during second year. Right when Leah had been attempting to try and get a better understanding of Slytherin culture, and had hence missed out on that period of internal organisation.
So he persistently remained a number of marks away from the top of the class. This gave him something to strive for, a challenge. And he rose to it, competing on his lonesome with a number of collaborative entities as the other scant few people whom hadn't managed to get into a group fell behind him. Mental rigour. That was all it took sometimes, for every step those groups took, Leah learned he needed to take two. And for no particular reason, he chased those comets into the sky.
Starting Year Four, Leah has not really 'rested' up so to speak. One of the deals his parents had taken from him was that he would not fall behind on Muggle education, and that he would at least be able to perform as capably in their world as he did in the magical one. So over the Holidays, Leah pushed in the Year Nine equivalent education into his mind, just as he had the other years. However with the Homework load mounting, it became progressively harder for him. Now with Year Four looming, Leah remains unsure whether or not he will be able to maintain his standards.

Adulthood: In Progress

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BEHIND THE CHARACTER
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ALSO KNOWN AS: Leah

RP EXPERIENCE: Ah, sugar~ that's like asking a woman her age. Just ain't done. I've RP'd for 20 - 16 years now. Coulda written an equation, but that'd just be overboard.

HOW YOU FOUND US: Potter Roleplaying Game (Google)[Accidentally deleted the Harry when I searched].

MAIN CHARACTER: Dis be him.

PURPOSE OF CHARACTER: To ensure deliberate creation of character

RP SAMPLE:

Spoiler:

by Leah Valentai Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:05 pm

Alright, he is finally ready for review. Somewhat nervous, but tear 'im apart.

by **Anabelle Mulciber** Sun Aug 18, 2013 4:31 pm

Hi Leah! First off, welcome to PA!

You have a very good application here, but to me right now Leah seems like a Ravenclaw more than a Slytherin. Is that alright with you?

If not, you might want to add some traits that make him more Slytherin-like.

~Hit

by **Elijah Krum** Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:01 pm

Indeed, welcome to Potter's Army!

Here's my two cents because I really, really enjoyed this application. It's very clever. Excellent.

It may have to be Ravenclaw or bust because the Sorting Hat rarely accepts Muggleborn Slytherins.

For me, he's a very subtle Slytherin and treads the line quite well between that and Ravenclaw. He's be an exceptional Ravenclaw, however.

But Hit is correct. A trait like ambition or cunning, etc. would tip him and he would be a very interesting Slytherin to watch if you would still like him to be one.

He is also, per the playby, taller and leaner than the body-shape you supplied. JCB isn't quite as stocky as that. He could also, potentially, do with being a touch older? What do you reckon?

- Eli.

by Leah Valentai Mon Aug 19, 2013 5:06 am

Alright, thank you both for the feedback. At your recommendation, I've shunted him over to Ravenclaw. I wasn't terribly attached to being in Slytherin, just that it is the main foci of anti-muggleborn sentiment, and Leah wants to change that. Or you know, purge. Maybe it's for the best.

Pushing up the body type and comparative height.
Also aged him up, so there is now a good bit more history. Feel free to read it, kinda interesting~ I felt anyway.

by **Anabelle Mulciber** Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:18 pm

Very nice! Accepted and sorted into Ravenclaw!

Don't forget your claims!

rules	plot
application	guide
canon list	ic news
claims	casting call
rp request	help

VALENTAI, ambrose leah

VALENTAI, ambrose leah

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