LANDVIK, Dax

   Character's Legal Name: Dax Gabriel Vollan. He changed his name after graduation, when professors wouldn’t know better and it was easier to get away with. Now he goes by Dax Landvik, and doesn’t care what people think his middle name is.

   Age: 19; birthday: June 7th

   Hogwarts House: Ex-Gryffindor

   Blood Type:  Halfblood

   Species: Human

   Face claim: Niklas Nebelsieck
   

See that sad, innocent picture up there? Dax isn't like that anymore.

Dax is made up of sharp lines and tailored edges – a lanky young man, some might say. Of course, they haven’t seen the scars under those collared coats he wears in winter or the long sleeves he still wears despite the summer heat. He does bring them out occasionally, but only when he feels they might intimidate or scare someone away. One thing, though: You touch him skin-to-skin, and he’ll cut off whatever part of you came close enough. Perhaps that’s why his hands are always in his pockets, or why he wears gloves as soon as it becomes winter-enough to avoid any questions. That said, hardly anyone knows he actually fears it. He's gotten used to pretending he's just standoffish. And nobody knows the story about Finn [see history], although people Finn's age might ask questions if they recognize Dax for who he is.

He has dark brown hair that, actually, he quite likes to have stand up at odd angles. And his eyes are so light blue that they look grey, though one might first notice that they are unnerving. He so rarely smiles that, when he does, it looks fake. And it usually is. The best someone can get out of him is a sneaky grin, perhaps, or a shocked laugh if the mood strikes him. He tends to keep his chin tilted down around people he doesn’t know, so that, if he looks at them, he’s looking up from under his eyebrows. It often comes off as much more aggressive than he really feels, but it keeps people at a distance, which is ideal.
   

Dax has one desire: to become meaner than his demons. He used to be a little jumpy, if not excitable. A weak Gryffindor, but more fit for that house than any other. He wanted to improve his life, through adventure and magic, just as his brother had. But life screwed him. And he became cold, calculating and serious. Dax doesn’t know – nor does he particularly care – what his housemates thought about his behavior when he returned a different person after Christmas Break in second year. But he was determined, education wise, and desperate for control. He has never told anyone what he wants. Well, that’s not true. Cassian and Natasha, two students from his year, know. They aren’t exactly helpful in the ways he needs them to be, but they’re trustworthy and keep him going and relatively grounded most of the time. Still, he’s a schemer and he’s planning a long-con on the man who ruined his life, and having a couple of sort-of friends may turn out to help him one day.

While his main focus is on the person who led to Finn’s death, he isn't opposed to doing anything that will ensure him power over someone else. No human being could ever manage to go without being an enemy of someone else, and Dax has no problem with having lots of them as long as he knows more about them than they do about him. That's why he prefers for people to call him by nicknames or aliases if he thinks they'll somehow be within range of his target. What may seem like a risk to some could arguably be seen as a challenge or a game to Dax, and it tends to ruin any potential friendships he could have with others.
   

   Early Years:
Dax and his brother showed signs of magic just when they were meant to, and although their Mother was a little dismayed that neither of them were ‘average’ like her, she seemed pleased that they would get to experience the world their father was from. Marius Vollan was a seer, though a poor one, and worked in the Department of Mysteries up until his death when Dax was ten years old.

Their family life had been rather dull, outside of the boys accidentally destroying things that Marius would need to fix when he came home. They lived in Norway part of the time, though they moved to England once their father got his job. Once he died, and Finn was already attending Hogwarts, their mother waited for Dax to get his letter, and then moved the household back to Norway. She didn’t want them to be separated, but she missed her home, and wanted to be closer to her parents and Marius’ family. So it was quite a journey, those early years, to get the boys to the train and back. But that wouldn’t matter for very long.

   Hogwarts Years:
Dax was sorted into Gryffindor, which was a shock to his older brother, Finn. A Slytherin, of course, Finn was not entirely pleased. But they were six years apart, so it hardly mattered. It wasn’t like they were going to play each other on the pitch or anything. Finn kept a careful eye out, particularly since they had still not entirely gotten past Marius’s death, and he wanted his brother to get on well. That first year, Dax met a boy named Cassian and they got on splendidly, palling around the grounds together.

The summer before Dax’s second year, Finn had graduated from Hogwarts and was out looking for a job. He wanted to send money home to their mother since their father died, and he felt that there would be more jobs available in London, where there was a bigger population and bigger bank accounts. His plan was to act just as rich as anyone else and get in with the high rollers. Once they believed he was what he claimed to be, he would come up with another story. They were down on their luck. Their business hit hard times. Surely, he told Dax, someone would offer them a hand. Even a loan.

It just so happened that Gabriel J. Short II, an American businessman and pureblood, was setting up an international office for his business and was looking for people to hire. And Finn? Finn was a clever Slytherin if there ever was one. He had almost no experience with the industry, but he was determined and answered interview questions the right way, apparently, because he quickly moved up into a rather cushy job he didn’t quite deserve. But he was a quick learner, and never made the same mistake twice. So he moved up more quickly than he should have.

Cut to Christmas, middle of Second Year. Dax hops on a train to go see his brother, hoping that they can afford to go home to their mother now that Finn has picked up a proper, nice job. He didn’t realize it at first, but something was wrong. Finn had met someone that seemed interested in helping them out. He didn’t know, however, that the man in question was Gabby Short, the boss’s disgruntled son. And that son had conned them out of what little they already had. He had ruined everything. So, no. They were not going home to their mother.

Finn had been fired, and that meant that good positions worth taking knew better than to hire him. One does not simply get fired from a Short company and move on to another. Particularly when one was fired for business fraud. So it was time to think smaller. Dax went with him to interviews. The first time, Dax ruined it all. Finn had tried to pretend that he had never had a job at all after Hogwarts, but poor Dax didn’t know not to mention it. So he was told to wait outside after that.

It didn’t go well. The money they did have went towards, first, food. Second, warm clothing. They didn’t have enough to put towards a place to live, and Finn was too proud to ask their mother or look for handouts. Dax started to hate his brother a little, but that all changed one night, when hatred no longer mattered. Why, you ask? Well, because Finn died.

Not only were the boys practically in tatters themselves after going so long with poor nutrition and awful weather, but Finn was desperate enough to make a mistake. He broke into a shop late one evening, and didn’t make it through the night. A fight broke out with an owner he should have known better than to mess with, and the beating did him in. Finn made it outside, found Dax, and then sank to the ground. The little twelve-year-old Dax had no idea what to do. He didn’t know enough magic to fix things, and didn’t know who to ask if the guys who had done this were close enough to make it worse, or do the same to him. So he wrapped his brother in his jacket even though it didn’t fit, shivering for hours – until he realized that Finn was dead. Reluctantly, he took the jacket back, as well as his brother’s. If nothing else, at least Dax wouldn’t freeze, too.

It was then that his terrible, desperate fear of skin contact was born. Because he had to move his brother when he heard footsteps coming. He moved Finn as far as he could, but he was weak and cold and scared. He was selfish. Of that, Dax was sure. Because he took off running when it became too much, and stared at his hands the entire way. He can’t bear touch, but death stopped being something he feared as time went on.

Finn was found, and his information was put in the Prophet. Nobody knew who he was, and by the time a professor took Dax back to school, he couldn’t bear to check and see the report. So he wouldn’t read that they didn’t know who his brother was until after he had graduated and could take it no longer. Their mother didn’t contact him. She didn’t receive the Prophet, after all. And Finn hadn’t had his wand by the time he made it out of the store, if that would have even helped. Dax doesn’t know.

So he slowly gave up on people reaching out, on their mother helping. And he did not return home to Norway that summer. He never returned, actually. She had betrayed them, in his mind, and there were bigger things. Like the fact that he had an alias for the so-called friend that had betrayed Finn. It wasn’t enough to go on yet, but once he graduated he would have magic and skill and a well-brewed desperation for revenge.

Thus, he took an incredibly obsessive interest in his education, as well as in Quidditch. He wanted to have knowledge and strength and to never feel as weak as he had that night as a young boy. The problem, really, was that he never became particularly skilled in any one area. He did take an interest in learning to be something of a sneak – pickpocketing, wandering the castle at night without getting caught. Anything to prevent what had happened to Finn happening to him next time.

It wasn’t until his sixth year or so that he realized consciously exactly what his intentions were. He wasn’t learning to be a thief just for protection. No. He was going to ruin the man that broke his brother. That broke him. The man would pay, and Dax just needed a way in. So he dropped studying Divination and the other things he simply would never become good at. The irony, of course, was this: Dax was a seer. But he could only really accomplish anything when touching the person in question. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so traumatized, he would have been learning from people like Millie Finnigan, who had the same abilities. As it were, he had never connected the dots from his early years.

Instead, he worked on Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Potions specifically, though he obviously took the other NEWT level courses to be thorough. He was nothing if not thorough. Sixth year, he also properly got to know a Ravenclaw named Natasha, who had little interest in either of the boys at first, but who found Dax’s personality shift interesting, and respected his need for personal space. While they aren’t exactly friends, just as he and Cassian became only almost-friends after Dax became so quiet and dedicated to his future, Dax knows he could go to her for help if he really had to.

In his seventh year, he stopped playing Quidditch with the house team, instead taking bets with other students that he could beat them in a two-on-two, even letting them pick their own second. Of course, after he won a few too many times (though not without a few losses mixed in), another student decided they were going to win, come hell or high water. A hex later, and Dax had scars covering his torso and arms from the cuts. They could have been easily healed, but he refused to let them. Ironically, they’re a mark of pride. If someone was that against letting him win, surely that meant he was a threat, which is exactly what he wants to be.

   After Hogwarts:
It’s been seven years, almost to the day, since Finn died. And Dax is starting to pull together the people he needs. First, of course, he had to find some semblance of a job, if only to avoid what had happened previously. He decided to stick with the job he had taken in the previous summers, working in Diagon Alley at Quality Quidditch Supplies. That, of course, is where he met Apollo, whom he thinks may eventually prove useful. If the boy can think of anything besides his relationship issues, that is. Dax is currently seeking other options. But it’s money, and a backup plan. So he’s fine with it at the moment.

All he really wants, now, is revenge in the form of money, or death. Maybe both. That just depends on who he can get to help him out.
   

   What should we call you: Addie

   RP Experience: Oh, a fair bit, by now.

   How you found us: A google search, I’m pretty sure.

   Main Character (we'll PM you on this account): Whoever. Probably Kegs or Apollo, right now.
   

Personal Information

Gender: Male

Social Status: He’s what you might call “the dregs” of society. [Ten points to whoever gets this reference.]

Economic Status: He’s been down on his luck for quite a while, but things are looking up. Lower-Middle is the best way to put it.

Other People

Biological Mother: Hanna Vollan, Muggle. Living in Norway.

Biological Father: Marius Vollan, Wizard, Deceased. Seer, though a weak one.

Siblings: Finn, six years older. Deceased at age 18.

Important “Friends”: (NPCs, though not particularly present) Cassian, Natasha

Does your character look up to anyone? Not anymore.

Does your character particularly dislike anyone? Oh, yes. Ohhhhh, yes.