InsaneJournal

Tweak says, " YO YO WORD"

Herman "The Butcher" Wintringham (luteboy) wrote,
@ 2007-12-08 23:02:00

Herman Wintringham.
Friendslocked. rpg_nacht Only (more or less).
Herman's player is paranoid that Herman's VERY FAKE political acts might garner unwanted attention, so this journal is locked to members only.

Disclaimer: This is FAKE. Herman is a fictional character, and any threats he makes are EQUALLY fake. I swear. Pure fiction. This is not real. I don't really know how to disclaim this any further. NOT REAL. FICTION. Please don't arrest me. I think the SF-ites might have already blown my bail fund. :( Also, he belongs to JKR and other entities, not me.

NOTE: NOT 1985-IFIED YET.

>>>>> BASICS

Name: Herman W. Wintringham.
Nicknames: There is nothing wrong with the name Herman, and woe betide you if you suggest otherwise. ("Lute boy" is an acceptable alternative. "Lute thing" is not.)
Birthdate: 7 April 1958. 25 years old.
Bloodline: Muggle-born.
Wand: 12-1/4", oak, dragon heartstring core.
Alumnus: Gryffindor, 1976.
Occupation: Lutenist for the Weird Sisters. Sometimes writes songs (usually political ones), sometimes does background vocals. Also, ACTIVIST EXTRAORDINAIRE.
Special Positions: He is an ordained minister (he purchased his ordination as a gift to himself for his 21st birthday), and is currently attempting to acquire a law licence. If you think Stuart Doyle with a drivers licence is scary, imagine Herman Wintringham with a law licence. Terrifying.
Alliance: Oddly enough, he finds the wizarding world's blood politics annoying but not a critical issue, for the most part. He's pro-Order by default, seeing that not all Order members would prefer him dead, but in general, he prefers to hate everyone equally.

>>>>> IN A NUTSHELL

Herman Wintringham hates everyone and everything. If he didn't hate you, it'd be cause for concern. He plays lute for the Weird Sisters. He's an insane but superficial activist (in the "DON'T EAT MEAT OR WEAR LEATHER, THAT'S SO CRUEL!!" and ten seconds later "OMG I LOVE BACON LOL!!" way). He's cranky. He's obsessed with the Renaissance, has been since he was a nerdy Muggle-born punk with glasses and no friends, and he sometimes dresses up. There you go.

>>>>> FAMILY HISTORY

Father: Dr. Noel Wintringham, attorney and environmental activist.
Mother: Dr. Felicienne Wintringham, professor of geology.
Siblings: Elizabeth Wintringham McCall, 31, veterinarian, married with three children. The youngest, four-year-old Clarence, shows signs of magical ability, which amuses Herman to no end. Gordon Wintringham, 28, economist with Her Majesty's Treasury, married with two children.

Herman is the youngest child of two well-off Muggle professionals. His mother is a French citizen who has been teaching at various British universities for the past thirty years. His father is an attorney known primarily for his environmental work. Their parenting philosophy involved allowing Herman the freedom to do whatever he liked, as long as it was all in the sake of self-expression and with a mind toward cultivating social justice. As a result, Herman had the opportunity to explore whatever subjects and arts that captured his interests, and he very rarely had to deal with the concept of consequences.

Herman's parents are far from overbearing, and Herman certainly takes advantage of their hands-off nature. He has very few qualms about doing so, whether it involves borrowing money or relying on their relenting natures to get out of scrapes. They figure he's just "trying to find himself," so they condone his erratic behaviour. Herman gets along well enough with his parents, since they usually work with him, not against him, and they're proud of his activism work. His older siblings, however, see through Herman's pretenses, and they aren't shy about expressing their disapproval of him and their disappointment with their parents for tolerating Herman's...Herman-ness. In addition, both of them disapprove of the wizarding world--they don't understand it, and they think it's a bad influence on Herman and his laziness. As a result, Herman doesn't have much to do with his siblings; Elizabeth has more or less given up on him, but Gordon still pesters him.

>>>>> CHARACTER HISTORY

Many Muggle-born children experience a mixture of excitement and anxiety upon their discovery of the wizarding world; young Herman Wintringham, however, was highly sceptical about the whole wizarding thing, and he still is. The pale, gawky, bespectacled eleven-year-old with a head of unruly black curls in fact tried to refuse to wear the Sorting Hat. "I don't like things that read my mind," he stubbornly told Professor McGonagall, and it took some convincing, but Herman relented with extreme reluctance. The Hat mulled over whether to punish either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw with seven years of Herman, but ultimately decided that Herman was no Ravenclaw. He didn't/doesn't appreciate learning for the sake of learning, or knowledge for the sake of knowledge; for as smart and analytical as he is, it's all instrumental for him. His passion, his courage, his complete lack of subtlety, his recklessness, his sheer nerve, his stubbornness, his steadfast belief in black-and-white thinking...he was as natural of a Gryffindor as any.

School for Herman was just a period of his life he had to get through. He didn't enjoy classes, and while he liked the usefulness of magic, he wasn't all that interested in it or in the wizarding world. He made a few friends, picked up a few new skills, and got the hell out of Hogwarts--at the end of seventh year. He wasn't self-sufficient enough to do the "drop-out" route.

After leaving, Herman wandered about the continent for a while, doing the whole wandering minstrel gig and joining just about every major political protest he stumbled across, before coming back home to Lyra and to domestic political activism and to his band, the Seven Sisters Area Quasi-Renaissance Consort. After his harpischoridist was imprisoned for terrorist charges, Herman ended up finding a home with a new wizarding band, the Weird Sisters.

After the 1979 general elections, Herman quit the band, quit the wizarding world, and disappeared under an assumed identity to join a conspiracy to overthrow Margaret Thatcher. It...wasn't successful, and Herman ended up spending two weeks in jail, an experience which he is still very sensitive about. Following this, he decided to dramatically depart from the Muggle world, just as he dramatically departed from the wizarding world, and he re-joined the band and filled the Herman-shaped hole in the British wizarding world.

>>>>> PERSONALITY

The immediate first impression of Herman is that he is moody, overly sensitive, and disgruntled to the n-th degree. He doesn't smile often, but that's not because he's fundamentally unpleasant; he's just a bit broody by nature. The foundation of this, though, is the romantic, idealistic streak he harbors--he can be surprisingly chivalrous at times, despite his prickly exterior. He has very black-and-white ideas of what is right and what is wrong, and he's willing to go to the wall for the things he believes. He speaks his mind, and he isn't afraid of being blunt. He sometimes comes across as defensive and aggressive as a result, but he sees himself as simply unfailingly honest.

Following in his parents' footsteps, he's something of an activist, but unlike his parents, Herman is a rather pretentious kind of activist. He gets caught up in righteous indignation, and he enjoys protesting everything and anything. He envisions himself as a fairly folk-y type of activist, spewing lines about oppression and liberation, but really, he's not all that political--he's just expressing his discontent with the world as a whole. And he's also found that being an activist impresses girls.

He's addicted to sensation. He lets himself be controlled by it--lush sounds, luscious tastes, gorgeous sights, feeling in general. He smokes more than he should, he drinks more than he should, he falls in "love" more than he should. He enjoys losing himself in these things. He appreciates fine food and high art, and he can be something of an arrogant snob when it comes to culture.

He appreciates history, and due to the aforementioned romantic, idealistic streak, he became really taken with the Renaissance as a child. His parents indulged his interest, bought him his first Renaissance lute, and Herman was in love. It plays gorgeous, sensuous music, and there's no other instrument quite like it. Also, he's found that girls who have good taste find the lute extremely romantic.

Herman is a wanderer. He's naturally restless, and he is very rarely happy with what he has. He always wants more. He's also fiercely independent, and he has a distinct dislike for being told what to do. He's spirited, although this good side often gets overwhelmed by his crankiness and sensitivity.

Herman has something of a skewed worldview. He's very "Grr, fight the man!" while not fully comprehending how he is the man, coming from a privileged background and not actually believing in what he often finds himself protesting. His egocentricness also has a tendency to skew his worldview even more.

Patronus: Warthog.
Boggart: Zombies/Inferi. Dead people should be dead and ought to, in fact, become even deader over time.

>>>>> MISCELLANEOUS

Romantic Status: He has his Lyra. Even when the two of them are not together, he's still in love with her. He's never going to love someone else, you know, not the way he loves her, because at his core, Herman is stupidly romantic.
Partner: Lyra Pyxie. Muggle. His childhood best friend who grew up to be a stripper. The two of them have been in an on/off, non-monogamous relationship since they were 18. He's had a string of other girlfriends and lover-types while he and Lyra have been together, and they both subscribe to the whole "MONOGAMY, SEX, AND LOVE ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS!!" philosophy, but Herman's had true love, and he keeps being pulled back to it, like a piece of trash the tide keeps washing back onto shore. ...Bad analogy. Sorry.
Sexual Preference: He's a 2 on the Kinsey Scale--predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual. He's comfortable in his sexuality and his masculinity (although the fact he often feels the need to state that outright might negate that...), but he doesn't often divulge the fact that he does sometimes sleep with men. It's the one thing Herman can be subtle about. Granted, he likes dressing up Renaissance-style and plays the frickin' lute, but...yeah.
Turn Ons: Vulnerability, nice hands, sincere respect and interest in him.
Turn Offs: Bad breath, bad singing, freckles, a lack of intelligence.

Zodiac: The Gryffindor Aries is extremely idealistic, and has a tendency to fight hard for many causes - the more lost, the better. Gryffindors born under this sign will also have very short fuses, and can be expected to fight regularly with other students, over ethical questions or over anything else that makes a good excuse. Since Mars is a planet that encourages war games and competition and bursts of hard physical activity, there may be many Quidditch players born under these aspects. A Gryffindor Aries is an open book; a truth potion would never be needed on one, because they are hopelessly honest and open. These wizards will display uncanny charisma and leadership ability, and will be among the most popular within their class.

Name: The name Herman is from Old German, meaning a soldier.

>>>>> OUT OF CHARACTER

PB: Louis Garrel. Thanks to louisgarrel.net and louis-garrel.com for the pics.
Font: Shane.
Playlist: The Abridged Herman Wintringham Mix
01. Peter Mulvey - The Trouble With Poets
02. The Weepies - Dating a Porn Star
03. Lyle Lovett - Don't Touch My Hat
04. Ryan Adams - 29
05. The Servant - Get Down
06. Wolf Parade - This Heart's On Fire
07. Regina Spektor - Poor Little Rich Boy
08. The Robot Ate Me - The Genocide Ball
09. Get Set Go - I Hate Everyone
10. Hedley - Street Fight
11. Will Young - Switch It On
12. Billy Joel - Angry Young Man
13. Flogging Molly - Devil's Dance Floor
14. John Dowland - Go From My Window
Mun: Megan

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