Daniel Merricks

[Daniel Merricks]

In Character

Full Name: Daniel Alexander Merricks
Nicknames: Dan, rarely
Birthdate: April 17th, 1851
Current Age: 35 Years
Occupation: Confidant; Faithful Servant
Reputation: 5
Residence: “A Cabin in the Woods” - Lynn
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Wand: Chestnut, unicorn tail hair, 11 inches, whippy
Blood Status: Halfblood
Social Class: Lower
Family:

Father | Henry Merricks, 1822
Mother | Alexandra Merricks nee Johnson, 1828
Sister | Henrietta nee Merricks, 1853

Appearance:

Above average in height, Daniel stands at an even six feet tall. His dark complexion also leads to stares, though Daniel pays them no mind. His skin is nearly blemish free except for a small cluster of scars on his forehead, a funny story about that coming up. Daniel’s posture is also remarkable in that he stands straight and tall but oddly reticent in nature. He has short dark hair and dark eyes. He dresses simply and always makes sure that his clothes are clean, no matter the cost to himself. Daniel is right handed.

History:

April 17th, 1851 | Daniel is born to first time parents Henry and Alexandra. Both magical, both have worked in private homes their entire lives. Henry is an expert gardener and Alexandra worked in a kitchen. There was always warmth and comfort in the home.

1853 | A daughter is born to the family, named Henrietta, she, too, was loved.

1856 | Daniel displays magic for the first time. At five years old, his parents are simultaneously dumbfounded and ecstatic.

1858 | Age seven. Daniel is playing with some other children that work for the family while taking absence from his penmanship and reading lessons. Playing a mix of hide and seek and tag, Daniel is busy running from “It” and runs face-first into a tree. Twice. Dazed and confused the first time, he turns somewhat on his heel and slams hard into a nearby tree. Knocked unconscious and bleeding, the boy is left with permanent scars and his life, luckily.

1861 | Henrietta displays magic as well. Daniel is less excited. He starts work as a stable hand. His mother makes him learn proper techniques for writing letters and journal entries. Grammar and punctuation now become extraordinarily important. He eventually learns patience and starts learning traits similar to a footman.

1862 | Daniel is sent to Hogwarts for one year on scholarship. Sorted into Gryffindor (though he wished he were a Hufflepuff instead!) he learned to control his magic and he did very well considering his second and third hand supplies.

1863 | The return of the hallboy. Daniel is officially a hallboy for the household and begins training in some household matters, eventually prepping him to become a footman. Particularly good with numbers and neat penmanship, he is shown how to properly maintain personal accounting. He was definitely being groomed for higher man-servant work.

1864-1872 | Daniel worked as hallboy for several years before being promoted to the footman at age 16 in 1867, then eventually to personal valet the year after. Unfortunately, by 1870, the family no longer needed the Merricks as after the death of their two youngest children, helped the family find new employment. In 1872, they were hired by the Jameshill family. The family was new money, but with the entire family being skilled in housework, the Merricks secretly thought that this would help the family grow accustomed to upper crust society, though it was never their place to comment.

1872 - 1881 | A busy nine years for Daniel goes by. His sister gets married and starts a family in 1877. Daniel slowly climbs up the echelon of the footman ladder, being skilled in domestic work that was required and then some. Patient and dutiful, Daniel does as instructed without hesitation, truly the perfect manservant. In 1878, however, Daniel gains feelings that he had hardly felt (or rather repressed in his younger years) over a younger man in the footman team. Daniel, frustrated, turns to practicing his letters and menial tasks that with magic would be accomplished very quickly.

By 1880, he had become somewhat smitten (only with what he had heard and seen in portaits, the man was still a stranger!) with the newly engaged Lou Jameshill, and not ever did he breathe a word. He instead turned his infatuation with a serving girl of seventeen that worked in the house. He enjoyed her company, and it was rather proper and innocent, but nothing came of it other than a quick kiss here or there in halls under stairs. Marriage, at least presently, was not in Daniel’s sights.

Daniel, now tasked with Lou’s wellbeing during his turns, stays wholly secretive and reclusive. He knew that he had been assigned to be Head Butler to Lou once he had married the lovely Miss Fisk, and Daniel was equally excited for the opportunity to grow into what he hoped would officially become the estate manager for the Jameshills. He pens no mention of the arrangement to anyone except Mrs Jameshill, Lou’s mother, as a prerequisite to the arrangement that Daniel live in a cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest to ease Lou in his transformations after Lou's former fiancee learned the news (and took it badly) that Mr Jameshill was, in fact, a werewolf, and had been since 1873.

Daniel is also tasked with the unfortunate news breaking to Lou. Lying to Xena Fisk was one of the hardest things, but watching Lou’s reaction at telling him that they told her he had died was worse than anything Daniel had experienced.

1881 - Present | The lie about Lou’s death would not be the only one Daniel told. He had, in part, become quite successful at lying to the man though he did not enjoy doing so. He told Lou that Xena Fisk had married after hearing of his death, hopefully a fate that would save him from going insane over what could have been. Eventually, Daniel and Lou became friends though somewhat forced. Lou would say dickish things and Daniel never appeared irked or bothered, he just did as instructed. And occasionally did things he wasn’t but he never broke the rules when it came to Lou.

He hardly wanted anything to do with the scheme the man had come up with in 1886. It took Lou much convincing for Daniel to finally agree. Though the idea of his employer gaining a normal life might lead Daniel to getting his own life back as well.

Personality: resilient | patient | honest | stoic | thick-skinned | rational | hopeless romantic, truly | obedient | “the provider”
Sample Roleplay Post:

Out of Character

Name: Tiffany
Age: 22 remember when I wrote 16 here? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

  

[Odira Potter]

APPLICATION ACCEPTED!

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