[hider=Death - Caelum Harrington]
[h3]Humanity[/h3]
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[b]Name:[/b] Caelum “Cale” Harrington

[b]Age:[/b] 18

[b]Arcana:[/b] Death

[b]Appearance:[/b] 

Standing at 179 cm, and weighing about 70 kg, Caelum is slightly above average in height, and slim – in fact, he is still somewhat gangly from his recent growth spurt. He has a pale complexion, which burns in the sun easily. He has thick wavy black hair cut just past his ears; sometimes, he styles it with some gel, and others, he simply leaves it in a messy disarray. His blue-gray eyes often stare off into the mid-distance, half-lidded and sleepy. He has a thin face, almond eyes, aquiline nose, and finely manicured brows, and a fair number would term him good looking. The pearly white teeth, and an easy smile – when he bothers affixing one – help as well. Though, imaginary points for beauty would likely be deduced for the constant press of his lips into a thin line, the lines of tension on his face and shoulders, and the dark circles sometimes visible beneath his eyes.

Cale possesses and wears an assortment of mostly formal wear. Dark slacks, button-down shirts, vests, and jackets in various shades of monochromatic colours, and dress shoes. All of this obviously high-quality and pricey, quite likely tailored to fit. A wristwatch is a constant accessory, and ties are common too. He has also acquired a few fedoras in a feeble effort to fight the sun. As well-polished as he comes across on first glance, however, someone with a keen eye will note that Caelum’s shirts are sometimes rumpled, ties loosened sloppily, sleeves pushed up his forearms carelessly. He uses nothing but a deodorant, and the scent of cigarette smoke lingers around him. He’s even begun switching out the usual jackets and coats with a second-hand leather jacket, for some unfathomable reason. While this might all seem rather mundane to the casual observer, his parents would surely despair if they knew of his sloppy habits.

[b]Personality:[/b]

Caelum is a standoffish young man, appearing cool and in control, but not easily approachable. It is true that he is not the most personable, but he is practiced enough in casual, superficial communication that he is capable of starting, holding, and ending conversations with little to no awkwardness. He has often found himself in a leadership, supervisory, or a managerial position, so he is excellent at organizing a group of people, delegating tasks, and ensuring their efficient completion. He has experience with public speaking, and is a decent rhetorician. He is used to being listened to, so when that isn’t the case, he may lash out verbally. He is quite strict, and tends to get testy when his expectations aren’t fulfilled.

Lately, though, he’s been trying to rethink some things. On the one hand, that has made Caelum more moody, irritable, withdrawn, and quiet. On the other, he has been trying to get outside perspective, so he is more open and attentive when he wants to be. Whereas he’d once gladly used his observational skills and ability to exploit others’ weaknesses or bring out their strengths for his own ends, he’s become rather negligent of participating in such social ploys and politics. Whether this is because he doesn’t want to anymore, has lost his touch, or is simply too damn tired to care is unknown. What is certain is that he is still the image of a serious, diligent student; not many would be guess that he is a tad more laid back right now.

Emotionally, he remains somewhat stunted. True affection and genuine empathy are beyond him; he has issues with recognizing, receiving, or offering either. He is excellent at enacting a facsimile of attachment, but Caelum doesn’t know if there is or ever could be anything more to it than that. Of course, it is not unlikely that he is over-critical of himself even in this aspect, yet the lack of proper parental love has left its undeniable marks. Cale doesn’t fool himself into thinking that he is particularly rare in that regard, yet that hasn’t stopped the emergence of some negative feelings; resentment and guilt (towards his parents), envy and longing (in relation to his peers), and a raging turbulence within himself.

[b]Bio:[/b]

Caelum was born as the first son to a prominent businessman, Davon, and an ambitious lawyer, Madelaine. As such, he has had great expectations placed upon him since birth, and has had to match his parents’ exacting standards. While his mother simply desired for him to succeed in general, his father clearly had a goal ready-made for him; Caelum was to follow in his footsteps and inherit his company. Though Caelum was reared almost solely by various nannies, caretakers, and tutors, he was certainly shaped by his parents. 

They both acted as strict, harsh supervisors, though his mother was slightly more companionable and affectionate – but even she never seemed capable of grasping that he didn’t always learn as swiftly as she might have had; that he did get stuck, and did need practice, repetition, and yes, sometimes even help, to manage something that was self-evident to her. His father, on the other hand, understood his capabilities perfectly, and though he’d deduced they – and Caelum – were fairly normal (as opposed to him possessing any particular talent or creative intuition or genius or…), he didn’t accept that as a reason for failure, and never stopped pushing him further.

“Do your best” was never just a positive encouragement in Caelum’s household, it was a lofty, perhaps unreachable goal, ever-shifting upwards. If there was such a thing as reaching your full potential, Caelum has not been judged as having reached it yet – in fact, he ceased to believe he ever will. Or rather, he has stopped wishing to be granted the reprieve of such an acknowledgment, as there is always more to do, to have, and to be.

At the age of 9 years, Caelum gained a sister, Vesper. His life was not observably impacted by the (admittedly unexpected) arrival of a younger sibling. His parents didn’t act in any particularly different way towards him, and his sister was raised much the same as he was. If he was his father’s pet project, then Vess was more-so his mother’s. Caelum struggled with his parents’ divided attention for a while, and so simply took to ignoring his sister’s existence whenever he could for several years. 

It was at the beginning of high school that he started taking notice of Vesper again. Partially because his jealousy and confusion had mostly dissipated, partially because he noticed Vess wasn’t taking well to the transition from home nannying/tutoring to private school. Their parents did all they could think of to ease her in, including instructing Caelum to look over her – which he could do, since they visited the same school complex, which was merely divided into elementary and high school levels/buildings. That, on top of getting used to the emerging high school politics, keeping his status as one of the top students, and his various extracurricular activities, was stressful to say the least.

It was in the latter half of his secondary education that Caelum started feeling the burnout. Well, he didn’t precisely know that is what it was, but it had him veering between apathetically exhausted and nearly paralyzed with anxiety nonetheless. It was through sheer will that he consistently remained within the top three scorers. Well, that, and spite, since his peers found any slip-up of his a matter they could light-heartedly joke about. Given that he became aware of the cracks upon his psyche due to the pressure – even if no one else noticed anything off – he managed to pull through incredibly well, graduating with honors.

However, he desperately wanted a break. Caelum earnestly considered taking a gap year before university, but it was not to be. The most he was able to compromise with his parents was taking a year at a university of his choice, to at least get some credits before he was expected to transfer. It was after facing heavy disappointment that he was “taking it easy” – simply for not choosing to go straight to one of the most prestigious and competitive universities, one of those his parents would approve of – that Caelum headed to Barclay Waterfront University.

Since then, he has settled into the new dorm and university life. He’s freely picked a variety of classes; some business-oriented, others more so scientific, philosophical, humanistic, even artistic. He has not been particularly impressed by any of the starting courses yet, though he’s still excelling in all he does. However, he is not sure whether his chosen path has been correct; he’d wished for some mental recuperation, and while the freedom and variety he’s had has done him well, Caelum doesn’t feel particularly rested. He is plagued by guilt and confusion; by the disapproval of his parents, the unknowns of having deviated from their set path for him for the first time, by the terror of the nebulous future, and the looming loss of purpose.

[b]Scars:[/b] 

A perfectionist on the brink of a nervous breakdown, Caelum has had to fight for every inch of breathing space ever allowed to him – and even now, after all he had to go through to earn some, he has found the results unsatisfactory. Though he’s physically distanced himself from his parents, he is not yet free of their influence. Overworking has been a problem, and yet, his chosen solution is to keep busy even more. The recent Thanksgiving break has been particularly exhausting, as he had to return home for the duration of it, and has faced what could easily pass for an inquisition (by his father) during it. He feels that he’s beginning to break, but has no idea how to prevent that, or at least alleviate it.
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[h3]Metaverse[/h3]
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[i]Where there is light, there must be shadow. This Persona is one intimately familiar with this truth, for they are one who have wreathed darkness for their own. Their form calls to mind both chivalry and honour as well as mystery and deceit. Their obsidian armour conceals all allegiances; perhaps, they serve none but themselves. They are fated to battle against that which would blind with its brilliance; holiness is their fated weakness. Yet, persistence against enemies which wield such forces has shaped them to excell in protection.[/i][/indent]
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