Benjy Fenwick (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} thefenwick) wrote,@ 2008-02-05 18:26:00 |
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Your Person
NAME: Erin
AGE: 21
OOC EMAIL: lluxx19@hotmail.com
AIM/ANY OTHER CONTACT: ErinTheEvil on AIM
TIMEZONE: Atlantic (not Eastern, Atlantic)
RP EXPERIENCE: http://cleverboot.livejournal.com/681.h
READ THE RULES/FAQ?: Yes. I didn't see any secret code to indicate that I'm telling the truth, though. Was there one?
WHERE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS GAME?: From Jule. Because she loves me.
Your Character
USERNAME:
thefenwickFULL NAME: Benjamin Gareth Fenwick
Other Names: Benjy. Always Benjy. He doesn't answer to Benjamin from anyone except his parents. Occasionally gets called Fenny.
AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: Born June 3, 1961--Died December 12, 1980 at age 19. Has returned to life as a 16 year old.
FORMER HOUSE: Hufflepuff, 1972-1979
GENDER: Male
SEXUAL PREFERENCE: Heterosexual, though he's very open-minded about the preferences of people around him.
BLOODLINE: Half-blood. His father was a muggle, his mother was also a half-blood.
WAND: Ebony and dragon heartstring, 13 inches.
BOGGART: Giant feet. Benjy hates, hates, HATES other people's feet.
PATRONUS: Squirrel
LIKES: Chocolate, vegetables, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, being around people, talking.
DISLIKES: Blood prejudice, most meat, blood, the quiet, enclosed spaces, boring/quiet people, feet.
Noteworthy: Was Co-Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones team during his fifth, sixth and seventh years.
FAMILY:
Mother - Iris Fenwick (1942-1982): A half-blood witch from a lower-class, loving, though unconventional, family)
Father - Marshall Holbrook (1934-present/2008+): A muggle business man--former business man--who has loved, though never married, Iris from the time she was 18 until she died)
History: Iris Fenwick had only been finished school for a couple of months when she went into a muggle bar to use the ladies' room and met Marshall Holbrook. She was an unemployed 18 year old witch from a family of starving artists. He was a 26 year old muggle who worked as a personal assistant to the president of an international insurance agency. But for some strange reason, the two immediately hit it off. They began dating soon after and less than two months later, Iris found out she was pregnant. When she told Marshall, she also told him about the wizarding world, the world she knew their child would likely grow up in. Marshall was in shock for a few days, but then he contacted Iris to say that he adored her, no matter what, and that he felt that, since they were going to have a child, that they should get married. Iris was resistant to the idea of marriage, but consented to meet Marshall's parents. The Holbrooks were rich, high-class people and they disapproved of Iris on sight. While they did not come out and directly tell their son not to marry her, it was heavily implied. Since Iris was in agreement with them on the matter, Marshall decided not to press it, but he had no intentions of sending Iris off to get rid of the baby and then marrying someone 'suitable'. By this time, he was quite in love with her, and would remain so the rest of his life.
Benjamin Gareth Fenwick was born June 3rd, 1961, in Galway, Ireland. He didn't stay there for very long, though. His mother had been content, while pregnant, to travel around, staying with assorted friends and extended family, as opposed to finding a place of her own or giving in to Marshall's suggestions of coming to live with him. She would stay with Marshall in Galway for a few days at a time every few weeks or so, and made a point of being with him when Benjy was born, but she was not happy to remain in one place. She had taught herself to play the guitar and figured out ways to perform magic without making it appear as anything aside from muggle slight of hand and often used her skills as a street performer for a bit of money, and Marshall insisted that she accept the occasional gift of compensation from him (if not for herself then at least for Benjy). Iris was not a person who valued material possessions and as she travelled around, mostly walking and hitchhiking, and never staying in one place for longer than a few days, her young son grew to reflect her views.
When Benjy was about five or six years old, the hippie movement officially arrived in Europe and, though his mother had lived the way she did for years, suddenly there were many more people like her, both wizard and muggle. Where the two had lived with friends, family, or in tents before, now there were camps and communes for them to stay at, as well. He was introduced to things like The Beatles, a group he would love unfailingly until his death. His mother made a small effort to shield him from some of the more "mature" aspects of their lifestyle, most likely due to his father's occasional influence, but by the time his Hogwarts letter arrived (at Marshall's home in Galway), Benjy was well aware of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, though he only partook of the rock'n'roll aspect of it during that time of his life.
Marshall was still an important factor in Benjy's life, though he only saw him for a few days every month and his parents were still unmarried. Marshall had always held out hopes that Benjy would someday go to Eton, his alma mater, even though Iris had told him during her pregnancy that their child would most likely attend Hogwarts. He was disappointed when Benjy's letter arrived, confirmation of yet another thing, in addition to distance and upbringing and values, that separated father and son. Nonetheless, he got Iris to agree to have Benjy stay with him in Galway for a month before school started that year, in order to try and acclimate his son to staying in one place and to attempt to give him advice about how a formal school environment would function. Pleased to be spending time with his father, Benjy tried to follow his instruction, though he simply could not grasp ideas like a formal bedtime.
Benjy wasn't uncomfortable during the trip from Platform 9 3/4, though it wasn't often that he was around so many people his own age all at once. He was actually quite excited. Raised to be accepting of different people and ideas, Benjy was very friendly to everybody he met and was extremely curious and talkative. Upon arrival, he was Sorted in Hufflepuff, which he was quite happy with. Within a week, though, he started feeling trapped in the school and made attempts to keep himself pre-occupied by getting to know new people, any new people who would listen to him for a minute at a time. His feeling of entrapment eventually passed, though he was always slightly more relieved than most when a school holiday finally arrived, but his habit of talking incessantly when he was nervous or worried remained.
Benjy worked hard at school, though his work was never brilliant. He was better at hands-on subjects like Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures, or even Potions, than he was at classes requiring complicated equations and processes or memorization, such as Arithmancy, History of Magic or Transfiguration. Writing up Divination star charts was incredibly annoying for Benjy, who had signed up for the subject mistakenly thinking it would be a breeze, and he would forever regret not taking Muggle Studies instead.
Benjy was a big believer in doing activities that were fun and sociable, as he enjoyed being around people, but not running the risk of getting seriously injured for the sake of a game. He never wanted to join his House Quidditch team, though he enjoyed watching games unless someone got hurt. He was always a fan of the Chudley Cannons, who, he reasoned, must play for the sheer enjoyment of the game since they obviously weren't playing to win. He was a member of the Gobstones team from his first year onward and was co-captain during his fifth, sixth and seventh years. He never put academics above doing things with friends, even when, perhaps, he should have. His marks were always average, but he was definitely one of the more popular students at the school. His "bizarre" upbringing was unusual and marked him as exotic to many who found that sort of thing interesting.
Benjy had never suffered any real tragedy in his life and, aside from Slytherins and people who resented his carefree and all-accepting view of the world (people he mostly remained polite to before promptly ignoring), he found that he could get along with almost anyone he spoke to, though many found his chipper enthusiasm exhausting. When Voldemort came around, though, Benjy was disturbed. Voldemort stood for everything he had been raised to oppose. Rules, prejudice, war, "The Man". Anyone who would tell Benjy that he was worth less than some rude unfriendly Slytherin brat was someone that Benjy couldn't support. As soon as he left school, Benjy approached Dumbledore, asking if there was anything at all that he could do to help and he was inducted into the Order of the Phoenix.
His drifter status served him well for a while. His upbringing had him reluctant to go into most work fields and so he was available for many long distance or long term assignments that Dumbledore had in mind that some of the others, who had committments, might not have been able to do. He was used to frequent travelling and roughing it, sleeping outdoors during all seasons and things like that. When he was home, though, he always made a point of visiting his mother and his father, cheerfully trying to convince his mother that she should settle down and finally marry Marshall, though he knew she never would.
Finally, though, one time when he was home from assignment, the Order received intelligence that Death Eaters were holding a number of muggles and torturing them for goverment information. However, at the same time that this information was received, the Ministry was performing a surprise raid that was keeping many of the Aurors who were members of the Order busy. Benjy was sent to free the muggles, but it turned out to be a trap set by Death Eaters. He entered the building and had just enough time to realize that it was a set up and swear before the entire place was blown up. Only pieces of him were ever found. However, the incident was what caused the suspicions of there being a spy in the Order to be confirmed in the mind of Dumbledore and many of the others.
Personality: Benjy is very similar in personality and temperment to his patronus, the squirrel. He is almost annoyingly happy and talks a lot, is not at all shy or modest about anything, he can't always take a hint, and he is also likely to try and steal your food or candy during the blink of an eye that you look away from your plate. He'll talk to anybody about anything. He bores easily. It's hard to get Benjy angry or upset in any way, though prejudiced people have a better chance of it than anyone else.
APPEARANCE: Benjy's about average height and quite slim. He doesn't like to eat meat if there's anything else around instead, and though he loves his vegetables and candy, has never been able to put on much weight. Not being much of a sporty type, he doesn't spend a lot of time outdoors while he's at school, and so he tends to get rather pale, until he returns to his mother during the summer. When he's with his mom, the two of them are normally walking or hitchhiking, so he usually gets sunburnt and then acquires a tan that lasts him through the fall. His summer activities also ensure that he is in fairly good shape, physically. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, like both of his parents. While he is with his mother, Benjy is prone to letting his hair get longer, but when he is in school, he finds that it gets in his eyes if he doesn't cut it, so normally his hair is fairly short.
EXPLANATION OF HAPPIEST MOMENT IN THEIR LIFE: The summer that Benjy turned 16. He finished school that year, OWLs completed and fairly happy with the results. He returned to his mother, prepared for another two months of hitchhiking between communes before returning to Hogwarts. However, at the beginning of that summer, his muggle father finally got fed up enough with his job to quit. He met up with Benjy and his mother and the family spent the whole summer together, driving around, sleeping in tents, and doing nothing in particular. Benjy's happiest moment is sitting in a circle with a dozen friends of the family around a bonfire, his parents on either side of him, while his father unsuccessfully attempted to teach him to play the guitar.
RPG SAMPLE:
Arithmancy was stupid, Benjy decided. What was the point of it? When was he ever going to use Arithmancy in real life? No normal person would ever need it to do anything a normal person did during their day. Why was it even a subject? Even better, why had he taken the stupid subject in the first place?
All of these questions and more were running through his head as he sat in the Hogwarts library, trying to figure out how to do his homework. He'd been there for about a half an hour, but had spent at least 20 of those 30 minutes staring blankly at the equations and twirling his quill skillfully around and between his fingers. He was hungry. How was he supposed to do any work when his stomach was growling at him like this, but supper was still two hours away?
Sighing, he put his chin in his hand and set his quill to the parchment in front of him. Idly, he scratched out the first two verses of Hey Jude, but he wrote each letter either backwards or upside down, alternately. So far as Benjy was concerned, his lyrics and his homework looked pretty much identical. He checked his watch again. An hour and 47 minutes left to supper. He sighed, pouted and scribbled out the chorus to the song, now replacing each letter with the number of its placement in the alphabet. There had to be something more interesting to do with himself. There just had to be. Even being blown up had to be more interesting than Artithmancy, he was quite certain of it.
JOURNAL SAMPLE:
This coming-back-from-the-dead business is very strange, don't you all think? I mean, I don't remember being dead or even dying, but they're telling me that, were I three years older than I am right now, I'd just be little bits of gross charred flesh in some crumbling blown up warehouse. It doesn't sound like it was a pleasant way to go, does it? Though I suppose it probably happened quite quickly, so I guess there's that to be thankful for. Being blown to smithereens shouldn't take very long, really. I wonder who had the unfortunate task of figuring out which bits were me and which bits were warehouse. I should like to thank them for what I'm certain was a horribly disgusting experience.
Hmm. It doesn't seem right to be hungry right after talking about one's exceedingly gruesome, fiery death, but I am. Anyone want to have lunch with me?
PLAY-BY: Vastly preferred is Lucas Grabeel: http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/vi
But John Bregar is another possibility: http://www.greatestjournal.com/communit