Application for holloways_keep

[sociopathicwolf]

Name: Bri
Age: 24
Journal: brbsoulnomming
Contact: Plurk: brbsoulnomming | Email: briyamineko84@yahoo.com | AIM: xomgshinyx

1. Character's Name: Derek Souza
2. Fandom: The Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong
3. Time Frame: After the last book in the series, The Reckoning
4. Age: 17

5. Background: Derek isn’t entirely certain who his parents are, although recent events have lead him to suspect his biological father was a werewolf named Zachary Cain. He was either taken from or voluntarily given up by his parents and became a subject in the Genesis II project run by the Edison Group. The Edison Group was a group of supernaturals whose original goal was to make life better for young supernaturals. They attempted to do this through genetic modification of a number of supernaturals still in the womb (including witches, sorcerers, half-demons, at least one necromancer, and a handful of werewolves). They hoped to lessen the powers of these supernaturals and make them easier to control, as well as eliminate the negative side effects that sometimes went along with the powers.

Derek was raised by the Edison Group along with four other werewolf “pups.” However, he never entirely fit in with the other boys, one of the reasons being that what he saw as kindness in people was viewed only as weakness by the other pups. He did, however, get along very well with another boy in the experiment, Simon Bae, whose sorcerer father was a member of the Edison Group. When Derek was five, the other werewolf pups violently attacked a nurse. Derek called for help, and because of this, he was spared when the other pups were “dealt with.” Shortly after this, Simon’s father Kit informally adopted Derek, and Derek went home with Kit and Simon.

Kit was growing dissatisfied with the way the Edison Group was running things, however, particularly in the way the people in charge were treating the children. He wasn’t the only one, as a number of other members were pulling out. Kit was asked to threaten some of these former members, and he refused, instead warning his former colleagues, taking Simon and Derek from the experiment, and flee-ing.

The family spent a number of years in hiding, both from the Edison Group, and from the rest of the world, as the existence of supernaturals wasn’t common knowledge. They moved around a lot, transferring schools often, but Derek didn’t mind. He was generally a polite, quiet, good-mannered child, but he wasn’t very sociable, and he never really made friends that he had to leave behind. As long as he was with his foster father and brother, he was happy.

Unfortunately, Derek’s werewolf genes started to kick in around seventh grade. He grew quite rapidly, both in height and muscle, and puberty hit him pretty hard. Even showering twice a day still left his hair oily and lanky, and didn’t exactly make the best impression on the public. When he realized people formed their own opinions of him no matter how polite he was, Derek gave up trying. He became even more withdrawn, appearing sullen and surly. He started getting restless pretty easily, needing frequent runs and exercise to calm himself down, and showing outbursts of a somewhat violent temper if he got too keyed up.

Still, he dealt with it. His father taught him the best he could, considering he was a sorcerer who didn’t have much experience with werewolves. And Derek didn’t much care what the public thought, anyway. His father and brother knew what was going on with him, and that was all that mattered.

When Derek was sixteen, he went to where he was supposed to meet up with Simon after school, only to find him being cornered by three much bigger guys. One guy threw Simon into a wall and then drew a knife on him, and Derek lost it. He pulled the guy off Simon and threw him aside. Simon was okay, and the other two boys ran away, but Derek had thrown the first boy much, much harder than he thought. Hard enough that the boy ended up in a coma, and would likely be paralyzed if he ever woke up.

Simon wanted to run, but Derek insisted on calling nine-one-one. And their father. Though Derek wasn’t formally charged with anything, the story did hit the papers, which, as they were currently in hiding, meant trouble for them. Kit decided they had to leave again, though he told Derek not to tell Simon until after Simon’s big basketball game, to let Simon have one last day. After the game, though, Kit never came to pick them up. And when Derek and Simon got home, Kit’s car was in the driveway, but there was no sign of him. There was no sign of anyone else, either.

Some cops who weren’t actually cops showed up looking for Kit, and Derek and Simon decided to flee. They headed up to Albany, where a sorcerer friend of their father’s lived. When they got there, the fake cops were looking for him, as well. Derek and Simon got to him first, but found that he’d killed himself.

Derek and Simon then got picked up by a couple of real cops, and, with no idea what to do, let themselves be taken in and put in the custody of child services. They were informed that their records said they were originally from Buffalo, so they were going to be placed in a group home for children there, called Lyle House.

Once at the group home, they quickly formulated an escape plan. Derek wanted Simon to escape and continue searching for their father, but Simon didn’t want to leave without Derek. Derek, however, refused to go. He was still consumed with guilt over hurting the other boy, and didn’t believe he should be out on the streets. He thought Lyle House was where he belonged, until he could learn to control himself.

Fortunately, a few months after they’d been at Lyle House, the perfect opportunity showed up to get Simon to leave. A girl named Chloe was placed in Lyle House after seeing a “ghost” at school, which caused her to have a minor break down. It was even more perfect when he found out she actually was a budding necromancer. Derek was already starting to be suspicious about Lyle House, and now that there was another supernatural there, it didn’t seem as though it could be a coincidence. He wanted Simon out of there, and Chloe was the perfect way to accomplish that. With another supernatural possibly in danger there, a damsel in distress, Simon would jump at the chance to get her out.

He encouraged Chloe to look up necromancy, helped her through her first releasing of a spirit she’d accidentally summoned into its corpse (yeah, there were corpses in the crawl space. Add that to the other kids that went missing, one of whom Chloe was still seeing occasionally, and Derek was beyond suspicious), and encouraged Simon to help her. However, Chloe caught on to what he was doing, and confronted him about it. To his surprise, she agreed to go along with it, because she agreed that she and Simon needed to get out of there. Around then was when he started actually seeing her as someone worth noticing, rather than just as an excuse to get Simon to safety.

The plan was made, and Chloe, Simon, and Chloe’s roommate Rae were to escape. On the night of the escape, though, Derek began experiencing the effects of his first Change, and Chloe stayed behind to help him through it. They were caught by the house psychologist, who knew exactly what they were. Both Derek and Chloe managed to escape and met up with Simon and Rae at a group of warehouses. The Lyle House employees caught up with them, though, and even shot at them with tranquilizer guns. Derek volunteered to stay behind and distract them, and Simon stayed with him while Chloe and Rae ran. They set up a meeting place and agreed to meet there later.

Derek and Simon got away, but the girls weren’t at the place they were supposed to meet. Both concerned about Chloe, Derek and Simon left a hidden note for her and continued the hunt for their father while returning once a day to the meet up place. Eventually they met back up with Chloe, as well as Tori, another girl from the group home who Derek disliked for her fascination with Simon and the fact that she’d tried to hurt Chloe several times. And who, apparently, was a witch.

It turned out Lyle House was affiliated with the Edison Group, and Chloe’s aunt was a member. They’d captured Chloe and Rae when they went to Chloe’s aunt for help. Chloe and Tori had managed to escape, with the help of Chloe’s aunt, who turned against the other members of the group when her niece was in danger. And also with the help of Liz, another former group home member. The one who Chloe had been seeing even after she’d left, actually, and who had been killed by the Edison Group and was now a poltergeist.

Derek, Simon, Chloe, and Tori decided to go find Andrew, a friend of their father’s who used to be a member of the Edison Group but had left like their father had. They caught the bus to where Andrew lived, but half way there, Derek started going through the Change again and had to get off. Chloe got off with him, and the bus left without them. Once again, Derek didn’t completely Change, but Chloe stayed with him the whole time.

In the morning, they hitched to the nearest town where they could afford more bus tickets. It was also a town that happened to have two adult werewolves in it, who caught scent of Derek and tracked them down. There was a fight, but Derek and Chloe managed to escape and catch the bus. During this time, Derek and Chloe bonded significantly, and he started considering her part of his Pack, along with his father and Simon.

They reached Andrew’s house, only to find that Andrew wasn’t there. Apparently, Andrew’d been caught by the Edison Group, who were waiting for them. They all managed to escape, and Andrew took them to a safe house, where they could stay. He called in other members of his own group, which was devoted to taking down the Edison Group. Unfortunately, he was also a bit of a liar, and knew exactly where Simon and Derek’s father was, but didn’t want to tell them or their father because he wanted to use the kids to force his group to take action against the Edison Group.

Except Derek. Derek he didn’t even want around, and had actually paid two werewolves to grab him and take him to the Pack that lived in New York. Fortunately, he was at least horrified when he found out that another member of the group had paid the werewolves to just kill Derek. Still, the kids didn’t exactly want to be there anymore, and attempted to call Derek and Simon’s father while making plans to escape. Except they didn’t count on a few members of the group actually being part of the Edison Group.

Ultimately, everyone was captured by the Edison Group except for Derek and Liz. Derek drove the eight hours to the Edison Group facility, guided by Liz. Who also turned to be extremely helpful in opening doors and stuff when they got there and Derek ended up Changing into wolf form due to his extreme agitation. With Simon, Tori, Chloe’s Aunt Lauren, Chloe, a demi-demon Chloe’d made a deal with, Derek, Liz, and Kit showing up to help, all of them managed to get out, as well as taking out a number of their top employees.

Though the Edison Group was damaged, it wasn’t destroyed, and Derek, Simon, Chloe, Kit, Lauren, and Tori are still on the run. But at least they’re together. And Derek and Chloe were able to admit their feelings for each other, leading them to officially become the couple they’d more or less been for quite some time.

6. Personality: Derek can come off as a bit of a jerk, which is fair enough, because he kind of is. He doesn’t really understand things like ‘tact’ or ‘softening the blow.’ He’s the type to bluntly state the truth without worrying about the impact it will have on someone else’s feelings, because should the situation be reversed, he would want to know the truth. This means he also has absolutely no problem correcting someone when he knows they’re wrong, whether or not they’re a teacher or someone else who probably won’t be particularly pleased to have been corrected by him. Which, once again, is because if he was the one who was wrong, he would want to be corrected.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll react at all positively when someone tells him that he’s wrong. Generally this will happen if it’s on a subject that he knows he’s correct in, or if the person who’s trying to correct him is someone who he perceives as not knowing what they’re talking about. If the person who’s correcting him is someone who he trusts, or who he knows is more knowledgeable on the subject than he is, he’ll take it in stride and accept the correction easily.

Derek is incredibly intelligent for his age. He’s currently at college level in a few subjects and two grades ahead in most others, although the notable exception to this is English. Sentence structure and creative writing escapes him entirely, possibly because it’s one of the few subjects that he can’t use logic to figure out. Derek’s intelligence means that, generally, it’s fairly easy for him to have a quick grasp of the situation and for him to understand the solution to a problem, provided he has all of the facts required. (It also means that he can become frustrated when others don’t understand things as quickly as he does.)

Having all of the correct facts is very important to Derek. He’s the type to want to consider every problem logically, and only decide on a solution or course of action after having gathered all of the information necessary to do so. He hates acting on gut feelings, with no proof to back up his decisions. Derek won’t go into a situation blind. He’ll always prefer to think it over before acting, even if it’s only taking a few seconds to run through the best decision.

There are really only two exceptions to this. The first is when he’s following the lead of someone he trusts. Although even in this case, Derek would rather know all about the situation himself, if there’s no time for that, he will go into the situation trusting the other person (This happens fairly rarely, of course, as the people he trusts for this are pretty much just his father, Simon, and Chloe.) The second is when someone he loves is in danger, and his wolf instincts take over. When this happens, he has a hard time resisting the urge to just charge in and rescue whoever it is, despite what his more logical side may be saying.

Derek’s priorities are and always will be his family, those that he considers Pack (At the moment, this consists of his father, Simon, and Chloe. Liz is on the verge of being in there as well, but that’s a bit complicated, considering she’s a poltergeist). He’s absolutely not afraid to do whatever it takes to keep them safe, whether it be manipulating other people or putting his own life in danger. He can be a bit of a hypocrite in the case of the last, as while it’s perfectly acceptable for him to put himself at risk, it’s not at all okay for others do it. Others that he cares about, anyway, he doesn’t really care if anyone else takes stupid risks.

It’s not that he dislikes everyone else, it’s just that he doesn’t particularly care about anyone else until something happens to put them on his radar. Usually what puts someone on his radar is when they hurt the people he loves in some way. Should this happen, Derek will have no qualms about doing things like abandoning the person and not particularly caring what becomes of them.

Although it may sometimes seem like it, Derek doesn’t actually lack empathy. This is mostly apparent in his interactions with his family. He will always put their needs before his, and can even end up being almost overbearing in his attempts to make sure that they’re okay. While this can sometimes make it seem as though he thinks they’re not capable of taking care of themselves, this isn’t his intention at all. He just wants to make sure they’re safe and happy. When not in immediate life or death situations, he’s more than happy to joke around and goof off with them. His sense of humor tends to be very sarcastic.

Occasionally, it also shows up in regards to people who aren’t part of his family. Derek wouldn’t be able to stand leaving someone in danger when there was something he could do about it (provided, of course, helping the other person wasn’t going to put his family in danger). He also dislikes unintentionally hurting people, whether emotionally or physically. And while he’s generally only concerned with the emotions of the people he cares about, accidentally hurting anyone physically is pretty much his greatest fear.

Derek wasn’t always the sullen, surly teenager he appears to be (and sort of is). He used to be the ‘good son’, polite, good-mannered, never complaining, happy as long as he was with his brother and father. And while the last is still definitely true, the rest began changing at around thirteen, when his werewolf genes kicked in. He grew rapidly, becoming both taller and more muscular, and puberty hit him pretty hard. People took one look at him and automatically formed their own opinions of him, no matter what his actual attitude was. So he stopped trying to be polite, because he didn’t figure there was really a point any more.

He claims not to particularly care what people think of him, and for the most part, this is true. He tends to be more or less unconcerned with the opinions of the people outside his family. They can think whatever they want, and as long as he knows it’s not true, it doesn’t particularly matter. When it comes to things that he suspects people may be right about, however, what other people say about him can be particularly devastating. It’s possible that because he tries so hard not to be affected by what people think of him, and is generally successful, that the few things he does care about affect him very strongly.

The main one is the fact that he’s a werewolf, which is enough for most people to consider him a monster. There are times when he’s pretty sure they’re right. He has a temper, which generally shows up when someone he loves is in danger, but can also appear just because he’s frustrated with someone. In the past, combined with the fact that he was growing into his werewolf strength, it’s caused him to do things like grab someone’s arm much harder than he meant to (leaving bruises), or even put another teenager into a coma when Derek was just trying to get him off his brother. This absolutely terrified him, to the point where he willingly stayed in a group home because he didn’t think he belonged on the streets. It’s gotten a bit better now that he’s grown into his strength, but if he was being honest, he’d admit that he’s still scared of himself at times.

7. Previous Game Developments: None

8. Appearance: Derek has tan skin, green eyes, and black hair that he wears cut to about chin length. Although Derek does look like a teenager (particularly in regards to an acne problem that, while much better than it used to be, is still somewhat present), he’s not built like one. Derek is just over six feet tall and, from a combination of werewolf genes and working out, has the build of a muscular adult male. He tends to wear baggy clothes to try and hide this, attempting to look heavier rather than muscular. (For the purposes of this game, Derek’s PB is Steven Strait.)

9. Abilities: Derek is a genetically-modified werewolf. When in human form, he has enhanced senses, including hearing, smell, and vision (although only at night, during the day, his vision is no better than a human’s.) He also has heightened strength, speed, and reflexes, and can move so quietly as to be completely silent to a normal human’s sense. Because of his werewolf genes, he has an enhanced immune system, which means he’s never actually been sick. (By normal means, at least, he was feverish during his first Changes). His body mass doesn’t decrease when he Changes into his wolf form, which means he weighs as much as does as a human (which is currently about two hundred pounds), making him much larger than a normal wolf. He’s also faster and stronger than normal wolf. The full effects of being genetically modified haven’t been completely discovered yet.

So far, all that is known is that Derek’s first Change occurred earlier than is usual (at sixteen, when eighteen was previously known to have been the earliest age for the Change to begin) and that, at sixteen, Derek was roughly as strong as a fully adult werewolf. Derek’s Changes don’t coincide with the cycles of the moon at all, so that once he learns how to completely control the Changes, he’ll be able to do it at will. When in wolf form, he retains his human mind, though his wolf-like instincts are harder to override and he is unable to speak. He’s also fairly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, having been trained by his father to use his strength to his advantage.

For the purposes of this game, any progress Derek has made on learning to control his Changes will be gone, which means he will have zero control over when the Changes happen and won’t be able to Change when he wants to. They tend to occur based on his emotions, so that when he gets extremely angry or frightened, the Change will begin. Although not exactly painful, the Change isn’t particularly a pleasant process, and takes several minutes to complete. During this time, Derek is completely vulnerable, as he can’t stop a Change once it begins. Once he has Changed, he is unable to turn back into his human form until the Change has ended. He has no control over this, either, and the timing isn’t always particularly convenient. If he goes too long without Changing, the wolf inside him tends to get restless, and a Change may be forced regardless of his particular mood at the moment. Changing will also take more out of him than he’s used to, so that after he Changes back into his human form, he’ll be exhausted and out of commission for up to a few hours, depending on how long he was in wolf form and how much he exerted himself. (This is in addition to being unable to Change form again for either 4 or 12 hours, depending on how long he was in wolf form before Changing back to human.)

10. Languages: English

11. Items: A disposable, pay-by-the-minute cell phone, a couple of bags of recently purchased clothes, his wallet

12. Weapons: None

13. Writing sample - Third Person Prose: Derek shifted from side to side, bounced up on the balls of his feet, and rolled back. Yeah, fidgeting wasn’t making him any less anxious. Or any less irritated at himself for being anxious. It wasn’t like he didn’t think Chloe or Simon could take care of themselves. He did. Simon had been trained by their dad, after all, and Chloe’d proven several times over that she could handle tough situations.

Of course, she’d also proven that she could be really, really dumb. But those were less often. And not usually when they were in trouble. Not that she could really do much if she and Simon got attacked while they were out shopping. It wasn’t like there was a cemetery nearby, and even if there was, Chloe wouldn’t want to just start raising people.

He had to think logically. Logically, no one would be attacking them. There was no greater chance that someone would come after them today than there had been any other day. That didn’t change just because he wasn’t with them. Unfortunately, it was hard to think logically when it came to Simon and Chloe. Which wasn’t exactly helping his mood. He hated acting on gut feelings rather than logic or facts, but he couldn’t override his instinct to protect them.

All right, screw it. It’d been long enough; he was going after them. He’d been done grabbing his own things ages ago, so he couldn’t be expected to wait for them any longer.

Derek found Simon easily enough - in front of a small pretzel shop, chatting cheerfully with a girl. Flirting, and, going by their body language, the girl was a lot more interested in it than Simon was. Still, when Simon caught his gaze, one look was enough to tell Derek that yes, Simon was fine, he was enjoying himself, there were twenty minutes before they were supposed to meet up, and he knew exactly what Derek was doing - checking up on him - and didn’t appreciate it.

Though not at all chastised, Derek didn’t want a fight, so he left Simon alone and followed Chloe’s trail. Which continued on for a lot longer than it should, past the small shopping center they’d agreed to stick to and into the smaller shops on the next block. Derek somehow managed to suppress his urge to growl, though it wasn’t easy. He failed entirely when he realized her trail ended at a store that he didn’t remember seeing before, when he’d scouted out the place prior to their shopping trip.

Damn it, Chloe. Of course she’d not only wander off without telling them, but she’d also go into a store that hadn’t been there before, and therefore was obviously suspicious. He knew he should go back, warn Simon, maybe get their father. But he couldn’t. Chloe was in there, and she could be in danger, and all he knew was that he had to go in after her.

14. Writing sample - First Person:

This is stupid.

All right. You caught me. Congratulations. The least you could do is come up with something mildly convincing. Or did you figure since pretending we were regular kids didn’t work, you’d go in completely the opposite direction?

It doesn’t matter. I stopped believing your lies back at Lyle House.

I’m not going to tell you where they are, if that’s why you kept me alive. You might as well just kill me and get it over with.

15. Tattoo: Upper left thigh when in human form, high on his left back leg when in wolf form

16. Room Preference: Derek would like to be near Chloe, but feel free to disregard that and place him where-ever