FIRST IMPRESSIONS

White. Average height, but with a stoop, so he appears shorter. Brown, mousy hair, kept short and parted on the side. A rather angular face with a pointed chin, snub nose, and heavy-lidded grey eyes. Dresses simply but neatly; his clothing is clean but shows evident signs of repair.

[Healed bullet scar on right upper arm. Healed knife scar along left side, running along fourth rib.]

[[Kandinsky-esque tattoo covering better part of upper back, all abstract lines and circles. Shifts and wavers the more one looks at it.]]

SHALLOW

As a boy: thoughtful, if prickly and prone to solitude. As a man: remains thoughtful but has developed a rather dry charm. Reserved. Resourceful. Polite, with a quiet sense of humour. Prefers listening to speaking. Prefers speaking to fighting.

DEEP

Prides himself on his control. Considers his loyalty earned and not given. Seeks refuge in stability and routine. Lies, well and frequently, to protect all of the above. Nevertheless, when pressed: instinctive. Impulsive. Quick to anger and slow to forgive.

DEEPER

As a result of both his blood and his upbringing, views himself as a cog in the machinery of the universe, which is by and large vaster and broader than being a cog in the machinery of Empire. Does not consider himself particularly bound by orders. Is nevertheless in possession of a warped but extremely rigid code of conduct borne from justifying years of espionage and wetwork. Is prepared to play nice with foreigners but sees his wartime service as a means of balancing the scales. Whose scales remains to be seen.

ABILITIES

BACKSTORY

Born 27 October 1892 to Andrew Taylor, a grocer, and Rachel Webb, the daughter of a farrier. The elder of two children, Lascelles spends his childhood relatively happy but resentful of his younger sister Cecily, a sickly child who receives the lion’s share of their parents’ attention. At age nine he is playing in the street with his friends when Cecily, determined to tag along, joins them; the resulting argument is as familiar as it is childish but ends unexpectedly when Lascelles inadvertently casts a spell which silences Cecily for the better part of a day.

Lascelles’s parents are stunned by the manifestation of a sorcerous bloodline in their only son. Andrew in particular is torn: it is an unwelcome disruption of the grocer’s life he had pictured for Lascelles, and as a pacifist he has no desire to see his only son turned toward the service of king and country. Rachel, on the other hand, is horrified by Cecily’s injury, and eventually persuades Andrew that sending Lascelles to Dulwich is the only way to keep both him and the family safe. Both of them grow distant from Lascelles from this time onward; they write, but they are stiffly polite and very nearly afraid of him. Their relationship begins to mend only when Lascelles writes in 1914 to tell them that he has become a conscientious objector, though that, of course, is a lie.

Lascelles’s latent magical ability is enough to win him a scholarship at Dulwich College, where he spends the next eight years. While he is initially an indifferent student—he has no particular desire to spend his first year away from home studying—he soon realises that his scholarship is the only thing keeping him at Dulwich, and away from home. By his second year Lascelles has gained a reputation for being a bit of a swot; by his third he has attracted the attention of the Head of Politics, Dr. Jasper Kenworthy, who notices when people are good at making themselves unnoticeable.

Kenworthy taps him for the nascent Secret Service Bureau shortly afterward. When not spending his days on the rugby pitch or in classes, Lascelles finds himself struggling through extra coursework designed to refine his casting and prime him for a career in intelligence analysis.

Officially, Lascelles trains as a chartered accountant after leaving Dulwich and spends the war as a conscientious objector painting shells in a munitions factory. Unofficially, his work with Kenworthy ensures he is recruited to the nascent Secret Service Bureau. Lascelles shows remarkable aptitude for gathering and analysing information and is promptly shunted into the newly created Intelligence Corps at the outbreak of war. In late 1914 he is dispatched to Gallipoli in anticipation of the Dardanelles operation. He serves in the capacity of civilian intelligence with distinction during that campaign and through the rest of the war.

None of the things he does during this time are printable.