Iridiclervaux Aurelius

Iridiclervaux Aurelius [he/him or they/them], commonly referred to as Clerval, is a 2019-introduced original character, current record holder of the 100 meter sprint, and general ray of sunshine. He is destined to be the next King Chameleon from the folktale King Chameleon and the Animals, and is currently attending his Fourth Year at Ever After High.

Personality
Clerval to many is defined by his relationship to other people they know, rather than himself. It's always so-and-so's classmate or her tutor or his roommate. This is partly because Clerval is incredibly outgoing, and always looking to make new friends. He carries himself with a pleasant air, and intentionally tries to always look approachable and trustworthy.

If someone needs helps, he's the first to lend a hand. If someone makes a comment, he's always eager to please. Clerval's complaisance comes from wanting to see other people happy, and perhaps secretly, other people happy because of him.

There's often a smile on his face. He's seemingly always in a good mood, always humming a song or skipping as he he walks. Clerval is not one you see express any other emotion. Well, at least not to a large degree. Sure, he's a bit stressed with all these commitments but he'll assure you it's no problem at all, how have you been?

Similarly, Clerval is the textbook definition of a model citizen. He'd be distressed if someone mentioned cheating, instantly scold the speaker, then offer to tutor. Getting bullied? Clerval will stand up for you and try to diffuse the situation. If there's some sort of community project, you can bet Clerval's family has donated money, and Clerval himself has helped volunteer.

His well-intentioned actions come off as patronizing, especially when some people believe him to be a hypocrite, considering his destiny involves him cheating.

similarly seemingly always a good person? doesnt cheat, tries to stand up for others, yadda yadda yadda still puts others before himself.

and in turn, a few people think he's a bit fake. always trying to be nice, always offering things to other people, always doing community work and getting into the news, all the while his actual destiny.

another reason why hes defined by other people is because he himself is extremely forgettable. hes been cursed so, it runs in his family and it'll get stronger after destiny.

tried to combat this by aggressive friend manking. used to be suffocating with his friend advances. after an incident in 2nd year, he retracted completely. still friendly, but make the slightest hint that you want to be alone and he'll disappear. super distant now and almost everyone only vaguely recalls him.

gets upset easily, but doesn't show it.

Appearance
Honey, you've got a big storm coming

usually pastel green hair ending in big swirls, like a chameleon's tail. pulled into low ponytail on one side.

used to have braces, which he put multicolored rubber bands into

earlier years attempted to stand out by making his hair and clothes bright. thats a bit why he has awful fashion. he got used to doing it though, but thinks it's really fun and continues to do it today.

Track and Shield
TBA

Fashion
TBA

Abilities
run real fast change appearance

How The Story Goes
[//www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/africa/barker/kingchameleon.html http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/africa/barker/kingchameleon.html]

How Does Clerval Fit Into it?
Clerval's dad was the last King Chameleon and he had married before destiny, so Clerval was already born at the time. Though in the story the chameleon ends up alone with none of his subjects wanting to be ruled by him, Clerval is still heir to a (small) kingdom in northern Nigeria. Their kingdom specializes in pigments, especially for makeup and paints. Recently their economy boomed, due to a popular beauty brand utilizing their pigments.

Clerval learnt of his destiny when he was rather young, which probably shaped his personality to who he is today. He would spend a lot of his childhood traveling, eventually moving to Switzerland in his early teenage years with his grandparents.

When he was still young, he also learned of the curse in his family's bloodline. The next chameleon kings are easily forgotten by other people. They can be hard to see in crowds. They may just slip from people's minds easily. The curse would grow as he aged, and come fully into effect during destiny. In this example, Clerval and his mother can barely recall his father or grandmother, who had filled those roles. Clerval's mother would often lament how quickly destiny happened, she was barely married to her husband before she forgot him.

They become harder to see, harder to hear as the years go by.

What Clerval learned is that if he didn't do the most he could, he was going to live his life out completely alone. And for a social catepillar, this was enough to give him nightmares. He still has them, though they're a lot more infrequent.

Parallels

 * The race the animals partake in is a sprint; whoever gets there first is the winner, and it's a short enough distance that stamina isn't a question. Clerval specializes in sprints, and holds the record for the 100 meter sprint amonst high schools.

Viewpoint on Destiny
Clerval's been completely devastated with his destiny ever since he learnt what it meant. From that point on, he would go out of his way to emanate wholesomeness and kindness. Being unable to stomach the idea of being abandoned by everyone, Clerval would in his childhood go about making friends almost aggressively.

Though he hates what his destiny entails, Clerval identifies as Royal. He believes that his story holds an important moral, and that if carrying out his story will warn others against selfishness, he's alright with being isolated.

Name
Iridiclervaux is a made up name, a portmanteau of the words "iridescent" and "Clervaux". The "iri" part of his name brings to mind Iris, the goddess of rainbows. Chameleons are often associated with rainbows, due to their color-changing nature. The "ridic" part resembles the word "ridicule", which is what the chameleon DESERVED for being such as asshole. "Clervaux" is a town in Luxembourg, however this was not intentional.

The reason for the "clervaux" part is because I wanted him to go by Clerval. At one point he had a concept but no name and I just started calling him Clerval, which has stuck there ever since. Clerval is taken from Henry Clerval, a character in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

I suppose you could make some connections there. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein goes a bit mad with power and creates life through his monster. He then refuses to take responsibility for it, and that ends up creating a whole baguette of misery. That can be compared to the chameleon in the story; a desire for power ultimately makes him miserable. Frankenstein also partly takes place in Switzerland. Also, regarding Henry's fate in Frankenstein, the identity associated with "Clerval" will also die, when he fulfills his destiny and descends into isolation.

Aurelius also has some non-intentional meaning. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor. The chameleon becomes a king. The name I based it off of was Orelius, which according to sources is a surname in Nigeria? A rare one, but nevertheless. It means "gold", bringing to mind the wealth of royalty, and also the color. I changed the "o" to "au" because gold's symbol on the periodic table is Au and I wanted to make that more apparent.

Freedom Year
TBA

Legacy Year
TBA

Yearbook Year
TBA

Fourth Year
TBA

Track and Shield
Clerval used to do Track and Shield in his earlier school years. He's a generally athletic person, and enjoys exercise. It's fun, and good for you! That's a win-win situation! He did well enough to break a record, and currently holds the record for the 100 meter sprint in his age group.

However, due to the nature of his destiny and how races tie into it, cheating jokes were often made at his expense. Most of his teammates saw it as harmless teasing, and Clerval never stopped them, or other students, from making jokes about it. In his third year, Clerval was unfairly disqualified at a competition. He became extremely upset and was unable to control himself like usual, so this was the first time a lot of people saw him express a different emotion.

Over the next few weeks, he would suddenly "take a break" at his home in Switzerland, before altogether flying home to Nigeria for a week. When he returned, he quit the team, with the excuse that he had health problems that barred him from running competitively. Most people who heard this obviously knew it was an excuse, and a select very awful few thought he was cheating, and only wanted to cover up his embarrassment at being caught. Clerval tries to be friendly with his former teammates, and they're some of the few that remember him well.

Animal Shelter
One of his favorite volunteering activities

Tutoring
Does tutoring in the school-run program. got heartbroken when an asshole (hmu if you want this to be your oc) booked him pretending to need help but just asked him to help them cheat at a test. he thought they were being serious and tried to explain the situation, but after getting egged on by McAsshole burst into tears. he's much more wary of tutoring now.

Trivia

 * Clerval was a concept since at least 2016, so this page has been a long time coming.
 * His favorite food being danishes is a reference to his origins as a character from a Danish fairytale.
 * The chameleon part and him being gay part were not intentionally done because of each other. I think. Clerval was a bunch of concepts put together. Respectable senior guy with crush on Damien + shapeshifting mess with no fashion sense + outgoing and helpful. In any case, nice coincidence.
 * explanation for why i made him nigerian: african chameleon found in this specific region called the sahel, his tale is also west african. which country fits both of those criteria? boom.
 * Clerval thinks Iridiclervaux is awfully long and prefers to go by Clerval, to the point where most people think that's his actual name.