orliegg @ 2008-03-09T06:13:00

2008-03-09T10:50:55Z

How the bloody hell do I go about doing this? Do I explain why I haven't started one of these things before now? It's been three months. I can blame it on being busy or some shite like that, but it's not. God, I abhor being nervous and it seems like that's how I am all the time with these people. I just don't GET them. Why does everyone care so much about brooms and magical things, when there's such an amazing world out there? I hate being here and not just because of the stupid Carrows that everyone keeps talking about. I have half a mind to join the D.A thing that's happening. At least they have the right idea. The school is cowering under the reign of three people. It's shite.

And you're stalling, Orlanda. Just get on with it. You're going to have to do this sooner or later and writing to yourself isn't going to help matters. They probably won't even respond to what you're going to write, so it'll be fine. They don't know who you are and they don't care. If they do respond, you don't even have to answer them back.

God, I don't want to do this. I know that I said I'd be social, but come on. I did my social bit ages ago when I made friends with Shelia and Ben....I miss Ben. He actually got what I was saying. Yeah, I had to explain it to him a billion and a half times, but whatever. He'd better not be dead after all this is done....maybe I should start eating too much all the time. You know, in case this whole thing turns into another holocaust. Shite, I should get better at the wordless spell things, too.

1. Start hording food in case of being put in a concentration camp.

2. Eat my weight in pure sugar, just because I can.

3. Study more on the silent spell things.

4. Learn how to fly without the aid of spells, brooms, magic carpets (though that would be fun, especially with cupboards and stuff on top of it for food).

5. Learn how magic carpets are able to be driven and if it's possible to take naps while on them.

6. Learn how to Tango. I'm not really sure why, but I think it'd be fun. The dip things look fairly amazing.

7. See if Dad can order me some tango sh

This is getting stupid. I'm making a fucking LIST. I can't keep putting this off forever. The book Dad bought me for Christmas said that this is the next step, so get on with it already. It's not hard and no more distractions. I'm not really sure why Dad's taken an interest in my social phobias now that I'm sixteen, but I'm not going to complain. The book he got me IS helpful, though who knows if I'll be able to follow it. It's one thing to read about becoming social, but it's another thing entirely to try and BE social. The good thing is that hardly anyone knows it's actually me on this thing, yet. I might try and keep it that way for as long as possible, as there's something good about being anonymous. It's kind of freeing anyway.

Alright...I should just do this. I can try one of the hex things for this, then start on something new and actually make it so the others can see. Or maybe I can scrape this whole idea and work more on homework. I think the latter sounds more appealing and I CANNOT DO THIS. I have flailing limbs and everything! This was such a bad idea. So bad. Incredibly bad. Hugely, ginormously bad.

orliegg @ 2008-02-23T21:11:00

2008-02-24T02:17:31Z

IC
Name: Orlanda Sophia Egg
Blood Status: Despite the situation at Hogwarts, Orlanda is perfectly fine with her halfblood lineage. So, apparently her great-grandad stole magic from “real” wizards, but who actually cares about that? Well, other than evil, power hungry dictators, of course. Honestly, Orlanda's happy with her blood since no one in her family had to learn the values of having pure blood or any of that rubbish. She also won't have to pretend to side with the Death Eaters.
Age/Birthday: 16/February 17, 1981
House/Year: 6th/Ravenclaw
Classes: Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, History of Magic, Muggle Studies
Sexuality: Orlanda's first reaction is to say that she's straight. After all, she has dreams all featuring blokes, she turns into a stuttering mess when she's faced with a particularly attractive bloke, and she can't imagine being with someone who wasn't bloke. However, she still gets distracted by cleavage, bouncing breasts, and swaying hips. Since her eyes have only started to wander in the last four months, she's convinced that it's just a phase.

Appearance: Orlanda would love to be able to describe herself as a modern day Pola Negri or even Betty Boop. She would also love it if she had only been mistaken for a boy once. However, that wasn't meant to be. She's always been a tom-boy and has dressed as such, much preferring jeans and loose shirts to skirts and dresses. When she was eleven, her dark hair was cut in an unflattering bowl shape and she was more broad shouldered than the other girls her age. To be fair to her, the bowl cut wasn't really her fault. One of her muggle friends had been teased for his mum-cut hair, so to support her friend, she went home, asked her brother to get a bowl, and had him cut off her hair (though it surprisingly didn't take much convincing). Orlanda regretted nothing about her decision, until her first day of her first year at Hogwarts. Shelia Capper thought that she was boy. Yes, Orlanda had been told that she looked like a boy several times, but it was always by her classmates at primary school who weren't always the nicest to her. Now, a girl she didn't even know thought that she looked like a boy. From that moment, she swore that she'd never have short hair again, and she's stayed true to her word. Her dark brown hair is always several inches past her shoulders, but she hates having it in her face all the time. She's painfully aware of how masculine she looks with her hair pulled back, but at least with her hair being long, people won't be able to confuse her with a boy.

Orlanda had been hoping for a miracle when puberty struck, but her curveless and plain body have followed her over the years. Her clothes always fit oddly on her, since she doesn't have hips or an arse, her chest is small, and her torso is long. Her shoulders have also been on the broad side. During her third year, she went through a more girly stage with disastrous results. The skirt she wore refused to sit on her hips, her shirt was much too short, her hair burnt when she tried to curl it, and the make-up she wore made her look like a transvestite. Not even a good transvestite, either. The phases lasted an entire half an hour before she gave up and went back to wearing comfortable clothes. She has since sworn off all attempts to make her look more attractive. She won't wear a dress, heeled-shoes or make-up. Unlike most tom-boys who are able to clean up nicely, Orlanda would just look terrible.

What annoys her the most is that any one of her traits is decent looking enough, but when combined in the gene pool, something happened. Her cheekbones are high, her nose is cute and her lips are full. However, her face is fairly short and her features are too close together. She's used to looking unattractive, and when she's depressed she often looks in the mirror poking at various places on her face, asking her reflection why she has to be so manly. Now, she looks at herself in the mirror once while she's getting ready and avoids her eyes when walking past the mirror any other times.

PB: Charley Webb
History:
Orlanda has no idea how her parents met, but she knows the exact moment when they decided to end their marriage. She's been told the story dozens of times while growing up, usually followed by “...and that's why I hate your father/mother.” She imagines they met each other in some exciting and original way. After all, an endangered magical creatures specialist and a travel writer couldn't have met in a boring way. Unfortunately, Orlanda would have been disappointed to know the truth.

Edwin Egg and Benedetta Pisano met in an entirely boring and accidental way. He had been leaving his dad's house in a huff (they had an argument about how he should settle down), and she was minding her own business, heading to her house with a large bag of groceries when he bumped into her. The resulting crash ended up with much blood, spilled milk, and cracked eggs. Unfortunately, it all belonged to her. The concrete had been particularly rough with her and as she fell, her bare leg had scraped against the cement. Seeing the blood, Edwin persuaded her to let him patch her up and buy her new groceries. Reluctantly she agreed, for the sole reason that her blood was dripping onto her best boots and ruining them. Something happened during the time it took to get her inside his dad's house and when he finished bandaging her leg, since she agreed to go out with him that weekend. Her every instinct told her to stay away from him and that he would be trouble, but she ignored it. She liked his slightly awkward charm, his pathetic attempts to make her laugh (he knew dozens of bad jokes), and the easy way he laughed.

From the moment they began dating, their relationship was based on lies. He was a wizard with a son, and she couldn't be faithful for more than a few months. Edwin had been married to a muggleborn witch named Katrina Englebert. They were married two months after they left school, and six months later, she gave birth to Davy. The labour had been difficult for her and she had never been the strongest of women. The pain and exertion had been too much for her and even before she had seen her new baby, she had died. Edwin had been left to raise this tiny baby with no idea at all on what to do. His dad, Mordicus (Morty for short), moved in with his son, helping him raise Davy for the first few years. Edwin didn't tell Benedetta about his son until the day after their wedding. Ever since he had bumped her, he wanted her to be his, no matter what the cost. She seemed more carefree and wild than other girls he knew from Hogwarts. She didn't care what anyone thought of her and she wasn't afraid to look foolish. He took her carefree attitude for granted, and she didn't appreciate it.

When she told Edwin that she hadn't wanted kids, she meant it. She didn't have the patience or the time to raise a kid at any age. She wasn't ready to step into the role of Mum, but she couldn't very well tell her new son this. So, she reluctantly agreed to stay and live with the two, though she wasn't happy about the situation. However, it wouldn't be too long before Davy went off to Uni, so she could last until then. Of course, when she mentioned this to Edwin, his second big secret came out. He was a wizard, and so was Davy. Davy was attending Hogwarts and she wouldn't have to worry about him being home, except for the holidays. Benedetta left after the news, and she didn't return for three months and six days. She had never really wanted to settle down and have a family. People thought of her as a “free spirit” and she was. She wanted to do whatever she wanted without having anyone else to answer to. She had thought she found that when she met Edwin, but she hadn't. He had lied to her repeatedly, and she hated it. With her mother's prompting (nagging more like it), Benedetta went back to Yorkshire for the next three months. While there, she had a passionate affair with a man four years younger than her and who only lied to her to get up her skirt. That, she could handle. Yet, she still loved Edwin, and she felt terrible about leaving him when all he had wanted was a mother for his son and for someone to love him. She knew the truth now about his career and he did live an exciting life, just as she did. They were meant to be together, no matter that he was a wizard. Besides, after thinking about it, she thought it was kind of cool. She was married to a man who could do freaky things (moreso than other men she had been with) and he was one of a few.

Benedetta went back to Edwin three months after she left, and for a while, things were fine between them. He never used magic whenever she was around, and Davy was at Hogwarts. However, fate had a strong hold on the Egg couple as only six months after she returned to Edwin, she found out that she was pregnant, despite using birth control. Edwin was ecstatic, but fearful that his wife would leave again. To his surprise, she didn't. Once pregnant, something happened to Benedetta. She viewed her condition as a new sort of adventure and put herself through several tests of endurance all throughout her pregnancy. Of course it was nothing dangerous, but she had to do something besides sitting and eating all the time. She hated being bored, and she hated sitting still, so she was often on the move to keep herself from going stir-crazy.

After spending twenty-six hours in labor with Orlanda, Benedetta was through. She didn't want to be with a man who could do this to her and the little crying thing in her arms really scared her. She didn't leave, though. For the next four years, she stayed with her little family, leaving for weeks at a time in order to pursue her career.

Orlanda wasn't the easiest baby to take care of. As an infant, she cried whenever she was awake, and she slept for an hour at the most at a time. She squirmed when she was held, started crying just as her parents went to sleep, and she was a general pain. As a toddler she wasn't much better. She was into everything. Baby proofing went into an entirely different level when Orlanda was around. If there was flour in the house, she managed to get into it. She broke glass candles, played in the toilet and the cat box, and tried to eat every single plant in the garden. Her parents and her older brother were always on their toes when she was awake, as she spent every minute she could running around the house and trying to cause as much trouble as she could.

Then when Orlanda was four, her mum decided to get a divorce from Edwin. All that Orlanda knew about the situation was that she'd be going to Yorkshire with her mum to meet her grandparents, while Davy and her dad would stay in London. This was probably the most difficult and life-changing experience for Orlanda and she doesn't even really remember what happened. Her mum never stayed with Orlanda for more than a few days at a time, then she would leave again for weeks. When Benedetta was home, she would often bring her new boyfriends to meet Orlanda. Orlanda had no idea who any of these men were, but she did know for certain that they weren't her dad or her brother, who she missed. At five, she chatted loudly about Edwin and Davy, though she really didn't remember them that well. She began acting out with her mum, often screaming and kicking wildly when her mum was around. As a result, Orlanda was sent to live her dad.

When Orlanda arrived on the doorstep of Edwin's house, he had no idea what to do. She stared up at Edwin with her big brown eyes, asking in mixed languages if she was another one of her mummy's boyfriends while she clutched a small bear Davy had given her on her third birthday. Edwin responded by explaining who he was and cuddling Orlanda to him. It didn't take long at all for Orlanda to get accustomed to having her dad around all the time. She took much more easily to swearing loudly at the telly with her dad than she did spending hours at a vineyard with her mum. She thought it was funny to see her dad staring at her messy hair while he tried to put it up for her. Finally, he gave up trying to treat her like a girl and he spent his energy trying to raise a second son. To help out, Morty moved back in with his son (though he didn't know how to raise a girl, either) and when Davy came for a visit, there was too much testosterone for Orlanda to have grown up normally.

They never seemed to mind when she had two many questions and when she repeated swears that they said. They were more patient with her than her mum was, and more importantly, they were always around. Even when Edwin had to leave for a week or more, she had Davy and Morty around to take care of her and entertain her. Often, Edwin would send her owls while he was away, commenting on the different things that he saw. During holidays, Edwin would take Orlanda with him to exotic locations (bringing Davy along as her babysitter). Orlanda's childhood was ideal for her. She loved eating unhealthy food and learning how to spit. She didn't care for dolls, and she much prefered playing football with her brother.

Of course, not everything was great during her childhood while living with three men. Orlanda didn't have single female friend, and she never had sleep-overs. The invitations she sent out for her birthday parties were given to boys only. If her dad would have let her, she would have invited her boy friends for sleep-overs. Not having girl friends was hard for Orlanda. She never seemed to mind only being around boys, but she knew that she was missing out on an important aspect of her life.

Over the years, Orlanda tried to visit with her mum and grandmum, and sent letters to them when she couldn't visit, but it just didn't work out. As hard as she tried, Orlanda just didn't like them. She was too different and they all knew it, as well as felt it. Orlanda hated the way Benedetta talked about Edwin, and Benedetta hated how Orlanda was exactly like him. The only creditable thing her mother has done for her, was introduce her to the joys of old black and white films. Benedetta had gathered quite the collection, and when Orlanda stayed over for a few weeks, they watched several a day, back to back. For each birthday, Benedetta gave Orlanda several hard-to-find movies which they spent the next week watching. They acted out random scenes together from memory, and it was the only thing the two ever really bonded over.

Orlanda's love of black and white movies will never surpass the love she has for Star Trek. At the age of nine, her father was channel surfing when he came across a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. At first, Orli had complained about the boring show, but soon after her comment, she was hooked. She fell in the with the plot, the characters, the action, the everything. Star Trek became her obsession. At eleven she went to her first convention, and began learning Klingon. At thirteen she was running her own table at the convention during the summer hols.

When Orlanda received her Hogwarts letter, she was more annoyed and disappointed than excited. She had grown up seeing magic performed and it held no interest for her. She didn't care about making things fly or turning off the lights with a wand. If she needed to do something, she could do it the “hard” way. She was firmly against going to Hogwarts, but her dad convinced her that it was the best thing for her to do. She'd regret not going when she was older, and he made every other excuse about how much she needed to go to Hogwarts, that she finally agreed just to shut him up.

Once at Hogwarts, she didn't change her mind. She completed each task with a mental “This is stupid.” and she had a terrible time in her classes. The only class she actually enjoyed was History of Magic. She didn't have to think about anything in the class. She could sit and take in dry fact after dry fact. She never had to wonder about HOW everything was happening. How did she make the feather float? Why is it that certain animal and bug parts could be added together to make something happen? Where did all of these things come from? In each class, she thought so much about how and why everything was happening that she was never able to appreciate the end results. Before she even had a chance to start enjoying her classes, weird things began happening around the school. One year there was a basilisk chasing down students, then an escaped prisoner, then foreign people all over the place...it was hard for Orlanda to take it all in. For her, it felt as if it was one thing right on top of another, and there wasn't any time just to sit back and think about what was happening. Weird things kept happening, she didn't have any of her loves with her, and she felt too different from everyone around her.

Things began looking up for her when she finally started to feel comfortable enough at Hogwarts to leave her anti-social behaviour behind and try to make a few friends. The only thing she really had in common with anyone was that they shared classes together. At least it was a start. After spending years in the company of the same people, she couldn't help but talk. Also, now that she's finally taking the classes she picked herself, she's doing fairly well for herself. Now, all she needs to do is figure out how to get her baby back (her limited edition Captain Kirk's phaser from the original series) and seek revenge on the Carrows for taking it away from her.

Personality:
Orlanda would be the first to admit that she's an awkward nerd. She doesn't have good social skills and she often panics when in a new social setting. For the most part, she doesn't like people and she would much prefer being in her own company. Making friends is hard for her and she enjoys the company of a few select people, usually outsiders like herself. There isn't a single day that goes by when she doesn't feel how different she is than her other classmates. Something always holds her back from trying to get to know someone from school. She's prone to stuttering, jerky movements, picking at her nails, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, breaking out into a cold sweat, and avoiding eye contact at all costs when talking to someone at Hogwarts she really doesn't know.

When she's around her fellow Ravenclaws whom she's been in contact with for the last five years, she's more relaxed. Instead of being a complete spaz, she's only mildly awkward, usually adding comments that are too late in the conversation or just jumping from topic to topic without any logical progression. Her mind works quickly and it's hard for her to stay on track when talking to someone. In a few sentences she may talk about four different things that have nothing in common with each other. She also has a dry sense of humour and she often finds humour in horrible situations. She feels bad for grinning during a serious talk, but sometimes she just can't help herself. In general, life is funny and ironic. Even though Orlanda finds situations funny, she rarely laughs. She honestly doesn't know how to laugh properly. When she's around someone for a long period of time, she often mimics their laugh. Her own laugh always sounds hollow and is short lived due to her awkwardness.

Strangely enough, in the Muggle world, she's not awkward at all. There are many people in the world who share her interests and she can talk about them as much as she likes without getting a blank stare of incomprehension. Orlanda would only admit her interests to her close friends in the wizarding world, those who have been forced to hear her talk about her baby in vivid detail. Never once has Orlanda been self-concious about her interests, though. Yes, she can speak Klingon with the best of them, but so what? At least she has something to keep her occupied during long hours of boring classes. Not all of her classmates need to know this, though. She doubts that they'd care and in turn, they'd probably make fun of her for it. At the very least, they'd be bored to tears once she started in one of her speeches about the greatness of Star Trek.

If anyone has been around Orlanda, they are likely to have heard her muttering to herself. She often has in-depth conversations with herself whenever she's walking by herself to classes, while she's in the library, in her dorm room, and in classes (though she mouths her words in classes). She blames her habit on being alone too much when she was little and also being cared for by her grandfather, who often discussed problems with himself when writing a new book. Orlanda doesn't think there's anything particularly odd about her habit, and she often warns people when she first becomes friends with them.

For the most part, Orlanda is a good person. She doesn't censor her words nor does she keep herself from saying things that she shouldn't say. She tries to be as honest as she can and around her, no one has to wonder about how she feels about them. She'll most likely tell whoever it is (unless it's a Death Eater or Death Eater spawn as she doesn't have a death wish) who happens to ask her opinion and the comments she makes tend to be too honest. However, she tries to be a decent person. She doesn't intentionally try to hurt other people and she judges people based on their personalities, not their blood or appearances.

Questions
What does your character think of the current situation at Hogwarts, especially the Carrows?
Orlanda has never despised someone to the extent that she despises the Carrows. If they died, she'd seek out their graves, just to spit on them. However, she really doesn't mind the situation at Hogwarts. As she sees it, the students may be tortured and forced to learn about the inferiority of Muggles, but at least they're safer here than at their homes. The situation is horrible, she'll admit, but at least they don't have the chance of being murdered. She thinks that since all the wizarding children are in one location, they won't be hurt too badly. If the Carrows or Snape started to off them for misbehaving there would be a mass revolt from the others in the wizarding world, namely the parents.

What's your character's deepest, darkest secret? Who might know this?
What no one in the world knows is that Orlanda had a huge crush on Professor Snape for her first three years at Hogwarts. She tried to rationalize that he was unattractive, his skin left much to be desired, he was the same age as her dad, and his hair. Yet there was still something about his voice, the blank stare, the look of disdain, and the way he commanded a room that made her fancy him. Now, she's not entirely sure she did actually fancy him. She never once thought about snogging him, but there was something about him that made her think that she could change him. Maybe all he needed was someone to love him and he'd stop being such a bastard. Maybe her preteen hormones were getting the better of her and she liked being dominated. For her survival and her sanity, she never told a soul about this. She hinted to her brother that she fancied an older man, but that was as far as she ever got. She thanks god to this day that she stopped thinking that there was something inherently good about him. Now, she thinks he's a bastard through and through.

Describe your character's Sorting. What about them caused them to go in their house?
Orlanda suspects that her Sorting was closer to the ordinary variety. There wasn't a long debate with the hat about which house she'd be in. When she approached the Sorting Hat, she had been nervous, of couse. Once the hat was on her head all rational thought lost her and she commented to the hat that it was gross how many people's heads it had touched and who knows how many of those heads had lice. Then she began wondering about all the kids who had been Sorted throughout the years and just how many DID have lice. Then naturally her thoughts wandered to spells and pre-treatments they must have used on the Sorting Hat to prevent that sort of thing from happening. When the Sorting Hat interrupted her thought-ramblings, it wasn't a surprise when it announced that she was to be in Ravenclaw.

Orli Egg

orliegg @ 2008-03-09T06:13:00

orliegg @ 2008-02-23T21:11:00