InsaneJournal

Seely Gibbon

OOC INFO

Name: Smee
PB: Lou Taylor Pucci

Player Directory & Other Bits

Ohhh, you knowwwww
Journal to be used: ontolentity

Basics

Full Name: Seely Risper Gibbon
Nicknames: Gibsy, Gibbers, Hey-lunatic-pay-attention-to-me
Age: 17
Birthday: June 13, 1961
House/Year: Ravenclaw, expelled from Hogwarts
Blood Status: Pureblood
Loyalty/Alliance: Death Eaters
Wand: 13" Oak, Fairy Wing core
Boggart: Baboons, lots of them.
Patronus: Hyena

Family/Relationships

Parents: Barwick & Medora Gibbon
Siblings: Younger sister.
Extended Family: N/A

Friends: Pretty much no one likes him, but Seely makes it a point to think of some people as his friends, especially if it might piss them off.

Sexuality: He honestly doesn't know. Sometimes he feels lustful, and sometimes there are people around him; he doesn't usually have the presence of mind to connect these two events.
Significant Others: A resounding no.

Occupation

Previous: Student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Current: Bottom-feeding freeloader?

Politics

Role in the war: Seely was going to be one of the first muggle-specialists to work on the side of Death Eaters. His father, proficient at planning ahead as he is, ensured that Seely be taught at a young age all about muggles; their values, culture, identity and psychology. But not, of course, before he'd had a chance to be pumped full of Death Eater ideals and distaste for anyone with diluted blood. Every summer since Seely was thirteen has been spent in various different locations in the muggle world. He spent his days in the company of non-magical locals, and his evenings being told how hey were filth and taught how to analyze their actions. Seely was raised to be used as a weapon before he could even understand the war; and he is, as was expected, one of the only people allied to the Death Eaters with an extensive knowledge of muggle behavior. It's just a shame that he's too high, most of the time, to be of any use.

Political Views: Seely has a strange way of looking at muggles. He's been studying them since he was thirteen years old, he has witnessed them in midst of unmistakable humanity and performing acts that might suggest a strange equality with wizardkind. However, every time Seely saw a muggle do something that he might have one day thought of as admirable, his opinions were squashed by his father, who enforced Pureblood supremacy as a zero-tolerance law in his house. Seely's upbringing (as well as his acquaintanceship with mind-altering drugs) has lead him to view muggles as animals; he's content watching them, studying them and recording their habits, but he doesn't see how they are much of a threat. Similarly, he isn't overly upset when he hears about them being killed, he sees it as just being "put down". As far as being a Death Eater goes, Seely isn't particularly fond of it, he doesn't even remember going to get the Dark Mark as he was rather out of his mind at the time. All he knows is that he really doesn't like to be around Voldemort, the guy is an asshole.

Appearance

Pre-addiction, Seely was nothing particularly special to look at. With dull blue eyes and flat, boring-brown hair, the passerby wouldn't look twice at him. He was brought up to carry himself with the traditional pureblood posture and confidence; it's amazing how easily those things can slip away when one just stops caring.

Before Seely was even expelled from Hogwarts, he started showing the telltale signs of addiction. He lost weight, was tired more often, pale, with sunken-in eyes and could usually be seen shivering from cold in pleasantly temperate rooms. Now, months after the fact and having been left alone for long periods of time, it is almost impossible to compare the boy from before and the frail thing that took his place. His arms are twig-thin, clothes that were once tailored to fit his body perfectly hang off of him like sheets, his eyes have a hint of lunacy that can be eerie to those unaccustomed to his antics.

Personality

Likes: ice cream, muggle cartoons, anyone who gives him food, books, muggle philosophy, windows, pillows, slippers, giving people puzzles to solve, solving puzzles, his potions
Dislikes: sunlight, cold floors, loud abrupt noises, people not playing by his rules, Voldemort, his father, mirrors, having to leave his flat, his addiction.

Strengths: muggle politics, muggle currency, muggle culture, muggle history etc. He's also very good at going days without food, writing the meaning of life on his walls, uncovering conspiracies against him (or so he thinks), arithmancy, horticulture, etymology, entomology and generally being a smartass. He's also very stubborn, and will do things the way he wants to do them regardless of how other people try to make him do otherwise.
Weaknesses: He's not very good at making people feel comfortable, he's a terrible conversationalist, socially awkward in every possible way, obviously he is addicted to his own potions and has completely ruined his life as a result. As far as getting information out of him, Seely's weaknesses include bribery with Ice Cream, acid pops, anecdotes, worthless doodads, threatening to take him to Voldemort and general kindness.

Detailed Personality: In order to truly know Seely Gibbon, one must first understand that he doesn't know himself. Seely can't remember a time when he was ever truly his own person. Something, whether it be his father's expectations or mind-altering drugs, has always prevented him from being able to make his own decisions or grow as a person. As a result of this, Seely knows less about himself than basically any other subject known to man. He can have a five minute conversation with a complete stranger and, from that, write a formal essay about the person's psychological profile but he is, for the most part, in the dark about his own life, needs and wants.

What he does know: He's ridiculously smart; he can read a paper about something he's never heard of before and recite it almost word for word a month later. Or at least he used to be able to do that, ever since he started taking the potions he's had trouble compartmentalizing the information. It's all still there, the knowledge that is, but Seely has trouble connecting it to situations in the real world when repeating it might be relevant. So sometimes he'll spout off random facts when they come to his head, to make sure he doesn't lose them. And sometimes he'll be asked a question and know the answer, but either forget he knows it or forget that is the answer.

He also knows that he is a pureblood and that purebloods are better than mudbloods, and mudbloods are as bad as muggles if not worse etc. This information has been drilled into his head since birth and isn't going anywhere any time soon. Because of this, and his intelligence, Seely holds himself with an air of pride and arrogance. He knows that, even emaciated and weak, he's still more valuable to the Death Eaters than certain other halfwits with wands; and he makes it his mission to act like every bit the genius he is whenever in the presence of other Death Eaters.

What he doesn't know: Mentally, he's a child. A frighteningly smart, selfish, scared child. The reason for this is simply that he's always had something to be dependent on. His father, professors, other students and now the potions; he even still depends on other people to provide his food and supplies because he simply cannot do things for himself. So when he doesn't get a visit from a Death Eater or his father with food, or if he can't convince one of the neighborhood children to go to the shop and pick up something for him to eat, he simply doesn't eat. His actions consist of nothing but the most basic, primal necessities until someone comes along to stimulate his brain, or he gets high enough to philosophize.

Somewhere, deep down inside, he knows that he's crazy, that he is a wreck and that he will never be happy if he keeps on the way he's going but addiction has a way of making someone rationalize the most destructive behavior. As long as Seely is on the potions, he'll never have the confidence he needs to be his own person.

Until then, he fakes it. He always makes sure to have his snobbish facade on when there are people around him. The mask, however, is thin and doesn't fool many people; most of his regular information-hounds have figured him out. There are still a few who let him get on their nerves, and this makes him endlessly happy.


History

Childhood: As a child, Seely was spectacularly boring. Respectful, well-dressed, obedient, everything a wealthy pureblood like Barwick Gibbon could want in a child. He spoke when spoken to, smiled when smiled at and had a well-practiced handshake. Charming non-threatening and bland. Seely, of course, never complained about being a trained dog, he didn't know there was anything else he could be. The few other children he met when attending his father's socials and business parties behaved in a similar fashion, and never asked him to play away from the adults.

When it was discovered that Seely could remember facts and images better than most children his age, his father treated him even more like a clever pet; parading him around and having him perform little memory tricks for the amusement of his associates. Once again, Seely didn't mind, in fact he was even glad for the extra attention he was getting and milked it for all it was worth. Barwick never actually said he was proud of his son, but Seely figured the little encouraging gestures he got were good enough.

Hogwarts: It wasn't until he got to Hogwarts that Seely discovered there were children in the world who lived differently from him. He'd heard about mudbloods and poor people but he'd never really taken them seriously, and when he finally came into contact with live specimens, he treated them as such. Like strange anomalies not to be trusted. It only made sense, then, that the other students at Hogwarts found him haughty and didn't want to be around him. He was sorted into Ravenclaw, which suited him fine, his father always said if you couldn't be in Slytherin then Ravenclaw was the next best thing; and Seely was rather sick of being around Slytherin children.

He discovered, in his new house, that there were other children like him; ones who could remember things very well and thirsted for knowledge the way he did. They all seemed to have a quiet passion for learning and it made Ravenclaw into a very peaceful place to live. Seely was still boring, cooperative and quiet, but no one seemed to find anything amiss about it; everyone just chalked it up to the Ravenclaw tendency to be caught up in one's own thoughts.

So Seely took on heavy course-loads, was skipped ahead in classes like Muggle Studies, History of Magic and Potions, and professors often used him as an example to show the other students what a dedicated Wizards looked like. Seely took it all in stride- with a bored look on his face, no less- and just kept aiming higher and higher. It's easy to make academic achievment your one focus in life when there are no distractions like friends to keep you down. Seely looked at his upcoming NEWTs with no fear, and his future with uncertainty.

It became clearer and clearer to Seely that, after Hogwarts, he was going to spend the rest of his life in the service of a man he didn't even like, doing something that wouldn't keep his brain stimulated like school would. All the potential everyone told him he had would be put to waste, and he would never get to see how far it stretched. What started out as an extra credit assignment for Potions resulted in Seely discovering that he could calm his nerves and put a sense of joy in his mind by combining certain ingredients with a strong migraine potion. Of course, these ingredients weren't readily available to him and he needed to resort to some thievery, but he figured if he invented the next great pharmaceutical potion, no one would really mind. Since he had no friends, Seely had to use himself as a guinea pig, and he was amazed by how effective his work was.

After only one month, Seely had developed a full-fledged addiction to the potions and was constantly adjusting them to do different things. He made sure not to put anything in them that would affect his memory- if he was going to be an addict he still wanted to have the thing that made him special- but he couldn't do anything to preserve the way he processed information in his head and eventually the potions warped his mind beyond recognition.

Addiction means building up a tolerance, which means Seely needed more and more potions ingredients in order for them to have an effect on him. Eventually Slughorn and Dumbledore noticed the potions supplies going missing and Seely's operation was uncovered. There was nothing else that could be done, and Seely was expelled from Hogwarts before Christmas holidays.

Post-Hogwarts: Seely now lives in a small flat off of Diagon Alley, paid for by his father, who won't have him living in Gibbon Manor where he might be seen. He still has an ever-shrinking stash of potions that he uses sparingly when the clawing in his eyes and stomach gets to be too much. In the months since Hogwarts, his body has wasted away and his mind has turned into a twisting labyrinth packed full of useless information.

Death Eaters visit him in the flat when they need to get his insight on a certain muggle issue. Whether it is because he forgets, or he just feels like being an asshole, Seely doesn't give up the information easily. With people he likes, he'll usually turn his answer into a riddle and sit with them until they figure it out; most of the Death Eaters wouldn't have the patience to deal with that, but they aren't the ones that he likes. With people he doesn't like he'll either pretend to be crazier than he is and speak in gibberish, or keep his mouth shut entirely and wait until they beat it out of him.

He loves his flat, and thinks of it as a second body to him, when he is forced to leave it his coherency (such as it is) goes out the window, he gets jittery, paranoid, pathetic and travels down a hierarchy of defense mechanisms from screaming, protesting rage to making himself as small as possible. Either way he usually needs to be dragged to and from the place. It’s why the Death Eaters usually just go to the flat, it isn’t worth the effort of making him leave.

In his rare moments of lucidity, Seely recognizes that he is in danger. He knows that the side he is working for means business and he knows that if, at some point, his information becomes obsolete, or he pushes some high-strung Death Eater over the edge, his father’s influence won’t be enough to save him. On some level, he knows that every time he hears a pop of apparition into his flat, it could mean his clock is about to run out.

And on most levels he doesn’t care.