Grant knows Severus is a walking (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} contradiction) wrote,@ 2014-01-30 08:13:00 |
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Alter’s source work, author and character: Harry Potter; J.K. Rowling; Severus Snape
Character Journal name: ~contradiction?
Character Name: Grant Evans
Character Age: 27
Character Played By: Penn Badgley
Alter Played By: Louis Garrel
History: Grant Evans was born in upstate New York, the only son to Jared and Sarah Evans. They lived a simple life in a sprawling ranch style home, two parents, a son, and a black lab named Shadow. Enough money was made to keep them comfortable, but not thriving, and really, they didn't want much for more. Happiness and family was their focus, and they had it in that house in the quiet, tree-lined neighborhood.
All of that ended on a January evening during a home invasion gone horribly wrong. It ended with both of Grant's parents dead on the living room floor, and a seven year old Grant who had seen it all from where he had hid in the closet with the shuttered doors. The police found him, not in the closet, but sitting on the floor in his parents' blood, holding their hands, his cheeks streaked with tears. He was a quiet thing, not a single word or whimper as the police quickly carried him out as the medical examiners rushed in to survey the scene and take charge.
It was only hours before his aunt and uncle rushed up from their Manhattan home to the police-lined street. There were words exchanged, numbers and names, and within the day, Grant was on his way south with his aunt and uncle to stay with them, alongside their young daughter Dallas. The investigation into the death of his parents continued on up north, and occasionally, detectives would make the trip south in order to speak to Grant. Before long it was clear that anything that the boy might have known was locked away, either out of self-preservation or simple shock at what he had seen.
Shortly after Grant turned ten, his aunt and uncle saw to finally getting him someone to talk to. Maybe it was the nightmares, maybe it was the way the boy would zone out at times or react poorly to loud noises, but something told them that there was something wrong with Grant. And was it any surprise with what he had gone through? They were concerned, so a psychologist was found, the best they could afford and one that specialized in childhood trauma. They were advised that the sort of thing that Grant had been through would not be solved or fixed overnight, but they should, at least, see some improvement, bit by bit, if they were patient and stuck with the treatment.
And there was improvement. The nightmares diminished and he no longer reacted strongly to surprising stimuli, but the young boy was still as quiet as ever. The death of his parents seemed to have taken a lot of the life out of him, and even though they would ask him what they needed, what could they do, he continued on with the response that he was fine. And Grant tried so hard to be 'fine', by whatever definition the people around him filled that word with at least.
School went on and Grant kept his head down and studied as hard as he could. He was an average student on his good days, barely passing on others, and it was clear that he was not destined for any sort of journey into higher education, nor did he have any inclination to do so. He was so unlike his aunt and uncle, who were smart, studious, the sorts of people that wanted to do things and accomplish things. Grant just wanted to get through things, and live a quiet life, just as his parents had wanted for the entire lot of them. Life was complicated enough without wanting things that wouldn't happen, but Grant thought that peace, peace was something that could happen. So he put his head down and he pushed through.
It was during his junior year of high school that Grant started down the path that he would continue on in the years that followed. He started washing dishes at a local restaurant, a simple job for a simple teenager, and from there, things simply continued forward. Before long, he was helping out on the line, listening intently to the cooks and the skills they had acquired through the years, and Grant found himself wanting to emulate them. It was here that he was a good student, here where he excelled, not behind a desk but in front of a stove, his papers and pencils replaced with knives and fresh produce.
After high school, Grant found himself with scholarships to Johnson & Wales University where he enrolled in their Culinary Arts College. It seemed that Grant had finally found his niche in the world. Natural talent, they said, and it carried him through the four year program and into a position on a line at a restaurant in upstate New York. His aunt, uncle, and cousin had since moved to Southern California by this point, which meant Manhattan held no pull for him. No, he returned to the place he had spent his first seven years, good memories or not.
It was there that Grant first started becoming ill. It started with a headache, one that persisted despite all attempts to soothe it with Tylenol and aspirin. When he started forgetting simple things, such as where he had put his keys, Grant decided that it was time to see a doctor. From a family practice to the hospital, Grant finally ended up under the care of Felix Larsen. The tests were inconclusive, the doctor told him, and Grant had enough faith in the system that he believed him. But all the while, things were getting worse. The headaches were the least of it, pain something he was starting to learn to live with, but the lapses in time were distressing. He'd wake up to go to work, and the next thing he would remember he would already be home, a day completed, his chef's coat dirtied from a day in the kitchens. He mentioned these to the good doctor, but his concerns were waved away.
Grant was starting to feel like perhaps Dr. Larsen didn't know what he was doing, that he was missing something obvious. He didn't have a chance to find a second opinion, however, before he collapsed in the kitchen one evening with a seizure, a dropped knife and a laceration to his hand sending the kitchen into a panic.
By the time Grant was again aware of what was going on, he had been admitted to the hospital with a high fever, and it didn't take long for the doctors to diagnose him with encephalitis. He was in the hospital for a number of weeks in recovery, and even after he was finally discharged, the effects were something he would carry around with him for the rest of his life. A medical alert bracelet designating him as a epileptic. A driving restriction. Memory problems that would never fully resolve themselves. And, most disturbingly, periods of time that still went missing.
But Grant wasn't the sort to complain about these things. It was taken in stride and he learned how to cope with the disabilities the illness had bestowed upon him, though the illness had soured him on staying long in New York. Connections made through culinary school and his burgeoning restaurant career landed him in Atlanta for a stay before hopping across the country to Phoenix, and then finally up to Las Vegas where he accepted a sous chef position at one of the Sin City's four star restaurants.
Grant has been in Las Vegas for the last two years, working steadily and living in a one-bedroom apartment in the Willows. He was content with this simple life of sleeping, working, and eating. Time off was spent keeping himself busy, anything to keep the nightmares of his past from creeping up on him again. He ran religiously, attended services at a non-denominational church, and made a few friends here and there. It was routine, it was comfortable, and he wanted for nothing more.
But then the journal arrived along with the key, and Grant became aware of a creeping presence in his thoughts that wasn't his own.
Personality: Quiet and introverted, Grant prefers to go about the world unnoticed and without the spotlight of attention ever shining upon him. He is a man of few words, though when he does choose to speak, he usually has something important to say. Even though he calls Las Vegas home currently, he is not a man who enjoys the glitz and glamour of Sin City; he could do without the neon lights and the all-night entertainment, and the black out curtains over his windows say that plain and clear.
Grant's passion lies in the culinary arts, something he found a natural talent for in high school. He's pursued his career, moving from restaurant to restaurant, learning all that he can from acclaimed chefs throughout the United States. When he wants to thank someone for their help, their time, their assistance, he is more likely to do so through a home-cooked meal than any other number of gifts that could be offered.
Grant has been in counseling and/or therapy since he was ten years old. Even now, at age twenty-seven, this has not stopped. Seeing his parents killed in front of him as a child hurt something deep inside of him, and Grant's unsure that it will ever heal completely. But he does a passable imitation of 'fine' even on his worst days. He doesn't like to burden others with his problems, and there are few of his acquaintances that know of any of the details of his past.
Alter: Severus Snape came into the world on January 9, 1960, the only child of Tobias (a Muggle) and Eileen (a witch) Snape. His childhood was not a happy one, frequently on the receiving end of his father's abusive temper, leading to a childhood that was marked with neglect. The shining point of that dreary existence on Spinner's End in northern England was his discovery of another magically gifted child at the playground near his home. Lily Evans was everything that Severus was not, and it was no surprise when the boy, a little too small and pale, fell in love with the green-eyed witch due to her generous and daring nature.
Severus and Lily both attended Hogwarts from 1971 on, though they were both sorted into different houses. Severus found a home in Slytherin, a place that he nearly fit in. But that didn't mean that he was any more content than he had been in his younger years. Even as he made friends with the other students in Slytherin, students who were fascinated with the rise of power that Lord Voldemort was first experiencing, he still had his attention on the one who still mattered the most to him: Lily Evans.
Unfortunately, Lily had gained the attention of another student at Hogwarts, James Potter, and this provided the basis for an antagonistic relationship between the two boys. But this wasn't the only thing that put James and Severus at odds with one another. With one boy's growing interest in the Dark Arts and James' adamant dislike for it, the two were made to be at odds with one another. With a nickname of Snivellus gifted to him by James' friend, Sirius, the years progressed with Severus following James and his friends around, continually trying to find ways to get the boys expelled from school.
Things came to a head during Snape's fifth year at Hogwarts when everyone was taking their O.W.L.s. After a particularly humiliating incident with Sirius and James where he was both disarmed and hexed by the boys, Lily Evans stepped forward to stand up for him. And Severus said to her, without thinking, that he didn't need any help from a filthy mudblood like her. It was the end of a long friendship between himself and the green-eyed Lily Evans, and one of Snape's biggest and deepest regrets.
With little left to lose among that particular group of classmates, Severus began his investigations into the boys for anything they might be expelled for in earnest. It was after this that Severus began to become a little too curious about where Remus Lupin, one of James' friends, was disappearing to every month. Tricked into entering the passage that led under the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack where Lupin spent his time as a werewolf each month. He would have been killed, or perhaps turned into a werewolf himself, had James not realised what was happening quickly enough to pull him back. But Severus was never grateful for James' help, and in fact resented the reality that he was now in debt to the boy he hated.
The last years of school at Hogwarts went on in their own routine, with Snape becoming increasingly adept in both the Dark Arts and Potions. The end of his schooling saw him joining the Death Eaters under Lord Voldemort, though his actions during this time were kept a secret from all that knew him. But no one could argue that Severus Snape was always in good standing with the Dark Lord.
The connection between Severus and Grant is as weak as the one that existed between Severus and Nicholas. Both men are damaged in their own ways, and both prefer to hide this rather than let it be used as a weakness against them. So long as a mutual respect forms between them and the time that they share, it's unlikely that the pair will have any difficulties.
Journal/Key: Severus' key is made of dark metal, heavy and smooth from the years. The journal is cream coloured scroll of parchment, tied shut with a scrap of green ribbon.
Storylines;
The Doctor: A two-fold storyline in Vegas. The good doctor from all those years ago that misdiagnosed Grant's illness. The second, a therapist in Vegas, one that Grant sees regularly.
Lily: In Vegas, a possible love interest. Through the door, self-explanatory.
Friends: Grant's been in Vegas for a while now, and has likely made some connections. People he's met at work, running buddies, and the like.