(no subject)
Player Information
Name: Lex
Timezone: EST
Personal Journal: evilwildlex
Players Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: AIM - Katana Maid
Email Address: evil_wild_lex AT yahoo DOT com
Former/Other Characters in the RP: N/A
How did you hear about us?: dear_mun
Character Information
Name: Orochimaru Adder
Canon Origin/Series: Naruto
School Year: 3rd year
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Out of school living location: Bristol, England
Blood status: Pureblood
Personality: Orochimaru is very clever and a devoted student. However, the driving force behind his academic pursuits is the desire for power. Though only thirteen, he already has hopes of one day becoming the Minister of Magic. He's ambitious, and has the maturity and patience to see things through in the long-term. He is, however, very reluctant to make bonds with others. Losing his parents affected him more deeply than he's willing to admit, and has given him a bleak view of the world. He firmly believes that anyone he cares about will be unceremoniously be taken away from him, and as such, has kept most people at arm’s length (unless they’re just too stubborn to let him get away with it). Orochimaru also has the capacity to be cruel when it serves him. He won't be cruel without a purpose, but if the cruelty will accomplish enough that the benefits outweigh the consequences, he'll go for it. This isn't a set in stone trait, however - he is still at the point where positive influences can prevent him from becoming a heartless dark wizard. Being raised by loving parents for the first eleven or so years of his life and having three of four of his grandparents around has also served as a preventative measure. He is still currently capable of compassion and caring for others - they're not defining characteristics, but he's not incapable of those emotions as of yet.
(Player’s note: He’s a somewhat nicer person than in Naruto canon because he’s still young, has more emotional support than in Naruto canon, and has grown up in an entirely different society, where children get a lot more time to be children, and where the available careers one can have post-graduation don’t mostly revolve around espionage, assassinations, body guard work, etc.)
Canon Background: Canon never states exactly when Orochimaru’s parents died, but he did lose them by the time he was assigned to the three man team under Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage, along with Tsunade and Jiraiya. Orochimaru was regarded as a prodigy with talent, knowledge and drive that Hiruzen regarded as something seen only once every generation. He graduated from the shinobi academy when he was six years old. He wanted to become the fourth Hokage - the leader of their shinobi village, and initially Hiruzen hoped that Orochimaru would succeed him. However, as Orochimaru got older and grew increasingly more selfish and sadistic, Hiruzen began to realize he was a lost cause. Orochimaru took on Anko Mitarushi as a student and used her as an experiment for his Cursed Seal of Heaven. Eventually, Orochimaru, Jiraiya and Tsunade gained a reputation for being the Three Legendary Sannin. The title was bestowed upon them by Hanzo of Amegakure - a foe so powerful that he was a legend in his own right (he was impressed that they survived a battle against him).
Eventually, Hiruzen picked one of Jiraiya’s students as his successor, and Orochimaru became less discreet about his experiments. He felt there was no reason for him to worry about burning his bridges and eventually did leave the village. Orochimaru joined the Akatsuki organization - an organization of high powered criminals. He was partnered with Sasori of Sunagakure. At one point, he attempted to take over Itachi Uchiha’s body with a technique of his that allowed him to transfer his soul and consciousness into another (and making him technically immortal as long as he could continue finding new bodies). The attempt failed, and he defected from Akatsuki, this time leaving to start his own village, Otogakure.
Years later, he infiltrated the chuunin exams being held in Konohagakure, and discovered Sasuke Uchiha. In the Forest of Death, he gave Sasuke a cursed seal and observed its progress in disguise. He killed the Fourth Kazekage in order to be able to get close to his former mentor, Hiruzen. During an attack on Konoha, he challenged Hiruzen to a battle to the death. Hiruzen accepted, and Orochimaru summoned the deceased First and Second Hokages with his Impure World Resurrection ability, leaving his former mentor in a three on one battle. Eventually, Hiruzen died, but not before sealing away the First and Second Hokages, and Orochimaru’s arms (thus rendering him unable to use ninjutsu techniques - his preferred method of fighting).
Orochimaru sought out his former teammate Tsunade to try to get his arms healed, offering to revive her deceased younger brother and deceased lover as payment. Initially, Tsunade seemed to be giving the idea serious thought, but later it was revealed that she had been planning on killing him to prevent him from posing a threat to Konoha. He eventually fought her and Jiraiya with his second in command, Kabuto. He lost but managed to escape, and had Sasuke retrieved so that he could try to take over Sasuke’s body. However, the pain in his arms was too much and he was forced to take another host body. Since that ability, Living Corpse Reincarnation, could only be used once every three years, he had to wait and elected to train Sasuke in the meantime. Sasuke willingly went to Orochimaru, intending on using the knowledge the Sannin had to offer to kill his older brother Itachi. Three years later, Orochimaru failed in his attempts to take over Sasuke’s body and instead was taken over by Sasuke, dying in the process.
Background (AU!Canon; HP): (Dirty) Orochimaru was born of mixed pureblood heritage. His father’s side of the family was English and caucasian. His maternal grandparents immigrated from Japan while still pregnant with his mother. He was named after his grandmother, Orochi, who was a parselmouth. This was partially in the hopes that he’d inherit that ability as his mother had, and partially to honour his late grandmother, who had passed away a year and a half before he was born. Orochimaru’s father was an auror, and his mother worked for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
His family’s hopes for him came true. Orochimaru’s first display of magical talent happened when he was four and they encountered a female grass snake and her eggs. The harmless snake made threatening gestures, and Orochimaru spoke to her and calmed her down, assuring her he wasn’t going to hurt her or her eggs. Years later, when he started school at Hogwarts, Orochimaru brought another grass snake he’d encountered to school as a pet. He took a chance given Hogwarts’ rules about pets, but since Manda wasn’t poisonous or prone to biting, he was allowed to keep her.
Orochimaru met and befriended Tsunade Senju when he was 8. Her family had just moved to Bristol, and moved fairly close to where his own family lived. He helped her improve her English and respected her studious nature and overall drive to succeed. In exchange, she helped him with his Japanese - particularly with the slang and obscenities that his grandfather and mother didn’t teach him at all. She became his first real friend (as opposed to friendly acquaintances he played with on occasion).
Orochimaru’s first year at Hogwarts was quite successful - he was an intelligent child who loved learning and didn’t get into very much trouble. As a reward for his achievements, Orochimaru’s parents decided to indulge his interest in duelling a little and arranged for a friend of the family, Hiruzen Sarutobi, to take him on as a pupil for duelling lessons in the summer. One evening when Hiruzen brought him home after a full day of lessons, they discovered the Dark Mark in the sky over the Adder home. Orochimaru’s father had been targeted for opposing the Dark Lord as an Auror, and Orochimaru’s mother was killed for nothing more than being a witness.
His parents’ deaths brought about a noticeable change in his behaviour at school the following September onward. He became quieter and more withdrawn, and even more driven and determined to succeed than before. He also developed a fascination with some of the darker and more forbidden spells - particularly anything related to achieving immortality. Admittedly, he didn’t find much, but he did become even more proficient than before at jinxes, hexes, and overall in Defense Against the Dark Arts - which was already his best subject. His paternal grandparents and maternal grandfather shared custody of him during the holidays and the following summer, although Hiruzen was the one who made the greatest effort to give him the support and attention he needed. Since they were grieving themselves, his grandparents missed the warning signs of just how badly Orochimaru had been affected by his parents’ deaths. They also responded quite snappishly to any suggestions that he might need professional help with “Well of course there’s something wrong! You don’t just bounce back from a loss like that right away!” Tsunade stubbornly remained his friend in spite of his antisocial behaviour, which he secretly appreciated in spite of his claims that he wanted to be left alone to study. (Diana)
(Player’s note: Mina/Tsunade-mun and I worked out a history between the two characters).
How would your character fit in to each House?
Gryffindor: He is willing to take risks, but he lacks the chivalry of some members of Gryffindor. Some of the things he does takes a certain degree of nerve to pull off. Orochimaru isn’t easily intimidated or bullied.
Ravenclaw: He is studious, intelligent, and driven in his pursuit of knowledge. He can be quite clever and has a good grasp of strategy. He’d probably fit in fairly well, aside from the fact that he’s not interested in studying solely for knowledge’s sake.
Hufflepuff: Probably not the best fit. While he is fairly hard working, he is loyal first and foremost to himself and he doesn’t really believe in fairness or equity as anything more than a naive ideal.
Slytherin: He’s pureblood, a parselmouth, highly ambitious (he hopes to become the Minister of Magic one day), and cunning. He cares less about following rules and more about not getting caught. Another good fit, though he’d clash with DE supporters. He’s not a blood purist and he has personal reasons to resent Death Eaters.
Sample Journal Entry: [No minimum here, but this is an opportunity to showcase your character's voice, so more than a line or two would be helpful.]
[Hexed private]
I hate the question “How are you?”. I know it’s just manners, but there’s not much point. Most people who ask don’t actually care. Most people just want to hear “I’m fine, and you?” so they can talk about whatever nonsense they’re interested in. I don’t mind when Mr. Sarutobi says it since he means it.
I guess I should get better at pretending to care about rumours and the WWN and other “normal” things. If I’m going to be the Minister of Magic one day, I have to be able to pretend to care about things. Gran likes theatre. Maybe I can talk her into letting me take an acting class this summer.
[/hexed private]
I found my journal again. Which isn’t really important, but if anyone wanted to send me a message this way, you can now. I can’t find Manda. Has anybody seen a grass snake around? She likes warm places and sunlight. If you startle her she might try to look scary, but she doesn’t bite and isn’t poisonous anyhow.
Sample Interaction Post in Third Person:
Even with stellar Defense Against the Dark Arts grades, it was difficult to get permission to get out certain books from the restricted section in the library. Still, with some effort, Orochimaru had secured permission to read Magick Most Evile by Godelot, although he wasn’t allowed to take it out of the library. He was so engrossed in his reading that he missed another student’s approach until she was right beside him and coughed to announce her presence.
“Ahem!”
He looked up from his reading, non-plussed at the interruption. “What do you want?”
“Well, that’s not very polite!” said the red haired girl, resting a hand on her hip. “Why I--
“Sorry,” Orochimaru said quickly, sounding as sincere as he could manage. Did he mean it? No. But the sooner she got to the point, the sooner he could get back to his studies. “How can I help you?”
The girl rewarded his apology with a cheerful smile as she thrusted a petition in front of him. “It’s a very important petition! I think everyone should sign it!”
Orochimaru’s eyes scanned over it quickly. “...this is a petition to make dance lessons mandatory and for there to be a dance every month of the school year.”
“That’s right!” the older girl said proudly. If she was kidding, she was putting on a great act. Gut instinct told him that no, she was serious. As sad as that was. “Bloody brilliant, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes. Brilliant,” he said, tone a little sharper. His reading got interrupted for this? Now he was annoyed. He considered using magic to incinerate the petition, then decided against it. That might get him in trouble or risk damaging the book. “Because people don’t have tests and essays, and O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s or anything.”
“Well, excuse me for wanting to have a little fun around here!” said the girl in a huff. “Enjoy your creepy old book, you git.”
Orochimaru didn’t dignify the insult with a response. Instead, he turned his interest back to the paragraph he’d left off on.