Post by sebastian1 on Sept 13, 2007 10:27:10 GMT -5
Welcome to Ministry! Excuse the delay. Please have a pleasant day.
[Full Character Name: ] Sebastian Detmer Ashley
[ Character Gender: ] Male
[Character Age:] 30
[ Position Requesting: ] International Confederation of Wizards, British Seat
[ Country of Citizenship: ] Dual Citizenship – Scotland + Germany (latter is his native land)
[Years of Employment at Ministry:] 8
[ Physical Character Description: ] Seb owns a commanding figure: his stature is broad and tall, his hair is dark and cropped close to his scalp, he wears a neat goatee and usually a stern look. He owns the body of a footballer, some would claim: his shoulders are broad and muscular; his chest is a second suit of armor chiseled to an enviable degree; his torso is all abs and everything below is built, as an athlete would have. Black robes are his favorite form of apparel. Rarely does Seb go into “the ignorant world” of muggles; that would be below him.
[Personality Character Description: ] Sebastian’s personality has been shaped by his years of service as a Quidditch player in Bulgaria at the Durmstrang School, which is where he graduated from. He is tough, his shell is a very rough exterior, but like every man’s, if it is chafed away, enough one can reveal a softer side that refuses to be completely buried. It seems as though nothing fazes him, though when something does seem to annoy or irritate him he tends to blink or squint his eyes. The subtle actions dominate Sebastian’s personality. He does give off the aura of being egotistic, egocentric maybe even. This, fortunately, is not the case: as a philosophy, ‘Ego always goes after Love, and never hand in hand!’ In a pathetic sort of way, Sebastian is a hopeless romantic, though no one would be able to tell unless they got close to him…and even that is a feat of Herculean proportions. When he is not at his desk doing work or out in a field physically reminiscing about his glory days at Durmstrang, Sebastian is quite often (though rarely caught doing so) sitting somewhere reading a Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Virginia Woolf or even Jane Austen novel! Though muggles are beneath him…he is innately fascinated with them.
[ History: ] Sebastian is the second of four sons. His brothers are: Demetrius (age 40), Nicholas (age 29) and James (age 25).
Demetrius was born to a different mother than his brothers. Demetrius’ mother was named Marta Hoefling, the daughter of a Dutchman and a German woman. For the three years that Demetrius spent with his birth mother, he recalls some of the best stories about life with his father and his mother. However, in 1970, at the beginning of the first Rise of You-Know-Who, Marta disappeared. The family of three had been spending their summer holiday outside of Roermond, The Netherlands, and Demetrius only remembers that “I came back from the Muggle Town Center and father suggested we cut the trip short, and that night we left. Father had convinced me to come by saying that Mother was at home waiting for us. It wasn’t until we got back that I realized he had lied to me: Mother wasn’t really at home waiting for us…” Because everything was so messed up in Germany at that time, Marta’s disappearance went unnoticed and uninvestigated. It was a moment that Demetrius would use to resent his father for many years after.
Sebastian came next, the first son of his father’s second wife Gretchen – another daughter of a Dutchman and German woman – and the scorn of his older brother. The environment Sebastian was born into was not ideal. His father, Sir Walter Ashley, was becoming more and more restless in his want to move back to his homeland of Scotland, and Gretchen was too tied to Germany to desire any change of location. Thus, Sir Walter began to focus his anger on his wife. She was the reason he was still in Germany! She was the reason he couldn’t leave! From 1978 until 1990, Sir Walter became abusive: he would yell at Gretchen, he would throw things at her and chase her away, and it came to the point at which Gretchen would resort to long walks with her sons (by this time she had three) until it became very dark out and she would be assured safe passage home. Gaining a tough exterior from these night time walks, Gretchen took to them as a drug addict takes to a fresh dosage of drugs: she could not feel anything after a while, the numbing effects of her abusive husband as well as the news abroad of the deaths of Wizards at the hands of You-Know-Who and His grim gang of pretenders. Her walks were no danger to herself, but when the winter came and the world grew cold, Gretchen put her sons’ health at serious risk. And to add insult to injury, Sir Walter had picked up on her walks…her escapes…and waited for her to return, or sometimes he would stalk her. Her beatings got worse. This was what Sebastian had to live with, and this is what made him.
Nicholas came shortly after Sebastian, in 1977, and he was born in the winter. Nico was never a healthy child to begin with. He suffered severe pneumonia as a young toddler (the products of his mother’s walks) and he never fully recovered from it. As a child, he and Seb were best friends and great playmates. They went off to the same boarding school, despite the troubled times, and there Nico picked up on the covert and finely tuned skills of espionage. He trained to be a spy in Muggle University in Munichen. This life choice of Nico’s forced him and Seb to part ways, for Seb pursued a career in becoming an Ambassador to the Ministry for Germany. Seb and Nico both had the talent of picking up languages very quickly. Nico’s choices, however, revealed a whole new world to him. In this world was a very dangerous family secret that Sir Walter had been keeping to himself for so many years. Aside from being a Scotsman, Sir Walter had achieved his title from the dirty business of spying. Stationed in Germany during the second world war and the American-Soviet Cold War, Sir Walter had exploited so many muggles that his retreat into the wizard world had been necessary. One of his prime targets, Nico had learned and never been able to bring himself to share, had been a wealthy bourgeois Dutchman and German woman’s daughter – Marta Hoefling being her name. He had successfully brought down this target outside of Roermond, The Netherlands, one fateful summer night only to learn that her sister was yet another prime target…this time for a more secretive society…Death Eaters. Nico fled Germany upon learning this, but his life would continue to be watched by unsuspecting eyes, and his name would show up once more on the RADAR of Sir Walters.
James was the final birth between Gretchen Hoefling and Sir Walter Ashley. In 1982 James was born and soon after (1985) Gretchen took Jim and fled to Ireland in the night. Sebastian never got to know his youngest brother very well, but he did write to him when he moved to Scotland in the late 1990’s. Sir Walter pursued his wife and youngest son and continued his pursuit long after Gretchen’s life had been compromised. James never stayed in one place…not much was known about him other than he was just the sort of boy that any girl would call a Prince Charming. Some believe he left the Wizard World and assimilated himself into the Muggle World as a means of escape, though he did not know who his father really was or what his father really was. Escape was not possible for James…his father could always track him and one of Sir Walter’s sons was destined to betray him.
Sebastian’s years of work with the Ministry only began after the fall of You-Kno-Who. He began as an underwriter to the Court – the Wizengamot – but got himself out of there as quickly as he could. So many of the people his father had associated with appeared in front of this court that Seb couldn’t take it. He took to the Department of International Magical Cooperation to remedy the horrors of “Chancery Lane.” His real desire is to become the head of the department but for now, he sticks to his work.
Sebastian found love once in his life, but it takes a great deal to discuss it with anyone. Instead, he supplements that lost love with the novels he reads. He will always be in search of his mother and youngest brother…it may even be a mission that claims his life, but he will sacrifice it willingly to save the family he loves. His heart is pure and shines through the darkness of his life…that tunnel he hopes no one will ever be forced to walk down.
[ Pros and Cons : ] Arrogance, Pride and Vanity seem the vices that comprise Sebastian’s finer self. He was born, bred, taught among and always associated with the highest ranks of pure blood families and their vices have influenced him as greatly as the influence the world around them. As to Arrogance, he does not see it in himself, but his “putting on airs” are a major turn off to all around him. As to Pride, it is a thing he notices within himself as being a “horrific accident and terrible weakness” though his exterior could be likened to the walls of Ilium in terms of sturdiness and effectiveness in keeping these emotions in. As to Vanity, this is a vice that is purely inbred: no one can improve his sense of vanity…it is something he does not see as a problem, more as an inherited trait among others.
Despite these vices, Seb’s virtues seem to make him angelic: Gentle, Truthful and Courageous. From his experiences as a boy in Germany, struggling with his people to establish an identity, and once again visited as an emigrant in Scotland, his virtues have been gained through toil and tragedy. As to Gentleness, Sebastian learned this from boyhood when his father would slap around his mother. If it was the one lesson he retained as a boy, it was the most important. As to Truthfulness, Sebastian learned this as a pubescent in Bulgaria: it was far easier to tell the truth than to lie at Durmstrang, for the terrors of being caught in a falsehood were like those of a horrific nightmare. As to Courageousness, throughout his struggles, internally and externally, Sebastian’s bravery and boldness to face down those whom are predators to a weaker prey have built up his sense of chivalry and therefore his courage.
[Credentials:] OWLs:
Defense Against the Dark Arts – E
Charms – E
Potions – O
Care of Magical Creatures – A
Transfiguration – E
History of Magic – O
Herbology – A
Muggle Studies – E
Foreign Languages: French – O
Foreign Languages: Italian – O
Foreign Languages: Russian – E
Ancient Runes – E
NEWTs:
Defense Against the Dark Arts – E
History of Magic – O
Charms – E
Muggle Studies – O
Potions – O
Transfiguration – O
Herbology – E
French – O
Italian – O
Russian – O
Spanish – E
[Writing/Role Playing Example:]
Parchment was stacked, neatly, in three piles on the underwriter’s desk. The name on the placard looked terribly official: MR. SEBASTIAN ASHLEY. Mr. Ashley hated his last name and what it had come to mean. Ordinarily Mr. Ashley would have sat down and begun to copy the cases that were stacked in front of him; these stacks contained the condemnations of all his father’s old acquaintances, former Death Eaters, and they were like the bell tolling the forfeiture of their free lives to Azkaban. Ordinarily, Sebastian would try to escape this bell tolling at his lunch hour and go somewhere sunny to read about the scorn of Eliza Bennet or the seduction of Lolita. Ordinarily, that pretty witch that sat as the secretary would pass by his desk at least seven times before finally talking to him in a flushed red face. Ordinarily today would be an ordinary day, but it wasn’t. Seb had a letter to deliver. It was the freedom of his sanity…his “get out of jail free” card. He wasn’t all that certain of what would happen after today, where he would go, but he knew anywhere was better than here. Of course it would be a great deal of a shock to the secretary to see him approach her rather than the usual vice versa. No, he concluded, nothing was going to be ordinary today. He strode toward the front of the room.
The secretary toppled over in her seat, parchment flying about and a great raucous being had by all. Sebastian smiled slightly and helped her up. She mumbled a Thank you, blushing horribly. What can I do you for…I mean, she blushed again terrifically, What can I do for you? Sebastian’s kind eyes still smiled on her. “I have something for the Head of the Department.” He handed her the letter and then gave a polite little bow and retreated back to his desk. A little later on, when he was walking the gardens outside his favorite lunching place, he caught the secretary being comforted by some friends. She was crying and holding his letter, opened, on her hand. ‘Poor girl’ he thought as he turned his back on her. ‘Poor girl.’
[Full Character Name: ] Sebastian Detmer Ashley
[ Character Gender: ] Male
[Character Age:] 30
[ Position Requesting: ] International Confederation of Wizards, British Seat
[ Country of Citizenship: ] Dual Citizenship – Scotland + Germany (latter is his native land)
[Years of Employment at Ministry:] 8
[ Physical Character Description: ] Seb owns a commanding figure: his stature is broad and tall, his hair is dark and cropped close to his scalp, he wears a neat goatee and usually a stern look. He owns the body of a footballer, some would claim: his shoulders are broad and muscular; his chest is a second suit of armor chiseled to an enviable degree; his torso is all abs and everything below is built, as an athlete would have. Black robes are his favorite form of apparel. Rarely does Seb go into “the ignorant world” of muggles; that would be below him.
[Personality Character Description: ] Sebastian’s personality has been shaped by his years of service as a Quidditch player in Bulgaria at the Durmstrang School, which is where he graduated from. He is tough, his shell is a very rough exterior, but like every man’s, if it is chafed away, enough one can reveal a softer side that refuses to be completely buried. It seems as though nothing fazes him, though when something does seem to annoy or irritate him he tends to blink or squint his eyes. The subtle actions dominate Sebastian’s personality. He does give off the aura of being egotistic, egocentric maybe even. This, fortunately, is not the case: as a philosophy, ‘Ego always goes after Love, and never hand in hand!’ In a pathetic sort of way, Sebastian is a hopeless romantic, though no one would be able to tell unless they got close to him…and even that is a feat of Herculean proportions. When he is not at his desk doing work or out in a field physically reminiscing about his glory days at Durmstrang, Sebastian is quite often (though rarely caught doing so) sitting somewhere reading a Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Virginia Woolf or even Jane Austen novel! Though muggles are beneath him…he is innately fascinated with them.
[ History: ] Sebastian is the second of four sons. His brothers are: Demetrius (age 40), Nicholas (age 29) and James (age 25).
Demetrius was born to a different mother than his brothers. Demetrius’ mother was named Marta Hoefling, the daughter of a Dutchman and a German woman. For the three years that Demetrius spent with his birth mother, he recalls some of the best stories about life with his father and his mother. However, in 1970, at the beginning of the first Rise of You-Know-Who, Marta disappeared. The family of three had been spending their summer holiday outside of Roermond, The Netherlands, and Demetrius only remembers that “I came back from the Muggle Town Center and father suggested we cut the trip short, and that night we left. Father had convinced me to come by saying that Mother was at home waiting for us. It wasn’t until we got back that I realized he had lied to me: Mother wasn’t really at home waiting for us…” Because everything was so messed up in Germany at that time, Marta’s disappearance went unnoticed and uninvestigated. It was a moment that Demetrius would use to resent his father for many years after.
Sebastian came next, the first son of his father’s second wife Gretchen – another daughter of a Dutchman and German woman – and the scorn of his older brother. The environment Sebastian was born into was not ideal. His father, Sir Walter Ashley, was becoming more and more restless in his want to move back to his homeland of Scotland, and Gretchen was too tied to Germany to desire any change of location. Thus, Sir Walter began to focus his anger on his wife. She was the reason he was still in Germany! She was the reason he couldn’t leave! From 1978 until 1990, Sir Walter became abusive: he would yell at Gretchen, he would throw things at her and chase her away, and it came to the point at which Gretchen would resort to long walks with her sons (by this time she had three) until it became very dark out and she would be assured safe passage home. Gaining a tough exterior from these night time walks, Gretchen took to them as a drug addict takes to a fresh dosage of drugs: she could not feel anything after a while, the numbing effects of her abusive husband as well as the news abroad of the deaths of Wizards at the hands of You-Know-Who and His grim gang of pretenders. Her walks were no danger to herself, but when the winter came and the world grew cold, Gretchen put her sons’ health at serious risk. And to add insult to injury, Sir Walter had picked up on her walks…her escapes…and waited for her to return, or sometimes he would stalk her. Her beatings got worse. This was what Sebastian had to live with, and this is what made him.
Nicholas came shortly after Sebastian, in 1977, and he was born in the winter. Nico was never a healthy child to begin with. He suffered severe pneumonia as a young toddler (the products of his mother’s walks) and he never fully recovered from it. As a child, he and Seb were best friends and great playmates. They went off to the same boarding school, despite the troubled times, and there Nico picked up on the covert and finely tuned skills of espionage. He trained to be a spy in Muggle University in Munichen. This life choice of Nico’s forced him and Seb to part ways, for Seb pursued a career in becoming an Ambassador to the Ministry for Germany. Seb and Nico both had the talent of picking up languages very quickly. Nico’s choices, however, revealed a whole new world to him. In this world was a very dangerous family secret that Sir Walter had been keeping to himself for so many years. Aside from being a Scotsman, Sir Walter had achieved his title from the dirty business of spying. Stationed in Germany during the second world war and the American-Soviet Cold War, Sir Walter had exploited so many muggles that his retreat into the wizard world had been necessary. One of his prime targets, Nico had learned and never been able to bring himself to share, had been a wealthy bourgeois Dutchman and German woman’s daughter – Marta Hoefling being her name. He had successfully brought down this target outside of Roermond, The Netherlands, one fateful summer night only to learn that her sister was yet another prime target…this time for a more secretive society…Death Eaters. Nico fled Germany upon learning this, but his life would continue to be watched by unsuspecting eyes, and his name would show up once more on the RADAR of Sir Walters.
James was the final birth between Gretchen Hoefling and Sir Walter Ashley. In 1982 James was born and soon after (1985) Gretchen took Jim and fled to Ireland in the night. Sebastian never got to know his youngest brother very well, but he did write to him when he moved to Scotland in the late 1990’s. Sir Walter pursued his wife and youngest son and continued his pursuit long after Gretchen’s life had been compromised. James never stayed in one place…not much was known about him other than he was just the sort of boy that any girl would call a Prince Charming. Some believe he left the Wizard World and assimilated himself into the Muggle World as a means of escape, though he did not know who his father really was or what his father really was. Escape was not possible for James…his father could always track him and one of Sir Walter’s sons was destined to betray him.
Sebastian’s years of work with the Ministry only began after the fall of You-Kno-Who. He began as an underwriter to the Court – the Wizengamot – but got himself out of there as quickly as he could. So many of the people his father had associated with appeared in front of this court that Seb couldn’t take it. He took to the Department of International Magical Cooperation to remedy the horrors of “Chancery Lane.” His real desire is to become the head of the department but for now, he sticks to his work.
Sebastian found love once in his life, but it takes a great deal to discuss it with anyone. Instead, he supplements that lost love with the novels he reads. He will always be in search of his mother and youngest brother…it may even be a mission that claims his life, but he will sacrifice it willingly to save the family he loves. His heart is pure and shines through the darkness of his life…that tunnel he hopes no one will ever be forced to walk down.
[ Pros and Cons : ] Arrogance, Pride and Vanity seem the vices that comprise Sebastian’s finer self. He was born, bred, taught among and always associated with the highest ranks of pure blood families and their vices have influenced him as greatly as the influence the world around them. As to Arrogance, he does not see it in himself, but his “putting on airs” are a major turn off to all around him. As to Pride, it is a thing he notices within himself as being a “horrific accident and terrible weakness” though his exterior could be likened to the walls of Ilium in terms of sturdiness and effectiveness in keeping these emotions in. As to Vanity, this is a vice that is purely inbred: no one can improve his sense of vanity…it is something he does not see as a problem, more as an inherited trait among others.
Despite these vices, Seb’s virtues seem to make him angelic: Gentle, Truthful and Courageous. From his experiences as a boy in Germany, struggling with his people to establish an identity, and once again visited as an emigrant in Scotland, his virtues have been gained through toil and tragedy. As to Gentleness, Sebastian learned this from boyhood when his father would slap around his mother. If it was the one lesson he retained as a boy, it was the most important. As to Truthfulness, Sebastian learned this as a pubescent in Bulgaria: it was far easier to tell the truth than to lie at Durmstrang, for the terrors of being caught in a falsehood were like those of a horrific nightmare. As to Courageousness, throughout his struggles, internally and externally, Sebastian’s bravery and boldness to face down those whom are predators to a weaker prey have built up his sense of chivalry and therefore his courage.
[Credentials:] OWLs:
Defense Against the Dark Arts – E
Charms – E
Potions – O
Care of Magical Creatures – A
Transfiguration – E
History of Magic – O
Herbology – A
Muggle Studies – E
Foreign Languages: French – O
Foreign Languages: Italian – O
Foreign Languages: Russian – E
Ancient Runes – E
NEWTs:
Defense Against the Dark Arts – E
History of Magic – O
Charms – E
Muggle Studies – O
Potions – O
Transfiguration – O
Herbology – E
French – O
Italian – O
Russian – O
Spanish – E
[Writing/Role Playing Example:]
Parchment was stacked, neatly, in three piles on the underwriter’s desk. The name on the placard looked terribly official: MR. SEBASTIAN ASHLEY. Mr. Ashley hated his last name and what it had come to mean. Ordinarily Mr. Ashley would have sat down and begun to copy the cases that were stacked in front of him; these stacks contained the condemnations of all his father’s old acquaintances, former Death Eaters, and they were like the bell tolling the forfeiture of their free lives to Azkaban. Ordinarily, Sebastian would try to escape this bell tolling at his lunch hour and go somewhere sunny to read about the scorn of Eliza Bennet or the seduction of Lolita. Ordinarily, that pretty witch that sat as the secretary would pass by his desk at least seven times before finally talking to him in a flushed red face. Ordinarily today would be an ordinary day, but it wasn’t. Seb had a letter to deliver. It was the freedom of his sanity…his “get out of jail free” card. He wasn’t all that certain of what would happen after today, where he would go, but he knew anywhere was better than here. Of course it would be a great deal of a shock to the secretary to see him approach her rather than the usual vice versa. No, he concluded, nothing was going to be ordinary today. He strode toward the front of the room.
The secretary toppled over in her seat, parchment flying about and a great raucous being had by all. Sebastian smiled slightly and helped her up. She mumbled a Thank you, blushing horribly. What can I do you for…I mean, she blushed again terrifically, What can I do for you? Sebastian’s kind eyes still smiled on her. “I have something for the Head of the Department.” He handed her the letter and then gave a polite little bow and retreated back to his desk. A little later on, when he was walking the gardens outside his favorite lunching place, he caught the secretary being comforted by some friends. She was crying and holding his letter, opened, on her hand. ‘Poor girl’ he thought as he turned his back on her. ‘Poor girl.’