OOC Player Name: Denise Age: (Over-18s only, please.) Over 18 for almost 10 years Timezone: PST Preferred messenger/email address: freefloater[at]gmail[dot]com Experience: (It's not a problem if this is your first game.)
Character Name: Susan Amelia Bones Nicknames: Susie by close friends/family Age/DOB: 17 / August 4, 1980 House/Years: Hufflepuff / 1991 - 1998 Sexuality: Straight
Immediate Family: Michael Bones, Stephanie Bones (née McDermott) Marital Status: Single Blood Status: Halfblood Loyalties and Allegiances: Susan's allegiances are to her family foremost; they extend from that to the Light side of the war, through Dumbledore's Army all the way to the Order of the Phoenix (she doesn't know too much about it yet but her mother and father are members).
Appearance: With light, strawberry blonde hair, light eyes, and freckles, Susan is sometimes mistaken for a Weasley if they don't know better or aren't looking close enough. However, once one looks closer it's apparent from Susan's introverted body language that she is definitely not. She is medium height and is either seen with her hair in a braid or worn down. Played-By: (Please include a link to the set of icons you wish to use, or a couple pictures that clearly show appearance.) KatieLeclerc
Personality:
Because she was raised as an only child with no cousins, Susan has been doted on her whole life. She can be particularly finicky, as with her food, or when it comes to things she wants to do or doesn't want to do. She can also be very stubborn as she's used to getting her way often. However, she isn't necessarily a spoiled brat. She was very socially awkward as a pre-teen but thanks to her six years in school, she's outgrown that somewhat, although there are moments where her social ineptness comes back to haunt her.
Susan has suffered many losses in her life, so when she finds someone new to become close to, she has a tendency to become clingy; she's afraid of losing someone else. In addition, it's hard for her to open up to people for the same reason. She's acutely aware of her flaws, sometimes more so than people actually perceive them, and she has self-esteem problems because of this.
She is a hard worker, putting in many hours to get her spellwork correct. Once she learns of someone's cause, something that they are personally fighting for, she will be behind them all the way. She is very loyal and has a fighting spirit, though it's not loud - it's more of a quiet, resilient strength, a fire that doesn't burn hot but strong.
Susan likes the outdoors and can just as easily run around and play as she can sit under a tree and read to her heart's content. She's energetic but not coordinated enough to play a sport (however, if she tried I think she'd be pretty good at Quidditch).
Having a lot of free time to herself made her curious and Susan picked up a love of reading at an early age; she is well versed in British literature, including the Muggle authors. She's actually reasonably bright and can keep her wits about her in an emergency, but tends not to take the initiative often (usually, there's enough people doing that anyway so she doesn't have to).
Likes: reading, friends, getting a spell right after working on it for the twentieth time, being at home, sunshine, Chocolate Frogs, her mother's cooking, trees (climbing them and sitting under them), Defense Against the Dark Arts Dislikes: Dark magic, elitism, public speaking, not being heard, her freckles, not having something to occupy her time when she has unexpected free time, Transfiguration
Strengths: resilient, hard-working, temperate, loyal, a believer and fighter for causes, knowledgable Weaknesses: stubborn, clingy, can be finicky, lack of finesse in social situations, low self-esteem, easily distrustful of people
What are your character's fears? Losing more people she loves. Having You-Know-Who win the war and living in this situation forever. People not liking her.
What are your character's motivations? Right now, Susan is determined to live a normal life as possible and see this dark time to the end. She wants as many people as possible to have a normal life with those they love. If she can't have it, she can at least fight for other people to have it.
Which TWO of the 7 deadly sins does character fight (or give into, willingly or not)? Explain your choices.
Wrath - It takes a lot, but Susan has a temper on her; no one wants to be around her when she's angry. She tries not to let it get a hold of her for the most part, and regrets her actions later when she's calmed down.
Greed - Susan fights with this a lot. She's not used to sharing, or to having to be willing to go along with other people's plans, and she's already lost so much in her life; she should be allowed to want things now and again. This, outwardly, isn't too much of a problem in her life, though she struggles internally with it daily.
Which TWO of the 7 heavenly virtues does your character have (or fight against)? Explain your choices.
Diligence - Susan will practise many times or put in a lot of work to make sure what she is working on is absolutely correct. She's not afraid of hard work and this is the reason that makes her one of the more talented witches of her peers (though she'll deny it if you tell her).
Humility - Susan doesn't believe she can be great or that she's particularly talented, even though she has the potential. It's hard for her to take a compliment and she can be self-disparaging at times.
What is your character's deepest, darkest secret? Could they ever be convinced to share it? If so, with whom? If not, why? Though for the most part Susan is proud of her magical heritage, there are times, especially during this war, that she wishes she were a Muggle (not a Squib). She feels that she then wouldn't have to deal with all of this turmoil and she would have her family back, safe and whole, and maybe even cousins, as well as possibly getting to know her mother's Muggle side of the family. She hasn't told her family this because she doesn't want them to be disappointed in her, and she probably would only tell people she really trusts. I don't think there are too many of those people out there who are not her family so she probably wouldn't tell anyone right away. It really isn't that big of a deal to some people (although in the time that she comes from it is), but Susan feels shameful about it.
History: Susan comes from a very well-known, pureblooded family; however, they have no elitist views when it comes to blood status. Her father, Michael, married a Muggle-born witch he met at school, Stephanie McDermott, a fiery Gryffindor in his year. Since it was a dark time - it was difficult to know who to trust, and many people lived in fear - the young couple got married straight out of school and had Susan soon after. Though they wanted more children, there were complications during Stephanie's childbirth and she was unable to have any more.
Susan grew up in a loving home. They led a simple life, though Susan did not want for anything. She was particularly close with her aunt Amelia, her father's younger sister; her uncle Edgar had died in the war and so she was all the family they had. Stephanie's parents didn't have much understanding of the magical world so Susan didn't know that side of her family fairly well.
Growing up, Susan was doted on, as she was the only living child left in her extended family. Because she didn't have many playmates her own age, she grew up to be a bit socially awkward, not really interacting with peers until she got to Hogwarts. She learned a lot from her parents and her auntie, as well as from books (because she didn't have too many friends her own age) and she had strong, latent magical abilities, but when she first got to Hogwarts she was intimidated by how many people seemed to know so much more about magic, like the bossy girl she'd met on the train and famous Harry Potter (though at second glance, he seemed to feel very much like she did).
She was sorted into Hufflepuff House, though the Sorting Hat had a bit of trouble on where to place her. He considered Ravenclaw and then even Gryffindor; truthfully, Susan would have been okay in either one. She has enough thirst for knowledge, the perfectionist streak, and a decent voice of reason for her to have been successful in Ravenclaw, and though she didn't know it yet, she had the potential to make the brave decisions that Gryffindors are known for, and to defend her loyalties fiercely. However, Hufflepuff suited her deepest self best. Susan was relieved, since most of her family members had been Hufflepuffs and therefore she could write home knowing her parents would be proud of her. She began to make some friendships there once she got to know her classmates, although there were painfully awkward moments when Susan showed her complete lack of simple knowledge of things most people her age knew well.
School helped Susan define who she was and what she stood for. Her school years were marked with a number of scary incidents - the basilisk who Petrified one of her classmates in second year; the Triwizard Tournament where another one of her Housemates ended up dying; and the return of You-Know-Who. Though Hogwarts provided a somewhat safe bubble for Susan, it didn't protect everything she loved completely. Susan began to fear for her family, though she knew they would do the right thing, and when the opportunity came about for her, she did as well. She joined Dumbledore's Army with a number of other classmates, learning to defend herself against Dark magic and showing support for her classmate, Harry, and the light side in the process. This not only helped unlock more of her magical prowess, but she became more confident in herself during this time as well and more sure that she would fight for this cause and was doing the right thing.
Susan's sixth year at Hogwarts was hard. During the holidays, her beloved Auntie Amelia was killed by You-Know-Who himself, and Susan seriously considered not coming back to Hogwarts. Her parents, however, encouraged her, knowing she would be safer there then at home. It was hard enough having to go through the normal tumults of adolescence (she was starting to see some of her male classmates differently, even though she'd known them for years), but not having her aunt there made it harder, and having people constantly look at her with pity or hear people talking about it when they didn't think she was there made it even worse. Her studies faltered as well, showing when she Splinched herself during Apparition lessons. After Professor Dumbledore's death, Susan was saddened even further and went into a state of depression after she'd arrived home. For once in her life, she was dreading going back to school, but her parents, ever resilient, told her that it would be the best thing for her to do and that it would be okay. With a heavy heart, she began to make her final journey to King's Cross to board the Hogwarts Express one last time when she was brought to Fourteen Shades.
Preferred occupation? (Full list of available jobs is here.) Not too picky. Something outdoorsy... maybe the forest caretaker? Orange picker? Or even the Quidditch pitch maintainer, so she can pursue her as-of-yet unknown interest in Quidditch XD But even a clerk at Threads would be cool too. :)
What year is your character from? 1997
Please list 3 - 5 plot ideas you'd like to work through with your character. These do not have to be major plots that affect the whole game, but please tell us what you specifically want to do with your character.
-Meeting family members she's known to be long dead (Uncle Edgar), as well as family members who are much younger here than they were in her world (Aunt Amelia), and finding out they may not be what she imagined them to be.
-Dealing with how the war turns out. It's very bleak where she's from and it'll be good for her to know that there's hope. On a related note, I'd like to see how she deals with finding out there are key people from the Dark side of the war in the village. (Probably not well, but...)
-Susan was a bit of a loner in school so finding Housemates/classmates/yearmates and muddling through all those relationships will be interesting.
-Very randomly, I'd like to see someone recruit her for the Quidditch team. She never showed an interest in school but I think she'd be a decent player (maybe Chaser or Seeker) and it might surprise her (and other people) that she'd be pretty good at strategy.
First Person Sample: Show us your character's voice. Minimum 100 words, max 500 words/2 paragraphs.
This isn't serious, right? Since when have we had to write in a journal for school? It's not some secret ploy by the Death Eaters to get any extra insider information or anything, is it? Because it's not like they don't already.
I don't know about this last year at Hogwarts. Things are just so different from what they used to be, and I hate it. I just need to get through it, finish my N.E.W.T.s and then I can tackle the next big question: what am I going to do after I leave here? If I leave The Ministry is the natural next step, but I'm not even sure if I want to go there at this point.
Third Person Sample: You can write it as when your character has first been set free into the village, or link us to an old thread; it doesn't matter. This is just to show us you can write. While we go for quality over quantity, please give us at least a paragraph to get a feel for your style.