Cole Moss - YEAR ONE

[colemoss]

GENERAL

NAME: Cole Arman Moss
NICKNAMES: None
AGE/DOB: Sixteen / March 19 (Pisces)
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male & He/Him
SEXUALITY: Uncertain
HOMETOWN: Richmond, Virginia

Cole grew up in a small wizard-only neighborhood on the outskirts of Richmond known colloquially as Adastra; this is a play on the town's motto, Sic Itur Ad Astra, which means Thus We Do Reach the Stars. Presumably, some witch or wizard thought this was clever or poetic at some point. He spent his childhood either there or off at boarding school (Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Gooseberry Alternative High School). As a result, he has very little experience with or knowledge of Muggle culture, but thinks some of their artwork is pretty amazing.

CONCEPT: Absent-minded daydreamer and artist that is annoyingly adept at magic.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: Cole isn't particularly tall in stature, but has an effortlessly slim body with tan skin and fairly defined muscles despite how infrequently he actually uses them. He has a handsome face with a wide jaw, broad nose, fine lips (accented with a prominent beauty mark above the right side), and dark eyes that seem to look through people as often as at them. His hair, dark and thick and not quite long enough to reach his shoulders, is typically worn down and slightly unkempt, giving him the perpetual look of someone that has just woken up. Which, in his case, isn't far from the truth.

Fairly unconcerned with style, he has no objections to the Gooseberry High uniform and wears it without alteration. When left to his own devices, however, he tends to dress more casually in t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers or whatever else happens to be available. While he is unconcerned with clothing, he is an artist and has a habit of drawing on his own skin when he's idle or bored or sitting through lectures, often leaving him with detailed patterns on his hands and forearms in Sharpie marker or pen. This can (and does) sometimes leave smudges on his clothes or other things that he touches, but this doesn't seem to concern him. He also has a permanent tattoo of a window, crafted with magical ink, on his back just below the base of his neck. Like much of the art in the wizarding world, the tattoo isn't stagnant; at different times, the window will be opened or closed or have curtains drawn, the scene and the seasons outside will change, and other alterations may occur. There seems to be some correlation between his mood and how the image appears.

Cole has a difficult time keeping his mind from wandering and, when forced to engage or pay attention, he tends to move a lot. He taps fingers, bites his lip, shifts, and the like. Overall, this makes him seem a little twitchy. He dislikes prolonged eye contact.

HEIGHT: 5'10"

Since last year, Cole had a very kind growth spurt; he's five inches taller, broader in the shoulders, and looks considerably older. He's been told this is a good thing.

PB: Jordan Rodrigues

PERSONALITY

LIKES: Art. Drawing + Painting. Sewing. Creating in general. Daydreams. Dreams. Sleep. People-watching. Mint (leaves, candies, teas, etc.). Puzzles. Giving himself Sharpie tattoos. Drama Club. Games. Cards. Multi-tasking. Details. Inspiration. Trying new things, especially artistically.

DISLIKES: Forgetting things. Losing things. Studying. Lectures. Being tired. Being bored. Pressure. Conflict. Physical exertion (sweat is the grossest). Metaphors.

PERSONALITY:

Cole is introverted and creative, a young man that is prone to living in his head rather than in the world around him. It isn't uncommon at all to find him staring off into space, completely checked out and lost in thought, or for him to lapse into such a state in the midst of an moment's pause or an activity or even a conversation. Perpetually distracted by his wandering thoughts and vivid imagination, he has difficulty focusing on one thing at a time and is quick to become restless and bored and exasperated when dealing with anything that doesn't completely fascinate him. There are not many things which can hold his attention with any reliability; the sole exception to that is art. He is enthralled with creating and can spend hours drawing, painting, or otherwise bringing something new and unique into the world. He has an overly active mind that makes him simultaneously precise and scattered, the sort of person that notices and remembers everything when he's actually paying attention but doesn't pick up on the significance of what he knows and is constantly missing the forest for the trees. It also makes him irresponsible; he often loses things, seems to be lacking in common sense, and is generally unreliable.

Despite this scattered focus, Cole isn't stupid. Even without trying or giving something his full attention, he is bright and intuitive and a good problem-solver. He is also immensely talented when it comes to magic. He learns and remembers spells with startling ease, often only having to see them once to perform them and requiring minimal practice to become proficient. He has always been deemed 'gifted' and many teachers have attempted to motivate him or pressure him into trying harder than he does, only to have him immediately disengage from them. While he likes magic, he can't stand the pressure of 'potential' and mostly just wants to be left alone to underachieve, create, and exist in peace. This effortless ability doesn't always endear him to his classmates and, while he's normally unaware of it, some find it just as frustrating as his instructors do.

While not shy, Cole has underdeveloped social skills and comes across as awkward, oblivious, and sometimes uncaring in his interactions with others as a result. He struggles to correctly read expressions, body language, and social cues, the silent aspects of communication which most people interpret with a certain level of fluency. He also has difficulty detecting lies or sarcasm and, unless corrected, tends to take almost everything literally. Uncommonly naive, he has a bad habit of believing everything he's told. He was always the kid that believed a penny on the tracks could derail a train and he's likely the only student at Gooseberry that believes all the rumors, both about the school and his peers. There's nothing malicious about this; he just assumes that if these stories weren't true, why would people make them up? He also has a number of superstitious beliefs for the same reason. While not unfriendly, all of these difficulties sometimes make dealing with other people seem like an overwhelming prospect and he prefers to spend time with people he knows or people that speak directly and plainly. He would typically prefer to be around someone that's direct (even if that also makes them bossy or tactless or mean by the standards of others) than someone that would say things they don't mean.

Fortunately, apart from being socially inept, Cole is a fairly amiable person and that can make his various shortcomings and eccentricities easier to deal with. He is good-natured, never hateful or intentionally cruel or judgemental toward other people, and has a surprisingly good (if somewhat goofy) sense of humor. He is also adaptable, willing to try almost anything for the sake of a new experience or a good time with the proper prompting, though he isn't especially wild or rebellious on his own. All of this only applies assuming that other people can get his attention, of course. True to his house, he dislikes confrontation and prefers to take the path of least resistance most of the time. He would rather ignore a problem or adapt to a concession than confront someone head on and often withdraws from everything when he's overwhelmed. He is a follower, not a leader, and is very comfortable playing second fiddle and taking his cues from other people, for better or worse.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

Oswin Moss (Father) - Half-blood - Obliviator: An Obliviator with the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation (F.B.C.V.N.O.), Oswin became a widower when his children were quite small. While he is kind and has always taken care of his family, he is also stuffy and serious and overbearingly pragmatic in most regards.

Hana Moss (Mother) - Half-blood - Deceased: Hana spent most of her life suffering from a chronic illness that could never be cured, even by magical means, and made a living as the bookkeeper for a wandmaker before marrying Oswin. She then became a homemaker, keeping the house and raising her children, until her condition suddenly worsened and she passed away. Despite her poor health, she was a warm and vivacious woman according to most that knew her.

Lucasta Moss (Stepmother) - Pure-blood - Perfumer: A witch that uses her considerable talents in herbology and potions to create a stunning array of magical and non-magical perfumes. A flighty and free-spirited woman, she is a disappointment to her Pure-blood family, but quite happy with her simple life, her doting husband, and her two adopted children. Even though one of them hates her. She is much younger than her husband and quite stunning, leading to no shortage of comments about Cole's 'hot mom' from his less tactful peers.

Nate Moss (Brother) - Half-blood - Student: A senior at the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he was sorted into Wampus. Nate is an athletic, gruff, no-nonsense type and has a somewhat rocky relationship with his brother. Despite that, he is very protective of Cole and wasn't happy when he made the move to Gooseberry High. He asked some of his former Ilvermorny classmates to keep an eye on his brother, though Cole doesn't know this.

HISTORY:

Cole Moss was born and raised in Richmond, the younger of two children and the son of a well-off but not particularly remarkable couple. His father worked with the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation (F.B.C.V.N.O.) and his mother, plagued by a chronic illness all her life and physically frail, maintained their modest suburban home and cared for their children. Introverted and imaginative, even as a small boy, he was slow to learn to talk and to socialize but took immediately to picture books and coloring and playing pretend games with his mother. These were happy and uneventful years, but he has few memories of them or of his mother. When Cole was only four, complications from her condition caused Hana to pass away in her sleep, only to be found by her sons and her husband the following morning.

This loss was terrible and the family pulled together to try to cope and move forward without Hana. Unfortunately, Cole couldn't relate to his father or his brother as he had with his mother. Oswin was serious and pragmatic, Nate was rambunctious and competitive, and neither had any sense of appreciation for creativity. Feeling perpetually out of place, he gradually retreated more into himself, spent more and more of his time drawing and daydreaming, and grew into a quiet, artistic oddball. When Cole was six, he began attending Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with his brother, was sorted into Horned Serpent, and began the study of magic. Despite being naturally talented and making excellent grades, he was a poor student, frequently getting into trouble for being late, ignoring instructions, or not paying attention (he could never stop himself from doodling or sleeping or letting his mind wander during class). He did almost as poorly with his peers because of his stunted social skills and distracted mind, struggling both to make friends and to avoid being picked on by other children. While a protective and occasionally volatile older brother kept the worst of the teasing and bullying from touching him, Cole was nevertheless unpopular and mostly a loner.

This didn't change as Cole got older; he remained a socially inept eccentric, a talented wizard with limited interest in studying magic, and an abysmal student with top notch grades. He also spent more and more time with his art. He graduated from crayons and markers well before the end of elementary school, moving on to pencils and inks and paints and charcoal. Anything that he could get his hands on, really, and anything that would let him experiment with new techniques and styles. Unfortunately, he also developed some habits that further solidified his status as strange. He watched and sketched his peers. He took to sleeping between (and sometimes through) classes in all sorts of places around campus, both because he swore that inspiration always struck when he was dreaming and because he was staying up so late working on his other projects in the dorms. Still, he wasn't the only strange one around and he kept the same small circle of friends that he'd always had, mostly fellow artists and outcasts that didn't expect him to be anything but what he was. So school wasn't all bad.

When Cole was thirteen and home from Ilvermorny for the summer, he learned that his father had become romantically involved with another (much younger) woman for the first time since his mother's death. Rebellious and upbeat and just a little vain, Lucasta was not the sort of person that Oswin would've expected to develop feelings for, but the connection between the two had been instant and it had simply happened. Nate despised Lucasta immediately, but Cole actually got along with her. She was perfectly equipped to draw the boy out of his shell and had a genuine appreciation for his art (which, by that time, had become quite good) and the two became close. Unfortunately, this caused friction between the brothers. Nate became increasingly aggressive and overtly critical toward Cole, while Cole stopped talking to Nate almost entirely and did everything that he could to avoid him. The relationship between them remained tense that entire summer and, when a letter from the Gooseberry Alternative High School arrived offering him a chance to go somewhere else in the fall, he was quick to accept it. The revelation that Cole was running away from him was almost enough to make Nate come around...but not quite. The two parted ways, heading off to different schools once the summer was over.

Unprepared for how difficult starting over would be, Cole felt intensely out of place and had difficulty connecting with anyone for the first few weeks at Gooseberry. Instead of trying, he fell back into his comfort zone: focusing on his art and spending almost all of his time alone or so disengaged from those around him that he might as well have been. This might have continued for some time if a student from the Drama Club hadn't shown up in the Aesthetic Magic class, looking for volunteers to help give an upcoming production some artistic flair. He agreed on a whim, ended up enjoying the work, and just sort of...stayed. He wasn't at all suited for being on the stage, but he excelled at decorating sets, detailing props, applying makeup, and even styling wigs and became a capable crew resource for the club. This also allowed him to form connections with his peers, make a few friends, and begin finding his place in a new school. For the remainder of the semester, he did well in his classes (with as little effort as always), indulged his every artistic impulse, and continued to work with the Drama Club. He also decided that he liked Gooseberry.

The summer after Cole's freshman year was eventful. His father married Lucasta, he and his brother awkwardly attempted to mend fences (with some success), and Cole began teaching himself to sew to that he could try his hand at costuming this year for Drama Club. He also grew five inches, got a tattoo, and began experimenting with Salvia divinorum, a plant with mind-altering properties that he found in his stepmother's greenhouse (he won't tell if you won't, Lucasta) and he believes has a very interesting impact on his art. So, yes, busy summer and, while he's not ready to return to class, he is ready to return to school.

SCHOOL

YEAR: Sophomore (Grade 10)
HOUSE: Ribbonfin
SORTING: Always content to live and let live, prone to avoid confrontation, and slow to anger, Cole wasn't difficult to sort and was selected by Ribbonfin almost immediately. Lacking the intensity for Ebonhide, the levity for Azurcrest, or the aggression for Coppertale, he could really only fit among the fishies anyway.
WAND: Pine, Re'em Horn Core, 9", Pliable
FAMILIAR: A barn owl named Leonora. She's grumpy and fussy, but very loyal to Cole. She is, by far, the more reliable of the pair and often screeches loudly at her boy when he is late for classes or meals, won't get out of bed, or is generally not doing what he needs to do. She dislikes the cold and, yes, sometimes does demand a ride in Cole's jacket. She is named for one of his favorite artists, Leonora Carrington, and often makes appearances in his art.


CLASSES:
✦Core: Charms, Herbology, Hermeticism, Potions, Transfiguration
✦Electives: Aesthetic Magic, Artificing, Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts
✦Advanced: N/A
SENIOR PROJECT: Cole hasn't considered this yet. At all. And likely won't until he's a few months from graduation.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Cole is a bright and naturally gifted wizard that makes excellent grades despite putting in very little effort. While not always at the top of his classes because he often fails to complete assignments or turns things in late, he almost always aces his exams and does extremely well during practical demonstrations. While he does equally well in every subject, his favorite class is Aesthetic Magic and his least favorite class is Defense Against the Dark Arts.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Drama (Crew Only), may be convinced to try others

OOC

NAME: Katie
EMAIL: ollinsong@gmail.com
CDJ: ollinsong
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: None
TIME ZONE: CST

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
8:00	B R E A K F A S T
8:30
9:00	Charms	Transfiguration	Herbology	Hermeticism	Potions
9:30
10:00		Astronomy		Aesthetic Magic	Defense Against the Dark Arts
10:30
11:00				Artificing
11:30
12:00	L U N C H
12:30
13:00	Potions	Hermeticism		Defense Against the Dark Arts
13:30
14:00	Artificing		Charms	Transfiguration
14:30
15:00	Aesthetic Magic			Herbology
15:30
16:00
16:30					MONTHLY BONDING ACTIVITY TIME SLOT #1
17:00
17:30
18:00	D I N N E R
18:30
19:00				Drama Club	MONTHLY BONDING ACTIVITY TIME SLOT #2
19:30
20:00
00:00			Astronomy
00:30