Keagan Ilyeana - 24 - Circus Acrobatic Dancer

[Keagan Ilyeana]

a bird's-eye view

Full Name: Aoife Shofranka Lovel.
Known As: Keagan Ilyeana, or Aoife to a certain vampire.
Nicknames: Key, Ily, nutter, vilain crapaud.

Current Age: Twenty-four years.
Date of Birth: 13th of February, 1972.
Place of Birth: East End of London, England.
Place of Residence: Vagabond - carnival caravan dweller.

Race: Witch.
Blood Line: Half-blooded.
Ethnicity: Caucasian - 1/2 French, 1/2 Irish Didicoy Gypsy; the latter heritage unrecognized by the Romani clan.
Nationality: British.
Medical History: Several records of hospital check-ins.
Financial Status: Middle-lower class.

Profession: Equestrian and acrobatic dancer, magical and mundane creatures handler.
Employer: Low-Key Lyesmith and his Bucket Bros' Magical Travelling Carnival.
Experience: Seventeen years of experience, since early spring of 1979.
Education: Private-educated, if any at all.
N.E.W.T.s Qualifications: None.

Wand Hand: Right.
Wand: Baguettes (Roy Villedieu); 9 3/4 inches, cedar wood, core of fairy wings blended with unicorn hair, sturdy.
Patronus: Golden-winged Dragonfly - Cordulegaster boltonii.
Boggart: A faceless woman dressed in her own favourite performance costume.
Amortentia: The smell of hay, burning wood, apples, mint leaves, and Gabriel's shirt.
Mirror of Erised: Gabriel and her out in the sun. He's mortal.
Additional Abilities: Apparition, Occlumency, and Legilimency.

Mother Tongue: Irish & Romani - both which she can no longer communicate coherently in.
Primary Language: English - bizarrely accented in a crossover of British-American-French accent.
Secondary Language: French - lightly accented with English.
Semi-Fluency In: Slovakian, Italian - both which she is capable of holding a conversation in, albeit brokenly.

handprints on the heart

Father: Pierre de Mauban [53]; French pureblood - former Death Eater, now Azkaban inmate.
Mother: Beatriz Lovel [29/45]; Irish Gypsy fledgling Jiang Shi vampire - former dancer, stripper, and prostitute.
Half-Sister: Aurelie de Mauban [24]; French-Dutch pureblood - landlady.
Half-Brother: Philippe de Mauban [24]; French-Dutch pureblood - bartender.

Psuedo-Father: Low-Key Lyesmith [54/189]; French-Hispanic medial Ramanga vampire - owner of Bucket Bros' Magical Travelling Carnival.
Mentor: Félix Villedieu [30]; French pureblood - magical storyteller.
Best Friend: Gabriel Mortaine [24/920]; Franglais ancient Ramanga vampire - vagabond.
Close Friends: Johnny Prey Cool, Joseph Yang, Willow K. Aesalon.
Friends: Cole D. Barron, Leo Pritchard, Llewellyn Flynn, Pénélope J. Valois, Sanguini.

a wand by its length

Inheriting her mother's darker looks, walnut brown hair framed her oval-shaped face, and pale green eyes embedded upon her face. She has a dainty straight nose, nice full lips, and her skin is middle-toned. As a dancer, she keeps herself on a strict diet, which leads to her being ridiculously thin for her age. In fact, she is fragile to the point of that she might snap into two anytime. She stands at a petite height of 5"4, much to her dismay. Much as it may be unbelievable, Key is quite the professional with makeup. She wears comfortable attire most of the time, preferring shorts, jeans, baggy trousers, loose shirts over anything else; though she also fancies skirts and dresses, particularly maxi skirts. Her style of fashion usually leans towards Bohemian-style, though other times simply turns out a horrendous mix-and-match disaster. At times, she looks considerably decent, sometimes she looks all right enough to pull off the fashion failure. Other times, she just looks plain trashy.

She sports various scars and marks from accidents in training throughout her life, but the most notable would be a pair of neat punctures on the right side of her neck, from the fangs of a vampire.

reading between lines

Key is what people call, a walking contradiction. She's a being of both fire and ice, one who finds that blood amounts to nothing for those with a heart of stone, yet one who goes to extraordinary extents for the sake of people dearest to her. She's a steel magnolia, a young woman whose determination, persistence, and obstinacy rival even fate itself; yet beyond that is fragile, sensitive, cowardice, lazy - traits which human possessed consciously or unknowingly. Smart, bright, bubbly, mischievous, tomboy-ish, daring, bold, forgetful, even to the point of dumb scatterbrain at times; yet one would never find another liar as accomplished, another actress as professional. She and her lies would put Satan himself to shame; but at times there can be no other person who's better than her at wearing her heart on the sleeve. She may at times be dumb, but she knows what there is, one would never guess how many wisdom rests within that pretty little skull. Her mind is complicated, amongst the crowds she never shines the brightest; still she is the one and only. She has her flaws and her strengths, who doesn't - after all she is no more but another member of the human race, just like everyone else.

in a nutshell

Positive Traits: Confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, independence, open-mindedness, determination, loyalty, slyness, humour, wit.
Negative Traits: Obstinacy, illiteracy, impulsiveness, inattentiveness, laziness, recklessness, impatience, bluntness, insecurity, dramatic nature, unpredictability.
Talents: Daily charmswork, stealth skills, memory charms, magical creature empathy, and street smarts.
Interests: Foods, travelling, cultures, magical and mundane creatures, study of vampires, dance, music, muggle technology.
Favourite Food: Fuji apples, sugar quills, chocolate, stews and broths, world cuisines, lots of unhealthy snacks.
Favourite Drinks: Cappuccino, vanilla latte, vanilla milkshake, moonshine, icevodka, chocolate liqueur.
Favourite Ice-cream Flavour: Cookies and cream, rocky road, peppermint and chocolate chips.

● She is capable of viewing thestrals.
● She is largely illiterate, she could read only very minor English and write even less.
● She inherits an unfortunate habit of swearing in French from Félix Villedieu.
● She has an affinity for languages, and picked up a lot of vocabulary of various languages in her travels.
● Her wand is exclusively forged for her by Roy Villedieu of Baguettes, and paid for by Félix Villedieu.
● Her middle name, Shofranka, means 'French' in Romani.
● Her birth name 'Aoife' is pronounced Ee-fya, meaning 'radiant beauty' in Irish.
● She carries a packet of blood lollipops with her everywhere she goes, and no, she doesn't eat any.

diving into the pensieve

It happened when Beatriz Lovel, a muggle downtown pub dancer, had a one-night-stand with a stranger. She left him in the morning, taking along with her only a single passport-sized portrait of him from his wallet. She'd thought that that was the end, but it wasn't, obviously. Nine months later, Beatriz's life was turned upside down by a dirty, noisy, smelly infant. A baby daughter, whom ironically she loved to bits. The child, born in the late winter of 1972, was named Aoife Shofranka. Even when she was a mere baby, Aoife would go crawling all over the dingy apartment she shared with her mother, wrecking the already-ancient furniture and just generally wreaking havoc. She was like any other ordinary muggle baby - till when she was four.

What ordinary toddler bring down the cookie jar without even touching it? What ordinary toddler opens the door when the knob was eight inches above her head? What ordinary toddler trots out into the rain and walk back in completely dry? It was ridiculous. It made no sense at all to Beatriz. For once, the woman who was the epitome of freedom, the woman who cared of her own opinions and only hers, feared. She loved Aoife so much that the deepest fear gripped at her heart. Not wanting people to realize the abnormality of her daughter, she locked Aoife away in their tiny home.

Home confinement was not something which the young child enjoyed greatly; in fact, she despised it to her very core. Nevertheless, such a life continued on for three years. But, aged 7, Aoife decided that she didn't want to be stripped of her freedom anymore. Aged 7, Aoife packed a single backpack and climbed her way out from the toilet window. Aged 7, Aoife Shofranka Lovel ran away from her mother, from home, from her childhood; and join reinforces in the Bucket Bros' Magical Traveling Carnival.

Two years in the carnival had Aoife transforming into a wild child. Taking over property of one of the smaller caravans, Aoife constantly made sure that it was well-furnished and pretty; yet ironically, she never forgot to toss worn clothes and personal belongings all over the place, making it a complete mess, too. Taken in by the Carnival Chief, she was taught to work with magical animals of all sorts - unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs; and ironically, she inherited her mother's talent at dance. The only thing which frustrated her was that she failed to work with the thestrals, creatures which she cannot see. Nevertheless, within two years, Aoife had developed into a professional acrobatic dancer, leading to her very first performance onstage in July, 1981.

Amongst the crowds, the unnaturally alerted child spied a man unusually similar to the one in the portrait her mother once owned - the one, she knew, which drawn upon was her father. As soon as the performance ended, the young girl raced out after the man, stalking him till they arrived at the junction of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. There, 9-year-old Aoife witnessed murder. There was not much that she remembered now - blinding green light, screams, her father's wand outstretched, the horrific and ugly tattoo which coiled upon the skin of his left arm, and then, finally, darkness.

When she woke up again, she found herself in her own caravan. Days later, she started working with thestrals, creatures she could now see. The cruelest irony of it was, in exchange, the price, her memory eternally tainted with the image of her own father, a death eater, committing murder. This particular irony eventually drove her to change both her first and last name. Ever since, she was known as Keagan *Key* Ilyeana.

When it came to the schooling age, Key often wondered if the Ministry of Magic had taken effort to find out her whereabouts. She traveled all over the world with the carnival folk whom she called 'family'. As it was, she had never been to any of the magical institutions, though it did not seem to bother her at the least. Félix Villedieu, the magical storyteller of BBMTC, was her mentor and professor. It was Félix who taught her to use a wand, it was Félix who taught her to survive in the society, it was Félix who taught her nearly all that she knew. Whilst Key would never in a thousand decades admit it, she is eternally grateful for it.

colours of the wind

Leo Pritchard, "Key? As in... the object in a lock?"
Lughaidh Bradigan, "A dont care if ye inhaled smoke. Heck, you feckin' inhale 'em much by the looks o' ye."
Gabriel Mortaine, "You're completely insane. You do know that?"
Cole Barron, "Wait. Thestrals? So...you've...seen someone...die, then?"
Johnny Cool, "Oh, I would let you fall. The question is, would I let you hit the ground?"
Félix Villedieu, "And keep your bright smiles for yourself! Zhis smile is so bright, it can light zhe fires of Hell again!"

credits where due

Face claim is the American fashion model, Darla Baker.
All graphics are the works of Mel from Vault 713.
The surname 'Ilyeana' is courtesy of Manda from Vault 713.

[Keagan Ilyeana]

Félix Villedieu; 30 years old, magical storyteller of Bucket Bros' Carnival, pure-blooded French wizard.
"I'd murder myself ten times over before I ever admit this aloud, but there's got to be a reason why he's been through 11 years of life with me."

Félix Villedieu is a person of utmost importance in Keagan's life. He has been in her life ever since she had joined forces with the Bucket Bros' Magical Travelling Carnival, brought her all the way to Baguettes in France to get her wand when she was of legal age of own one, taught her all that she needed to know in life and society. Félix was the person Key goes to whenever she has a question, for all she cares, he is a constancy in her life, an ever present being who couldn't be erased despite that he has the tendency to vanish into thin air and reappear a month later. She has a remarkably large amount of respect and love towards the man, and is far more attached to him than she'd ever realize or admit she is; their manner of interaction would hardly ever betray these emotional attachments, and in daily life it seems ever more possible that they might strangle each other than support each other - but so there it is, it is all but the way they roll.

Tessie Lake; 17 years old, magical beast rider of Bucket Bros' Carnival.
"We share a lot in common, but I think most of all it's BB Carny and sugar quills that had brought us so close. We are each other's home."

Tessie Lake was Key's caravanmate for longer than she could've remembered. Two young girls, each with their own not-so-fortunate histories, each harbouring their own secrets, they bonded and befriended each other faster than wild fire could spread on a midsummer's night. Key's caravan is not at all one of the largest in the site, but it serves its purpose well enough to accomodate the two girls. As years past, Tessie grows on Key immensely, becoming more of a younger sister character rather than just a plain caravanmate, friend, and confidant. Like the rest of the carny folk, she is considered a member of Key's family, a person dearly trusted and very much beloved. Unlike certain others of the carny folk, Tessie is privilege to secrets of Key's past and present, also vice versa. She is the little sister that Key is all but related to biologically.

Low-Key Lyesmith; 189 years old, current owner of Bucket Bros' Carnival, Ramanga vampire.
"I've never had a father and to be frank I don't give a darn. Low-Key gave me a home. He's my papa vampire for all I care - just about as good as any other dad is, even if he's a dead one."

Early spring of 1979, when the breeze was chilly and the dews of dawn had yet not gone, Low-Key Lyesmith stumbled across a small nugget of a child girl outside his carnival site, and he took her into the carnival territory, adopting her to be one of his carnival troupes, giving her clothes, food, home, and a family. It has been 15 years since that eventful morning, but Low-Key has never once yet stopped being a mentor and a fatherly figure for the young witch. Low-Key was the very first vampire that Keagan encountered in her life, and in the future she would come across many others yet, but he is, by far, the most influential of them all for her. Key views Low-Key to be the father that she had never been fortunate enough to properly own, and finds her life indebted to the vampire of the Ramanga clan. Doubtlessly, there is more to their relationship than just plain employer-employee.

Gabriel Mortaine; 919 years old, unemployed, Ramanga vampire.
"Gabe has always been there. I suppose you could say that we're just like brother and sister, even though we meet like, once in a blue moon."

It is through Low-Key that Keagan came around to meet and know Gabriel Mortaine at the age of 8. Gabriel, like Low-Key, was a vampire, and coincidentally happens to be of the same clan as Low-Key. Not unlike Low-Key, Gabriel was funny, friendly, mischievous, full of mirth. Out of sheer fate, they bonded as friends, a friendship that continues to stretch over a decade. Due to her many travels, it was physically impossible for them to meet up with each other regularly, but they do still cluster together for a meeting every now and then when they both so feels like one. There is no veil of her affection towards him. Gabe is like a brother of hers, he may not be as constant a presence as a handful of others are, but he is no less important to Key. Even though she know all too well of his species as a vampire, it still never ceases to amaze her how she had grown from scrawny child to 22-year-old woman, whilst he ever remained so youthful.

Sanguini; 220 years old, unemployed, Fleur du Sang vampire.
"I like you, I really do. It's great to have been able to befriend you, even though the circumstances were odd. I just don't know how much I like of your mind-reading thingamajickie."

The first time Sanguini and Keagan Ilyeana met each other, Key ended up on her knees and hands, retching in discomfort after the Fleur du Sang vampire fed on her blood. The second time they met, Sanguini was still addressing her by her old name, Aoife, and the occurrence of a row when truth revealed that Sanguini had been reading her mind all this while. Being the over-sensitive, self-protective creature she was, Key had never truly gotten over the event, even though she seemed to not anymore be bothered by it. She remains as good friends with the vampire in spite of everything, and truth be told, is rather fond of the gentlemanly walking dead. However, she is often under the impression that there is more to him and Memphis Tale than she could fathom, not that she cares either way.

Johnny Cool; 244 years old, owner of Triple a Pawn Shop, Jiang Shi vampire.
"It takes a weirdo extraordinaire to fathom what the hell goes through this dude's brain, serious. He's awesome and all, but totally, insanely, ridiculously weird. All I can say."

Johnny Cool is one of the many vampires that Key has stumbled across in her scavenger escapades, but by far the only Jiang Shi vampire that she has known. He deems different from all the vampires that she has known, being impressively diverse in his mood swings, humourously hyperbolic in his jokes, and intriguingly mysterious in his Knockturn dabbles. Key befriended Johnny as a young teenager, and would take irregular visits to Knockturn Alley to drop in at his pawnshop. She is often intrigued by his dealings, though their friendship is based on a much more innocent degree than other dwellers of Knockturn Alley would've imagined. She does however, like her fair share of harmless trinkets from his pawnshop from time to time.

Leo Pritchard; 35 years old, St. Mungo's patient, Australian wizard.
"It seems just yesterday that I'd broke through his window to get into his house in Sydney, but things changed. I don't understand yet what happened to him, but he ain't going through this alone."

Leo and Key didn't have quite as a grand a history as those she has with others, but it didn't do very much harm upon their friendship. They'd came to know each other when she was a scrawny little 16-year-old, him much, much older, and Leo was utterly mortified by the many unexpected antics of the little carny girl. Well, 'mortified' was very much an understatement, his shock was beyond description, but of course, it hardly bothered Keagan Ilyeana. She befriended him regardless age gap and differences in personalities, as she did many other people she knew all around the world. Leo strikes an impression to be a rather uptight, strict, awkward, sincere, genuine person, but everything took a dramatic change when Keagan stumbled across Leo in England in a night of 1990. There was evidently something wrong with his health, and out of sheer concern, she had managed to persuade him to visit St. Mungo's. Lo and behold, Leo ended up admitted as a patient in St. Mungo's, and had never been fit enough to leave since. Key visits him regularly, unwilling to let him go through the rituals all by himself. To be the truth, she is worried about him, even though she absolutely refuses to admit it.