STANWOOD, derek oliver

[derek oliver stanwood]

VALKYRIECALIFORNIA

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DEREK OLIVER STANWOOD
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INTO THE NIGHT
DESPERATE AND BROKEN
THE BASIC INFORMATION[/center][/font]

SO, TELL ME. WHAT'S YOUR FULL NAME?

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"Derek Oliver Stanwood, your's?"

AND HOW OLD ARE YOU?

"I'm twenty two"

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING?

"Well, I'm not exactly a wealthy sort of person. I was working at the renaissance fair, just near town but then the earthquake messed it up pretty bad. I am mostly helping to put it back together while looking for another job while applying for graduate school. Then I'll have to figure out a way to pay for that."

YOU SEEING ANYONE, OR ARE YOU SINGLE?

"I am single."

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THE SOUND OF A FIGHT
FATHER HAS SPOKEN
THE PERSONALITY

IF YOU COULD DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN SEVEN WORDS WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

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"Well, despite my life having quite a lot of it… I don't like change. So perhaps stable or grounded would be good way of putting it. I am a bit anti-social. Don't get me wrong, I'm friendly enough but in general, I keep to myself. Intelligent is something others call me because I hide my struggle to read very well. When reading just simple this is difficult, I don't know how anyone could call me smart. I'm simply a hard worker. I like to think of myself as a highly moral person. I like to do what's right and I stand up for it. So perhaps brave. Although that's most definitely a lie, I don't feel brave after all. But I am loyal and honest. I'm a bad liar anyways."

WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU LIKE?

"A lot of things. Epic Tales of adventure and morality, my sister even with everything that's happened, feeling successful, rein fair, rein fair, rein fair, swords, bow and arrows, the woods, being outdoors, wine, horses, reading, libraries, England, the color red, celtic music, board games, magic tricks, my ex alex again despite everything."

WHAT KIND OF THINGS DON'T YOU LIKE?

"My sister… no, sorry. I love her but I don't like whatever happened to make her this new person to whom I barely speak. What else? rap music, the mall, prats, new people, guns, cell phones, especially ones with crazy ringtones, California, dramatic teen series like Gossip Girl and 90210, anyone who shows an interest in Meg, My birth father and other sister Shay, although again, that's not too fair. I don't know them well enough."

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WERE YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?

"I'm suspicious of all new people. It's really not healthy and I know that. Lord knows I've been told that enough but what am I supposed to think? Usually when outsiders take an interest in someone it's for bad reasons. I guess another weakness was sort of the stemming point for the prior and that's my pessimism…. Oh I also hate being stuck in dark places and I'm an absolutely horrible liar… if that counts.

Strengths? Well, I never really feel strong but when it comes to what I'm good at, it's telling the truth. No matter what. I can't lie. Everytime I do it's so painfully obvious there was really no point to it. But because of this, I'l trustworthy, dependable. I have a strong sense of morality. I stick to it. I can't be bought."

DO YOU HAVE ANY SECRETS?

"I was locked up… in a cellar… for eight months. A cup of water a day, little to no food for weeks. No bed, no windows, only a bucket that they took every few days. Yeah not everyday, every few. Dirt floor, dirt walls, no circulation. I was sick constantly, had to be hospitalized when the bobbies ((british slang for cops)) finally found me.

The other secret, isn't that much of a secret and it's that I loved my parents. The Stanwoods. I don't even remember them but I remember I was happy and while I didn't want to meet the Anderson, part of me still hoped that we all would be family. Hmm, stupid dreams huh?"

WHAT ARE YOU MOST SCARED OF?

"That Meg will never come back. That my best friend is gone forever."

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WE WERE THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF PROMISE
WE WERE THE VICTIMS OF OURSELVES
THE HISTORY

TELL ME A LITTLE OF WHAT YOUR FAMILY IS LIKE?

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"What family?"

WHO ARE YOUR PARENTS?

"What parents? My birth parents gave me up, my adoptive parents died when I was four and I was in foster care till I was eighteen."

DO YOU HAVE ANY SIBLINGS?

"Shay, although I'm not sure she counts, it's only by blood. And my twin, Meg or Margaret. She's the exact same age as me, obviously. She's older by a few minutes. We were best friends and now we're not. She's an actress, some television show called Time of Dragons. It's actually pretty good. She's good on it."

ANY OTHER RELATIVES CLOSE TO YOU?

"No."

TELL ME THE STORY OF YOUR PAST?

"Look I'm tired. I would rather not get into it. Besides, i think you know enough about me."

third person telling…

Is it ever fair when children are forced to separate from their parents? Shawn and Rachel Anderson were married once upon a time. Shawn was a doctor and his wife? She was, for lack of a better term, a bitch. She was superficial and crazy on some levels. Now some 18 years ago, before their modelesque daughter Shay was born, Rachel gave birth to two children, fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. The first one to come out was the girl. Rachel looked at the baby girl and smiled at the crystal blue eyes and the little tuff of dark dark hair. But less then ten minutes later she was pushing out the boy. They cleaned him up and she got a good look at the baby boy. Dark hair like his sister, light eyes although his were slightly darker than his twins but while her baby girl was cute for a new born, this baby boy just looked... alien. He was pale and with a long face compared to most babies. He had large ears and just... he didn't look the way Rachel wanted and therefore he wasn't acceptable.

Now what kind of mother can look at a healthy new born son and be scornful? I am not quite sure but this boy didn't fit her standards and he was not wanted. And he was ugly. Rachel wasn't a quite sensical woman so after she turned away from her son she looked to her girl whom he had shared the womb with for nine months and then decided the girl must have been corrupted in some sense of the word. She decided that these children weren't her's. She wouldn't have them. Her husband, and the twins father didn't know what to do. He was just happy they were alive and healthy, to him his children were his children. He wanted to be with them but when his wife pushed and pushed and threw a fit, part of him gave up and part of him knew what it would be like in the house for these children with a woman like Rachel pitted against them. So there it went, he and Rachel signed the papers and off the newborns went with child services. It was time to find them different homes. Shawn did make sure to request that they be kept together. That way neither of them would be alone. And they were kept together.

At the age of five weeks the two still unnamed infants were adopted by Rebecca and Colin Stanwood. They were a British couple and while in America they adopted these two infants. Rebecca Stanwood said the selling factor was the large adorable ears on the baby boy. She thought they were adorable. Colin and Rebecca had to be two of the most loving people in the world and as soon as they saw these babies they knew they loved them. Rebecca named the boy Derek and Colin gave Derek the middle name of Oliver. Colin named the girl Margaret and Rebecca gave her the middle name of Cynthia. And that's how the two twins became Derek Oliver Stanwood and Margaret Cynthia Stanwood. They went back to England with their new parents and they both lived there happily for the first few years. The Stanwoods were fun and loving parents, and despite the rocky start, it looked as though things were going to turn out just fine for the twins.

But one winter, when the twins were 4 years old, tragedy struck them out of their blissful reality and took the lives of their parents in the form of a large car crash. The twins were both so young, neither quite understood what that meant for them. And since they were in England, Shawn Anderson's request no longer really made a difference. The twins were separated. Meg was sent to a new family in Sussex pretty quickly while Derek ended up in an orphanage in London. When he was placed in this orphanage, it all seemed off. He was given vaccinations and everything. Settled in fine but the other kids were quiet. Unnaturally quiet. They weren't unfriendly or friendly, they were sullen but with a fake smile. The five year old boy was highly confused. But things all became clear when his handler left him in the care of the man running the orphanage. One Mr. Squires. ((yeah it's a reference to Nicholas Nickleby, don't like it? Suck it.))

Mr. Squires was an angry, bitter man who seemed to hate kids more than he hated being sober. He was brutal and strict with the children, explaining their very passive and unnaturally well behaved display they put on when around the woman dropping off Derek. They were all verbally and physically abused, more than harshly. Squires was simply horrible to them, perhaps not like he was breaking ribs with each blow but you get my point. Derek and the other children bonded very tightly. There was probably a group of 9 there. They were each other's life lines, all going through the same thing. They were of all ages, and they all told stories their parents or uncles or aunts or whoever used to tell them about knights and codes of honor and the stories fascinated Derek. He kept them close and they helped keep him sane. From them, he developed a bit of a heart of gold complex. He would try to save the other kids, even the older ones by getting their "jailer" to focus on him. He was brave and self sacrificing for the other kids because in those tales of chivalry, that's what a knight was supposed to do. But because of this, Derek was given little to nothing in basic luxuries, like books or playing outside instead of cleaning bathrooms. The poor boy got it brought down hard on him but if you had asked him then if he regretted taking the blame for that other boy, he would tell you no. He would still tell you no. He felt better feeling like the truly good one, in a chivalrous and arthurian sort of way.

But because he was always in the spotlight for punishments, Squires got so frustrated because to him, Derek was a repeated offender who he knew was always going on about how the knights of Camelot would fight back, defend themselves and children everywhere and how they should stand up to him and yada yada yada... He had enough and one day while the boys were playing, someone broke a glass. Now this time Squires saw the kid. He was younger than Derek, who by this time was eight years old. So Derek really couldn't take the blame but when the angry "jailer" got out his belt and hit the boy hard across the back, Derek had to say something and he stepped forward. The other boy's punishment was forgotten and Derek's was just beginning. The old man last it, he was so angry. He took Derek and he locked him in the cellar of the building. The cellar was basically a room built of dirt and rock with one wooden staircase leaded out through the roof/floor of the above room. It was underground, cold during the night, hot during the day. He was only given one glass of water a day. He was given some bread once a week. And it went on like this. Derek alone and locked away in the dark. Some of the boys would sneak off and talk to him through the floor boards, their bit company helped him a lot. This routine lasted for about 2 months, Then he was allowed a sleeping bag, a lamp and a few children's, food and water for 3 more. Five months he had been alone in the dirt cellar, five months. The books were what kept him alive although he couldn't read the letters very well, he had never gone to school before, even if he was a bright kid. And that's how it was for him for another three months.

EIGHT MONTHS he had been locked down there, his only comfort being the stories in his head and the books he held tight to his chest and the whispered conversations the boys and him would have come night fall. If he hadn't been considered lanky and then before, he was for sure now. Despite the lack of exercising options in a dirt cellar, he was fed and watered only enough to keep him alive. He had no clue how long he had been down there. He stopped counting the days after day 77, but after it had been about eight months, one night the boys didn't come to talk to him come nightfall, which happened sometimes but then no one came in the morning with his slice of bread. He didn't hear any feet or movement or voices all day and no one came with his water. The next day was the same and the lack of food and water was taking effect. He yelled for help but no one came. Three days passed before he was found, he was nearly dead from dehydration and exhaustion from yelling for help, when a police officer and his team came down. They had learned of the abuse and arrested Mr. Squires but he never told them of Derek's whereabouts until they spoke to the kids. Derek was in the hospital for about a month, gaining back his strength when he was sent to a large group home in Sevenoaks Weald, which is a very small village in Northern England.

It worked a lot like farm, there were kids everywhere, the people in charge were kind, but Derek was pretty screwed up. He didn't connect with these kids, he didn't even want to know them that much. He was quiet, kept to himself, tended to huddle to corners. He spoke to other children but honestly the other kids more made fun of him than anything. He did like opening up to the women who worked there, not the men, but he was always polite. He always watched what he said very carefully. He would laugh only with a select few adults. For the most part he was a very isolated kid. And it stayed like this until he was twelve years of age, when the most important thing in his life happened. A new girl came to the group home. She was very pretty and seemed to get along with everyone at the home and even though Derek usually avoided girls, he was drawn to her, and her to him. They just felt safe around each other. She would defend him against the other kids, she took to protecting him like a mother lioness took to protecting her cubs. They're strange and seemingly random closeness may have helped Derek in life but with the other kids not so much. One of the other boys in the home thought Derek liked this new girl((So not the case)) and then beat the skinny boy up for it.

Yeah, this girl wasn't happy about that. But seriously, the two were so different and another strange thing about the two, despite that Derek was slightly gangly and awkward and she was stunning, they looked a bit alike. Both had light blue eyes, and both had dark raven hair and pale skin. They both even had a similar birthmark on their lower back that sort of looked like a dragon shape if you squinted. One of the women who worked at the home and who watched them together decided to get curious and began to dig through both children's records. One month and a lot of phone calls later they had the answer, Derek, and the new girl Meg aka Margaret, were brother and sister. Twins. Needless to say it came as a shock to everyone. No one really knew what to think about it but the twins just seemed so perfectly content with each other. I think they were just happy to know they had family out there. Meg had been schooled her whole life but Derek, not him. When this home gave him tutors though, lord he caught on fast. In no time he was average for his age in math and science. Where he really shined was history, although he had always had a knack for remembering tales. But he suffered greatly in an area that broke his heart, reading. Reading, if not taught young is one of the hardest things to teach, it's like learning a new language and it didn't help that he was dyslexic for years without anyone noticing. It was Meg who finally noticed and decided to ask him to get checked out. Honestly it killed him, that one of the things he wanted to do most in the world would always be a challenge to him, that being reading the immense amounts of stories this world had to offer.

When the two turned 16, they got a job together working at a local Renaissance fair. Both loved it. Derek had never felt more at home than he did while pretending to live in 1400s. He wasn't one to play nobility though, he always found the peasant, servant, blacksmith, etc to far more interesting. Meg on the other hand like any role where she got to receive a fair amount of attention. She soon became aware that for a career in life, she wanted to be an actress. They worked there for years and they were inseparable. When they turned 18 they were free to leave, Derek was sort of lost. But Meg knew what she wanted to do and that was find their real parents. Derek hated the idea, new places new people, all unnecessary risk, they should stay, work at Rein fair, they had each other, their parents weren't even real parents they left them. But when stubborn Meg said she'd leave with or without, he went with her, not loosing the only one he trusts. They get the record released and go to Valkyrie California to seek them out. They met both their birth father and they're slightly younger sister while they were there and as Derek had expected, everything was just going to hell.

Things only got worse as Meg began to hang out with Dustin Harris, a disgraced ass of a teen star who had been in trouble with the media. He turned Derek's sister into a whore. The twins got into huge fights about it. She took off for L.A. Derek has seen her except on the small screen television and in magazines. He hasn't seen seen her in years. They talk on the phone every so often but it's been decreasing. Derek stayed in Valkyrie. Not sure why, maybe he thought or hoped Meg would return but either way he stayed, finished college and is now saving for grad school. He wants to be a medieval history major. He actually had his first real girlfriend though. Alex. They were together for awhile. He really liked her.But they broke up because neither were ready to tell each other about their troubled pasts. Now, he's just trying to get life together.

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MAYBE THE CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL
THE EARTHQUAKE

SO, YOU KNOW THE EARTHQUAKE THAT OCCURRED ON JANUARY 7TH, 2012?

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"Yes, I was working at the Faire when it happened."

WHERE WERE YOU THE DAY OF THE EARTHQUAKE? WHAT DID YOU DO?

"I just said I was working. I tried to help people get to safety, broke my leg but its fine now."

DID YOU KNOW ANYONE THAT WAS AFFECTED BY THE EARTHQUAKE?

"The faire was destroyed. I'm doing my best to help put it back together but the whole thing was just devastated. One of knights was killed. Many more injured. It's not a day that will leave me any time soon."

WELL, THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO TALK TO ME. HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE REST OF YOUR DAY.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size]

WE STOLE OUR NEW LIVES
THROUGH BLOOD AND PAIN
THE ROLEPLAYER

NAME Anna
AGE 19 almost 10
RP EXPERIENCE lots of minutes and years
FACE CLAIM colin morgan
RP SAMPLE

hey hey

credit format by lainey, lyrics by 30 seconds to mars

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[ANNA-face]