Year one application!
GENERAL
NAME: Ferdinand Michael Ayers
NICKNAMES: Ferdie!
AGE/DOB: 16: 6/23
BLOOD STATUS: halfblood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male
SEXUALITY: so far, heterosexual? He probably doesn't have tons to base that assessment on but he's definitely liked girls before
HOMETOWN: Lake Forest, IL
CONCEPT: Formerly sheltered peacemaker carving out some independence
PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE: Ferdinand's aesthetic very much reflects where he's at in his life right now. He was raised to wear very buttoned up, preppy, kind of expensive clothing. But right now is all about quietly breaking away. That means he's starting to grow his hair out long even though it doesn't work that well, since it's stupid curly. He's even started to wear clothing he's chosen instead of just letting his mom shop for him. It mostly is weird t-shirts since he doesn't have a ton of money, but it's a step. He still doesn't even a little dare to wear the uniform out of order. That might come with time. He definitely looks younger than he wants, with softer features and an incomplete (hopefully) growth spurt. For now, he at least carries himself with a confident stride that you honestly wouldn't expect at first, from how quiet he is.
HEIGHT: 5’7”
PB: Nick Jonas from "Jonas" which apparently is a thing they did
PERSONALITY
LIKES: People, the newspaper (but please don't tell), indie music (hush), bad action movies, staying up AS LATE AS HE WANTS, his cat, quiet, meeting new people, cars (he does not have one but he wants one), clothes that he chooses
DISLIKES: Writing, most books, politics, coffee (it makes him too jumpy), his hair, uniform ties, his mom's guilt trips, and the clothes she has picked out, being the only child
PERSONALITY:
Ferdinand is a Good Kid. The kind who slips right under the radar, because he doesn’t really care about accolades, success, doesn’t attract teenage drama, and is mostly happy to live his life out quietly among his friends in a really cool setting. This looks like a lack of direction at times, but he figures that's okay, because isn't high school a time to explore? He's just taking that to mean a mash of every subject that he thinks sounds cool so he doesn't miss a chance anywhere. In his own way, Ferdinand is actually sort of adventurous. He thinks there's a lot to be lived even within very reasonable guidelines. He has the world's quietest rebellious streak. Ferdinand has no desire to actually break rules. (Prefect, hello.) But when someone has an expectation of him that be doesn't agree with, or wants him to compromise something he really wants of believes in, he is quick to very calmly state how much he'll do the opposite of what you want him to. It's simple as that.
However, he has lived a large portion of his life being told basically what to do. His home was a very restricted, sheltered place. It wasn't bad. He knows that. Lots of other kids, even here at Gooseberry have had much worse. The problem is that now that he's out, he often doesn't know what to do. He isn't a natural leader, and often relies on the structure of the school for comfort. He likes deviating, but only in very measured doses. Taking the initiative to actually fill his day with stuff he liked was weird. Enforcing rules, like he has to as a prefect, was weirder. He learned how. It helped to stick to the rulebook, which he memorized, basically. He was happy to fall into a good-cop kind of role. He's an unofficial counselor more than anything. However, when people take that as him not having backbone, or think that they can get away with breaking rules, Ferdinand will take those points or refer those detentions LIKE. THAT. It's very important for him that he doesn't look weak. But it's hard. Luckily,he doesn't meet as much opposition in Ribbonfin as he would you know, literally anywhere else in the school.
Ferdinand avoids conflict because that's again largely how he was trained. He can handle it when it happens, but for the most part, he's very mild mannered and quiet. He doesn't get angry easily, and when he does, he just needs some time to separate the incident from his emotions, and then they can talk it out. Actually, people probably do not like the way he talks everything out. But it's the most logical way to solve things, so there. He isn't shy. Not at all, really. He takes a bit to warm up to people, because again, he thinks he needs to first assess whether they know who his mom is and how much they hate him as a result. After he figures out they don't, he is actually quite social and open. He has a quiet sense of humor and is good at using it. He came to a boarding school to be around people and he doesn't waste that. He's nice to most people because he's so grateful for the chance to be.
Ferdinand is open with his emotions, but is probably smarter than he acts. He doesn't take school itself as seriously as a lot of other people here, but definitely does enough to do well-ish and stay out of trouble. It makes him the definition of a B student. He just doesn't want to show off, because that feels bizarrely like something his mom might do. He's good with words, which he mostly hates, and refuses to write for fun. He tried really hard to not write much for school, though of course that's somewhat inevitable. Writing is his parents' thing, not his. He keeps that line very drawn. Which is a pity. He'd be good at it. He instead tries lots of subjects and activities on for size. Ferdinand has a good eye for small detail. He's observant, which mostly comes from spending a lot of time alone and with older people. He notices things about people and the world. It makes him very good at Divination, the way it's taught here.
Ferdinand used to be a lot more anxious than he is right now. He was always scared that his mom would discover he had more friends than he was supposed to. He was scared that his mom would go to jail after all. He was scared he'd never get to leave home, honestly. Having all these things solved pretty much at once freed him up, but also put him in the strange position of not knowing what he is doing next.He'll figure it out, though. At least it puts him on par with every other teenager here.
HISTORY
FAMILY MEMBERS:
MOTHER: Eileen Ayers (Nielsen)- former journalist, currently writing her memoirs. Ferdinand has a strange relationship with her involving her trying to hide him from her own mistakes, which are much bigger problems to her than it has been to him
FATHER: Theodore Ayers- Author of long-running historical fiction book series about a time travelling wizarding cowboy called "Annie Rides to -insert era here-". It is popular among middle school witches and their moms. It will never be featured in Wizard Lit.
HISTORY:
You’ve probably heard of Eileen Nielsen, even if you aren’t aware of her much less famous son. In her early days, Eileen was a journalist for the New York Oracle. Her career high was covering the reverberations MACUSA felt from the Voldemort Saga, and she won awards for several pieces. Her work was known for its peerless accuracy and keen insight. No one knew how she did it; but it seemed that she had a touch of the Sight; always able to predict the way one politician or another would act days before they did. Until, of course, a few years later it was uncovered that she, much like Rita Skeeter on the other end of the ocean, had been using quasi-illegal means to source her stories. She wasn’t an Animagus. Her Bugs were of the electronic variety, when rifling through drawers wasn’t quite enough. Of course, Eileen was fired in disgrace right away, and the only way she avoided criminal charges were the hefty settlements she’s still paying. No one would hire her except a crappy gossip website, and she still had too much dignity for that, so she put down her pen. She issued a public apology and flew out of the public eye.
Her husband stuck by her. His name was Theodore Ayers, an author of historical fiction novels, which she always joked she might as well be,now. They moved to a suburb of Chicago, and concentrated on writing his books. (Which were now kind of popular after the whole Eileen Scandal; everyone wanted to see if he could predict things too. He couldn’t.) They also focused on raising their son, Ferdinand. The blessing of all this was that he was too young to properly understand what was going on, and he wouldn’t suffer for his mother’s mistakes.
Well. In a perfect world. Ferdinand grew up in a quiet apartment with his parents, neatly tucked away from people who might still be angry at Eileen. Because of Theodore and the fact that they only had one child, they could still afford to send Ferdinand to good schools. Irene had once had dreams of climbing to the upper echelons. Those were crushed a little now, but it honestly did the family some good, and kept them closer. Ferdinand was sent to a private wizarding grammar school, The McGiliguddy Institute in Chicago. They lived nearby in a suburb. Mercifully, Ferdinand was spared a lot of his mom's infamy, since she used her maiden name for journalism. His teachers knew, of course, but they were usually good about keeping quiet. Which is what the Ayers family was paying them for, of course. They’d discussed sending Ferdinand to Ilvermorny when the time came, but they didn't want to let him that far out of their sight. His mother’s rather checkered past turned out to be an excuse for a great deal of sheltering. He wasn’t allowed to bring friends home, and there were always family functions on the weekends. Eileen discouraged Ferdinand from discussing who his parents were, under the guise of 'it isn't polite,’ and rarely agreed to meet the parents of his friends he did have. Ferdinand always thought that was a little bizarre,but he didn't ask too many questions. His family and his teachers both coached him very obviously in a direction where he'd just focus on writing, and establish his own legacy.
Ferdinand, as he would do again, went quietly the opposite way. He was a good student, but he always thought the magic wrapped up in books and words wasn’t quite his thing. He enjoyed theory, and tactile magical pursuits like Herbology. He liked the idea of growing things. He spent his early school years making friends he didn't tell his parents about. He thought they'd probably let him keep them,but there was always that distant memory of the days he'd spent all alone in his apartment, trying to stave off the boredom that came with not having anyone to talk to even remotely close to his own age.
People thought he was strange, inevitably, for not letting them come over; that he had to go straight home from school every day. But he was also friendly, and easy to be friends with. So his cloistered life came to be a joke Ferdinand was in on. Is your mom hiding the bodies of her enemies at home? Eh, maybe, she won't let me in the closets. etc. He also cheated his mother's system by enrolling in as many extracurriculars as he could possibly squeeze into his roster. He became an incredibly well rounded student mostly as a subtle act of rebellion. Figures.
The McGilliguddy Institute is only a K-8 school that is designed to ship kids out to Ilvermorny for their secondary education. So Eileen and Theodore struggled figuring out where he would go after. Ilvermorny itself was out of the question. They were both alumni, and too many kids and teachers would recognize their situation, miles away from home. The trouble was, Ferdinand was digging in his heels and insisting on not going to another Chicago area day school. He wanted to go to Ilvermorny. He knew it probably wasn't possible. But he researched other schools far, far away and came up with Gooseberry. His parents made the compromise because he wasn't insisting on Ilvermorny. It gave him some freedom, but they could correspond with the teachers enough to be getting on with. It was scary for Eileen, but it had to work.
He loved Gooseberry. Ferdinand felt for the first time that he was independent and could breathe. The slightly frantic notes of his personality dwindled way down, and he was able to actually have a balanced education. He liked the ins and outs of magic, he discovered. Not producing, but digging deep into meaning and secrets. Ferdinand was always good at noticing the corners of things. That's why he liked Hermeticism and later, Divination. There are always a lot of corners to discover.
The best part of school,though, was having people actually around to talk with and befriend. He'd never had anything like that. He didn't take advantage. Ferdinand was always respectful and studious, but also willing to have fun. With limits. He was always a designated peacemaker. All the time he'd spent around older people made him weird and mature for his age. Which barred him from the cool kids’ table probably forever. That was okay. He became a natural peacemaker, which translated into a prefect position later on. He joined a variety of extra curriculars, as per habit, but it wasn't a coping mechanism or an escape anymore. It was really nice. He hasn't spread who his mother is. It's less because he really thinks anyone would hold it against him, and is more out of habit that he really wishes he could shake. Maybe someday.
Right now, though, he's entering his junior year and has finally established himself as a (hopefully) well respected prefect, along with a million other interests. His relationship with his parents isn't as close right now. That's natural. He is getting kind of close to taking it too far, and just running from them as long as possible. It'd be easy. All he would really gave to do is stay at Gooseberry for Christmas. Ferdie is not quite that ballsy yet. He is already low-key looking at colleges wayyy far away from the Chicagoland area. Just for science.
SCHOOL
YEAR: Junior
HOUSE: Ribbonfin!
SORTING: There wasn’t much of an option, and it went fairly quickly. Ebonhide had some stuff to say about how still waters run deep, and that phrase kind of annoyed Ferdinand, which Coppertale picked up on. Azurcrest knew he wanted to be social. But his long-running patience and clear head won in the end, and he was sorted Ribbonfin.
WAND: Niffler fur and redwood, 10". It is a weird combo, whatever.
FAMILIAR: He has a kitten! He got her for a beginning of this year present from his mom! She was trying to buy more letters, inevitably. Her name is Lemonade.
CLASSES: Divination, Herbology, Hermeticism, Transfiguration, Magizoology, Artificing
SENIOR PROJECT: Undecided. Something with Divination. He will probably figure this out in game!
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: As noted previously, Ferdinand is a solid B+ average student. He has carefully selected most of his classes to fit his strengths. Things he can do with his hands win every time, with classes that take a lot of writing or creativity very carefully avoided. He prefers detail oriented, logical, or tactile classes. No clear career choices at the moment.He will figure that out.
EXTRACURRICULARS: Drama (crew), Choir, Gaming, Boating, Archery LISTEN, I SAID HE WANTED TO TRY EVERYTHING.
OOC
NAME: lyss
EMAIL: facemcfacerson@gmail.com
CDJ:
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TIME ZONE: cst
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