#cornell:intro

[marsqrd-blog]

          hey guys, i’m oliver. this is mario aka mar. i’m from buffalo, ny so when i learned there was a buffalo, mn, i knew absolutely had to do it ‘em.

❛  ｡ ‹  xavier serrano. he/him. male.  ›  “  MARIO MARINO at dean levinson’s office please.  “  it’s that TWENTY-ONE year old JUNIOR from BUFFALO, MN, right ? can’t imagine what they’re in for this time, after all they are LAIDBACK & LOYAL. then again, their PRIVATE & UNFORTHCOMING tendencies could land them in the dean’s office any time of the day. from what i’ve heard they’ve joined THE MEN'S ICE HOCKEY TEAM and majoring in ARCHITECTURE, but their trademark style consists of SNOWFLAKES CLINGING TO HIS HOODIE AND HAIR, A SMILE LIKE A WARNING BEFORE EVERY HIT, GRUESOME SCARS YOU'VE LEARNED TO LOVE.  ˚ ◝ oliver. 21. they/them. est.

THE STORY ( honestly ngl this part reads like a wikipedia page so skip down to MISC for somewhat more relevant things )

-- minnesota : land of 1000 lakes, the state of hockey, of cold, long winters you learn to love or leave to forget ---- that was where he was born, on the coldest day of the year. maybe there’s something to that because he doesn’t get cold very often. ( yes, the cold never bothered him anyway...).

-- he had a pretty simple childhood, the only son of a single mother ( #doubleshifting ), growing up just a short walk from the lake --- wakeboarding in the summer and playing pond hockey in the winter. 

-- they weren’t a wealthy family, though not struggling mightily either. hockey was an expensive sport, though, and he played through his early days and partially through high school with second and third hand gear when possible.

-- early on, he learned being flexible, adaptable, and always having a good attitude was highly important ; his upbringing definitely had a large effect on that. once he turned 16, he picked up a gig as a waiter to earn some cash for himself. besides being able to scrape enough together to buy a nice new stick, it was certainly a character building experience.

-- architecture was something that felt natural to pursue. hockey wasn’t the end all, be all, though he hoped he would remain connected to the sport ( beyond beer league ) after his prime playing days ended. he had a certain knack for sketching and accurately capturing perspectives -- uncharacteristic maybe, but there all the same. he turned to architecture in the hopes of someday being able to design an nhl arena in the future.

-- cornell felt like a huge longshot : prestigious, ivy league, and terrifyingly expensive. it was his reach school ( st. cloud state was his fallback ), but seemed worth the risk. as luck would have it, cornell had it’s eye on someone on a rival team his high school team played in the state tournament at the end of his junior year, but in the particular game they visited, he caught their eye as well. that conversation afterward was a shock to him, the first time he considered possibly being good enough to make hockey more than just a fun pastime. from there, it seemed too good to be true : acceptance into cornell, a nice athletic scholarship, hockey on a d1 team. 

-- that summer, it was one of his days off from the restaurant and he was at a friend’s lakehouse watching the nhl draft with some friends. he was aware it was a very slim possibility ( and well, everyone who plays always hopes just a little right? ). so they had day two of the draft on in the background, while they were eating some freshly grilled burgers and drinking some not completely legally obtained beer and making plans to go out on the lake later. mar was on the couch cracking some joke when he saw his name on the tv : the fourth round, 95th overall to the vancouver canucks. he kinda stared at it not comprehending, and once he did, he stood up and told his friends they were going to the lake.

-- he’s tried not to let himself think to hard about the fact. the fourth round is a very long shot at best --- but it’s not impossible. he’s dutifully gone to development camp every summer since, but his focus has remained to his school and on his work.

-- he knows he has a choice to make at the end of this season : stay another year to finish college or take that next step forward. architecture is what he likes but hockey is what he loves, and maybe he didn’t really realize he might actually get a chance to live out his true nhl dream. he’s been trying not to focus on it. what he does know, is that this year or after he graduates he plans on signing with vancouver if they’ll still have him -- no matter what anyone tells him. they’re the ones that believed enough in him to draft him three years ago, and he feels a sense of loyalty to them for that.

MISC

-- he almost exclusively goes by ‘mar’. no one knows if it’s taken from his first or last name : it’s a left twix/right twix kinda debate. his teammates probably call him marsy or some shit like that.

-- 6′3″, 193 lbs

-- his wardrobe is pretty much all adidas pants, cornell hockey hoodies, t-shirts from various hockey tournaments, running races, and other misc things you get free t-shirts from. he also has a pretty big chunk of canucks related things from the three development camps he’s been to, but he doesn’t wear it too much because it feels a little like a brag to him sometimes.

-- he’s not that superstitious. he does have a routine before every game, but if things get messed up or done in the wrong order, it doesn’t phase him at all.

-- when he was accepted into cornell, he took some of his long-stashed savings to buy brand new bauer skates. it was the first time he’d ever had brand-new skates. they fittingly ended up having red accents. all his pads are still secondhand, though.

-- he has a small sketchbook. he’s constantly sketching buildings, usually in pen. when it’s nice out, you can find him on the quad drawing some campus building or another. he’s likely redesigned lynah rink like a hundred times already.

-- he prefers to be in the shadows rather than the limelight, and his style of play dictates that. he’s not a goal-scorer, not an offensive defenseman, and isn’t all the flashy. very much has a  “if no one notices me, then i’m doing my job”-type mentality, because he assumes if someone does it’s probably because he didn’t do enough to prevent a goal.

-- his reaction to being drafted is very On Brand : constantly brushing off things that are pretty momentous. it comes from a bit of a place of feeling like he’s not really worthy of praise. not that he doesn’t like praise, it’s just... it’s complicated ?.

-- very much a steadying force. knows when to laugh, when to be serious, how to just be a rock on the blue line and in the locker room. he tries not to let too much phase him or get to him either. sometimes people joke he would’ve made a good goalie because of it. ( he laughs because while he loves his goalies, they’re really a complete different breed ).

PERSONALITY

+ laidback, loyal - private, unforthcoming

mar is the kind of guy you want to be friends with. he laughs easily and has a certain friendliness about him. that being said, he has a way to make you feel like you know him but you really don’t. he’s a deeply private person and doesn’t freely disclose much of his close personal life : everything from his emotions, to the fact his wrist is bothering him, to any doubts he has. the frivolous things are given freely : weekend plans, parties, opinions. there’s no true reason for his private state, just that he feels it’s important to keep some things very close to your chest.

on the ice he’s far more imposing, unafraid to throw big hits or get in a scrum if he needs to. he’ll protect his goalie as well as his fellow teammates if the occasion arises.

THE AESTHETICS

SNOWFLAKES CLINGING TO HIS HOODIE AND HAIR...      not the type to wear a winter jacket even if the weather maybe calls for it. he loves when it snows and enjoys walking to class when it does so.

A SMILE LIKE A WARNING BEFORE EVERY HIT...      “ MARINO smiles before every hit in this thing so the other guy knows what’s coming. ” it’s no secret that mar is a physical presence on the ice ; not dirty, just physical. and he enjoys it.

( tw. kinda graphic injury?? ) GRUESOME SCARS YOU'VE LEARNED TO LOVE...           well... mar almost died when he was sixteen, in the middle of playing a tournament. someone crashed the net, he went down trying to defend it, and a skate slashed his neck. it’s a miracle it was a shallow cut --- a few millimeters more and his main artery would’ve been slashed. his souvenir from the incident is a three inch scar on his neck that starts near his adam’s apple and extends at a diagonal toward his right ear. it’s healed to look a bit like a rash or hickey.

ACCOLADES

RUNNER UP, ECAC DEFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEAR ( 2018-19 ) : given to the best defensive defenseman in the conference as voted by the coaches of each ECAC team.

NCAA (ECAC) ALL-ROOKIE TEAM ( 2017-18 )

95th OVERALL, 2017 NHL DRAFT ( vancouver canucks )

SCOUTING REPORT

MARINO provides a strong, physical and highly reliable defensive presence on the blue line. he is unafraid to block shots and sacrifice his body to do so. his skating ability, while not elite, is more than proficient and he can get significant speed when necessary. his is more likely to stand up to hits rather than evade them. MARINO exhibits exceptional passing ability; however, he could do well to improve his overall offensive capabilities and on-ice agility. regardless, his value on the penalty kill and ability to diffuse high danger situations from the opposing team must not be overlooked.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

-- i can see him being friends with whoever the student photographer is that captures the team. creative processes fascinate him.

-- close friend on the team: preferably another dman or goalie. why is this here. i should just send it into the main for the wc list huh.

i suck at coming up with these honestly, so i’m just going to go read intros and hopefully be inspired along the way.

[xcruelxsummerx]

📚 ❛ ｡ ‹ phoebe tonkin. she/her. cisfemale. › “ EVANGELINE D'AVEANZO at dean levinson’s office please. “ it’s that TWENTY-FOUR year old SENIOR from CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, right ? can’t imagine what they’re in for this time, after all they are STUDIOUS & CHARMING. then again, their OBSTINATE & SECRETIVE tendencies could land them in the dean’s office any time of the day. from what i’ve heard they’ve joined MARTIAL ARTS and majoring in PSYCHOLOGY, but their trademark style consists of LEATHER JACKETS, OLD BOOKS, WRY, SECRETIVE SMILES, and BONFIRES. ˚ ◝ luna. 25. she/her. est.

hi hello, ladies and gents! I’m Luna (or Lulu, if you prefer) and this here is Eva D’Aveanzo!

If politics had a royal family, it would be the D’Aveanzo’s. Genevieve D’Aveanzo (nee Foster) is the current governor of the state of Massachusetts, Jason D’Aveanzo Sr, Esq is currently part of the SJD board at Harvard Law. Jason D’Aveanzo Jr, Eva’s older brother, graduated at the top of his class from Harvard Law and secured himself at one of the top firms in the city of Boston. 

Eva was an oops baby, born fourteen years after Jason Jr, and partially derailed her parents’ political careers and of course, was expected to become the next great alongside her family. The D’Aveanzos, the picture-perfect “open-minded” political royal family were the ones with the incredible family values and the squeaky-clean image never once tarnished by scandal. While her family loved her, they were a very serious and very studious household, one not necessarily warm with affection. Eva was raised by nannies and tutors with a strict curriculum to adhere to and by the time she was in kindergarten, she was reading her first novel. After all, if Eva wasn’t going to be the next great lawyer, she was expected to marry well and be the demure politician’s wife. Up until high school, she was on the expected path. She had read and could discuss numerous novels, quote literary greats, and could form an incredible argument. She had even learned French and a little German and Latin.

Freshman year of high school, Eva changed. She went from literary nerd to a normal high school girl, despite going to a prestigious private boarding school in Switzerland. She made friends that weren’t introduced to her by her parents and her horizons broadened tenfold. Foreign kids had less of the hangups that Americans had and Eva soon developed a more open mind when it came to...everything. She went from sheltered politician’s daughter to second-wave flower child. It was an attitude she carried with her through graduation and into college, much to her family’s chagrin. 

The first thing she did right post-high school was to immediately get accepted into Harvard. Eva tried her hand at pre-law, but after a lengthy discussion with one of her professors in the library, she soon discovered that her passion lied within the study of psychology and human behavior. Her parents saw this as an opportunity to push her into pre-med instead of pre-law, but it wasn’t meant to be. When Eva was caught with one of her very married professors (the same one who encouraged her to pursue psychology and human behavior), her family endured its first scandal. Out of shame, she was forced to transfer to another college.

Eva took a gap year and traveled around Europe to find herself. When she returned to the US, she applied for Cornell University due to their outstanding psychology program. 

Positive traits: witty, charming, intelligent, studious Negative traits: obstinate, secretive, occasionally narrow-minded, sharp-tongued

Likes: books, music (most kinds, admittedly, she hates jazz and classical), movies, cooking (she can’t cook well, but she enjoys it), tiny dogs in sweaters for cold weather, ghost shows, horror movies, archery (she’s terrible at it, but she likes it) Dislikes: rude people, judgmental people, sappy romance movies, gratuitous nudity in movies/TV shows, clowns, needles (other than piercing/tattoo needles)

[cornellhq]

it  is  time  ,  we  are  officially  open  for  plotting  and  i  could  not  be  more  stoked  !  feel  free  to  post  your  intros  under  the  cornell:intro  tag  ,  make  sure  to  give  some  love  to  all  members  and  follow  everyone  on  our  blogroll  .  have  fun  plotting  your  hearts  out  ,  my  friends  and  don’t  forget  that  you  can  access  all  intros  through  the  main’s  likes  !