Beauregard LaRoux

[Beau LaRoux]

The Basics

Name: Beauregard Luke LaRoux
Nicknames: Beau
Age: Eighteen
Orientation: Heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: Student
Powers: Power Mimicry – Beau's variation of power mimicry is mostly proximity based. Whenever he is within roughly ten feet of someone with a power, particularly an easily manifested one, he begins to pick up a weaker, “fuzzy” version of the power. For example, if he's within roughly ten feet of a telepath, Beau will start to hear fuzzy versions of thoughts, as if an improperly tuned radio has been turned on nearby. The closer he gets to a person, the stronger his version of the power is.

However, Beau has yet to perfectly mimic someone's power; his variations are always weaker than the original. His power will also hone in on whatever power is closest to him, regardless of his wishes. He cannot have more than one power at a time; the power with closest proximity will be the dominate power over the rest. Furthermore, Beau had difficulties in fully utilizing the newly adopted power, simply because he hasn't had the extensive training needed to really utilize the power (not helped by his own inadequacies). He still picks up the training and such as appropriate to the skill, but his lack of knowledge and personal training generally means that he simply cannot match someone who has been born with the power. Furthermore, he will pick up whatever negative side effects are associated with the power, even the ones that linger (assuming they are not overwritten by any other powers he picks up). Prolonged exposure to a wide variety of metas can therefore lead to compounded side effects.

Play By: Hunter Hayes

The Details

Hair Color:Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? None
Any Scars? Nothing immediately apparent, just a few of the simple collection that you get from living a fairly active life. For example, Beau has a small flaw on his leg where he had a rather nasty leg wound that occurred as a result of a four-wheeling accident when he was twelve. He has had both tonsils removed, though this isn't exactly something that is often shown. There's a scar across his left shoulder where he fell during a particular gnarly stage performance and needed stitches. Basically, lots of stitches.
General Appearance: Beau's a handsome young man, though he tries to downplay it. God blessed him with great features, and that is exactly how he considers it. This blonde haired, blue-eyed, good ole boy would rather be wearing a pair of ragged jeans and a t-shirt any day of the week, and that is often what you can find draped on his well-muscled frame. He actually looks to be in physical pain whenever he has to dress in anything fancier than a decent pair of blue jeans and a button up shirt, which he will occasionally wear (usually when he's playing gigs). When it comes to hair, he does often utilize styling gel, particularly when he knows or thinks he's going to be flirting with girls in the near future. Otherwise, he's likely to hide those dirty blonde locks underneath a battered ball cap.

Underneath the clothing, where most people won't see, is the body of a guy who spends a good portion of his time either playing music or getting down and dirty. Since most of Beau's favorite activities are active ones, he's a pretty fit guy. He's not overly shy about his body, so long as it's in a polite situation, but he's not about to flaunt his looks either. He does have callouses on his fingers from extensive musical instrument playing.

It's rare to see Beau without a musical instrument of some kind or another. If he doesn't have one, chances are that he was just busy working on something with his hands or engaging in some other kind of activity that would damage the instrument. His personal favorite is a battered guitar that his father passed down to him, which he is often seen playing. His fingers will sometimes get twitchy if they aren't holding something, though he does know to hold still in certain circumstances.

Usual facial expression? A friendly grin.

Personality: Beau's a good ole Southern Boy, from the dripping honey accent to the “aww shucks” mannerisms. His parents raised him on traditional values, and he has stuck with them throughout his entire life. He believes quite deeply in most of those tried and true beliefs, whether it be that America is the greatest country ever created by God or that tea should always be iced. He'll listen to people if they want to disagree with him, but he's not likely to change his mind about something anytime soon. He is truly set in his ways, and he happens to thoroughly enjoy those ways.

This also means that Beau is unfailingly polite and respectful. He uses “sir” and “ma'am” and actually means it when he does. He'll hold open doors for ladies and if he sees someone who needs a hand, he'll go out of his way to help them. Perhaps the only time his manners can fade is when he's getting frustrated over flirting. Beau's version of flirting is almost classical Southern; he'll even ask girl's dads their permission before getting real serious with dating. His head swivels in the direction of any pretty girl, and he's easily fooled by initial impressions. Once he gets beyond that, he generally prefers girls that are "fun" or that "share his values" (and boy, do the two conflict). Regardless, he still believes that the Bible says that you should save yourself, so he's still a virgin. Other than that, he's a firm believer in keeping to your own business, and he isn't a fan of getting involved in grander schemes or anything along those lines.

He's a decent guy to have your back in a fight, since he's, in his own words, “as loyal as a coon dog.” As the youngest of five brothers, he's had plenty of opportunity to get in and mix it up, though his family very much instilled the “turn the other cheek” mentality. As mentioned earlier, he's a pretty big believer in people solving their own problems, so if he's stepping in, it's because something has made the situation his problem, which could be for any number of reasons.

Outside of that, he's very passionate about music. He'll often lug around his dad's old guitar (see appearance), and he's not shy about sharing his musical talents. He experimented with various musical instruments starting at a young age and can play guitar and piano with professional skill. His father had been a professional country musician, easily teaching Beau (and at least one of Beau's brothers) to play a good guitar. The piano playing Beau picked up from a mother who wanted at least one of the boys get some culture, gosh darn it. It probably wouldn't have worked if she weren't the teacher herself. Beau can play a decent harmonica and accordion, but he's not nearly as good as with his major two instruments. He mostly tried to teach himself the harmonica, which means a lot of relying on his other musical skills. With the accordion, one of Beau's father's bandmates played it for the band, often with a Cajun flavor. Beau would spend quite a bit of time with this guy, though usually because he was learning something else. He picked up enough from the Cajun to eke out some basic tunes, but he certainly wouldn't want any of it recorded. He's shown a knack for understanding instruments and harmonies and can generally coax noise out of anything. He also happens to have a great singing voice. His opinion on what constitutes “good music” is pretty narrow though, mostly encompassing country, classic rock, and southern rock. He does enjoy the newer country stuff too, but most of the other stuff, well. His music is his biggest passion, but he tries to apply himself to his studies as best he can, thus retaining a pretty respectable “B” average throughout his scholastic years.

He does not like being a meta though. He understands that it's “normal” and all, but he'd much rather not have powers. He gets extremely uncomfortable in a lot of meta situations and will often hide his power to the best of his ability. This usually proves to be difficult, bordering on impossible.

In point of fact, Beau has most of the flaws that come with his "good ole boy charm." He spent the first fifteen years of his life with limited contact with people whose beliefs do not match his own, thus leading to him being slightly judgmental in those regards. This generally boils down to a near willful ignorance on several facets of life. Beau also grew up in the standard Baptist Christian Church, which helped instill all those wonderful values in him. Said church also passed along a strange variation of homophobia to Beau: he will always act uncomfortable around homosexuals. His policy is that of his church: love the sinner, not the sin, which unfortunately leads to the idea of "praying away the gay."

He also picked up a lot of the Conservative beliefs, both the good and the bad. While time spent in Pilot Ridge worked with his already amiable nature to soften those edges, Beau still has this tendency to say exactly the wrong thing. For example, he has a tendency to take race as far too big of an issue when judging people. It's simply an unconscious thing for the poor guy: he spent most of his childhood around people who thought that black people were poor because they deserved it, that foreigners were anti-American, and that the country should go back to the way it is. When this conflicts with the aforementioned beliefs of being genial and helpful, Beau generally tries to side with those. It doesn't stop his gut reactions or his mouth for firing off the ignorant thing at the wrong time.

Your Vices

Likes: Music, Country Music, Classic Rock Music, Apple Pie, Fried Chicken, Jambalaya, pretty girls, mudding, parties, pick-up trucks, Duck Dynasty
Dislikes: Pop Music, Rap Music, Dressing Up, French food, most rich people, minivans, talking about metas, being a meta
Strengths: Playing musical instruments; singing; songwriting; helping other people; being polite; hardworking
Weaknesses: narrow-minded; conservative; not great with his power; follower; blondes, especially blondes in Daisy Dukes
Fears: losing control of his powers; the Devil; witches;
Secret: not really

Family Ties

Father: Elijah LaRoux (43)
Mother: Scarlett LaRoux (43)
Siblings: Andrew LaRoux (26), Mark LaRoux (25), John LaRoux (23), Opie LaRoux (20), MaryAnne LaRoux (14)
Any Other Important People: a fairly extensive extended family, including Eli's three siblings and their children, Scarlett's four siblings and their children, and grandparents on both sides. Also an extended "church family" of well-meaning people that routinely send Beau care packages. There's also a house full of pets back in Louisiana.

History

As previously mentioned, Beau is the youngest of five sons. True, there's a daughter that comes afterward, and yes, they're quite aware of the Weasley connection, though they don't approve of the Harry Potter books on principle. Beau therefore go the kind of childhood you'd expect from someone with a large family in the American South, Louisiana, to be wholly accurate. His parents took him home, and his brothers did what all brothers do: they picked on him relentlessly until he grew old enough and cool enough to fight back.

Thankfully, the LaRoux family is more of a clan. In addition to the extensive family, Beau's father and mother both had several brothers and sisters. Raising the family became something of an extensive family job, with everyone pitching in from time to time. This often meant stretching the finances from time to time, as they could only get so much from Elijah LaRoux, Beau's father. Eli, had been a member of a popular country band back in the 90's. The band had started when the two were in high school. They had originally tried using protection, but "the condom is old, so we'd better use it" happened, creating Andrew. Eli promised to focus more on his career, believing that he would be better off sending money to the extended family and Scarlett to help raise the child. The money certainly helped, but Eli's tendency to jump into bed with Scarlett whenever he came home from touring meant that the kids popped out in quick succession. Having three kids by twenty wasn't entirely unusual for the Southern Louisiana family, but it was beginning to put a strain on things.

So eventually, Eli had to pull away from touring and spend more time at home. This meant more family planning, with Opie and Beau being more spaced from their siblings and better prepared for. Eli kept recording for as long as he could, but Scarlett ended up taking a job as a local piano teacher to help supplement the income. The family thankfully got a nice house from a grand uncle, otherwise no one's sure if they really would have made it. That, along with support from family, friends, and church, kept the LaRoux's above the poverty line enough.

Eli did pass along his love and talent for music to his various children. Beau in particular showed an aptitude and desire to really dig into the music scene. The young boy quickly learned to play the guitar, mostly because of dedication, though he obviously had some natural ability in all things musical. Whenever Beau set his mind out to learn an instrument, he generally didn't stop until he'd managed to at least learn to play it. He also worked with his mother, who was a bit more of a vocalist than his father, to hone his voice. So the young boy had things set to possibly follow in his father's footsteps. His older brothers had varied interests of their own, Andrew and Mark having also gone the musical route, though mostly as musicians.

Beau learned about metas the way most people did, though he also had the benefit of hearing about them in sermons given at his church. His family was always cautious of the whole meta thing, and they were seriously concerned that they might be a viable threat. They weren't exactly paranoid, not joining any meta hate groups or anything, but they certainly talked poorly about them. This spread to Beau, who had always been taught to obey his parents; it didn't help that he ended up nearly worshiping his parents, and he idolized his two oldest brothers.

Then one day when Beau was fifteen years old, he was giving a performance, as he so often did. A female fan approached him, and they both started flirting. As she leaned in to kiss Beau, he sprouted a pair of fairy wings from his back. After a good deal of freaking out, said girl explained that this was perfectly normal, a meta thing, and told Beau that recruiters were likely coming from a place called Hammel. Of course, that didn't stop most of the club from staring at the LaRoux boy. Fairy wings and country music don't, on a whole, mix very well. Things threatened to turn ugly, but fortunately Beau's family had been in the crowd and on the stage with him, helping him to get out of there without too much of a struggle.

The recruiters showed up the next day, wanting to immediately take Beau LaRoux to Hammel, especially citing his power as being something of an issue. The LaRouxs were skeptical and reluctant about the whole school, and nobody much liked the idea of letting Beau go live in Vermont for the rest of high school, and possibly longer. It took several long hours of very intense debate and evidence to convince the LaRouxs to willingly let their boy go. The LaRoux never did quite understand that letting Beau stay with them was simply not an option, though this was eventually hammered home all too clearly.

In the end, the fact that Beau needed training and could possibly be a danger convinced everyone that he had to go. His father gave him the old guitar as something to remember him by, and the rest of the family sent him off with well-wishes, several souvenirs, and cookies. His family never forgot about him either; they either visited him or bought him a plane ticket to come down for every Christmas and most other major holidays. Letters had a tendency to be exchanged with alarming frequency.

Still, Beau adjusted to life at Pilot Ridge, more or less. Despite having been around for a while, he still feels new, as if he keeps having to move people. Sometimes it feels like everyone he used to know is already gone. His scholastics have always been solid, and he's in line to be a senior, more or less. The more in this case means most of the standard subjects, which Beau has always seen as being more important than focusing on his ability. When it comes to actually practicing and training, Beau has a tendency to try and skip out on these sessions to the best of his ability. People, ranging from parents to recruiters, have recently started to lean quite heavily on him for just this reason. He knows on some level that he needs to buckle down and really start training his ability, yet at the same time he doesn't like doing anything that directly involves meta abilities. In the end, it is his desire to quash his ability that have led to him finally at least attempting to buckle down on his powers. This has only occurred within the last few months or so though, so Beau has quite a bit of catching up to do.

 He has spent quite a bit of time socializing, and he has definitely played in just about every establishment that would appreciate him playing. If nothing else, chances are good that a person has either heard him play or heard about the guy who plays country music, depending mostly on their taste. Pilot Ridge is a pretty small town, after all.

Roleplay Example

Beau hummed to himself, letting his fingers absently move across the strings. No, absently wasn't quite the right word. Beau knew exactly what he was doing, and his fingers were quite purposefully putting melodies into existence. Despite all his best efforts though, the music kept drifting into these melancholy tunes. Beau winced and stopped playing for a moment, tapping his fingers against the guitar.

Yeah, this wasn't working like he's hoped. Usually playing put Beau in a better mood, at least lightened things a little. But he just couldn't get over the slip of paper sitting next to him. It was stupid, really, definitely nothing that he should be getting this worked up over. Just that his younger sister had gotten a blood test. They did that for all kinds of reasons, right? For all Beau knew, it could just be that they were being super careful since he'd turned out... different. Beau sighed, running a hand over his face. Yeah, this definitely wasn't working.

Beau rose to his feet, tennis shoes scuffing against the steps he'd been sitting on. He let his eyes roam the area for a little while. If music wasn't working, then he needed the next best thing: girl, preferably pretty girls, preferably a single pretty girl, come to think of it, though Beau was pretty sure he could do just fine with a group of them, especially since he still had his guitar. Now, all he needed to do was find a target.

You really shouldn't be lookin' for a girl jus' to get your mind off your sister. And man, that sounds weird even to me. Beau frowned at the thought, then shrugged it off. It wasn't like he was playing on playing caveman and dragging some pretty girl off to his dorm room. He just wanted a pretty face to make him forget for a bit, and the girls around here, well, they were so often pretty. Ah, there was one now! Beau ran his fingers through his hair, pasted on his most charming smile, and began to saunter on over.

What About You?

Name: Fate
Age: Twenty-Seven or so; it changes
Experience: me RP long time.
How Did You Find Us? Stalked Tony on RPG-d; got talked into staying by Neon. First time, I think it was an ad on the 'D.
Ready To Play? ... yes.

[Deleted]

Good start!

Hey Fate. Thank you applying with Beau. He looks great so far! There are, however, a couple of details that we would like for you to change or to include before he can become part of the Hammel Institute.

First of all, let’s start with his ability. Power mimicry in the Hammelverse states that a power mimic's copied powers have the same control as the meta they copy from so it will depend on the meta; a teacher will be different from a student. So, he would not always by untrained when it comes to copied powers unless, of course, the secondary person has hardly any control over it him/herself. Given that he is around students, he can still have the same chaotic effect in threads. The fact that you brought up the side effects being the same as those of whom he copied from is great! Thank you.
Please adjust this and other mentions outside of the power section accordingly to make sure it matches throughout history.

The scar section mentions a few surgical scars, but nothing else gets mentioned about it in the rest of the application. It makes me wonder about a few things: why did Beau get surgery? Where are those scars located, pretty much depending on the kind of surgery that took place? Perhaps even at what age? These questions are to help frame the information we are looking for and each does not need to be answered in order.

Personality-wise he seems like a really nice and pleasant guy. What we would like to see are some negative traits in that section. Is he impulsive? Gullible? Impatient perhaps? Or jealous when it comes to his siblings?
The personality also says that he does his best to apply himself to his studies and that he tries to hide his power to the best of his ability, but the history says: "The only problem is that his control over his ability has put him in some of the beginner classes, and he never seems to take the time to practice." The fact that he never seems to take the time to practice clashes with doing his best to focus on his studies and by neglecting the training it will not do the hiding any good. While this needs to be adjusted accordingly with the power changes, this is a reminder that he does have to practice (the power mimicry itself; not the abilities of others).

Can you clarify the instruments? It is clear that he learnt to play the guitar from his father, but what about the harmonice, accordion and guitar? Did he get lessons? Did he learn from his father? Or perhaps his brother? Or maybe even Youtube?

As for the history, while his mother’s age has not been given, his father would have been seventeen when the first child was born. Eighteen during the next birth and twenty during the third. How did they manage to pull this off financially? Did they get any help at those ages, especially since they would have three children, ranging from baby to toddler, at the age of twenty? Where they opposed to using protection that they conceived at this rate?

And, last but not least, we want to know about his manifestation. Given Beau just performed and the girl approached him, others quite possibly would have been around. Where were they when this happened? In the club itself surrounded by people or somewhere more privately? How long did it take for the recruiter to show up at his door? Of course it would have been within two days if he manifested in public like a club or bar or wherever the performance took place.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM a member of staff.

When you've made these edits, bump this topic and we'll review it again!

[Beau LaRoux]

Thankfully, a lot of that stuff I had already mentally prepared, so I think I got it all down. I tweaked the power as per the rules while still leaving it with what I think is Beau's personal flavor. I've also expanded on the various areas requested and added in details here and there. He's definitely ready for another examination!

[Deleted]

Accepted!

Thank you for your cooperation with our acceptance process! Just a general reminder given homophobia and racism have been brought up: make sure to keep it within TOS and IC only. Otherwise, welcome to the Hammel Institute! Go do your CLAIMS and have fun!