Broken Wands

OOC INFORMATION:

NAME & PRONOUNS: Gabe, she/her/hers!

AGE: 19

LANGUAGE: My first language is (Brazilian) Portuguese and sleepy grammar mistakes are a real struggle occasionally, but I’ve been writing in English for a really long time now.

EXPERIENCE: melancolialunxr is a little bit of an oldie because I went into hiatus for a long time here but, it still has some of my favorite pieces I’ve written in the hp verse, so it’s what I have to offer. I’ve been writing in tumblr rp groups for over five years now, but I have a habit of deleting my character accounts (because I’m lame and paranoid).

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Right now I’m on break and at my parents’ house, which means I can come online only at night when I’m left alone, but I’m usually lurking on my phone obsessively all day every day. School starts on February 20 for me, so while that means I’ll have papers and projects to do as classes pick up, I’ll also be back in the comfy loneliness of my apartment, so I’ll probably write more then.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO TELL US: Sometimes the millennial fetus in me comes out and I type like an asshole but I swear I mean well. And also, of course, if at any point there were any headcanons that don’t make sense or just don’t apply to this world, just hit me up and I’ll be glad to change them!

DESIRED CHANGES:

About the character? Some tweaks were made here and there regarding his past history, but your part of the bio was kept intact!

About the world-building? Nope!

About the game? Nope!

Alternative faceclaim? Okay, so honestly I was thinking of Reece King. I know there’s like a joke about him being in every fancast of every fandom ever, but I genuinely had forgotten about him until halfway writing this bio and everything sort of clicked so nicely for me when I put it together. I also know he doesn’t have that naïve boyish look, but if I’m correct he’s 22 currently, which isn’t that far from Remus’ age of 16/17, and in my defense he does look generally older in photo shoots and professional pictures, but he looks younger when he’s more natural. So I don’t know, I’ll let you be the judge of that, I know everyone has different views for different characters, I just think he’d be a really interesting addition to the part. But anyway! I also had in my list Dajé Barbour, who has less resources but still could make do. I also had picked up Jackson Hale’s name, but I wasn’t able to find any resources of icon or gifs of him, so that’s just upsetting. Let me know any thoughts? I’m always open for suggestions, too! [I think you’ll probably have the best luck with Reece King due to resources, and while he looks a little old for this Remus he also has a delightful face and a viable range of imagery -- and anyway, the books talk about Remus looking prematurely aged anyway, so why not? All joking aside though, he seems like he’ll make a fine fc and we’re happy to accept that change.]

CHARACTER BASICS:

NAME: Remus John Lupin, originally named at birth Remo João and changed eventually for convenience – a request from Lyall once they took the baby in. Hope always has and continues to call him Remo, as an attempt to maintain alive his origins. Currently, after the incident and ever since he’s been hiding from the Witch Hunters, if anyone dares ask he’ll introduce himself as John, just to play it safe. “Remus” isn’t exactly a common name, and he’s afraid if it falls on wrong ears, he might get taken back to them and punished for what he’s done.

BIRTHDATE/AGE: I believe he’d be 16/17? I’ll keep his birthdate as the canon one, March 10th.

BLOOD-STATUS: Muggleborn, werewolf.

GENDER & SEXUALITY: Remus hasn’t had a lot of time to think about affection. He grew up always feeling like the odd one out of the bunch, and while his parents taught him all love was equal, they also taught him to stay guarded and be cautious around other people. What he should or shouldn’t say, what he could or couldn’t show, his emotions were always very restrained. Lyall and Hope meant well, of course, it wasn’t an easy world out there for a werewolf who not even wixes understood, and it was only a matter of safety that he kept his walls up high. He is very much bisexual and cis-gender male, and while deep down he knows that, if anyone really cared enough to ask, they’d be met with a babbling, blushing mess of a boy who couldn’t quite put into words how he felt about people.

WAND/ETC: Hope let the boy keep his father’s wand once Lyall passed away, but Remus doesn’t know what to do with it. In fact, most of the time, he feels like the thing doesn’t even want to be with him at all. His mother was never able to teach him any magic, and so he carries the thing around like an amulet, tucked into his waistbands or shoved into his socks. The Hunters only wanted to use his wolf side as a weapon of mass destruction, as otherwise the slim, frail boy wouldn’t be of much use to them, so they never gave him any other weapons. Remus is not much of a fighter, and since he’s trying to go by unnoticed for the moment, he doesn’t see the need in carrying anything of the sort around.

APPEARANCE: Standing at 6’2” after a growth spurt that didn’t quite come with a manual, Remus still finds himself unable to fit into awkwardly long limbs ever since puberty hit him. He can often be seen running into doorframes with his shoulders or knocking things over with his pointy elbows. He’s slim in nature, his skin is dark, and he’s given up on taming his hair by now, it just does what it does. His eyes are a light hazel color, but you wouldn’t be able to tell, as they’re always either hidden by thick black sunglasses, or squinting in discomfort at the presence of light. Remus was raised wearing muggle clothing; he doesn’t think of style so much as simplicity and comfort, so his closet consists of many piles of almost identical gray sweaters, with the exception of one or two colorful T-shirts, and three of the same pair of jeans.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

FAMILY: Lyall Lupin (Father): Passed away when the Ministry fell, Remus only knew so much of his father before losing him. He was six, and although he didn’t quite understand death just then, he felt the pain of his mother, who would cry when she thought he wasn’t listening. Despite only having very few memories, Remus holds the image of his father very dear to his heart, knowing he owes his life to the man. Hope Lupin (Mother): Ever since the tragedy, Remus grew very close to Hope, as she was the last piece of family he could hold onto. They only had each other, and they got by precariously for a while before she had to reach out to the Witch Hunters and ask for their help. Now that he knows she could be in danger, he feels protective, and he wants to find a way to keep her as safe as she kept him all these years.

ASSOCIATES: I’d love to talk to the members about any potential association Remus might have with any existing characters, I’m open for plotting always! But right now, I think it’s important to mention the hoard of stray dogs that would constantly follow the werewolf around town, wherever he goes.

LIFESTYLE: Remus is currently hiding from the Hunters, as he’s positive no good things will come his way when they find out what he’s done, so his living situation is complicated, to put it lightly. He’s comfortable blending into the muggle world, as he was raised on it anyway, so he’ll spend most of his nights on different homeless shelters, sleeping on sleeping bags and eating canned soup. He’s not the friendliest and is hardly ever charming enough to talk his way into jobs, but people will sometimes spare him a few coins here and there, out of pity or charity (he suspects it’s actually only because people feel bad for the pack of dogs following him). However, with the full moon approaching, he’s started to grow more distant, to wander around looking for somewhere he might be able to isolate himself in peace and not bring any more harm to anyone.

PERSONALITY: RETICENT: from the moment his biological mother got pregnant to the moment the Lupins took him home, there had always been one very clear warning label clouding above his head or hanging from his neck: caution – werewolf. The muggle world was terrified of the beast, while the wixes from England didn’t quite understand his peculiarities either, due to his origins. Hope and Lyall only had the best intentions for their son in mind when they sheltered him, over-protected, taught him to be discreet. Remus was told stories of a horrible world out there, a world filled with people who would look at him with cold eyes, people who would spare him no thought, people who would flinch and cower away if he ever spoke of who and what he was. From a young age he’s learned to keep his emotions and thoughts well guarded. If he keeps them locked up inside of him, then no one can take it away, right? DISTRUSTFUL: a childhood of learning to be careful and an adolescence of learning he was only good for destruction. Lyall passed away and Hope’s only choice was to reach out to the Witch Hunters, exposing their most precious secret (his most precious secret), and what she got in return was exactly what she never wanted. The Hunters only cared for him if he killed for them; a young Remus learned quickly that he couldn’t trust people so easily – or perhaps at all. He only trusts his mother and the always loyal pack of dogs that insist on tagging along, and doesn’t dare open his mouth to anyone else about his monthly transformations. GAUCHE: Remus is clearly not a people’s person. In fact, more than once his mother had tried to work on his tact and gotten no result. Being raised as he was, he grew cold towards the world and retreated further into himself; his mother’s friends would always say that “he’s just a shy boy” and “he’ll grow out of it eventually”, but that isn’t quite the case for this Lupin. He’s not necessarily nervous or timid around people – he just doesn’t know how to connect with them. Even something as trivial as small talk and discussing the weather to him can feel like a puzzle he has yet to decipher. Communicating and socializing just exhaust him. SOFTHEARTED: however socially inept the boy may be, Remus was still brought up in a household where kindness and respect were as important as breathing. Even in his darkest days, when all he felt for the world was bitterness and loathing, Hope was there with gentle hands and sweet eyes to soothe his pain away, to remind him not all of it is bad. His own skepticism is engraved into his core, but he knows he has some of his mother in him. Remus may be tactless and distant to strangers, but he’s still humane and caring in nature. STRONG-WILLED: although detached and reserved, Remus is not, by any chance, spineless. Sure, he doesn’t often speak up in groups where he’s not comfortable to do so, and he conforms to other’s rules when he believes it’s for the best, but he is stubborn and sharp if he believes otherwise. He agreed to fitting into the Witch Hunters because he knows he’s helping his mother by doing so, but he has his own firm viewpoints that don’t exactly match theirs. His voice is not loud and his words are habitually mumbled under his breath, but Remus can be all curt disputes and sharp edges if confronted. SELF-LOATHING: assured as he might be in his beliefs, the boy doesn’t do so well in the confidence department. Perhaps if it came down only to society’s intolerance towards werewolves, he’d get by just fine – after all, he had his family. But his family was the real blow on him. He knows his father loved him, and he knows they so generously took him in when he was a baby, but he also knows his condition isn’t adding good reputation to the Lupin name. He knows his mother loves him, as she’s never looked at him with the kind of tired eyes he sometimes sees in the mirror, but he knows he’s a burden she carries. Raising a six-year-old alone mustn’t be an easy job, but raising a six-year-old werewolf when the world they know is collapsing and your husband just passed? Remus’ admiration for Hope is as vast as his self-loathing is deep. He knows her life would be easier if they had never taken him in, and he thinks she’ll always be the only one who will accept him. He’s certain keeping his distance from anyone else is the rightful thing to do, though in reality it is only fueling his hatred inside of his chest.

SKILLS/WEAKNESSES: Despite not being the most charming nor the best in fistfights, Remus relies a lot on the fact that he’s simply BOOK SMART. Not being one to go out and socialize, whenever he could the werewolf took to books. He read all the novels in the Lupin household, and when he grew up to realize what kind of world he’d face out there, he read about tactics and schemes and maneuvers, everything that could help his poor survival skills (but of course, theory and practice are very different things). Quiet and introspective, Remus may not be good at quick reactions, but he’s CAUTIOUS.  Always alert, everything he says or does is well thought out, and he hardly ever acts on impulse. No amount of stealth could make up for the pack of dogs often following him. Remus seems to attract every stray dog in the neighborhood and, seeing as they think he’s the alpha, they’re insistent on tagging along wherever he goes. They’re loyal to him, and great blankets when it’s cold at night, but they’re not of much use otherwise – therefor, they can sometimes be the cause for unwanted attention, making it harder for him to blend in unnoticed. And as the lore from his origins also say, Remus is exceptionally PHOTOPHOBIC; if he doesn’t have a pair of sunglasses with him, he’s left to squint at every light source he has to face, doomed to have painful headaches in response to it.

HISTORY: Remo was born in a very small town in the north of Brazil, and his life had been condemned even before he was opening his eyes for the first time. In his country of origin, a common legend says that the seventh boy to be born after six girls is cursed to become a lobisomem: part wolf, part man. The transformation will occur in every full moon, and this werewolf will kill whoever crosses his path as he stalks around its village. It will rile up home dogs and make lights flicker and go off wherever he passes, always angry and thirsty for blood, his mind completely taken by an animalistic instinct to kill. Remo was born on March 10th, the seventh brother to six sisters. At the time, perhaps by sheer twist of fate or simply luck, Lyall Lupin was walking through the cities of South America to study the different variations of the werewolf lore and how factual or not they were. He found that nearly all of these “seventh sons” either mysteriously disappeared when very young or were filed as victims of “natural miscarriages” when still in the womb – until he found one humble family in a small town who had just had their child. He befriended them, asked to know more about the legends, and they begged him to take the child away. Remo was two weeks old when Lyall met him, and in a small town like that where religion and folklore ruled, the citizens were already planning to have the innocent boy killed. The family already had a lot in their hands taking care of six little girls, not only they couldn’t afford to have another mouth to feed, they would rather have their baby taken by a stranger into a possibly better life than have to watch him die in the hands of the intolerant population. Lyall and Hope at this time had been married for nearly two years. They were young, they had no children, Lyall couldn’t simply let this little boy behind; besides, he didn’t even know if this legend was real or if it was all this people’s mythology. He took a chance and he and Hope had always loved Remus as their own. They never once hid from him the fact that he’s adopted, and he’s never felt any resentment towards the family who gave him away, only gratitude that his father was there to take him in.

GOALS: Despite always being well aware of his history, Remus has never looked too much into the folklore of his condition – something he wants to explore. He thinks maybe if gets to the root of his very existence, he could find a cure, or maybe some kind of temporary antidote, something to help him with the transformations. He yearns to learn more about this part of himself, because he believes looking into the past will give him the answers he needs. On a more immediate level, Remus is concerned about being as incognito as he can while also trying to find a safe space to turn. He barely manages to get by on his own, but he wants to makes things right. He wants to make sure his mother is safe, he wants to keep the Hunters from hurting her at any cost, even if it means he has to risk his own safety at some point. He’s curious and he longs to learn more about this world, about his father’s work from before he passed, about this war he was dragged into, about wixes and their resistance, about everything.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW AND WHERE ARE THEY GOING?

PLANS: I’m really excited to just play this character out wherever he goes, because I think it’ll be incredibly interesting to play a Remus that may be a little bit sharper than the canon one. This Remus never had Hogwarts or the Marauders to show him that he could have friends, this is a world that hasn’t shown him compassion just yet, at least not outside of his home. I’m thrilled to write him and I hope others will like him, too, maybe? I’m curious to explore his relationship with Hope, I think he’d go a great deal of distances to keep her safe, and I think the Hunters will probably find out about that quickly. Surely they won’t let him go easy after killing one of them, so I want to see how that goes – will they find him at some point? Will they go for Hope instead? Obviously, due to Remus’ unsociable nature, I want to see who he’ll let himself communicate with. I want to see some of his walls break down and I want to see how he’ll deal with that, if he’ll feel comfortable growing attached to someone, or if it will throw him off completely. On that note, he’ll be spending this next full moon alone – how will he deal with it? Is someone, by any chance, going to see him turning and find out his secret? That could be interesting, as I don’t think he would willingly tell anyone he met, otherwise. And how would his relationship with Sirius and James be? Would they ever get along in this world? There’s also his relationship with magic in general! Lyall passed away when he was only six, so there likely wasn’t that much he could’ve taught Remus then. And Hope is a Muggle, so even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to pass onto him any helpful spells or tricks. I want him to explore this more, to try and teach himself wandless spells or maybe to try to use Lyall’s wand (which would not work out, probably). Certainly he’s read a lot about magic, but I would assume he’s a little rusty when it comes to practicing it. With him running away from the Hunters and spending most of his time roaming the streets, I really want him to see a different kind of world than the one he’s been living in for so long. I want him to meet the rebels, the wixes who are fighting against the oppression, and the wixes who are quiet about it too, the ones who keep their magic hidden like he does. I want him to find comfort, but I’m also really interested to see how other characters will take to a werewolf. This Remus is not soft or easy to be friends with, he’s comfortable in his loneliness and he is not going to reach out to change this, as he assumes everyone will only turn their back on him when they find out about his condition. That being said, I’m also not opposed to the idea of everyone already knowing that he’s a werewolf – or maybe everyone quickly finding out? I think it can go either way, it would also be interesting to see him interact if everyone knew; I think he’d be a lot more wary and even harder to reach. A loose werewolf in town clearly is no good news for anyone, so I’m excited to see how his transformation can impact other characters. If he doesn’t find a place to transform where he can be locked up or isolated, there might be some havoc coming.

INTEREST: I haven’t ventured into HP group roleplays in a while now, to be honest, usually because I can’t find one that meets all my criteria, but this one is definitely more than I can even ask for. Remus has always been a favorite of mine and last year I’ve developed this AU for him that plays on my country’s folklore and urban legends, and I’m going to be incredibly stoked if I’m able to write him for more people. A (talented and awesome) friend of mine is in this game and recommended it to me, and of course I couldn’t help myself at the opportunity to bring my beloved AU to life inside this freakishly splendid plot.