OOC
GAME: Kingdom University
DESCRIPTION: Disney archetypes attending university.
DATE: July 2008
PB: Topher Grace
JOURNAL: majordomo
CONCEPT: Something something.
IC
DISNEY CHARACTER: Zazu (THE LION KING)
NAME: Ernest Zess
AGE / BIRTHDATE: 26 / September 22, 1982 (VIRGO)
SEXUALITY: Asexual Heterosexual, thanks!
BIRTHPLACE: Chicago, Illinois
YEAR: Second-year grad student (IGERS GRADUATE SCHOOL)
MAJOR: In undergrad, did a double major in Business Administration & Political Science. Now doing his Masters in Management.
EXTRACURRICULARS: Alongside his studies, Ernest is a paid TA for two of his favourite professors. He's also active in student government, serving largely as a major domo and right hand man on the Graduate Student Council: the position is his pride and joy. One or two nights out of every week, he also contributes to the university's Safe Walk and drives the drunkshuttle—much to the dismay of his intoxicated wards. Ernest stops by the gaming club occasionally and used to be into the debate team and MUN bigtime, but has cut back since entering grad school.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Fantasia Gardens Apartments, top floor. It makes for a good view, but also a bone-breaking sprint up and down the stairs whenever he's late for school, work, and various social arrangements. Ernest always jots down meticulous lists of what's currently wrong with the building this week, and obsessively files them to his superintendent—but these lists, without fail, have pretty much no effect whatsoever.
APPEARANCE: Gangly and wiry, Ernest Zess is all tousled dark hair, thin limbs and even narrower wrists. It took him more years than usual to grow out of the gawky teenage phase, but nowadays, he's finally starting to fill out and look more like a man and more his actual age. Some time spent running every afternoon and feeble working out on the weekends—in an attempt to escape his dorky pigeonhole—might be contributing to that, too. Now reaching the latter half of his twenties, Ernest is finally able to grow some facial hair, too, though he still keeps himself impeccably clean-shaven for university and work. It's just the principle of it! He was emotionally plagued for years by his inability to grow a proper manly beard.
PLAYED BY: Topher Grace
PERSONALITY: In one phrase alone: Ernest is a total stick-in-the-mud. From age six, he seemed set and primed as a teacher's pet and consummate academic: the resident weirdo who actually liked doing his homework and reading the dictionary, gasp! Looking after his rambunctious younger sisters pegged the poor boy into the role of fussy and conscientious mother hen: Ernest gets tetchy if things are chaotic, out of order, or not going according to plan. Thankfully, he also possesses a very good talent at winging it (no pun intended); while growing up, academic success and the role of high school valedictorian wasn't far away, and neither was his sparkling GPA and entrance to Kingdom University.
Ernest is very conscious of propriety and responsibility, and his biggest terror may very well be indelible blemishes on his permanent record—he harbours a quiet little dream of ending up in politics someday. Unluckily for any fun-loving rascals in his vicinity, this particular TA has little to no patience whatsoever for silliness and hijinks—dear Timon, Pumbaa, Neverlanders and 100 Acre Woodians: you are probably the bane of Ernest's existence! He barely allows himself the smallest, guiltiest flicker of amusement at a prank; instead, his gut reaction is an immediate, concerned "how am I supposed to fix this?". Ernest is very, very good at mopping up other people's messes and fixing their problems—thank god he's the epitome of Lawful Good, because if Ernest ever put his administrative clout behind evil, well, he would probably dispose of human bodies if commanded to do so. He'd do it neatly, too.
He excels at logistics, delegating, human management, and generally working to ensure that someone's will be done—were he to be embodied in a chess piece, Ernest would be the rook or bishop: straight-edged and conventional, but terribly efficient nonetheless. This strength is also his definite weakness: the no-nonsense attitude, while efficient, also means he's awfully conventional and hard to budge from his set ways. If he thinks you're a worthless ruffian—sorry, guys—he can also be fairly snide, pompous, and holier-than-thou about it. Ernest's default state is inherently dry and unamused. Many have tried to remove that proverbial stick from his ass. Many have failed.
Ever the realist and never the idealist, Ernest is also fairly cynical and pessimistic when you get right down to it, but he's supportive of others' endeavours nonetheless. You can bet he's paying a lot of very close attention to the USA's election this year.
LIKES: Knowing absolutely everything of what's going on—meeting him, you wouldn't have expected such a well of insatiable curiosity. Reuters. His never-ending stream of .rss feeds and news blips. Having an organised Firefox folder. Politics and news in general; he's been reading the newspaper daily for years, and doesn't seem likely to stop. Chess and RTS computer games. Having things in writing, including a paper trail in triplicate; but on the bright side, he is the king of bureaucracy. If you ever need someone to fill out forms and help you run circles around your taxes, Ernest is your dude.
DISLIKES: Big buff competitive macho types—they've kicked his ass on more than one occasion ("The little majordomo bird hippity hop, all the way to the birdie boiler!"). Cats. Spelling bees. Corrupt politicians. Cold coffee. People who take gaming far too seriously—it's his way to unwind, for christ's sake!
HISTORY: Ernest's past is not entirely dull, but he almost seems to prefer describing it as such: "I grew up in Chicago with my father and three younger sisters. Cold winters, so I suppose I prefer the Floridian weather. He's getting remarried this year. A very big White Sox fan, but I'm not so enthralled with the sport myself—excuse me, what was the question?"
Most of his childhood seems a blur of shrieking female voices and cleaning up after parties. Mrs Zess wrestled with leukemia for years, slowly weakening before succumbing when Ernest was eleven. Their father went through an even slower breakdown afterwards. Daunted by the prospect of raising the four children on his own, Stephen Zess retreated into his total nervous collapse—Ernest picked up the slack, and his life has been been mopping up messes, keeping the girls in line, and propping up his father ever since. Charlene, Theresa, and Mindy clung to each other throughout the ordeal, and emerged all the stronger for it: closer sisters and bosom buddies. Ernie, well… he just got ulcers. He's been cranking out good grades and holding down jobs since he was fifteen, with the stress sores to match.
The Zesses were firmly middle class, but their stability suffered thanks to being tied to the income of a single father. The economy was unpredictable for a while and so were the moodswings, whenever little girls wanted pretty dresses for the fall and Older Brother had the unpleasant duty of having to tell them no. Entrance scholarships eased the load a little when Ernest cruised into KU on a stellar GPA. Grandma Zess dying last year and leaving all of her inheritance to her only son helped even more—Stephen, in due course, distributed most of the finances throughout his kids' college funds, thus ensuring that the girls could get an education on par with their brother's.
His undergrad led to a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the the college of Business and Economics. After graduation, he used a few more years of working full-time to pool up money before he dove back into his expensive Master of Management, studying and employed by the school as a teaching assistant.
And did we mention—not only is his youngest sister entering KU this year, but their father's getting remarried? It's starting to feel like a rather turbulent year already, and Ernest is not pleased.
SAMPLES.
FIRST PERSON:
[Private]
54% approval rating on administration's new policies; slim margin, but I wonder if they'll pass. Council's pooling all of our funds together to advertise the new campaign, trying not to lose us the student bus pass. V worthy cause. Am aware large proportion of school is hoity toity rich kids (must bother census for enrolment statistics—simply curious), but no one could be against saving money. Can they? Propensity for appalling stupidity in human population. Must never underestimate.
THIRD PERSON: Like a tremendous nerd, I have an actual narrative brewing for Ernest already, but I'll just link you to something old instead. I have no idea why my John Constantine is relevant to my Zazu. IT FELT RIGHT.
LOGS
15 years ago: Backstory narrative
