a short history: 

- The Rothschilds and the Fitzgeralds; you likely know the former for their austere surname and the latter for Gatsby, though Zelda and Francis are ever-present in their family tapestry. Gatsby is perhaps who he was born for; his mother, Eleanor, wished to name him Jay, and perhaps the implication stuck. He was born in an all-too-royal sort of way, at their summer estate in Marseilles, with nurses and doctors flocking to the hedge-lined, rose-dappled property as if it were their own personal hospital. 

- they treated him like he might as well have been prince harry from day one; he was given anything and everything he wanted, from ponies, to books ( he liked the books - this was a surprise to mother, and nothing at all to father ), to the finest clothing and most expensive trips. The precedent was set from an early age: he got what he wanted, and no one questioned it. This courtesy was extended to him on the basis that he would attend a good school, be a dutiful son, produce a dutiful heir, and carry on both the family business and the family legacy. He has only done one of the above. 

- His need for self-indulgence, hedonism, and independence came not from a need to be independent, nor from the fact that he felt tied down to any familial commitments, as is commonplace with most rebels. No -- he is, and does, all of the above simply because he can, because he feels that the world owes him everything that it has to offer, and because he has always cared so little for responsibility. He wears his family legacy as a badge of privilege, and not any sort of responsibility-weight that might drag him down in later years. He is arrogant and presumptuous, and always has been; from pitching fits until he was gifted the prize Arabian from the stables of a family friend ( Biltmores -- they always had the best horses in their stable until Harry commandeered them all ), to drinking all his mother’s Chianti and sleeping with his Latin tutor, to missing a month of high school in favor of stealing his father’s car and driving it to Colorado to trounce about in the snow high as a kite. You name it, he’s done it -- and he has always been so un-serious about his supposed family duty that it was glaringly obvious from a young age that he was not, in fact, the son that his father wanted. 

- But he always loved stories -- and for that reason alone, his mother wanted him. He takes comfort in that. 

- He was briefly arrested in 2017 ( an open family secret ) for stealing a yacht and crashing it into the beach. This was just after he got that famous ass tattoo. Needless to say, he isn’t quite welcome in Palma, Mallorca anymore. 

- tl;dr -- he only cares about fun, and about recognition, and about games. Life is a game, and he is bound to win it all. He cares only enough about his family name and its legacy to use it as a stepping stool to stand half a foot above everyone else; arrogance is his bread and butter. he is gilderoy lockhart and nikolai lantsov’s love child, only more often drunk, and more often naked. he loves the chase and is easily bored, and is prone to disappearing for weeks at a time on adventures, benders, and bouts of personified hubris. he is a healthy mix of arrogant disregard and daddy issues; and yes, he does have an ass tattoo. he’d get it again if given the opportunity, too. 

plots + connections: