Beck Graves

Appearance and Personality
General Appearance: Beck stands just shy of six feet, three inches, and is muscular since he keeps in decent shape, but not overly bulky. He has blue eyes, and light brown hair. It’s normally styled, but let’s be real it looks good either way. Beck can be found wearing suits and the like, since most of his days are spent in the Ministry, but he’s not against wearing jeans and a t-shirt when he’s home, especially when Anderson wants to spend hours and hours outside.
Sexual Orientation: “Livvy. Yes. We’re putting that.” (aka heterosexual)
Skills: Politics—he likes politics and working in the Ministry, and he’s got good at rising through positions there. Obviously he’s not bad at playing that game, or he wouldn’t be the head of a department and he’s not half bad at his job. He says I need to amend that and say he’s damn good at his job, but I was just trying to tone down the cockiness a little bit, but I guess he’s damn good at his job. He’s good at keeping a secret. You can’t an affair for three and a half years and not be good at secrets, and sneaking around. You also can’t be a Death Eater and hide in plain sight for as long as he had without being sly, so he says that’s both proof of how good he is at keeping secrets. As much as he doesn’t like to admit it, he was really good at history of magic back in school. He’s got a mind for facts—if you tell him something one time, there’s a good chance he’s going to remember it. That might be particularly about irrelevant shit from history, but it’s true about… just about anything else as well. He’ll remember what you said, even if you don’t remember saying it, which he thinks rather works in his advantage. And on the history note, if you have some random obscure question, there’s a good chance he’ll know the answer. When he was married to Eliza, he didn’t even really think that he wanted kids, but he’s weirdly good with his own, which I don’t think he saw coming. But he can keep a straight face and purposefully lose card games, and will definitely check for monsters under the bed.
Weaknesses: His family, obviously. His father is dead, and he’s the elder, so making sure that his mother is all right is very important to him, same with his brother though Langdon is doing just fine on his own. He cares about Liv and the kids more than anyone else on the planet, and there isn’t a thing in the world he wouldn’t do for them. He’d kill for them, jump in front of a spell for them, and is the type of dad that would get way too riled up if he found out that someone is bullying his kids. (“Are we sure we can’t curse a kid? What if they really deserve it?”) A weakness of a different kind is his ex-wife, because honestly he really doesn’t like her. He doesn’t know what had been going through his mind when he married her, but he feels like she’s now an annoying gnat that they can’t quite get rid of. He’s not all that great at potions, much to his annoyance because he thinks that would be pretty convenient to be good at. He’s got a hell of a temper, and combined with being as stubborn as he, that sometimes doesn’t go all that well. He’s patient with the kids, yes, but he’s impatient as hell at work when someone is doing something that he considers to be simple, and that shouldn’t take all that long.
Positive Personality Traits: Active (He runs. A lot. Like almost every day). Adventurous (He’s a ‘spin a globe, pick a spot on the map, let’s go,’ type of person sometimes). Articulate (He’s pretty damn good with his words, he knows how to use them and twist them). Charismatic (Can you really get to a head of a department without being a little bit charming? He says yes, but it takes more work that way, so he likes his way better). Confident (More like arrogant, but he rolled his eyes on me and insists confident). Courageous selectively (Which pretty much means that he’d walk through hell for Liv or their kids, and select other people he cares about but past that, you’re on your own if he doesn’t care). Dedicated (If he hadn’t had a three and a half year affair, I would say he wasn’t the affair type… but still, dedicated). Disciplined (If he puts his mind to something, it’s happening). Intelligent (“Livvy is smarter, but she wouldn’t be engaged to a dumbarse”). Loyal. (To Liv, to his kids, his family, friends, to Ares and the Death Eaters). Observant (He says nothing gets by him, but part of this is probably because he’s arrogant and just thinks nothing gets by him…). Passionate (He says it’s not appropriate to explain what we mean here). Patient (Especially with the kids, something that I find to be incredibly surprising since he’s incredibly impatient at work). Persuasive (“Did an affair start when words were whispered during a dance, or not? Exactly”). Protective. Reliable (If he says he’s going to be somewhere, he’s going to be there. If he says he’s going to do something, you better believe he’s going to do it). Strong.
Negative Personality Traits: Ambitious (“I went from an employee of magical games and sports to heading up my department. I’d reach higher but I rather fancy living—and it sounds like way too much work.”) Aggressive. Arrogant. Blunt (He is not one to sugarcoat anything. Unless he’s talking to Lyla). Calculating. Challenging (He just smirked and said “Ask Liv. She knows.” So I think that means sometimes he’s seriously just bloody aggravating on purpose). Dishonest (Can’t stay out of Azkaban and be honest, after all… he’ll lie to get his way, if he doesn’t care about you at least because “Have you tried to lie to Liv? No point”). Dominating (He’s kind of a scary person to work for, which is funny if you know him well and don’t find him scary at all…). Intense. Possessive. (Not to the point that it’s excessive, or so he says at least). Sarcastic. Stubborn. Secretive (See, three and a half year affair that was kept a secret. That takes some skill).
Hobbies and Interests: Running. Dark arts. Quidditch. Spending time with the kids, and Liv. Traveling. Dueling (“And don’t let Ares tell you he’s a better duelist than me, because he’s lying”). Shagging. Bourbon. He likes his job too, so he supposes he’ll put that on there also.
Character History:

“Just. One. Minute.”

Beckett Archibald Graves was born to Archibald and Penelope Graves on the twenty-seventh of July in 1963. Their marriage was made more of convenience than anything else. Archibald was the heir to a very wealthy family, and he could continue living the way he had been accustomed if he got married. Since he had always enjoyed money, and having as much of it as possible, he knew that he would have to find someone that could be a proper wife, and that was when he had met Penelope. Beckett was their first child, and thus he was raised knowing the kind of wealth that every Graves for generations had been raised with. It meant that he was more than a little bit spoiled growing up, but no one in the Graves family have ever been the type to throw their money around.

It was in 1967 that Beck's younger brother was born, looking much like Beck and like Archibald as well– the same light brown hair and blue eyes that their mother had, though Beck's features looked more like his father's than his younger brother's did. They were close growing up, since they were only a few years apart, though it was always Beck leading and Langdon following. They were raised mostly by their mother, as their father was "away" often, which was always as much of an explanation as their mother was willing to give. It was when he was eleven years old that Beck finally asked his father just where he went all of the time, and it was then that Archibald showed his son the mark on his arm, and told him all about the Dark Lord, and his vision for the wizarding world. He told him that when he was older, if he proved his worth, he too could join the ranks and contribute to what would be their new future.

He joined Hogwarts in 1974, with that thought in mind, the thought of the future and how he could prove his worth to the Dark Lord. He was sorted into Slytherin from nearly the moment that the Sorting Hat touched his head. It was there that he made friends, made enemies, and all that normal school nonsense. He says this isn't the interesting part of his history so there's no need to talk about detentions, Quidditch, and girls ("Even though there were a lot of them." -pause- "Detentions, I mean.") There were many things that were expected of a Graves. They were wealthy, they held positions high up in the Ministry, and they were not given access to the family's fortune until they married. It was only then that they were given anything, because even if the Graves line was not pure, it was important to them that the fortune grew, that it was in good hands, and that they were sure their lines would continue to the next generation.

But his mind was more on joining the ranks as a Death Eater than it was on the marriage he knew he'd have to figure out in the future. It was after his sixth year at Hogwarts that the Dark Lord marked him as a follower. His numbers were growing at that point, surely, and Beckett had done plenty to prove himself worthy. He says we're not going into details because they're unseemly, but just trust him. He was proud to finally share the same mark that his father had always considered so important, and went back to school the next year knowing that his graduation would bring about more free time for him to commit to the cause. It was when he was a seventh year at Hogwarts that his youngest sister, Octavia, was born, which was quite obviously a surprise, though a welcomed one to his mother, who had always wanted a daughter. After his graduation, he did get his wish. For a brief time, he was able to focus on doing what he could to help the Dark Lord, even if he was certainly nothing more than a grunt.

In October of 1981, however, the Dark Lord vanished, and his followers were at a loss of where he had gone and what that meant for him. He was young enough, and a recent graduate of Hogwarts no less, that no one looked in his direction. The family fortune, and the Graves name kept his father's name out of things as well, and they had to figure out how to move forward now that they didn't have the future the Dark Lord always talked about. But they were still Graves, they were still so rich that it's actually a little disgusting, and so with the Dark Lord gone, Archibald's focus went to his oldest son and how he needed to find a bride. He knew that he did, that he wouldn't have access to any of his inheritance until he did, but at first his mind wasn't on marrying just whatever woman walked by first. Instead, he got a job. Graves were members of the Ministry for generations, and he had never expected to do anything different. He got a job in the department of magical games and sports, but he knew that he would eventually aim higher than that. For now, it was all about making the proper connections, and figuring out where his end game was.

It was in 1984 that he came across Eliza Melitz, a Slytherin that had been a few years younger than him at school. She had barely caught his eye back then, as he'd had plenty of witches to distract himself with back at Hogwarts, but with an increasing amount of pressure from his father to find a wife, he started to date Eliza. She was attractive enough, from a decent family, and well bred. She wasn't awful, but he didn't find her any more impressive than he did any other woman he'd dated over the years. But he wanted his focus to be on his job, on playing the political game until he got the position that he wanted, and he needed the right woman on his arm for that. Eliza proved that she had what it took, and so with nothing more than his career and his family line in mind, he proposed to Eliza in late 1985. She was the type that wanted a lavish wedding, one that would be on the pages of Witch Weekly and every other magazine that mattered in the UK, and his mother was happy to give her just that.

He was rather hands-off in the planning process ("Because I honestly didn't give a damn."), and the pair was married in the fall of 1986. Soon after, tragedy struck the family when Octavia died; she had always been ill growing up, with healers never able to pintpoint just what was wrong with her. It was only months after Beck's wedding that his sister died, at six years old. Not the best at coping with something like that, his attention moved to work. He had his eye on the position as the head of the department, quite obviously. He knew that children eventually needed to be on his mind, but they weren't at first, and as much as she tried, she couldn't get Beck's attention on that front. He had Ludo Bagman to contend with, after all, a man that had been questioned after the fall of the Dark Lord, but clearly didn't have any ties with Voldemort ("He was too big of a damn idiot for that."). His focus was on getting the man to trust him, to become his right hand, because that was the best way of getting the position from him. The Quidditch World Cup was the biggest event that the department had to deal with, and it had meant plenty of preparation and long days in order to get everything done.

But in 1994, all of their hard work became a reality as the match went on. Eliza was meant to be there, in the top box with him, but she had never cared much about Quidditch, and at the last minute made some excuse or another not to come. It left the seat next to him free, not that he minded, because he was sure she would have just tried to distract him from the match to talk about who of her friends was pregnant, and he could do without that for a few hours. The seat was then filled with some lawyer or another he'd never met, and when the match ended with Ireland winning, and the woman kissed him, he was undoubtedly surprised. Even though his first instinct was to kiss her back ("How could I not?") with everyone around them, and everyone well aware that he was married, he had to politely pull away with a grin and a quick explanation that he had a wife. ("Actually I said 'as much as I love the enthusiasm, I'm married.'")

It was after the match though, that he had some more fun, namely by putting on the mask he hadn't worn in years, and tormenting some Muggles and the like, which he found to be particularly amusing. Of course, it was a bit of a double-edged sword, because he technically knew he was giving himself much more work to do at his actual job, dealing with the ramifications of 'the attack,' but it was far too entertaining for him not to partake. But he was right, because he found himself in meeting after meeting. They were made far more tolerable by the woman he recognized from the match, Olivia Drake. The first meeting was... well, he wouldn't call it awkward because it wasn't all that easy to make him uncomfortable, but it wasn't... necessarily all that comfortable either, especially since plenty of people in the meeting had been in the top box that day as well. But by the second meeting, his attention was still drawn to her. The third meeting... he had gotten there a little bit early, and so had she. Before he had known what was happening, she was against a wall, and he was inches away from her, and then the door opened. He'd always had a hell of a poker face, so that meeting went on as planned with no one suspecting anything. That was when he was sure that Olivia Drake had caught his attention in a way that might just be dangerous.

A party in February of 1995 was the first time that it happened. He was there with Eliza, of course, and she was socializing and playing every bit the part of the wife of a wealthy Ministry official, and he was... bored. Anytime he was around his wife, he was bored, but he'd always been rather good at faking it. Eventually, somehow, he ended up dancing with Olivia, and that was when a whispered suggestion in her ear had him heading immediately to the coat closet. Her coming and meeting him there was the start of a three year affair, one that was kept hidden, with a couple near misses. He knew that it was complicated, and it was messy, but Olivia Drake was the love of his life and Eliza Graves... wasn't. She wasn't, but he also knew the kind of bad press that came with a divorce, and when he was vying for head of department, he wasn't sure if he could risk it. The affair continued, and he knew Olivia would be happier if it wasn't the way that it was, but he hadn't felt like he'd had any other choice. There was a war to deal with as well, there were other matters to focus on, but in 1998, she finally gave the ultimatum that a part of him had always been expecting.

She had walked away. And he picked her. It was hardly a choice at all, not when the alternative was losing her. He chose her, and he finalized his divorce with Eliza as quickly as possible. She was pissed ("Understatement of the year.") but we won't go into details about just how pissed she was. He and Olivia were able to be with each other for real, and in the midst of that, the Dark Lord fell again, and Beck's father was lost in the battle as well. It was Olivia that had kept his name out of it, that had done whatever it was she did to solve problems, and all of his issues went away. He kept his job, and in 2000, he finally proposed to Olivia, and soon after had their first son, Callahan. To their surprise, they found out that she was pregnant soon after, and he knew that she was caught off guard by that, but he was certain that it would be all right. It was then, in May of 2001, that they had their daughter, Lyla. Even though they were engaged, they didn't think much about the actual marriage part of it, because they were happy. It wasn't long after that he was promoted to head of the department of magical games and sports.

In February of 2009, they found out, once more, that Olivia was pregnant, and amidst everything, that was a bit more complicated. There was a new Minister, new agendas, but he was still hiding in plain sight as he had been all these years, and that was fine. Their second son, Anderson, was born in October. Throughout the years, they've dealt with the new administration in the Ministry, until this year, when now, everything has changed once more. Beck is hopeful that Wentzell has what it takes to actually hold power, since that had been the Dark Lord's downfall, but as a Death Eater, he's obviously willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that the power stays with them.

Plots and Politics
What is your character’s stance on the recent takeover of the Ministry by Death Eaters? Well he just smirked, if that answers your question. You could say he’s pretty happy about it. He’s been hiding in plain sight for a while now, and he’s glad that he doesn’t have to do that anymore. And he’s pretty sure Ares has what it takes to actually keep power this time around.

Where did your character stand in the treatment of Death Eaters and their families under the late Minister Durant's rule? He was pretty pissed about it, obviously. He didn’t get caught because “Livvy knows what she’s doing,” but plenty people that he knew did get caught, and seeing how the Ministry and the public treated Death Eaters and their families made him mad—but also relieved that Livvy took care of everything, because he was glad that Callahan, Lyla, and Anderson didn’t have to be ‘Death Eater’s kids’ in a time when it would do them more harm than good.

How was your character and their family affected by the reign and death of Voldemort? They were positively affected by the reign, obviously, since Beck got his Mark soon after he graduated school. Even though they were halfbloods, they were loyal to the cause. Beck’s father was killed during the second war, and his mother never got the Mark, so she was safe after the war. Throughout the war, he helped with his position within the Ministry, kept his mask on when he went out to do the Dark Lord’s work, and so after the war, he was able to avoid capture because of Olivia doing… whatever it was she did. He didn’t ask for details, he just trusted that she handled it.


Family

Parents: Archibald Graves (deceased), Penelope Graves – 77
Siblings: Langdon Graves – 49, Octavia Graves (deceased)
Children: Callahan Graves – 16, Lyla Graves – 15, Anderson Graves – 7
Partner: @olivia – fiancée
Other Relevant Family: He’s pissed I’m putting this here at all, but I do want to put: Eliza Graves – ex-wife that hasn’t gone back to her maiden name, much to the annoyance of Beck.
Family History:

Archibald was born a Graves, and because of that, he was born into the kind of wealth that most would flaunt. But it was never the Graves way to be showy when it came to money, so while he was spoiled growing up, he was also taught about hard work. And he was taught what he would need to do in order to get the money and power that he wanted. He was sorted into Slytherin at school, which wasn't much of a surprise at all. His family had normally been split into an equal amount of Ravenclaws and Slytherins over the years, with perhaps a couple of Gryffindors over the years, but not many. He met his wife, Penelope, when he was in school, and while she had caught his eye, he didn't ask her out immediately. He knew that he would need a proper wife, that she would have to be someone that his family would approve of.

It was after he graduated that he actually sought her out and asked her out, because she was just about the only woman that had ever really caught his eye for an extended amount of time. He knew that she would be a decent wife, and that was all their marriage really was to him - an arrangement that profited both of them, and he made sure she was aware of that. He wasn't the type to fake it, woo her, and have bold romantic gestures. He needed a wife, and she would do, but she was rather smitten by him. The money was a benefit, the parties and like, also benefits, so she said yes when he finally proposed to her. Their wedding was decent size, but it wasn't a massive spectacle. It was in 1961 that Penelope found out that she was expecting, and on the 27th of July, Beckett was born.

Langdon was next, and mostly Penelope was left to raising the children, since Archibald's focus was on his position in the Ministry, and on the Dark Lord most especially. That was fine with her, because staying at home with the children was all she had really expected to do anyhow. It was when the Dark Lord fell in 1981 that Archibald became more present at home, and focused his attention on his eldest son and what he would need to do now. Penelope's focus was on their new daughter, and on their youngest son, but she was excited when Beck got engaged. She thought that his fiancée was appropriate enough, and she knew that love wasn't always apart of the equation; she might love Archibald, but she knew he didn't love her, and she knew that her husband had been pressuring Beck to get married. Still, she wanted to make it a day to remember, so she helped Eliza with the planning, which took nearly a year.

She thought everything went just perfect, and was very happy about it all, but then Octavia had taken another turn for the worst, and died only months later, which devastated Penelope. But she pressed forward, as was expected of her, and life moved forward. Archibald once again got involved when the Dark Lord returned again, and unfortunately, his life was lost in the battle of Hogwarts. Penelope remained in London, and in the house she shared with her husband, and getting over his loss was difficult as well, but she was glad to still have both of her sons around, and she rather likes Olivia - she didn't think she would actually know what Beck looked like happy, and since he is, she was glad he could be rid of Eliza (even though she still talks to her semi-regularly, but don't tell Beck).

Other: He's a Death Eater!

Morgan

I have a few!

What is the status of this application?

Completed

Have you read the site plot, rules, and timeline?

No

How did you hear about Insurrection?

I haven't!

Play-By:

Tony Goldwyn

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Roleplay Sample

Nah.