Arthur William Kirkland || England

[Deleted]

Arthur William Kirkland Sometimes you look at something and it’s broken. So you think, perhaps it’s a good idea to fix it, because until you’ve fixed it, it won’t work properly. People are often like that. They break and stop working the way they’re supposed to. So you try to fix them, put them back together, nice and whole. Yet no matter how hard you try to fix them, you can’t make them better, and they end up bent. But that’s okay; you can deal with bent. In fact, you prefer it.

CODE NAME: Excalibur

Male

25

Undetermined

English

Member of Parliament

Government

Physical

173 cm

63 kg

Golden Blond

Forest Green

Very Pale

Lean; Small Build

Personal

Intelligent: His best and most powerful weapon is his brain. When talking to him, one can tell that he knows what he’s talking about. He may not be an expert on all subjects, but he knows more than most people on any topic that happens to interest him, and issues that need to be addressed in the country. He not only sounds smart, he is smart. Charming: Well, depending on the situation, he can be. In the public eye he’s definitely a lot of charm, but even with friends he’ll do his best to be a “gentleman”. He’s not going to be the one to insult someone else first, and he’ll help people out due to a generous heart. Charitable: Arthur’s often seen participating in charity events—this is partially because he wants to help, and partially for his campaign as he quietly makes his way to the top rung of the government ladder. It does break his heart to see citizens and youths on the street, homeless and hungry, and he wants to resolve that. Cynical: Despite everything, Arthur’s cynical. While others believe that if something’s not broken, you shouldn’t fix it, Arthur believes that everything is broken and needs to be fixed. To him, there’s always something wrong, something that can be done better. He has no patience for people who are motivated by nothing but their own lust for power, though it can be said that he has the same want for it. Witty: Arthur’s a chap with a strange sense of humor, but one that’s both intelligent and witty. If you insult him, expect to get insulted back with a cutting tongue and an amused smile. His wit has managed to get him out of rather sticky situations and in fact gotten him in the good books of many high officials, just because his wit amused them so much. Argumentative: He’s not going to back down if someone challenges his ideals. He’s got tons of facts to back himself up and knows how to manipulate an argument in his favor (most of the time). He gets heated in debates, but that’s the life of a politician for you. He grew up getting into heated arguments anyway, so it’s just something that carried over into adulthood. Confident: Arthur is an extremely confident person. He’s not afraid to get up and do speeches, nor is he afraid to challenge another person’s opinion or ideas if they don’t make sense to him. Of course, this is more of a treat for the public. In person, Arthur is much more soft spoken and, with friends and family, is unlikely to make such a big show of himself. Logical: Arthur’s, more or less, a logical person. He weighs all the pros and cons before making heavy handed decisions. If something doesn’t make sense—like a law—he’ll rebuke it and make a sound argument against it, shooting down any counterarguments with pure logic. Ambitious: He’s always been ambitious. He’d been a child of high hopes and set his mind towards making some of his dreams come true. He’s prepared to pit everything against the world in order to achieve his goals, and he aims for the highest he knows he can reach. Persistent (stubborn): Arthur is as stubborn as a mule. He will not ever give up without a fight, pushing himself past his own limits and refusing to show weakness to even his closest friends, of which he has little. However, this stubbornness has allowed him to be successful at things that others would not. If he was not persistent, he wouldn’t be at the place he is today. This can both be a good and bad thing, however, as one can garner many enemies through being persistent. Prideful: This is more or less a family trait. Arthur will not take insults lightly and will counter with his own method of defense, which is insulting right back, usually, though in the public eye he’ll wave off whatever insult he was given with a smile and keep his own image clean. His upbringing prepared him for the absolute worst, and the worst he’ll get in politics is criticism of his ideals. Closed off: He may seem confident, but Arthur rarely shares what he’s feeling, especially if it’s not good. He hides behind a mask that he crafted for himself as a teenager when he learned that saying too much gave others fuel to hurt him. He adopted the saying “Keep calm and carry on”, doing exactly that: he carries on. This ends up being detrimental to his health.

Likes

Dislikes

Archery: Arthur had never been as great at sports as his older siblings, especially team sports. At a young age, he took up archery as a hobby, recommended by his father, as he needed to get out of the house more. He fell in love with it immediately, and he’s a great shot. Horseback Riding: Another hobby he picked up to “get out of the house”, as his father had put it. He’d always enjoyed petting the horses when he was little, and her mother feared that he would be stepped on. He wasn’t stepped on, but when he had his first lesson in classical riding, he wanted to keep learning. When he’s not signing papers and getting into arguments with fellow Parliament members, he can often be found spending time with his two horses, Rohan and Lancelot. Tea: He grew up drinking it to soothe his throat when he got sick, which was often. It’s just something he’s used to, and prefers it over anything else except water. Writing: If he hadn’t decided to go into politics, this would’ve been Arthur’s career choice. Even now, it’s something he’d love to do for the rest of his life. He’s written quite a handful of short stories and poems. Let it be said that he has talent with the English language. Mythology and Fairytales: Oh god, Arthur adores myths and fairytales. There was always something about the fantasy genre that attracted him. Perhaps it was because his mother read him stories as a child, or maybe it was an active imagination that led to such love for the stories. Either way, he knows quite a few of these like the back of his hand. Science Fiction: Arthur likes to think of the unknown, or maybe he just likes a good scare from the occasionally alien story. It doesn’t really matter to him. There’s just something extremely fascinating about the improbable but completely possible. Music: Though not as musically talented as his older sister, he does have the ability to sing decently and play a few instruments. He can play the violin and the guitar, and knows some piano (which he was forced to learn). Books: Seriously. Arthur loves books. He loves to flip pages and smell the old/new book smell. He loves to reread his favorite stories over and over and over again, and he knows many lines by heart. Some of his favorites include: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Lord of the Rings, and Sherlock Holmes. Theatre: He’s a big fan of seeing plays and musicals, as well as reading them. His favorite performances are usually Shakespearean.

Coffee: Yes, most people do enjoy a good coffee, but Arthur abhors the taste. Besides, caffeine is supposed to make you feel awake, but all it does is make Arthur sleepy (despite there being caffeine in tea as well). Not to mention it’s unhealthy. Warm Weather: Arthur prefers to bundle up in a warm coat and have a nice cup of tea beside a fire instead of dealing with a hot day. He doesn’t like it when it rains, but he loves cloudy days. The sun is only good when it’s not making the day unbearably warm. Jabs at his cooking: Arthur can’t cook, but that’s mainly because he never learned, and the universe seems to not want him to make anything successfully that needs to be heated up, unless it’s tea. However, that does not mean he’s going to find it funny when you make fun of his skills. In fact, he’ll be more than upset. Alcohol: Arthur doesn’t like the taste, and he hates the aftereffects—mainly getting drunk. So he does everything in his power to avoid alcohol, but when he does have it, he can’t hold his liquor. He ones of those sad drunks, too, though considering he never says anything that’s bothering him out loud, it’s the one time he can express himself truthfully without being ashamed immediately after. Discussing his feelings: He’s not the type of person to express himself through talking. He’d rather do so on paper, where he pours out his thoughts in the form of a story or poem. He resents those who try to pry into his personal life and dislikes being prodded to talk when he’s upset and would rather stay silent.

Dreams

Fears

Become Prime Minister: And boy is he on his way there. Arthur’s so close that he’s pretty certain he’ll make it. But even though he’s got the position within his grasp, he’s not lowering his guard for a second. Besides, he’s worked hard to get to where he is right now, climbed over obstacles the size of mountains; like hell he’s going to see that position go to someone else. (Besides, he’s pretty sure he’d be better at the job). Get a house in the countryside: After all the nonsense with the government is over, Arthur thinks he’ll get a house out in the country. A nice one with stables near it so he can have his horses close by instead of miles away like they are now. Quiet, undisturbed—a place where he can write to his heart’s content and not be hassled. Give Peter a stable life: Arthur’s own childhood was a hellhole. Ever since he took Peter in, he wasn’t sure how he’d help a kid whose childhood had the potential to turn out worse than his own. So Arthur intends to give the best to Peter that he can to make up for the lack of care that has been shown to him thus far. Even if stability seems like the furthest thing away in their dysfunctional family, Arthur intends to give Peter a childhood that he won’t look back on with hatred later in life.

Relapsing: Arthur has a history of depression. Despite being off the pills for six years, there have been times when it almost seemed like he was falling back into it. He’s scared to death of relapsing when it took him so long to drag himself out of the hole in the first place. Drowning: Arthur never learned how to swim, having been too sickly at the ideal time to learn. When he was well enough to do so, he refused as he said his studies were more important. Then, while on a boating trip, he fell into the water, and, being unable to swim, nearly drowned. He’s had a fear of drowning ever since. His siblings hating him: He may be distant from them, more or less, but he still loves them with all his heart. He doesn’t show it though, because he’s too afraid that they want nothing to do with them, so he keeps his distance and checks up on them regularly. He’s convinced that more than one wished he had never been born. His siblings being killed: He really fears this—more so than his own life being taken. He can’t stand the thought of one of his siblings being killed, and in their line of work, it’s both likely and highly probable, especially for the ones who are agents.

Background

Arthur was, in the words of nearly everyone in the Kirkland family, the Golden Child. The youngest of five children, Arthur is a half-brother to all four of his older siblings. Related to them through his father, he was the only one out of the lot to have blond hair, thanks to his mother. The blond hair could have been what brought on the “Golden Child” part, but Arthur lived up to the title the moment he started school, despite his mother’s side of the family thinking that he wouldn’t amount to anything, like his “good for nothing father”. He grew up in a family of faith, but it quickly became apparent to Arthur that there was no God, because no matter what others said, everything he’d ever achieved was through hard work and a small amount of luck, and besides, he trusted science, not a book filled with stories. Praying had never done him any good anyway, but he has yet to tell any of his family members exactly what his beliefs are. It was obvious that Arthur was gifted from the start. Maybe it was because he had older siblings around, which forced him to learn faster, but he exceeded everyone in all subjects. He skipped multiple years because his age group didn’t provide enough of a challenge. He was, in all rights, a child genius, too smart for his own good, with a competitive edge that made other children weary of him. He lacked many friends because of this, but it was mostly resentment from his peers that he was more intelligent, especially when he ended up in a higher grade than his age group. In class, Arthur was a menace, depending on the class. In Literature, he was the favorite student, and the best. He wrote essays that his teachers called brilliant and innovative, and he held expansive knowledge on many works. If someone made a comment in class and Arthur disagreed, he would start a debate with said person and outsmart them, using evidence from whatever text they were reading. History was another forte of his, and he absorbed the knowledge like a sponge, learning lessons from the mistakes of history that others had not. He learned to speak French and became fluent. He was not well-liked among his peers for many reasons, and most of them were upset that Arthur didn’t hesitate to humiliate them in front of the class (though in all honesty, he wasn’t doing it intentionally). Fueled by this disdain, his peers would often try to bully him, but Arthur rarely let them have their fun. It was only when it got physical that Arthur was at a loss of what to do and couldn’t defend himself. He may have been intelligent, but he wasn’t the best at sports. He was a sickly child and hardly went out for the most part, and barely ate because he couldn’t stomach it. His mother would give him tea to soothe his throat. Somehow, he never did gain the bulk that would’ve been considered as healthy, and even as an adult remains thin, though he is lean instead of unhealthy. Eventually, when he outgrew his sick phase, he was so engrossed in reading and studying, that his father forced him to get a hobby and took him to archery practice. Arthur became enamored with the activity, which was then added alongside violin and piano lessons. His father, still not happy with how often Arthur went out, got him horseback riding lessons as well, which Arthur was quick to pick up. As a teenager, Arthur taught himself guitar. Outside of school, Arthur’s family life was dysfunctional in some ways, as well as wonderful in others. His mother doted on him, and he adored her. She cared for all his siblings, despite the fact that they were not her children, but Arthur, being both the youngest and her actual child, received all her love and care. She taught him how to read and write, and read him fairytales. When he had nightmares, he went to her first. She told him that, like King Arthur of the legends, he was destined for great things. Arthur took those words to heart and didn’t dare think about disappointing his mother, so he set out to become successful. He still visits her regularly and is not embarrassed to speak highly of her. His relationship with his half-brothers and sisters, however, was tense. There was constant arguing and fighting, and Arthur didn’t hesitate to contribute when someone taunted him. His favorite sibling was Cerys. He ran to her when his mother was unavailable, which happened more often as he got older, as she would be at work. Eventually, life started to suffocate him. His thoughts grew darker and he isolated himself from his family, beginning at thirteen. The bullying at school got worse, and though he was not touched physically, he was subjected to verbal abuse. Even at home he couldn’t escape it. He didn’t even know when he started turning to the knife. It wasn’t until his best friend committed suicide that he realized what had happened to him, and how close he was to following her. At fourteen years old, he was put on antidepressants, and he bemoaned the fact that he had yet another bottles of pills. The process was agonizing and slow. The people he expected to be supportive of him were supportive, and the people he didn’t, weren’t. It lasted until he was nineteen years old, all the way through secondary school and part of his university studies. He got off the pills and found himself getting life back in order. Arthur left home when he was sixteen to go to Oxford University. Instead of taking the extended break to go see the world that the school suggested (so that he may wait until he was eighteen years old and would be the same age as his peers), he went in for an interview and blew the interviewers away. They were impressed with him and there wasn’t much hesitation in accepting him. Arthur had at first wanted to get a degree in Literature. He loved the English language—it was his passion. But he recognized that unless he became a professor or a writer, his degree wouldn’t be very marketable, and becoming a successful freelance writer was a difficult task. So he looked at law, became interested in that, and took on a pen name so that he could keep writing. He graduated successfully from Oxford with his degree and immediately looked towards Parliament, another goal set in stone for him, while he got himself published in magazines and anthologies under the name William Archer. It was then that he decided he would become Prime Minister of Britain. By then, Arthur couldn’t say what had happened to his siblings. He hadn’t talked to them since he started university, though he attempted to keep up a correspondence with Cerys that ultimately failed as soon as school became challenging for him. Still, he wouldn’t let that hinder his goals, for he was ambitious, and he wouldn’t accept failure on his part unless the universe made it known that he was not to succeed. So he began his campaign, and ran to become a Member of Parliament as part of the Labour Party. He quickly gained popularity among the people. Not only was he a great public speaker, he had knowledge of the law thanks to his schooling and he appealed to the voices of all the people, not just one side. Arthur easily became a Member of Parliament as soon as he was twenty one, and despite his harsh attitude and rather “stick-up-the-arse” attitude, his was respected by his coworkers for his enthusiasm in government. Eventually, through his new government position, he found out that all his siblings had gotten involved with the MI6. To him, this news came as a great relief, but also a new-found source of stress next to all his paperwork, phone calls, and meetings. He couldn’t help but constantly worry about them, despite his strained relationship with all four. As of now, the Labour Party becomes more and more popular with Arthur at its head. Arthur still writes on the side very frequently and submits to multiple magazines. His campaign is going strong, and the people are very enthusiastic, having given him the name “Britain’s Excalibur” or just “Excalibur” as endearment and as a token of their support and belief that he will improve the country and cut down any who wish to send Britain into a backwards spiral. Arthur has, through this immense popularity, gained some enemies in the shadows.

Role-Play Sample

Three days had passed for them since they’d gone under. Three days since they’d agreed to try out the new dream-sharing machine that the U.S government had been keeping under wraps and revealing to people of their choice. Three days since a large military man from America had arrived with a young architect named Dominic Cobb, who took them under for the first time and showed them how to build dreams. Now, three days since they’d woken up in the middle of an unnamed city, Arthur and Michael were alone, on suggestion of Cobb who felt they would get a better experience without supervision. Arthur was the dreamer, Michael the subject. The roles hadn’t been decided by them, but by Cobb, who had felt that Arthur should give the dream building a shot first. The tone Cobb had used had left no room for argument, and even Michael had to agree in the end, for if Michael were to discover anything in Arthur’s mind by accident, there would be no end to trouble. So they’d gone under and Arthur had dreamt up a city with a wide river running through its center. It resembled London in the way the buildings were shaped, but their layouts were different. Among narrow ally-ways and lush parks were tiny flats with five floors. The apartment buildings were dark, a gloomy contrast to the projections, dressed in stark and colorful winter clothes. Bright scarves and neutral colored jackets adorned them as they strolled down the damp sidewalks. The streets were narrow with only one or two lanes per side, three at some intersections. Cars were parked haphazardly along the sides of the roads. The biggest difference between this dream city and London was that here, it wasn’t as grey. The flat that Arthur had built for them was a medium sized one, two bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room big enough for a small company of three people, comfortable enough for two to live. He adorned the walls of his bedroom with bookshelves and books of all sorts, none of which were readable (Arthur had not yet figured out how to make words legible instead of looking like a jumble of letters jumping around the page), though their covers, should one recognize them, would give away the story in less than a heartbeat. The living room was a humble area with a sofa and two chairs, a television set and racks of DVDs and CDs. For Arthur, the kitchen was off limits except for tea, but he did give Michael plenty of space in the room to cook whatever he pleased. The fridge was well stocked with food that they’d bought at a colorful open market near the river. The people there were diverse, speaking a variety of languages (they had to be languages Michael knew, because the people were his projections) that Arthur did not completely understand. The products sold were among foreign trinkets, fresh fruits, meats, and fish, handmade crafts and clothing, books, and some of the most gorgeous paintings he’d ever laid eyes on. Arthur, unable to resist the fanciful art on the cover of a novel being sold, had bought it, though no matter how hard he tried he could not get the language to make sense in his mind. He wondered if it was a side effect of the drug used to put them under, or if maybe it took practice to read in dreams. On the third day since they’d woken up (fallen asleep), Arthur dragged Michael to the main park in the center of the city. The park had been huge, stretching over acres of land covered in twisting paths and steady trees. Small ponds dotted the landscapes, surrounded by reeds and visited by ducks. Bikers zipped down the cement paths that cut through the park and pedestrians strolled along the wooden bridges and played sports on the grass. Arthur had been overcome with joy. He’d dashed off without waiting for Michael, gotten himself lost in a crowd of people because for once in his life, he could. He’d gone from one end of the park to the other by the time he pulled himself away from the projections and settled under a large oak tree near a pond, where the air moved thick through hollow reeds. There he sat for hours, staring at the pages of the book he couldn’t read and smiling. Eventually, Arthur forced Michael to go with him to the river, eager to see what his mind had built. There, boats were docked and cargo ships sailed back and forth. On the other side of the river was a large chapel made from a mix of Gothic and Islamic architecture. The roof was domed shaped with four spiral towers encircling the building. Along the edges of the roof were statues—gargoyles, dragons, lions, and other creatures so disfigured from wear and age that no one knew what they were anymore. Hovering over the river was a Ferris wheel bigger than the London Eye, with its compartments precariously dangling above the water. Mere meters away from where they stood was the beginning of a huge bridge, reminiscent of the Tower Bridge across the Thames River, but the first and obvious difference was the two golden lions on each side of the street, with eyes of rubies and manes plaited in silver. Their teeth gleamed and their muscles appeared to ripple in their frozen forms. Their features were detailed, almost lifelike, and Arthur felt that they might come to life at any second. Along the top of the bridge, instead of cables, there was a giant dragon the color of jade snaking its way across, tale wrapping around the other side. Its eyes were sapphire and its claws the color of ivory. The people passed by, unaware of their presence. Cars, taxis, and tour buses made their ways across the bridge. Tourists leaned over the railing and snapped photos of passing ships, or stared down into the murky depths, deep in thought, though Arthur couldn’t imagine what the projections would be thinking (they were Michael’s, after all). Arthur glanced over at Michael and grinned. “Shall we go across then? We haven’t looked over on the other side yet, and I’m curious to see what we’ll find. I hope it’s as great as what we’ve seen so far, maybe even better.”

OOC Information

Minifilp999

theconsultingfreak.tumblr.com

A scientist decided to do a couple of experiments with a frog. He told the frog "Jump, frog, jump!" The frog jumped 7 ft, so he wrote down on his data table "Four legs, frog jumps 7 ft". He cut off one of the front legs and said "Jump, frog, jump." The frog jumped 6 ft. He wrote down in the table "Three legs, frog jumps 6 ft." He cut off the other front leg and said "Jump, frog, jump." The frog jumped 4 ft. He wrote down "Two legs, frog jumps 4 ft." He cut off the two hind legs and said "Jump, frog, jump." The frog didn't jump. He wrote down "No legs, frog goes deaf."

If you were words on a page, you'd be what they call fine print.

made by CAPTAIN of BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Asunara Wisdom]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,5,true][atrb=style, width: 470px; margin-top: 20px, true] ACCEPTED	[rs=2]
[rs=3] GREETINGS FROM TOMORROW NEVER DIES YOUR PROFILE HAS BEEN ACCEPTED
This feels rather weird for me to be the one accepting you, I always remember it being the other way around, heh! Now then, what do I have to say about your app... Oh dear I miss your England. I love just how balanced the personality is, how even single traits can play both good and bad sides. I love that jab at how "universe seems to not want him to make anything successfully", and he really does care for his siblings <333 His History is definitely something I really enjoyed reading, and it will be a pleasure RPing with you again. Welcome to the family, Arthur~ The name is Kirkland. Arthur William Kirkland.

By Captain of BTN and OTE

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