Imperfectionist

Against the gods, Against the world! Open-World Fantasy Adventure

Garrison, I have a great idea for bringing Eli into the fold! My characters will be finished very soon, and I'll engage with you first, definitely. :) I'll even give him a better job, and access to materials that could help him figure out what his past and the guantlets are all about. Pretty cool, eh?

A Wizard's Pilgrimage

x.x To be honest, Vena, I really don't like this layout. It takes way too much work to go into every hider to read just a paragraph or so, and even fully extended it doesn't look pretty at all. The info's all there, so why not just keep it as it is?

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Belasco, well, it kind of depends on how he treats her (and some of the other Hogwarts girls, like Amelia and Lydia... esp. Amelia). If he's just an instant bag of dicks, there's no way she'll be able to like him, but if he seems to just be, um, driven, they'll be more likely to connect. In any case, she'll definitely love having a duelist that's likely to beat her in the group. ;) Gives her something to look forward to later on.

A Wizard's Pilgrimage

I know the feeling, Vena. :) Have a good rest.

I'll have Emma over here sometime tonight, adapted to the new requirements.

EDIT: For now, here's the original CS.

EDIT 2: Yeah, I didn't think there'd be much to change. Just updated the credentials and added a bit of explanation to the Appearance section. The rest is already there.

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Name:
Emma “Dilemma” Robinson

Birthdate:
June 20th, 1996

Sex:
Female

Blood Status:
Pure-Blood

Alma Mater:
Gryffindor

Appearance:

Emma

Rather short, and a little on the heavy side (she says she “uses it to hide her muscles”), with dark curly hair and equally dark, expressive eyes. She wears Muggle clothes in the Muggle world and robes among the magical, but doesn’t much care for fashion, as long as she can run around and be mobile and such. No matter what she’s wearing, though, there always seems to be a faint mix of strange smells following her around (not particularly bad smells, just weird incense, herbs, that kind of thing.)

History:
Probably placed in Gryffindor because of her tendency even at eleven to trailblaze her way through life, conventions be damned, Emma Robinson nonetheless had to grow into herself, and is currently very different from the quiet little girl who first stepped into the Great Hall to be sorted. Her parents, both descended from powerful Kenyan wizarding clans (distantly, in her father's case), considered her a prodigy (though they probably thought too much of her natural talent), and taught her as much African and Western magic as she could handle even before her Hogwarts letter arrived, taking her to get her wand at eight, but starting the wandless training even before that. As a result, when the young witch actually went off to “real school” a few years later, she was accustomed to their impromptu lessons and enthusiastic encouragement of individual research and discovery, and found it difficult to fit into the more rigidly structured Hogwarts system. This landed her in detention many many times in her first few years, as she would try to develop her own spells and potions, mostly to disastrous effect, or sneak into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night to talk to the centaurs. If it isn’t obvious, this is when her classmates started calling her “Dilemma”, as she always seemed to have detention for something or other. To this day, the name has stuck (mostly because it's fun to say).

Emma took it in stride, laughing at her mistakes and failed experiments with everyone else, and truly came into her own in her third year, when she discovered the Dueling Club. From that point on, she focused a majority of her excess energy and passion into dueling, having never done something quite so fun, and trained as much as she could for her matches, thus cutting down on the experiments and detentions. It took her longer than she would have liked, but two years later she had become the dueling queen of Hogwarts, captain of the club and feared by every member for her inventive jinxing and powerful curses. On the academic side, however, Emma’s scores seemed quite weak. She barely got through classes like Astronomy, Divination and History, where she couldn’t use much or any “practical” magic, but on the other hand, those classes that DID focus on magic (Charms, Transfiguration and DADA) she excelled in, up to and through the N.E.W.T. level. The only non-practical studies she ever did well with were Alchemy, due to its usefulness in “Hedge” magic, and Artification, because of the same. Her non-traditional studies got her interested, and once she was hooked, as usual, there was no way she couldn’t learn everything possible.

Near the end of her seventh year, she got together with a few of her friends and helped to put together a grand adventure, a Pilgrimage around the world just like the famous old wizards and witches of the past. There was no doubt, it was a perfect opportunity to learn about the Muggle world, to learn magic she had never even dreamed of… and to find herself some treasure!

Credentials:
Charmer (2)
Defender Against the Dark Arts (2)
Transfigurer (2)
Alchemist (2)
Duelist (3)
"Hedge" witch (3)
Artificer (2)
Martial Artist (1)
Potioneer (1)
Magical Creature Caretaker (1)
Herbalist (1)

Small Expansion

Strengths:
Dueling, and practical magic in general, be it enchanting an object, performing a ritual or just casting spells with her wand. She is quite a contender, with a knowledge of offensive and defensive spells almost unmatched by her schoolmates, and has been the Captain of the Dueling Club since her fifth year. The emotions she feels as she duels, especially when overcoming a difficult opponent, can only be described as “unbridled joy”, and accordingly it’s one of her favorite pastimes. Somewhat following as a result of the above, Emma is in good physical shape, tempered by continuous dodging, side-stepping, running, and tumbling during her duels, and the general fitness training that she does. For fun, she has even learned some Muggle martial-arts, something that often surprises people when she tells them, and especially surprises people she duels against, as she sometimes applies their techniques.

While working with the more academic side of magic, she resonates well with her wand, giving her an edge in Transfiguration, and she does well in both DADA and Charms. Finally, because of (among other things) her family heritage and a natural love of adventure, Emma has developed a powerful interest in non-traditional, non-Western and even non-human magic, studying that of the Caribbean islands, her ancestor’s homelands in East Africa, centaurs, elves and goblins. This more ritualistic, often wandless magic is usually frowned upon (and never taught) at Hogwarts, and magical Britain in general, as they much prefer the precision of wands and spells, but obviously she doesn’t share the same prejudice.

Weaknesses:
All of the less-practical classes were very difficult for Emma to stay interested in, if just for the fact that she loves using magic, and in these classes, magic is supplementary instead of being the main focus (Astronomy, Divination, History of Magic, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and the like). Also, though good at dueling, the other main British wizarding sport, Quidditch, is a big step in the opposite direction. When pushed, she can use a broom in some capacity, but because she gets vertigo very easily while suspended in the air like that, she tries to avoid them as best she can, preferring to keep her feet securely on the ground and Apparate to travel quickly. Finally, some people that she has attempted to befriend have been put off by the rumors that used to travel around the school that she’s a Dark Voodoo witch, not to mention her often troublesome nature (hence the nickname).

Wand:
Padauk, 11 1/2”, Dragon Heartstring, "Supple"

Because of excellent balancing, it is light and mobile in the hand. Described by Ollivander as “very good for transfiguration, and, in the wrong hands, dangerous,” due to the relatively chaotic Paduak wood (the wood's natural connection to entropy facilitates the shifting and destruction of forms). Since then, with Emma, the Padauk wand has absorbed her intense passions, even further enhancing its combative tendencies.

Extra Information:

Info

Patronus:
Elephant.

-Quite intelligent and social, but with obvious power (physical in the animal's case, magical in the girl's). Neither Emma nor an elephant will take your shit for very long, and if they get mad, you better believe someone or something is going to end up crushed. Furthermore, if someone they love is threatened, the only thing to do is run, because you do not want to get in their way. Wait, you're the one doing the threatening? -sigh- Just hope God is more forgiving.

Worst fear:
Being powerless. Not just losing her magic, but losing the freedom to choose her own path.

Boggart:
Herself, body broken and trapped in a cage, trying to cast magic, but having none.

Amortentia:
Singed hair, sweat, and the scent of a certain Gryffindor girl in her year...

Natural Ability:
She and her father both have “double-jointed” fingers and thumbs.

Learned Ability:
“Hedge” Magic, which includes a good bit of wandless magic, “doggerel verse”, pseudo-wandless rituals and the creation of small magical talismans and amulets. She loves the stuff, and is completely willing to teach it to anyone who wants to learn.

Goals:
-To duel the most powerful witches and wizards in the world (even if she lost, which she would)!

-To explore jungles and deserts and far away islands, fighting off magical beasts and collecting treasures as she goes! (In fact, she was one of the first ones to talk about going on a Pilgrimage)

-To develop her own useful spells and unique artifacts (probably her biggest long-term. She wants to make an impact on the magical world, however she can)

Special Items:
-Wand sheath: A commonsense item, and a must-have for any serious duelist, this belt and/or wrist-sheath combo allows quick access to her wand at any time, and she never goes anywhere without it.

-Ritual items: amulets, incense, animal bones and magical reagents, to name a few, this is Emma’s “hedge magic” and alchemy repertoire, collected over several consecutive summers during trips to magical and/or traditional places around the world

-Advanced spellbooks: As soon as she became of age at the beginning of the summer, Emma marched (and Apparated) right down to the restricted and advanced section of Flourish and Blotts and had a glorious few hours picking out the most interesting theoretical and practical spellbooks that her parents had never let her buy before, going beyond N.E.W.T. level in rigor and capability. She won’t pretend to have mastered them already, or even to have read them all, but she is indeed making a valiant effort, and plans to study them during the Pilgrimage.

A Wizard's Pilgrimage

:) Well, fantastic. I really do love the concept, obviously, and it's still a good opportunity to develop my understanding of Emma and the Robinson family in general, perhaps for use in future HP-universe RPs... Anyway. Once some more characters get posted up, I agree, we'll get some creative juices flowing.

That reminds me, though, about something that bothers me about your characters, Vena. I can understand one animagus, especially because Nymia is also a metamorphmagus and that's basically her "thing", but unless there's some specific reason why Lydia and Dale would go through the very intense, rigorous and quite dangerous training to become animagi (especially when Dale doesn't even have her NEWT in Transfiguration), well... It just seems a bit much. They don't have to be animagi to be cool or useful, you know?

If there was some explanation, like maybe if Nymia founded an "Animagus Club" and they were the three that made it through the training and everything, I would totally accept it, but otherwise, it just seems frivolous. It doesn't add anything to their characters or their personalities. -shrug- Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, I don't know. At any rate, if they're still going to be animagi, they at least need two's or three's in their Transfiguration, for authenticity's sake.

A Wizard's Pilgrimage

Well, the problem hasn't been that everyone is a stranger, just that it's followed a now-a-bit-sickening routine: characters meet at Three Broomsticks. They head to London on the Hogwarts Express, stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the night, and then take a ferry across the Channel into France, where the rest of the game begins. So far none of the games have made it past step three (though Guildfall didn't help matters).

I'm just saying we should skip all of that altogether, use the OOC to develop established rapport (or otherwise) between the characters, and throw them into the thick of things immediately.

A Wizard's Pilgrimage

So, Primez hasn't responded to my PM, meaning we can assume s/he's not coming back to the game. :( And unless we really shake things up this time, Vena, I don't know if I will stay on either. Considering how hard it has been to get this thing started (and taking full responsibility for my own role in that), I have a proposition.

Instead of everyone walking into the Three Broomsticks like all the other times, let's go ahead and set up the start of the game in Germany, or France, somewhere a few steps ahead on the itinerary. We can assume that all of the PCs have met by then, and are now generally acquainted with each other, and begin the game on an interesting note. A wounded, bloodied hag stumbles into the bar or wherever they are, muttering darkly in Russian (or Greek, or Czech, just a language that isn't the same as where they are). She orders a drink, then proceeds to keel over and die right in front of our band of impressionable youths, who are understandably quite puzzled about all this.

Two Muggle police officers burst in, call an ambulance, all that good stuff. It turns out that the hag was beaten to death by Muggles, not attacked by any other magical creature, and that starts our Pilgrims thinking that maybe the separation between Muggle and magical worlds is more tenuous than they once believed. They are diverted from their relatively straightforward journey, into the dark world of modern intelligence wars and the greatest threat to the status quo since Voldemort himself, but by that time it's too late! They're in it, and they can't get out! They have to see it through to the end, and face incredible dangers, traveling through the parallel worlds of technology and magic, all the while learning what it means to be truly magical...

You know, something like that. It needs a hook. I know you have at least some stuff planned already, so why not start with the hook, and skip the slower setting-up stages? That's where the game has died, time and again, for very little reason. What do you say?

Against the gods, Against the world! Open-World Fantasy Adventure

:( Damn, I need to hurry up. I get off of work a few hours early tomorrow, so I will probably (hopefully) be able to pound the sheet out then. I just have so many things to put into the background. So many stories build up when you're nearing 6 and a half centuries old... I'll trim down the ideas, get the main thrust posted, and go from there, I think.

Against the gods, Against the world! Open-World Fantasy Adventure

nrtashi said
My first thought was to be a noble Angel knight from da heavens, but given how you already took the spot I'll settle for something less shiny.

I, for one, am looking forward to it, shiny or no. Remember that angels aren't actually divine, though. They aren't the servants of the Goddess or anything. Really, they're just Sky Elves (long-lived, winged, have their own special magics) with an affinity for Light.

Against the gods, Against the world! Open-World Fantasy Adventure

nrtashi said
O-oh, is there still a spot left? I'm thinking of writing a fallen angel who was exiled to the ground a century ago after a failed rebellion.

:) Looks like we could have quite the angel brigade, if yours isn't too evil, nrtashi. I'm still working on my sheets, but my angel will have been on the ground for a while as well (more like 600 years than a century, but the thought's the same). She left of her own volition, though...

Would s/he be a white-wing, that rebelled against the arrogant masters of the Crystal City, or would s/he have wings of a different color?

Against the gods, Against the world! Open-World Fantasy Adventure

Reserved for Character Sheets.