Name: Burian Demidov (Ber-ree-ahn)
Nickname/s: Rian
Species: Shapeshifter - Lion
Clan Position: Dominant
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Hometown: Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Current Residence: Talis Flats
Studying: Genetics
Employment: None currently
Family: Father: Issac Demidov, Mother: Katrina Hyde, thought he talks to neither anymore.
Friends: None
Relationship: None
Player: Laur
Contact Email: pariah676@yahoo.com
Model: Gaspard Ulliel
Credit: gaspardulliel.net
Background
Burian was born to Katrina and Isaac Demidov in the town of Windsor, Berkshire. They were a middle class family and as such he lived a pretty typical childhood. He attended school and got mostly A's with some B's. His social life was less then perfect with him often ending up as the loner in any given class and sometimes the target of some of the bigger children. The teachers were never around to find out, though, so he was never saved by the adults.
Because the adults never saved him when he was away from them he started putting himself in situations where he would be alone with the other children, leading him to the music room during recess. This was the only room open to the children other then being outside, and he was a natural with a violin. This is a talent that he has continued to nurture and is one of the few ways for him to calm himself down.
The summer after his 11th year is when he was transformed. He was 16, close to 17, and he had told his parents that he was going to go camping for a few days near a small lake he had recently found up in the woods. On the hike up there he was attacked and mauled by a lion, and only managed to escape through another freak encounter with an angry seeming cheetah. This was all terrifying and strange, but all the same he passed out with his legs torn up pretty badly.
He came-to after the attack near the lake and it was there that he noticed that despite having them badly torn up, he could still feel himself moving his legs. He felt heavier but he couldn't quite figure out why. It wasn't until he finally caught a glimpse of himself in the water that he could piece together what had happened. Of course, he thought he was going crazy and he spent the next two weeks randomly changing between human and lion, unsure whether to go back and report to his parents what he thought had happened or to disappear completely. During this time he found that he could shift between some parts of his body without shifting the whole thing, and in the end discovered that both his eyes and his ears were able to shift, though nothing else.
He ended up going back to his parents eventually, but only to finished his A-Levels and definitely not to let them in on anything. Afterwards he applied to The University of Reading on a whim and also to several schools in America in case he decided to get away completely. He told his parents that he was going to finance his own college and that he was most likely going to America before he left their house once more.
It wasn't too long before he realized though, that getting to America would be a whole other issue and he called the University of Reading to tell them he would be attending.
Physical Appearance
Burian has Brown Shaggy hair that is slightly longer then his ears. He almost never brushes it except for running his hand through it in the morning and at various points during the day. His eyes are forest green and sharp. His eyes are extremely easy to read as he doesnąt hide his emotions well, though he tries to. His nose is straight and slightly too large for his face, but it doesnąt seem disproportional. His lips are heart shaped and always seem to be twisted into either a smirk or a scowl.
His skin is pale, almost luminescent and it makes him appear even more vulnerable then his skinny build and average height, at only 5ą10. He smells woodsy with a mix of the cigarettes that he smokes almost constantly. His fingers are long and slender, perfect for playing the violin, and his voice is low and very smooth, though he hardly ever raises it. All up and down his legs he has pale scars from his attackers mouth, and though they regenerated, they did not get rid of the maze of scars covering his calves.
These days he is most often is found in cheap sweatpants and tight black tee-shirts, just because they are easy to replace. Occasionally though he will wear a nicer shirt or a pair of slacks. All of his money and these clothes have been kept in a black messenger bag that he keeps slung over his shoulder.
In his lion form Burian has smaller build then most male lions, though it is clear he is still well muscled. His main is large and in the front it is reddish gold fading to black in the back. His fur is a little lighter the reddish color as his mane, and his eyes are sharp gold.
Personality
Burian is essentially an introvert, and doesn't talk much to people whom he doesn't know or whom he has no business with. He doesnąt much like groups but because his new mind is clan oriented he has been feeling the urge to be in small groups of people, especially while in his alternative form. He also tends to be the type of person who makes few plans beforehand, and he often will just show up with the hopes that whatever he wanted to do is still possible. When he does try to use logic he is pretty decent at it, and can usually come up with some supporting reasons for what he wants to do, though sometimes he skips logic all together and just follows his screwed up emotions.
Emotionally he tries to stay pretty closed off and suppresses his emotions as much as he is able. Anger is a weakness for him and though he tends to bottle it up, once someone has made him mad he is much more likely to snap before disappearing for hours on end. He hates for people to know that they have affected him and so he tries to hide it. Whenever he is happy he will only hint at a smile and may even turn his face away in order to stop from showing the 'audience' his grin. These tendencies come from wanting to be able to hide, and if you canąt completely just disappear into the forest then blocking off your emotions is the next best thing in his mind.
Burian is hard to make friends with and when he does finally have a friend he will be fiercely loyal, especially if they know his secret, because so few people do. His strongest instinct seems to be to protect his family and his very rare friends and for that reason, once people have earned his trust outsiders will not harm them.
Talents & Weaknesses
Burian's major weakness is his lack of people skills, and because of that most people get bad feelings around him at first. He doesn't have extremely inviting facial expressions and he doesn't talk enough for people to ever really feel comfortable around him. He also is not a strong fighter, as far as creatures go, his lion form is strong, but for a lion he would probably be beat nine times out of ten. The flip side of this is that he is extraordinarily fast and could probably out run most other lions. Burian is extremely arrogant and self-centered, a quality he developed from childhood with everyone telling him how smart he was. Along with this came the inevitable bullies, because he was smaller and skinnier then the other children. His fighting skills never really got better with this, though he did learn that all it takes is a distraction big enough to make them forget about him.
His dominant features are being able to transform his eyes and his ears, but since both of these are fairly obvious he doesn't often use these features unless it is dark out or no one else is around or could possibly see him. He is also extremely loyal and would do anything to protect his friends and family if they were ever attacked. He doesnąt have many loved ones and so the very few he does have are cherished in his mind. His strength with academics has been considered a gift of his with childhood though math is always his dominant one, as has he skill at the violin.