Username: Velutina
Name: Albert Sylvester West, Goes by Sylvester
Gender: Male
Species: Werewolf
Age: 16
Student/Templar/Teacher: Student
Appearance: Sylvester got his mother's blond hair, fast-growing, straight, and soft. He keeps it neat and short, out of the way. Easy to make look nice. His eyes are ever-intense, wary, not befitting a gentle shade of hazel. His light skin is ever tan from time spent outdoors, a place of release for Sylvester. The clothes he wears are, at least in material, as perfect and formal as they should be. He was sent with several near-identical sets of clothes to go under the Clayton uniform, or to wear casually away from campus, given the chance. All neutral, sharp, but never worn quite sharp enough. With such a gentle face, formal wear never suited him in the first place. His frame is tall but not bulky, so not initially imposing- he has, however, a remarkable amount of strength, thanks in part to his werewolf powers.
Shifted appearance: His shifted appearance takes on more wolf characteristics than human ones. As a shifted humanoid, he stands on two legs, but is wholly covered in fur and possesses a completely canine face. His hands are more paw-like and not dexterous, at least with the thick canine claws. His wolf form is reddish, with black accents on the face and behind the shoulders, and a cream undertone. His eyes are deep gold, his wolf's fur long and deeply soft. Talking in the shifted humanoid form is challenging, and in the completely wolf form it is impossible.
Personality: Sylvester is a tormented soul, split between his desires and the demands of his bloodline. Outwardly, he is shut down or hostile. Taught to be fierce, strong, vigilant, a constant warrior. If not fighting with his fists, he is fighting with his words or actions. Sylvester sees authority as an enemy, and every gift or proposition as conditional. He has issues trusting others It was these emotional issues that got him expelled from his last school, and sent across the country to Clayton. He vehemently despises the problematic views of his father- views of 'purity of blood' and 'superior magic' and that crap. He fears Templar ties in his family.
Underneath, Sylvester is a gentle soul. A musician, a poet, a thinker. He was never meant to be a warrior. His imposed anger destroys the delicate things that his soul seeks to create. He thinks it is not in him to make beautiful things. Lonely, lost, pushed away from himself. This internal strife is a source of his problematic anger. He may be hostile and come off as mean, but he tries to be the bigger person. Never starts fights, always ends them. And
never puts up with bullies.
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 190lbs
Strengths:
- Enhanced Speed and Strength, as a human and in wolf form.
- Accelerated Healing of any wound not inflicted by silver or items tipped with wolfsbane.
- Enhanced Senses, in wolf and human form.
- Full Moon Strength: His powers wax and wane with the moon. During a full moon, he is at his most powerful- and most likely to transform. It is hardest for him to stay as a humanoid during a full moon.
- Extensive Training means that Sylvester is very in tune with his wolf form already, even if he has a complicated relation with what it means to him. He does not require an inhibitor for his transformation; although, with the situation with his last school, the Clayton staff have their doubts.
- Experienced Martial Fighter: Sylvester has been taught to fight in many ways, leading to a well-rounded knowledge and greater control of his body and his strength.
Weaknesses:
- Silver is especially dangerous to Sylvester, causing wounds that refuse to heal without magical intervention. The presence of silver has a mild dampening effect on his powers.
- Wolfsbane, though poisonous to most, is especially dangerous to Sylvester. Like silver, it does damage that does not respond to most treatment. It takes magic methods to reverse.
- New Moon Weakness: When the moon is new, Sylvester's powers are at their weakest. It is hardest for him to transform, and his senses, healing, and strengths are hardly enhanced. Sylvester gets quite grumpy during new moons.
- Imbalanced Education means that while Sylvester is quite skilled in certain things like fighting, he is behind in other skills. This is especially apparent in his warped knowledge of history and magic as a whole.
Abilities:
- Lycanthropy: His lycanthropy takes multiple forms- he can become a fully canine wolf, or a humanoid canine that takes on features of both. Such powers are dictated by the moon's phase- the more full, the more powerful. When Sylvester is angry, his wolf side becomes harder to suppress. He may be in full control of his body, but anger makes him more likely to transform.
Likes:
- The Outdoors
- Music
- Deadpan and dark humor
- Snow
Dislikes:
- Silence, or the sound of a ticking clock
- School
- Being late
- Cold rain
- Intolerant people or bullies
Background:
Sylvester was raised in a very wealthy east coast family. Old, old money from some savvy ancestor. A savvy
werewolf ancestor. The Wests boast that they were among the first werewolves to settle the New World from Europe, be it true or not. Regardless, they've married for old blood for generations, seeking only werewolves that can transform "fully," i.e, into a complete wolf. Such is the nature of Sylvester's powers, and his mother's, and his father's. That is how he was meant to be.
"Meant" is the important word here. It'd been spoken since before he was born, when the child was the idea of two supposed lovers. The perfect lovers. Perfect families.
Meant to be that way. It wasn't lovely, underneath, but that was never how these families ever functioned. Sylvester, or Albert as he was properly named, was meant to be the heir. The first son, the protégé. The image of perfection to uphold their family's perfect banner. It was fortuitous that the child Albert could transform as early as he did. Showed such thought in his actions. Trained so readily in the art of lycanthropy and fighting in all forms. Love and praise were conditional on his success, and when he began to falter, diverge from the path, his family grew ever more bitter.
He had a younger sister, Lorayne (Laura) who was meant to be married. She became the bar for Sylvester to beat. Where Sylvester was lacking, Laura was succeeding. Laura had the manners, the tact, the venom she had to have. Sylvester was never strong enough, brave enough, proud enough. His father took a special issue with Sylvester's "Love of halfbreeds" as he called it. Sylvester opposed the bigoted, borderline Templar views of his father. His mother was passive in all this. He had no moral, no emotional role model, other than a father with anger issues who viewed anger as strength. Sylvester drifted like a ship without sail or anchor, angry and shut down. He was sent to a private school for magic. Everyone was just as hostile, just as thirsty for status and respect. Sylvester got in a nasty fight with a particularly awful bully of a kid and was promptly expelled. The summer after was most exhausting. The vitriol from his father never seemed to cease. Being sent to Clayton across the country was as much a blessing as it was a curse.
What confused him was why his father chose Clayton. Yes it was far, isolating, but it was also too mixed for his father's taste. Did his father give up on him? Was there some kind of plan? Perhaps it was just to punish him by taking away much of his monetary support. He was to get no special treatment in his time at Clayton- nothing especially fancy or new.
Other:
- Sylvester was sent to Clayton because of the Templar attack, since his father did hear wind of it thanks to covert Templar ties (providing support via money for certain actions). He wants to see what side his son takes, if he has any hope for redemption in his eyes.
- How certain werewolves have a complete wolf form is not based on bloodline, although it has links to what "strain" of lycanthropy one has.
- His favorite song is In Lieu by Former Hero.
- Stubbornly listens to music frequently, including during class.
