goosemods + year 2 bio

[stclair]

I turn my camera on
I cut my fingers on the way
The way I’m slippin’ away
I turn my feelings off
Y’made me untouchable for life

GENERAL

NAME: Micah Vincent St. Clair (Pronounced MY-kah, not MEE-kah.)
NICKNAMES: He signs his name as MVSC. Please don't call him Mike. (That means you, Dad.)
AGE/DOB/ZODIAC: 16 / May 30, 1998 / Gemini
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male, he/him
SEXUALITY: Claims to be against "labels" or "boxes," although your mileage may vary on whether or not this is sincere or just pretentious. He's extremely flirtatious towards classmates of all genders, although he is starting to think he leans more towards boys than girls. (Results inconclusive, needs more testing. Wink wink.) Micah's avoiding anything serious right now, as he had a tumultuous summer relationship, and they only just broke up on the first day of school.
HOMETOWN: Revelstoke, Nevada, United States. Revelstoke is a wizard-only town hidden somewhere in the Great Basin Desert, with a population of less than 1000. It's extremely isolated and not very modern—they only got access to electricity about ten years ago, and Internet more recently than that. Both of these things have been a godsend to Micah.

CONCEPT: Irrepressible and irreverent future film director enjoys frights, flirting and fucking up.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Micah still needs a haircut. His dark brown hair is always several inches too long, and hangs in his face in a way that would be rebellious and cool if it wasn't so limp and stringy. At 16, he's finally grown into his (sadly dainty rather than studly) looks, although he still looks like a skinny white boy whose sole certifiably handsome asset might be his bright blue eyes. Quidditch jock heartthrob, he is not; he's actually pretty athletic, but his build is more wiry than anything else.

Micah consistently loses points for being sloppy with his school uniform, and has ripped holes in several sets from all the tree-climbing and sneaking through the woods he does while trying to find the perfect framing shot. His usual style is pretty standard: jeans, T-shirts, hoodies; although he's been trying to dress it up with boho-style jewelry like beaded leather bracelets, and wooden necklaces. He's only starting to get more self-conscious about his appearance this year.

HEIGHT: 5'8¼" and not getting any taller. He's accepted the truth.

PB: Vincent Kartheiser

PERSONALITY

LIKES: movies, photography, people watching, writing screenplays, monsters, fake blood and gore, the Quidditch team, speed, feeling the wind in his hair, motorcycles, tinkering with old cameras

DISLIKES: quiet, the library, having to sit still, being told a movie (any movie) is shitty, when the battery runs out on his camcorder or laptop, serious conversations, pitying looks, veggies

PERSONALITY:

Micah is an aspiring film director who is obsessed with making movies. He always has a million projects going at once, whether he's outlining his "latest" screenplay (he has hundreds of unfinished screenplays), doodling scene blocking in class, or just has a camera up and filming during any important moment. He's incredibly ambitious and wants to learn how to do everything when it comes to filmmaking, although he prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front of it.

Friends get used to Micah always having a camera in his hand, either snapping photos or filming the most boring minutiae with his melodramatic narration over top. He enjoys comparing things to something he saw in a movie, or framing a recent event in the context of a "narrative," even when they're totally mundane. He's a bit hard to talk to when he gets an idea in his head. Attempts to dissuade him from whatever he's doing at the moment tend to make him dig his heels in and laugh off logic or concern. Even when you directly call him on his bullshit, Micah is hard to unbalance. He can be infuriatingly shameless and unapologetic about his interests, and even sometimes seems to enjoy being yelled at. Good luck getting him to put the camera down or pay attention to anything else.

Which isn't to say that Micah doesn't care about anything else, but his attention skips around a lot. Everything has to be FUN, and some of the things Micah finds fun are: his classes, working on challenging projects, scary monsters, getting hit by Bludgers, having cute people be mad at him when he flirts with them. He's busy, proactive and able to find entertainment in almost everything, but loses interest quickly and switches to a new project every week. He never seems to treat anything with serious importance, not even movies, really. Micah keeps things surface-level. He's easy to befriend, but hard to get close to.

His superficiality is a coping mechanism, one he's leaned on so long he doesn't know how to stop. Micah's always funny, enthusiastic, talkative, flirty, etc. Nothing ever gets him down. No one ever hurts his feelings. This is who Micah became instead of dealing with the unbearable grief he feels over losing his brother. He pointedly avoids deeper emotions, whether his own or someone else's. He's terrible at expressing empathy or sympathy. When someone's upset, he usually copes by trying to cracking jokes to try to make them laugh. Micah's generally good-hearted, but his sense of humour can be incredibly insensitive. If laughter doesn't work, he'll try to escape sad or upset people by making them mad at him (because at least being mad is better than sad, right?).

Micah plays the fool, but he's more self-aware than he acts. He knows he lacks empathy. He knows he oversteps boundaries. He knows he can be unkind and selfish and intentionally hurtful in how he often disregards the feelings of others. He cares deeply about his friends, but feels like he always cares about himself a bit more, and maybe this is the natural consequence of cutting off his heart so he doesn't have to deal with his own grief. He despises having anyone feel sorry for him. He'd honestly rather be disliked than pitied. He no longer wants to be the sad little boy. He wants, desperately, to move on.

As a junior, Micah seems no different from who he was last year. The same big grin, the same jokey personality, the same camera in front of his face. But in his heart, he's starting to come to terms with everything he's lost since he stopped trying to be genuine. He doesn't know if he wants his old self back. He doesn't even know what left of the old Micah. But he can't grow up if he keeps like this forever... and he does want to grow up, doesn't he?

SKILLS

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English.

PATRONUS: He can't cast a Patronus yet. (But it's a stingray. [LINK])

SKILLS:

Photography and film. Micah owns three cameras: a vintage Leica M6 35mm camera (his favourite, typically takes still photos unless Micah develops using a magical potion), a Sony digital camcorder (fairly new, used for most of his filmmaking), and 35mm motion picture film camera (very old, barely functional, his Artificing pet project). Micah is basically self-taught when it comes to the principles of photography and filmmaking, but he's been at it for a few years now. His skills tend to rank somewhere between amateurish and surprisingly promising. Micah also owns a laptop which he uses almost exclusively for a) video editing and b) watching movies.

Skilled in Artificing. Micah's best class is Artificing, and his focus is on photographic equipment. Last year's pet project, aided greatly by Mr. Oakes and Calvin Evercreech, was a photobooth that automatically generated wizard trading cards of anyone who stepped inside. This year, he's returning to his passion, which will either have something to do with the old movie camera he owns or finding magical means to project a VHS tape. He wants to make either recording or playing movies more accessible to wizards.

Knowledge of movie tropes. Is this an actual skill??? Dubious. For what it's worth, Micah's watched a shitton of movies, although his actual taste in movies is abysmal. Do not come to him for movie recs unless you want to watch Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe.

Quidditch. With a sports enthusiast dad, Micah's been forced to fly a broom since he was old enough to stand. He was never terribly interested in Quodpot, but coming to Gooseberry, he made the effort to get into Quidditch for his father's sake. He made reserve in sophomore year. Micah loves being part of a team, but he didn't get motivated until some of his friends pushed him to train harder in hopes of making Seeker this year. He's built small but has good stamina and balance, and is pretty fearless on a broom.

Artist. Micah's taken art classes for a few years and is moderately talented at drawing, mostly storyboards and monster designs. Almost all of his art is rough-looking pencil drawings.

Motorcyclist. Micah knows his way around a motorcycle, and can do some standard maintenance and repairs. He's been riding since he was too young to get his license, and gave himself a crash course this summer by spending a couple days driving the next state over. It was incredibly foolhardy. He started learning by sitting at the side of mechanical genius brother, and ended up teaching himself over the years.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

Everett St. Clair, father. Half-blood. Quodpot game commentator, works out of Las Vegas. Everett always wanted a son who was into sports, and as the only magical son, Micah ended up having to learn how to fly a broom. Dad is earnest, straightforward and inclined to bone-cracking hugs; and has little in common with Micah, who's more artistic and prickly, and gets cerebral and convoluted about his interests. Everett's often concerned about how everyone's feeling, and is literally the only one in the family who ever wants to talk about that. His father doesn't really get Micah, and vice versa, but they've been making the awkward effort to bond over Quidditch. He's extremely proud of Micah making first string Seeker this year.

Miranda St. Clair, mother. Half-blood. Translator for magical books. Micah's a lot more like his mom; she has his sense of humour and irreverence, and that same hard avoidance of talking about feelings. The death of her eldest son hit her particularly hard, and she only managed to claw her way out of grief about two years ago by throwing herself into work. She and Micah get each other, although there's been tension lately over his decision to go on a summer motorcycle road trip. Mom has always been his biggest supporter when it comes to his movie dreams, and makes a point of picking up a new DVD for him every time she Apparates out of Revelstoke.

Caleb St. Clair, older brother (by 4 years). Squib. Deceased, in a motorcycle accident three years ago. Micah loved his brother more than anything, and no longer talks about him. This year, Micah's coping somewhat poorly with the fact that he'll soon be hitting seventeen, the same age Caleb was when he died.

HISTORY:

EARLY CHILDHOOD.
A big family wasn't in the cards for Everett and Miranda St. Clair. Their eldest, Caleb, was an exceptionally difficult birth, and the complications resulted a few miscarriages, spread out over four years, before they managed to have their second son, Micah. Growing up, the boys were used to their mother referring to them both as her "miracle children." Caleb and Micah could not have been raised in a more loving family environment, which was perhaps their only comfort when they were stuck in a remote wizarding town with nothing to do.

Still, Revelstoke wasn't the worst place to grow up. All of the kids your age had to be your friend or else no one was ever getting a Quodpot game off the ground, and it was safe enough that their parents rarely got upset with Caleb for keeping his younger brother out past sunset to look at the stars. Caleb would pore over dusty astronomy books and Micah would invent stories about the people who lived on the stars and planets they looked at, and they'd act out exploring these alien worlds by playing in the desert.

Despite their age difference, Caleb was unquestionably Micah's best friend. It was a typical "doting older brother" and "adoring little brother" dynamic, and remained so even as other differences cropped up over the years. Micah was always an awkward, scrawny kid; imaginative and clever but easy to side-track. Caleb was the golden boy, tall and strong and handsome, known for his kindness and patience. Dad had always wanted a Quodpot player for a son, so it was a shocking disappointment when athletic Caleb definitively turned out to be a Squib, and skinny Micah awoke to his magical abilities.

If growing up in Revelstoke had been trying for a young magical boy, it was infinitely worse for a Squib. Not because of family, although in some ways it made it worse that Caleb's mother, father and little brother loved him so much and were so protective of him. Leaving Micah, who so adored him, was unimaginable. Some relief came when the wizard town finally joined modern society and found a way to get a wired connection to the Internet, and the St. Clair brothers eagerly consumed all the Muggle material they could. Caleb fell in love with rocket ships and airplanes and automobiles, and Micah discovered movies.

ILVERMORNY.
It was a passion which would have very little time to develop. Soon enough, Micah left for Ilvermorny, and the closest he could get to knowing anything about movies was by pestering his Muggleborn classmates to recount to him the plots of their favourite films. He might've been an odd pick for Horned Serpent house, but when it came to Muggle movies, Micah was an obsessive scholar. Every summer was spent watching as many movies online as he could (totally indiscriminately, which probably accounts for Micah's current shitty taste in movies), and when his mother found a cheap digital video camera for Micah to use, well. There was no going back. Healer, Auror, dragon breeder? No, Micah St. Clair was going to be a famous film director.

And oh right, he was a wizard too. Boarding school wasn't a terrible experience, even if there weren't any DVD players in the castle. Micah enjoyed magic classes and being away from home, and even took up Quodpot for his father's sake, although he was never very passionate about it. (He liked intramural Quidditch too, and was willing to try any club to keep himself busy.) Back home, Caleb was indulging in his love of Muggle vehicles by buying a motorcycle, which he'd take for long trips away from Revelstoke. In hindsight, Micah sees how suffocated Caleb must've felt at home, as a restless teenager and a Squib in a small town of almost entirely wizards, without even his lively little brother around to keep the melancholy at bay.

LOSING HIS BROTHER.
In the middle of Micah's third year at Ilvermorny, Caleb was in a motorcycle accident and died. A simple road accident, which any wizard would've survived. There are more details to that, but none Micah cares to dwell on. Micah was given permission to miss class for two weeks and go home for the funeral. He suspects he could've been excused for longer, but after even one week, Micah was desperate to leave home again. His bright, witty mother; his warm-hearted, laughing father; both vanished into their grief, and Micah couldn't bear to watch it. He returned to school early. He doesn't really recall what the next few months were like, only that he seemed to pass through his classes and exams like an observer than an active participant. Like the cameraman, rather than the actor.

The first time Micah remembers waking up from that fog was when the brochure for Gooseberry High was passed around. Not because he was an academic genius or had a secret passion for camping, but just the idea of going somewhere completely new triggered something in him. Somewhere where his classmates didn't let all their conversations lapse into awkward silence, where the teachers didn't speak gently to him even when he was being an inattentive flake, where he no longer had to walk into Transfiguration class and think, every time, "this is where I was when they called me to the headmaster's office to tell me." He applied, bundling compassionately worded teacher's recommendations with his good but unremarkable grades, along with a burned DVD of some of his short films, and a very enthusiastic cover letter.

GOOSEBERRY. FRESHMAN & SOPHOMORE YEAR.
Gooseberry was just what Micah needed. The unexpected letter telling them he'd been accepted to a new school even shook his mother out of her own fog ("Micah, when did you even apply?"), and Micah's promise to try out for Quidditch brought the first smile to his father's face in months. During freshman year, Micah did his best to send his parents regular updates on how cool everything was. They have horses! Kayaking! Camping! And to all his new classmates, well, there were no preconceptions. No history. Micah could be anyone he wanted to be. He was going to be FUN. The LIFE OF THE PARTY. And a world-famous WIZARD FILM DIRECTOR.

It was shockingly easy to become a whole new person. He cracked jokes in class, flirted outrageously with everyone who crossed his path, and pursued bad ideas with the whole-hearted enthusiasm of a blue jay. Micah collected a wide circle of friends, and midway through sophomore year, encouraged them to follow him into the Grotto to commune with the forest's unusual inhabitants. Micah ended up losing his Ouija board during their third sophomore seance, when he and his friends encountered the horrific ghost of a boy who'd died long ago when he was taken by his home by the Anonymous Writer. Only a month later, Micah (and several other students) went though nearly the same thing.

When Micah was put to sleep by Anon, he dreamed of Caleb in vivid technicolour. Not quite Caleb as Micah had known him, but Caleb if he'd been allowed to grow to adulthood, to become a motorcycle-riding movie star who'd left Revelstoke and still had a tight bond with Micah. His friends rescued him from his magical sleep and Micah ended up being one of the seven children who were taken into the ancient mines to find the heart of Anon's brother. The group was confronted by a malicious doppelganger of Micah who laid bare all their worst insecurities, but before anyone could get hurt, Brother showed up and scared off the creature wearing Micah's face. They were returned to school, and Micah was sent straight home to the arms of his confused but concerned parents.

(A note on major relationships: Micah is old friends with Ilvermorny classmates, namely Regan Hobbs and Cole Moss. He became fast friends with his roommates/chickabros, namely Jefferson Key, Lucas Kowalski and Zachary Zheng. He developed a massive crush on exchange student Calvin Evercreech, but they became just friends after Calvin turned him down in sophomore year. He's close with Hazel Keating; they're just friends but confusingly flirtatious.)

SUMMER BEFORE JUNIOR YEAR.
Newly sixteen and troubled by being forced to experience the loss of his brother twice over, Micah immediately got to work on one of Caleb's old motorcycles, still stored in the garage. Bolstered by two years of Artificing classes and a license to use his wand outside of school, he tricked out the bike with various safety charms and went out on the road. To say the least, his parents freaked out—the first time in three years, in fact, that Micah could remember his parents actually getting angry with him about anything. It wasn't enough to stop Micah. Call it teenage rebellion. He did his best to constantly update his parents on where he went and how he was, but he was free, as Caleb had been every time he went for a ride.

Not once did it cross Micah's mind that he wouldn't be returning to Gooseberry. The school was his refuge, the only place where he knew who he was. His parents had their misgivings, but it was difficult to deny Micah the place which made him happy. After his ill-advised but ultimately uneventful motorcycle road trip, Micah spent the rest of the summer on his best behaviour, dutifully seeking permission before Apparating to friends. The most grief he gave his parents was whenever he complained about his new boyfriend and their on-again, off-again relationship, but privately they were also grateful that it appeared Micah was happy and moving on.

Micah returns to Gooseberry as a junior, and is determined to make everything NORMAL again for him and his friends. Who wants to organize a Grotto party???

SCHOOL

YEAR: Junior (Grade 11)
HOUSE: Azurcrest
SORTING: Micah had watched in fascination for a few moments, just trying to figure out how the cave drawing magic worked. Like a cartoon projected on the wall, and maybe if you found a way to attach a script and package it up, you could have a movie distribution going. He started excitedly muttering to himself about that idea instead of the matter at hand, i.e. his Sorting, and then it was Ebonhide and Azurcrest trying the hardest for him. Azurcrest won out. He might be obsessive, but seriousness and introspection aren't Micah's strong points, and he's always down for fun.
WAND: Ancient kauri wood, dragon scale core, 13 inches and inflexible. This old wand is a heirloom passed down the St. Clair line, and was originally meant to go to Micah's older brother. Even after all these years, Micah has yet to fully bond with the wand, but he wouldn't give it up for the world.
FAMILIAR: None.

CLASSES: (core) Charms, Hermeticism, Potions; (electives) Aesthetic Magic, Artificing, Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts; (advanced study) Muggle Technology Studies.
ADVANCED STUDY: Muggle Technology Studies (Advanced). Micah may be behind most of his peers when it comes to computers (his hometown gained Internet access only five years ago), but he's spent what little time he had teaching himself how to edit videos and illegally download movies. He's a complete novice at computer science, but he jumped at the chance to do MTS to a) get more time to work on his films and b) go to a Muggle university to study film.
SENIOR PROJECT: Micah wants to make film a mainstream wizard art form. He's been studying the history of cinematography and working on magic-friendly methods of film and film editing, but it's pretty clunky compared to handheld muggle recording devices. Obviously, he's working on the screenplay to his movie masterpiece, but he's also been experimenting with "down converting" VHS tapes in hopes of introducing wizards to muggle cinema on a massive scale. It's an ambitious but scattered project. Micah hasn't hammered down the specifics yet.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Micah is surprisingly good student, although his grades are somewhat scattershot, with mostly B's, some C's and a couple of A's. He enjoys classes and can get very into his assignments, especially when they're challenging, and it helps that he's figured out which classes he enjoys most for his sophomore year. His favourites are Aesthetic Magic and Artificing, both of which he's commandeered as time to work on his growing film oeuvre. Like most, he has the toughest time in Hermeticism, which can get a bit too abstract for him. Astronomy is hard to grasp for the same reason, but he loves it for sentimental reasons.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Quidditch (Seeker), Drama, Gaming, Duelling, Crafting, Event Committee. Unofficially, Newspaper (photographer).

In order of most to least dedicated attendance:

• Quidditch; he was a reserve last year and made it as Seeker this year. Maybe an odd choice, since Micah isn't known for his patience, but he likes watching and being observant. Although Quidditch has never been his passion, he ended up training harder last year, thanks to the encouragement of his Quidditch-playing friends, and is pretty ecstatic about making first string.
  
• Drama, although he'd so much rather work backstage or in a directorial capacity. Mrs. Acuña allowed him to be assistant director last year, so he has high hopes for this year.
  
• Gaming; he can play a mean match of Mario Kart. Also, hello haunted DVD player and questionable movie collection.
  
• Duelling, where he is admittedly not that great of a duellist or fencer, but he loves filming his classmates' duels. One day it's going to make great fight scene material.
  
• Crafting, which he joined because his good buddy Cole was heading up the club, but his attention is a bit spotty. He'll often use this time to work on props for his latest movie project.
  
• Event Committee, which tends to turn into Micah treating every dance like a movie set he's dressing. Right, OK, it's supposed to be "fun," but if you use these sheer white curtains, you can hide inside them and kind of look like a spooky ghost.
  

OOC

NAME: Marin
EMAIL: righthandmarin [at] gmail
CDJ: baisemain
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: N/A
TIME ZONE: Mountain

Comments

UPDATES TO MICAH

[stclair]

Updated concept line ok I WILL as soon as i am awake enough to think of a good one

Revised Personality (completely rewrote half of it)

Added Skills

Added Y1 and summer history

Added Muggle Technology Studies, dropped Transfiguration

Minor edits: Appearance, Clubs (now first string Seeker)