VOLEK, Deryn Isabeau

[deryn isabeau volek]

DERYN ISABEAU VOLEK

FULL NAME: Deryn Isabeau Volek.
NICKNAMES: None. People have tried to call her Ryn, but she hates it.
AGE: Twenty-two.
GENDER: Female.
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Student.
GRADE: Senior.
MAJOR: Psychology.
JOB OCCUPATION: Font Backstage Team.

HAIR: Very dark brown, kind of long with a thick sweeping fringe. She usually wears it down and with waves or curls in the length of it. If she cuts it, she cuts it dramatically and then lets it all grow back out again.
EYES: Brown.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: None.
TATTOOS: She has an alchemy tattoo right along her left side, from the top of her rib down to her hip. An ‘A’ behind her left ear for her brother.
PIERCINGS: Ears once and navel. She used to have a nose piercing but it fell out.
PLAY-BY: Natasha Negovanlis!

LIKES: Westerns, old books, music events, lipstick, boots, poetry, blogs, dogs, old country music, the scent of oranges, redecorating, horror movies, game shows at 2am, Twister, psychology, hanging out with her brother, road trips, red wine, paprika on everything, stained furniture, being messy, chess, late nights, the mountains, camping, newspapers in the morning, intellectual discussions, junk food, sodas, just getting in her car and driving, meteor showers, catching the sun rise, baking cupcakes, dark chocolate.
DISLIKES: Early mornings, being mistaken for a boy, the ‘twin fiasco’, scented candles, breaking a heel, the colour yellow, people expecting things from her, falling asleep with false eyelashes on, chocolate limes, silly string, Australian beer, high school, pretty much everyone younger than her, swimming pools, white chocolate, gold jewellery, bug bites, cleaning, parental interference, allergic reactions, missing socks, going to the gym, having to wake her brother up, arguing over chores, fishsticks, overly sensitive people.
FEARS: Maggots, anaphylactic shock (she’s allergic to penicillin and oranges, the latter to her great dismay), turning out like her mother.
SECRETS: Only her brother knows about her sleepwalking problems. They can get quite out of hand sometimes, but he’s only ever been the one to see or deal with Deryn when it happens. It’s not something she shares with others or talks about. She’s never slept over at friend’s houses or let them stay at hers because of it, since she can do some pretty crazy stuff in her sleep.
PERSONALITY: Deryn is highly intelligent, but at the same time she’s pretty darn cynical and sarcastic. She’s opinionated and at times can be rather on the impatient and snappy side. Deryn enjoys shocking people, and can be rather unpredictable most of the time. She’s not the easiest person to make friends with since she’s kind of unapproachable and can come off as intimidating more often than not. Her brutal honesty can be off putting for many people, too, since Deryn does not hold back on it. A troublemaker, Deryn isn’t afraid of breaking a few rules or doing what she pleases most of the time. However, if there are others with her, she’s frequently inclined to take the blame on their behalf since her reputation is already that of a lost cause, at least to those in a position of authority. Deep, Deryn does enjoy an intellectual discussion and philosophical chat on a regular basis, but unless someone manages to get past her icy exterior it’s not something many people will see away from the classroom discussions. She can be defensive and quite guarded to those who don’t know her, but Deryn is only that way because her neurotic mother seemed to make her think that way after all these years. Independent, Deryn won’t admit to needing anyone, ever, and she does everything for herself. Messy and somewhat on the side of slothful, she comes across to many as unorganised, but Deryn knows where everything is; her style is more like organised chaos. Feisty, Deryn can turn rather aggressive when her buttons are pushed and she’s not one to shy away in a fist fight either; in fact, she might be the one to start the fist fight! A little possessive, Deryn can occasionally admit to being easily jealous. She’s not one to believe in the nonsense of romance, and she’s challenging to get on a first date, let alone any further than that! Deryn needs to be intrigued by a person to date them, and while she can be a mystery herself, she likes nothing more than to meet someone she can solve herself.

MOTHER: Cora Louise Arndale-Volak, 44.
FATHER: Tobias Jamison Volak, 49.
SIBLINGS: Alexander Brantley Volak, 22.
OTHERS: N/A.
PETS: Wilde, Dylan & Keats, cross mix terriers, all aged two, all brothers from the same litter!
HOMETOWN: Breckenridge, Colorado.
HISTORY: Cora met Tobias at a demonstration when she was in college. Cora was the type who attended every student protest and demonstration, was a member of most societies that voiced and opinion and who ensured her voice was heard on the college campus. Most people actually went out of their way to avoid her, but Tobias found her exhilarating at first. She was so opinionated and full of life that every moment with her was a complete surprise. Cora discovered that she was pregnant just three weeks after college graduation. Tobias thought that she might calm down after the freedom of student life was over, but not even a pregnancy was enough to stop Cora. His father pressured him into doing the right thing and marrying Cora, even though Tobias was starting to doubt whether it was true love. It was a quick event and then back to business. Tobias worked long hours for a sales company and even when Cora ought to have been resting and taking the advice of her doctors she was still parading around on marches and organising protests against just about everything she stood against.

Cora gave birth to Alexander in early September, and then to prove a foolish point to someone she fell into an argument with, found herself pregnant soon after again, ensuring that her second child was born the following summer during the final week of July since Deryn’s impatience apparently developed in the womb and she came two weeks early. Doctors weren’t very impressed, and Tobias hadn’t been all that pleased when he discovered what Cora had been up to by seducing him so often and determinedly, but work and his life had him so exhausted that he wasn’t stupid enough to argue with someone like her.

Deryn and Alex were so close in age that they were accepted into the same grade in school. Many people mistook them for twins and they spent far too much time pointing out that they weren’t and that Alex was almost a year older than his sister. The siblings were insanely close, the best of friends in fact. They grew up joking that they had to be. Their father worked long hours, came home and usually just fell asleep before repeating the cycle the next day. Their mother, on the other hand, was always at some demonstration or rally. Her actual career was supposed to be with a women’s equality group, but both brother and sister remember more of her protests and run-ins with the law than they actually do her job. She would frequently remind Deryn to be strong and empowered, and raise both children to question authority.

It was no real surprise that Deryn and Alex had their fair share of issues at school then. They were both on par with each other when it came to causing trouble, but when Deryn was more likely to get aggressive with her classmates, Alex was more likely to get under the teacher’s skin and really irritate them. They were the dreaded duo, but they didn’t seem to care and neither did their mother. Cora would always argue that her children were expressing themselves and standing up for their beliefs, but Tobias desperately tried to knock sense into them both and failed. He failed because he was never really there; something neither child blamed him for. They knew their mother was crazy and that working was the only thing that kept him sane. Acting out and getting up to no good was their own way of staying sane with Cora’s manic behaviour and overly opinionated lifestyle. Despite their attitude problems, both Deryn and Alex were surprisingly intelligent, and teachers seemed shocked that neither of them would act interested in class and yet they could hand in A/B papers each time without fail.

Alex was always slightly more outgoing than his sister, but then Alex seemed to have the bad boy vibe going for him. There was always at least one giggling girl in his vicinity and Deryn got sick of telling them to back away from her brother and to stop asking her if he was single. They couldn’t seem to understand that she didn’t want to hear about how hot her brother was. To Deryn, her brother was a goofball who in high school thought he could be the next Axl Rose, and the one who tucked her back in bed when she started sleepwalking and tried to get her car to the mountains, or would be in the basement slurring as she slept and built some contraption out of the junk down there. Part of her didn’t want to share him with them, another part of her didn’t think any of them good enough for her brother.

Life took a different change when graduation came around. Cora had stated at the start of senior year that once they were done with high school they were both to go off and do what they pleased; she was done playing mother. Apparently they were old enough to take care of themselves and so college, jobs, whatever else they wanted to do could go and be done. She wasn’t going to wait on them any longer. Deryn asked when had she ever started, but that hadn’t gone down all that well. Tobias had insisted they could ignore Cora, but it was Alex who said that no one ignored Cora. So, straight after they collected their high school diplomas they took off in their cars and spent the summer travelling and camping before arriving in New York City. Both of them had been accepted to NYU for their chosen courses, and they had an apartment together not far from the campus.

Since then not all that much has changed for Deryn. She’s in her final year of college now, a psychology major who just enjoys getting in people’s heads more than anything else. She works at The Font Bar as part of the backstage crew since it’s the best place to put her lack of people skills to work, and she still lives with Alex, travelling off on awesome camping trips with him when she can. They head back home for the holidays and reluctantly sit through family meals with their still actively protesting everything mother, and their exhausted father. He’s still her best friend and she’s still not overly keen on sharing him with anyone else since no one is good enough and without him she’d be alone. However, so far it’s not been too much of a problem, or at least, not as far as she’s concerned. With college coming to an end though, and that end signalling another change in their lives, who knows if their laidback lifestyle can last?

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: At the bottom of the magical well.
SAMPLE:

Insert an entire Shakespeare folio here!

[kim]