#ive also decided to begin the practice of bolding other muses' names in my intros for bants... looks nice

[dcmeterwrites]

oh boy, did you get tom ellis for an eight a.m.? wait no, that’s NOAH MADDOX. i heard the forty one year old professor gives a pretty tough lecture in archaeology. he tries to be thoughtful and even-tempered but on the stressful days, he’s prideful and evasive. when he gets a chance to relax, catch him at the local bar listening to start // end by eden.

— RUNDOWN. 

full name: noah rhys maddox

name meaning: rest, enthusiasm


date of birth: october 7th

place of birth: cardiff, united kingdom


age: 41


star sign:
 libra


department: archaelogy

specialisation: near eastern and greek antiquity, classical archaeology

alma mater: university of oxford, harvard university

alignment: neutral good

mbti: infj

spoken languages: english ( native speaker ), coptic ( proficient ), arabic ( proficient ), aramaic ( intermediate ), hebrew ( intermediate ), welsh ( intermediate )

mother’s name: elizabeth maddox née llewellyn

father’s name: peter maddox

siblings, if any: andrew and derek maddox

birth order: middle 

height: 6′3″

hair colour: black

eye colour: dark brown

— BACKSTORY. 

noah over here was born in cardiff, wales, the middle of three brothers. you couldn’t find a more accomplished family anywhere. his mother was a retired olympic gold-winning cyclist, and his dad an ex-member of parliament.

within just five years, three boys were born to the couple and they fought furiously. when they weren’t trying to get their parents’ attention and praise, they were trying to prove to themselves that they were capable of besting the others. if andy was student gov president, noah had to be the captain of the rugby team, and derek the captain of the swim team.

this installed performance anxiety from the very beginning. noah always felt like he had to earn love and praise — that nobody would ever give it to him unless he was working for it, and that he didn’t deserve love at all if he wasn’t. 

noah made it to university with star-struck academic records and extracurricular participation. he opted for history and economics: but ended up giving a lot more priority to history in his college years. 

trouble was, though, that the spirit of competition that had fueled him to oxford was just — gone. college left him so confused. no matter what he did, there was always someone else that he wanted to do better than, but just couldn’t. was there even a point to working hard if he was just barely keeping his head above water ?

in the last year of his degree, he accepted that there was no fucking point. in just a few months, noah began to drink more, go out to more parties, let himself go. at first, it was difficult. he was a reserved man by nature, but the books and the conversations were becoming reminders of his own inadequacy, so he took on a life that he used to look down upon. 

this was the life that gave him instant gratification. a busy night meant that he was valued by the woman in his bed, or by the bars he visited, or by the mindless crowd that cheered when he uncorked a bottle of champagne. 

one of the addictions that stuck with him a little too far was ecstasy. at one of his earliest raves, noah was offered some because he looked as though he was on the verge of a panic attack, and he started using regularly when he was twenty four. by twenty six and a half, it had utterly destroyed his life. he was irritable and aggressive when dealing with his family, concealed the fact that he used from close friends, leaving him a large circle of acquaintances, and no one to trust completely.

when he was nearing twenty seven, his secret was out. when high and euphoric, noah started a fight in a belfast nightclub. it was a lifetime of resentment at himself and everyone around him bursting out in a vicious break of violence.

noah doesn’t remember much of that night. he remembers waking up nearly a week later with an awful headache. turns out he’d suffered a skull injury that night, not to mention several bruises and a twisted ankle. but if he was bad, you should’ve seen the other guy, named dave watkins. 

a lot had to be done even before noah was out of the hospital. for one, noah owed an enormous fine for possession of mdma. for another, watkins was more than eager to press charges. hundreds of thousands of pounds were paid in an out-of-court settlement as compensation.

if you ask him, noah would take the injuries all over again over the shame. the one thing he was supposed to do was not fuck up royally — and that was exactly what he ended up doing. the entire family had to come together to clean up his mess.

nearly two years of his life went by in in-patient rehab and generalised therapy, during which he relapsed once. because finding work was going to be difficult due to social stigma, it was recommended that he return to studies, so he returned to his old love, history.

the degrees he completed were in antique studies and classical archaeology — because he was steadily rediscovering a practical use for what he loved about the subject. delving into lives he was not lucky enough to live, putting together puzzles and answering questions.

in the span of two years, he developed a friendly acquaintance with a fellow graduate student called elene keo, as they worked with the same professor on a research project. the project inspired him to do his own digging ( if you’ll pardon the pun ).

his paper on coptic egypt was a sensation in the field of archaeology. he’d struck gold. not only had he earned a bit of money, but also an invitation to work with researchers at harvard university. after negotiating a short undergraduate teaching gig there as well, just to pay the bills, noah was well on his way to a doctorate. 

then — new people entered his life. kamala jones was part of the same doctorate program he was, alongside callum winston, a bright scholar with a similar background and education to noah. the two men hit it off instantly as a result, but noah never told either him or kamala what exactly he was trying to get away from.

the three of them began to go on expedtions and excavations together, collecting information and soaking in the atmosphere of the rest of the world. it was a good time. 

too good. noah got soft. kamala was so clever and quick on her feet, ever ready for a new adventure with no hesitation. it was like having every good memory you’d ever had around you. he couldn’t help but get the stirrings of something for her, but what, he never quite had the courage to define. 

then she got married, and he had to sit through every minute of it. not to mention the stag night, planning the wedding, fixing out tuxes as best man. it was a miserable night all in all. 

noah stayed friends with callum for the while, but their collaboration was mostly professional, on joint research proposals, seminars, and most importantly — publications. 

at the age of thirty-eight, he and callum published their seminal work, essentially a textbook on myths and symbolism. soon after, callum and kamala split up. noah was curious, he couldn’t deny that much. but he chose not to pry.

while he had been getting teaching and research positions all across the united states, noah needed tenure, somewhere. the best way for him to find institutions to join was to look at where the people he knew went — and the only name that he remembered and respected was elene keo, who had ended up at riverbank university.

a small caveat: kamala was there too. but he had to be over her — it had been years since they talked, even longer since they were friends, and calling callum a friend was becoming a little generous. they could certainly have a totally professional relationship. bury the past and all that.

he applied for a specialisation in the near east and was given a position, but as a result of his past, the university’s mental health services kept a watchful eye on him. occasionally, he had been asked to talk to students about addiction, an offer he repeatedly and vehemently refused. 

at the moment, he’s doing — meh. he’s got a job, one that he likes. slowly and steadily, he’s built his life back up from the damage. withdrawal from dependency leaves him with serotonin and dopamine imbalances for which he takes anti-depressants. 

it seems, however, that things are coming back on track.