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Devil's In The Details

Le bon Dieu est dans le détail

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Created on 2014-01-26 20:49:15 (#2153522), last updated 2015-04-20 (530 weeks ago)

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Name:Léon Shaw
Birthdate:Aug 20
Location:Chicago, Illinois, United States



. l . é . o . n . . s . h . a . w .
B A S I C S

Name: Léon Shaw
Nicknames: Shaw, Sir Grumpy, Loutre [By his mother alone. Thankfully.]
Birthday: 20 August
Age: 19 years old
Hometown: Chicago
Family Members: Patrick Shaw [father], Amarente Shaw [mother], Gael Shaw [twin brother - Deceased]
Religious Affiliation: None
Political Affiliation: Apathetic
Relationships: Daniel Prochazka

S C H O O L

High School: The Latin School of Chicago
University: University of Chicago
Year: Sophmore
Major: Computer Science
A P P E A R A N C E

Height: 5’7”
Weight: 140 lbs
Hair Colour: Dirty Blond
Eye Colour: Blue
Sense of Style: Day to Day
What’s in your characters pockets? keys, mint box, and a wallet
Posture: He slouches slightly as he walks and sits, almost like he is trying to disappear

P E R S O N A L I T Y


Likes: Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Aqua, Jefferson Airplane, Alternative Rock, 70s bands, 80s hair bands, Footie (aka Soccer), fresh strawberries, England, Moleskin Notebooks, Catcher in the Rye, Waiting for Godot, Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, reading, Britney Spears, Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Hugh Grant, Disney movies, Quidditch, and lastly he really likes a good bread pudding.

Dislikes: Rats (they give him the creeps, especially the males), Reggae music, Tic tacs, dancing, failing, American football, biology, P.E., homosexuals, hot temperatures (I.E. Summer), driving, jell-o, guns, and lastly he isn’t much of a fan squash.

Quirks: He sings in the shower when no one else is there. He talks to himself when he is thinking, sometimes holding whole arguments. Léon reads aloud, softly to himself when he is reading a book (so he doesn’t lose his place as easily). He communicated with Gaël through expressions, sometimes having a whole conversation without uttering a word. Be it a twin thing, or just the fact that they’ve shared a room all their life, it can sometimes weird other people out. He doesn’t like to eat eggs, he thinks they are weird. He also thinks the jell-o might someday come to life as a mutant blob and eat people. He doesn’t really share that quirk with people all that often.

Secrets:
+ Those close to him know, but he had a twin who was murdered during his senior year of primary. He did not take the death well, and as such refuses to acknowledge much in regards to Gael these days.

+ He likes the band Aqua, which is cleverly renamed as something else on his ipod.

+ He actually likes a large assortment of chick flicks; think Hope Floats, Sleepless in Seattle, and all the Audrey Hepburn and Hugh Grant movies. What? Hugh Grant is great, and derpy. He also has sexy eyes.

+ He sections his life into groups, allowing only certain people to know certain things about his likes and interest. Maybe it isn’t really a secret, but it is a way of keeping things from others. He doesn’t like anyone person knowing too much about him, save maybe Gaël .

+ He has a drug habit. Once upon a time it was primarily prescription drugs he abused, but since he has come to college and found ways to advance his income- it has morphed into a cocaine and alcohol sort of habit.

+ He suffers from depression, which he is supposedly medicated for. However, Leon often does not take his medications, and chooses to self-medicate instead.

Strengths: Lying, his focus, thinking on his feet, sarcasm, speaks fluent French, his English accent (diluted though it might be).

Weaknesses: Impatience, arrogance, low self-esteem, rashness, his temper, Daniel, Gaël, his inability to sometimes mind his own business, and growing things.

Detailed Personality: Léon’s personality can be a bit of a quandary for those looking from the outside in. On first appearances he seem quiet, even reserved with a touch of a stand-offish nature that can put even the most friendly at edge from time to time. He genuinely seems the sort that prefers to sit in a room, alone, with a book and read over the much more engaging atmosphere of a group game night, or just shooting the breeze with friends. But beyond that first, dour impression he seems relatively nice, intelligent, and possibly even friendly.

Upon slightly closer inspection, though, he can come off as a bit of a hard-nosed bully with a taste for harsh insults, and a quick threat if one steps past his invisible ‘do not cross’ lines. He has a particularly nasty habit of taking any and all aggravation with his day out on the slightly unsuspecting, and usually innocent passer-by without so much as a ‘hey, you’ for a warning. He can be brash, cruel, cold and heartless in his delivery of ‘meant to make you bleed’ comment, before walking away with no hint of apology on the horizon. This habit of his tends to particularly be aimed at any and all openly gay, or gay-friendly individuals.

However, to truly know Léon Shaw is to be willing to put up with every road block he can possibly conceive in an effort to make you walk the other direction. Once you’ve broken down those walls and entered into the realm of ‘friend’, it becomes clear that much of who he is is a well-kept secret. For one, he can be charming from time to time, even cracking a joke or two (which might come as a startling surprise to those on the other end of his usually surly attitude.) He is also remarkably loyal to his friends, though he’d never openly admit most of his feelings toward them. And while he isn’t much for showing affection, those that he is closest to sometimes get the wayward, unannounced hug as he wanders by in his daily musings.

One thing is certain, though, that despite what end of the spectrum you land on, Léon seems closed off and in his own world. It certainly is something that has changed over the years for those that have known him. He smiles a little less these days, sticks to himself more and more, and has a relatively glum appearance for the most part. Not that he spends his days bemoaning whatever troubles him. It is more of a quiet change in his over all outward appearance.

This became particularly apparent when he returned to school for his junior year, after his previous girlfriend at the end of previous school year committed suicide over the summer. He blames a large part of it on himself, as the two had had sexual intercourse (for selfish reasons on his part) and when things seemed to have ended between them she took her own life. She left no suicide note, but the M.E. later confirmed that she had been six weeks pregnant, something Leon was told when her mother told him he was not wanted at the funeral.

Taking a glimpse in the inner workings of Léon’s mind, if one were able to take a peep inside, one would find a boy faced with a lot of confusion about who he is, and what he wants in life. At one time he was full of ambition, with a dream to go back to England and work as an auror. Now the only real ambition he has is to simply graduate from the Academy with decent enough marks to get a job, any job. He is hard on himself, but seems to have given up on things as well, as if to say any failing grade received is because he’s just an idiot to start with. Logically Léon knows it is just the depression talking, and despite the fact that he’s received counseling for it, it still seems to be an uphill battle; one he’s not always sure is worth fighting. Some days are better than others, and sometimes he smiles more for it.

There is also the issue of his sexuality, something he’s not shared with a soul since the day it even remotely crossed his mind. He doesn’t want to be homosexual, in part because he is afraid of what his family would say, or do for that matter. His parents both come from strict upbringings, and his father’s family makes no secret of their hatred for homosexuality. His worst fear is that his twin, Gaël, would reject him after finding out the truth. The idea that he could be is both terrifying and disgusting to him, but since he can’t take it out on himself (or at least it hasn’t occurred to him to try) he focuses a lot of that anger and disgust on others at the school that…aren’t as concerned about their sexuality.

But for the most part, Léon relied on his twin for a lot of his day to day mucking about. Gaël grounded him, talked him down from stupid things, kept him focused, and in general reminded him of when he was making a complete ass of himself. Gaël was always there for a laugh, or support when it seemed he needed it most. He felt guilty that he couldn't seem to return the favor as much, but he tried his best to be that for his brother as best he could. However, Gael's death left Leon listless and uncertain. Worse he felt, blaming himself as Gael had died following a heated argument between the two, in which the elder twin had stalked off to get some air. He now had two deaths on his hands, and he could not forgive himself or either.

H I S T O R Y


Léon Shaw’s story really begins in the East Sussex’s (a county in England) village, Hartsfield. It was there that a set of twin boys were born to a Patrick and Amarente Shaw in the late summer of 1994. The new parents were proud of their sweet, beautiful boys, but little did they know just what sort of an adventure this birth had started for them.

The first years of the twins’ lives passed them by like a blink of the eye. Amarente, a stay at home mother, would often take them for outings into London where she would brunch with Patrick’s parents, and then sometimes she would take long visit to the French country side where her own parents would giddily collect the boys into their arms. From the outside looking in, it was an ideal world full of love and charm.

Reality, however, has a way of being much more callous than anyone ever realizes. For example, Amarente’s parents often talked to her about leaving her husband and taking the twins with her. Her brother, likewise, often made large fusses about the unfortunate state of her marriage, and endlessly accused her of been struck down by a love potion. After all, she had only known Patrick for a short time before they eloped. When she came to visit, Andre often found ways to arrange visits from many possible suitors, touting their praises and pedigree from sunrise to sunset. Her father, Henri, was equally quick to criticize her choice of husbands, but Amarente truly believed the worst of it came from her mother, Seline. She was charming, as graceful and warm as the sun, but one to beware of; for like the sun, she could burn a person terribly when they crossed her. And Patrick Shaw had crossed her the day he married her one and only daughter.

That wasn’t to say it was any safer when it came to Patrick’s family. Oh no, quite the opposite really. William and Amie Shaw were an adorable English couple that watched TV from the time they came off work to the time they went to bed. Their eldest son, Jeremy, had made them grandparents sometime before, and thus they’d long considered themselves ‘grandparenting pros’; if there were such a thing. Amie never missed the opportunity to tell Amarente just what needed to be done around the house, with the boys, and countless other things. She had an opinion about everything, from the choice of wall color to the carpet on the stairs. Nothing was ever, it seemed, right. And that was not to mention the fact that Amie and William Shaw objected whole heartedly to the boys learning anything about the French, even if their mother (God bless her unfortunate soul) had been born one.

The couple quickly found that the best way to survive their families was, simply, to avoid them.

By 1995 Patrick and his wife were practically pros at the ‘oh so sorry, just missed us!’ Eventually, though, just ducking their parents was not enough. They stayed in England until the boys were around 10 years of age before finally deciding that the only way to escape the constant pressure excreted by their families was...to put an ocean between them.

They settled in Chicago after the move, Patrick having found a way to transfer to the city with his company, a security firm that patented software for large companies.

And so, Léon’s first real memories of the States came from sitting in the back of the family car as Amarente attempted to drive into downtown Chicago everyday to take the boys to school, the old city shops passing them by. As the twins started their new school, surrounded by children and a strange since of being out of place, their parents’ lives began to settle out into a pattern. Patrick with his job, and with her new found time Amarente took up cooking; which she was unfortunately disastrous with.

It was during this time that they met a strange girl they had more in common with than anyone realized. She took to following them about, informing them of every odd and end little thing she could see. Often, even, she pointed out that they called ‘funny’, with their young English accents. She even pointed out once that the twins, despite looking just alike, didn’t have the same dominate hand. Gaël was left handed, and Léon right. At first they seemed to find the girl rather annoying, her constant talking and general girlishness was distracting from their greatest purpose in life: stealing cookies.

Janis Sophie Parke was perhaps the biggest event to occur in their young lives, and yes…yes, Janis most certainly was an event. Over the years, from the time they met her to the day they started school, the three of them were nearly constant companions. When they were ten (Janis, being a year younger than them, was only nine), the trio had gone down to the park to play. In their world, nothing could touch them, the three amigos; the three musketeers of France! (Well, sort of.) But what their parents couldn’t stop them from doing, nature could.

The twins, ever prone to fighting, had come up with a plan to prove who the best twin was once and for all. Upon Gaël’s insistence, they both climbed the nearest tree they could find, and prepared for what they considered to be an epic battle. With stick-swords in their hands, they balanced upon tree limbs as they started to duke it out like pirates at sea. Gaël, the eldest, boldly dared Léon to go ever higher as they fought, Janis below calling up to them, ‘guys, guys stop it! Something’s going to happen. I can feel it!’

And something did happen, much to all their horrors. As Léon stepped back, swinging his sword around to whack at Gaël’s, he lost his balance and slipped. He tumbled from the height (which in retrospect was not nearly as high up and they had thought it was), Léon tried to catch himself before landing on the ground is a loud, cracking thud. Gaël scrambled from the tree, terrified, as Janis leaned over Léon with the greatest concern on her face.

Rushing home, Gaël tried to explain to his mother in gentle terms what had happened before Janis and Léon hobbled into the house. Amarente was shocked to find her youngest son in pain, before putting them in the car to take the boy to hospital. It was, in some ways, the start of a lot of changes within the twins. And it was certainly the start of something uncomfortable for Léon, himself. For Léon, Janis became an outlet for things he never knew about himself as a gap began to gap between the twins.

As they grew older Léon’s personality seemed to start to change. He began to withdraw a little more as the months went by, verbally lashing out at more than a few people. It seemed that he took a particular disliking to anyone that came across as homosexual, or even supported the idea of it. It was a behavior that became an increasingly sore spot between the twins, Gaël not understanding where this seemingly bizarre and unexpected personality change had come from.

By year 11, he had pushed a good deal of people out of his life, having become a virtual loner a world that demands attention. From a distance, he looked the same, a youth who sometimes smiled at a passing thought, or a butterfly that flapped by. But upon closer inspection, it increasingly seemed as if he was wasting away from some inner anguish that he was neither inclined nor willing to share with others. Nor did it truly invoke any sympathy from others.

Year 12 was supposed to be better, only the end results seemed the same. He and Daniel Prochazka had begun dating over the summer, though Leon remained firmly in the closet. Things were starting to turn around in his life, and for a moment Leon suspected he might be on the cusp of being happy. Until that fall, before one of the dances at the school. Gael, Leon's twin brother, was found dead of an overdose in Leon's room. Shocked to his core, much of his senior year went by in a blur. He inadvertently came out to everyone when he turned to Daniel for support and comfort, but hardly seemed to notice anyone's reaction. Instead he just let the other boy turn and direct him where ever he needed to go.

M I S C E L L A N E O U S


Physical description: Léon stands at a whole five feet, nine inches in height, with an average weight and build. His face is a little more drawn than Gaël’s, but on a whole he and his twin can be rather difficult to tell apart at times. His eyes are a striking blue that sometimes look a bit like a misty gray, and his skin is fairly pale. He likes to keep his hair a bit on the longer, shaggier side of things as well. The biggest difference between the twins, though, is that Léon is the one that rarely smiles when people can see, and Gaël rarely frowns in the company of others.

As far as clothing goes, Léon dresses neatly enough for day to day school activities. His tie is sometimes a little loose around his neck, and his shirt is occasionally untucked, but for the most part he looks the part of a well-kept student. When not dressed for class he can usually be found in slightly baggy jeans and an assortment of tee-shirts.

Extended Family: William Shaw [Paternal Grandfather], Amie Shaw [Paternal Grandmother], Jeremy Shaw [Paternal Uncle], Ellen Shaw [Jeremy’s wife], Bruce and George Shaw [Paternal Cousins], Henri Eytinge [Maternal Grandfather], Seline Eytinge [Maternal Grandmother], Andre Eytinge [Maternal Uncle- Deceased]

original code by butterflybox
Player: EJ
PB: Sondre Lerche
Extras: Leon is an OC who has had many, many incarnations. He is drug addict, and somewhat of a criminal. And he is an asshole- I apologise for this in advance.
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