C&C App and CANON UPDATE and ONE MORE TIME!!
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Snapple
AGE: 29 years old WHAT A GEEZER, MAN.
JOURNAL: snapples_apples
IM: ispyslytherin (let's all just appreciate the irony here.)
E-MAIL: tsukechick at the gee mail
RETURNING: I am returning, having played this character at this journal before, as well as several others. (Kurama from YuYu Hakusho, Connor from FreakAngels, and once long ago the Brucolac from The Scar by Mieville)
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Sirius Black / Padfoot
FANDOM: Harry Potter, books specifically
CHRONOLOGY: The end of Prisoner of Azkaban
CLASS: Hero! He even attached his dog tags to a dog collar!
SUPERHERO NAME: Padfoot
ALTER EGO: Sirius Black, infamous murder and escaped convict.
BACKGROUND:
The world Sirius comes from is much like our own, only there's a self-contained secret society of wizards in it. Very much a part of that secret society, Sirius comes from what is basically wizarding nobility, and has had very little contact with "normal" (or "muggle") society, outside of the time he spent in the city.
By and by, wizarding society is pretty easy-going, if rather on the reckless side of things. There's a Minister for Magic who interfaces with the larger British government, but other than that, they police themselves and if one or two muggles have to have their memory adjusted because some fool decided to breed hippogriffs in his backyard, well that's nothing too unusual. About 20 years ago or so, something far more serious than cryptobiological shenanigans came to pass, a threat potent and pervasive enough to bring wizarding society to its knees and very nearly breached the walls of ignorance that keep muggles ignorant of the wizards among them. That threat is the dark wizard Voldemort (who is more or less the wizard version of Hitler) who believes that magic users should rule the earth rather than hide. Twenty years ago he began amassing power, and called other wizards who don't much like playing nice with muggles together to begin sowing chaos and overthrowing the system. They called themselves Death Eaters. The wizarding world was effectively split in an internal civil war, and Voldemort very nearly won until 12 years ago when something went drastically wrong for him and he disappeared from the face of the earth.
Sirius's family has long held themselves superior to muggles and any wizards with muggle blood in them, in a very snooty aristocratic way. They believe in blood purity to the point that Sirius's parents are actually first cousins because no one else was worthy of marrying them - Voldemort was singing a tune that they and the other pureblood families found very compelling. Sirius, however, was cut from a very different cloth. His early childhood was unhappy, living under the strict rule of two parents who placed their lineage as their highest priority. Under his parent's watchful eye, he learned to identify every piece of cutlery that might ever grace a table, knows a generous number of waltzes and reels, can sit a horse, can recite his family tree back to the Middle Ages, and was privately tutored in French, Latin and Ancient Greek as well as other topics deemed important for a young wizard of quality to know. Sirius was isolated from all but a few other well-bred (and largely dull and spoiled) children, most of whom were related to him, and hated every minute of it. His younger brother Regulus, eager for attention and approval, soaked up their beliefs like a sponge and soon became no better or more interesting than the other pampered pure-bloods. His other childhood companions included his cousins Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, of whom only Andromeda showed a glimmer of independant thought. She was his favorite, but he wouldn't have a true friend until he turned 11.
At that age, all children with magical abilities in Great Britain (whether they've ever heard of magic or not) are invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a boarding school in a whopping big magical castle, and basically taught to weild their powers and (theoretically) to get along with one another and at least be able to pretend to sometimes look mature and thoughtful. They are educated in Arithmancy, Charms, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, and a number of other things until the age of 17, at which point they're considered adults. Students are taught by year, as and there are an average of 40 students a year, they are also sorted into "Houses" by personality, to make the 280 or so of them more manageable. Each House has its own dormitory, divided by genders and by years, and its own faculty mentor. The most courageous students go into Gryffindor, the most loyal students go into Hufflepuff, the cleverest students go into Ravenclaw, and the most sly students go into Slytherin. This basically means, painted in the broadest stroke possible, that all the good people are in Gryffindor, all the bad people are in Slytherin, and everyone else is boring and either in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff depending on how bookish they are. I would like to say that the author established these House-based profiles and then illustrated how each person is different and blah blah blah, but no that's a true rule of thumb. The Blacks had all always gone to Slytherin, and Sirius's real rebellion started when he got himself sorted into Griffindor.
There, suddenly surrounded by other children who were not all frustrating and useless, Sirius found his truest family in the form of James Potter, another boy in his year who was as mischevious and clever as he was, and they quickly became inseperable. They also adopted Remus Lupin, who was smart but odd and sickly, and Peter Pettigrew who wasn't as bright but was game for whatever mischief they came up with, and the four of them formed a tight group, calling themselves the Marauders. James had also made an instant nemesis in the form of a weird little Slytherin named Severus "Snivellus" Snape, the hatred of whom Sirius happily adopted. He did not adopt James's equally-instant infatuation with a girl in their year named Lily Evans who semed to be friends with Snivellus, though she'd been sorted into Gryffindor so she couldn't be all bad. James and Sirius very quickly developed reputations for being rather brilliant students (when they bothered) and also complete troublemakers. Sirius's family eventually disowned him as a blood traitor for spitting on their legacy, and he was all but officially adopted by the Potters.
The Marauders soon found out the cause of Remus's strange illness: he was a werewolf. Finding out that a kid you sleep in the same room with occasionally turns into a huge, vicious, horrible, contagious monster was something of a surprise (especially given how...tetchy Remus was normally), but the boys decided that 1) the kid couldn't help it, 2) their friend was a werewolf, how brilliant was that?!, and 3) Remus really really really really needed friends. The Marauders were many things, not all of them good, but they were always excellent friends, and they proved it by throwing their keen minds and youthful enthusiasm into doing something very illegal and very dangerous: they learned an advanced transfiguration technique that would allow them to willingly turn into animals so that Remus would have company during the full moon. Wizards who can do this are called Animagi and the Ministry is very keen on making them register the ability, first because if you know someone nearby can turn into a cat you might close your window before having a sensitive conversation, and so that they can keep an eye out and make sure Mr. Jones doesn't get nicked one night by a muggle pound and euthanized. In any case, the boys were messing with magic that no fifth year could be expected to understand, much less cast, and working under pure assumption that a werewolf would not attack an animal the way that they (very aggressively) went after people. Fortunately, between James and Sirius, the three of them pulled it off, and doubly-fortunately, they were right about the wolf. Animagi don't pick an animal, they turn into something somehow appropriate to their essential natures. James turned into a stag (reflecting his noble nature), Sirius turned into a big black dog (reflecting his fun-loving loyalty and his name) and Peter turned into a rat (and somehow they didn't figure out what this reflected in him, but for purposes of this app, we'll say they figured it was resourcefulness.) The boys also combined their skills to create a magical map that showed who was in every room that they had ever found in Hogwarts, and their movements. They called it the Marauder's Map, and between it and James's invisibility cloak, basically had complete free reign of the castle.
It wasn't all magic and cleverness, though. Their feud with Snivellus was only escalating, as the kid was not only more than happy to return their hatred, he was persistent, devious and clever, and simply would not let up on finding out what was up with Remus's "illness" that kept him disappearing once a month. Granted, James and Sirius did nothing but antagonize him and encourage this hatred. This came to a rather dramatic head just after a serious of rigorous exams toward the end of their fifth year. Acting purely out of boredom, James ambushed Severus and subjected him to some seriously humiliating public torment for Sirius's amusement. When Lily called them out for being right little monsters, Snape lashed out at her as well, calling her a terrible name and ending their friendship. They brought out the worst in him, and he in they, and at the end of the day, everyone came away lessened for it.
Despite James and Sirius's best efforts, they all graduated, and James and Sirius went on to become aurors. Sirius inherited money from one of the few other Blacks who didn't toe the family line, and had enough to live comfortably. James even managed to marry his long-time crush Lily Evans, and had a son they named Harry. Sirius was named godfather, and for a brief time he had the family that he'd always wanted. The group was not fated to enjoy long and happy lives, however. During this time, Voldemort had amassed enough power to really start going after those who disagreed with him, and Sirius and his friends quickly rose to the top of that list. Voldemort's supporters were well placed in the government, however, and it quickly became dangerous to speak out against the growing anti-muggles sentiments, so the opposition took their fight underground. The Order of the Phoenix was formed to oppose Voldemort, and the Marauders and Lily joined without hesitation. Then a rare, true prophecy was spoken, that a child would be born at a certain time who would have the power to destroy the Dark Lord. Voldemort immediately began targeting wizarding families with children likely to be this opponent, including James and Lily whose infant son Harry was the right age.
A plan was formed that James and Lily would hide their home using an ancient and powerful spell that would allow only a secret keeper to even perceive it, much less know its location. Sirius was to be that secret keeper, but he knew that he would be the obvious target, and talked everyone into switching Peter into the role at the last minute so that only the four of them would know who the true Secret Keeper was. This proved a disastrous mistake, as Peter had joined the Death Eaters, and sold the secret of the Potter's home to Voldemort. Sirius discovered that Peter had disappeared and quickly went to check on his other friends, but arrived too late: James and Lily were both dead...and yet little Harry was alive and Voldemort was gone. After Harry was safely in friendly hands, Sirius went to hunt down Peter. Pettigrew was ready for him, however, and blew himself and an entire block of muggles up, effectively framing Sirius for the deaths of the Potters, the muggles and Pettigrew himself. No one would believe that timid little Peter Pettigrew would sell out the friends who had accepted and protected him all his life, but Sirius was a Black, and blood will tell. Any who didn't believe it were too few, too weak, or too compromised to do anything for him. He was convicted of murder and betrayal, labeled a Death Eater and sentenced to life in prison. Having lost all that he loved, Sirius snapped, and laughed all the way to the remote wizard prison, Azkaban. With Voldemort's disappearance, the Death Eaters fell to pieces, and many were also arrested.
He was there for 11 years, in a stone cell guarded by beings called Dementors who literally sucked all the happiness out of him, feeding off of all positive emotions. Sirius often retreated into dog form to protect himself from completely losing his soul, but there was one thought that the Dementors couldn't steal: the knowledge that he was innocent, and that the true killer was out there somewhere. He became obsessed with the knowledge, hungry for any news. Eventually, he chanced to get a newspaper from a visitor to the prison, and saw a large family of wizards who had won a trip to Egypt. They posed as a group in a picture, waving, holding their familiars...one of which was a rat. A very familiar rat. Suddenly Sirius knew that Peter was alive and how he'd been hiding after his staged death. He was emaciated enough to squeeze free of his prison in dog form, and swam to shore to hunt down his former friend.
The wizarding world went on high alert - Sirius was perceived as being only slightly less horrible than Voldemort himself, a dangerous madman who would kill anyone. No one knew that Sirius could turn into a dog (except for their other surviving friend, Remus Lupin) and since he laid low and lived off the streets and his own wits, they found him impossible to track. It was assumed that he would be coming for his godson, Harry, who had been raised by muggle relatives in ignorance of his parents and the wizarding world, and Sirius did hunt him down to check on him and satisfy himself that the boy was alright (a move that served only to terrify Harry). In truth, it was Harry's best friend Ron Weasley and his pet rat that Sirius was after, and so when he made his way to Hogwarts and used his cunning and knowledge of the castle to break in, he still seemed to be targeting his best godson. Remus Lupin, in the meantime, had taken a position at Hogwarts, and found his loyalty torn - all the evidence pointed to Sirius being a traitor and a murderer, but Sirius had been his friend. It wasn't until Peter Pettigrew showed up on the Marauder's Map that Remus realized the truth. When Sirius finally cornered Harry and his friends, Remus rejoined him to help explain what had happened to the children, and to reveal and kill Peter. Unfortunately, Snape had also followed them, and very nearly recaptured Sirius, and through some ensuing complications and misunderstandings, including Remus turning into a werewolf and nearly savaging the kids himself, Peter escaped, Sirius was nearly killed by Dementors and then recaptured. Harry and his friends freed him before they could send him back to Azkaban, however, and escaped on the back of one of the school's hippogriffs, Buckbeak. This is the point at which he will return to the City.
PERSONALITY:
Sirius has the generosity to love or hate whatever and whoever he wants to, the arrogance to disregard the opinions of most other people, and the confidence to stand by his convictions. A lord and a beggar, a genius and a fool, he's is a mass of contradictions, but he's never let that slow him down.
What was: Sirius was born with every advantage and opportunity, groomed to be the perfect young lordling, and he has kept no small part of the self-centered arrogance inherent in growing up swathed in luxury. His family also a history of explosive tempers, and he is no exception, which is doubly dangerous when coupled with his deep streak of recklessness. His common sense tends to take a back seat to his emotions on the best of days, but when he's riled up he acts without thinking about the consequences for anyone, friend or foe. Naturally bright and adept at magic, Sirius rarely had to put serious effort into his schoolwork in order to excel in the important things (read: subjects he personally cared about) he tends toward laziness and is only more arrogant when others have to struggle to keep up with him. He has little respect for authority save from figures who have directly earned his respect, and there is no question that he considers himself above the law when acting for what he perceives to be the right reasons. Or if he's bored. He's charismatic, good-looking and clever, and he has gotten away with far too much in his life because of it.
What is: Or so it was until Peter's betrayal, the trial, and Sirius's stint in Azkaban. There, for the first time in his life, it didn't matter how good he looked or how clever he was. Grieving, friendless and utterly abandoned, the Dementors found Sirius easy to subdue. When near a Dementor, people are physically incapable of feeling happy, and after living so long in total despair he's still adjusting to the giddiness of not feeling miserable, much less the breathless shock of actually feeling happy. He is now so unused to thinking of himself as a good and worthwhile person that he has no idea what to think of himself anymore. Emotionally, he is still 21 years old, and an immature 21 at that. The building blocks of his personality are all still there, but it will take him time to rebuild into a whole person again.
Some things, however, are simply inherent. Sirius's great saving grace is his ability to love others, and love deeply, regardless of class, sex or creed. For love, he will hold his tongue and his temper in check. For love, he will recognize his mistakes and apologize. For love, he will sit patiently and help others every step of the way. Because of his lonely childhood, he has a particular soft spot for the odd man out, and he goes out of his way to make those he likes laugh and smile. Sirius learned at a very young age that "good" and "evil" cannot be defined by social norms or prejudices, and so he truly does judge others based on their actions and the character he perceives in them. For those who act hatefully to others he has nothing but contempt (even though he himself can be extremely spiteful and bullying - the irony of that is lost on him, which is why he does it) but to anyone who shows a noble spirit and a good heart, Sirius is a stalwart friend through thick and thin, and trusts his friends utterly. He is also thoughtlessly generous in the way of someone who's never had to be concerned about money, and enjoys giving gifts and sharing what he has.
POWER:
Wizard: Sirius was born with the innate ability to influence the world around him through magic! This means that he would and can still do magic even without a wand, it's just harder to manifest and control. He has completed schooling and had some additional training in combat magic, and is thus pretty formidable! There are different kinds of magic available: Charms, which is to say all spells cast using an incantation and a wand; Transfiguration, the art of turning a thing into another thing using a wand; Potions, the art of combining ingredients in a cauldron to create magical elixers and such; Divination, gleaning prophecies and omens about the future; Arithmancy, which I'm going to handwave as some sort of basic math plus numerology because it's never described in the books, and Runes, which I will say is the ability to permanently imbue objects with magical powers. With advanced understanding of a spell, it can be cast wandlessly or silently, but this is more difficult, and Sirius knows very few spells at that level.
For purposes of the game, Sirius's magic will be limited to Charms, Transfiguration and Runes, and he probably won't even notice he can't do the others. Without a wand, he's pretty much screwed.
Animagus: Because he is AWESOME, Sirius has perfected the ability to turn into a great big puppy! It is really really really really hard to cast spells as a dog, since wands-and-incantations are not possible: he basically has to just will the spell through with his mind, and the level of concentration and complex thought he'd need for that is basically impossible for him when 90% of his brain is preoccupied with how everything smells.
Hippogriff: Sirius is just escaping on the back of a hippogriff named Buckbeak, and I would like to bring it in with him! Other than being a flying horse-eagle, Buckbeak doesn't have any particular powers - he's a little bit smarter than your average horse (smart enough to know when someone is being rude in his presence) but can't talk or understand human speech or anything like that. Just a big, kinda haughty horsebird. PLEASE NOTE THAT I RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS KIND OF RIDICULOUS SO JUST SAY THE WORD AND I WILL DROP HIM FROM THE APP, but Ty and Mandy talked me into trying for him, and it's a fun bit of flavor from the books to bring into the City.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
He enjoys long walks on the beach, pudding, and just about anything that would make normal mortals pause and say "...this is a terrible idea."
NAME: Snapple
AGE: 29 years old WHAT A GEEZER, MAN.
JOURNAL: snapples_apples
IM: ispyslytherin (let's all just appreciate the irony here.)
E-MAIL: tsukechick at the gee mail
RETURNING: I am returning, having played this character at this journal before, as well as several others. (Kurama from YuYu Hakusho, Connor from FreakAngels, and once long ago the Brucolac from The Scar by Mieville)
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Sirius Black / Padfoot
FANDOM: Harry Potter, books specifically
CHRONOLOGY: The end of Prisoner of Azkaban
CLASS: Hero! He even attached his dog tags to a dog collar!
SUPERHERO NAME: Padfoot
ALTER EGO: Sirius Black, infamous murder and escaped convict.
BACKGROUND:
The world Sirius comes from is much like our own, only there's a self-contained secret society of wizards in it. Very much a part of that secret society, Sirius comes from what is basically wizarding nobility, and has had very little contact with "normal" (or "muggle") society, outside of the time he spent in the city.
By and by, wizarding society is pretty easy-going, if rather on the reckless side of things. There's a Minister for Magic who interfaces with the larger British government, but other than that, they police themselves and if one or two muggles have to have their memory adjusted because some fool decided to breed hippogriffs in his backyard, well that's nothing too unusual. About 20 years ago or so, something far more serious than cryptobiological shenanigans came to pass, a threat potent and pervasive enough to bring wizarding society to its knees and very nearly breached the walls of ignorance that keep muggles ignorant of the wizards among them. That threat is the dark wizard Voldemort (who is more or less the wizard version of Hitler) who believes that magic users should rule the earth rather than hide. Twenty years ago he began amassing power, and called other wizards who don't much like playing nice with muggles together to begin sowing chaos and overthrowing the system. They called themselves Death Eaters. The wizarding world was effectively split in an internal civil war, and Voldemort very nearly won until 12 years ago when something went drastically wrong for him and he disappeared from the face of the earth.
Sirius's family has long held themselves superior to muggles and any wizards with muggle blood in them, in a very snooty aristocratic way. They believe in blood purity to the point that Sirius's parents are actually first cousins because no one else was worthy of marrying them - Voldemort was singing a tune that they and the other pureblood families found very compelling. Sirius, however, was cut from a very different cloth. His early childhood was unhappy, living under the strict rule of two parents who placed their lineage as their highest priority. Under his parent's watchful eye, he learned to identify every piece of cutlery that might ever grace a table, knows a generous number of waltzes and reels, can sit a horse, can recite his family tree back to the Middle Ages, and was privately tutored in French, Latin and Ancient Greek as well as other topics deemed important for a young wizard of quality to know. Sirius was isolated from all but a few other well-bred (and largely dull and spoiled) children, most of whom were related to him, and hated every minute of it. His younger brother Regulus, eager for attention and approval, soaked up their beliefs like a sponge and soon became no better or more interesting than the other pampered pure-bloods. His other childhood companions included his cousins Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa, of whom only Andromeda showed a glimmer of independant thought. She was his favorite, but he wouldn't have a true friend until he turned 11.
At that age, all children with magical abilities in Great Britain (whether they've ever heard of magic or not) are invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a boarding school in a whopping big magical castle, and basically taught to weild their powers and (theoretically) to get along with one another and at least be able to pretend to sometimes look mature and thoughtful. They are educated in Arithmancy, Charms, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, and a number of other things until the age of 17, at which point they're considered adults. Students are taught by year, as and there are an average of 40 students a year, they are also sorted into "Houses" by personality, to make the 280 or so of them more manageable. Each House has its own dormitory, divided by genders and by years, and its own faculty mentor. The most courageous students go into Gryffindor, the most loyal students go into Hufflepuff, the cleverest students go into Ravenclaw, and the most sly students go into Slytherin. This basically means, painted in the broadest stroke possible, that all the good people are in Gryffindor, all the bad people are in Slytherin, and everyone else is boring and either in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff depending on how bookish they are. I would like to say that the author established these House-based profiles and then illustrated how each person is different and blah blah blah, but no that's a true rule of thumb. The Blacks had all always gone to Slytherin, and Sirius's real rebellion started when he got himself sorted into Griffindor.
There, suddenly surrounded by other children who were not all frustrating and useless, Sirius found his truest family in the form of James Potter, another boy in his year who was as mischevious and clever as he was, and they quickly became inseperable. They also adopted Remus Lupin, who was smart but odd and sickly, and Peter Pettigrew who wasn't as bright but was game for whatever mischief they came up with, and the four of them formed a tight group, calling themselves the Marauders. James had also made an instant nemesis in the form of a weird little Slytherin named Severus "Snivellus" Snape, the hatred of whom Sirius happily adopted. He did not adopt James's equally-instant infatuation with a girl in their year named Lily Evans who semed to be friends with Snivellus, though she'd been sorted into Gryffindor so she couldn't be all bad. James and Sirius very quickly developed reputations for being rather brilliant students (when they bothered) and also complete troublemakers. Sirius's family eventually disowned him as a blood traitor for spitting on their legacy, and he was all but officially adopted by the Potters.
The Marauders soon found out the cause of Remus's strange illness: he was a werewolf. Finding out that a kid you sleep in the same room with occasionally turns into a huge, vicious, horrible, contagious monster was something of a surprise (especially given how...tetchy Remus was normally), but the boys decided that 1) the kid couldn't help it, 2) their friend was a werewolf, how brilliant was that?!, and 3) Remus really really really really needed friends. The Marauders were many things, not all of them good, but they were always excellent friends, and they proved it by throwing their keen minds and youthful enthusiasm into doing something very illegal and very dangerous: they learned an advanced transfiguration technique that would allow them to willingly turn into animals so that Remus would have company during the full moon. Wizards who can do this are called Animagi and the Ministry is very keen on making them register the ability, first because if you know someone nearby can turn into a cat you might close your window before having a sensitive conversation, and so that they can keep an eye out and make sure Mr. Jones doesn't get nicked one night by a muggle pound and euthanized. In any case, the boys were messing with magic that no fifth year could be expected to understand, much less cast, and working under pure assumption that a werewolf would not attack an animal the way that they (very aggressively) went after people. Fortunately, between James and Sirius, the three of them pulled it off, and doubly-fortunately, they were right about the wolf. Animagi don't pick an animal, they turn into something somehow appropriate to their essential natures. James turned into a stag (reflecting his noble nature), Sirius turned into a big black dog (reflecting his fun-loving loyalty and his name) and Peter turned into a rat (and somehow they didn't figure out what this reflected in him, but for purposes of this app, we'll say they figured it was resourcefulness.) The boys also combined their skills to create a magical map that showed who was in every room that they had ever found in Hogwarts, and their movements. They called it the Marauder's Map, and between it and James's invisibility cloak, basically had complete free reign of the castle.
It wasn't all magic and cleverness, though. Their feud with Snivellus was only escalating, as the kid was not only more than happy to return their hatred, he was persistent, devious and clever, and simply would not let up on finding out what was up with Remus's "illness" that kept him disappearing once a month. Granted, James and Sirius did nothing but antagonize him and encourage this hatred. This came to a rather dramatic head just after a serious of rigorous exams toward the end of their fifth year. Acting purely out of boredom, James ambushed Severus and subjected him to some seriously humiliating public torment for Sirius's amusement. When Lily called them out for being right little monsters, Snape lashed out at her as well, calling her a terrible name and ending their friendship. They brought out the worst in him, and he in they, and at the end of the day, everyone came away lessened for it.
Despite James and Sirius's best efforts, they all graduated, and James and Sirius went on to become aurors. Sirius inherited money from one of the few other Blacks who didn't toe the family line, and had enough to live comfortably. James even managed to marry his long-time crush Lily Evans, and had a son they named Harry. Sirius was named godfather, and for a brief time he had the family that he'd always wanted. The group was not fated to enjoy long and happy lives, however. During this time, Voldemort had amassed enough power to really start going after those who disagreed with him, and Sirius and his friends quickly rose to the top of that list. Voldemort's supporters were well placed in the government, however, and it quickly became dangerous to speak out against the growing anti-muggles sentiments, so the opposition took their fight underground. The Order of the Phoenix was formed to oppose Voldemort, and the Marauders and Lily joined without hesitation. Then a rare, true prophecy was spoken, that a child would be born at a certain time who would have the power to destroy the Dark Lord. Voldemort immediately began targeting wizarding families with children likely to be this opponent, including James and Lily whose infant son Harry was the right age.
A plan was formed that James and Lily would hide their home using an ancient and powerful spell that would allow only a secret keeper to even perceive it, much less know its location. Sirius was to be that secret keeper, but he knew that he would be the obvious target, and talked everyone into switching Peter into the role at the last minute so that only the four of them would know who the true Secret Keeper was. This proved a disastrous mistake, as Peter had joined the Death Eaters, and sold the secret of the Potter's home to Voldemort. Sirius discovered that Peter had disappeared and quickly went to check on his other friends, but arrived too late: James and Lily were both dead...and yet little Harry was alive and Voldemort was gone. After Harry was safely in friendly hands, Sirius went to hunt down Peter. Pettigrew was ready for him, however, and blew himself and an entire block of muggles up, effectively framing Sirius for the deaths of the Potters, the muggles and Pettigrew himself. No one would believe that timid little Peter Pettigrew would sell out the friends who had accepted and protected him all his life, but Sirius was a Black, and blood will tell. Any who didn't believe it were too few, too weak, or too compromised to do anything for him. He was convicted of murder and betrayal, labeled a Death Eater and sentenced to life in prison. Having lost all that he loved, Sirius snapped, and laughed all the way to the remote wizard prison, Azkaban. With Voldemort's disappearance, the Death Eaters fell to pieces, and many were also arrested.
He was there for 11 years, in a stone cell guarded by beings called Dementors who literally sucked all the happiness out of him, feeding off of all positive emotions. Sirius often retreated into dog form to protect himself from completely losing his soul, but there was one thought that the Dementors couldn't steal: the knowledge that he was innocent, and that the true killer was out there somewhere. He became obsessed with the knowledge, hungry for any news. Eventually, he chanced to get a newspaper from a visitor to the prison, and saw a large family of wizards who had won a trip to Egypt. They posed as a group in a picture, waving, holding their familiars...one of which was a rat. A very familiar rat. Suddenly Sirius knew that Peter was alive and how he'd been hiding after his staged death. He was emaciated enough to squeeze free of his prison in dog form, and swam to shore to hunt down his former friend.
The wizarding world went on high alert - Sirius was perceived as being only slightly less horrible than Voldemort himself, a dangerous madman who would kill anyone. No one knew that Sirius could turn into a dog (except for their other surviving friend, Remus Lupin) and since he laid low and lived off the streets and his own wits, they found him impossible to track. It was assumed that he would be coming for his godson, Harry, who had been raised by muggle relatives in ignorance of his parents and the wizarding world, and Sirius did hunt him down to check on him and satisfy himself that the boy was alright (a move that served only to terrify Harry). In truth, it was Harry's best friend Ron Weasley and his pet rat that Sirius was after, and so when he made his way to Hogwarts and used his cunning and knowledge of the castle to break in, he still seemed to be targeting his best godson. Remus Lupin, in the meantime, had taken a position at Hogwarts, and found his loyalty torn - all the evidence pointed to Sirius being a traitor and a murderer, but Sirius had been his friend. It wasn't until Peter Pettigrew showed up on the Marauder's Map that Remus realized the truth. When Sirius finally cornered Harry and his friends, Remus rejoined him to help explain what had happened to the children, and to reveal and kill Peter. Unfortunately, Snape had also followed them, and very nearly recaptured Sirius, and through some ensuing complications and misunderstandings, including Remus turning into a werewolf and nearly savaging the kids himself, Peter escaped, Sirius was nearly killed by Dementors and then recaptured. Harry and his friends freed him before they could send him back to Azkaban, however, and escaped on the back of one of the school's hippogriffs, Buckbeak. This is the point at which he will return to the City.
PERSONALITY:
Sirius has the generosity to love or hate whatever and whoever he wants to, the arrogance to disregard the opinions of most other people, and the confidence to stand by his convictions. A lord and a beggar, a genius and a fool, he's is a mass of contradictions, but he's never let that slow him down.
What was: Sirius was born with every advantage and opportunity, groomed to be the perfect young lordling, and he has kept no small part of the self-centered arrogance inherent in growing up swathed in luxury. His family also a history of explosive tempers, and he is no exception, which is doubly dangerous when coupled with his deep streak of recklessness. His common sense tends to take a back seat to his emotions on the best of days, but when he's riled up he acts without thinking about the consequences for anyone, friend or foe. Naturally bright and adept at magic, Sirius rarely had to put serious effort into his schoolwork in order to excel in the important things (read: subjects he personally cared about) he tends toward laziness and is only more arrogant when others have to struggle to keep up with him. He has little respect for authority save from figures who have directly earned his respect, and there is no question that he considers himself above the law when acting for what he perceives to be the right reasons. Or if he's bored. He's charismatic, good-looking and clever, and he has gotten away with far too much in his life because of it.
What is: Or so it was until Peter's betrayal, the trial, and Sirius's stint in Azkaban. There, for the first time in his life, it didn't matter how good he looked or how clever he was. Grieving, friendless and utterly abandoned, the Dementors found Sirius easy to subdue. When near a Dementor, people are physically incapable of feeling happy, and after living so long in total despair he's still adjusting to the giddiness of not feeling miserable, much less the breathless shock of actually feeling happy. He is now so unused to thinking of himself as a good and worthwhile person that he has no idea what to think of himself anymore. Emotionally, he is still 21 years old, and an immature 21 at that. The building blocks of his personality are all still there, but it will take him time to rebuild into a whole person again.
Some things, however, are simply inherent. Sirius's great saving grace is his ability to love others, and love deeply, regardless of class, sex or creed. For love, he will hold his tongue and his temper in check. For love, he will recognize his mistakes and apologize. For love, he will sit patiently and help others every step of the way. Because of his lonely childhood, he has a particular soft spot for the odd man out, and he goes out of his way to make those he likes laugh and smile. Sirius learned at a very young age that "good" and "evil" cannot be defined by social norms or prejudices, and so he truly does judge others based on their actions and the character he perceives in them. For those who act hatefully to others he has nothing but contempt (even though he himself can be extremely spiteful and bullying - the irony of that is lost on him, which is why he does it) but to anyone who shows a noble spirit and a good heart, Sirius is a stalwart friend through thick and thin, and trusts his friends utterly. He is also thoughtlessly generous in the way of someone who's never had to be concerned about money, and enjoys giving gifts and sharing what he has.
POWER:
Wizard: Sirius was born with the innate ability to influence the world around him through magic! This means that he would and can still do magic even without a wand, it's just harder to manifest and control. He has completed schooling and had some additional training in combat magic, and is thus pretty formidable! There are different kinds of magic available: Charms, which is to say all spells cast using an incantation and a wand; Transfiguration, the art of turning a thing into another thing using a wand; Potions, the art of combining ingredients in a cauldron to create magical elixers and such; Divination, gleaning prophecies and omens about the future; Arithmancy, which I'm going to handwave as some sort of basic math plus numerology because it's never described in the books, and Runes, which I will say is the ability to permanently imbue objects with magical powers. With advanced understanding of a spell, it can be cast wandlessly or silently, but this is more difficult, and Sirius knows very few spells at that level.
For purposes of the game, Sirius's magic will be limited to Charms, Transfiguration and Runes, and he probably won't even notice he can't do the others. Without a wand, he's pretty much screwed.
Animagus: Because he is AWESOME, Sirius has perfected the ability to turn into a great big puppy! It is really really really really hard to cast spells as a dog, since wands-and-incantations are not possible: he basically has to just will the spell through with his mind, and the level of concentration and complex thought he'd need for that is basically impossible for him when 90% of his brain is preoccupied with how everything smells.
Hippogriff: Sirius is just escaping on the back of a hippogriff named Buckbeak, and I would like to bring it in with him! Other than being a flying horse-eagle, Buckbeak doesn't have any particular powers - he's a little bit smarter than your average horse (smart enough to know when someone is being rude in his presence) but can't talk or understand human speech or anything like that. Just a big, kinda haughty horsebird. PLEASE NOTE THAT I RECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS KIND OF RIDICULOUS SO JUST SAY THE WORD AND I WILL DROP HIM FROM THE APP, but Ty and Mandy talked me into trying for him, and it's a fun bit of flavor from the books to bring into the City.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
He enjoys long walks on the beach, pudding, and just about anything that would make normal mortals pause and say "...this is a terrible idea."