Reims Academy application [OOC]
( fandom faculty/teacher application )
PLAYER INFORMATION
PLAYER: Ferus
AGE: 26
CONTACT:AIM: begabterMusiker
PERSONAL LJ:ferus_preliator
CHARACTERS PLAYEDn/a
CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME:Roderich Edelstein
CANON: Axis Powers Hetalia
CANON REFERENCE: Here
AGE: 28
GENDERMale
TENURE: 5 years
SUBJECT/POSITION: Music teacher, High school Alternate: Band director or Music teacher, middle school
RESIDENCE: On-island
APPEARANCE:Roderich is not terribly tall and is rather thin, coming in at 5'8" and around 125 lbs. He has medium length brown hair which he keeps trimmed and pushed out of his face without being completely slicked back. Much to his annoyance there is a cowlick on the right side that refuses to lay flat no matter how much hair gel he puts on it. His eyes are purple and he wears silver half-rim glasses. He will always wear a dress shirt and tie with some slacks to his class, usually with a jacket that he will only remove during the hottest part of the year. Maybe. Don't expect to see him in jeans of his own free will. No matter what he wears it is all expensive and tailored without exception. He always carries himself with confidence and an attitude that some call 'snobbish' or 'wow that guy has a stick up his ass.' He prefers to go with 'refined' and 'dignified.'
PERSONALITY: Roderich is the quiet dignified sort, the kind that likes routine and rules and predictability. He does tend to slack off with his teaching plans, leaving most of the work to a TA, but he will always be on time to his classes and expects as much from his students. Tardiness and rulebreaking in or out of class is not tolerated and he can be very strict, even to students that he favors. Though it is highly unlikely that he would favor any sort of rulebreaking types anyway.
While he is very dignified when he is in control of things, he can also get flustered and embarrassed very easily when the wrong situation (or wrong person, or Gilbert) happens to come up. He hates being embarrassed, and does his best to avoid anything that could embarrass him.
Because of his upbringing he enjoys the finer things in life, good music, fine food and a good cup of tea or coffee. He has a weakness for sweets, especially cakes and chocolates, and they're quite good ways to get back into his good graces, provided that one actually behaves after the present is given. He is very rarely seen as anything other than impeccably dressed and would never dream of having so much as a thread out of place if he could help it. For this reason he detests almost any sort of physical activity, especially running. He is a passably good skier though.
One thing he does excel at is music, he has made sure to play often, so his skills are still quite close to what they were when he still toured. He has a baby grand in his apartment as well as a violin, both of which see frequent use, even if he has to spend a regrettable amount of time teaching and making up lesson plans he always makes time to play. He also has amassed a large library of recordings spread between records, tapes, CDs and MP3 files that he keeps on his computer.
Thanks to his upbringing, Roderich has never had the easiest time expressing himself emotionally, though he has found that his music helps with that, allowing him to express himself musically where he may have a hard time doing such in an appropriate way otherwise. Even when angry he always tries to be unfailingly polite, and the judicious use of sarcasm is his favored weapon against rudeness or stupidity, and he has a very low tolerance for either.
Despite having a good income he can be very frugal about some things, and prefers to wear his suits until they are no longer discretely reparable (which he does himself, almost all of his socks are darned) before purchasing new ones. These repairs are very well done and nearly invisible. When he is at home and has no company he will often eat leftovers on the days that his cook does not come in, not because he can not cook, but because it is cheaper than buying more food. He will splurge on some things though, and because he saves money in other ways he does so without feeling too terribly guilty. Most of the time.
One last thing, he gets lost with almost embarrassing ease, and has done so for years. He will in fact have a map on his person that he can discretely check when needed and would be quite embarrassed were that fact to become known.
COMPUTER APTITUDE:Bare basics. He knows how to use the intranet, and basically how to filter, but anything past that... nope. He probably calls the poor IT guys at least once a week about some problem or other.
AU HISTORY: Roderich Edelstein was the only child of Maria and Josef Edelstein, both of them some sort of extremely minor nobility which really only meant that they had a lovely old house in Vienna and a few servants. Roderich's father worked as an antiques dealer specializing in musical instruments and his mother did some work with interior design when she wasn't going to parties that they couldn't really afford. Both of his parents tended to let Roderich be taken care of by an old nanny who made sure to instill a sense of pride in his family name and a sense of manners and proper etiquette from a young age. By and large his parents had little to do with his life, except where music was involved.
At the age of 3, it was discovered that Roderich was a musical prodigy. He had actually been playing tunes for his nurse before then, but she decided to have him play for his parents at his birthday party. He was still untutored, but the potential was there. His parents saw a way for their family to not only gain prestige but money as well with their talented son. They brought in tutors to give him music lessons in piano, and when he showed an interest in them, violin, flute and harp as well. He was good at all of them, but piano was where he truly excelled, mastering complicated pieces and even composing some of his own before he was eight years old. When he was nine his mother quit her job and took him on tour all over Europe, and while the boy disliked the hectic schedule, he also loved traveling and being able to perform for an audience that adored him.
He would tour until the age of fifteen, and was still quite popular, even if only in classical music circles. He made a profit from the tours though, and he found that he quite enjoyed spending time with his mother, even if she enjoyed the lavish society parties that he sometimes played at much more than he did. She would often come back to their rooms drunk and he found himself more and more often having to take the role of the responsible adult where she was involved. But things would change when they went back to their home in Vienna for a small break.
His old nurse was still employed by his family, and that summer her granddaughter came to work for the family in a temporary position. The girl had sometimes come by the home when Roderich was younger, but they had never gotten along. But this time was different, at least on Roderich's part. The young man fell head over heels for the brunette and, in his own rather awkward and overly polite way, tried to woo her. It took a lot of effort, and most of the summer, but in the end they began dating, much to both their families disapproval.
The biggest reason for this soon became apparent, Roderich's father Josef had gotten ill and the medical bills were piling up. Between his mother's continued drinking and his father's illness the family was burning through what little money they had at a startling rate. There was Roderich's income from his touring, but that wouldn't last long if he had to stay at home to take care of his parents. So he had to make a choice between going back to touring and staying home to take care of his father and make sure that his steadily worsening mother didn't drink every last dime they had left.
Sixteen was rather young to be doing most of the work for his father's business, but while he still had some of his health, Josef was determined that Roderich would be able to take over the business when he was gone. He would try, but a lack of interpersonal skills and a desire to focus on other things meant that he was not terribly good at selling antiques, even if he did know quite a bit about musical instruments. Eventually, with his father's worsening health the business was given to a family friend to run until Roderich finished college, at which time he was expected to take over the business, a prospect that he was not terribly thrilled about.
Regardless he would go to college, and managed to continue his long distance relationship while Elizabeth went to college elsewhere. He would eventually graduate with a business degree and he tried to take over the family business. And failed miserably. Between his father medical bills, his mother drinking whatever money she was given, and his own mishandling of the business, it very nearly went under. By the time his father died when the young man was 23 the family had sold their home merely to cover expenses. Control of the business was given over to the Edelstein's family friend to provide Roderich and his mother with some small income.
Roderich soon found that the income was not sufficient, and within a year was looking for employment. He found a teaching position at Reim's Academy and has taught there since.
JUSTIFICATION: Roderich is quite mature and already has a very teacher like mentality of following the rules as they are presented. He would be an excellent teacher for any sort of music class, whether it be Band, Music, Music History, Music Appreciation, Concert Band or Chorus. While he does tend to avoid some parts of his work (grading tests are what TAs are there for, right?) he thoroughly believes in musical education and appreciation.
SAMPLES
INTRANET/1ST PERSON SAMPLE
Music History students, please remember that your first test will be this Friday. I hope you have studied, as this is a closed book and notes free exam.
Chorus members, take note that, as scheduled, practices are on Mondays and Wednesdays and auditions for the solos for this year's Spring Concert will take place next week.
To the person that stole the chocolates from my desk drawer; this is your last chance to return them before I resort to much less polite measures. There are consequences for stealing and I expect you to do the right thing.
Gilbert, for the last time STOP REPLACING MY COFFEE GROUNDS WITH DIRT.
LOG/3RD PERSON SAMPLE Roderich Edelstein was not, by nature an early riser. He would often stay up past midnight playing on his piano (or more rarely doing teacherly things) and as such he much preferred to sleep in until at least nine or ten in the morning. If he could have scheduled all of his classes in the afternoon or evening he would have done so in the blink of an eye, all the better to have a lazy morning sleeping in and lazing around in bed. It was a much more pleasant way to spend the morning than with a class full of students who had only joined his class because they believed that it would be an easy A.
But this morning was not to be a lazy and quiet morning for Roderich. At precisely seven he was awoken by a loud, obnoxious noise. It took him a moment to realize that it was his cell phone ringing, mostly because that was not the ringtone he thought he had selected. He was sure he had switched it to that lovely rendition of Fantasie Impromptu, but it appeared that he had once again done something wrong. The person on the phone was of course his TA, reminding him that he had class at nine this semester and that he should not be late. Again. With a grumble and a groan he thanked the young lady whose name he could never remember, conceded the field and got out of bed.
A cup of coffee, two pastries, and a shower later and Roderich felt somewhere that was much closer to awake than before. Really, who in the world had decided that classes had to start at such early hours? It was ridiculous and annoying, but Roderich would keep his schedule. He always had and he had no intention of changing it now.
In fact, he was about to go out the door when he heard someone knocking on his door. No, not a knocking, a pounding, as though someone was using their fist or a piece of wood. Now really, he had a bell did he not? And if for whatever unfathomable reason the person wanted to knock instead of ring then he had a knocker. There was no reason, no excuse to do something like that to his door. It was probably some idiot wishing to annoy him first thing in the morning. He had no idea how, but sometimes students managed to get into the faculty housing areas. But he was not going to stand for it.
Roderich marched to the door, a determined frown on his face as he pulled it open mid-bang, already starting in on whoever had dared bother him at this early hour. "Now see here, what precisely is the meaning of this?! You had better have a good excuse for this sort of thing!"
HAVE YOU READ THE FAQ?Yes, please don't unleash the rabid wombat. ;;