goosemods

[knightly]

You sit there in your heartache
Waiting on some beautiful boy to
To save your from your old ways
You play forgiveness
Watch it now, here he comes

GENERAL

NAME Ravinder Dhaliwal (Pronounced RUH-vihn-dur DAH-lee-wahl. No middle name.)
NICKNAMES Ravi (RUH-vee). Sometimes Rav, but he doesn't like it. His full first name is fine, but honestly only his parents ever call him Ravinder. (In LARP, he also answers to Narain Vachan.)
AGE/DOB/ZODIAC 17 / March 4, 1996 / Pisces
BLOOD STATUS Muggleborn
GENDER/PRONOUNS Male, he/him. They/them is fine.
SEXUALITY Bisexual. Probably. He's never actually dated anyone, although he's played LARP romances against both girls and boys. Ravi doesn't think that's strange, but he also doesn't believe what he does "in character" necessarily impacts his "real world" personality. When it comes to dating, he invariably tells people he's too focused on school and/or preparing for Healer training.
HOMETOWN Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. Ravi was born in Southall, London, England, and his family moved to the United States when he was six. (He no longer has even a hint of British to him, although sometimes he'll pull out an accent for LARP.)

CONCEPT Mild-mannered prefect dreams of becoming a literal knight in shining armour.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE

Even without the badge on his uniform, you'd know from a glance that Ravi is a prefect. His clothes are always immaculate—clean, pressed, tucked in; his tie pinned so it's exactly symmetrical. His hair is naturally thick and curly, but Ravi controls it with an aggressive hair potion and always combs a perfect part in it. Imagine a modern teenage boy as a fairytale knight or prince, and that's sort of the look Ravi seems to be aiming for. His one obvious flaw is his chipped front tooth, from a childhood accident.

Out of uniform (and Ravi wears his uniform almost religiously on school days, from morning until night), he's just as buttoned up, and tends to look more like an old wizard than the Muggleborn he is. Instead of T-shirts and jeans, Ravi wears corduroy slacks, button-up shirts, tweed vests, wool sweaters, and jackets with elbow patches. He favours styles which were popular 80 years ago—or even older, in the case of LARP. It's obvious he puts a lot of love and care into his LARP costumes, and has sewn a lot of items himself over the last couple of years.

HEIGHT 5'9"

PB Suraj Sharma

PERSONALITY

LIKES reading, LARP, swordplay, horses, knights, stories containing adventure and magic and elves and romance, medieval history, antiques, calligraphy, sewing, black tea, autumn at Gooseberry

DISLIKES not having a plan, upsetting people, letting others see him get upset, people who think it's amusing to be cruel, being alone, total silence, modern architecture, movies with too much CGI

PERSONALITY

The "R" in Ravi stands for "Responsible." Ravi was the kind of child who always did was he was told and never acted out, and seems set on carrying that into adulthood. He's the "good" kid in his family, the friend you can always trust and rely on, the guy who always does the right thing, the no-brainer prefect choice. He studies hard, gets top marks, and will offer homework help to struggling freshmen. He's got the classic Ribbonfin peacekeeper personality, and never wants anyone to fight, ever, no matter what the reason. When someone's in trouble, he'll do whatever's needed to help. He's the type to sit with an upset stranger at a party and ask them if they need to talk.

You can see this overly romanticized "good guy" image in the way Ravi seems to be literally trying to become a knight in shining armour. He's a dedicated club attendee for archery, fencing and horseback riding; and has taken it to a new level by roleplaying as a brave and noble knight every weekend. If you try to point it out, Ravi will laugh it off as a "hobby." He's "into fantasy." But he's enthusiastic about this chivalry stuff in a way which almost implies a personal obsession. He wants to save people. He tries so hard to be good.

Ravi is very conscious of how other people see him. He has an almost pathological fear of saying or doing "the wrong thing," especially anything that might hurt others. He puts too much pressure on himself to never make a mistake or step out of line, to the point where he often holds back from going for what he wants. Ravi claims to prefer certainty—he wants to know all the pros and cons first, and veers away from anything that's risky. He's not militant about enforcing the rules, and often ends up as the "scolding older brother" to classmates who are determined to do whatever they want anyway. As a prefect, he dislikes doling out punishment, but he will be assertive when he thinks harm could come to someone.

When Ravi's comfortable, he has a "shy extrovert" personality. He loves being around other people and getting involved with busy social events, but he's quick to deflect attention onto others when in a crowd. He's easily embarrassed and hates the spotlight, but he can be surprisingly talkative if you catch him one-on-one. Ravi is the type who can sit and read for hours and hours, but he always wants to talk to someone about what he's reading. One might assume from Ravi's straight-laced demeanour that he'd be uptight, but he's really not, at least when it comes to other people. His older sister was a wild teenage rebel, and Ravi's developed a soft spot for those kind of people. Secretly, he wishes he could be as honest and fearless.

Every repressed teenage boy needs an outlet, and Ravi's is LARP. It's the one place he can let loose and make mistakes because none of it is real. Of course that's not strictly true; he got in trouble a couple of times early on when IC conflict caused OOC frustration, but Ravi is very careful now in establishing ground rules and smoothing out potential drama. Ravi loves being able to explore different personalities, and people may be initially surprised to see the ever-mild Ribbonfin prefect capable of displaying anger, resentment, passion, etc. Ravi goes deep when it comes to fleshing out his characters' histories and motivations, and there isn't much which makes him self-conscious so long as he's "in character."

Ravi's career goal is to become a Healer, the closest wizard equivalent of following in his muggle parents' footsteps. He's not actually very enthusiastic about this, but he's been planning on becoming a doctor since he was five and can't really imagine doing anything else with his life. Not many would guess he's reluctant. "I know what I'm doing with my life and have my future all planned out" is part of that perfect image Ravi is trying to project.

TL;DR
⊕ responsible, conscientious, trustworthy. studies hard, helps others. obvious prefect choice.
⊕ outgoing, social. happy to approach others first. talkative when one-on-one.
⊕ silly sense of humour. teases people to set them at ease. dislikes jokes at the expense of others. gently self-deprecating.

⊜ dreamer. wants to save people. fantasizes about being a chivalrous knight. dedicated attendee of clubs which help him live out that fantasy.
⊜ loves reading. favours fantasy fiction, but will also go for other genres or non-fiction. can get pedantic when talking about something he's read.
⊜ forgiving. dislikes punishing people, but will be assertive when necessary. unafraid of being seen as "not fun."

⊖ overcautious. sticks within the confines of self-defined rules. reluctant to take risks.
⊖ can't stand upsetting others or letting others see him upset. suppresses honest thoughts and negative emotions. pretends he's Just Fine and Handling Things.
⊖ easily embarrassed by lots of attention... except in LARP, then he almost becomes a whole different person. being "in character" is the only time he loosens his grip on needing to be a perfect prefect with a perfect reputation.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS

♦ Dr. Parminder Dhaliwal, mother. Muggle. University professor, Pharmacology.
♦ Dr. Gundeep Dhaliwal, father. Muggle. Orthopaedic surgeon.
♦ Amrit Dhaliwal, sister, age 19. Muggle. University student, Biology major. For a pre-med student, Amrit looks unconventional—dyed hair and multiple tattoos—but she's very smart and dedicated. Ravi still considers her his best friend.

HISTORY

Ravinder was born in London, the second child of second-generation British-Indian parents. He doesn't remember much of London, as his family moved to New Jersey when Ravi and his sister, Amrit, were aged 6 and 8 respectively. Their parents were both doctors with busy careers, and with the entire extended family back in England or Punjab, Ravi had a somewhat isolated childhood. His best friend was his older sister. And as for school, well...

It was a tricky for a shy brown kid with an English accent to fit in at a brand new school in a brand new continent. He was a quiet but bright student, so his teachers didn't worry about him beyond trying to make sure he was comfortable. Instead of playing with the other children, Ravi contented himself with reading, especially fantasy and sci-fi. He read voraciously, and could spend hours absorbed in fictional worlds. A breakthrough came a couple of years later when another classmate finally asked him what he was reading; the floodgates opened and Ravi spent the next twenty minutes regaling them with a detailed sypnosis of his book (and the previous four installments in the series, just for backstory). Luckily this was right move, and sharing stories helped Ravi over the hurdle of acclimating to American culture.

Maybe it wasn't so strange that he never thought much of the unexplainable things which happened around him as a child. Of course magic was real, and trying to tell others what he saw only resulted in people musing about his overactive imagination. Only Amrit would profess to believe Ravi's stories, but even she was blindsided when someone came to the door and explained to their parents that their son was special. A literal, actual wizard.

Ravi didn't grasp how seriously and irrevocably his life had changed until later, when he arrived at Ilvermorny. (Naturally, he was sorted into Horned Serpent, the bookworm house.) His parents and sister had been full of anxiety about shipping him off to Massachusetts, and for their sake, he did his utmost best to behave in order to show them that he was okay. This need to behave continued as it became clearer through the years how impossible it was for his family to understand what his life was like now. He could never be "a normal boy."

Ravi didn't regret it—all he'd ever wanted was a life of magic—but he felt guilt over the fact that he'd never again be the son or brother they knew. Maybe Amrit wanted a serious change too, because she became more rebellious in her teens. Boyfriends, sneaking out to parties, multiple piercings. This caused huge stress for their parents, and the owls he received from his parents and sister painted a wild portrait of their domestic drama. Ravi, far from home, was the "good" child in comparison, and did his best to continue inhabiting that role.

Still, while most of their parents' concern and focus ended up on Amrit (and their praise on Ravi), the siblings never resented each other. When Ravi was home for the holidays, Amrit would return from her misadventures and tell him stories about what she'd been up to, and Ravi eagerly listened, happy to live vicariously through the teenage rebellion stage. She was the one who pushed him to apply for the odd, experimental wizarding school he'd heard of from a friend: Gooseberry Alternative High School.

Getting into Gooseberry was easy: Ravi had top marks and glowing recommendation letters from Ilvermorny. He'd expected to keep his head down and work hard for the next four years, except one day an upperclassman, Ricardo Ramirez, stopped him during Fencing Club to compliment him on his footwork. Then, he asked freshman Ravi if he'd be interested in some "real" sword fights. Ricardo was trying to get a "LARP Club" off the ground, and thought Ravi would be a great fit as "a knight or whatever [he] might want to play."

Say no more. Ravi, a lifelong diehard fan of fantasy novels, fell head over heels for LARPing. He was the same Ravinder Dhaliwal he'd always been—responsible, diligent, kind—but in LARP, he could finally have a taste of being anyone else, with no consequences. During the week, he would study and enforce rules and help freshmen with their homework; and then for a few hours every Saturday, he could fight monsters and uncover treasure and romance rebellious princesses.

In the next three years, Ravi harboured a crush on his friend (and frequent LARP partner) Ricardo, a friendship which became unhealthy for many reasons, not least because Ric had a girlfriend but would happily lead on Ravi anyway. His Ricardo crush ate up any attention Ravi might have been better off spending on others, and Ravi made it through almost the entirety of high school without dating anyone except in LARP. But in senior year, with graduation looming on the horizon, Ravi is finally starting to wonder if he shouldn't let himself loosen up out of his fantasy hobbies...

SCHOOL

YEAR Senior
HOUSE Ribbonfin
SORTING Ravi spent some time listening to the emblems, intrigued by three of them: Ebonhide (where a lot of his Ilvermorny friends had gone), Azurcrest (who promised freedom and adventure) and Ribbonfin (who spoke of bettering the world through kindness and working for harmony). Ravi decided against Ebonhide first, on the grounds that he wasn't nearly intense enough, and in the end settled on the calm and polite fish, who seemed most similar in nature to him. Ravi is happy with his choice, but he sometimes wonders how different things could've been if he'd gone to Azurcrest instead.
WAND Poplar with core of phoenix feather, 11 inches and whippy
FAMILIAR Zelda, a barn owl he got for his second year at Ilvermorny once his parents realized how difficult it was to communicate with their wizard son. She's become his comfort—a reminder of home when he's at school, and a reminder of school when he's at home. Ravi visits Zelda at least every couple of days, and every Friday, has letters for her to take to his parents and his sister.

CLASSES (core) Charms, Herbology, Hermeticism, History of Magic, Potions; (electives) Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Magical Rudiments, Wizard Literature
SENIOR PROJECT Ravi decided on his project last year: a variant of a sleeping draught, designed to guarantee pleasant dreams (as opposed to dreamless sleep, as most common sleeping draughts do). This has been a difficult undertaking, not the least because it's tricky to measure "pleasant dreams" in a safe or objective way.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Despite loading up with nine classes, Ravi is a straight-A student, which is no surprise to his classmates, who spot him studying every minute he's not in class or doing club activities. (Honestly, sometimes he's just reading fantasy novels. But he does study way too much.) His favourite classes are History of Magic and Wizard Literature, where he often reads ahead and asks for book recommendations. Much of his time in Magical Rudiments is spent sewing new costumes for LARP under the supervision of Mr. Prospero, who is surprisingly knowledgeable about period-appropriate clothing. Of his current classes, Ravi is struggling the most in Potions—he's good at following recipes, but has a hard time thinking outside the box in creating his own. (Probably he should rethink choosing a potion as his senior project, but Ravi is stubborn when it comes to admitting when something isn't working.)

EXTRACURRICULARS LARP, Archery, Equestrian, Duelling/Fencing (he prefers the fencing weeks). Naturally, Ravi went for the clubs which taught "knight skills." He joined Drama this year, after auditioning for the winter play.

OOC

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