User Profile

Character Name: Will Stanton.
Fandom: The Dark is Rising.

Character Appearance:

Will is a very ordinary fifteen year old -- at least to look at. He has a round face, framed by wispy brown hair that often hangs over his eyes. Although he has mostly grown out of childish puppy fat, he's still able to be described as 'solid' and in canon, other people often remark there is something innately comforting about how very ordinary and reliable he appears. He is probably wearing some variation on his school uniform -- blazer, shirt, jacket, tie, trousers -- or a t-shirt and jeans.

When Will is appearing as an Old One or drawing on large amounts of magic, however, he is anything but comforting. His gaze seems to shift to something that cannot be seen, his manner becomes distant and cold, uncomfortably old. In extreme cases he might seem to be taller, his voice resonating with a tone not entirely his own, and he is too bright for a human to look at.

Character Personality:

For someone embroiled for years in a battle that would determine the fate of the world, Will is very calm, and it has to be admitted, ordinary. Most of the time, you wouldn't imagine he was anything but a well-mannered, rather serious English school boy, with a tendency to day-dream and a wry sense of humour. This is how Will likes it -- he's very aware of the distances created between himself and those close to him by the knowledge that he is an Old One, and for the most of his life he was an ordinary boy, the knowledge, power and instinct of an Old One sleeping inside him.

Since his most recent reawakening, however, Will has found himself struggling to reconcile his Old One self with his human yearnings and instinct, as events progress at such a speed he can't afford to slip into the comfortable but limited view of the world that his human self posseses. The Old One looks to the end to determine the means, always focused on the greater good, even to the extent of appearing calculating, emotionless, cold. Nothing could be further from Will's true self, however -- he is a sympathetic and resolute young man, whose concern for those around him is manifested in his affable, good-humoured nature.

Character Background:

On his eleventh birthday, Will woke up to find that his world had gone awry, and that he himself was 'not human. Not exactly.' Seventh son of a seventh son, Will Stanton is the last of the Old Ones, an immortal race dedicated to the Light, an ancient power that seeks to protect the world from the Dark, an opposing force dedicated to the destruction of everything. As the youngest Old One, Will has a special role in the unfolding battle. His first task is to gather and join 6 signs of power. In the fulfillment of this quest, he not only learns how to master the abilities that being an Old One give him -- heightened senses, the ability to speak mind to mind with other Old Ones, even an ability to pull things and people out of time and travel through time -- but also that the Light is every bit as uncompromising and challenging as the Dark it opposes.

As an Old One, Will is guided by an instinctive sense of what he must do, and is confident and powerful. When his guidance fails, or he uses his power for frivolous reasons, it acts as a beacon to agents of the Dark, and Will learns very quickly to obey the rules. What those rules are exactly are unclear -- in one book, Will dives off a cliff and is unharmed, the next he succumbs to a very nasty bout of hepatitis and falls off a bike and bangs his arm. What Will can do seems to be very much dependant on what the Light wants him to do -- if Will hadn't been sick, he would not have been sent to convalesce in the very part of Wales the son and heir of the Pendragon was living, after all. That would be Bran, by the way. Not an old one, but an integral part of their battle -- and a very important friend to Will -- possibly the only non-Old One that understands what Will is and likes him despite it. (The Drews, bless their socks, try but they just don't get it.)

The Light wins. The Dark is banished -- and as a result, the Old Ones leave en masse. Only Will remains -- his last task is to be the Watcher, to look for any signs of the Dark's return. With them, the Old Ones take all memories of their time in the world, leaving Will effectively twelve, immortal, and with a very lonely future spread out before him.

No surprise then that he chooses to let his human side take over and live an ordinary life with his (very) large family, school friends and pursue his hobbies of cricket and making brass rubbings (this kid knows how to live, seriously). Sadly, his world has other ideas.

The disappearance of the Light and the Dark creates a void that the other powers in Will's world -- the forces of High, Wild and Old magic -- are only too happy to fill. Different factions of Wild magic battle for control of the mortal plane, and inexplicable phenomenom, monster sightings and other happenings too strange and dark to be explained, become more frequent. Will is forced out of his comfortable half-life, back into the role of an Old One (and the memories of time spent in other worlds) as his latent power makes him a magnet to those who would control the mortal world.

Without the guidance the Light and the other Old One's afforded him, Will struggles initially to find a way to protect those around him and try to restore some semblance of order to his world. For the first time, he finds his instincts as a human and those of his Old One self in perpetual conflict as he can no longer keep the separate parts of his life distinct. The pressure this puts on his relationships, especially with his family, is intense and he is more than a little relieved to be offered a scholarship to a boarding school -- particularly once he realises that Bran will also attend this school.

Bran's heritage as the son and heir of Arthur Pendragon has put him in a situation similar to Will -- only without Will's knowledge of what is going on. Bran in invested with the authority of High magic, and Will realises that his friend will be a remarkable ally in his quest to restore order, and he trusts Bran with the knowledge of what he is, although he can't return Bran's memories of what was. This puts some pressure on their friendship, understandably, and it is in the midst of trying to negotiate between his friendship for Bran and the warring instincts of his Old One and human self, that Will finds himself pulled between worlds.

Icons: Made by francaise over on insanejournal.

Disclaimer: This is an rp journal intended to be used for rp purposes only -- that is to say fun and games. No harm or profit is happening here. The Dark is Rising remains property of Susan Cooper and William Molesley remains William Molesley.

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