(no subject)

[alwaysagit]

player information.

name: Cala
are you over 18?: Yes
personal dw: calatha
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: deadscorpy@gmail.com, deadscorpy
characters in abax: N/A


in character information.

series: Harry Potter
name: Severus Snape
age: 38
sex: Male
race: Human
weight: 160 lbs
height: 6'1"
[OPTIONAL] cause of death: Exsanguination, due to extremely potent snake venom that prevents the wounds of the victim from healing.
canon point: Immediately after his death.
previous cr: None.

history: Severus Snape at the Harry Potter Wiki.

personality: First and foremost—Severus Snape is a jerk. The fact that his often-questionable agenda ultimately turned out to be good rather than evil does not change this. He has redeeming qualities certainly; bravery, nobility and loyalty among them and he is deep down a good man, but he is also a deeply flawed man. Bitter, malicious, spiteful and petty to the extreme, he was a tyrant in his classroom with a flair for cruel, caustic remarks; teaching largely by humiliation and punishment (or at the very least, the imminent threat of it). While there certainly were times (not many) when his jerkishness was feigned to some extent in order to preserve his cover as a spy, one shouldn't imagine for a moment that it might have been all just an act, masking a 'true' kinder, gentler nature. It was simply a matter of degrees how much of a jerk he'd be in any given situation.

This is not to say that he's incapable of getting along with people (at least in adulthood and with other adults)—he lived in the communal environment of Hogwarts for approximately sixteen years and there was every indication that he was well-respected by his colleagues and disciplined enough to modify his attitudes and demeanor to suit the circumstances. That was not however, necessarily out of accommodation as much as it was self-serving—if it's worth his while and benefits him in some way to get along with you, he will. If not, he has no problem dismissing you altogether, either indifferently or cuttingly, depending upon the degree of contempt in which he holds you. An intelligent and shrewd man; he does not suffer fools gladly, but they can have their uses and Snape has no qualms whatsoever about using people. And he, in turn assumes the motivations of others to be similar; viewing most people with suspicion and distrust. He will immediately dislike people who tend to be brawny, rather than brainy, weak people who cannot control their emotions, people who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, those who whine about life not being fair and those who take privilege for granted and think they are above the rules—or in a word, Gryffindors. (Or at least the way he views Gryffindors.)

Snape is very certainly a hypocrite. He loathes people that are full of themselves, yet his own smug arrogance is boundless. He penalizes and accuses others (especially Harry Potter, his father James and Gryffindors in general) of acting as if they're above the rules, but then allows students in his own house of Slytherin to get away with murder (figuratively); blatantly playing favorites. It's not that he has any illusions about being sanctimonious or how it looks—he simply doesn't care, believing that Gryffindors too often get a free pass in life and Slytherins deserve all the breaks it is in his power to bestow.

As an Occlumens, he's very good at hiding his thoughts and by extension his emotions; most times presenting an impassive, inscrutable face to the world (when he's not openly disdainful and sneering). This composure has a tendency to go right out the window however, whenever he's confronted or confounded by anything Potter-related (father, son, Marauders [James' gang of friends], what have you—Snape has a few triggers and that's certainly one of them, in addition to having an intense aversion to being thought a coward), leading him into at worst uncontrollable fits of rage and at best childish and churlish bullying behavior; coloring his perspective to the point of belligerent paranoia. Potter-related issues aside though, and despite the fact that he may at any given time be actually making an effort to be non-confrontational, he's still not what one would call approachable, with his default persona tending toward cold and reserved, if not downright prickly. He can be extremely vicious, especially when he feels threatened or humiliated; for example—calling his best friend Lily the worst name imaginable (mudblood) when she was only trying to help; despising the fact that he needed help and taking out his frustration inappropriately on her.

An excessively vindictive person; he can hold a grudge for eternity and beyond. Wrong him and one can be certain of enmity far beyond what might be considered a reasonable reaction—case in point his relationship with Remus Lupin. Ostensibly, he opposed Lupin's appointment to the Hogwarts staff because 1. He was a werewolf and therefore a danger to the students and 2. He was a friend of Sirius Black: a convicted murderer (albeit wrongly) and prison escapee; said to be looking to kill Harry (whom Snape was sworn to protect) and while this was true, in actuality his objections were more deeply rooted in ancient schoolboy grudges. The fact that Lupin wasn't the worst of Snape's adolescent tormentors (and was indeed repentant for his role, which was mostly passive) was likely the only reason Snape was even civil (but just barely) toward him; agreeing to brew wolfsbane potion for him every month (although presumably at Dumbledore's request). And of course, let's not forget Snape's animosity towards Harry himself, which had less to do with Harry and more to do with his father, James.

In the past, he's been very attracted to power and possibly a good deal of his fascination with the Dark Arts stems from that, as dark magic is typically viewed as being more limitless than good magic (unrestricted by any pesky code of ethics, as it were) and not because he's essentially Evil™. There's a greater potential for control in dark magic and Snape definitely likes to be in control; both overtly and covertly. That's not to say that he doesn't have a moral code, but it can be buried fairly deeply at times. In his early years Death Eater, one can reasonably assume that he was on his way to becoming a sociopath when fate in the form of the threat to his beloved Lily intervened, derailing him from that path before he got himself in too irrevocably. From the time of Lily's death onward though, remorse and atonement were the driving forces in his life and he devoted the remainder of it to the task of protecting her son; keeping Harry alive to fulfill his supposed destiny of defeating Voldemort; ensuring that Lily's death had some meaning.

Snape does have redeeming qualities, even if they're colored to a certain extent by the much more dominant negative aspects of his personality. That he is capable of deep and abiding love is certainly true, but even at a young age he was already demonstrating possessive, controlling tendencies, so it's questionable how healthy his relationship with Lily would have been if it had continued into adulthood. Although, to give him credit, when she called him on it he backed down immediately, so while he may have been high-handed, he was not at that point inflexible and possibly there may have been hope for him. Odds are, perhaps, that it would have been a rocky, pain-filled relationship. It's decidedly easier to idealize someone who's no longer around to challenge or dispel one's perceptions.

Harry Potter posthumously called him "... probably the bravest man I ever knew," and it's likely that Snape agreed with him, given his extremely bad reaction to being accused of cowardice. And he truly was exceptionally courageous; risking torture and death on nearly a day-to-day basis, with no recognition to speak of (aside from Dumbledore's private acknowledgment), while facing distrust and disdain from both sides. He doesn't give his loyalty to someone often, but when he does, it is steadfast, albeit not unquestioning, as he was shown through flashbacks to have queried Dumbledore's directives forward, backward and sideways with an added measure of complaining. But while he may not have always agreed with Dumbledore and certainly resented him at times, he was still willing to jump through hoops for him when all was said and done.

abilities/powers: Magic in Harry Potter
Severus Snape is a Harry Potter-verse wizard of superior ability, in that he uses a wand and a spoken incantation to cast spells, but he doesn't necessarily need either; being somewhat proficient in wandless and non-verbal magic, although the more complicated a spell, the more likely he would require a wand for its successful implementation, so his spell-casting abilities in Abax City would be dwarfed until such time as he obtains one. He can fly without the aid of a broom or other magical device and is the only wizard known to have this skill aside from Lord Voldemort (from whom it's inferred that he received the knowledge).

He is an exceptional Occlumens (the magical ability to shield one's mind); able to conceal his thoughts and emotions from Voldemort, who had a reputation as one of the most accomplished Legilimens (the magical ability to penetrate the mind of another) the world has ever known. Snape is a proficient Legilimens himself; reading Harry Potter's mind on several occasions and frequently using the skill to predict the moves of others, which considerably enhances his ability as a duelist.

A skilled potioneer, he is one of the few wizards capable of brewing the highly complicated Wolfsbane Potion. In his student days, he altered the recipes of nearly every potion in his book of Advanced Potion-Making, greatly increasing their efficiency. Also while still a student at Hogwarts he showed outstanding creativity; inventing several new spells.

As one of Voldemort's closest advisers, he is (or was) a powerful dark wizard in his own right, being fascinated by dark magic from a very early age. As an eleven-year-old First Year student at Hogwarts, he was said to have known more curses than most Seventh Year students.

•Weaknesses:
Physical: Wizards are longer-lived than non-magical people and while they do not seem to be as susceptible to most human diseases, there are many magical ailments they may contract. They can also be easily killed by getting hit by a bus, etc.
Emotional: Lily Evans Potter.
Psychological: Perfectionist tendencies, lack of patience, lack of perspective and objectivity, inability to move on, inability to recognize when emotion clouds his judgment.
Magical: There's nothing specifically stated or implied in canon. Possibly his knowledge of subjects such as Divination might be limited, but more from lack of interest than inability.

first person sample:

I have an enquiry directed at those among us who make some pretense to the study of botany. [Not that he doesn't expect every fool within hearing to chime in with a most-likely-ludicrous opinion.]

Out of the multitude of oftentimes bizarre and bewildering curiosities one encounters in this place, there is one thing—a rather basic thing, in fact—that I find somewhat odd.

In several locations around the city, there is ample evidence of what I would consider to be common or normal plant life; as in it requires energy from a sun or other light source in order to grow. As it is perpetually nighttime here, I find this phenomenon to be a little bit mystifying.

For those of you likely to respond with 'it must be magic,' rest assured that I am the last person to scoff at magical theories. In this instance however, I suspect that not to be the case and that a more natural, as opposed to supernatural explanation may be at the back of it.

[Dryly.] Responses from people who are not inclined towards cheekiness would be appreciated.

[He's talked to you people before, clearly.]

third person sample: Log from a previous game.

case no: Randomize please.