alphaophiuchi | ooc • city of sin application

PLAYER

CHARACTER

↠ Reference/History:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_Malfoy
the Harry Potter Wikia: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Draco_Malfoy
the Pottermore Wikia: http://pottermore.wikia.com/wiki/Draco_Malfoy

Past Game History:
Draco will be arriving from Bete Noire after roughly two and a half years of time there, the details of which can be found at http://alphaophiuchi.dreamwidth.org/1544.html.

Though he had just celebrated his 18th birthday back home, right in the middle of a series of rather daunting war trials following the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco arrived in the city of Bete Noire on May 27, 2011. As such, he celebrated another birthday almost immediately that has set out to confuse him as to precisely how old he theoretically is (though he counts both of them, making him 19 roughly a week after turning 18). He arrived to a minor mugging, leaving him rattled and impartial to his new surroundings, but tried to make the most of it by finding a place to settle and meeting people. To say that he fell into a bottle is a bit of an understatement, as not knowing anyone around him set him into a bit of a tailspin. However, he did manage to meet a handful of people quickly enough, including two who would have an impact on his development over their own time in the city: De Winchester and Zero. Slowly, he began to fall into a steady rhythm of life away from home, finding and clinging to a few people from his own world including his late professor, Severus Snape. Within his first month of being there, he got work at the Hellsing Organisation as an apprentice-level Potions Master, utilising the resources found in Snape and a notebook that had been kept in regards to potions ingredients. This job would continue through until sometime during his second year in the city, when he finally moved on.

Slowly, he began to open up a bit more to the idea of living life away from the preexisting notions that came with his world; Draco's name wasn't known to those in Bete Noire, and held no meaning. He began to realise slowly that this could be to his advantage. He simultaneously began to explore the idea of perhaps seeking out a career in something academic, though in losing time to the war, he hadn't had the opportunity to think on it previously. Snape brought it to his attention that perhaps a career in potion making wasn't necessarily the best option. However, he kept up the job at Hellsing, finding that he didn't mind his colleagues as much as he could have. Particularly Zero, whom he eventually ends up in a relationship with.

Within the city, he went through a handful of random things as well - the result of the city's own influence and magic, typically speaking. On one such occasion, he woke up in someone else's body with no recollection of who he was or how he got there. It eventually gets reversed. It was one of the longer lasting problems; another such instance was when magic went awry at a Halloween party.

Life continued to go on, and Draco continued to settle more and more into things there away from Wiltshire, England. Though he still held his reservations about things, he was finding himself content in how things were going, even when a number of people began to search a mysterious island found outside the city, and were affected by a handful of seemingly random magics. It simply awakened in him a bit of a fatherly quality that would be otherwise stifled. And though it took quite a lot of time, Draco found himself gradually opening up and telling people about the sort of thing that he had been through back home; it was still rare to find him offering the information, but he got less apprehensive about it as time went on and he became more certain that there was nothing from his old life that would chase him down.

He made more and more of a life for himself: a nice flat, a monogamous relationship, a cat, and a job. Things continued to go well until a minor encounter with a mugger forced Draco to utilise one of the Unforgivable Curses that he had previously refused to use; the city was getting to him in small ways, testing his limits and pushing him. After some time spent on self-reflection, he determined that he would like to be a Healer upon his return back home. It was the high point of that time in his life, as things gradually began to go on their usual rollercoaster way - what goes up must always come back down, and life in the City of Sin is no different. Zero disappeared, and Draco was thrown back into previous loneliness, suddenly reminded that anything he does there can always be undone in a snap. He began to retreat back into his shell, bottling emotions back up and tipping back into a bottle in the same way he had originally, now knowing that any friends he made there could come and go as the city saw fit, jerking around his emotions in a way he didn't approve of.

In addition, he found himself the victim of not only a rather personal attack - the first of many - and the temporary loss of his magic. The events all saw fit to shut him away, making him unwilling to share or go to anyone around him for help despite reminders that he was not alone. His first year in Bete Noire comes to a close on a higher note, with De having returned and things seemingly evening out for a time. Naturally, it was not to last. Though he continued to chat with people, both in person and via the network, most of the connections made were not to last. He did bond with David Posner over poetry - one connection that eventually did blossom into a very good friendship (and more, if only for a brief moment or two) - and made memories with quite a few people at varying events. It was perhaps simply because he had gone out of his way to charm people into liking him, and see the good lurking deep within him, that he managed to get through his next set of challenges somewhat unscathed.

When a man named Flagg left Bete Noire, his spirit happened to lodge a piece of itself in Draco's brain, complete with a small killswitch of a sort. This killswitch was triggered when Draco's anxiety was sent sky-high by a raging bonfire, and he tried to Obliviate himself; it failed, changing something drastically within him. Instead of being a relatively passive person, he was sent into a violent spiral, believing everything that he was told as a child - that Muggles and Muggleborns are lesser human beings, meant to be treated as dirt. He began to torture those he called friends, though few believed that it was really him. Only once Toshiko Sato, a turned werewolf and one of Draco's close friends and colleagues, changed into her wolf-form and tore Draco's throat out after a particularly nasty bout of torture, did he snap back to himself. He bore the scars since then, ugly marks all around his throat that would eventually fade at least somewhat.

Following that series of events, he turned himself in, allowing it to get marked down on his permanent record with the Bete Noire Police Department. However, as he had been providing Wolfsbane to another turned werewolf, Sheriff Raylan Givens, he was given a bit of a reprieve. Not so from one of the other higher-ups, Erik Lehnsherr, who took care to put the fear of God into him, along with making sure that he was well aware of the sort of damage that could be done to him by one Rip van Winkle. Gradually, Draco got back into the swing of how things once were, making amends to those he had hurt, and trying to rebuild bridges that had been burnt. Becoming more and more aware that he needed outside help with some of his problems - namely the things in his past, along with the fact that he had died and come back to life - he began to seek out methods of how to build a small support group in the city. Though it never panned out, it brought him closer to others in need of the same thing. At the same time, his community service - the sentence given to him for the willing torture and intention to kill of some individuals within the city - was 200 hours at the local hospital; it only cemented Draco's desire to help and heal people as best he could.

Things were to get worse before they got better, however, and Tom Riddle ended up in the city. Draco, unaware of who the man was to be in the future, began to chat with him, opening up as he might to a fellow Slytherin. His friendship with Hermione Granger was at an all-time high, despite everything between them in the past, including some torture during his bout of insanity, and she took it upon herself to educate and warn him as to what he was getting into. Meanwhile, Draco also met one of the other people who would later become an on-again, off-again friend to him, Julian Reed. Riddle began to do what Riddle does best, and kidnapped and tortured Draco for information; he kept it to himself, fearful of what would happen if he went for help, and began to degrade back into a bottled-up state of paranoia and anxiety. It did, however, bring him closer to Hermione and Harry Potter, who had arrived sometime earlier, forcing him to move into their home in the name of keeping him safe. He learned more and more about the other, unknown side of the war through Harry, though it could hardly be called bonding.

Draco eventually went to his death at Riddle's hand, realising that any cowardice on his part would mean the death of numerous innocents. It was one of the rare brave moments in his life, never to be repeated. Though Harry managed to defeat Riddle once, it wasn't for long. In returning to life for a second time, Draco found himself clinging to anything that made him feel alive and detached from the entire matter - Julian came into play here, providing ample distraction in the form of a strange, unspoken arrangement that went rather misunderstood for too long. Whatever they had came to an unfortunate end when his best friend from home, Theodore Nott, showed up in the city, and Draco, not realising that he was on a date with Julian, went to find him that very same night.

Another year passed in Bete Noire, meaning Draco had been there roughly a year and a half; under the influence of a New Year's resolution of be happy for once in his life, Draco ended up having more laughs than he had during the rest of his time there. Things between Draco, Theo, and Julian only seem to get worse, the rift between Draco and Julian slowly growing more and more over simple misunderstandings and jealousy. At some point, Draco realised that his own mother was there in the city as well, but made an attempt to keep his distance in the name of letting her live her own life; it was a decision that he would regret more and more as things went on.

Though things with Riddle had been at a standstill, there was still plenty of heartache to go around. Draco found himself witness to both Julian's suicide and Hermione's depression, and unable to do much of anything about either event. It became more and more obvious to him that he hated not being able to do anything for people who were supposedly his friends. However, he also found that friendship was a two-way street, and his friends felt similarly about him: he therefore let Julian give him a tattoo - a Celtic knot, for Theo - and had one of the best conversations he ever had with Rip. More and more, he was finding that his life in Bete Noire was preferable to his life back in England, even with the constant disappearances of those he found himself caring about.

Things came to an all-time high at a Valentine's Day party, only to come crashing back down when Theo was kidnapped by a returned Riddle, and kept under lock and key for the better part of a month. During that time, Draco found himself more and more anxious, desperate to find any way to help people out as long as it meant not dealing with his own emotions; finally, he managed to find and kill Riddle with the help of Harry, and rescue his best friend from the torture he'd been suffering. It was a trying time for them both, but Draco managed to slowly recover, making attempts at not only mending Theo's broken mind, but also some of his other, suffering relationships.

Draco continued his tendency to try and help people even if he didn't know them: he assisted Montgomery Scott with a sudden bout of lycanthropy, and later, Charles Xavier with telepathic problems following a rather brutal attack by a number of anti-mutant activists. It was one of the first times when Erik would treat Draco with something akin to respect since their first conversation, but not the last, as he was invited for a job over at the BNPD soon thereafter. Relationships, romantic and platonic continued to fizzle out for Draco, as was the case with Aramis and Narcissa Black, while some would somehow find themselves mended, as with Julian; others continued to bloom, as was the case with Charles, who was a newfound colleague at the BNPD and fellow Englishman, and Theo, who took it upon himself to officially ask Draco out, thus marking the third real relationship he'd ever had in his life.

Again, Draco's inability to sit back and watch people get hurt reared up, bringing him yet another person who would later become a dear friend: Chryssa Katsaros. Though it wouldn't be until a few months later, they became fast friends, if even on a superficial level. At the same time, the BNPD began investigations into a serial killer. Things continued to go relatively well, in that there was no real problems to be seen. Life was easy, and Draco was growing more and more open again to welcoming people into his life, even despite the disappearances; he was beginning to realise that it was better to treasure those he still had rather than regret and lament all those he had lost. However, things go briefly downhill again when David commits suicide; it reminded Draco that he understood why, and sent him not back into the same anxiety issues of before, but into fresh thoughts of mild depression. Soon after, it was Draco's third official birthday in the city, where Theo threw him a massive party; it was almost as though it made up for everything else that had gone on during his time there, further solidifying Draco's ongoing thoughts that maybe England wasn't where he was meant to live out the rest of his life. That very thought also prompted him to put together a spur-of-the-moment proposal to Theo.

Once again, the highs in his life were met by the ultimate lows: Draco and Charles were on an investigation of the serial killer when both were kidnapped, and Draco was forced to complete a ritual. He was then mutilated in front of Charles, but nearly escaped death due to his friend's quick thinking; however, it was a point of major guilt between them. Draco spent a week in a coma due to shock, eventually waking up and making an attempt to return to life as normal as best he could in a wheelchair. It was during this time that a number of memories were being thrown about the city haphazardly, causing certain relationships to see the light, while others grew rockier than ever. He decided at lost last to seek out semi-professional help for his copious quantities of mental and emotional problems, going to Chryssa for a weekly therapy session. For once, it seemed to help, allowing him to open up in a way that he rarely did with anyone. As a result, they grew closer than before. Again, it wasn't to last, as things began to even off yet again, only to be shattered by a second attack by the anti-mutant activists on Charles, and Draco realised that he had perhaps gotten himself in a bit too deep as it hit him hard. The following month or so was rather rough there, with an understandable rollercoaster of emotions that finally resulted in things evening out a bit more.

Day to day life continued on for Draco after that point, with him getting much more involved in police work by way of performing a part in a sting against a major drug kingpin of the city, resulting in the police department eventually taking her down successfully. But things do begin to ease back into their usual set of unfortunate events and accompanying disappointment when Draco admits his engagement to Narcissa, and he and Theo are wracked by Charles’ disappearance. This disappearance is the first of a short rash that buried beneath his skin, once again serving to remind Draco that things were far from permanent in the city, and perhaps that he needed to take advantage of his happinesses where he could, while they lasted.

↠ Personality:

Draco has been brought up from a very young age to believe that he is triply gifted, in that not only is he a pureblooded wizard, he is a Malfoy. It is exactly this mindset that drives him to be the person that he is throughout his life. He spends the vast majority of his time acting like an entitled, superior individual, and generally treating those he believes to be beneath him for whatever reason - impure blood, an unfortunate family tree, et cetera - like the rubbish that he has been raised to believe they are. At some point, likely sometime during his sixth year, Draco seems to change his mind at least somewhat as to what he believes in. No longer does he believe in the same things as his parents to the same extent; time being fully immersed within the situation - being a Death Eater, having to do things he had only thought of in the theoretical, rather than the practical - opened his eyes to it all, allowing him to form his own opinions of what Voldemort stood for and the related topics, all things that had been prominent stars in his life since he was young. Even with the minor changes in mindset as he grew up, the core of whom Draco is as a person - an elitist albeit somewhat misguided bully - remains true.

Most of his bullying towards fellow students - and even some teachers - can be superficially traced back to his belief that he's better than everyone else. On a psychological level, however, it lends itself to suggesting that there's something more driving this: he knows that some people are better than him, but refuses to believe it on the grounds that he's a Malfoy, and he ought to be better than them. As Draco also tends to compartmentalise his emotions, thusly separating himself easily from most things around him - a talent that tends to be tried during the duration of the war, when he's faced time and again with torture and murder - it's easy for him to separate himself from how any of those he puts down might feel; it's easy to assume that his own emotions also need some kind of release, and that they find it through his bullying. To him, pushing others down so that he might take his rightful place high above them is his way of refusing to acknowledge that he might be just as human as the rest of them, with just as many flaws. He prefers to believe that he and his life are perfect, rather than dotted with the many problems that it is; to put it bluntly, he's jealous of what others have - or at least what he perceives them to have - over him. Often, it will be obvious what exactly he's jealous of: it will be that that he focuses in on for the brunt of his verbal attack, as if lessening what someone else has will make it mean less in actuality.

Slytherins are known for their loyalty, but only to a select few, and Draco epitomises that: his family takes precedence over anyone else, with his mother as the absolute highest priority. It's easy to see that he has a lot of pride in where he comes from, both in terms of House and ancestry - he's been toting both as the be-all, end-all since he was small. Even when it becomes apparent that perhaps his father's decisions may not have been the best, Draco still stands by him until the end; however, the fact that he's been practically forced into becoming a Death Eater to take his father's place does take its toll on their relationship, putting a certain strain on things that makes Draco's focus on his mother that much more obvious. But all things considered, it's obvious from the get-go that the only drive he has behind anything he's done in this, his sixth year at Hogwarts, is to keep his family safe and proud of him. No matter what, he wants to live up to his father's expectations of him, rather than hazarding disappointment. Another way this manifests itself is through his mission in his sixth year of school, during which he is reduced from the smug little boy who thought himself better than everyone else to nothing more than a pawn, expected to carry out his tasks with robotic precision. It takes its toll on his body and psyche alike, but he pushes through, because if he doesn't, it will be his family to suffer for it.

Though he's generally known as a coward for a wide variety of completely true reasons, Draco's family is one of the few things to make him truly courageous. In that sense, it's only his loyalty that makes him put aside the flight aspect he so cherishes. It's simultaneously fleeting, as he finds the upkeep on aforementioned courage more work than its worth; he breaks down in his sixth year over things getting too difficult for him, and that emotion sticks with him through the remainder of the Second Wizarding War. However, assuming that his family is what drives him to be courageous, they have the simultaneous effect of rendering him more cowardly: more often than not, he would rather do anything other than go against his parents or their ideals. He's terrified of disappointing his family, as proven throughout the sixth and seventh books, when he had opportunities, however minor, to speak up and speak his mind, but didn't; as long as his parents are around, his immediate loyalties are to them, and what they believe in. Though most of the time his cowardice has little to no reason behind it save that he doesn't truly like conflict, or putting himself in harm's way, it does manifest from time to time - once in a blue moon - in a display of enlightened self-interest: where he truly does know what he's doing, but knows his own limits at the same time. At the same time, both pride and his Slytherin tendency to choose flight over fight override certain instances of this. In the case of danger, he will feel a sort of morbid curiosity that often gets overridden until he's at an appropriately safe distance from the aforementioned danger; until that moment, his fear of virtually everything takes over and puts him effectively into a panic that can rarely be sated easily. He's easily frightened, often reacting at moments of fear or frustration by lashing out angrily.

Draco doesn't tend to trust people, nearly as a rule. Perhaps when he was younger, he was more open about trusting, largely when it came to those in his House, but as he grew older, there is no doubt that he grew more withdrawn. He puts on facades most of the time, according to what he believes people to want to see in him, or what he wants people to think of him: he might be the most charming young man in the world at first glance, but the truth of the matter is that he is more likely to act this way if he believes a person to be able to do him a favour in the future. In simple terms, if he thinks you can do something for him, he's considerably nicer than if he knows you can't. In a way, he tends to see having proper friends as a bit of a weakness - a thought passed down from his father; however, he does have a small handful of those he trusts implicitly. He prefers to take allies, people with skills he recognises that he doesn't have, or henchmen who can do his dirty work for him. He fears being made expendable, and projects that fear onto those he interacts with; it severely colours the way he treats people, particularly in the case of Crabbe and Goyle, his well-known lackeys. It's possible that Draco either doesn't believe that anyone else is capable or worth of being his equal - or few people, at the very least, as he does consider a unique handful of that level - and that's what drives him to treat others warily, keeping them at arm's length. It's also obvious that he has an incredible inability to ask people for help, though whether that's a matter of distrust or simple pride getting in the way is a toss-up: it's likely both. Considering he spends most of his time using people for his own various purposes, it should come as no surprise that that's exactly what he believes others will do to him. He doesn't like owing people, which is precisely what he thinks will happen if he asks for help. Also tied into it is his tendency to believe that he needs to appear rather better than everyone else: rather than letting himself appear as human to people, he would rather bottle his emotions inside and keep them all at arm's length, thusly creating an almost godlike persona. Completely by his own choice, Draco strives to be absolutely unapproachable, and generally surrounds himself with bulky henchmen types in order to better achieve that end.

Despite his obvious lack of intelligence when it comes to trusting people, especially those that he should have no problem trusting, Draco is actually a very intelligent young man. He is referred to as the top of his class, excepting Hermione Granger, which suggests that he's at least academically brilliant, if even in those classes that he chose to take after being given the option in fifth year; it also suggests that he at least made the effort in those classes he despised, for the sake of his pride and his determination to be the best. His family has always pushed him that direction, and his Slytherin ambition agrees wholeheartedly. Also a key part of his intelligence is his tendency to be curious about things: if he feels like he's missing out on something he perceives as good, he will thrust himself into the middle of it, regardless of what other people around him think. He very much gets off on being in the spotlight, and he's very good at drawing everyone's eyes to him; he knows exactly how to work people so that they feel for him, and sympathise. His intelligence plays heavily into his manipulative streak, simply enabling him further. He's also remarkably clever, which he never fails to show off; in Draco's world, his intelligence and cleverness are both things that he ought to flaunt just as much as his pureblooded status. It is, after all, his cleverness that leads him to generally know exactly what buttons to push with people, and how to annoy them most without actually getting himself killed.

As the only son of two pureblooded parents, Draco has been taught to strive for the same greatness that his family has achieved in all aspects of their lives: the Malfoys are one of the better known wizarding families, known to have been pure for as long as anyone can remember (or at least, as long as is recorded publicly), and their name alone holds plenty of clout. Throughout his youth, he uses this to his advantage, dropping his father's name at every opportunity he possibly can in hopes that it will benefit him, and as he gets older, Draco wants nothing more than to keep this reputation up. He sees the more widely-beneficial qualities of having a positive reputation, and realises that it most certainly does open doors. Besides that, the last thing he wants is to disappoint his parents. He knows perfectly well that he has the capabilities of excelling at anything he puts his mind to, and if doing it by skill isn't the most expedient method, then cheating or putting others down to get himself up to the top is a completely viable route, as far as he's concerned. He doesn't bat so much as an eyelash at the idea of buying his way onto a team, or using others as stepping stones to get what he wants.

Even with all his ambition, though, Draco is still not much of a proper leader. Despite being able to boss around his lackeys, and command enough presence to be well-known and well-feared, he simply does not have the drive to be able to take point in any major situation. Instead, he does what's expected of him, stepping into positions of power not because he wants to, but because he has to; for example, when he steps into his role as Death Eater after his father's incarceration, and very quickly realises that it's best to keep his mouth shut, and just follow along.

↠ Powers / Abilities:

Draco is a wizard of exceptional skill. Though he still requires a wand for the vast majority of his magic, he is a very quick study, and was one of the top in his class during his time at school. He is a known Occlumens, as taught by his aunt Bellatrix, and is generally quite proficient at Potions and Charms. Though most of his knowledge of magic is theoretical, his ability to pick things up quickly has lent itself well to picking up non-verbal spells and other charmwork on a more difficult scale. He tends to shy away from conflict as best he can, thereby limiting his own development in some regards, but is more than curious enough to spend some time testing out better ways to do things, particularly in regards to Potions. Like his father, his talents have a tendency to lean towards the Dark Arts; he is a known user of the three Unforgivable Curses, though only when it's absolutely necessary, as evidenced by his poor reaction to the torture being performed in Malfoy Manor during the Second Wizarding War. As a Death Eater and person of questionably grey morals, it is unknown if he is capable of producing a Patronus; he simply hasn't tried.

Further non-magical talents also include manipulation and persuasion, both of which Draco is quite happy to utilise with most people; he likes being able to influence people with a smile and a well-placed compliment. He also has very good reflexes from years of practicing Quidditch and flying upon broomstick, though the skill lends itself across the board.

↠ Reason for Playing This Character:
Draco was one of the first characters I ever really connected with, and the first canon character I ever picked up; I've been playing him for roughly five years or so now, and I always manage to learn new things about how he reacts to things, or why he acts the way he does in situations. I think that he's a fascinating, deep character, and thoroughly enjoy exploring every facet of his personality. Even more than that, I love being able to push him to his limits to see how he grows in different settings, around different characters. This comes into play particularly in City of Sin, where he can truly be pushed to his limits, not only because he’s been away from home for three years now, but also because of whatever the City chooses to throw at him.

↠ What is Your Character's Sin?:
Pride. Since a young age, Draco has always been extremely prideful, to the point that he legitimately believed himself triply blessed: he was a pureblood, he was a wizard (with good abilities), and he was a Malfoy. Even more than that, he's the son of a Black. Even after he eventually grew out of most of the negatives of having grown up with this upbringing, he was unable to shake the pride he took from being exactly who he was: his most important things are still his family and their reputation, and he constantly keeps that in mind. Pride is, by far, his biggest sin.

SAMPLES
↠ First Person:
[ the network opens up on a rather unhappy looking young man, one who looks right at home glaring at everyone around him. That’s not entirely inaccurate, though he does slightly resent the insinuation. However, right that moment, he is very much at home glaring out at everyone. Because, like everyone, he wants answers, and he’s not getting them. ]

Who exactly is in charge here? And for that matter, why am I being dragged into another of these messes? Haven’t I had enough by now? Two years or so?

[ a scoff, and he rolls his eyes. Hard. Hard enough, in fact, for them to practically roll right out of his head. ]

This is exhausting. Absolutely exhausting.

↠ Third Person:
There was something very fulfilling about being made Prefect. Very fulfilling indeed. It was as though all of his hard work up until that point was completely rewarded, at least in a little way. It would do for now, up until such a time came as he could be up for Head Boy (because everyone knew that he would probably make it. Surely they realised they didn’t stand a chance). It was just a simple little badge, but it represented so much to Draco: it was confirmation that his grades were good, that his attitude was good (enough to warrant reward from Snape, at least), that he was doing well and deserved to be one of those who could be approached by fellow schoolmates if something came up. It was perfect in every single way.

It would be, perhaps, a little bit short-lived, but that didn’t change the fact that he knew that he was good enough, at least academically speaking.