Dr. Daniel Prochazka

[primamateria]

{ DANIEL PROCHAZKA I've been afraid of changing I've built my life around you
[ BASICS ] FULL NAME: Daniel Alexander Prochazka CURRENT AGE: 45 DATE OF BIRTH: January 3 PLACE OF BIRTH: Lincoln, Nebraska MARITAL STATUS: Widowed SEXUALITY: Gay OCCUPATION: Medical Researcher at Northwestern University CURRENT RESIDENCE: Chicago, IL SPOUSE: Léon Shaw (Deceased) CHILDREN: Noelle (20); Gaël (18) EDUCATION: B.S., Biochemistry, University of Illinois Chicago; M.S. and PhD, Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics, Illinois Institute of Technology; Graduate Fellow in Biomedical Engineering, Kagan Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology	physical appearance But time makes you bolder _______________________________ Daniel is tall, standing at 6'1", with dark brown, nearly black hair and blue eyes. He smiles rarely since his husband's death three years ago and thus tends to have a perpetually somber expression. He tends towards dressing business casual - nice pants, button downs and sweaters - which are mostly covered in lab coats, but he has a lasting devotion to the jeans/chucks/t-shirt/leather jacket uniform of his youth, and you'll primarily see him in a variation of that in his off-hours. He has two tattoos; a coyote on his left shoulder that he got when he was 18, and a stylized interlocked L & D just under his heart. He got that about two and a half years ago.
personality & demeanor Even children get older _______________________________ Quiet but not particularly shy, Daniel is a classic introvert - he likes people well enough and has a small group of friends, but he definitely needs that alone time to recharge. He's just a little bit apart from the crowd, and his natural inclination is to observe and analyze, parsing motivations and objectives more than involving himself. As such, he can seem a little cold. He cares deeply, though, and when he does love people - whether as friends or as lovers - Daniel can be very intense about it. He's loyal to his family to a fault. He won't betray a confidence. He's extremely protective of his children, especially since he's been a single parent for the last three years. He loved Léon for most of his life, and still does. He's accepted his death - but he's very reticent about getting into that sort of thing again. He fears getting hurt again, and uses his children as an excuse to not get involved, even now that one is in university in London, and the other one's started college out in California. He's ambitious, and the academic ambition of his youth has led to a high level of success in his profession at the lab. He is, in fact, in charge of his lab at Northwestern, which has enabled him to give his kids a good life with private schools and the colleges of their choice.
personal history I'm getting older, too _______________________________ Daniel was born and mostly raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, by his parents - a medical doctor and chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska - and his younger sister, Christin, and younger brother, Noah. That all changed one winter night in one of the snowstorms that could rip across the plains. His father lost control of the car and slid into the other lane, crashing head-on into a snow plow. Only Daniel and Christin survived, and they were sent to live with their father's younger sister and her family in Oak Park, outside Chicago. It was there - specifically in the private school his aunt Jenna enrolled them in - that Daniel first met Léon Shaw, and there was never anyone else for him after that moment. Theirs was not a fairy tale happily ever after, though. Léon, always prone to depression, went into a spiral of depression, alcoholism and drug abuse after his twin was shot and killed in random street violence outside their prom, and Daniel spent the next several years of their lives being too stubborn to let him go. Eventually, Léon did manage to get sober, though it never stopped being a fight. Eventually they both finished their educations, got good jobs and had two children, Noelle and Gaël - named for Léon's twin. Eventually, they managed real happiness. Until, Léon, like Gaël, was shot dead, in a convenience store while buying a pack of cigarettes. Since then, Daniel's focus has been his children and getting them all through the loss in one piece. He thinks, mostly, that he succeeded; both Noelle and Gaël are off to college now, in London and San Diego respectively. They're mostly doing well. Daniel is still in Chicago, and except when his children come home, the apartment is very quiet and lonely.