Derek Atul

[Darkling Perhaps*]

Name: Derek Atul
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: Bayview Secondary School
Hobbies and Interests: Fantasy as a lifestyle. Derek loves the medieval ages and everything about that valiant time of swords and knights, especially the romanticized and fictional magical version seen so often in books and movies. His favorite thing about the medieval ages was massive battles, and loves war games that allow for that type of mass strategy. He likes to play live-action games and any other role-playing game about the era he can find, where Derek puts himself into the character he wants to be: the barbarian Erk, a monster of a man who can take care of himself, something the real Derek could never do. He was also goaded into joining band, but was never very good because he doesn't really apply himself.

Appearance: Derek's dirty blond hair is short and shaggy, barely brimming the top of his large wood-colored glasses. The squarish frames are propped up by his biggish ears, bending down on his nose in a peculiar angle. His muddy brown eyes are sunken into his face a bit, but the lenses warp the appearance largely to make him look almost owl-like most of the time. Derek's frail chin cuts off sharply to his long but thin neck and emphasizes his round skull, the mangled hair looking more like string when viewed from a whole. His nose is small, meek, but oddly crooked upward right near the tip in an animalistic fashion.

Derek was never built never sturdy, his small height of 5'2 a mere shadow of many of those around him. His arms seem way too long for his build, stretching down to his knees in a weird almost freakish fashion. Derek generally walks with his head down and long neck bent, making himself look smaller and always disappearing into crowds like a mouse. His normal pale skin tone is equally unassumingly normal, mixed with his shy behavior to leave him abnormally forgotten by those in his class he hasn't personally befriended.

Derek always wears tunic-like shirts, the simple on color fabric sewn a size too large with wide black thread, up one side and then a sight break in the middle, the threading half-stitched and loose, the whole shirt at home at any of his beloved renaissance fairs. He typically just wears jeans and sandals underneath, preferring to ignore the reactions to his odd style of dress than change it.

Biography: Derek was raised by both his parents, even though they both worked full-time jobs in alternate shifts. His father Marcus Atul was an accountant and his mother Rachel a nurse, so their long hours away from home left Derek feeling utterly lonely. His bigger brother towered over him all his life, James at 6'4 and 8 years older already having a long list of accomplishments that always left Derek never feeling quite competent enough. Star Running Back, Class President, even came close to getting Valedictorian, and finally graduating a year early much to the dismay of the team, James was just getting out of law school someplace on the other side of the country with more excellency left in his wake. Derek could never escape feeling second-best.

Naturally Derek became highly seclusive, spending many hours in his brother's old tree house just to escape the world. He loved to imagine that this was his castle, his kingdom stretching far where he could sit out the most determined enemy for months without the slightest of fears. This was his resting place, his sanctuary, his miasma, his home. Countless medieval wars raged in his mind in this tiny wooden box, but this was where he was set free.

His constant love of these times began to represent itself slowly at first, the books of the Medieval Age filling his shelves one by one and his discovery of new and delightful facts from his 'real home.' Derek gobbled up everything he could about the times he loved, every bit of medieval lore and magical luster he could hold on to. The world was simpler; better. Even though actually there were no wizards whose frail size was made up for their intelligence and willful might, the very love of the thought filled his mind. In a world like that, even Derek could be somebody.

His whole social life has revolved around the medieval period ever since he was a kid hiding in the tree house. Other people from school know Derek as 'the dork into swords' or other such barely revealing mantras. His few friends usually can only talk to him about overlapping interests, or things from the medieval world that barely break out into other fields like video games, anime, and rpg's. His one-sided nature is just too strong, the one thing that is truly his in his family the only thing he can ever focus on. His obsession is his life.

Advantages: His war games let him think of a situation based purely on strengths and weaknesses, which is sure to give him an advantage when handling other people. Also he has fenced before with a much lighter weapon, so if he can get a hold of sword he might be able to do some damage once he gets over the initial shock of its weight.

Disadvantages: He has no survival skills whatsoever and really doesn't think of much besides the sword and sorcerer. This leaves him lacking in ‘Real Life' skills, from communicating with people to simply not getting hurt walking around.