InsaneJournal

NAME: Rabastan Wulfric Lestrange
AGE/BIRTHDAY: 27 / June 20, 1954.
BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood
FORMER HOUSE: Slytherin, class of 1972.
OCCUPATION: Political commentator for the Wizarding Wireless Network

FAMILY:
Alaric Martinus Lestrange. Father. Wizard. Deceased. Alaric latched onto Voldemort seemingly the moment he started calling for followers and it was always expected that the Lestrange sons would follow in their father's footsteps. Rabastan and his father enjoyed a healthy relationship of complete disinterest. Rodolphus was the heir, Rabastan was the spare, and so Alaric did not have much to do with his youngest. Rabastan really has no regrets about this since he witnessed what his father's "love" looked like by observing Alaric and Rodolphus verbally tear each other to pieces on a regular basis.

Verica Persephone Lestrange (née Burke). Mother. Witch. Rabastan quite likes his mother. More than he likes his father, at least. Rodolphus always belonged to Alaric, but Rabastan was always Verica's. As a child, he liked to sit and watch her get ready for parties. She wasn't what one would called warm, but she always seem to exhibit a certain softness around him that wasn't apparent in other Lestrange family members. Following her husband's death, Verica retired from the life of a socialite and began breeding fanged geraniums.

Rodolphus Alaric Lestrange. Brother. Wizard. Death Eater. The two were close as children since of course your first pre-approved playmate is going to be your sibling. They were tutored together, sorted into the same house at Hogwarts, and both took up the Dark Mark. Rabastan has always been aware that he's a bit softer than Rodolphus, but he doesn't resent it. Rodolphus was raised to be the heir to the family name. Rabastan was not. He's very fond of his brother and certainly closer to him than anyone else in their family.

Bellatrix Violetta Lestrange (née Black). Sister-in-Law. Witch. Death Eater. She's the perfect complement to Rodolphus and Rabastan has always been platonically attracted to her in a kind of harrowing "she could probably murder me" way. He digs her crazy and welcomed her into the family upon her marriage to the Rodolphus.

SEXUALITY: Homosexual. Closeted.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: He's dated a series of less than intelligent pureblooded girls for a pre-determined amount of time in order to throw people off the gay trail.
CHILDREN:: Rodolphus is the married one, isn't he?

LOYALTY/ALLIANCE: Death Eaters.

ROLE IN THE WAR: Rabastan is one of the few radio personalities specifically allied with the Death Eaters. He spins his commentary to sway the listeners to the cause and he's gotten pretty good at it. Magic-wise, his skills gravitate toward defensive spellwork such as wards, but he's always had a knack for curses and hexes thanks to not entirely gentle encouragement from his father. In addition to English, he speaks French, some German, and is interested in trying his hand at Italian if he can find the time. He isn't much of a leader, but he's good at following orders. He can be counted on to carry out what's required of him.

POLITICAL VIEWS: Everybody has a place in the world. For purebloods, it's the top of the food chain. Rabastan's quite fine with muggles as long as they keep to their side of the proverbial schoolyard. He doesn't want to dominate muggle society so much as he wants to keep it separate. They're a dirty, dangerous lot who bring nothing to the table aside from war. Let them kill each other. As long as they do it on their own time and away from the magical community. He has no interest in enslaving muggle kind, primarily because he doesn't want to bring them in contact with magical society.

This is his issue with muggleborns and blood traitors. Despite their best intentions, they bring aspects of the muggle world in with them, which further dilutes the purity of magic society. Rabastan believes that intermarriage just causes too many problems for society to deal with. Squibs. Mudbloods. How can a happy society evolve out of what will no doubt be a world filled with petty jealousy? There is no way that a muggle wouldn't look at magic and wish it was theirs. He doesn't think that he is somehow more magical than someone with muggle heritage, but a halfblood is tainted where Rabastan is not. He's completely devoted to the Death Eater cause and cannot understand what the Order is even trying to attempt with their "silly antics."

APPEARANCE: Slight in build, but tall, Rabastan takes more after his mother than in his father. His wide blue eyes often make him appear younger than he is. His hair is a dark red and becomes progressively curlier the longer he lets it grow out. As a result, he tries to keep it well-tamed and close cropped. He often goes unshaven for a few days, letting stubble collect on his cheeks, finally removing the lot of it before a dreaded beard can fully grow in. He is muscled from years of quidditch and further dedication to his body and health. Rabastan has a tendency to gnaw at or touch his lower lip when thinking.

He has a wide, bright smile and his body language is typically that of someone open to interaction and socialization. He isn't overly stylish, but he dresses well and his clothing is usually quite expensive. He resembles his brother in a vague "they're related, but how?" way, although Rabastan does his best to physically separate his personal appearance from Rodolphus's, if only to create his own identity.

CHILDHOOD: As the second son of just about the purest purebloods to ever walk the planet, Rabastan never really had a chance to be anything aside from the dutiful son. He was raised amongst the darkened hallways and spiraling staircases of his wealthy's family's large home, under the care of nannies and tutors. While Rabastan had no doubt that his mother loved him at the very least, his parents did certainly seem to be functioning under the impression that having children was what one did after reaching a certain age. Rabastan has very clear memories of watching his mother getting ready for social functions, memories that he would look back fondly on as years passed because these were one of the few moments when his mother was genuinely affectionate with him. His father, on the other hand, was cold and harsh, distant from Rabastan and more interested in Rodolphus. It hurt, in the earlier years, but Rabastan grew to be disinterested in his father's attention.

Like his brother, Rabastan was tutored by the best teachers that money could buy - and there was plenty of money. Rabastan was an active pupil, curious and loud, to the extent that his tutors were often forced to think of extra assignments to keep him occupied. When left to his own devices, Rabastan inevitably found trouble and more often than not, came trotting home with bloody knees, dirty clothing, and insulted playmates. His father's anger, however, was enough to bring him into line and Rabastan quickly learned to contain himself. He followed his brother around more often than not, like a lovesick puppy. As a child, Rabastan wanted to be Rodolphus, but watching his brother and father continuously duke it out left Rabastan realizing that he wasn't so bad off as himself. Father and firstborn did not get along in the slightest, leaving Rabastan to watch from the sidelines and attempt to not repeat his brother's mistakes.

Young Rabastan enjoyed all things fantastical and when he wasn't attending lessons or scheduled playdates with little girls who could become potential wives, he could usually be found reading and playing imaginary games. He spent a good chunk of his early years enthralled with the founding of Hogwarts and subsequently pretending to be Salazar Slytherin fighting off bloodthirsty monsters. He had a fondness for animals, but lacked the responsibility to actually take care of them, so his variety of pets were never very happy with him. To combat his overly active nature, a nanny taught Rabastan how to knit, hoping that a quieter hobby would at least give him something to do that didn't require supervision. At eleven, the expected Hogwarts letter came and Rabastan was off to school.

HOGWARTS: Had Rabastan not been sorted into Slytherin, he would have done well in Ravenclaw. He was an active student, eager to learn, and he frequently did his assignments out of pure enjoyment rather than obligation. Above this all, he was driven. Not only to be better, but to be better than everyone else. He saw school as a competition and he wanted to beat everyone. He pushed himself and pushed himself, pulled forward by the idea that he could somehow win at school. He was gifted at spellwork, particularly on the defensive end, but he floundered in potions and often resorted to extra tutoring and study sessions in order to scrape by. It was a sensitive subject for him, a constant disappointment to both himself and his father, who expected the best regardless of Rabastan's status as a second son.

Socially, Rabastan never lacked for friends. Slytherin was bursting with family connections and if Rabastan ever lacked a friend, he could certainly find a cousin by blood or marriage to occupy the time with. As he slowly worked his way through puberty, he started to realize that unlike his peers, his eyes tended to roam toward men rather than women. This was uncomfortable to say the least and Rabastan did his best to shove it into a dark corner and set it on fire. He tried to like girls in that way. He really tried. In his fifth year, he went through twelve girlfriends, which gave him the beneficial reputation as something of a teenage Don Juan, but it didn't change anything about his preferences.

At the suggestion of his father, he joined the Slytherin quidditch team as a chaser in his fourth year and occupied the spot until graduation, although he spent a few weeks in his sixth year suspended after an altercation with a Gryffindor. The summer he turned sixteen, Rabastan, Roldolphus, and their father went out hunting and only the brothers returned. Alaric was killed during the trip and while he didn't witness his father's death, Rabastan has never believed the rumors that Rodolphus was the one to do the deed. In reality, Alaric had been a stubborn and proud man and that pride had been his downfall, ultimately causing him to take a risk that ended his life. Still, Rodolphus's stoicism at the funeral didn't help matters and when Rabastan returned to Hogwarts, he was forced to do some damage control in order to clear his brother's name. The strench of his father's death seemed to follow Rabastan through the rest of his school years and even when everyone had moved on to the next scandal, he still sometimes heard whispers about his Rodolphus.

POST-HOGWARTS: Rabastan returned home to keep his mother company. He spent a year as an intern within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, even going so far as to consider becoming an auror, but his experiences during the internship soured his interest in the profession. He found it boring and riddled with policies and procedures that he didn't necessarily agree with. Through family connections, he got a low level position within the Wizarding Wireless Network, initially planning it to be a stepping stone to something else, although he didn't know what. He didn't plan on actually enjoying the job. For someone who spent his life living in the shadow of his elder brother, Rabastan was pleased to find a career where people actually seemed interested in his opinion. Since joining the Wizard Wireless Network, he has been hired as a political commentator.

Shortly before his twentieth birthday, Rabastan joined the Death Eaters, like his father and brother before him. He did it more for Rodolphus than anyone else, but to say that he doesn't believe in the Death Eater cause would be foolish. Since his joining, Rabastan has proven to be a dedicated member and his pull within the Wizarding Wireless Network has certainly been useful. He continues to date women, the longest of his relationships having lasted about eight months, although has yet to settle down. When pressed, he usually laughs it off and says that he'll leave carrying on the family name to his brother.

FIVE THINGS:

• I've never RPed a straight up Death Eater before. I've done repentant Death Eaters like Regulus or Snape, but never a Lestrange. I think Rabastan could be really fun to play because I get to actually fool around with the idea that yeah, Death Eaters are generally ca-raaazy, but they're also people with thoughts and feelings. Rabastan isn't a black hole of ethics just because he's a Death Eater. He's doing what he does because he thinks that is the right thing to do. I've also always kind of seen the Lestrange brothers as a kind of alternate reality version of Sirius and Regulus, but instead of rebelling, they became exactly what their parents wanted. IDK, it's interesting?

• Obviously, being gay doesn't make Rabastan any different than anyone else, but it does give me the opportunity to work with someone who is at war with his natural preferences and I think that could be super interesting. I'd like to hope for a healthy resolution of his orientation as time goes by, but I doubt it since a) it's the 80s b) he's a Death Eater c) he's already spent so many years deeply closeted that the damage is probably already done. I just really like exploring the lengths that Death Eaters are willing to go, even if it includes denying themselves.

• Lestrange Bros/Bellatrix awesome times. I'm pretty sure Bellatrix has a monologue at some point in the books where she talks about how she and the Lestrange bros have been the most loyal out of all the Death Eaters? You don't get Bellatrix to sing your praises for nothing. I'm sure Rabastan does some cool shit to impress her besides being genetically related to her husband. I'm kind of under the impression that they're an OT3 of highly dedicated Death Eater awesome, but we'll see how that turns out.

• I would love to see Rabastan getting involved in Death Eater propaganda and using his radio connections to further that. I bet he could make some pretty cool speeches about how the Order is actually comprised of STD ridden terrorists who want nothing more than to eat your children. He could also use his job as an excuse to go abroad in a sort of "Rabastan Lestrange studies how other countries treats those muggle problems better/worse than our government does" kind of segment.

• I definitely think Rabastan loves his brother. Like, really, really loves him. But it sucks to constantly be told you're the second son, the spare, the extra in case Rodolphus dies or screws up beyond hope of redemption. Rabastan definitely wants to get out of Rodolphus's shadow and make a name for himself, but his impatience/impulsiveness makes that kind of hard.

Samples from previous games and for different characters are totally fine. Samples also do not have to be submitted again after you've already been accepted to the game.

JOURNAL ENTRY: First person. You can find more information about journals here.

RP SAMPLE: Third person, past tense.