Salem is that boy. The sort of dangerous one who is also really sweet and exudes that perfect, charismatic aura. In a lot of respects, he may seem like a walking contradiction - and he is. Logical and emotional, cynical while also being an idealist. His rationalization, logic, intelligence and chess-like maneuvering allow him to both believe that with thought, effort, and strategy the world nothing is impossible - yet he also can thoroughly believe that people are too lazy and potentially too stupid or thoughtless to make anything happen. A lot of his personality traits are conflicting, dependent on the situation or what part of him may yield the best possible result. Relentless, he uses those beliefs and takes everyone's feelings into consideration before deciding on the best course of action for each scenario. When others are too timid or unwillingly to make a decision - he will stand up and make it for them. He's the one who'll take the blame if something goes wrong, and has a very strong sense of morality.

Hard work is something he values. Highly logical and always thinking a step ahead, Salem likes to be prepared and informed. He doesn't like to make decisions without thinking through the possible outcomes. Confident enough in himself to stand up in front of a crowd and improvise a speech, his preferred method is much more organized, pre-planned, and well thought out. If there's something Salem hates, it's being caught off guard or looking stupid, though he feels like this happens really infrequently. He's more than capable and trusts his own instincts and intelligence.

When it comes to being a Prefect, Salem likes to be on the fair, more touchy-feely side despite his need to be logical. Though it doesn't seem like it'd be his thing, given his arrogance and tendency to be judgmental - he would never be that way to your face unless he thought you could handle it. The truth, although important, is not something that is valued above someone's emotional well-being. He wants people to know they can go to him with little to no repercussions for what they've done. He follows the styles of leadership shown by Prefects like the Head Boy & Girl, Reece - who is strong but understanding, Kurt - kind, and caring, and Liberty - who is knowledgeable and unflappable. He can let rules take a back seat to good, wholesome fun. He cares about his classmates under all that hair and cockiness.

Although he'd love to be a master-of-all, you're more likely to find that Salem is a jack-of-all-trades. He knows a bit about everything. Devouring books and articles and school work is important to him. It's easier to lie and fake your way through a situation if you have a bit of knowledge on every subject. It's easier to be empathetic and understanding if you can relate or at least understand what someone is talking about. He's not one to present little-known or random facts for the fun of it, but he's usually the one to say something in the midst of a conversation you wouldn't expect someone - particularly him - to know.

When it comes to negatives, it's obvious that though confidence is good to have, over-confidence and arrogance isn't. Salem can come off cold, distant, and a bit aloof to things that pertain to himself. Though he's quite sure he could get with anyone he wanted, he's far too analytical and logical about romance to find it all that appealing. Finding a good match logically can mean more to him than true chemistry and he often ignores a good thing when it happens because he can't see it for himself and, actually, kind of relies on friends to help him in that area.

Emotionally, though he wants everyone to share with him he is not really open to sharing things about himself. He's more likely to offer you a solution than emotional support and though he has patience in spades he has little tolerance for self-pity and wallowing. A bit of a conundrum, Salem loves surprising people and can be absolutely infuriating and mind-boggling to people who don't know him well.

However, as much as Salem is logical and rule-abiding, he does have a side that loves gossip. Being a spy is something he just... lives for. Learning about undercover operations through his father's work and the types of things people did/found out when no one thought they could hear was fascinating to him. This has led him to really enjoying spying on people. He's not stalker-level, he's not fascinated in one particular person but his love of spying and his utter and devastating need to want to know everything does have him frequently eavesdropping on people's conversations, going so far as to set up recorders and things around campus to try and hear snippets of conversations - even if they don't always work because of magical interference.

Additionally, this has lead him to writing an infrequent, completely anonymous gossip rag that pops up at Gooseberry. He's a ghostwriter - not even his closest friends know where the source material comes from and he never signs it, but it's a gossip column that spreads rumors about staff and students alike. Nothing he prints is ever damning - he has a heart. His aim is mild embarrassment or intrigue, not to permanently hurt or harm someone.

+Imaginative
+Strategic
+Confident
+Independent & Decisive
+Hard working
+Determined
+Open Minded
+Jack of all trades
-Arrogant
-Judgemental
-Overly analytical
-Unstructured
-Romantically aloof
-Closed off

Salem was born with everything he could ever want. Two loving and doting parents who may have been a little on the demanding, helicopter side. Wealth and notoriety, a name to live up to. A large family home with lots of family money and a strong, small wizard-only community that his great-great-great-great-great-grandparents had literally named after themselves. It's no wonder he grew up to be a little arrogant, a bit of a know-it-all.

However, his parents didn't raise an idiot and they certainly didn't raise a brat. They were firm believers in manners, respect, and hard-work. He never needed for anything, but he wanted for things if he didn't do chores. He went to charm schools, took piano lessons, learned how to wash dishes and clean things by hand as a good lesson to how lucky he was to be a wizard. He showed magic at an early age and there was only one school their precious son could go to - Swan Academy, where he wouldn't have to live on campus.

He was quite young when his sisters were adopted. A magical catastrophe in a town not far from there, settled with no-maj and wizards alike. The two girls had seen more than enough to be obliviated, but something about the two young, frightened girls who lost their parents in the accident (that both Jasper and Bernadette ended up involved with) just broke his parents hearts and they swooped them up without hesitation. Not being the center of attention anymore was honestly a bit nice for Salem - while he enjoyed being loved and doted upon by his parents, he was more than willing to share and the company of his sisters was nice. He was instantly won over and quite protective of them.

Graduating from Swan Academy was certainly an option, but Salem wanted more. He wanted to be independent as he felt he so was, and he decided to go to Gooseberry. His parents didn't force him nor did they want him to go - but his father appreciated the initiative and when he worked for it (both with grades, and volunteering at MACUSA as well as no-maj and wizard orphanages in Mississippi) his father gladly helped to sway Gooseberry's mind in favor of accepting him. He deserved it.

His first year at Gooseberry saw him put his charm school, detective skills, and obsession with spying to work immediately. Staff adored the well-mannered, even tempered Ribbonfin who genuinely cared about his house mates and the school. People were kind, and though he didn't immediately warm up to his roommates (or, in turn, be warmed up to) - the more time they spent together the more Salem found reasons to respect them. He was made a Prefect - a suitable, well deserved achievement to Salem who would mutter about it being no big deal if anyone ever said anything, but privately felt over the moon about it. Salem liked to feel important, but more then that, he liked to have a hand in other people's lives - whether it be to spy on them and dig up gossip or to help them get through a tough time, Salem is a boy of many layers and motivations for the things he wants and does.

The end of his second year was a bit more of a shit show. Salem wasn't affected, and there was a part of him that was deeply unhappy about that. Not only did he miss out on all the potential information he could have gathered about Gooseberry (both the staff, students, and the forest entities) but he also felt... really useless. That wasn't something Salem was used to feeling, and it bugged him. On the other hand, he was relieved that he wasn't hurt and instead he put his focus on trying to lend a listening ear to anyone who needed to talk, give a hug to anyone who looked like they needed it. Leaving school that year felt like both an ending and beginning - an end of feeling safe adn invincible, but the beginning of a new sense of responsibility and respect for rules meant for safety, even though he had always adhered to them out of duty. Bernadette was torn up and very unhappy with the situation and threatened several times during his Sophomore year and over that summer to bring him home, but Salem refused and Jasper would always take his side.

He was a Prefect, after all. His school and classmates needed him, they would argue. Whether or not this was true was irrelevant - Salem really loves Gooseberry. He wants to know how it all turns out - no, he needs to know how it would all turn out and honestly was just pleased to continue his education at such a top-notch school with people he enjoyed being around. Despite all the creepy and dangerous things happening at Gooseberry, he's come to love it and though this more strict, stick-to-the-rules feeling isn't quite his style he plans to roll with it and stick by his friends' sides.