![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
application;
baby, you're like lightning in a bottle
i can't let you go now that i got it
and all i need is to be struck
by your electric love
i can't let you go now that i got it
and all i need is to be struck
by your electric love
GENERAL
NAME: Marie Ailis Patterson
NICKNAMES: Pretty hard to make a nickname out of Marie.
AGE/DOB: 15 / September 20th
BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood (Muggleborn mom and halfblood dad)
GENDER/PRONOUNS: Female, she/her.
SEXUALITY: Bisexual. She's known since she was like, 12.
HOMETOWN: New Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington; a hidden magical community.
CONCEPT: Human whirlwind squanders potential in favour of caprice, creativity, chaos.
PHYSICAL
APPEARANCE: In uniform, nothing too much to comment on. Her sleeves are usually rolled up. Sometimes, she forgets her tights. Hair ribbons are very much her jam.
Out of uniform, Marie has an eclectic sense of style; she has a tendency to absorb what she sees as the best or most interesting parts of other people's looks for her own. The result is fashionable, but occasionally a bit costumey — mostly because she dresses to convey an identity and assembles outfits based on what said [xyz] would wear, rather than what she, as an independent individual, likes. For example, Mystical Seeress Marie has kind of a soft, bohemian thing going on, but Rockstar Marie wears a lot of sparkles. It should be noted that Marie always thinks each of these looks is her most authentic self.
HEIGHT: 5' 3"
PB: Jessica Sula
PERSONALITY
LIKES: Jamming with her friends, whatever it is people are doing at the Grotto these days, smoothies, spicy food, pop rocks, pop-rock, "writing songs" where all the lyrics are just various permutations of 'butts, put it in a butt,' making weird noises with her mouth, getting exactly what she wants, falling in love, the rush of discovering something new, and right now, The Stars™
DISLIKES: The smell of incense, boys with hypermasculinity problems, the fact that Casey has a sick puppycat and she doesn't, anyone who tells her what to do, criticism in general, the feeling of losing interest in a person or thing, uncomfy shoes (she'll wear them anyway), sandwiches with too much mayonnaise, crinkle-cut fries
PERSONALITY:
Marie has a lot of personality.
That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it's not — not necessarily. Charismatic and charming, with a sort of stage presence that emanates even when she's nowhere near an audience, Marie tends to draw people in. Those who stay close by quickly discover that, despite her inclination towards the performative, her energy is not an act. She is loud, exuberant, electric and... sometimes incredibly overwhelming. It's easy to get sucked into her orbit, but equally easy to get pushed away.
First impressions can vary fairly dramatically. Somewhat ironically, one of Marie's most enduring traits is her tendency to become temporarily captivated by one thing or another. She's not searching for a calling, but "callings" seem to find her — a direction for the abundance of passion she was born with. Never one for half-measures, Marie commits herself fully to everything she does, and so, each of these newly-discovered hobbies get a lot of her attention. And each time the wheel spins and lands on a new trait, she reinvents herself as the platonic ideal of that type of person. It's not conscious, or even really fake; Marie sheds her skin quickly and painlessly, reemerging as her newer, better self the same way most folks change clothes. To her, it's a natural transition as she discovers the things she loves and hates.
The only real downside to this period of reinvention is that sometimes, when she's between interests, Marie feels like a facsimile of herself. She can become so fixated on the person she appears to be that she loses sight of her own core. Marie often appears impervious to negative opinions, but at these times, she's much more vulnerable to criticism and complaints.
Of course, she already possesses a perfectly serviceable passion: music. Marie is artistic and creative in many ways, but music is, and always will be, her greatest skill. She loves it and is naturally quite gifted, but despite (or perhaps, because of) this, Marie never really seems to notice her potential to truly shine as a singer or in a band. In this way, she could really stand to take some direction from her brother. CASEY works incredibly hard as a dancer... and Marie definitely practices her stuff, too. But she sees her music as a hobby, something fun and extracurricular and altogether Not Serious (unlike her current Passion De Jour), and so, sometimes, she gets sidetracked. Focus would benefit her, but anyone who tries to steer her (even with the best of intentions in mind), will be met with laughter. Marie goes her own way, at her own pace — even if it means she has to make her own mistakes, too.
Regardless, there are some things about Marie that stay constant. She is always curious, quick to investigate new people, new things, and new situations — and god knows, she loves to meddle a little in everyone's afairs. She is always dreaming about ways in which her life could change. And she is always in the midst of being captivated by something, or possibly, someone.
Marie falls a little bit in love with everyone she meets. If you've talked to her for five minutes, she's probably imagined a montage of your future lives together — but don't worry, she's not too attached to the idea. A serial monogamist, Marie loves the butterflies of new affection almost as much as she hates being alone. With each crush that blooms, she's certain she's found her soulmate. She... almost certainly has not. But that won't stop her for stumbling head-over-heels into her next romantic disaster the second that mysterious stranger turns the corner.
Despite her strong personality, Marie is suggestible and fairly easy to manipulate. It's not hard to spin her up and send her off on a wild goose chase. Additionally, she's very much a big picture thinker, and while this lets her dream big, it means she also has a tendency to forget about details, letting nitty-gritty or mundane tasks fall to others.
Cautious, quiet types may find themselves slightly horrified by her impulsive nature; Marie often makes decisions that can be charitably described as "unpredictable." In true Coppertale spirit, she is competitive and driven, perhaps annoyingly so. And she is very, very rarely restrained. When coming up with ways to describe Marie, it's not uncommon for people to hesitate, struggle, and eventually just say "... too much."
Ultimately, though, Marie is a good kid. Yes, some of her more ridiculous activities may suggest otherwise, but she's not cruel or cold-hearted, and nothing she does is born of malice. She doesn't want to hurt anyone and would never cast herself or her friends as antagonists. As a matter of fact, she very much sees them as a plucky bunch of misfits, like a gang from 80s teen movie. The fact that, as popular, talented, and beautiful rich kids with an abundance of personality, they are very much not outsiders, is... somewhat lost on her. In her defence, they are all sort of eccentrics.
A fun fact about Marie: if given one (1) hardboiled egg she'd eat it with a fork and it would take her no fewer than nine (9) bites.
tl;dr:
+ Charming, charismatic, good at reading people
+ Imaginative
+ Passionate
+ Curious
+ Bold
+ Artistic
+ Ambitious, a dreamer
+ Talented
= High energy
= Impulsive
= Loves love
= Big picture thinker
- Very loud
- Unpredictable
- Wild, over the top
- Overly competitive
- Fluctuating self-esteem
- Suggestible
- Not very grounded
- Changes reality to fit her views, rather than changing her views to fit reality
SKILLS
LANGUAGES SPOKEN: Marie is fluent in English and can give back when she's being scolded in Haitian Creole. Her Irish is limited to "dia dhuit," "tá mé ó Corcaigh" and "póg mo thóin." She gets pretty good mileage out of that last turn of phrase.
PATRONUS: She can't yet! But if she could, it'd be a Rosella Parrot. Rosellas are playful, sociable, adroit little birds with a famous ability to whistle back just about any tune you'll play for them (although they are... not "intelligent," per se). They also have a reputation for making mischievous pets; while they are cute, fun, and friendly, they become bored with their toys easily, and may nip at fingers or steal keys, rings, and coins for entertainment. New owners are cautioned not to be fooled by their small size and frankly adorable plumage, as they can be loud and "challenging" — mostly due to their tendency to chew wires when unsupervised, starting house fires. But they are very sweet! And such good singers.
Note that this may change over the course of her Gooseberry career; if Marie had a daemon, a la His Dark Materials, it would still be unsettled.
SKILLS: Marie is a talented musician. Her main instrument is her voice, and a cappella work is her specialty. Thanks to her perfect pitch and good sense of rhythm, she is great at instrument imitation and vocal percussion... and has a tendency to push for beatboxing on basically every track the Heretics perform, although she's perfectly capable of more standard pop performances. Catch her with the remix on every song they cover; midi controllers absolutely delight her, moreso than most traditional instruments. Her singing voice is high, with a slightly baby-doll quality. Solo voice reference: (x); band reference: (x), (x).
However, despite this natural skill, Marie isn't very focused in her pursuit of music and the arts. Right now, she sees music as a fun thing, and her band as just another silly activity she's doing with her friends. Her songwriting, in particular, tends to reflect this.
Marie believes her true path is in her passion de jour, which is currently divination. She has absolutely zero (0) evidence that this is true, but who knows!
Other skills include a surprising competency when it comes to matters of adulting; the Patterson house, as one might expect, has a tendency towards the very loud and the very busy, which means all hand on deck. Marie can grill her own cheese, do her own laundry, fix her own buttons, etc. And most artistic pursuits come fairly easily to her; she's no Casey, but she's a good dancer, for example.
HISTORY
FAMILY MEMBERS:
Mother: Amélie Patterson née Perry, 53. Muggleborn. Ilvermorny (Thunderbird) alum. From Queens, NYC. Queens School of Magic alum. Chief Artificist and Co-Founder of Regal Eagle Collective (producers of custom-made Quodpot brooms).
Father: Dara Patterson, 56. Halfblood. From Cork, Ireland. Hogwarts (Ravenclaw) alum. Chief Operations Officer and Co-Founder of Regal Eagle Collective.
Grandfather: Niall "Gramps" Patterson, 75. Halfblood. Retired (magical) museum curator. From Cork, Ireland.
Siblings:
HISTORY:
( Family history here, at Casey's application. )
The Patterson home is... busy. With 5 children and 3 adults, one can imagine a fairly constant level of activity. As far as places to grow up, it was pretty much ideal for a bouncy kid like Marie: there was always someone around to redirect her or give her something to do, and being raised in a upper middle class household granted her the freedom to try all kind of extracurriculars and activities. Which she did. Even as a young kid, Marie has been called from whim to whim, something her parents allowed, although her mother did insist that she commit herself to something. Invest your time in a subject, she was told — not forever, but at least until she had learned something that would last. If she pushed through the hard part of picking up something new and still thought it was boring, then she could stop and enrol in something different.
Reluctantly, Marie agreed. Then, she signed up for voice lessons. At first, it was amazing: she was going to be a SINGER, a STAR, and everyone at home had to hear her little voice practicing endless scales and belting in the shower. But as time went on, her interest in wining a Tony predictably faded, and she begged her parents to let her do something different. They empathised and then, firmly, reminded her of her agreement. Ughhh. She stuck it out. And for a while there, it honestly sucked; her voice teacher, seeing potential, was kind of a hardass, and without the dream of becoming a performer to motivate her (at this point, she was very determined to become the World's Best martial artist), practicing seemed boring and dumb. Singing was mostly pretty easy. Couldn't she just, like, show up and do it?
The thing was... that talent was real. Marie made pretty significant strides, even while minimally engaged, and soon, music was fun again. She started to dabble in various instruments and vocal techniques, and quickly discovered that she could make a lot of cool noises, just like, whenever. While she did, in fact, move on to other passion projects, music stayed "her thing," her one constant love. Her parents' policy had laid the foundation she needed such that, for the rest of her life, she would always know her way around a staff and scale.
At Lake Union Prep, Marie was mostly known for being marginally better-behaved than her brother. She excelled at group projects and anything that required a creative element, but struggled to keep her focus when it came to boring things like times-tables. She was a decent enough student, but not a great one, and clearly, her abilities lay outside the traditional classroom. Her friends were cool, but also, sort of boring sometimes. It was a pretty unremarkable time of her life, as she neither flunked nor thrived. Mostly, Marie found school to be... lame.
When Casey's transfer to Gooseberry seems to be a solid success, Marie decided, with her parents' support, to follow suit. At Gooseberry, she hoped, she'd be able to do something different and exciting — plus, she wouldn't be cooped up all day. The music program was an additional draw; no matter where her interests wandered, she could never deny her draw to the subject, and the thought of playing around with all those talented artists and musicians sounded like a world of fun. Her portfolio was strong, and she was accepted for her freshman year.
That was when she met Natalie Prince, and the two of them quickly bonded over their shared love of song. They formed a band, The Heretics — mostly guided by Tally's influence. Marie finds the endeavour endlessly entertaining, although she suspects she takes it less seriously than Tally does. She got up to a little trouble that year, posting her silly ranking lists and partying... fairly hard in the Grotto, despite her young age. It was all in good fun, though, and she has
About halfway through her freshman year, Marie discovered divination (like, as a concept) after reading what was basically a palm reading instruction manual. Captivated, she devoured a few more books and decided that this was surely her calling. Why else would The Forces™ have guided her to Gooseberry, if not to study under Mr. Chettri? "But Marie," one might say, "You know nothing about divination? How can you be so certain this is your thing?" Well. You'd have a fair point. But that's never stopped her before.
SCHOOL
YEAR: Sophomore (Grade 10)
HOUSE: Coppertale
SORTING: At the time of her sorting, Marie was going through a Phase where she fancied herself sort of an ethereal, delicate Ribbonfin type. She is, and was not, any of those things. The trout was receptive to her assertion that she belonged in its house, but its diplomatic claim that she could certainly learn to fit in there had her sticking out her tongue and retreating back to Coppertale. Good thing, too; it's hard to imagine her anywhere else.
WAND: Sycamore and veela hair, 13 & 1/8th inches, whippy.
FAMILIAR: She doesn't have one, but she is definitely on the lookout.
CLASSES: Potions, charms, herbology, transfiguration, aesthetic magic, divination. NOTABLY, NOT MUSIC.
ADVANCED STUDY: Divination → This has been Marie's Hot Topic for the last six months or so, which, to her credit, is a long time when you're 15. She finds the subject oh-so-romantic and beautiful, and is currently scouring her family tree for evidence of some powerful and mystical Seeress whose ways she can inherit. The fact that her mom is muggleborn is sooo disappointing, because a Mystical Haitian Granny Who Uses Vodou To Peer Into the Unknown would be like, totally badass. Instead, her mom's side are all muggles from Queens. Sigh. Sometimes, she pretends anyway.
Regardless, Marie tends to commit to her obsessions 100%, and so Mr. Chettri can be assured she'll work hard and with great zeal... at least until said passion splutters and dies. At the moment, she really believes that this is the one that's going to last, and thankfully, she hasn't been at Gooseberry long enough to really develop a reputation to the contrary.
SENIOR PROJECT: FUTURE PROBLEM
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Marie is more book-smart than her brother, but she's not an academic superstar. She's bright, but undisciplined when it comes to school stuff, not to mention a tiny bit lazy. Generally, Marie is one of those kids who needs to know why something is important "in the real world" before she'll put a lot of time in to learning it — although once she does see the utility, she usually does pretty well.
She's really excited about this year's extracurriculars. Her favourite core class is Charms (Mr. Calderon-Boot's teaching style totally jives with her), while her least favourite is transfiguration (she finds it insanely boring. Maybe that'll improve when things start getting more hands-on?). Marie is a B student, on average.
EXTRACURRICULARS: Choir, Events Committee.
OOC
NAME: cam
EMAIL: captainkickflips@gmail.com
CDJ: gooddogs
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: dropbox
TIME ZONE: gmt